4.  Demons and Shin

Demons and Shin

Hiro

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I grumble against the feeling I hate more than most. Being rushed. It sucks. Even with things I don’t like, I never saw the point of racing through. Possibly risking having to do a task all over again because I failed to get it right the first time. I was apparently born an old man with the patience of a sea turtle.

Moving where and how the current takes me and never failing to calculate every variable along the way.

Still, it’s true that the things I enjoy most take me the longest. Time I really don’t have with Haru around like a jumping beetle. A two-hundred stone beetle at that. For the shortest one of our group, he’s by far the most muscular.

That’s because he lifts boulders to get cut bumps under his skin on purpose though. Taking after my cousin Shu. The man who doesn’t know what a shirt is.

I’m fairly certain Haru cuts his to maximize the flex of his muscles. Believe me, the wolf jabbers enough for all of us, but that need to be the center of attention doesn’t know moderation any more than the rest of him. For as much as Tien eats, you’d also assume he’d be as big as our house and he isn’t.

Height-wise he’s between Haru and I. Standing just past my chin. I did get Dad’s freakish height, but none of the girth to go with it. Tien is brawny, built rather than fat or hulky. Just the bear in his demon blood, I guess. Most Kota are recognizable for the reds of their coloring.

They’re meant to be creatures of fire, while wolves or Kibar like Haru lean towards earth natures. Any Sage, any demon really can have another element, but I guess the auto designations make it easier for most to digest. Kiza have always belonged to Air, being winged species. Rare as they are anymore, it’s still laced in our teachings.

Kibar and Kitra, dogs and cats, are the most common and easily recognized. Kibar for their energy and Kitra for their eyes. Not that either or any become actual cats or dogs, but do take a form that can’t be mistaken for ‘human’. All Yon, in their alternate forms stand upright, but the rest….. Fur, horns, claws, wings….. All the things that Oni are born with and can’t hide or control having.

Why Oni like Haru are called ‘Blessed’, to have their Sage features all the time, and Yon, are ‘Sacred’ due to their alternate forms and elements.

It’s said that the old gods of the mountain changed the demon lines by blood. Offered their essence and flesh to turn certain clans into the Guardians of the Isle. I have other blood. Just not the same Demon blood like my friends. But no one, not even my neighbors and friends can know that until we’re marked as constellation.

I know Haru and Tien will be my permanent team, just like our Dads. Still, it’s traditional to keep ‘truths’—the old Shin word for secrets—until those bonds are officially made.

Something we can’t do until Title. A stage and age away. Otherwise, I’d avoid what they’re planning altogether and spend Lunamin with them in a different way.

It’s not like we haven’t all thought about it. Even non-losers outside of our ‘little band of misfits.’ We have enough slang to keep up with, given our fathers’ archaic ways. The hits from the Mainland don’t really help in any case. I’m fine with the showers. Even the alarms that have replaced the ice buckets.

Just not all the implied, if not forced, mating rituals of their world based on religion rather than logic.

I really think it’s a mistake, Haru and Tien’s idea that we’ll get broken in at the Falls, rather than our village, the Canopy. Still, I get the impulse, having had the same one when I made the transition a bit before them. Hoping the crazy stigma wouldn’t follow me over the Wall and into the Valley.

Cute but weird was the general consensus when girls talked about me, and even during the festival that’s supposed to be all about sharing essence with the smallest moon, didn’t help my chances. I’m still not that guy. The guy who’ll push, press, or otherwise convince a girl that she wants something if she’s on the fence about it.

I let females take the lead up to the point there’s no question it’s where we’re headed. I also don’t feel that alcohol is a loophole for Consent. If anything, drunk girls are more alarming. I have enough going against me as is without the claim that alcohol made them do it. Or worse that I was bad at it.

There’s nothing I can do about dick size. I was born with what I was born with and never felt the need to ‘measure’ anything. Still, I’ve seen vital body parts hacked off for less, and am anything but ambiguous when it comes to permissions or respect.

I guess it’s just the season. I huff, trudging out of the shower and tugging on my clothes. That itch forming under my skin with the heat and the wolf’s pheromones bouncing off more surfaces than he is.

I skip over breakfast knowing Tien will have packed snacks for the day, but at least allow myself the boost of the mint tea Aya makes. Coffee was on her favorites list, along with music from the Portal, but demons and caffeine……

No one can survive that combination for more than one sitting.

Once in the warm air, I wither under the brightness of the twin suns and immediately feel the slump in my shoulders deepen as I adjust. The heat. The light. The feeling of being boiled alive from the inside hits with the unseasonable heat.

Why I needed time. Time to process. Time to mull. Time to think.

Time to figure out how to get Aya to transfer with us to Dojin even though she’s aged rather than staged into consent which is a requirement to get Eshin rank.

Why is everyone in such a damned hurry? I growl to myself but catch the eye roll they give me in real time. The Ashi, Deji, Dojin, even Haztak, Shin school, were here long before we were born and will be there long after we’re gone. Why everyone feels the need to race as if it’s on fire, is beyond me.

Then again, I’m trying to prolong the inevitable……

As the three of us slide into the chairs behind the long wood table we share, I see Umi- Senpai drawing a five point squad system. The ones we know by heart, adding weight to the moment that this is it. The last test of our adolescence.

North is a tracker or scout, Right slash West is Striker. The leader and a jack of all trades, while Left or East is Long-range weapons specialists. The South is always a close-quarters defense type expert and the center was always Meshin, until each member was trained in basic healing weaves to eliminate enemies using them as an easy target.

Tien is South, close range defense. Haru the north, and probably the best tracker the village has. Aya and I rotated between east and west, but no one really comes close to her long-range abilities. Her hand to hand may be ‘pathetic’, but no one can land, let alone clear targets like she can.

This is the last lecture we’ll get before lunch, followed by the exam we’ve all been dreading. Even if I weren’t too anxious to sleep, I never risk napping with Umi-Senpai. Other teachers may let me sleep through class, but the pixie cut sadist, always waits until the moment I drift off to chuck rocks at me.

Better to begrudgingly accept being awake that teased by the notion of a nap, only to be jarred out of it violently.

Haru’s chocolate eyes of his are as wide as I’ve ever seen them when is ever scruffy head turns to the back of the class. That nose of his really could track a fart through water, but even I get that Ayame’s here, and even if it’s a little sweeter than usual. There is no mistaking her unique botanical scent………

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5: Hiro - The Canopy