Chapter 1: Road to Grandmaster

The sun was high up in the cloudless sky, Elisa walked along the empty path. She was making her way to Lu'rein to become a Hunter. She had left home early in the morning and had been walking since, she would reach the Empire by sunset. Up ahead, Elisa spotted a group of merchants. They also saw her and waved. They seemed friendly, but just in case, she shifted her hand to her blade's hilt hidden beneath her cloak. " Hey, you headed to Lu'rein?" The older man in the hat asked, and she nodded, prompting him to laugh, " The path to Lu these days is dangerous, bandits and whatnot. Why don'tcha you join us if you're alone? The bigger the group, the less likely it is we'll get attacked," The man offered, and Elisa accepted. She had no reason to decline. Aside from the hat man, there was, she assumed, his wife and child seated in the front of one wagon, and Elisa was seated in the back of the hat man's wagon. She unclipped her swords and laid them down beside her, but just in case, she kept a hold of them. Aside from her, there were three others, two children and an older woman.

Following behind them were three other wagons drawn by what looked like a horse from the eastern region; those were bigger and were able to pull more weight than the average horse, but they were slower. The other wagons seemed to be filled with goods that they were selling, as well as their own belongings. The older woman leaned against the wall, fast asleep, and the two kids kept close to each other, whispering to each other while occasionally glancing at Elisa. Whenever she noticed, she would flash a smile. Just as Elisa was beginning to doze off, the wagon abruptly stopped, causing her to sway to the side. The sudden halt woke her fully. She could hear more than two voices coming from up ahead, bandits. "What's happenin'?" The older woman asked, now awake, but now that Elisa actually looked at her, she appeared to be no older than her.

" Stay here, I'll check things out," She gave them a thumbs up before carefully leaping out. Her feet hit the ground with no sound, allowing her to peek around to see how many bandits had stopped them, and from what she could see, there was a good number of them.

" Please, take whatever you want, but leave my folks alone!" The hat man was begging, but she couldn't see to whom, though. The other men working under the hat man had been tied up, and the bandits were looking through the goods rounded up to the front of the wagon. His eyes met hers, and then her sword. In one swift dash, she closed the distance. She drew her blade with precise movement, one slash through the neck, and his body dropped. So much for stealth, the others were alerted to her presence, forcing her to take action now. Elisa was quite skilled with the blade, against amateur bandits with low-tier guns, her speed was more than enough. " STOP! I SWEAR I'LL KILL THEM IF YOU MOVE!" By the time she had reached the front, the hat man had been beaten down, and his wife taken hostage by an ego user, great. She held her position, aside from the Ego user, there were three others, including the leader. For now, she focused on the Ego user. She can only assume that his Ego allowed him to create energy and shape it. He held a solid blue gun against the scared wife's head, " Put the sword away!" He yelled again, and with a sigh, she obeyed. Kinda. Elisa sheathed her sword and closed her eyes. She tightened her grip on her sword and drew. The Bandit had no time to react, she was behind him, and he was missing an arm. The wife took advantage of her screaming captor and broke free from his grip to help her husband. Elisa whirled around and freed the bandit from this life. She turned her blade to the others, but the leader held his hand up before signalling for them to leave. An odd man, she couldn't see his face beneath his hood, he hopped into his own wagon, seated next to him was a lady whose face was also covered by her hood, she had the same cloak as the guy, but hers had strips of purple. Elisa could see her smile. It was creepy.

Once Elisa was confident they were gone, she went to check on hat guy, who was seated on the wagon, his wife tending to his wound. " Huh, who'd thought we picked up a Hunter, thank you for saving my folks' life, miss," He said, holding his hat to his chest before bowing slightly, " Ah no, no, I'm not a hunter, at least not yet," she said dismissing his compliment, but they both looked at her in surprise. " The way you were moving, anyone would've mistook you for a hunter!" His wife said, astonished.

" Right, I never introduced myself. The names George, this is my wife, Allena. The kids in the back are ours," Elisa shook his hand. " My name is Elisa," she smiled. Once the others had been freed, they set back on their journey. The one thing that changed after the attack was that the kids were more chatty with Elisa, " Where'd you learn how to fight? Where'd you get that sword from? Where are you from?" They asked her all kinds of questions, which she answered to the best of her ability.

" My father taught me when I was younger, this sword was also my father's, he named it 'Irakami', which means ' Thunder'."

" Why do you wanna be a Hunter?" This question soured her mood. The two kids pulled back a little. When she snapped back to the present, she realized her Ego had been fluctuating, flicks of electricity sparked around her. She reigned it in before it could hurt anyone. " You two should know better than to go poking into a stranger's past like that!" The elder sister reprimanded the younger ones, " I am so sorry for that, Miss-" Elisa waved her off laughing, " No, no, it's quite all right. The blame should be on me for not having better control of my Ego. I have two reasons as to why I want to be a hunter," Elisa turned to the eager kids, she held up one finger.

" Like your sister said, the first reason plays into my past, so for now I'll keep it to myself, but the other reason is so that I can become the Grandmaster!" Her response surprised the trio. For the rest of the way back, the two kids played around, she stared out the back, her hand drifted to the inside pocket of her coat, her hand clasping around something, I'll never forget, just wait a little longer...I will find them.

They reached the Empire's gates by sunset. Due to the rules, we had to wait outside while George got things settled with the guards. " If you ever find yourself in trouble, just head here, we'll help you with almost anything!" George handed her a card with an address on it, " Thank you for bringing me this far. I pray that you find success in your future endeavours," Elisa shook Geroges, she waved them off as she entered the Empire. She managed to find an inn and got a room for the night, and man, was it expensive. It's a good thing she packed food, she set her things down and grabbed a change of clothes. The inn had a bathhouse in the back, separated by gender(obviously). Elisa stood at the foot of the doorway. She had never really bathed with anyone, let alone seen another person naked, she was...nervous? Hilarious, the girl who cut down three or so bandits with no hesitation was hesitating cause she's never seen another naked lady. She steeled herself, taking in a deep breath and sliding open the door, closing it behind her. The door led to a little corridor before a change room, there were others. She was NOT ready.