A/N - So this is my second story on this site and this time it's +Anima! Yeah, I haven't really read them all just, like, the first three... Anyway I 3 Senri and I know there aren't mant SenrixOC stories out there so I though, what the hell, and just wrote this from boredom basically. I may or may not continue with this, it depends on the feedback I get. But thank you for reading this! ~Red

The day was warm and the town was crowded with people out shopping. The birds hopped about on the floor, desperately looking for food. I watched them quietly, observing their every move. Unaware of my gaze, they continued to hop around, dodging peoples clumsy footsteps. I unfolded my legs and let them drop over the low wall until my bare feet made contact with the floor. I was too poor to afford shoes, or decent clothes. Mine were brown and old, and consisted of a pair of baggy trousers and a long sleeved black tatty shirt, with a brown shirt over the top. At least they kept me warm. My long, red hair crawled down my back as I lifted my head up to stare at the oceanic sky. I could smell summer coming, and I was looking so forward to it. I'm a traveller, who moves with the seasons, much like a bird.

One of the birds I'd been watching earlier suddenly flew off, and by instinct the others followed. These are small birds; I see them get nervous alone. They prefer to be with their friends. See, I'm not like those small birds. I'm a hunter, I don't need friends, nor do I particularly want any. I travel alone, and live by myself. I get along, barely, but I manage to make a living playing music on my beat up guitar. If I feel like it sometimes I'll sing. Not today though, today I'm feeling too depressed. Today is the anniversary of my parent's deaths...

Mother, father and I talk quietly in the kitchen, enjoying the spring breeze blowing warm through the door. Father has just returned from training, see, he's going to go to battle soon, very soon. Mother's trying to hide her hurt but she's not concealing it very well. Even I can tell she's upset. I stare out the window and watch as a beautiful red bird circles above the field near my house. Father and I call them the red angels, because they are so pretty. He calls me his red angel too, because of my hair I guess.

'Look, Papa, it's a red angel!' I beam at him and he joins me to stare out the window.

'Beautiful.' He says, but he's not looking at the bird, he's looking at me now and smiling. Even with my father's departure to battle looming over us, it's still a happy day. Mother gazes over us, smiling too. It's a happy day, a very happy day. Suddenly, a knock on the door tears me out of my thoughts.

'Ren, why don't you go and get your guitar and play me your song?' My father suggests, glancing at the door. I smile and run to my bedroom to get my guitar. I charge up the stairs and bolt through the familiar door that leads to my room. My guitar sits in the corner of the room and I hoist the strap round my shoulder before stepping back down the stairs. I can hear a lot of shouting, and I can see two men standing in the kitchen, yelling at father. Mother looks very frightened, and she mouths at me to run, but I don't. Then one of the men grabs my mother by her hair and holds a sword to her throat. Father immediately steps towards her. The man presses the blade harder on mother's neck, splitting the skin slightly and letting a little bit of blood drip down her clothes. She lets out a slight whimper of fear. Father's eyes widen and he pleads with the men to leave.

'Tell me, Shun, what is that mark on your chest?' The other man grabs father and splits his shirt with his knife, revealing a black tattoo just below his collar bone. It looked very familiar, and I knew I had one similar on my upper back, just between my shoulder blades. Mother and I stood waiting for what would happen next.

'Stupid demon, your Kim-un-Kir can't protect you here now.' The man spat out before he slit my father's throat. I kept my mouth shut and stepped back. I could begin to smell the blood in the air, and felt tears fill my eyes. I couldn't see beyond them but I knew what was going to happen. Before they kill her too my mother screams out:

'REN, RUN!' This time I obey, and run as fast as I can, my guitar still on my back. I can hear the heavy breathing of the man chasing me; he is much faster than me and is catching up as I jump the fence into the field. The long grass is dry and it hurts as my legs brush past it. The red angel still flies above, and takes a brief sympathetic look at me that I can see from the ground. But now the man is near, and he will kill me. I know he will. There is no escape.

I am beginning to tire, but I have to keep pushing myself for as long as I can. I think about throwing my guitar to increase my speed but dismiss the thought immediately. Now it's the only memory I have left. The man shows no sign of fatigue, and I know I won't be able to get away from him. I accept my fate and start to slow down. As soon as I do this though, my vision starts to change. My eyes begin to hurt and my back is burning. Somehow I can feel everything around me, like the trees and every blade of grass. I can see the red angel soaring overhead. I can hear the wind as it rushes through the field, but most of all I can sense the man running behind me, getting very close now. I start running again, yet there is no increase in my speed. My back begins to burn again and I feel something growing from my shoulder blades. The thing continues to grow and soon I find myself somehow flying a few feet off the ground. I rise higher and higher until I know I am safe. I am flying with the red angel now, who is looking at me oddly, but approaches me none the less. I glance down at the man who was chasing me and he stares at me, cursing under his breath. My arms are covered in feathers and my new red wings flap proudly behind me.

I begin to fly away, not sure where I'm going, but knowing that for now I am safe. I had heard of beings like these, who conceal their secrets, monsters who hide in the dark. But I am not a monster; I am Ren the red angel.

I have always had my anima, but it had just never been needed before that day. I understand it is unlikely my powers will ever disappear, but I don't particularly mind. Having these abilities allows me to hunt and to escape desperate situations. I don't tell anyone about being +anima, lots of people frown upon our species, just like them men... I learned that there were few people I could trust, especially if I chose to tell them who I am. I know those men are still looking for me, and one day they will come. I feel sick when I think about them, and how they ruthlessly murdered my parents. The attack left me traumatized, so I often start shaking for no apparent reason. I don't know whether it's the memories or the fear, the fear that one day those murderers will kill me too. I don't want to die.

I thought about visiting the Kim-un-Kir, I know my father was one and I remember being there as a child. They were very nice people and they were always very friendly with father. I also remember the boy I met, he was a year or so older than me and the nice Kim-un-Kir people were looking after him. He didn't talk much and when I asked what his eye-patch was for he just looked away. I guess I said something wrong, and I never saw him again after that. He's one of the few people I remember from my childhood. But I don't want to bother the Kim-un-Kir and besides, I don't really know where they are. It would be a lot of effort, even for me, to fly over there.

While looking around I see Rouge, my bird. She's been away for a bit, hunting most probably. She looks down and lands on my outstretched hand. A few people stop and look at her, but who wouldn't. She's beautiful. I smile at her while she looks around observing everyone walking by. She especially watches this young boy, quite a bit younger than me, staring at a crate of apples. I watch him too, and hear him humming this song. I smile, I know this one.

I pull my guitar off of my back and start playing. People near me stop what they are doing to watch, as does the boy. He has very dark hair and I envy his clean clothes, and goggles. I need some of them. He looks up and smiles at me. It's a genuine smile, one which I haven't seen in a while, and I find myself smiling back. He walks closer to me and sits in front of me as I play, still humming. After the song finishes he claps and digs around in his pockets for something. He has this deep look of concentration on his face as he struggles to find what he's looking for. Eventually he pulls his hand out and stretches his arm towards me. In his hand he holds some coins, quite a bit of money actually, enough to feed me for a few days, and maybe even to get some new, cheap clothes.

'No please, keep your money.' I push his hand back. No one's ever been this generous to me before.

'It's fine, you need it more than I do.' He protests and drops the coins into my lap. I smile my appreciation and put the coins into my bag.

'Thank you very much...'

'Cooro, I'm Cooro.' He introduces himself and stretches out his hand again. I take it gently and shake it.

'Thank you Cooro.' He smiles and gets up to leave, just as I stand up to get going too, but turns around again.

'Oh, what's your name anyway?' No one ever asked my name. Caught slightly off guard I stuttered a bit:

'Oh, it's Ren. And this is Rouge.' I gesture towards my bird, who bows her head slightly.

'Wow, she's beautiful.' Cooro stares at her for a few seconds before attempting to stroke her. I widen my eyes, she really doesn't like attention like this and I fear for the boys' fingers. However to my amazement, she allows him to stroke her. I let out a brief sigh of relief.

'She's not usually so friendly with people. She likes you though, Cooro.' I tell him while he still strokes her, very gently though. He smiles and after he's finished Rouge moves up to perch on my left shoulder, she knows she can get heavy on my arm.

'Well, I'd better get going. My friends will wonder where I am." Cooro explains, still smiling. God, he really is a very happy boy.

'Probably, I wouldn't want your friends thinking badly of me.' I say. I didn't really want him to leave. He was a really nice kid and I wouldn't mind having him around for a bit.

'So, where are your friends then Ren?' Cooro looks up at me and asks.

'Actually, I travel alone.' I reply, looking down at the floor.

'You mean, you don't have any friends?' He frowns and looks really sad about this. I couldn't tell if it was genuine sorrow or if he was just being nice.

'Well, no. I don't really need any...' I was cut off by Cooro's startled look.

'Nonsense! Everyone needs friends!' He explains, and I just smile at him.

'I thought you were leaving.' I say. This appears to hurt him slightly and I immediately regret saying it.

'No, I don't mean that in a bad way... It's just...' I try and fail to take back my words.

'It's not that, it's just I don't even really know where my friends are. I just kind of ran off...' I kneel down so I'm now at eye level with him.

'Well I guess I owe you something so would you like me to help you look for them?' I suggest. At least it would get me moving about a bit instead of just sitting on the wall. Cooro literally jumps with joy.

'That would be awesome! And then you could come and travel with us!' He suggests.

'I don't know about that...' But Cooro has already grabbed my hand and is running towards the town centre. I follow him about before stopping him.

'So, where was the last place you saw your friends then Cooro?' I ask, and he thinks for a bit before saying:

'Over by the shops selling clothes and things like that' Cooro explains. I nod and lead him in that direction. Luckily this part of town isn't too crowded as many people are at the market. Cooro and I wander around for a bit, Cooro looking for his friends and me looking through shop windows.

'There they are!' Cooro exclaims and runs towards a small group of children. Well, two children and one older boy. Cooro grabs my hand and runs up to them and I quickly pull my hand out of his.

'What? Don't you want to meet them?' He says frowning at me. I look away.

'I just don't want to bother you anymore is all...' I reply and start to turn away.

'No, wait! Please stay!' He grabs hold of my hand again and tries to lead me to his friends, who are now looking at us.

'Cooro! Leave that poor woman alone!' The young girl yells at him. He surrenders and let's go of my hand, but turns round to say goodbye before walking to his friends.

'Who was that?' Asks the younger boy, and Cooro turns around to introduce me, but I'm already flying high above them. I don't need friends, nor do I want any. I know he was only trying to be nice but I don't want to be someone else's burden. I wanted to stay, very much so, but I'm not like them. I'm not an average human being. I am a +anima.