Nomi’s home, mid-day.

The Captain looked to Hikaru and Mia, “ya both ready?” He asked, hiding his excitement for Mia’s first mission.

“Sir your face says it all”, Hikaru sighed as he shot his Captain a distanced look.

“Mhmm. You want to see how well Mia performs, but don’t you remember her killing all those beasts yesterday?”

“Oh those don’t count. Do you count each fry during an eating contest? No”, he rolled his eyes.

A few feet behind them, “They’re talking as if I'm not even here… Also, what’s a fry?” She wondered.

The Captain and Hikaru made their way out of the house with Mia close behind.

“Oh! I almost forgot”, She turned around to Nomi, who was standing awkwardly at the door. She bent down and outstretched her arms, welcoming Nomi into her sisterly grasp.

The two hugged for a few moments and Mia pulled back, “You stay here, don’t worry, this won’t take long”. Mia stood up and gave Nomi a wave, hoping to put her mind at ease.

They began walking east.

“Sir, where exactly are the beasts?” Mia asked.

“Well, from what I can tell, the beast quelle that I sensed earlier has disappeared”.

“Disappeared?”

“To put it simply, it was killed. I imagine when it told its boss about us it was killed for incompetence. You see Mia, it’s very difficult to mask your quelle, there’s no chance a lesser beast could do it. Not in a million years”, he said as he strode forward.

Hikaru turned his head to Mia, “it’s a good thing, one less beast we have to kill. Though, if we kill the leader, all those beneath it should scatter”.

Mia stopped, her excited expression vanished, “wait. That’s a bad thing isn’t it? If all the little beasts run away they’ll cause a panic, all of the other nearby villages will be in danger!”

“That’s where you’re wrong Mia… If we kill their master, they only have one way to go, and that's further east, and the only thing that’s further east is a huge mountain range thats extremely dangerous”, Hikaru nodded proudly, “they’ll be so scared of us that they won’t even go near us, so they’ll flee to the mountains and die from the cold, large predators, or starvation”.

“I see, had me worried for a moment”, she paused, “hmn. This is a conclusion that Hikaru came up with isn’t it. I can imagine the Captain having such a smart idea”.

“Oi. Everytime with the insults. What am I to you”, the Captain said with a smear of depression glazed across his face.

“Just a simple pervert with too much authority”.

Mia and Hikaru stopped and nodded to each other with the Captain wallowing in sadness in front of them.

“All of you, all of division two have this image of me… It’s so cruel.” A lone tear fell down his face, signifying his absolute devastation.

–

Around them the village continued its silence, one would assume to be a ghost town.

“Not a person in sight, just like earlier. So strange”, Mia thought to herself. She looked around as she continued forward, “there’s some shadows rustling in these houses”, she whispered softly.

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“Ahhh, it’s as if they’re scared to go outside, as if they know something was happening”, Hikaru looked back at Mia, “forget them, the more you focus on it the less prepared you’ll be”.

Eventually, the houses became older and older, some which were in a complete state of ruin.

The area around them seemed to be an abandoned part of the village, the eastern part of the village… The side closest to the beast's den.

Captain Yakusuke stopped and looked around, “Stop you two”.

Hikaru obeyed his command but Mia looked confused.

“Did somethi-”

“They’re here… The enemy”.

Both the Captain and Hikaru stood and took a readied stance, assessing the situation and fully aware of their surroundings. Mia on the other hand felt nervous, this may have not been her first time in a fight, but the eerie silence got to her.

Crick, Crick, Crick!

Tap, Tap, Tap!

Skoosh! Skoosh! Skoosh!

Three beasts appeared around the trio. One directly in front of them sitting on a pile of rubble(Black beast), another leaning against a half-collapsed wall(Long-mouthed beast), and one standing in a more open area(Moon beast).

The black beast spread out its large wings, “I see our visitors have finally arrived. They don’t look all that impressive”, it chuckled at the thought.

“Ah, especially the female… I do love females…”, the moon beast moved away from the wall and arched its head, focusing solely on Mia.

The long-mouthed beast stayed silent, although as it looked at the trio its mouth water, releasing a constant stream of saliva.

As the beasts made more comments the three readied themselves.

“Damn, for Mia’s first mission we run into beasts like these”, the Captain clicked his tongue in annoyance and rested his hand on the hilt of his blutklinge. After noticing, Hikaru did the same.

“Captain?” Mia looked at him, “Beasts like these?”

“Yeah, I was hoping we wouldn’t run into a group of evolved beasts… I was hoping only the boss would evolve and the rest wouldn’t”. He looked at each of them, “I think I can handle all three of them, but I’ll have-”

“Handle all three of us, you say? Oh my… We can’t have that now can we!”, the moon beast yelled, “In fact, while you three were walking we had your little friend join us”. It gave a malicious smile and looked to the side.

The three huntsmen followed its gaze…

Nearby, under a half-demolished building, was Nomi, being held by a fluffy beast.

“NOMI!” Mia yelled.

She drew her blutklinge in a furious rage. “YOU BASTARDS!”

The black beast took a step forward, “now, now, don’t take that tone. With the human child in our care we can make the rules to our game”, It clapped its claws together. “Hm, let’s make it fun. We’ll pair off and have some one-on-one fights to the death”. It looked over at Mia, who was practically fuming, “whoever wins, gets the human child”.

The long-mouthed beast arched its back and shot its mouth to the sky, spraying saliva, “the game doesn’t even matter”, it said, “we’ll kill and devour you anyways GAHAHA!”. It waved its head around in joy.

–

The Captain looks at Hikaru and nods, then to Mia, “Mia, kill the moon-faced freak. I know it’s your first mission and all but… I know you can kill something as weak as him”. The Captain looked calm, ever since he met Mia he had high hopes, and with innate abilities he witnessed first-hand as well as her determination, it was fair to say that she was strong.

“But..-”

“Mia, you can do this”, Hikaru joined in, “sir, I’ll take that gross mouth one. I can’t imagine it has much going on upstairs with its head being a mouth and all”.

“Damn”, the Captain said with wide eyes, “Not everyday that you deliver a burn like that”. He looked ahead, “I guess that leaves me with you huh?”

The black beast widened its wings even further and took to the sky, “follow me, white hair”.

“White hair… How rude”.

The Captain began running in the same direction as his designated beast and disappeared into the mix of rundown buildings, leaving Mia, Hikaru and Nomi behind.

“Welp, let’s get this over with”, Hikaru said with a sign. He began walking toward the long-mouthed beast, “Mia, we’ll head somewhere else with some more space… I’m gonna try out something new… Oh and Mia, win. I know you can”.

Mia nodded and felt reassured and after a few moments him and his opponent left as well, leaving Mia and Nomi.

“Must’ve taken him a lot to leave a child behind… I’ll have to pay him back somehow”, she thought.

“Kill me? Easily? I THINK NOT!” The moon beast yelled angrily. “You damn pest”.

Mia, currently ignoring the beast, looked at Nomi, “Nomi! I promise I’ll save you… For now, just watch your big sister kick this moon-faced creeps ass”.

Nomi felt immediately relieved, she believed in Mia, even without knowing her strength, she trusted in her.

The moon beast bolted towards Mia, “DIE YOU HUMAN TRASH! YOU DISRESPECTFUL SCUM!

“Ironic how you call me trash, when you’re the one who’s gonna be disposed of”