Ken.
Hide escorted Ken back home without using his car. After Ken's mother passed away, his aunt took him in as it was obligatory rather than from a place of love. His aunt had a son who was in the same age bracket as Ken but had different interests than Ken.
Her son would often spend time in front of the television playing video games while Ken was more of a bookworm. Ken liked to read different works of literature since they provided gateways to experience otherworlds created by different authors through their writings and his imagination.
He never once believed or imagined himself to be a main character since he thought that the story would end up being a tragedy.
Ken's mother always helped her sister financially even though she overworked herself constantly and was barely making ends meet. She often took out her anger in the form of physical abuse on Ken. She eventually passed away due to overworking herself and her sister had to take Ken in.
One would think that her sister (Ken's aunt) would treat Ken well after all the financial aid she received from her sister, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.
There were times she would go into his room and rip his books apart or throw them in the dustbin. Ken's life can be described as one of living the 'Cinderella experience' before she had her happily ever after.
Hide understood that they were both orphans, but Ken's burden seemed heavier than his even with Shuu intervening in his life. The only fault he has is maturing too early, he understood the world of adults and the laws of give and take. That's one of the reasons he doesn't want Ken to bear his burden alone.
"Looks like we are here." Hide sighed and slapped Ken on his back playfully.
"Indeed. I don't mean to pry but, your driver has been following us all the way home. They must really love you, haha." Ken chuckled as he pointed to his driver who fell into the rubbish bin for some reason.
Hide limited himself to a face slap and sighed deeply. Because of his new and enhanced senses, he could tell that the driver was indeed following them from the start.
'They must really love me enough not to let their new asset wander off.' Hide thought and escorted Ken to his door in an apartment complex.
"Oh, and thanks for the meal. Tell whoever cooked it that they did a wonderful job and should open a-" Ken smiled and leaned in to whisper to Hide since he didn't want his aunt to hear it in case she was at the door.
"Ah, whatever, see you in school tomorrow then." Hide smiled back and ran down the stairs.
"Took you long enough." the driver snorted when he saw Hide exit the apartment complex.
"You are one to talk, you can't even do your job properly and got spotted by a normal person. And you smell." Hide said as he covered his nose with his hand and walked away from him.
"Fine, I'll use the public bathhouse here. Just wait for me." The driver soon left Hide after that and ventured out for his latest objective.
Meanwhile, Hide found an empty and sat on it and thought about his last conversation with Shuu.
'Ghouls trying to live amongst humans, how laughable.' Hide thought but was interrupted by a slender boy with round glasses holding a flyer.
"My guts tell me that you are way more than meets the eye. I think you will make a fine detective for our club" the boy said cheerfully as he invaded Hide's personal space.
"Senpai, I think you normally start with an introduction first." Hide replied, he felt a tinge of anger build up in him but gave it no heed.
"Ah, that's true. I'm Kiyama, you can just call me Kiyama." Kiyama felt a bit embarrassed for not introducing himself but got over it quickly.
"At least you can learn. Just call me Hide, and I'm not interested." Hide replied but was surprised by the manner in which he replied, normally he is cool and level-headed but this was not expected.
"A little feisty huh? Anyway, we are a ghoul research club. We investigate those that we suspect are ghouls and anything occult, so we might be an occult research club actually." Kiyama appeared in thought, scribbled something in the flyer, and placed it near Hide.
"I hope to hear from you orange hair!" Kiyama said out loud and waved him goodbye as he left the premises.
'what is wrong with me? The way I sounded earlier, and the anger I felt. This isn't normal, am I really not human?' Hide thought as he stared at his raised hands in question.
"Alright kiddo, I'm back let's leave." The driver came back smelling much better with spring fragrance and a change of clothes. Hide sighed, kept that thought aside, and followed him to the car.
The time of graduation for the outer disciples was just a matter of days and Mark's group was sharper than ever. They trained harder each day amongst themselves, running combat drills, throwing themselves from a height they could from the mountain only to try and land gracefully. At this point, the cauldron runs were just a jog down a rocky hill for them. Bob noted this in his note where he registers the outer disciple's data without partiality toward any student.
Bob might be a snub but he carried out his duty as a fellow clansman to the book. Torvald also made improvements in his cauldron runs, he wasn't as smooth as Mark's group but he was better than most of the outer disciples. As for combat drills, nobody wanted to practice with him except for one, 'the newbie'.
Shuu knew the odds had been against him since he was inducted into the clan but he practiced the cauldron runs day and night and went without food for a whole week without losing himself. Bob noted this down as well even though he picked on Shuu from time to time, he eventually instructed the seniors who came to serve food at night to reserve three servings for him. Mark and his group also noticed that their potential recruit had starved himself for the sake of catching up to them but were not chanced to leave him a serving since he was always going up and down the mountain and only came back to rest when everyone was sleeping.
"Are you sure you want to spar with me?" Torvald asked, towering over Shuu with a blank expression.
"Everyone has already divided themselves into groups to practice combat drills as instructed by senior Bob, and we are the only ones left. Don't worry, I don't break easy." Shuu remarked wearing a smirk on his face.
"Then let's have some fun shall we?" Torvald smiled and cracked his fists.
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