Prologue: Even More Suspicious People
The light clink of metal broke the silence of the pier at night.
It was the sound of a sheng biao penetrating a shipping container.
A sheng biao was a Chinese weapon that consisted of a sharp dart tied to a rope. At the other end of the rope was a boy, his body poised in a throwing motion.
The boy had no distinguishing characteristics. His face was attractive, in an average sort of way, and if you took your eyes off of him for a second, he’d fade completely from your memory. The T-shirt and messenger shorts that he wore were completely unexceptional clothing for a summer night, as well.
Beside him stood a girl in miko garb, who was staring incredulously at the place the sheng biao had hit.
“Leader, you’re tying ropes to those?” the miko asked, making small talk. Her name was Furu Shinomiya, and she was puzzled as to why her leader had called her out.
“Yeah, I’ve been doing that lately. Like, going to fetch them every time gets annoying, right?” The boy she called Leader gave the rope a light tug. The dart returned to his hand, his prey impaled on the blade.
It was a lizard-like creature in most respects, but it had only one eye — a large, compound one — and a slimy, exposed musculature rather than skin.
With a confident smile, Leader showed the twitching lizard’s body to the girl.
“Eek!” Furu drew back.
“What’s with the freak-out? We see these things all the time,” Leader asked, baffled. Their job as monster hunters was to pursue devils, demons, and evil spirits of this sort. He would have expected Furu to be accustomed to low-level riff-raff like this by now.
“N-No way,” she stammered. “Not slimy things like that!”
“That’s a surprise. You always seem so detached about your work.” Leader crushed the lizard in his hand. It immediately dispersed, without a trace left behind.
“You claim we see them all the time, but I’ve never seen one like that before,” Furu snapped back, seeming to regain her composure once the lizard was gone.
“This particular type is new. Her presence seems to have drawn them here from someplace far away... A foreign strain, I guess.” Leader began to walk.
Furu followed. “Her... you mean, the vampire princess?”
She was the main topic of conversation among monster hunters at the moment. Rumors had been spreading that the vampire princess had appeared in Seishin City, and they were sounding plausible. It was those rumors that had brought Leader and Furu here, to a pier at the south of Seishin City.
“‘Out of the frying pan, into the fire,’ as they say,” he replied. “The vampire incident is resolved, and we immediately get something far worse. You think it was a mistake to let them handle it?”
“You think those people had something to do with this?” Furu’s face twisted in distaste, thinking back to a few days ago, when that high school-aged boy and his friends had taken them all down without breaking a sweat.
“Most likely. They were certainly tough, but a lot of that was that they were fighting humans like us.”
“I know! I mean, why would you use a stun gun?!” Furu burst out.
Furu had been hit by the stun gun which had knocked her unconscious. It must have been modified; there was no way a consumer product would have that kind of output.
“I hear you,” Leader agreed. “It means they were training to fight other humans. Anyway, even if they are tough, they’re still only human. There’s no way they could beat a vampire that had reached its second stage.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Furu said. “I had a feeling we’d have to clean up after them.”
Two humans, an oni, and a minor vampire. The consensus of the assembled monster hunters was that that group wasn’t especially powerful, and probably couldn’t have handled it themselves.
“So they must have enlisted the aid of a higher being,” Leader said. “I don’t know how they went about it... but as a result, we now have a vampire princess hanging out in Seishin City.” This put the hunters in a dangerous position, as the vampire princess’s presence seemed to be agitating monster activity. “Anyway, that’s why we’re stuck hanging around here.”
“So... I don’t know exactly what we came to do, but shouldn’t we have brought Takachi?” Furu asked.
As usual, Leader had simply breezed into Furu’s house, said, “We got a job,” and brought her along.
“Takachi will be out of action for a while,” Leader said. “He was hurt badly.”
Akira Takachi. He was the strongest physical fighter of the Harukaze Yoiya, Leader’s gang, but he had broken a rib in the incident the other day.
That big gorilla, taking time off because of one little cracked rib? Furu snorted internally. On the other hand, to put someone like him out of commission, it must have been a serious injury.
“What about you, Leader? You broke a leg, didn’t you?” she asked.
Like Takachi, Leader had been injured during the fight with the mysterious boy in the abandoned hospital.
“It’s not so bad that I can’t walk on it,” Leader shrugged. “Though I probably couldn’t fight.”
“Uh?” Furu turned pale at the thought of having to fight herself. Her usual role was as rear support for the other two. Front line fighting wasn’t in her nature, and she wasn’t especially strong.
“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “The one we’ve come here to see... it sounds like it’s unlikely we could beat it, even if we were in top shape. We’d have to negotiate either way, and your power will come in handy there.”
“Couldn’t you have told me this earlier, at least?” Furu complained. Furu served as a monster hunter out of a sense of justice, and she would aggressively stick her nose in whenever supernatural creatures were obviously involved. Even so, she still didn’t like being dragged out under false pretenses.
“I think this is the place. Looks like it hasn’t arrived yet.” Leader stopped at the corner of the pier.
Despite the new moon that night, it was surprisingly light out, due to the street lights.
In front of them was dark ocean. There was nothing else of note there, as far as they could see.
Furu expanded her consciousness to encompass their immediate surroundings. That was her special ability: the location and analysis of enemies.
She immediately noticed a presence. A mass of tremendous power was coming towards them from the sea to the south.
“Leader!”
But no sooner did Furu shout out her warning than the threat came flying out of the ocean.
Leader focused his gaze on a black heap illuminated by an orange street lamp. “Ah, that’s not good. I was hoping we could kill it, which would speed things up... but that’s not looking possible.”
The heap shook, drenching the area around it with droplets of water. It was just like a dog.
But this was no dog. It was too big to be a dog, and what was more, the silhouette was human.
Furu didn’t even have to analyze it. Anyone with a brain would know what it was.
A werewolf.
A human-like beast, with a wolf’s head and a body covered in fur — it was a common monster to encounter in the world of monster hunting, and generally regarded as being on the weaker side of average. But Furu could tell immediately that this was no mere werewolf.
Myth-class... if not that, then it’s close...
Furu’s legs went numb. She was unable to stay standing, and fell immediately on her butt.
“You didn’t wet yourself, did you?” Leader asked, looking down at the cowering,
trembling Furu.
“Of course not!”
“Really? Takachi would love to hear about an incontinent miko...”
“I don’t want to know about Takachi’s fetishes!” Furu snapped.
Leader’s quip — perhaps intentionally — quelled Furu’s panic, allowing her to look back at the werewolf.
Standing, it was a head taller than Leader, perhaps about two meters tall. It had beautiful, glossy black fur, but no obvious special features besides that.
This werewolf must have been what Leader was after... but what did he intend to do? Furu watched quizzically as Leader began walking towards the werewolf.
“Hey, Leader! What are you doing? We have to get out of here!” Furu sat up and quickly called after him.
“Oh, we can’t,” Leader said calmly. “We can’t beat him, or run away. If he wants to kill us, he’ll do it in a split second. All we can do is talk to him in the hope that we won’t upset him.”
“Huh? Huh?!”
While Furu was in a panic, Leader walked right up to the werewolf. He was well within reach of its claws; it could rip him apart with the smallest motion of its hand. Unless they worked out like Takachi, monster hunters were generally vulnerable to direct attacks, and Leader was no exception.
“Good evening,” Leader said, in a totally casual tone. “Where did you come from?”
“Australia,” the werewolf responded, its voice thick and gravelly. Perhaps it was difficult for it to talk in beast form.
“You swam all this way?” Leader asked.
“I don’t like planes.”
Furu was on tenterhooks, but the werewolf was surprisingly forthcoming with his answers. There was no sense of malice from him. At the least, then, there seemed no chance that he would immediately snap and kill Leader.
“That’s a long way. So, what did you come here for?” Leader asked.
“The princess.”
A cryptic answer, but Furu knew what the werewolf was referring to: the vampire princess they had been talking about earlier. Up until now, she hadn’t fully processed why the vampire princess’s appearance was a threat, but it all suddenly snapped into place. If she was drawing monsters of this caliber to her, she was definitely dangerous.
“I see. The prophecy was true, eh? So which are you?” Leader’s words were all too flippant.
Furu’s own heart was pounding. There was a certain attitude one was supposed to take when facing a being of great power, but Leader was showing almost no respect.
“Which what?” the werewolf asked.
“Are you the princess’s enemy, or her ally?” Leader asked.
At the word “enemy,” the werewolf’s body suddenly projected malice.
“L-L-Leader! Apologize! Apologize now!” Furu called out in a panicked voice. His sheer carelessness was dizzying.
“You think I... am the princess’s enemy?” the werewolf rumbled.
“Now, don’t be angry,” Leader said. “So you’re her ally. I understand, all right?”
While Leader calmly smoothed it over, Furu was preparing for imminent death.
“I see.”
But the werewolf easily backed down. Furu was relieved that he seemed a surprisingly reasonable beast, but she couldn’t presume just yet.
“I’ve been searching the world... and I finally found her,” the werewolf said with deep emotion in his voice. He must have been swimming all around the globe.
The words What an idiot drifted through her mind, but she quickly drove them out. If the thought showed on her face, it could mean her life.
“Might I ask a question about your princess?” Leader asked.
“Okay.” The werewolf hadn’t shown any sign of cunning this whole time. He just answered everything he was asked.
“The princess you’re searching for... the vampire princess. She appears to have shown up in this town, Seishin. Many others appear to have realized this, and have come here just as you have.”
“Oh?” the werewolf asked.
“We stand opposed to supernatural creatures,” Leader explained. “I’m sure organizations like ours exist everywhere around the world, so you may already know this, but there’s something of a mutual support group among them, you see. That group realized something was coming here today, and requested that we do something about it, which is why we’re here. A small and weak band such as we could hardly refuse them. It’s quite a pickle.”
As usual, Leader’s manner of speaking was extremely off-the-cuff. He didn’t actually seem bothered in the least.
“And while there is coercion involved in our being here, nonetheless, we do try to protect this city from the shadows. So we can’t simply let things remain the way they are. I was wondering if, in consideration of those people who have so much influence here, you could stave off on causing too much trouble. What do you think? Would you mind coming along with me?”
“Very well.” The werewolf agreed to it with surprising ease, showing no suspicion towards the man he’d just met and had no reason to trust. “I have no intention of causing trouble for those around the princess, either.”
Is that just... Leader’s personality and conversational skills? Probably not... As far as Furu could tell, the werewolf was just extremely forthright.
“Thank you,” Leader said. “My, you are lucky. I happen to have a clue as to the location of the princess. You could find her before anyone else.”
“By the way, is the one who’s been standing there silently one of you?” The werewolf looked toward the seated Furu.
Furu quickly nodded her head, then immediately realized something strange. She hadn’t been silent; she had raised her voice several times in a voice close to a scream. And the werewolf’s gaze was looking past her.
With a deep sense of foreboding, she slowly turned around.
Behind her was a girl sitting on a box.
“Eek!” Even knowing there would be someone there when she turned around, Furu still couldn’t restrain her scream.
That box hadn’t been there before, she was sure. It was like a trunk suitcase, reminiscent of the days when such things had been made with wood and leather, and large enough to fit a small child inside. The girl sitting atop it smiled down at Furu and the others.
She was like an old book. That was Furu’s initial impression. She wore a faded, old dress that looked as if it had been dug up from some ruined castle from the Middle Ages. Her long, red hair was also lacking in sheen, as if it had dulled over time. She seemed to Furu like an antique, something that had been in one form for many, many years.
“You’re too startled by everything,” the girl said. “Though it is funny.”
Furu stiffened in shock. There shouldn’t be a girl there. Furu’s senses weren’t picking up anyone in the place where the girl was.
“H-How long have you been there?” Furu demanded.
“Since the beginning,” the girl said. “I was here before you were, in fact.”
Her total lack of presence meant that Furu couldn’t perform an analysis on her, but it was painfully clear that she wasn’t an ordinary human.
“Who are you?” Leader asked. For once, there was surprise in his tone. He didn’t have any detection powers like Furu did, but he also wasn’t so oblivious as to not notice someone right in front of his eyes.
“Monster Hunter (Sage) and Monster Hunter (Miko), eh? And that wolf there is Fenrir... you can’t be the real one, can you?” Starkly refusing to answer the question, the girl pointed to each of them in turn, murmuring to herself as if confirming something.
“People just started calling me that. After the god-slayer, I think,” the werewolf responded, straightforwardly. He really was forthright.
“Are you in our line of work, then?” Leader asked, caution in his tone.
They had been talking about monster hunting earlier, and it was clear from Furu’s dress that she was a miko. But there was no way the girl could have known what Leader really did.
I
f she was in the same business, she could have known about him by reputation. But Furu didn’t recognize her, and Leader didn’t seem to, either.
Furu glared at the girl. Analysis was her job. If she couldn’t do that, then what was she there for? Just thinking about it got under her skin...
“The wolf over there is just special. You don’t have to kick yourself over your failure to notice me.” The girl jumped down from the trunk, making an elegant landing.
Furu drew back, still crouching. Leader had pulled his sheng biao back out. The werewolf remained composed.
“No need to be so twitchy,” the girl said. “I’m not your enemy. I was thinking I might help you... first, allow me to introduce myself.”
She gave the large trunk a light thump. Immediately, it split down the middle and opened. Furthermore, bookshelves slid out from the inside, expanding in both directions. The shelves were packed with books.
“My name is Ende. As you can see, I’m a bookseller.”
Suddenly, presence flowed out from the girl. Now, Furu could sense a living girl with body heat where she stood. An instant later, her idling analysis completed.
“Why do I have to be surrounded by difficult people?!” Furu yelled to no one in particular as Ende’s true nature came to her.
“What is she?” Leader asked, walking up behind Furu with the werewolf at his side.
“A Worldview Holder... in charge of destiny.”
“A particularly bad one?” he asked.
“A particularly bad one,” Furu answered.
This was worse than the werewolf. Werewolves had brute strength, but nothing more. Ende could influence the world on a grander scale.
“So you’re of those who call us Holders? Everyone has different names for it, which gets very tiresome... I prefer the name Readers for people like me,” Ende interjected, apparently overhearing their conversation.
“So, what do you want?” Leader demanded. “I thought people like you just watched us lower life forms go about our business from up in your tall towers. Even when you try to entice people to play around with their destiny, I’ve never heard of you helping them.”
“Th-That’s right! It’s very suspicious!” Furu found it very possible those words themselves were lies intended to mess with them, so she remained on her guard.
Humanity’s Extinction Happens During Summer Vacation?! Page 1