Don Thousand threw Yuya as roughly as possible into the castle. The poor boy was so exhausted from the day's events he was unable to steady himself and collapsed on the floor. He rolled onto his back and looked up at his master with wide frightened eyes. Don Thousand just looked down with disappointment in his eyes. He walked slowly inside, leaving the door to bang shut behind him. He kept pacing around the room, looking deep in thought. Yuya didn't move from his spot on the floor. He was too afraid to do anything. He had expected his master to yell at him. To beat him. So the unexpected silence and pacing were very unnerving.

"Do you see now?" Don Thousand asked, turning a glare on Yuya. "Do you understand why I won't allow you to leave?"

"Yes, master." Yuya nodded, tears welling up in his eyes as the horrible memories flashed through his head. "I swear I'll never disobey you again."

Don Thousand sighed. "Exactly how many times have you made that promise?"

"I don't know." Yuya felt the guilt swirling in his heart.

"You never learn."

"I have this time I swear!" Yuya got off the ground, looking pleadingly at his master. "I'm so so sorry I left, I was going to come back I promise, I just wanted to see it… Just once… I will never do anything like this again. I realise now that you were right. Even in a disguise, I was a fool to think I'd get away with it."

Don Thousand looked at him for a few minutes, as he panted and waited patiently. The two held their eye contact, neither very sure what was going through the other's mind. Until finally Don Thousand turned away and told Yuya to get out of his sight.

"Master I—"

"Go." He said firmly. "I will not be in the presence of a failure." His words punctured Yuya's heart like the smoothest of daggers. "You will remain in your room until I choose to send for you." Yuya nodded sadly and began to leave when Don Thousand stopped him.

"Oh, and you might want to get changed." He smirked, now that Yuya was no longer looking. The young hybrid tensed at the comment. Blushing hard as he remembered the way he'd been publically humiliated today. He kept walking calmly though, trying not to make even more of a fool of himself. As soon as he got outside he released a sob and rushed to his room.

Meanwhile, Don Thousand had returned to his secret lab, laughing like a maniac.

"Oh, that was priceless." He choked out between his laughter. "The way he begged for my help when they attacked him. How pathetic." He halted his laughter in order to smirk. "In just five days I'll drain his soul and steal his powers. It almost seems a shame, he's become such good entertainment… Oh well, at least he'll die doing what he loves."

Whilst upstairs, Ali, Fredrick and Tate were eagerly awaiting Yuya's return. They were sure he'd burst through the door with a huge smile on his face, going on and on and on about how wonderful his day had been. So they got a big shock when he did finally get there… In all fairness they did guess some of it right. He did burst through the door. However, instead of a smile, he had a full waterfall of tears cascading down his face; his hair was matted, and his clothes were absolutely trashed. He threw himself onto his bed and began sobbing uncontrollably, coughing and sniffling every now and then. The three animals exchanged disappointed glances, realising the day had not gone to plan.

"Yuya?" Ali asked hesitantly, approaching the bed. She, Tate and Fredrick hopped up beside him, nuzzling him gently in an attempt to get his attention. He sniffed and raised his head to look at them with red puffy eyes. The look on his face broke the three hybrids' hearts. It couldn't be summed up in one word, though broken, humiliated, crushed, depressed and hopeless came to mind.

"What happened?" Tate asked. Yuya just sniffled again, swinging his legs around to hang off the side of his bed. He still kept his head down and looked like an innocent puppy that'd just been beaten in every way possible.

"I—I- there was—it—and—" Yuya just began stuttering nonsense. Ali placed a paw on his leg sympathetically while Fredrick crawled into his lap.

"It's okay." Tate continued. "But you might feel better if you talk about it."

Yuya sighed; he knew they were right, but he hated to think about it. He'd been so terrified, alone and confused; but no one had stepped in to help him. Well… it looked like Zuzu was trying to help. Zuzu… His first friend on the outside. Did she still want to be his friend? He shook his head sadly. No. There was no way. She probably thought he was a monster just like everyone else… Tears stung his eyes again but he held them back. He took a deep breath and proceeded to tell his story…

"Ow!" Zuzu cried as she got her foot caught in a tree root. She'd been wandering through the forest for hours, following the trail left by Yuya and that strange man who rescued him. It was getting dark and cold out but she refused to go home until she'd seen Yuya. She felt really guilty that he'd been hurt by the villagers and she'd been powerless to help. Sure she'd been shocked by his appearance but… He was the first person in years to actually be kind towards her. For as long as she could remember she'd been on the streets. She knew she'd had a family once but all she could remember was a lot of shouting and screaming then nothing. It was all blank. Her earliest memory was being found sleeping in an alleyway. Ever since she'd been on her own, the people of the town knew her as a thief and a menace and either avoided or tried to catch her. They never could though, she was too good for them. Yuya though, he was different. He didn't avoid her, even when he found out she was a thief. He was even kind and understanding about it. He was probably the first friend she'd had in years… So she felt awful about what had happened. She had been powerless to stop it but she still felt extremely guilty. At the same time, she also felt furious. Furious at the townsfolk for what they'd done. Yuya had looked so terrified and even pleaded with them to stop but they just carried on laughing and tossing things at him when he was so vulnerable. It was lucky that stranger was able to get to him and take him away from there. However, she was sure he'd still be upset, perhaps even angry at her for not helping. So she knew she had to find him and straighten things out. Besides, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to be. Her "home" was nothing more than a few sheets and sticks atop one of the tall houses in the town. She lived alone, so there wouldn't be anyone worrying about her and wondering where she was… She sighed heavily, feeling the strain of her many years of loneliness. When her thoughts were suddenly distracted by a light shining in the distance. Could that be where Yuya lives? The thought made her rush towards it even despite how tired she was. As she got closer she found the place was a lot bigger than it first seemed. When she finally broke out of the trees and into a garden she discovered it was an enormous castle. She had no idea this place existed, and there weren't a lot of things she didn't know. Did the people in the village even know about it? As she pondered over reasons for why there was a strange castle in the middle of the woods, her eyes suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure. At the window of one of the towers, the one from which the light was shining, was Yuya. He was gazing up at the sky with a look of longing and sorrow.

"Yuya!" She cried, running towards him. "Hey! Yuya!"

"…And then I ran up here."

Tate, Ali and Fredrick just stared into space with wide, horrified eyes as Yuya finished his story. At first they had been thrilled, Yuya had finally made a friend his own age, who also happened to he human. However, their happiness soon deteriorated when they discovered he'd been tied up and forced to endure an onslaught of numerous things from the people. They knew there had been some truth in Don Thousand's words about how people would act if they saw Yuya, but they never thought it'd be this severe.

"We're so sorry Yuya," Tate whined, ashamed.

"Oh it's okay," Yuya said, giving him a stroke. He picked Fredrick up off his lap and stood up. "It was my own fault, master warned me what would happen if I left, but I had to be selfish and stupid and try anyway."

"Don't say that." Ali cried. "You didn't do anything wrong Yuya, it was those humans who attacked you and Don Thousand who locked you up here."

"Now don't talk about master like that." Yuya said, walking over to the window. "He was only trying to protect me."

The three animals sighed. Why couldn't Yuya see Don Thousand didn't care about him, that to him he was nothing but a slave. They shook their heads. They knew why, because Yuya didn't want to believe there was no one in the world willing to care about him. Aside of course from the three of them. Though they'd only met Yuya when he was six years old, before that it had just been him and Don Thousand. So for those first six years, Yuya had built up an illusion that Don Thousand did everything he did because he cared about him. It seemed to them he'd been doing it subconsciously, since it was often very obvious that his master didn't care for him. His subconscious probably built the illusion as a defence. The three of them knew how weak Yuya's heart was. It would crush him to be alone and unloved. So he had to fool himself. He had to believe his master cared for him. At least, that was how it looked to the three animal hybrids. They looked on silently as their friend stared out the window the way he always did, when suddenly a faint noise caught their attention.

"Yuya! Hey, Yuya!" Someone yelled. Yuya was startled out of his thoughts and looked around to see if he could spot the voice's owner. He almost jumped in surprise when he saw none other than Zuzu running across the garden towards his tower with a big smile on her face.

"Zuzu?!" He cried. "What are you doing here?" She stopped below the tower, not even looking tired.

"I needed to speak with you, can you come down?"

Yuya flinched at the request, something that didn't go unnoticed by Zuzu or the three animals still sat on his bed.

"No way!" He yelled back. "I'm never going outside again."

Zuzu's eyes widened. She hadn't expected him to say that. Not that she was surprised by it. If she'd been through what he had today, she'd avoid going out to.

"Well, then I'll come up." She said.

"How?" He asked.

"Um…" She thought about it. How was she going to get up there? "I don't suppose you could fly me up? You wouldn't really be coming out if you did that."

Yuya looked hesitant.

"You shouldn't be here." He called down. "Please just go home."

"No." She said firmly. "I have to speak to you, now either you come down and bring me up or I'll… Uh… I'll start screaming." It wasn't much of a threat, but it was all she could think of. It was enough for Yuya; if Don Thousand heard her screaming she'd be in trouble, who knows how he'd punish her. He quickly jumped from the window ledge and flew down beside her. He stopped just shy of the ground, still too scared to place his feet on the outside again.

"Come on then." He said, offering his arms to her. She laughed nervously and placed her arms around his neck, then hooked her feet into his arms. He flapped his wings, flying a lot slower up to the tower than he had coming down from it. It was only when the two got inside that it finally dawned on her he was going carefully so as not to frighten or risk harming her. He really was a sweet boy…

"Thank you." She said.

"Um… You're welcome." Yuya said.

"Yuya, who's this?" Fredrick asked. Zuzu looked at the three animals on the bed and jumped back in surprise.

"Did—did they j-just—"

"It's okay," Yuya said, placing a soothing hand on her shoulder. "They're my friends. Zuzu this is Tate, Ali and Fredrick." He pointed to each respective friend. "Guys this is Zuzu, from town."

"Oh…" The three of them said, as they realised who she was. Ali hopped off the bed and padded over to her.

"Nice to meet you." She purred, rubbing affectionately against Zuzu's leg. Zuzu giggled and picked her up, giving her a stroke in her arms.

"You're so cute." She said. Yuya laughed and she went over to pet Fredrick and Tate also.

"So um… Why are you here?" Yuya asked.

"Oh…" Zuzu sighed, putting Ali down and dropping her head. "Well I wanted to apologise."

"Huh…" Yuya tilted his head, confused.

"It was my fault you got… Well you know… Today…"

"Oh that, don't worry about it, it was my fault."

"No, no it was mine, I was the one who took your cloak off and then… I just stood there while they…" She broke off to conceal a sob. Yuya went and sat next to her, placing a comforting hand on her arm.

"No, I saw you trying to help, thank you for that by the way. I thought you would have been afraid like the others. I don't blame you if you're disgusted with my appearance."

"What?" She cried. "How can you think that? There's nothing wrong with the way you look."

"You're joking right." He laughed nervously. "I'm a monster…"

"You're not a monster Yuya." Fredrick said, Tate and Ali nodding along.

"I think you're the kindest person I've ever met." Zuzu said. "No one's ever been nice to me, I'm just a poor, worthless nobody."

"No you're not." Said Yuya. "I think you're amazing and smart and kind. You even came all the way here to see me, and I'm a freak."

"Oh will you two stop putting yourselves down!" Tate cried, tired of seeing the two try to make each other feel better and downgrade themselves at the same time. "Neither of you are pathetic, low life, freaks can we just agree on that."

Everyone was silent for a few minutes. Then they all collapsed, laughing. It made them all feel wonderful to let loose and laugh for once. None of them could really recall a time they'd been so happy and content before. They all wished it would last forever, but sadly… All things must come to an end eventually… This one ended with Yuya's door flying open; with his master stood on the other side.