Zoran was woken up at 3:30 A.M. to the sound of Amaia blaring a foghorn from their door. Naiko slams his fist into the bed and says, “Zoran…you better deal with her before I lose it.” Zoran groans as he hastily puts on his Aspect Hunter uniform. As he looked into the mirror, he looked absolutely miserable to be awake at the moment. Finishing up his morning hygiene, he opens the door to see a cheery Amaia with her foghorn in hand. Amaia exclaims, “Ready for some workouts and training!” Zoran tiredly shakes his head as he follows Amaia to the indoor gym that the Aspect Hunter headquarters have. No one was in there with the slight exception of Asta who was chugging a mug of coffee. Asta looks up at Zoran and says, “Ah…I’ve been meaning to talk to you. While you were running errands with Amaia, we got more information about your aspect. Kaoi mentioned that your Aspect is extremely foggy. Foggier then it should be to him. In short, you are an anomaly. You don’t have any Aspect Circulation. The Aspect Circulation is the point of the body where your mark is supposed to circulate the essence of the Aspect. You don’t contain the essence of an Aspect, you steal it from the world itself. For example, her essence is the fuel for her flames. My essence is made by sacrificing some of my physical body in exchange for a sudden burst of that essence circulating in my body. Usually, everyone should have some trace essence in their body. Even normal people without Aspects, should have at least trace amounts of it. You are completely devoid of any of it. In fact, that arm is the only amount of Aspect essence that can be traced from you.” Zoran rubs his eyes and says, “What does that mean for me…” Asta clears his throat and says, “Your Aspect shouldn’t exist. Your body shouldn’t have one. You steal from the trace amount of Aspect Essence from the world around you. Touch this flower.” Asta holds up a flower pot close to Zoran. He puts his hand on the flower as it slowly withers away and eventually fades to dust. The energy he extracted from the flower gets absorbed into the arm. Asta looks at the withered pile of dust and says, “Just as I suspected. When I watched you fight, whatever you touched would be withered to dust. Now touch me. I wanna test something.” Zoran looks at Asta and says, “Are you sure?” Asta nods his head and as Zoran tries extracting Asta’s essence his hand is shot back like he was denied. Asta then smiles and says, “You can’t extract the essence from humans and animals due to the circulation they possess. Zoran, for now on please wear these gloves. Only take them off in combat or in social settings.” Asta hands Zoran a pair of gloves and Zoran immediately puts them on. They were abit itchy but Zoran could only suck it up. Amaia pipes in saying, “Asta this is supposed to be a training session, not some teaching moment. Get ready for weight training Zoran.” Asta sighs and says, “I’ll be reading my book and I’ll wait till you are finished. I’ll be supervising combat practice though.” Zoran watches Asta take out a book named “Twin Butterflies in Love” and he slightly winces. Amaia looks at Asta’s book and says, “You…are into romance novels?” Asta shrugged and said, “What about it.” Amaia and Zoran sigh as they just leave for the weight room.

Amaia supervised Zoran trying to lift weights as she slightly mocks him by saying, “C'mon you can do better than that.” Zoran mutters, “Forgive me for not working out once…” Amaia snickers as she says, “After this we are gonna take a run around the headquarters three times and then finish it off with 50 pushups. I am an expert at this fitness stuff, I have been training since I was 12. The results don’t lie either.” As Zoran was struggling, Amaia flexed her muscles and kissed them dramatically. She then hops on one of the weight benches and starts lifting 300 pounds of steel as Zoran’s eyes widen. All he has to say in response is, “Now I know why it hurt so much when you punched me…holy Vulxian.” He keeps trying to lift weights as Amaia effortlessly lifts the 300 pound deadlift. As soon as Zoran finished his workout he was sore all over his body. It felt like he was hit with a crowbar in every part of his joints, he’d even argue that he felt less pain by being stabbed with Rue’s swords. Asta was waiting for them outside the room and then put his book away as he said, “Finally finished with that? Let’s start weapon training.”

They work on training Zoran’s weapon skills over the course of the morning until the sun is high in the sky. He wipes the sweat from his forehead and looks over at Asta saying, “Can I be considered done for the day?” Amaia and Asta look at each other and nod at each other. Asta picks up gear that he brought to train Zoran and says, “Alright, go ahead. I gotta check on Cecelia’s and Naiko’s mission together as well. They wanted to tackle a Malformed Aspect in another town. Enjoy your day!” Asta leaves to the headquarters main door and Zoran looks over to Amaia and says, “Wanna go fishing like I was talking about yesterday?” Amaia nods her head and says, “Sure, I did say I wanna try doing it.” They grabbed fishing rods from the main desk and some bait as they walked down to the gates of the city. When they left the main gates of the city, Zoran and Amaia finds themselves in a beautiful field of flowers that spanned the horizon. Flowers of different colors and varieties swoosh with the wind. Zoran looks over to Amaia and says, “This is beautiful…” Amaia then replies, “It is. Makes me almost forget the lower layer of the city…it always makes me depressed going through there.” They walk over to the lake that was far from the city and they both sat down on a shaded rock and sit down. Amaia looks at her rod confused and asks, “Zoran, do you mind helping me set up my rod.” Zoran takes some time to set up the rod as the sounds of birds chirping play over their heads. As Zoran sets up her rod, Amaia says, “Why don’t I use my glaive to fish? It’d be more efficient.” Zoran replies quietly, “It’s about the quiet of the activity and enjoying the environment.” Amaia groans as she waits for Zoran to finish until he gave her the rod. Zoran hooks bait on his line as he looks over to Amaia and says, “Do you need help hooking your bait?” Amaia looked down embarrassed and says, “I never did this before…so yeah I might need a little help.” Zoran helps hook Amaia’s bait and they both sit down on the rock to cast their rod. Zoran looks over to Amaia and says, “You know I’ve been thinking. What makes you want to be an Aspect Hunter. You don’t really seem interested in protecting people or being part of a cause. If anything…you are the most selfish person I ever met.” Amaia sits there in silence and for the first time since he has met Amaia, he can sense some vulnerability. She takes a deep breath and says, “If I’m being honest, I just wanted to be something different then what the Tattoo wanted me to be. Since I was born, I was labled as a curse. It was until…” She abruptly stops as she feels a tug on her pole. Her eyes widen as she starts panicking and says, “I never got this far before! What do I do!” Zoran takes the rod and pulls back against the fish and he says, “Now reel it in!” Amaia frantically reels the fish in, it is a decently sized one too. Amaia holds the fish by the hook proudly and says, “I, Amaia Nouvel have caught this ferocious monster! I have bested my foul rival Zoran Ashura!” Zoran laughs slightly and says, “You remind me of an old friend I used to have. They would always be so happy when they beat me in something.” Zoran looks down sadly looking at his reflection in the water. Amaia looks at the fish and then says, “So…how do we unhook this ferocious monster.” Zoran helps unhook the fish and puts it hooked on a stick. Zoran then says, “Want me to bait your hook, almight Amaia Nouvel.” Amaia looks down and says, “Sure…” Zoran takes her hook and puts a worm on it as he watches the lake peacefully. It was probably the most peace he had since the incident. He can only enjoy the moment and the small respite from the problems in his head. He looks at Amaia and asks, “Why do you hate destiny?” Amaia looks at the lake in thought and says, “I refuse to believe in destiny because I don’t want to be the monster everyone claimed I was gonna be. I want to be something different. I want to be myself instead of a someone that I could be. I refuse to believe that I am gonna be someone who want’s nothing but death and destruction. I cherish things aside from battle, and I want to fight to protect it. I don’t want endless destruction, I just wanna be seen as a human. Ever since this damn tattoo was put on my arm, everyone looks at me in fear. No one sees me as a person but some prophecy. I hate it.” Zoran looks down in thought and the silence consumes them both. Finally, Zoran spoke up, “If it helps, I see you as human. I mean I didn’t know what the tattoo meant when I first saw you. If anything, we are equally cursed.” Amaia laughs bitterly, “Of course the survivor from an incident with no explanation can sympathize with me. I guess you are right, we are both cursed by this world. Although, now that I am thinking about it, isn’t everyone cursed one way or another. I suppose that’s the burden we share for simply breathing. Whenever I walk through the lower layer, I can’t help but think that if it’s their destiny to suffer in that area then it isn't that cruel. I just can’t make sense of it.” Zoran looks off in the horizon and says, “And if it’s my destiny to be the only survivor of that incident…then that’s cruel and unfair to everyone who died there. I knew everyone in my town. I remember the fine details like the wrinkles of the old man I used to buy bait from. The smiles on my parent’s faces when I came home. The looks of my friends whenever I caught a massive fish. I refuse to believe those people were somehow meant to be a building block for my “destiny”. I refuse to believe it. That’s why I feel guilty. I would’ve preferred being the one who died over them…yet I am here still.” Amaia was speechless and says, “I would’ve guessed you’d still have lingering regrets of that day. I know I can’t do much to help about that feeling but I am happy to consider you my friend.” A small smile appears on Zoran’s face as he laughs bitterly, “For someone who is supposed to represent destruction and death, you are suprisingly considerate. Although, when you fight or become competitive you become something else.” Amaia laughs and says, “Or whenever I torment poor Naiko. Me and him can never get along.” Zoran laughs and catches a fish. He looks at the small fish, it looked like a baby and said, “We can throw this one back.”

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They spent the rest of the day fishing as the sun was beginning to set. Amaia looked at Zoran and says, “I guess we should head back now. It was fun though. I didn’t completely hate it.” Zoran punches her lightly and says, “I had fun hanging out with you. In a couple days, Naiko is my next partner. That should be a handful…before we end the night wanna grill the fish we caught. I am kinda hungry.” Amaia nods as they gather firewood and prepare a fire on the side of the lake. As the fire was being heat up, from the distance they could see Cecela and Naiko walking back from the road. They looked like a mess with tatters on their clothes. Naiko looks at them and says, “Why are you guys here…did you have fun training.” Zoran looks down and says, “Amaia is a rough instructor…I am still super sore.” Cecelia looks at their fish they caught and walks up to Amaia nervously and says, “Can me and Naiko have some fish…we are starving. When Asta checked on us, he didn’t bring food like he promised.” Amaia looks up in thought and then at the fish and she says, “Sure why not. We are a group right.?” She looks at Zoran with a slight smile and he says, “Yeah…I guess we are.” He changed one of his fingers in a knife as he gutted and scaled the fish near the lake as Amaia watched him curiously and Cecelia vomiting in the bush. As he cooked the fish near the campfire as the group laughs at Naiko recounting the story. Amaia punches him lightly and says, “Looks like you do have some bite.” Zoran looks at the group with a slight smile as he finishes the fish. He gives each of them a fish and says, “Don’t expect restaurant quality as I didn’t bring seasoning.” Naiko looks at him and says, “I don’t care. I’ve been hungry all day.” They all dived into the fish and Cecelia says, “It’s super good! Thanks Zoran!” Naiko nods his head and agrees and Amaia is already finished. Zoran looks up to the sky that was filled with brilliant stars as the moon watched down at them. All the pain and strife seemed to fade away just for a moment. A small moment of respite as the still water of the lake reflects the beautiful sky.

***

Aspect Hunter Files - Amaia Nouvel

She is known as the Aspect User of Depredation. She originates from the Empire of Xulian and she has no recorded family. She is described by Asta as a competitive and extremely passionate person. Asta stated, “She definitely has the ability to rival me in sheer firepower. It’s mostly her personality that is the problem. She is arrogant and lacks any sense of control.” She is a C-Rank Aspect Hunter. Her ability is to consume herself in Depredation Flames and summon a glaive that is made of that flame. She doesn’t appear burnt from flames so it’s safe to say she has some degree of immunity. She can also heal using her flames but those flames are fueled by her Aspect Essence and her circulation is abnormally fast and inconsistent with her gaining sudden bursts of Aspect Energy. She has also demonstrated an ability to convert her flames to lightning.