Chapter Five

5.1

Kuon always felt a little awkward whenever he took off the chain and snuck into the back of the restaurant. He knew that his parents would welcome him in whether he was wearing it or not but at times it felt better to be honest and have that love directed towards him instead of them acting as strangers. As he snuck by the younger chefs, he made it to the stairs to go to the main room. As soon as he was alone he put the stones down and let his wings come out. They were still wet. He reached behind him and felt the gold sticky substance.

Bringing his fingers to his face he sighed. If his dad found out that his wings were bleeding he'd only get concerned. Kuon sighed and sat down on the guest bed that his parents always had ready for him and nobody else.

Kuon kept his head bowed as he exhaled from exhaustion and then heard a knock on the door. Instinctively, he drew his wings back in, his eyes wide before sighing. "Dad," he said as he saw Kuu there. He spread his wings again. "I was thinking."

"As if I'd expose the secret," Kuu said before opening a drawer and tossed a spray and bandages to Kuon. "You're bleeding. You need to rest your wing, why not stay here for tonight?" he asked and Kuon sighed. He stared at his father waiting for him to continue. Kuu blinked back at him before gesturing behind himself at where the gold liquid was on Kuon's wing. "I can see it, right here," he said and Kuon laughed weakly, he knew that much. "I have read every article, legend, fairytale, blog post that exists on fairies and we have our own documents about your body and health and anything else we might need to know. I know when my son isn't feeling well."

"You never asked for a fairy for a son," Kuon repeated and Kuu sighed ad closed his eyes for a moment as he came and sat down next to Kuon. He placed a gentle hand on his back underneath one of the wings.

"What do I always tell you?" Kuu asked as he looked into Kuon's emerald eyes.

"That it doesn't matter to you," Kuon repeated, "that these," he gestured to his wings, "don't matter to you. All that matters to you is that I'm safe, that I'm healthy, that I'm happy, and that I'm alive." He smiled to his father who deeply cared for him and had loved and protected him his whole life. Kuon frowned for a second, "Dad, I think I might need to…fully relax," he said as he looked at the floor. He gripped to his wrist. He didn't like becoming an animal in front of his parents, it made him feel guilty, but they had also learned that his being a Pegasus had other benefits such as his energy building faster.

Kuu nodded, "I'll get you a blanket and something to eat," he said before rubbing Kuon's upper arm gently. "I still get scared about that night you ran away. If I hadn't have found you so quickly."

"I would have wound up at the zoo or the circus or a research facility," Kuon completed the thought for him and Kuu nodded. He moved away from Kuon and smiled as he felt Kuon hand him the stones so that Kuu could get those recharged for him. Kuon closed his eyes and seemed to slip into the form of the large horse/bird creature.

Kuu knelt down in front of his son and very gently placed his hand on Kuon's long nurse before placing it on his head, behind his ear. "Get some rest, okay." Kuon could hear how much his dad loved him and cared about him and he breathed deeply, his wings spreading as far as they could in the room. "I'll bring you something to eat in a little bit."

"Dad," Kuon whispered as he lifted his head and made eye contact with his father. "I'm concerned about something," he admitted. He heard Kuu hum in response. "There was…this girl at LME today, she seemed to have a strange aura about her. I don't think she's dangerous but she wanted to join the agency."

"I can talk to Boss if you know her name and think that she'll be a danger to you," Kuu said as his fingers spread out through Kuon's mane.

"No. Don't do that but I'll keep you updated on her," Kuon said knowing that if he didn't, Kuu would do his own research. His father was always supportive of people and their dreams and especially young people who weren't afraid of hard work but his son was his priority. Kuon's safety came first just as it always had. Kuon might not remember the words but Kuu would always have that horrific recollection of when the doctors said he should be killed and disposed of. Being fully human would be better for everyone but that wasn't what they were given and Kuu would never trade his son for anyone and by this point in their lives that included a completely-human Kuon.

5.2

I hear that she tormented Sawara-san with demons.

I heard that she had black magic.

Wait, demons are real?

Do you think that witches exist?

No that's fantasy, fantasy things like demons and fairies and goblins don't exist.

Ren was hearing those words all morning and it felt as if something cold and sickening had entered his body and travelled to his gut. He had become used to this talk over the years. People couldn't see what he truly was and so they just gossiped to themselves. That was all this was, meaningless gossip. Yet, he still couldn't get rid of that feeling that people would start directing those thoughts towards him. Well, he wasn't his father, he wasn't going to get extra vigilant and defensive about some random chatter.

He walked down the hallway with those words filtering through his mind when he found something – or somebody – to crash into him. He stopped and looked to the side to find the strange girl everyone was talking about. No. She hadn't meant to crash into him. She wasn't intending to cause him any harm. This was all in his imagination.

The girl covered her mouth and Ren looked at her acting with indifference towards her. "I…I'm sorry," the girl said and Ren took deep breaths before responding to her. No. She wasn't a fairy hunter. She didn't have dark demons inside her that were targeting him and those like him. As he raised an eyebrow at her, wanting to get as far away from someone like her as possible but not wanting to cause a scene, he saw the horror in her face.

His heartbeat quickened but he still held the same expression. If she was a fairy hunter, the very last thing which he wanted to do was expose himself. He had hidden from society for so long that he knew how to act as human as anyone else.

Ren had to direct his attention elsewhere, he couldn't risk her finding out about him and if she was a fairy hunter then she had a rather high likelihood in discovering what he was unless he distracted her. He pulled up a piece of paper that was in her hands and looked at it. He would place importance on the document she was holding.

He internally sighed, "The newcomer casting? I see, so Sawara-san gave in after all," he said trying to hide the anxiety that she was going to capture him if he let her get closer to him. He had kept hearing about the demons and maybe this was a sign that the rumors were right. He saw her getting angry but his mind was coming up with a plan that would keep her from succeeding in this manner. He looked at her and shook his head. Better to get rid of her instead of risk a fairy hunter's presence.

"I beg your pardon!" she yelled at him and Ren was inwardly satisfied that he had diverted her attention. "What's with this, 'why stress yourself in the end she won't pass and she'll regret it', sigh!?" she asked and Ren smiled. He had been able to act human. If she was a fairy hunter that was a good thing but if not then, well his acting skills were there for a reason.

"Hey, Amazing" Ren said as he looked at her acting in mock surprise, "Do you have a second sight? Mind reading? Are you psychic?" he asked. He was challenging her to say something, at least if she declared she had powers then he knew what he would be dealing with.

"Well, please! That obvious behavior everybody understands it!" she yelled at him and Ren felt relief, human, yes she was just an ordinary human. "You don't need either mind reading nor psychic powers. I know it isn't pointless! I truly believe that I'll make it."

Despite his suspicions about her true nature now seeming baseless, Ren continued with his act to get rid of her and banish her from his sanctuary. "You don't understand. You're not the only one for whom it's pointless. What I mean is it's a waste of time for the board of examiners who will be busy with you. They are very busy persons."

He made sure to make eye contact with her. He was almost certain he wasn't wrong but he had researched fairy hunters just as much as his parents had researched fairies. "You don't go into show business just for fun. But you want to enter that business even though you don't really like it. Why did you even go as far at to persuade Sawara-san? Just out of interest? Or are you searching for an adventure? Searching for some being you want to take advantage of -"

"That's right! I want to take revenge on Shou Fuwa!" She yelled and Ren took a step back. What did that mean? He thought he knew all the fairies and magical creatures in this area. It wasn't like they got together regularly for karaoke or bowling but his parents had made sure that they were familiar with anyone else who may have a link to his subspecies of human. "Any objections?" she asked as Ren tried to figure out just who she was talking about.

Ren pulled out his phone, he turned to the side so Kyoko didn't see the highly secret search engine that linked any person to any listed creature. It was something one would only see as messed up coding unless they had the magic within themselves. Ren knew this as a fact since both of his parents had struggled through headaches to see it and admitted honestly they only saw numbers of colors or some malfunction. Still, for a fairy hunter to see this maybe it was a bad idea.

"Why do you have to look it up!?" Kyoko yelled at him, "Shou Fuwa. You've surely heard of him!? Right now he's really popular! The most popular musician! His debut single ranked 1st in Japanese charts! A genius!"

Ren tried to ignore her before he realized that Sho Fuwa wasn't on this listing as anything other than human. He sighed in relief. Just a petty revenge story. That was fine. Idiotic schoolgirls were much less dangerous for him.

"Oh," he said as he looked back at her and turned the browser off, "Of course that's him. Then you just have to sing a little song. That's enough and then your greatest desire will become true. But only if you will make it, won't you?" he said and the girl started to yell back at him, he narrowed his glance wanting to get rid of her. He felt he had engaged with her for too long unnecessarily. He couldn't allow her to get any closer.

"I'll tell you clearly, the casting is way more different than just persuading Sawara-san," he looked at her in a serious manner, his inner voice telling him to stop any notion of her having demons in her control. This useless girl didn't even know what true demons looked like. "Just do not believe that having a lot of courage will get you through everything."

It might have sounded harmless at first but Ren took it as a way to tell her that he wouldn't let anyone get to him whether they be fairy hunter or random girl, he would protect himself. That was the way he lived, the way he had always learned to survive.

End of Chapter Five

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Four

H-Nala, Kaname671, miemieo.86