-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Bleak Future?-

Inside a huge room that was meant to be a conference room, a very serious discussion was taking place. All the top brass of hunter world, as well as some from DCB, were sitting around a huge table while continuing with the discussion and coming up with various theories. But none of them sounded plausible and acceptable, but no one could refute them either. After all, it’s a world where fantastical things exist… anything can be possible.

“I think it’s work of God. He must have finally seen our suffering, and hence destroyed these abominable things.” A man wearing a white shirt and black pants whizzed out with a huge smile while excitedly wiping away his sweat. He seemed very thrilled about this theory.

“Mr. Aono, please sit down and take a deep breath. And how are you sweating when we all sitting inside an air-conditioned room?” a lady who was sitting beside the enthusiastic man chimed in with a smile. She had short bob-cut hair with a few fringes in front being blue. A vertical scar was running through her face, but it accentuated her heroic beauty instead. Her name was Noa Adams, her father was a Caucasian. She was a pretty high-ranking officer of DCB and also happens to be a member of Yamazaki Aoi’s exclusive team.

“How can I calm down? We are talking about gods grace here…this must be work of the ever benevolent light god.” The man named Aono joined his hands and piously looked at the skies.

“Okay okay please quiet down. We aren't doing a promotion for your god here…sigh…Aoi what do you think?” Noa looked at the girl sitting next to her with an anticipating face. She had a lot of faith in this girl who was tens of years younger than her and even harbored some ‘other’ thoughts for her. But minding their age difference, she always suppressed these feelings and instead worked hard to be on the same stage as her.

Next to her was sitting a girl whose age couldn’t probably exceed twenty. She looked very young and reserved. Her hair was pure black and long which was cut in a typical shrine maiden style, or what locals call it Miko style. She was also dressed in the same way, with shrine maiden outfit. Currently, she propped her head on her right hand as she thought of things while closing her eyes.

Then she stealthily opened her eyes and stared at the woman sitting to the corner of the table and calmly sucking on her orange juice. Of course, this woman was none other than Yuki who clearly felt out of place here. Feeling that someone looking at her, Yuki turned around and found Aoi Yamazaki looking at her with her black calculative eyes(in Yuki's mind) and gave her a grin before continuing on what she was doing.

Aoi just sighed stealthily and moved the head away. From this brief encounter, one could guess that these two women share a very closer or perhaps different relationship. By status, one was the Foreign affairs in charge of the whole Japan region while the other was the only publically acknowledged Divine skill user to ever exist. Both statuses were high.

Seeing that Aoi was no longer giving her looks, Yuki sighed in relief. She shared a long history with her. And that happened just a year after she took the mantle of Foreign affairs office. After an incident, they both became fast friends despite their age difference, but Yuki always hated her nagging nature. She was like a mother, always nagging at her for different things. In their relationship, she was the little sister while this extraordinary girl was the older sister.

As weird as that sounds.

In reality, Yuki knew everything about Aoi’s background and her heart, that’s why she could never truly alienate her. Somewhere down the time, she also enjoyed their time together. She enjoyed her nagging with everything she does. It gave Yuki the familiar bond that she very much missed. And today too, Yuki was around 60% sure that the only reason this girl volunteered to come here was that she wanted to meet her.

“Hmm! I can’t think of any concrete reason, but if I have to hazard a guess, this destruction of dungeon looks somewhat similar to what happened in the north a few months ago…the dungeons there were also destroyed with not even a single brick remaining. I guess that group has started to move again.” Aoi spoke in a reserved manner as she looked at everyone present.

Among the seven people sitting here, the one with most exalted status would be her. Also, strength-wise, she wouldn’t lose to anyone gathered here.

“Hmm…what do you think Mr. Hanezawa?” when his name was called, a middle-aged man who was sitting next to Aono furrowed his brows and drummed his finger rhythmically on the table. This middle-aged man was a very powerful but very secretive person among the circle of higher officials. His head was full of flaming red hair that looked like embers burning, and his eyes were bluest of the blue. Except for that, he didn’t have eyebrows or beard or any kind of facial hair. He had an average build, looking like that of a swimmer’s.

Despite that, nobody dared to underestimate him. Although no one had ever seen him in action, rumor had it that not a single prey had ever escaped from his clutch. Besides, he was one of the people who were dangerously close to becoming a Diamond ranked hunter.

“I have not been to the North, so I can't tell if this is similar to it or not, but I think the destruction of this dungeon wasn’t a natural occurrence. Still, we don’t know much about these dungeons either. But from years of coming in contact, we confirmed one thing…these dungeons were here for something other than sealing monsters within. Its almost like it’s a prison cell or something…”

This revelation of Hanezawa didn’t incur any special reaction from the gathered mass as they all knew this fact. In reality, nearly all high leveled hunters knew about these secrets which weren't made public for obvious reasons. But Hanezawa wasn’t finished.

“Well, it’s just my thinking, you guys don’t have to take seriously. I think the dungeon lost its true purpose and hence destroyed itself.” Now, this surprised everyone.

“Can you please elaborate, Mr. Hanezawa?” Aoi asked while folding her arms below her generously sized chests.

“It's like this if our conjecture of Dungeons being prions to something dangerous is correct, then what will happen when that inmate escapes or someone helps him/her escape? I guess that the thing which was sealed inside the Dungeon escaped and destroyed it while at it. Again its only guess so you shouldn’t take this seriously.”

Although Hanezawa said this, the other could only gasp in shock. They couldn’t refute his argument for they had already gotten proof of the other function of these dungeons. If its really as he said, then this might be more bad than good. In the first place, they didn’t even know what the power level of the thing that was sealed here, or if any hunters on earth could handle it.

The carefree look from everyone’s face vanished in an instant. Even Yuki put down her cup and had a frown married to her face. This matter was much more serious than what she had initially anticipated.

“Mr. Hanezawa, according to your reasons, if it's really so…then what are the probability of our survival?” Aoi asked further. She still had that calm and cool face on despite others near her were on the verge of losing their cool.

“Like I said, it's just my thought. But if what I said is really true, then… I am sorry if I sound like an alarmist, but earth’s survival is close to impossible. Just think how powerful those things would be who were sealed in this monolithic and fantastical structures like dungeons? Any one of them could lay waste to a country or two, and you just guess how many dungeons are there worldwide. I just hope I am only an alarmist, and what I said is nothing but hot airs… sigh…”

A deep silence prevailed through the whole room as the discussion went on a strange route.