Hiroki wakes up and goes straight to the bathroom. After his business is done, he washes his hands and looks up at the mirror to see his own reflection. He tilts his head to the side and looks to his neck where he was once bitten by that vampire woman. While the two stab marks from her fangs are completely gone, thanks to Sona, the memories and pain was still there and making him feel uncomfortable right now. However, when he straightens his head and looks to his scar across his face, this made him think about his brother and suddenly causing him to hallucinate his brother through the mirror. He saw his brother looking back at him with an evil glare and smile on his face, the same expression when he points the front of that spear towards Hiroki and not caring about what he just did to him. Thinking of Shunsuke made him shiver and turns away to stop looking at the mirror.

"I look just like him… And yet we're completely different." Hiroki sighs and looks back at the mirror with sadness on his face. He saw just himself in the reflection. He then raise his eyes to look at his hair and touches the front of his grey hair for a moment and asks himself "I wonder if…."

Hiroki gathers his gear and leaves this room and makes his way to the adventures guild. He searches for Sona, who was busy relaxing and having tea with two other employees of this guild. She notices him approaching her and places down her glass cup and asks "Hiroki. How are you feeling today?"

"I feel much better, thanks to you."

"You should thank Loup for rescuing you. But if you didn't stand in front of that vampire –"

"I know." Hiroki replies "I just didn't expect her to be a vampire."

"Hmmm, it was her body that made you want to go with her, right?" Sona asks and made Hiroki blush a little.

"Forget about it. I wanted to ask you something. It has nothing to do with the vampire."

"Oh? What is it you want from me?"

"Just some information. I was wondering if anyone in town could dye my hair. Unless you have magic that could easily do it."

"Now why would you want to change the colour of your hair? It looks fine by me."

"I… I just wanted to change it. That's all I can say right now."

"Well, there's a hair styler in town who is a perfection when it comes with knowing what we want with our hair. There is a spell that could change your hair in a permanent way without continuing to return to the hair styler to keep dying it, but it's going to cost you the same way."

"I'd like to ask for a magic caster to do it. Could you do it for me? I'll pay."

"I can't do that, Hiroki." Sona replies while picking up her tea to take a sip.

"Why not?"

"It's because I don't know the spell. I know someone in town that could help you with that particular spell. But you'll be prepare yourself when you speak with this person?"

"Prepare? You mean the money?"

Sona smirks while facing forward and still holding her cup close to her mouth "You're going to have quite the hard time with this one."

"What?"

And so Hiroki leaves the guild for the time being and goes out to find that particular house. Sona told him where to start and where to go, but would need to ask anyone around if he fails to find the right house.

Inside this house lies a powerful sorceress. She has her own private job and would get many guests to come over to ask some requests that requires the use of her magic, as long as they pay and not use it for evil needs. She just got out of bed and starts fixing herself up and puts on her dress. Her standard style clothing is a typical witch-styled outfit with much revealing parts of her body. She wears a white lace top, which she does not even bother to try and hide the top of her breasts, along with a long purple dress where it leaves the sides of her smooth legs exposed. She has a dark red cloth around her waist to keep the dress tightly secure around herself. Her arms, she wears a pair of matching purple sleeves that reach past her elbows and has white lace at the top. Lastly is her black witch hat she wears. Her name is Akeno Himejima. She has a smooth body, long black hair where she always puts it into a ponytail and violet eyes.

Hiroki finally found the place and starts knocking on the door a few times. He came at the right time, because she was ready to leave the house and found him standing outside. He takes off his helmet just when she was about to open the door.

"Hello. What can I –" She pause for a moment to watch him take off his helmet to show his face. She finishes that sentence by saying "Do to you?"

Hiroki pause for a few seconds and raise an eyebrow with confusion on what she just said. He also inhales silently when noticing this stunning woman in front of him, causing him to swallow and looking nervous while thinking to himself "Not another one…."

Akeno scoffs and quickly rephrase the sentence again "I mean… What can I do for you?"

"I… I need some help changing the colour of my hair. I'll pay for you to use your magic on me."

"Oh? That's an interesting request. I happen to know all kinds of spells, so this is your lucky day, cutie." She smiles to him and causes Hiroki to raise both eyebrows up for a moment with surprise to be called 'cute'.

"But how much do I have to pay?" Hiroki asks

"Hmmmmm." Akeno steps forward outside her house and closes the door behind her. Hiroki had to quickly take a couple of steps back to avoid getting into contact with her body. She eventually replies "I have something you could do for me, in exchange for changing the colour of your hair?"

"Really? Um… Sure, I guess."

"Good. You're coming with me." Akeno smiles and walks past him

"W-What? What do you mean by that?" Hiroki follows her and walks beside her

"There's a rare animal that lurks in the forest. It's a unicorn." Akeno explains

"A unicorn? I've never heard of them."

"It's a rare and powerful being that I want to subdue and capture its horn. The horn is conserved sacred since it can cure all kinds of poisons or disease and dispel any spell."

"Then why do you need my help?"

"Well, I could use someone in case something goes wrong." Akeno looks to him and smiles "You're going to be by bodyguard in shining armour."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret this?" Hiroki asks himself while putting on his helmet and continues following Akeno outside of town.

"My name is Akeno, by the way. I forgot to mention it earlier. What's your name?"

"It's Hiroki."

"Nice to meet you, Hiroki."

And so the two set out together on an errand adventure outside of town and going straight towards the forest. Akeno takes the lead and walks in front of him and says to him "Be sure to pay attention what's in front of you and not get distracted by the sway of my hips."

". . . I'm. . . Focused." Hiroki replies while drawing his sword

Akeno laughs and looks forward "Such a shy person. I'm going to enjoy teasing you."

"Is it possible for you to not do that?" Hiroki asks her

"Hmmmmmmmmm, no."

"Damn."

"Tell me, what's the reason for the change of your hair?" Akeno asks while continue facing forward as they walk "You just fine the way you are."

"It's… I just want to change my hair. It's my business only."

"I understand. But what colour were you planning on doing?" Akeno asks him

"I was thinking…. Maybe black."

"Oh? You want the same colour as my hair?" Akeno looks back to him "That's cute."

"W-What?! N-No, I." Hiroki sighs and turns his head to the side while looking embarrassed. He would continue by saying "I just thought of black because I'm usually a black sheep in my family."

"Really? I didn't know that." Akeno faces forward and she changes her expression to a calm and curious. She asks "Does your parents know you're here?"

"No. And they probably don't even care." Hiroki replies with a serious tone while facing forward.

"I see. I guess we're more in common after all." Akeno replies and stops to look back to Hiroki with seriousness when saying these words "We both hate our parents."

". . . ."

Akeno faces forward and starts walking, while Hiroki remains where he is for a couple of seconds. He finally runs after her and catches up with her again to find something dangerous up ahead. They already found some dead animals nearby and could tell this was done by a human and not by an opposing animal that was stronger than them. The proof was right there when noticing one dead animal has an arrow lodge through the belly. They know they are not alone in this forest, and not the only ones searching for that unicorn.

By the time they arrive to find the unicorn, it was already under attack by a group of men that were trying to control it and prevent it from escaping. They already got rope around the neck and trying to drag it towards a large cage for them to escape with it. These men already know how valuable this horse is, so keeping it alive and selling it to their client will grant them a whole amount of money.

"This is terrible." Akeno replies while staying hidden in the forest and watching them trying to control it. She also notice the unicorn no longer has a pointy horn at the top of the forehead, meaning someone already cut it off.

"How are we going to do this?" Hiroki asks Akeno "I count seven people."

"These men are doing us a favour. But this isn't how you properly take care of an animal." Akeno replies and decides to step out of the shadows to reveal herself to the men.

The moment they look towards her, all of them are left amaze to see this stunning woman approaching them and causing them to lower their eyes down to gaze at her body. All of them love what they saw, and this distraction was enough for the man holding the rope to lose it and allowing the unicorn to sprint out of there. The lustful expressions on their faces turn to frustration and anger when seeing the unicorn escaping, which made one of them draw out an arrow from his quiver and shoot from his bow towards the unicorn in the back. Akeno demonstrates her powers by just waving her hand and unleashing a blast of lightning from the palm of her hand towards that archer. The blast from that yellow lightning was enough to send the man flying and crashing hard against the nearby tree. All these men forget the fact she is indeed a sorceress and was too distracted by her beauty.

"She can handle this without me. Why does she need me here?" Hiroki asks himself while standing behind Akeno to watch.

These men never stood a chance against her. She easily took them all out with just a blast of lightning from her hands. All that was left was only one man, who remain broken and terrified at what he saw. Akeno looks towards him and him towards her. Akeno decides not to attack and lowers her hand to spare his life. However, just as he plan to make a run for it, Akeno creates a magical barrier behind him to have him slam against a thick energy wall to prevent him from leaving.

"What are you doing?" Hiroki asks him

"I leave the last one to you." Akeno replies "Please do what needs to be done. Or else he'll kill you." She then proceeds to walk past him and go searching for the unicorn.

Now it was just two men standing. Hiroki steps forward with his sword ready to do what needs to be done. The man was probably two years older than Hiroki and left frighten at what just happen to his friends. Since he knows he cannot escape, the man screams while rushing towards Hiroki with his sword held to the side of him with both hands tightening the grip. Hiroki had to defend himself by blocking the attack with his shield, then counters by swinging his sword horizontally to attempt at striking his chest. The man easily saw it and moves back to avoid it, but he rushes in again and continues swinging his sword as hard as he can. This man was just frighten and fighting blindly like a savage, while Hiroki was calm and fights back as soon as he sees an opportunity to strike.

This fight only last for a minute when Hiroki lands a good strike against the man's thigh and then shield bashes with the end of his shield against his mouth to leave him on the floor with his hands pressing against his mouth. While he was down and groaning in pain, he looks back to Hiroki, who looks down at him and aims the tip of his sword towards him.

However, something triggers Hiroki to make him freeze in a terrifying state under the helmet. He realise this scene right here reminds him of that day when his own brother, Shunsuke, slashed him across the face and aims the tip of the spear towards him with a cold and evil expression on his face. He would see himself like this, while he was replaying the scene as his brother. This made him sweat and shaken by the horrors of what his brother did to him.

The moment the man realises he is hesitating to strike him, his instincts took over and quickly rushes to grab a sword to attack him. However, Hiroki snaps back into reality and quickly strikes before he could swing that sword. He finishes him off with one clean swing through the face to finally end his life. After that, Hiroki stands over him and remain unhappy while staring down at his bloody corpse for a time. He would finally turn away and notice the horn of the unicorn on the ground next to one of the men that was hit by lightning. He decides to take it and goes searching for Akeno.

Akeno found the unicorn again, but she found herself facing off quite a dangerous opponent. This beast found the unicorn first, attacked it and left a serious cut across the side of the body, causing it to collapse to the side and left paralyse while still in distress. This thing attacking has an appearance of a Centaur. The top body shows a young woman with a voluptuous figure with long black hair and no shirt to cover her chest. Her lower body is a beastly Centaur-like appearance and is twice the size of the unicorn. She also carries a jousting spear in her right hand.

"I smell something bad. But I also smell something delicious. I wonder if it's sweet, or if it's bitter?" The woman replies while looking down at Akeno and pleasuring herself by groping one of her own breasts.

"Akeno." Hiroki calls out to her and rushes forward with his sword at the ready for a fight. He pauses and looks up at the tall centaur in front of him and left shock to witness such a monstrosity.

"Good, you're here." Akeno replies while looking at Hiroki and then back to the centaur "I leave this one to you, Hiroki."

"What?" Hiroki looks to Akeno and watch her turn away and go straight towards the unicorn.

The woman stares at Akeno for a while to keep an eye on her, but since she was not going to attack, she turns her attention towards him and responds "I guess you'll do instead. You better taste delicious. That armour of yours needs to go."

She rushes towards him and swings her spear down at Hiroki. He easily got out of the way and saw her piercing that spear through the ground so easily. Hiroki got up and thought to himself "I got to avoid blocking it with my shield…" Then he looks up towards her face to see her looking back at him.

"This is insane… How am I going to handle this?" Hiroki asks and quickly ready himself to avoid another attack the moment she attacks him once again with the spear.

She continues her relentless assault on Hiroki and even lifts herself up to leave just her back legs on the ground and her front legs high in the air to use as a weapon towards him. Hiroki jumps back to avoid the stomp from her hooves, but soon takes a hit by her spear hitting against his shield and creating a deep cut across his shield. Her spear was much stronger than his defences. Hiroki, after blocking that attack, rushes forward with his sword and manage to land a hit across the front of her lower body to leave a long cut to make her cry out in pain. That attack made her change her face by making her eyes go completely white, teeth becoming sharp like a piranha and has pointy ears like an elf. She was not happy and attempts to plunge her spear down at him with both hands to it. But then, a blast of lightning came from above and serious stuns her and delivering more pain to her.

Hiroki looks back to see Akeno looking back towards him and attacking her yet again with another blast of lightning. He also notice the unicorn rising up off the ground and shows no wounds on its body.

"She healed it…" Hiroki replies

"Go. Hiroki." Akeno cries out to him while unleashing a third blast of lightning that seriously brings her down on her knees.

Hiroki quickly wraps this up by attacking her wrist to disarm her spear while she is stunned. After losing the spear, he takes a couple of steps back and turns his blade to have the tip of the blade facing back and the back hilt facing the front. He runs forward and jumps up at the woman to plunge the sword through her chest. That sword went halfway through her body and leaving her struggling to breathe. Hiroki falls back and watches her collapse to the side on the ground.

Hiroki sighs in relief to see it finally dead. While it was easy, but could tell he would definitely be struggling to kill it if Akeno was not here to save the day. He remains staring at the creature and hoping it is actually dead and will not move while approaching it again to pull the blade out of the body.

"Let's be sure it's dead." Akeno said while approaching the beast and casting another spell the moment she places her hand against the body. Just as Hiroki pulls the sword out of her body, Akeno creates a dozen ice spikes and have them pierce out from inside her upper body to leave her with more stabs. The beast only flinches from those attacks and never got back up again.

Hiroki remains looking at the beast and still left breathing heavily at the sight of this massive beast in front of him. He then turns away and watches Akeno return to the unicorn. She offers the unicorn with some edibles for a horse to eat, while also moving her right hand across the side of its head to help give it comfort and show a sign of friendliness towards the unicorn. After eating the food given to the unicorn, it's broken off horn begins to magically regenerate again as a full horn again.

"There there. You're alright now." Akeno whispers with a calm voice and smiling seeing the unicorn with its horn again.

Hiroki remains where he was and not wishing to disturb this moment between the two. When the unicorn is done eating, it turns around and sprints back into the forest. After that, Akeno looks towards Hiroki and smiles to him.

"How did you do that?" Hiroki asks her

"I healed it with a potion and offered the right substances for it to regenerate the missing horn. I couldn't just take the horn and leave the unicorn like this."

"I see."

"You've got the horn?" Akeno asks him while coming closer to get in front of him.

"Yeah." Hiroki raise his left hand to show her the horn in his hand.

"Thank you." Akeno approaches him and takes the horn out of his hand. She sees Hiroki looking back at the centaur woman and she looks back at it as well. She replies "This the first time seeing a beast like this?"

"Yeah. What a monster…."

"I knew you'd be reliable for this trip." Akeno looks back to Hiroki "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me… You could've done this all by yourself. I didn't even need to be here." Hiroki replies

"You're right, but it's no fun doing this alone with nobody to be with. But anything could've happened out here and I appreciate an extra pair of hands to help me. Plus, I enjoyed the company we have together."

"Sure." Hiroki turns away and looks towards the spear on the ground. He walks over to take the spear and lean it against his shoulder "Let's go home." He then walks away from her.

"Hiroki?" Akeno looks confuse and could tell something was wrong when hearing his soft tone voice.

Before leaving the forest, Hiroki decides to loot the bodies of the men that attempt to capture the unicorn. He stole the swords and some coins and anything else valuable for him to use to sell. There was no point leaving this stuff laying on the ground, so he takes whatever he could carry and return home to sell it to the blacksmith. Akeno decides to follow him and offer some help when meeting with the blacksmith.

Hiroki sold all of the swords and the spear to the blacksmith for some extra coins. He got the chance of spending the coin to replace his sword and shield to an upgrade version of a hardened-steel. He would carry a hardened-steel shield and sword, which does more damage and better endurance than the regular steel, and could cut through easier. He keeps his regular shield and sword as a reserve in case something happens. After it was over, both he and Akeno leave the blacksmith.

"You've got yourself quite lucky for a rookie adventurer." Akeno says to him the moment they made it outside

"I know. But now I owe you for letting me keep all the loot. Are you sure you don't want any of this?" Hiroki asks while holding out the pouch of gold

"It's yours. I don't need it. But since you're generous by saying 'I owe you', I guess you owe me a good meal tonight. Yes, that'll do just fine."

"R-Really?"

"But first, let's get to work on dying your hair. Unless you've changed your mind about that?"

"I still want my hair to change."

"But are you sure you want it to be black? You shouldn't dye your hair black because you're the black sheep of the family. You should try something else."

"Hmmmmm. I don't know. Got another idea for a colour?"

Akeno lifts her right hand and pokes the front of his helmet "Let's think about it for the meal, okay?"

"Y-Yeah."

And so the two make their way straight to a perfect place for good food to eat. Both of them took off their headgear when entering the interior and found a table in the corner with only two seats. They both sat down and ask what Hiroki could afford with the amount of money he has left. They offer them both some good choices, and both agree to have the same meal together.

"This is happening so fast…" Hiroki thought to himself while placing his helmet on the table and looks back to Akeno, who was looking away and looking towards the counter. He continues "This feels like a date…"

Akeno looks back to Hiroki and made him look away. She laughs and replies "I saw you looking at me. You can't hide your cuteness from me."

". . . . ."

Akeno leans forward to grab his helmet and brings it closer to have it resting on her lap. Hiroki replies "H-Hey. What are you doing?"

"Can't have you putting on the helmet to hide your embarrassing face. Now I can finally get a good look at you."

Hiroki sighs and mutters "Should've left it on."

"Are you embarrassed talking to someone?" Akeno asks while crossing her arms under her breasts and leaning forward to press her arms on the table. This made Hiroki losing control of his eyes as they look down to her chest for just a split second and quickly back to her face and then looks away. She laughs at the sight of seeing him looking around and causing his face to turn red.

"I'm sorry." Hiroki replies "You're too beautiful."

"You're so sweet. I get that expression a lot, so you don't have to feel embarrassed." Akeno leans back on her chair and lowers her arms "Look wherever you want to. I don't mind."

". . . . ." Hiroki looks back at her and takes a deep breath and exhales while looking back to her face.

"Let's help lower that beating heart of yours by talking about something else. I want to know about you, Hiroki." Akeno replies while crossing her arms again and remain leaning back against her chair and crossing her legs.

"There's nothing much to say about me. I lived in the city, worked as a blacksmith and delivery boy, and fought hard on reaching my goal of becoming an adventure."

"That's nice. But what about your parents? You mentioned about hating them."

". . . ." The thought of his parents made Hiroki tighten both hands to a fist and shows signs of both sad and angry. Hiroki just looks away and replies "I don't want to talk about them."

"So you hate your parents." Akeno replies "I understand. But don't you think it's wrong to ask for black hair because you're the black sheep of the family?"

". . . ."

"Do you really want that just to remind yourself of what they've been treating you?"

"It's more than that." Hiroki looks back to her and was about to continue, but he stops and notices a waitress approaching the table with the food and drinks for the both of them. He decides to focus on eating the food that was brought to him, while Akeno remains where she is and remain silent for a while.

Akeno looks down at her food and stares at it for a moment, until she looks back to Hiroki and asks "Would you like to know about my parents?"

Hiroki stops eating and swallows first before responding "Well, I told you about me. You never said anything about yourself."

"Well, I lived somewhere far away from here, so this isn't where I was born. And I too know what it's like to hate parents. Actually, the only person I hate is my father, because he's the one who got my mother killed."

Hiroki pause for a moment while he was trying to drink. He places his cup down and looks back at Akeno with surprise and responds "I'm sorry about your mother."

"I look just like her." Akeno smiles a little while looking down at her food. "And I lost her when I was so young. I blame my father for that, and I never want to see his face again." She then finally picks up a fork and starts to eat the meal in front of her.

"I guess we have one thing in common." Hiroki replies "We don't want nothing to do with family."

"And it looks like you're still holding onto that pain." Akeno replies as soon as she swallow her food.

". . . ." Hiroki remains silent and continues to finish eating his meal.

After a short while of eating, Akeno breaks the silence by saying "You look nice with grey hair."

Hiroki stops and inhales silently before responding to her "I hate. It reminds me of my twin brother."

"You have a brother? Oh, now I understand."

"That's enough." Hiroki looks back to her with serious "I don't want to talk about my family anymore."

"I'm sorry, Hiroki. Sometimes, it's best to just open up to someone else. Do you feel a little better?"

"Still doesn't change anything."

"Okay."

After that, things went quiet between the two while they eat and relax together. Hiroki just wanted to leave, but had to stay here until Akeno was done and offers his helmet back to him. Hiroki finishes the payment for the meal, thanks the owner for the meal and left the place with Akeno beside him.

Next, Akeno takes Hiroki back to her place where she could finally begin the process of dying his hair through magic to make it permanent. She uses a bowl of water and uses an alchemic ingredients to change it black. She asks him once more if he would still wish to dye his hair black. He could still change the colour again if he asks her again to change it, so Hiroki still chooses to change the colour to make himself different than his brother. In the end, Akeno uses her magic on both his hair and the bowl and changes the colour of his grey hair into a permanent black hair, until Hiroki so desires to change it.

"Thank you, Akeno." Hiroki said while offering her the payment for dying his hair.

"You're welcome here at any time." Akeno says to him "And maybe I could give you a discount for a food massage."

"I'll…. Wait, what?"

"I can help relief that stress of yours." Akeno smiles while taking two steps closer to Hiroki and causing him to take a step back. "Come by anytime."