Chapter Text
The forest was so still it almost seemed to be holding its breath. Mist curled between the trees, thick enough to muffle the sound of Amaya’s black combat boots as she stepped through the undergrowth, her aura pressed close to her skin. Beside her was her best friend, Roku, a dark brindle pitbull whose orange strips were currently dull with dust from tracking the beast with her. Roku moved in perfect rhythm with her, bristling whenever the shadows shifted. She had learned long ago that silence was both shield and weapon – and today, it was her language. The faint hum of a predator’s Nen rippled ahead, wild and pulsing, and Amaya’s pulse steadied to match it. She wasn’t here for the kill. She was here to prove – to herself more than anyone – that her control could be sharper than any blade.
A low growl trembled in Roku’s chest, the warning she had come to trust more than any sixth sense. Amaya crouched, eyes narrowing as she spotted movement between the mossed trunks – a beast, sinewy and iridescent, its aura flaring like a torch in the fog. It was injured, one leg dragging, eyes glassy with pain and rage. Most Beast Hunters would have gone for the throat immediately. Amaya exhaled instead, her Ren spreading like a calm tide. With a flick of her wrist, golden ripples danced across the air, softening the creature’s movement, dulling its aggression until its head lowered in surrender.
She approached slowly, hand extended, with her aura pulsing in sync with the beast’s ragged rhythm. When she touched its hide, the tension broke. The creature’s eyes softened, body trembling once before going still. Amaya whispered a quiet apology as it dissolved into dust – the bounty’s mark sealing within the small stone in her palm. Roku’s tail wagged once, low and steady, as if in approval.
She straightened, brushing her palms against her vest, and tilted her head toward the treeline. With the job done, Amaya reached into her pocket to pull out her cell phone. She needed to let her boss know that she had completed his job.
“Hey Kid! Did you find the chimera already?!” A deep voice answered her call.
“Yeah, it hadn’t gone too far from where the locals had spotted the poachers. Did you finish with them?” Amaya started her trek back to where she had left Ginta and the others.
“Don’t insult me! I’m a Hunter after all! Of course, we finished with them! You’re the one without the license, so I should be checking in on you!” Ginta’s fast-changing emotions were evident during the call. A Hunter, huh? Old Man Netero told her that she should take the Hunter’s exam one of these years. He even told her she’d have to make her way to Zaban City. Probably cheating a bit by telling her where to go, but she knew it still wouldn’t be that easy, even if she went directly there.
Amaya’s lips curved into the faintest smile. Roku huffed, as though he already knew what that meant – sleepless nights, new dangers, a fresh hunt.
“I guess I’ll just have to get that title for myself then.” She quickly hung up the phone, cutting off Ginta’s surprise, and slid the cell and the badge into her pocket. The forest seemed to exhale with her, the mist clearing just enough to reveal the faint light of dawn. And as she walked toward it, Roku at her side, the world felt wide open – sharp, uncertain, alive.
The port city was already alive by the time Amaya arrived – gulls screaming overhead, market stalls clattering open, and the hum of engines rolling over the water. Roku trotted at her heel, tail low, head high, drawing glances from sailors who weren’t used to seeing a pitbull stride through the docks like he owned them. She kept one hand loosely at her side, her Ren wrapped close and quiet around her, to keep unwanted attention from any other Nen user away.
She paused at the pier marked “Exam Route B,” one of the designated transports for examinees. A crowd had already gathered – some nervous, some loud, others wearing confidence like armor. Their eyes darted about, measuring one another, trying to decide who was competition and who was prey. The air smelled like salt, sweat, and anticipation.
Amaya said nothing, moving through them like a current through still water. When a broad-shouldered man barked that dogs weren’t allowed, Roku met his eyes with a low, steady growl. The man froze, an instinctual warning stopping him from pressing further. A few of the other applicants chuckled under their breath, but no one interfered. Amaya gave Roku a brief pat between the ears – not praise, just acknowledgment.
The ship’s horn sounded, low and deep, as mist rolled in from the sea. That’s when she felt it – faint, like static just under her skin. A flicker of something wrong. It wasn’t bloodlust exactly, but something stronger – playful, sharp, and predatory. It brushed against her awareness and vanished just as quickly, leaving a silence that made the world feel thinner. Roku’s ears twitched, and his body went rigid.
“Yeah,” she murmured, eyes scanning the fog. “I felt it too.”
The captain called them aboard, clipboard snapping shut. Wood groaned under the weight of strangers who had just become rivals. Amaya climbed the gangplank, expression calm, posture straight – not arrogance but quiet readiness.
On deck, she watched the horizon narrow until it was just a gray sea and a gray sky. Roku lay at her feet, gaze never leaving the waves. Somewhere out there, past the fog and the current, something dangerous waited – not a beast, but a person whose aura felt like the edge of a knife wrapped in silk.
Amaya didn’t know his name yet. But when she finally met him, she’d remember that flicker – that sense that something was watching, smiling, waiting to be entertained.