Back to Halkeginia

Chapter 3 :To the Academy

After a while, and after Louise changed her daughter's diaper, Saito turned to go. "I'll take a look at the plane," he said. "I don't think anything else will happen now. Look, the pilots and the cabin crew have now stepped in again. The smoke from the broken engine is almost gone. Something got into it. "

"Good, but be careful."

Saito nodded and strode forward.

Most of the crew on the plane had gathered on the bow, next to the emergency slide. Only the chief pilot had approached the fuselage and ran his hand gently over the scratched side. "Rest in peace, Tenchi,"  Saito heard the man say. "You took us so far ... even into another world - and never let us down. Now you can rest. "

Saito didn't want to disturb this farewell. He stopped and waited. But the pilot seemed to sense that someone were looking at him. He turned and saw Saito, whose expression expressed sympathy. A little embarrassed, he said: "I know it's nonsense. It's just an airplane, a machine. But for me this plane had a soul. You must get it right - some planes seem to reject their crew and defend themselves against them ... sometimes one thing breaks, sometimes the other. It was different with the Tenchi. She was always obedient. Now you can laugh at me! "

Saito smiled. "Why should I? I had Derflinger, a magical sword that most certainly had something like a soul, a personality. I miss it."

"What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed when it tried to intercept the Ancient Dragon's fire breath for me. Then later I discovered his personality in the on-board-computer of an F2A, which I had used to get back here to Halkeginia. But this fighter-bomber was also destroyed when I fired all of its missiles at the Ancient Dragon and the devilish beast was still alive! I brought the F2A on a collision course with the beast and shot myself out with Louise in the ejection seat. Even that collision wasn't enough to kill him - but Louise released her strongest spell on him, and that killed him." Saito pointed his hand south-west. "Here, on this meadow, the final fight took place. In this direction, the crumbling remains of the Ancient Dragon must be on the edge of the meadow. "

"Crumbling?" Asked the chief pilot, confused.

"The Ancient Dragon was not a flesh and blood being, it was probably a manifestation of the Earth Element, an Elemental.  An evil elemental. It consisted of living, glowing liquid lava with a hard basalt outer shell. Louise's spell destroyed the magical vitality in him, and all that was left was crumbling rock. "

The other crew members listened in confusion to this explanation - so far it was only the two pilots whom Saito had initiated into the magical nature of this world. Saito, noticing the confusion of the cabin crew, said quietly to the pilot, "It is up to you to what extent you familiarize your people with the facts. And I wouldn't initiate the passengers either. The shock would be too great, and no one would be served with heart attacks. We should proceed bit by bit so that they have time to get used to it. "

"How do you get used to something like that?"

"As I said, bit by bit. Soon we will get all evidence of the existence of magic; at the latest tomorrow when we go to the academy. They won't believe their eyes at first, but if something like this repeats ... then they'll have their own thoughts. When the official declaration is made, the shock is not as great. "

"And that official statement will then be made by you, right?"

Saito nodded, but then added: "First at the academy. Then they'll have seen some magic, so my explanation will only be an affirmation of the things they thought they were."  Saito smiled. "We're Japanese, aren't we? When more than two Japanese are together, the supernatural is never far away."