My hunger returned once I left the Veil.
I decided to present myself as more human. I broke off my horns and shaved them down. I cut my hair shorter.
Quickly, I befriended a mortal, "Dingo". She let me become her "roommate".
Dingo gave me a dark gray hoodie.
I attained an occupation. I walk dogs and I feed the reptiles. I get green paper from it. That is the currency of this world.
I consulted with a demon, buying a glamour. It doesn't work well. Sometimes I will use it to make my third eye go away. It was "different", and most mortals didn't like "different".
I learned that everyone is different in actuality. It's ok to be myself. So why didn't others like it? I didn't care much. I threw away the glamour.
I learned more about humans and this world.
I grew out my horns. Dingo said I should. Some of this world didn't mind my horns. Some others would look at me strangely for it. The stares made me uncomfortable, so I cut them down again.
If the Earth got anything right, it would be reptiles.
It didn't take much for me to acquaint myself into certain businesses where it'd be acceptable to kill others. That was Dingo's occupation.
I exterminate those who deserve it. Sometimes an innocent bystander may get hurt, but it didn't matter to me. I was the thing that would happen to "Bad People". I educated myself more on what classifies those as "bad", though I didn't understand it. Why did such a concept exist?
Soon, the apartment was overflowing with green paper because of the jobs that were thrown my way, along with my freelance work (such as Private Investigation... stuff like that, and caring for others' pets). At this point, Canis would no longer speak with me. The only VOICE I would hear was Ca-troll's.
I've been in a subcategory of the Earth, a place called Japan, for awhile now.
A chinpira killed me.
I bled out at a demon's house, an acquaintance of mine. They called themself a "Xeno". They say that's what I am, too. "That's what the humans or the people will call you."
"さようなら.私はどこに行くのだろうか?" That was what I told them. The writer used a sketchy translation website, so it may not be the right thing, but it was meant to say: "Goodbye. Where will I go?"
I had a feeling that my life was not yet over.
She blinked open her eyes. She acknowledged the space she occupied as a sort of limbo - a dark, vast space. It had to be the Veil.
A liquid rose up to her ankles - a stretch of shallow water. The air was thicker. Something was... off.
Canis appeared, and upon his arrival remained a trail of black smoke that was behind him for but a few milliseconds.
"I have a proposal." Canis caught Zephrite's gaze. "You can return to Earth. That is what you want?"
Zephrite shifted her weight, hesitating to answer. She nodded. "Sure. I didn't get to do all of what I could."
A deal he proposed - a promising one.
"Won't you shake an old dog's hand?" She did, her eyes narrowed.
A crackle of thunder boomed; Zephrite's elf-like ears angled themselves toward the sound. A downpour of rain slapped Zephrite's face, the droplets of water soaking into Zephrite's hoodie. She breathed, the air tasting damp.
She stared out, gaping at the stormy sky. Sitting up, she saw that she was in a park, laying on the grass. She'd returned to the city she spawned in.
"What will your name be now? You don't like Zephrite. You never have," Ca-troll told "Zephrite".
"It's in quotations now, so it mustn't be your name anymore. What will your Real Name be?" Ca-troll asked.
> What will you name the bastard demon?
> Paul?
> Tord?
> Equius?
> Hellboy?
> Devilman?
> ...Zyne?
> ...Zyne...
> Zyne!!!
That seemed right. Zyne would be HIS Real Name.
Officially, he'd reformed as Zyne.
His eyes wandered to his chest. Analyzing the fibers of his being, he recognized that he had no bust. His horns had grown back. His hands and arms were bigger... and hairier.
Did he have a...?
...
Yep, he did.
A rush of adrenaline. A new emotion. It felt good. Zyne liked this newfound state of being. The feeling ebbed.
***
He foolishly yet somewhat purposefully continued to fall into the same fate, over and over.
Into the Veil once again.
He found himself pondering... was there more to life? He felt as if something was missing. Could there be more to life than this?
Once more, he returned to the world of the living.
One time, Canis was not there to greet Zyne in the Veil. Before Zyne could reform into his corporeal form, he concluded that he needed to obtain an energy from another life form.
The candidate he chose was a fair one. Zyne recognized him as a mortal. He was a human of Filipino descent, with long black hair and a muscular physique.
In the wind he drifted. The colors that danced around the mortal became his own.