Phoenix Hunt

[Kuroshi]

What was once a peaceful land, now existed to be a separation of the Safe Zone and the Ruined Zone. Outside of the borders of those zones, lies the cast corporation. The very place that created the casters for monster hunters. With the two zones in separation, each side fights for what they think will save humanity.

~REI~

On the busy streets of the safe zone, Rei stood on the borders of the Ruined Zone yet again and looked into the distance. Her eyes void, yet in them also held hope as if she were waiting for something. For someone. But the fact that she was a humanoid, did not help or support her reason for standing out near the Ruined. She was often accused for being a traitor and people would at times give her glances of fear and hate. It was not rare for humanoids to be treated that way. After all, they were demons. Part demons. The only reason they were able to stay, was only the mere fact that they had human DNA in them and nothing else. Besides that, it did not change the fact that they were different and neither did it change the way humans viewed them.

Rei though, did not mind the looks people gave her. It was of none of her concern. She had nothing to do with the people that feared or looked down on her. She was merely there in the Safe Zone because of someone stubbornly dragging her back when she had no problem staying in a dangerous area. Though by sticking around him for awhile, she has grown to not dislike him and has actually grown fond of his company.

Letting out a sigh, Rei tilted her head downward towards the ground and kicked some pebbles across the border and leaned her back against the wall of a building that was nearby as she continued to look off into the distance with longing and sadness, she spoke under her breath with a soft voice. "Brother... Why did you leave?"

~TAKUMA~

Inside his isolated and cold room, Takuma sat on the ground, concentrating on connecting the the red and blue wires surrounding him in order to make his detonator. With his fast and nimble hands, he matched them up in the correct order and sequence, managing not to blow himself up in the process. When he finished, he wiped the sweat on his forehead and smiled with satisfaction.

Grabbing his bag, he stuffed his detonator and bombs, along with his gun power and grenade, carefully into his bag. He then slung it over his shoulder and fixed his black rimmed, lenseless glasses on the bridge of his nose and headed out the door of his house and locked up.

As he headed out of the town, a few people and acquaintances gave him friendly greetings as he responded with a wave and a bright smile. "Now then, off to the mission." Takuma said to himself as he merrily hummed to himself while heading to the Ruined Zone. I'm pretty sure Rei skipped school again and is waiting in the usual spot. Knowing her, she'll probably tag along, he thought to himself as he was even more determined get there sooner without considering that he was nearly bumping into the crowd of people who were on their way to their regular routines.

Takuma had known Rei for few years since he met her out in the Ruined Zone and compared to then, Rei actually grew to not mind his company, which is one of his achievements since she was so stubborn to return back to the Safe Zone with him. Despite that, they actually grew on each other even if Rei often felt very distant and out there when she was deep in thought. And even though he did not know of her true intentions of going into the Ruined Zone, he knew her well enough to know she wasn't like how people perceived humanoids to be.

 

[BlissyMKW]

'I can never forget that vampire. Just thinking about it all...what happened. I almost died, but he risked his life to save me. Aurawing...you're an idiot.'

Crystal slowly opened her eyes, finding herself inside a small hospital room. Everything around her was still blurry and she failed to notice the nurse that was in the room, bringing a new chart inside. When the nurse took notice that Crystal had finally awoken, she dropped the clipboard she had in her hand and ran out of the room to go alert a doctor. While the nurse was gone, Crystal rubbed her eyes, curious as to how long she had been asleep.

"Where...am I? How the hell did I end up here?" Crystal wondered, unable to recall anything that had happened after her encounter with Frank the demon. She let out a quiet sigh, looking down at her arms to find they were wrapped up in bandages. While she tried to remember what had happened to her after fighting Frank, she tried to listen in on any conversations around her. She could faintly hear a conversation between a doctor and nurse approaching her room, but other than them, it was quiet.

"It's good to see you've finally come to. You were unconscious for quite a while." the doctor started once he reached the door and headed inside. The man was wearing a torn up old lab coat along with an old business suit. "Where the hell am I? How did you find me? How long was I-" Crystal began tossing out questions, stopping to bite her lip to endure a sharp pain she felt when she moved her arm to try pointing at the doctor.

"I would take it easy if I were you. We tracked your Caster's signal and found you in Demon Valley. You and your friend weren't in good shape. You were out for almost two weeks, and it's highly doubtful you'll make a full recovery soon. Although, to be honest, between you and your friend, you're lucky you actually woke up. The entire time, you were thrashing around in your sleep. You weren't looking too well. It's good to see you're awake now." the doctor continued, picking up the clipboard from off the floor. 'He must be talking about my nightmares. I feel like they've gotten worse since that encounter.' Crystal thought to herself, watching the doctor adjust his glasses.

"Before I forget, this is yours." the doctor said, taking an odd looking wristwatch out of his pocket, tossing it to Crystal. "Your Caster was badly damaged when you were found. Luckily, an old Cast Corp employee stopped by this area and fixed it up. If you ever see him, I would thank him if I were you." the doctor continued, skimming through the charts while he turned around. "Wait a minute. You said something about a friend. Is he alright?" Crystal asked. The doctor stopped dead in his tracks, glancing around, trying to think of a good excuse. "This is the Ruined Zone. Caring for others is a pretty rare sight ever since the Sky Goddess abandoned us. When you've recovered to the point you can walk without falling to the floor after a few steps, we'll need to talk." the doctor replied, leaving the room with the nurse afterwards.

 

[Kuroshi]

~REI~

"Hey~ Look who's here," a voice Rei heard to be somewhat familiar spoke out. Rei turned her head around to glance at who had spoke and turned away again without recognition, making the girl who was about Rei's age fume with anger. "Hey! I'm talking to you. You monster," the girl continued with her pointless threat as she headed towards Rei to grab her and forcefully turn her around to face the girl. The girl then smirked triumphantly as if she had successfully achieved something great.

"Monster... As far as I can see, the only one who is close to being a monster is you," Rei spoke coldly as she returned a smirk at the girl, making her face turn red from anger. Rei recognized her. It was the girl who was previously in the same class not long ago. Rei had not gone to school so often, that she only briefly remembered some of her classmates faces when she did go occasionally, but she never really bothered to remember their names. At the moment, Rei looked at the girl with amusement and wondered what it was that she was trying to achieve by treating Rei or any humanoid for the matter as low life beings. It never really dawned to her why they found so much time to do such things, but it wasn't her problem.

"What the hell did just you call me?" The girl questioned, as if to confirm what Rei actually said. It was another one of the things that puzzled Rei. Clearly the girl had heard her, yet she needed it to be repeated for some sort of confirmation. If it was already heard, Rei didn't see any reason to repeat anything.

With just a moment of silence, the girl scrunched her brows together with irritation and grabbed a lock of Rei's hair and pulled on it forcefully, making Rei cringe. Although, Rei could have easily avoided it by taking out her blade in self defense, she would rather avoid the possibility of being accused for threatening the girl. Besides, there was no actual harm done. Such trivial, verbal abuse and minor injury, was not enough to bring Rei down. So instead, Rei let the girl have her way to satisfy whatever she was aiming for. Of course, the girl gave a look of satisfaction and scorn as she pulled Rei's hair, to let go and push Rei to the ground.

Rei fell, sliding on the rough grains of sand on the ground and pulled herself up, as she sat on her knees.

"Serves you right!" The girl exclaimed as she kicked some dirt directly at Rei's face and walked away. During this time, there was a few people who avoided the conflict, while others snickered and walked away when it ended. Rei then pulled herself up to her feet, dusting herself off and shook her head silently with discontent.