One thing that pissed off Kaden, no matter the situation, was when hunters decided that they were better than everyone around them. It didn’t matter if you had a wounded person in your arms, you’d always have to move aside for them.

He would say that he speaks from experience, but that would mean admitting that he needs therapy. And he doesn't.

Despite this, Kaden was in the area that was riddled with the highest concentration of hunters that you could imagine. The 4th district was often active with smaller dimensional breaches. It used to be inhabited by civilians, the rows of streets were previously lined up with shop vendors.

In particular, Kaden remembered always coming here with his mother. Before the world went to shit and the hierarchy of society was flipped on its head. But, they used to get soboro buns from this older lady that lived on top of the old grocery store.

It was also the store that got destroyed when the portals started opening here. It was a shame. He often craved those sweets. There was a lot that was erased from history in the 4th district. More than people cared to acknowledge.

It became too dangerous and costly to stay in this district. Everyone moved out and if they didn’t they were long dead by now. The protections of the district focused on the actual WCO facilities that planted research and obervation plants here.

Everyone in the area were hunters, journalists, or fellow observers for the gate ahead. They would have these observations for the public to see how these guilds and the WCO controlled the gates. Then it was supposed to incur more trust from the public, but Kaden thought it was all bogus.

“Scan for your IDS and passes,” The solider held up a tablet. Emi scrambled through her phone till she pulled up two barcodes, “I’m scanning for both of us.”

“I’ll still need to see his ID.”

Kaden hated these dumb checkpoints. He sighed, “It’s just been updated.” He handed the card to the guard.

The guard paused, looking at the card then back to Kaden, “Han?”

“It’s a fairly common name.”

“It says that you’re not registered.” The guard handed the card back, “It’s beneficial that all citizens register regardless of the rank that they would recieve.”

“I’ll keep that it mind.” Kaden shoved the card back in his wallet and gave Emi a nod to continue forward. He didn’t see a point to do that anyway. It would be better to stay away from all hunter-related activities.

They made their way to their section of the observation area. It was all standing and essentially you got broken up into groups of civilians, press, and officials. You were put behind barriers, while hunters with guns blocked most of your view of the gate.

Of course, Emi had managed to push her way up to the very front of the crowd. Kaden tried to ignore the glares of the people that he shoved away to catch up with his coworker. Actually, he didn’t really care.

“Look! Oh my gosh. Is that Martin Aigiarn?” Emi nearly screamed.

“Who?”

She spun around, “You know that lazy guy that always throws axes off buildings?”

“I’m poor, Emi. I don’t have time to be online.”

“Oh never mind. I think it is him though. I thought that he was deployed in Europe.”

“If he’s S-Rank, they’re on call to all the branches. Probably because they’re treated like assets that the WCO can’t afford to lose them.” Kaden reminded her.

“You know a lot of these things for someone that hates everything to do with this topic.”

“I’m a hater, but that does not mean that I’m not well informed.” He scoffed.

Kaden spotted an interesting figure in the crowd near the entrance of the gate. It was the lady that helped them out at the gate. Kim Minjae stood next to a a few other hunters, all of them wearing the long coats that had the WCO symbol on it.

Great, she was more important than he thought. Maybe he should duck?

She looked over, like it was a comedic que.

“Excuse me.” Kaden saw her lips saying. To his horror, she was already walking towards them with a smile on her face. It would be even weirder if he were to disappear further into the crowd. She had already seen them.

“Hey!” She waved and looked at Kaden, “You didn’t tell me that you guys were coming to the gate observation today.”

“I don’t want to be here-”

Emi chirped in, “Yes! We signed up last minute!” She exclaimed. Kaden already knew that this would be the only thing that she talked about on the ride back, “It’s so nice to see you! I didn’t know you worked here.”

Kim Minjae laughed, “Yeah. I normally have to make an appearance on gates in the first ten districts. I didn’t realize this one was gonna be an observation one.” There was something about her tone that seemed off.

Kaden didn't let it go unnoticed, “It’s a yellow gate, right?” He looked up at the golden flickering of the gate. Yellow gates were often unpredictable, were used for training all the time. They looked harmless and were for the most part. Keyword is most.

“Yes! We have some very capable hunters on site, so everyone is in good hands. No need to worry.” A earpiece in her ear flickered, a low hum of other voice. Kim Minjae paused, then continued, “I just got called. It was nice to see you guys. I’ll visit you again at the cafe. I’d say we’d have time after but it never is that smooth.”

She walked away, two hunters quickly joined her side as they disappeared into a green tent near the hunters’ base near the portal.