Instant Death

Volume 1, Chapter 1 - Die

"Come on! Wake up already, hey!"

Yogiri Takatou woke up to being shouted at.

Eyes droopy from just waking up he stared at the girl that was shaking his shoulders. She was wearing a school uniform, much like him.

"Who were you again?"

Yogiri was confused. Before he had fallen asleep, the seat next to him, the one in the far back of the field trip's sightseeing bus, belonged to a boy, not a girl.

"Tomochika Dannoura!"

Tomochika's yelling sounded desperate. Yogiri remembered that she was one of his classmates, but other than her name he hardly knew anything about her.

"Are we there already?"

He asked while rubbing his eyes, recalling that they were headed to a ski resort in Nagano. It was strange for Tomochika, who could barely be called an acquaintance, to come wake him, but the time did feel about right for arrival.

"No! Forget about that! What should we do!?"

"Sorry, what?"

"How did you even sleep until now!? There was so much chaos!"

Yogiri absentmindedly looked towards the front of the bus, seeking the source of Tomochika's panic.

His field of vision felt distorted.

It wasn't his tired eyes playing tricks on him, the bus' frame had been crushed. Furthermore, a white something pierced through the wall of the bus, impaling a boy from his class.

"Yeah, I can see how that would cause chaos."

Yogiri, now understanding the reason behind Tomochika's panic, continued to inspect the bus from his seat.

It was dented all over the place and the ceiling and walls were full of holes. On the floor there was a collapsed girl, covered in blood. Based on the gaping hole in her chest she was most likely dead.

Given the emptiness of the bus the majority of students must have already escaped. Other than Yogiri and Tomochika the only potential survivor seemed to be their impaled classmate, but he didn't look like he'd last much longer.

What impaled him looked like a white spear that had sprouted thorns. However, it was no lifeless weapon; it squirmed.

With barely noticeable trembling it stretched and contracted--most likely part of some living creature, but Yogiri wasn't familiar with an animal that possessed such a long, unpleasant looking organ.

"What even is that?"

"Don't ask me, like I'd know!"

Tomochika lost it.

Yogiri looked out of the window and saw a huge something with scaled skin clinging to the bus.

"Looks like a snake. Oh, maybe a lizard?"

Either way it was creepy.

Yogiri picked up a karaoke mic that had rolled up to his feet and threw it at the white something.

GIAAAaAAaAaaAAA

The mic hit the organ dead on and the creature let out an eardrum bursting scream. The part that had been shoved into the bus quickly retracted and the impaled boy dropped to the floor. The huge monster hastily took some distance, finally allowing Yogiri get a good look of it.

"So it was a wyvern, I see."

A two-legged winged monster that was huge even among dragons.

The organ from earlier was wriggling near the wyvern's crotch, most likely its reproductive organ. They appeared to have been attacked by a dragon in heat, and as if that wasn't already difficult enough to believe, the scenery from outside the window further surprised Yogiri.

A grass plain stretched out before him.

"I'm pretty sure when I last looked out the window it was a snowy road at night though."

"Who cares about that right now! Why'd you have to make it angry!"

Tomochika, driven by panic, grabbed Yogiri at his collar and shook him.

In his shaky field of vision he noticed the dragon's glare and flames leaking from its mouth like manifested rage.

"Ah!"

His eyes still on the dragon Yogiri let out a voice of realization.

"What? Did you figure something out that'll save us!?"

Tomochika stared at him with expectation sparkling in her eyes.

"Huh? Oh, no. I was just thinking 'So this is what dragons having sex with cars was about.'"

"What are you even talking about!?"

Dragons having sex with cars was one of many peculiar modern crazes, but before Yogiri could begin his explanation he was interrupted.

ROoOoOOO

The dragon roared and set its massive wings into motion, raising its ridiculously large body into the air and after gaining some height it nosedived back down towards them.

Yogiri voiced his thoughts.

"Now it's looking grim."

The bus' inside was slanted, the aisle was narrow and on top of that there were corpses lying around. Escaping it in time seemed impossible.

Well, no helping it.

The plunging dragon seemed a fitting metaphor for life's fall of the curtain, Yogiri thought. He had never been particularly attached to life.

"We're finished!"

Tomochika cried out desperately as she clung to Yogiri, who had already given up. Her fairly voluminous chest changed shape as it pushed into Yogiri.

You couldn't call it uncomfortable.

He might be unsociable, but Yogiri was still a man. He had to admit, he somewhat felt a duty to protect Tomochika now that it had come to this.

And thus, Yogiri changed his mind about never using his ability.

"Die."

He determined his target and released his power.

Its wings stopped immediately.

The loss of balance made the dragon's massive body spin and gain momentum while it fell from the sky until it finally crashed into the plain. Earth and grass flew through the air as it slid across the ground.

Bump!

The bus shook from the dragon's collision with it.

Fortunately, the friction from plowing through the earth like that had taken away a good amount of its momentum. Yogiri didn't feel much of an impact.

"Now how should we go from here."

They had escaped danger for the time being, but the situation was still beyond Yogiri's understanding.

"Dannoura-san. Looks like we're saved."

"…Really?"

She continued to cling onto him for a little while longer, but after realizing that things had quieted down she hesitantly lifted her head and separated from Yogiri.

"Huh? But why? What just happened?"

Tomochika looked out of the window with a vacant gaze.

"That's what I'd like to ask, but let's stop panicking first, okay? Rest a little and we'll talk after that."

Before discussing what to do next there was a need to get a grasp on the situation. Tomochika's cooperation was necessary for that, but because of how visibly distraught she was Yogiri decided to wait for her to calm down first.

He took his handheld console out of his bag and booted it up. It was a popular hunting game that he had started playing just recently.

"Does this seem like the time to play Monster Hu〇〇er to you!"

Tomochika was being surprisingly rational.