Domino Effect (Yukio)

15. Forest

Yukio Okumura POV

"This place, it's familiar." I said as I looked around at my new surroundings.

We were right back at the familiar camp site where I first met Yuri Egin. Everything was just as we had left it, except for me as I felt I've changed somewhat since I was last here.

The sun was high in the sky and the gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the surrounding trees. A few ominous clouds ahead were threatening to change the weather into a possible storm.

Hearing movement from behind us, I looked over at the source of noise to see the little golem group from before. They were her 'friends' whom she told to wait for her return. The smallest one ran up to her when she got down on her knees and reached out to it. Picking it up in her arms as she did before in a big hug, the other ones had walked up to us right after. Several more demons of all kinds were appearing from behind the trees in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I didn't know how to react to seeing that many suddenly so I tensed up, not knowing what to do without my usual arsenal of weapons.

"You don't have to worry, they're harmless! They won't hurt you. See?" She pointed to a small hobgoblin that walked up to me and with it's little hand had gripped on to the fabric of my pants to tug lightly on it. "He wants you to give him some attention." She said with a light laugh.

Pulling out a small handful of wrapped candy from a nearby small sized box she walked up to, she offered it to them and they each took one from her in delight.

"H- huh? Give attention to it? Like a puppy or something?" I asked, confused as I looked at the little demon who tugged on my pants a few times more with anticipation.

"C'mon, look at it's cute face, you can't say no to that." Yuri said, walking up to me to sit on the ground and motioning to sit down next to her.

With some hesitation as I watched the amount of demons that surrounded us, as soon as I sat down on the ground, not just the first small hobgoblin, but several others had jumped into my lap. They were making what sounded like noises of excitement and crowded us.

"Hey! There's too many of you! Wait! Those are my glasses! Slow down! Don't pull on my hair!" I said, trying to stop them all from jumping on me and quickly taking my glasses back from the Greenman who tried to wear them.

"See! They like you!" Yuri said in a happy voice.

"I don't get it much, but why are they like this? I mean they're all d-... Uh..." I stopped myself when I realized what I was about to say, hesitating to go on further.

"Because they're demons?" Yuri finished for me.

"Um, yeah." I said with a short nod.

"Even though I understand where you're coming from, it's not like humans don't get along with other forms of life. We have dogs who greet us when we come back home, we have cats who are the boss of the house, we use horses for transportation... We even have the Tamer Meister to ask for the help of demons." Yuri said as she softly pat the head of a golem on her lap. "We're so focused on the fact that they can be scary that we assume all of them are scary. Lions are scary, but we still watch movies about them becoming kings. There's just so much more to them than just being a demon, like Rin."

When she mentioned my brother, I was shocked. She was right. If I only saw demons as monsters, then why am I so frustrated by the fact that the others were seeing Rin as such back at the academy?

"Y- you're right. I'm sorry." I said, feeling ashamed at my words.

"It's not your fault, it's just the way of the world. I can only hope the next generation will one day be able to take one step closer in closing the gap of 'demons' and 'humans' once and for all." She said as she looked up to the cloudy sky, a hint of sadness in her eyes as she spoke.