pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

We marched down by the Yaru River on our hunt. The sun shone down on our faces as we marched a little east in the morning. I raised my hand to shield my eyes as we walked. Rosé was quiet and occasionally she shuddered. She was thinking about the bodies - the dead children. Every step we took I could tell she was thinking about it. She had her skirt drawn tight over her hips and she stared straight forward in a distant expression. She was restraining herself.

"Did you decide to name your sword?" I asked her as we crested a hill with willow trees on our right by the bank of the river. I wanted to put her mind off of it, if only for a moment. It wasn't good to brood about the dead or what could have been. I did it all the time and I was miserable for it. When I thought about Pyrrha or the time I accidentally killed someone - the first time - it was enough to drive me mad.

"My sword…" she trailed off deep in thought. I threw her the line and tried to pull her out of it. "Falchion. I want to call it Falchion," she informed me.

"That's a good name for a sword. A fine name. Have you given any thought to where you want to go with it?"

"What do you mean?" I had her attention - a little, at least.

"Well in terms of mechashifting. It's fine for now but a hunter needs some versatility. You can make it so that it's also a gun. Like an assault rifle for example."

"What's wrong with the way it is now?"

"Nothing is wrong with it. Like mine is also a shield and a broadsword. The shield helps me deal with gun fire. Though my ability to fly helps."

"Yours isn't also a gun. I don't see why mine needs to also be a gun either. A sword is plain but I think it suits me."

"If that's your preference there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying that it could be and do more. Let your tools do the work for you. That sort of thing. If a plain sword is a perfect fit then it's a perfect fit. I'm just asking if it feels like a perfect fit to you."

"I think it is. It… it could be a touch longer. And I don't like the guard very much. But I like it just being a sword."

"We'll get something a little better fitted to your preferences before Beacon."

"You really do believe that I'll get in," she observed. She stared at me out of the corner of her eye.

"You're progressing well with dust and with your sword play. You know a bit about Grimm and only more all the time. Hunters are made out here not in schools. It's where I really developed myself. Under me you'll get wisdom and experience you wouldn't at a place like Signal or other prep schools. I think you've got a good shot at it," I defended my position rather firmly.

"What about other people who are serving as apprentices. Won't they get similar experience? Aren't I still behind."

"To be sure, you're still behind, but we'll just work harder than they will and I'll be tossing you into uncomfortable situations. Other masters probably won't do that. You'll have an edge."

"Like this morning - the bodies…"

"Like at the farmhouse this morning. It was important for you to see that. Do you know why?"

"To get used to it?" She was unsure and it came out like a question.

"In part. But also so that you understood what we're up against. You asked me what the Grimm are and now you're seeing it. This is what they can be and can do to us. This is also what we as hunters have to deal with and like you said - get used to. It's important that you know and understand the enemy and what they are capable of. It's important for you to know why we fight them."

"I think I understand. And I think I understand you a little better now, too."

"Me? How so?" I wondered.

"You said the gods are cruel. I know why you see them that way now. You must have been through a lot at Beacon. And after probably too. You said you developed out here in the wild. In the Grimm lands. You must have seen a lot of horrible stuff. Some of the advice you give me just seems so pessimistic but now I get it a little better. And I understand you better too. How many lives have you seen destroyed like at that farm house? How many bandits and murderers and who knows what else? This is what you want me ready for. You're genuinely afraid I might die; I probably will die hunting something too big for my boots. Is that how most hunters die?"

"They go out on missions and just never come back, a lot of them," I muttered. "We never find the bodies. After black out day - in Mistral - dozens of hunters died and went missing. They just never returned. Something made them all bite it. That's what usually happens. I really don't want that to happen to you as well. So if it takes seeing some awful shit to keep you alive then it'll be worth it. So yeah. Most hunters die that way and we really do drop like flies when it comes down to it."

"We're losing to the Grimm. I see that now. It's a war and we are losing. How do we have the time to fight one another? During the great war all that negativity must have brought the Grimm in droves and all they while we were bleeding one another out. There's not that many of us."

"Who is us?" I wanted clarification.

"Hunters. And Cetra in general, I suppose. What's the total population? Seven million? Maybe eight? And most people live in the four big cities. The rest are scattered in the wind. Like leaves from a tree. We could all die. Every day. Every single day we are on the verge of losing the war forever. That's terrifying. How do you live with it?"

"You just sort of have to live with it. You don't really have a choice. Well, there's suicide and a lot of hunters do need psychiatric care. We're under a lot of stress and we have a lot of power. If and when hunters snap it can be devastating. Not just to themselves but to all the people they could hurt."

"How many resources are devoted to the psychological care of hunters?"

"Quite a bit. I… up in Atlas I was hospitalized over my condition. I went on a tear."

"You? Even you? What did you do?"

"I killed a bunch of criminals and murderers. I even hurt some people who worked for Atlas Security. It was at a pretty low point in my life. I hurt a lot of people and they just couldn't stop me. I have some power behind me. I really tore it up. On my bender, in Mistral, I took on a gang lord and his whole private army. I slaughtered them."

"That's not so bad. It's just criminals and bandits right? Right?"

"I hurt a lot of people because I could and they couldn't stop me. I had fun doing it. That's pretty bad. It's about as low as you can get."

"But you still killed bandits back in Winhill."

"I tried to make it different. I try not to like it. The power I can have over other people and the rush of ending a life."

"But you do like it. Don't you," it sounded like an accusation and by all accounts it was.

"Yeah. I like my boot on their necks. I like killing monsters and bandits. I enjoy the power I have now over people and Grimm. Most people - I think - enjoy having dominion over things, but most people couldn't slaughter an entire village if they wanted so it's less of a problem for those people. But in someone like me it's an issue."

"Because you have that power. And what about Neo?"

"She's a criminal - a thief and a murderer. And she's my friend. I'm no better. I've killed people for sport. Don't be like me. Learn from me. Especially from my mistakes. Rise above. Power corrupts the user."

"And you have a lot of power. I don't think I want to be a huntress as much as I used to."

"Yeah. Me neither. But I am one now and I can't imagine doing anything else."

"You could retire."

"I really couldn't. One way or another I'm tied up in this business. There's no escaping this for me. I have to fight. I'm too good at it to not. And there are things that would drag me back into it. Whether I like it or not this is the life for me."

"I think I understand."

"You're well on your way to becoming a good huntress. You're on your way to surviving. Most of your peers aren't. They are going to die. My whole team from Beacon is dead now. Except for me. All I have left is this wisdom and I try my best now to pass it along to you and try and do some good in the world before I finally bite off more than I can chew. It's the best we can do. It's the best that I can do. And I'll never know if it will be enough because in all likelihood you will outlive me. I throw myself head first into some of the most dangerous situations on the planet and I've always come out alive even if I didn't win. By chance, mostly. I wouldn't say that I'm particularly lucky, however. I got a good team and made it into Beacon and I got a partner who was there to train me and look after me. I got my aura unlocked. I got lucky in a lot of ways, I suppose. But you can't count on luck. And the times I didn't get lucky people I cared about got hurt or died or worse."

She stared at me. Silence stretched between us like a gulf at my confession.

"I'm sorry," she said at length.

"Don't be. Just… survive. That'll be enough."

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

We found another den. It was littered with bones and weapons wedged in the dust. A thousand trophies of the battles the Grimm had won and then returned here to heal.

This time Rosé planted the landmine under my supervision with a yellow shock crystal.

"I think I hate these places. I think I hate the Grimm," Rosé decided.

"Just don't let it blind you to what the Grimm are capable of and I think that's a good attitude to have." I kicked a sword in the dust.

There puddles of black tar like ooze - Grimm blood - on the walls and floor of the large den.

"Let's get a move on. We'll go back and check the den we trapped yesterday and see if it's been by there. We might have gotten lucky." I turned to leave the den behind. All that was here was dust and bones. This place was a grave in part. I wondered if I would be buried or cremated or what would happen to my bones once I had finally rot away. Or I suppose something else might get me first. That was always a possibility. Those people were once what I was now. What those bones were now I will be. I left the momento mori to itself and let it be silent as a tomb.

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

It was late, the sun was low, and we heard the explosion rather than saw it as we approached the den. Rosé gave me a look. I gave her a firm nod. Then we started sprinting in the direction of the trapped first den.

We caught the Manticore there. One of its legs and part of it's wing had been blown clean off on its left side. It let out a furious roar and when it tried to take off and escape with a flap of it's might forty foot span wings it collapsed back to the ground.

"Use your dust!" I ordered.

Rosé reached to her belt and pulled a crystal free from it's harness. She crushed it and threw a wave of fire at the creature which caught it's hair ablaze. I struck it with a thunderbolt next. With a pause I activated my semblance and charged.

It swiped at me and I did a long back-flip over the clawed swipe. I slashed deep into its paw and ripped into flesh with my broadsword. Rosé let out a scream and charged. She ducked under where the tail stabbed at her and she sliced up into it with Falchion.

She continued to shout. She sounded both afraid and angry in her scream. She ran up and stabbed it deep in the chest. It roared and flicked her away with its paw and she slammed back into one of the walls of the den with a noise of pain leaving her lips.

I flew and sliced into its remaining wing and I cut it off with a swipe of the titanic blade. It howled out from the lion like face with large canines and rows of sharp teeth.

Then I Octa slashed it. I cut deep into its body and chest in a steady rhythm. It tried to hold up the stub of its left paw to hold me off but it was no use. I cut my way through that too. With one final thrust and a look dead in it's red eyes that met my blue ones, it died. I hoped it died in pain and horribly but that was probably not how the Grimm work. They probably don't feel pain like humans do. There was no way to revenge the suffering it brought on people back to it. That was just another way the Grimm had an edge over us I suppose. In the end they got that little victory. I hated them for that.

I flew over to where Rosé was getting back to her feet. She rubbed the back of her head with her hand.

"It's gone?" She asked. "It's dead?"

"Yeah. It's gone and dead. It'll never kill anyone else ever again. This is finished and we can move on ourselves. You did well."

"I got beat up. Nothing else. You did all the work."

"But you got back up. That matters. It especially matters. Come on. Let's go get dinner. I'm famished."

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG