The Tale of Raskaya: reincarnated into an unknown world

3. The cloaked Monster

The smoke surrounding the cloaked monster, that was standing in front of little Raskaya, suddenly disappeared and revealed the parts visible under the cloak.

It was a man with an ordinary body, who was properly dressed in a top and trousers (both in black) leaving the arms bare, which had perfectly normal skin. The only unusual part of him that was visible while he was still wearing his cloak, were his black fingernails, which weren't even claws or anything other monster like.

He bowed down, picked up the child and looked at it.

Its hair had two colours which switched every few strands, dark blue and black, and was very short. Because of this its ears were clearly visible and it was obvious to see that the baby had pointed ears. The eyes were just as unusual if not even more considering that not only did they have different colours, golden and silver, with pastel blue rings in the iris surrounding the pupils, but even more so because of the left silver eye suddenly turning golden as well.

It was obvious that this baby could under no circumstances be human.

But actually that didn't really surprise the man who held it as neither he himself nor the parents of the child were really human either (though now that he thought about, every one else who died was).
Yes, he knew exactly who the people were that he killed tonight.
It was after all a long planned deed.
But he didn't expect the child to be actually born before he set the plan in motion.

Huh...
What should I do with you now?, he thought.
I guess, I could just adopt and raise this baby as my own...
the others are not likely to be against it either...
He looked at the cute little baby a while longer while it stared back at him. Then he finally said out loud:
"Okay little Shinra Raskaya, now that your parents are dead I will take you in and be your new father. But just so you know, you won't be able to keep that name, it will be Akabane Raskaya from now on.", he decided with a little nod at the end.

The child which couldn't comprehend what happened right after its birth up until that point, smiled at the man whose name seemed to be Akabane when he took it into his arms and started to gently rock it into sleep.

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Akabane started his journey with the baby back to his home.
They were wandering through the forest and arrived after a few days. It was a big but not huge house with a black facade that was hidden by densely standing trees surrounding it. The house was likely to have enough space for up to five people and was deep inside the forest, unlikely to be found on accident.

Akabane stepped up to the door and unlocked it with his keys. In contrast to the black facade the interior of the house had a comforting cream colour, a fluffy carpet, calming wooden furniture and a soft looking couch.

He walked into what appeared to be the living room and laid baby Raskaya down on a soft armchair. Then he took of his cloak, revealing what was until then hidden of his appearance.

He had dark brown hair which reached down to his hips, cat eyes in a deep green and a young and beautiful, but mostly emotionless face. But the most surprising feature of his were his black feathered wings which in their folded state reached up to his shoulders and down to his feet.
He was a crow tengu, a certain type of yokai who are sometimes called demons as well.

Akabane put his cloak properly away and then came back and sat down on the couch with Raskaya in his arms. He gave the baby a gentle smile.
Shortly after, trampling on stairs could be heard, followed by another person showing up. It was an equally young looking man who had a little more boyish looking features. He had orange hair and blue eyes, but more prominent were his animal ears standing out of his messy hair and the tail looking out between his trousers and top. His clothes could simply be described as traditional Japanese clothing.
It appeared that he was also a yokai, a fox spirit in this case.

The fox approached the two and plummeted down onto the couch next to them. He then looked over to Akabane and his eyes widened at the surprising sight of him holding a baby in his arms.

"Hey, what's that? Aka, how did you become a father in those few days? Did you use the time you were away for the killing mission to pick your kid up from your secret lover without telling us, or what?", the fox asked with a questioning look on his face.

"What nonsense are you talking about Shino? If I actually had a secret lover, how do you think would I ever have been able to hide the relationship from you? Not even to think about nine months for a pregnancy, I wouldn't even be able to hide something like this for two weeks from you guys.", Akabane answered frowning.

"Well, it couldn't have appeared out of thin air! So you are not the father, then why do you have it and where does it come from?", 'Shino' asked impatiently.

"The killing mission was to kill the current master and lady of the Shinra house, remember? It was a young couple and as you know the lady was pregnant.", Akabane started to explain.
"She must have been very close to giving birth when they left for the journey already, they had a midwife with them which means that they expected it before leaving. Ah!
What I'm trying to tell you is that this is the child of the Shinra couple. We didn't take into consideration what we would do with the child, if it were to be born before the mission. Since the little kid survived even my attack on the carriage, I thought that it wasn't explicitly mentioned to be necessary to kill it as well and decided to adopt and raise it myself instead.", Aka finally concluded his explanation.

"Ahh! So that's what was going on!", Shino exclaimed when they could once again hear people  come down the stairs.
This time it was two people, again yokai.
They were both ogres, the first had black, short hair, purple eyes, two white horns coming out from his forehead and he wore white traditional clothes.
The second had white hair of the same length, red eyes, two black horns coming out from his forehead and wore the same clothes, just in black.

They looked at the energetic Shino and the black haired one asked first:
"Shinohara, what is going on why are you making such a ruckus?"

"Ari?", Shinohara asked.
"You two finally got up? Were you planning to spend the whole day sleeping?"

"Weren't you two on seperate missions? Ari, Aru, did you two come back at the same time?", Akabane inquired.

This time the white haired one, Aru answered:
"No, I came back last night where as Ari came back three days ago. It is just that this idiot came back injured because he was incapable to get the job done without being noticed, so he spent the last few days sleeping most of the time."

"Enough gossiping about how bad I am at my job, you still haven't answered my question! What is all this ruckus about?!", Ari shouted angrily and lightly ticked off.

Following the discussion Akabane and Shinohara explained the whole situation and what had occurred again, this time for the two who joined the conversation late. They were surprised to say the least and a little confused, why would an assassin decide to take in the child of the targets he killed directly before? Akabane refused to answer them their question so they simply decided to drop the topic.

In the end Akabane directly set out again he needed to find proper food for the baby since its mother was no longer alive and could not feed it anymore. As yokai they did not have the right food for it and neither the knowledge of what newborn elves would need to be fed if they could not rely on the mother's milk. Because of this Akabane traveled to the forest fairies. As another race of beings of the light they would know what the child would need, in difference to the yokai who were shadow creatures.

When he arrived he spoke to an old acquaintance of his, who told him what he needed to know.
If the mother could no longer be relied upon, any newborn beings of light could instead be fed with the nectar of a certain magical plant. Since it had pity with the baby Aka recently adopted, the fairy gave him one of these plants.

When Akabane took his leave again he turned around one last time and bode farewell.
"I ask one last request of you, in case anything happens and neither me nor Shinohara, Ari or Aru are still able to take care of little Raskaya, please raise the child here at the forest fairy tribe under its original name: Shinra Raskaya. Take care old friend and thanks for your help!"
"Heh! As if I could have left some cute and innocent elven baby to starve at your incapable yokai hands! Don't worry, I promise I will continue to raise that little cutie for you old friend in case someone finally comes to take revenge on your little bunch of assassins! Until next time!", the fairy shouted with a grin after Akanbane as he left.

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Wordcount: 1638
Date of chapter release: 10.8.2021