For the rest of the night, I couldn’t shake off that nasty feeling off of me. I couldn’t concentrate long enough on the movie to focus on the plot, or to answer Reina’s barrage of questions. I had a feeling that she was that type of movie viewer—we were all watching the movie at the same speed. Yet she kept asking the rest of the room as if we had some secret insight to the movie she didn’t have. Gun was the only one brave enough to answer them all, the pretty boy thinking he could still score some brownie points by being nice to her.
Tenacity was a great trait to have.
When it was time to knock out, I realized that Naomi was missing again. The first thought that crossed my mind was meditation, so I didn’t bother searching for her. With a sigh, I dropped the incident back there and tossed it in my bin of unsolved mysteries, finding it ironic the genre of the movie matching that of my life.
“Maybe I’m overthinking crap again,” I whispered to myself as I lay on my floor bed, the sound of crickets outside lullabying me. “No point in sweating something I don’t understand. Clearly, it’s related to what happened to me that night. Just like every freaky thing that has been happening to me thus far. If I’m patient enough, the answers will come. They have to….” I sighed, and then smiled, focusing on good things in the future. “Another day, another evaluation. This time, I’m going to blow Master Hayashi away.”
Come morning, I was up and ready to tackle a new day. The smell of something burning followed me all the way to the bathroom where I did my morning routine. At a certain point, it became too thick to ignore. The smoke alarms went off, and as soon as I slipped my last sock over my foot, I rushed into the kitchen to witness a sorry sight….
Reina’s cooking….
The chaos was like a scene straight out of a cartoon: Reina trying to scrape what looked like burnt pancakes from the pan, Ash standing on top of a chair, trying to disengage the smoke alarm, and Felix trying to crack open a window to let the smoky air out. The air was so thick in here that I could barely breathe, Felix finally noticing how bad it was getting and triggered his meta to spin all of that smoke into a tornado. Gun rushed into the kitchen and managed to open that same window Felix had been struggling with, and Felix tossed the smokenado outside.
“I am not really a fan of using my gift without a weapon,” Felix said, “but desperate times.”
“Still smells like a forest fire in here,” I said, rushing to Reina who tried to salvage food on the stove top. “Shit, Reina, you still had the burner going underneath that thing? It’s completely charred!”
“Well excuse me for becoming distracted when everyone raced in here and began ruining my concentration!”
“You can quit the concentration and the cooking!” I quipped. “As a matter of fact, you’d help everyone if you’d just stay out of the kitchen.”
She gasped. “As if you could cook a decent breakfast yourself!”
“I’m not saying I could rock it in the kitchen, but I could definitely do better than this.”
“You tried your best,” Ash jumped off the chair and said, looking around at the disaster-struck kitchen. Broken eggshells were all across the counter, an entire carton of milk had somehow spilled onto the floor and unidentified fluids were dripping from the ceiling. “Heh, lots of wasted food, but at least everyone is okay!” Ash said, trying not to break down in front of everyone. Until her bottom lip started to quiver, her hands falling over her cheeks. “So much precious food…” she bawled. “Oh, the inhumanity!”
Poor girl had to dash out in a bout of emotions. I couldn’t tell if she was genuinely upset or if she was just being funny.
“Be realistic, you’re acting as if no one had ever butchered a meal before!” Reina hissed, still trying to defend herself. “I just wanted to make some blueberry pancakes, but the recipe is botched! The batter was too thin, then too thick. And the eggs… I could never get them right!”
“Next time, let’s leave cooking to someone who actually knows how to cook," I suggested delicately, then my eyes turned to Naomi who was walking into the kitchen with a tablet in her hands.
“Let me guess? Reina tried to burn the house down?”
Reina huffed, pinning a hand to her hip. “How original of you to think it was me who was cooking!”
Naomi shrugged. “Figured someone like you never had to touch a stove before in her lifetime. Surprised you knew how to turn one on.”
“Hey, don’t be hard on fox girl!” Gun beamed. “We all gotta start somewhere, right? Humble beginnings?”
“That was a bit too humble,” Naomi sassed. I was about to help clean the kitchen up before I heard my name coming from Naomi’s tablet. I stood next to her and watched, realizing that she had a segment in local hunter news on. The reporter was speaking Japanese but the subtitles were in English, and I read along. To my surprise, my airplane story was being broadcasted, but I didn’t remember any cameras or journalists at the scene…
“Hold on, you fought a shadow walker in your flight?” Felix asked as he watched on with me. Gun moved in closer too, on the other side of Naomi as we all read the story.
Gun beamed, a grin stretching along his face. “Did you hear that? They’re calling you the Airplane Angel!”
“Airplane Angel?” Reina repeated, and even she was interested in what everyone was hype about.
Felix chuckled. “Talk about making a big entrance. Bet you didn’t know you were famous, did you?”
This is insane….
The reporter on the screen was talking animatedly about my intervention and had even managed to snag a few interviews with other passengers who spoke of my heroic deeds. It felt strange experiencing it for the second time, my jaw slipping open as they went on about the “Airplane Angel” who had single-handedly vanquished the monster. One interviewer was beyond himself, swearing I was his daughter’s savior. The camera then panned to a bright-eyed teen girl who was enthusiastically recounting my feat.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Man, it was epic! He came outta nowhere, like, all daredevil like, and he fearlessly put that big roach down!” She gesticulated wildly. “Whoop, and then she- BAM!” Her hands widened into a dramatic explosion. “No hesitation, no fear, he just... completely destroyed him!”
Gun laughed as he continued to watch, this girl’s overly dramatic description getting me tickled, too. Felix snorted in amusement at the girl’s theatrics and then said, “Looks like you have a few admirers already. Your fame grade definitely went up. Go on and check. It updates real time in our sys board.”
I checked, having had my com unit already on me. To my surprise, Felix was right. I went from 0% to 10%.
Career Level: 1
Name: Nero Aldeon
Hunter Attributes:
Gender: M
HG-Vitality:
Age: 18
Endurance: 4
Rank: --
Strength: 9 (+50 meta boost)
Fame: 10%
Agility: 4
Infamy: 0%
Dexterity: 2
HG-HP: 0
Stamina: 40/40
Specialties:
Super Strength
Mental Immunity
Physical Invulnerability
Flame Manipulation
Squadron: Beta1-UJP
Sponsor Count: 0
Mentor: Kenji Hayashi
Assignment Location: Utoro, Japan
Fame Points: 100
(FPs Accumulated): 100
Items:--
HG-Respawn Token: 0
Currency: 14676 Yen
My meta abilities really did update automatically at first use also.
“The higher the fame grade, the more you’re recognized. And that means the more sponsors you can get,” Felix said.”
“And the more sponsors you have, the higher your cash bonus is for ranking in the Hunter Games,” Gun swooned. “Man, I can’t wait to get me some sponsors!”
I grinned. “Something tells me with your charm, that won’t be a problem. You just focus on passing evaluations, first.”
“Well, well, kudos to you, Nerdo,” Reina said, actually paying me appreciation. Though, the simple gesture looked like it was painful for her, given how shattered her ego was. “But don’t think for a moment that I won’t be hot on your heels, competing for more sponsors! I may have lost this battle, but the war isn’t over!”
“Holy shit, Reina, are you beefing with me already?” I smirked. “I doubt you could get more sponsors than me. Your persona tends to scare people away,” I jested.
“Or make them sick to their stomachs,” Naomi sassed.
“Am I hearing a friendly wager underway?” Gun said, stroking his chin deviously. “If so, I want in on this action!”
“Yeah, let’s make this interesting,” Felix said, getting pumped up. “After evaluations, let’s see who can collect the most sponsors by the end of the week.”
“What?” I asked.
“Winner of the most sponsors gets 50% of the loser’s sponsor bank bonus for the first HG tournament,” Felix proposed.
“Then I’m going to sweep you guys,” I said humbly. “I already have a head start. And the more people who see this story, the higher my fame grade gets.”
“Ha, if you’re that confident, then let’s make it a solid month!” Gun said. “No excuses! That’s more than enough time for the rest of us to make waves.”
“Deal,” Reina said, the first to agree to this crazy bet!
“Yeah, I’m in, too,” Gun followed.
“Count me in,” Felix said after. “How about you, Nero? You in?”
“You guys are nuts!” I snickered. “That’s 50% of sponsor bank earnings of tourney one. I don’t think you understand how much money we are putting on the line here.”
“We understand, that’s why we are betting!” Gun said. “Those donations go hard. Some of these top ranked hunters are getting more money from their sponsors than the actual tournament!”
“How about you, Naomi?” Felix asked.
Reina scoffed. “She’s too much of a prune to join.”
“No,” Naomi said flatly. “I pass because it’s a stupid idea.”
Reina smirked. “Just admit you’re afraid of losing and call it a day, already. No one is going to invest in someone with no basic understanding of social interaction.”
“I don’t care.” Naomi said outright. “I’m fine with earnings from the games. I don’t need anyone’s charity.”
I hated to admit it, but Reina had a point there. Even though Reina’s personality wasn’t all marshmallows and sugarplums, I saw her getting sponsors over Naomi. Reina was outgoing, and she loved the spotlight, so she could figure out how to get it and possibly learn to cater to her fans. Naomi on the other hand, had a back off or I’ll bite you kinda attitude. She was the total opposite.
In this career, likability raked in the big bills. If no one liked you, then you were barely getting by.
In that case, I changed my mind and said, “I’m in.”
After all, I doubt that I was going to lose with the lead I had. With the money I’d win, I could not only help my family but my entire team.
“Sweet! Then let the real games begin!” Gun said, then Ash came in asking what all the excitement was about. Without a doubt, I knew she’d want in, and she did. She swore she’d get the most sponsors with her sweetness and relatability, and after I thought about it, I realized I might have jumped the gun too soon. Ash had a magnetic personality, and I could see her winning this bet without breaking a sweat.
Shit, there was no backing out now.
“Why does my dojo smell like charred rainbow monkeys?” Kenji said as he walked in, his face twisted in disgust.
Ash clasped her hands together and gasped at his comment. “You like rainbow monkeys, too?”
Funny, I didn’t know our high ranked hunter would even consider the cunningness of a show like KnD.
“My kitchen is a mess…” he said, his voice deepening.
“We will clean it up right away, Master Hayashi,” I said dutifully. “Just give us a few minutes, and—”
“No time,” he said, cutting me off. “I need all of you in the courtyard for FP analysis. You will clean up after.”