Fat. Beautiful. Tasty. Ravenous.

Chapter 34

It's been about a week since Taishiro came to drop off the baby items and he hasn't come back since. I doubt he ever will with how embarrassingly I behaved. Every time I think about it, I want to slap myself. What the hell was I thinking?! I got too caught up in my emotions and I let myself get carried away. My pain was my own fault.

I tried my best to hide it from Shota when he came back with Shinso but he noticed almost immediately that something had changed. Eri just had to tell him that "Fat Gum-san" had visited and that was all he needed to know to get the full picture.

Since then, he's pushed me harder to work at my training to keep me busy. We tried again (and still failed) to get fear out of him during a horror movie so he enlisted the help of someone else. Yamada-kun, another teacher at this school, turned out to be much more susceptible and my training to better detect and absorb fear has been going well. We'll probably be moving on to sadness next.

I've worked hard to come to terms with reality. I've accepted it's over and I'm just hoping now that Taishiro hasn't completely written me off. If he'll give me another chance, I can act with more grace and less desperation. I'm sure of it.

"Okay, let's see your wings," Shota says as we stand atop a building in one of the training yards. It's the weekend and everyone has the day off, yet a large portion of his class is standing below watching. Including Ei.

Taking a deep, calming breath in, I reach deep into my energy pool, dragging a great deal of it out to transform my body. Horns begin curling from my hairline and I feel my claws extending. Most importantly, my wings expand, stretching out to an impressive size— large enough to carry me.

This is the first time I've transformed without an intense emotion to push me and it does make it a little bit harder. But I think that all of this work I've done to control my energy absorption has also helped me to better control my energy expenditure as a result.

The scarring is far more obvious when they're at this size, dark lines running through them like cracks in glass. They don't hurt at the moment but does that really mean I'll be able to fly again?

"How are you feeling?" he asks seriously, scanning the thin membranes for any obvious defects.

"Okay for now," I say, flapping my wings carefully to test them. So far so good.

"Do you want to try flying?"

He watches me carefully. His eyes are so analytical, trying to detect any hint of pain I might be lying about.

I nod, stepping closer to the ledge before us.

"A few of my students are ready to stop you if you fall so don't worry about trying to keep going if you're in pain," he assures me, laying a gentle hand at my back. "Are you ready?"

I nod again, my heart thudding against my ribcage as I look down. My eyes seek out Ei, standing next to that shitty friend of his. Tetsu's come as well.

They're both screaming up at me, "You can do it, Ai-senpai!"

Wind swirls lightly around me, picking up my hair and making it dance behind me and it briefly rustles my wings.

I wish Taishiro were here. I remember just how awed his face was seeing me fully in my demon form.

He really loved me. He really loved every single thing about me.

I never deserved him. And now, I'll let him go. It's time to stop hoping.

Spreading my wings, I barely even need to step off the ledge before the wind lifts me and I'm flying.

I alternate between flapping to keep the wind beneath me and stretching out my wings to glide and soar. It's easy and not painful at all. It just feels like stretching a muscle that's been ignored for a while.