Before They Became What They Are…

            Kai was re-learning the entire alphabet for the twenty-seventh time when he saw them.

            Rumors spread like wildfire in this small, rural community. It was inevitable that Cin and her family would hear it and translate in Kai’s natural language (a combination of grunts and growls) for him to understand.

            Well, sure he could speak his natural language, but that still didn’t mean he could understand every word. What did “twins” mean? And this “Seishi” is a notorious “demon hunter?” There was a “werewolf hunter,” but Cin never bothered to explain the term. However, he could tell that it had something in common with his real form: a light blue-gray wolf cub.

            Kai is a wolf. Not a wolf shape shifter, but a real actual wolf. The clan to which he supposedly should belong to was different from ordinary wolves. For one, they were not actually wolves, but a type of “demon animal.” Again, the term did not make sense. Two, they had an ability to shape shift into a human…Cin is one human; so is the rest of her family.

            These “twins” are not humans. The townspeople spoke of them like they spoke of Kai; part of the community, but still an oddity. Kai was anxious to meet “twins;” he was tired of the special treatments and the detached-ness he received from his foster family.

            So on that peculiar day, Kai purposely failed the spelling test. That means he has to stay after class reciting and writing the alphabet over and over until the teacher was satisfied. He knew that the visitors are going to be dropped off down the hill from the school and from his position, he could easily see them from the school’s window.

            From a quarter from five, the teacher left to get a drink of water and retrieve some cookies for Kai when the visitors arrived. They just appeared out of nowhere and walked out of the shade from the apple trees. There are two kids and two adults, but one stayed in the shade, waved and disappeared. Just like that. With the absence of the second adult, one of the kids, a girl, hiked up the hem of her pale blue dress revealing the pale blue pants underneath and raced the other kid up the stone stairs of the hill. The remaining adult yelled something, but stayed where he was.

            Finally, Kai thought and stuck half of his body out of the open window, I get to see twins.

            To his surprise, they too had human shapes like him. However, they have brightly illuminated auras that told otherwise.

            The girl is graceful, more agile on her feet than her “twin.” Her hair is bright silver (like the moon on its shiniest phrase) hanging loose; her eyes colored violet-gray…Kai compared her to several vivid images: a waterfall at night, the moon, snow. She is slightly androgynous, but pretty. Not pretty like Cin, who caught the attention of several boys already, but ethereal, almost challenging with the smirk edging up one corner of her mouth.

            Behind the girl is a boy, who looked too much like the girl. He is more sturdy and cocky. Like the sun almost. His hair and eyes are different from the girl’s altogether; his hair is golden-brown and cut close to his head. His eyes are golden with specks of brown , his skin tanner than the girl’s, but the cheekbone structure and smirk are mirrors of his sister’s.

            Unable to contain his excitement, Kai waved hastily to the newcomers. “Hello!” he bellowed catching the attention of the girl’s first then the boy’s. “Hi! I am Kai! Werewolf!”

            The boy nearly slipped at the sudden blunt statement. The girl caught him by the shirt with one hand.

            “Yo! Yume!” She pointed at herself. “Half-demon!”

            Kai beamed. “Does that mean you’re from a werewolf race too?”

            “Well, not exactly…” Yume said. She did have werewolf blood running in her veins, but lack the hair and fangs. “This boy is my brother. Name’s Tooya.”

            “Tow truck?”

            “Tooya!” Tooya shouted practically streaming because he was indirectly compared to a tow truck. “And look out!”

            “Huh?”

            A football smacked Kai in the forehead and he slipped into a world of darkness and pain.

           

            When Kai returned to the land of light and sound, he was laying flat on his back on the school’s gray carpet squinting at two guys who were holding a dripping, water bucket over his head. He blinked twice. His vision came back in perfect twenty-twenty and he made out one of the guys as the “tow truck” person he met just a few minutes ago. Or were a few hours? Days? Just how long was he out?

            “Hello.” He said dumbly.

            They did not hear him and argued over some indistinct topic.

            He raised his voice. “Hello.”

            The boy other than Tooya looked down, saw a pair of brightly colored eyes that was previously hidden beneath two eyelids—one slightly dulling to a dark purple color—and screamed. Loud. Kai had to cover his ears to block out the annoying noise. Tooya started to scream at first before reason took over and he kicked the other boy for scaring the wits out of him.

            The water bucket toppled from the sudden activity, was accidentally kicked to the farthest wall from them, and was immediately followed by an undeniably feminine shriek.

            Tooya’s facial expression distorted into something resembling a grimace. “So much for first impressions.”

            The shriek only intensified.

            Yume appeared in Kai’s line of vision when she leaned over applying a damp cloth over Kai’s forehead. “You,” she said in a very commanding voice glaring meaningfully at the boy, “get the teacher. Tooya, I need another piece of cloth. And you…you just help them clean up.”

            By the time Kai regained the use of his neck muscles, he saw a furious, harassed Cin herding a large group of girls, several mysteriously wet, and shooting glares at Tooya.

            “What happened to me?”

            “Hit by a football.” Yume replied amicably. “Right here,” she lightly pressed the bruised spot on his forehead. “Then someone who will remain nameless,” her eyes amusedly glance at the other boy, “hit you with a baseball…right here.” A finger hovered over his left eye. “Both accidents, of course. Nothing serious, and you look amazingly cute with a blackened eye.”

            “Oi, stop that.” Tooya gruffly shot his sister a look. “You’ll only encourage him to get more black eyes.”

            She gave him a fake, extremely sugary smile. “Like how Miaz always encourage you to get more broken arms by ramming each other in the guts?”

            “Hey, he was insulting—“ Tooya stopped himself. His ears started to burn red. “Pink is not that bad of a color on you, Nee-san.”

            Kai beamed. “Actually, pink is awful on her. That blue looks good though.”

            “Shut up about my Nee-san, you—“

            “You’re the younger one? You look like it.”

            “You--!”

            Kai innocently smiled at him despite his blunt comments. “Hi. My name is Kai. Nice to meet you, tow truck.”

            “It’s Tooya!”

            And, to end a long story short, the start of their friendship.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

            Aden struggled to stay still.

            Zephyr watched him under black, fine eyelashes and smothered a snicker. He pat the half-demon (though no one knew about it until years to come) on the head, the only comfort he could give to the sensitive boy. The motion struck a nerve cord in Aden, and his head shot upwards nearly hitting Zephyr’s chin.

            Then he relaxed remembering where he is. No one can hurt him. Everyone has been kind in teaching him about the world, and ways to protect himself. He is always safe here because…because…

            …he is among friends.

            There was a click and a flash of light.

            Welcome home.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

            Seishi, demon hunter and sister to Yume and Tooya, stood under the shade of apple trees. Several young girls passed her—one was drenched from head to toe and bawling—giving the quiescent halfbreed curious looks. One narrowed, measuring glance from her sent them hastily moving across the field.

            “You.”

            Smoldering gold eyes fixed their heart-stopping gaze on the tall, barbaric woman who appeared in front of her. A young girl hid behind the woman, but offered the hunter a small, sweet smile. Seishi felt the cordial exchange, but her eyes never wavered from the woman, who was the leader of an organization named Omni-Hunters, mouth set in a straight, thin line.

            “What name would you give to him?” The woman, Tokoru, unwrapped the silk coverings around the bundle in her arms. Once she removed the last piece of cloth concealing the head, a cry pierced the peaceful silence. “His mother just died.”

            “The father?”

            “Gone. Vanished. Like all those times,” Tokoru shoved the baby into Seishi’s arms, “from which he came into the world again and again.”

            Seishi’s eyebrows raised slightly at the leader’s bitter tone, but did not say anything of it. “Then he will keep the name given to him time and time again, well now?” They stared at each other until Tokoru broke away. Something about Seishi’s eyes gave Tokoru the feeling of hell freezing over.

            “What’s his name?” piped up Sachiko, the young girl, a hand to her mouth.

            There was a moment of reverence from the girl to the hunter before Seishi destroyed it ruthlessly with an ice-cold smile. “His name is always Reitan.”