Chapter 80

The three friends burst into being just a couple of meters above a wide, manicured lawn, separating to land on the lush grass. Renko, too, had been practicing changing just above the ground so she could seem to appear instantaneously as a girl if she was fast enough. Neither she nor Shota were very good at it yet. They were getting better, though, Azuki noticed. Maybe she ought to give it a try. Still, it was barely a second from when she touched down to when the air shimmered around her and she changed into a girl.

"Where are we?" Azuki asked. "Are we in the city?"

"Right in the middle." Renko laughed like a Western girl, not covering her mouth and displaying her very white, slightly large, teeth. She did that when she was particularly happy.

Azuki listened. The sounds of the city, though muted, were still unmistakably present, with the cries of drovers, the rumble of wheels on cobblestones, and the mysterious noises that crowds of people seemed to carry with them.