A Rank S Problem - Part 3

My name is Yu Takahiro.

Although I’ve only been an independent hunter for a short time, I spent years of my life traveling from one place to another, training and working, killing magical beasts and helping civilians.

I’ve been through many things throughout my life, but today was the first time I truly felt furious.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The Priran had missed its descending attack, yet it still charged at my apprentice, Touka Kisaragi, crushing her under one of its legs. She was bleeding too much and barely seemed able to stay conscious.

Seeing her like that… seeing her that wounded made my blood boil with rage at the monster that had done this to her.

I didn’t care about holding back anymore. I didn’t care about staying unnoticed like she had asked me to. All I wanted now was to end that thing as soon as possible.

The Priran raised its leg to crush Touka again, but that’s when I acted.

“STOP!!!” I shouted with all my strength.

An abnormal voice came out of me, almost as powerful as the roars of that beast. And even if it had sounded like nothing more than a desperate scream, it served a purpose.

The creature’s leg stopped mid-descent, and not just the leg, but the entire creature froze. Honestly, I didn’t know doing something like that was even possible, but maybe because of the urgency, or because of an instinct I’d always tried to hide, I felt that I could do it. It came almost naturally to me. It wasn’t paralysis, but it gave me enough time to act.

I reinforced my entire body with mana almost to the limit, along with my weapon, and ran as fast as I could to strike the monster, hitting the side of its only remaining head and bringing it down in a single blow.

Everyone was watching me. I could feel their stares of astonishment and fear, but this wasn’t the time to worry about that. I’d deal with the consequences later. Right now, the most important thing was to finish this thing off.

Once it hit the ground, I jumped onto its body, and even though the blade-tail tried to attack me, I transformed my weapon into a sword and, with a quick and fluid movement, cut it off in a single slash. There was nothing left standing between that monster’s life and me.

I turned my weapon back into a spear and, with force, drove it into the Priran’s abdomen. It roared from the unimaginable pain coursing through its entire body. I made sure to move the weapon around a few times so the pain it felt wouldn’t be small. I wanted it to suffer at least a fraction of what Touka had endured.

And, once I was satisfied with hearing it agonize, I began charging my weapon with mana again until it overflowed. That idiot tutor’s technique really was useful.

The Priran suffered a few more seconds of agony as the weapon charged, until the mana accumulated inside its body finally exploded, covering the surroundings—and my clothes—in blood. Even then, it seemed like it still wanted to resist, but it didn’t stay alive more than a few moments after the explosion.

The Priran had finally died. But it wasn’t time to celebrate. There was someone I needed to help.

“Touka!”

With a great leap, I reached her location. She looked pale and kept coughing up blood every now and then. And when I tried to lift her, her pained groans came immediately. I considered running to the nearest hospital, but…

“Yu… Did… we w-win?” she asked with difficulty.

The question surprised me so much given the situation that I couldn’t answer right away—I even stuttered a little—but in the end I managed to organize my words.

“Y-yeah… we won. It’s all over now.”

Hearing me, she smiled weakly and coughed a little more.

“It’s… rare to see you this worried.”

This girl…

It was hard to believe this was the same girl who’d been so anxious about a simple academic presentation.

Usagi arrived shortly after to help us, and after checking her condition, determined that she was stable enough to wait for the paramedics, who had already been called even in the middle of the fight, so they wouldn’t take long.

For now, the crisis had passed, but until Touka was out of danger, I wouldn’t be able to relax.

♀♀♀

A couple of hours had passed since the paramedics arrived.

Those in the most delicate condition were treated immediately, including me, since most of the bones in my body had been broken when I was crushed under the Priran’s leg. Luckily, thanks to the healing magic of the medical hunters, I recovered from any severe injury, although my body still felt incredibly sore.

Also, after the paramedics, members from the different guilds of the country arrived to investigate what had happened, since practically all the tutors had some connection with one of them, and the appearance of monsters without a fog dome was something rather troubling.

Yu, for his part, went to take care of some matters after confirming they would treat my wounds, so I’d been alone on a stretcher for quite a while.

It was strange. Not long ago I couldn’t stand being near Yu, but now, not having him around, walking back and forth and making his out-of-place comments, felt incredibly lonely.

It seems that, in the end, I finally got used to his presence.

“Sigh…”

While I was reflecting on my situation, I suddenly felt a gaze. It wasn’t a normal gaze—it felt different… as if it exerted a massive pressure.

Looking around, I eventually found, in the distance and hidden among the academy’s plants and trees, a dark figure. It didn’t seem to be a monster; instead, it looked like a person dressed entirely in black, with a mask of the same color, red eyes, and a peculiar animal-like appearance, most similar to that of a wolf.

When it realized I had noticed it, the figure stayed still for a few seconds until it eventually disappeared into the undergrowth. Its presence vanished.

“Who… was that?”

It could have been a hunter, but it didn’t look like any I had seen so far. Not even any of the tutors or guild investigators looked like that.

“Touka.”

While I was still lost in thought, someone suddenly appeared. It was someone important to all the hunters in the country, but also someone I had met before.

“Mr. Kuroki!”

I tried to stand up quickly to greet him properly, but he stopped me almost immediately.

“You’re still injured, don’t strain yourself,” he added with his usual monotone voice. “Where is your tutor?”

“Y-Yu said he had some things to take care of and that he’d be back soon.”

“I see. To be honest, I came to ask you some questions. Would you help me with that?”

“Yes! Of course!”

For students like me who aspire to become great hunters, helping one of the most important among them was always an honor.

He asked me various things: details about the monster, whether there were anomalies in the environment, and even what we were doing before everything started. Most of them were questions meant mainly to contrast and corroborate everyone else’s answers.

“All right, one more question. Did you see anything—or anyone—that seemed suspicious or out of place?”

“Actually, yes. A little while ago, I saw what looked like a person watching us from afar.”

Mr. Kuroki’s gaze tensed slightly at my response.

“Could you describe what they looked like?”

“They were over there. Dressed entirely in black, with a wolf mask with red eyes.”

As he wrote my answer in his notebook, his hand stopped. He stayed silent for a few moments, and his expression shifted to one of concern—or perhaps even fear.

“Touka, are you completely sure?”

“Y-yes, why?”

“…Damn.”

Right in that heavy silence after my answer, Yu finally appeared, running toward my stretcher.

“Touka! Are you okay?!”

“I-I’ll be fine, I’m out of danger now. The doctors said I just need to rest.”

“Thank goodness…” he said, relieved.

“Yu, you came at a good time,” added Mr. Kuroki. “Listen, if what Touka saw is true, and with all the information we’ve collected, there’s only one possible explanation for the strange monster appearances lately… The Beast King has returned.”

Hearing that title, Yu and I both froze in shock.

“The… Beast King?” I murmured.

It was a name known by practically every hunter in Japan. The one responsible for the monstrous attack on the Kyushu region—an attack where my older sister died while fulfilling her duty protecting civilians from magical beasts.

Urgently, I tried to get up again, but Yu stopped me.

“Wait! You’re still hurt!”

“But I…! Ugh!”

I tried to resist, but Yu was right. The pain was still far too strong to even stand up, so, resigned, I lay back down.

“It’s still a hypothesis, but if there truly is a chance he has returned, then we must stay alert. For now, be careful and rest. I’ll inform the other guilds about this, and try to keep it from going public to avoid causing panic.”

After that, Mr. Kuroki left, leaving Yu and me alone.

“Sigh… What a day at the academy, huh?”

“Yeah, you’re telling me…” I replied.