Shadow Games [Seraph and Azuriyuu]

If it had been a Hollywood movie, Leona thought caustically, the room would have been dim and lit by flickering candle with eerie chanting going on in the background. As it were, her family’s meeting room was actually the living room and was well-lit with her uncle’s children playing on the carpet in the center of the room. The honey-eyed teen watched the scene with a little contempt, still bitter about her recent move to live with her uncle’s family at the request of her mother. She still couldn’t believe that her mother who had broke away from the clan’s tight rules and treaties had fault with the way she had enchanted several key members at her old school and used that to her advantage. Leona ran her long fingers roughly through her shoulder length white hair, and ruffled it as she waited for her uncle to formally welcome her into his home.

All she did was enthrall her principal and her teachers so she wouldn’t get into trouble for all the times she skipped class, or failed to turn in homework—how could her mother send her to this little backwater town in the middle of nowhere? She sighed as her uncle and the rest of the family “elders” entered the living-room. She saw them wince a little at her and she shrugged; her appearance was sometimes a little shocking to her more conservative family. Her hair had once been a soft blonde, but in a fit of rebellion she had charmed it white. She had celebrated dying her hair by getting her ears pierced several times, and her belly-button. The latter she didn’t like as much since it kept getting caught in her clothes and tugging painfully.

“Leona, do you know why you are here,” her uncle Richard asked, his watery brown eyes stern and kind.

She gave a shrug, “Because Mom couldn’t deal with me.”

Her aunt Gertrude frowned and clucked her tongue, “No, no, sweetie, your mother just wants the best for you. You just need…more attention than she can give you.”

Leona scuffed her toe against the carpet, and turned to watch her little cousins play, “Whatever.”

Uncle Richard looked at the rest of the elders before he spoke, “You know the rules of this house.” He was a tall man who was a thin as a rail with an oddly booming voice that commanded respect from anyone who listened—part of it was that he infused his voice with his own magic to make him a better orator while within the walls of his own home. “Starting tomorrow you will go to school and you will not use your magic while you are outside these walls.”

“Sure,” she said and waved her hand off in his direction. She wouldn’t actually promise not to, that was just plain stupid. Everyone knew about the treaty to keep magic out of the understanding of normal humans, and not use their talents in front of them, but everyone also knew that as long as you didn’t hurt someone, a lot of things could be overlooked. Perhaps a love-spell there, or a notice-me-spell here wouldn’t get you in trouble, but something like a revenge-spell might. Not that Leona had ever felt the urge to use any but the last of the spells; she liked using enchantments to curse, confuse, and cause havoc on people who crossed her.

Her older cousin Darren dropped a heavy hand on her shoulder, “Leona this is important. We all must listen to the treaty and your mother explained everything to us. Do not disappoint us.”

‘Do not disappoint us,’ resounded in her mind. It was a veiled threat; it wasn’t often that a witch’s family would find their actions so dangerous that they would take harsh measures—a temporary binding spell perhaps. But the phrase ‘Do not disappoint us,’ made her flinch somewhat. She could imagine what would happen if she disappointed her full family and not just her mother who now lived 500 miles away. She nodded mutely before she looked towards uncle Richard, “May I go to bed now? I have school in the morning.”

“But Leona,” her aunt started, “it’s only seven! Stay and visit with us. I haven’t seen you since you were a little sprite.”

She gave a little smile to her aunt; she had a few memories of her sneaking her an extra cookie or two when Grandmother hadn’t been looking. But she still got up and left the living room, heading up the stairs and turning down the hall until she found the guest room that had been turned into her bedroom. It wasn’t spacious, enough room to walk in and have a bed, a desk, bookcase and chair, but it was the window with the built in seat that made the room special to her. She liked to sit there and watch the day, or night go by. On her bed was a animal carrier and her suitcases, both of which she promptly opened though she was only concerned about her familiar, Puma, a large semi-feral cat. Leona didn’t have to have a familiar, but something about the dark-furred, wild-eyed cat had stolen her heart and she claimed it as such…a few months later and a couple of spells, and Puma could talk.

“I,” he emphasized angrily, “hate being caged.”

“Join the club,” she said coolly, and started to unpack. “I have to go to school and not use magic, or at least anything showy.”

“You like showy,” he said blandly as he started to investigate the room before he hid under the bed. “Be subtle. Like a cat.”

“Right…”


[justify...[/justify]


The next morning, she was at the school bright and early to check in with the office and get her schedule. She spent a good half-an-hour walking around the school looking for her classrooms before she finally settled down on one of the benches and waited for her peers to arrive. A small bloom of nervousness erupted in her stomach and the tall teen fidgeted in her seat. She looked up at the ceiling and whispered softly, “What if they don’t like me?” She looked down at her clothes and bit her bottom lip; she tried to dress nice to fit in--a short skirt with stripped leggings underneath and a short-sleeved t-shirt with her favorite band on it.

She had never been good at making friends, which was perhaps why she was so reliant on her magic to help ease the way. Once she got them enthralled, even after she removed the spell, people stayed around her, almost like junkies in a way. She looked around before she touched one of the engraved stones on the bracelet she wore and whispered a quick and simple notice-me-and-like-me spell. It wasn’t anything bad, but it would get her the friends she wanted and quickly. With another glance around, she added an light enthrallment spell over it and smirked, “That’s better.”

Cain woke up in a bad mood, and seeing his sister smirking over the breakfast table at him didn’t improve it. Perhaps he slept on the wrong side of the bed, or perhaps he had a bad dream, wondered his mother, who frowned softly at him as he glared daggers at his sister. “What is it, Cain?” Ahlrian asked as Cain continued to glare over the rather hearty breakfast of eggs. “Oh, I dunno, something just seemed to be amiss in my room when I woke up. Perhaps you could explain it for me?” he asked, at which point she snickered. “Oh, whatever was amiss when you woke up, my dear little brother?” she asked, barely able to stop herself from cackling madly.
“Well, I dunno, perhaps the fact that my bedsheets were on fire seemed not quite right!” he snapped, at which point their mother glared at her. “Ahlrian!” she hissed, causing his older sister to finally break out into mad cackles. Cain could only lower his head and groan, rubbing his temples. “Sociopath,” he grumbled before he sighed, finishing his breakfast. Of course, their ‘butler’ frowned at all this. “Lady Ahlrian, would you please not set your brother on fire?” was all he asked, causing her to grin softly, still chuckling a bit. Cain supposed he could forgive it. He was getting used to stupid crap like this. It was why he slept in the nude nowadays.
“We don’t really have time for this, Ryuu,” Cain said, standing up after he finished his meal. Quietly, he walked over to the sink, using the sponge to wash his plate as his sister followed along, using a small spell to wash the plate before she put it away in the cupboard before he used the rag to wipe his plate dry and put it away. “We have to get ready for school,” he said, before the butler bowed softly. “Yes, master,” he said, causing Cain to frown darkly. “I told you not to call me Master,” he said with a sigh.
Homonculi. No matter how much you make them look like humans, instill in them human traits, they’re still just soulless imitations of life, Cain thought bitterly. He desperately had tried to ‘make’ a friend a few years ago, and Ryuuichi turned out completely and utterly perfect except for the frusturating lack of any sort of soul. So Cain gave him butler directives and dragged him to school out of boredom. At least he didn’t call him ‘Master’ at school.
As Cain headed back to his room, his mother grabbed his arm. “What is it, mom?” he asked. “I wanted to tell you… a witch from one of the other families moved in with them and is going to your school, now,” she said, to which he replied with a frown. “Which family?” And that’s when she gained a sheepish grin. “…I forgot,” she said. His face darkened further. “What grade are they?” he then asked. “…I didn’t ask,” she said. At that point he facepalmed. How the hell were they the main branch of the family, anyways? Cain Onyx’s mother was a fool and his sister was a sociopath. Of course, it was all comedic sociopathy leveled towards the only one she could never harm, but still.
“We’re going to school, Ryuu. Maybe the newcomer will be a sane, responsible witch or wizard,” Cain Onyx of the Lifebinding clan prayed.
“I doubt it, Master,” Ryuuichi replied.
~~
When he arrived at school, Cain smiled a bit. Although something seemed off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. His first thought was magic was afoot. Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe that the newcomer would start casting any sorts of enchantments, but… Brent might use someone’s presence as an excuse to cause some hilarity. The problem is that whether the newcomer was playing with enchantments, fate, or just using psychic powers to fuck with peoples’ minds, it wasn’t as if Cain would be able to tell the subtle differences in the effects.
Then again, just because the families had their own specialties didn’t mean they were incapable of anything else, as his sister, Ahlrian Onyx of the Lifebinding clan showed perfectly by setting him on fire every Monday morning. Every. Fucking. Monday.
“Ryuu, do you detect any magic…?” Cain whispered to his homunculi, who shrugged.
“If it’s here, it’s too subtle for me to detect, Partner,” he said, at which point Cain slapped his forehead.
“Stop calling me Partner! People might think we’re…y’know…” he said, Ryuu looking confused as Cain made a rather…lewd gesture. Of course there were rumors that Cain Onyx and Ryuuichi Akamori were lovers; rumors that Cain didn’t help out by turning down every girl that came his way. Cain got by without magic, but his sister had the sublety of a battering ram in her arts. So taking home a girl who wasn’t a witch was not an option, and while the four families who had a branch of their family in this city weren’t…enemies, per se, they tended not to get along. He and Brent spent a lot of time trying to mess eachother up, which had turned into a fun little sociopathic game where Brent would try to hurt him without being able to directly hurt him with magic and Cain would punch Brent and they’d both get in trouble in the end.
Cain of course had a noble appearance. Bright, ginger-colored hair and emerald colored eyes. Alabaster skin and soft features which gave him a level of beauty, aided by his six feet of height which allowed him to tower over almost everyone at school. Of course, he wasn’t merely effeminate; he was muscular whenever he showed it off, which was rather rare. He stood out, dressing not like his obvious caucasion, but he dressed in a white Chinese longcoat. His height, his stature, the way his emerald eyes looked dull when he looked at others around him made people think he looked down on them.
In otherwords, except for Ryuu, everyone at school absolutely hated him.
But that was fine by him; he wasn’t destined to have friends, and his attempt to create them with Ryuuichi failed anyways. “Anyways, let’s get to class,” he said, shaking his head as he led Ryuu to class, although the feeling that there was magic in the air kept getting stronger…

Leona basked in the attention of her new found "friends" who leaped to do even the smallest of requests for her and doted upon her. She was careful to mellow out the spell as soon as she got their attention, the last thing she needed was an army of well-meaning drones that would jump to her defense at even the barest hint of a slur against her. She smiled at one of the young men who handed her a drink, "Thank you, Raul! I really appreciate it."

One of the girls who sat next to her, asked, "Where are you from Leona? Was it a bigger city than this one? Ohhhh, what did you do there?"

Leona have a little shrug, and ran her fingers over her talismans, "Well...I used to go clubbing with my old friends and hang out at the coffee shop after school. Sometimes we'd float down the river..." She trailed off and allowed herself to remember for a moment how much better her life had been when she didn't have to live by the clan and its strict laws. She had attached herself to another family of witches and spent most of her time lusting after the oldest of the brothers in her age group. He had been tall, uncaring, and blatant with his use of magic. His devil-may-care attitude had attracted her and kept her attracted even as he left her at the way-side after using her body once. She gave a little smile, "It was always fun. What is there to do here?"

One of the other boys spoke up, his brown eyes bright as he struggled to get white-haired and golden haired teen's attention, "We have ice-skating, a coffee shop, oh and the Hole!"

"The...Hole?" She asked hesitantly; that didn't sound like a place she wanted to be in any case.

"It's the swimming hole up in the mountain, it's really known as Bear Hole," Raul spoke up, as he glanced around the hallway. As her magic lessened on them, their normal attitudes started to return but they still felt the need to be her friend, to admire her and pay attention to all of her needs. It was the easiest way to keep people's suspicions down while creating an army of admirers and, in the days of the wars, soldiers willing to kill and be killed in your name.

She ran her fingers through her hair and smiled before she paused slightly. From the corner of her senses, she could feel another witch entering the school and shivered slightly. The talisman around her neck warmed slightly against her collarbone and reminded her easily that she would have to be more careful with her magic, back home no one would have said anything about her using her magic but here...She sighed, the last thing she needed was a snitch telling her uncle that she was using her magic. But then again, with the way the clans were...Leona grinned a little; oh, she thought, this could be fun. If she could cause enough trouble here, they would have no choice but to send her back home and she could go back to doing what she wished.

The smile stayed on her face even as the first bell rang and she had to start towards her classroom.

Cain found himself heading to class with his bags in hand, noticing a new student, his eyes locking with hers' for just a shred of time. He paused while he kept his eyes on hers' and he blinked, pausing. However, he shook his head and continued on his way to his own class, which...was the exact same way she and some of her new friends were going. Funny how someone he didn't reckognize had so many friends following along, but he didn't know everyone in town, after all, it was a big town.

Biting his lower lip, he sat down in his own seat, completely ignoring everyone else while Ryuuichi ended up going to hang out with one of his other friends. Ryuuichi... even if he was a soulless parody of life, he was a really good parody. Sometimes Cain thought that he even had emotions of his own.

Of course, the truth was that was much closer to correct than Cain realized, though... not entirely.

Ryuuichi ended up talking to one of his friends, Jacob, who had become one of Leona's 'groupies', and he paused when he met Leona, smiling softly. Ryuuichi was an interesting homonculi; his existance as a construct was easy for any magic user to tell, and he did tend to stand out. He was Japanese in appearance, but he was tall. His eyes were heterochromatic; the left blue and the right brown. He was thin and whispy in build, very similar to his creator. He was friendly, sociable, and helpful. In fact, if Cain still had any magical presence, it would be obvious that the two were horribly, obviously, clearly connected, as it was Cain's life force and sealed magic which kept Ryuuichi alive.

To Leona it would seem as if he had a magical cord to which the other end just...disappeared. It would also seem like he was horribly oblivious of her being a witch. "Morning, Jacob," he said to his friend who grinned. "Hey, Ryuu. Let me introduce you to my new friend, Leona," he said with a smile. Ryuuichi smiled and gently took Leona's hand, shaking it very lightly and bowing his head. "Good Morning, Miss Leona. I'm Ryuuichi," he said, introducing himself with a smile that was honest and true. "I'm the Captain of the Aikido team, and that's my partner, Sub-Captain Cain," he said, waving towards Cain who ended up looking up from his book and glowering at Ryuu. "I told you, stop calling me that!"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Forgive Cain. He's pretty much a douchebag every day that isn't a full moon. Then he's a werewolf," he said, causing some of the others to laugh. Ryuu frowned at the joke, but he didn't like people laughing at his master's expense.

Leona glanced from Jacob to Ryuuichi and gave one of her most charming smiles as she gave him a look over--he wasn't, she could tell quickly, all together human. There was just something off about his "life" that made her curious, and curiosity, as she had been told, was the downfall of most witches. She squeezed his hand gently when he took it and introduced himself, "It's nice to meet you, Ryuuichi. You're very polite." The only time she was called "Miss" was when she had been with her mother, who despite how she cast her daughter off to her relatives, was just as bad as her daughter when it came to using her magic. Her mother, Azira, would often have human servants, more like slaves, that were bound to her by magic. They never lasted very long, Leona recalled, but they had always called her "Miss Leona". She shivered slightly before bringing her mind back to the present.

Her gold eyes moved over to Cain as he glowered and all but shouted at Ryuuichi; she glanced between the two young men before she shrugged. She could, barely, see the ties of magic that bound the pair but it was confusing. Once it went to Cain it just disappeared, as if it were Ryuuchi who was the witch but that, she could feel, wasn't right. She frowned slightly before laughing at Jacob's comment, "Well, don't you know that a werewolf just needs the right touch to tame them?"

She ran one of her nails over one of the talismans on her bracelet before she looked up at Ryuuichi, "You said you were the Captain of the Aikido team? How do you do that? Wasn't it hard becoming the captain?" She was hesitant to try to use her magic on him, especially since she wasn't overly sure what he was exactly. He probably was from one of the other clans which meant a specific branch of magic that she didn't care too much for, or knew much about. What if it was just a protection spell she was feeling? She twirled a strand of white hair between her fingers before she looked over at Cain; how could the magic just stop? Was he a serf?

Ryuuichi smiled a bit, affected by the slight of her magic the way that everyone else was. He smiled as he sat down on his chair, looking at Cain with a coy smile when she said that a werewolf needs just the right touch. “Hear that, Partner? Maybe she should touch you. It’d fix that grumpy mood of yours,” he said with an amused grin which made Cain glare even moreso. Why did Ryuuichi start acting like a human around others, but never around him? It made him jealous, and honestly, just a little bit pissed off. Why did his creation imitate life so damn well when he was talking to everyone else…?

Ryuu smiled when she asked if it was hard, and he shrugged. “It just requires hard work, like any other sport. Hard work and being able to observe your opponent, read their moves, and counter,” he said, giving a smile. “My partner over there-“

“Stop calling me that, you boat-lighted prat!”

“Is a better martial artist than me, but he primarily practices baguazhang, so it’s a little different,” he said. Of course, Cain had to glower in frusturation at this, which was throwing off his concentration. He couldn’t see, or feel, and even after all this time didn’t even realize the cord between him and Ryuuichi, but it was there. The main thing that his clouded mind prevented him from paying too much attention to was Leona’s actions. After a minute, he settled down, though, and continued to watch the exchange, his eyes primarily focusing on Leona. She was new, so it was very likely that she was the new girl who his mother mentioned, but he found her…frusturatingly pretty. If he were the type towards fancy, he might even consider that he might have fallen in love at first sight, she was so pretty.

Except he wasn’t retarded, and he thought with his brain, not his dick.

As he was affected slightly by her magic, Leona relaxed and her smile became less forced as she leaned back in her seat, resting a hand on her desk. He wasn't a witch, which meant any of the magic coming off of him wasn't his own--or, she considered the more disturbing possibility, he was a witch but one that hadn't been raised as a witch. Those were the most dangerous kind because they didn't have any control of their magic, and it was often because of untrained witches that witch hunts would start up again. On a rare occasion, a rogue witch would cause a war between families. She giggled at little at Ryuuichi's comment and she wiggled her fingers in Cain's direction, his glare causing her slightly to falter but it wasn't directed at her. She hesitated and stopped herself from using more magic--no need to tip off the other witches in the school just yet. She wanted to make sure she had every human or at least most of them under her control before then.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "That just sounds like too much for me. I've never been good at sports." She pouted slightly, "I'm always picked last."

It was both a lie and a truth; she was terrible at sports but she was never picked last because of her spells. All of her "friends" would fight over her if they were on separate teams. She smiled pleasantly, "But maybe one of you could teach me?" She looked between Jacob, Cain, and Ryuuichi--maybe she could pit them against each other? It was always fun to be in the middle of a relationship drama.

Cain rolled his eyes just a little bit when she said she was no good at sports, and when she asked if someone would teach her, both Ryuuichi and Jacob were all over it, offering to teach her. The redhead could only chuckle, dropping his eyes, as Ryuu looked at his master.

Few would notice, but Ryuu’s eyes had brightened. He was a homunculus, but due to his connection with Cain, he had a connection to Cain’s emotions. And now Cain was growing amused, and he might actually socialize. He was glad to see his master might get out from under that rock! Cain stood up, smirking with pride.

“Aikido… is an inferior martial art,” he said, his eyes, for once, bright. Jacob reckognized this, the once in a blue moon when Cain wouldn’t be a jackass. Yes, in a way he was still a jackass, but… not completely. “If you want a true martial art, Baguazhang is the way to go,” he said, looking at Ryuuichi with a determined glare that was also a grin. Jacob just chuckled a bit.

“Bagu…whatever the hell it is is Chinese and Cain’s got some Chinese blood, and Ryuuichi’s Japanese like Aikido, so they argue over this sometimes…” Jacob said, shaking his head.

Leona tilted her head to the side as Cain insulted Aikido and praised his own form of martial arts, and she watched Ryuuichi seem all right with it. She glanced to Jacob and nodded as he gave the background on the argument; she shrugged, and smiled at Cain, "Bagua...oh, I can't even say it! How am I even supposed to learn it if I can't say it. At least Aikido is easy to say."

She looked at Jacob and asked curiously, "Which one would you want to learn?"

One of the girls, Emily, looked at Leona and shook her head, "Why would you want to get all sweaty with them doing that? Honestly..." She gave a pointed look towards the Ryuu and Cain's bodies, though hidden were probably pretty good compared to some of the other boys in schools. Especially if the said admirer wasn't into their men being overly muscled but lean and toned.

Leona forced herself to blush which was harder than it sounded and she looked at Emily, "Emily! That's..." She let her voice trail off before she shook her head. In truth, she would have to agree with Emily--she would have preferred a different situation entirely in which to "get sweaty" in with the boys. She bit her bottom lip and considered it; both of them were interesting and as long as neither found out that she planned on playing with them, it would be all good. But which one first? Ryuu was kinder and more friendly, while Cain had more of the bad-boy streak to him. Choices, choices, choices, she thought in amusement.

( By the way I have an idea to bring Cain and Leona together a bit closer although it requires it to be after school… maybe after a weekish timeskip. )

Cain seemed slightly frowning when Emily waved off the idea of martial arts. Cain just shrugged and shook his head. “Baguazhang is the only thing I really care about,” Cain said, lying as he sat back down and the bell rang. He was actually sort of… fuming about how well Ryuu had taken to the new girl. Ryuuichi was his only ‘friend’, and he had far too many enemies, so he had no interest in losing his only friend.

Ryuu smiled and kept his eyes on Leona occasionally, obviously somewhat attracted to her, although Ryuuichi kept his thoughts quiet. He was enthralled with her slightly, although Cain took the enthrallment to just be natural attraction.

Be he a soulless… thing, Ryuuichi still had human instincts, and so he still felt sexual attraction. In fact, Ryuuichi was more sexually experienced than Cain was, although whenever Ryuuichi had sex, Cain felt almost immeasurably horny for whatever reason.

(Sounds good to me. When would you like to do the skip?)

Emily snorted and looked at him, "Duh, Cain, we all know that Baguazhang is all you care about. Geez...get a clue and get laid." Emily was easily one of the most blunt people in the school and she enjoyed it; she didn't care if it made other people feel awkward so long as it kept her entertained. And Cain was an easy target for her on most days, especially with his odd relationship with Ryuu. The latter of which she knew had sex with other people in the school--locker room gossip was a breeze to master as long as you had friends from every circle. And she did.

Leona looked between Emily and Cain before she gave a nervous laugh, "I'd still like to learn...or at least try to. If you still wantt to teach me?"

She looked at Ryuu and smiled at him, "And maybe learn a little Aikido too."

Oh, she thought, this was going to be easier than taking candy from a child. She straightened in her seat as the teacher walked into the class room and looked around the room. He gruffly snapped, "Get in your seats, we have a lot to cover today. I don't want any back sass from any of you."

“I’ve no interest in sex,” Cain said flatly, shaking his head a bit. He wasn’t one much for simply ‘having fun’ most of the time. In fact, the only one who really knew him all that well at all was Ryuuichi, and the other members of the various magical families.

When Leona said that she was interested in learning Baguazhang, Cain raised an eyebrow towards her. He examined her curiously, giving it a bit of thought. “…No,” he said flat out, which made Ryuu glare at him. How could he dismiss her so easily? Besides, didn’t Cain love the time he was able to practice martial arts? “…You don’t seem like the type who’s particularly into the yin yang and feng shui kind of stuff. You could learn it to defend yourself, but it wouldn’t fit you,” he said, looking at her. Plus if he was correct, she was a witch.

If she was indeed a witch then she would have no real need for martial arts, and she was simply doing it to get closer to him. Luckily, none of the families would have said anything about him, and he would come off like a normal human, so she wouldn’t be able to realize that he knew quite a bit about the arcane side of life, even if he had no magical power in and of itself. “…But if you come to Aikido practice and you prove me wrong, I’ll teach you a few basic movements,” he said, which caused Jacob to raise an eyebrow.

“Cain Onyx, not being a dick. It’s a fucking miracle,” he said, rubbing his chin, before the teacher came in. Then everyone ran to their seats, and Cain smiled with some amusement, shaking his head lightly before he looked up. It seemed school was going to be…lively.

At least the attention would be off of him.

--

A week would be long enough for Leona to discover part of Cain’s story. He was the most powerful of the members of the Lifebinding clan, and all of a sudden he just stopped using magic, and became protected against all magic. Most of the other clans speculated that he had mastered an absolute magical resistance spell, and since then he decided that he would only drop it if he ever felt the need.
So was the theory, anyways. Nobody had any proof and the absolute protection meant that nobody could study the spell on Cain, and the last attempt at kidnapping ended with him breaking his kidnapper’s jaw. As for Ryuuichi, there wasn’t that much information on Ryuuichi’s true identity. What the public saw him as was an orphan that the Onyx family adopted and treated as something of a butler. Definitely not a slave, as they paid him, but definitely a butler.

“Oi, let’s walk home,” Cain said after school one day, to which Ryuuichi gave a shy grin. “Ah… love to, but I can’t. Veronica’s asked me out on a date, and, well…” Cain let out a soft sigh and nodded. “Why don’t you walk Leona home…” Ryuu said, to which Cain shook his head. “No,” he said, and started towards home, hoping that Leona wouldn’t catch him and ask him to walk home or for a lesson.