At the Drive-In Tonight Beta ver.The roar and claps made by the deinos pulled Daybit back from his reverie. On the screen, the movie finally reached the last part of falling action as the final girl plunged her knife into the masked villain’s chest. He noticed that some of the deinos who were terrified at the beginning were cheering and clapping with their companion. The sight made the young man smiled a little. He reached into his popcorn bucket, but his fingers only scrapped the butter residue at the bottom. He was so absorbed by the movie he quickly ran through all of his popcorn.

[DayTez + Hot Cocoa] An unusually cold day hit Mictlanpa.

The Aztec underworld’s temperature usually stayed on the lukewarm side. Not too cold it chilled the bones of the dead, nor it was too hot to burn them. So, when an anomaly hit home, the master of the house was the first to notice.

Since Tezcatlipoca was summoned from Pan-Human History, the system of his underworld was still connected with the working of Earth from the proper timeline. It was him who applied the rule to Mictlanpa after the destruction of Nahui Mictlan, making the underworld’s climate aligned with the climate of the Americas. Judging by the date on the calendar, this was the time for winter. Naturally, the god had anticipated the weather change & installed a fireplace in his residence.

煙草パチパチ……
足元で焚き火が火の粉を飛ばして軽やかな音を立てる。少し視線を移すと男が煙草を吸っているのが見えた。
白く華奢な指が煙草を持っているのがとても、さまになっていた。
「そんなじっと見つめるなよ」
男はこちらを一瞥もせずそう言った。1度煙を大きく吐き出すと嗤って
「穴が空いちまう」
「悪い」
「いい。おまえはそれでいい」
今度はちゃんとこちらを見た。色の入ったグラスの奥の瞳はじ…っとまるで値踏みをするようにこちらを見つめていた。
「おまえはいい男だ、デイビット。戦士としても男としても」
「その2つに違いはあるのか」
聞き返すと、彼は目を細め
「勿論だ」
と唇の端を歪めた。そして段々と短くなりつつある煙草に口をつけると大きく息を吸い込んだ。彼の薄い胸が空気に微かに膨らむ。