Cold winds

"Then what did you know from that yakuza?"

Yuki was looking out the window at the rising sun that had lit the pine trees golden and made the birds sing in celebration of the apocalypse being postponed.

"There are traces of black magic in his memory, parts of which have probably been erased."

Yuki sighed, then turned to Naru and said, "So he used black magic to erase his name from history."

"Forget about Yudai. Let us focus now on hunting while protecting this coward." Naru said, looking at the sleeping Taki.

Yudai, who raised Yuki, is a friend of Master Dive, Taki's father, and Yuki is assigned the task of protecting Taki during the test from the yakuza who aim to kidnap him.

So Yuki and Naru plan to be placed with Taki in the same room and also with one of the yakuza who wants to kidnap Taki.

The Yakuza know that the highly influential Master Dave is, and his will to hire someone to protect his son in the test, so they may expect at least three bodyguards who will be with him wherever he goes. And since they don't know what he looks like, they would never expect to put one of their members in the same room with him.

So putting a yakuza with them in the same room will serve their plan to get their names off the list of suspects.

After Naru obtains the body of that yakuza, he will infiltrate their group while Yuki and Taki focus on hunting. This was their plan.

Yuki checked the time and turned back to look outside the window as the sun had passed the pine trees and was flying as fast as the larger hand of his hour hand toward the west.

Yuki was thinking of other possible test scenarios while waiting for the observer to come to reveal their prey in this test.

Taki was sleeping after hearing the explanation of all the scenarios Yuki had predicted.

As Yuki was swimming in his river of thoughts, he suddenly heard the annoying screeching sound of the old wooden door as it opened.

Yuki knew who had opened the door without even turning around.

The inspector entered with two cards, one in his right hand and the other in his left, as he said immediately after entering without introduction: "Whoever wants to be a bounty hunter, bring this mother-fucker.", pointing to his left hand, "And whoever wants to become a demon hunter, bring this mother-fucker." Pointing to his right hand.

Yuki turned and looked at the cards from afar, but he didn't notice anything.

'It seems that my magic affected my eyes.'

Yuki walked towards the observer and received the cards to first set his sights on the Demon Hunters card.

He focused on the big picture in the middle of the card and looked back for the words. What he saw was a man who, from the features of his face, looked as though he was in his thirties, had black hair with some tufts of gray, and he was a little bald on the top of his forehead.

'He seems like an ordinary man.'

After looking at the Demon Hunters card, Yuki turned to the card that was important to them, the Bounty Hunters card, and was shocked at what he saw.

It was the same person, but with different clothes and slightly longer hair.

Yuki looked at the observer and then returned to look at the paper to confirm what he saw.

"What's wrong?" Yuki could barely hear Naru's voice calling out to him.

Yuki then looked at the broad writing on top of the Demon Hunter's card and compared it to what was on top of the other card and The first difference appeared.

Demon hunters must bring him "ALIVE", while bounty hunters must bring him "DEAD".

"Fuck." Yuki snorted in a low voice and continued reading the description under "ALIVE," then moved on to the description under "DEAD" on the other card and was even more shocked.

All demon hunters will pass the test if they bring him alive, the bounty hunters will be divided into groups and only one group will pass, which is the one that returns the dead body.

As he analyzed what he had read, Yuki felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and a warm air beside his left cheek.

"Looks like your expectation didn't work out," Naru said, resting his fat hand on Yuki's shoulder.

"You have the right to ask me one question before you choose what to fish for." said the test observer, who was still standing in front of the door.

"Is it a one-round audition?"

"Are you stupid, why didn't you ask him where he was?" Yuki received a slap from Naru's hand wrapped around his neck like a serpent, warning him to slow down so he wouldn't make a mistake again.

"I can't believe I bet on a fool, and now you're going to make me lose half my money to tell you where he is." Yuki took another slap but this time from the observer to taste the bitterness of his haste.

The first thing Yuki thought before he asked his question was the test rounds because according to what he looked for: In previous years the test took place in several rounds so that there is a difference in the wanted between bounty hunters and demon hunters, but they are linked to each other in some way to induce the hunters to cooperate between them.

But this test wants to differentiate them and never induce cooperation.

'It seems that some of those in power were not helped by the cooperation between the Demon Hunters and the Bounty Hunters.'

'Probably the Zeista Empire that relies only on bounty hunters wants to harass the Kostikikha Empire that relies only on Demon Hunters or vice versa.'

'It seems that a world war is knocking on the doors, will this make the Antarctic continent intervene again, or does it want to get rid of them.'

The southern continent is a mysterious continent that no one can use magic on its land, and magic does not affect it, and only those who have given up magic and wanted to live a normal life can enter it.

The first appearance of the southern continent was in a nuclear war several centuries ago, which punished the world by depriving it of technology for a thousand years.

"Just tell us where it is and we'll make it up to you.", Naru said to the observer.

"As if I had another choice, this mother-fucker in the picture had raped many women and children around the country and then killed them by making them commit suicide using black magic, so he was punished by instilling depression and suicidal desire from hundreds of thousands of people in his mind, so he is now destined for Aokigahara Forest to suicide."

"Then all we have to do is prevent the devil's hunters, from interfering and let him commit suicide."

"If only things were that simple, I'll bet all my money on you so if you don't win…." said the observer with a look that made Naru pull his hand off Yuki's shoulder.

"If this damned man commits suicide, yes he will die, but this will not make the demon hunters lose because he will turn into a demon. And if he turns into a demon, you must bring him alive and also compete for that."

'It seems that it is not only the observers who are betting on this test but even those with big bellies. This test run by the World Magic Organization is now taking place all over the world and not only in Japan, so it seems that its results will determine who is the strongest: bounty hunters or demon hunters and will also ignite the first spark of war. '

'Of course, its results will not be accurate, and there is some bias towards the demon hunters, but there are no excuses if we do not kill the wanted person before he commits suicide, and things will get complicated after he turns into a demon. So the plan is clear now, we have to kill him before he commits suicide. '

'The cold wind is starting to blow, if we don't find a roof to put over our heads we may get caught in the storm and when you get stuck in a storm you either die or survive with serious injuries if you are the luckiest person in the world. '