My Demon Pet System

In Ryutaro's private room, the temperature was higher than usual. The heat from outside was quietly creeping in from the small space between the wooden wall and the window, which had not been carefully closed.

After making that crucial decision, Yoichi looked at all the objects in the room with different eyes. He turned the key in the lock, locking himself inside the room and lowered himself to the small bookcase next to the door.

Four were the heavy tomes that the supreme Ryutaro had inherited from Emperor Tatsui. 'Dragon Demons of Lumya, Ancient Demonology, Fundamentals of Demon Training' and the heaviest of them all, 'Ancient and Contemporary History of Tentochu'.

Each of those books weighed more than two pounds: their covers were made of wood and leather, and their pages were made of such thick paper that they were several millimeters thick.

The weight of the ancient materials used to create those sources of knowing reflected the knowledge contained within them. Those four relics had an incredible sentimental value for the gatekeeper, and to abandon them in that room would have been a despicable and dishonorable gesture.

Yoichi gathered all the books, stacked them on the bed, and used the sheets wrapped around the straw mattress to join them together. With a fairly tight knot, he tested the stability of his rudimentary book bag.

In the process, his gaze fell several times to the stone sink. In all the chaos, he still hadn't figured out how he could carry the Therion's Tear, whose flat surface reflected the reddish colors coming from the window.

The four books were packed away, as were the straw mat and the crock with the incense sticks. Yoichi couldn't lose everything he had learned about meditation just as he was beginning to get the hang of it.

How do I carry the Tear? Even a part of it would be enough. There must be a way! He thought, trying to find a solution to this dilemma. That magical liquid was essential to cultivate his draconic powers, and without it, Yoichi knew no other way to do it.

Suddenly, a noise from the window caught his attention. Like that emitted by a stone hitting the glass, a single thump distracted Yoichi from his chores.

"What the hell?" he muttered, backing away from the bed to find that a small flying demon was perched behind the bottom edge of the window. Miru, Ryutaro's robin, held his message in its beak and stared at the young tamer with its small emerald eyes.

The robin's chest heaved and deflated with fatigue. It had flown over most of the city in a very short time, fearing that it would not be able to complete the mission entrusted to it by its owner.

Feeling no fear in observing such a seemingly harmless creature, Yoichi slowly opened the window. "And who are you, little one?" he asked, noticing that a piece of fabric was dangling from his beak as if it had torn it from somewhere.

"Tweet! Tweet!" Miru chirped, flapping its wings and dropping the message in front of Yoichi, on the inside of the window.

"What is it? Is it for me?" the young tamer asked, sensing the robin's intentions. Cautiously, he brought his hand closer to the window and grabbed the piece of cloth. The little demon bird moved slightly to the side, avoiding being touched by Yoichi's hand.

The color of that cloth and its texture did not seem to be familiar. However, Yoichi had a good sense of intuition and could almost immediately figure out who the sender of that strange message was.

"Ar... mo... r. Armor," he read aloud, pronouncing the word written in Ryutaro's blood. "Ryutaro-sensei? Did you do that?" he asked in amazement as if the robin demon could answer him.

Not letting the haste and anxiety of being caught keep him from thinking clearly, Yoichi squinted his eyes and then smiled. "I hope to have understood well, Sensei!" he exclaimed, charged with energy.

In a hurry, he dropped the piece of cloth to the floor and walked to the corner of the small room, to the exact spot where Ryutaro's old samurai armor had been resting for years.

Yoichi blew away the excess dust and firmly grasped the horned kabuto, pulling it very gently upward. The helmet was separated from the rest of the armor and laid on the bed, not far from the books.

"There's nothing in here... what are you trying to tell me, Ryutaro-Sensei?" he muttered, pulling the arms and pauldrons away from the metal support that held the full samurai armor.

Even within them, other than the plates and leather of some of the trim, there was no hidden item. Immediately, before lifting the breastplate as well, Yoichi stood motionless and looked inside.

Looking down from the neck space, he was able to spot a hidden object that had nothing to do with the armor and had undoubtedly been placed in there so that nobody could find it.

Accurately, the blond-haired young tamer slipped his right arm into the opening, stood up on his toes, and grabbed the object, pulling it out without damaging it.

"Hahaha! I can't believe it! How did you know I needed this?!" Yoichi rejoiced, looking incredulously at the object in his hands and setting it down on the floor: a black ceramic amphora was sealed by a lid of the same material, hermetically sealed with a system of metal hooks on the sides of the container.

Laterally, letters had been hand-engraved into the pottery. The inscription revolved around the broadest area of the object, reading:

'Vanquished by his last cry,

he has allowed mankind

to look upon the dawn'.

With immense joy, Yoichi lifted the amphora and reread those words, finding in them a clear reference to the ancient Dragon God. Incredibly, thanks to the distant help of his master, he now knew that the Tear of Therion could be transported.

With a single word, Ryutaro had predicted that his young student would seek a way to escape the Dojo and, placing his last hopes in him, had revealed to him the secret hiding place of the only container capable of transporting the tear.

Now, Yoichi was finally ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery.