It’s cold out tonight…
But, then again… it’s always cold at night…

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A chill wind blew through the empty streets of Tokyo. The moon above cast a silvery glow on giant skyscrapers while simultaneously bathing the impoverished areas of the city in an eerie light. It was intriguing how one thing could have two such opposite effects… perform two such opposite actions, while changing nothing about itself. The moon was still the moon, whether it was illuminating beautiful lakes or exposing horrid crime scenes in the dark. It was for this same reason that some people liked the moon, while others despised its soft glow. That two-faced overseer of the night could be so many different things, while never doing anything different at all.

Kyou Ikeda felt like the moon.

He stared up the midnight sky, that white giant reflected in his clear blue eyes. During the day he was a normal guy working a normal job, living in a normal apartment, enjoying normal hobbies. He had a normal family and spent time with normal friends. He dealt with normal problems like paying bills and juggling his time between normal activities. During the day, there was nothing spectacular about him… But at night, everything changed.

At night, he was anything but normal. Normal guys slept when the sun went down, but he chose to spend the late hours using the power of the elements to hunt monsters. Like the moon, he had two opposite effects… performed two opposite actions, while changing nothing about himself. Kyou was still Kyou, whether he was writing an article for a journal or exorcising demons from the streets of Tokyo. And the latter was exactly what he was doing that night.

Kyou turned his eyes away from the moon, sweeping his gaze slowly over the city below. He was perched on top of a tall building with a decent vantage point so that he might find his elusive target more easily. Earlier that day, he had heard reports of disappearances in the capital on the news. The bodies of the missing persons had yet to turn up, but bloodstains had been discovered that matched the victims’ DNA. There were no weapons or other evidence of a murder, which puzzled investigators but gave Kyou the confirmation he needed: This was the result of the supernatural. All he needed to do now was find out what was taking people in the night.

A brief flash of movement drew the Hunter’s attention. He wasted no time, leaping off the side of the building to pursue whatever it was he had seen a second before. He summoned a gust of wind to slow his fall so he wouldn’t smash into the ground below, touching down as lightly as if he had merely jumped off of a chair, before he took off at a sprint in the direction of the shadowy figure.

He wondered what kind of creature he would find at the end of the alleyway he was travelling down. The bloodstains from the previous victims meant it was a monster that attacked humans, so he would have to be cautious. But what sort of weapons did it use? Was it a vengeful spirit or a bloodthirsty beast? Would it be possible to reason with or would he have to fight it into submission? There were so many variables. It was going to be an interesting hunt.

Kyou slowed his pace as he neared the end of the alleyway, his eyes darting between pockets of shadows and his fingers hovering above the knives her kept at his belt. Something felt wrong. He knew he had seen something move here, but now there was no sign of motion anywhere. Whatever this thing was, it couldn’t have gotten far. He slowed to a stop as a thought nagged in the corner of his mind. Perhaps… He looked up. A drop of water fell on his cheek.

“Well, damn,” Kyou breathed. High above his head, a giant centipede was gripping the side of a building. Its body was easily more than twenty meters long. It was covered in thick, exoskeleton armor, and lined from head to tail with countless writhing legs. The most disturbing part, however, was the monster’s head. It had a human face, or rather faces that shifted and morphed—Kyou had an uneasy feeling that the faces he saw belonged to its past victims. He only had a moment to take these things in though, because almost as soon as he met the demon’s eyes it struck at him, launching down from the wall with its jaws unhinged. He sprang out of the way and drew his dagger, holding it up defensively.

“Well, well,” the centipede made a chilling noise that sounded like a cross between hissing and laughter. It looked at him with its ever-changing eyes, slithering down from the wall and filling the alleyway with its long body. Its voice shifted with its faces, alternating from deep to high, male to female, creating a haunting chorus of the dead. “It’s been some time since I’ve met a human who put up a fight. I rather missed the challenge.”

“Omukade, isn’t it?” Kyou said, guessing at the creature’s name. “Aren’t you a little far from home?” He stepped to the side as the centipede crawled around him, preventing it from blocking him off from his exit point. He narrowed his eyes as he sized up his opponent. Going into the fight, he hadn’t expected to face a demon as powerful as Omukade. He was still confident that he could defeat it, but not without a difficult struggle first.

“No one visits me at my mountain anymore,” the centipede’s faces pouted sadly. “I was famished, and this land of stone and steel is full of easy meals.” It continued to creep slowly around Kyou, attempting to cut him off from the open ends of the alley, but he continued to maneuver around its coiling body and ward off its efforts. Omukade’s faces frowned more deeply, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to pace while speaking with someone? Why don’t you stand still and we can converse more… eloquently.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to play with your food?” Kyou jibed. The demon obviously wasn’t going to be reasoned with, so he prepared himself to fight. As Omukade reigned its coils a bit more closely around him, he lashed out with his dagger, cutting off one of its skinny legs. The monster screeched and retracted its body away from him.

“How dare you?” it hissed. “I will tear you limb from limb!” The centipede lunged and the battle began.

There was just a single woman wandering the streets of Tokyo and at such an ungodly hour there wasn't another soul in sight. The frosty air while not being exactly pleasant, it was also bearable although that said she wouldn't mind staying indoors that night. Of course that wasn't an option, it was only recently that people have been going missing and while that isn't odd for such a large city there were plenty of factors that just made the situation strange. The only traces found so far were blood samples so that meant some sort of violence had to be involved, yet nothing else has come forward, it was a little impossible to think a group of kidnappers would go around abducting people for the hell of it. No, to Erika the answer was obvious which means it was more or less her job now.

She had some ideas where to search, so she's been walking around hoping to pick up on the trail, or even better find the monster itself. Erika admittedly had absolutely no idea what to expect, and that didn't sit well with her, just not having the right knowledge to properly prepare herself for the hunt that was yet before her. At least she felt confident in her magic, besides not many things can survive a solid shot to the face, or whatever equated to a face... not even the supernatural beings that prowled around. Erika reached into her jacket's pocket to feel the surface of her weapon of choice, fully loaded and ready. Good thing she's been able to keep it concealed since given how Japan feels about guns... well she wouldn't exactly want to get caught.

Then, however, Erika's attention was torn away from her thoughts by the sudden appearance of something fast that darted into a nearby alleyway. No normal living creature has that speed, unless it was her imagination quite literally running wild this probably meant she found her target, which was fortunate since this meant that maybe she won't have to spend hours just trying to find the damned thing after all.

Before she could just charge in there was something she had to do first. Erika quickly turned onto another street and well out of sight of the alley, there she pulled a metal talisman over her head then wrapped the string around her left hand. This was what made her a Hunter, this little bit of power is what gave her a good fighting chance against the occult. Erika then brought the cooper piece close to her mouth, and muttered a few barely audible words. While there wasn't a obvious reaction from the talisman, she knew it was ready to be used.

Without wanting to give the monster a chance to escape, Erika run into the alley, there she was met with a horrifying scene. She by no means was familiar with Japanese mythology, but she had a feeling there wasn't much to say about this thing, it was simply a massive centipede that undoubtedly had a taste for human flesh if she were to hazard a guess. Through the multitude of withering legs and other insect body parts, Erika was just able to make out the figure of looked like a man, a man who happened to be right in the middle of a circling Japanese demon centipede.

She wasn't about to standby and allow someone else to die. Erika brought her talisman hand to level with the demon. "Princeps forma, Protinus atque angusta excipiebant!" She spoke the first verse, before her a ghostly image of an arrow materialized, aimed directly at the centipede. "Et fit ignis, et splendor in consummationem!" After the second verse the arrow became engulfed in fire. brighter and hotter than any natural flame. "Et locavit eam volare percussit inimicum!" At this third and final verse the arrow is flung at her enemy. Given just the sheer size of the centipede there was little chance that the magically conjured arrow could miss. Hopefully this could give the man a real chance to escape, then after that the battle will finally begin.

Kyou tensed as Omukade lunged at him. Even though the monster was large enough to cut him off from his exit points and wrap its long coils around him in one move, he felt strangely prepared to fight and defeat it. It was obviously prideful, as it had fallen for his taunts and, enraged, made the first attack. He knew from experience that hotheaded opponents were the easiest opponents. Once irritated, they were easily confused and manipulated. He just needed to make sure he didn’t make any fatal blunders that would allow the angry creature to strike back. Simple enough, right?

As soon as Omukade’s faces were within striking distance, Kyou ducked down and slipped beneath the monster’s neck, sweeping his blade at its exposed throat in the same motion. While the majority of its body was armored, there was a small gap between its skeletal plates just below its chin. This was the Hunter’s target. Unfortunately, however, the centipede’s reflexes were as quick as his own and it reared up so that his blade only nicked its skin. It hissed and retreated, long tail lashing in blind fury, while he skipped out of he way and readied himself for the next attack. The centipede circled him again.

“Come now,” Kyou jeered. “Is the almighty Omukade humbled by a mere scratch?” He flicked his wrist, casually passing his knife from hand to hand as if bored with their brawl. His eyes betrayed his focus, however, as his icy gaze was fixed unwaveringly on the monster. “Don’t tell me we’re done already. I was only getting started!”

The centipede’s faces hardened and he smirked, bracing himself for another strike. But before that could happen, Omukade’s body seized up in a violent ripple and it screeched, whipping its head around to face the open alleyway behind it. Kyou blinked in confusion. Strange... What happened? As if in answer to his question, the Hunter’s eyes fell on something protruding a chink in the monster’s armor: an arrow. He stared at it for a moment before the reality of the situation clicked in his brain. Someone else is here. He hurriedly looked up to see who the new arrival was, hoping it wasn’t just some foolishly brave soul with a bow who thought he might be able to help. Protecting a bystander would put Kyou in a difficult predicament that he did not want to deal with.

However, instead of a wandering civilian, Kyou saw a well-armed, young woman. She held what he guessed was a magic talisman, which could only mean that she was another Hunter. Intrigue filled him at the prospect of meeting another person who shared his unusual occupation, but he forced himself to put the thought aside. After all, Omukade was still alive and kicking. He took advantage of the distraction the female Hunter had caused and lifted his hands, open-palmed, towards the centipede. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, he summoned the element of fire, engulfing as many of the creature’s legs in flames as he could before he felt dizzy from the effort—as a water specialist, the other three forms of natural magic were difficult for him to control—and lighting the alley ablaze with a flickering orange glow.

“Human scum!” Omukade screamed, writhing in pain and rubbing its lengthy body against itself as it tried to extinguish its burning limbs. The way it was contorting, the centipede was beginning to look like a weirdly deformed pretzel.

“Never look away from your enemy in a fight,” Kyou said between heavy breaths.

“Not fair; not fair!” the demon howled, slowly putting out the fires on its legs. “Two against one. Let me eat you in turn!”

“Swear to return to your mountain, Omukade,” Kyou commanded, raising his dagger. “You know you can’t escape.”

The centipede hissed at him murderously, it’s head swiveling back and forth as it looked between the two Hunters. After a moment, it seemed to resign itself to his words. It crawled towards him and raised one of its burnt legs, letting the fresh, dark blood drip down and form a small pool on the ground, “I, Omukade, swear to return to the mountains of Lake Biwa.”

Kyou nodded and nicked his own forearm with his knife, letting his blood drip and join the centipede’s in the pool, “I, Mizuchi, accept your pledge, demon. It has been sealed in blood. Now leave and never return.”

“Very well,” Omukade’s eyes narrowed spitefully. “You have made a powerful enemy today, human. Remember that if you ever find yourself near my home.” The centipede turned and scuttled away from him, hissing once more at the female Hunter as it passed by her on its way down the alley.

Kyou let out a soft exhale as he sheathed his dagger. That went better than expected. On my own, I never would have been able to convince a creature of that strength to peacefully depart. Speaking of which… He raised his blue eyes to look at the unexpected arrival once more. In the darkness, her features were difficult to make out, but he could see that she had a slender build, long, dark hair, and deep green eyes that reflected the light of the moon. He didn’t recognize her, which wasn’t surprising since they were in the heart of Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world.

Should I say something? He wondered. She did help me, after all. As far as I’ve known, Hunters don’t interact much, but it would be rude to just walk away… I should say something. Determined now, he took a step towards the woman and bowed respectfully, “Thank you for your assistance.”

Erika didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't what just happened. The magic arrow had some great effect on the centipede and she was pretty sure it did some damage, if nothing else the damned abomination did not like it, although to be fair she wouldn't want to get shot with an arrow either. At this point she expected the man to turn tail, but very much to her surprise he stayed put. What the hell are you doing? Go! She silently screamed at the guy, although it quickly became obvious why. The advantage she had given was apparently enough to give him enough to break the stalemate, and honestly she was impressed at the display of magic, very impressed. It wasn't anything refined, yet powerful enough to engulf much of the alley in flames, luckily she was well out of the affected area.

From there Erika had no idea what was going on, now for the monster to talk isn't far fetched, no many creatures out there are perfectly capable of human speech, just she didn't know they could be so... civil. Once the contract, of some kind, was literally signed in blood, the centipede actually seemed willing to leave the Hunt, just like that. Erika was more than half tempted to shoot the thing in the face(s) as it crawled right past her, fortunately she had enough sense not to aggravate it. The Japanese had an odd way of doing things.

After that... well she wasn't sure what to do, typically Hunts don't end with the target walking away like that, but she didn't exactly have time to contemplate much as the other Hunter started to approach her, something to expected honestly just most would simply slink off without a word... much like a certain demonic centipede.

When the Hunter bowed, Erika couldn't help herself from cracking a small smile, just it seem stereotypical for a Japanese man to bow like that, like in a somewhat funny way. Although on the other hand it might be an actual gesture of thanks, its not like she has been in the nation for too long after all. "So... the centipede just gets to leave now? Well, guess if its actually going to keep its word then good enough." Erika shrugged. "I can go for that."

For the most part the Hunter looked fairly average, although the hair was of course his most noticeable feature was the white hair, like it was really white. Erika then unwrapped the talisman from her hand and returned it to around her neck, they were in the clear now that the monster was gone. "Well, happy to be of service, seems it didn't want to deal with two Hunters, very much an opportunistic beast I imagine." Erika offered a quick grin and nodded. "Plus as a bonus there isn't a body to deal with, I like it."

The first thing Kyou noticed about the Hunter was her accent. He could already tell by her appearance that she was not Japanese, but the lilting way in which she spoke confirmed that she had not been living in the country for long. It was a minor detail, but it still intrigued him. He wondered what brought her to Japan. A career? A family member? Perhaps she was hunting a specific monster? Of course, his own occupation as a journalist took him to all sorts of wild places—It was necessary for his late night escapades as a Hunter. Since she performed the same demon-slaying duties, the girl was also likely to have a job that included frequent travelling. But that was her business.

Kyou’s eyes wandered to the pendant the Hunter was draping around her neck. He had never seen anything like it before—then again, he had never run into another Hunter and gotten close enough to see their weapons before—but it appeared to be some sort of foreign talisman. He wondered if she used it to channel her own magic, or if it had a power all its own. Either way, he was certain the Hunter girl was highly capable. The arrow she had summoned during the battle with Omukade was proof enough of that.

He tilted his head slightly when she questioned his pact with the centipede, “It can’t break a blood contract. That’s the funny thing about demons: They’re infamously deceptive, yet they’re bound by their word. I suppose it does make things easier on us, though. I much prefer to have a peaceful ending rather than fight to the death and risk getting injured.” He rolled his eyes skyward and crossed his arms. “Not to say that I wouldn’t fight if I had to. It’s just easier to go with the alternative.” He glanced back at the Hunter girl with mild curiosity. She seemed unfamiliar with the contract technique. Wherever she was from, she must have dealt with monsters that didn’t end conflicts quietly. It wasn’t surprising though. As far as he knew, only oriental demons agreed to blood pacts. Beasts in the West were much more brutish and unreasonable.

“Opportunistic is a good way to put it,” Kyou agreed. “Although I can’t say I blame it. Getting killed and sent to the Netherworld doesn’t sound very fun.” He paused. “I’m not sure if it’s standard, but I just realized I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Mizuchi.” He dipped his head again in a shallow bow of greeting. Whether it was customary for Hunters to introduce themselves or not, he didn’t want to seem overly cold. Besides, it was likely that the girl hadn’t met any other Hunters in Japan yet, and he didn’t want to leave her with a bad impression after her first encounter with one. Out of respect for the others in his trade, it was his duty to set a good example. “A pleasure to meet you.”