how to be a human being; hirofumi yoshida

ii.

Tokyo overwhelmed her senses in the best way possible.

She was used to quiet fields. The rustling of grass. Moonlight and sunlight in ebb and flow periods. Her mother's gravelly voice reading fairytales. Fire licking at the branches thrown into the fireplace. Rabbits that wander too close and ended up on a pike. A nothingness she couldn't shake.

This, however, was everything. 

Voices overlapping as conversations trailed after hurried businessmen. A sweet smell floating from down that way. Bright, neon lights flashing overhead. Dogs barking at each other as they passed on the street. Cars flying down the road. The feeling of warmth from bodies that were far too close to hers. Shimmering amusement in a human's eyes as he watched her regard the world around her with reverent awe and wonder.

"Are you sure you're entirely human?" Yoshida asked with a small tilt of his head, bringing her focus back onto her bodyguard.

"100% certain," Saki whispered, worried if she spoke too loudly the fantasy of life would break, "I watched my mother eat my real parents, after all."

He went quiet at that, to which she sent him an odd look. She would have thought that a devil hunter would be more used to gruesome and gore, but she guessed she was wrong. Instead, Saki went to follow the sweet smell that had invaded her senses, finding it led to a small stand on the corner where a kind old lady was selling mochi donuts. Despite not having a single yen on her, Saki still went and ordered.

"Hello! May I have a strawberry donut, please? Wait, make that two!" she said excitedly.

While the old woman busied herself with grabbing the two strawberry donuts, Yoshida caught up to Saki and stopped at her side. "How are you going to pay for those?"

She held out a hand and made a grabby motion. "Money, please."

Yoshida raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I'm going to give you money?"

"Makima-san said you would," Saki lied effortlessly, knowing full well Public Safety was going to deliver her allowance to her once she was settled into her apartment, "And you're my bodyguard. You must protect me from hunger too, right?"

He let out a small sigh, reached into his pocket, and deposited the exact amount of money she needed to hand over.

Alright, she didn't plan on abusing the bodyguard privileges so soon, but she wanted to try these donuts so bad, and she didn't know what else to do. In fact, Saki didn't want to rely on a bodyguard in the slightest - it was part of her whole turning into a first-rate human thing. She would attain things for herself no matter what... but a little assistance every so often wouldn't hurt. 

(And the donuts were sooooo worth it.)

Her cheeks were puffed out like a chipmunk after she stuffed one whole donut in her mouth, chewing slowly on the pastry and taking in every bit of the strawberry flavoring. Now content with her choice of snack, Saki diligently followed Yoshida as he led her through the bustling streets of Tokyo to her new apartment. The tall, pretty boy didn't say a word to her as they walked, content to walk without making idle conversation, so Saki kept quiet too - which wasn't difficult to do when she was still working on getting down her first donut; the second patiently waiting in her hand to be eaten.

Eventually, by the time her second donut had nothing more than a bite left, Yoshida came to a stop outside of an apartment building. A five-story building painted white on the outside with stairs leading up between floors in the middle and an elevator hidden within. There were a couple of cars parked in the parking lot and a small corner store not too far down the street if Saki decided she needed something. Her school was a few blocks away in the opposite direction from which they had come. All in all, it was very different from her life in the countryside - she couldn't say she hated it.

Wanting to be polite, she turned to Yoshida and bowed. "Thank you for walking me here. I will see you at school tomorrow."

Saki began to walk away, the apartment key she had been given jingling in her pocket, but a hand wrapping loosely around her wrist prevented her from getting very far. Her first instinct was to shake off the foreign touch, unnerved by the sudden contact, only to calm down upon realizing it was simply Yoshida stopping her to tell her something.

"I'll be here at 7:30 tomorrow morning to walk with you to school," Yoshida said, slowly dropping her wrist, "Your uniform and everything else you might need is already in your apartment."

"It's alright, I can walk by myself. I know where the school is already," Saki informed him.

He didn't falter. "I'll be walking you to school tomorrow. Bodyguard, remember?"

"And I'll be alright," she said back, insistently, "If the other student's see me walking in with you, then I won't be able to make a name for myself on my own. I have to become human through my own efforts, not through anyone else's."

A long silence permeated between them where all Yoshida did was her with an intense look in his eyes, before finally saying, "You say the oddest things. You're already human, Saki-san."

"I disagree. I'm not human until I finally feel human. Right now, I'm the daughter of a devil, but starting tomorrow I'll be Saki the human!"

She sent him a victorious smile, then waved goodbye and hurried up the stairs to the fifth floor where her apartment lay. Not once did she look back to see if he had left, knowing she had to get started on planning her first adventure in becoming a first-rate human. Upon reaching apartment 507, Saki placed her hand on the metal doorknob and unlocked the door with her key, and only once the door was shut behind her did the tears begin to fall. Everything about her crumpled into nothingness as she sunk onto the floor and cried. 

This was her first act of humanity, after all. Crying for her mother who had fallen before her very eyes.

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thank u for reading!