While everyone else continued on with their normal lives, there were still two missing.

Alexandra lay on her bed, unsure of how to do anything anymore. She had recovered long ago, but her current problem was a lack of will to continue.

She was still thinking about Zenya. About how this had been since the very start. About how she'd failed to change anything in the end. It weighed down on her.

"If I've just been fighting for a reason she made up on the spot… Then should I continue?"

She thought back to where it all began.

"In the beginning, I had no ambitions, did I? I was just on my own, looking for somewhere to belong. In the end, I found that. It was a perfect place. The only thing wrong was me. Leo, Cyrus, Judge. All of them were… determined. Unlike me, who was just drifting along, they wanted to reach the top. Could I hope to match that? Of course not. I never even tried. Until the very end, I assumed there was no point in me trying, that these days would continue forever, no matter what I did."

Yet again, she went back through those same scenes that had already been run through her memory so many times before, leaving her at the grief stage of her timeline.

"Now that I think about it, relationships should be a lot easier to replace than they are. Even someone like me, with no social ability, was able to forge a few in such a short time. They're easy to create. So… why is it so hard to get over it once they're gone, why are they so special? There's plenty of people out there, but the ones I've lost will never disappear. Well still, if I go any further with this, it'd start to sound like I didn't like them to begin with, so I'll stop. It's not like people decide things based on how much sense they make. After all, I should know that by now. I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, no reason to continue. The one thing I latched onto was just some vague idea. To become the strongest. It wasn't any different from what they wanted. If I was stronger then, everything would've gone well, so being strong will prevent it from happening again. But in the end… have I ever managed to get close to anyone, over these past years? Even though I have so many teammates now, I don't think I'm as attached to any of them as I was to my old teammates. So what was the point? I don't think there was one."

She jumped forwards in her memories again, back to the present.

"In the end, Zenya still died and I wasn't able to stop that. Because I couldn't outmatch that aura user. Then… how should I be stronger?"

The thought tormented her.

"Since then my entire life has been about getting stronger, huh? Nothing else to it. At this point, I don't think I could being a hunter if I tried. I don't know how to be anything else. But now… aura users, huh? I thought it was weird when Joseph started doing it, but this is something else. I really can't match them even after all this, can I? Then… how do I overcome them. I don't have any doubt they'll be a problem again, there's bound to be more out there. If I'm not prepared..."

Alexandra had no way of continuing those thoughts.

The outside world taunted her, but she still had no ability to approach it right now.

Instead, she just remained stuck in place, trying desperately to work out any kind of next move.

A few hours passed. She gave up. She needed to go outside. It wasn't bearable but less so than being stuck in here any longer.

As she walked out, she noticed who had been by the door the entire time.

Zino lay there, almost guarding the exit. What she was waiting for was for Alexandra to emerge from her room, ready to hunt again, whenever Alexandra was ready.

This resulted in a mix of emotions from her, all flying by so fast she couldn't pick out a single one to describe.

After a few seconds, Zino was clearly confused, but all that Alexandra could offer to get rid of this confusion was a simple "Thank you."

"Of course it was that simple…" She thought "This entire time, have I thought of Zino as an ally. No… anyone around me? Probably not. If i look at the others… then for Zino and I, rather than fighting in a team, it's more like our enemies were just fighting two battles at once. Then in that case, to become stronger, I need to bond with her more, to work alongside her. If I do that… I'll get stronger."

She tried to think of another line, but really had nothing to work with.

"...You're probably mad about what happened on the airship, right? Since I've just been avoiding it since then, out of… not going outside. Then… I'm sorry, for not caring about my life like that… it was probably inconsiderate of me."

Zino didn't really care that much about being apologised to, but she at least understood that Alexandra had no intent of doing it again, which was good enough.

After having decided to get closer to Zino, she realised she had no idea how to do this.

"Then… let's go on a hunt, I guess."

They went to the Marshlands, with the plan of hunting a Shogun Ceanataur.

On the way there, Alexandra continued trying to think of things to say to Zino, but realised she had nothing.

"How do I even think of things to say to most people, anyway? I just kinda make it up as I go along. Why can't I do the same here?"

They finally arrived, ready to fight. As they approached, the monster noticed them and let out an incredibly aggressive but unintimidating cry.

Zino got ready to charge forward, but Alexandra stopped her for a second, having an idea before climbing on her back. Zino had no idea how to respond to this and Alexandra had no idea what she was really doing, making it awkward. Even so, Zino tried to attack like normal, leaping forwards, Alexandra now barely clinging on. They landed, followed by Zino striking forwards. Alexandra really wanted to add an attack in, but was still trying to adjust after the landing and had no hands free while clinging on.

As she finally got herself ready to attack, the Ceanataur retaliated with some claw swipes and Zino responded with a backflip out of harm's way, much to Alexandra's distress.

Zino then landed and as if having forgotten about the hunter atop her back, began charging. Alexandra was still slightly disoriented, causing her to not notice this until the last possible second, leaping off and barely avoiding a strike of lightning.

She crashed into the ground, Zino only just remembering this and feeling terrible all of a sudden.

"This isn't working… is it?" Alexandra thought aloud, hopping back to her feet.

"Then… how are we meant to cooperate? If we just start fighting it, it'll be the same as always, but that isn't working so..."

Still thinking, she briefly checked over on the Ceanataur, only to find it had disappeared.

"...Fair enough I guess."

After some time had passed, they found it again, attempting to team up again, to similar failed results. After multiple failures at different methods, Alexandra just didn't know anymore.

"Well… it's like I should've expected it to work instantly. But still, how am I meant to fix this, then?"

As she continued to think, they found the Ceanataur again.

It saw them coming, and quickly jumped up, planting its claws into the ceiling so they couldn't reach it anymore.

Alexandra suddenly had an idea on how to counter this.

She explained it to Zino, who responded with a look of confusion and "Are you sure about that?" but Alexandra insisted until she gave in.

The Ceanataur looked down upon its two enemies, not seeming to have any plans in mind.

They circled it, until Alexandra said "Ok, here's good."

Zino faced towards the Ceanataur, causing it to prepare to dodge any lightning attacks.

Alexandra briefly took a step back, before running forwards, jumping up as she reached Zino. Zino then flipped forwards, kicking Alexandra through the air. The Ceanataur was stunned by the shock of this, not even thinking to dodge as Alexandra hurtled towards it, readying her lance.

It was knocked off the ceiling, crashing into the ground. Alexandra crashed a short distance away, almost wanting to laugh.

"That was a really dumb idea… but it worked. I guess I should think outside of how I normally do, huh?" She almost laughed, but stopped herself, since it'd be weird.

She got up as Zino rushed straight towards her to make sure she was fine, before they turned to deal with the Ceanataur, still stunned.

"That was kinda crazy so… same as we always do?" Alexandra asked, to which Zino nodded.

Both charged forwards, with Zino gaining a lead and throwing the first attack. Alexandra followed up with a strike. The two took turns attacking until the Ceanataur finally recovered, jumping back up.

It swung with its claws, prompting Zino to flip out of the way while Alexandra guarded. Without even waiting for it to stop Zino leapt back forwards again, avoiding the claws and crashing straight into it.

The Ceanataur just barely managed to get back up, for one dramatic last stand.

The pair hesitated for a second, before they both rushed forwards, striking it at the same time.

The fight could be seen as having ended rather anticlimactically, but after how long it had taken the two of them to get the point where it could be ended it was a relief.

As they made their way back, Alexandra started talking.

"Being flung into the air was pretty cool. But also if we kept doing that I'd probably die, so let's not do that again. Still, I feel like we worked together better than normal this time around, what do you think?"

Zino seemed to show agreement.

"Yeah… so we've improved, right? It's not like we're that great still but… this is better, right?"

Zino agreed again.

"...I'm still gonna keep going for the top." Alexandra announced, having just now decided on this "Even if it was given to me randomly, with the intent of me dying, it's what I've been doing for so long, that I might as well try seeing it through the end. But… I won't try and do everything myself, this time."

As they finally arrived back at Dundorma, Alexandra saw the others. She suddenly had an idea.

"Oh, you're still alive." Ben noted upon first seeing her.

"Yeah, I guess I am. It took a while, but I'm good to hunt again."

"Sure."

"Oh yeah, by the way… Can you guys call me Alex?"

"No can do." Zach announced, without hesitation.

"What, why?"

"This was already done last chapter, if we do it again it'll be pointless, so we won't. Sorry."

"Wait, by who?"

"Josh."

"Josh!?"

"Yo." Said Josh.

Alexandra paused "...Isn't he one of the ones who tried to kill us a few months ago?"

"Yeah." Zach answered.

"...Why is he here?"

"Well he wanted to join to apologise or something like that. He doesn't have that aura stuff anymore and he's gone two weeks without stabbing anyone, so he seems good for now."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Sure…"

Alexandra's thoughts kind of drifted off after that.

A short while later, she managed to corner Josh.

"What? You want revenge or something?" He asked, half-serious.

"No… why would you think that? Anyway, I want to ask about Zenya."

Josh fell silent.

Alexandra was also silent.

"Who?" Josh asked after a few seconds.

"...What?"

"I dunno who that is."

"But she was in your group."

"Yeah but I dunno anyone called that."

"She used a gun."

"What kind?"

"Uhh… heavy bowgun."

"Oh, Scope."

"Scope?"

"Yeah."

"That's a weird name, but still…" Alexandra paused again "How did you manage to escape the airship?"

"Kinda fell off."

"Then it's unlikely she made it too, huh? Well, I knew that from the start. I really did fail to save her." Alexandra thought, before continuing with the conversation "Still, what I want to ask is… how did she act when she was a part of your group?"

"I never really paid attention to others much back then and it was a while ago but if I had to say, maybe something was always kind of off about her? Most of us were dedicated to getting rid of what we thought was the problem, hunters we didn't approve of. But in her case, she was less focused on that. If I had to guess, for all of us it was that we needed something to fill a hole in our lives, but for her it seemed like she was less sure if this was the right method, like she didn't have as much desire for revenge. If that makes sense, then that's my answer."

"Sure, thanks."

Alexandra walked off attempting to get something out of this information.

"Zenya didn't want revenge, huh?" She thought "Then I guess that means she really was just using me as a scapegoat for Jude's death. Well, I guess it's more complex than that, but what it means is that, I guess she didn't really think it was my fault after all. But… I don't think I can accept that. Sure, just being told to do it was part of why I started trying to become the strongest to begin with, but there was also probably my sense of guilty. It's true though, if I had been stronger then I would've been able to save them. That's why it's fine, even if I blame myself. I'll just use this as a motivation to become stronger. That's all I need."

She continued to walk onward, slightly off the path she once tread but still going in the same direction.

TO BE CONTINUED