The Breath of the Summoned Beast Bahamut

"Good morning, Goddess-sama. You're beautiful today, too."

'Thank you. Now, as a token of my gratitude, let me hug you.'

"Whoa, it's one of your episodes."

※The Goddess gets terribly lonely from time to time (once every ten chapters).

'Why are you dodging me?'

"Honestly, this is an incredibly tempting development, but I can't give in here."

'You usually try to hug me whenever you get the chance. Why are you such a coward now?'

"Balance is important. That's what I keep telling myself, even as you inch closer."

'What balance could there possibly be in a world with just the two of us? Maybe I'll just use force—huh? You're gone.'

"Substitution technique."

'You used ninja techniques to evade the Goddess's grasp. You really do love ninjutsu.'

"I had a feeling magic wouldn't work on you, Goddess-sama."

'Exactly right. If I felt like it, I could cast a magic-sealing barrier over this entire world.'

"That's terrifying."

'Then here's your reward for getting it right.'

"Unfortunately, it's time for another reincarnation in another world. And this is a prompt I picked out and hid in advance."

'You knew I was having an episode just a moment ago. When did you manage that?'

"It's a protagonist's duty to be prepared for anything."

'You say that, even though you always reincarnate as something other than the protagonist.'

"This prompt is from Norasham-san: 'The breath of the summoned beast Bahamut.'"

'It certainly sounds powerful.'

"I wonder if the summoned beast Bahamut is okay from a copyright perspective."

'Bahamut is strongly associated with the summoned beast from a certain famous game, but there are also versions where it's a fish.'

"Speaking of fish, I think of Master Red Salmon and Spacious, and lately, Fresh Benishakke."

'They're obviously all the same person.'

"What? Really?"

'You're as slow on the uptake as ever.'

"If you'd told me, I would've been nicer to him."

'You've never looked the same twice, so expecting you to recognize him is asking a bit much.'

"Maybe the Bahamut I reincarnate as will be him."

'At the level of the summoned beast Bahamut, the waiting list is exceptionally long.'

"By the way, how popular is the breath of Bahamut?"

'I'm afraid there's no demand for it.'

"It's pretty cool, though—the breath of Bahamut."

'Not many people want to reincarnate as a technique.'

"I'll just pick some random options... All right, I'm off."

'We still have a little time. Come over here.'

"I'm off."

◇

"I'm back."

'Welcome home. I take it things didn't work out?'

"..."

'What's wrong?'

"You're having another episode."

'I'm not. It's already passed.'

"That's good. Now then, how about a welcome-home hug?"

'Of course—huh? You're gone.'

"Afterimage."

'You moved too fast for the Goddess to follow with her eyes? Impressive.'

"You weren't having an episode the whole time, were you?"

'That's right. You happened to come back during another one.'

"Anyway, I want to give my report, so please hug this body pillow for now."

'Do you think that alone will satisfy my urges? ...Not bad.'

"I had the stuffing shaped like a person."

'Is it just me, or does it have a figure rather like mine?'

"Then, I'll give my report. As you might expect, I became the breath of the summoned beast Bahamut."

'You dodged the subject. Well, never mind. How were you able to act on your own?'

"Whenever Bahamut breathed, I appeared outside him, then returned inside when the breath ended."

'So you weren't limited to a single burst.'

"I was only outside for a dozen seconds or so each time, but even that was rough."

'By the way, was Bahamut a dragon or a fish?'

"A cat."

'One more time.'

"A cat."

'Repeat.'

"A cat."

'So it was the summoned beast Bahamut (cat)?'

"Yes, it was the summoned beast Bahamut (cat)."

'That's an incredible anticlimax.'

"Bahamut was, at least, the strongest summoned beast, called by a summoner who was one of the Hero's companions."

'If a cat is the strongest summoned beast, that tells me how strong the rest must be.'

"By the way, here's a picture of him being summoned."

'A cat bigger than a mountain...'

"One kilometer long."

'I see. That would certainly make him the strongest. But if the breath of a cat that huge is that big, you must be pretty big, too.'

"Yes. Here's the moment Bahamut breathed fire."

'A human-shaped flame is coming out of the giant cat's mouth in a pose that looks like it's about to say, "Hey, what's up?"'

"He didn't have vocal organs, so I tried expressing words with my body."

'I can't believe that came from someone who spent ages talking despite being an inanimate object with no vocal organs.'

"By the way, here's a picture of the first time I was summoned."

'A human-shaped flame is bowing forward, as if handing someone a business card.'

"Since I'd joined the Hero's party, I thought I should at least introduce myself."

'They couldn't read a business card made of flame.'

"I thought of that, so a few seconds later I burned down the Forest of Illusions and made the words there. Here's a picture."

'The Forest of Illusions has been burned away, leaving the trees spelling out, "I'm Bahamut's breath. Nice to meet you." It reminds me of the Nazca Lines.'

"But no one read it."

'Figures.'

"Maybe I should've burned just the letters."

'Those were huge letters. If you were going to do that, you should've burned them into a mountain.'

"After that, the Heroes became afraid of Bahamut, who'd suddenly changed his target and burned down the forest."

'Naturally. The forest suffered terrible collateral damage.'

"Bahamut meowed sadly."

'So he understood what people were saying.'

"But the enemies were pretty tough compared to the Heroes, and we had no choice but to summon Bahamut repeatedly."

'You had to rely on him, then.'

"I thought to myself: I can't let this adorable Bahamut become someone to fear. I'll be the one to guide him."

'You were the reason they feared him in the first place, though.'

"Bahamut was going to be summoned anyway, so every time he was, I tried to show the Heroes how cute he was. Here's the first picture."

'A flame shaped like a heart. How cute.'

"That won over the heroine, the priestess."

'Wasn't she a little easy to win over?'

"By the way, after that, the heart-shaped breath plunged an army of demons into a hell of screams and chaos."

'A breath is a breath, even if it's heart-shaped.'

"Next."

'You've drawn some sort of handsome man's face in flames.'

"It's the mage's face."

'What did the mage think when the breath suddenly showed them their own face?'

"They fell for me."

'Was the mage a narcissist?'

"By the way, after that, the mage-face breath erased the Demon King's right-hand man without leaving a single bone behind."

'If someone came on to you with that breath and then erased you without leaving a bone behind, you'd definitely reincarnate in another world.'

"That leaves the Hero and the summoner."

'It just occurred to me that the Hero is the only physically oriented member of this party.'

"No, the Hero's main weapon is a bow."

'There's no one for close combat.'

"The heroine was hitting things with a mace."

'The women in the worlds you get involved with sure do like blunt weapons.'

"But unlike the easy-to-win-over heroine and the narcissistic mage, the summoner and the Hero were tough. I couldn't win them over in one or two tries."

'I don't want to imagine how much damage was done in the meantime.'

"But at last, I figured out the summoner's type. Believe it or not, they had an ice fetish."

'That's quite a fetish. And it sounds like a difficult prompt for you.'

"No, I could change the element freely, so switching to an ice breath was easy."

'Bahamut really can do anything.'

"When the summoner saw the endless snow and countless icicles I created, they fell for Bahamut."

'But doesn't that have nothing to do with Bahamut?'

"Being able to produce huge amounts of ice whenever you want is a valuable ability."

'So much for showing off his cuteness. Though the mage was already a strange case.'

"By the way, the ice breath froze the volcano where the Demon King lived, along with the dragon that served as the Demon King's secret weapon."

'That sounds more powerful than fire. Did you try any other elements?'

"I used lightning, darkness, and lemon juice."

'Isn't that just lemon juice?'

"It was a waterfall of lemon juice."

'Lemon juice coming out of a cat's mouth sounds bad for the cat.'

※Apparently, lemons aren't very good for cats or dogs.

"Bahamut meowed and made a sour face."

'I'm sure even his sour face was cute.'

"The three members besides the Hero fell for Bahamut's cuteness, and began worshipping him whenever they summoned him."

'They worshipped him?'

"Bahamut was pleased and meowed proudly."

'You keep saying he meowed. Could you really communicate with him?'

"It's fine, meow."

'You don't sound very cute when you say meow, meow.'

"Cute. That leaves the Hero, but it was hard to figure out what the Hero liked. I looked into their family and lifestyle and everything."

'How did Bahamut's breath investigate someone's personal information?'

"I was usually inside Bahamut, and Bahamut dwelled inside the legendary staff the summoner carried."

'So you went around with the summoner and listened in?'

"No, it was a hassle, so I controlled the summoner with mind-control magic."

'You're starting to use magic as casually as you breathe.'

"I am a breath, after all."

'That's not what I meant. But if you still couldn't find out, maybe the Hero was deliberately hiding something.'

"Yes. Even the heroine didn't know much about them, so my investigation hit a dead end."

'Couldn't you just let it go? It's only one Hero.'

"No. If I can't spread the word about how cute Bahamut is, my reason for existing will be in danger."

'Your purpose is to attack, so I think you're doing plenty already.'

"Especially the words a Hero speaks after saving the world can go down in history. Unless I win the Hero over, we won't achieve our greatest victory."

'It's true that the Hero's influence is enormous.'

"I even considered killing the Hero in the crossfire of a breath and having the summoner take their place, but I stopped myself and resumed my efforts."

'Normally, you would've done that without hesitation. I'm surprised you held back.'

"I wouldn't have hesitated if it were for my own sake. But this is all for Bahamut."

'I wonder if Bahamut understands how you feel.'

"Bahamut answered happily, meow."

'That's good, meow.'

"So cute. But despite all my efforts, the final battle finally arrived: the Demon King in the deepest part of his castle."

'And you still hadn't figured out what the Hero liked by the final battle?'

"No. And the Demon King was strong, as you'd expect, so Bahamut was summoned."

'Wouldn't summoning a one-kilometer-long creature inside the castle make it collapse?'

"It's fine. It's the Demon King's castle."

'So it collapsed.'

"Then, when it was time for the final breath, I gambled everything on a comeback. I was fired at the Demon King as a devastating laser-beam breath that put even the near future to shame."

'What a sight that must've been.'

"The Demon King left these dying words before vanishing: 'No way, seriously? No, no, that can't be... No way!'"

'I can understand how he felt. And he even managed a proper five-seven-five.'

"But even a breath with wonderfully satisfying destructive power couldn't win over the Hero."

'You'd already proved its destructive power plenty of times.'

"Out of options, I drooped in my remaining high-energy form."

'If enough high-energy material to erase the Demon King was still lying around, that's more than just dangerous.'

"Bahamut stopped just short of laying a paw on my shoulder and said..."

'He couldn't touch you. It was dangerous.'

"'That's enough, big bro. You did real good.'"

'No way.'

"Even I was surprised. I learned later that this Bahamut had been reincarnated in another world, too."

'So that's why he was a cat and a Bahamut.'

"And, unbelievably, that won over the Hero."

'No way, meow.'

"Cute. The Hero had a thing for talking animals."

'Even if he spoke, his voice sounded incredibly gruff. Was that really okay?'

"And so the Heroes finally overcame their fear of Bahamut, and made sure history remembered him as the greatest summoned beast. Here's a picture of his statue."

'It's just a statue of a cat.'

"The Heroes are there at its feet, too, though they're the size of grains of rice."

'I can barely make them out with a magnifying glass.'

"After that, Bahamut was still summoned, but he no longer needed to use his breath, so I ceased to exist."

'He couldn't exactly breathe destruction all over the place just to socialize.'

"But perhaps he sensed my presence. At the very end, Bahamut told me, 'Big bro probably won't be satisfied with just this much, will he? That's fine. A man should keep going until he's satisfied.'"

'He really was one gruff cat.'

"By the way, for a souvenir, I brought back a one-hundredth-scale Bahamut plushie. It became a specialty of that world. Heave-ho."

'One hundredth of a kilometer—that's one tenth of a kilometer, or ten meters.'

"That should be a nice size to lie down on."

'That's right. Then let's lie down together—huh? You're gone.'