Horns?

Kaji couldn't help but smile. He had a divine protection, and a really good one. He looked at the book and started thinking of a place where he could put it or hide it, but the moment he thought about it. The book started shining, and before he knew it, it was gone. He was surprised, but decided to try thinking of having it in his hand once more, and the book appeared. Kaji didn't think about it anymore and wished the book away.

He rose from his bed and touched his horns. He felt strange, but he knew that he had them because of his own choice, when creating the character. In this village, the oni would grow their horns when preparing for battle, or when they needed to use their magical power. While manifested, an Oni's horns would awaken their instincts and act as a gate that allowed the Oni to absorb mana from the atmosphere, significantly increasing its ferocity and physical abilities. If an Oni over-exerted themselves while manifesting its horns, it was likely that the recoil would render them weak.

But for Kaji, it was different, his horns didn't do anything like that, until he activated them, he knew how to do it, but there was just no need to do it right now. He couldn't do anything about his horns, so he decided to just go with it. Kaji looked around the room and found himself a bucket with water. He usually uses it to wash his face in the morning but now he just wanted to see his reflection, he wanted to see how he looked with horns.

As he peered into the water he saw himself, he looked at himself, and surprisingly the horns only gave him charm. He was happy with his looks but he wondered what would be the reaction of his parents or the village chief. Kaji looked out the window to see that the sun was slowly rising. He walked out of his room and walked into the kitchen, where he saw his father preparing his bow, and arrows. Kurai finished up with the maintenance of his bow and heard someone coming into the kitchen. He turned his head to see Kaji, but his eyes opened wide when he saw his son.

Kurai was frozen for a couple of moments, he saw black horns growing out of his son's head. He didn't know what happened but decided to ask Kaji about it.

"Kaji, why do you have black horns on your head?" Kurai asked while tilting his head.

"I have no idea I just woke up with them." Kaji answered him, with a smile.

"But this might be something of importance, so let's go and visit the chief before we go hunting." Kuari said while standing up.

Kaji nodded and the two exited their house and walked towards the house where the chief resided. After a couple of minutes, the two were standing before the door to the chief's house. Kurai knocked on the door and, after a couple of seconds entered the house, while Kaji followed after him. The chief was sitting in a chair in a big room while smoking, there was a pipe in his mouth when the two of them entered the room.

"Chief, there's something that happened to Kaji, and we came to ask you whether you know what it means." Kurai said as he entered the room.

"To Kaji, what could have happened to him, let me see him." The chief said while puffing out a cloud of smoke.

Kaji entered the room, and he could see the old man's eyes widened the moment he saw his black horns. Kaji didn't speak, he and Kurai waited till the chief calmed down a bit. But the unexpected happened, the chief stood up and walked toward the boy, he looked at his horns carefully.

"I don't know what this is, but I can only assume it's a blessing of our gods, perhaps the boy was chosen to be the next leader of this tribe, or maybe something more. I don't know, but it doesn't seem like anything bad, Kaji keep an eye on your horns, and if something happens tell me alright?" The chief asked the boy.

"Well, I'll tell you if I feel something strange." Kaji said.

"Good." The old man said before sitting down on his chair yet again.

After talking with the chief, the father and son went out into the forest to hunt. Kaji followed his father and soon the two saw a stag. The two of them didn't talk as, Kurai took off his bow from his back, and handed it to Kaji. Kaji was trained how to use a bow by the chief, but this was his first time killing a living being. After taking a couple of deep breaths, he calmed his heart down and pulled the string of the bow slowly while holding an arrow pointed at the animal.

He steadied his breathing, as he aimed at the stag in the distance, the distance was about 250 meters. Kaji exhaled and stopped breathing, so his aim wouldn't be of the target, and after a moment he let go of the string of the bow. The arrow flew through the air as it moved with incredible speed, it only took one moment for the arrow to hit the head of the animal, killing it instantly. Kaji trembled while seeing the animal fall, but his father looked at him with a bit of awe, after all this was his first time seeing a five-year-old capable of doing something like this.

After calming down Kaji and his father walked to the animal. Soon the two of them were looking at the dead animal, Kaji couldn't help but feel a bit conflicted but with a shake of his head, he decided not to think about it.

"Good job!" Kurai said while patting his son's shoulder, he couldn't help but be proud of him.