In Quadruneber of 2073, Kada Susten was a senior in high school, about a month away from graduating. She was a good student; paid attention in class, always did her work, and never skipped a lesson even if she was sick. She wasn’t the smartest person, but was diligent in her studies. This was mainly due to her father's influence.

When Kada was still a young child, her mother had abandoned her and her father. This left her father broken and bitter. From then on, he constantly pressured Kada to do well in school, so that she could get a good job and take care of him in his old age. It was selfish, but her father was all she had, so she didn’t want to disappoint him.

She was waiting at the bus stop, like she did every morning to take her to school, and sat alone on the bench staring up at the gray sky wondering if it was going to rain. She was dressed in her usual navy school uniform. Her two long black braids were drooped over her shoulders. They were a stark contrast to her exceedingly pale white skin. Since she always stayed inside studying, her skin looked almost ghostly.

She took off her glasses and wiped them since they were fogging up. When she returned them to her face, she looked over at the posters on the side of the bus stop’s shelter. The number of posters for missing animals had increased since the last time she looked. For the past few months, several people’s pets had gone missing and no one could figure out why. Not a single one had been found either.

Kada lived in a small town in the country just north of Horage, along the western coastline. It was a port town, so that’s where most of the business came from. Since the city was littered mostly with hard working sailors, crime was pretty scarce, making it a peaceful place.

She remembered it always being peaceful too, even when the war was going on. She was still young so she couldn’t remember too much in detail, but she remembered her country surrendering without a fight. However, nothing actually changed after that. She remembered all the adults talking about it, but daily life remained the same. This disappearance of animals was the most she had ever seen her neighbors get so worked up.

She stopped thinking about it after she got on the bus, and read one of her textbooks the entire ride to school. As she walked through the halls, she noticed a familiar face, and excitedly rushed over to him. “Hey Bosef!” she greeted cheerfully to the one person she could consider her friend.

Kada didn’t have any other friends, and didn’t try to get close to people. This was her father's influence as well. On the birthday after her mother had disappeared, she had a big party with a bunch of friends she cherished. They had all pitched in to get her an extremely cute stuffed animal that she’d always wanted. After the party was over, though, something had set her father off. He took the stuffed animal and burned it in front of her, saying that she shouldn’t be wasting her time with such things.

Afterwards, she couldn’t look her friends in the eyes anymore and had avoided trying to make new ones. The same incident had left her with an obsession with cute things, however. She would often stop by pet stores to play with the young animals, or visit toy shops and browse. She didn’t dare take anything home, fearing that it would meet the same fate as her birthday present.

Bosef wasn’t an exception to this. He was the cutest person Kada had ever met. He was quite short, with dirty blonde hair, and an adorable face that would make any girl envious. Kada had stuck with avoiding people up through high school, but he had been just so cute that she couldn’t stay away. She would suddenly find herself going out of her way to offer him help with various things, and a relationship had been built off of that. She also couldn’t deny that she had at least a slight crush on him.

“Oh hey, Kada…” Bosef responded, not looking away from his phone. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly perked up and said, “Oh, I’m actually glad you’re here. The math homework was too hard, so I didn’t do it. Can I copy yours?”

“Sure,” Kada replied and began to dig through her bag. Once she found it, she handed it to him and mentioned eagerly, “You know, if you’re really struggling, I could tutor you some time.”

“Nah, this is plenty. Thanks,” Bosef uninterestedly answered before heading off to copy it.

During lunch, Kada went and bought food for the both of them to eat together. They did this every so often when Bosef wasn’t hanging out with someone else. He would say a few sentences to her every so often, but ignored her for the most part and would do his own thing. Kada would mostly just enjoy that she got to be with him. Deep down, she knew she was being used, but it didn’t really bother her. It was different from just feeling lonely all the time.

A few days later, she suddenly had the impulse to follow him after school. They had been ‘friends’ for about a year now, but she knew almost nothing about him. He never really opened up to her at all, even when she would ask specific questions to try to get to know him better. Luckily, Kada was the type that didn’t draw much attention. Most people barely even acknowledged she existed. This was quite convenient for tailing someone, even when she had no experience.

Her curiosity grew even more as she followed him outside of the town’s limits. She had no idea what he could possibly be doing out so far. He continued walking down the side of the road before suddenly diverting down a dirt path. Kada was suddenly having second thoughts, but didn’t want to give up after coming this far.

After a while, she lost sight of him down the path but steeled herself and kept following it. She was regretting this idea more and more as the sun was beginning to set. She was just about at her limit, and was going to turn around, when she heard a bunch of faint, strange cries in the distance. As she followed the path, the cries got louder. She recognized them now as the cries of dogs and cats.

She kept going until she finally reached a decrepit building alongside a body of water. She had never seen this place before, but could guess what it was based on stories she’d heard. A few decades ago, this was a private cove that followed a river out to the ocean, used by smugglers. It had been abandoned ever since they got caught and their operation was shut down.

Kada peered inside the building. There were dozens of cages stacked up on rows of shelves, with a small animal in each one. There were several dogs and cats, and even a bunny trapped inside them. All of them that could cry out were doing so. Some, however, looked too weak to even stand, let alone seek help. She recognized them all. They were the pets from the posters she had seen. Not every animal was accounted for, but most of them that she remembered.

It took everything in her power not to immediately bust in and save the pitiful creatures. She knew it wasn’t the right time, however. She needed more information first. What is going on?! Kada asked herself frantically. Did Bosef do this? Is he the one who's been capturing them? Why, though? I don’t get why anyone would do this.

She crept along the outside of the building, doing her best not to make any noise. She was also holding back tears, which was getting harder every second listening to the helpless moans. Once she got to the corner near the waterside, she peeked around it and saw Bosef. He was standing on the end of the pier with a rope in hand. She had no idea what he was doing until he pulled it up and heard the worst cry yet.

There was a small puppy in a lobster trap that was the end of that rope. It was at that moment that she saw the look on his face. There was no sign of that cute boy she knew. He was making a face that disgusted her to no end, one of psychotic bliss. He barely let the puppy catch its breath before submerging it again and cackling to himself. She guessed what he was doing now, he would ‘play’ with them like this until they died.

Kada could feel her blood begin to boil. How could anyone do something so horrible to something so defenseless, so cute?! This thought was met with unceasing fury as Kada rushed towards him at full sprint, grabbing a piece of broken railing along the way. Bosef turned around just in time to see her, but before he could say anything, she bashed him over the head with the railing, knocking him unconscious.

Kada looked around in a panicked frenzy unsure of what to do next. She eventually saw the rope and pulled it up as fast as she could. She pulled the trap onto the pier and checked on the puppy. It was exhausted, but still breathing. She set aside the trap for now, figuring it wasn’t the most urgent thing at the moment. She needed to decide what to do about Bosef and began looking around again.

That was when she noticed an anchor just a few steps away on the wooden deck. She untied the rope from the trap and tied one end around Bosef’s ankles. She tied the other around the top of the anchor. She did her best to push it, but it would just barely budge. She sat down and pushed with her feet. It was moving more now but still slowly. She never did manage to get it over the side. Instead, the dilapidated board under the anchor broke from too much strain.

The anchor rapidly sunk down into the water, dragging Bosef down with it. Kada watched him sink into the darkness. Just before she lost sight of him, he woke up, and reached a hand up towards her, before fading away into the black. All she could do now was cry. She cried endlessly for minutes, and felt like the tears would never stop. Suddenly, she felt the trail where they flowed down her face burn with immense heat, then a sudden flash of silver almost caused her to fall over.

When she got a hold of herself, she felt it was time to go home. She decided against setting the animals free, not knowing if they would be able to make their way back to their owners. When she got back into town, she made an anonymous call to the police, informing them of their location using a public phone. After she got back to her house, her father tried to berate her about dyeing her hair; which she hadn’t even noticed had changed.

She just walked past him and stared daggers, which caused him to shut up instantly. Her eyes wouldn’t stop hurting for some reason, so she just went to bed immediately, finally falling asleep after crying a bit more. The next morning she realized that the pain was caused by her glasses. Without them, she could suddenly see completely clearly, but when she put them on it made everything blurry and hurt her head.

Over the next month, Kada barely spoke to her father, or anyone else really. She just kind of floated through those days, like she wasn’t really there. No one really bothered her about her sudden changes, except for one teacher whom she made give up with a single look. The day after she graduated, she ran away from home with only as much as she could carry in one bag.

On that day, she swore to herself that she would never live for anyone else's sake, and just for herself. She only went as far as a few towns over and didn’t leave the country. Once she figured out how her Curse worked, she decided to become a pool attendant. Swimming was never her strong suit, so this way she could practice during her free time and make enough to get by.

Once she was more confident in her swimming, she became a lifeguard at the beach and worked there for the next few years. After about a year, she decided to work on improving herself, and spent most of her savings on her anchor and having it sharpened in the way she wanted. On her days off, she would go to the nearby woods and fling it at trees as well as practice melting things with her ability.

She lived a pretty simple life and didn’t really know what she wanted to do. That was, until she found out about Drim and Phon. This caused a new surge of inspiration to spring up inside her, making her want to live every minute to its fullest, and she headed off to a new life.

◆◆◆

As Kada continued to fall towards the ground, approaching what could potentially be her doom in the form of a giant monkey fist, she began to reflect and felt a twinge of regret. She didn’t really regret killing Bosef, it was more that she regretted how she acted afterwards. She shouldn’t have been so cold to her father. Yes, he was a jerk, but she felt she could have behaved better; maybe spoken to him instead of cutting him out of her life.

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She also regretted the new life philosophy she’d enacted that day too. She had been hurt from being betrayed by someone who’d used her, and that made her want to be as selfish as possible. The truth was, though, that she liked helping others and feeling useful. Yes, someone else was getting something out of it, but she couldn’t deny the good feeling she got.

She felt that deciding to live her life only for herself made her just as selfish as the ones that had wronged her. If she could, she would do things differently, having spent the past few years helping others more instead of only training and keeping her abilities to herself.

Sure, she had helped a few people as a lifeguard, but anyone could have done that with proper training. It didn’t utilize her unique gifts. She now mostly regretted having stolen the job from Drim. If she wasn’t so selfish and had asked them, just maybe they would have taken her along with them.

Well, none of that matters now, she thought to herself before opening her eyes. She snapped out of her funk and stared down at the gorrizard. She decided she was going to stare at her fate head on instead of just waiting for it to finish her. Who knows, she might be able to do something or a miracle could happen. She was starting to feel motivated again, tightened her brace with her arms, but then dropped it instantly; stunned by what she saw next.

An arrow was suddenly flying right in her direction, and she feared it might hit her. However, it was aimed lower and struck the monster directly in the back of the neck. The beast froze completely, its arm no longer moving at all towards Kada. Seconds later, a terrifying volley of arrows followed the first. There were so many that Kada couldn’t count them. They all struck into the gorrizard’s neck, one after the other, in what seemed like less than a second.

Kada knew she must be close to hitting the ground, and was getting ready to activate her Curse, but the next thing she knew she was in someone's arms. She stared up to see her savior. It was hard to make out their face from the bright sunlight behind their head. She thought for a second she might already be dead and it was an angel carrying her, but after a few more seconds, she realized it was Drim who was currently holding her in a bridal carry.

She couldn’t help but immediately feel supremely flustered. She was just staring at Drim now, completely awestruck and captivated by him. A new thought raced in her mind, Was he always this attractive?! and she couldn’t help blurting out, “Has anyone ever told you how handsome you are when you’re saving their life?”

There was a second of the worst awkward silence she’d ever felt while Drim just stared at her confused, before he questioningly answered, “Err… No…?” Kada was suddenly glad for how dark her skin was. If she was still her pasty-skinned old self, her face would be gushing red from all the embarrassment she was feeling. She was also starting to feel quite self conscious about being held like this, and started to squirm a little. Drim let her down, pointed behind his head, and said, “You have to aim for the back of their neck.”

“Huh?” Kada replied with it now being her turn to be confused.

Drim pointed to the gorizzard and suddenly she understood while he talked some more. “The neck is the only weak spot, if you hit them anywhere else, even the brain, they’ll just regenerate.”

Kada could only just nod at what he said. Really, she felt that she wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment; with endless feelings of shame that she had to be saved, embarrassment from having Drim catch and hold her, and a little bit of annoying extra thumping in her chest that she was trying to write off as just over excitement from it all. However, she felt that if she were to run now, there’s a good chance she’d never see him again, and she didn’t want that.

There was a ton she wanted to ask him, and to thank him for what he’d done. Now though, she couldn’t think of a single thing to ask and decided to go with the thanks first. She began to stammer out, “Thank you… Really, thanks… I err…,” she stopped talking when she suddenly found herself getting lost in staring at him again. “OWWWW!” Kada let out a cry as she felt a sudden pain on her head.

“Oi! No flirting with the brother!” Phon was suddenly behind her and had hit her with what looked like a gavel, but a children’s toy version of it. There had also been a slight squeak noise when she was hit. Kada was glad to have been hit, though, since it allowed her to recompose herself.

She turned to Phon and said, “Well that’s fine. You’re pretty cute yourself you know.” Kada had been half joking to help lighten the mood, but was still a bit serious. She really did think Phon looked cute, especially when she looked annoyed.

Phon’s face twisted, clearly appalled as she screamed, “And that goes double for me!” before whacking Kada on the head again. It was much harder this time, so Kada felt the need to rub her head in response. She wondered how such a toy could hurt a Fiend so much, but then guessed it was because another Fiend was using it.

“So, is that what you went to go pick up?” Drim asked, now staring at Phon and the gavel.

“Yeha, I had a feeling I’d need it,” Phon replied, now holding the gavel up in a proud, showy manner. “It’s collapsible too, so I’ll be able to take it anywhere. I also bought a tiny spray bottle to potentially use, but after seeing her Curse, I figured it wouldn’t bother her too much.” Phon then looked over at the collapsed gorrizard and asked, “Don’t you think you went a little overboard Drim? I’m pretty sure it was dead after the first arrow.”

“Oh, I just wanted to be sure it was really dead…,” Drim said while looking away and rubbing the back of his head. Phon just stared at him like she knew he was lying, and he spoke again in a very unconvincing tone, “Actually I just made a bunch of new arrows and wanted to use up the old ones!” Phon stared a little more intently now and made an annoyed grunt. Drim sighed and said, “I thought maybe the town could use it as an attraction or something, world’s largest pincushion, or something like that…”

“There it is...” Phon said with a content look on her face. “I know you’re always thinking of how you can help other people Drim, but I have to say, your ideas aren’t always the best.” Drim continued to rub the back of his head, moving down to his neck and stared up at the sky while letting out a wry laugh. Eventually, his eyes wandered over to Kada.

“Oh yeah, Kada…” Drim’s saying this suddenly caused a little jolt to run through Kada who had just been standing there awkwardly. Half of her hoped that they would just ignore her and she could run away, but the other half was happy that they were including her. Drim continued, “Do you mind telling us about your Curse? It’s quite interesting, but I don’t think I understand it fully.”

“Uh… Sure!” Kada answered excitedly, surprised that they were taking such an interest in her. “I can turn any solid into a liquid if I’m touching it and then turn it back. I can also melt anything of that same material I’m touching even if I’m not in direct contact with it. That’s how I was able to melt just my anchor, since the chain is made out of the same metal.”

“I guess that’s cooler than just being a mole person,” Phon interjected.

Completely ignoring Phon’s comment, Drim asked, “Does it work on living things too?”

“Uh, yes and no,” Kada replied. “It works on like plants and stuff, but doesn’t work on animals or humans.”

Kada was a little shocked when Drim suddenly summoned a rose, even though she had seen him do similar things on videos. It was still jarring to see in person. “Can you melt this?” he asked.

“Yeah sure, it shouldn’t be hard,” Kada said, a little happy that she got to show off now. “Though I should explain a bit more, I can only melt the material I’m touching. So I could melt petals, but to do the stem I would have to touch that too. I could do both at the same time if I touched both, otherwise it’d have to be separately. Like, dirt is actually made up of a whole bunch of materials, but it’s not an issue since I swim through it and am continuingly touching it. I can cause stuff to melt with any part of my body and radiate it enough that I can do it through thin clothing.”

Kada plucked one of the petals from the rose in Drim’s hand. Suddenly, all the petals that were still attached, melted, and the liquid fell to the ground while the one in her hand remained unchanged. “I can also control the stuff I melt to a certain extent. The more materials I’ve melted and try to control at once, as well as the amount I've melted, the harder it becomes. Something like these petals are no big deal, though.”

The globs of green water on the ground started floating up back towards the stem Drim was still holding. They swirled around it for a little bit, then the petals became solid again, back to their original positions and completely reattached. Drim absorbed the rose which startled Kada again and prompted her to say, “I think your guys’ Curses are much weirder though.”

Drim and Phon gave each other ponderous glances as they contemplated her abilities. Kada decided this was her chance to leave, not wanting any more awkward moments. She was worn out for the day. She went back over to the now decaying gorrizard and picked up her anchor. She then set down her thermos, unscrewed the cap, lifted the anchor just above it, and melted it; guiding the liquid into the thermos. Originally, it would overflow any container she tried to put it in, but she had learned to compact it with her Curse.

When she was done, Kada walked over to them and said, “Well, I guess I’ll be off. Don’t worry about the monster. You did the work so you deserve the reward, and thank you again for saving me. Really, I mean it. I owe you my life.” Kada gave a deep bow before walking off in the opposite direction. For a reason she couldn’t figure out, she felt lonelier than she ever had before while walking away.

“Hey, Kada…” Those words from Drim caused Kada to freeze on the spot, and an unnatural panic began to swell up in her at the thought of what he might say next.

“Ahh Cosdamnit, here it comes…” Phon muttered.

“Do you want to join us?” Drim asked sincerely. “Like, I mean become one of the Fiends For Hire, and fight with us, and do jobs and everything?”

Tears began to pour down Kada’s face, following the lines of her Curse Mark precisely. This was the first time she had cried since the night she killed Bosef, but this was completely different. These tears were from happiness. She turned around to face them, smiled with a huge grin, and just said, “Yeah!”

Fiends For Hire Text Conversation 3

Date: Monarchber 20th 2077

『Kada: I finished packing up my old apartment. I should be back tomorrow.』

『Drim: Cool, see you then.』

『Phon: Hey Kada. Is that your natural skin color?』

『Kada: Oh no, this is a tan. I used to be super pale』

『Kada: Hang on, I’ll send a picture (Attached File: Highschool3.pic)』

『Drim: Wow, you look like a completely different person』

『Phon: Huh, I didn’t think Fiends could get tans, with our extra resistances and all』

『Kada: Well, it didn’t happen quickly. That’s the culmination of several years of working every day outside in the sun while wearing minimal clothing』

『Kada: I think it’s permanent too』

『Drim: What do you mean?』

『Kada: Well I had tan lines originally, but then one morning I woke up and they were completely gone. The tan had taken over my body completely with no sign of my original skin color』

『Kada: It hasn’t faded since then at all either』

『Kada: Here I’ll show you (Attached File: Sungoddess.pic)』

『Drim: Interesting choice of file name...』

『Phon: Drim don’t open that!!!』

『Phon: Wow, it really does cover your entire body. Remind me if I start getting tan to let it fade before it’s too late.』

『Drim: Well it looks like I win. You’re doing the shopping tomorrow Phon』

『Phon: Fine fine』

『Kada: Wait, were you guys using me for a bet?! Rude! I demand reparation!』

『Drim: Well we’ve already asked our friend to ship us a new phone for you. It should be here by the time you get back. How’s that?』

『Kada: That’ll do...』