Huodou

This creature, which looked like a dog, took to clinging to Kamizuki as soon as it hatched.

One moment, it was biting at Kamizuki's trouser leg; the next, it was licking his shoes. Every so often, it would roll around on the ground, acting cute.

Seeing the little thing behave like that, Kamizuki couldn't help laughing. He pulled some food from his storage ring and fed it.

In no time, the puppy-like little creature had devoured all the food Kamizuki had taken out, yet it still gazed at him with an unsatisfied look.

Seeing its expression, Kamizuki could only shrug helplessly. He'd brought no more food, and the little thing had eaten it all.

Kamizuki stopped paying attention to the insatiable dog. He felt a little tired, so he wanted to find somewhere clean and comfortable to take a short nap. Once he woke up, he would return to the village the next day.

It didn't take long for Kamizuki to find a large rock that looked as flat as a mattress. Just looking at the boulder, smooth as a mattress, made him feel drowsy.

Kamizuki lay down on the rock and soon drifted off to sleep.

The dog-like little creature had followed close behind Kamizuki on its short legs all the way to the boulder. Seeing him lie down, it climbed onto his outstretched body, curled into a ball, and fell asleep too.

The man and dog slept peacefully. In his dreams, Kamizuki saw something strange.

In his dream, a pure-black female dog was struck by a meteor fragment a month after becoming pregnant. Wounded, she gave birth to a puppy and then died.

The scene flashed by. Who knew how many years passed, but the puppy grew up. Wherever it went, a fire would break out, and it would eat the flames as if they were food.

People often saw the dog at the scene of fires. They believed its appearance foretold disaster, and from then on, they called it "Huodou."

One day, for reasons unknown—perhaps the weather was too dry—a large tribe on the grasslands caught fire. The people panicked. Women and children wept in despair, while burly men ran around wildly.

Faced with such a great fire, the people despaired...

Just as they had lost all hope and could do nothing to fight back, Huodou appeared.

They watched as the dog called "Huodou" swallowed the raging inferno that they could not control in just a few bites. Then it howled and left.

The scene in the dream flashed by again. This time, it showed a palace surrounded on all sides by various flames of unknown origin.

In the palace of flames sat a man of great dignity and holiness. Beneath his throne, Huodou knelt in submission.

The man on the throne was the Fire God, and Huodou was now his assistant. For some unknown mistake Huodou had made, the Fire God was questioning him.

In the end, the Fire God turned Huodou into an egg and cast it into chaos.

Kamizuki's dream ended. He awoke, opened his eyes, and saw an adorable little dog lying on top of him, watching him.

Kamizuki sat up groggily on the rock and looked at the puppy in his arms, recalling the dream he'd just had.

Kamizuki tried communicating with the little dog—and found that he really could understand it.

As they communicated, Kamizuki confirmed that this dog was indeed the same one from his dream: Huodou, the Fire God's assistant. The dream he'd just seen had also been Huodou's way of linking their dreams to tell him its story.

Huodou also told Kamizuki that it could sense a certain aura on him, one that was guiding it.

So it wanted to sign a contract with Kamizuki, become his summoning beast, and bind their fates together.

After hearing this, Kamizuki thought it over. He hadn't signed a contract with any summoning beast yet, and from the dream, Huodou had once been the Fire God's assistant. It must be no weakling.

As for whether the dream was real, Kamizuki didn't want to dwell on it. In any case, Huodou might prove to be a good ally.

Seeing that Kamizuki had agreed to sign a Summoning Contract with it, Huodou raised one of its little paws and bit a small cut into it. Blood like flames flowed from the wound.

Huodou used its blood to draw some runes on the boulder, which Kamizuki couldn't understand. It didn't take long for it to finish.

Once it had drawn the runes Kamizuki couldn't understand, the small wound on its paw healed in an instant.

After finishing the runes, Huodou gestured to Kamizuki that they could begin signing the contract.

At Huodou's signal, Kamizuki didn't think too much about it. He raised his left hand, bit a small cut into his ring finger, and let blood flow from it. Then he signed his name over the runes Huodou had drawn.

The moment Kamizuki signed his name on the Summoning Contract, a golden light flashed from the runes etched into the stone slab and shot toward the cave ceiling, startling the fireflies fluttering above into scattering in every direction.

After about ten seconds, the beam of light disappeared. As it faded, the runes etched into the stone slab vanished too. The Summoning Contract was complete!

After signing the contract, Kamizuki looked at Huodou and felt that its name was awkward to say, so he renamed it. From then on, he would simply call it "Adou."

Kamizuki then comforted Adou before deciding to return to Konoha. He raised both hands and formed several seals, then softly said, "Summoning Technique!"

As his voice fell, a thick cloud of smoke billowed up. A breeze swept through the cave and dispersed it. Kamizuki and Adou had already vanished from Firefly Cave...