Hunter's Children

The second generation of monster brats are entering the Hunter Exam, while back at their homes, chaos is created by younger (and older) siblings…

Chapter one

In which Shira and Itoko leave for the Hunter Exam.

"Shira! Time for breakfast!"

The girl with sandy blonde hair groaned.

"I don't wanna get out of bed… Not even for breakfast…" She mumbled, then her eyes snapped open.

She snatched her cellphone from the small table beside her bed. The display read 11:36.

"AAAARRRGH! I'VE OVERSLEPT!" She shrieked, got dressed in record speed, charged down the stairs, and slipped. Smooth wooden steps plus not properly worn socks equals disaster.

Fortunately, the stair she had slipped on was the third one from the bottom. Unfortunately, her father had witnessed the magnificent fall.

"Be more careful Shira, or I won't let you go to the Hunter exam!" he said playfully.

"I'll be fine! After all, I've inherited your brains!" she flicked her fringe out of her face, stalked past her father, and promptly tripped over a large china tortoise.

"Ow!" she yelped. "I don't remember that being there."

"My brains aren't the only thing you've inherited..." muttered her father, emerald eyes sparkling with amusement.

Shira glared at him, her own jade green eyes flashing annoyedly. She stomped into the kitchen, and yelled over her shoulder, "Dad! What's for breakfast? If it's even vaguely purple and has lumpy blobs in it, I'll pass, just so you know."

"Oh? That means more blueberry pancakes for the rest of us-"

"I take that back!" she came out with an enormous amount of purple-ish pancakes piled high on her plate, sat down, and started eating voraciously.

"Shira, if you eat that fast you'll get indigestion-"

"And if I eat slow I might miss the exam! What a dilemma!"

"Not likely. Now slow down!"

"...Mum, what's a dilemma?" asked Hiro, Shira's eight-year-old brother.

Their mother blinked. "...Its a situation where only one outcome is possible and-"

"Mum, that's hitsuzen."

"...Oh. Thanks Shira."

"Hiro, a dilemma is a situation where it's very difficult to decide what to do because all the choices seem equally bad or good." explained her father very precisely.

"...So Shira nee-chan's between a rock and a hard place?"

"That's about right. Even if the whole thing's in her imagination."

"...Can I enter the Hunter exam?"

"In three years eleven months and sixteen days. Shira! How many pancakes have you already eaten?"

"...Um... Twelve?"

"TWELVE?" yelled Hiro. "When did you have the TIME!"

"Oh! Time to go!"

Shira grabbed her backpack, the rest of the pancakes, and her slim rapier named Hisame, 'Sleet', for its slightly blue sheen.

"Bye Dad, Mum, Hiro!" she called. "I'll come back home as a Hunter or not at all!"

"Then you won't be going home."

Shira laughed. Itoko, who was taking the exam with her, had made the ominous comment. She was a slim thirteen-year-old girl with pink hair and gold eyes.

"When'd you get here? And don't be so pessimistic!"

"Only one newbie passes to become a Hunter every three years."

"That's what I mean! Don't be a killjoy! Anyway, LETS GO!" yelled Shira at top volume. She started running in the direction of the docks, and then shouted, "BYE MUM! BYE DAD! BYE HIRO! ITOKO, IF YOU DON'T HURRY UP I'LL SAY BYE TO YOU AS WELL!"