CHAPTER SEVEN

I’d always been selfless, putting myself behind others. Mom said that it was something she admired about me since I was young, and it was something I never grew out of. I always had a hunter mindset, which made this new journey in my life so much more rewarding.

Ignoring my human instinct to save myself was never hard. There had always been another pull, a stronger pull, one that led me toward the danger instead of away from it. It was as if I felt more alive when I was helping someone survive. Some would say that I was a masochist, deriving some twisted satisfaction from jumping into the fray. But I called it doing what was right.

With or without powers, I was always willing to help. I couldn’t stand by and watch on like the others. I couldn’t be afraid, not like dad, who ran away when shit got rough. Unlike him, I was no coward. I saw the challenge, and instead of looking for an exit out, I plunged into it headfirst. It was a deep-rooted sense of responsibility to take care of each other that forged my motto. It was the same overbearing sense of duty that you’d find in soldiers, firefighters, or doctors dealing with life or death situations each and every day. People who chose to be in the line of fire, not because they were fearless but because they cared. That was who I was, and I couldn’t change that even if I wanted to.

I remembered how Sophie had looked at me that nightmarish night. That look of unworthiness that crossed her terrified, blood-stained face. She didn’t think anyone would come; she didn’t think anyone cared. Her neighbors weren’t far. They had to have heard the cries, the pleas, and the blood-curdling screams. You see news about shadow-walker victims, the ones that hunters missed all the time. It became so common that we learned to become desensitized to them. That same lack of empathy allowed her neighbors that night to close the curtains and draw the blinds, lock their doors, and turn off their lights. Instead of having a heart and calling the corp, they pretended they weren’t home to save their own asses. When all hope was lost, it wasn’t a hunter, or a cop, or even an adult that came in to help her. It was a kid, and she thought then and there, why?

One life for another. To monsters, life was weighed in pounds. But a life was precious, immeasurable by any means. We are all worthy of life, from the smallest infant to the oldest sage. Every breath that pulsed through our veins, and every beat that drummed in our hearts was a testament to our existence and right to live. Monsters didn’t have the right to take that from us. They didn’t have a right to crawl out from wherever the fuck they came from and claim our lives theirs to take. That girl at the park gave me the same look Sophie had when I saved her. You and me, we are the same. We are both meta-less beings, so why put yourself out there to help someone like me? Because shit, if I didn’t, who would?

The world was a darker place than it had any right to be. With every opportunity, we should shed some light into it.

The plane landed at last, where everyone could breathe a sigh of relief. Everyone was in a rush to unboard the plane, especially me, who was being pampered in a show of love and appreciation for helping everyone land safely. The feeling was a bit overwhelming, nothing like the time I’d gotten rid of big Brucer. It was the most recognition and praise I’d received in my lifetime, and the gratitude only grew from there when security hauled the monster out for processing.

I indulged in the fame a little bit, but it was a whole scene at the airport, a moment I’d never forget. Police officers and paramedics hustled around, tending to those who needed medical attention and gathering statements from witnesses. Agents in suits arrived on scene, with dark glasses and cryptic badges only adding to my speculations. They didn’t seem to be with Hunter Corp or local law enforcement. They took charge of getting everyone in order, when I heard talk of an evacuation plan for the terminal.

When they came to me, I told them what had happened. The one guy in front of me gave quiet commands to search the area through his ear piece, anxious to find the monster’s accomplices. The delay was massive, riding into high hours of the morning. From all the hype, I was finally starting to feel the exhaustion kicking in, and I was desperate to head over to baggage claims, grab my stuff, take a long hot shower, and crash on a soft, cozy bed.

Once the commotion was over, I had bags under my eyes, and a bunch of phone numbers from a lovely clutter of admiring teenage girls. I grabbed my stuff and buzzed my designated lift, whipped open my map, and sat in the backseat after giving the driver the address.

In Utoro, there was a diverse range of people from all over the world, and English wasn’t as foreign a language as I expected. The kind driver understood my directions before I even tried handing him the map. The ride to my new home was pretty far from the airport, further than I thought it’d be. I guess it made sense for a location housing trainee hunters. Even my chauffeur was arranged by the Corp, the kind, elder gentleman someone in their inner circle I’d imagine.

By the time I got there, it was 5am, the sun already rising. The sky had all shades of purples, pinks, and oranges, spread across it like watercolor on a canvas. It was a beautiful sight to say the least, enough to keep me awake. It made up for my sleepless night and the jetlag that threatened to tip me over at any moment, until the taxi made a stop, the centerpiece to the right of me making my jaw drop.

My new home was a dojo?

The building was an old majestic, wooden Japanese bungalow nestled in the bosom of mother nature herself. The dojo was deliberately designed to be unobtrusive among its forest mountainside surroundings, and as much a part of the landscape as the ancient trees standing around it. Each window had these delicate shoji screens on them filtering the soft sunrise. The main entrance was a large and ornate gate guarded by two stone lions, their sharp gaze clear even through the early morning foggy mist. Stone lanterns lined the walkway made of cobblestone, the path leading toward the grand dojo. Japanese architecture had always been fascinating to me, but seeing such ornate detailing in person was a sight that took my breath away.

The taxi driver looked at me through the rearview mirror. His dark eyes twinkled at the corners as he grinned, as if he was privy to the wonder I was feeling right now. A noteworthy reaction I was sure. I didn’t want my foreigner showing so early in the game, but I couldn’t help it. I was fucking enchanted right now.

The driver helped me unload my stuff from the trunk, his welcoming smile never wavering as we lugged the suitcases to the front porch. I tipped him through my app with my starter money, and in exchange he gave me a hearty handshake followed by a respective bow. “Much thanks for your services to our city, Mr. Aldeon.”

My emotions were all over the place right now. Exhaustion, thrill, anticipation, and imitation all bundled up in one. When the cab driver drove off, it was only me and my hand on the front door knob. I took one last breath before stepping into my hunter headquarters, and—

“Holy crap. This place is bigger from the inside…” It was modern, clean, and pretty empty, the sound of the front door opening echoing down the training room. My eyes looked up to the wooden rails on the second floor hallway, noticing how truly massive the dojo was. The more my eyes roamed, the more I felt like I was living a fantasy by being here. Out of all of the locations I could have been assigned to, the Corp picked Utoro. And now, I could cross one of my top three vacation spots off my bucket list.

Overhead, wooden beams crisscrossed the high ceiling like bones of some gigantic animal. Multiple katana racks stretched along one side of the wall, each blade glinting under the sunlight. A large and incredibly detailed mural dressed the first-floor back wall of the dojo, depicting an epic battle between historical warriors. I was standing in a shrine of tradition, where the past and present seemed to have melded into one.

From fighting wars to fighting monsters. I felt like a warrior in my own right as my eyes continued to look around. The headquarters was eerily silent, beside the sound of water running from outside. After I kicked my shoes off and closed the front door, I treaded lightly on the smooth, polished floorboards as I wondered where my mentor was. My guess was that he went to sleep once he realized that I wasn’t going to be here on time. I didn’t want to wake him, so I toured around the building by myself.

There were plenty of bedrooms, enough for a few hunters. From B1 to B6, I read the labels off the doors, but I didn’t want to be rude and open any. There was also a huge kitchen, a gym, and lounge area. Hell, there was even a god damn hot spring in the back. When I went back inside, I snagged my bags sitting in the foyer, and when I turned back around, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a cat girl at my feet!

“Got some choooow?” she meowed, I mean asked, standing there in front of me on all fours. She had the saddest look on her face as she begged me for food, my mind not processing what was happening just yet. I got that she was a demi-human, but with her on the ground like that, she legit looked like an animal. Brown furry ears over her short brown highlighted hair, a long swaying fluffy tail, and even a green collar around her neck with two fake plush bells on it.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“There’s nothing to eat around this place! It’s uncomfortably spotless!” she moaned. “If I don’t find something to eat in the next minute, I’ll… I’ll—” She paused, her yellow eyes broadening in exaggerated desperation. I reached over in my hoodie pocket and gave her a Snickers bar.

“Here, I got something,” I said, offering it to her. “Not a lot, but I ate everything I really had to eat on the plane and—” before I could finish, she snatched the chocolate bar with her teeth and hauled ass, the strange girl turning down the hallway and disappearing in a flash. “Huh, she’s pretty quick on her feet. She must be a hunter from another squadron….”

“It’s about time you showed up,” I heard someone say, and when I turned behind me, I saw Naomi there, lounging against the wall of the foyer with her arms crossed, wearing a large, plain black t-shirt and her signature monotone face.

It was clear she had either been sleeping or was ready to go to bed, and for a moment, seeing her in such a casual outfit around me threw me off, until I finally croaked, “Yeah! Long ride. Luckily, you weren’t on my flight, either. Otherwise, you would have gotten here just as late. The delay was a nightmare.”

“No, I was on Reina’s and the others, unfortunately. We got here around eight. Why? What happened on your flight?”

I snorted. “Let’s just say my hate for demonic bugs climbed up the ladder by another couple notches.”

“A monster on your flight? What were the odds?” She shrugged. “High, to be honest. Though, I am surprised it caused enough trouble to delay passengers.”

“He was working for a client that had a big appetite….”

She gave me a heavy look and then asked, “Did you kill him?”

I raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. “Were you expecting me to?”

“What if I said no?”

I chuckled. “Then I’d say I wasn’t expecting to kill him, either, but I did.”

She paused, turning her head away from me almost timidly. “Good thing you made it.” Naomi walked off without saying another word, and for some reason, I was too reluctant to stop her. I knew what I wanted to ask, but for the life of me, I couldn’t bring myself to say it aloud. Even though I wanted to put that haunting incident in Monument Park behind me, I still had questions. These doubts wouldn’t rest, the idea of Naomi being there bugging me. I was 80% sure she was there, and that she… did something to me….

“Naomi!” I called out.

She turned her head to look at me before she said, “Our bedroom is down here.”

Wait, did she just say our bedroom?

I grabbed my stuff and followed her down the hallway, Naomi leading me through a floor plan I was already familiar with. She stopped in front of B4, and when she opened the door, I immediately noticed the three beds inside.

Maybe floor mattress was a better word….

In Utoro, it wasn’t uncommon to sleep on a futon, which was the same thing as a floor mattress. But it was a sight unfamiliar to my eyes. They were each in their own column behind the ceiling-to-floor windows, draped with clean, soft, breathable cotton blankets. They each had a single pillow, and a small wooden crate serving as a minimalist bedside table. The room was spacious and airy, with wood-paneled walls reflecting the cleanliness of the living area.

The smell of Japanese cypress wood wafted through my nose as soon as I stepped inside. The tatami mats beneath my feet suddenly caught my attention, woven with straws of soft rush grass. They felt great under my socks, like a gentle cushion for my toes. Naomi stopped not too far behind me and said, “Your Shikibuton?”

“My what?”

“Your bed.”

“Do I get first dibs?”

“I don’t care where I sleep….”

“Well, what about Reina?”

“She isn’t sleeping here with us.”

I looked at her stark for answers.

“She’s over at B3.”

“She has an entire bedroom for herself?”

“Privilege… or in her case, bitching and screaming.” She walked over to the sliding door of the closet as she continued, “A squadron usually shares a bedroom space. B1-6 isn’t meant for individual quarters, where six hunters get a room to themselves. They are meant to house 18 hunters. But since there are only two teams currently stationed here, we have free space. Reina insisted she have her own room, and our mentor, eager to spare his sanity, decided to give her one. However, that is due to change. The Corp likes to move hunters around, as you’re already aware.”

I smiled. “I don’t mind. We may actually get some sleep without her around. Speaking of, why aren’t you in bed?”

She bent back up from getting something from the pocket of her duffle bag before she walked toward me and handed me something. “It’s an H-Tec, a com unit and a system sensor board in one. In the field, keep it with you always.” She gave me something that looked like one of those FBI earpieces without the extra wiring. There was something that looked different about it, and when I slipped it over my ear, I realized that this gadget was more than just an ear piece.

I pressed the button along my eardrum and noticed it began to analyze. Rings of red started to scan my surroundings, a transparent screen popping up in front of me coming back with an error message stating body not found. Until I turned to Naomi, and her stats surfaced:

Career Level: 1

Name: Naomi Brunsfield

Hunter Attributes:

Gender: F

HG-Vitality:

Age: 18

Endurance: 16

Rank: --

Strength: 3

Fame: 0%

Agility: 9

Infamy: 0%

Dexterity: 7

HG-HP: 0

Stamina: 160/160

Specialty: Telekinesis

Squadron: Beta1-UJP

Sponsor Count: 0

Mentor: Kenji Hayashi

Assignment Location: Utoro, Japan

Fame Points: 0

(FPs Accumulated):--

Items:--

HG-Respawn Token: 0

Currency:--

I cleared my throat, trying not to look completely intimidated! Naomi just didn’t look like the type who would surpass me in starter stats. But she knew I had read her, no matter how hard I tried not pulling back my collar from the heat wave that slapped me on the face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, and I fumbled.

“Nothing! J-just, telekinesis! Heh! Pretty… pretty sweet meta, honestly!”

“You mean all this time, you didn’t know that was my super power?”

I knew, but before I embarrassed myself further, she interjected, “You should get some rest. We have a meeting with Hayashi at 10.”

“Right,” I hesitated for a second and then said, “Naomi, there’s… something I’ve been meaning to ask you…” I said, trying to summon enough courage to talk to her about that night. “When you’d seen me in General Hall, was that the last time we saw each other last Friday?”

“What are you getting at?”

“It could very well be my imagination talking here, but after work, I—”

“Were you looking for an apology?”

“What?”

“For bumping you? Well, there isn’t one.”

“Huh? No, it’s not like t—”

“You have a bad habit of getting in my way, Nero,” she admitted, although I couldn’t help but think she was jesting with me. “So it’s a good thing you have powers now, because I wouldn’t want you getting in my way during a hunt.”

Wait a minute, wasn’t she the same girl who refuted my right to deny her being on my team? The same one who swore she’d help me climb to the top?

As she walked to the door, she gave me one last bit, that solid stare on her unwavering. “By the way, stand clear of Ashley. That cat girl has a stomach the size of gluttony and will eat your food money dry.”

I chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind. Aren’t you going to snooze, too?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me weird. “Why do you want me in bed so badly, Nero?”

My face flushed. “No, not in my bed if that’s what you’re thinking!”

“I already slept. I need to meditate. Be at the garden at 10,” she reminded me one last time before she closed the door and headed off.