- Silas -
I needed to fight.
"Silas-san."
Dammit.
I wasn't good at this.
I could fight some low level curses but I didn't know about these.
Still I drew my kitchen knife and positioned it in front of me, taking a stance and took a deep breath, preparing to fight.
"Silas-san, please….he is not conscious. He is being controlled." Tobio begged from behind me.
I heard him but concentrated on the situation in front of me.
My adrenaline was rushing to my head but instead of panicking, I was feeling calmer instead.
This cold weather, the water under my foot, the knife in my hand and my….wings out as I faced the enemy, as much as it weirded me out….it felt natural. It was as if a lock had been opened on my being. As if a haze that was constantly on my mind was lifted.
I remembered Nanami-sensei's words about Innate Techniques.
They are a part of my own self and they would manifest in things I am the most comfortable in.
What was I the most comfortable in?
I raised the knife in front of my chest and felt a pulse from it.
The knife was the same one which was impaled on Tohru's back and she had someone use it to make a knife for me. With a pulse, the knife's shape changed from a Santoku Knife to a Cleaver, but I wasn't paying attention to it.
With the haze completely lifted, I finally understood what my Innate Technique is.
I made the same motion which I used to cut meat.
My Cursed Energy roared. I don't know if it was because of the seal or whatever Zeref had done to me but the amount was a lot more than I had before.
"Slice."
The spider on the boy's back….was sliced clean through the middle and the boy fell down on his face, tumbling several steps but not a hair on his body was cut.
I think I heard Tobio gasp behind me but my attention was occupied by the other two following him.
One of them had a rat type monster on him and the last one had a lizard type.
I turned the knife and made another motion towards them.
"Dice."
Those two monsters which had jumped towards us were diced into a small square block and the boys under control tumbled down, unconscious but unharmed….at least by my blade.
"Are they?" Tobio asked.
"I didn't cut them but I am not sure about anything the monster did to them. Let's go away from here. They could have reinforcement and I don't know how strong they will be." I quickly kept the knife which had reverted back to the normal shape and told him before I picked him up on my shoulder, taking to the sky.
The dog jumped and grabbed the end of my trouser and I rushed towards my Restaurant.
Only there did I have the confidence of being completely safe.
We reached the Restaurant and I quickly shut the door after me.
The place was empty.
"Silas-san….just what are you?" Tobio asked, hesitantly.
"I am….well you can call me a sorcerer I guess." I was not lying.
"Then those wings?" he asked. "Was it magic?"
I winced.
"That's….trust me, I am also as confused as you are. Anyways, just how did you get in this mess and what is that Dog? Is it a Shikigami? Are you an Onmyoji?" I asked, diverting the topic.
I wasn't comfortable talking about this topic yet.
"An Onmyoji? No." He shook his head. "This….I got an egg from a friend and this Dog hatched from it…." By the time he finished the sentence, his voice had become too low to be heard. I guess he was realising the insanity of his words too.
Good for him that I had seen crazier things.
"So it's like a Pokemon." I asked.
"Wha….Pokemon? No. It's…."
"A digimon?"
"What's a digimon?"
"Sigh….anyways, you said your friend gave you the egg. Call them and see if they know anything."
He nodded and called someone.
Apparently Sakura had heard the commotion and came down to see what was going on too.
She looked at me and I was thinking about how to tell her what I was….
I looked back at Tobio. "You can stay here. Call me if you want something. I need to do something." I told him as I walked towards Sakura.
She understood my intentions and walked upstairs and I followed her.
A thousand thoughts were going through my head.
I had all but dragged her out of her home to provide her a safe place to live and now I tell her that I am a demon….sigh.
"Sakura."
She turned towards me. "Yes."
"I…." I hesitated thinking about how to phrase this properly but couldn't think of anything so I decided to tell her everything in detail about what happened today.
She, to her credit, listened to everything I had to tell quietly and didn't even try to run.
Was she not believing me?
"I….I am not joking you know." I closed my eyes and willed my wings to pop out, attracting her attention.
I saw her staring at my wings and looked at her. "See….I am….a demon."
"Hmm and?"
"Ah….what?"
"You are a demon. But you are also the same Silas who saved me from that hell….made by humans." She replied, making me stunned.
"Not everyone is like that, Sakura. Several of the people who helped us were also humans." I argued with her.
"Then why should all demons be bad?"
"...." I tried to say something but no words came to my mouth.
She came forward and hugged me.
I remembered just a few days ago, I had done the same thing.
"Before human or demon, you are Silas-san who couldn't see a girl he barely knew in pain and did whatever he could do to help her. Even after knowing everything about me, the dangers of the situation, you didn't back down and gave me a new chance at life. Never forget that." She said, her voice even without even the slightest hesitation.
I was rendered completely speechless.
"Just like there are people like the other patrons of your Restaurant who are good humans and people like….him who are lower than monsters….I don't see why there can't be good demons too."
"I…."
"Tell me Silas-san. Did your parents love you?" She asked and I might have been wrong but I saw a hint of hurt in her eyes at the name of the words parents.
"Yes."
"Do your friends here like you?"
I nodded.
"And do you think they did all that just because you were a demon?" She shook her head. "No. They like you because you are you. You are Silas."
Throughout the entire conversation, her voice was calm and gentle, not a hint of fear or disgust I was expecting. Hell, even I was suddenly afraid of my own self on the discovery and yet, she was still treating me the same way.
It made me feel a bit ashamed of myself.
I was actually able to get a life after dying once in my previous life. I got to meet such loving parents, I got this power and got to meet such wonderful people….and instead of being grateful for this chance….I was complaining….how pathetic was that?
Sakura was right in this regard.
I returned her hug and we stood there like that for a while.
"Thank you, Sakura."
"Hmm."
She pulled back a bit. "You ran away without eating anything. Please take a seat. I will cook something quickly. Will your friend be eating too?" She asked.
"No….let me cook."
"Please….let me. Your friend looked like he was very scared. You should go and comfort him."
I nodded, thanking her again.
Recalling something, I went to my room and brought the first aid box, a bucket of warm water and a clean towel with me and went down stairs.
There, Tobio was on a couch, rubbing his injured leg.
"Here, use this." I passed over the things to him.
The boy was surprised at my sudden arrival. He was still jumpy from the incident and I didn't blame him.
"Thank you." He began cleaning his injury and bandaging himself up.
Suddenly recalling something, I couldn't help but ask. "Were those people also on the cruise with Sae-chan?"
Yes. The girl who always visited my Restaurant with him had gone missing along with several other people on the cruise and he said that those people who attacked us had gone missing too.
What was going on here?
He nodded and then looked up at me. "Silas-san. Do you know what I can do to find Sae? You are….I mean you know magic right? So do you have any ideas?" He almost pleaded.
"I….am more of a recluse who has just started learning magic because I got lucky. I have no idea about the Supernatural world, let alone about something like this." I shook my head.
He looked disappointed.
"Don't worry, Tobio-kun. I am sure that you will find her soon."
He nodded.
"By the way, did you live in the apartment where you jumped out from?" I asked, suddenly recalling how we had just met.
"Ah yes." His voice grew dim. "They found me there."
"Why exactly were they chasing you?"
He looked at the puppy following him. "I am also confused, Silas-san. Suddenly the whole world seems so alien." The frustration in his voice was something I could sympathise with.
I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. You will get used to it. If you want somewhere to stay, you could always stay here. The house beside this was something which belonged to you previously. I still haven't gotten to reconstruct it. You can use the rooms there.." I offered.
"This….thank you but I just had a talk with my friend. She said that she would take me to their safe house." He replied.
I nodded. "Alright."
At this moment, Sakura came out with two plates of food.
"Come on. Let's eat something."
I then looked at the dog.
"Does it eat?"
"I….don't know."
I looked at the guy weirdly and he was actually embarrassed.
Sakura brought some leftover pork ribs for the dog too. Actually, the puppy was quite friendly with Sakura.
We ate in silence.
Each of us had our own thoughts in our heads.
Around half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Tobio looked there and I nodded to him before checking.
It was a young girl with light brown hair. She had a slim and voluptuous figure. She was wearing a school uniform and looked at me surprised and dare I say a bit on guard.
"I didn't know there was a devil in this area. From what I know, this area is neutral ground and no members of the Three factions lived here." She asked cautiously but I picked up several words in her sentence just now. Devil. Three Factions.
Was that what I was?
A Devil?
But I didn't let her know anything. "As you said, this area is neutral. I don't see why I would have to take anyone's permission to stay here." I replied calmly but firmly.
A bird flew on her shoulder and glared at me.
I narrowed my eyes.
Suddenly Tobio came back from behind me. "It's fine. Silas-san is someone who helped me and saved my life."
Her cautious tone told me that I shouldn't ask her because then she would know about my situation and can lead me to anything. Better not take risks.
Need to search for more information.
"In that case, I'll thank you for saving my friend's life. Come on Tobio. Let's go."
He left after thanking me once more and I closed my shop's door.
The last few hours were emotionally exhausting.
Maybe a short nap will help me out.
"Sakura, I am very tired so I will go to bed early today." I bid her a good night and left for my room.