His back hits the tree with a loud thud. Pain shoots through his body and he slides to the ground. He takes in a shaky breath as his hand reaches for his weapon in the darkness. He frantically pats at the ground, hoping to find all while never taking his eyes off the enemy.

Before him, a dark and tall figure makes steady steps towards Aichi. He gulps. To think he would run into a demon here, of all places. They were powerful monsters, stronger than the norm. One hunter didn't stand a chance against it.

He thinks he should run. To pick his battles and live to fight another day. But he can already hear the belittling words and laughter if he told others that he ran. Aichi was past those cowardly days. He was stronger now and could stand to face against a monster. He just wished that he would have run into something a little weaker.

The hunter shakes his head. No. If he gave into those thoughts he would surely lose. All he had to do was find his sword and fight. With his hand still patting the ground, his fingers come across something metallic. Giving a quick glance down, he finds it's the hilt of his blade. Great. He takes it into his hand and stands-

A piercing howl in the night stops the hunter and demon both in their tracks. Aichi's heart drops. In his time worrying over a demon, he had forgotten about the werewolf tracks that he'd been following. Never did he think he would have to deal with two monsters of different species at once.

Aichi grips onto his sword, ready for whichever may come his way first. He wasn't about to die here. He couldn't.

From the darkness, a beast with red fur pounces onto the scene. The werewolf. It's larger than any he's seen before. And he isn't sure if he should be glad or not that it's facing the demon and not him. He can see it bare its fangs, snarling and growling at the other monster.

Without a moment of hesitation, it lunges a the demon. Aichi remains in place, not wanting to intrude on this fight. The demon raises a hand that shifts into claws to strike. The werewolf cries in pain before retaliating. The next thing he knows, he sees the hand of a demon torn off and landing near him.

The demon's presence disappears shortly after. Aichi doubts its dead. It takes more than cutting off a limb to get rid of a demon. But even if the demon left, he was still stuck with this huge red werewolf. It was currently sniffing at the ground, as if trying to find the demon's scent. It's only when Aichi's grasp on his blade loosens and it falls to the ground does the wolf's head turn.

Aichi is quick to pick it up and hold it in defense. He mentally scolds himself on his clumsiness. The wolf's ears twitch and his gaze is focused all upon the human. Red eyes that match its fur are trained on him and only him as it takes steps towards him.

He should attack. Any normal hunter would. Take advantage of the wolf that had been hurt. But…Aichi couldn't. This wolf had helped him. Whether or not it knew that, the hunter was grateful for it.

The wolf stops right before Aichi. Red eyes meet with blue. He lowers the blade. Although scared, he doesn't feel like there would be any harm to come to him. There was no hint of it in those sharp red eyes.

Did he catch a look of concern in them? Worry?

Then he catches sight of dripping blood. The demon had scratched the wolf's neck. It was hard to tell where thanks to all the red fur, but he could see little drops falling.

Aichi makes the slow movement to grab something out of his pocket. He pulls out a small spray bottle. The wolf moves its head to sniff at it before shaking its head.

"This should help your wound," Aichi says.

The wolf doesn't move or respond, so Aichi takes that as a sign for him to approach. He stands beside him and gently pushes some fur aside to find the wound.

"This'll sting."

He sprays once. The wolf whines. He sprays it again. The wolf pulls away and shakes its head as if trying to get rid of the spray.

Aichi chuckles. It reminded him of his partner, weirdly. He isn't sure why.

A distance howl breaks him from his thoughts. This wolf howls in return. It turns to look at the hunter, staring at him once more before being swallowed up by the darkness. Aichi is left alone and isn't quite sure what had happened tonight.

~…~

"Sorry I couldn't go with you last night, Aichi." Ren says as he takes a bite of a donut. He offers one to the hunter, who shakes his head. But when he sees Ren pout, he reluctantly takes it.

"I-It's fine. I'm just glad nothing bad happened."

Could he tell Ren what happened last night? They were hunters, after all. Or at least Aichi was. Ren claimed to be one but didn't come from any family or town that specialized in them. He just offered to help Aichi out.

"Me to. I would have missed you dearly if you couldn't come in today. Then I'd have all these donuts to myself."

Ren finishes the one in hand, licking his lips and his fingers. He then pulls back his mess of hair, pulling it up so he could put it into a ponytail.

"Ren, what happened to your neck?" Aichi asks as he goes to his side.

The black collar he normally wore around his neck covered most of it, but Aichi could still see what looked like scratch marks on his skin. Ren tilts his head and tries to look at the area where Aichi was looking. He, unfortunately, can't see it without a mirror.

"Oh, that's right!" Ren finishes his ponytail and then lightly touches the wounded area. "I was putting on my collar and scratched myself. I guess it looks worse than I thought."

"You should really be a little more careful, Ren." Aichi sighs, glad it wasn't anything too serious.

"I should be the one telling that to you." Ren turns and looks Aichi. Their eyes meet and the hunter falls silent. Those red eyes staring at him looked so familiar, and not just because he knows Ren and sees him nearly every day. They reminded him of something…as if he'd seen this look before, but on someone else.

An image of the werewolf flashes in his mind.

It couldn't be, could it?

His trance is broken when Ren brings up another donut, blocking his gaze. Aichi declines it this time, even after the man pouts at him. To please him, he says he'll have one later.

He lets his mind return to that werewolf and Ren. Maybe it was just a coincidence. There was no way Ren could be a werewolf…could he?