DRAGON'S BROOD II (Kirishima x Bakugou)

Chapter 21: Facing the Kirishimas

Kirishima's PoV

The room in front of me was huge and magnificent. The stone walls were decorated and the artfully worked out reliefs told in pictures a story probably known to every dragon. But I couldn't pay much attention to the splendor in front of me. Because eight glowing red pairs of eyes were directed at me.

The scale color of the dragons varied in different shades of red, only two of them were deep black. The dragon that faced me was gigantic. His scales were partly grey at the edges, which indicated that he was already very old. His eyes were of a dark warm red and he was the only one looking at me with a mild surprise, while the rest were, to say the least, shocked by my sudden appearance.

The guards who had followed me had also stopped behind me. Everyone seemed overwhelmed by the situation and waited for me to do something.

I tightened my shoulders, the wings instinctively half spread out, to appear at least a little bigger. I still breathed heavily because of the sprint I had just finished, but I had to say something now. I raised my chin. "My name is Eijirou Kirishima. And I have to talk to you urgently," I fixed the old dragon in front of me, which I thought was Kurini, the current leader of the clan.

A Kirishima? Don't make me laugh! Go away, you maggot! one of the two black dragons hissed. His eyes were so bright red that they almost seemed to glow.

Mashimo. Calm down, no reason to be rude, the older dragon said calmly. The black dragon named Mashimo bared his teeth and stared at me contemptuously but followed the orders of the leader. I shuddered. So, this was Mashimo, the one who succeeded him as head. From the very first moment I knew that I could hardly convince him of my mission. Fortunately, Kurini seemed to be much more relaxed.

Come closer, Eijirou, said Kurini. He slightly bowed his head and looked at me kindly as I moved a few steps forward.

But chief, a female dragon said to my left carefully. The dragon lady's red had a copper shimmer and her voice was almost soft. Then I realized that this was the first time I had consciously met a female dragon and I watched her carefully. All in all, she seemed more graceful than the dragons I had known before, but this could also be due to the fact that she was still very young. Mashimo's objection is justified. There is no evidence that he is actually one of us. Isn't it a little frivolous to just tolerate him here? How can it be that suddenly a half human is standing in our midst?

When I heard her words, I feverishly began to look again for an argument that could convince her of my identity. But of course, I still didn't have one. I chewed nervously on my lower lip and was about to start saying something when the head of the ruling clan interrupted my thoughts.

There's indeed proof, Hesaya. His name. Eijirou.

Astonished, I looked up. "What do you mean?"

A little smile played around the mouth of the leader. You are the son of my brother, little one. Unfortunately, Karano is no longer able to get to know you. But he confessed his little trip to the human empire to me, even after we had decided that we wouldn't do it anymore. He was always the daredevil of us. He winked at me. And he told me that he had told your mother to give you the name Eijirou. There is no doubt. It is you, because nobody else but me knew about it.

Although I was relieved by his words, tears came to my eyes, but I held them back. Although I had never met my father, I had always hoped to meet him one day and the fact that couldn't happen hurt me.

Hold on! HE's Karano's son? Mashimo asked upset. His eyes narrowed to slits and a quiet growl escaped his throat.

I noticed how the others moved uneasily but didn't quite understand the excitement about it. Only the eldest remained calm and seemed to ignore Mashimo's aggressive behavior. Yes, Mashimo. He is your cousin.

I looked at the black dragon now somewhat interested. Another close relative. From Mashimo's side I only felt pure hatred. But when I looked at the other members of the clan, they didn't seem to share his dislike. On the contrary, I saw curiosity and joy in welcoming a new family member. I exhaled with relief when I realized that Mashimo was the only one who, for some reason, was quite offended by my appearance.

So Eijirou. I'm sorry that it was so hard for you to get through to us. To be honest, none of us expected that we would ever be able to welcome a half human from our family. Even I wouldn't have thought it, after people had killed every single one of our half human descendants so far, he sighed and a touch of bitterness had crept into his voice. All the happier I am that you of all people, my nephew, survived. But you certainly didn't take this path, all these obstacles, only because you wanted to get to know us, did you?

I nodded and suddenly realized that this was exactly the moment I had been preparing for all this time and my heart was beating with sudden excitement. Now I had to convince them. I had to explain to them why the relationship between humans and dragons was so disturbed. I had to explain to them how the misunderstandings between cultures had happened and that we had to leave that time behind.

I took a deep breath before I started talking. I had endured some of the teaching of the Order only with a role of the eyes when it came to rhetoric and argumentation. But in this situation, I was glad that I didn't have to think much about my formulations, because I had reproduced them so often.

As I spoke, I let the gaze wander over those present. They listened to me attentively and didn't interrupt me. Nevertheless, I saw the slight skepticism in their eyes. But I continued. Calm, thoughtful and yet insistent. I had to explain to them how important the matter was to me.

After I had spoken the last words of my speech, there was for a time dead silence in the throne room. A little restlessly I folded the wings as I waited for their reaction. Now it would be decided whether my journey had been worth it.

These are interesting viewpoints, Eijirou, Kurini finally said and my heart hopefully pounded in my chest when he didn't immediately refuse all of it. I think it's all worth thinking about. We have all lost dragons close to us in this war. And if you assure me that peace is possible and even desired by the humans, then I'm the last one to stand in the way.

A grin spread across my face. Had I really just managed to convince a ruling clan of my mission?

But then I flinched when I heard the deep growl to my side. Mashimo had bared his teeth and his eyes were glowing with hatred. Over my dead body! hissed the black dragon. He trembled with rage and turned to the listeners. I'm the future head of this clan! And I will never let them forget what they did to us! To the dragons! To our clan! To my father! I won't let a runaway half human who doesn't know anything about our culture tell us how to fight our battles!

I swallowed hard when he turned explicitly to me again. And especially I won't let someone like you dispute my position as successor to the chief. Whether cousin or not, he growled dangerously quietly.

My eyes grew big when I realized what he meant. It was our family branch that held the position of head. When Mashimo succeeded Kurini as his nephew, it meant that he had no descendants of his own. And now it became clear to me why he had hated me so much from the first moment.

Mashimo and I both were qualified as successors.