A group of incredibly worn out hunters trekked through the freezing tundra.
"How long have we been out here now?" Natasha asked.
"Four hours, I think." Natalie answered.
"It's all cause that damn thing keeps slipping away." Ben complained.
"Hey, don't let the anger get to yer head." Sean warned him "We've still gotta capture it."
"Sure thing…"
Four monsters followed them. The blizzard made it too difficult to fly, so Azure was stuck on the ground.
They entered another area and saw their target searching for food. Azure used a fireball before it spotted them, connecting directly with its head.
The Glacial Agnaktor roared at the group, but by now they were so used to it doing this that they just started attacking.
Sean fired at it while the other three charged forwards. The Agnaktor fired an ice beam which knocked Ben away, his only response being an annoyed yell. The other two dodged.
As Natasha leapt forwards to slash at it the monster burrowed into the ground.
It surfaced again a few metres to shoot some ice, but felt a presence behind it before being punched into the air by Aki. An explosion followed, slamming it back onto the ground.
The monster got up and started to limp away.
"Stop attacking!" Sean yelled "We can capture it now!"
The twins prepared to set a trap. The Agnaktor started to dig into the ground.
"Gah, it's escaping again!" Natasha frustratedly yelled.
"Like hell it is!" Ben rushed in, having only just gotten up, even more pissed than before.
"But we don't have any sound bombs." Natalie pointed out.
"Doesn't matter!"
Ben drew his axe in sword mode and jumped into the air, sticking the weapon into the ground before activating an elemental discharge. The ground below him exploded, but all he did was laugh.
The Agnaktor was knocked out of the ground and landed nearby. It stopped moving.
"Wait no don't be dead."
The rest of the group took a little while to process this. The silence was broken by Sean dropkicking Ben.
"All my money's wasted now!"
Ben recovered before being dropkicked by Natasha as well.
"Four hours!"
Ben recovered again and waited, but nothing happened.
The group looked over at Natalie who was just awkwardly standing around.
"What's wrong?" Sean asked "Ya gotta dropkick him so we get the rule of three going here."
"I mean…" She nervously replied "Is it really that big of a deal?"
"Yeah. We failed the quest."
"I know, but it's just one mistake, right? So let's stop fighting. It'll be bad if we don't."
"It's fine." Ben told her "I screwed up, so it makes sense if I get kicked for it."
"Fighting's bad. So let's stop. Right now."
"Seriously, I won't mind if yer angry. Besides, it'll probably make ya feel better, so like-"
"No it won't. It's just one mistake. There's no point in this. Please."
"...Sure."
The group returned to Dundorma a few hours later.
The trip was mostly silence, since no one really knew what to say.
As Natasha was strolling down the street aimlessly, Ben appeared before her.
"...What?" Natasha asked.
"How am I supposed to make things less awkward with Natalie?"
"Dunno. That's your problem, right?"
"Yeah, but I dunno how to fix it."
"Why would you ask me though?"
"I dunno if ya noticed, but yer kind of her sister."
"Ah, guess you're right."
"...That's a worrying response. But still, any ideas? Cause ta be honest… I don't really know how to do anything without violence."
"Wait, what about like… cooking and stuff?"
"Ya gotta punch a few times it to get the flavour out."
"Fair point. Well uh…"
Natasha sat down while she thought.
"This entire situation is weird." Was her answer.
"Whaddya mean?"
"Well, it all started because of failing at capturing a monster. But until a few years ago, the idea of capturing monsters wasn't even a possibility in my mind."
"Well yeah, neither of ya were hunters a few years ago, right?"
"No it's not that. You already know about Día, right?"
"The place both of ya come from?
"Yeah, that."
"What about it?"
"Well, I guess the entire country's beliefs are different to some of the ones. I mean, the guild's based on that respect for nature stuff, right?"
"Yeah, I think it was something like that."
"Yeah. Over there we… really didn't consider that at all."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Rather than respecting it, I guess it was more like fear. Monsters were to be exterminated no matter what. If one was spotted near a town, it was taken out immediately. That meant any monster, even the small ones. We were taught to be afraid of them. Something like coexistence couldn't have occurred to us."
"Huh. Weird."
"It probably is to you, but to us it was all we knew."
She thought back to those days.
A girl was hunched over crying.
Her twin walked towards her.
"Hey, what are you so upset about?"
"Kevin's gone…"
"...Is this your rock collection again?"
"Yeah."
"Then why not just leave it?"
"I can't!"
"Why?"
"Cause it's important."
"It's a rock."
"Yeah. What about it?"
"I mean, it's a rock. You can just find some more. They're everywhere."
"Yeah, but they're not Kevin!"
The girl looked like she was about to start crying again.
"Ok, fine. I'll help you look for it. Just stop being like that."
Her mood immediately shifted. "I knew I could count on you!" Thanks, Natalie!"
"Alright just… calm down, Natasha."
"I'm ok now."
"That was fast. So uh, where were you when you lost it?"
"...Dunno."
"Where have you been today?"
"Oh, I wandered around the fields and stuff."
"Then let's go there."
The girls retraced Natasha's steps, but as they were searching Natalie suddenly froze.
"What is it?"
"Look over there." She pointed to something they both understood to fear.
A monster strode through the area, looking around. It was slightly larger than them, with grey skin and a spiky tail.
Both of them hid.
"What is that?" Natasha asked "Is it dangerous?"
"I think it's an Aptonoth. It doesn't do anything itself, but it usually brings more scary things with it. We've gotta go back."
They quickly ran back and found the person they needed.
"Eric!"
The relatively tall hunter with oversized glasses looked over at them.
"What is it?"
"Aptonoth!" Natasha yelled.
"In the plains!" Natalie added.
"Got it. I just wanted a day off… oh well. It'll be gone soon, don't worry." He picked up his axe and strolled off in the direction they pointed.
Eric was their brother, one of the hunters for their town. Even though they were called that, compared to the hunters in the other country it was probably more accurate to call them guards. They immediately dealt with any monsters nearby, keeping them away from people. The moment a monster was sighted anywhere, hunters were called in to take it out.
A short while later he returned, giving a relaxed grin as they spotted him.
"I dealt with it. You're safe."
That was just one unimportant, regular day in this country that feared monsters.
Well, there's no point in pretending that this will turn out fine, so it'd be better to just get to when everything fell apart a few years later.
On a day that seemed ordinary, it began.
It was like a siege.
Monsters all attacked the town at once, it almost felt coordinated.
There were more than they could count, the panic made it impossible to tell what was what.
In this situation, the twins both thought of the first place they were used to going. By the time they arrived, their home had already been crushed.
A Glavenus standing on top of the wreck spotted them and moved closer, before being hit by an axe swing to the side.
"Stay the hell away from my family, monster!"
The Glavenus was pushed back slightly, but still managed to stay up. It swung its tail around, barely grazing Eric. He then followed up with an axe swing straight to the jaw, leaving a dent in it and knocking it down for a moment.
Eric stood between his sister and the monsters. He glanced around to quickly assess the situation, only slowing once he noticed the ruins of the house.
The hunter then turned to the twins, still frozen there. The Glavenus had already gotten back up.
"We're running!"
He snapped them out of their daze and started to drag them away.
"But wait," Natalie protested "They-!"
"There's no time! We've gotta get moving!"
Eric led them away, trying to ignore all the destruction around them. They only stopped once the place they lived in was far behind them.
"What… was that?" Natasha asked.
"I dunno." Eric replied "The monsters have been more aggressive recently, for some reason. But thinking about why they're like that won't really get us anywhere, we've gotta get to the next city. It should be safe there."
"Wait, we can't just-" Natalie argued "I mean, back there, and- like, they're… I can't deal with this! I'm gonna-"
She couldn't finish any of her sentences, but how upset she was was clearly conveyed. Understandably, she seemed to be a few seconds from breaking down sobbing. Natasha saw this and it finally started to dawn on her what happened back there. She would probably break down at around the same time.
Eric put one of his hands on each of their shoulders, interrupting this.
"I know how you're both feeling. But this area's dangerous, we're at risk of getting attacked by some monsters any second. So until we get to somewhere safe, I need you to hold in what you're feeling. Don't worry, it'll be over soon."
"...Sure."
The twins clung to Eric's orders as they continued to travel across the country.
As they continued to walk even when their legs were about to give out. As their stomachs felt like they were about to cave in. As they hid from monsters, trying not to make a sound. They clung to those orders.
They couldn't show emotion, no matter what.
It was a few weeks after they left. It was still impossible to leave what happened behind them, but at the very least they had learnt to push it aside for now.
"Eric, I'm tireddd." Natasha complained.
"We're almost there, only a few more hours."
"Ok."
Natalie didn't say a thing, seeming to have not heard them. She was clearly at her limit.
A second later, all three of them heard stomping nearby. It drew closer to them.
Eric quickly scanned the environment and pushed the others into a hiding place at the last second.
A Glavenus walked into view. They all froze. They saw the jaw.
Natasha glanced at Natalie. It all seemed to hit her at once. She started to cry. To scream. Letting out all the emotion that had been pushed down for so long.
This was noticed by everyone, including the Glavenus. It shot a fireball at them, looking like it was about to engulf them. Eric jumped out of hiding and into it, causing it explode before it could hit the other two.
He was knocked back but managed to catch himself and face the monster once again.
The other two were still in hiding, but this clearly wouldn't last long as the monster drew closer.
The brute wyvern felt an axe cut into its side.
"Hey, I'm your opponent. Not them."
The hunter followed this up with some more attacks, attempting to drive it back.
The Glavenus bit at him, being barely dodged. Eric then brought his axe down on its head.
It hit the ground and stopped moving. Eric looked at it for a second, before running to where the twins were hiding.
"Hey! We haven't got any time, we need to run-"
Eric saw Natasha's expression of terror. Without even needing to turn, he understood the situation. Unfortunately, he was a second too late in throwing himself to the ground.
Eric hit the ground as he saw the Glavenus' tail cut through the surrounding area. He got ready to take advantage of the opening, but found nothing there.
The pain only seemed to register as he saw his right arm land a few metres away.
A scream of pain was stifled as he turned back around.
"Both of you get running!"
"B-but your arm-" Natasha responded.
"Ah, don't worry about it. I still got one more left. So go on."
"But we can't-?"
"...Natasha! You pay attention too, Natalie!"
Natalie was snapped out of her sobbing, only just now taking in the situation.
"I uh… might not be able to stay with you any longer. So, all you two have is each other. You've gotta rely on each other! Keep each other safe!"
They didn't respond, but the danger was evident. Natasha decided the only option was to follow his advice, grabbing Natalie and running. There was some resistance but it quickly stopped.
Their last sight of Eric was of him using his remaining hand to pick up his axe once more, ready to fight to the end.
A few hours later the two arrived at their destination.
From what they found out monster attacks like these were happening all over the place, so their situation wasn't uncommon.
Natalie was barely responsive for a while. She'd react to basic things, but something like a conversation was impossible. It was like her mind was in another world.
Natasha couldn't understand any of this. She couldn't do anything to help her. Completely powerless.
A short while later, some people made a plan to leave. There was supposedly a country to the north, so it should be safer there. They joined mostly because they had nowhere to return to.
Natasha continued to not show any emotion until a few weeks later when this suddenly changed. She became a far more positive person than she'd ever been before, trying to help out the others as much as she could. The rest didn't think much of this but Natasha recognised it.
It was the exact same as before. Even though she was talking to them, her mind still felt like it was somewhere else.
Her feelings were locked up. The only thing that remained was the helpful, supportive Natalie. Anything else showing would just lead to problems.
So Natasha decided. She had to find some way to save her from this. She didn't know how, or if it was possible, but she would.
A short while later the group arrived. They lived with others from Día for a few more years, before they were old enough to become hunters. There was no other real path available to them.
Natasha took an interest in the charge blade, while Natalie gravitated towards the hunting horn.
They worked as hunters for a while. Even though she'd heard this place's idea of respect for nature repeated a bunch of times, Natasha couldn't buy it. Anything dangerous was immediately dealt with, before it could become a threat. She couldn't risk a repeat of what happened before.
Natalie seemed to share her idea. That was what made it such a surprise on that day.
It was a quest to hunt a Crimson Qurupeco in the Flooded Forest. They already knew about it being able to summon other monsters, so the plan was to take it out as fast as possible before it could call in a Deviljho.
They spotted it at the same time it spotted them, so Natasha rushed towards it.
She jumped through the air and brought her sword down, being sidestepped, so she followed up with a horizontal swing, catching it.
The Qurupeco banged its wings together before jumping forward, hitting Natasha with an electric spark and knocking her away.
She quickly recovered and slashed away at it some more, trying to weaken it. Natalie charged in and hit it a few times before starting to play a song to strengthen Natasha. The now empowered Natasha went to attack again, but was knocked away by some pecks from the monster.
As she recovered, the Qurupeco puffed up its vocal sac.
"It's gonna call a monster." Natalie noted.
"No, it won't!" Natasha replied, rushing to get back up.
The Qurupeco let out a cry that vaguely resembled a Deviljho's, before stopping partway, seemingly unable to continue.
Natasha didn't think much of this, taking the chance to continue her attack.
"Wait!" Natalie yelled, breaking Natasha's concentration and causing the axe to get buried in the ground instead of her target's skull.
Natasha looked at the weapon in slight dismay, before turning to Natalie.
"What?"
"Just… leave the Qurupeco alive for a little while longer. I'm interested."
"...I don't get why you would be, but sure, why not."
She approached the Qurupeco calmly. It stopped fighting for a second.
"Your vocal sac's broken, isn't it?"
"Huh!?" Natasha exclaimed, while the monster didn't respond.
Natalie turned to face her.
"It couldn't imitate the Deviljho's cry. I think it must've been injured, somehow."
"Ah, good for us, then." She readied her axe to finish it.
"W-Wait!"
"For what?"
"I-I wanna spare it. Cause… isn't it sad?"
Natasha stared at her in confusion for a while. Her thoughts eventually became something.
"Ah, so this is just her being nice to everything again. Still, sparing a monster, huh? That's weird. Like, unthinkably weird. Like, who would even do this? Wait…"
She played back Natalie's words in her head repeatedly.
"Sparing a monster feels too weird to just be normal kindness. So is that what she actually wants, for once?"
She stood there thinking for a little while longer, until suddenly reaching a decision.
"Yeah sure, let's go with that. No problem with it."
"Sure, thanks."
They meant to just leave the Qurupeco behind, but it ended up following them. Natalie somewhat quickly gave up on trying to get away from it and decided to stick with her.
She was named Frega, for whatever reason.
More time passed, but Natalie didn't seem to show any signs of emotion outside of that encounter. Eventually, they found themselves in the volcano, looking for a Brachydios.
They quickly found it and started to fight.
A few minutes in Natasha yelled out "Wait just a sec!"
The others and the Brachydios paused.
"This thing… no wait, I should just talk to the monster, not you guys." She changed focus "Your attacks are slower than they should be. Something already injured you, didn't it? Well in that case, don't worry. I'll-"
Her kind yet borrowed words were cut off by a swift punch to the gut, knocking her away.
"...Yeah, figured as much." Natasha muttered, picking herself back up.
"Are you okay?"
"Close enough. Anyways, guess your approach didn't work for me. But it's not much of a problem. I'm interested in this one, so just stay back for a little while. We're gonna have a little chat."
Natasha readied her sword again and stepped forwards, the monster raising its fists and doing the same.
There was almost no distance between them.
The Brachydios struck first with its left fist, but only hit the ground. Natasha rolled to its side and slashed at it, before rolling away as it swung around.
The brute wyvern lept forwards to close the distance between them, still able to move surprisingly well.
Another punch was thrown, being barely blocked. Natasha then took this opportunity to slash at it some more, before rolling around a headbutt.
Luckily for Natasha, the Brachydios' slime had already dried, so she just had to not give it enough time to reapply it.
More slashes. Some of the punches connected, but she was still able to stand.
The other two continued to watch, unable to interfere even if they wanted to.
The Brachydios stomped the ground, throwing off Natasha's balance before throwing a follow up punch. Natasha was unable to dodge, she took the hit to the stomach.
As the monster started to pull back, it felt a sharp pain in its arm. It focused more to find Natasha with a dagger stuck into it, clinging on desperately.
Another strike from the side, but this was quickly twisted around. The monster slammed its fists into the ground, forcing her to pull her weapon out and kick off it before they could. As Natasha hit the ground, she shifted her weapon upwards and swung straight for the Brachydios' chest, knocking it back.
Unfortunately, the strike hadn't been as powerful as she hoped. The brute wyvern slid to a halt and then lowered its body again, quickly licking its right fist. It could now use slime again. It got ready to attack.
"Then, no choice-!" Natasha thought, using up all her phials at once.
Both the hunter's weapon and the monster's fist flew towards the other, colliding to cause a fairly massive explosion that knocked them both back.
Natasha rolled into a wall, almost blacking out. Natalie helped pull her up, as she quickly glanced over at her opponent.
The Brachydios had hit another wall. It was still conscious but it clearly couldn't get back up.
Natasha approached it, trying to ignore her injuries.
"That was a good explosion just now."
The Brachydios observed her silently. She moved closed and extended a hand.
"So, wanna be friends? We can fight together, and all that stuff."
The Brachydios seemed to accept, so they went with that.
"Ah, right, you need a name. ...Aki's good right?"
The Brachydios nodded slightly.
A little while later, when they were alone, Natasha ended up talking with her more seriously.
"Hey, I feel like… now's a good enough time to tell you why I really joined forces with you."
Aki listened to her.
"Eheheh, this is uh… kinda awkward. But I might as well get it out there instead of pretending it's something else. But the reason I helped you, is cause there's someone I want you to help me out with helping. Wait, that's too much help. Gimme a sec…"
She took a second to organise her thoughts.
"I need you to help me. Cause right now, Natalie's locked up. It's like a cage. I can't find the key, I don't even know if there is one… but at the very least, I wanna weaken that cage. It doesn't matter whether I'm the one who saves her, or someone else does, or if she even saves herself. I just need her to be saved. And your explosiveness seems perfect for helping with that."
Aki took a second before nodding and covering her fists in slime, ready to destroy whatever she was asked to.
"Stop! I didn't mean it like that, it's not a real thing! It's a metaphor! For emotions, or something."
Aki didn't understand at all.
A few hours of attempting to explain figures of speech to a monster whose one purpose in life was punching a lot of things later she ended up going to sleep, still as determined as ever to change something.
The group wandered for a little while longer until they reached Moga.
"Seriously, can ya come back to reality already? I was tryna be patient since I figured since it'd be something important, but ya haven't moved in 15 minutes. Are ya still alive?"
Natasha snapped back into reality. "Ah, no. I just got really into thinking."
"Well did ya think of anything useful?"
"...Not really."
"Then what was the point?"
"Well don't worry, cause I'll just think of something now that I've powered up again or something."
"Powered up from what?"
"Not important."
Natasha kept thinking for a while longer, until she suddenly coughed up blood collapsed.
"What happened!?" Ben yelled as he ran up to her.
"Heh… looks like I thought a little too much…"
"Are ya stupid!? Ya know we can't use our brains that much!"
"It's fine… I've gotten what I needed. I've worked it out. To make things less awkward with Natalie…"
"What do I need to do?"
"You just gotta be straightforward. She's trying to stop you from apologising cause she's scared you'll hate her, but you know you won't, so just do it anyways."
"Sure." Ben replied, slightly disappointed that he'd waited so long for such a simple answer.
"Anyways, dying." She coughed up more blood and slumped lower to the ground.
"Thanks for everything. I won't let yer sacrifice won't be in vain, NATASHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
As the man screamed out, the sun disappeared over the horizon.
"Ah, sunset already?" Ben dropped her to the ground as he got up "I guess we were talkin' for longer than I thought, I should go find Natalie quick."
A few seconds after he ran off, Natasha sat back up, rubbing the part of her head that had hit the ground.
"He didn't need to drop me that quickly, at least linger on it a little. Well still, with any luck, things should work out. Now that I think about it… isn't Ben kinda like him?"
She thought about this for a little while longer.
"Nah, complete opposites. Apart from using axes. But that'd make me like him too, so it doesn't really count either. But it's not like that matters, right? I believe in you. If it's you, then it's not impossible."
Ben, unable to hear her, continued to wander the streets until he saw his target a short distance away.
Natalie turned to see Ben towering over her, having somehow covered an entire street in less than second.
"Uh-um-ah-uh... Hi?"
"Yo."
"What… do you need?"
"I need to apologise."
"Ah, that again. I already said, it's fine, you don't have to-"
"Nah. I do. I know that ya don't wanna cause conflict or somethin' like that, but if ya just keep insisting on not being honest here that's probably gonna make things more awkward."
"Yeah… but, what if something goes wrong? Like you hate me, or it's awkward, or that leads to-"
"It'll be fine. I'm not so petty that something like that'll affect me."
Natalie couldn't find any more potential scenarios, but her worries about showing emotion were obvious.
"I dunno why ya don't wanna show emotion, and I probably shouldn't find out, but that doesn't matter. Ya don't gotta worry about it around us."
Natalie stared at him while her brain made a noise like static, before finally returning to reality. "Sure. Thanks."
Obviously, a fear running this deep couldn't be stopped with just a few words of barely emotionally intelligent barbarian. But at the very least, the feeling that she could be at least somewhat the people she trusted seemed to be weakening her emotional cage, even if she was still reserved.
For the time being, as they all continued down that road, that was all that was needed.
TO BE CONTINUED