She awoke in the bedroom, the same one granted to her by Alli a day prior. Of course with no sun, you’d be unable to tell the time, but Mia knew it was morning.

“Ahhhhhhh”, she yawned, the early grogginess settling in.

Mia was still in her huntsman uniform, with her boots placed by the door. She looked down, strands of hair dangled in her face, “good, none of it was a dream”. With her hands she grasped her now nicely shaped, breasts and smiled. “Ah, I guess I should get up and eat something”. Slowly, she shuffled over to the side of the bed and dangled her legs off the edge. “You’d think I’d be sore after all that training and moving around… I wonder if being a huntsman removes fatigue”. She pondered more of the biological advantages she could have, but soon focused on standing up.

After a few moments of staring blankly, she finally got to her feet. “Ah there we go”, she said as she took a step over to her boots. “Lemme just slip these on… Surprisingly comfy for military boots”. Afterwards she walked towards the mirror. In front of her, a pristine mirror with a wooden frame sitting atop a dresser. She looked directly at her reflection, “we sure didn’t have something like this in Ako, sure shows you the differences between villages and cities. Also, dear god do I have bed head”. She looked to the side and found a hair brush, then proceeded to brush her hair back to being nice and straight.

Grgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgl, Her stomach growled aggressively, “I’d blush if anyone heard that”, she thought as she caressed her tummy and walked over to the door, which was slightly ajar. “Alright, I feel nervous for some reason, but it’s gonna be fine, I’m a huntsman now, a part of division two in the huntsman covenant”. She leaned over to her blutklinge that was sitting against the wall, “I guess I should get the Captain to give me one of those rings so I don’t have to take you everywhere with me. She picked it up, and exited the room.

Mia began walking through the barren hallway towards the dining room, she heard the sounds of chattering forks against plates, much like before the aroma drifted into her nostrils. Her mouth watered, “Oh god it's his mouth watering cooking, I gotta hurry. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I’m late they won’t leave anything for me”. Mia ran down the hallway, her breasts shifting with every step.

“Almost there, a second more till that wonderful, wonderful food”. At the end of the wall was a slightly opened door, a golden glow reaching out from its cracks, the smell of the delicacies beyond practically lifted her to a higher plane as she followed its alluring sent.

Mia came to a halt, being a step away from the door she reached out and grabbed the knob, with a turn of hand she pulled outwards. A blast of smells, from sweet and savory, to spicy. It was practically heaven. “I bet everyone in the second division feels this way when they eat Hikaru’s cooking”, she thought. Her expression was almost lewd with the thoughts of devouring the meal before her.

“Finally you’re awake, it's like one in the afternoon”, Captain Yakusuke said while shaking his head, each word was semi-coherent as his mouth was filled with food.

“Good morning sir, and good morning- Ahem- Good afternoon to everyone else”.

Around the room was everyone, Alli was pestering Hikaru in her usual garb, Hikaru was barely managing to eat with the nuisance to his right. The Captain, being a glutton, devoured plate-fulls of food, one after the other. The twins sat neatly, eating their fill as well.

“Mia, your fight against all those robots was amazing. You really kicked butt”, Atchi said while throwing a charismatic thumbs up. To her right Suzatchi nodding in agreement.

She began walking to her seat, positioned between Hikaru and the Captain. As she walked she looked over the details of the meal, meat of all sorts, noodles, rice, vegetables glazed in sauce, a variety of drinks, and so much more. This feast seemed greatly extravagant, it seemed to be much more than a typical breakfast, well, to Mia, anything of this variety was a godsend.

She sat down, the padded chair was comfy, must’ve been made in the neighboring western country of Sepris, a land known for their masterful craftsmen.

With her empty plate in front of her, she knew her task, it was the toughest task anyone could accomplish…

Fill. Your. Plate.

Beside her, Captain Yakusuke was sucking up food like a vacuum, you’d look at a plate and it’d be filled with food, but the next minute it’d be gone.

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She quickly picked up her fork and knife, and quickly took position. Her eyes darted around, she had no time to spare. The situation was dire, each passing second a plate of food vanished.

She calmed herself, truly peering into her mind's eye. In a flash her hands shot out, stabbing into food from different plates. Her hands were so fast they looked blurry as they moved.

Ahhhhhhhh, panting from the extreme power move, she looked at her plate. Food of all sorts were stacked atop one another.

The fragrance seeped into her nose, it reveled in the delicious aroma.

She took her fork, and jabbed it into a pan seared sliced of meat, the juices flowed from it like a gentle stream. Her hand shook as she raised it to her mouth… And finally… She took a bite.

"Her head tilted backward and her eyes shimmered with delight. Every aspect, from the taste to the texture, carried an exquisite perfection. The taste itself bordered on ecstasy, as the umami flavor from that single bite sent a wave of pleasurable sensations throughout her body. If a mere bite could grant her access to a realm of heavenly flavors, she could only imagine the extraordinary experience that awaited her once she indulged in the entire plate."

A stream of tears went down her face, “oh ish sho good”, she said while chewing.

Everyone else watched in awe, they who were more or less accustomed to Hikaru’s cooking, had less intense reactions to it. Mia however, was having her third taste of heaven.

“It kinda looks like she’s doing something more than eating over there with her facial expression…” Atchi whispered over to Suzatchi. It took a few seconds for Suzatchi to realize what Atchi meant, but once she did, her face turned to a bright shade of pink.

Beside Mia, “Oh, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to ask you this, but have you realized any differences in your speed while you fight?” The Captain asked as he munched on a caramelized vegetable.

“Shpeed? Differensh?” Gulp, She swallowed, “what do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve noticed that while you fight you’ve been using a high speed huntsman technique, I suppose you’ve been doing it subconsciously”, He went on, “It’s called bindestrich”.

“I had no idea…”

Hikaru spoke up, “usually it's an ability that requires a lot of focus, usually only much higher level huntsmen and even seated huntsmen can use it”.

“Level? Seated?” Mia looked confused.

“Well, since you are new and obviously the Captain did a piss poor job of explaining it, I’ll fill you in. Huntsmen are people just like you and me, except unlike you they had to go to the huntsman academy, think of it as like school for killing beasts and learning techniques. The academy lasts for five years and teaches you almost everything you need to know, from the process of using your blutklinge to the use of blood arcana. But the academy is the easy part, in order to gain admittance to a division you must undergo the same beast effigy training you did. Again, unlike you they had years of training and knowledge… They also didn’t have Alli to make it take a significantly shorter period of time. For them, they either pass and can join or fail and have their body taken over by the beast effigy. If it’s the latter then they’re killed on the spot. If they succeed then they can join a division, they don’t necessarily get a choice of which division unless they were handpicked or they belonged to a high ranking family. Once you are assigned to a division you undergo one final test. This test is similar to you fighting those anti-beast robots, it's a combat test. The combat test is relatively simple, you just have a duel against a fellow division member. What’s interesting is after the test. Depending on your abilities and aptitude for fighting you can become a seated member. Seated members are ranked by strength and only thirty are in a division. But of course they’re still weaker than the captain and Lieutenant ”.

“So it's basically a schooling system on killing beasts and being assigned a placement based on your abilities?” Mia’s confusion lifted as she now wondered why he had to go into so much detail. “So when we get back to the HQ will I have to undergo another combat test or am I a full fledged member?”

“As of yesterday I decided that you’d be an official member of division two, and for seating… Well, that doesn’t really matter in our division. Division two is the primary combat division. We’re sent out on super difficult missions, but also since we tend to cause a lot of damage we get a fairly high bill for paying for those damages”. Captain Yakusuke stood up after finishing, “Mia, I, Captain Gurren Yakusuke, Captain of division two of the huntsman covenant, grant you entry into division two. Welcome aboard, I expect great things… But please don’t destroy too much, the Grand-commander yells at me and has been making cuts to our budget. A couple months ago we didn’t have running water for a week”.

“Thank you sir, and thank you as well Hikaru”. She bowed, but her thanks felt less genuine as she had crumbs and smears of sauce around her mouth. “I’ll do my utmost to fulfill my duty”.

“Aha! There we go, always a good happy ending… Well more of a beginning for you Mia. Hahaha”. Alli laughed and patted her stomach, “damn Hikaru, never stop cooking… Maybe I'll force you to stay and marry me so you’ll cook this every day”.

“Dear god, please no, please don’t let me marry this insane woman”. He sighed, “we’re happy to have you Mia. I’m hopeful that everyone else will be excited as well”.