Everyone always assumes that if they ever got isekai'd, there would be certain universal perks they'd be contractually obligated to receive.
One of those perks would be a dramatic moment where you'd ride a dragon through the sky while epic music played in the background.
Instead, Nico's dragon was riding him.
On his back… You perverts.
Nom-Nom sat comfortably on his back, legs hooked around his waist the way you'd sit on a horse, while both her hands clutched a brick-sized block of strawberry ice cream.
A full kilogram of it.
She took an enormous bite, cheeks puffing slightly as she chewed, with a very obvious expression of happiness.
"Mmm~" she chirped. "You weren't lying. This is good."
"Nom, stop wiggling," Nico stammered, as a small blush crept up his cheeks.
She immediately leaned forward instead, chin almost brushing his shoulder, violet slit eyes practically glowing.
"Master," she asked innocently, "... can I have another one?"
Nico glanced back at her, deadpan.
"Nom… that was your seventh brick."
She froze for exactly half a second, then smiled wider, ice cream smeared shamelessly around her lips.
"Just one last one," she said quickly. "The dark chocolate one you mentioned!"
Nico stared at her.
Then he let out a long, defeated sigh as his gaze drifted sideways toward X-97, who was flying quietly beside them. Her wings of golden fire were beating in a steady rhythm as she watched the moonlit ocean ahead.
"…I have no authority in this group," Nico sighed, the words already lost to the wind as he noticed X-97 drifting closer, her wings of golden fire adjusting to match his pace.
"Can you fly faster?" She flatly said.
And Nico's face instantly flushed red as he stammered, "That is as fast as I can go! Deal with it."
They flew like that for a few seconds in silence, moonlight glinting off the ocean far below, before she finally spoke.
"So," she finally broke the silence, her voice carrying faintly through the rushing air, calm but curious, "... which facility did you escape from?"
Nico let out a short laugh, shaking his head as he said, "I'm not a Chimera."
That got her attention.
"Their captain just assumed I was…" Nico continued, a hint of amusement slipping into his tone, "…and I played along, just to see what'd happen. Turns out, playing along threw them off just enough to work in our favor."
X-97 didn't respond right away.
She flew quietly beside him, eyes narrowed slightly as she processed that, before her gaze drifted past him toward the dragon currently using him as a flying horse.
"…What about her?" she asked.
Before Nico could answer, Nom-Nom quickly gulped down the ice cream in her mouth before-
"I'm Nom-Nom," she announced happily for the third time, chest puffing out with the instinctive pride of being a Dragon as she continued. "And I'm a Greater Dragon."
X-97's violet eyes widened.
She'd known Nom-Nom was a dragon. She could feel it.
But that?
"…A Greater Dragon?" she repeated, disbelief slipping through her composure. "Then how was that man able to survive against you?"
Nom-Nom tilted her head, thinking, then flexed her free hand slowly, watching her fingers curl and uncurl.
"I'm not used to this body yet," she admitted. "I only got it today."
She paused, then added more softly, "I'm not even used to the other body I have."
Then she laughed, a light, almost wonder-filled laugh.
"I changed a lot in just one day."
X-97 blinked, clearly not following.
Nico took a breath.
"To cut a long story short…" he said, because it very much was a long story -
"I found Nom-Nom as a Wyvern…. After she became my Familiar, she evolved. Jumped two stages and became a Greater Dragon... The island those ships were guarding? That was her prison. And during our escape, we found you and freed you along the way."
He exhaled after dumping all that out at once, very deliberately skipping over the part where Nom-Nom had eaten him, infinity had leaked, and the System had panicked its way into a forced Familiar bond.
While X-97 just stared at them for a moment.
"She evolved twice," she said slowly, disbelief creeping into her voice, "… just by becoming your Familiar?"
Before Nico could even open his mouth, she turned fully toward him.
"Can you replicate that?"
"Doubt it… And no, I don't wanna find out if wrong." Nico said instantly, shutting that down hard.
"And the 'why' of that is not a conversation I'm having mid-flight. So… what's your story?"
She looked like she wanted to argue, but ultimately didn't.
Letting out a quiet sigh, her eyes drifted forward again as she spoke.
"I reached my current form about a month ago," she said. "And I escaped the island they kept me on and stayed hidden after that… mostly in deep forests. But they eventually found me."
She paused for a moment before speaking with slight tremors in her voice.
"They told me to come with them. I, of course, refused…So they killed me."
Nico frowned. "Come again?"
"Was it painful?" Nom-Nom asked immediately with genuine concern in her voice.
"Yes, it was extremely painful… and terrifying." X-97 said flatly, then continued before either of them could interrupt.
"When I woke up, I was buried in ashes. Crawling out of it… I found myself in that cage you freed me from."
"I'm still stuck on the 'killed you' part," he muttered. "Though… I think I might have an idea what it implies."
X-97 was quiet for a moment before speaking again.
"I'm a Phoenix. And from their conversations, I learned I'm an artificially engineered Chimera, and I'm half of something called a Myriad Colors Peacock, which gives me access to all classical affinities."
She glanced at them sidelong.
"…Apparently, that makes me their property."
"No, it doesn't."
Nom-Nom's brows furrowed as she leaned forward slightly, violet eyes locking onto X-97's with a sincerity so absolute it almost hurt to look at.
"And nobody…" she continued, voice firm despite the ice cream smudged around her mouth, "… gets to tell you otherwise."
X-97 blinked just once.
And the tension she hadn't realized she was holding loosened a little, and a small, unmistakable smile curved at the corner of her lips.
"…Fine," she said softly. "I'll take your word for it."
"Yeah! You do that," Nom-Nom nodded hard, immediately satisfied, before extending the hand holding her brick of ice cream toward her. "And take some ice cream too. Here."
X-97 stared at the offering for a moment, then at Nom-Nom herself, at her earnest eyes filled with absolute conviction, before she let out a quiet chuckle she didn't bother hiding.
"I can't really eat while flying," she said, amused. "So… save some for me?"
Nom-Nom gasped, eyes widening in sudden realization.
"But it'll melt by then…" she said seriously, before brightening almost immediately. "Oh! That's okay. Master said he'll give me another one."
"We'll eat that one together. Half-half," she added generously, then paused. "Or you can take the bigger half!"
X-97 laughed this time, carried away by the sudden gust of wind as they flew.
And Nico, listening intently to their conversation, didn't catch what she said in response through the gusts of wind.
But he didn't need to.
For what he did catch was enough to fill his chest with both warmth and pride in equal measure.
[Yep… that's my Nom-Nom~]