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Chapter One
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"Isaki, do you think we'll be able to make friends here?" Mika asked excitedly. Her sister, Isaki, laughed nervously.
"You did pick this place out. The child protective services were kind enough to let us chose where we wanted to go," the brunette shrugged. "I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends, Mika."
"I hope so. That Kaiya lady was nice," Mika's bright emerald eyes shone with wonder and amusement as they approached the orphanage. Standing there to greet them at the front door was a young woman with blazing red hair and a bright smile. She helped the girls with their bags then wrangled up all the children for a big introduction.
"These two adorable young ladies are Isaki and Mika. I'm sure you'll all become great friends," she clapped her hands together enthusiastically as all the children gave the new sisters hopeful grins. They seemed nice enough.
Kaiya looked up at a clock on the wall and gasped. "It's play time, isn't it?" she mumbled. All the children practically jumped for joy. They began to make their way to the back doors of the orphanage, where a decently sized playground was located. Mika, Isaki and one other child stayed behind.
"Alright, go on you two. I'll get Miyuki settled then I'll be out there to supervise," Kaiya shooed them out the door then turned back around the tend to a girl with coal-black hair and scarlet eyes.
"Saki! Saki, look! They have a jungle gym! Can we go play?" Mika asked with wide, interested eyes.
Isaki sighed, taking her hand. "Sure, Mika."
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Miyuki had always been a strange girl. She had a hard time making friends, the other children in the orphanage tended to steer clear of her, and she never got to play with the other kids. Not that they would play with her anyway. She couldn't understand why they found her so scary.
"Those new girls have had it rough. I want you to try and make friends with them, okay?" Kaiya instructed as she gave the young girl a light pat on the back. Miyuki nodded.
When the two of them walked outside, they found all the kids were playing in their usual friend groups. Miyuki watched Isaki and Mika play by themselves for a few minutes. They seemed to be a lot alike. Most sisters she knew tried to differentiate themselves but these two seemed to enjoy their close resemblance.
The first thing anyone noticed about the girls was that they shared the same caramel-coloured hair and emerald eyes. Isaki was tall and very much fit the kind big-sister stereotype. She was considerate and generous. Mika was more energetic, evident by her endless energy and random blabbering. They were a strange pair, to say the least.
Miyuki, on the other hand, was quiet. Don't get it wrong, she wasn't shy. She just preferred to be alone. The noirette had always been by herself and she doubted that that was about to change. No one ever wanted to play with her. Maybe she could just tell Kaiya that they didn't want to-
"Hey!"
...Or maybe they'll just run right up to her.
"Yeah, you!" the younger sister bounded towards Miyuki, who blankly stared at her with a dumbfounded expression. She was being approached by another child on purpose. Weird.
"Mika, wait!" Isaki called, running after her. Once she caught up, she hunched over to catch her breath. Mika was surprisingly fast, even for a child. "I didn't mean just run up to her!" Her words fell upon deaf ears.
"Hiya! I'm Mika and this is my big sis, Isaki! We saw you staring at us with those really pretty eyes of yours so we wanted to know if you would come play with us? You can pick the game if you want!" Mika grinned from ear to ear while Isaki facepalmed. Neither of them noticed Miyuki's bewildered expression.
"Why?" the scarlet-eyes girl knit her eyebrows together in confusion. Mika paused for a few seconds, taking the time to turn towards her. Her bright smile faded into a confused frown.
"Because we want to?" she answered honestly.
"We just got here but it's not hard to see that you don't get along well with the others. The kids on the playground seem kinda scared of you, actually..." Isaki muttered as she glanced towards the other children. Miyuki's expression softened into a distant stare. She clenched her tiny fists.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Absolutely! Isaki and I never lie!" Mika giggled as her signature radiant smile returned to her face.
"This might sound rude but it doesn't look like you have a lot of friends. We just figured that you would like some company," Isaki smirked with pink-dusted cheeks and eyes that sparkled in the sun. Miyuki could do nothing but sigh.
"Alright," the corners of her lips tugged upwards, "Let's go play, then."
Kaiya felt a large grin spread across her face as she watched the three kids run off together. She was glad Miyuki had finally found people who made her feel welcome and happy. The other kids might still be scared of her but Mika and Isaki would stay by her side, she was sure of it.
Months passed and Kaiya found that she wasn't wrong. The sisters had practically adopted Miyuki into their family. Where one went, the other two were never far behind. She had never seen Miyuki so happy. She couldn't help but think Isaki and Mika were her guardian angels of some sort. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad for them...
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.Thud.
The loud shattering of ice and crystal filled the orphanage. The eyes of each innocent child grew wide as the shock of having just witnessed a murder began to set in. It was eerily silent.
Right in the middle of the room was Miyuki. Pointed ears stuck out of her sleek black tresses and her mouth was painfully aware of the sharpening of her canine teeth as she bit her tongue. A stark white tail with a tuft of fur whipped around behind her with flurries of snow dancing around her figure.
"ISAKI!"
The girl's attention was drawn towards Mika, who sloppily ran towards where her sister once stood, only to find shards of ice swimming in a growing pool of thick, red blood.
"Monster!" one of the kids in the back shouted, terrifying the others even more. Miyuki watched her fellow orphans push themselves into a corner, huddled together in fear. Her wide, scarlet eyes, looked down at her trembling hands in horror as she clenched her fists.
"Go away, demon!" the aforementioned brunette yelled. This was her best friend, Mika. Why was she was calling her a demon?
"Mika, This wasn't my fault," The girl turned to her with wide eyes, paralyzed by fear and confusion.
"Just leave us alone!" Mika screamed at the top of her lungs. Miyuki's eyes slowly trailed to the shattered bits of ice on the ground that swam in the pool of blood.
Once again, she looked down at her hands as they emitted a frosty air which filled the room. The ground beneath her was quickly freezing over, too.
Her attention was drawn to the door as the sound of the children's caretaker walking in caused her to panic even more. Kaiya emerged from the hallway, carrying two brown bags filled with groceries.
"What on Earth is going on? Why is it so cold in here? I heard screaming-" she froze when she saw the kids who were desperately trying to isolate themselves from Miyuki. Mika let out a dry sob.
"Kaiya, I...I didn't mean to!" Miyuki quickly uttered. The nun, Mother Kaiya, dropped her bags as her mind began to put the pieces together. Her jaw dropped and she rushed over to Mika, the other children attempting to hide behind her. Mika clung to the woman of the cloth as her tears stained her cheeks.
"She killed her! She killed my sister!" the emerald-eyed girl spat, falling to her knees when her legs caved in. The pure sadness and hatred in her voice made her feelings toward Miyuki abundantly clear.
Kaiya looked towards the child standing in the middle of the room. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear. Fear for what she had done and what would come next. Miyuki's expression hardened as she took slow, uncertain steps back towards the door.
"Miyuki, wait!" Kaiya called but to no avail. The little girl was running out of the orphanage, evidence of her inhuman abilities left in the wake of her footsteps. The ice that appeared on the ground didn't fare well against the brilliant morning sun but she kept leaving it behind, nonetheless.
Anger swelled within her as the melted ice seeped into the cracks of the small village's cobblestone streets. She didn't dare look back as the place she once called home faded from her view.
"It wasn't my fault! Why can't they understand that...?" her voice shook vehemently thanks to her rage and sadness. She hadn't the slightest clue what had happened, much to her chagrin. One moment she was running around, playing tag with her best friend Mika and her sister, Isaki, when the ice...Where the hell did the ice come from?
Clear in Miyuki's mind was the image of Isaki crying out for her younger sister in shock as her body slowly turned to ice. She reached for Mika but the small girl was so scared that she unconsciously backed away. Within a few seconds, Isaki was completely iced over. The room fell silent as her body tipped over, a solid thud followed by a loud crash ringing through the room when her crystalized body shattered against the floor. The pure terror and shock in the kids' faces...All because of Miyuki.
Now everyone hated her.
They despised her.
Feared her, even.
She ran through the town, eyes overflowing with painful tears as she ducked through broken fences, trash, and people. She didn't know where she was running to nor did she know how long she would be doing so but she understood that she had to leave. She had no one left. For the first time in forever, she was truly alone.
"Excuse me."
Miyuki gasped as someone grabbed her arm. She shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for pain. When nothing happened, she peeked one eye open. Standing before her was a man with back hair hair and tired, blue eyes that pierced into her soul. What made Miyuki's eyes widen was the fact that he had fangs and pointed ears like she did.
"You have..." she warily stared at him with her tear-filled eyes.
"You don't look so good. Maybe you should come with me, dear," he held his hand out to her. She didn't know why but something in her gut told her to go. No one cared for her here so it really didn't matter anyway.
At least someone wanted her and it didn't hurt to think that maybe he could tell her what was going on. He could explain what made her murder her friend.
Once she hesitantly took his hand, he began to pull her along. They weaved through the streets until they came to a strange door. The boy stopped in front of it and spun around on his heels, noticing the uneasy expression on Miyuki's face. He crouched down so that he was eye level with her then tilted his head ever so slightly.
"Close your eyes, okay?" his hands came up and covered his eyes. Miyuki narrowed her eyes in confusion, prompting the boy to stand back up. He put his hands on his hips and sighed as if he was disappointed. "I guess I shouldn't blame you. Considering you were raised by humans, I shouldn't have expected you to trust me so easily," he huffed. Miyuki raised an eyebrow as he opened the door and revealed its contents.
Inside the deserted building was a black pit of tar. The little girl tightened her fists as she stared at the eyes sitting atop the bubbling substance. On both sides of the pit were statues that almost seemed to follow her with their stony instantly wished she had listened to him and closed her eyes.
"Alright," the green-haired boy sighed as he stepped towards the pit, "Let's go." Miyuki stared at him as if he was crazy. Her legs were once again stuck in place. The stranger tsked as he bent down in front of her.
"Don't be scared. Just close your eyes as I told you to and we'll go through together," he covered his azure eyes with his hands again. Miyuki's eyes flicked over to the black substance in the pit before she slowly brought her small hands towards her face. As an extra measure of safety, she shut her eyes tight.
An inaudible squeak slipped past her detection as she was hoisted off her feet. The boy had looked down at her with an indifferent expression when her small hands clung to his clothes. She tuned everything out while the stranger took her through the pit.
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When the oddly nice stranger sat Miyuki down, she warily scanned her surroundings with her blood-coloured orbs. The peculiar room she found herself in emitted an odd sense of familiarity that she also felt when she had been asked to take the boy's hand.
After taking a second look around the place, she realized that it must be a library. Millions upon millions of books lined the nicely decorated walls. Right in the middle was a man with short, stark-white hair and a couple of ear piercings. He was tall and lean.
"Is this it?" he asked, eyebrow lifting as he studied Miyuki.
Her interest piqued when she noticed the black tail that swished behind him. It looked like hers but with more manged and coarse fur, as well as a blue flame on the end. The man's steely-eyed gaze almost tore through her soul, leading her to her examine the blue flames that covered his body instead of looking up.
"Yes, father," the stranger who brought her had replied as he looked to Miyuki. The man closed his book, giving her time to notice his sharp nails. He crouched down, flames warming her cold, unusually pale, skin.
"Do you know who I am?" a fanged smile spread across his face. The young girl slowly nodded. The blue fire surrounding his body was a dead giveaway of his identity. Miyuki's scarlet eyes finally came up to meet his.
She had heard about the Devil from stories Kaiya told her. The other children were always frightened to know that a fallen angel existed. She was always intrigued, however. The thought of someone being so powerful, acquainted with God even...then falling so far. The man before her constantly strikes fear into the hearts of every mortal on Earth.
So, yeah, she had heard of him.
Realizing she was staring, the noirette quickly shook her head clear. "I know who you are." Satan and the stranger were somewhat surprised by her neutral reaction.
"Did you just discover you had some abilities, by chance?" He asked, cocking his head a little as his eyes gleamed with intrigue. Miyuki nodded slowly. Her expression revealed her rage as the memory of Isaki's death still lingered fresh in her mind.
"None of them believed me...It wasn't my fault," she bit out through a clenched jaw. Her shoulders began shaking and her hands tightened into fists. Satan's grin grew twice as big as before.
"Oh, but it was!" he threw his head back and cackled maniacally. "You just committed an act that should be completely normal to you by now. You should be able to rip the heart right out of another being and shatter it in your palm!"
Miyuki tensed up. She wasn't sure what she was hearing. The Devil himself...was telling her to murder to her heart's content? She had to be dreaming.
"I killed a human just to appear in front of you, right now. I'm telling you, kid, the ability to massacre should be in your blood," Satan flamboyantly threw his arms up as if showcasing his premium lifestyle. Miyuki's eyebrows knit together at the thought. Why does the Devil have to be so charismatic?
"You said...this should be normal...right?" her voice was but a broken whisper.
"You're a third generation Yuki-Onna. You should have at least had your first massacre by now" the Devil scoffed. Miyuki could only stare at him blankly. This whole situation was so insane. If that's true then why does she feel like she's where she's always meant to be.
Miyuki finally looked up at Satan with furrowed eyebrows. Blood began to seep from his eyes, ears and nose, evidence that the human vessel he had possessed was reaching it limit.
"What exactly are you offering...?" a puzzled expression crossed her features.
"You can stay here and learn about your family, train your powers and whatnot while also fulfilling your destiny as the last Yuki-Onna. Of course, that means living under my rule and doing my bidding, but it'll be worth it. You'll even have Strix and some others with you to help."
Miyuki's eyes glance over the boy who she had come to Gehenna with, only to find he was gone and replaced by a demon. "Strix" as he was called, was now a giant owl with large eyes that seemed to pierce the soul. Slowly, Miyuki nodded in agreement
"Great!" Satan clapped his hands together. "Then let's get you settled in so you can start training right away!" Miyuki struggled to swallow the lump that formed in her throat.
"Yay...?"
