The Bounty Hunter
Chapter 96: The Return of the Three

September 15th, 2089

Terra’s POV Sᴇaʀᴄh the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

It’s been two days since Irene and I acquired some weapons.  Now we need a target to use them on.  The first step in our hunt will be to find some leads.  My current plan is to pay a visit with Irene to the police HQ after school today and take whatever info they got on the concert attack.  If they have nothing, I’ll move on to other police stations in areas where Pandemonium attacks have occurred.  If those are dead ends… I’ll masquerade as Rin and see if I can tempt Dante out.  That’s an absolutely last resort.

“Minato, could you please answer the question?”  My daydreaming about tracking and killing a demon lord was interrupted by my history teacher, who was looking irritated by my lack of attention.  “The Return of the King occurred in the year 2035, when the monarch of England took advantage of the massive public distrust of the government to reestablish England as an absolute monarchy.  The fulcrum of this change was King Arthur’s archaeological hobbies.  He was working on a site in Cornwall when he discovered the sword and sheathe of his namesake.  The politically savvy King used his discovery of the blade as a symbol of his divine right to rule, rallying the people to his cause.  After the successful royal revolution, he took on the surname Pendragon to cut off all ties with the ‘puppet’ royal family of the past.”  “…That’s correct.” 

The old crone of a history teacher turned back to the chalkboard as I resumed my daydreaming. 

One of the great perks of having an augmented brain is that I can think fast and react even faster.  I can look at something once and have it permanently memorized.  This is invaluable when called out by the teacher, because my time perception can slow down and give me time to think.

The old crone then chose to torment a different classmate who she noticed had let their attention wander.  “Aito, since today’s class has been focused on the member nations of the Council of Nine, please tell us about the current relationships between them.”  “Um, I don’t really know.” 

*Sigh* “Very well then.”  The teacher started to lecture us.  “The Council of Nine members can be subdivided into 4 factions.  These factions extend out to each country’s allies amongst the minor nations and so the world itself can be divided into these four factions.  The Monarch Faction, led by the Empire of Zaire and Kingdom of England, is best characterized by the fact that every member in the faction is a monarchy of some sort.  The United Faction consists of the USA, Germany, and India.  The Neo Faction consists of the Neo-Soviet Union, Persia, and the CAC.  These two factions are the continuations of the old alliances from WW3.  The last faction is the Sino Faction, which is led by China and whose member nations are mostly led by corrupt autocrats and despotic dictators.  Japan is a member of the United faction and has been a longtime historical ally to the US.”

The class hurriedly wrote down what the teacher was saying, while I simply stared out the window.  I heard a faint “Tch” from across the room as Aito noticed my behavior.  He was sitting next to Koji and Kiyoshi.  Yeah, so the missing students that Kawaguchi-sensei told us about were the Super Otaku 3.  They finally managed to recover enough to return to school.  This has presented a problem for me because I can see Reiji staring me and I know that he’ll try and persuade me to tell those three about myself.  I have no intention of doing so.  I don’t talk about magic or the other world.  Reiji was my traumatized best friend, so he was an exception.  I’m not giving out my life’s story to 2 acquaintances and one pseudo-enemy.

The feared encounter occurred during lunch.  It was just me and Reiji eating.  This has become a common occurrence.  Hikari and Kira usually eat lunch together with a shared group of friends, giggling and gossiping about all sorts of subjects.  Even Veronica now takes lunch with fellow members of the basketball club.  It’s good to see the girls adapting so well.

Anyways, the moment arrived as Reiji spoke “Minato, when do you plan on telling the others about magic?”  I stopped sipping my drink to reply “Never.” “What!?  Why!?”  Reiji demanded to know.  “To protect Kira, Veronica and myself from exposure.  When a secret is known by more than one person it is not a secret, it is a liability.  I already have enough liabilities, I don’t plan on adding even more.”  “But Minato, —” I cut Reiji off to emphasize my point “I haven’t even told my parents, Reiji.  You and Hikari are the only two people from this world who know my secret.  And yet you want me to tell those 3.  I decline.  It is as simple as that.  This has nothing to do with them.” 

Silence prevailed between us as Reiji was contemplating my words.  “Fine.  You’re right about not telling them details.  But they’ve already seen magic and demons!  They’ll be confused and scared!  They deserve answers!” Reiji finally responded.  “That’s fine, but leave me and the others out of it.  I don’t care how you explain why you know what you know, as long as you don’t mention us.”  I fixed Reiji with a level stare before continuing “If they learn something they shouldn’t, I won’t hesitate to wipe their memories.”  I finished my lunch and left after saying one last thing “Even if it harms them in the process.”

Veronica’s POV

“You were awesome as usual, Veronica!”  I nodded in acknowledgement to Haruko’s exuberant praise.  Basketball practice had just finished up, and we were in the locker room getting changed while exchanging small talk.  I’m still working on the talk, but my teammates seem to have no issue with my reticence.  Haruko had told me “Actions speak louder than words, and your game on the court does all the talking you’ll ever need.”  *Snap*  “Haruko!  Enough with the towel already!”  I turned to see several of the girls exiting the showers, where Haruko had been horsing around.

I couldn’t help but observe those girls out of curiosity.  It’s times like these when I notice another of the major differences between this world and my own.  Flat.  Short.  Plain.  I guess Minato skewed my expectations on the appearances of humans.  I didn’t expect everyone here to be on the level of Minato or Hikari, but it is a little surprising how ordinary everyone appears compared to back in the other world.  “Something wrong, Veronica?”  One of the girls asked me.  “No.  Why do you ask?”  “Well, it’s just that I got a feeling you were pitying me or something.”  I shook my head to refute that suspicion, even though that was exactly what I was doing.

I finished dressing and left for home, marveling at the absolutely massive number of people walking in the streets.  And not a single one of the thousands of people I saw was wearing a weapon, nor were they starved, nor were they diseased and dying.  The quality of life here is exceptional.  Yet this Pandemonium group is now threatening to take this away.  Wild demons have always been a persistent nuisance, even in the other world.  However, the residents there were hardened survivors and demon hunts were commonly conducted by the Queen’s men to minimize the damage they cause.  The people here are like sheep that are just waiting to be devoured by those demonic wolves.

I entered the apartment while thinking these dark thoughts and came across Terra and Irene who were just leaving.  They were fully armed, and Terra was wearing the bandana he always wears when on a job.  “Where are you two going?”  I asked.  “We’re breaking into a police station.  We’ll be back in a bit.”  Terra said as he gave me a quick kiss good-bye.  “Boss, you can fuck Caramel later.  Let’s get this damn infiltration mission over with.  They’re boring as hell, so let’s not drag it out.”  Irene grumbled while following Terra out the door rather closely.  Despite her harsh words and tone, she seems rather eager to be alone with Terra.  Hmm, does that mean what I think it does?

“Big sis!  I wanna’ go to the park!”  Rin’s demand broke me out of my speculation as she looked up at me eagerly.  She was in her humanoid form and looking heartbreakingly adorable as usual.  Contrary to what the others believe, I too am susceptible to Rin’s charms.  However, by restraining myself I’ve become Rin’s safeguard from the attentions of Hikari and Kira.  She runs to me to escape them.  Fufufu, I then can have her all to myself.

“Sure, just give me a moment.”  I watched the little demonic familiar joyfully scamper away to change into more suitable clothes.  We then went to the nearby park, where I sat lithely on the branch of a large oak tree at the center of the park while Rin ran around the playground with the other children.  Terra told me that 9-tailed demonic foxes do not mature based on time, but instead are dependent on the number of tails they grow. 

As a three-tailed fox, Rin has an elementary school kid’s mentality and thus should be treated as one.  Of course, she’s also a high-level demon so we don’t let her out by herself to avoid accidents.  School is also a no until she has more tails.  Regardless, she doesn’t need to learn anything yet since she is Terra’s familiar and was imprinted with his general knowledge when created.  “Big Sis Vera!  Look at this!”  Rin was hanging upside down on the monkey bars, looking like any other normal child with her fox appendages hidden by magic.  I smiled at her antics as I enjoyed the feeling of the tree at my back.  I felt content while watching Rin play with the other children.  A light autumn wind ruffled my hair, letting my silver hair sparkle in the sunlight. 

A strong sense of déjà vu overtook me as I remembered a time in my childhood where I had been playing in the garden while my mother watched over me with a gentle smile.  Her hair had been shining in the light back then too.  Is this how motherhood would feel?  *Blush*  It’s still fifty years too soon to even think about having children.  Although… I really have settled into this world if I’m thinking about that already.

Amongst the many surprises and wonders of this world, one of the most remarkable was the fact that I felt so at home here.  The peaceful and uneventful (until recently) everyday life was so easy to adjust to.  I never once missed anything from the “other” world.  The only thing worthwhile there had been family, which was taken from me early in life.  Honestly, that world could be gone and I wouldn’t feel any sorrow over it.  I know Kira shares my sentiments.

“Watcha doin’?”  Rin suddenly had appeared beside me, startling me out of my thoughts.  I nearly grabbed my crossbow from the “storage ring” magic artifact that Terra gifted everyone with recently.  He demanded that we carry our weapons with us at all times because he ‘learned the hard way that troublesome problems will appear when unprepared and then things will just get worse’.  He shuddered as he remembered that event, but refused to elaborate.

“Do you want to go home?”  “Yeah!  Master and boiler brain should be back by now!  Big Sis Kira and Big Sis Kari will be there too!  I wanna eat dinner with them!”  I picked up Rin in my arms, savoring the snuggly feeling from her tails as I did so, and lightly jumped off the tree branch.  The drop may have been a bit further than what humans could manage without injury, but it’ll be fine.  I was just as eager as Rin to get home.  My new family was there waiting for me after all.

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