Hana

Emma moved into the room that Peter had previously lived in, Roy moved back into his bedroom, and life moved on as best as it could. The other children started school at the end of the fourth month. Four days out of the week, the house was mostly empty. Alice, Roy, and now Emma were the only people here on those days. Garret was only working on the days that I had all of the children here, so when I needed to watch over the chaos that was having nine children under one roof, I wasn’t being distracted by the paperwork that was piling up on my desk.

Father Paul also brought the Holy Hero’s Sword to the house, in accordance with the Saint’s prophecy. It stayed hidden inside my office so that no children could accidentally hurt themselves with it. I didn’t think that they’d be able to lift it, given that it was almost two meters long and 10 kilograms, but I didn’t want to take the risk, so it went up onto a shelf, high out of the reach of small children, and stayed underneath a black cloth.

As the months went on, school went on and life returned to normal, I began working on my next invention: long-distance communication. I’d finished the water treatment system plan by the end of the sixth month, seeing as it was as simple as the system I already designed for the washing machines, but on a larger scale. The designs were made and ready to be implemented, but it required approval from someone in a higher position than me, so I decided to move on to my next project.

Wind crystals were fairly simple to find, which would be the main source of the magic in my plan for a long-distance communication device, but I still hadn’t figured out what to do with the colorless magic crystal, nor even where it might have come from. However, I had figured something out: it could replicate any type of magic crystal. Normally, to use a magic crystal, you either needed to use a magic command, like my appliances did, or you needed to speak an activation word. For water crystals, it was “Aquus”, for wind crystals, it was “Ventus”, for earth crystals, it was “Terrus”, and so on and so forth. The colorless magic crystal could take in any of those magic activation words and replicate that type of magic. This would mean that I could make a single device that could use multiple types of magic. Even better, though, would be using it to make a staff. If I had a staff with a colorless magic crystal, it would be able to use every element of magic. I had no training with more advanced magic that would need a staff, but I was certain that it would make a good present for one of the children.

Back to designing a long-distance communication device. The first thing I needed to figure out was how to convert sound into wind magic. My plan was to convert sound into wind magic with one device, then use a separate device to convert wind magic to sound. If I could make something that worked like an old-fashioned radio, which only converted radio waves to sound, and a radio tower, which only converted sounds to radio waves, then I could simplify the designs of those two devices into a single device which did both tasks, like an old-fashioned telephone.

Unfortunately, things were just a constant process of research, experimentation, designing a prototype, testing, and repeating the process when it inevitably failed. I had a decent amount of money from the sales of vacuum cleaners, which had become my most popular invention, so far, but I didn’t want to dip into my family’s savings too much, so I kept trying to design a new model before using the smallest number of crystals that I could, that way I wouldn’t be spending that much money on each failed attempt. Every gold coin I saved on this process was another gold coin that would be going toward paying for mine and Alice’s wedding.

By the end of the seventh month, I’d heard the news that the Saint of Prophecy was executed for treason against the empire. Her actual crime was never revealed to the public, but we knew. We comforted Emma as we broke the news to her.

By the end of the eighth month, I’d finished my first working prototype of a separated receiver and transmitter system. I tested this by having the receiver put in the governor’s office, then transmitted a message to him. I couldn’t tell when he got the message until he came to the house, but I learned that the message took a full minute to reach him. This meant that I needed to increase the speed if I wanted to make anything close to a telephone.

However, there was something that happened to throw a wrench in my plans. In the first week of the ninth month, shortly after it had been a full year since my parents died, I saw a strange girl crying at my front door. She wasn’t one of the children who lived here, or else I would have recognized her. She had two pigtails in her jet-black hair, her skin was a pale red like someone who’d gotten a bad sunburn from being on the beach for too long, and her eyes, puffy as they were from crying, had pitch black scleras with blood-red irises.

The thing that made me start to question if I truly knew who this was was the outfit she was wearing. Alice and I had gotten pretty good over the past year at making new clothes. My sewing skills had improved slightly, but Alice’s had far surpassed mine. I began describing clothes from my other world and she’d be able to make them after a few attempts. This meant that we’d been making plenty of custom-made clothes for the children in the house. When we signed all of them up for school, we made each of them a school uniform like something from Japan. The uniforms were all button-down shirts and slacks for the boys, while the girls wore a sailor-style uniform with a ribbon. These uniforms meant that they were overdressed compared to most of the students, at first, but the school eventually asked if they could get the designs for the uniforms from us. I’d mostly done this so that the children would be easy to identify and look cute at the same time, but the school liked the idea so much that they paid us five gold coins for the two designs.

Back to the crying girl at my doorstep. The thing that told me she was, in fact, one of my children, were the two clips she used to put her hair up in ponytails. These two heart-shaped clips were the same ones that Hana loved using so much that she asked for a heart-shaped bag for her school supplies. As she wore that bag by her side and had the heart-shaped clips in her hair, I had to assume that this was Hana.

“Hana, is that you? What’s wrong?”

She didn’t even look up. When I asked if this girl was Hana, she ran past me and went to her room, slamming the door behind her. When the door slammed, Alice came downstairs, carrying Roy.

“What was that sound?”

“I think it was Hana. She came home crying, but she looked different than she normally did. Maybe it was transformation magic.”

Alice and I were very accustomed to transformation magic because of Roy, but we hadn’t even thought it was possible for one of the other children to be using transformation magic. However, when I considered her current appearance, things started to click into place. Hana’s skin was a pale red, her hair was jet black, and her eyes had the telling appearance of a demon’s eyes. Demons weren’t evil, like most fantasy games from Japan would have made me believe, but demons did have a history in this world. Before the Lich Queen rose to power in Zankara, it was mostly a beastfolk and demon country. However, because of the evil committed by the Lich Queen in the name of Zankara, many people associated beastfolk and demons with those evil deeds. Because beastfolk never held much power in Zankara, even before they were pushed out by the Lich Queen, people mostly just treated beastfolk like animals. However, demons were the ones in power before the Lich Queen and the Lich Queen was a demon before her turn to undeath, so people associated demons with the evil of Zankara. Demons were widely believed to be evil, even to the point that certain factions within the empire refused to accept demon refugees, forcing them to go to Sakura or Arkana instead. Beastfolk were often believed to be unintelligent, but powerful, so they were often forced into manual labor wherever they went, often being faced with people who saw them as nothing more than the animal they shared traits with. In the end, both faced discrimination, just two different kinds of discrimination.

“Did you know anything about Hana being a demon?” Alice asked me.

“I didn’t, but it would make sense given her appearance. She always looked too much like the two of us for it to be a coincidence.”

Transformation magic was common among dragons to allow dragons to be among the rest of society without causing fear among the people. Fairies could use transformation magic, but that was more of a holdover from the ancestors of fairies, the archfey, who were trickster spirits that would play tricks on people in order to steal items, magic, and even life energy from them. Demons, however, learned how to use transformation magic more recently than either of those two. Demons often used transformation magic to hide from the empire’s inquisitors. Demons would transform into other races of people in order to avoid punishment by these inquisitors, but I didn’t know what could force a transformed creature to turn back into their original form. I could tell that Hana didn’t want to be in her original form, given that we hadn’t known she was a demon, but if she wanted to, she’d be able to stay transformed, even while asleep, like Roy could.

Whatever the case was, we needed to talk to Hana before we could get anything figured out. Hana was in her room, but when we knocked on the door, she shouted, “Go away!”

“Simon and I just wanted to check on you. If there’s anything we can do-”

“Leave me alone!”

It was never the best option to keep pushing someone if they told you to stop doing something. We decided to let her be, hoping that she’d maybe feel better later. Thankfully, around this same time, the front door of the house opened up and we saw a few of the older children. Jun, Mina, and Orion were the most mature out of the various children, so they often took on the role of an older sibling. That said, Jun was only about five years old, relative to a dwarf’s lifespan, Mina still had her moments where she acted like an anime protagonist, and Orion was still shy around strangers, often relying on his older brother. Despite these shortcomings, Jun was very mature for his age, Mina was becoming a true older sister to the other children, and Orion was often the most calm, collected, and knowledgeable of all the children.

“We came after hearing that Hana ran away from the school in the middle of class,” explained Jun.

“Thank you for making sure to check on her and make sure she’s okay, but in the future, you shouldn’t just leave school like this. It’s okay this time, but you can also count on us to take care of things,” I admonished, making sure to not make the three feel like they made a mistake. They’d done the right thing, trying to check on their younger sister, but they also needed to focus on their school work. “Do you happen to know what happened?”

“I saw what happened.” Orion was in the same class, given that the school was broken up into ten grades by age, so he was almost always around her at school. “Hana was having a headache all day, but the teacher just told her to drink water. The headache didn’t get better, but the teacher didn’t care. In the middle of class, she suddenly hit her head against her desk and passed out. She woke up quickly, but she looked different after she woke up. There were people whispering about her, then she ran away.”

This headache was new information to me. She didn’t seem to have a headache yesterday, so I needed to figure out where the headache came from.

“Oh, I see what’s going on here.” Alice seemed to have pieced everything together. “Her horns must be growing in.” I knew that demons weren’t born with horns, but instead eventually grew horns. However, I thought most demons already had their horns fully grown by age eight. Then again, I didn’t know Hana was a demon until today, so I wouldn’t have questioned why she didn’t have her horns until now. But, if this was just a matter of Hana dealing with growing pains, I knew exactly what to do.

“Orion, Mina, Jun, thank you for coming to check on Hana. Alice and I can take it from here. I want you three to go back to school and be there to make sure the others get back safely, as always.” With that, the three began heading back to school. The school day was almost over, so I didn’t think they’d make it back in time for class, but I wanted them to be there for the others. Leo, Alec, and Jack could take care of themselves in a pinch, but it was better if all of the children were together. “Alice, I want you to see if you can get through to Hana. I doubt if my plan will fix everything, so I want to see if you can figure out what else might be going on.” As Alice went back towards Hana’s room, I left the house. I needed a few things and I knew just the place to find them all.

Sara and Elias’ General Store was quickly becoming the central hub for buying nearly every good you could need and for selling your products to someone who could market those products to a larger audience. My appliances had become a beneficial tool for anyone who wanted an easier way to cook and clean, but that wasn’t what I was here for. I was currently in the medicinal section of the store. Various glass bottles, small jars, and vials of liquids covered the shelves. Though I was in the medicine section, I wasn’t looking at pills or potions, I was looking at a selection of creams.

The cream I was currently looking at was a polishing cream for horns, claws, and scales. Certain types of beastfolk, demons, dragons, certain merfolk, and even some elementals all had exposed claws, horns, or scales. The same way that everyone needed to brush their teeth, these people needed to polish their claws, horns, and scales. This wasn’t the main reason I was here though. The polishing cream would just be a way to deliver my main purpose: pain relief.

There was a product in my other world which helped relieve pain by overloading the body’s ability to feel pain. In my arm, I currently held a bundle of mint and a small pepper. If I was an alchemist, I’d probably be able to make something more professional, but I didn’t know any alchemists, so I was going to try my best. After checking out with a confused look from Sara, I headed back home.

In the kitchen, I took out two small bowls and a small empty glass jar. In the first bowl, I placed the mint, then I cut open the pepper to extract the seeds. I didn’t know if this would work and I planned on finding an alchemist to make something more professional once I had a full day to spend, but I thought this might work in the short term.

The pepper seeds were placed in the other bowl, then I got a pestle to crush the mint to extract the mint oil. Mint oil had menthol in it, which was a natural cooling agent. This was commonly found in toothpaste and gum. Then, I began to crush the pepper seeds to extract the capsaicin. Capsaicin was the oil that made peppers spicy and was a natural warming agent. After removing as much of the crushed mint and seeds as I could, I poured a small amount of the horn polish into each bowl. After mixing the oils in each bowl into the horn cream, I combined the two bowls into the small glass jar, hopefully creating a new horn cream that would both heat and cool the nerves around the freshly-growing horns, so as to relieve the pain.

First off, it’s the thought that matters, right? Enough beating around the bush. My plan was a total failure. Thankfully, Alice had a much simpler and better plan. When I went into Hana’s room, she was asleep with Alice sitting on the side of her bed. I asked what Alice did, to which she explained that she had some pain medications. It was good to try and limit your use of medication to solve medical problems, but when dealing with the extreme pain she had to endure every month, she made sure to have a potion created by a professional alchemist on hand that was designed to help relieve pain. She gave a small amount of the potion to Hana, which also helped her go to sleep. Alice said that she didn’t need any of the pain potion soon, so she’d give the rest to Hana to help with her growing pains.

Then, when I explained what I created, Alice had a pained expression on her face.

“Well, it’s the thought that counts, right?”

“Well, I’m sure that this cream would work great for pain relief.” With that, I rubbed a small amount of the cream on the back of my hand. My hand wasn’t in pain before, but after I put that cream on, it felt like my hand was simultaneously trapped in ice and burning in lava. I hadn’t thought about measurements, at all. There was too much menthol and capsaicin, leading to just pure pain, rather than pain relief. I spent the next few hours trying to clean my hand off, and I was left with a large rash on the back of my hand that wouldn’t go away for days.

When the next day arrived, I was waking up the children, trying to get them ready for school, but when I got to Hana’s room, she hadn’t changed into her school uniform. She sat on the side of her bed, back in her human form.

“Hana, aren’t you going to get ready for school?”

“No… I don’t want to go…”

“Okay. Do you want to tell me why?”

Hana didn’t respond to my question.

“You don’t have to tell me. If you don’t want to talk about it yet, you don’t have to. If it has something to do with what happened yesterday, then I’ll listen to you. If you don’t want to talk to me, Alice will listen. If you don’t want to talk at all, we can talk about something else.”

Hana seemed to want to say something, but decided against it and said, “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure. Do you want to go to school today or do you want to stay home?”

“Can I stay home with you today?”

“Absolutely. If you want to work on my project with me or go somewhere with Alice or even play with Emma and Roy, I’m happy to let you do that. I only have one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“I just want to know why you didn’t tell us you were a demon.” I could see that Hana had a pained look on her face, like she’d been asked that question many times before. “I love you and care about you as much as every one of the other children here. If I didn’t do enough to earn your trust-”

“That’s not it!” Hana cut me off before I could finish my thought. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you… I was just afraid.” Hana trailed off, barely mumbling by the end.

“Were you afraid of me finding out?”

“No…”

“Were you afraid of me hating you?”

Hana didn’t respond, so I must have hit the mark.

“Did you think I’d hate you for being a demon or for lying?”

There was a pause before Hana said, “Both…”

“Do you think I hate you right now?”

“Not really…”

“You’re right. I don’t hate you. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I have secrets, too.”

“What secrets?

“I’m afraid of heights. The same day I met Alice, we flew up into the sky together. I was trying so hard to help her fly, but I was also trying so hard not to look down. You want to know another secret?”

Hana nodded.

“I sometimes wish I could be an adventurer. It seems so fun, going out into the world, killing monsters, doing quests. But then I remember everyone here that I care about. If I left, I’d never be able to stop thinking about you and Alice and Roy and Emma and everyone else. Do you want to know my last secret?”

Hana nodded.

“I have memories from another world. I lived in a place called Japan, in a city called Tokyo. When I was 16, I was hit by a big truck and I died. That’s when my memories of this life and that life combined. Because I have memories of two worlds, I have a curse. This curse kills anyone I’m related to by blood. This means I’ll never be able to have my own children. But, I’m not sad about that anymore. Do you know why?”

Hana shook her head.

“It’s because I have children already. I have Roy, Emma, Jack, Alec, Orion, Leo, Mina, Jun, and you. You know, when I first saw you, I was confused. You looked so much like me and Alice that I thought you might actually be our daughter.”

Hana had tears in the corners of her eyes. “Will you be my dad? And will Alice be my mom?”

“Yes. We love you so much. Even if we aren’t blood related, we’ll be your parents. So I hope you never feel like anything you do would make us hate you.”

With that, Hana hugged me. I held her tightly as she started to cry. Alice eventually came by to check on us, but when she saw the scene, she silently joined in, hugging Hana from the other side of her. After a few minutes passed, Hana spoke up. “Mom? Dad? Can I tell you my secret?”

We nodded.

“I never had parents until now. I grew up in the empire. Everyone hated me for some reason. I couldn’t stay anywhere until I learned to change what I looked like. Even then, when I fell asleep, the next morning, they’d hate me. I only got to this city a few months before I came to this house. I saw you two in town with a baby. You looked like the family I wanted, so I tried to look like you because I thought that would make you like me.”

“Hana, no matter what you look like, we’ll like you. So don’t choose what to look like because of what you think we’d like. Choose what you want to look like.”

Hana’s form began to shift as she looked at the mirror on her wall. She went from a human, to an elf, to an elemental, to a merfolk, to her original demon form. She stayed in her demon form, looking at herself in the mirror. Then, she went back to her normal human form. Her hair was blonde, like mine, but had a white streak, like Alice’s. Her eyes were a muddy brown, like mine, but had flecks of gold in them, like Alice’s. Her hair was in pigtails that were held up by heart-shaped clips. It may not have been her original form, but it was the form that Hana was happiest in. In that respect, it was Hana’s normal form.