Kisiri raised his brow, his ears twitching slightly. "Aren't you cute, didn't you tell me to follow you when I became...this."
The voice appeared and a red skinned girl with two black horns on her head appeared her eyes were yellow. She was glaring at Kisir. "Yeah because the Lupines would kill a HellHound. Not to brag but you are a type of demon in hell that is honoured by a lot of races."
"Undriel, please don't start nagging me, what happened to the enthusiastic devil that met me three months ago." Kisir ears flattened as he moped.
Undriel pouted and hit his chest playfully, her tail wagged around playfully. "Eh, I did that to try and hypnotise you...but you kinda grew on me."
Kisiri rolled his eyes and ignored that fact. "Let's go back home, I'm bored."
Undriel nodded. "Yeah me too and you eating a deer whole isn't something I really enjoy. It looked so disgusting."
"Hey!! Do you expect me to eat a rabbit at my size, anyways disguise me first, I don't want people knowing I have ears and a tail." Kisiri said annoyingly.
Undriel smirked, raising a clawed hand that shimmered with red infernal energy. "Fine, fine. Hold still, you walking carpet."
The air around Kisiri shimmered like a heat haze. The massive ears flattened into his scalp, fading away with a flicker. His tail receded and disappeared into his back like smoke drawn into a vacuum. His amber, slit-pupiled eyes dulled and morphed into a natural brown hue—one that wouldn't raise suspicion among humans or anyone else wandering the border towns.
When it was done, Kisiri stretched his arms and cracked his neck. "Still hate how that feels. Like something's chewing on my spine."
"You'll survive," Undriel chirped, flipping her own illusion on. Her horns vanished, her skin paled to a soft olive tone, and her eyes dulled to a casual amber-brown. Now she looked like a normal teenage girl—albeit one with an aggressive fashion sense.
She linked her arm through his. "Let's go, puppy. If I'm stuck watching you eat another entire carcass, you're at least buying me spicy noodles on the way home."
He tolled his eyes but smiled as they started walking. "Hey, you never did tell me why Lupines hate Hellhounds, to be hi est I haven't really met any since I became one three months ago."
Undriel's smile faltered for just a second—barely noticeable unless you knew her. Her free hand gripped the hem of her jacket before she spoke, her voice more subdued than usual.
"Yeah… that's a long story," she said, eyes flicking toward the path ahead. "But since you're asking, I guess you're ready for some of the ugly stuff."
Kisiri glanced at her, curious. "I'm literally walking around pretending to be human because of it. I think I deserve the tea."
Undriel let out a breath. "Alright. So… Lupines and Hellhounds go way back. Way way back. See, your kind—Hellhounds—weren't just scary-looking demons with big teeth. You were enforcers once. You worked for the old Nether Kings, hunting down traitors, deserters, and especially… rogue Lupines."
Kisiri raised an eyebrow. "Rogue Lupines? Like… wolves that didn't pay their taxes?"
She smirked despite herself. "Not exactly. More like… Lupines who refused to serve the Demon Courts or who rebelled during the Crimson Collapse. They saw Hellhounds as the bloody hand of oppression—unstoppable, unmerciful. You didn't just kill back then… you dragged souls to the Underflame to burn for eternity."
Kisiri blinked. "Well, I guess that explains the dirty looks."
"And the bounties," Undriel added with a tilt of her head. "Don't forget that part. Some Lupine clans still put bounties on Hellhound hybrids. Even now, three hundred years after the Fall."
"…Great," Kisiri muttered. "And here I thought I was special."
"You are special," Undriel said, tightening her grip on his arm. "Because you're the only Hellhound I've ever met who refused to go feral after their first awakening. And also because you found me near the hospital rather quickly for a pup..."
Kisiri raised an eyebrow, a lopsided grin tugging at his lips. "So you were stalking me back then."
Undriel's cheeks flushed a faint red—even if her human illusion tried to cover it, the devil in her couldn't hide shame well. "I wasn't stalking, I was... observing. Cautiously. Like a responsible demon."
"Sure. Watching me from across the street for six hours totally counts as 'responsible.'"
She flicked his forehead, a light spark of heat dancing across his skin. "Shut up. I was making sure you didn't explode into flames, alright? Hellhound awakenings can be messy, and I wasn't about to let some poor newbie burn down half a block."
Kisiri chuckled, the sound rough but genuine. "Well, thanks, I guess. You're still weird."
Undriel grinned. "And you're still ugly, so we're even."
They walked for a while in silence into the town, Soon the two went towards the house when suddenly Kisiri stopped, he tilted his head in confusion. "Who are you?."
Kirika ignored him and looked to the side, her house stayed the same, she walked past the boy and went towards the house.
"Hey I'm talking to you?!. "Kisiri growled.
Kirika turned around and looked at the two, her eyes flashing red for a short moment. "What's your problem?, I clearly did not even talk to you."
Kisiri was stunned, yeah she didn't talk to him, but she gave him a feeling of irritation. "Sorry, It's my first time seeing you here."
Kirika's eyes narrowed. "Sure, but considering my house seems to be close to yours, you wouldn't be too sure to say that you didn't see me but I was in a coma for three months so some people may have moved in."
Undriel coughed and let go of Kisiri. "Well sorry about that, Kisiri isn't really good with manners, my name is Undriel nice to meet you."
//This girl is...strange, she smells like a witch but there is a potent scent of blood in her aura that reminds me of a Vamp—//
Undriel's eyes suddenly widened as she stared at Kirika. "U-uhm, wait that's not right, what are you?."
Kirika's eyes twitched, not even a day and she has already met other supernaturals things...maybe she should have stayed with Yuna. "So I'm guessing both of you aren't human either?."
Kisiri suddenly pulled Undriel back, his eyes glowing am I tense orange as he glared directly at Kirika. "Are you here to hunt me down?, are you Lupines already chasing me?!."
Kirika tiled her head in confusion. "What's a Lupine?."
The moment she asked that question—"What's a Lupine?"—a silence heavier than stone fell between them.
Kisiri's glowing eyes narrowed even further, but confusion slowly began to replace hostility. Undriel, still stunned, took a cautious half-step forward, as if approaching a wild, unknown creature. "You don't… know what a Lupine is?" she asked, voice low and searching.
Kirika raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. She should be careful "I'm a vampire I guess, well technically since I haven't drank any blood yet." She would just conceal some truths and hide the fact she is a Vampira.
Kisiri turned to Undriel. "Wait, vampires exist."
Undriel nodded. "Yeah but there is a series decline on them, only 700,686 vampires are left in the world."
Kisiri blinked, visibly thrown. "Seven hundred thousand… that's it? Out of billions?"
Undriel crossed her arms. "Yeah. Thanks to the Crimson Wars, the Blood Plague, and the Holy Culling in the North. Vampires got hit from all sides. Most either went feral, died, or went underground. The pureblood lines are practically extinct now."
Kirika stared at them, her face unreadable. That number... she didn't know what she expected, but somehow, hearing it aloud made her chest tighten. A dying race—one she was apparently half a part of.
"And what about witches?" Kirika asked, more carefully this time.
Undriel stiffened. "Witches are complicated," she said after a moment. "They don't have numbers. Not like other races. They are creatures that were not originally in this world, they appeared over 78 million years ago when a being from the outside interfered with this world."
So the same thing her wand said, Kirika sighed and waved her hand. "OK, thanks for the free information, I need to get my clothes and live this area."
Kisiri called out. "Wait, where you at that incident that happened in thr Fruit Explosion park and if you are...how did you survive?."
Kirika didn't turn around but still spoke. "I..I don't know, I just really didn't want to die."
She opened the door and closed it behind her leaving the duo behind.
Undriel finally let out a breath she was holding a few moments ago. "She can read mind's Kisiri but I think that only applies when we think something about her."
Kisiri grabbed Undriel's arm and dragged her towards the door. "Yeah, I don't want to associate with her..."
Undriel let herself be dragged, she was still unnerved by that, how could someone casually peek into a devil's mind?. It made her scared out of her skin.
---
"Honestly, those two were weird, I wonder what the girl was and the boy was also annoying." Kirika sighed and ignored it, she just wanted to get some clothes and go back.
She looked at the house and it was much more emptier than before. "Stupid brother, not caring about your only family."
Kirika looked outwardly unbuttered by the fact her brother ditched her but inside she was bitter, the fact her brother not even having a slight care about her life and death made her feel...strange. Did her brother really hate her that much.
Kirika stood in silence for a moment before walking forward, she walked pass a wall, ignoring the portrait of a small family of four, she walked passed a door urging her to open it, she walked passed a vase...countless memories were remembered and finally she stood in front of her room.
She gently opened the door and her room was neat, it was clean as if untouched by anyone. She walked to her bed that was covered by orange bedsheets and pillows.
Her brown wardrobe was wide open, displaying a myriad of dresses and casual wears. On the side of the room was a table and chair and on the the was a black pen and white book decorated with stickers and hand drawn images.
It felt like she just saw this place yesterday bit at the same time she didn't see it for a long time, a coma would mess with a person's sense of time sometimes.
Kirika took slow steps to the chair and sat on it, both her hands were neatly placed on the table as she looked at the book. It's her old diary before the explosion incident.
She tapped on the book for a while then she gently opened it.
On the first page, some words and drawings were written.
[I wonder what's the purpose of owning a diary, why would people write their thoughts and secrets Into something that can be opened any time, I mean my brother got this for me on my birthday as a sick joke telling me I'm mentally insane and gave it to me so I can talk to myself and not bother him]
Kirika stared at the words for a moment, unmoving.
The handwriting was undoubtedly hers—sharp loops and slanted lines, precise but with just enough agitation to reveal a girl who wrote to empty space in hopes it would speak back. A bitter laugh slipped past her lips, dry and humorless.
"...I forgot how much of a brat I used to be," she muttered, dragging her finger across the indentation of her own venomous thoughts.
Her eyes lingered on the crude drawing underneath the entry: a lopsided stick-figure version of her brother with exaggerated devil horns, fangs, and a dialogue bubble that read, "Leave me alone, freak."
She flipped a few more pages, the scent of old paper and dust making her nostrils twitch.
Each entry bled anger, confusion, isolation. Each page held tiny fragments of a younger Kirika who wanted to scream but only whispered instead. Her brother rarely appeared by name, just "him" or "the jerk" or "the wall."
But then, three entries before the last—one dated just a week before the explosion—stood out. It was shorter, sloppier.
[My brother gave me tickets to the new Fruit Explosion park and some money for the first day of summer next week, though I don't know why he did that...I mean I won't question it because I'm going, it's just sad I only have on or I would have come with Yuna, Yuna is nice and she is always there for me. But sometimes she is a bit much, she tickles me even teases me sometimes and my brother ------------- is annoying]
The name of her brother was cancelled out. "Strange why would I cancel out --------------."
Kirika paused as a sudden weight pressed against her chest, what was her brothers name again?.