Chapter 5

"Oh, you're finally here. What, do you want to fight me and lose again?" Joana said, glaring at Hanna. "...no, I won't. Just letting you know, though, if I could fight you you'd be begging for forgiveness.." Hanna said, smirking and standing in front of Joana. "What are you waiting for? An apology? Well, that's the last thing that's going to come out of my mouth." Joana said, looking away from Hanna. "Why??? Is it so hard to apologize???" Hanna said, glaring at Joana. "It was a sparring match, Hanna. You could've given up at any time." Joana said sharply. "You… Look, I don't care if you say sorry to me but you have to apologize to Raine! You almost killed her!" Hanna yelled. "No. Again, you can forfeit a sparring match at any time. Plus, she's a hybrid, she can at least take that much." Joana said flatly. "Again with you excusing your actions because she's a hybrid! She's a cool teammate, so what's the harm?!" Hanna exclaimed, getting annoyed. "What's the harm?! She could kill any of us at any time, or lure us into a trap, and you want to keep a monster like that in our group?!" Joana said, getting closer to Hanna. "What is your problem?! You hate Raine but she's done absolutely nothing to you! In fact, she's helped us so far! Remember that orc? What about when she saved those two people! I've forgiven her, why can't you?!" Hanna yelled, grabbing Joana by her shirt collar.

"Don't tell me you want to fight here. Also, you'd better back off. It's my job to keep you all safe, but you keep making it harder for me every time you do something stupid, like this. All demons are the same. She's just trying to gain our trust and then she'll just kill us off." Joana said. "That's not true!" Hanna yelled in protest. Do you really want to risk your life for a monster!? I know how deceitful they can be, and I'm not letting one of those monsters take away the only family I have left!!!" Joana said, glaring at Hanna. "She's not like that! She's still half-human, y'know!" Hanna yelled at her. "Half-human?! You're really saying that after one of those 'half-humans' killed our fucking parents?! Really?! We know better than anyone that all they see us as is food, regardless of if they're 'half human' or not!!!" Joana screamed, though her voice was shaky and her eyes were filled with tears. Hanna paused, not knowing what to say. "...Look, I know how you feel. I tried to kill Raine at the first chance I got because I was mad. Still, I can't just ignore how much kindness she's shown me." Hanna said, standing firm. "You were 9, Hanna. You were 9 and that monster took your parents. I let that monster… Ugh, just leave! Go back to that monster!" Joana said, going into her room. Hanna sighed and sat down in her room.

"... Go away," Joana said to Hanna. "Nope. You're my big sister. If I let my sister cry and go party with everyone, can I really call myself your family?" Hanna said. "... I'll summon a golem if you don't leave," Joana said. "Ha! Do you think you can trick me with that empty threat? I know your body just as well as you do, and I think we both know that when you use excessive amounts of magic it hurts you." Hanna said, smirking. "...The only reason why I can't is that this is a wooden building that's not strong enough to hold up my golems. Now go away." Joana said, starting to cry. "Hey, could you at least let me into the room?" Hanna said, putting her hand on the door. "...Just go. I don't want you to see me like this…" Joana said, her voice weak and small. "...I'm sorry," Hanna said, getting up and trudging back to her room. She opened the door to see Tina on top of Raine and Raine freaking out. They both stopped after hearing the door squeak and looked at Hanna. They all looked at each other for a few seconds, not sure what to do or how to react. "I'm sorry, I must've come in at the wrong time…" Hanna said, laughing awkwardly as she started leaving and closing the door.

Raine turned bright red and rushed over to the door, grabbing Hanna. "W-Wait! I swear it's not what you think! Please don't get the wrong idea!" Raine yelled, trying to stop Hanna from getting away. "Alright, alright, I'll come in and listen," Hanna said, walking in and sitting on the bed. "Thank you so much! Tina, please tell Hanna what happened!!!" Raine said, ruching over to Tina. "Okay, I'll tell her. Hanna… we've been keeping a big secret from you all this time…" Tina started, turning to Hanna and acting nervous and embarrassed. "What do you mean?" Hanna said, going along with it. "We're a couple! We were about to explore a very new world!" Tina said, hugging Raine. "Vast horizons? A couple? What do those mean?" Raine said, looking at them and trying to get Tina off. "It means that you two are dating. They grow up so fast!" Hanna said, laughing. Raine stared at Hanna for a second, trying to remember what 'dating' was. When she remembered, her face got even redder and she tried getting away. "W-Wait, that's not true!!! I didn't agree to this! I like friends better!!!" Raine said, panicking.

"Wow, pretty upfront about it. Well, you heard her Tina, you've just been sentenced to the friendzone." Hanna said, laughing as she went over to the duo to try to pry them apart. "Noooo I don't wanna leave her!" Tina said, grabbing onto Raine for dear life. "Geez, how crazy is your grip strength? How can you have more grip strength than actual strength, that makes no sense!" Hanna said, trying her best to get them apart. "Let me help you!" Raine said, moving around until she was facing Tina. "Get behind Tina, I have an idea!" Raine said. Hanna did as she was told. Raine pushed away from Tina with her arms and used her legs to anchor her to the ground. Hanna pulled Tina away. After a little bit of struggling, Raine got away. "I thought that was my last-" Raine started, interrupted by a knock on their door. Raine went over to open it, seeing Joana. Her eyes were puffy and she was slightly flushed. "Guys, we have a mission. I'd like for you to hold down the fort, Raine. You must be injured from our little spar and I wouldn't want you slowing us down. Everyone else, let's go." Joana said, walking away. Raine said her goodbyes to everyone and closed the door behind them. She then plopped onto her bed.

"...I have a feeling I have to apologize…I know that they'll hate me if they knew where I came from… Or what my dad did…" Raine said, remembering one of the only memories of her parents. Her dad was a gigantic demon, one with extraordinary power. He was the only one of her parents that she remembers. "It's simple, you're a failure." His voice echoed. Raine covered her ears, though that did nothing. She closed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face as she remembered her dad always training her in demonic arts. Up until she was 15. When she was 15, her dad ordered her to destroy a vibrant village. Raine had obliterated deserted villages before, but never one with so much life. She couldn't, and that was the last straw. After her dad called her a failure and cast her aside, she ran away and cried as she watched her dad burn away the life in the village. She forced her eyes open as the screams of the villagers echoed in her head. She looked down, seeing that she'd turned into her demon form. She had long nails and got a huge growth spurt, along with a pointed tail and curly, ram-like horns. Her hair got red tips on it and was long and her eyes were black with red irises. She also had her demon outfit, a suit with a red rose.

"Ugh… This form again…" Raine said, snapping her fingers and changing back to her normal form. "I'll have to get that in check, but first I should try to make myself useful," Raine said, grabbing a cloak she found as she left her room. She went out into the town and ran into a young girl who was crying and running away from something. "M-Monster!!! Help, please!!!" The girl screamed, falling and passing out. Everyone noticed this, but no one moved. Raine didn't have time to notice that since she rushed over to the girl and saw a giant gash on her back. "She needs a doctor!!! Where is the clinic?!" Raine said, turning to the crowd. They were all silent until one young man burst onto the scene. "Lily?! Lily!!! W-What happened?!" The boy said, running over. "She came running and asked for help. Can you get the doctor?" Raine asked. "Y-Yeah! I'll be right back, hold on, Lily!!!" The boy said, running off to get the doctor. Raine heard loud screeches and yells in the distance and looked. It was a hoard of monsters rushing at the town.

Raine was a bit shocked, but she soon got her wits about her and stood up, starting to walk towards the hoard. "One of you guard this child or her life will be one every single one of your hands! I have to do my job!" Raine yelled at the crowd. She then materialized her sword and started running at the hoard of monsters. At this point, the villagers could see the monsters and most of them ran away, going to their homes to secure their things and protect their children. One woman, however, went over to the girl and stayed with her, checking her vitals. At this point, Raine was almost at the horde and she decided that there were too many of them to just kill them normally. She went into her demon form and focused, remembering one of the many destructive spells her dad taught her. She put her hands on the ground, saying <Soul Spikes> as pitch-black spikes came out of the ground, impaling the monsters. They were silent and deadly, impaling each of the monsters' hearts and killing them. The catch is that demonic spells drain the caster's soul. She winced as she made as many spikes as she needed to kill all of the monsters.

She collapsed to the ground as the corrupted souls of all the monsters flew to Raine. Most demons don't kill monsters using demonic arts because they can't harvest their souls. The souls just get cleansed of their corruption and fade away, and these souls did the same thing. They swirled around her, first as a black mass and then as a blur of white. They then shot up into the sky, fading away. Raine got up weakly, unable to gather enough energy to turn back into her human form. She put on her cloak and went back into the village, making sure to keep her distance from everyone. She saw the girl being looked at by the village doctor and she sighed a breath of relief. She saved someone. She walked over to them, crouching down to speak to the doctor. "Hello, sir. Do you think that she'll be okay?" Raine asked, looking down at the unconscious girl. She now had bandages wrapped around her wounds and she looked less pained. "She'll be fine. What about you, young lady?" The doctor asked with a smile. "I'm fine, thank you for asking," Raine said, smiling back.

She quickly drew back, remembering that she has fangs in her demon form. She got up and walked over to the marketplace of the town. She gasped when she saw the carnage that the market district was in. "No wonder they all ran. This has happened before…" Raine said, getting sad. She decided to start helping, cleaning up the rotten food and stacking up the wooden planks sprawled across the ground. The villagers must have seen her doing this because a few of them came and helped her. Once Raine was finished, she turned and started walking back to the inn. Before she could get there, the boy who went to get the doctor rushed up to Raine and hugged her. "Thank you so much for saving Lily!!! Thank you so much!!!" The boy exclaimed. "Well, it's my job. I'm an adventurer. Plus, Lily would have probably been more hurt if you hadn't gotten the doctor. Good job." Raine said. "Um... if it's not too much trouble... can I see under your hood?" The boy said. "Hm... Well, sure. I guess it'll be a learning experience." Raine said, shifting her hood a bit so that the boy could see her face.

The boy gasped, taking a step back. "Yeah, I thought it would go like this. I'll leave-" Raine started, cut off by the boy hugging her again. "I didn't know there were good demons! That's so cool!" The boy said. Raine laughed a bit, patting the boy's head. "Well, I have to go now. I do want you to remember something though. No matter who or what someone is, there's always a sleeping hero in them. You just have to wake that hero up." Raine said, putting her hood back on and going into the inn. She smiled to herself, happy that she could help the village. She then walked back to her room and stayed there. "There are so many souls here. I guess the con to being in my demon form is that I can see all of them, but it takes energy to change back... I guess I'll keep the cloak on and sleep, just in case they come in." Raine said, laying down on her bed. Right then, almost to spite her, Hanna opened the door. A heavy silence filled the room as Hanna's amber eyes met with Raine's darkened ones.