Author's Note: Long update! Whee!

The Story So Far: Hiruma has not taken well to the truth, how will this affect his performance in the upcoming game?

Hidden

By: Bar-Ohki

Chapter 16: Revealed Knowledge

The three friends sat frozen in time, unable to move in the resulting silence. Hiruma continued to stare at his hands, his mind numb with shock. Musashi's voice had disappeared completely, leaving the man to stand there trapped in a wince. Kurita looked worried and tearful, but was still unmoving.

This is what Mamori came upon when she opened the door to the clubhouse. She looked around at the scene, more than a little unsettled by the expression on Hiruma's face. It, sadly, was not too hard for Mamori to imagine what had happened in this room, so she decided to pull the boys out of their stupor. Quietly she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her loudly, making all three boys jump.

"That expression is very unlike you, Hiruma." Mamori commented in a tone that mimicked the mocking one Hiruma always used with her.

"Fuck woman! You have no idea what kind of shit I'm dealing with right now!" Hiruma yelled at her, his numb mind clearing enough to allow him to be angry.

"You're a half-Succubus that has several different magical organizations competing for possession of you." Mamori poked him in the chest accusingly. "And you have a nasty habit of eating my magic!"

"…What the hell are you babbling about?" Hiruma asked her, a slightly confused and uneased expression taking over his features.

Mamori blinked, startled. "…You don't know?"

"Then why don't you tell me, fucking manager?" Hiruma gave her a tired look, he no longer had the patience to deal with antics of any kind.

"Anezaki, why don't you take a seat?" Musashi suggested, finding his voice again. "I think we'll be here for a while." Mamori nodded and sat down.

"Hiruma, you see, people divide roughly into four categories: Mages, Sensitives, part-humans, and normal humans." Kurita explained, pointing at the representatives of each group in the room.

"…A Mage?" Hiruma blinked and looked at Mamori. He couldn't help but wonder if being a Mage had to do with that tasty smell.

"Mages can use magic," Kurita explained, "Sensitives can either sense magic or have some magic-like ability, and normal people are just normal."

"Magic, as in magic from fairytales and shit like that?" Hiruma eyed Kurita suspiciously. "You're telling me that fucking manager here could turn me into a rat at will?"

"I can't turn anyone into a rat but I can turn your hair pink." Mamori smirked. Hiruma turned to send a retort her way when he stopped. Suddenly he was surrounded by the tasty smell, unfortunately he had long since stopped being hungry for the smell, so now it made him nauseous.

Musashi and Kurita were staring at Hiruma in horror. Mamori walked over and handed Hiruma her compact mirror. Hiruma glanced wearily at his friends and looked in the mirror to see that, indeed, his hair was now pink. He picked up one of his discarded guns and pointed it at Mamori's face.

"Change it back." Hiruma's voice left no room for argument. Mamori shut her eyes for a moment and the tasty smell dispersed into the air. Hiruma glanced down at the compact to see his hair was back to normal.

'Magic's what I've been smelling, huh?' Hiruma thought to himself quietly. He handed Mamori her compact and set his gun down. The quarterback had almost completely accepted the reality of the situation and already had new plans spinning in his head.

"So what's this Sensitive shit?" Hiruma turned his gaze to Kurita.

"A Sensitive is someone that can sense the presence of magic." Kurita told Hiruma again. "I just know whether or not there's magic near by, like I know what the temperature is."

"That's it?" Hiruma blinked once.

"Well Sensitives and Mages vary in power, I'm not a really powerful Sensitive…." Kurita explained further, getting a nod from Hiruma.

"So do I have any weird abilities I'm not aware of?" Hiruma couldn't help but to ask.

"Your father told me that you were mostly normal." Musashi told Hiruma after a while. Hiruma frowned, disapproving the fact that Musashi knew about his heritage from the person who should have told him.

"That bastard is a fucking lair." Hiruma remarked, unamused. "Nothing he says is credible."

"…My dad said the same thing." Kurita commented after a few minutes.

"By any chance does the fact I'm a fucking part-human have to do with the reason your dad hates it when I visit your home?" Hiruma couldn't help but to ask. Kurita's father was polite to him, but never seemed to want him around.

"Er, that's more with the fact you eat the protective wards on the temple than him not liking you." Kurita admitted. Hiruma nodded, recalling how Kurita's home always did smell tasty.

"So who are the fuckers in purple?" Hiruma demanded.

"Hunters," Mamori began, "specially trained magical police."

"More like special operations." Kurita added.

"Idiots in tacky purple suits, just punch them before they try something." Musashi told Hiruma the one bit of information that was particularly useful. Mamori simply stared at Musashi, appalled. "What? They don't know how to deal with getting hit in the face!"

"Ke ke ke!" Hiruma laughed at the stupidity of the Hunters. "So these so-called 'special task force' is full of idiots who don't know how to fight?"

"Physically anyways." Musashi commented. "I'm sure I wouldn't win if one caught me by surprise."

"Ah." Hiruma nodded, understanding. "So kick their fucking asses before they can try anything."

"That's what we've been doing so far." Musashi explained. "It seems to work."

"Then we'll stick with it." Hiruma announced. "We've got enough other things to be worrying about, there's no need to complicate anything that doesn't need changing."

"Are you sure you're okay, Hiruma?" Kurita couldn't help but to remember how he looked earlier.

"I'm fucking fine fatty." Hiruma snorted. "It's not like I can do anything about my heritage." It was truth, Hiruma couldn't change the fact he was a half-Succubus, nor could he deny that he had been one all his life, even if he didn't know about it.

Musashi's phone rang, startling everyone. Musashi calmly pulled it out of his pocket and opened it up.

"Hello?" Musashi didn't recognize the number.

"Takekura-kun! Where the hell are you!?" Genkei yelled from the other side of the line. Musashi put his hand on the microphone and pulled the cellphone away from his face.

"It's my boss, he's pissed." Musashi explained and put the phone back to his ear. "Football practice ran late today, I'll be heading over in a few minutes."

"I'm not paying you to kick footballs!" Genkei yelled, still angry.

"But you do pay me to keep an eye on my friend, who happened to decided he wanted to kick footballs with me a little longer than usual today." Musashi reminded Genkei. Hiruma quirked an eyebrow at Musashi, asking a silent question.

"…Get your ass down here and report." Genkei ordered and hung up.

"The Elders know that people are after you," Musashi explained, "so they have me and Kurita keeping an eye out for you."

"Let me guess, the fucking magical government is ran by a bunch of geezers." Hiruma snorted, unamused.

"Pretty much." Musashi ended his call. "All I do is tell them about where you've been so they know what wards need replacing."

"Wards are magical shields that have been placed on things." Mamori explained before Hiruma could ask. Hiruma nodded, realizing that all the things he had encountered that smelled of magic, probably had wards on them.

"Get going before your fucking boss gives himself a fucking heart attack." Hiruma shooed Musashi out of the room.

"You can go fatty, I don't need you here for strategy discussions." Hiruma told Kuirta who was standing around, a little confused.

"…Call me if you need anything." Kurita told Hiruma and left. The quarterback sat down with a loud sigh.

"Here." Mamori had been making coffee for the last couple minutes, she handed him a cup. Hiruma took the cup and took a long swig.

"…Sorry." Hiruma muttered quietly after the two fell into silence. Mamori understood him well enough to know what he'd been referring to. For the past two years of high school, Hiruma had been unknowingly eating her magic, and for that he apologized.

"You didn't know." Mamori forgave him. "…If you really need to some you can, just tell me."

Hiruma was surprised by her offer.

"I don't cast spells all that often, so it doesn't really matter if you eat some." Mamori assured him. Hiruma took another swig of coffee.

"You finished the analysis, right?" Hiruma asked, glancing down at the papers he had set out earlier.

"Yes." Mamori nodded picking up the stack of papers in question. Both teens were thankful to have something normal to do.

_=_=_=_=_=_

As a warning, Hiruma by no means is comfortable with this new information, though he has come to accept it. Leave a review and tell me what you think!