A Promise Between Worlds

by CrafterofTales

When Emma's life hangs by a thread, a mysterious entity offers her a chance to free her family from the Demon World. The catch: she must participate in a competition between people from several worlds, and enter numerous events for the promised wish. Meeting those of other-worldly abilities, she is a child not only relying on smarts and tenacity, but her heart as well.

5. The Ogre Among All Ogres

Chapter 5: The Ogre Among All Ogres

She stood there silently, her eyes fixated upon the path where the young man of white-silver fanged hair had left, the limping pain in his foot so discreet it would seem that he was walking just fine. He disappeared into the crowded lush of the wilderness, the fright for her life a moment ago now gone like visiting wind.

The sound of crumbling deterioration startled her back to awareness. The now deceased King Taijitu was dissipating into broken small shards of black ashes and fading shadows, little by little. Emma quickly moved away, creating distance from the body of the slain creature, and watched as the monster slowly broke apart, until there was nothing left, not even its blood.

So there are monsters who may vanish upon death? A new-found knowledge. The opportunity to take a piece from the Grimm beast was lost, but while she would find it disappointing, or encourage herself to act immediately in collecting a monster's piece next time, her thoughts lingered to the competitor, the young man who kept their death at bay from the jaws of the King Taijitu.

She eyed the place longer where the Grimm's existence died away before taking to the rest of the area in a search, finding her rifle, bow, most of the arrows that fell out, and retrieving Gon's fishing rod.

"Is it still around here...?"

She pulled back some bushes, and found it. A sullen shine to the device's redness and with a sheen black under the daylight, wedged in between the overgrown roots. It must have been thrown here by the wolfish man the same time he tossed her. Returning the device back into one of the pockets of her sweater vest, she offered one last regard to the taken path of the young man, and proceeded her own way out of the area.

She had been running directionless in her desperation to keep ahead of the fierce competitor, she completely lost track of her whereabouts, but with her Monster Tracker on her again, she might be able to find Gon and Killua. Though, she knew that they couldn't possibly be in the same place she last saw them, and if they have indeed left for somewhere else, finding them won't be so simple.

But she promised to be their guide through this vast, dangerous forest. She will not leave them here to wander without any help. She has to find them. Fast.

Treading her feet through the green forest with both haste and caution, she felt the ground tremble and stopped. A loud tearing through the forest not too far from her, and growing closer. Something was coming her way.

She quickly climbed up one of the large trees, barely reaching the first low branch when the disturber arrived.

A body as tall as the trees, several feet in height, a disturbingly wide, toothy grin, with hair long and dark brown. His appearance was human-like. His arms flailed at his side as he ran through the forest. An ugly looking creature that left Emma gawking, and she remembered a story she once read at the Gracefield House, a story about giants - enormous human-like beings that can crush a person with a single step and eat them with a single chomp.

A flash of light and blue sparks scattered from the back of the titan's head. Its eyes rolled back, the strength in its legs lost as an object suddenly pierced through the back of its knee, a gray spear that appeared to be roughly made out of stone.

"-Craaap!"

Clinging onto the giant's head, a short, teenage boy, with blonde hair that ties to a thick braid, golden eyes, a red coat overlaying his mainly black uniform, and white gloves worn on his hands that were pressed against the back of the giant's head. At the titan's fall and slamming its face against the ground, the boy tumbled over and rolled across the ground a few feet until stopping on his back with a grunt.

"Brother!"

The blonde boy pushes himself to sit, another person came into view. A body covered completely in grayish armor, spikes around both shoulders with a small painted symbol on one side, and a white tail-rag at the tip of his helmet. No face or flesh could be seen, a strange white glowing shine through the opening of his eyes. He came running towards the boy he called brother, passing the fallen giant.

"Are you okay?!"

Edward rubbed his head with a hurt grimace, golden locks between his fingers. "I think so. Come on, let's go before this guy wakes up-"

Suddenly, their entire surrounding shook, the sounds of explosions and breaking of the earth from a distance. Emma nearly fell out of the branch she held onto tightly while the brothers below her staggered at the fierce abrupt quake that lasted for several seconds.

"Holy- What the hell was that?!" Edward quickly stands to his feet.

Alphonse looked around, "I don't know- Brother look out!"

A massive hand reached out behind them. Emma gasped when the reawaken giant nearly took hold of the blonde boy until his brother pushed him away, and the armored person was grabbed instead.

"Al!" Edward looked up in horror at his brother held high above the giant's head, slowly being brought towards the huge smiling teeth.

"D-Don't eat me Mr. giant! Believe me! I really won't taste that great!" Alphonse said as he struggled under the giant's grip.

Emma pulled out her rifle and aimed at the giant. An instant touch to the trigger, but her hesitation taking hold at the human face. Moving the point of her rifle away from its face and to the enormous hand that held the competitor hostage, she prepares to fire while ensuring that she does not shoot the armored person by mistake.

"Let go of my brother you freakin titan!"

A resounding clasp between the hands of the other brother, a clap that rings like a metal bell. He slammed the ground with his white-gloved hands. Blue statics ignited beneath his palms. The ground underneath his touch seemingly mutated and re-structured, a wallop of stone and solid material shot up from the ground like a large serpent, and struck the giant by the cheek.

Emma was caught off-guard by the display of his ability as the titan's head sharply reared away. The titan still held Alphonse in an unrelenting grip, nearing a large boulder and holding Alphonse close to it. Seeing the boulder, with his freed hands, Alphonse clasps them in a quick, prayer-like clap, and slaps the boulder. A similar effect like the blonde boy's action occurs, and an angled geyser of stone punched the giant in the face, smashing its teeth and bellowing a high-pitch cry through his horrifying grinning expression, finally then releasing Alphonse.

Edward dashed for his brother's side. "Run Al!" He sprinted down one direction.

The armored brother joins him, "I'm right behind you!"

"A-Amazing," Emma quietly uttered as the brothers quickly flee from the titan. Steam bleeds through the grinning mouth of the giant, its broken teeth that redden with its blood. The giant gripped the ground, cracking it under its pressure.

Seeing its posture, Emma realized the giant was preparing to lunge itself for the boys and she raised her rifle once more. Steeling her soft heart for its humanoid appearance, and aims for the side of one of its eyes.

"Fire Ball!"

Bursting through the bushes, boulders, and half of several trees, a large ball of fire burned everything in its wake, swallowing the grounded titan and burning it into a crisp. An intense heat that charred its skin instantly as a heavy weight slammed its side, sending it against a tree and snapping of its bones.

Emma stumbled, latching onto the bark as a wave of heat brushed her face.

Thrown by the fireball and onto the titan burnt pitch-black, a womanly figure with feathers over her chest and curves, covering her hips down to her bird-like legs, and an enormous array of what must have been a lush of colorful feathers attached to her arms, now blackened and brittle by the intensity of the fire attack. It was a creature that reminded Emma of harpies in the Greek mythology books, and then heard a voice.

"Look out forest! Your most powerful and stunning sorceress; Lina Inverse, is on the scene!"

She looks aside, following the trail that which the fireball left and sent from. Stepping through the burnt path cast by this figure, a girl of petite frame, orange hair flowing down to her back and over her forehead, large flaring eyes of long lashes. She wore clothing that reminded her of a magician's costume. A yellow shirt and red pants, a dark long cloak over her shoulders with some armor that held spherical jewels, and golden orbs as her earrings.

A confident waltz towards the flailing harpy, the winged beast attempted to take the air with several, harsh flaps of her wings. A loud, shrill sound emitted from her throat and a harrowingly wide open mouth that seemed to tear the corner of her lips possibly by the effects of the fire attack. The voice of the harpy could pierce the eardrums to bleed. Emma clings onto the bark, covering the earless side of her head with one hand and cringed in pain from the terrible sound.

"Sheesh. You could make a deaf person roll in agony," a quip from the sorceress, she raises both hands. The harpy drops back down, wings nearly useless for how much they have been burnt. The harpy lunged herself for the human girl with a push of her arms against the ground, screaming all the way.

"Wind which blows across eternity, gather in my hands and become my strength!" A wind force surrounds the hands of Lina, a powerful gust twirling the tip of her fingers. "BRAM GUSH!"

A powerful spell that cancels and pierces the effects of the Harpy's screech, it tore through the single direction even further, shredding the trees, ground, and the body of the harpy into sliced pieces, and even the giant form of the titan behind the harpy; flesh sliced swiftly as the steam of whether by the fire attack, or the effects of its attempt to regenerate, was blown away by the ferocious breeze.

The effects of this wind spell reached the very tree Emma held onto, battering it with slashes that carved through the tough thick wooden skin as if it was soft butter. Dread beating at her heart and instincts screaming at her to flee, she lets go of the branch. It was a hard landing, but rolling to her side, she was up on her feet without pause and sprinted down the short hill as half of the tree behind her was destroyed. A deep slice through between the roots and the trunk, pushed by the deadly wind, it slowly tilts towards her way.

She jumped at the pounding impact behind her, the brisk scratches the brushes of leaves at her back, but avoiding severe injuries and escaping the imminent fate of either being sliced by wind or being crushed by tree. As she ran, noises of forestall damages, destruction by various powers, and cries of angry monsters hollered all around her. The very same sort of ruckus like two nights ago. The fuss and actions of other competitors in combat.

"Knife!"

"Iron Reaper Soul Stealer!"

"Rasengan!"

Monsters were being slain all around her. Various people she sees on passing and could not afford to stop and say hello, else she would likely get caught up in the midst of rampaging enemies, slashes that carved the earth, magic that spawned to leave everything in ashes, and downright punching creatures faces with their bare fist that exploded on contact.

The debacle of fierce shouting and eruptions of relentless attacks bombards the surroundings. One explosion bursting from the ground and she hurried to the right, a severing attack that knocked down several trees and she ran to the left, a wallop of fire burning through the area and she retreated, a wall of blue energy that blocked her escape and she turned back with the skid and kick of her feet.

This is getting too out of hand!

Scurrying through it all as a little being with a blob of orange hair. She stubbornly refuses to cave under the pressure as she sprinted through the chaotic field. She has overcome impossible odds before, she will overcome again! Against all this! Facing despair, death, and demons on a daily, this was a mere step-up of her now adventurous life.

"I WON'T GIVE UP!" Emma shout was basked by the barrage of fighting that noises throughout the entire forest, as more ferocious challengers come to invade and conquer these territories.

/.\

A dark, warm orange and faint streaks of pink paint the sky, creamy-looking gray-white clouds into the mixture at a snail-slow pace. Wild animal critters of the forest finding new accustomed to the fallen and destroyed scene, burnt grounds that left nothing but dirt which little rabbits and ferrets dig in as their new homes. Birds rebuilding their nests upon the messily rustled bushes of shredded trees that scattered everywhere, several feet deep slashes that also carved through broken stones, leaving only shattered pieces.

Peace reigns here, in this area that was once ruled by the presence of monsters, no longer wandering within the vicinity.

Enormous trees clutter over each other, a small opening at the center of it. Inside, Emma blinked at the sunsetting sky. "Is it over?"

During the fiasco, she found shelter within the fallen trees, though it would hardly do good as a protected space if there are people or monsters with incredible power that easily slice through it all. She remained there regardless, much less of her willful decision as her foot got stuck between the branches, but by the time she freed herself, everything outside this space has quieted. The shouting of the other competitors was gone, only calm serenity of twittering birds and the chipping teeth of squirrels.

"I really hope Gon and Killua are okay." She grabbed the bark and climbed up, closer to the exit. "I wonder if that man made it through all this too?"

That fanged hair fighter clearly had an aptitude of quarreling against tremendous obstacles with that incredible strength of his. She wondered once more if he had been human or a monster. If he is human, then just as she thought of Gon and Killua, she had never thought humans could be capable of being that strong, the kind of strength that would challenge upfront against a demon in her world without any need for guns.

For him to have ripped an entire tree from the ground with his bare hands and pummel a monster with his fists and kicks. It was incredible, and she wondered if someone like her could achieve that sort of strength too.

Footsteps on the severed log of the tree, Emma paused. Over her head, amber eyes met her surprised green ones.

"Oh! There you are!" He looked over his shoulder, "Killua! I found Emma!"

"Gon?" She hurriedly climbed out of the opening. Gon hopped below as Emma slid down the thick root that was as wide as her body.

"I'm so happy to see you're alright! We weren't sure if we would ever find you," A happy sparkle in his eyes as Killua appeared, jumping down behind Gon.

The assassin waved at her befuddled face, "Hey. You're still alive after all."

"Gon. Killua!" Oh what a relief, they're both alive and well. "Are you guys okay? Are either of you hurt?" Emma asked them insistently.

They appeared to be hardly scuffed at all, much to her increasing amazement. So then that man was telling the truth. He could not hurt them no matter how much he obviously tried. Could children like them really be this durable? Incredible! These boys are really incredible!

"Yeah, we're fine. We barely made it through all this though," Killua stated, looking over the ruined area. "Looks like the other competitors are a lot stronger than we expected. Not to mention reckless."

They may as well be as bad as Gon.

"So, you were able to get away from that guy, huh?" He added, looking back at her.

A moment to comprehend his meaning, Emma blinked when she realized he was referring to the silver-haired competitor, "Oh. No. He did catch me."

The boys stared at her. "He... he did?" Gon asked.

Emma nodded, "I wasn't sure if he would, so I had to make sure he would chase me. I didn't really meant to get caught but he was a lot more agile than I realized."

"Wait, made sure he chased you?" Killua asked.

"Uhuh," Emma affirmed, "I used Gon's fishing rod and took his patch of stars."

"SERIOUSLY!?" The volume of their shout was enough to frazzle Emma's hair.

Killua eyed her up and down in examination, "And you're... alright?"

He sees no broken bones or bruises. A few scratches but that was all. She was left alive but Killua would have thought she'd be severely injured if she had indeed done the very stupid thing to attract that competitor's attention.

"Well, he did poke me. Really hard," she held over her abdomen with one arm. "It was just a couple of jabs though. He didn't do anything else. He...actually, kind of, protected me."

"Huh?" Befuddled by her answer, Killua wondered if she hit her head.

Emma insisted her sincerity, "When he caught me, we were near a monster's territory. I was so busy running away that I didn't check my Monster Tracker. He was holding onto me and kept me away from the monster until he was able to kill it."

"Ah. I get it. If you had his stars, then that's what he protected you for," Killua easily concluded. "Taking his star... Sounds familiar doesn't it, Gon?"

"Ah. Hahaha..." Gon laughed lightly under Killua's deadpanned look.

The Hunter in white then returned his attention to the girl, "But seriously, that's a really stupid for to do. He could have easily killed you. We weren't really in all that much trouble. Well, I guess how it must have looked to you when we were fighting that guy, you probably wouldn't have known," he added.

"But either way, you tried to help us. You put yourself in danger to keep us safe, so thanks! I'm really glad you aren't hurt," Gon said smiling. Emma returned it with a nod and small smile back. While it certainly could have gone much worse than it did, she was happy to see both Gon and Killua were alright.

A wondering look came upon Gon and he asked, "Hey, do you know how many stars that guy had?"

Recalling back, Emma remembered clearly, "I looked at it for just a moment, but I think it was six stars."

For that person to have gathered that many in three days, he must either have hustled tremendously, had the misfortune to constantly encounter monsters and able to successfully defeat them, or he was truly that strong and ruthless of a hunter.

The third option sounded the most likely to Emma. "Why do you ask?"

Gon reaches into the side-pocket of his green shorts, "While we were looking for you and getting through all that fighting, we found this."

She looked at what Gon shows and gasped. "Th-thats-!"

In his hand, a patch that was not Gon's, with six gold star-shape badges stuck to it. "It was in a tree we were using to travel through here. We thought that a competitor must have lost it while all the fighting was going on."

"But it looks like it might have belonged to that guy after all," Killua joined.

Gon nodded, looking at the patch held between his finger and thumb, "It's how I was able to find you here. I have a really good sense of smell, and this patch had that guy's scent, but it also had your scent too, Emma. It was kind of hard trying to track you through all the fighting going on. This patch really helped us look for you."

"Wow..." Emma's eyes glimmered. A powerful sense of smell, impenetrable forms, was there nothing more these wonderful boys could do?!

"Yeah, and now with that guy's patch in our hands," a devious grin bloomed in Killua's expression, "We're basically done with the preliminary."

A long look at the ex-assassin, Gon and Emma exchanged confused looks, "...What do you mean?"

Dense... A sour glare from Killua he aimed at the two other kids. He saw, however, a light bulb flicker in Emma's eyes.

"Oh! These stars. That man's... stars..." She looked at the patch Gon held, looked back at Killua, then back at the patch. Gon was completely lost.

"EHHHH?!" Emma shouted, startling Gon. "Wait a minute! We can't take these! They're not ours!"

At last, Gon understood, and he joined Emma's concerns, "Killua. We can't just take other people's patches. We're supposed to hunt monsters, not other people's stars."

Perhaps if they were specifically chasing after other competitors' badges, like how it was at the Hunter's Exam, then that would be a different story. But as it is, it was simply unwarranted.

"Why not? It's basically first come first serve," Killua argued, aside from being bitter and finding it Just after that competitor came after them the way he did.

"We're not here to take other people's stars," Gon said again. "I want to be able to hunt on my own, not take other people's hard work."

A questioning gaze from Killua. "Well then what are we supposed to do with this? We can't just go looking for him and give it back to that guy." As if they would anyhow.

Gon thought it over for a moment, staring at the patch of six stars. "I'm not really sure..."

"Look," Killua started, "If Emma's tracker actually tracked that guy as a monster, then we're not really just taking anyone's stars, we're basically still following the rules."

"He's still a competitor though... What do you think, Emma?" Gon decided to ask the girl for her thoughts.

Emma pondered with a worrying frown, "Won't it be bad if that man finds us again? If he realizes that we have his stars..."

"Then we can just give it back to him." A simple suggestion that surprised even Emma, Gon confidently stated this while Killua sighed in exasperation.

"He might still want to fight us," Gon continued, "but either way, I don't want to take the easy way to win, Killua. That's just no fun, and it's not what we're here to do."

"Yeah? Well, you do remember that we're competing against probably several thousands of other competitors?" Killua pointed out. "One way or another, we'll probably end up fighting them, even if we're not looking for it, guys like that guy might think we're easy targets to steal our stars from just because we're kids."

Emma's face turned sullen, reminded of the words of the wolfish man. That there was no choice but to fight. A telling of a supposed truth she wanted to object to, "That's not true. I still have my stars."

She showed them her patch of two golden stars. "He saw that I had my patch. He could have easily taken it, but he never did."

In all honesty, with the way he introduced himself and goes about everything in this particular manner, it seemed like he was trying to act purposefully bad, and while he certainly was mean enough to pick a fight with Gon and Killua, an individual capable of emitting terror into her heart, there was something about him that didn't strike her as someone who is truly a bad person. Not someone who was willing to achieve something by any means necessary, or does anything cruel for the fun of it no matter how much he smiled wickedly. She never felt that impression from him, if anything...

He felt distant; a lonely figure. It reminded her of the nameless man and his years of sorrow.

"He... didn't take your stars?" Killua was surprised to hear that. If her stars weren't taken, then either that man had some estranged honor, or he had some other motive, perhaps simply seeking anyone to fight for the fun of it like that creepy magician in their world who has a fixation for Gon; Hisoka.

"I don't think he's bad," Emma tells her feelings to them, "If someone like him would let me go, then maybe it's better to think that not everyone here is someone we have to fight. If anything, we should help each other whenever we can."

Killua widely blinked at while Gon looked down at the patch in his hand, "...How about this? Maybe what we can do is hold onto these stars. On the last day, if we haven't hunted at least two or three more monsters for us, then we can keep these."

A deep sigh, Killua scratched his head in mulling but otherwise accepting the compromise, "Fine. If that's how you want to do it, then we'll go with that. Let's just hope we don't come across that guy again, even if we do give him back his stars."

Emma glanced up at the darkening sky, "It's going to be dark soon. I was hoping that we reached the Ogre village by the end of the day..." But as it is now, with their confrontation against the dark hunter and all the fighting that happened in this area, lasting for several hours, their closing reach to their destination was delayed by about several more miles.

Killua kicked away a small chunk of the ground. "Tomorrow will be the fourth day. That's three more days until the preliminary is over."

Though plenty of time, if Gon insists that they don't take these extra stars for themselves and they slack off in the slightest, they could be blindsided and fail the preliminary. While they were searching for Emma, after everything came to a calm, Gon and Killua have not seen a single monster in this area. The other competitors must have hunted all of the beasts that lived around here.

If it turns out that the monster they are seeking for has already been captured or killed, and all the monsters in this entire forest have been wiped out, then they will have to seek game elsewhere, probably the mountains. Although, they do not know what powerful creature lives there, it was a risk they will have to take if this forest will no longer be of any use.

"Hey, do you still have that tracker?" Killua asked Emma.

She reaches into her vest pocket and revealed the red and black device placed in there. "Yup!"

"Cool. Are you okay with traveling at night?"

She nodded affirmatively, "It'll probably be more dangerous, but if you guys are alright with that, and if we stop for a break a few times along the way, we'll probably reach the Ogre village by morning. Noon at the latest."

A good estimation. "Alright, let's get going then."

Agreeing with a brief bob of his head, Gon looked at their guide, "Lead the way, Emma."

With a perky expression, she answered with much vigor, "Right! I'll do my best!"

/.\

In the next hour, night was upon them. The three children took camp inside one of the trees that was large enough for all of them to fit inside and have room to spare still, the moonlight shining like a lamp through the hole of the tree that was both their exit and entrance. No fire was lit, else they would burn the tree.

Emma shared her last remaining Frenzy Boar jerky to her two traveling companions, and eaten out everything from the lunch box the ogres had gifted her with a food stash that would have lasted herself two more days, but so long as her friends do not hunger, she was happy to have all of them eat something. They were almost to the village anyway, so it was really nothing to mind over.

In the midst of their nightly travel up until this point, there had been no monster detected by her tracker, and they had not come across a single other competitors in the last several hours. It seems those who had partaken the battle here has gone far elsewhere, and likely, all the monsters who previously lived here have either fled to another part of the forest, or they have been killed and taken away entirely. Or perhaps, whatever remains of the monsters that still lingers somewhere around here, it could not be tracked by her tracker so long as they are dead.

Emma began to think about her friends the ogres, worrying over their monstrous attributes that other competitors would have reasons to hunt them for. Although the ogres were a stern race, they were overall a group who merely prefers to keep to themselves, but were welcoming of those who have done them kindness. She found solace that the ogre village was at a considerable distance from where the fighting occurred, and takes comfort in reasoning that surely, if someone were to speak with that group peacefully, then they would realize that no harm is needed to inflict from either side.

"Hey. I've been wondering..."

Emma turned to Gon who piped her a question.

He points to his neck, referencing hers, "Why do you have those numbers on you?"

Killua lay his back against the bark wall, the lower half upon the trunk, and arms crossed behind his head. He opened one eye that was previously shut for a brief, yet conscious sort of nap, interested in hearing her answer as he too wondered the series of numbers tattooed upon the girl.

Emma raises her hand for the side of her neck, touching upon the black numbers; numbers that, once upon a time, she had also been curious to know the meaning of them. When she asked Mama about them, her given answer was that it represents the specialness that she and the other children carry, and that it was completely normal. Emma did not know anything beyond what was considered normal living in Gracefield, so the answer was accepted, and she never pressed the subject further, trusting the word of her foster guardian completely.

She should have realized it then. She felt ashamed to not catch on the strangeness of her imprinted lifestyle earlier. If she had thought to keep questioning herself, if she had known that something was wrong, or had known as much as Ray did, she would have helped him suffer the burden of the truth much less, she would have helped freed her entire family much sooner, she could have saved those from being shipped, her older and younger siblings, she could have saved Conny and Norman.

Instead, she chose to be obliviously complacent, and allow the death of her family to continue as far as it had.

"This..." She grabbed the collar of her sweater, "Well... It's my identification number."

"An identification number?" Gon asked confused.

She nodded, "I've had it for as long as I can remember. Everyone at my orphanage has it. Even our foster mother."

"That's kind of weird," Killua said. "What kind of orphanage did you live in if you have numbers marked on your body? That sounds more like a prison."

She looked down, "It... basically was."

"Oh..." Killua's eyes slightly widened, and went quiet afterward.

Gon inclined himself closer with a short scoot, "What do you mean?"

Emma wrapped her arms around her knees. "The orphanage was this big house, in the middle of a grassy field that was surrounded by trees. There was a metal fence that led us know not to cross it, and there was a gate that all the children who were... adopted, go to, and step out to the outside world. At first, I thought all of it was something to keep anything dangerous out, but it was really a place that was actually meant to keep us in."

Noticing her tone, Gon asked her, "Was it bad?"

She gently shook her head, "It wasn't. It was my home. A home that I loved, that all my family loved. It's where I grew up, where all of our happiest memories were made."

"Then why did you call it a prison?"

She lowered her head, her chin behind her cradling arms, "It wasn't just a prison. It was a farm."

Killua sits up, very attentive now as Gon asked her, "A farm?"

The only meaning he knew of farms were barns, cows, pigs, chickens, tending the crops, things that he knew casually and were even a way of life for some of the people on Whale Island. Living on a farm was a way of life for farmers, so why did Emma found that troubling?

"The truth was," Emma began to explain, "my home wasn't an orphanage. All of us who lived there... We were meant to be food."

A startling reveal that made Gon visibly recoiled and Killua blink, "Huh?"

Pulling her knees to her chest, she told them her story, "I thought I was living in a normal world, lived by other people like us. The orphanage that I grew up in, Gracefield, was a place where all the orphans were raised and cared for until we get "adopted" and leave the house - that's what we always understood. We all called our foster mother Mama and she loved all of us - it felt like it, we all thought of her as our real mom, and all of us as a family even if we're not related by blood. She would tell us that we were all going to grow up and live a wonderful life when we get adopted, live in a new home, meet with new loving parents..."

She held herself in a slight clutch, "One day, our little sister, Conny, was adopted. Mama took her to her new parents outside the gates, and we stayed inside the house after we said our sad goodbyes. While we were getting ready to clean the house, I found Conny's stuff bunny toy. It was her favorite toy, she was never anywhere without it. We thought she somehow forgot it, so I went with my friend Norman, and we hurried to the gates Mama told us to never go no matter what."

The horrifying memory resurfaced, the agony of it breaking through her expression, "We found Conny. She was in the back of a truck. She... was dead. Stabbed in the heart and soaked in water. We heard a noise then and hid... That's when we saw them..."

The demons.

She explained her story more. The terrible truth she discovered, the revealed fates of the other siblings who had been adopted, the fake kindness of their mother and her deluded love, the mission to escape that farm and the success of it after the loss of her close friend and beloved member of their foster family.

Gon frowns at the sorrowful story while Killua listens quietly. The assassin was unfazed by death and horrors, but he comprehended the unfortunate circumstances of Emma. Though Gon looked focused, he was shocked by the situation of herself and her family. That such a world could actually exist like it was something out of a fairytale-horror story.

"After we were able to escape our home, we met with friendly demons who don't eat humans. They told us that a long time ago, there was a war between demons and humans. One day, a human came up with an idea to stop all the fighting, he got to convince the demons and together, they made a Promise that ended the war. The Promise separated the worlds between demons and humans, but the demons still needed to eat, so..."

"...They built a farming system to raise humans as livestock," Killua filled in the blanks, much to Gon's increasing disturbance of this.

"That's so awful..." Gon said with a deep frown. "So, you're trying to reach the human world."

Emma nodded, "If I can get my family to the Human World, then we wouldn't have to be afraid of being eaten anymore. There are other kids like us trapped in the Demon World, though. Other Cattle Children who are living in the other orphanages, a lot more were living in factories that kept them chained down, they don't even know what it was like to live. I want to free them all, and take us all to the Human World. So far, I know that there was a path we can take and escape the Demon World, but it's really dangerous. Another way would be to change the Promise, but to do that, we would have to sacrifice something important."

"And that's why you're here," Gon understood at once. "With the wish, you could help every kid in your world get to the human world."

"That's what I'm hoping for," though it was a highly simplified form of resolution. There was so much to be done, and several consequences that could occur; the crisis that could erupt once severing the original Promise. Emma still did not know how to make her wish or if she could get it, she just knew she could not pass this opportunity up.

And meeting these boys who live among other humans, it may offer her a glimpse of what to expect at the other side of the world the cattle children like her are forbidden from, but meeting with those who are also competitors fighting for the same prize, she had to know.

"Do you guys also have a wish?"

The boys shared a glance, a debate if they should answer with the specifics. Killua talked first, "Sort of. We're here to get stronger. Back in our world, we have a serious mission to do as Hunters. We have to be at our very best before we can go through with it. This competition might be a way to help us get ready for whatever might happen after we go back to our world."

"There's also someone I want to save," Gon answered, "We're here to train, but if we do get the wish, we might be able to help him."

"Who is he?" Emma asked tenderly, already moved at his confessed mission of saving someone.

"His name's Kite. He's a friend who's been kind of like our teacher, but he's more than that..." Gon expressed warmly, "He's the reason why I decided to become a Hunter. He knew my father Ging. He was the one who told me all about being a Hunter. I wouldn't have wanted to go out, look for my dad, becoming a Hunter if I hadn't met Kite."

A smile that was as white as summer's rays in the middle of this night, he added beamingly, "I owe him a lot. Because of him, I met my best friend in the whole world Killua!"

The boy beside him sputtered loudly from the unhesitant, appreciative and treasurable words Gon spoke for the companion near him. Deep redness colored Killua's pale features, "Would you stop shouting that! You..."

A lovely smile curled the corners of her lips as Emma watched the boys, a twinge of guilt in her eyes while she listens to their story and personal reason for being in this competition. She knew that there would be people here for a reason, a reason that cannot be achieved by earning it in their world alone. She knew, if she was here with a goal in mind, then so were many others.

She had this thought at the edge of her mind, whether meaning to or not, focused as she was to achieve the future she wanted. But here it was, the truth of the matter right in front of her, and she has to face it.

There's only one wish at stake. You don't think people aren't going to fight for that?

The words of the dark Hunter became all the more apparent, the harsh reality which Emma cannot distract herself from any longer. She thinned her mouth tightly as guilt rises in her heart. Why must they compete for this one thing if it's for the sake of something? Why should only one be allowed the wish when likely so many need it as much? If she fights for her family, then that means she must take that wish from others. Who is she to leave them in the dust when they may also have people waiting for them back home that they are here putting their lives on the line for? Who is she to have that one wish all for herself?

"I hope you'll save all the orphans in your world, Emma."

She looked up at Gon's declare, and saw him offer his hand to her, "Let's both do our best while we're here! There may be one wish at the end of this, but I hope that we'll both get what we want. So let's work hard!"

A heartfelt encouragement that did not recognize Emma as an opponent or obstacle, nor offense for admitting her desire for the prize, but a complete understanding of a friend whom he wishes success in her mission.

"You don't have to feel bad," Gon assured at her obvious troubled feelings, "It's like you said before, we should just be willing to help each other. I believe that! So while there's only one wish, I'm sure we'll figure something out!"

I'm not leaving anyone behind! Let's figure something out!

A burst of new found enthusiasm as her sadness drifted away, reminded of the passionate, determined self that had moved her and her family out from that cage disguised under several layers of love and granted exuberant, youthful life that was meant to only be temporary. What was considered impossible, they had done it by their joined efforts.

If Gon hadn't said his proclamation first, Emma would have offered the same proposal.

"Right... You're right! We'll definitely figure something out!" She raised her hand and clapped with Gon's. A wide smile from both spirited individuals.

"Exactly! I don't know how but I'm sure we can do it!"

"Yeah! We just got to look out for it!" A small pout of her thinking multiples of solutions, "Um... maybe we can wish for two wishes?"

"Huh, I hadn't even thought of that. It's a good start!" Gon said, eyes lighting up.

"I'm honestly not sure how it'll work, but it's worth a try! We'll think more ideas along the way anyway!"

Killua watched them silently, bemused internally at their declaration. He decided to say nothing about their agreement, the challenge and question it was instantly provided with. Closing his eyes, he counts down the seconds until they were ready to move again as Gon and Emma began discussing the various probability of how to share the wish.

The majority of the night was spent in this peaceful comfort.

/.\

Rained by the moonlight as crickets chirped below in the tall dark grass, a low growl from his mouth that tasted iron, he squirmed in his sleeping position upon the thick tree branch. A lingering ache in Garou's stomach that he held with his hand as he turned to his side, "Kid hit me real good. Next time I see him, I'm not holding back."

A mumbled groan from the pain he learned to feel accustomed to in his years of fighting and coming out of it beaten and bloodied like it was his Sunday's clothing, he then thinks to himself, Got to find a way to get more stars fast. I'll have to start looking first thing in the morning.

Another yank of pain to his abdomen and he grumbled, pressing his palm against it, "Damn, this is really hurting. Hope that brat didn't hit something important..."

He spent the rest of the night sleeping through the pain, pushing back the pain with his will and endurance.

/.\

The Forest of Doom was in continuing tranquility even as morning was aloft. A quiet trip through the green-brown rough terrain as they left the destroyed area, and move onto the more lush, capricious nature's bounty of the wilderness in greenery. Emma remains the lead as Gon and Killua follows close behind. The active Monster Tracker in her hands as they crossed a log over a small creek that flows a flat stream below and plumped stones.

Not once have they seen a competitor or monster, hardly any such signs detected by her device and only found wild animals and beautiful plants. Killua was actually impressed by how far Emma has stuck with them, able to keep up a surprisingly well pace, even after having been awake most of the night to keep watch without complaint or damper in her run. Remembering her story last night, it made sense that she would have to adapt under serious survival circumstances in order to keep herself from being killed, that or someone must have taught her. Either way, they were making decent time.

Of course, he and Gon were slowing down this much on purpose for her sake, but this trip was made easier than it would if they were to have traveled with someone who was less athletic.

Gon has obviously taken a liking to her, a bubbly yet firmly resolute character, a like-minded trait Gon shares. Killua supposes she wasn't that bad, but he could tell that she has the qualities of someone who can occasionally be air-headed. However, there was a sharpness in her observing gaze Killua quickly took notice of, and after seeing her interest with how he silently walked on his toes, Killua realized that she was a natural fast learner as she tries to copy his movements, succeeding for a moment before returning to the flat of her feet.

"Trying to walk like me?"

Emma perked at Killua's question, "Ah. Yeah. It's really cool how quiet you walk. It kind of hurts after a while though."

"That was pretty good," Killua commented, a no mere praise. He was genuinely impressed by how quickly she followed his movements to the tiniest little shift in his footing. Was she a child genius he wonders. "You're a really quick learner, aren't you?"

She nodded, "How did you learn to walk like that?"

Killua smirked, "My family taught me. We have to learn how to be discreet in our family business as assassins."

"Oh! I see. That makes sense."

A pause after hearing his response. Killua stared at her.

"YOU'RE AN ASSASSIN?!"

There it is, thought Killua. A good thing no monster was nearby to hear her reaction.

"Oh yeah! We never told you that, did we?" Gon asked mildly as if to confirm.

"She made a better reaction than you did," Killua said to him.

Gon frowned, "Huh? I didn't react that badly."

"Exactly. Ha ha!" Killua laughed, "You actually said it was cool! Her reaction is what I usually get from normal people."

"Mm. Normal is boring anyway," Gon stuck his tongue at the cattish Killua.

Emma was still processing what was said, wrapping her mind around the fact that the child who stood beside her could hold such an occupation. "Wait, so... have you... killed people before?"

Killua nodded without hesitation. "Yup. Being an assassin was the path my family chose for me before I decided that I wanted to become a Hunter instead. I wanted to do something different, something that isn't decided by anyone else."

He looked at her dumbfounded reaction and smiled, "Does it bother you?"

"Uh... well..." A try of wording her response, she clamped her hands together repeatedly, "I-it is surprising. But, it also makes a lot more sense now, with how strong and quiet you are. You do kind of give off that vibe, but I wouldn't have guessed that you would be a real assassin."

She would have thought Ninja before Assassin, although there was really not that much difference, as far as she knows from what she's read anyway.

"Not about me being an Assassin exactly," Killua rephrased. "Does it bother you that I've killed people?"

Startled by his question, Emma looked to her feet. "Well..."

She clenched and re-clenches her fingers, Killua waited patiently for her answer. By now, they've stopped their travel as soon as Emma heard his reveal. Uncertain of how to give her answer, she decided to be direct and upfront of her feelings, looking at Killua in the eye.

"I don't like killing. It sounds hypocritical since I hunt animals for food, and kill demons who could talk and think like you and me. Most of them were wild but they were still something that could probably be as human."

She faintly rocked by the heels of her feet back and forth, "But even with that, I can't really imagine myself killing another human. To me, murder is wrong. But you're a nice person!" She quickly added, "You were raised in that profession, so it's not like I can judge you for what you do if it wasn't even your choice to begin with, you even said that you left it. I-in any case, I don't judge you at all for what you do or used to do."

"Wow, you're a real softie, huh?"

A nudge to the shoulder by Gon.

"I'm not making fun of her," Killua assured his frowning companion before returning to Emma, "It's just that people usually don't take me seriously if I tell them, and if they do they get scared or angry, and look at me like I'm a monster. I don't mind those looks, and it's not like they're wrong to see me that way. You are right though. I didn't choose to become an assassin, that's why I wanted to pick my own path in life, so I left the family business, but all their efforts in making me who I am still sticks with me today."

His smile became hollow, a dark glint in his eyes that suddenly darkened into a shineless blue. The deep ocean color sinking further into the darkest depths. A wave of unease swarmed through Emma, sharp pinch at her survival instincts, as if his cold, dagger-finger like nail points to her soul with his gaze alone. "I know what you're trying to say, but believe me, I'm really not a nice person."

She could not find a proper rebuttal, she did not know what to say to someone who has taken human life and looks no older than she, and against that sort of answer that made her feel as if she stepped into icy-cold water she instantly wanted to jump out from. Killua turned before she could even think to say anything, and silently moved onwards.

Gon approached her in her dumbfounded self, "Don't worry, it's nothing to take personally. He just sometimes likes to scare people. I'm sure he knows that you were just trying to understand."

Emma considered his words. Disturbed by the sudden fear Killua calmly placed in her mind with just a look, making his claims of his ex-profession all the more likely, though she never took his claims as false. Who would claim such things out of nowhere? She can't see how anyone would, so it must be true. She stood there, stunned and unsure of herself as she looked at the back of the assassin for another longer.

His eyes. They seemed sad.

To be raised as a child trained in the ways of stealing the life of a human, he must have lived a terribly cold, difficult life.

"...Hey. Are we anywhere near the village yet?"

Refocusing the task at hand, Emma looked down at her tracker in hand, her expression lightening, "Yeah. We're actually getting really close now. It's just north from here."

She was eager and can barely wait to meet the ogres again, she hopes they'll be accepting of strangers though.

"You mean that way?"

She looked up to see Killua pointing ahead, and what he points to exactly.

Above the trees and from a distance, several black clouds of smoke trails up to the sky. A frown falls above her eyes, a sudden awful feeling settled in her stomach. "Fire?"

Gon ran up to one of the trees in front of them. A quick climb that took only a single leap, he stood upon the branch near the top and sniffs the air. "...Those aren't wildfires, but those are definitely not from campfires." The smokes were too thick, something was burning but not the forest itself, rather likely, they came from establishments.

The awful feeling grew inside her. Emma broke into a run, passing the calmly observant Killua as Gon shouted over her head, "Emma!"

"Let's go!" Emma shouted back at them. "We have to hurry! Someone might be in trouble!"

Seeing her rushing for what they can only assume to be what they were reaching for, the boys followed her quickly behind. Emma held her tracker at hand, but it was no longer needed. Recognizing this part of the forest, she knew exactly where she was going without having to see the trail of smoke. With a belated breath, she rushes through the opening of the woods, hopping over ledges and bushes with the boys catching up easily.

"I'll scout ahead," Killua said. "Gon, stay with Emma."

Gon nodded and Killua takes the lead, a sudden dash that his body seemingly vanished through the incredibly fast motion, he was instantly gone from sight. Emma would have been at awe, but her worries for the ogres were a greater hold. After a few minutes, they reached an exit out of the cluttered forest and onto the open field, and Emma's fear came to light, looking on in horror.

What remains of the ogre village was only rummages, a few places in flames. Broken down houses and its pieces scattered all over, chunks of every house barely remained standing by the support beams that creaked and dwindled in strength every second. Blood also lay around here, everywhere; in spray and dragged like it was done by the swift motion of several paintbrushes, but in a greater quantity that could only be done by either hand or the gush of open wounds.

"Hello?! Is anyone here?!" Emma ran up closer to one of the burning buildings. Gon grabbed her by the hand.

"Be careful! With all that smoke you could-"

She had already pulled out and covered her mouth with a cloth that had been used to wrap her lunchbox, holding it against her nose and mouth as her eyes intensified with such focus. Gon said nothing more, and went with her through the village. There was no body, but there was a lot of blood. Killua was found at the center of the village, in front of a large building of what used to be the main house where the chieftain and his son have lived in, now occupied with nothing but destruction and fire.

"I don't see anyone," Killua stated when Gon and Emma hurriedly approached him.

"We have to keep looking!" Emma insisted, "There could be survivors! We have to be sure!"

Killua's expression was mute, there's no point, he wanted to say, but said enough with his eyes. By the look of this scene, it was telling enough. A massacre happened here. There may not even be any survivors.

But at seeing Gon's firm expression that wanted to abide Emma's firm declare, who had already gone off to look in the other houses, Killua sighed, "Alright, we'll look through everything."

They worked together to put out the flames using the water they found in some of the houses, carried in buckets and bowls. By the time they put out the fire, they found no ogre among the wreckage. No burnt victims mean no dead person, Emma comforted herself with this, her face determined to find out what happened with the friendly occupants who had peacefully lived among here.

They searched for any evidence, but found none and if there were, most of them have been turned to black-gray dust of its remains. Blackened shadows at the corners of the doorways and windows and steps. Broken down walls and gaped opening that spilled out broken burnt wood. It did not need to be specified, however, that some sort of scuffle happened, but without anyone here to question, they can only assume.

"Did a competitor did this?" Gon asked, leaving behind the brunt items and stepping out of the ruined house that looks as if it was crashed through by a body.

"It would make sense," answered Killua. "If the ogres are monsters, competitors would go after these guys to get a star out of them. It looks like it was done by a group, and there was obviously a lot of fighting. We haven't found any bodies though, so either the ogres ran away, or they were taken for some reason."

A contemplative look as Emma picks up a burnt-to-black, small cloak-like thing that seemed to originally had a lot of furs, not ruined beyond repair or recovery. Thoughts instantly arrived at her given gift of the Frenzy Boar hide for her new friend the child ogre. An aching rise of her anxious worries for the said child and his whereabouts or if he is alright. She glanced down at the burnt tools of what was used to make the wonderful, intricate and colorful carpets. Creation of art, destroyed by the blunt force of some kind of large object, a fist imprinted in the ground.

"Whoever did this, they couldn't have taken all the ogres," Emma calmly said looking at some of the footprints that lead into the forest, though it was a guess on its own to suggest which print is whose. An ogre? A competitor? Something else? "We also can't be sure if it's really competitors. The chief's son told me about there being other monster groups they don't get along with."

Killua mentally credited Emma for her cool-headed thought-process, he honestly found it surprising that someone as bubbly as her could also be this way. He watched as the girl walks closer to the set of footprints.

"I can't tell at all with these footprints," she added, "Was it an ambush?"

"I can't tell either, they're all too scrambled. What should we do?" Gon asked. Killua shrugged, looking at the burnt down house beside them.

"There's not much we can get from here. We'll just have to keep moving." A bummer that their trip here was for naught. They will have to seek out their monster on their own, and if Emma would be willing to stick around with them, she could lead them to their next game with that tracker of hers.

"Wait! I might be able to know where the rest of the ogres went."

Surprised by her claim, they looked at Emma who held up her Monster Tracker, "There's a special feature here I looked through a while ago. If I use it, I might be able to track them even if they're far away."

If she had previous interaction with a certain monster, and if she were to use a sample of the monster be it a piece or anything else, the device might be able to analyze and follow a trail left behind by said monster. She had tested this when reading up about the Banana Fish in greater detail, and discovered a sort of mapping mechanic that had the potential to lead her to the other various lakes hidden somewhere that houses other Banana Fishes. Though its way of tracking a creature that lived underwater would be accumulated to following a faint scent trough dusty clouds, how would it be for monsters she's personally interacted with?

She approached the splattered blood on the dirt, a gulp of her discomfort in her throat not just for its gore, but for whose blood this could have belonged to. She reached down and grabbed only a finger clutch of the blood and rubbed it on the screen of her tracker. Gon and Killua moved closer and watched attentively over her shoulders and the blood be analyzed by the device. A loading screen of a spiraling shape, and then an answering beep.

[Blood Analyzed.

Species Identified: Monster.

Probability of Identification: 95% Ogre.]

A Track button appeared on the screen. She pressed one of the small round buttons next to the screen to click the option.

[Initiating Tracking...

Scanning vicinity(50 meters)...]

The screen switched into what appears to be camera mode. Emma directed the device in front of her and moved it until she faced the set of scattered footprints. Through the screen, a few sets of the footprints glowed red with a hovering label that read: "Ogre," leading one trail into the forest.

"Yes! I can track them!" Emma looks back at the boys with a smile. "With this, we'll be able to find where the rest of the ogres are!"

"That thing really is amazing..." Killua whispered his confound. "I wonder if there's other stuff we could find to get ahead of this competition."

"There has to be," Gon told Killua. "Remember the village we visited? The people there told us about Support Cards."

Intrigued by their conversation, Emma piped in, "Support Cards?"

"Yeah," Killua answered. "It's these special cards we heard about. Remember when we told you two nights ago about our adventure on Greed Island? The cards we used there almost sounds exactly like these cards that we might find around here."

He disregards himself with a wave of his hand. "We'll tell you more about it later. If you want to follow the trail, we better get to it now before it gets cold."

"Ah! You're right! Come on guys!" Emma ushered them along as she starts following one of the footprints.

The children walked along the tracks that led them back into the forest, proceeding through the thick surroundings and rough lands for several minutes or so, and then, a presence was detected.

"There's something ahead of us," Emma informed, glancing at the boys. They share a wonder; was it one of the ogres? Or was it another monster they need to be careful of.

Stealthily, they crossed the forest plains into closing vicinity of the detected monster. In the map, the presence – represented as a white dot – jerked towards their direction, and moved for them with brisk speed.

"It's coming for us!"

Gon and Killua immediately take the front, ready to fight. Emma pulls out her rifle, a careful aim at the monster that approaches. A minute later, the detected presence was among them, and a figure dropped from the trees. A tall human-like creature, with pale blue skin and dark purple hair, horns and paint-like markings on his features, and sharp fangs poking out from the bottom of his lips. He met them with a narrowed gaze, but upon the creature's eyes meeting Emma's, instant recognition fell between them and he expressively relaxed just as Gon charges his fist and Killua reaching for his yo-yo.

"You're one of the ogres from the village!" Emma lowers her rifle and steps forward, passing between the boys who looked at her wide-eyed. "Do you remember me?"

The ogre nodded, a silent type among his group, he directed his wary look towards Gon and Killua.

"These are my friends. Don't worry, you can trust them," Emma vouches for the boys who calmed down at her non-hostile conversing with the monster. "We saw your village just now. What happened? Are the chief and his son alright?"

A dispassionate glare, not at Emma, but at some foe he sees in his mind that did him and his people wrong. Without a word, he turned around. A slight move to his head that pointed down a path as he looked at Emma, silently requesting her to follow. She did so, looking back at Gon and Killua. The boys regarded each other for a moment before following after her.

Minutes of walking, they arrived at a camp in the middle of a forest. Tents were put up and several tools lay about. At least fifteen ogres, some males and females with their children were present. Although all held a strong front, their appearance was weary from battle and blood, scratches and wounds.

"Emma?"

Emma turned her head at a young boyish voice. His shaggy red hair bounces as the known ogre child ran up to her, "Emma! You're back!"

A beaming show of Emma's smile to see the son of the ogre chief again, they grabbed hands in a re-welcoming hold, she would have thought to say his name out of happiness, but remembered that he did not have a personal name, "You're here! I saw your village, I'm so glad to see you're alright!"

Though his seeming enthusiastic nod at her statement, Emma could tell by looking into his eyes. He had suffered somehow, though he looks fine physically, he was hurting in other ways.

Emma looked around, seeing only the common ogres she had the pleasure of eating with from her last visit to their village when it was still well-structured, "Where's your dad?"

The joyous front fell, a soft frown as his eyes lowered. Emma's smile left her at his downed face, a tentative prodding to her gut. She gently squeezed her hold of his hands, "What happened?"

"We..." He began with a slow breath, "We were challenged."

"Challenged?"

The ogre child's face darkens at a memory, "By a competitor."

Shocked at this knowledge, most of their immediate thoughts went to the dark Hunter, or perhaps someone else like him. They listened as the ogre child resumed.

"Someone was causing a ruckus outside the village, defeating two ogre guards. The chief went to confront the competitor. I got curious so I disobeyed him telling me to stay, and went to see behind the crowd. I saw the competitor and... For a moment, all of us thought that he was a monster like us."

He was human, but his appearance and physique was more monster than man, that they mistook him as one of their own. A being of wild, blood-red hair, and a back that marred into the souls for its vicious face-shaped through his tight black shirt by his tough muscles that a weakly thrown fist would break upon contact.

A cruel, wide grin of clear white teeth, like baring fangs as the new King of this Jungle he decides to crown himself as, as through his laughing arrogance called for an audience of the chief, and demand direct combat not only one, but all of the ogres.

They thought him mad, an arrogant fool who allowed himself to induce anger from the ogres, but his power was no mere show. He had defeated and beaten to a bloody pulp their best warriors, some embedded on the ground, never to rise again.

He was human, but he undoubtedly lacked that trait called humanity.

And for a mere human to defeat their strongest warrior; their chief, his father. He was a true monster.

They had believed him to be another ogre. An ogre with strength on par. An Ogre at every sense of the word.

And he had dared to call the real Ogres here weaklings.

"He... beat the chief..." his reference of his father now reverts to simply chief, biting down the sorrow in his throat, "I never knew a human could be so strong. Strong enough to fight the chief barehanded. They broke through houses, and there was a lot of blood. A fire broke out by accident and it got worse from there. One of the chief's closest friends finally noticed me and got me out of there. It was getting so bad, that the chief ordered us to run away."

His eyes turned sullen, "We all ran into the forest, and after a while, one of the ogres that remained behind got back to us. He told us what happened... The chief... he didn't make it. Some of the ogres who stayed behind the village tried to attack that competitor to avenge the chief, but he beat them all too and left. After that, one of our scouts who went back to the village saw a group of other monsters come by - they were from the Boar clan. They must have noticed the smoke from the fire and smelled all the blood. They took the bodies for food and some of our people went to fight them for our fallen warriors."

A sternness in his youthful features, "It was a really awful battle, we lost more of our members that morning. I had to make the call for the rest of us to retreat. The Boar clan was too strong for us in our state, and... I didn't want any more of our people to die. I was... too weak to fight with them."

"I... I'm so sorry," Emma uttered with a soft voice, agonized. "I should have been here sooner. If I did I would have helped."

"Honestly, it was better that you weren't here," the ogre child assured, "That competitor, he wasn't just any human. He really was like a monster. If you think beating my father sounded bad, I'm pretty sure he would have killed you with a single hit." The child ogre takes a breath and smiled sadly.

"It's alright. We ogres have our belief to die as proud warriors, my dad went out fighting with the strongest opponent he had ever come across. We don't go looking for fights, but it was the best way to go out, and with all of us rallying behind him. We all knew, in this competition, that there would have been a competitor who would come for us. We were prepared for this to happen."

"That doesn't make it okay!" Emma told him. "You didn't deserve what happened! All that, and what happened after! What you and the others went through-!"

The ogre child shook his head gently, "The competitor challenged my father, he taunted the chief's pride. My father could have turned down the challenge, but that would go against everything we are. He always told me that we have to live and die with our choices, he made his, he knew what would happen if he lost. If it means defending his honor and pride as a true ogre, then that's what it means to be a warrior. Believe me, I'm angry. I really am. But I have to look out for my clan now, I can't let anger take me."

He looked back his people who sat around their separate campfires and tents, "As the new chief, I have to take responsibility and focus on the well-being of my clan than revenge. Besides, if he could beat my father, I don't have a chance at all."

"Perhaps not, chief."

The three human children were startled at the sudden voice of the silent ogre. "What the-?! He actually talks!" Killua shouted, the first to say something while Emma and the ogre child spoke. He had been listening quietly, muting any feelings for what happened to the ogres here. Gon, on the other hand, was obviously showing signs of fury. It seems he too felt the same way as Emma, although he did not know these ogres personally, since Emma knew them, Gon felt obligated to sympathize with their pain and feel anger for the person that caused it.

"You are still a young boy. You have your father's hearts, but an ogre chief must have the strength of twenty of his people. We are all ready to accept you and follow your word as our new chief, but you must prove yourself to have the strength to carry the whole village on your back."

He eyed the children, "Perhaps we could-"

"Stop!" The ogre child immediately cuts him off. "Emma is our friend. Furthermore, this is the human girl who saved my life. That last thing I would owe her with is a favor! One that would jeopardize her standing in this competition!"

"What? What is it?" Emma asked gently. Was there something they could do to help?

"No. Forget it. It'll affect you and your standing as a competitor," the ogre child warned. "I won't do that to you."

Emma was unfettered by his warning, "If it'll help you, I want to know."

He tried to deny her again but she was determined to stay, Gon joined her side, "Maybe there's something we can do to help too."

The ogre child blinked at the boy, finally acknowledging his presence, "Uh... who are you?"

"I'm Gon! This is Killua. We're friends of Emma."

"Are you... other competitors?"

He nodded, "We are. We met Emma while we were hunting for the Banana Fish. We both ended up catching it and that's how we met."

It was probably best to skim over the act of him accidentally pulling her and fishing her out of the water, "We all decided to share the fish between us, and helped us out a lot. If there's anything we can do to help you guys, then we'll do it!"

Killua scratches his head as he too walks up to Emma's side, relenting as soon as Gon stepped up and offered that unsurprising proposal he obviously should have expected. Seeing them waiting for his eventual answer, the ogre child stubbornly sticks to his word until his eyes fell upon his remaining clan, softening at the state they were all in.

"...Okay," ogre child finally agreed, "There is a way that you and your friends might be able to help us. But it's your decision if you want to do it or not!"

With a deep breath, the child ogre then asked them, "Do you guys have any stars on you?"

Oh. I see where this is going... Killua immediately understood. Of course, he had to suspect something like this would happen.

"Yes." Without hesitation, Emma answered honestly.

An uncertain pause, the ogre child then said, "Do you guys know exactly what those stars are?"

At their confused looks, he began to explain, "Those aren't just ordinary stars. They actually hold magical properties."

"Magical?" Emma raised her hand over her vest pocket that hides her patch and its stars.

The ogre child nodded, "They don't really do much by itself. It's not like they can give you super strength or heal you of any injuries. But if you know how to use them the right way, they can provide a lot of power. Magic casters especially would know how to channel the magical energy those stars carry."

He intertwined his fingers in a nervous sort of hold, "Remember when I told you that monsters like us ogres don't have names? Well, the truth is, we don't have names because it would take a lot of power to give us one. Monsters like us are driven by magic, not like with humans where they can easily give each other names and not have to expend so much of themselves. Giving us names would be like giving us power, it would be like... we're evolving, in a way. We can't name ourselves because we don't have enough power for that, and for anyone else to do so, if they can pull it off without exhausting themselves to the brink of death, we would see them as someone strong enough to call masters."

He looked at them, "It's not the same for every monster groups, but this is how it is for us. Someone with a lot of magic could probably be able to name only a few of us, while someone like you, who don't even know magic, would probably die on the spot if you give just one of us a name. But your stars could have enough power to grant me not only a name, but also the strength to lead my clan."

Such a baffling fact that Emma and Gon quietly gasped. To think that a name, aside from its meaningful existence, would have such a weight of importance that it would represent rankings like it was some kind of hierarchy. Emma always knew names was a special thing to have, even though it was so common among her family that she didn't think too much about it, but for these monsters, it was like a privilege to bear a name that only the truly worthy could uphold.

It led her to think back how in stories or in that video game Ray once played, nearly all monsters that were introduced only carry the identity of their race, not a personal identity. They were only passing obstacles for the true character with their own names to overcome and move on. That the monsters in those stories were so unimportant to the overall plot aside from being something meant to be defeated, that they would not be given names so that the reader would not get attached, get to know, not meant to be remembered. Even the Nameless Man was called "Mister" by her. To give names would be to give acknowledgment of the named as a person.

"How many stars do you need?"

The ogre child's eyes widened, his mouth parted to speak.

"Hey, Emma. Can we talk for a moment?"

Killua suddenly spoke, calling Emma and ushering Gon aside. A wondering glance, Emma excused herself and followed Killua far from the ogre's earshot.

"You're thinking of giving him the stars. Aren't you?"

Emma stared at Killua, and her expression turned surprised, "Oh! Don't worry! I won't ask you guys to give up your stars. I know that you worked really hard getting those."

"Then you're willing to give him your stars? What if he wants more than just those two?"

Emma patted the spot where her patch is as she answered simply, "Then I'll have to go and hunt for some more."

"We just went through the forest a while ago," Killua reminded, "There haven't been any monsters before we came here. There might be some we could find if we kept looking, but even that probably won't be so easy. You only have three days left to have five stars ready."

"Then I'll just have to hurry and try!" Emma said determinedly.

The blue-eyed assassin regarded her quietly for a moment, "Emma, you know these guys aren't real, right?"

"Not... real?" She repeated slowly.

"They're NPCs, you know what that means, don't you?"

Emma recalled, "Y-yeah. Non-Participating Combatants."

"It also means Non-Playable Characters in video games. Characters. They're not actually real people," Killua explained. "The ogres are characters this competition generated to test us and see if we're willing to give them something while still pushing through to pass this event. You can say it's almost like a trap made to hinder our progress. Yeah, those ogres do act real, I got to give this place credit for giving us pretty convincing performance, but that's all they are. It's fine if you don't give them your stars, I just want to make sure that you don't feel morally obligated that you have to."

His arm outstretched, he patted her shoulder, "You only got two stars, and if we keep the six stars we got from that guy, you just only need one more star and you'd be already set. Just so long as you make sure not to fall for this kind of scenario, because it's really just that. We're in a competition, but it's also like we're in a video game, so you don't need to always feel bad for every NPC you meet."

It reminded Killua of how it was in Greed Island, there were characters there that were generated through Nen, made entirely out of aura; acted and looked like people, but were more like machines who can only respond to certain questions or speech topics, and were mainly there to help players progress and fill in the game with the illusion of life of active citizens that a majority of players made up for.

These generated characters in this preliminary, in comparison, were impressively more realistic, but it doesn't change what they are, and he wants to make sure that this girl understands that, otherwise it would just be a sorry sight that she would believe she's doing a good deed, when it's really just a generated scene that can cost her her own stars and standing in this competition she's here for the sake of her family.

"Usually in video games, if you give up something important on you, or any other item, that person you gave to might give something back, something that could be useful to help you advance in this competition, but with the time that you have now, it's not worth the risk."

Taking in Killua's words, comprehending his spoken advice, Emma looked down in contemplation. "I see... I actually forgot that they were that kind of NPCs. Thank you Killua, I really appreciate you looking out for me."

Killua shrugged, "Yeah, well, I guess I would feel kind of bad if someone didn't tell you." That and it looks like even Gon was falling for this scenario, he had to say something.

"But even so, I still want to help them as real people."

Gon looked at her with surprised eyes. Killua choked in his own gagged shock. "What?!"

"It doesn't matter if they're generated by this competition or whatever. I want to help them!" Her cheeks puffed at her proclamation, holding her chin high.

"H-hey! I just told you! You don't have to feel sorry for them!" Killua emphasized.

"I want to do it anyway!" Emma firmly stated.

"Why would you-?! Are you an idiot!? They're probably not even gonna stick around after the preliminary is over!" In pretense, the ogres and all other of the NPCs will likely vanish after fulfilling their roles here, and the competition will resume elsewhere. "It won't make a difference if you help them or not! It literally doesn't matter!"

"Well it matters to me and that's what's important!"

"What kind of excuse is that?!"

A laugh broke through the argued children. Gon chuckled behind his teeth. "Come on Killua. Let Emma do what she wants," his laughter dying down, he added, "We should help too."

"HUH?!" Killua shouted at his smiling friend. "Don't tell me you're really falling for this too?!"

"I mean, isn't it normal wanting to help people who need it?" Gon countered, a weak argument in the assassin's ears, a probable blame to Emma's earlier statement of helping others just because. "Plus, we do have these extra stars."

He takes out the patch that belonged to the wolfish competitor.

"Are you serious?!" Killua demanded from him.

Emma looked at Gon in shock. "Are you sure? What if you still need them?"

"We only need two more stars for us. It won't be that hard," Gon looked down on the patch, "I know this isn't ours, if anything, I would want to give the ogres a few of my stars if they needed it, but if it turns out that they need more, then maybe this is the best way."

He looked back at her, "I want all of us to get through this event, if using that guy's patch means that we can keep our stars safe and still leave us a chance to collect five stars before the end of the week, then let's do it."

Emma was taken aback by his encouragement, second-guessing herself when he brought out the patch.

"It'll be fine!" Gon reassured. Though Emma was still unsure, seeing how willing Gon was to give her this, she tentatively takes the patch, willing to join his contribution together.

"Thank you. I promise, after this, I'll help you guys get the last stars you need before the preliminary is over!"

"Come on! Think about it!" Killua told them. Emma held the patch closely, her mind set on this.

"I already did and I decided I'm going to do it!" She boldly declared.

Gon smiled and pumped his arms up with her, "Yeah!"

They faced the ex-assassin, her puckered face and his cheeky grin. Killua was outnumbered from two to one, leaving him to feel like he is the only sane person around, and he was the one who lived what was considered an abnormal life.

"Oh for-" He scratched his head, he had to deal with Gon's stubbornness on a daily, but two of them? There was no winning. Any resistance is futile. He sighed deeply, "Guess I got no other choice."

A cheer, Emma and Gon clapped the hands of each other. Killua lets out a small smile. "Say..."

The boys looked at Emma who spoke, "If it's true that all the monsters don't have names, I wonder..."

I already don't like where her thoughts are going, Killua felt an impending sense of goody-goody from the girl, and he had to fight to hold back another large sigh.

They made another brief discussion, and returned to the patiently waiting, new ogre chief. "If you guys have second thoughts, I'll understand," the ogre child told them.

Emma paused, looking back at Gon and Killua. Gon encouraged her with a nod, and she felt comforted. "Before that... how many stars would it take to name all of your clan?"

The ogre child's eyes widened, his little jaw dropped as if to touch the floor with his chin. The quiet guard beside him revealed a widened expression of similar shock, stunned to even more silence.

"A-All of us!?" The ogre child repeated. "Wha-?! ALL OF US?!"

The ogres in the camp stopped when they heard his shout, blushing cheeks for his unrestrained burst of his open shock. He quickly quieted to a whisper, "E-Emma! Th-that's-!"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't get your hopes up," Emma said, "But I want to make sure if it was possible that I could name all of your clan. Would it be possible?"

"I-I... Uh..." The ogre child fumbled. "I-it's... It's not impossible, b-but that would mean that you would need more stars than it would take just to name me!"

"How many?" She asked again. Her gaze serious.

Seeing her firm expression, the ogre child was at a loss for words until the silent bodyguard ushered him with a tap of his shoulder, bringing the young one back to awareness. He looks down in thought, then back at the awaiting girl who looks to be ready to do everything in the world for him. He was moved by the dedication, added to the agreeing interest that was shared among her friends that stand beside her.

He bit his own lip in disconcertment, he takes another glance at their willing expression, "...If it was just me, it would take two stars."

Emma blinked, that honestly didn't sound so many. It was true that that was the same amount she had on her, and while giving it away would have left her back to square one, if it was to help her friend, then she would do it and rush to retrieve those stars elsewhere and collect the rest.

"If it's for the whole village," the ogre child resumed, "That would take..."

He started counting his fingers until his bodyguard leaned in and whispered his own calculations. A grave look about the ogre child, "...It would take five stars to name our whole village."

An even more surprising reveal that took Emma and Gon off-guard, still far less than what they were expecting. Killua was less so as surprised. If this was a scenario that works to test the competitor's willingness to sacrifice their standing in the preliminary, then of course, the ogre child-chief's answer would be to request the number of stars that are required to pass the preliminary. A pretty typical case in most video games.

"Just five stars?" Emma said, confused as to how he came to that number, not reaching the same conclusion as Killua as she was not familiar with video games as he was.

"Since I'm the ogre chief, and still young, it might not seem a lot, but channeling two of those gold stars would give enough power to give me a name, grant me strength and additional abilities, skills, I'll probably get taller, a lot of other things," he explained. "Those stars carry a lot of power. Just a tip of it would probably be enough to name one regular ogre of our clan. There's a lot of us, so if you really are serious about naming every one of us, then that would take the combining power of five stars."

"These stars we have, they're that powerful?" Gon asked.

The ogre child nodded, "Some might even say that they're more than just magic, they have... an otherworldly kind of power. Power that not even our great mages among us can understand. There's not a lot we know about them, other than yeah, they are really powerful, filled with like maybe a huge amount of energy. If I hadn't been promoted to chief, I probably would have only needed one star with plenty of its magic to spare and for me to hone."

His face scrunched, "But I know that's too much. Even if you have five complete stars already, that would leave you guys at a disadvantage. It would be too hard to get back all those stars before the preliminary ends."

"Why? Aren't there still wild monsters in this jungle?" Killua asked.

The ogre chief shook his head, "Not as much as before. It's practically vacant of all wild monsters since yesterday, I had one of my scouts told me just now before you guys showed up that almost every monster here has been hunted. There are still other monster clans like ours that are still standing, probably because we're mainly well hidden or some competitors decided to spare them. I wouldn't recommend attacking them either way. Forget that they're large in numbers, they're just other clans like ours living their lives in peace."

The ogre child-chief understood, even if they were desperate, they would not go so far as to terrorize other peace-living villages. Well, except for the Orcs and the Boar clan, but he definitely wouldn't recommend fighting them. Some of the members there are innocent, so it would be unjustified to kill mere civilians and children around his age, and furthermore, that joined clans held a massive army. These three competitors alone cannot be enough to faze even one-quarter of their army - especially the Orc Lord and the Boar God Nago.

"Hold on, you say that this forest is practically vacant of all wild monsters," reaching for his backpack, Killua pulls out a paper. "What about this monster?"

He gives the Challenge List of the monster he and Gon have entered this forest to look for. The ogre child looked over the sheet, a blank reaction. "...I think it should be obvious with this big red X over it."

"Huh?" Retrieving the paper, Killua and Gon looked over it. "WHAT?!"

Emma hurried over to look for herself, on the paper was a drawn picture of what looks to be a grounded, the bat-like creature of proclaimed gold fur and a small yet was marked with a red X that the children were certain was never there before, and all information that was previously written there describing the beast and hint of its whereabouts, led to a simple, short sentence: This monster is no longer available in forest areas. Seek elsewhere.

"Y-you guys didn't notice this before?" Emma asked them. Killua rubbed his head.

"I guess this is what you call a "magic paper," giving us an update of the state of the monster we were hunting for," convenient, and also disheartening, Killua breathed out, "So there really is a limit of monsters we can only hunt. Looks like our trip here was a total waste."

"Then we'll have to look for another Challenge List," Gon said simply.

"You're probably not going to find any around here," the ogre child told them. "Your best bet would be at another place. Ask another village lived by humans, they might tell you something."

Killua nodded, "Guess we'll do that after we're done here."

The ogre child frowned, "You can't just give up that many stars. I want the best for my clan more than anything, but I can't take advantage of you guys, especially you Emma. Do you even have five stars?"

"Not five, but we do have six," Killua stated, looking at Emma. Taking cue, she showed the six-stars patch. The ogre child's eyes widened before he shook his head.

"Then that'll leave you with only one star."

"It's okay, me, Emma, and Killua have our three other stars," Gon assured. If only one star is left from this patch of six stars, then that single star will be given to Emma, this was the agreement Gon made with Killua and Emma. Soft gratitude in Emma's eyes at their acceptance to help the ogres, a single first meeting and yet, they would give up these extra stars just so Emma would not risk herself of wasting any more time.

She owed it to them. Emma decided then, she will help these boys achieve the stars they need left, and together pass the preliminary.

The ogre child could hardly believe it, his round eyes widening, "You must have worked so hard to get that many stars!"

"Not really... it's kind of a long story," Gon said. "It'll be fine. If me, Killua, and Emma work together, we would only need to hunt two more monsters, and share it between us."

The ogre child looked at the patch, "...Are you guys... sure? You're really serious?"

He looked at Emma and saw her kind smile, "Don't worry. We'll make it through! I'm gonna make sure that Gon, Killua and I will win this event!"

Gon smiled at her way while Killua shrugged. "So? You're gonna take them?" The assassin asked.

Another stunned regard by the child ogre, he stared at the outstretched hand carrying the glimmering gold stars. A slow and hesitating reach, his fingers touched the patch. In his eyes, a shimmer of his built-up tears he vigorously fought to hold back, rubbing his eyes with his arm. "...Emma, Gon, Killua. I swear... I am never going to forget this."

With a deep breath, the ogre child looks to the other clan members, "Mage! I need you here!"

What came was an old-looking, ogre male in velvet robes and horns above his long white brows. The ogre child offered a brief explanation, and the old ogre, with eyes that widened in shock and immense celebration as if dancing inside his heart, nodded calmly. "It shall be done, young chief."

Soon, word spread among the remaining ogre clan. Their shock was apparent, the idea of someone with their monsterhood would be able to obtain a personal reference of their individual identity, it was only something that can only be dreamed of, it was something they had all been ready to accept will never happen for the rest of their life.

"First," the old ogre mage began, "Before I channel the power from these stars, the names for each and every one of us must be given by one of you children."

He referred to Gon, Killua, and Emma. "Once the ritual begins, you will have your chance to name first the chief, and then all of us afterward. We will all face an evolutionary change, and if the ritual is a success, then..."

The ogre child-chief bowed his head to the other children, "We the ogres will offer you our absolute service and loyalty. Ask anything from us and by my word as chief, you will receive it."

"O-oh! That's okay! You don't have to go that far!" Emma insisted, waving her hands to deny the overly generous word of servitude. "We're just happy to help!"

"Nope! I won't accept that!" The ogre child responded firmly. "You're willing to go this far for us, so we'll go as far for you! I'm not taking a No for an answer!"

"O-okay..." Emma conceded to calm the enthusiastic ogre child. "I'll... I'll think of something later."

Killua smirked at her feeble reaction and looked over the awaiting crowd wearing their curiosity and faint show of eagerness. "There really is a lot of ogres. Have you thought up a name for all of them, Emma?"

Gon stepped up, "We'll help you! Since the chief is your friend, you can name him first, we can take turns naming the rest. Okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. I've already thought up several names, but I could definitely use the help," Emma said before entering deep in her thoughts. A name for her friend the ogre child, what name shall she give him?

"The ritual is ready," the old ogre mage returns, he directs the children to a wide, circular drawing with several unknown symbols upon it, drawn in blue chalk of mystical proportions.

"Young ones, go and stand in front of the circle, the first ogre will stand inside it. Once I channel the five stars," he holds out the five given gold badges in his wrinkled hand, "Then you may give whatever name you like."

The children looked amongst each other, a nod of readiness between them. Walking towards the ritual, Emma walked with the ogre child-chief, he stood upon the ritual, doing his best not to show excitement in his puffed-cheek face. Gon and Killua stood behind Emma, and waited until the ritual began.

The old ogre mage closed his eyes, standing near the children, he muttered softly spoken words only the ogres could understand. In his hand, the gold stars began to glow, a powerful like energy surrounds his palm. In the midst of his incantation, the ritual circle started to light up in an aura of blue. Emma and Gon watched the process in marvel. Killua watched with calm intrigue.

"Now. You may offer our chief a name."

At the old ogre's discretion, Emma considered. A name is precious, so she should not give it so idly. She thought about it, a name that should fit well with the ogre child, her friend.

Looking back at him, observing his features that regarded her with patience, his round puffed cheeks had her reminded of a small and gentle girl, her smile that could bring happiness to all, her endearing kind personality, and with her that favorite stuffed doll in arms.

She had her idea of a name then, "From now on, your name is... Connor."

A brilliant light ignited from the ritual, and the child ogre was enveloped by it. Emma watched with awe as the child ogre's form suddenly began to shift, and he grew. Taller and taller. When the light dimmed, the child ogre was one no more.

A transformation, an adult figure stood in place, an appearance that was near uncanny to his father and previous chief. His hair was a darker shade, his leather armor now leather and steel, with an elegant silk violet robe underneath. His baby fangs were gone, and the single horn on his head turned to three, but his face looked all the more human with gentle, earthy brown eyes. No longer a feeble-looking body, he was built with slim muscles fitting of a strong warrior.

"Whoa!" Gon yelled, even Killua was mildly surprised.

Emma's jaw hanged low, "You... You really did get taller!" And older. Is this how monsters age? All from the simple act of being given a name?

"Connor..." The no-longer-child ogre? said in a deep voice, "I like it. From now on, I am Chief Connor; Leader of this Clan."

He offered his hand. Emma gently grabs it, her hand now tiny in his, "Thank you Emma. I will never forget this for as long as I live."

Or at least until the end of the week, Killua cynically thought to himself.

Holding her little hand, the newly grown ogre chief looked to his people who eyed him in amazement, he spoke to them in a resounding voice, a fitting speaker of a natural-born leader, "Come one at a time. Today, the Ogre clan will rebuild. From our blood and grief, we shall stand stronger than before; as Kijins!"

The ogres cheered their hearts up to the very blue sky.

---

Participating Competitors:

Edward and Alphonse (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Lina Inverse (Slayers)

A/N: I decided to cut the chapter in half so not to overwhelm with so much information. This chapter will now be called Ogre Among All Ogres. Next chapter will be the other half and will be titled as this chapter originally was. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

Please leave a kind and honest review.