At the moment they were stopped, Hayashi thought for sure his license was about to get revoked.
But then—
Tohru reached into her clothes and pulled out her own license.
The two patrol officers were a man and a woman.
The female officer checked Tohru's license, compared the photo and details, and then politely handed it back. "Thank you, sorry for the trouble."
Once they were back in the car, Hayashi glanced at Tohru's license.
Good lord—it had all of Tohru's information!
Her photo, identity, name: Hayashi Tohru, and even her address matched his—everything was perfectly legit.
In that moment, Hayashi understood exactly what happened.
And he couldn't help but laugh. "So you used magic and copied mine to make your own license?"
"Exactly!" Tohru raised her chin proudly, looking smug.
Hayashi burst into laughter.
At the same time, Hayashi understood even better how versatile magic was—it was truly amazing.
He knew that Tohru could use cognitive magic, meaning that ordinary people who saw her would subconsciously perceive her as a normal human being.
Because let's be real—Tohru might be in human form, but she still had a tail, dragon horns, and was dressed in a maid outfit.
Even if someone thought she was just cosplaying, checking her driver's license would normally expose everything.
But the reason nobody batted an eye was because her cognitive magic was constantly at work.
Only powerful individuals could resist its effects.
Which just made it all the more clear: magic was way too useful!
After that—
Tohru happily drove them home.
Along the way, she chatted with Hayashi about all sorts of things, including her stories from the other world.
She talked about what humans were like there, how mages were viewed, and how she could even learn things in her sleep.
Tohru spoke, Hayashi listened, and he learned quite a bit.
As they drove—
Hayashi leaned on his hand, watching figures pass by on the sidewalk.
And then, among them, he spotted a familiar presence.
Red hair.
That bad woman!
The moment she noticed Hayashi's gaze, Makima turned her head and locked eyes with him.
She saw Hayashi—and then noticed Tohru in the driver's seat.
Hayashi could tell, Makima definitely froze for a split second.
After thinking for a moment—
Hayashi rolled down the window and gave her a casual wave.
Standing beside her, Aki Hayakawa and Power also noticed him.
Aki gave a small wave back in greeting.
Power, on the other hand, jumped up and down waving energetically when she saw Hayashi.
But then she spotted Tohru in the driver's seat—and her eyes went wide, freezing on the spot.
Before they could react further, the car had already driven off.
Reflecting on their expressions, Hayashi realized something important—those two devils weren't affected by Tohru's cognitive magic. They could clearly see her transformed form.
Looks like last night's events had reached the authorities after all.
And now they were aware of Tohru's existence—the existence of a dragon.
Hayashi rubbed his chin and thought about it.
But thinking about Tohru's combat power at her peak… maybe he was overthinking it.
After all, her condition yesterday—
99.8% of her injuries were caused by the divine sword of a god from her world.
Only the remaining 0.1% came from the ghouls.
So when it came to combat power, neither Hayashi nor Tohru had anything to worry about.
It'd be fine.
After thinking a bit more, Hayashi turned to Tohru and said:
"Tohru, at Deep Night Diner, you can do whatever you want. If a customer makes unreasonable demands, you can refuse—or even beat them up."
"No matter what happens, you come first."
"That's my promise. It's always valid."
Tohru, driving at the time, froze when she heard that.
She turned in surprise to look at Hayashi. The car slowly rolled to a stop by the roadside.
Hayashi's words made Tohru feel more like he was a father than her own father ever was.
Her father—the Chaos Lord, the Emperor of the End—only ever taught her destruction, destruction, and more destruction. It left Tohru in agony, never knowing what the point of it all was.
So she left him.
Later, she met other dragons.
But eventually, Tohru, overwhelmed by loneliness and pain, decided to challenge the gods.
And ended up like she was now.
So don't let her energetic and cheerful exterior fool you—Tohru had just learned to hide it all well.
Deep inside, her heart was filled with loneliness and confusion. She didn't know what she should be doing, or what gave her life meaning.
That was also part of why she wanted to become a maid.
It gave her something to do, something to focus on, without having to think so much.
And Hayashi's words—"Do what you want," "You come first," "You can say no"—every single one struck her right in the heart.
Thinking of that—
Tears welled up in Tohru's eyes.
"Hayashi-san!"
She couldn't hold back anymore and dove into his arms, crying uncontrollably from how deeply moved she was.
"…?"
Seeing her suddenly cry, Hayashi was a bit thrown off at first.
Then he understood.
He hugged her back and gently patted her on the back.
After a while—
Hayashi comforted her softly.
"Alright, no need to be so sad, Tohru."
"This place is your home now, even if just temporarily. You can stay as long as you want. Leave whenever you want."
The moment he said that, she suddenly squirmed in his arms.
"Yada~!" (Nooo~!)
Her muffled voice came from his chest.
"I don't want to leave! This is my home in this world!"
"No problem. As long as you're happy." Hayashi gently stroked her back.
After a while—
Tohru finally sat up from his embrace, wiping her tears.
"Sorry for the scene, Hayashi-san."
"Not at all," Hayashi shook his head and rubbed her head with a smile. "There's a saying: 'Every family has its own struggles.' It means that every person or household has their own problems."
"But no matter what, we should look ahead. Try to change, to find a new environment—that's the best way forward."
Tohru listened, then nodded hard, eyes sparkling again.
"Hayashi-san, you're so wise!"
"Haha, not really."
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