Over the Cliff

April 24, 2026

“Wait, you actually had sex with him?!” A shocked Ruka looked at Yoko in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Yoko said to Ruka, Tenko, and Yoshiro as the four of them sat on a bench in the courtyard of the school. “We went to his house last night and did it.”

Yoshiro asked her, “Was anyone else home?”

“No. His father won’t be back until later tonight, and his mother has been dead for years, so it’s just the two of them.”

“Holy shit,” Ruka remarked. “I knew this day would come, but I wasn’t expecting you to say yes so soon. I thought you’d at least tell him to wait a bit.”

“Well, I…” Yoko was embarrassed to admit she really wanted to have sex with him too. “Oh, whatever. I don’t have to say why.”

“You must have really wanted to have sex with him,” Tenko inferred. “How badly were you pining after him?”

“I didn’t push him to do anything! He started it! I’m not some pervert!”

“Tenko didn’t say anything about you pushing him,” Ruka pointed out.

“Whatever,” Yoko dismissed her rather rudely. “It just happened, okay? If we want to fuck, that’s none of your damn business. Stop judging me for it.”

“I’m not gonna judge you for it.” Ruka was surprised at how aggressively Yoko had reacted to her. “I’m just surprised, is all. If you two want to have sex, I won’t stop you. I’m just saying that he has a reputation for being a sex fiend for a reason.”

“I know he has one. I didn’t go into this shit unprepared, you know!”

“Guys,” Tenko then told them, not wanting them to argue anymore. “Calm down. There’s no point in arguing about it.”

“Hey guys,” Kyosuke then said as he walked over and zeroed in on Yoshiro. “What’s up?”

Ruka answered him with, “Yoko and Yamanaka ha-“

Yoko interrupted her with, “Nothing! We did nothing!”

Kyosuke asked Yoko, “Oh, wait, aren’t you and Yamanaka-senpai dating?”

“Yeah,” she replied to him, still worried that someone was going to speak up and reveal what she had done with her boyfriend. “We, uh… We are.”

Kyosuke then nonchalantly and bluntly asked her, “Did he have sex with you yet?”

“Really, dude?!”

“It’s a fair question,” Tenko admitted. “You know how he can be.” She then turned to Kyosuke and confirmed to him, “And yes, Furukawa-kun, Yoko-senpai and Yamanaka-senpai had sex.”

Yoko replied to her friends, “Really, guys?! Come on!”

Yoshiro asked Kyosuke, “Does anyone else know?”

“Yamanaka-senpai hasn’t told anyone else that I know of,” he shrugged. “I just guessed since he’s known for fucking girls soon after dating them.” A bit jealous of Goro’s skills, he admitted, “Sometimes, it makes me wish I had that level of skill. Even to this day, I’ve never dated a girl, let alone gotten laid.”

“You got plenty of time, man,” Yoshiro assured him with a chuckle. “I haven’t, either. We both still got another three years of high school to go. I’m sure something will happen before we graduate, or right after maybe.”

As the conversation continued all around her, Ruka thought to herself, “At least Yoko had a better time than Hana did… Or me for that matter. I didn’t have a choice.”

…

After school, Hana practiced at the kendo club, sparring with a classmate of hers in a practice ring. As she swung down at him, he just barely dodged a direct blow to his left arm before the two clashed swords and held each other at bay for almost half a minute. Hana attempted to concentrate as much as she could on the battle, but something was on her mind that kept popping up, causing her to think to herself, “Why am I thinking about Kawase now of all times?”

Then, she was struck during practice, putting her out of the fight and snapping her out of her thoughts as another team member held up a flag to symbolize her loss. The coach of the team remarked to her as she took her mask off, “Looks like you got distracted there, Miyashita-san.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to him. “I did.”

“Focus on the task at hand. Don’t let up so easily.”

“Yes, Coach,” she replied with a bow before putting her mask back on. She then got back into position and took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” replied her opponent as he also got back into position. The two then sparred once more, clashing intensely as their shinai collided furiously several times with each other.

“I’ll need to talk to Kawase soon at some point,” Hana thought to herself. “Even if I’d rather not, given what I had to do with him three years ago.”

…

April 25, 2026

Early in the morning, Ruka was awoken by the loud sound of her phone going off with an alert from the Agency. As she jumped out of bed, she grabbed her phone and read the information of the alert before texting a reply back to acknowledge and respond to a report of a magical beast sighting. “Alright, it looks like a good payout.” Not even bothering to change out of her pajamas, she instead pulled out her transformation ring from a dresser next to her bed and put it on her left hand before closing her eyes, after which she transformed.

As she ran out of her room, ready to go, she saw Tomoyo walking out of her room, wondering what was going on as she rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Kishio-san, what’s going on?”

“Got a magical beast sighting!” She then ran out of the apartment and shut the door behind her before racing to an elevator down the hall. She then quickly pressed the door-close button and then the first floor button and waited as the elevator descended towards the ground. All the while, she checked her phone to see if any updates were coming through, and as she did, she got one that made her go, “Oh, fuck me…”

‘UPDATE: MULTIPLE PEOPLE TRAPPED, REWARD INCREASED TO ¥35000’

She quickly shot out a text to the rest of the Fox Knights asking for help as she thought to herself, “I’m gonna need at least one other set of hands for this. I just hope someone else from the Fox Knights is up at 5:50 in the morning. It’s too early for this shit.”

As she reached the ground floor and the elevator doors opened, she ran out into the lobby before emerging onto the street, which was mostly empty as it was a weekend and few people were up yet in Yokosuka. She raced down the still somewhat dark street, not impeded by traffic or other pedestrians, as the crisp Spring morning air flew around her. When she ran across a street, she checked her phone and saw that both Kana and Kazu had also added themselves to the incident.

Then, when she rounded one last corner, she found a wrecked car lying in the middle of the street, its doors flung open and its windows smashed. In front of it was a portal. Ruka theorized to herself, “They must have crashed into the beast and then got taken by it…” As several police officers raced over to the scene and ran past her, she pulled a spare sword out and ran in. “Let’s hope this spare sword Hana gave me will hold up,” she said to herself as she ran forward.

A police officer noticed her and called out, “Hey, what are you doing?! It’s too dangerous! Stay away!”

“Let me get in that portal,” Ruka said to him. “It’s way too dangerous for you guys to go in there!”

“Stay out!” The police officer grabbed her by the shoulder with a tight grip, but Ruka ripped herself away from him, bothered by his touch. “Eh?!”

“Don’t lay a hand on me,” she angrily yelled at him. “If you wanna see the people in this car alive, let me in!”

“Let her in,” then said an older police officer as he walked over to the other three officers. “She knows what to do. This is beyond our paygrade and our skills.”

“But, sir, she-”

“Let. Her. In.”

With the younger officer stunned by what his older colleague had told him, Ruka took the opportunity to run into the portal while they were all distracted, telling them, “I got at least two more coming!”

“Hey, wait!” The younger police officer who tried to stop Ruka then ran in after her.

The older police officer called out as he tried to reach for him, “Wakamoto-san, stop! Don’t go in there!” However, it was too late. He was unable to grab Officer Wakamoto before he entered the portal to try to stop Ruka. “God damn it! I told him to let her in!”

On the other side of the portal was a beach with powder-like white sand and cliffs nearby. As Ruka looked around, she saw something climbing up the cliffs and muttered to herself as she ran to catch up, “Oh shit, it’s going up the cliffside!” A large brown lizard-like magical beast with a person wrapped in its long and prehensile tail was scaling the jagged cliffs with its clawed paws. As she ran over to the cliffs, she saw two people lying on the ground, both unconscious and badly cut and bruised up.

Officer Wakamoto soon caught up to her, yelling at her, “Get back here! You can’t be in… Whatever this is!”

Ruka shouted back at him in annoyance, “Make yourself useful and help these people out! I’m gonna go kill that magical beast and get the third guy!”

“But-”

“Please,” Ruka begged him. “These people are going to die if you don’t help them! Stop the bleeding with whatever first aid equipment you have and try to get them out of here if you can! That’s what will help me the most!”

Officer Wakamoto looked at both people and realized Ruka was right. “Okay, I will.” He pulled out two tourniquets and several bandages before assessing both people for wounds, finding that one person, a man, had a broken leg and the other person, a woman, had broken ribs and a sucking chest wound, which he began to treat accordingly.

Ruka then began to climb the cliffs, doing her best to not fall off as she precariously grabbed onto the various rocks that stuck out from the cliff face. She moved as fast as she safely could, and watched as the beast disappeared over the top of the cliff. “God damn it, I need to hurry!” Her heart was pounding as she climbed higher, and when she reached the top, she found that the beast was about to devour the man it had taken with it, having set the man down.

The man, however, was now awake, although both his legs were broken and he could not easily get away. He yelled at the magical beast in fear, “Get away! Don’t come near me!” When the beast bared its teeth and then opened its mouth wide to grab him with its long and slimy tongue, the man let out an ear-piercing scream of terror, thinking that he was about to die.

It was at this moment that Ruka jumped in, slicing off the beast’s tongue with a swing of her sword, causing it to shriek in pain as it bled yellow blood from its mouth. She then stabbed it again in the mouth, causing it further pain as it staggered back. Ruka turned to the man behind her and yelled, “Stay back! I’ll keep you safe!”

“You… What are you?!”

“I’m a magical huntress!” Ruka then turned back to the monster, dodging a blow from its tail before swinging her sword and cutting a small part of it off, once again causing the beast pain. To kill the beast, she ran up and jumped on top of it, using her sword to hold on by sinking the blade into its flesh. As the beast tried to throw her off, she held on for dear life, her sword sinking further and further into its body as time went on. She thought to herself, “Just a bit deeper! Come on!” Finally, the sword sank all the way into it, leaving only the hilt and guard above the flesh. She ripped the sword out of the beast with all her strength and fell off, rolling on the ground several times and dirtying her outfit.

As she stood up, the beast, bleeding profusely out of the deep wound Ruka had left in it, began to thrash itself around, panicking and writhing in intense pain as it screamed and screamed. Its yellow blood was spurting out of the wound Ruka had left, indicating she had hit an artery. The injured man asked her, “Is it dead?”

“It will be in a few seconds,” Ruka predicted. Then, on cue, the beast dropped down to the ground, having bled out from its wounds as it died. She took several deep breaths as she sheathed her sword and pulled out her phone to begin taking pictures of the beast’s body.

The man, confused, asked her as he lay on the ground, both of his legs still broken, “Hey, are you gonna help me?”

“I have help coming,” she assured him as she turned around and flashed him a warm smile. “You’ll be okay. I just have to document this.” Once she had taken several photos, she walked back to the man and bent down to check his legs out. “Now, let’s take a look…”

…

Later in the day, after school had let out, Ruka was walking out of the building when she spotted Yoshiro nearby. “Oh, hey there.” She yawned as she approached him.

“Tired from the fight this morning?”

“Yeah,” she replied as the two began to walk together. “I ended up being half an hour late, but my uncle was able to call the school and get it excused.”

“How’s the people that beast kidnapped?”

“They’re all alive. The one guy’s legs are pretty messed up, though. Even so, they’re all lucky they weren’t killed by that thing.”

“That’s good to hear.” Yoshiro and Ruka then crossed a street together. “Speaking of hunting, I won’t be around this weekend for anything.”

“Oh, really? What for?”

“Me and my mom are visiting her family up in Saitama for the whole weekend,” Yoshiro explained. “We’ll be leaving later tonight.”

“Does Hana know about that?”

“Of course,” Yoshiro dismissed her concern. “I already told her two days ago. I wouldn’t forget something that important.”

“So that means I’ll be second-in-command while you’re gone…”

“Don’t push it,” Yoshiro warned her. “I’ll still be in contact by phone and doing some hunting up there if any magical beasts appear in Saitama.”

After this, the two of them grew silent while continuing to walk together, not finding anything else to say to start a conversation. That is, until Ruka asked him, “You know, I haven’t really asked this before, but… How did you and Hana meet?”

Yoshiro stopped and turned towards Ruka, surprised to hear her ask such a question. “How we… Met?”

“Yeah. You’ve never told me… Or anyone really. I’ve known you for three years, and yet I still don’t know.”

“I figured you’d ask one day.” Yoshiro sighed and began to recount to her how he and Hana had met when they were both younger. “I don’t really tell people the full story, but I’ll make an exception here.”

“An exception?” Ruka crossed her arms. “Why?”

“Because I feel like it,” he replied, dismissing her curiosity. “Anyway, I met Hana when I was ten years old. She was eleven at the time, and had been a magical huntress for a year already.”

“I knew that part, but what was the context for the meeting?”

“I’m getting to that, don’t worry. My father had died a year prior, and it was just me and my mom. She worked her ass off to support me, but we were still pretty tight on money. I really wanted to help her, even though I was so young. Then, one day, I got attacked by a magical beast.”

…

August 2, 2020

Yoshiro and Shoko, both wearing masks due to the then-ongoing pandemic, were walking down the street in the evening after going grocery shopping, with both of them carrying paper bags filled with various fruits, vegetables, meats, and more. As they were walking, Shoko told her son, “Make sure your nose is covered up.”

“Mommy,” Yoshiro asked her. “When can we stop wearing these masks all the time? I don’t feel sick.”

“I know, but we have to. It’s dangerous now with COVID running around, dear. I don’t know when we can stop. I’m sorry.”

“Okay…”

Shoko, feeling bad for her son, said to him to cheer him up, “How about this? We can go get WcMonald’s tonight since I’m pretty tired from work. We’ll save the groceries to eat tomorrow night, Yoshiro.”

“WcMonald’s?! Alright!” Yoshiro was overjoyed to hear that his mom would be getting food from a fast food restaurant down the road. “But we didn’t take your car, though?”

“We can get it delivered now,” Shoko explained to him. “You can use a phone to have it brought right to you.”

“Wow, that’s so cool!”

Then, both of them heard a growling sound from behind them, prompting Shoko to hold her son close to her and tell him, “Don’t move. Stay with me.” She turned around to find a bear-like magical beast staring right at them, having entered from a portal nearby. “Yoshiro…”

“Mommy, why is there a bear right there?”

The beast roared at them, prompting Shoko to set her and Yoshiro’s groceries down and then pick him up in her arms before running as fast as she could. “Yoshiro, hold on!” She screamed as she ran as fast as she could from the bear, “Help! Help me! Somebody help me!”

As the bear-like monster chased them, Shoko tripped and fell on the sidewalk, causing Yoshiro to start to cry in fear. “Mommy, what’s going on?!”

“Just hang on, Yoshiro!” Realizing she could not get up in time, she hugged her son tight to shield him from the beast, praying that she could at least save him if she could not save herself.

Then, both of them heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed before looking up to find the bear being attacked by a young girl with a katana and wearing a white mask. As she stepped off to the side after cutting into the bear, she shouted at it, “Leave the woman and her child alone! If you want to fight a human, fight me!”

The bear took up the challenge and took a swipe at the girl, who just barely dodged the attack before cutting one of its paws off, causing it to scream in pain. The girl’s white mask was stained in the beast’s blood, as was her face, as she attacked it again, dodging a bite from the beast before slicing into its neck and cutting halfway through, more than enough to kill it.

With the bear dead, Shoko and Yoshiro got up, both of them perplexed and still shivering in fear. The girl turned to them and said, “You’ll both be okay now. Are either of you hurt?”

“No,” Shoko replied. She thought to herself, “What the Hell is this? This girl… She looks barely older than Yoshiro, and yet she’s wielding a sword. She looks like a magical girl from one of those shows I watched when I was her age.”

Hana turned and saw their groceries, which were miraculously undisturbed, and asked, “Are those your’s?”

“Yeah…”

Hana walked over and picked them up before bringing them to Shoko and Yoshiro. “Here you go.”

“Thank you…”

As Shoko took the groceries, Yoshiro seemed entranced by Hana’s appearance. “Hey, uh… Who are you? What’s your name?”

Hana turned to Yoshiro and smiled, telling him, “My name is Miyashita Hana. What’s your’s?”

“Oh, uh…” Yoshiro blushed, put on the spot by a girl he instantly thought was rather cute. “I’m Arikawa Yoshiro. How, um… How old are you?”

Shoko turned to her son and lightly chided him with, “It’s not polite to ask a woman her age, Yoshiro.”

Hana chuckled and replied, “It’s fine. I’m eleven years old, and you?”

“I’m ten,” Yoshiro replied.

Shoko was shocked to hear Hana’s age, thinking to herself, “No way… She really is barely older than my son, and yet she speaks so elegantly for a girl her age. How the Hell did she get access to a weapon like a katana?!”

Yoshiro meanwhile thought to himself, “Wow… She would be my senpai then… Miyashita-senpai looks really cute… Wait, no, what am I saying?! That’s a girl! I just met her!”

Hana then asked them, “Are you guys going home?”

“Well,” Shoko replied. “We were gonna go to WcMonald’s, but, uh…”

“You’re fine,” she assured her. “In fact…” Hana then closed her eyes and de-transformed in front of them, returning to a normal set of clothes and a non-bloodstained mask in front of the duo, amazing them. “Take this.” Hana then pulled out her wallet and gave the duo ¥3000. “If any of the food is damaged in your bags, this should cover it. I doubt any of it is, but just in case. I’ll get paid for killing this magical beast anyway.”

…

August 5, 2020

Yoshiro was walking around town by himself when he happened to notice Hana nearby on the same side of the street. Running up to her, he called out, “Miyashita-senpai! Miyashita-senpai!”

“Huh?”

When Yoshiro caught up to her, he caught his breath and said to her, “Miyashita-senpai, uh… Thank you for helping me and my mom.”

Now recognizing him, Hana replied, “Oh, right! You’re the boy from yesterday. Arikawa-kun, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “So, um… Are you busy?”

“No,” she shook her head. “Why?”

“Can… Can you show me what you do as a magical girl?”

“As a magical girl? You mean when I turn into a magical huntress?”

“Yeah, that.”

“Hmmm… I don’t see why not.” Hana then pointed to an alleyway nearby. “Let’s go over there so no one else can see.”

Once the two young children were in the alleyway, Yoshiro asked her, “How did you transform like that in front of us?”

“Simple,” Hana said as she then held out her left hand and the ring on it began to glow. In a flash of light, she transformed into the same outfit from yesterday, now fully cleaned. “I have a transformation ring, and with it, I can turn into this if I close my eyes and think about it.”

“Woah,” replied an amazed Yoshiro. “That’s so cool! Can only girls do this?”

“No, boys can, too.”

“Wow! Can I do it?”

Hana was a bit cautious, not wanting Yoshiro to sign up immediately. “Well, uh… You really should know the risks, Arikawa-kun. You shouldn’t sign up to be a magical huntsman like me unless you understand the dangers that come with it.”

“Well, I…” Yoshiro paused, considering Hana’s words. “I, um… It looks dangerous, but…”

“Would your mother approve of you doing this?”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But you mentioned you get paid to hunt those… Monsters, right?”

“Yes, I get paid to kill magical beasts. I get paid monthly plus every time I kill one and report it.”

“Well, you see… It’s just me and my mom. My dad passed away a year ago, and she has to work a lot. If…” Yoshiro looked up at the sky as he continued. “If I could become a magical… Whatever it is, I could make enough money so that my mom doesn’t have to work as hard anymore.”

Hana nodded. “I see. How long have you thought about this?”

“Ever since you saved us,” Yoshiro replied. “Please. Show me how to become one of you, Miyashita-senpai.”

“You know it’s dangerous, right?” Hana took a deep breath, thinking about what she had seen in her experience as a magical huntress so far. “It’s not easy work. You’ll be hunting magical beasts for a long time, and you could be killed at any moment. You’re young, too. I started when I was ten years old, too, but I don’t know if I would let someone else that age get recruited as a magical huntress or magical huntsman.”

“Please, let me do it, Miyashita-senpai,” Yoshiro begged. “I’ll work with you. I’ll help you in fights against monsters.”

Seeing that Yoshiro was determined, Hana relented. “Alright. You can join me. Come back here tomorrow.”

…

Present

“And that’s how you became a magical huntsman?”

“Yep,” Yoshiro replied to Ruka in the present. “I owe Hana-senpai not only my life, but the life of my mom. Without her, we’d both be dead.”

Ruka thought to herself as she took it all in, “So that’s the full story… I can see why he’s so loyal to Hana. I can also see why he loves her despite her seemingly never returning his feelings.”

“I know we don’t normally get along, but… I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous of the attention Hana-senpai gives you.”

Ruka replied, “I could have told you that.”

“Yeah, it’s probably not a well-kept secret at this point.” Yoshiro stopped in the middle of the sidewalk with his back turned to Ruka, admitting to her, “Promise me you won’t tell her this.”

“I won’t,” Ruka nodded. “You have my word.”

Yoshiro took a deep breath to clear his mind before he admitted, “For a while, I’ve been in love with her, and yet I haven’t built up the courage to tell her myself. Truth be told, sometimes I think she’s too focused on her dreams to have a relationship. Maybe she’s married to her ambition. Even so… I want to be her sword. Her right-hand man. I want to serve her in any way I possibly can if we can’t be together as boyfriend and girlfriend.” He then turned back to Ruka and told her, “Well, I gotta get going. Have a good night, Ruka.”