Katsurou set off in the dead of night, wearing dark clothes that Xenia had got for him in town after they had said goodbye to Rian.

The clothes and the color of his wings concealed him on this night, where the moon was only half visible.

As he gained height, he marveled at the geography of Hestia. It was just this tiny speck, surrounded on three sides by the Maiden’s Forest, as if it was being swallowed by some great Beast.

Sighing, thinking of the residents who were crazy enough to live their and the woman crazy enough to live in the Forest itself, Katsurou aimed homeward.

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Shouts announced his return as he landed in the early morning hours. The guards manning the walls took steps forwards to greet him before he gave them a glare to stay put. Instead, they saluted him and returned to pretending to watch the perimeter. He sighed, but dispelled the shadows that made up his wings and stepped into the center of the compound as people rolled out of bed at the guard’s shouts and saw him.

“My lord!”

“Katsurou-sama!”

“Uncle Katsurou!”

He let the children glomp him, patting heads and cuddling them close since he wasn’t wearing armor. But his gaze was on his adult clanmates.

“I’m fine,” he said calmly to the rapid-fire questions of the children. “I just got a little lost. Go back to bed, yes?”

At some point, parents ushered their children back into their houses, trusting the rest of the Akuma members to tell them the story.

One child stayed with her mother, silently clinging to her spider-lily kimono, the woman well put together despite the early hour.

He inclined his head to her. “O-kaa-sama.”

“Katsurou.”

“Hanabi-chan.”

Hanabi, the child, waved shyly.

He turned to his people. “I am fine, as I said. I’ll explain what happened to the elders and my sentinels at a more reasonable hour. As for now, I’d like to spend time with my family.”

There were titters of displeasure, but the crows slowly dispersed.

He strode over to the woman and child and ushered them inside. “Let’s go, it’s cold.”

Hanabi gave him the pouted and signed I’m fine, but Katsurou returned the look with his own.

“Let’s go,” he repeated.

The three walked inside the main house.

As soon as the door slid shut, Katsurou let out a long sigh.

“Goddess below,” he muttered, rubbing his temples.

“Are you alright?” Karina asked, crossing her arms. Hanabi walked a little unsteadily to Katsurou, grabbing his leg and curling over it like a barnacle. “What happened?”

“I was stupid.” Katsurou sighed. “I was tired after the trip and stopped at a local inn. A rabid Volkodlak sniffed me out and took a swipe at me.”

Karina hissed, striding over to him to touch his face and neck, looking for something wrong. “You were most definitely poisoned by him.”

“I was.”

“How are you still standing? Fuck that, how did you fly over here?”

“This is the part where I was really stupid.” Katsurou winced. “He was hunting me and I wasn’t thinking straight, to be completely fair to me—“

“Oh?”

Oh, he was in so much trouble.

“I may have run into the Maiden’s Forest to escape him.”

Karina smacked his chest. “What? You idiot!”

“Ow?” He rubbed his chest, eying her fingertips. Her nails weren’t painted, which meant she hadn’t poisoned them, allegedly. “I was lucky.” He admitted quietly. “Someone stupider than me found me and dragged me back to her house to heal me.”

Karina squinted at him. “Explain.” She said flatly.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“There’s this town called Hestia. They live almost in the Maiden’s Forest, they’re so close to it. But there’s this one woman there who actually does live there. And, she’s some sort of witch or something, because she’s without a Bloodline and yet she’s Blood, and her Magic allows her to heal people.”

Karina looked distinctly unamused. “I don’t pull the stepmother card because I’m nice, but I swear to the Goddess if you don’t start talking—“

“I just talked!” He squawked.

“No, you just told me a lie.”

“I didn’t though! I’m telling the truth. Ack— stop it!”

I think he’s telling the truth, Hanabi signed after snapping her fingers at her mother, who was currently trying to take off her geta to throw it at Katsurou. No one just comes up with that kind of excuse.

“I resent that.”

Or I could let mom hit you.

“I’m being dead serious, Karina.” Katsurou straightened. “I don’t know who or what this woman is, but I watched her mix her own blood in a Wolfsbane potion and used it to treat me and— and seal me, apparently. Look,” he held up the edge of his shirt for her to inspect.

Lightly, she touched the pink, new skin where the gash would’ve been.

“…you won’t even have a scar,” she marveled, stepping back.

“I know.” He glanced at Hanabi. “Hanabi-chan… would you mind going back to your room?”

She scowled. Yes, I would very much mind.

“Okay, well, now it’s an order. Go to your room. I need to discuss something with your mother.”

Her eye twitched, and she raised her hands to sign once again.

“I’m not saying this as your brother, I’m saying this as your clan head. Be not here for a bit.”

A flash of hurt spread over her face, making a pang of guilt shoot through him, but she turned on her heel and disappeared into the shadows of the house.

“This is unlike you.”

“I don’t want to get her hopes up.” He turned back to Karina. “Karina, I think… I think maybe this woman could heal Hanabi.”

Karina’s already pale face went gray. “What are you talking about?”

“She healed me with Magic. And we know that it’s Magic that’s crippling Hanabi.”

Magically, Hanabi was a powerhouse. But she was wracked constantly by fevers and tremors. They had started off relatively mild, but they realized they got worse the more they trained Hanabi with the other children to control her Magic. They had to pull her out of the lessons, making her more ostracized than she already was with her muteness.

Honestly… the only reason she hadn’t been put to death in her infancy was because of she was part of the head family. Under his father’s regime, there was no place for weakness.

Not when his son was as close to a demi-god you could get. Or so his father had believed. No, his son needed a strong Bloodline to support him.

And though his father was gone, the elderly advisers who had put that poison in his father’s mind were still there.

“It could make her worse.” Karina shot back. “Magic we have no idea about? You know better than this, Magic from differing Bloodlines don’t mix, it’s dangerous. You were so lucky, Katsurou, that this woman’s Magic happened to be close enough to Akuma or Tengu Magic that it didn’t hurt you, but you could have died. That woman is a damn fool.”

“Of course I know better,” he snapped, “I wouldn’t suggest this if I wasn’t at least somewhat sure.”

“Somewhat sure?” She scoffed. “Oh, very comforting.”

“Karina—“

“No. We’re already in a precarious position, I won’t let some foolish witch who doesn’t know better than to stick her Blood and Magic in other people make it worse, or Goddess forbid, kill my daughter. Your sister, no less.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she jabbed a finger into his chest. “You are untouchable, Katsurou. Me and Hanabi are not. It would do you good to remember that before it’s too fucking late.”

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Karina had stormed out of the house, claiming that she needed a moment with her pipe. Katsurou was left in the house, exhausted and more than a little peeved at Karina’s stubbornness.

In the end, it was Karina’s choice. And, he reasoned, how would he feel if someone just came up to him talking about a maybe quack healer who could cure anything? It was a known impossibility, Katsurou would send them on their merry way after laughing at them.

But it wasn’t just any stranger. It was Katsurou. Though Karina was officially his step-mother, they considered each other to be more like siblings, partners in crime who had to deal with the pressing stares of the elders and Katsurou’s father’s spiraling insanity.

So here he lay, in his room, steaming a bit, when a quiet knock sounded on the door.

“Come in,” he called.

Hanabi peeked her head inside.

Nii-sama? She signed.

“Hey, Hanabi.” He sat up. “What’s wrong?”

She shifted on her feet uneasily. You know how you told me to go away while you talked to kaa-sama?

He sighed. “You didn’t?”

She shook her head sheepishly.

He groaned and stood up, back creaking a bit. What had he expected from an eight year old, really?

She didn’t flinch when he approached her, trusting him to just muss up her hair.

Stop, she signed half-heartedly.

“Mm, no, brother privileges.” He sighed again and squatted down in front of her. “I’m sorry you had to hear me and your mother fight.”

She shook her head. It’s fine. But she wasn’t looking him in the eye when she said it.

“Doesn’t seem fine.”

I don’t want to be the reason you two fight.

“Please, it was barely a fight. If it was a fight, I’d be dead.”

Yeah, probably. Her fingers twitched as she thought of what to say. I want to see the witch lady.

His brows rose. “Really?”

Yes. If only to say thank you for saving you.

He shrugged. “You’re still light enough for me to carry,” something that worried him and Karina endlessly, “but you’ll have to ask and convince your mother. She is not the way I want to die.” Because it would hurt. Badly.

“No need,” both he and Hanabi glanced up as Karina strode down the hall, the sickly sweet scent of her pipe clinging to her.

She crossed her arms and looked at her daughter. “You really want to go?”

If only to get out of here, Hanabi signed, scowling, I’m sick of this place.

Both he and Karina winced.

“Xenia, that’s the witch, said something about a Blood Moon celebration next week.”

Karina frowned. “Who the hell celebrates a Blood Moon?”

Katsurou shrugged. “A couple Bloodlines do, maybe she was raised by one of them. She also mentioned something about siblings…” and how they had all passed.

Perhaps that was what was going on. There were once more like Xenia, but they had all died, leaving Xenia as the only member of her Bloodline.

He glanced back at Karina. “I think you and her may have something in common.”

“Wha— oh.” Karina’s face fell. “Well. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to visit if Hanabi really wants to. But I reserve the right to take us away whenever I want.”

“Fair enough.”