Akirai woke with a yawn, her mouth stretching to its limits, showing off her canine like teeth, sparkling just right under the light of the lamp sitting on her counter, the lights in the display window on, but all other lights out.
Her teeth were sharp, had always been, sharp enought to rip a mans throat out and gleaming white, they were weapons more than they were teeth to her, and you kept your weapons in good shape, out in the wild or not.
Old Akirai has had this in common with her, those dangerous teeth that scared her parents, both of them, unnatural they said, a rare mutation the doctors said.
Akirai had never cared if they seemed scary, they were usefull, that was all, old Akirai on the other hand? She hated them, used to get bullied for it, teased for it, and not in good fun, had begged her parents to have them transplanted, dulled, but they never agreed, ignored her like usual, her pleas ignored like usual, they were too busy they said, not looking at her, not seeing the tears on her face, after a while she just stopped asking them, it was a waste of time.
Had tried to dull them herself, bt the teeth were just too sturdy, held on under the strain, became sharper even, more gleaming, and even began to hurt the closer she got to the "Normal" she so wanted, they had grown back to their old size and stayed there, sharper then before, far more sharper, but the same size.
Akirai had never tried to dull them, but she loved their new sharpness, they were harder then before, sharper and so, so pretty, animalistic, just like she was deep down, like she would always be.
You can take her out the wild, but never the wild out of her.
She tapped her too sharp nails on the wooden counter in a rythem only she knew, maybe it was a melody she had heard long ago, maybe it was something made up, she didn´t care.
She was getting impatient, they should have gotten here hours ago, a glance at the clock, 3 hours, 8 minutes and counting.
Was her delivery delayed? By what, and why so damn long?
She wanted to get to renovating the store to fit her taste and she was getting annoyed, where were they? The E-mail she´d gotten but a few hours ago clearly stated that her delivery would be here at 6pm sharp, it was 9pm now, she could be doing better things with her time.
It was not like her shop was unlit or unsused, empty, yes, but they shouldn´t have missed it unless they were blind.
Speaking of business, she had to come up with a name for the shop.
The rythem of her tapping changed, slower this time.
Kuro meant Black, yes? So Darkness, or Dark? No, that´s not a good name.
Hmmm...
Black, Shadow, Darkness, Ghost, Shade...
Wait...
Shade?
That fits, both meanings.
Shade- a type of ghost active at night.
Shade- darkness and coolness caused by shelter from direct sunlight.
Yes, that would do the trick.
Shade- Shop of the night.
Her face lit up as she smiled, she liked the name, it was easy to remember and rolled off of her tounge like Ice-cream on a smoldering day in summer, just right.
"Shade." She mumbled, liking the name the more she heard it.
She nodded for a job well done and hugged Lynna closer to herself.
It fit, both her and Lynna were creatures of the night, Lynna a moth whose nature it was to be nocturnal, and Akirai whose sleep cycle was just as nocturnal as her partners.
Yeah, she knew herself well, she´d likely sleep through most days and wake at sundown, or later.
Akirai pulled her phone out and let Lynna rest in her lap, reading up on monsters and other info she thought would be usefull, should she go back to school?
She wasn´t 20 yet, she was fairly sure she could get into one if she tried, only if it was Beast focused of course, she´d been there and done that, graduated early really, got perfect marks... when she was there and not off in some forest or swamp or god knows where.
Graduated at 15, gave some bullshit about going to another school, arranged by the orphanage, then taken off with the savings she´d collected and gone off, never looking back.
No one cared enough to ask in her old life, and in her new one she looked older than she really was, passing for 18 as 15 with ease, avoiding questions and giving bullshit for anyone who tried to pry, noted that she wasn´t as old as she looked.
"Oh, I´m flying alone to visit my Grandma, momma can´t come with me because she´s sooo busy!"
"I´m going abroad to my Dad!"
"We´re going on a vacation!"
Again and again those words slipped from her mouth like honey dripping from a spoon, she really hated people who pried, they annoyed her, maybe they meant well, maybe they didn´t but did it matter to her if she´d never see them again?
No.
Simple as that.
She heard a knock on the door that threw her out of her memories playing like an old movie, nostalgic but boring because you´ve seen it countless times.
She shook her head and stood, made her way out from behind the counter and to the door, opening it without a key, was it even really locked?
Meh, whatever, Akirai shrugged and looked out the door.
There was a large truck parked just out the door, the garage like door in the back open, cages empty.
She mentally rose a brow, were they all cleared out? Didn´t the government say that there was enough for every registered shop?
"Ma´am, your Beasts are here."
A man said, she looked at him once and directly hated him, sleazy geeled back hair, he reminded her of the carsalesmen on Tv, the smile on his face just as disgusting as those on Tv, he wasn´t alone, another, younger guy stood off to the side, zigar in his mouth and he seemed to be indifferent to anything around him.
"You won´t help me then? Isn´t that your Job?" she asked, already hating both of them just from their auras alone, the looks only made it worse, not that there was much to be done in that area.
The man in front of her snorted. "We´ve had a long day, I´m sure you can carry them yourself, give us a break, we´re tired." He complained, making it clear he had no intentions of helping, her left eye twitched, her scared face hidden from view by the dying light.
"Oh really? Are you now? Want a chair and some tea then?" She taunted, he looked at her, face flushing red, unlike her, his face could be seen.
"I´m also tired, tired of waiting for three hours for you to show up, tired from waiting all day while I could have better things to do, and then you show up and not even do your job?" She snorted in disdain.
"Get the fucking cages down there and get lost before I call someone to complain about you two wasting half my fucking day and then complaining like toddlers about being tired, what are you? Five?" She ordered them, pointing to the truck, in her mind those two were stupid for wasting her time, she had no patience for idiots.
They turned red, but with the threat of tattling on them, they did and took off faster than she expected a truck of that size and model to be possible.
She shrugged, oh well.