Chapter 05: Claws and Fangs, the 'Book' and the Liar 

Chapter 05: Claws and Fangs, the 'Book' and the Liar

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POV: A child who is not at all happy at the moment 

*

'Urgh, I never want to do this again. It's so boring!'

Looking momentarily at the sun setting from the top of a tree, I quickly turn my focus to the damn rabbit that has come out of its burrow, eating the grass, but with its body tensed to flee at the sound of any movement in the forest.

'Mom, you knew this would happen... Damn, I thought there'd be some kind of prank, but because she scared me with disgusting food I came here without even picking up a knife!'

Sensing my irritation, the rabbit gets scared, lets go of the grass and starts jumping back into its burrow as fast as it can.

That was the last straw!

Jumping from the tree to the direction where the damned rabbit fled, all that's on my mind is destroying the damned thing that's wasted my time here.

"Huh?"

Slash

Splash

To my surprise, unlike the other times I've tried this strategy and been noticed, the rabbit paled when it looked at me.

"...."

The most bizarre part?

Looking at my fingers, claws that hadn't been there before were now bathed in the entrails and blood of the immobile rabbit split in two in front of me.

"Holy shit... has my Aussie blood been activated! Hahaha, I knew they had claws and fangs!"

Yes, I heard my mom muttering at home once about how my physical appearance resembles my father's and, if I remember correctly, in Australia animals are ferocious and violent. So the people there certainly have claws and fangs!

"...I have fangs too?"

Bringing my hand up to my face, I lightly touched my teeth, and sure enough, they were sharp!

"I have to tell Mom! Hahaha, she'll be shocked!"

Without thinking too much, I run off in the direction of the hut, but with the same speed, I return to the place where I killed the rabbit.

"Damn, in my excitement, I almost forgot about you! Luckily no animals were around."

With nothing else to do here, I run home with the rabbit here dripping with blood, eager to surprise my mother with my claws and fangs.

***

POV: 3rd person? (Lilian) 

While Marshall was in the forest, Lilian, who had just finished preparing dinner, decided to find the chest that Marshall's father had left for him.

For some reason, it never entered her mind to actually hand it over, as if unconsciously, the existence of the chest was constantly being pushed out of her mind. 

Marshall's father, if you can call someone who never raised his son a 'father'... These were his thoughts before opening the trunk and taking out the Book from the bottom.

Anyway, he was a strange demon that she had met years ago and by coincidence, while on one of her last missions at the behest of the organization with the persona of Leah, in search of a file that could lead to war if it fell into the wrong hands... Which in this case, thanks to her, those files went into the wrong hands.

Deep down, the war that exploded last year is partly her fault.

Returning to the demon, while on the run to complete this mission, through an oversight that almost cost her her life, Lilian let her guard down and was wounded by shrapnel from a grenade in her abdomen.  

Fortunately, using the chaos, she found a perfect hiding place to recover, but ended up facing the strange situation of a group of cultists using a bizarre ritual to summon something.

The reason it was bizarre?

'Why are these cultists pouring milk on a drawing of a silly face on the wall? Should I find somewhere else? Urgh, I don't have that much time.

Temporarily ignoring the lunatics downstairs in this abandoned two-storey house, she carefully stitches up all the wounds after cleaning out the fragments stuck in the flesh, enduring the pain without any expression on 'her face', after all her real self was covered by Leah's fake face mask. 

Boom

Aaaahhh 

Crash 

Abruptly, the entire two-storey house begins to shake, but the sound of an explosion, screams and the breaking of all the windows, makes her use all her stealth skills learned from her 'master' in disguise and her experience in the organization, to go against the logic of escape to check on the supposed demon downstairs.

"Mom?"

With a jolt, Lilian stands up in a defensive position, confused by the situation.

'Wait a minute, did I sleep? When did this happen?

Unfortunately, her confusion still clouded her mind when she saw the child with the glowing purple eyes and black scleras. Along with its sharp fangs and blood-soaked claws, a name escapes its lips.

"Hunson?"

"Huh? Mom, why are you sleeping on the floor next to that open trunk? And who's Hunson?"

'What's going on? The last thing I remember doing was opening the trunk and taking out the book-'

With clear fear in her eyes, Lilian looks at her right hand, which firmly holds a book with a sinister aura.

'What the fuck-'

***

POV: Marshall, the Half-Demon

If I thought this day couldn't get any weirder, I'm quickly snapped back to reality.

First, I find my mom passed out on the floor next to a trunk, with a strange book in her hand.

After calling out to her, she quickly gets up with a confused face and calls me "Hunson", which is obviously not my name.

And now, I find out that apparently my father wasn't Australian, but a demon from a place called Nightosphere... Yes, my mother lied to me about Australia... 

"You lied to me... I trusted you."

"And what does this information change? You're still my sweetie."

Actually, it changes a lot...

"...So you're a witch who made a pact with a demon? You sold your soul for eternal youth?"

Honestly, I don't give a damn who my father is, whether he's a demon, an alien or something, but I do care about this rare opportunity that this situation has created.

I'm going to try to manipulate her through her guilt and get the whole truth that she's kept from me. Even what the hell that strange trunk is that she kept moments ago when she came out of her trance. 

"Hahahaha! Oh no~ my son is trying to fool his own mother~? How embarrassing."

"...Tsk" she realized. Well, it was pretty obvious, it was the witch who taught me everything I know about lying and manipulation.

But I can't run out of answers like this. 

I finally realized something... Ignorance is unpleasant.

"So? What's the story behind my birth? And where is my father?"

With that annoying 'I know everything' smile, she answers me with another question.

"And would you believe me if I told you? That I actually just followed him around like an idiot and months later you were born?"

So she understood even that... The answer is obvious.

"No."

Yes, I finally realized what she so desperately wanted me to realize: there are no absolute truths when it comes to other people.

It was so obvious, especially with the basic lessons that she essentially stated it. But how could I doubt my own mom? She always knows everything.

"I don't have all the answers, kid. In fact, most of the time, I just speak with a lot of confidence, so the truth doesn't really matter-"

"Don't try to fool me, woman. I want that book you hid. If you don't have any answers, don't get in the way of me finding the truth."

"...."

"...."

After a few seconds of staring at each other, she sighs before leaving the room.

Fortunately, it seems that she didn't just ignore me and decided to support me, since after placing the trunk in front of me, she handed me a red key in the shape of an axe... guitar? Confusing, but in a cool way.

"If that's what you've chosen, fine. But you should know that this book is strange... every time I leave it in the box, hours later, I forget it exists."

"Thanks for scaring me, dear witch mother."

Ignoring the mortified look she shot me in the back of the head, I opened the trunk, which, against any expectations I might have had, simply dissolved into thin air, leaving behind a book, the same book my mother had been holding moments before, and a...

"Axe-Guitar?" 

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Good evening, kind people of the internet~

It's me again!

This time, faster than my mother when she beat up my father if he was late... Love is strange from the outside.

Speaking of love, unlike the relationship between Hunson and Elise in the Canon, Lilian just seduced Hudson, stole the family "heirloom" and disappeared off the map.

No, he doesn't even know of little Marshall's existence, or even give Lilian a book or trunk, she just stole it as "compensation for damage" caused, but the fancy trunk was nothing more or less than the items that should have been his in the first place.

In Hunson's vision, a hurricane called 'Leah' entered his life, wreaked havoc on his mind and disappeared.

Random trivia: Lilian used to love lying to Marshall about absurd things, but the feeling has gradually faded.

That's all, I hope the middle isn't too weird, since the transition from present > Memories > present, was made to generate confusion... I swear.

Arrivederci~