Himiko was a very shy person. She didn't talk to anyone unless she absolutely had to.
"You seemed intimidated by him before, but now you seem rather comfortable." Brother noted.
I smiled. "I-I thought he was scary… but seeing him like this he's just a hungry person."
I felt Hotaru's gaze burning into me as he chewed but I felt at ease. That child couldn't do anything.
Brother seemed to be holding in a sigh. Perhaps he recalled how this barbarian threatened to kill me, and that I was being unreasonably tolerant. I'm sure to him it seemed something like that.
Brother huffed. "If you want to be strong, just kill a bunch of demons or join the military. We humans wouldn't know of any shortcut way to become a full fledged demon."
Hotaru frowned at his dismissal but he still tried to get some info. "I heard the demons of this land are different but...just as strong."
"Oh are you perhaps looking for a demon changing elixir?" I asked.
Both Hotaru and Brother looked to me. They asked "What?" in unison.
Is this not common knowledge? I blinked. So much info was passed on since back then how could Tachibana and Gonta's history something so important get left out? This is bad. I need to read up on how much this world knows. I tried to recover by asking genuine information I didn't know.
"W-well… how exactly did the Miura and the Kurosaki clans come to reside here?"
Brother paused to think. "That's… unknown. No one knows the exact details of where they came from but specifically they migrated here like any other family."
"I see…" I didn't give them anything though. Was it possible there was something else maybe like an automatic system acting in my place with access to my old inventory?
Hotaru seemed stuck on something. "Just now, did you make that up about the elixir?"
I nodded and smiled. "I was being sarcastic… Sir Hotaru is better off meeting Cousin, she's from the Miura clan."
Brother blinked at me.
"Are you saying the Miura clan is a demon clan?"
Why is he so surprised? I learned this info after reading about it in the great library how could brother- well, he was never interested in the history of demons.
There should still be mutants in the Miura clan shouldn't there? I wonder if mutants age just as slowly as demons...they should right?
"I-Isn't it?"
Brother furrowed his brows at me. "Don't lie."
"What she says is the truth." Uncle Mareo leaned against the door.
"Uncle!" We cried out both out of fright and gladness. He has a bad habit of popping up.
"You're back?"
Uncle Mareo, he was ruggedly handsome(Papa is like a clean shaven version of him with broader shoulders and bulkier figure), the fourth son of the Moto clan, he was a wandering demon slayer but he always came back home to help defend the castle before the blood moon, usually with some refugees. One could think of him as a wandering shephard.
"The Miura is a demon clan… then cousin's …"
Uncle Mareo answered him before he could finish the thought. "They're demon blood is pretty diluted. Even if the clan started off as demons, they're still for the most part human now."
"It still shows in their genetics though, cousin has silver hair after all." I noted. If that wasn't a dominant gene what else could be? Even her eyes? Anything else could be dominant too...
"That's right." Uncle Mareo nodded and smiled. "You know a lot. Not many know about what the original Miura demons looked like."
"Ah, well isn't unusual hair ans eye color always a sign?"
"It's true descendants of mutants have unusual hair colors but it's not true that they always look like their ancestors."
"Ahhhh." Come to think of it...how did I know that? I died so I shouldn't have known anything about the Miura clan just the Kurosaki since I gave the ribbon to the crow...wait...I never gave the elixir to the Kurosaki clan how would I know what they look like?
Eh? What's happening. It's like I've become aware that I'm aware of things I shouldn't know... the old Himiko never saw any of these original demons...maybe...let's just chalk up to my assumption. I feel like I'm going insane right now.
But well...
Brother seemed at a loss.
"Do you perhaps see cousin differently now because she has demon ancestry?" I asked him.
He was silent.
"I do. Demons are scary after all, I don't think humans have any business entangling themselves with them." He was older so he saw more death than I can remember by the hands of demons.
He also had to participate in defending the base(in case you were wondering why he is back, its the same reason as Uncle Mareo. All school let's out so everyone can return to their territories to help defend during the blood moon, if you live far away you can head out earlier to arrive in time which is why brother arrived early) and seen fellow soldiers die at their hands.
"Black Apple demons can hardly be called true demons, because once they become residents… it's like they become super strong humans with magic." I say, assuming there was a system using my inventory to truly convert them back to humans. I say that but in my heart I still see them as demons myself. I'm such a hypocrite, still Brother should get along with cousin, it'd be sad if he started keeping his distance after finding out.
Uncle Mareo laughed. "Super strong humans with magic, what a cute summary it sounds like you've seen them in action yourself when you talk like that, Himiko."
My smile froze. "Ehhh?" He was right. I died when Tachibana became human so I never really got to see her in action...ah well, I dropped her and she survived it so she obviously has to be strong.
Yeah! It's not that I'm aware of things I'm not supposed to be as a dead person, it's assumptions I've made from Tachibana okay? Whew. Was about to go insane again for a second.
"Super strong humans with magic…" Brother repeated.
"Anywho…" I looked back to Hotaru, he had cleaned his plate. "What you seek to become is the opposite, besides you don't really desire to become a resident of Black Apple do you?" He seemed to have actually been listening this time.
"...No."
"I thought so. So there you have it. You're better off accepting a large sum of money or a favor from Dad instead."
"Hmmm…"
Brother and Uncle Maero watched me in silence.
"Not that I'm complaining, but did something happen between the two of you?"