Burning Bright

Pictures

"Ah... I guess that's true..." Igarashi said reluctantly.

"This is getting really confusing..." Yuki said.

"Whatever! The name might have some meaning or not, but just knowing the name is good in itself," Mariya said briskly. "This room might hide something else. Let's look around some more!!"

"Yeah!" Everyone agreed.

Outside, there was a bit of a panic beginning .

"Wh-What did you say!? That monster who attacked the plane might be nearby!?" someone said anxiously.

"Yeah... We found the debris of a helicopter close by. It was all flat, like it had been trampled over by something..." Kokonoe said calmly. "The only monster who can do that is the megatherium!"

"Wh-What now? We only just started searching, stopping now would be..." Murayama said.

"... I have an idea, fire!!" Yamato said.

"Fire...?" Kirino asked.

"Yeah, I heard from Sengoku that monster retreated when the plane burned," Yamato said.

"I... I see. A campfire! If we light up a big one... Okay! Let's gather firewood!" Suzuki said.

"... A monster, huh..." Miina said skeptically. "But it's just a sloth, right? Is it really that dangerous...?"

"Ah! You haven't see that hairy beast before?" Heero asked.

"I fled when the captain was stabbed, so... The attack on the plane happened after that, right?" Miina said.

"Yeah, right," Quatre said.

"I thought I was a goner..." Heero said.

"It looked through the windows with its big eyes and shook the plane like a toy..." Duo said.

"Mhm, I can imagine it..." Miina said.

"..." Isurugi Miina opened her sketchbook to the page that drawing was on and showed him. "... Look here. Megatherium. Five to eight meters high, three tons heavy... It has powerful claws and a long tongue. Not even the fangs of the smilodon can pierce the long hair that's covering its body."

"... Hee, sure sound like a monster. So such a big animal existed," Miina said.

"... There's an even bigger one," Isurugi Miina said.

"Eh?" Miina said. "Are you kidding? I mean, this one is already three tons heavy. Then even bigger would men five tons? Ten tons?"

"Twenty tons," Isurugi Miina said.

"Huh!?" Miina said, startled.

"8.8m long... 7m high... Recorded in history as the largest land mammal: paraceratherium," Isurugi Miina said, showing them a sketch she had made of an animal that appeared to have the body of an elephant, the next of a giraffe and a sort of weird, deformed horse head. But it was larger than all of those animals combined. It's foot alone was larger than the image of herself that Isurugi Miina had drawn in to show its scale.

"P-Paracera? What a big animal—" Miina said, amazed and a little disturbed. "It's as big as my house... It's like a walking two-floor single house..."

"You're kidding. Doesn't that already count as a dinosaur?" Heero said.

"W-Was there really such an animal?" Duo asked.

"..." Nishikiori was listening to their conversation from where he sat guarded by Seigou. Kubo was next to Nishikiori, preparing a fruit for him to eat. "Kubo-kun, go take a look at that sketchbook."