Finding Love

Ruka was racing up the stairs of an office building, her brand new replacement sword in one hand and her phone in another as she attempted to find the magical beast that had been reported. As she reached the fifth floor, she said to herself in frustration while breathing heavily, “Where the fuck is this thing? It better not be on the God damn roof! I got another five floors before that!” As she reached the sixth floor, an old man opened the door to the stairwell, causing Ruka to narrowly miss him as she ran around him. “I’m sorry!”

“Woah,” said the old man as Ruka raced past him. He saw her outfit and the scabbard held on her waist and, deeply confused, said to himself, “Is she some kind of anime otaku cosplayer?”

Finally, as Ruka reached the roof, she flung open the roof access door and pulled her sword out, sweat pouring down her forehead as she found that another magical huntress had, in fact, beaten her to the battle. “Aw, damn it! Someone beat me?!” However, as she watched, the girl, who appeared to be rather young, suddenly lost the large metal whip she had been using to attack the deer beast when it got caught around its antlers and said beast ripped the whip handle out of her hands. “Oh shit…”

The young girl screamed, “No, my whip!”

“Hang on,” Ruka then said as she sprung into action, running past several large blood stains on the roof from the deer beast flinging itself around. As she reached the beast, she had to dodge the whip’s handle as the deer swung it at her, almost knocking her out with a narrow miss of her head. She then swung her sword at one of the deer’s legs, which was already red from blood pouring out of several deep cuts the young girl had made with her whip. Finally, she swung down on its neck after dodging the whip once more, slicing the deer’s head completely off of its body and killing it before putting her sword away.

The young girl ran over to the body of the deer and quickly reached down to grab her whip, unwinding it from the deer’s headless body with Ruka’s help. She remarked as she got blood on most of her outfit, “Now it’s all dirty.”

“It’s fine,” Ruka assured her. “Being a magical huntress requires you to get down and dirty. Blood is just a part of the job. You look pretty young, though. How old are you?”

“I’m eleven,” the young girl replied, which was rather easy to believe given her short height and youthful appearance. “How old are you, oneesan?”

“Oneesan?” Ruka chuckled at being called a big sister by the young girl. “I’m sixteen. I began doing this when I was ten. What’s a young girl like you doing something so dangerous?”

Then, a young boy emerged onto the rooftop from the same access door. He, too, had light green hair and looked to be about the same age as the young girl. “Kana,” he said to her. “Are you finished?”

“Yes, oniichan,” she said to the young boy.

The young boy walked over to her and saw Ruka, asking Kana, “Who’s this old lady?”

Annoyed with his remark, Ruka turned to the boy and told him, “I’m sixteen, not sixty. Do you know this girl?”

“She’s my sister,” the boy replied before he showed Ruka a transformation ring on his finger. “I’m a magical huntsman like her.”

“Sister? Are you…”

“We’re twins,” Kana explained. “This is my big brother Kazu.”

“Only by fifteen minutes,” Kazu pointed out.

“Fifteen minutes, huh… Are you a magical huntsman, Kazu-san?”

“Yep,” he replied, showing off his transformation ring. “We signed up together three months ago.”

“Three months, huh… What brought you two into this line of wo-“ Ruka then stopped talking when she noticed something on Kana’s forehead that made her blood run cold.

Confused as to why Ruka had stopped talking, the young girl asked her, “Oneesan, what’s wrong?”

Ruka looked at the girl’s forehead as her expression turned from one of contentment to one of shock. She gently brushed back the young girl’s light green bangs and found several burn marks hidden underneath the hair. “Oh my God…”

The young girl, when she realized what Ruka was doing, quickly pushed her away and hid the burn marks from her. “Don’t look!”

“Were those… Were those cigarette burns?”

“No!”

Ruka, realizing she was lying, demanded from her, “Tell me the truth. What caused those marks on your forehead?!”

The young girl yelled back at her, denying that the marks were caused by people, “I got injured in a battle, okay?! That’s all! I didn’t get burned by anyone!”

“I… I never said a human caused those burns,” Ruka pointed out. “And those burns look like they were done by cigarettes. Please, don’t lie to me.”

Kazu stepped between Ruka and Kana, telling the former with a defensive tone of voice, “She’s telling the truth! Back off from my sister, old hag!”

Ruka, not wanting to get confrontational with two young children, did as told and stepped away. “Alright, alright, I’m backing up. I don’t wanna fight you guys, okay? It’s just… I got concerned, that’s all.”

Kana told Ruka, “You don’t have to get involved with us.”

“I know, I know. What are your names anyway?”

Kazu, not trusting her, replied, “We don’t have to tell yo-“

“Ozawa Kana,” Kana replied, defying her brother. “My brother’s name is Ozawa Kazu.”

Kazu turned to her sister and chided her with, “Really?”

“Ozawa, huh…” Ruka then sighed and began to leave, but before she opened the door to the roof access stairs, she told them, “I’ll let you guys take credit for this kill. You don’t have to mention me. Also… If you need anything, you can reach out to me. My name is Kishio Ruka.”

Kazu and Kana looked at each other before the former told Ruka, “We’re okay, but thank you.”

As Kazu walked away, Kana stayed behind for a few more seconds before she quickly bowed and quickly blurted out to Ruka, “Thank you very much, but I have to go!” She then ran off to catch up with her brother.

Ruka looked at the two twins and sighed, saying to herself as the evening sun shone behind her, “Something seems off about them…”

…

April 23, 2026

Sayaka and Kumiko were out on another date together, enjoying a meal at a local okonomiyaki restaurant. The two were still in their school uniforms, and as Sayaka took a piece of okonomiyaki from a hot plate built into the table, Kumiko asked her, “So, are Ruka-kun and Miyashita-san busy with their clubs tonight?”

“Yeah,” Sayaka replied. “The kendo club is getting ready for their first match against another school next week. Kishio-san told me the fencing club won’t be having any matches until May, though. There aren’t a lot of schools that have dedicated fencing clubs like our’s, so their matches are a bit more spread out.”

As Sayaka began to eat her okonomiyaki, Kumiko took a piece of it off of the hot plate for herself and began to eat as well. She enjoyed the food, remarking after finishing her piece, “Wow, this place is good.”

Sayaka nodded after finishing her own piece, “I told you it would be. Me and my parents come here a couple times a year, so I know a lot of the staff.”

“Ah, nice.” Kumiko then drank some water from a glass before saying to her, “Yesterday was interesting at the literature club meeting. We had a debate over whether or not manga is literature.”

Sayaka laughed in response, finding the idea of such a debate amusing. “Why do I feel like I’ve heard of that debate from a game before?”

“Me too. I didn’t take a side. I was too busy watching it and not trying to laugh at how intense both sides got. We had three people who said yes and three who said no, plus two more including myself who just watched it all go down.”

“Wow, that must have been entertaining. I assume not much got done because of that?”

“Nope, not really. Thankfully, there wasn’t much on the agenda for that meeting anyway.”

“You know,” Sayaka then asked her. “If you weren’t a magical huntress, what do you think you’d be doing now?”

“If I wasn’t one? Hmmm…” Kumiko found it hard to imagine herself not being a magical huntress, having so deeply embedded it into her identity by this point. “I don’t know, to be honest. I can’t really imagine it. Maybe I’d be a bit more miserable, since I wouldn’t have met you or anyone else in the Fox Knights. What about you?”

“Me? I’d probably be a lot more shy than I am now.”

Kumiko joked, “You’re still pretty shy, you know.”

“Yeah,” Sayaka admitted with a slight blush. “But I’d be a lot worse, like how I was back when I first joined. Being in the group really helped me.”

“Why did you ask, by the way?”

“I was wondering what you wanted to do after you’re done being a magical huntress. Neither of us can be one forever.”

“Yeah, true.” Kumiko looked down at her plate and remarked, “Truth be told, I haven’t even decided on a university I want to go to.”

“What do you want to study?”

“I’m interested in communications. I know that in college, I really won’t have a lot of time to fight magical beasts since I’ll be expected to work almost full-time hours while going there.”

Sayaka, confused, asked her, “Why almost full-time hours?”

“College here is a very busy time in your life,” Kumiko explained. “A lot of people here will go to college for the day and then work all evening at a job. You get next to no free time for four years. I guess they’re preparing you for how your life will be if you work in an office for the next thirty or forty years of your life.”

“So you’ll quit when you graduate high school?”

“Hell no. I’ll probably just be a lot less active. I won’t have enough years working to quit without having to buy out the remaining time in my contract until I’m twenty-three, since I started at thirteen.”

“Oh, right… Ten years… That’s how long the contract is. I won’t be able to leave the contract without buying out until I’m twenty-four.”

“That’s how they get you.” Kumiko then finished her water before telling Sayaka, “Although it’s not as bad as contracts you’d probably find at a lot of corporations that say you have to work until you’re fifty-five to get a full retirement. With the Agency, it’s only ten years.”

“Only… By the time I’m twenty-four, that would be like forty percent of my life.”

“Forty-three percent of mine once I’m twenty-three,” Kumiko replied. “Honestly, when I started out, I didn’t even know if I’d live that long.”

Sayaka, concerned for her, asked, “Why, uh… Why did you feel that way?”

Kumiko sighed and asked, “Can you guess why?”

Sayaka thought about it for a few seconds before she said, “The transgender thing?”

“I was in a pretty dark place mentally at one point before I got into the Fox Knights,” Kumiko explained. “Well, uh… I don’t talk about this a lot, but… Yeah, it had to do with my gender identity and all the bullshit that came with it. Back then, I thought I’d be dead by the time I was in my early twenties, if not earlier.”

Sayaka felt bad for Kumiko, gently grabbing her right hand on the table and asking her, “Do you still feel that way?”

Kumiko blushed as Sayaka held onto her hand. “Uh… Huh…”

“Are you okay now, Kumiko-senpai?”

“Ku-… Ku-… Kumiko-senpai?” Kumiko was flabbergasted to hear Sayaka call her by her first name. “Uh… Yeah… I’m, um…”

“Your face looks red,” Sayaka pointed out as Kumiko’s face lit up with a deep blush.

Kumiko then got a hold of herself with a deep breath and told Sayaka, “I’m doing a lot better now, Sayaka. I don’t have a gloomy look on life like I did back then.”

It was now apparently Sayaka’s turn to get embarrassed, as hearing Kumiko say her first name caused her eyes to widen with shock. “You… You used my first name? Why?”

“You used mine first,” Kumiko pointed out. “It’s only fair.”

“I did no-“ Sayaka stopped herself when she realized she had, in fact, used Kumiko’s first name. “I did…”

“Can we just use first names from now on then? We’ve already ripped the band-aid off.”

“But we… We’re not, like, a couple though…”

“We, um…”

“You… What?”

Kumiko paused, wondering to herself how she should respond to Sayaka’s words. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she thought to herself. “I’ve really boxed myself into a corner here. The only option left is for me to tell her how I actually feel about her, but… Can I do it without rushing it too much?”

“Murata-senpai,” Sayaka asked her. “What do you want to say? I can tell you have something on your mind.”

Kumiko took a deep breath and confessed how she really felt about Sayaka, telling her rather rapidly and in one single breath, “I want us to be a couple because I like you, Sayaka!”

Sayaka was taken aback by what Kumiko said, and looked at her as both of their faces turned bright red. “You… Like me?”

“Yes…”

As they both then looked away from each other briefly to each regain their composure, Sayaka whispered to herself, “She really does…” Meanwhile, Kumiko was bracing for rejection, but to her surprise, Sayaka turned back towards her and told her, “I want to be a couple, too, Kumiko-senpai.”

“You… Do?” Kumiko pointed out to her, “Even though you’re a lesbian, and I… I haven’t really transitioned physically, you know…”

“You’re still a girl,” Sayaka assured her.

Both of them were then interrupted by a waiter who walked over to their table, causing both of them to snap out of it and immediately get flustered by how they acted as the waiter asked them, “How are you two doing so far? Do you need anything else?”

“Oh, uh, no,” Kumiko assured him. “The food is very good. Thank you. We’re all set.”

“Yeah,” Sayaka replied to him as well. “Um… I liked it as always.”

The waiter smiled and replied to Sayaka, “Thank you once again for coming, Miyamura-san.”

As the waiter walked away, Kumiko said to her, “Wow, you weren’t kidding, huh?”

“I told you they know me and my family here,” Sayaka reiterated.

…

Meanwhile, Yoko was walking around outside the same restaurant with Goro, with whom she had also gone on a date with. As they walked past, Yoko peeked inside and noticed Sayaka and Kumiko sitting down and talking amongst themselves. She thought to herself, “That’s the second time I’ve seen them out on a date. They seem to be having a good time.”

Goro then asked her, “Hey, Fujimori-san, what are you looking at?”

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Yoko replied as she looked away from the restaurant. “I thought I saw someone I recognized in there.”

“Oh, that place?” Goro rolled his eyes and remarked, “Whatever. That place is mid anyway. One time, me and a couple buddies of mine went there after soccer practice, and we got some asshole serving us who didn’t do shit. I had to ask that bitch like five times for more drinks.”

“She ignored you all that much?”

“Yep. Fucking sucked. Who did you see in there anyway?”

“I thought I saw Miyamura in there.”

“Miyamura Sayaka? That one second-year girl you like to hang out with? Didn’t we run into her with some other… Person… From our grade?”

Yoko clarified, “You mean Murata Kumiko, right? She’s a girl, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. She’s a girl. Whatever. Yeah, she was with Murata-san.”

As the two of them stopped at an intersection and waited for their turn to cross, a car drove by and unintentionally hit a puddle, causing some water to splash onto Yoko’s shoes and lower pants. “Agh, shit,” she remarked. “Of all the fucking times a car could have run over a puddle…”

“Hang on,” Goro then said as he reached into his pocket and grabbed a small piece of cloth. “Use this to dry yourself off. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Oh, thanks,” Yoko replied as she took the cloth and bent down to begin wiping her shoes and pants. “Why do you keep a small cloth towel anyway?”

“I usually don’t. I normally only have it when I’m in practice to wipe off sweat.”

Yoko immediately stopped and asked him, “This one is clean, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I haven't used it yet.”

“Oh, thank God- I mean, um, thank you.” Yoko then continued wiping her shoes and pants. Once she was done, they crossed the street and continued their walk together. “You know, uh…”

“What’s up?”

“Well, I wanna thank you for taking me out tonight. I really enjoyed this.”

“Oh, alright.” Goro then remarked to her with a confident smile, “You know, you’re pretty good-looking, Fujimori.”

Yoko, somewhat surprised by his compliment, replied to him, “Oh, uh, thank you. You’re pretty handsome yourself.”

“Thank you as well.”

“It’s not often I hear people compliment me for my looks,” Yoko admitted. “Being a hafu doesn’t always help, either.”

“I don’t really give a shit if you’re a hafu. Hot girls are hot. Foreign girls can be really hot, too.”

Yoko chuckled in response, amused by his response. She then remarked to him as she put a hand on her chest, “Being a bit flat in this area doesn’t always help, either, especially when I have friends who are, well… A bit bigger around here.”

Goro looked at Yoko’s chest and said to her, “Big boobs are nice, but hey, small boobs can be fun, too.”

“Let me guess, you’ve slept with girls with both?”

“Well, I mean, yeah,” Goro replied somewhat defensively. “That doesn’t mean anything with us, okay?”

“I know, I know. I’m not judging you for having sex with other girls before me, okay?” Yoko admitted to him, “If anything… Um… It means, uh…”

Goro asked her as she paused the conversation, “It means what?”

Yoko thought to herself, “I’ve been meaning to ask him to get more… Physical… Since we started dating. I know he has a bit of a reputation, but would he say yes to me? I mean, he may, or he may not… Would he even want to do it this early? Should I just wait for him to ask me?”

“Hey, you alright, Fujimori-san?”

“Huh?” Yoko then snapped out of her thoughts. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.”

“Hmmm… Thinking about what, exactly?” Goro then put a hand on Yoko’s back and slowly slid down it, causing her to blush. “Do you wanna go back to my place, Fujimori-san? My dad isn’t home right now.”

“Oh, um… Sure, yeah.” As the two of them walked down the street, Yoko could feel Goro’s hand begin to reach for her lower back, a sign that he was interested in taking their relationship to the next level. She thought to herself, “I knew it. He does want to have sex with me, and, admittedly… I kinda wanna do it, too.”

…

A little under an hour later, Goro’s room was filled with the sounds of a bed creaking and intense moaning from Yoko as she and Goro indeed had sex. While it was Yoko’s first time ever, it was far from Goro’s, much to the former’s delight for the time being. As the two finished, Goro got up from the bed and took a few deep breaths, remarking as he tied up a rubber condom, “Fuck, that felt good…”

“Yeah,” Yoko replied as she also began to relax, looking at Goro with a smile as he walked out to dispose of the condom he had used. She then reached over to her phone and began to text Tenko.

YOKO: hey you up?

As Yoko waited for a reply, Goro walked back in and said to her, “So, I bet I did a good job, huh?”

Yoko nodded with a smile, telling him, “Hell yeah. How did you learn to do all of that?”

“Experience.”

“Experience…” Yoko then paused to ponder how to word her next question before she asked him, “How, uh… How many girls have you slept with?”

“Seven,” Goro replied rather nonchalantly, causing Yoko’s jaw to drop. “You’re the seventh, by the way.”

A shocked Yoko replied, “Seven?!”

“Yep. Ladies love me, I guess.”

“Holy shit…” Yoko then felt her phone vibrate with a text and picked it up, seeing that Tenko had replied.

TENKO: yeah what up?

YOKO: dont tell anyone else yet but i fucked yamanaka-san

TENKO: wait what the fuck

YOKO: yeah we went back to his place and did it

TENKO: already??

Goro asked her, “Hey, who are you texting?”

“One of my friends,” Yoko replied.

“Are you gonna tell her this?”

“No,” Yoko lied to him. “Not unless you don’t mind.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Goro shrugged as he got back in bed next to her. “People are gonna know anyway eventually, so fuck it.”

“Fair enough.” Yoko then kissed Goro on the cheek, prompting him to turn her head with his hands and kiss her on the lips, which she gladly returned. She then put her phone down on the floor before coming back to Goro and making out with him rather intensely before they began to feel each other’s bodies up. She then briefly split from him to ask him, “Do you really wanna do it again?”

“Let’s see if I’m up for it,” Goro replied with a smile before he gently pinned her down on the bed and made out with her again. Meanwhile, Tenko texted Yoko again, wondering why she had not replied to her.

TENKO: yo u there?

TENKO: Yoko-senpai what’s up??

…

Meanwhile, Sayaka and Kumiko had walked to Kumiko’s home after their dinner had ended. The two had very much enjoyed their date, and as they reached the front door of the latter’s house, Sayaka asked her, “So, uh, when do you wanna go out again?”

“I’m not sure,” Kumiko replied with a shrug. “I may be busy for the next few days. Wanna just hang out after school one of these days? Make it a bit more casual, you know?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Sayaka replied.

Following this, there was a moment of silence between the two of them as neither of them moved from the spot they were at. Neither could think of what to definitively do or say next, both of them considering their next actions but not making a decision. Kumiko thought to herself, “So, uh, how do I say goodbye to her now that we’re actually girlfriend and girlfriend?”

“Oh no,” Sayaka also thought to herself. “What do I say to her? I’m at a loss for words!”

“Think, Kumiko… What should you do? You two are actually in a relationship now, and people in a relationship… Kiss… Should I kiss her this soon into things? What if she doesn’t like it?”

Sayaka then spoke up, saying to Kumiko, “So, um… Bye, Kumi-“

Kumiko then closed her eyes tight and interrupted Sayaka with a kiss on the lips, terrified how she would react in response to the kiss as Sayaka’s face lit up a bright red. She then quickly split from her lips as Sayaka’s eyes widened with shock. Thinking she had done something wrong, Kumiko immediately and profusely apologized with, “I’m so sorry! I- I- I- I shouldn’t have kissed you, Sayaka! It was wrong for me t-“

Now it was Kumiko’s time to be surprised when Sayaka suddenly grabbed her right shoulder and pulled her in for a kiss in return, which Kumiko quickly returned as she closed her eyes. This time, when the two split off, Sayaka sincerely told Kumiko, “I love you.”

“I… I love you, too,” Kumiko replied before the two hugged each other. After their embrace ended, Kumiko walked into her house, her heart still beating rapidly from what she and Sayaka had done as she ran up to her bedroom and then shut the door behind her as she took several deep breaths and then sat on the floor. “Holy fuck… Holy fucking shit… I kissed Sayaka… I actually kissed Sayaka…”

Meanwhile, Sayaka stood outside for a few more moments before walking back to her house. She said to herself as she gingerly rubbed her cheek, “Wow, I can’t believe I actually did that…”