Pitted By A Savage Man

This isn't Tokyo.

Actually, it might not even be Earth at all. Or, atleast, he wasn't aware of the existence of a 3-meter long flying scorpion on Earth, but, if ghouls exist, who's to say that monster bugs can't?

Assessing the scorpion creature, Juzou gripped his Jason in his hands, but, upon seeing no movement coming from the giant bug even after some time, he determined the creature to be of little threat for the meantime. It might be asleep or dead.

In any case, he should get away from this place first and look for a safer location. Juzou sighed in his Arata suit. Fortunately, he still had his equipment on him when he was dropped here out of nowhere. With that said, he quietly made his way out of the scorpion's possible den, making full use of his Arata suit's speed enhancement to quickly get away.

Upon arriving by a stream which he deemed safe enough, the first thing he did was to remove his Arata suit before it could start devouring him and assess his physical condition.

Before he was dropped here, his suit had already reached 8 post and, by 10 post, the suit will start to consume its user as the user suffers from heavy bleeding.

Tapping the deactivation latch on the suit, Juzou took a deep breath of fresh air, relaxing his tensed body from overdrawn battles as the suit began to unlatch. Then, it clustered towards a node on his upper back which sucked the suit in until it completely disappeared.

"Ah-" Juzou's expression blanked. "That wasn't supposed to happen, I think..."

On the damp grass beside the stream, ten little toes wiggled in confusion.

"Oh, you're back!" Juzou exclaimed in pleasant surprise towards his very present right leg, before peeking into his pants. "You're back too! I could've sworn Big Mama took you away forever."

And just like that, all thoughts about the Arata suit were thrown to the back of his head.

"This is bad~" Juzou suddenly stood upright, seeming to have come to a realization. "I think I died."

Crouching to the ground, he began to draw circles on the dirt before he rolled over and just laid down. "Shinohara-san, I'm sorry. I actually went before you woke up~"

Laying face up on the grass, he looked towards the sky with a lost expression. "And I still don't know where I am."

"You're in the Great Ghoda forest, pretty deep in too." Suddenly a scruffy face entered his field of vision out of nowhere, surprising Juzou with how he managed to get so close to him without alerting him of his presence. "So, what's a kid like you doing here?"

"I don't know~" Juzou fiddled with hair clips as he sat up, taking note of the man's unshaven beard and ragged clothes. He might have encountered a savage or a beggar. "I just woke up here."

"Heh? That's pretty odd." The savage-looking man said, rubbing his bearded chin in contemplation. "How about this. Since I'm already done with this place anyway, I'll let you tag along until we get to the nearest town. Or, do you have somewhere you need to go?"

"By any chance, do you know where Tokyo is? Or Japan?" Juzou tilted his head, looking towards the man, searching his facial expressions for any clue.

"Nope. No idea where that is. But, there's a Jappon though. That's where the ninjas are, I believe." The man said thoughtfully, making Juzou perk up but, the next words made him stiffen. "It's right next to Kukan'yu Kingdom and below Mimbo Republic."

"Eh?" Somehow, he could hear his brain crashing. Kukan'yu and Mimbo? How about China and Korea? "Do you... have a world map on you?"

"Yeah, I have those. Basic equipment for adventurous hunters like me." The man grinned proudly as he pulled out a map from within his ragged clothes.

Hunters?

Upon setting his sights on the map, Juzou began to understand just what kind of situation he was in.

This is not Earth. Nor was it the Afterlife.

Six continents with the countries having names he was unfamiliar with.

This was an entirely different world.

"It seems that I have no place to go." Juzou listlessly poked the offending map.

"That's settled then." The man slapped Juzou's shoulder lightheartedly and pulled the shorter man up from the ground. "I'm leaving for Gordeau Desert so I'll drop you off at Yorknew City. It'll probably take us around a week or so to reach there so we have plenty of time to get acquainted."

With that said, the man began to walk off, not even waiting to hear his newly acquired companion's opinions.

"The name's Ging Freecss by the way." He said with a grin.

"Juzou Suzuya~ Nice meeting you." Skipping along the way, the former Dragon General followed the wandering irresponsible dad through the forest.

...

The early morning sunlight peaked between the leaves of the towering trees, casting an ethereal halo upon the cool dew drops which fell upon porcelain skin, waking a sleeping boy up from his peaceful slumber amidst a meadow of unknown flowers.

Opening his eyes, the boy surveyed his surroundings in confusion, pulling his trusted weapon close to him.

It was on their third day together on a journey to Yorknew City when Suzuya Juzou was once again faced with a problematic situation.

"Where am I?"

He was lost. Again.

Surrounding the meadow, dozens of corpses of monstrous beasts decorated the otherwise peaceful scenery with a tinge of eerieness, depiction of the bloody battle which occurred in this land just hours before.

Just the night before, as Juzou and Ging were about to exit the depths of the forest and onto the periphery, they accidentally ventured into a nest of Iris spiders; gigantic spiders which grew up to two meters tall and decorated with hundreds of eyes all over their bodies, granting them vision in every direction.

In order to escape from the danger, Ging suggested to split in separate directions to which, Juzou agreed with little thoughts.

Surprisingly, Ging seemed to have extremely bad luck, with nearly all the spiders running after him, leaving only a little more than a dozen chasing Juzou.

With the load lightened, Juzou decisively led the spiders towards a fairly open location where he leisurely finished them off with the aid of his Jason. They were much weaker than he thought, perhaps relying more on crowd tactics than their own power.

Which leads to the current situation, with him once again being lost and alone.

Now, he had two options before him. First, he'd stay in place and wait for Ging to find him or, Second, he'll take matters into his own hands and look for Ging instead.

But, from what he observed in the few days with the man, he had an extremely strong sense of smell, allowing him to find specific things from miles away as well as possessing a very powerful strength. Therefore, the First option it is.

Taking note of the sun's position in the sky, Juzou sat on the ground. If Ging doesn't appear within a day, he'd assume he died.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait too long as just a few minutes later, Ging emerged from with the trees, eyes widened in surprise as he took note of the spider corpses and the otherwise unharmed boy in the meadow.

Heh? So this kid does have some skills despite how weak he looks.

"Mornin', Ging~" Sitting languidly within a circle of spider corpses, Juzou yawned as he lazily greeted the older hunter.

If he could do this without the help of nen, it really made one wonder how much his abilities would increase once he had access to it.

Maybe he could use this boy with immense potential to replace him in the hunter association as compensation for his past and future dereliction of duty.

Netero would find it fun for sure.

"Hey, kid! Have you ever thought of becoming a hunter?" Was the first thing he said as he jumped over a spider's corpse, heading towards his temporary travel companion.

"A hunter?" Juzou tilted his head in confusion. This was the second time he heard of the term from Ging.

"Yeah! The 287th hunter exam is about to start in a little more than a week. If you take an airship to Zaban City after we arrive at Yorknew City, you might just make it in time." Ging grinned, his eyes gleaming with excitement and some other hidden agenda. "Getting a hunter's license has a lot of benefits, plus, you get to learn a secret power after. That is, if you pass."

Speaking of power.

"How did you escape from hundreds of giant spiders by the way?" Juzou asked in genuine curiosity. It was not everyday that you get to see someone survive being chased by monstrous angry spiders. Not even he himself could say that he could do the same without a few injuries.

"Escape? No, I beat em all up and walked away!" Ging nonchalantly waved his hand as if doing so was just natural. "Things like those can't possibly hurt me unless they learn nen."

Nen? Was that the secret power he was speaking about?

Ging didn't seem to realize that he slipped up and said something he shouldn't.

"Anyways, back to the topic! Give me your I.D. so I can register you for the exam." Ging pulled out his phone from within his clothes, reaching a hand out towards Juzou only for the younger to shake his head.

"Don't have one~ Even if I did, it won't work here." Juzou said with a sad pout. How did he end up needing to register in this exam again? He didn't seem to remember ever agreeing to this.

"No I.D., huh. That's gonna be a pain. Let me just put you in as a Meteor Street citizen so no one asks anything." Ging furrowed his brows as he typed quickly. "Your age?"

Meteor Street. Another term he didn't know of.

"I'm 23." Juzou answered instinctively. Wait, why was he complying with this? Ah, nevermind.

"Twen-ty... Three..." Ging typed, but then paused as his brain registered the information. "Wait! You're 23?! You barely look like a teen!"

"Ah~ I get that a lot." Remembering the looks of shock and surprise his former co-workers and subordinates had when they learned of his age, Juzou couldn't help but smile fondly.

By the way, what are Hunters?

"If you're particularly short on money, I suggest picking the eyes off those spiders. They sell well, or so I heard." After finalizing the registration with a few made-up information, Ging nonchalantly gestured towards the pile of spiders as he pocketed his phone. "I'm not really a beast hunter so I can't be sure. Just pick em anyways."

Still sitting in a daze, Juzou subconsciously nodded. It seemed that he really had no money in this new world. Maybe he should take Ging's advice.

"Oh, and those flowers you're sitting on are poisonous. The pollen they release can cause serious hallucinations along with skin allergies. You might wanna take a bath. Quickly." Ging's voice sounded vaguely concerned as he spoke, looking at a dead spider instead of at Juzou.

Was that why he chose to stand a few feet away from Juzou instead of sitting beside him? And he didn't think to inform him until now. How very Ging of him.

"Eh? Really? But I've been here the whole night. Nothing really happened yet." Juzou muttered in confusion before snapping his fingers with a look of sudden realization. "Oh! So I'm hallucinating right now!"

Ging froze, turning to look at Juzou as if he were an alien, which he technically was.

"No, nevermind. You're probably immune to the pollen."

Three days later, two strange and suspicious people entered Yorknew City, the strange one being a man who looked like a beggar carrying a sack of unknown things, and the suspicious one being a 'young boy' carelessly carrying a dangerous scythe.

Though the cautious stares he was getting from the people they passed by seemed to make the boy uncomfortable as he began to mutter to himself cluelessly.

His red flipflops were still there, and his red and black squad uniform which followed him to this world was still in pretty good condition despite the week-long forest lifestyle, and they didn't seem to be looking at the man in beggar fashion beside him. Which left one last option.

"They must be admiring my Jason~"

Skipping happily as he studied his surroundings curiously, Juzou rested his weapon on his shoulder as though the stares didn't bother him at all.

"I feel like I forgot something..." Mumbling thoughtfully, he placed a finger on his chin as though trying to recall something he missed. "Oh! I remember!"

Suddenly turning around, he confronted Ging who had been silently following him, trying to pretend to be invisible for some reason.

"Ging, that power you used to beat the spiders in the forest-" With his head tilted, Juzou spoke. "What was it?"

"That's.." Ging lowered his cap, purposely acting mysterious. "A secret."

Facing Juzou's blank stare, Ging laughed loudly. "You'll find out anyway once you pass the hunter exam. But, first, we need to find a shop to sell your iris spider eyes before they rot."

"Ah, right!" Juzou exclaimed, having nearly forgotten about the eyes and his lack of money. Though, as he had no idea where he was going, he decided to follow Ging instead since he seemed to know what he was doing.

But, upon arriving at the shop, Juzou belatedly realized one very important matter.

"...Ging." Juzou turned to his companion, face uncharacteristically serious, his eyes blank and emotionless.

"What?" Sensing the younger's sudden change of mood, Ging felt deeply unsettled.

"I can't read."

Just like that, two pairs of eyes stared at each other blankly.

"I'll take you to the library later."

...

Half an hour later and a whole lot negotiations, two people exited the shop, one slightly dazed and regretful, while the other skipping around in excitement.

"26 million! I've never had this much money before!" Juzou giggled to himself as he held a nameless bank card towards the sun.

Meanwhile, Ging had a dark expression, regretting how he didn't bother to pick the eyes off of the hundreds of spiders he had killed.

Who knew that those eyes were rare and expensive commodities?

Nevertheless, after being depressed for a few moments, Ging quickly picked himself up and headed for the library, fulfilling his promise to Juzou and helped him buy several educational books for children and accompanied him to the market to buy everything he would need for the upcoming hunter exam.

"Ah! They sell Pocky here too?! Melon bread! Meiji series!"

Though, by the end of the day, 90 percent of what they ended up buying were all kinds of snacks and sweets.

It was quite an eye opening experience for Ging. He never realized just how many different kinds of snacks existed.

And when he finally managed to send the younger off to the airship, he couldn't help but sigh in relief.

If this was what taking care of a kid was like, he was really glad he left his son in Whale Island.

Stretching his back, feeling like he aged at least ten years in just a day, he began to trudge towards the desert with a carefree smile.

"Now, off to Hamnebutra I go. Hope I get to see a mummy come back to life this time."

...

Within the buzzing of the cicadas, the chirping of birds, the peaceful trickling of a nearby river, even the grass felt alive in this place.

Deep inside the Great Ghoda forest, a giant scorpion beast laid silently as rays of sunlight filtered by the canopy of the trees landed on its dull carapace.

Click- crack!

Suddenly, all sounds stopped, blanketing the entire forest in silence.

Then, with a resounding crash, the entire exoskeleton of the scorpion fell apart, revealing an interior which had been eaten cleanly.

Click click click.

From within the shadows of the devoured creature, a dark snake-like monster the size of an arm wriggled slowly, only revealing a single mouth which was eating everything in its path.