“Nishika you saved our breakfast you’re a real lifesaver” Satou rejoiced, she smacked him on top of his head, she was furious then she looked down at Izumo. He turned away avoiding eye contact.
“When I woke up, he was gone so I went out to see where he went,” he said, still avoiding eye contact with Nishika.
“Why didn't you just tell me? I live in the room next to you!!!”
“Look, I don't need to tell you where I'm going. If I want to go, I’ll go” Izumo shouted back. Nishika then smacked him on his head.
“Whatever,” he said with his arms crossed after Nishika humbled him.
"Uhhhhhhh" frustrated, she squeezed tightly onto the cup noodles and soda in her hands.
"Stop you're going-" she burst both the cup noodles and the soda.
" ...to burst it" Satou tried to calm her down but it was too late.
"Oops" she stared awkwardly at the burst bottle of soda in her hand and the dry noodles on the ground.
“Nishika, that was our breakfast” Satou sighed
He facepalmed and his stomach spoke while Nishika was trying to figure out what to do.
“I’m so so so sorry”.
“Wait, Nishika, why don't you just move in with us to save money,” Satou suggested. Nishika’s facial expression quickly changed from remorse to disgust.
“Ew”
“What the hell do you mean by ''ew” !!!” Izumo shouted
“Exactly what I said, you two are filthy. I saw noodles on the floor last week and rotten guava in the sink and let’s not talk about the bathroom-” Nishika complained but was interrupted by Izumo’s stomach.
“I’m going to the Lodge to do a hunt so I can buy you guys some breakfast. I'm going to change, ``she said.
She turned around and stormed up the stairs to her apartment, leaving the two brothers at the entrance.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Ohh no I’m late”
The girl said as she held her books tight to her chest running down the huge white school halls. She ran past the boy with his hands in his pocket walking in the opposite direction as she ran by, he slowly turned his head with a perverted smile on his face.
“Nice,” he said, he stared at her skirt while she ran watching her skirt go up and down revealing her white panties.
“Well, that was nice while it lasted. Where is this mission board wasn’t it around here somewhere?” He asked himself. He walked past the huge board with sheets of paper stuck onto it without realizing it.
“Wait isn’t…” He took a few steps back realizing he passed it.
“Now let’s see” he was deciding which sheet to choose.
“Meh, I’m not gonna waste my time reading through all of these, the sheets are typically the same,” he said, he pulled down one of the sheets and continued to scroll down the hall.
“Hmmm, where is the locator guy? Oh, here it is” he opened the door and entered the small room to see a desk covered with paperwork.
“Hello,” a sore throat and dull voice came from under the paper.
“Huh, did the paper just tell me “Hello,” Shiro thought to himself, he grabbed the handle of the door trying to leave quietly, but suddenly a hand burst out of the paper.
“Ahhhhh!” Shiro screamed as he was startled.
The hand started to move the paper then the head emerged from the sheets of paper while Shiro was scared and clinging to the wall.
“You’re Aya Hoshiga’s son also known as the golden failure, correct?” he asked.
“Firstly, the name is Shiro Hoshiga. Secondly, what the hell were you doing under all that paperwork and why is it all over the place? … wow are these palvadors?” he pointed at the man’s eyes. Palavadors are connected to the eyes, a person’s innate art activates through sight due to this the being’s eyes when activated will change to a different form.
“I have never seen them before, so everyone with palavadors eyes looks like that?” he asked while he looked deep into his eyes.
“Yes,” he replied.
“No way, your conjunctiva is black, and your iris is pulsing red and… black wait does it change, or does it go back to the original color? But your pupils are … ”
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“When I activate my palavadors, my conjunctiva turns black and my iris turns bright red then for four seconds, it slowly dims down until it turns black then it takes four seconds to brighten back up to the bright red,” he answered, Shiro, started to slowly move left and right while the man’s eyes trailed him.
“So, do you use those eyes of yours to pick up women?” Shiro asked while he smirked at him.
“That’s enough questions.” He said bluntly.
“Wait, what’s up with those eye bags? I just realized those eye bags you’re lacking some serious sleep” Shiro said, he started to see how emotionless the man was. The man pointed at the paper in Shiro’s hand indicating to give it to him which Shiro did. He read the information on the paper.
"Your target is in the Garrison Woods, here is the general area to search, be on your way Shiro" The man handed Shiro a piece of paper, but Shiro continued to stare at his eye more interested in his palavadors.
"You can locate things by looking at its description. That’s so cool, so you do use that to pick up women-- “before Shiro could finish asking the question the man kicked him out of the office and back into the school hall.
“So, you do huh?!” he loudly asked from the hall.
“Please be on your way Shiro,” he said politely.
“ Wait, did that paper say A rank hunt? He's not qualified for that, wait Shiro!" He quickly
opened the door just to see that Shiro was far gone.
“Damn it,” he said.
Shiro walked down the street with his hands in his pocket.
“Is that him?”
“Yeah, that's him”
“The golden failure”
Each person he passed on the street gossiped about him, they started to talk negatively about him. He continued to walk nonchalantly down the street ignoring the people talking ill about him. Shiro took the paper out of his pocket and looked at it. He saw his mistake; he froze in the middle of the street and made the people stare. As he began to grow wary.
“A.. A... ra...nt.. hunt…. No way” he stutteringly mumbled.
“Huhhh!!!!” he shouted in the middle of the street then he looked around.
“Mommy is that boy ok,” the little girl asked pointing at Shiro. The mother picked up her daughter and walked away.
Shiro awkwardly coughed and walked away swiftly from the small crowd of people. He looked at the paper once again to see if he was mistaken.
“So, it is an A rant hunt, I can simply just go back and return the hunt to the board, but I’m gonna lose my rank if I do, wait, I’m a rank D, how did I… does that locator want me dead or something?” he thought to himself. He started to sweat profusely trying to conclude what to do.
“Ahhh, screw it, let's just go to Garrison Woods” he made his choice and started to jog down the street.
"Oh no," Shiro said
The fear overcame him as he arrived in Garrison Woods. He felt the presence in the woods that made the birds fly off, it made his heart beat faster and faster as the seconds went by. He stood in the trees trying to decide if he should just turn around.
“This demon is dangerous. Why don’t I just turn back now? With a negative aura like this, someone will notice and deal with this right?” his thoughts went crazy as he was met with an overwhelming aura from the demon he was sent to kill.
He was stuck in his tracks, but he managed to get a hold of himself. He jumped into the nearest tree, he lifted his shirt revealing two golden desert eagles tucked in his pants by his hips.
“What the hell am I doing? Do I want to fight this thing?” he questioned himself continuing to put himself further into a life-or-death situation.
He started taking deep breaths then he jumped to the next tree. It was the closest tree to the open field where he saw the demon with the menacing presence standing over another demon with his blood splattered all over the tree he was lifelessly slouched on.
“Oh, shit” the gruesome scene made him slowly pull out his pistols getting ready to fight. Shiro was left in complete shock and tried to keep his calm. "Relax and try to at least get a description of it.” He says monologuing to himself.
“So that the locator can make a hunt sheet. Fully masked and clothed, wearing a black hoodie and long black sweatpants. Seems to be a female, she tried to bandage them down maybe to hide the fact she is a female about five feet eight inches tall. Her weapon of choice are the twin dual sais an interesting choice.” he continued to monologue to himself peeking his head out from behind the tree he was sitting on.
“Was that demon a betrayer? no that can’t be right” he stopped peeking out his head so he could focus on his thought, but when he peeked his head out again the demon was underneath the tree looking up at where he was sitting.
“!!!” He jumped out of the tree landing in the middle of the open field where he was face to face with the demon. The demon slowly walked out of the bush, to see Shiro on his hands and knees.
“Look I don't want to fight you, I just want to go home so let me go” Shiro begged, the demon threw one of her sais at Shiro missing him by an inch or two.
“Well, I guess the only way for me to get out of this is by fighting” he pulled out one of his pistols and shot at the demon’s head. She moved her head slightly to dodge the bullet that flew past and hit the tree behind her.
Shiro got off the ground dusting off the dirt and grass from his elbows and knees. They exchanged glares at each other as if their very wills were coming into confrontation. The air started to get heavy as the tension rose.
Two shots from Shiro’s pistol were fired while he started to run toward her, she dodged them and started to run toward him. They met as the two weapons clashed, Shiro used his pistols like batons to clash with her sais. Suddenly Shiro fired at her feet, she barely dodged as the attack was sudden, and she couldn't calculate his fighting strategy. He used the pistols as batons for defense but whenever his pistols were able to shoot any part of her body he would shoot. She noticed his strategy and took the necessary procedures by throwing one of her sais up in the air.
“She threw her sai up in the -, wait”
Shiro questioned her decision looking up at the sai taking his attention off her. He quickly turned back his attention to her to see she was in motion to pierce his neck with the other sai in her hand. She was inches away, but Shiro had his pistol directly in front of her face. He shot and she swung, she ducked to dodge his bullet and he leaned back enough to dodge her sai. The other sai landed in the middle of the space between them, she threw the other sai at him and made a run for the one on the ground. Before the sai got near Shiro, it was suddenly engulfed by a purple flame.
“What the -”
Shiro leaned back watching the purple-flamed sai fly pass. He got up looking back at the sai that flew into the tree.
“Purple flame?” he curiously thought. His eyes opened wide as his curiousness distracted him and made him forget he was still in the middle of a fight; he slowly turned his head to look at her.
“Crap,” he said, she was directly in front of him. The demon delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to his face, but Shiro powered through remaining on his feet. She continued to attack, kicking him in the stomach.
“Ugrhhh” the heavy blow knocked the air out of him, but she didn’t stop attacking. She swung her sai and Shiro dodged despite his lack of air at the moment. Shiro slowly regained the air he lost and started picking up his pace as he was on the defensive.
"When did she get back her second sai," he asked himself, she put her arms across her chest forming an X with her sais pointing downwards. The sais were engulfed by the purple flames, she rushed at him with the lit sais in her hands. With her arms still in the X position, she swung her sais forming a bite-like attack aiming for his jugular vein. Shiro stumbled back as her attack got closer to his neck, he felt the heat from the flames.
“Hot, hot, hot”
Shiro rubbed his neck trying to cool it down suddenly the demon was in the air with her sais still lit, she had them over her head ready to stab the sais into his chest. Shiro pointed his pistols at her while she was still in the air, but she was unfazed by his threat. He pointed one of the pistols at her leg, she was startled she threw one of the sais at his head and he jumped back avoiding it. Shiro then dashed forward kicking her knee just before she landed on the ground. She fell to her knees then Shiro gunbutt her in the face, scattering the mask and making her fall on her back.
He stood over her pointing his pistols at her and said, “The reason you didn’t react to me, pointing my gun up at you, because you knew I would’ve aimed for your head or your chest which you could have easily destroyed the bullet with your sais, but you didn’t expect me to aim for your legs, so you panicked. The heat from those flames would have made it near impossible to fight you at close range so you knew my luck would have run out and you would have caught me and killed me”
She let go of the sai in her hand and removed pieces of her mask that were covering her eye.
“I knew it,” she said, her eyes starting to tear up. Shiro was shocked, he dropped his pistols, fell onto her stomach, and started to take the other pieces of the mask
“Ni…Ni… Nishika…”