A New Beginning

What lay before my eyes was a scene hard for any hunter to believe. Seeing how the lifeless body of the Beast King—one of the most dangerous criminals in the country and the one who had ruined the lives of so many people—fell to the ground was nothing short of shocking.

Perhaps because of the adrenaline of the moment or the surprise, I felt everything move slower as his body approached the floor. Such was my disconnection that I barely heard the battle still raging between the hunters and the army of magic beasts.

Those moments felt like an eternity, but then a worried voice pulled me out of my trance as it drew near.

"Yu! Are you okay?!" Touka shouted, worried.

I was still lying on the ground, aching from the fight against the Beast King and from the bullet hole I now had in my abdomen. I was lucky the bullet had passed completely through me, but it still felt like hell.

"Couldn't you… have been gentler?" I said, still in pain.

"I’m sorry! But if I moved anywhere else, he surely would have seen me. The only blind spot was behind you."

Sigh…

"You’re lucky that I’m fairly resilient."

Thanks to the dragon remains used in my creation, my physical capabilities were incredibly high, including my endurance and recovery, so it was only a matter of time before I healed completely.

"Touka… is it really over?"

Seeing the Beast King’s lifeless body was still something that made me doubt. He was an incredibly resilient and powerful enemy; I expected him to be able to withstand something like that, but no matter how much I watched him, his corpse never moved. It felt unreal.

Finally, Touka’s response cleared all the uncertainty flooding my head.

"Yes. Everything is over."

Hearing such confirmation made me sigh in relief. There were still many things to handle, from my situation with the government to my own feelings, and even the remaining army of magic beasts to eliminate, but having gotten rid of the most problematic element was incredibly liberating.

Touka and I looked at each other fixedly, and almost as if it were the most natural thing in the world, we smiled and gave a thumbs-up at the same time.

We won. Finally, everything had ended.

"Hey… could you guys help me out a bit?" someone said in the distance.

It was Kenshi. He was approaching slowly, barely keeping himself upright, with one of his arms severed.

"… Touka, go quickly for the paramedics."

"Right away!"

And as Touka left, Kenshi finally collapsed near me. Now, all that remained was to wait for help.

"You did well, brat."

"Shut up, old man…"

***

Several hours after the fall of the Beast King, the army of hunters managed to decimate the enormous number of magic beasts, scaring off the lower-ranked ones who ended up fleeing, bringing the battle to an end. They would still have to be dealt with, but they would no longer be a problem.

The doctors and healers had already arrived at the scene and were very busy treating the wounded, especially Kenshi, who sadly could not recover his arm. The healers were, without a doubt, a great help, but not even they could heal a wound of that level.

I’ll have to talk to him another time.

However, that might take a while, as I now had to face another problem.

"It is time for you to return to the facilities," ordered one of the Bunker agents.

In the beginning, while they let me wander through the facilities since there was no way to contain me, escaping had not been part of the deal. According to the agent, they showed me consideration for having contributed to the fight against the Beast King, but I would still be placed under surveillance.

I suppose this is where things end for me. I’m glad to have been able to finish the Beast King and avenge my mother, but I won’t deny that I would have liked to continue being Yu Takahashi, a hunter who is a fan of dramas.

I nodded my head to the agent's order reluctantly and prepared to follow him, but then someone stepped between us. It was Touka, who exlaimed with a determined and defiant look at the agent.

"You are not taking him! I won’t allow it!"

"The orders are high priority, so I will ask you, young lady, to move."

And just as the agent tried to move Touka out of the way, he was stopped by someone who grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey there! Are we interrupting something?" Daisuke said, accompanied by Usagi.

"I don’t plan on allowing you to take Mr. Takahashi either. I was partly to blame for everything that happened, and I intend to make it right."

And just like them, more and more hunters began to arrive. Whether they were from Red Thunder, Dead Eye, or another guild, they all stepped between the agent and me, protecting me.

"You won’t take him!"

"He’s one of us!"

"We’re going to correct our mistake here!"

Everyone shouted endless things without stopping, especially about wanting to correct their mistake of having captured me.

The agent, enraged, clenched his fist with fury and shouted at them all.

"Do you have any idea what you’re doing?! These are direct orders from the government! Do you really want to oppose us and become criminals?!"

"In that case, you’d better tell your superiors that if they come after our comrade, we won’t hesitate to finish you off," said Kenshi, who appeared behind the agent with his arm bandaged. Despite how he looked, he still appeared quite intimidating.

After hearing such a cold and direct threat from the leader of Dead Eye himself, one of the most important hunters in the country, the agent had no choice but to retreat while still sweating cold from the fright.

"Don’t worry, Yu, I’ll take care of negotiating your freedom."

"Us too! It’s the least we can do."

All the hunters in the place nodded at their words and apologized, in addition to giving me words of encouragement and support for everything that had happened.

I never thought I would feel such warmth again. I thought my destiny would be to return to that capsule to spend the rest of my days, but I’m glad I was wrong.

"Thank you… truly," I managed to say.

And so, the mission finally came to an end.

***

After returning to work at my agency, time passed incredibly fast. It took some time to practice as a hunter again given the negotiations regarding my freedom, but eventually, I was able to return to my routine. It was difficult to clean up all the mess left after my capture; I think I even lost a few things.

Over time, I heard that Usagi eventually took the position of guild leader with Daisuke as her right hand, leading the Red Thunder guild into an era of progress that, more than ever, sought to compete against Dead Eye.

As for Kenshi, he continued as guild leader, and I learned that thanks to research by Dead Eye in collaboration with—incredibly—Red Thunder, they managed to create an incredibly advanced prosthesis for him that could even be used to manifest his elemental power.

On the other hand, Touka returned to finish her internship at my agency. To tell the truth, it was hard for me to accept her at first. I still blamed her for what happened, and forgiving her was going to be very complicated, but thanks to Kenshi, I understood that she also had her circumstances and regrets, and eventually, I managed to forgive her.

Everything seemed to have returned to normal between us. We went out on patrol, defeated magic beasts, watched dramas on TV while eating junk food—it was a good life. But not everything lasts forever.

Touka's internship ended before I could even realize it. She graduated from the academy with honors thanks to her contributions against the Beast King and the experience she gained working with me. That was two weeks ago, and I haven't heard from her since. She surely found a place as a hunter in some good guild.

Everything had returned to how it was before I met her. It wasn't long that I spent with her, but thanks to everything we went through together, not having her around now seemed incredibly lonely.

"At least it reached me," I whispered.

I had gone to buy some food to restock. I wanted to stay up late watching TV since my favorite drama at the moment was having a marathon that I didn't want to miss.

I would have liked to enjoy it with Touka.

Every time I thought of her, I started to feel down, so I tried to focus again on the way back to the agency and kept going.

Upon arrival, the only thing waiting for me was the silence of the place, which I could only combat with the noise of the television and my own words… or so I thought.

When I opened the door, someone was already waiting for me inside, occupying the desk chair that had accompanied me for so long.

"You’re late! The marathon is almost starting!" the girl said, irritated by my tardiness.

"Touka?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

"What do you mean, what am I doing? Starting today, I’ll be officially working here! I feel like I still have a lot to learn. Besides…"

While explaining her reasons, she drew closer to me until, once she was in front of me, she hugged me tightly.

"I don’t want to be separated from the only family I have left."

Family.

Hearing such a thing surprised me. I couldn't say anything, but I subconsciously smiled. I was glad to know that, despite everything we went through, we could still be a team.

"Family, huh? Yeah. Doesn't sound bad."

I stroked her head and returned her hug, something that made her notably happy.

"By the way, while I was cleaning, I found a battered gift box. What is it?"

"Ah! I had forgotten!"

I ran to where Touka pointed, and there it was; an adorned box that used to look quite adorable but was now battered and slightly torn.

"It’s a gift for you. I was planning to give it to you a while ago, but then they locked me up, and with so many things happening, I ended up losing it and forgetting it. Open it!"

Upon hearing about the moment I was caught, she looked slightly downcast, but she quickly recovered and opened the gift. Inside the box was a black trench coat with the same design as mine. I was lucky it hadn't been ruined despite the state of the box.

"What do you think? Of course, it’s not as cool as mine, but I’m sure it looks good on you!"

"Yes! I love it!" she exclaimed happily, putting it on immediately.

The dark color matched her monochromatic clothes perfectly. Without a doubt, I had made a good choice.

"Since there will be two of us working here, I think it’s about time this place had a name, don’t you think? Something like a new beginning."

"True, I never thought of one…"

Since I'm quite bad with names, I always postponed choosing one until I eventually ended up forgetting.

"Any suggestions?" I asked.

"Yes!"

After that, both of us finally went back to our old ways, but no longer just as a tutor and his intern, but as two equals, two hunters, and now under a new name.

"The Magic and Bullets Agency!"