「 His existence can be pretty much summed up as an unwanted accident. 」
▌ Illus's parents were a mirthful and adventurous young couple until the woman realized she was pregnant, forcing both of them to eventually drop out of college. Even when the couple's parents forsaken them for deciding to keep the baby, they tried to be optimistic thinking they could make it work. Eventually a baby boy was born...but to the new parents’ surprise he didn’t turn out to have human ears just like them. Despite this they tried to love and care for him. They thought that they could be a happy family and get married one day, but as the years went by the couple’s once loving relationship became toxic under the pressure of financial stress and discrimination. Wanting to escape the hardship the mother returned home to her parents, and left her partner and her three-year-old son. Clinging onto the hope that she may return one day, the father tried to raise the child on his own. Ever since then, they never heard from her again.
▌ Illus grew up to be a rather quiet, passive and hard-hearted young boy of seven years; having no fond memories with his father while having no memory of his mother at all. His father was rarely home in their poor excuse of an apartment, and if ever he was he reeked of cheap alcohol. Because he didn’t like the smell or the noise, Illus often stayed outside even after school was long over. It was one of those late-night ventures in the playground did he meet a boy around his age, Zweiss. Despite the other boy’s rowdy and overly zealous persona, Illus appreciated his company because it was the first time he felt what having a friend was like. They hung out nearly everyday since then—adventuring out in the city, pranking poor victims, and playing video games in Zweiss’s home. Little did Illus realize that three years passed by so quickly. The time spent together was not only the most fun he had in years, but also made him realize how contrasting their lives really were...it was almost unfair.
▌ It came as a surprise when one night, returning home he was greeted by a bottle to the face. His father was drunk again but he seemed different from usual—he was violent this time. What came after were loud curses and a flurry of hits, and all that the young boy could feel afterwards was the numbness of his battered body. It was only the day after the father realized what he had done, but still he refused to bring the boy to the hospital in fear of getting arrested for child abuse. And so while the father continued to work like usual, Illus stayed home for several days. His wounds were amateurishly treated, and he found himself unable to eat and sleep properly. He would often close his eyes briefly only to open them and see that it’s a new day. He felt that no one bothered to look for him all that time—not his teachers, not his classmates, and definitely not his mother. But maybe, just maybe Zweiss would look for him…? Maybe it was just his wishful thinking that he hallucinated hearing Zweiss’s voice calling for him, faintly seeing his shape crawl in from the window of his room.
▌ One day he woke up in a hospital room, not knowing how he got there, and a social worker sitting patiently by the corner. Eventually that meeting led to Illus’s father getting arrested and convicted. Despite being a rather dragging and tiring process, Illus felt nothing all throughout the prosecution.
▌ Just when he thought he was going to end up in an orphanage, much to his surprise, Zweiss told him they will become brothers from then on. Since then, aside from having a more comfortable life, he continued with their misadventures and decided to help Zweiss make his dream a reality: to form the best gang in the world (just like in the video games).
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