Hisono's Edge

Hisono stars in Hisono’s Edge, a story about a human college student in an abusive household who is set free by his teacher. He learns how to be a dragon—a story told from a human perspective. He is adopted!

——————

The experience of being a dragon, from a human perspective 

It happened after school.

Mr. Black was the last teacher who saw Hisono before The Incident.

They were talking in the classroom about something Mr. Black saw.

 

“Your parents...”

Hisono looks down, “They’re human.”

Hisono had gotten slapped across his face by his mother

He took a tumble, a gasp, and then he walked off with a scowl on his face

His mother yelled obscenities

 

Mr. Black saw it happen, and he saw the tears on Hisono’s face when he passed by

 

“They shouldn’t do that,” said Mr. Black

Hisono was still averting his gaze

the ground was more comfortable to stare at

 

Hisono swallows, finally answering.

“Yeah.”

 

His grip on his bag strap tightens

Dangling from it is a key chain of a pagoda

 

“What’s Japan like?” Asks Mr. Black.

“I’ve never been. I’ve only been told it’s where I’m from.”

“...”

Hisono’s eyes finally meet Mr. Black’s. 

“Can I go now?”

“Okay.”

 

Hisono leaves the school

but

Mr. Black isn’t satisfied with that encounter.

 

Hisono is still tightly clutching his bag strap as he walks home

 

He makes it to Main Street when he realizes he doesn’t know what path to use to get home

He doesn’t normally walk home…

 

He takes a left—walking past the hair salon he normally sees when his mom drives him to school.

 

He heard a can clatter—his head swipes back

No one is there

He keeps going, walking faster

A car drives by and he clutches his bag tighter

“Don’t kidnap me, please.”

 

The car passes, he’s saf—

“NO!”

He’s grabbed and taken up in the air

He sees the ground getting distant, more distant

The kidnapper lands on a roof, clutching Hisono to them tightly

Hisono can’t move

 

“Please. I have no money. I-I eat noodles from the convenience store for God’s sake. Those bags that cost a quarter! That’s how poor I am.”

 

The person clutching him speaks in a raspy voice, almost breathless

 

“I want not your money.”

Hisono’s lower lip quivers, “I don’t know what else to offer—”

His eyes widen as he realizes, perhaps his body is on the menu?

An organ trafficker??

 

“Please. Don’t take my organs.”

 

The person’s lips inch ever closer to Hisono’s neck

His mouth opens, fangs growing outward

Scales forming along his cheeks and chin

He takes a bite.

 

 

At first, it hurts like hell

But what’s poured into his body causes the pain to dissipate

It is replaced with something that sends signals throughout his brain

Every part of his body is yearning for something

 

“Why am I feeling this way?”

and “I need you—you are food”

are categories of thoughts that swarm by the hundreds in his head.

 

His legs twitch as this dragon bites harder, needles within its teeth piercing deeper, now sucking the blood from their victim.

 

Before too much is taken, the dragon stops himself

They pull back, blood sticking to their fangs, and a cloudy liquid dripping off—was it venom??

They exhale, and speak in a familiar voice.

 

“Now, you can create your own future, Hisono.”

 

 ***

 

Hisono’s eyes widen, his mind blown by the fact that he just got euphoria’d and eaten from, by his teacher

 

“Mister Black…”

 

Hisono feels pangs all over his body

Jolts of pain shooting through his vein

Eyes burning

Heartbeat quickening

Breaths constricting

 

He writhes as pain pulses in multiple parts of his body

His arms and legs twitch as his muscles spasm

 

His bones in his fingers crack

Nails become claws

then, his hands become paw-like

 

His skin itches as the beginnings of dragon scales take form

But, because he was human, these scales were akin to a snake’s skin

 

From his head, he feels horns protrude, grow

—Forming.

 

His pupils become slits—the telltale sign of a dragon

 

The pain slowly withers away

Leaving a (possibly) traumatized newborn dragonboy

 

Mr. Black holds his hand out, inviting Hisono into a life in the night

Hisono looks at Mr. Black’s hand, then up at him, and back at his hand

 

“Hisono, I’m offering you something that most kids your age don’t get very often. A way out.”

 ***

 

The first night is spent becoming accustomed to his burgeoning dragon powers

Atop the rooftops, Mr. Black and Hisono race each other

The speed that he can run with, being able to theoretically keep up with a car

The revelation of this sends Hisono into an excited tizzy

He was scared at the possibilities, but excited at the prospects

He could enter track and field—but wait, he’d have to compete against other dragons

But he could rob a bank!

But that would risk jail time.

 

Hisono runs and jumps from rooftop to rooftop, keeping pace with Mr. Black

He allows himself to feel the freedom of the air as he rises and falls to the next rooftop

He allows himself to feel the rush of the wind as he speeds through

He allows his head to calculate the “when” for his next jump as his eyes see and quickly register sight to his brain

Hisono allows himself to fall into his draconic senses

 

Hisono and Mr. Black take a leap from high

Hisono was scared but Mr. Black assured him his body could withstand it

Indeed, his legs, now empowered by dragon-power, allowed him to land on the ground in a hard tumble-roll, his bones unscathed

 

His skin? Ehhhh…

 

Their speed slows as they reach the park and fall over, panting

 

Hisono rolls onto his back, laughing breathlessly, “Holy shit, that was amazing!”

 

Mr. Black nods, “I’m glad you got something out of it.”

Hisono looks over at Mr. Black, “you don’t feel the same way?”

Mr. Black sighs, catching a few breaths.

 

“No. I’m already a dragon, so running fast is nothing exciting. It’s nothing new.”

 

Hisono’s smile disappears

Mr. Black is quick to undo the crushing of the moments joy, “but but some dragons love running fast. That pink Tanfel that was on the news. She said she loves running. My passion lies in something else.”

 

Hisono scoffs, “tch, like what, art?”

Mr. Black corrects him, “No. History. Why else would I be a teacher?”

 

*** 

 

Hisono returns home, reluctantly

The horns protruding out of his head don’t go away

Mr. Black failed to tell him how to de-shift and the thought to ask didn’t cross Hisono’s mind

He opens the front door to his home

His mother shouts obscenities at him for being late

Hisono stands there, at the door, in the dark

He’s glaring at her, but she can barely see those eyes

He steps forward

Her words stumble and stop when she sees the horns protruding from his head

 

“What in the devilry…”

 

She calls for the husband

Hisono gulps and panicks

 

“Not him. Please, mom. Not him.”

 

He comes into the kitchen, turns on the light

Hisono squints as there’s a flash of white in his eyes, “It’s too bright!!”

For a moment, he is blinded, but he heard his father yelling.

 

“What are those horns?! Did you sell your soul to a demon? A witch? A fairy?! Damn well better not be a dragon.”

 

Hisono raises his voice, a raspy voice in undercurrent with his own, for the first time in a long time, “will you please STOP talking?!”

 

The parents fell silent

Hisono’s yellow eyes turn red

It’s the Taint

 

“I just want to go to sleep in my bed.”

 

 ***

 

Hisono can sleep soundly tonight, confident in the fact that he is part dragon and he cannot be killed so easily.

 

He’s confident that Mr. Black is a sturdy dragon, and turned Hisono into a sturdy dragon. How else could they withstand a speedy fall from a building rooftop?

 

His parents stand at his door for a moment, discussing amongst themselves.

 

They soon leave

Hisono can sleep now that he can’t hear them

(Another wonderful gift of being a dragon)