Ga Rei Hime

Twenty Two

"Shit, that Hunter was tough," Anh Lu, the leader of the monster killing mercenaries, dryly noted. The older, tall woman was dressed in tunic and a pair of tight leather pants, her full breasts bouncing slightly.

Rosalie Claudel shook her head as she muttered, "We should have just shot her."

"Are you NUTS?" Carla Belini blurted out.

"Killing Hunters ends badly," Anh agreed.

Rad, who had accompanied Carla and Rosalie, also looked sheepish. "Sorry, Miss Anh."

Rosalie groaned, sitting down in the building they were renting, blood staining her side. "The bitch winged me," she added.

Carla retrieved a medical kit, "Pull up your shirt."

"Can I get an aesthetic, at least?" Rosalie asked them.

"Haven't got any," Anh noted, "we have vodka if you want."

"Ugh," Rosalie sighed, "please."

Anh took a glass, splashed it half full of vodka, then passed it to her, "Here you go."

"Thanks," Rosalie sighed, tossing it back and shuddering.

Rad snickered, then shut up when they glared at him.

Carla took a sanitary wipe out of the kit, calmly splashed medical alcohol on it, then wiped down the wound.

Rosalie groaned, "Argh."

"Nasty gash," Anh noted clinically.

"Next time I am kicking that bitch's ass," Rosalie muttered harshly.

"Revenge is for suckers," Rad offered as Carla got out the needle and thread.

"You can't just bandage it?!" Rosalie yelped.

"Suck it up," Anh ordered.

"UGH. I am totally making that thread bitch pay..."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The next morning, Haruka Suzushiro and Yukino Kikukawa were getting out of their car at work when a woman strode up to them.

"You're... Natsuki Kasuga?" Haruka noted warily.

"Yeah," Natsuki agreed, "can I tolk to you, unofficially?"

Haruka noted Yukino was palming her taser. 'Not that that would work,' Haruka mused. "Is this Hunter related?" she asked, "Or Entities."

Natsuki narrowed her eyes slightly.

Haruka and Yukino had met her not long after she rolled into town and started assisting the police. The chief had explained that she was a former government Entity hunter, but that her unit had been wiped out and she quit.

She was ALSO an undead, which Haruka had found out from Mayor Mashiro. Huh. HOW did she know that?

Natsuki looked.. sheepish, oddly. "I had this whole idea I was going to confront you about civilian deaths by Entities, but I realize it's not a great idea..." she mused.

"You're concerned about how many deaths by entity are unreported?" Yukino guessed.

"Yeah," Natsuki admitted, "a source I talked to says there are a lot more entity deaths happening than officially known."

Haruka suspected her 'source' was the coroner, but it didn't matter much. "The standards for reporting Entity attacks are set by the government," she pointed out.

"Specifically, the Agency," Yukino added.

Natsuki paused, "So someone in the Agency is deliberately underplaying how many people are dying by Entities?"

Haruka shook her head, "It's hard to say if it's deliberate, but..."

"Shit," Natsuki puffed out a sigh.

"Sorry," Yukino offered gently.

Natsuki nodded, "All right, thank you."

Haruka muttered, "That went better than I expected."

"Is it me, or is she scary as hell?" Yukino groaned, putting her taser away.

"It's not just you," Haruka agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Nina Wong, Arika and Erstin Ho were all fine, but Elliot Chandler was still unhappy that they had been attacked.

"Sara, I think we need to increase monster patrols," Elliot frowned.

Sara Gallagher looked sheepish, "That's stepping on the Hunter's toes, ma'am."

Elliot scowled, "I know, I know."

Up until relatively recently, humans and entities around Fuka coexisted peacefully. There had only rarely been attacks, and the lone Hunter in town had handled it. But steadily monster attacks had increased, and now...

"The Hunters are here," the Sargent up front called.

Shizuru Fujino lead them in, followed by Nao, Mai and Mikoto. "Afternoon," Shizuru nodded, "you called?"

"Where's Ms Sayers?" Elliot wondered aloud.

"She's not answering her phone," Mai noted. "But as senior Hunter, she's not exactly on call," she added with a shrug.

Nao winced, as she cradled her bandaged arm.

"What happened?" Elliot asked her.

"I ran into what looked like a team of mercenaries, hunting entities," Nao admitted, "but they got away from me."

"Seriously?" Sara blurted. She added, "Were they hunting gnomes, by any chance?"

Nao frowned, "Yeah."

"They were so agitated they jumped her and two of our staff," Elliot said to them flatly, "and a civilian died."

Nao froze. "I'm so sorry," Shizuru bowed slightly.

"Not your fault," Mai added softly to Nao.

Nao just grimaced.

"Do we know who the mercenaries are working for?" Shizuru asked. "I know the city isn't directly employing them...?"

"Not the city," Elliot agreed, "not unless they're black budgeting it somehow."

"So who...?" Sara muttered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mayor Mashiro Kazahana sneezed.

"Is someone talking about you, mistress?" Fumi wondered as she was gracefully serving her mistress lunch.

"I don't believe in that superstition," Mashiro noted.

"... yet you are a occultist. Curious," Fumi offered.

Mashiro just grunted.

"Miss Anh brought in the Gnome samples," Fumi said, not incidentally revealing they were employing the mercenaries.

"Vile things," Mashiro mused, "I'll enjoy dissecting the gnomes."

"I will convey your appreciation to them," Fumi deadpanned.

Mashiro ate her soup, then drank a bit of wine. "We need more entities with regenerative properties," she mused aloud.

"Hmm," Fumi agreed.

"The werewolf died after we took it apart too often," Mashiro mused, "and injecting it's fluids into test subjects was unsuccessful."

That was a bit of an understatement. The two test animals had died horribly. One in a few minutes from a large injection, the others in hours from weaker doses. Clearly, just an infusion of entity goo wasn't going to do it.

"If I asked you to volunteer for a experiment, would you?" Mashiro asked Fumi curiously.

"No, I would not,m" Fumi said calmly.

"Why not?" Mashiro wondered.

"My death would not assist you," Fumi replied calmly.

Mashiro couldn't reallt argue that...

To be continued...

Note: I need to remember that Natsuki being an undead tends to subconsciously freak normal people out. The mercs are all Mai Otome characters. I need to decide if I want them as straight up evil, or just in it for the money.