Everyone has a weakness.
Hayashi's was cooking but hating to do dishes.
So the question was—
How do you buy a dishwasher in the middle of the night?
Good question.
Step one: find a source. Step two: grab the cash. Step three: take the dishwasher, leave the money. Done.
The most important part was: don't get caught.
And that... Hayashi wasn't worried about at all.
As for hiring help? He had no leads.
Hire a regular person?
But the problem was—he couldn't think of any non-ordinary folks either.
So for now, he gave up on that idea.
Dishwasher first.
He grabbed a pile of cash.
And set off into the night.
Target: Department store.
He walked the streets, enjoying the night breeze and scenery as he made his way over.
He had the vibe.
He just didn't have the direction.
Somehow, he wandered near the hills.
Recalling where the department store was, Hayashi turned and headed off again.
In this world—
Tokyo at night was not safe.
As he walked, he suddenly stopped and clicked his tongue.
He looked up—and locked eyes with a ghoul watching him from the rooftop.
First instinct?
He didn't attack.
He just waved him off like he was shooing away a stray animal.
"Don't bother me."
"Uh..." The ghoul was dumbfounded.
Wait—who's the human here? Who's the ghoul?
Snapping out of it, the ghoul suddenly got angry.
"Temee!"
He charged.
His kakugan and kagune burst out as he lunged at Hayashi.
"...?"
Hayashi looked confused and raised an ice blade with a wave of his hand.
"!?"
The ghoul's black-red eyes shrank.
In a flash, his gaze turned lifeless as he collapsed to the ground.
Thud~
From his fading vision, he saw—
His upper body slumped over the railing, and his lower body landed on a sealed garbage bin.
And then, his eyes slowly closed.
On the other side—
Hayashi scratched his head.
"Did I come out at the wrong time?"
He remembered the 20th Ward was supposed to be a 'peaceful district.'
But apparently, peaceful just meant fewer feedings, not a curfew or anything.
Still, if the peaceful ward was like this...
The wards ruled by ghouls must be chaos.
Continuing on—
Hayashi kept walking.
Before he even reached the department store, he saw more ghouls leaping across rooftops.
In the distance, he heard bits of their conversation.
"A dragon! Hurry up! They say a dragon showed up on the mountain!"
"Seriously? Yamada, dragons are from fairy tales! Are you sure it's a real one?"
"Ugh, shut up. We'll know when we get there."
"True."
He watched the two ghouls rush off.
And Hayashi started to feel like something was off.
"A dragon?" he rubbed his ear. "Did I hear that right? No way I misheard that."
If it really was a dragon, this story just got way out of hand.
Could it be that "dragon"? The one related to the Washuu Clan, Takatsuki Sen, and Kishou Arima—the one they were all trying to create?
The Dragon of the Kakuja?
But wasn't Rize the genetic base for that?
And she was just eating at his diner a little while ago.
So what kind of dragon was this?
Curious, Hayashi decided to follow them.
"Let's go check it out."
He followed their trail, heading up the mountain.
It wasn't a tall mountain—only a few hundred meters.
But it was densely forested, with trees big enough to block most sightlines.
Following their trail, Hayashi quickly spotted the ghouls from earlier.
He followed them quietly.
But before he even reached the top—
Sounds of battle echoed from up ahead.
"ROOOAAAR—!"
"HYAAAH!!"
Hayashi looked up.
The roar of a dragon, ghouls screaming—and what looked like magical effects.
"...It's a real dragon?!"
He immediately realized—
It wasn't the kind of "dragon" he thought it was.
He sped up, leaping from tree to tree like a ninja.
With a few quick bounds, he overtook the two ghouls ahead of him.
"!?"
"...?"
They froze, watching him vanish—couldn't even catch a glimpse of his shadow.
Soon, Hayashi reached the destination.
What he saw—
Was a group of ghouls surrounding and attacking an actual dragon.
A green dragon!
The dragon looked extremely fierce, its entire body a deep green. On its head were coral-like branched horns, and two large, fleshy brown wings spread out from its back.
However, it appeared to be injured—a massive sword was embedded in its back.
Just from the look of it, it was clear this wasn't something caused by ghouls—it had been there from the start!
At the moment, it was locked in battle with the ghouls.
One masked ghoul lunged forward, jaws wide open.
In response, the dragon opened its mouth, unleashing a shallow burst of magical energy—like a laser beam—whoosh!
The next moment—
"Aaaah!"
BOOM—!
Like a missile strike, the charging ghoul was vaporized on the spot.
Several others behind it also screamed in terror before vanishing in the magic blast.
When the smoke cleared—
A huge chunk of the mountain's surface had been blasted away!
It was no different from a missile explosion.
But on the other side, despite the shock and fear, the remaining ghouls were still madly scheming.
"Damn it!"
"What do we do? Keep fighting?"
"Of course! It's a dragon! If we eat it, we might become SSS-class ghouls!"
"Everyone, go! It's injured!"
"CHARGE!"
Dozens of ghouls launched a new wave of attacks.
The legend of the dragon stirred madness in them—they were willing to risk everything.
Who wouldn't want to become an SSS-class ghoul?
Who wouldn't want power like the One-Eyed Owl?
But faced with this assault—
Though the green dragon looked ferocious, Hayashi could see the pain in her eyes.
She was clearly badly wounded.
Her physical body was already in terrible shape, and her magic reserves were nearly depleted.
The sword stuck in her back wasn't just any sword—it was divine!
She had earned that wound in a solo battle against a god!
As for this dragon—Hayashi knew exactly who she was.
Wasn't this Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid?
This was Tohru!
...Wait, Kobayashi's house?
Wouldn't that technically be his house, too?