A glance at Kurushima’s palmtop refreshes her memory. This particular purchase order had struck her as odd when it crossed her desktop. Many things involving metascience research at least seem that way. That is probably because she is no scientist, and, certainly, no magician."There should be a supplemental report hypered to this purchase order which explains the need for this particular item. The ‘appendage’ referred to was a scale from the tail of a live dragon. As you can probably imagine, dragons are rather fond of their scales and are not generally inclined toward giving them away for nothing. It had to be purchased. Five hundred-kay was the price."