Chapter 14
-Southern Forest-
-Narrator-
When the old Kamaji came to Mitsue's house last night to tell him he would have a new hunting partner, the young man was perplexed. He had a lot of questions but the chief refused to answer him, saying he did not have enough time to explain.
But when dinner arrived, his sisters where very excited, more than usually. They were talking about their time with Maiko, and the new additions to the village.
They were arguing about a girl with so much strength she could lift any furniture with only one finger. He knew they were exaggerating, they often are, but he could not help but be interested by this enigma.
He then understood that she would certainly be his new partner so he did not asked any questions to his little sisters.
This morning, he was also thinking about this mysterious woman. Was she tall? Small? Or... Beautiful?
But, here he is, staring at the petite girl with shame.
He was fantasizing over a child.
How old could she be? Sixteen at most.
"What with people staring at me?" He hears her whisper before showing her hand. "Emiya Kamui. A pleasure to meet you." She says with a serious expression.
He hesitantly shakes her hand. "Mitsue." The young man mutters.
"Kotai!" The albino chirps next to her.
"Oh no. Another overexcited demon." He grumbles as Kamui rolls her eyes.
The old man is wearing a closed eyes smile. "Since everything seems alright, I will leave Kamui-chan and Kotai-kun in your care."
"Yes, old Kamaji." "Bye." "Goodbye old sir!" They all give different replies as they wait for the man to be out of earshot.
"So, when are we going?" The girl turns to her 'monitor'.
He blushes as he puts his hand behind his head. "We are going right after I give you the equipment." He then looks at the superactive albino. "Is the little one coming too?"
Kotai nods eagerly. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!"
The knight looks at him sternly. "Stop that."
"Ok." He stops in an instant.
Mitsue wears a dumbfounded expression. "I wish I could do that with my siblings." He then beckons them to follow him.
They walk for a moment before the knight asks a question. "So, you have siblings?" She hopes to find possible friends for her ward.
He gazes at her with a small blush. "Yeah, I have two little sisters."
"Twins?" Mitsue's eyes widen.
"I guess you already met them." He smiles.
She raises her eyebrow. "Yes, they dragged Maiko away while you were talking to the old man."
The young man seems thoughtful. "I don't really remember what happened, I really wanted to sleep at that time."
The petite girl looks at him as if he was from another world, which is pretty ironic.
The trio finally reaches the hunters cabin.
They enter and find nobody. "Are you the only hunter here?" Kamui takes notice of the position of every pieces of equipment.
"No, but the others are in town selling the surplus." He explains.
She hums while gesturing for Kotai to follow her.
"You will find a bow in the left corner, next to the broom." The hunter says.
"I found it!" The young boy exclaims before frowning. "But there is only one."
"What do you mean?" He turns around and sees the knight with a beautiful black bow doing almost her height.
Mitsue, who was gathering items for the hunt is now entranced by the craftsmanship of Emiya's bow. It looks like the bow was carved from black marble, in the center, right over the handle, a hole in the shape of an 'o' makes it easier for the wielder to aim accurately.
Wait, from where does it comes from?
"Is there a problem?" The knight takes him out of his trance.
"This is not a hunting bow you know?" He tells her, putting a hand under his chin.
The knight puts her free hand on her hip. "Don't worry about it."
He decides to not push further. "As you wish."
The hunting group then make their way toward the forest before the young man gives an odd look to the blonde girl. "You don't have any arrows." He states.
"Don't worry about it." She repeats, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.
Maybe she has a special way of hunting, if so, she can teach him. And the more he knows about hunting, the better it will be.
"Where did you found this bow Emiya?" He finally gathers the courage to ask.
She gives him an amused look. "Don't worry about it."
The dark red haired man stops in his track. "Stop dodging my questions." He demands with an annoyed face.
"It is my bow, nothing to sweat over." She sighs while shaking her head.
They stop in front of the forest. "And where did you put it until now?" He asks before widening his eyes as a smug smile threaten to appear on the girl face. "No, don't say anything." He adds with a sweat drop.
"Don't worry about it, sir, Onee-sama is really strong!" The albino exclaims with an 'innocent' smile while his guardian blushes slightly.
Mitsue seems to deflate at his words. "I will not worry about it then."
The knight puts the bottom of the black bow on the ground. "How many preys do we have to catch?"
The hunter now sports a serious expression. "The equivalent of a deer."
"Understood." She says. "Kotai, follow me the most silently you can."
He nods with a smile, the albino can not wait to go hunting. What will they find, deer? Or even bears, like the creature the guards feared. Maybe his guardian can beat it and then they can eat it.
"Let's go." He is taken back into reality when the two others make their way inside the forest.
"Wait!" He cries.
As Kotai follows them, the knight is making a plan with the young man. "We need to spread." He nods at that. "You go with Kotai and I go left." She adds.
He looks at her with worry. "You won't take the child with you?"
Kamui shakes her head. "My way of hunting is taking too much physically for him to follow me. Plus I am not an expert." The hunter frowns a little. "Don't worry he will absorb everything you tell him."
"Okay..." He says, skeptical. "Come with me Kotai." The hunter gestures to the albino who looks at his guardian reluctantly.
"He is the best at hunting here." She explains, crossing her arms in front of her flat chest. "We will see each other at the end of the session."
The child nods with determination. "See you after the session then."
The group separate and when the petite girl is sure she is far enough, she uses 'Structural Analysis' on the ground to know when and where animals has gone. Happy with her discoveries, the blonde knight runs in the direction of her prey.
She then suddenly stops and looks at the ground. There are mushrooms but she can not recognize any of them, it is 'Structural Analysis' time then.
After picking up the edible ones, she keeps on going in the direction of her prey, already salivating to the thought of meat.
The petite girl is thrown out of her thoughts when a mighty roar can be heard in all the forest. She turns around and what her eyes lay upon...
...Is a Bear.
She would have jumped in joy if she was not busy drawing her bow. The now bow woman traces an arrow, aims at the head, and shoots. The projectile separates into ten arrows before they all lodge themselves into the beast's head, after what the king of the forest falls with a big thud.
Success! The knight thinks, she now has reached her quota.
After finding a way to move the body making thrice her height without destroying everything in her way, she goes back to the village in a dreamlike state where she is surrounded by meat.
On her way, she meets Mitsue and her ward who both look like they ran a marathon. "Are you ooooo-eh?" The hunter asks while taking notice of the giant animal's body resting on the back of the knight. "Eh!?" His eyes widen in surprise as birds fly away because of his yell.
"Great, now that we all are here, let's go back to the village." She ignore his cries.
Kotai appears from behind. "Look what I found Onee-sama!" He shows her what is in his hands.
"You found a baby hedgehog?" Her face soften at the tiny creature trying to gain its balance. "Where?" The knight frowns, he can't take it if he stole it from its mom.
"He was wandering between the leaves right next to me." He says with excitement in his eyes. "Is it edible?"
Kamui gives him a blank look. "Yes, but we don't eat that. Ok?" If it is wandering without its mom in broad daylight, then it was abandoned. "And it's a 'She'." The girl adds.
They then make their way toward Shirakawa, with Mitsue still not believing that such a small girl could take on a fully grown bear by herself.