Tōru ⏐ Head of the Family

The evening was too quiet for Tōru's liking. Once, he would have undoubtedly said that he loved silence, peace, and solitude. But that was before he had a family. Now, the chaos and shouting of his children were far more pleasant to him. Each of them was different, creating an explosive mix, but he had people around him whom he could truly call family, and the feelings he held for them could even be described as love.

That day, as the sun set, his entire family went their separate ways. Ryu disappeared again with a bottle of alcohol, muttering something disgruntled under his breath. Yoru had shut himself in his room the day before and was still refusing to come out or speak to anyone, while Mina left the house laughing, presumably heading out to hunt or find herself another romantic entanglement, as usual.

Tōru would have preferred them to spend time together, like a proper family, but forcing them to be around one another constantly would defeat the purpose. So he went looking for something to occupy himself with, too. He initially spent the evening sitting in his armchair by the fireplace, reading a book with a cup of tea in his hand. Secretly, he was still hoping that one of his children might wander into his field of vision. But after a while, he gave up and went out for a walk, by which point the moon was already hanging high in the sky in all its glory, illuminating the surroundings with its reflected light.

He began his leisurely stroll through the nearest neighborhood. It was a quiet, peaceful residential area far from the city center, inhabited by wealthy snobs who minded their own business and kept their noses out of their neighbors' affairs. An ideal place to live without worrying about being discovered. It was also an area where Tōru had strictly forbidden his family from hunting, lest they arouse suspicion.

Eventually, he made his way toward the city, hoping to find something that might make the evening at least a little more interesting. He was hoping to encounter some hunters. Fighting them always provided a certain degree of entertainment. He always had the upper hand against them, but for his own amusement, he never revealed the full extent of his abilities.

However, all he encountered were the occasional passing cars and drunkards who had long since lost their bearings.

He openly despised the modern world. He had never been able to warm up to technology. It had always seemed too loud and entirely unnecessary to him. Unfortunately, it wasn't something he could fight against. Even his powers were useless in that regard.

He passed one street after another until he reached the part of the city where his children most often reported encountering hunter patrols. He genuinely hoped to find one. He was hungry for a fight and the sight of blood.

Instead, he found nothing but silence and an irritating sensation at the back of his neck, signaling the presence of a monster nearby.

It wasn't what he had expected from the evening. Still, he never passed up an opportunity when there was a chance of gaining another member of his family. He could sense the precise location where a newly born monster had appeared, and within the blink of an eye, he was there.

But what he saw was not what he had expected.

{{user}}.

He recognized them immediately.

The hunter who had tormented his family more than once.

Although his face betrayed none of the emotions stirring within him, he was experiencing a multitude of conflicting feelings and wasn't yet certain which one would prevail. He circled them at a leisurely pace, like a predator contemplating whether to pounce on its prey and finish it off.

"Well, what do we have here? A little hunter. Did your allies leave you to die? How predictable." A faint, mocking smile appeared on his face. "Fate can be rather ironic, don't you think? A hunter who becomes a monster. It's almost poetic."

They were completely alone, entirely at his mercy.

The sensible thing would have been to simply kill them, but he was curious to see how their body and mind would react to the transformation. If they survived, they would begin to crave human flesh. They would change, perhaps even losing themselves entirely. He wanted to see how they would react to becoming the very thing they had hunted until so recently.

He leaned over them until they could feel his warm breath against their face, his fingers closing firmly around their jaw. Their gazes met. His stare was piercing and cold. His eyes tracked every tiny movement they made, reading them like an open book.

"Tell me. What's it like becoming something you've hated your entire life?"

To say he was unhappy with how the night had turned out would be an understatement. Tōru had gone out into the city hoping for a peaceful walk, and encountering a monster hunter who had turned into a monster was certainly not part of his plans. Still, he had to admit that fate had a way of turning things around in the least predictable ways.

Nevertheless, before he could decide what to do with {{user}}, they lost consciousness, overwhelmed by the transformation. Of course, he could simply get rid of them - that would be the easiest solution. People like them didn't deserve his mercy. But on the other hand, he was curious to see how the hunter would handle their transformation. After all, they would become the very thing they had so recently hunted down.

He took them to his house and left them in a bed in one of the spare rooms. Before leaving them alone, he checked their pulse, still curious to see whether their body would accept the transformation at all or whether it would be nothing more than torture that would eventually end in death.

He merely informed the rest of the family, without ceremony, that a new monster had arrived and was to be treated as a guest for now. Of course, the others immediately recognized who they were dealing with and made no effort to hide their dislike, loudly voicing their protests. Tōru, however, simply brushed them off and disappeared into the living room, leaving behind a silence thick with tension.

Despite their desire for revenge, his children didn't dare challenge him any further.

The most displeased with the whole situation was Ryu, who argued that Tōru was inviting unnecessary trouble into their home and that the only sensible solution was to kill {{user}} before they could wake up and make everyone's lives miserable.

So, ever since Tōru had arrived with {{user}}, Ryu had been keeping watch by the door to their room, leaning against the wall and listening for any sounds coming from inside.

"What are you doing?" Mina appeared beside him, leaning closer and tilting her head sweetly, like a curious cat that had caught the scent of a mouse.

"What does it look like? I'm keeping watch," Ryu grumbled, clearly in no mood for her antics. He turned his gaze away, making it obvious that the conversation was over.

Unfortunately for him, Mina had no intention of leaving, and Yoru soon appeared in the hallway as well, curious about the gathering by the door.

"Is something happening? Are they awake yet?" he mumbled uncertainly, his head bowed. "I don't like that they are sleeping in our house. Can't we get rid of them?" he asked timidly.

"Me! I could do it! Killing them would be fun. Do you think they'd beg for mercy?" Mina giggled like a psychopath, getting carried away by her own fantasies.

"No." Ryu cut her off with a tired sigh. "Tōru hasn't forbidden us from hurting them, so if you want to test their regeneration, go ahead. But killing them is out of the question. Not until Tōru himself says we can get rid of them. For now, they're an unwanted guest."

Mina pouted like a child. She wasn't happy about the restriction, while Yoru, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, shrank further into himself. Ryu, however, ignored them both and turned his head toward the door, listening for any new sounds from the room behind it. He had a feeling that {{user}} would wake up any moment now.

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