[ 3 ] Day

Today was the day.

Not the day he’d be able to start his mission, sadly. He wished. Apparently Chrono ‘still hadn’t reached that part of his to-do list.’ Today was just the day he’d have to meet whatever team he was going to work with for this mission. He’d gotten to headquarters an hour early, though, so he ended up sitting in the meeting room watching anime on his phone.

Almost three episodes later, Day was in tears over the anime he was watching when the door slowly opened. He nearly jumped out of his seat through the ceiling, yanking out his headphones and turning his phone off and making sure to blink away the tears. One of the team members was here. It was a man with spiky red hair tied into a ponytail and droopy eyes, but what caught Day’s eye first was his uniform.

“Holy shit, he’s a Rank A,” he whispered under his breath.

Whether the guy heard him or not, he didn’t react. “Where’s… Chrono?” he asked, looking everywhere around the room except for at Day. His voice was horribly deep. Not in a manly way, but in the I’m Dead Inside way.

“Oh, uh, I don’t know if he’s even coming here,” Day answered. “He just wanted us to meet up and train, after all. So, you’re on the mission to kill the vampire Marthe?”

“Yes… I am,” he answered, walking over to a chair and collapsing on it. “I’m… Apollo. Who are… you?”

Why… was… he… talking… so… slowly? “I’m Day!” he answered, a little too quickly and a little too loudly. “I’m a trainee, but Chrono let me come on this mission anyway because I just so happen to be exceptional.”

“You…”

“I am exceptional.”

“… were just crying… over something on your phone… no?”

What the fuck, so he did notice, after all? Was he even looking at him? “N-No! I just have allergies. I’m too cool to cry.”

“A boy… who’s not only a Rank C… but cries over little things… has been put on the mission… to kill Marthe. Fantastic.” Apollo blinked. “Wait… I think I know… you.”

“Really?!” Day’s eyes lit up. A Rank A vampire hunter had actually heard of Day’s name before? That had to be good news. He bet he knew him because he was the strongest Rank C there was in the corporation.

“Yes… Chrono has told me about you… before. You’re Day… Bitch?”

Never mind. Of course he knew about him from Chrono, of all people—he could definitely imagine Chrono yelling at Apollo about how annoying Day was. It wasn’t a surprise that he’d planted the last name ‘Bitch’ into his head, too. Jerk. “No, it’s—it’s Day Birch, that’s a common, er, mistake—”

Apollo’s head had fallen in the middle of his sentence, his eyes closing. He didn’t respond to him.

Did… he just go to sleep?

Day was about to pretend that didn’t happen so he could finish his anime episode, but then the door flew open to reveal someone else. Short, straight black hair and bright green eyes—someone he knew very well. And probably the last person he wanted to see. “Day?”

“Night?” Day’s eyes looked like they were about to explode. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing! Did Chrono seriously fucking let you on the mi—” She noticed Apollo raising his head, and her eyes scanned him for a moment, blinking. She quickly straightened up, opening her mouth to greet him, but he spoke first.

“So I assume… you’re the third… team member?” he said, opening his eyes.

“Uh—yes, sir! I’m, uh, I’m Night, his sister! And you are?” A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. Wow, okay. Her attitude could flip within mere seconds if a Rank A hunter was around, huh?

He didn’t even answer her question—he just leaned forward and gave her a look. “You two are siblings… named Day… and Night?”

Day and Night coughed very loudly and looked away from each other. “Er, yes,” Day said, “but I’d rather you not associate me with her, of co—” Night kicked Day in the shin, and he yelped, shutting up.

Apollo sighed. “I… see. Anyway, I’m… Apollo,” he said, standing up. “I suppose… since the three of us are here now… we are supposed to go train.”

“Uh, I mean, yes, sir, but,” Night said, “doesn’t Day need an MW?”

“Ah.” Apollo raised an eyebrow, looking at Day. “Right. I forgot… trainees don’t get those until they… move up to Rank B.”

Day blinked. “What’s an MW?”

“If that’s the case, then I… would expect Chrono to show up… after a—”

As if on cue, Chrono burst through the door. “You three! You’re all here, fantastic,” he said, looking at all of them. “Right. Hello. Just making sure you’re here.”

“What’s an MW?” Day asked nobody in particular again.

“An MW?” Chrono repeated. “Oh, shit. I totally forgot about that—you need one of those, don’t you? Alright, come with me. Apollo, Night, you don’t need to come, but do whatever you want.”

“I have to come to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” Night said.

“I’ll… tag along, too,” Apollo said.

“Alright, then,” Chrono said, leading them out of the room towards an elevator.

“Hello! What the hell is an MW?”

“It’s really not as special as it sounds,” Night said as the elevator doors closed and they began to ascend. “It literally stands for ‘mystic weapon.’ ”

“No, it’s even more… stupid than… that,” Apollo said. “It stands for magic… weapon.”

“Oh,” Night said.

“Just the founding fathers of the vampire hunting corporation trying to make our terminology sound all cool and mysterious,” Chrono said, waving his hand as the elevator doors opened. “Nobody cares what you call them. Anyway, the point is that vampires have supernatural abilities, so, in order to counter that, we’ve created weapons with supernatural abilities. Because, y’know. Humans don’t have any. Okay, come on.” He led them through a dark hallway, stopping at one of the doors. “This is the room with the Rank B MWs, I think.”

“Is there a separate one for Rank A? Why?” Day asked.

“Because the Rank A weapons… are too powerful… for a Rank B hunter to handle wielding,” Apollo answered while Chrono pulled a key out of his ass and unlocked the door. “Let alone a measly… Rank C like… you.”

“Alright, now, before you get mad and start spewing your defense about how you’re a top-tier Rank C hunter, let’s get you into this room and have you choose a weapon, okay?” Night said as Chrono opened the door. She shoved Day inside despite his protests, hurrying after him. The others followed.

Day started going through the huge room, inspecting all of the weapons that were encased in glass. Each had a plaque underneath that had its superpowers written, but he didn’t bother looking at all of them. Most of his favorite anime characters—Yuu, Yato, Ichigo, Hiei, Ikki, Reinhard, Tatsumi, okay, you get it—used a sword, so he was going to pick a sword. They looked cool.

After awhile, he picked one that said it had the power to magically shoot blasts of energy. And it could teleport along with its user. Forget the teleportation, though, the first part sounded super flashy. That was all he needed.

“Ah. The Cadacus,” Chrono remarked absently. “Typical of you.”

Day made a face. “The… Cactus? Even the weapons have names?”

“The Cadacus, Day. Please don’t question what they were thinking back then. Anyway, that aside, I’m going to remind you that this is temporary. If you fail the mission, you’ll have to give this sword back,” Chrono said. “This is your final decision, though?”

“Duh. I’m gonna succeed at the mission, anyway,” Day said, hiding the fact that he somehow already had forgotten that this mission had ridiculously high stakes and he wasn’t even Rank B yet. “Anyway, can I break the glass now?”

“What the fuck? No, that’s just the display,” Chrono said. “I’ll get you one out of storage.”

“I was kidding.”

Chrono took in a deep, loud breath. “Of course you were,” he muttered, opening a random door, rummaging through a drawer, and handing Day the sword. Day grabbed it and held it up in the air like it was his newborn sun.

As they walked back towards the elevator, Apollo randomly spoke up. “By the way, Chrono, I’ve… been meaning to ask you… something.”

“Oh. What?” he asked as they went back in.

“What does… Marthe look… like?”

Day arched an eyebrow. Why ask now? “Uh, I mean,” Chrono said, “I was gonna tell you, anyway, once I actually give you guys orders, but…” He thought for a moment. “Just come with me to my office so I can show you, I guess. Why do you ask?”

Apollo pretended he didn’t hear him.

The four entered his office and he turned on his computer, doing a bunch of random stuff and then pulling up a few files. “Here’s all the photos people have managed to take,” he said, turning the screen to face them.

Only three, and one of them was incredibly blurry, but Day could see she looked like a combination of Inori from Guilty Crown and Lucy from Elfen Lied, which made no sense since the only similarity was pink hair but still. Lucky bastard. She could just be born looking like she came straight out of an anime while Day was stuck with his shitty cosplay and tears.

Apollo squinted, not speaking for a moment before he leaned back. “I… see,” he said. “I believe I… encountered her… last night.”

Day’s head whipped around to look at him, eyes wide. He’d encountered Marthe? Last night? He felt envious, for some reason—the guy had met the enemy before he could.

“Whoa, what?” Chrono said, equally surprised.

“Didn’t you submit a report about it, sir?” Night asked, one hand over her mouth.

“No… shit. The higher-ups take… forever to respond to… those, if at all,” Apollo said. “Anyway, she… got away, obviously.”

Chrono narrowed his eyes. “Did she now?”

“Yes. I don’t believe… she was using her powers to their full extent… though. She wasn’t all that… powerful. So I wouldn’t have any… new, useful information.”

“Yeah, okay, she held back,” Chrono said. “And y—”

“Anyway, you’re… busy, aren’t you?” Apollo interrupted. “The three of us are… supposed to go train, so… bye.”

“Ah, right!” Night said. “Good day, Chrono.”

Day noticed he looked like he had something to say, but Chrono shrugged and went back to his computer. “Right, you guys delayed the start of my work by ten min—”

“Wait,” Day interrupted. “I have to tell you something, too.”

“Oh. Do proceed,” he replied, slightly irritated, dragging out his words.

“I think I encountered Marthe last night, too.”

Chrono’s eyes widened so much he thought they could just take over his entire face. Apollo gave him a nebulous look. “You what? Why didn’t you say anything? Did you even submit a report? Please tell me you didn’t try to take her on like an idiot by yourself, oh my Go—”

“You didn’t encounter any vampires last night, Day,” Night cut in, giving him a look. “Why are you always picking on Chrono like that?”

“Fuck, Night, you ruined it,” Day muttered.

“I—What?” Chrono spat, looking at Day. “Is this—is this another one of those jokes—”

“No offense… Chrono, but you’re far too… gullible, even after… ten years,” Apollo said.

Whoa. Since when did Apollo know Chrono for ten years?

That aside, he took in an abnormally large breath, slowly lifting his arm to jab a finger at the door. “All three of you go train before I rip someone’s head off.”

Day was filled with indescribable delight when he realized they’d be training in one of the Rank B rooms. One of the ones with the vampire holograms that actually acted like vampires and not like stupid animals.

And, finally, he was face-to-face with his first challenge: adapting to the new training. What he didn’t realize was that there was a more important challenge involved, though. Too bad for him. Anyway, the training didn’t start off well, but it didn’t start off completely horrible, either.

“Stop teleporting so fast! Don’t make it so hard for your teammates to keep up with you!” Night called out to him as she stabbed one of the fake vampires with her spear, killing it. Apparently her spear was called the Sinuo. He could see it bending and stretching in random directions, which made it look less like a spear and more like a metal, headless snake, but at least it was convenient.

Day was too lazy to respond to her, swinging his sword at one of the illusory vampires. It dodged—shit, he was too used to using swords like normal swords and not like magical items. He had to actually put the whole magic ball thingy to use. He had been teleporting left and right, but that was different.

What annoyed Day was the knowledge that he probably would’ve ‘died’ in the simulation by now if it wasn’t for Apollo, who was casually taking care of the several vampires that kept jumping towards Night and Day. His gun, the Vastor, shot silver bullets at the holograms, but they actually chased them, which mostly eliminated the whole problem of them dodging. What the fuck. Why couldn’t Day have a sword that chased his enemies? Maybe then he could’ve killed more than one fake vampire by now. As if it couldn’t be annoying enough to watch Apollo fight every ten seconds, he knew that it wasn’t the extent of the stupid fucking gun’s capabilities—otherwise Apollo wouldn’t have said the Rank A weapons were “too powerful for Rank B hunters to wield.”

Overpowered bastard.

In about a minute, the two noticed Apollo getting bombarded with far too many of the illusory vampires. It almost delighted Day to understand that these fake vampires actually had the mind to discern that Apollo was the strongest one and they needed to take him down. Almost. If it weren’t for the fact that, you know, it was a reminder of his inferiority.

That aside, Night decided to extend her spear all the way around the room to reach one of the vampires that was about to jump towards Apollo, stabbing one of the vampires on the way. Day thought it’d be a fantastic idea to teleport exactly where Night’s spear was heading because he wanted to take on the vampire himself. Apollo ran away because Day and Night were fucking idiots.

When Night’s spear, which thankfully was also fake because the simulation knew that could end up being a problem, ‘killed’ Day and another vampire ‘killed’ Night while her guard was down, Apollo slammed his fist on a button on the wall, ending the simulation.

Day stood, clearing his throat. “That didn’t go well.”

“Of course it… didn’t,” Apollo said, and Day couldn’t tell if he was mad or not—the dead-inside part of his voice seemed to disguise whatever else could’ve been in it. “Mainly because… we have a trainee who has never… fought with a team before.” He paused. “And I… have not fought… with a team of fools before.”

The words practically stabbed Day in the penis.

Night flinched. “We’re sorry, sir,” she said.

“Don’t speak for m—” Night punched Day in the shoulder.

“My name is… Apollo,” he said to Night, ignoring Day. “And you aren’t the one who’s… that bad. I suppose… in order to make this easier, though, we would need a more… slow form of training.”

“Uh. How slow?” If it was going to be as slow as his fucking speech, Day wasn’t sure if he wanted it.

“Slow… as in,” he said, shrugging, “Night trains… on her own… while I train you so that you can… learn how to hunt vampires without… getting killed within… a minute.”

“I know how to be a vampire hunter! I’ve been training for three years,” Day said, crossing his arms.

“Uh, yeah, alone,” Night said. “You haven’t worked with a team before.”

“In other words… those three years of training… are next to useless here.”

There was no winning this point, was there? “Fine,” Day said. “But how long will it take for you to train me?”

Apollo raised both eyebrows. “I don’t… know, kid. Impress… me.”

Night could’ve sworn she saw a fire in Day’s eyes. He was smiling, too, goddamn it. “Is that a challenge?”

Sadly, not all challenges were meant to be beaten within one day.

“Come back… tomorrow,” Apollo told Day. “We have to train… every day for you to… catch up. Hopefully, you’ll be able to… pick up faster.”

He didn’t sound disappointed, at least. Maybe he just knew that, despite Day’s alacrity to take on the training, he wasn’t going to improve that fast.

Oh, well.

When Day came out of the training room, he saw it was getting late. He also saw Anais sitting at one of the benches—was she usually here this late? He wouldn’t know. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. “Day! Hey! What’re you doing in a Rank B training room?” She stood up, eyes wide.

“Oh. Uh, hi,” Day said, walking over to her. Right, he hadn’t told her the situation yet, so he did.

“Oh, my gosh! You got Chrono to let you come on a mission? I never thought that asking so many times would get you anywhere,” Anais said, clapping her hands together. “I’m so proud of you! Now you actually get a chance to show the higher-ups how worthy you are of being a Rank B.”

“I mean, he only let me on the mission because of some secret reason, but, like… yeah,” he said, smiling. “Thanks. And you? How’s your training? Shouldn’t you be moving up to Rank C by now? You’re far beyond Rank D.”

She smiled even brighter at him. “I wish! It’s okay, though, I am making progress. I’ll get there soon.” She waved a hand at him before continuing, “Anyway, that aside, I’ve got an irrelevant question.”

“Oh,” Day said. “Yeah? What is it?”

She swung her legs back and forth, tilting her head at him. “Have you heard about the Grimoire?”