“Well then, good to see you adapt quickly”, Captain Yakusuke seemed proud. He took a step back over to his sword and overcoat, picking them both up. Once clothed, and his blutklinge sheathed to his side, he walked over to Hikaru. “

“Well, seeing as how the village was destroyed and I did kill four beasts, I guess we can count this as a neutral-win”. Captain Yakusuke straightened his posture, “Hikaru, due to a sudden new member joining the second division we’ll be making a detour on our way back to HQ”. An awkward silence crept around, “sir, you don’t mean….her.” Hikaru’s face looked white, a splash of pain was all over his face. “Yep, we’re going to get her to train Mia. After all, my abilities aren’t suited to training and nor are yours”. 

“Hahahaha”, Captain Yakusuke laughed and turned to Mia. “I’m sure you’ll like her, she’s a wild woman but she’s strong”. Mia looked confused, “who?” She asked.

“Just an old friend and comrade”.

Hikaru stood silent, “We don’t have anyone else that could train her? That woman is such a hassle to deal with and she’s so weird. You can never tell what she’s thinking”. Hikaru groaned, “but I suppose it’s true, she’s a great teacher”. 

Around them were a few bags, luggage. “Well, I'll pack this stuff up since we won’t be here for much longer”. Hikaru put his hand into his coat and pulled out a small dagger. It had a reddish brown hilt and a black guard, the blade itself seemed to wave in and out, like a very thin figure eight without any holes.

Mia looked at it with a face still blank. “Is that your blutklinge or just a butterknife?” She asked, clearly judging it.

“Yes it is, thank you very much. You know, size doesn’t matter”, He shook his head in disagreement and annoyance as Captain Yakusuke snickered in the background. Hikaru grabbed it by the hilt and held it with the blade pointing down, he then spread his left hand and slammed it on pommel.

“AWAKEN!” He yelled.

Mia watched as the blade of his blutklinge began to melt and change colour. Starting with the basic metallic grey you’d assume all blades to have, this one turned red. It fell to the ground and began convulsing and twisting, its bulbous form slowly coming forth. With a strand attached to the hilt, the blutklinge has taken on a whole transformation. What was once a simple dagger was now a red bulbous mass writhing on the ground. Mia looked at it squinting, small white objects surfaced from the mass as well as an eye, they twisted and moved around until finally it finished. From the guard was what can only be described as a metre long balloon shaped thing with a gaping mouth  and two piercing eyes at each side of its head”. 

Hikaru pointed the guard towards a group of luggage and the red creature shot forwards and began swallowing the whole bag and box. 

“Rather disgusting don’t you think?” Captain Yakusuke was now beside Mia watching Hikaru’s blutklinge consume their luggage. “Why is he-? Wha-”, she looked confused. “As I said before Mia, the blutklinge is a mixture between human and beast blood. Huntsman are able to wield them and they take a specific form based on who their user is. It just so happens that the neat freak and super cook over there’s blutklinge takes the form of a weird balloon monster that can swallow objects and store them inside itself”. After Captain Yakusuke’s short explanation, Mia completely understood. The Captain’s explanations about everything so far always seemed to make sense. To a normal person all of it would sound ridiculous, but to her, to someone who’s seen the terror of beasts, it all made sense. 

Soon enough, she too would become part of this ridiculous world, the world of being in the second division and hunting beasts, the world of being a huntsman. 

A short while later; Hikaru’s blutklinge consumed the last bit of luggage, it then began to shrivel up and return to its initial form of a dagger. Throughout the entire time Hikaru was working Mia and Captain Yakusuke had been watching him, partially with faces of disgust.

“I noticed you too were staring… Did you have a comment or something?” Mia and Captain Yakusuke swiftly turned around, and began an awkward whistle. “Oh nothing, we were just in such awe of your abilities. 

Hikaru pushed up his glasses and held an expression of confidence. Snickering to himself, “heh, it’s pretty great ain’t it”. It seems that Hikaru had a sort of complex when it came to someone complimenting his blutklinge, no matter if it was genuine or not. 

“Hikaru, Mia, let's be off”, Captain Yakusuke adjusted his coat” The two stood at attention and readied themselves, A journey west began. 

The three of them began walking away from the small glade where they ate. With her stomach full, and a new mission in mind, Mia decided to always hold her past in her heart, and utilise that one year she had with Aira and use it for growth. Silently she said; “I’ll grow stronger for you Aira”, with a small grin.

“What’d you say?” Hikaru looked back. “Oh nothing, I was just talking to myself, preparing myself I guess”. She paused… “Hikaru, who exactly are we meeting with?” Her face glazed with a puzzling look. “She’s a real pain in the ass but her methods are effective. All I know is that her personality makes her hard to deal with but the Captain knows her on a personal level. She’s super annoying, has weird hair, and even his fashion statement is shit”. 

“His fashion statement?”

“Yeah, she wears bandages with a sun and moon on her head leaving only her nose and mouth exposed. She has weird red hair coming out of the bottom. Also, for some reason she only wears baggy tan pants, a chest wrap, and weird pointed shoes. Overall you get the picture. Personally, I can’t stand her”.

For a while Hikaru continued talking about this mysterious woman and complained constantly. The displeasure in his voice was evident that he had multiple negative interactions with this person. To Mia, this was exciting. No matter what her internal emotion was, her face remained mute. Mia thought it to be interesting to meet such a character. Not to mention, but this personal was supposed to be strong, strong enough to make her into a proper huntsman. One thought crossed her mind, how long would it take?

“Captain Yakusuke… Exactly how long will this training take?” Mia was intent on growing stronger, in her mind she wanted to become as strong as possible as fast as possible. She wished to grow stronger for a single reason, revenge. Mia’s loss of Aira forced her mindset to change.

Get strong. Kill that beast. Be happy.

These words resided within her.

“Hmm, I’m not too sure actually. For us watching it shouldn’t take more than an hour, but for you it’d probably be longer. Hikaru, when he trained you, how long did it take?” He asked. The three continued walking through the paths, Hikaru murmured, “a- bo- t- thr- rs-”. He paused, This discontent emanated from him. “About three years”. Mia stopped, “three years.. THREE YEARS! I don’t have time for that, I have to get strong fast so I can kill that bastard”. She clenched her fist as she yelled. 

“Mia, let me give you a piece of advice. The path to strength isn’t instantaneous, it’ll take time. The path to becoming a full-fledged huntsman isn’t easy either. This isn’t a quick walk in the park nor is it a game”. Captain Yakusuke said strongly. “You won’t get anywhere if you’re searching for an easy way, and if that is the only thing you can think of then you should’ve died back there with your friend”. Captain Yakusuke turned around, an angry look on his face. “Strength takes time and practice, don’t underestimate it, and don’t let revenge consume you… I know, from personal experience”. He turned back around and continued walking. 

Mia, filled with disappointment, subconsciously knew it wouldn’t be easy. As Mia is only thirteen she still has the mind of a child, therefore her underdeveloped brain was too one-tracked, and didn’t accept anything else.  

“It’ll be about two days to reach his place once we get out of this forest, as soon as we’re out we can take Seshi the rest of the way there”, Gurren said, it seemed he reverted to his serious attitude. 

It didn’t take long for them to reach the edge of the forest, the sounds of critters and owls were behind them. Birds soared in the sky, and the sound of grasshoppers chirped around them. Before them was a wide open plain, green as far as the eye could see. The air was fresh and filled their lungs, it was satisfying and definitely a better scene for them to travel in. Afterall, if they were to be attacked they’d be able to see their assailants easily. The new area ahead of them is a fairly known land, for it contained a road connecting two major cities. To the north was Indra, a city known for being closest to the capital, and to the south was Seiren, a mysterious city that’s locked off to outsiders. Seiren is only categorised as a major city due to its size, not its potential trade nor anything else.

“Ah, finally out of that damned forest”, Captain Yakusuke sighed a sigh of relief. “Seeing the same thing all the time isn’t any fun”. He scratched his head and put his hand into his coat, after a moment of searching he pulled out the same bag that housed Seshi before. Captain Yakusuke held the small balloon-like object to his lips and blew. As expected, Seshi popped out and stood there, patting his hooves on the ground. 

NEEEEIGH, Seshi neighed happily. It looked as if he were happy to see Mia for the second time. But wait…. A couple steps away Hikaru was rummaging through a pocket in his pants. “I know I put it somewhere…. Aha!” He took it out, and had an identical pouch just as Captain Yakusuke had used. With a swift blow the balloon swelled up and Mia couldn’t believe her eyes. POP! Another Seshi appeared, She stood in shock. How could there be another Seshi? Is it a sibling or something?

Mia stood confused, both Captain Yakusuke and Hikaru were tending to their Seshi’s as they prepared to ride. “Hold on a minute… There’s another Seshi?” Confusion filled her mind, she looked at both of them.

Captain Yakusuke perked up, “oh yeah I guess I forgot to tell you, huntsmen can use the power of blood for more than just our blutklinge, In fact there are three main uses”. While getting on Seshi he raised one finger, “number one: Blutklinge, by infusing beast blood into worthy candidates we can utilise it to create weapons”. He raised a second finger, “number two: By using the infused beast blood we can harness supportive and healing abilities, just like Seshi”. And finally, he raised a third finger, “number three: Blood arcana or combative spells, While learning to be a huntsman many are taught different combative spells that utilise spells. I’m no good at blood arcana so I can’t exactly show you how it’s done but I- wait”. Captain Yakusuke looked over… “Hikaru, you’re pretty good at blood arcana aren’t you?” 

A second of silence passed… A shiver went down Hikaru’s spine. “Who me? I mean… I had to learn some of it… But I only know the basic ones”.

Seated on Seshi, Captain Yakusuke was waving his hand up and down. “Oh I'm sure Mia doesn’t mind, any example will do… Now do it… That’s an order”, he said in a serious tone. 

“Yes sir”. 

Hikaru, who was about to mount his Seshi, got down. “Alright here goes, it’s been a long time since I’ve used any blood arcana spell”, He paused. “Ahhhhh-oooooooo”, With a deep breath he put his arm forwards and pointed towards a tree.

 “Kugel(bullet)”.

Suddenly, a red orb formed at the end of his finger and shot forwards. FOOOOOP-POOOOOOL! A direct hit, the tree that Hikaru was pointing at now had a hole the size of a small ball in its trunk. 

 Clap! Clap! Clap! Mia and Captain Yakusuke clapped at Hikaru’s basic knowledge of blood arcana. Mia clapped due to being impressed. Captain Yakusuke clapped out of sarcasm even though he can’t use blood arcana at all. 

Hikaru walked back over to his Seshi and mounted him. “There’s a good boy. Now, don’t be like the last one that nearly bucked me off”. Seshi neighed lightly, comforting Hikaru.

“So basically, Seshi isn’t just the name of this blood horse but it’s the name for all of them?” She asked, less befuddled than before. Captain Yakusuke who was now waving and signalling her to ride with him, “exactly, well… Seshi is the name we gave it. You see the balloon itself is made up from a massive beast’s blood, and that beast's blood was given out to many huntsmen. It’s kinda ironic actually, The beast where Seshi comes from mirrors its appearance exactly”. Captain Yakusuke chuckled to himself and turned around, facing forward.

“Interesting”, Mia thought as she climbed onto the back of Captain Yakusuke’s Seshi. “It seems the world is a lot bigger than just Ako village”. Mia thought about the many times she was abused by villagers and about the hatred she felt, she also thought about her time with Aira, and the happiness she felt then. For the first time she has truly left the village, she also has a goal to work towards. 

“Hyah!” Captain Yakusuke yelled as he yanked Seshi’s reins. The horse began to trot, and soon gallop, Hikaru and his Seshi followed not too far behind. Mia sat quietly behind Captain Yakusuke, holding his waist so as to not fall off. She thought to herself:

“This is a new beginning”. 

“This is the actual start”.

“The past is in the past and I’m never going back. I’m gonna go meet this weird trainer, I’m gonna become strong, then I’m gonna hunt down that beast and get revenge for you Aira”. Mia held her necklace tightly, and she continued to imagine the future. Mia’s rage pushed her forwards, but another factor led her forward… Curiosity.