Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Side Story: Ilulu's Dilemma
A flame dragon's heart wavers between duty and doubt...
Ilulu was raised on one truth: humans are lesser beings, meant to be ruled. As a soldier of the Pure-Blood Flame, the Chaos Faction's most radical faction, she's never questioned the code—until the day she's ordered to deliver judgment on Tohru, the senior who once taught her how to fight, now living among humans as a maid.
Descending into a world of convenience stores, morning commutes, and gentle smiles, Ilulu watches Tohru serve a huma
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Side Story: Ilulu's Dilemma - Flame's Resolve — "I Want to Protect You" Slipped Out —
That's wrong, she thought.
She understood it in her head. Humans were a lesser species, meant to be ruled. The first article of the Chaos faction's code. She'd had it drilled into her ears from the moment she was born a flame dragon—heard so many times the words had worn grooves in her skull. And yet—why did her chest ache like this?
Ilulu stood in the kitchen.
Night pressed deep and black against the window. From the residential streets of East End Town, all she could hear was the faint, distant hum of cars.
(It's coming.)
Gardo was coming.
In that alley behind the station, Gardo had said it plainly. Tomorrow, he would finish off Tohru and that woman. And if Ilulu got in the way, she'd taste the flame of judgment too.
That "tomorrow" had begun hours ago.
The clock's hands had already passed one in the morning.
"...I need to feed."
Ilulu reached for the knob on the gas stove.
Click.
A blue flame whooshed up with a soft roar.
A flame dragon's energy source was fire. In the human world, she fed on the flame of this gas stove and converted it into magical power.
Ilulu brought her face close to the blue flame.
She drew in a breath.
The fire thinned and streamed into her mouth.
Warm. But tasteless. Human fire was like a flavorless snack.
(This is fine for now.)
(Just a little strength.)
But her heart didn't warm at all.
──
From the living room came the sound of the TV.
A late-night variety show. Human laughter.
"Oh—Ilulu. Still up?"
Kobayashi-san, sprawled on the sofa, glanced over.
Black short hair, sleepy sanpaku eyes. A worn-out T-shirt and track pants. Her chest was on the modest side—overall, thin on feminine features. A can of beer in her hand.
"Hate to interrupt your feeding, but go to bed soon. You've got an early start tomorrow too, right?"
"...You're one to talk. Why are you still up?"
Ilulu turned off the stove.
"Mm, just couldn't sleep. Well—that's nothing new."
Kobayashi-san tipped her beer can.
And then it happened.
──
The air changed.
The fine hairs on the back of Ilulu's neck stood on end.
(He's here.)
Her heart clenched tight, as if gripped by a cold hand.
"...Huh?"
Kobayashi-san seemed to sense it too. She set down her beer and sat up.
The next instant.
CRASH!!!
The living-room window shattered into a thousand pieces.
Shards of glass sprayed through the room with a sharp, singing hiss.
"Whoa—!"
Kobayashi-san tumbled off the sofa and flattened herself against the floor.
Beyond the broken window.
In the darkness of the night, a figure stood.
Black scales covering its entire body—most striking along the arms and the nape of the neck. Old scars across the face. Red eyes glinting, like a beast that had caught its prey.
A massive frame—six foot three—stepped over the window frame and into the living room.
Gardo, warrior of the pure-blooded flame.
"Found you, Tohru."
His low voice rolled through the room.
"Gardo...!"
Tohru burst in from the back room.
Her blonde twin-tails swung violently. The flat-tipped, forked horns caught the moonlight and glinted cold. Still in her white apron, her golden eyes burned with fury.
"It's been a while, traitor."
Gardo's red eyes fixed on Tohru.
"Traitor? How rude. I'm here of my own free will."
Tohru stepped forward, shielding Kobayashi-san.
"Serving humans—the shame of the Chaos faction. For those who break the code, there is only judgment."
Gardo raised his right hand.
A hand covered in black scales. At his fingertips, a red flame flickered to life.
"I won't let you lay a single finger on Kobayashi-san!"
Tohru thrust both hands forward.
In her palms, the flames of chaos blazed orange.
"Hmph. Your flame is nothing but a candle before mine."
Gardo opened his mouth.
Drew a deep breath.
(Here it comes!)
Ilulu's instincts screamed.
"Tohru! Dodge!"
At the same moment as Ilulu's shout—
WHOOOOSH!!!
From Gardo's mouth, a breath of red flame erupted.
A torrent of searing heat, easily three meters across.
The air in the living room scorched in an instant.
"Barrier!"
Tohru spread both hands.
A transparent wall unfurled before Tohru and Kobayashi-san.
A perception-blocking barrier. Originally meant to hide dragons from human eyes—but now she was using it as a shield.
BOOOOM!!!
The red flame slammed into the barrier.
The barrier groaned and creaked.
"Useless. That barrier won't stop my flame."
Gardo poured more power into the fire.
The red flame scorched the barrier from the inside.
"Kh...!"
Pain twisted across Tohru's face.
The barrier began to crack.
"Your flame is too gentle, Tohru—soft on humans. The flame of chaos must be purer. More destructive."
Gardo's voice came through the roar of fire.
"Don't touch Kobayashi-san!"
Keeping the barrier up, Tohru fired a counter-flame.
Orange fire streaked toward Gardo.
But—
"Naive."
Gardo swatted the flame aside with one hand.
As casually as brushing away an insect.
Tohru's fire scattered into nothing.
"Look. This is the power of the pure-blooded flame."
Gardo's fire surged fiercer still.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!!
The barrier shattered with a sound like breaking glass.
"Aah!"
Tohru's body was blown back by the shockwave of flame.
Her back slammed hard against the wall.
THUD!!!
"Tohru!"
Kobayashi-san screamed.
"You first, Tohru."
Gardo took aim at the fallen Tohru.
Red flame gathered at his mouth.
(I can't move.)
Ilulu stood frozen in the kitchen doorway.
Her legs felt glued to the floor.
(What should I do?)
(I have to save Tohru.)
(But if I defy Gardo—the flame of judgment—)
Two voices screamed inside her head at once.
"Those tainted by humans will be judged."
The voice of the code.
"Isn't what you want to do the most important thing?"
Kobayashi-san's voice.
(What do I want?)
(I don't know.)
(I don't know, but—)
Her body trembled.
Her fingertips were cold.
"Farewell, traitor."
Gardo opened his mouth wide.
Red flame was about to be unleashed.
And then—
"Ilulu."
Still flat on the floor, Kobayashi-san turned toward her.
"You can run if you want."
Her face was smiling.
Buffeted by the hot wind of the flames, hair in disarray.
And still—Kobayashi-san was definitely smiling.
"No need to get yourself dragged into this."
──That smile broke something inside Ilulu.
Her body moved on its own.
Before thought, her feet kicked off the floor.
Ilulu lunged for the gas stove.
Click!
She twisted the knob hard.
WHOOSH!
A blue flame leapt up.
Ilulu drank it down in a single breath.
(I'll use my flame—)
(To protect what I want to protect.)
Power surged up from the depths of her body.
The flame of chaos.
The power she'd been born with as a flame dragon, raised as a warrior.
And now—she would use it by her own will.
"Stoooop!!!"
Ilulu unleashed the flame of chaos at Gardo.
Maximum output.
Every ounce of power she had.
WHOOOOSH!!!
The orange flame collided head-on with Gardo's red fire.
The two flames clashed violently in the center of the living room.
Sparks sprayed in every direction.
"Ilulu... you can't mean—!"
Gardo's red eyes flew wide with shock.
"I... it's not that I've come to like humans!"
Ilulu shouted.
She pushed the flame's output higher.
"But I want to protect Kobayashi-san!"
The moment those words left her mouth—
Something deep in her chest settled into place with a quiet click.
(Ah. Of course.)
(This was my real feeling all along.)
Not an excuse. Not a front.
For the first time, the words had come out of her heart, naturally.
"...Ilulu."
Still braced against the wall, Tohru was watching her.
In those golden eyes—surprise, and joy.
"Now, Ilulu! Overlay your flame with mine!"
Tohru stood.
Orange fire blazed in her hands once more.
"This ends now!"
Ilulu's flame and Tohru's flame became one.
WHOOOOSH!!!
A colossal torrent of combined fire pushed Gardo's red flame back.
"Wha—what...?!"
For the first time, panic crossed Gardo's face.
"Gwooooh!!!"
Gardo tried to catch the flames with both hands.
But Ilulu and Tohru's fire drove his flame back, inch by inch.
"Im-impossible... my flame...!"
Gardo's feet slid across the floor.
One step. Then another. Retreating.
"Gardo! Your flame is a flame for domination! But my flame is a flame for protection!"
Ilulu shouted.
She converted every drop of magic in her body into fire and released it.
"A flame for protecting can never lose to a flame for dominating!"
BOOOOM!!!
The final push.
Ilulu and Tohru's fire utterly overwhelmed Gardo's flame.
"Gwaaaah!!!"
Gardo's massive body was swept up by the torrent and blasted out through the window.
The broken window frame shattered further.
Gardo vanished into the darkness of the night.
──Silence.
Quiet returned to the living room.
Scorched walls. A shattered window. Scattered shards of glass.
But the battle was over.
"...Did we... win?"
Kobayashi-san lifted her head from the floor.
"Yes, it's over. Kobayashi-san."
Tohru rushed to her and held out a hand.
"You okay? Hurt anywhere?"
Kobayashi-san took Tohru's hand and stood.
"I'm fine. More importantly—Ilulu."
Tohru turned back toward Ilulu.
Ilulu had collapsed in the kitchen doorway.
Every ounce of strength had drained out of her; she couldn't stand.
"Ilulu, thank you. You're my little sister."
Tohru crouched down in front of her.
Her golden eyes softened gently.
"...I'm not your sister."
Ilulu turned her face away.
But the truth was, she could feel those words soaking slowly into her chest.
"Whoa—you were pretty cool, Ilulu."
Kobayashi-san came over from the fridge with two cans of beer.
She held one out to Ilulu.
"...You were practically dying a minute ago. You're really drinking beer?"
Ilulu said it in disbelief.
"That's exactly when you drink. Here."
Kobayashi-san forced the can into Ilulu's hand.
Cold.
Ilulu gave in and popped the tab.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't do it for you guys."
She said that, and took a sip.
"Cough—i-it's bitter..."
She choked.
"Ahaha, I knew you couldn't drink it."
Kobayashi-san burst out laughing.
"Fufu, Ilulu, your face is bright red."
Tohru was laughing too, a hand over her mouth.
"S-shut up! This is—this is just—!"
Ilulu shouted, her face crimson.
But that anger wasn't frightening at all.
If anything, it was warm.
──This laughter, somehow, felt good.
That's what she thought.
──
Just before dawn.
Ilulu stood alone in the kitchen.
(Couldn't sleep.)
After the battle, the three of them had done a quick cleanup.
They'd taped cardboard over the broken window for now.
Tohru had said, "I'll call a repairman tomorrow."
Kobayashi-san had grumbled, "And I've got work tomorrow," and gone back to her room.
Ilulu had returned to her spot in the house, but sleep wouldn't come.
(Gardo said it.)
(The pure-blooded flame never gives up.)
(Judgment will fall on me for breaking the code.)
She couldn't get that fact out of her head.
But more than that—
(I want to stay here.)
That feeling pulsed, steady and certain, in her chest.
"Oh—Ilulu. You're up early."
Kobayashi-san came into the kitchen, still half-asleep.
"Want me to make coffee?"
She filled the kettle with water.
Ilulu stood before the gas stove.
(I want to feed.)
(But after last night, somehow—)
(Asking for it myself feels embarrassing.)
Ilulu held her hand over the stove knob.
But she couldn't summon the courage to turn it.
"Hm? What's up?"
Kobayashi-san noticed her.
"...Will you share your fire with me?"
Ilulu said it in a small voice.
She'd asked on her own.
For the first time.
"Sure. Take as much as you want."
Kobayashi-san said it easily.
Then she turned the knob herself.
WHOOSH.
A blue flame rose.
"Here. Don't hold back."
Kobayashi-san stepped aside for her.
Ilulu brought her face close to the blue flame.
She drew in a breath.
The fire flowed into her body.
Warm.
(Ah. Of course.)
(I want to be here.)
For the first time, she admitted that feeling honestly.
Eve
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