Nero

After one wild Monday night, I wanted to see what normal felt like again, and I got it. When we went back to school, it was like nothing had happened the day before. Sure there was talk about the attack, and we had extra security around campus, but other than that, everything was normal.

Just about as normal as it could get in a city of monsters.

I took my classes. So far, there were no incidents today, and no suspects for the day before. While Felix, Gun, and Ash weren’t looking out for potential suspects, I was, keeping my eyes sharp throughout the day, especially when lunch time came. Gun had managed to relax Reina a bit about the murder as they sat in one table in the cafeteria, and Naomi, well, she was being Naomi, reading her book quietly to herself as she always did.

I was making my way over to her to join her for lunch until a swarm of goth and emo kids noticed her. About seven of them began chatting her up, potential sponsor prospects! At this point, she had 213, but the way she collected them was downright confusing. She treated her fans like they were pests, Naomi taking her book and her small meal with her.

I watched curiously as Naomi gathered her things and headed outside, the group of goth kids following eagerly behind her. Through the glass window, I saw she led them to a secluded table far from the other students with her expression neutral as always.

As soon as they had all taken their seats, Naomi slammed her book down on the table, making them jump. “Listen up, maggots,” she growled. “I’m only going to say this once. I’m not interested in making small talk or gathering ‘sponsors.’ I don’t care about any of you losers. Got it?”

Yikes….

They looked at each other, exchanging confused glances before they uniformly broke out in a round of applause and cheers.

“That’s our Naomi!” one of the goth kids shouted. “So dark and brooding!”

Naomi rolled her eyes. “I just told you to scram. Why are you clapping?”

“It’s just your style,” another girl explained. “Your cold indifference is so mysterious and alluring!”

“We worship the ground you walk on!” another girl sang.

“Please, step on me, Naomi-san!” a guy said, getting down on his hands and knees.

Naomi winced, curling away disgustedly before she kicked his shoulder, the guy falling on his ass.

“Get off the floor, you idiot,” she hissed, another girl closing in on her with folded hands.

“Excuse me, Naomi-san. I know you can’t use your talent off the clock, but, can you just show us a little trick?”

“Yeah!” another girl beamed. “Show us how your awesome powers work in per—”

Without warning, Naomi chucked her half bitten apple at the girl’s forehead, and she keeled over right on top of the floor-kissing boy’s lap. The way she dropped was hilarious, and I couldn’t help myself from snickering at her theatrics.

“There’s your trick, with a treat. Now, back off.”

She went down on her knees and cradled the apple like it was gold. “I’ll cherish this for the rest of my life!”

She rolled her eyes and walked away, this time, her fans getting the message. I went outside and over to her with my food and smiled. “Seems like you’re really popular in this school.”

“It’s revolting….” Naomi let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know how Reina does it.”

I shrugged. “She basks in the spotlight. It’s where she lives.”

“I have no privacy. It doesn’t matter where I am.”

“Fame and fortune comes with fans. And you’re crushing it out here. Effortlessly too, if I might add.”

“Maybe if I start acting nice, they’ll run away.”

I laughed. “Don’t do that. I might run away, too.” I teased.

“It’s only been a half day, and I’m already exhausted from dodging all of these people.

“Trust me, you’ll get used to it.” I joined her and sat down across the table. With a lean, I whispered. “Hey look, I didn’t get a chance to really talk to you last night. How is, erm, you know?”

She looked up her lashes at me. “It’s moving along, I told you not to worry about it.”

“If you need any help with it, you’ll tell me, right?”

“The part you played in this is over,” she clarified. “I don’t want you involved. You’ll get hurt.”

“Naomi, just like you have my back, I have yours. We’re a team, remember?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“And as your teammate, you should understand when you’re needed and when you’re not needed. And Sevv is a topic where you’re not needed.”

I squinted. “How long have you been beefing with this guy, anyway?”

“Too long.”

“Sorta’ like an arch nemesis?” I chuckled when she deadpanned me. “So, you have a vendetta, too, huh?”

“I want to talk about something else….”

“Hmm? Like what?”

“Like… how you’ve been feeling?”

“I’m coping, Naomi.” I smiled wholesomely. “You ask me this question almost every day. Speaking of, I never got to thank you for helping me out last night. If it wasn’t for you, Sevv would have wasted me.”

“It’s my job to look after you. And I take that job seriously.”

“And it’s my job to look after you, too. So how about we curve the topic again? What’s going on between you and Reina?”

“Besides the obvious hate and disdain?”

“Yeah, besides that. What the hell happened in the hot springs?”

“What do you mean?”

“I picked up on it again when we were at the cathedral. What does she have over you?”

She turned her head away from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about….”

“Naomi?”

“I elect to change the topic again,” she curved.

“I hope she’s not blackmailing you,” I said, halfway serious, halfway joking. Though the more I thought about it, the more it seemed plausible. Reina had some kind of dirt on Naomi, that much was obvious. But what could it be? I wracked my brain trying to think of something scandalous enough to blackmail someone over.

Naomi was still a mystery to me. And her past, even more so. All I knew was that she had some hunting experience under her belt. She never talked about where she came from or how she managed to work privately. There were gaps in her history that left plenty of room for secrets.

And then, this. I guess I could talk about it with Reina, but I already knew she wasn’t going to give me crap. Maybe grief, but that was it.

I squared my eyes on her, trying to read her reaction. Like I said, the girl had a pretty good poker face, not the easiest to figure out in the slightest.

So I dropped the topic after letting her know that she could tell me anything. Even though ever since the hot springs, I felt like she was closing herself off from me again little by little…

We talked some more about work and school, where Naomi mentioned there being a supernatural club on campus. She heard one of the goth kids talking about it, and in the back of my head, I was telling myself to check it out one of these days. With how my last conversation with Sophie went, I was interested. I told her to quit looking into it because I was worried about her safety, and I didn’t want anyone looking for her, but I was a hunter. I was better equipped to handle myself.

After school, I trained with Hayashi. Our session didn’t run long. In fact, he had to cut it short. He had an emergency meeting with his board, and we scheduled a continuation later on this evening. I was packing up my things in the backyard before I noticed Felix, and he looked physically stronger with the white tank he had on.

Hell, it’s been a while since I’d last seen his stats. I hadn’t taken off my com unit since I came back from school, so I took a quick peek at them:

Career Level: 1

Name: Felix Navarro

Hunter Attributes:

Gender: M

HG-Vitality:

Age: 18

Endurance: 9

Rank: Bronze

Strength: 9

Fame: 2%

Agility: 13

Infamy: 0%

Dexterity: 15

HG-HP: 0

Stamina: 90/90

Specialties:

Air Manipulation

Squadron: Alpha1-UJP

Sponsor Count: 25

Mentor: Kenji Hayashi

Assignment Location: Utoro, Japan

Fame Points: 120

(FPs Accumulated): 1600

Items:--

HG-Respawn Token: 0

Currency: 300 Yen

“Checking me out, Nero?” He grinned. “You ought to buy me dinner first.”

I snickered. “I see you’ve been feeding your stats, Felix.”

“Sure have. I’m not here to mess around. But I got a lot of learning to do.”

“You had a training segment with Hayashi, too?”

“Yeah, but I just walked past him in the hallway. He had to postpone it.”

“Same.”

“So how about it?” he asked, then proceeded to dress his hand with a long white wrap.

“How about what?” I smiled. “You want to spar me?”

He snickered. “No point in wasting time, right? Hayashi might be MIA, but we can still train together. Unless of course, you’re scared?”

I snorted. “Scared?”

“I get it, that last fight with Gun might have shaken you up a bit. I won’t judge.”

“You got jokes, Felix. You know I let him win, right?”

“Whatever you say, Dragon Head.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you? You really think Gun won that fight straight? He got a couple of lucky hits in, but that’s only because I didn’t give him my all.”

“Wow, Nero, I’ve never known you to be the type to toot your own horn.” Felix shook his head. “I don’t know, man. It sure didn’t look that way from where I was standing. Looked to me like Gun handed you your ass.”

“Okay, you don’t believe me. Fair!” I chuckled. “I have no problem proving it to you.”