Chapter 20: Chapter. 20: Abyssal Hunter

The morning was uneventful. I did get my backpack. Well Ash had given it to me after it was apparently retrieved, though I just awoke to my backpack being there. I used new black clothes, and that was that⁠— they looked very similar, though it was more like a blouse rather than a turtleneck this time around. 

Like a proper morning should begin, I was woken up Ash using the phone next to the bed to order a cheesecake. And like any morning should begin, another cheesecake was devoured. And soon, we left the hotel. This time the receptionist didn’t give us weird looks, though I did get asked if I wanted to be charged per day until I checked out. Which, well…  agreed. 

We stood outside the hotel, we were somewhere in the city, there was a plaza with weird shaped objects in front of it. But I had no actual clue where we were⁠— well I could always use the internet. Ash was looking around for something. 

“Do you want me to open a portal or something?” I asked in confusion. 

Ash shook her head. “I am looking for an ATM.” 

Atm? Atm… “The boxes with the buttons?” 

She nodded. “Money was lost during the home invasion. Also you should withdraw some money as well since credit cards aren’t accepted everywhere.” 

So that was the case. I pulled my phone and simply typed ‘Atm’ for directions. To my surprise, there was an ‘ATM’ nearby⁠— two minute walk; or so it said. I had found that it was somewhat inaccurate, but it was a nice estimate. 

“Well, let’s go to the ATM, then.” I started walking, though soon I realized that Ash wasn’t following. “Something wrong?” 

“Er, you do know where to go right?” She asked with concern written on her face. 

“Well, yeah.” I pulled my phone once again and gestured towards the map with the blue lines. 

“Oh, well that’s convenient. My phone is also gone.” She shrugged. How often did she lose her phone? Wait⁠— 

“How come you don’t lose your wallet, but not your phone⁠?” I mean, weren’t both of them essential to carry? 

Ash shrugged, not really caring.  “Dunno? I normally don’t go outside unless it's for work.” Right… she was a total shut-in. A small sigh escaped me and we began walking in the direction that the ATM was in⁠.

◇ ◇ ◇

Thankfully Ash did not wear her pink onesie outside, but settled on a gray one. Though, a lot of stares had come our way throughout the walk⁠— annoyance, confusion, amusement. Well not like I blamed them. I found it confusing too. 

Ash finished withdrawing money from the machine then moved out of the way for me to use it. 

I stood before the hunking rectangle it was quite big, and the screen was rather ugly and dirty⁠— the buttons mashed out of shape and their print fading⁠— was that gunk? Sticky dirt filled its crevices and untouched edges. Was it even safe? I wondered as I pulled out my card, I had never paid attention to it. 

It sort of reminded me of the hotel we were staying in. Black and fancy, patterns running through its surface in a quiet gray. The numbers were golden and the edge of the card continued the same trend. It was quite pretty. Well I had to put it in the machine now. So, I didn’t get to admire it for long. 

The green insert was constantly flashing with a light⁠— that’s where it goes. I took a quick breath and put the card in the aperture, slowly putting it inside with both of my fingers⁠— why is it sucking? The card left my fingers and the machine greedily swallowed it without producing a sound. I didn’t really want to fight the machine. 

I felt my heart rush a bit as the screen changed, and some options were displayed. There were some options I did not understand, but I found the one on the screen pretty quickly. Cash withdrawal. I tapped the screen since it didn’t have any other buttons aside from the numpad. After a second it changed to: amount to withdraw. 

Time to use the numpad? I pondered for a second before putting in the number ‘1’, and three ‘0’s. That was about how much I had in my wallet last time. It took a moment to buffer after I pressed the green button with the checkmark, after a second the machine began to make weird sounds. Money was spat and so was my card⁠— well it was just held for me to grab. 

As I put both items in my wallet I found myself having a small smile. I had used the box successfully, no mishaps! I didn’t even need to use the internet either. Needless to say, I felt slightly proud of myself. 

After all was done, I turned to Ash as she began walking in a different direction. Catching up to her, she began speaking. 

“Now we are going to the headquarters.” 

“Of the Abyssal Hunters?” I asked, feeling the need to make sure. 

“Yep.” 

After some more walking Ash stood beside the road looking for something. Did she want to find something again?

"Are you looking for something?"

She was focused as her gaze looked around, though after a second or two a reply came.

"A taxi."

"Oh…" I paused for a second. "I can use my phone for that too, so I'll get us a taxi."

I quickly opened the application and had a taxi come my way. It was quite weird to be honest— the fact that just pressing a button was so convenient anyway. However I felt confusion from Ash.

"You can do that?" She looked at my hand. "I need to use my phone more."

I took a second to make sure she had actually said that. 

"Did you never use your phone?"

Ash, hearing me, recalled some things, but in the end, she shook her head.

"Only phone calls and that's it. Computers are much more comfortable."

"Huh." I was slightly surprised, but I guess it kind of made sense. 

She didn't go outside and well, I found that I could ask almost anything to the internet so, it was convenient. Though, I did find it somewhat surprising that Ash had been here way longer than me, and didn't know such things.

Soon, the taxi came. Ash gave directions to the driver, which well— I didn't quite understand. But it was enough to go to our destination. The headquarters.

◇ ◇ ◇ 

"Isn't this too flashy?"

We stood on the sidewalk before a small walkway that led to one of the towering buildings of the city. It was one of the tallest glass towers out there. The sun reflected in an orange tint, and I could even see the clouds from the reflections. There was little to no space uncovered by glass on the rectangle shaped building. Though, it was slightly curved on its axis for some reason.

"Well it's a normal building." Ash replied nonchalantly. "Though I don't know what it's actually for."

"Wait, isn't this the Hunter headquarters?"

Ash shook her head. "The headquarters are inside the building, but they aren't the whole building. Anyway, let's get going."

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The walkway had plants to its sides, bushy in a lush vibrant green. I hadn't really thought about it too much but even the plants and wildlife were slightly different. 

In the Underworld every plant was brown, dark green or hostile. Well they could be brown, dark green, and hostile. Plants here were much more passive and prettier. I quite liked it to be honest.

We walked through the self opening glass doors, and walked past the receptionist in the lobby, who looked at Ash in confusion. Though in spite of the much obvious shock in her face, she did nothing to really stop us from venturing further into the building. 

Soon we stood before another elevator. The doors were the same as the last one so I was sure of it. Ash pressed one of the buttons and— her finger bled ever so slightly. It seeped through the button and after a few seconds the elevator door opened. 

Had she used magic with the button? I pondered as I stepped into the elevator along with Ash. I felt the same feeling of weirdness in the elevator once again, though this time I was prepared. 

"Well we should be at the headquarters any second now." I did begin to feel magic nearby, which made me slightly nervous. What kind of beings were going to be there?

The door opened with a chime and—

It was another lobby; chairs and tables filled the room along with people happily chatting with each other. Everyone seemed mostly normal, even the receptionist was— oh. The receptionist had small horns coming out of his forehead but that was about it. I looked around, this time with a lot more care. Everyone looked mostly human, some inconsistencies like slightly longer ears were there but… 

I expected to see something that resembled The Underworld closer.

"Well, wait here or sit somewhere while I handle this." Ash told me while she went to the receptionist.

I felt slightly awkward, but thankfully no one seemed to care that I was there. It was the human world but the horns were… Unsettling? No. I just felt adversity towards interacting with fellow denizens.

I idled for a few minutes while Ash talked things with the receptionist. Nothing seemed to happen between the two ⁠— no fluctuations at least ⁠— and not before long, Ash came back. 

"Alright let's go." She said, heading out for the elevator.

I paused. "Am I not joining to be a hunter?" That didn’t make much sense. Ash seemed to get annoyed.

"You are," she huffed. "Your process has been expedited, now you need to do a mission and you're officially qualified."

I nodded as I stepped into the elevator along with her. Wasn't it slightly too straightforward? 

◇ ◇ ◇ 

The taxi ride took close to an hour. 

“Why are we here?” I asked, unable to picture a single reason to be in the place where we found ourselves in. Well nothing that screamed⁠ — mission of killing a monster. 

Parents and their kids filled the place. A grand arched entrance was in the distance with letters atop of it that read. ‘Redfield Zoo’. I had no clue what ‘redfield’ or ‘zoo’ meant. But it didn’t seem like the type of place to go looking for monsters. 

“Well, to kill the requested target, of course.” Ash said as if it was obvious, my confusion grew in an instant. 

“What kind of target would be here?” 

“Dunno.” 

Huh?

However, my confusion did not last long. Instead I felt quite happy. We had to pay to enter the zoo, I had no idea what a zoo was. But there were a lot of happy children around. The parents were enjoying themselves too. It was a pleasant environment. The place was like a maze of walkways, with isolated sections that held beasts within them through different kinds of fences. 

I wanted to see the different types of beings that were present here, but Ash pulled me away before I could say or do anything. Soon, we stood before some yellow tape that reminded me of the one at the apartment. The space behind was one of the isolated areas, in this one the wooden fence was open, and there were trees and a cave in the distance. 

Some person dressed in brown jeans and a slightly less brown shirt stopped us. A badge was present on his chest. A small frown was present in his face, and the annoyance he irradiated was more than evident. 

“This area is off limits.” 

“Yeah, we are from the association.” Ash said with a sigh. “Here.” 

She handed the man the same type of insignia she had shown me before. The man inspected it before nodding. 

“You may continue.” he nodded at us as if he was never upset in the first place. “Be careful, it's dangerous.” 

Ash said nothing as she stepped past the tape, also ignoring the man, I followed after her. Making our way past the fence, we entered an area that was slightly under the ground level. It was akin to a mini closed section of a different world. Tall grass reached up to my knees, and trees filled the distance as if it was a small forest. There was also a small rock hill with a cave not too far away from where we stood. 

Ash waved me over. 

I felt some sweat on my forehead walking through the tall grass, as we inched closer to the forest the feeling of nervousness was building up within me, especially since I couldn’t sense anything nearby. 

And finally, we arrived at the cave. My hands were sweating and my face was serious. Why was there nothing to be sensed? 

“Are we going to be alright? I can’t sense anything.” I voiced my concern to Ash. At this point her face had also become serious. 

“I don’t know… it shouldn’t be dangerous.” Ash said with a frown. “I told the receptionist you’re just a human, anything that could threaten us should be out the window.” 

“If you say so…”  My heart was rushing. I couldn’t take it anymore. The shadows gathered, and not long after my scythe was fully formed. It was no longer damaged, but instead sharp and sturdy. Though it didn’t hum. 

It couldn’t hum. I was nervous⁠— my scythe was nervous⁠— Ash was nervous. 

Before I knew it, Ash was holding a pistol in her hand, one with bone and metal. In retrospect, her weapons looked quite different from the ones in the police station, but I didn’t mention it. Instead, I prepared myself. 

I had to get stronger. I couldn’t keep running away from things like I always did. Even if I was no longer in The Underworld, I still had to worry about it. As a Grim Reaper I had to be stronger. If I wanted to be one, I had to be stronger. I gripped my scythe tighter as I headed into the cave. 

Ash followed a few steps behind me as the light from the entrance grew dimmer. Darkness encroached our surroundings the deeper we went, the sunlight vanished as we arrived at a place out of its reach. 

Bloodthirst⁠— Like a chain reaction, red beady eyes opened around us, the desire to tear us apart growing by the second. Grinding and ghastly screeches grew through the cave. I recognized this. A horde of ghouls…  I gripped my scythe tighter, readying myself for battle. 

A bunch of undead. I can do this… Reassuring myself I made my scythe into a war-scythe, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time. 

“I swear, they can’t keep doing this to me…” Ash gritted her teeth in sheer annoyance. “If they do this again, I am going to kill them at headquarters…” 

I wish I had paid attention to Ash's reaction.