Chapter 12
Hunter meets Prey


"Forgot how shopping for shoes was tedious…"

Racks filled with a variety of shoes of every possible mix of colors invaded my vision, the smell of leather and other material flanking my nostrils. Thankfully, my ears were protected against the danger of the outside world, due to the tranquil atmosphere of the store. It sure helped that the only people in the store were Gura, Kiara, and I, not including the people who worked here.

I had agreed to buy new sneakers as a poetic way to accept change in my new, crazy life, but now that I had set foot in here, I had lost myself once again. I wasn't going back on my word, in fact, I was even more determined than ever. No, my problem lied at the simple fact that I had no idea which pair to buy…

To think that I had a meltdown a few minutes ago about my new goals in life...and was now overthinking buying shoes…

The wonders of Hunter's brain, everyone.

"Did ya pick yet? Did ya pick yet?" With swift strikes comparable to a skilled spearman; the energetic shark decided to chime in with a hefty dose of finger poke on my side, which resulted in a few gruff grunts from me. Like a child asking if we arrived at the destination over and over, it was consuming precious brain cells dedicated to decision making.

"If your goal is making the task harder than it is, you are succeeding with flying colors." I let out another grunt as another finger jabbed my ribs, sending a glare for good measure. My response was a roll of the eyes, taking place beside me as she locked sapphires with the infinite copies of footwear in front of us.

It wasn't simply about the looks of them, being comfortable was also an important part of this endless equation. My current sneakers definitely had taken a few trips to hell...but my feet felt like heaven in them. It was familiar and comfortable, something a new pair would not be able to give. They'll be rough, clunky, foreign. AKA the damn opposite of comfortable.

"You are really grinding the gears on this one, huh?" The Atlantian helpfully provided, crossing her arms as she glanced at me with a mixture of disbelief and mirth. I held back a sigh of irritation as I massaged my temples, trying my hardest to focus on my task. "It's just shoes, Hunter."

"I-it really isn't that simple…" This time, a sigh did escape my throat, earning a snort from the shrimp beside me. Glad someone was having fun.

"Come on Gura, let him pick in peace, otherwise we'll be here forever." The phoenix came to my rescue, putting her hands on my bully and pushing her away.

"It's shoes!" It didn't come without a protest from the tormentor, throwing her hands up in the air with an exclamation of pure bafflement. It really wasn't…

"Yes, and you are acting in your nature of being a pest." Kiara replied in an almost motherly tone.

"Like hell I am-!"

Just like that, silence reigned supreme once more as an offended Gawr Karen left the premise. It was time for me to resume my headache inducing query: which shoes was I going to ge-

"Need any help picking a decent pair?"

Before I could physically react, my mind immediately threw questions at me as to who that voice was. It wasn't a high pitched one of Gura, and it certainly wasn't the energetic one of Kiara. It was a deeper, more nasally toned one that I hadn't heard yet.

I turned my head to get a peek at the person who was attempting conversations with me. A woman with a mane of silver greeted my sight, eyes of the same colors checking the racks of shoes in front of them like I was previously doing. She was shorter than me, yet had this boastful aura swooning around her. She wore a dark coat, white fur on the inside of the neck area for maximum warmth...or just being really cool looking. A black top that revealed much skin complimented the heavy coat, white vertical lines located to the right adding style to the piece of clothing. A gray short skirt and a tarnished stocking on only one leg finished the look alongside some black high heel boots.

If you could only describe this woman in one word, fashionable would be it. The air around her oozed with confidence and style, yet wasn't suffocating whatsoever. Mixed with all the belts and golden accessories she had on her, such as her necklace, she was a subtle type of cool. A person that managed to stay off radar yet proudly showed herself off.

I thought she was a badass.

"These ones break-in easily after a few days, it helps that they look cool too." She casually pointed at one specific black and white pair, a combo I bet she was all too well familiar with. I swiftly peered at them, before grabbing them with a small shrug as if to test fate.

"Bet you don't work here." I briefly murmured back, rubbing my thumb over the fabric of the items in my hands. Another peek at the woman beside me only for her to divulge a small smirk, a complimentary huff following it immediately after.

"Not much for trust." She whispered back to me and most likely herself. I couldn't help but wince slightly, turning my head to face the silver maned badass with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, didn't mean it like that." I tried to explain, but most of the sentences coming out of my mouth resonated with laziness. Surprisingly, the woman didn't sneer, nor glare at me for my rude behavior.

"No offense taken. I just felt pity for the poor schmuck that couldn't decide on shoes." She joked instead, enabling a small laugh out of the both of us. Her laugh was imbued with charisma and cheerfulness, immediately shattering the image of maturity that I had plastered upon meeting her.

Just with a metaphorical snap of a finger, the awkwardness I had instilled with my dry reply had been lifted, completely turned to dust by her laid back attitude. With one easy going joke at my expense, the air between the two of us was more amicable. She definitely would be the one pulling the reins on this conversation, myself being obliged to follow suit unless I wish to cause more tension.

Despite all the praise I was bombarding her within the ship of my own psyche…alarms were still ringing as if danger was on board. I had no believable reasons to be on my guard, but I also had no reasons to not be in front of a complete stranger being so…friendly.

"So I assume that makes you a good samaritan?" I decided to question with earnest sincerity, hoping to dig for more information to calm the mental red flags. A brief shrug followed by her facing me was the reply, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Samaritan…I like it, 'sounds cool." She grinned at the nickname, silver gazing around as if to ponder it further. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her response, checking one last time at the pair of sneakers in my hands before making my decision to pick them. Being paranoid about strangers trying to help wouldn't do any good, especially for the storm of thoughts inside of my cranium.

"Well, thanks either way, the help is appreciated." I said with a quick smile, grabbing the box off the shelf. As thankful as I was, I had no reason to continue the conversation with this stranger - not that I was capable of it anyway.

"Anything for a caretaker~"

The world froze and halted in my pupils, ears shutting down any waves of distraction from my surroundings. My heart accelerated as my body did the opposite; my entire body refusing to budge a single inch. My breath was stuck in my throat, my hand clutched the box, and my chest tightened.

"I-I'm sorry, what d-...did you sa-" I attempted to ask with the best of my remaining nerves, but struggled to release the words in the air. My head was vibrating with a feeling of danger and fear, threatening to consume my rationality with every word I formed. How the hell did she know about-?!

"Act, or die. Choice is yours."

Two sentences. A gun pointed at my forehead. A confident smirk. Cold eyes preying. Silence absorbing everything.

My thought process became singular, survival instincts flooding my neurons at an alarming rate. Questions were discarded, doubt and fears were thrown away, every thought that wasn't immediately related to preservation of my life was wiped off my brain. Micro details formed macro solutions, a solution surging in my vision with each heartbeat as time glitched. I didn't wanna die today.

I wanted to live.

"You wouldn't." Were the first words that jumped out of my mouth, surged with absolution and frigid, icy logic. Time ticked once more, the outside world creating ripples once more. A tilt of the head from the woman threatening me was the green light to keep going before she changed her mind and squeezed the trigger. "W-we're in broad daylight, in a public mall. Y-y-you'd get found out immediately!"

"Who says I can't escape?" She immediately interrogated back, the gun not stirring in the slightest. I could feel adrenaline rushing to my body, but most importantly my mind. The bigger picture was still the main focus, but specifics slowly faded in at spots where they were required to understand the puzzle.

"E…Even a hitman isn't that sloppy with their work." I inhaled slowly to expel my argument properly, my sight bouncing around to dig up more clues. With each answer I provided, my reasoning became more grounded, more confident. Fear steadily dissipated, immediately taken over by extreme cogitation. "Besides…you don't wanna mess with Cover Corp."

"What makes you say that I know this Cover who?"

The entire situation at hand felt like a twisted form of an exam. Each reply I would throw would get reflected with additional queries, her cold silver eyes judging and analyzing every sentence. Except instead of simply getting a bad score on a sheet of paper for a couple of wrong answers, one false decision would lead to a hole in my skull.

Train of thoughts carefully came back in my arsenal, allowing me to process the questions instead of firing words in blind hope. Luckily, it was just what I needed to contest her blatant lies about not knowing Cover Corp.

"Then how would you know that I'm a caretaker?" It was now my turn to go on the offense; except it wasn't exactly an attack, and more of a deflection. A small spark illuminated in her sharp silvers, the confidence in her grin becoming sedated. I gulped and decided to continue. "If you know that I'm a caretaker, you know that I'm currently in the company of two powerful Myths."

Each retort made me stronger, capable of handling the obstacle in front of me. Even though I was trying to convince my killer, it was me who was getting convinced by all my ripostes.

"That's assuming I didn't take them down already." The silver mane hitman defended, frowning at me with clear discontent. My breathing became regular once more as my body stopped shaking, allowing me to glare back at my opponent.

Dealing with dangerous situations like this never got any easier. The impacts and weight were still felt everytime they happened. However, with the disappearance of my normal life, they were becoming clearer, more concise. I became faster at understanding how to deal with the side effects, allowing me to find solutions more quickly - and that was only my third time!

"Taking down a phoenix? Sorry, I'm not buying it." I called out her bluff with a metaphorical swat of the hand, daring to take a step forward as I was still clutching the box in my hands. "You shoot me now, you alert the people in this store, the mall, and the two myths with me. That's not to mention Cover Corp hunting you relentlessly for killing one of their caretaker. So, care to pull the trigger?"

Tension wrecked havoc to the space between us, the outside world forgotten to us as we scowled at one another. Our voices still hung around the air, taunting us infinitely to act.

"Enma really picks them out well."

A chuckle was the item that cracked the battle, a neutral atmosphere imbuing the place once more as she removed the cold tip of her firearm from my forehead. I blinked, then did it again, before realizing what she said. The box in my hand finally fled my grasp as I took a step back automatically.

"W-wait…you know Enma-" I tried to pry for answers as confusion gnawed at every brain cell inside my skull, however, the woman who just finished threatening me simply laughed; the same one that she had let out a few minutes ago.

"You really aren't a man of action, but you sure think a whole lot to save your ass." She dismissed my shaken state, deciding to comment on my "performance" instead. "You basically passed the test. However, it took you a while to figure out your situation."

"...what are you talking abou-"

"Plus, you didn't need to do all that thinking, because if you had focused a bit more, you'd have realized that my safety was still on, so I couldn't shoot you." Instead of explaining anything, she simply continued her grand speech on my so-called test. "You also need to realize that most of the people that's gonna threaten you aren't gonna give you a choice, they're just gonna shoot you-"

It was time to be honest about this…

"Okay, I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you on about?!"

It was safe to say that I had reached my limit.

Not like I could be blamed. One moment, I am juggling with my life with this crazed psychopath menacing my life, the next is her currently congratulating me on how I handled her ultimatum while throwing criticism at my technique. I had dealt with the knowledge of Myths, Enma trying to murder Gura and I, and investigating a hidden phoenix.

Yet, none of these spectacular situations had mentally fortified me for this one in particular.

The girl, with her gun still in her hand, looked at me with a sly smile before twirling the firearm in her hand, shoving it back in her coat with style. It was then that I noticed a silver tail behind her moving with hypnotic rhythm, my eyes quickly shooting to the top of head to notice a pair of silver feline ears wiggling. My jaw opened automatically as truth sharply slapped me across the face.

"Name is Shishiro Botan. I'm gonna be the Myth helping you out with your next mission."


"When you said soon, I didn't think it would be that fucking soon!"

I stood inside one of the many rooms of Cover Corp's primary building, Enma and Botan sitting near the giant table taking over the room in hope of compensating for the poor and boring decor. Gura and Kiara were laid down on the only couch in the dome of business, arguing about…whatever. I could not afford to care at the moment, anyway.

Immediately after the silver maned threat decided to reveal her big charade, I had immediately arranged a meeting with the manager of this entire mess for clarification. Was it the calmest and most rational decision I made of the day? Maybe. Was I calm and rational at the moment?

Absolutely not.

"You could've at least told me that this special Myth working on the case with me was going to show up immediately after you left!" I shouted as I paced endlessly inside the room, my arms moving in every direction as anger guided my every thought.

"I told you that they would meet up with you soon. As far as I'm aware, I was correct." The boss of the operation concluded immediately, her arms crossed with such confidence that nothing would budge her opinion. Unfortunately, this only irritated me further.

"15 minutes! It was a 15 minute walk to another damn store before I got held at gunpoint!" I threw my hands up in the air as if to demand a better explanation, a scowl permanently etched on my facial expression.

"Calm down, you weren't in any danger at all." Botan waved off with a casual dismissal of the hand, sending a smile my way to ease my ever-so growing frustration. I responded with a glare filled with pure annoyance.

"Oh, I'm sorry, next time, you should tell me that before saying your cool one liner!" I said with clear sarcasm oozing from my tone. For her, it was only a test to know if I would be a proper partner for this mission. For me, however, it was a serious life or death situation that had given me 7 heart attacks and 3 life-changing flashbacks.

Before I could continue with my deluge of criticism, my eyes settled on the sight of Gura giving me an easy smile, an obvious attempt at calming me down. I really wanted to burn the anger off…but I knew it would serve no purpose other than to waste time and tire me off.

"So, it was cool." The lioness threw back with a grin, shrugging helplessly when the lady with the katana frowned at her joke. I decided to go for the classic tactic of breathing in & out before losing my cool once more. If I was going to work with this woman, I was gonna need to master this technique anyway.

"Just tell me what's in the damn folder." I sighed from the depths of my lungs, shaking my head as if I was in disbelief at my own actions. This resulted in Enma nodding at me, placing the folder on the table carefully.

In one swift motion, a rectangle made of light appeared inside the furniture where the document was positioned, a small bell-like sound chime in the room. Before I could remotely question anything, a small compartment opened in the middle of the table connected to the previous rectangle, the gear of technology lighting up the room with dozens of holographic screens. Each hologram contained texts, sometimes pictures and videos of what I assumed was the mission in question.

I knew that Hololive had state of the art hologram technology…yet it never crossed my mind that it would be used for these types of things. Then again, an idol company being a secret organization to contain every Myth wasn't at the top of my list of conspiracy theories either, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Enma and Botan were surely already used to this sight, which was the complete opposite of the shark girl; constantly gasping every time, her tail going wild as she touched one of the screens only for them to move in response. I shifted my focus toward the phoenix, her expression was speaking of ennui despite the advanced technology in front of her.

Could it be that she had seen even crazier things in her immortal life?

"Oh! Snow!" the shrimp gleefully shouted as she pointed at the holograms. I ended the potential headache of figuring out the thought process of a phoenix, and instead focused on the pictures inside the holograms. As Gura had pointed out, there was indeed snow.

Not only snow, but mountains and forest engulfed in it as well. There was even a frozen lake.

"Is that the North Pole?!" Gura asked with excitement oozing off voice, her eyes twinkling with awe.

"Don't be silly, the North Pole is a bit flatter and more…bare than this." Kiara replied to her question with a small smile that exuded amusement. The Atlantian only responded with a short "Oh.", before focusing on another picture.

The phoenix certainly was kinder than me in that scenario. I personally would've let her believe that it was indeed the North Pole. My reasoning? If she ever argued with someone about that specific topic, she would've looked like an idiot.

Was it mean? Yes…but she deserved it for all the snark and sarcasm she threw at me on the daily. It would've also been comedy gold.

"So, what are we exactly looking for? New house to stay in? I don't like cold places." I questioned, assuming a potential answer immediately. The odds of me being right were low, but if I was right, it would make me look good, so it was always a good idea to shoot for the moon.

"Why would you need an asset such as Ms. Shishiro with you for such a simple task then?" Enma retorted with a raised eyebrow, legitimately confused at my assumption. Thinking back on it, she was right. Why would someone test me by threatening my life all for the sake of having a new home?

My shot for the moon had missed and disappeared very far away in the void of embarrassment.

"W-well, why would you show us all this? Isn't this Alaska?" I asked another question to hide my shame, my eyes targeting a random picture for the sake of avoiding eye contact. I could at the very least recognize the pictures as Alaska. Where in Alaska was a different story however.

It also helped that the text below these pictures had the word Alaska written.

"Because this will be the location of your next assignment."

I blinked. I blinked again. Enma's words slowly etched in my mind, the sentence carefully being processed. The brain wasn't detecting any mistake or error. I turned my head to face the Cover Corp manager to ensure she wasn't playing a prank on me. Obviously, her neutral expression staring me down was a sign that she hadn't switched personality with Gura and tried to play a prank on me. I looked at the three Myths in the room for a sign that something was wrong, but all witnesses simply looked back to wait for my response.

"Please tell me this is the wrong assignment…"

I hated this damn job.

"No."

I really did.


Hey, the writer of this fanfic here. I'm breaking the rule of my "No author note" just this once to say one thing.

Don't expect me to continue this story. For some reason, I was compelled to write this chapter, and maybe in the future I'll be compelled to write more. However, I had intended to abandon this fanfic since I wasn't following Hololive much anymore. The relationships between the members have changed, the members have changed, new gen have been added, and overall, it's just not possible for me to make an accurate fanfic with all these twists.

That being said, thank you very much for the cool support you guys have shown. I'm really happy people appreciated my messy writing style, and I hope this story have inspired anyone to give writing a shot! Also, feel free to pick up or adopt the story. As long as I'm credited, go nuts, do whatever ya want.

So yeah, see ya next chapter, or maybe never. Catch ya!