Meeting his unlikely partner at the edge of the Grandfather tree, it was a tall task to even approach the lolicon nemesis. Ren swallowed his fears and stood beside Sirius, watching over the valley as a passing wind graced their skin.

While the other pairs had begun their planning, Sirius remained silent until clearing his throat at last. That sparkle in the man's pale blue eyes foretold of whatever chaotic words he had coming for Ren.

"Listen and listen well, Ren! We may have our differences, but at the end of the day--we're both men recognized by the eyes of Charlotte! I think I finally understand it now--me and you, we're both her older brothers! Which means, we're brothers----!"

Sirius wore a determined expression, contrasting his sour demeanor Ren recognized. If Ren didn't know any better, Sirius would actually have looked pretty cool right then, standing proud as the high-winds tugged on his charcoal hair. This sudden, complete and utter shift from Sirius caught Ren off-guard, unable to predict what went through the man's head.

"--I...what?"

"That's right, Ren--this is the day our brotherhood was forged, tested by the obstacles set by Lady Fate herself. From this day onwards, you'll refer to me as "Big Bro"! "Big Bro Sirius" is also acceptable, Little Bro!"

"You're not a lolicon! You're a siscon, and a brocon!"

The man was even more of a degenerate than he initially realized, and that's coming from someone who spent every waking moment holed away in their room.

It was exhausting trying to handle Sirius, who spoke in passion and in the heat of the moment--deciding things on his own without giving the chance for Ren to so much as get a word in. Although, Ren decided to give in to this whole brother concept, as it was better than being mortal enemies.

--His mind works so rapidly, he seriously went from hating me ten minutes ago to now forming an unbreakable bond with me?!

"So how about it, Little Bro? Let's start from zero."

"--Fine."

Ren couldn't help but smile at Sirius' over the top behavior, accepting his extended hand as he embraced the texture of the silken glove.

"To seal this pact of brotherhood, forged from our burning passion to protect the angel, Charlotte, you must say my name!"

"Sirius."

Ren gave him his name, realizing that wasn't what the azure-eyed man wanted to hear as he gestured for him to utter the proper title.

"--Big Bro Sirius."

The words left his mouth like sandpaper, having to force the full title out against his own will. As grated as it came out, Sirius seemed awfully pleased hearing those words as a bashful, smug smile formed across his lips as he closed his eyes.

"Can we figure out what the hell we're supposed to do now? You've done this "Monster Hunt" thing before, right?"

Ren asked the eccentric man, who coughed into his hand to rid himself of his satisfied blush.

"Yeah, we've done it a few times--but it's different every time. That Beatrice is a cold woman, sometimes I think she likes to watch us deal with hardship."

"Can you get on topic please?"

"My little brother sure is impatient."

Ren felt his skin crawl as Sirius called him his little brother again, wanting badly to take a bath to wash away this surface-level kinship.

"If we're going to be entrusting ourselves to one another, then we need to know each other's skillset. That's what we should start with."

"Makes sense."

"I'll start then: my magical affinity is lightning."

Sirius told him, displaying it by conjuring a small spark of electricity between his index finger and thumb. It was his first time even hearing about lightning magic existing in Gaia, which left him wondering how it was even possible to possess.

"--I thought the only magical affinities were fire, water, wind, nature, dark, and light?"

"Those are the main elements, but there are special ones that exist as special subsets of those. Like, for example--my lightning affinity is derivative of fire and wind. They really didn't teach you this stuff yet?"

"Oh, right--I think Donatien did tell me something about that. So cool!"

"Isn't it? So what's yours?"

Ren wished he had shown his first, after seeing the affinity that bestowed the power of the raging heavens--he felt inadequate.

"Uhh...I can use dark magic. I know it's la--"

"Awesome! Show me! Show me!"

He stepped back as Sirius stepped close to him, pumping his fists in the air as he urged Ren to display his magic like a curious child.

There was no choice but to comply, manifesting a small sphere of dark mana to show to the eccentric Sirius.

"--Amazing! Ah, I love my lightning, but dark is a close second for me! Seriously, we must've been destined to be paired up, brother!"

"You know, maybe."

All it took was a single compliment to win Ren over, scratching his head as he accepted the praise. He should've known this would be the reaction from someone who clearly had eight-grader syndrome.

A ring sounded through the Grandfather tree, stopping everyone's planning as a piece of neat paper formed in Ren's hand. Looking around--it seemed everyone received a note of their own.

"What's this?"

Ren asked as he began scanning his eyes over the note.

"That's our list--which means the game has just started."

A resolved smile was displayed on Sirius', who stretched side to side and cracked his knuckles in preparation.

Watching Sirius bend his knees as he prepared to leap from the colossal tree, Ren realized it was do-or-die to test one of the applications of reinforcement he had been taught by Tristan.

--"The reason we're able to fall from such heights is a special subset of reinforcement magic, focusing on shrouding your legs and feet instead of thinning it out across your body. Although, once your reinforcement is strong enough--just the basic usage will work." Tristan told me that, but now it's time to put it to the test!

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

Ren buried any fears he had, leaping off of the towering stalk alongside his partner. Redirecting the flow of mana to his lower half, the reinforcement activated, bolstering his legs as he plummeted past the clusters of plump clouds.

It was impossible not to hide the smile that overtook him, the pure rush and sense of accomplishment that surged through his very being--he felt truly alive at this moment.

"Woo--!"

Ren yelled out in joy as he dropped, holding his arms out like wings, embracing the welcoming winds that bulleted past him. Never again would he need to traverse the arduous steps within the tree, or be carried like a child.

--I'm an Outlander! Ren Nakamura, the thirteenth Outlander!

The ground below came into view at a rapid rate, Ren braced himself for impact as he sucked all the air he could into his lungs. As his feet met with the ground, he could feel the force generated by the impact glide through the ground like a wave. Sirius landed gracefully, finishing his fall with a slip as he met the ground without a hitch.

"That felt...weird."

He expected the soil to cave in under his high-velocity impact, but nothing happened.

"Was that your first time jumping from there? You'll get used to it."

"...yeah, I don't know about getting used to it."

Ren took a step forward, walking like a newborn calf as his knees wobbled. After massaging his own thighs to help the blow flow kick back in, Ren looked up to Sirius, "So, what now?"

"For starters, we need to get moving. The grace period ends after the first night, then that's when things get real fun."

"Grace period?"

"After the first night, we're allowed to fight one another. Let's just say...we'll be caught up in all of that. So we should get ourselves set up first."

Sirius explained to him with a half-smile, waving his hand for Ren to follow him as they entered the forest of leaves, devoid of civilization. Surprisingly, past his eccentric traits, Sirius seemed to be a reliable guy at the end of the day.

"--Seriously, I don't know what half the things on this list are. "Gambon Snatchers"? That sounds like something I'd find in a candy store."

"Give me that."

Sirius swiped the list from Ren's hands, bringing it in front of his eyes.

"Hmm...we've got some big critters to hunt."

"So how do we "win" exactly?"

After asking his question, Ren watched as Sirius stuffed the arcane note into the coat of his ashen jacket, stepping through a mass of foliage.

"--Well, Monster Hunt has different win-conditions each time, to keep things "spicy". Last year, the one we did worked like a scavenger hunt, making teams collect every monster on their list. You can tell which variation of the game this is by looking at the list. Do you remember what you saw?"

"Yeah, I saw the names of creatures."

"Besides that--there was something listed next to the names."

Sirius playfully knocked his fist against Ren's head, as if trying to get the gears in his head moving.

"Oh--you mean the numbers listed by the name? I think the Gambon Snatcher had "five" attached to it."

"Bingo. This year's Monster Hunt is a point-based system--so we don't have to go after everything we see on that list."

A light switched in Ren's head at this new piece of information, letting out an "Oh!" as he stepped over a puddle of murky water.

"So we could just go after the highest-point monster over and over again and totally sweep the competition, right?"

Ren asked with confidence carrying his words, rubbing his palms together as he imagined the type of respect he'd get from winning this whole thing.

"...I like that attitude, but that's not really feasible."

"Why not?"

"Well, for example--a "Gergerun", which yields seven-points, would only be on the lower end of monster quality for our list, but I think you'll find them difficult to handle already. So if we were to focus on say, the "Dimghasts", a monster that brings fifty-points, it would be extremely tedious and time consuming to try and hunt multiple of."

"--I get it, I get it. So we need to optimize hunting both low-point creatures and leave high-point ones to chance?"

"Sort of, yeah," Sirius nodded his head before freezing in place, "Stop--"

Ren came to a halt as his partner raised his arm in front of him, falling silent as the sound of footsteps and heavy breathing occupied the still forest.