3. Life is...

Three years later.

"See it looks good on you.", Hochoki said to her daughter, Kaede, who was glaring before she sighed, her Mom was right but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Kaede turned her head to the mirror of her room and was met with her reflection. An eight-year-old girl of Japanese descent, her long pink hair, one tuft of hair on each side of her face, red ribbons on her horns with hair to hide them, her annoyed ruby-red eyes accompanied by a small frown on her face.

And her clothing was composed of a pair of light pink leggings, a skirt, and a shirt of the same color but with red accents on the sleeve and border of the skirt. 

She admitted that she looked cute and it was a pretty dress but that reminded her of the fact that she was a she. Normally she chooses her clothes but being a child, even one like her, meant she needed to obey her parents to a certain degree.

And fighting for the clothes she should wear was just pointless and she would have lost anyway and it was extremely childish. Accepting you have been bested is sometimes necessary.

'I can't wait for puberty...', Kaede thought with sarcasm and no small amount of dread, she knew what awaited her. 

Maybe it's an overreaction, at worst she could count on her Mom, even if it will be fucking strange for her to ask about this aspect of life even without considering that she was a male before. No, in fact, it will make things stranger for her.

As to why her Mother forced her to dress this way? To take a family picture, nothing more and after that probably go to the park, a place Kaede particularly liked, she always liked nature, it wasn't really nature but that was the closest you could get in Tokyo.

And so three dozen of pictures were taken of Kaede and her parents, where the girl admittedly tried to seem as happy as possible which earned a thankful smile from her Mother who knew she disliked wearing those clothes and even more be seen with them. Particularly in public.

Walking down the path in the park Kaede hummed, the still cold wind of spring barely affecting her, her parents were not far and she always stayed within a line of sight within and range where her yell could be heard. 

'Stranger danger.', was her motto, even more so when you are a kid, and even if it seems narcissistic she was far from ugly. Her age even helped some twisted individuals to want her.

Approaching a murder of crows composed of three crows she crouches down and tilts her head to the side. Whistling she grabbed the attention of a crow with one digit less on its left leg, she helped it at some point and now they were kinda friends.

She didn't know if it was male or female because both were practically identical, only a DNA test will tell but she still named Aquamarine.

The origin of the name is how its plumage will reflect a blue hue when in direct sunlight. Crows were one of her favorite animals, for several reasons, one being their intelligence and she found them to be quite pretty.

"Come.", Kaede mumbled and the crow skipped in her direction, croaking it let itself be scratched by her hand. Picking it she sat down, her back against the trunk of a tree. She was still in the line of sight of her parents.

Both are not the biggest fans of the fact that their daughter is playing with wild animals, in fact, they were pretty vocal in their disapproval of it. 

She still managed to convince them, she couldn't have a pet at home or even a fish, and to be honest she felt a tad lonely at times.

It was her fault if she was alone and she acknowledged it, she avoided kids her age, equally for both gender as for in those two cases it could get pretty weird. 

To get hit on by a nine years old boy when you have the mind of a straight adult male with no pedophile tendency, this type of stuff.

And also the great difference in maturity and intelligence, frankly she could speak to no one, even when she tried at her moment in the park, she was too young for people that she could talk to, and not dumb enough to talk to kids her age. 

Even if people older than her deigned to talk to her besides the occasional granny and teenager fawning over her cuteness, sometimes even tourists, and she will speak to them in their native languages, she found people, not to say dumb, but scarily lacking in knowledge that she thought of as basic and common sense, such as the latest research in RC-cells.

She was like an alien, adding that she had a pet crow only added salt to the injury. The most ironic aspect of it all was that it was not far from the truth, if not the truth,  she just wasn't aware of it as of yet. 

And that she was the one lacking in common sense, a fact she was aware of but childishly didn't want to acknowledge. It was their fault if they didn't want to learn, speaking she might have become a tad addicted to it.

_______________________

2 years later.

Kaede suddenly woke up, she was thirsty and so in her white pajamas, she opened the door of her room. Her sleepy eyes acclimated to the darkness as she weaved through the corridor. 

'Did Dad forget to close the door again? It's the third time this month…', the ten years old girl thought, exasperated. It was not rare, her Dad was forgetful at times and clumsy but that was who he was. Her mother was working and as such only, the two of them were home.

She closed the door and continued on her way to the kitchen. Once inside she switched the light on, serving herself a glass of water and a snack in the form of a piece of black chocolate.

Then she froze, something bad was going to happen and not even five seconds later she heard the ringing, loud and piercing sound of a gunshot resonating through the entire apartment.

The glass in her hand fell and broke as it impacted the ground. Her mind blanked out for what felt like an eternity, she in a fit of utter panic ran straight to the door and was going to lock herself up in the kitchen.

"Ah, that is the child the good Doctor wanted. And trying to lock yourself up! HOW ADORABLE! Go on, either way, you can't run away from me! I know what it feels, I did run too!", a shiver ran down her spine as the voice of a young man echoed through the apartment. This spurred her to move even faster as she locked the door.

Kaede then took a knife and hid under the counter. That was the best she could think of at the moment and there weren't many hiding places, with only one entrance and exit.

'This can't be real.', she thought tears were welling up, she wanted to deny it, but it was real and she knew it. She was frightened.

Another gunshot was followed by three others, each making her flinch with how loud they were and making her ears ring. A metallic clink, the door opening then calm footsteps. 

Her ear rang one more time as a bullet hole was made in the door of the counter she was hiding, the door was flung open and she was forcefully taken out before she could even yell.

Held in the air by her hand. The man was crushing her hand, then her eyes met his own, next to half-molten and ripped skin were eyes of a different color. One with a brown pupil and dilated vein popping out and the other with blood red pupils and a black sclera with red cracks in the skin around.

At that moment something deep within Kaede snapped.