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Really. Really now. How did he let himself get talked into this? He sat and thought about the past five minutes, all while a curious Hinata-kun stared at him with bright eyes across from a slice of cake. Right. Get yourself together, Kagehira Mika. You let yourself get talked into telling your junior, who happens to be a nightmare demon, your life story. All for a slice of cake? But oh, it looks so delicious and sweet, all that cream and that strawber- no, no, no, none of that, other than how it’s a total invasion of privacy, how were you supposed to tell someone your life story? You don’t have a particularly good memory, certainly not as well as Oshi-san, and it’s not like you’re some amazing person who gets to write a biography. Or was it autobiography? Who knows.
But the thing is! You’re here, in this situation that's kinda, sorta, hard to get out of, and there’a a cake on the line! Might as well do it, right?
Inner turmoil settled, he looked up at the expectant 1st year. “Uh.” Inner turmoil settled my left foot all that’s been settled is that you’re absolutely not capable of doing this! Ugh. Take 2!
“So Oshi-san’s told ya most of it, yeah? I guess I’ll just start before I met him then.” There! Introduction! Just like writing an essay!
“Y’know about changelings and all that stuff right? A kind of shapeshifting fae, other older fae leave them when they steal babies, and usually they aren’t found out immediately and tossed around family to family. I think I kept getting left at doorsteps for 3 years or so, until some family completely gave up and tossed me into the forest. Then I got picked up by some spirits and taken to this fold in reality in the forest south of here, and that’s where I spent my next 4 years, yup.”
Whaaaat! How did a place like that slip under his radar? In his defence, he did always take pride in being a mighty demon, never sparing a thought to the lowly spirits and their daily lives.
“Ya know the place, right?”
Could he read my mind? Probably not. Hopefully not. “Not at all! Tell me about it, Kagehira-senpai! Maybe I’ll go check it out later~”
“Ya probably don’t wanna go there though! Now that I think about it, it was probably a bar of some sorts. Lots of people coming and going, only a few staying for longer. And even then I think I was the only one staying the night there. Nasty place as I remember it, lots of loud and rowdy spirits and whatnots. I almost got sat on once, y'know! Ah, but there were some nice people too, like that kitsune lady who gave me the name Mika and came by a lot to give me treats. Nn, I can’t even look for her now, ‘cus the only thing she told me to call her was ‘onee-san’.”
Heheh, Kagehira-senpai’s actually kinda cute sometimes. No, he’s always cute, but this is a different kind of ‘cute’, I think.
“Anyway, the bar owner was called ‘Tooru-san’? That’s what he told me to call him anyway. He was a forest spirit or some sorts, and he’s the one who picked me up. I did all sorts of errands around the place so that they’d keep me, like going out to get groceries or something. I was really bad at pretending to be human, and concealing my entire presence was a lot easier so I just stole whatever I was sent to get.”
“Wow. No morals, huh?”
“H-Hey! I don’t wanna hear that ‘moral’ talk from you, after ya conned me into this with a slice of cake! And I was like, 5 years old! I might be a changeling but when you’ve existed for 5 years you have the mindset of a 5 year old! Right, you’re probably hundreds of years old, you don’t remember what being 5 felt like.”
Wooaah~ right where it hurts~ It’s times like this when Kagehira-senpai sounds really admirable (and sorta like Itsuki-senpai).
How much would Oshi-san have told Hinata-kun? Gaaahh, it’s gonna get real awkward if I talk about stuff Hinata-kun’s already heard, isn’t it? No, no, think positive! You’re telling him this from your perspective, it’s gotta be different!
“Most of the time Tooru-san remembers to get me food, and if he didn’t someone else would, like that kitsune onee-san. But everyone forgets about me once in a while, sometimes, maybe it’s cus I’m a changeling? We’re supposed to be masters of disguise, I guess, but all I’m good at is not existing but still existing, if you get what I mean… Anyway! Usually I get away with stealing food from markets, cus they won’t miss a few apples or a loaf of bread or two, y’know? But that time I was just so hungry for some reason, and the first thing I saw when I came out of the forest was Oshi-san carrying a huge bag of bread. It was so huge, ya get me? And he looked so small, like my age back then, so I figured he wouldn’t miss a…”
Wait. What did I steal back then? I think it might have been one of the bigger ones, like a baguette or something, but I’m gonna make a fool of myself if I told him the wrong thing if Oshi-san told him the right one! Nnah, gonna cross my fingers…
“... baguette, y’know?”
Good, Hinata-kun’s expression isn’t changing! It must have been a baguette!
“But then it just so happened Oshi-san had the Sight, yeah? I think he told me about having exorcist ancestors or something like that once or twice, it’s a sore subject I guess. I even bothered to be extra sneaky! Although it was a bit dumb to start eating on a building next to him, heheh. Could you blame me though? I was sooo hungry~ So then he caught me and kinda kidnapped me, which I’m sure he told you all about. Uh… That’s it, I guess? Anything else ya wanna know?”
Nnn, hopefully he doesn’t have too many questions… It would be awkward if he didn’t have any at all though…
Mental clapping!! That was really interesting, woah! Heheh, did you think I wouldn’t see you crossing your fingers? Too bad, you won’t know I did~
“Hey, Itsuki-senpai said you had really long and pretty hair, what happened to that? Is it just an illusion? Can I see what your actual form looks like?”
“Huh? Oh, I cut my hair when I was 11. Heheh, I don’t usually get to see Oshi-san so flustered~ Right. The folks in the forest never bothered to cut my hair, and it wasn’t that long back then so I just let it be. I guess at the time I met Oshi-san it was a bit lower than my shoulders? But then my hair got longer really fast for some reason, a growth spurt maybe? Who knows? And it got kinda annoying once it got to my waist cus it started getting in the way of my wings and stuff, so I cut it myself one day when Oshi-san was at school. Heh, he got so mad when he came back he took me to a hairdresser instantly~ I do feel really bad for laughing at him like this, but Oshi-san’s usually so calm and collected it’s so rare to see him express any extreme emotion~”
Oooh, Kagehira-senpai with waist length hair~ Uwah, I wanna see that~
“Hey, can I see your true form?”
“Oh? Oh yeah, yeah, sure.”
He closed his eyes and focused for a bit. Branch-like antlers and wings started sprouting, and honestly it did look kinda pretty. Prettier than most other demons and spirits I’ve seen, at least. Black feathers sprouted at the roots of the antlers and wings, and I expected them to fully cover them, but it only went a small bit before quickly thinning out and leaving most of the branches bare. Was he supposed to look like this? Did something happen to him? I really wanted to ask, but it felt really like a intrusion of privacy (not as if the previous conversation wasn’t already). As much as I didn’t want to, I let it be.
Ah, I really didn’t expect Kagehira-senpai to transform when I asked him to, now that I think about it. Good thing we’re in a corner of the cafe and the place was practically deserted to begin with.
“Hinata-kun, uhh, can I have the slice of cake now?” I looked back up at him, and he looked completely normal again, apart from the 2 extra smaller eyes under his main ones. Heh. They shouldn’t be visible to people without the Sight, and Itsuki-senpai would remind him anyway.
Wait a second. He brought up the cake just as I was thinking about the cafe. He better not actually have mind reading powers. Whatever, Kagehira-senpai’s a good guy, it’s fine.
“Sure~ Thanks for telling me so much!”
