A Reason For Hate

May 14, 2026

Kana and Kazu were busy doing their homework together in their shared bedroom. The two had just gotten back from hunting a magical beast together, and as Kazu worked on a math problem, his twin sister sighed and put her homework to the side. "I can't focus on this, oniichan."

"What's wrong, Kana?"

"I still can't believe we had to rip that gorilla's head off," she replied, clearly bothered by what she had seen in the battle. "I'm glad Mom and Dad didn't notice me with blood all over."

"Only because I distracted them long enough for you to slip by and shower," Kazu pointed out. "Besides, that wasn't a real gorilla. We've been over this, Kana. Magical beasts aren't related to the animals we have here. You said you wanted to do this with me, and you have to accept that."

"I know, I know," Kana replied, looking up at the ceiling. "I'm just worried. Besides, Mom and Dad would be really mad if they found out what we're doing."

Kazu flinched at how he pictured their parents would react. "I don't even want to think about that."

"Hey," then said an older man's voice from the hallway. "Are you kids done with your homework yet?! Get on out here in the next few minutes!"

"We'll be done soon," Kana replied to him.

"You don't want a repeat of what happened last time, do you?!"

"No, we don't!" Kana was clearly distressed at the thought of her father doing whatever he had done the last time she and Kazu had taken too long to do their homework. "Trust me! We'll be done very soon!" She then turned to her brother as she grabbed her homework and told him, "Hurry up, oniichan."

"Right behind you," he replied as his pencil began to move faster and faster by the second, also fearful of his father's wrath.

Meanwhile, their father told them from the other room, "Good, let's not repeat last time! Your mother's gonna be home soon, and she'll have some jobs for you two to do. She's been pretty fucking busy, so you gotta help her!"

…

"So this bitch wants to hunt down every magical huntsman out there?"

"Correct," Yoshiro said to Yoko as the two of them plus Tenko went out on a patrol of the city together. "We have to be on high alert, especially given, well… Me being a boy and all."

"I could have told you that," Tenko remarked. "I wonder what's driving her to do this anyway. I know some girls really don't like boys, and sometimes, I don't blame them, but this feels pretty extreme."

"I don't think it really matters," Yoko replied to her. "The Agency told us she's gotta die, so she's gonna die."

Yoshiro then felt his phone vibrate with a text. He pulled it out to find he was sent a message from Ruka. "Hang on, guys, I gotta text Kishio back."

RUKA: They found another body

YOSHIRO: of what

RUKA: a man was killed, and they think that Tsuda girl is behind it

YOSHIRO: fuck, r u near?

RUKA: me and Hana are here now, Kumiko and Sayaka are on the way from their date night

YOSHIRO: do u need us to head over too?

RUKA: no you guys are good

YOSHIRO: is that an order from Hana or r u trying to boss me around

RUKA: yes, yes it is, I'm not giving you an order, Yoshiro, Hana is

RUKA: no need to get so defensive

YOSHIRO: im just asking

Yoshiro then turned and told the others, "They found another body."

A surprised Yoko asked him, "Holy shit, another one?"

"Yep. Kishio, Hana-senpai, Murata-senpai, and Miyamura-san are either already there or heading over there now. Hana-senpai told us we can continue patrolling."

As the trio continued to walk, Mari Tsuda herself was in fact watching them from the roof of a building, doing her best to remain unseen by them as she slowly turned her head to keep track of them. She then ran to the next building on the block and jumped over the gap, landing on the roof next door before looking over at the trio again and saying to herself, "So they found the body of that man… Soon, they'll find Arikawa's body, too."

…

At the crime scene, Ruka and Hana had just finished giving reports to both the police and Agency investigators and were now talking to Kumiko and Sayaka. "We need to find this girl, and fast," Ruka said to Kumiko as the two talked alone. "Kumiko-kun, this girl is a menace, and my fear is that she may go after you."

"I feared that, too," Kumiko replied. "Do we know for certain she goes after trans magical huntresses too?"

"No. There's not enough data out there to support a conclusion that she does or doesn't. None of her known victims were known to be transgender anyway. That said, I wouldn't take a chance."

"I don't blame you. I hope she doesn't, but I'm prepared for if she does." Kumiko then checked her phone and saw she got a text from her dad. "Hang on, my dad texted me."

"What's he have to say?"

Kumiko read over the text and sighed. "It's about my mom. She's trying to visit my dad, and she demanded that I be present to see her, too. I really don't want to."

Feeling bad for her, Ruka patted her on the shoulder and affirmed, "If you need to talk to anyone about it, I'm only a phone call or text away, Kumiko-kun."

A police officer walking by heard Ruka address Kumiko with the honorific of -kun and got confused. In his mind, the two probably could have used -chan or -san instead. Thinking that perhaps he had misheard her name and she was actually a boy, he asked the two of them, "Was this guy with you when you found the body? Can we speak to him?"

Kumiko, confused, replied, "Guy? Huh?"

"Wait, isn't your name Kunio? I heard her refer to you as Kunio-kun, right?"

Now realizing why he was confused, Ruka stepped in and reminded him very firmly, "Her name is Kumiko, not Kunio. She's a year older than me. She's not a boy."

Seeing the police officer was still confused given what he had overheard, Kumiko then chuckled and told him, "I'm transgender, officer. Me and Ruka-san go way back to before I came out."

"Oh…" Thinking he had offended the two of them, he bowed and told them, "My apologies. I shouldn't have assumed. I honestly thought you looked like a girl but were actually a feminine boy based on what your friend called you."

"It's okay," Kumiko assured her. "Although no, I wasn't with Ruka-san or Hana-san when they found the body. I came after."

"I see. Have a good night, ma'am."

"You too." After waving bye to the police officer, Kumiko told Ruka, "No need to be so aggressive. He was just confused, that's all. It is pretty loud here with all the activity going on. Besides, he did think I pass as a girl. That's something. Compared to what my mom thinks of me, I'll take confused looks and people accidentally misgendering me over people being genuinely hateful any day like my mom."

"I'm sorry," Ruka apologized. "I just got defensive because I thought he was being a jackass."

Sayaka then walked over to the duo. "Kumiko-senpai," she said to her girlfriend. "Are you ready to head on out? We have enough time to continue our date."

"We do?" Kumiko then checked the time on her phone. "Oh yeah, we do." She told Ruka, "I gotta head out, Ruka-san. Have a good night."

…

May 15, 2026

Yoshiro and Kyosuke were walking in the halls together, with the latter bringing up how the father of one of the students at their school had been killed last night. "Yeah, dude, Tadano-san is pretty torn up about it. She doesn't know who could have done this to her dad. It seems so random."

"That's fucked up," Yoshiro replied, knowing the truth but not telling him. "I'm surprised she came to school today given her dad got murdered."

"She's a trooper, I guess." Recalling back to when his cousin had been killed, he sighed and told Yoshiro, "You know, they haven't found the guy who killed my cousin either. It's been almost three years since she got murdered, and the case has gone totally cold. Her parents are still really torn up about it. My dad fears they're never gonna find the piece of shit who killed his niece if it's taken this long."

"I hope they find who did it. It's really sad what happened to her." He then noticed Riko walking down the hallway and waved to her. "Hey there, Ayano-senpai!"

"Oh, hi," she replied, waving at him with her prosthetic arm. "I assume you two know about Tadano's father being killed?"

"Yeah," Kyosuke replied. "We were just talking about it. We were also talking about how it's been nearly three years since my cousin got killed, and they still haven't found who killed her either."

"That sucks," Riko said, feeling bad for him. "I hope they find who did both of these."

"You know," Yoshiro thought to himself as he began to ponder over the facts of both cases. "They mentioned that there's a chance this Tsuda girl has been killing people for at least three years. What if…? Well, killing a girl would be unusual, but investigators did say it was not out of the question if Tsuda felt they were somehow betraying other girls. Furukawa Ai was sleeping with Kawase at the time, so perhaps she killed her for that, but that leaves one question: Why didn't she kill Kawase as well?"

…

Ruka and Yoshiro stood at opposite ends on a fencing mat as their team's coach waited to give the signal to start a bout. He then raised his arm and declared, "En garde!" The two then got into position before the coach then declared, "Allez!"

Using foils, the two quickly moved in to strike at each other, with Ruka thinking to herself, "I have to keep my strikes limited to the torso. Anywhere else won't count with a foil."

Yoshiro then managed to land a blow on Ruka, earning him a point. "One point to Arikawa," said the coach. The two were to play to fifteen points as if it was a real fencing bout. Ruka returned the favor by blocking a strike from her opponent and then landing a blow of her own. "One point to Kishio!"

As the two continued, the other students on the team began to comment on them and their bout. "I heard Kishio-senpai used to fence when she was younger," said one of the students, a boy in his first year of high school. "I'm surprised she didn't start in her first year like I did."

"Me too," replied an older third-year boy. "She's pretty damn good at it. We could have used her last year."

"At least we have her for this year," said a third boy, who was in the same grade as Ruka. At that moment, Ruka scored two blows in quick succession against Yoshiro, eating her two points and placing her ahead. "See what I mean?"

The only other girl on the team besides Ruka, a third-year, then commented to the boys, "Do you ever wonder what the deal is between those two, or between them and Miyashita-san from the kendo club for that matter?"

"Oh yeah," said the third-year boy. "I always see the three of them hanging out. Honestly, I'm surprised Arikawa-kun hasn't made a move on either of them. They're both hot."

The girl somewhat reluctantly admitted, "I hate to say it, but I can't even be mad at you for bringing that up. You're not wrong at all about that." She blushed slightly as she looked at Ruka. "Kishio-san is pretty, and so is Miyashita-san." She then turned her attention to Yoshiro. "Arikawa-kun isn't half-bad when it comes to looks, either."

"I'll take your word for it."

The second-year boy then brought up, "A first-year boy asking out either of his senpai would be brave on his part… Or foolish."

"That's true," replied the first-year boy. "Most girls want a boy who's older than them anyway."

"Honestly," then said the girl. "Maybe he just sees them as friends. I know they've known each other for a while, so maybe he's like that. Either that, or at some point he tried asking one of them out and they just stayed friends."

Not being able to hear most of their conversation due to being too into the bout, Ruka and Yoshiro continued as the latter thought to himself, "I'm down four points against Kishio. It's at six to ten, but I can still turn this around!" He then got a good blow in on Ruka. "Hah! There!"

"One point to Arikawa," said their coach. "Score is now seven to ten!" Ruka then moved in, attempting a strike but getting blocked twice. On her third try, she got through Yoshiro's attempt to block her and landed an eleventh blow on his torso. "One point to Kishio! Score is now seven to eleven!"

Ruka retreated a bit, allowing Yoshiro to inch closer to her to strike so she could lead him into a trap. She thought to herself as she then blocked an attack, "I can hear some of what our teammates are saying about us. They wonder why Yoshiro hasn't asked out either me or Hana. Whatever. They have no idea what our bond is actually like, anyway… Although…" For a brief moment, Ruka thought about Yoshiro in a more physical sense. "Tenjo-san isn't entirely wrong when she says Yoshiro is good-looki-"

Yoshiro interrupted her thoughts by striking her twice in a row due to her being distracted. The coach declared, "Two points to Arikawa! Score is now nine to eleven!"

"Damn it," she thought to herself. "I can't believe I let myself get distracted by my own thoughts! I have to put them aside and focus on the battle at hand!"

…

Yoko and Goro were coming back from a date and heading to the former's apartment. Her boyfriend asked her, "So your mom isn't home?"

"She won't be back until late at night," Yoko explained. "She texted me and said she has to go out with her coworkers and boss tonight for drinks after work, so it'll be just us when we get inside." The two then walked up to her door, with Yoko pulling out a set of keys and unlocking it before letting herself and Goro in. "It's small, but it's just the two of us living here, so it's not bad."

"How long has it been since your dad left you?"

"Twelve years," she replied as she set her pocketbook and bookbag down. "He fucked off back to America after the divorce and has a family over there now. I haven't seen him in person in eight years."

"Wow, that sucks." Goro set his own bookbag down and sat next to her on a small couch, putting a hand around Yoko's shoulders. "So, now that we're alone, what do you wanna do?"

"I've had a stressful week between school and hunting. We could blow off some steam."

"I was thinking the same thing, actually."

"Yeah, I was thinking we could just watch a movie or play some games for a bit to get my mind off of it all."

Realizing that Yoko was not thinking of sex, Goro backed off a little bit and replied, "Oh, that's what you meant. Okay."

"Huh?"

"I thought you were gonna be down to fuck."

"We don't have to fuck each other every time we see each other, you know," Yoko reminded him. "I like sex, but I don't want to do it every time we meet up, Yamanaka-kun."

"Fair enough, I suppose. I was just wondering since it's been a while."

"You can survive a week and a half without sex, you know." Yoko then got up and turned on a video game console before searching for a game and popping in a disc. As she did, Goro pulled out his phone and began to text someone. When he was done, he put his phone down and then was handed a controller by Yoko. "Let's see if I can kick your ass in Call of Duty."

"You can try," Goro chuckled. As Yoko selected a multiplayer map and set the conditions for the round they were going to play, he thought to himself, "Maybe tomorrow I'll get to have some fun. In the meantime, a round of Call of Duty wouldn't hurt."

…

At the same time, late at night, Ruka was chasing a grossly-deformed magical beast with blue skin, four green eyes, and long noodle-like arms that was running away from her on two cartoonish legs. It seemed to be laughing maniacally as it ran, keen on getting away from its opponent. "Get back here," she shouted at the beast. "You can't run away from me that easily!"

Just as the beast was about to enter onto a street from the alleyway Ruka had chased it into, a clash of metal was heard, causing Ruka to stop as the beast was struck down by an opponent hidden in the shadows. A voice then shouted through the darkness, "You're my prey now! Die!"

As Ruka watched, the deformed beast was slaughtered in front of her, its yellow-colored blood being splattered onto the ground and in a nearby wall. "Damn it," she muttered to herself as she caught her breath. "Someone got it before I did."

Once it was dead, a girl emerged from the darkness and aimed a steel pike at her throat, causing her to raise her sword to defend herself. "I finally found you."

Feeling threatened and rather annoyed, Ruka shouted at her, "Hey, back the fuck up! Put the damn pike down and keep it away from my neck!"

The girl then laughed as she pulled down a hood she had on to reveal her face. "Take a look at me, Kishio Ruka. You know who I am."

"Wait a minute. Tsuda Mari?!"

"The one and only," Mari boasted.

Ruka warned her, "You know I'm under orders to kill you, right?"

"Oh, I know all about that, bitch."

Ruka taunted her in response with, "Oh, so now you're calling me a bitch. What, is it because I don't want to violently murder someone every time I happen to see a guy? Seriously, what the fuck wrong with you?"

"You're what's wrong," Mari shouted back. "Hunting magical beasts was something for girls to do for almost a whole damn century! Now there's more boys doing it than ever before! They get to have so much that we can't, so why the Hell are they allowed to invade a space we had for ourselves?! Worse still, there's girls like you that not only let this shit happen, but encourage it!"

"Don't take it so seriously," Ruka retorted. "God, you're so annoying. What's your excuse for this shit anyway?!" Not giving her a verbal response, Mari instead swung her pike at her, prompting Ruka to block it with her sword. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?"

"I guess so!" Mari then swung her pike at her again, the tip striking a wall and cracking the concrete as it barely missed Ruka's head. Ruka replied by charging at her and swinging her sword down on her, but Mari quickly deflected it with her shield before trying to kick Ruka in the upper leg to get her off-balance. Ruka dodged the kick and replied to it by punching Mari in the upper chest with her free left hand, causing her to drop her pike. "Damn it!" She picked up her pike and thrusted it forward, giving Ruka a cut on her left shoulder before she then blocked a sword blow with her shield.

Ruka swung at her shield as hard as she could, denting it slightly with how powerful her swing was. As blood ran down her left arm, she stepped back and then charged forward again, narrowly missing Mari's head as she tried to get a good hit in. "Not again! Stop dodging me!"

"Like Hell I will!" Mari attempted to swing her pike at Ruka, but this time, Ruka grabbed it just below the point with her left hand and pushed it away. Ruka then charged at Mari and swung her sword at her shield once more before then punching her in the upper chest with a free hand, causing Mari to on enagain drop her pike. She tried to then hit Ruka with her shield by taking it off of her arm, but Ruka dodged the blow and ripped the shield out of her hands, throwing it down the alleyway.

Ruka shouted at her as the fight got hands-on, "You don't know when to give up, do you?!" Mari replied by punching her as hard as she could right below her chest, causing her to cough and drop her sword in pain before the two went at each other once more, both of them struggling to stay standing as Mari tried to pull Ruka's hair. "Agh, fuck!"

Mari shouted at her, "Where's that boy you and your little group run around with?! Your little boyfriend can't save you now!"

"Yoshiro is not my fucking boyfriend," Ruka shouted as they continued to fight. "And I'm not the leader of the Fox Knights! Miyashita Hana is! They're not my group! I belong to them! I don't need him to help me, either!"

"You're struggling against me! Looks like you need help!"

"Fuck you! I'm not struggling!" She then gained the upper hand and pinned Mari to a wall, pulling out a small vial and forcing Mari to ingest a powder in it. "There! That'll keep you from moving!"

Mari coughed and remarked as Ruka continued to pin her, "Agh, what the fuck was that?! It tasted like shit!"

"A special powder from Halargia that Hana gave me," Ruka explained. "It's a paralytic that'll keep you from moving for about ten minutes."

"Oh yeah?! Try it!" Ruka then let go of Mari, who tried to stand on her own two feet but instantly felt them give way, causing her to fall to the ground. She could not even use her hands to support herself. "Agh!"

"I warned you."

"What's the point of that anyway? Why didn't you just kill me?! I know I got a high bounty on my head, Kishio!"

"I want to know why you're doing this," Ruka explained as she propped Mari up against a wall. "Why are you going around killing magical huntsmen and random men?"

As Ruka got up to grab her sword and Mari's pike and shield, her opponent asked her, "Why the Hell would I tell you?"

"Because if you don't, I'll kill you. If you tell me, I may let you go, and we can forget this meeting ever happened."

Realizing she had no other options that did not involve her dying, she sighed and replied, "Okay, fine."

"Now," Ruka said as she stood over her. "Why are you doing any of this? Killing magical huntsmen only puts a target on your back. Besides, by doing this, you're depriving the Agency of people willing to fight magical beasts. We aren't in a position to turn people down just because they happen to be boys. I'm sure you know what magical beasts can do to us if they're left unchecked. Would you also be against, say, trans girls fighting as magical huntresses just because they happened to be born male? We have a trans girl in the Fox Knights, and she's a capable fighter like the rest of us. We don't treat her any differently, just like we don't treat Yoshiro any differently. You need to let go of this stupid idea that boys don't belong in our field. You're only leading yourself down a path of destruction."

Angered by her comments, Mari thought back to her past and her family life and screamed at Ruka, "Shut up! It's easy for you to talk! You have no idea what my life is like!"

"Calm down," Ruka warned her. "Take it easy, Tsuda-san."

"Oh yeah? You want me to calm down? Maybe if you were harassed by boys at your school… Maybe if your dad was a fucking deadbeat who drank every night and brought home a new woman to fuck every week before turning around and talking shit about them… Maybe if you were looked at only as a sex object…" Ruka could tell that through her anger, Mari was also conveying sadness, which quickly became evident by the fact she began to cry. "Maybe if you were abused by a man, or leered at by creepy older men… Maybe then I'd listen to you, because only then would you understand how I feel!"

"So that's what happened," Ruka thought to herself as she thought back to her own trauma and it clicked in her head. "That would certainly do it, but…" Playing it cool, she replied to Mari with, "Hmm… You have a point, but… You're too late to test your theory out, because almost everything you listed has happened to me, too."

Shocked at Ruka's response, Mari gasped, "Wha-… What?!"

"Trust me. My life hasn't been an easy one. I've seen my fair share of tragedy and trauma in my life. I hardly tell anyone about this, but I'm a survivor of the abuse you just described."

"How… How old were you…?"

"I was ten. A man my grandfather knew put his hands on me and raped me. That's not the end of it, either. I know what it's like to have other people make comments about your body. I've known that since roughly around the same time. It's not just men, either. I've heard girls talking behind my back about my body, either expressing jealousy because of my bust size or saying I'm somehow a slut for daring to have large breasts. If you ask me, the comments from boys are creepy, but the comments you get from other girls sting more."

Mari turned her eyes away from Ruka, unable to wipe her tears away due to the paralytic. "You… You really do know… So why? Why are you on their side?"

Ruka then knelt down and got close to Mari. "The point I'm trying to make is that you're not the only girl who knows what it's like to be a victim of sexual assault or harassment. Hell, there are even many boys who know what that's like. You can't respond to that by shutting out an entire gender, or worse, attacking random people because they happen to be boys or men. Your trauma isn't an excuse to be a monster." Feeling bad for Mari, but also wanting to warn her of the consequences of her actions, Ruka picked up her sword and put it to Mari's throat, telling her, "I'm gonna let you go for now, but if you ever lay a hand on Yoshiro or Kumiko, I will show you no mercy."

She then got up, sheathing her sword and pulling out her phone to make a report. Mari looked down at herself, thinking about what Ruka had told her before sighing and saying, "This sucks."

"You got yourself into this one. Anyway, I'm gonna claim credit for that kill you stole from me. In another few minutes, the paralysis should wear off." As she began to take pictures of the now-dead beast, she thought to herself, "Tsuda-san is very troubled. What exactly happened in her past that made her so androphobic?"