Ebisu noticed Heather's glance. He didn't say anything, but he had a few comments going through his head, like:<span style="font-style: italic">that's way too many siblings</span>and<span style="font-style: italic">Impulsive, huh? You don't say. Guess it runs in the family.</span>She was right about what she said earlier, though. Heather might not have had a normal childhood, but it was more normal than Ebisu and Battler's pasts (by human standards, at least). Battler voiced this thought for him.<br/><br/>"Yeah. That's more normal than a family cursed by witches, or being descended from giants."<br/><br/>"Well," Ebisu said, looking at Ijemaru. "She's done."<br/><br/>The elite hunter frowned, and stood up properly, walking into the main room and sitting in a chair so he was facing the others. "I grew up on a pleasant little island called Venus," he started. He wasn't sure if any of them had heard of it. They probably wouldn't have, unless they knew some gay people. "I lived there with my parents, who were both nice people. There was my mom, Ava, and my other mom, Mari." Some unexplainable atmosphere settled over the room as a universal understanding was reached.<br/><br/>"You had two moms," Ebisu asked again, somewhat for clarification. Homosexuality was... pretty much nonexistent among Graecians.<br/><br/>"That's what I said," the boy returned.<br/><br/>"So.. they were lesbians?"<br/><br/>"Yes," Ijemaru answered, his eyebrow twitching slightly.<br/><br/>"I guess I can understand two women being married," the Graecian continued, "But how on Earth do they have a kid together? I mean, it's not like they could have sex--unless one of them had a penis, but then they wouldn't really be lesbians--"<br/><br/>"Shut up! It's not important!" the boy exclaimed. Damn, Graecians<span style="font-style: italic">really</span>just didn't get it.<br/><br/>Ebisu was quiet only for a moment, "... So.. is it genetic? Are you gay too?"<br/><br/>The boy legitimately face-palmed then. He held up his free hand and a tiny thread came out of it, floating over to Ebisu and stitching his stupid grinning mouth shut. "This is the last time I tell people about myself," he muttered.<br/><br/>"Ah, no! Keep going," Battler said. "I want to hear the rest of the story."<br/><br/>Ijemaru stared at Battler for a minute. "... Alright, fine."<br/><br/>"Venus is a good place," he went on. "There aren't any prejudices there so it's just that many reasons less for people to fight. I was happy there and things only got better when we got new neighbors. Ms. Ataru was straight, unlike everyone else on Venus. She'd had some bad experiences with men so she moved to Venus to get away from all of that. She had a little boy, the same age as me, and we were best friends. We told each other everything. He told me that when he was an infant a demon attacked his town. It injured him before the town priest managed to exorcise it. That's how I first found out about demons. He's really what started me on the path to becoming a demon hunter. Since he could see them we went looking together and found a really low level demon to taint me with."<br/><br/>"Unless you've been orphaned by demons, you have to pass a really bullshit hard exam to enter the academy, so I studied for a long time before I was ready to leave. Kosuke's mom died from illness not long before, so I offered to take him to Euphoria with me while I took my exams. I passed, obviously, but on my way to tell him the good news... life started to suck<span style="font-style: italic">really</span>bad."<br/><br/>"... What happened?" Battler asked when he didn't continue right away.<br/><br/>"Kosuke became a demon," Ijemaru said flatly. "It's not fair. He was always a much better person than me--Kosuke was a saint! But just because some stupid demon bit him when he was a baby..."<br/><br/>"...... Did you kill him?" Battler asked. "Since you'd just passed your exams and all..."<br/><br/>"No. He portaled away too fast. But I wouldn't have killed him even if I'd had the chance. I could see it in his eyes. He hadn't changed one bit. He knew exactly what had happened to him, what it meant, and he hated it." Since the story was over, Ijemaru released the threads holding Ebisu's mouth shut.<br/><br/>"So... you're mean to people because the last person you were close to became a demon?" Battler asked.<br/><br/>Ijemaru gave him a look. "Sorry, no. I'm mean to people because I'm a terrible person and I hate them."