First Official Mission - Part 4

After the initial shock of discovering that the current leader of one of the most important guilds in the country had once been the apprentice of my troublesome and carefree tutor, the latter helped me sit down on a nearby bench to rest. There had already been too many surprises and emotions for one day, and I was completely exhausted.

I wasn’t sure I could handle another revelation of that magnitude…

“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to become a guild leader so soon,” said Yu. “I’m glad to see you’ve come so far!”

“And you don’t seem to have changed at all…”

“What can I say? I’m charming!” he added with his usual carefree tone, making Mr. Kuroki sigh.

“By the way, who’s the girl?”

“Her? Her name’s Touka Kisaragi, a student doing her internship at my agency.”

“An internship with you?!” he exclaimed, as if what he’d just heard were an unprecedented event. “Tell me, Kisaragi, has this guy been a nuisance?”

“Hey!”

“To be honest, ever since I met him, he’s done nothing but disappoint me in every area that doesn’t involve combat,” I replied almost instantly.

“Hey, come on!” Yu protested, clearly offended by our words.

“Yes, that’s what I expected. In any case, we didn’t come here just to say hello.”

After his statement, the girl beside him stepped forward.

“She’s my assistant, Yoru Kurokawa.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Takahiro, Miss Kisaragi,” said the girl before starting to read the sheets of paper she held in her hands. “According to the report from the other hunters, your deduction that the Jawer wasn’t the boss monster was correct. In fact, they found it hiding in the undergrowth nearby. However, the boss’s condition was deplorable.”

After her explanation, she showed us a photograph. It was the boss monster, a Lizhard larger than the ones we had faced before, but it was horribly wounded, covered in cuts and stab marks all over its body.

“Was it the Jawer that left it in that state?” I asked.

“No,” Mr. Kuroki replied almost immediately. “If you look closely at the wounds, none of them match what the Jawer could inflict. Only a weapon could have caused them.”

Things were starting to get even more complicated, and Yoru’s words only confirmed that this was far from normal.

“To tell the truth, this isn’t the first recorded case similar to this one.”

“Yes. We weren’t here earlier precisely because we had to deal with a fog dome that left many injured and some casualties,” added Mr. Kuroki. “The conditions were the same: a monster above its original rank, and the boss monster found hidden and dying. Also, after talking with the leader of Red Thunder, it seems they’ve been dealing with similar cases lately.”

“We believe it might be some sort of trap or the like, so please let us know immediately if you notice any strange occurrence.”

It seemed things were far more serious than I’d initially thought. To think that what happened to us had also happened to others who weren’t as fortunate…

I was lucky to have Yu with me this time, but I need to become stronger if I truly want to be a proper hunter once my internship ends. I couldn’t always depend on him.

“Be careful.”

“Don’t worry! I’m pretty tough.”

“Yes, I highly doubt anything could happen to someone as thick-headed as you,” added Mr. Kuroki. “Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be taking my leave.”

Both of them turned and began walking away, surely busy with the whole matter of the misplaced monsters. Being a guild leader must really be rough.

“Yoru, make sure to look after that reckless brat!” Yu shouted, to which the assistant replied with a thumbs-up. “Kenshi! One last thing!”

Hearing his old mentor’s voice, Mr. Kuroki stopped and turned to look at us with an irritated expression. It was clear that Yu had caused him plenty of trouble in the past, just like he had with me—or maybe even more.

“What?” he asked, stepping a little closer to us.

“How’s your sister doing?”

That question seemed to catch Mr. Kuroki off guard. He froze, eyes widening in surprise. He stayed silent for a few seconds before finally replying.

“…She’s fine. Her condition has improved, and she’s been living a normal life for some time now,” he said, smiling at Yu as he spoke. “Thank you.”

My tutor simply nodded at his answer, and they finally left, leaving us alone once again.

That last question he asked… I could feel it carried a heavy emotional weight. It was rare for Yu to get involved in things like that, and it didn’t seem like something recent. Those two clearly had a long history together.

Every time I think I’m beginning to understand Yu, I discover something new about him that confuses me and takes me right back to square one. He’s carefree and lazy, yet strong and dependable; he’s detached, yet somehow people seem to trust him. It’s all so contradictory.

Despite my poor first impression of him, I’ve come to respect him in a rather strange way.

I hope that one day I’ll truly come to understand him.

“Come visit me more often, kid!” Yu shouted, calling out to Mr. Kuroki one last time. “Tell me, despite how he looks, isn’t that grumpy guy a sweetheart?”

I sighed at his question.

“…Seriously, what kind of tutor did I end up with?”

“The most charming one, of course!” he declared, puffing out his chest. “Anyway, it’s been a busy day, so we should go get some rest. Besides, I still have dramas to watch, so I’d better hurry.”

“What’s so good about those shows you watch, anyway? All I see is overacting and storylines that go around in circles.”

“You’d understand if you actually watched them. Want me to recommend one?”

“Not even if I were dead would I watch those things!”

Yes… It was a troublesome first mission that gave me a harsh dose of reality. Being a hunter isn’t for everyone. It will always be a profession filled with countless dangers, where you must risk your life until the very end. However, I’ve learned from it—and above all, I’ve learned thanks to Yu.

I still carry the weight of having witnessed the deaths of so many fellow hunters without being able to do anything, and precisely because of that, I’ll keep striving. I’ll do everything within my power to make sure no one else dies—be they civilians or hunters.

And, with my determination renewed, we both returned to the agency to rest, thus bringing another day as hunters to an end.