Belat woke a few hours after the operation was complete. The pup licked Amari's face vigorously. The demon teen ignored the saliva marks and the faint iron-like scent that indicated blood.
"Get off me, you little rascal!" Amari yelled after his face was almost covered in saliva.
The pup grinned and jumped off his brother's face.
"What happened to the monster, big brother?" Belat asked, tilting his head to the side.
He rubbed the pup's ears. "Don't worry. I didn't let it live alive after hitting you so hard. I promise nothing like that will ever happen again!"
"What about the kind man who fixed me up?" he asked again.
Amari's face turned sour.
Fuller.
He shuddered at the thought of speaking to the other boy again. Not because he felt guilty about what he had done. Sure he did feel guilty, but in truth, he was most scared of the calmness the boy had when they finally spoke after
"I'm sure he's fine. I have already thanked him. So there's nothing you need to worry about." He waved the pup's concern in the hope he would forget.
Belat remained silent for a few seconds.
"Did you hurt him, big brother?"
Amari's jaw tensed and his knuckles became white from squeezing too hard.
"You hurt him, big brother. That's not right!" Belat scolded, tapping his elder brother's forehead lightly.
It was funny, but Amari couldn't laugh at that moment. It was his fault that Fuller was bruised. It was his fault for not acting logically.
"Come on, big bro. Let's go meet him and say sorry,"
That provoked another wince from Amari.
'Great. Now I have to face the one person other than my family who I have wronged. He thought to himself and grudgingly followed his little brother out of the room.
They stepped into the narrow hallway and encountered demons. They stiffened at Amari's towering figure trailing reluctantly behind, only waving or greeting when Belat's wide grin reached them.
'I've not exactly made an excellent impression, huh?'
Midway through walking, Amari realized something important.
"Wait!" He called out to a random demon.
The unfortunate demon wasn't as red-skinned as the rest of her companions and was of average height. She had long, black hair and pouty lips painted black. She was a few inches shorter than him but taller than Lilia. The girl had small protruding horns wider than Lilia's but shorter than Fuller's or Ken's.
She stood out differently. She wore a short black dress that reached just below her knees and high platform boots that reached her ankles. Several red lines outlined the dress' dull colours and turned to form the Academy's insignia, which seemed a little bit blurry to him.
'Not wearing a uniform.'
Amari's heart swayed slightly. How did he notice her only now?
"What do you need Raion'shalang?" the girl asked when he got to him.
Amari flashed white teeth. "No need to use my full name, you can call me Raion. As for what do I need? Just your name and a few other things."
He grabbed her hands and stared deep into her dull but vibrant black eyes.
She frowned a bit at his statement and pulled her hands back, shaking them off like she'd just touched a dirty rag.
"My name is Isla'Filensit," She responded, still cold.
He juggled the name in his mouth for a while, before turning back to her. "I'll just call you Isla from now on. No, Isla I need you to help me out with something. Do you know where Fuller's room is?"
The girl paused. She didn't look as disgusted as before. That must have been a good sign. She pointed to Fuller's room soon after.
"Alright, thanks. I'll talk to you later."
He released her hand and picked Belat up. The pup glared at him for a few minutes.
"What are you looking at me for? You're the one who didn't know where to go."
The pup stopped glaring and turned away from him, in a small gesture that seemed to pout. Meanwhile, Amari's mind was fully focused on the short walk to Fuller's room.
'What was that about anyway?'
Clack!
He looked up to see a noise that had interrupted his thoughts. Unknowingly, they had reached Fuller's room and the demon had just come out.
There were small bandages covering the wounds he'd inflicted earlier.
'Another reason to feel bad.' He thought, looking away quickly
He put all his weight on a single foot, ready to spin back and make a run for it as soon as he could.
But by that time the bullet was out of the gun.
"Mister, I heard you saved me!" Belat called out, leaping out of Amari's arms and gracefully landing in front of Fuller in one large movement.
'He's moving a lot quicker now,' he thought, trying to remove all Fuller-related thoughts from a conversation about Fuller.
Fuller glanced at Amari suspiciously and stepped back an inch. Belat probably didn't notice that, but Amari did. The other demon reached for his neck and a faint humming noise emanated from his body.
"Calm down!" Amari raised his hands before the situation deteriorated. "I'm not here to pick a fight."
Fuller did not calm down, though.
"Then why are you here?" His voice was hoarse, Amari just noticed.
"To say sorry!" Belat chipped in, ignoring the tension between the two.
The tension that slowly strangled everyone disappeared as if never before, and Fuller cocked his head to the side slowly.
"Apologize for what?"
Belat continued. "Well, I realize my big brother may have hurt you, but he definitely didn't mean it. So please forgive him!"
As his younger brother spoke, Amari cast small obvious glances at the other demon. Well, there wasn't any bloodlust so that was something to note.
Fuller sighed. "Why don't you guys come in?"
He turned and opened his room door. A cold chill struck everyone from where they stood and a piercing scent filled his nose. It was a huge difference from blood or food. It instantly reminded Amari of chlorine used to clean pools, but a thousand times more potent.
He scrunched his nostrils up, trying to block out the scent unsuccessfully. So his nose remained like that.
Fuller closed the door behind them and moved to the other end of the room.
Amari looked over to where the other demon stood now. His hair stood abruptly as several powerful auras bombarded him from the moment he entered the room.
Several beast heads served as interesting decorations on the room's walls. Amari looked up for a brief second, and his eyebrows creased.
No one said anything for the next few minutes.
'Big brother, those are beasts like Mom and Dad.' Belat transmitted to Amari.
Amari looked to the side, alarmed. Their connection was still a novelty to him. But more importantly, were those beasts as strong as Reida and Felaud?
"Fuller, did you hunt all those monsters?"
The teen demon nodded expressionlessly.
"Those are all Higher Demon Beasts."
Fuller nodded again.
For the first time, Amari thought he needed to check Fuller's status.
'Observation!'
A small blue panel appeared in front of him and a pleasant voice sounded in his mind.
Amari swayed to the side for a moment as he recalled his previous actions. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead in an almost cinematic manner, and his face turned as pale as a sheet of paper.
'Monster!'