The late spring sun was beaming its light into a humble plain cafe. A man sitting there, all alone, sweating bullets.

  In a casual outfit of a t-shirt and flax pants, and with a plain face perfectly mixed of masculine and feminine, with a clean brown haircut, brown eyes and height of 5'7".

  he’d blend into any setting and no one would take note.

  But his sweating wasn’t because the weather was baking him in the heat, but the fact he was waiting for a date.

  Nervously fiddling his thumbs with thoughtful stare at the opposing empty seat, waiting for what felt like forever.

  Shortly, he saw a woman in a regal business suit come in, standing couple inches taller than him, with a long straight charcoal black hair just like her suit.

  The man gave a light hand-wave to help her notice him.

  Upon spotting him, she came and sat down to fill the empty seat with a sigh of relief. “My apologies for being late. I had to hurry here from work.”

  The man gave a lighthearted smile as he didn't seem to mind.

  “It’s fine. At least you showed up, Edith,” he noted to ease the mood, as she gave an awkward laugh in response.

  “Ah, so you are one of those guys,” she said in teasing.

  He was only able to give a confused look before she continued. “Unlucky suitor, that is, like from that show. I dont mean in a bad way, Hiroshi. You just look so anxious” she finished apologetically, having not thought how it would sound.

  “Well, I guess that fits me well. At least I am lucky to be settling in Elmspring. I moved into this city couple months ago.” Hiroshi said, hoping to move away from his ill-fortune nicknaming

  “That’s nice to hear. I hope the city is treating you nice. I moved in about a decade ago myself.” she said with a mild smile coming on her face.

  The waiter came by asking what they wanted, so Hiroshi just ordered plain black coffee, as Edith got some tea and a small slice of cake.

  “It was nice of you to agree to come to this cafe. The shortcakes here are the best, especially on special occasions.” she said with mild humor.

  Hiroshi gave a chuckle in response. “It was nothing. I may not yet have a car, but it is nice to take in the sights of the city while on the walk.” he tried to keep straight, but honestly to him, he had hard time focusing outside of current moments, as he isn't much of a sightseer.

  The conversation came to be pretty humble and peaceful, but that is what Hiroshi feared the most. Her statement of him being an ‘unlucky suitor’ wasn’t just a joke to him, it is what has defined his passing years as.

  Whenever things start to go good on a date, there is always something that strikes at misfortune time. Waiter or waitress dropping food on him and the date. Trips when coming or leaving. Even one time when they were about to depart, a crow attacked Hiroshi and made the date think it was a sign of bad luck, leading to her run away in fear.

  And as the date kept on flawlessly, that anxiety for the coming incident was building up. Orders came in as expected, no major traffic or others in the cafe to disturb their peace. Everything was going too perfectly.

  The time passed quicker than Hiroshi expected with his guard up. To his surprise, they had finished their drinks and half an hour had gone by.

  “You know, it was fun having a chat with you. Would you mind if we see each other again later on? Maybe let's go to movies next week.” Edith said with a cheerful look.

  “Yeah. I would love that.” Hiroshi responded with a light blush on his face.

  He had genuine joy creeping in, but he had to keep it down as much as possible to focus on the date ending without incident.

  Taking their steps out of the cafe, Hiroshi knew something was about to happen.

  His defenses were at its highest like a trap was about to activate.

  Edith took note of his wariness with curious look, but quickly played it cool as Hiroshi noticed her staring, while he didn't make much of it.

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  Upon exiting the cafe, Edith gave a warm smile and a wave as she started to head off.

  “HEY! MISS HAMILTON!” Could be heard coming across the road, as a short girl with fluffy, cloudy hair came jogging across the street with no care.

  Edith turned to look in horror, as Hiroshi’s defenses were up enough to take in the situation almost like it was in slow motion.

  Noticing a truck driving on the road just at the same time as the girl was crossing, perfectly aligned for collision. He knew it would end badly, and out of instinct, he went for it.

  With his body already ready to react to the situation, he sprinted forth to push the girl out of the way, leaving him to see lights flash before his eye, only for coming void consume his vision.

  Waking up, Hiroshi felt weak all over his body, with a head-splitting headache.

  Taking note of his surroundings, he seemed to be in a hospital with a decent amount of casts across his body, right leg and left hand being fully in cast.

  He processed what happened, he felt a depression loom to him as the curse struck again.

  “My luck will be the death of me,” he muttered to himself in self-defeat.

  Hiroshi seeped in his sorrow, until the door to the room was shortly opened.

  To his shock, he saw Edith enter, who got surprised with Hiroshi being awake “Oh my, awake already? Didn’t even take a day.”

  She calmly entered and sat next to the hospital bed. “Seems we may have to post-pone ideas of the movie date.” she said jokingly, but he felt otherwise.

  He knew it, another date ruined by his misfortune, and he presumed she was just trying to play it nice for now before running away as everyone else, while Edith gave a light giggle as she saw the disappointment in his face.

  “It isn’t because I don't want to." She clarified, "But I think there is someone who wants that more than me currently.”

  Before he could ask what she meant, the girl he rescued came rushing in. Slamming the door open like it was her opponent in the path to glory.

  With a mighty leap, she happily went to cuddle him, crashing onto him.

  he could do nothing but wince in pain upon impact.

  As things calmed, he couldn’t help it be flustered as he saw what essentially was a sentient cloud hugging him with a smile that could outshine the sun.

  Edith gave a light cough to get his attention, before speaking up. “also, not to alarm you, but she is an demibeast.”

  The words slowly went processing in his head, as he took a closer look and was able to notice short dog-like ears hiding in the fluffy hair and tail wagging behind her. And to put it simply, him being alarmed was understatement from the surprise.

  History books speak of a time where you could imagine the world being your usual medieval fantasy world. This world has been dominated by multiple species, many rose and passed away due to waging war, or natural causes making them unsustainable.

  As ages went, there slowly became division between those that they called people and monsters. While monsters got more diverse due to their competitive nature, people sustained multiple species as well.

  However, as technology and social life drove people into greater heights and interaction between each other, their diversity slowly dwindled until only humans were only thing left

  Upon human’s striving to conquer all of the lands the world had to offer, it lead to monsters that weren't adapted for human nature into hiding for millenia.

  About hundred years ago, when the Great war was raging across the planet, these monsters re-emerged, this time having adapted to the new world where humans were the focus.

  While many resisted, many adapted to monsters being in their lives. Even if some still looked down upon them as inferior, there was undeniable evidence of their equal rights to live like us humans.

  Eventually, in recent decades there were many great city-states built with the main focus of supporting co-habitation of humans and monsters and exploring law-making for the good of both sides. Elmspring being one of these cities.

  Edith happily explained, while Hiroshi just gave a tired look. “Listen, I know my history. Why are you bringing it up?”

  She gave a light smile, which now felt like it had some curiosity behind it. “I’d like to hire your services.”

  Hearing her words, he felt what decision he would choose would be trouble, but with the events that has lead him so far, his fate has worked better when he took the leap of faith.

  Doesn't even help that he has been looking for a long-term workplace as well. “Fine, but we will talk after I get out of the hospital, ok?”