Chapter 23: Hybrids × 3

Black Market

??? POV

"YES HARDER!! DEEPER! MAKE IT HURT!!", I yelled in utter delight as I felt the sloth poke hole with his dermograph through the skin of my thigh as he tattooed a melon leaf over one of my constantly appearing and hateful leopard spots. Blood was spurting like a fountain on him.

I blushed like a schoolgirl in her first heat, as I felt the pleasurable agony go through my body. Making me shudder in pleasure. My life was getting better. I found the little hybrid I was looking for. 

It was easy to become a teacher, making the previous one take an early forceful retirement and have falsified papers. 

Sadly it was only a small animal, an old mouse, freshly entering in his 45 years old, very old for a mouse since they live at max 50 years, he was grumpy, a good orator, and he liked soya milk with chocolate.

What I mean is that I could only make one smoothie with his body… And it tasted. as usual… just like sand. I know this since I tasted sand to compare. Everything I eat tastes like sand.

The only thing that made me feel alive is pain. Pain is only indiscriminate proof of life… and poor Cahaya is forbidden from ever having this part of life, on the physical level. That is. 

I want to talk to him, to talk about our life, our family… Ahh, now I remember my Mama. Oh, the nostalgia. I remember that day as if it was yesterday.

I was ten years old at the time. When I came back from school, the teacher asked us to find the origin of our name. As a name was the first act of love a parent made for their child.

I was in our old house, it was disposed of like a fairytale, a tiny dream castle where everything was 'perfect', sickeningly fake and only made to maintain an illusion of normalcy. I abhor that house.

I remember innocently asking my Mama, 'Mama what does my name mean?'

She stopped ironing the cloth and turned in my direction, her fake smile she always wore was gone, she said, 'Melons are not fruits nor vegetables. But they still taste good. You are not a carnivore nor a herbivore. But I still want you to live a life that's as sweet as melons.'

She declared this with her true face, the one of a predator looking at its prey. 

It was the first time she talked about my status as a hybrid. While also insinuating that my life would be perfect, she sugarcoated everything, making my situation seem light, that all of the bullying and things suffered through were irrelevant to her. As if she wasn't at fault for so many of these problems.

'But why?', I asked her. My ears were folding backwards, she scared and angered me.

'Because you have your Papa's eyes and I love them very much for it. I love those frightened eyes and that frail body.

They are the very essence of a herbivore beauty. Melon… you seem delicious just your Papa', she then added that she ate my Papa.

I snapped and murdered her with the iron on the table. By basing her head multiple with it, tainting this little dreamland with blood. I stared at Mama's lifeless body and called the police and said with fake grief, 'Hello? *hick* Is this the police? Som-meone just bro-broke into our house and *hick* they ki-ki-killed… my Mama, please, please I ne-eed help, I don't know what to do. I want my Mama back.'

It wasn't the first time I killed someone, the first was when I threw a bunch of bullies in middle school from the sixth floor of said School. I finally started this need to kill, but I wanted more.

I did this because they wanted to know if my Papa's genes were stronger or weaker than my Mama's genes by making me jump from the top of the school and see if I could survive.

"Holger-san, you won't believe what I heard yesterdaAHHH YESSS!!", I moaned as he reached a particularly sensitive nerve. I clenched my left twisted horn with my left hand as my eyes rolled back.

I talked about what I have done as the new teacher in animal psychology, a domain I particularly mastered since I did this job to kill poor little elephants that complained that their poor life was so hard. They intimidated others, Oh tragic!

At least their ivory is valuable.

How my colleagues, we're more or less interesting, a salamander in particular. And possibly Cahaya's father. I'm not jealous. Things can change in a heartbeat.

How Cahaya massacred everyone that attacked him at the Plaza. 'Heroically' sacrificing himself for others. My little slip of information was at least entertaining and very informative.

Four hours later my new tattoo was finished and I said my goodbye to Holger. I'm his only client since the other animals can't take losing a bit of blood and die, he has probably killed more animals than me.

The latter responded, "Oh it's you Melon. Good afternoon..."

I chuckled as I limped out, my wound will heal swiftly, sloths are a bit slow on the uptake. Greeting four hours too late and missing what time it is. Sloths are a defective species, how did they even survive the wars?

_______________________

Cherryton Academy 

Cahaya POV

I slithered out of my bed, yawning as I did so.

I looked on my smartphone and saw that I got an anonymous message that demand my presence in three at the old Shishigumi headquarter and that I don't inform anyone.

'Finally.', I thought as I turned of my phone.

I examined my body, again to notice that my new set of arms only grew a bit bigger. They started to look like a larva version of my current fully grown ones, but even smaller. They were sadly still useless.

Cherryton Academy was currently shut down, there weren't classes nor clubs, Louis was still missing with another student named Pino something he or she was a Dall sheep and might be dead.

I hope Louis didn't die. That would be very unpleasant. I will go look for him since I have free time. Gohin will help me, his opinion having little importance in it.

I took a blue shirt with large and short sleeves and clothed myself. My hood and gills shifted a bit in discomfort as the shirt was pressing against my growing arms.

I already informed my Dad about my current physical change yesterday. He wasn't shocked but seemed resigned and had a grave air around him, he seemed to have already anticipated what I would have asked him. 

He said to do what I wanted but that I need to wait until the school is fully operational again, if possible. 

He was worried about me. He truly cared about me and I cared about him just as much.

He didn't exactly know why it was happening, but both of us knew that it was tied to my heritage.

Larvae of axolotls when born are totally limbless and only grow them later as they age, like tadpoles. However, I was born with two arms. 

This new set of limbs currently growing might be tied to the lack of them growing when I was younger.

Or/and I might be going through a sort of metamorphosis, the stress I felt when Dad was kidnapped might be the cause of it.

And frankly, hybrids are simply weird and seem to mutate really easily. Me seemingly being one of the ones with more potential to do so. I don't know if it's a good or bad news 

_______________________

In the male washroom.

5 hours later.

I cleaned my hands. I accidentally broke one finger earlier when writing and it was poking out. The whole paper was ruined and I will need to redo it all over again.

It was just an annoyance, something that happened regularly. But losing control of my strength was quite the scary prospect, I could hurt Dad and the one I care about.

 Then I felt the vibration of someone walking behind me.

'Hmmm, it's Legoshi going by how his footsteps feel…', I thought as I faced the 'grey wolf' coming in, he wore a black winter glove on his left paw. Hiding his reptilian fingers, understandable. I smiled and waved my hand at him in greeting.

He approached looking incredibly serious, his muscles tense, eyes staring right into my own, his face stone cold. 

He suddenly slammed his forehead on the ground so hard that he started to bleed and that it actually cracked it, he was making a dogeza. His tail was down and the same with his ears.

I was greatly confused.