The Captain in the Clouds

“Chiba Souta? Codename, Resize?”

The observers for the test were unexpected. You wouldn’t think the captain of internal affairs would take time out to conduct a field evaluation, but here he was calling out the names of the test takers. I was very confused.

“Here.”

“Very good. Fukunaga Hiroto, Codename Hatman?”

Meika turns to me, with a tired look in her eyes.

“This is one of those things again, isn’t it.”

Don’t be too oblivious I thought. I was simply optimistic it wasn’t going to be one of those things again.

“Look he was well known, but it’s not like everyone at the MaMA knew my brother, okay.”

Meika rolled her eyes at me.

“Well it sure feels that way, the desk guy, the relic researchers, the monster hunter dispatchers. They see Kawashima and then it’s, Oh do you perhaps have an older brother?”

“He worked there, since he was like ten. It’s not that weird to get to know people.”

The roll call went on. I liked having codenames but some of them were a little better than others. The Hatman answered.

“Here.”

“Very good. Gunji Meika, codename Shadow Cat?”

“I’m here.”

Meika’s codename was pretty sleek, I think it was perfect for her. It wasn’t very creative because her essence was also shadow cats, but everything else we could think of was just too cringe to have said out loud. The Panthress, the Dark Meow, none were winners

“Good. Hase Kenji, Codename Thor? You know there’s a Japanese god of thunder right?”

The captain looked at Kenji, raising an eyebrow. He was sat on a small floating cloud the color of sunset, with a digital tablet in one hand. He was a man in his early thirties, about my brother’s age. His hair spiked up, and a crisp suit with the MaMA logo tie. I’m sure he was pretty popular with the ladies.

“Sir, we’re here to judge their hunting abilities, not their choice in names. Can’t you be professional for once?”

That was the vice-captain of internal affairs, the well put together lady in a ponytail and a suit with the MaMA branded tie. She was pretty by anyone’s standard. With a sword at her hip it wouldn’t just be my brother who would have a hard time talking to her.

“It’s not illegal to ask, Asaka.”

“That’s Vice Captain Kirigaya, we’re on the job, Captain.”

She said that last part so sarcastically, even the other hunters had to stifle a laugh. I guess I was wrong about him being popular with the ladies. Luckily, Hase Kenji came to his rescue.

“Here sir, I know there is, it was just already taken sir.”

That got the vice-captain to smirk a little bit. I think me and her would be friends.

“Oh well I'm sorry to bring it up, Thor’s just as good.”

The captain leaned back further on his cloud.

“Kawashima Rei, codename Pet Rock. Pet Rock? What’s that supposed to mean, you turn into a rock or something.”

Vice-captain Kirigaya put her hand on the bridge of her nose. This poor lady wasn’t getting paid enough. I am sure of it. But my codename always came with a few questions. It was taboo to tell people what your magical essence was, so the association lets every hunter choose a codename themselves.

“Here. No, though shapeshifting is cool, my essence allows me talk to objects. The first thing I used my magic on was a rock, so that’s why I chose it. I still have him in my room.”

It's true I did, I love Rockbert. I still talk to him, his advice is quite solid.

“Fascinating, good to see you Ms. Kawashima. I’m sure you’ll put that power to good use. I’m Captain Kawakami Chihiro, I knew your brother. Knowing him and his big brain, he’d come up with lots of good uses for that essence. You'll have to say hi to him for me.”

I could feel Meika’s gaze from here, saying I told you so, I told you so, I told you so!

“Kei and I actually came up together through the young hunters’ program. We went on so many monster hunts together. Vice-Captain Asaka was in that program too.”

She nodded, and grabbed her sword a little off handedly. The sword looked like it was a monster relic. An item with essence that drops when you defeat a monster. Her face looked like she knew my brother was not really going out anymore, and that the captain had just made another social blunder.

“I hope he’s doing alright, I’ll have to go visit him sometime. We’re pretty swamped at the moment, we don’t have a lot of high rankers at the central office right now, but I do miss that goofball.”

“You’d have plenty of time on your hands, if you would stay a little later to do some reports instead of leaving to go out to the bars.”

I was right, the captain was definitely not popular with the ladies. The vice-captain was white knuckling her sword. She was this close to knocking the captain off his cloud with it still in the scabbard. We would totally be friends if she was my age.

“I think he’d that like sir, but you’d have to visit him. He’s uh not really a party guy anymore.”

That was putting it lightly, but they both nodded knowingly. If they were really friends, they probably had a clue on what Keisuke’s condition was lately. The captain cleared his throat.

“Uh yes, but don’t expect any special treatment from us, or you either Ms. Gunji. Like I said i'm only here because we are a little understaffed in the internal affairs dept. There aren’t many diamond rank hunters anyway. I usually have to do the rank up tests for platinum as I’m always stationed at central office. Vice-Captain Asaka will assist me in monitoring your hunt, for an elite rank Monster.”

That got the boys' attention, I guess they were young men probably a few years older than me. If you weren’t in your thirties, to me you were a boy maturity wise. Everyman is dumb until proven smart. I guess Keisuke’s connections did usually pay off. The hunter ranks go bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and then diamond. Most diamond rank hunters were busy, or weird. While captain Kawakami was as aloof as the cloud he sat on, he was at least put together enough to be stationed over someone as cool as vice-captain Kirigaya. They claim we'd get no special treatment, but If anything were to go out of control during today’s hunt, we could count on them to cover our backs.

“This is just like the gold rank up test, you’ll have to find and neutralize at least one monster of elite rank. We have located two hazardous elite ranked monsters in the district we’ll be patrolling today, needing to work together with your assigned hunters. You will be graded on how well you use your own abilities as well as communication, temperament and prioritization. Your own safety comes first, civilians second, checking to see if the monster is actually violent is third. Benign monsters have many uses.”

The vice captain nodded along. I guess after all that he did know his stuff, sounding pretty professional.

“I myself have a little cloud monster at home, he is a cloud-monkey monster. I love him. He helps me sleep and if anything were to happen to him.”

There was a strange look in the captain’s eyes, as if he was suddenly far away, in a place only him and this cloud monkey could ever go to. 

“Well I don’t, I don’t know what I'd do. If Marco Frederic didn’t come home one day, or if someone killed him for relics. I’d I, I don’t, well I’d, I’d simply have to, find them and all their family, chase them down…”

“Captain, focus. No one’s hurting your monkey.”

“Yes, yes, you’re very right Asaka. He’s at home napping in his hammock, with his stuffies.”

The five of us hunters exchanged a few glances, the faith I once had had in the thirty-year-old pro, vanished.

“You don’t need to be an elite mage capable of four chants to become a platinum rank, it is recommended, but many have passed with three or even lower. The monsters you will see today will have four spells though. Monsters are ranked by their spells, not their essence rank. A four-spell flower monster, is stronger than a one spell Time monster. Along with that increase in spells comes an increase in intelligence, and essence amount. Elite rank monsters are just as crafty as humans.”

“More intelligent than some captains even.”

The captain looked down from his cloud with a pouty look.

“You’re better than that Asaka.”

“I’m better than you for sure.”

Picking his battles, the captain chose to move on. There was hope for him yet.

“Take the time to get to know your teammates, come up with strategies, back up plans. While keeping your essence and chants a secret may be prudent, you will need to trust your teammates. Please think about what is not only useful right now, but what may be useful in the future.”

Vice-captain Asaka stepped forward.

“I have no worries we’ll have a successful hunt. We move out in one hour. We cannot answer questions about the monsters, or provide strategies. Just like on the field, you can only rely on each other."

"Good Luck!”