3 The Meaning Of Chimera

(Fourteen Years ago. Gods Organizations Forest of Demons. Day of team building.)

"Why are you looking at me!" Lin asked when he noticed them staring. Jack and Jason continued to glare at each other before turning back towards Lin.

"You settle it, Lin!" Jason said pointing towards the corpse of a massive demon they just killed. "Who got the finishing blow? Me or Jack?" He said.

"I totally did!" Jack yelled point accusingly at Lin. "I kicked it really, really hard!"

Lin looked at the two fight kids shaking his head slightly. "I wasn't paying attention," Lin said shrugging lightly. "I was too busy thinking about the upcoming Mantra Spirit I would be getting."

"Gah!" Jack scoffed slightly as he put his sleep mask he always carried with him on. "It's so unfair! Jason and I aren't getting a Mantra Spirit. And Mr. Colin says that I might not be ready for a long time!" Jack kicked a tree since he was now unable to see due to his blindfold sleepwear governing his eyes. "Oww!"

"You shouldn't complain, Jack," Jason said shrugging slightly. "Usually when a person with a lot of potentials wants to get a Mantra Spirit they have to wait. The longer a person waits the better the chance of their Spirit being good is. If Mr. Colin is telling you to wait then he must see a lot of potential in you."

"Yeah, but he wants to wait until I'm eighteen!" Jack whined slightly. "That is so long away."

"We should be getting back soon," Lin said looking down at his watch. "We finished the mission and have just been standing here for a while." Blue Aura covered Lin as he tapped into his Mantra jumping up to the trees and using them to get around. Jack and Jason followed soon Jack tripping and falling multiple times since he refused to take his sleep mask off.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Jason announced as he moved up towards Lin while they jumped. "I think I finally know a good name for our team!" Jason said smiling slightly. "Mr. Colin told us to think of an animal from Greek mythology and I think I finally found one!"

Lin looked over his shoulder at Jason as they jumped. "Okay?"

"What do you think of us being called Chimera!" Jason asked. "A Chimera is a mix between three creatures and is super powerful!" He said waving his arms. "I think it would be really great!" He said smiling. "Plus a Chimera could show off how cool our teamwork is!"

"That does sound cool!" Lin said nodding. "Hey, Jack!"

"Yeah?" A Muffled voice said under the trees. Lin and Jason look down to see Jack upside down under there branch defying gravity as he jumped from branch to branch upside down. "I heard and I think Chimera would be fine." He said. "But about that elephant in the room. Who's going to be the leader?" He questioned?

"How about you Jack?" Lin asked. "You are the one with the most talent and things come easily to you!" He said. "I think you would make a great leader."

"Nah," Jack said shrugging. "Sounds like a lot of work. Hey, what about Jason leads. He is pretty strong and he works insanely hard constantly. He could lead us."

"I don't think I would be that good of a leader?" Jason said shaking his head. "I'm not really that good." He said shrugging. "I still think Jack should do it. If he would just train more he could become stupidly strong. Too bad he's so lazy."

"Hey!"

"You would be great!" Lin said waving his arms around. "You are far stronger than me and you keep up with Jack's hax potential through hard work! You train constantly and are insanely brave! You would be perfect!" He yelled.

"My potential isn't that much of a cheat..." Jack muttered a bit salty.

"Well if you guys think I could do it." Jason shrugged. He smiled slightly. "Alright. I'll be a leader!" He announced.

"Good!" Jack said smiling slightly. 'Screech.' The sound of a car tire could be hard but nobody reacted since it wasn't real. "I agree with Lin." He said. 'We are almost there?' Faint muttering could be hard. 'Damn. He's asleep again!' Jack shrugged slightly. He felt weird at that moment talking to Lin and Jason. 'I'll wake him- What the hell-' "Anyways. How much longer until-" 'Slam! Crash!'

(Present day)

"Son of a-" Jack yelled jolting awake and rubbing his head as he took his blindfold off so he could see. He looked around the back of the car he was in. "What happened!" He yelled. He stopped when he realized that something wasn't right. There was broken glass everywhere. All the kids were groaning in pain slightly. There was a dent in the car they were in. Oh. And they were also upside down.

"Something rammed into the car!" Sera whimpered. "I think it was a demon. It looked big!" She said shuddering slightly.

Jack nodded slightly as he kicked the door open and unbuckled getting out. The grass was cold to the touch as he climbed out of the car. Standing up he looked around. He shivered slightly so he grabbed his jacket that was wrapped around his legs and slipped it on. "Hello?" He asked. "Any demons?" He stepped forward only to feel a wave of pain shot through his body as he was sent flying. Sitting up he looked around bot noticing anything.

"Mr. Nine are you alright!" Brave asked stepping out of the wreckage. Jack saw something for a brief moment move behind her as his eyes widened slightly. Turning around Brave saw the outline of something? It was big but it was hard to tell what it was exactly as it was completely transparent. In fact, the only reason she knew it was there was the wind moved around it in an outline shape showing off a very rough shape of where it was.

The creature seemed to raise its arm up and brought it down intending to tear her in half. Brave expected that to be the end but right before it could touch her she felt an arm wrap around her. The next thing she knew she was standing on top of the car.

"A transparent demon?" Jack questioned standing on the flipped over car holding Brave as if he was a sake of potatoes. "Kids stay in the car. This will be a bit tricky." He said. He dropped Brave as he disappeared reappearing in front of the demon as he body slammed it sending it flying. Blue Mantra covered his body as he stood bored. "Listen to me small fry. You might be invisible but I have killed far stronger demons before. I'd say you are nothing more than a mid-D-class."

The demon didn't seem to like this as it stood up roaring and charged towards Jack who still had his hand in his pocket. As it reached him it throughout a massive right hook

"Look out!" Brave yelled. She closed her eyes when she heard a loud crack and the sound of blood falling. When she opened them she saw Jack standing not moving. The Demons arm had bent and snapped when it had hit him causing it to break and bend around it. It seemed to whimper in pain as Jack slowly raised his right hand.

"You're finished," Jack said as he simply punched it tearing a hole through its stomach. The Demon's body appeared suddenly now that it was dead and its invisibility trick having worn off.

It looked kind of like a cross between a bear and a pig.

"Sir are you alright!" Some of the people who had been driving the car asked as they got out of the car. "We were driving to where your missions location was in the town when this thing suddenly slammed into us." The guy said. luckily nobody is injured too bad." He said. "The car also seems to be in working order once its flipped we can continue on." The man said. "Once we head off we should be able to reach the town in about an hour."

"He seems chill about all of this," Brave said moving over towards Jack.

"Of course," Jack said nodding slightly. "I know it is likely your first time but you will find many people who work for Gods organization have seen demons before." He said. "This one was child's play though. You could have likely taken it out of you weren't surprised by it."

"Our mission was to hunt a demon right?" Brave questioned as they headed back towards the car. Jack nodded slightly as he grabbed onto the car and lifted it upwards turning it over and setting it down upright.

"That's right." He said. "And that's why I am so worried..." He opened the door as they got in. "The demon we are supposed to be hunting is terrorizing a little town. It's supposed to be a low-F-class demon so you all should be around four times stronger than it." He said shrugging slightly.

"Well, how strong are you..." Van asked in a bored manner. He had fallen unconscious during the car crash so he was and he didn't wake up until after the demon was killed. He really wanted to punch it.

Jack hummed slightly stalling for time as he thought of a response. "I would probably be around a mid-B-class demon as long as I am using my Mantra at full. Maybe low-A-Class with my Spirit activated."

The door opened as the driver finally set back down in his seat and turned the car on. "Strange that a D-class was in the area..." The driver said. "Usually we only see F and E class. Then again some people have been saying they noticed a lot more demons in the area lately. Last time I checked they mentioned a few C classes..." He trailed off sounding worried slightly.

"Can demons organize?" Brave asked.

"Sometimes." Fate spoke. "My brother once said that B class demons can speak and are smart enough to lead others in battle."

"Hey, Mr. Nine have you ever seen a B class demon?" Finn asked.

Jack was silent for a few moments. "Once. Four years ago. Me and two of my friends- Two other people and I ran into one." He finally said. "It was also the day I became the single member to Chimera." He looked up at the car roof going silent again. It was clear that something painful was on his mind.

Fate couldn't help but frown as her brother's words echoed through her mind once again. "Mr. Nine..." She suddenly spoke. "I have a question."

"What?" He asked as he pulled his sleep mask down blocking his eyes. "And make it quick I'm trying to take a nap."

"Well, I was just wondering..." She stopped unsure of how to say it. "What does the meaning of Chimera mean exactly? Like what does it mean to be a part of the team?"

Jack didn't say anything at first but eventually sighed. "A Chimera is a creature that is a mix between several other creatures. For a normal person or an enemy, it would mean a monster. For those that are part of the team, however, is a different story. For me personally, it represented a fleeting bond. Something meant to last but will eventually fizzle out and die."

Fate flinched at that going back to what her older brother had first said. Had he really been telling the truth?

(Flashback. Six days ago.)

"You joined Chimera?" Jason said coldly as he looked at Fate. "Why? That group is run by a loser who rarely trains and just ends up hurting others." He said clenching his fist. "I thought you were better than that."

Fate flinched slightly but managed to hold her ground. "Why?" She asked. "I've seen the pictures of you and those two other boys. You looked happy back then when you were with your friends. So why do you hate the world?"

"Because. All Nine does is get people killed."

(End flashback. One hours later.)

The car finally stopped once they reached the village. "This is the place?" Brave frowned when she saw it. "It's so... Small!" The village was very small only containing a few dozens houses and an Inn as well as a few shops. There was a wooden wall that was designed to keep things out but it didn't look very safe. It also didn't have any sort of technology to speak of.

"Get used to it," Jack said waking up on time for once. He walked forward towards the gate. "Most towns aren't so lucky. The weather can change constantly and with Demons running around most small places like this get destroyed. Usually, Gods Organization won't protect towns but this one, in particular, has found a unique resource that Gods Organization wants. They give it to us in exchange for protection."

"Wait so if we don't usually protect little towns then do we just leave them and have them fend for themselves?" Finn asked.

Jack looked over his shoulder taking his sleep ware off. "No. We kill them." Everyone stepped back in shock and horror. "If a town isn't able to survive on its own then Gods Organizations will take all the Mantra users and then kill the others." He said shrugging.

"That's horrible!" Sera said stepping back in horror and shock. "Why would they do such a thing."

The gates opened as Jack entered. "It's called mercy killing. I don't like it but I understand it." He said. "Demons get stronger the more people they kill and can eventually reach a new level of power and gain a new class. Since we can't protect every town and are already ran thin due to work we kill off towns in order to stop them from being taken by a Demon and take the supplies for ourselves."

"That's not right!" Van yelled angrily. "Why don't we just let them join as part of our Organization." He said annoyed.

"Can't" Jack shrugged. "Mantra can be harmful to a normal person so you have to be careful when activating it. Sure they could stay for maybe a few weeks but after that constant exposure would begin to kill them in very painful ways. If we were to let them join our base they would eventually die from sickness. Also, we would have to keep expanding it for every group using more and more supplies." He shrugged again. "We also couldn't just give them there own spot since they would still have to be far enough away from us like this town but that would mean it would fall into the same category of the others. Unable to fend for themselves they would be easy pickings for Demons." He said. "And before you suggest we give them supplies that also wouldn't work. A Demon can only be killed by Mantra or a Mantra based ability. We could give some a trillion nukes but it wouldn't even scratch a Demon. For some reason, only Mantra seems to hurt them."

"It still doesn't make it right!" Van yelled. "Why should they have to die. Surely there is something we can do."

"Yeah. We can kill the Demon terrorizing these poor people." Jack said walking towards the Inn. "Now come on. We'll head out in the morning. For now, you need to rest-" He twisted his hand slightly catching the first Van through at him and kneed the boy in the stomach as hard as he could knocking the boy out. "As I was saying. Let's go to the Inn and sleep. If my gut is right then this simple mission will be extremely hard and I would prefer you guys to be in top shape. If you want to ask any more questions then wait until the morning." He picked Van up carrying him to the Inn as the others followed slowly. "In the morning I'll teach you some more about Mantra and go into the types of Mantra." He said boredly as he opened the door to the inn.

(Meanwhile.)

"Such a strong person..." The Demon said smirking slightly as he started from the forest at the inn where the people had walked too. "To think my little pet would have been slaughtered by you so easily..." He said staring at Jack. "I look forward to our fight in which I will claim you as mine..."

The wind howled loudly despite the fact that it was sunny outside.

The demon sighed turning away. "Yes, my dears. We will feast soon." He said his tongue coming out of his mouth as he licked his lips.