Proving My Skill (1)
Step. Step.
I arrived in Washington, D.C., and went underground with the members of the 3rd Raid Team.
Familiar.
When I asked after him, I was told Division Chief James Jordan was away on a business trip. It brought back that first day in L.A. — the day, in the research facility and training ground beneath the city, that I had evolved a full stage further. The place today was much the same. The intent behind it looked entirely different.
"This way."
"Yes."
It was my first visit to the capital as an American hunter, and Paul Royce stayed at my side, guiding me without fuss. As I had expected, there would be no getting acquainted with the 2nd Raid Team. We were to spar in the underground training ground — a standing event between the raid teams, they said.
I am curious, though.
The 2nd Raid Team and the 3rd, here in America. How wide was the gap? One-on-one matches could not show the whole of anyone's ability, of course. A raid was not a scatter of hunters fighting each alone; it was everyone becoming one body and fighting as that. Even so, a duel like this had a strangely raw flavor. It did not tie cleanly to how a person performed in a raid, and still, for the one standing in the ring, it could turn into a matter of pride.
"We're here."
"Hmm..."
Now that I looked, every one of my teammates seemed faintly tense. These were not people who went this quiet. Off in the distance the 2nd Raid Team looked entirely at ease. They were not the 2nd for nothing. If I had to guess, the 3rd had been pushed back hard the last time they sparred.
And this time?
Before, I had been ready to take responsibility for whatever came, but I don't think I had ever truly felt I belonged anywhere. Even so, moving with this 3rd Raid Team, I had grown fond of them in my own way. Maybe I ought to put a little more into it.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves."
We reached the training ground, and the staff there helped us ready ourselves.
"Losers get dragged through the dirt, so get that through your heads. And don't go around telling people you raid with me."
"Hahahaha!"
"Don't worry!"
Hunters of the 2nd Raid Team were carrying on at a distance that was not particularly far. Saying it so we would hear, on purpose? Given that the raid leader called Brooks had been the one to start it, that seemed about right. Childish. I could hardly stand to watch.
"That man is a little loud."
"Haha, isn't he?"
"Hmm..."
I could see that Paul Royce found the man difficult. Pressed on it, a temperament like that might be exactly what one was supposed to call hunter-like. In Korea a hunter had to pretend to be a good person, so the point did not apply.
"He does look thoroughly hardened, though."
"He is. A truly powerful hunter. Melee type — I ran a few raids with him in the past, and he was monstrous. He would charge out ahead of the tankers and simply run wild."
"That's a bit..."
At a claim that brazen, I shook my head. In that moment Paul Royce lowered his voice.
"The truth is, that man — Russell Brooks — used to belong to the 1st Raid Team. The occasional outburst, though, and that difficult personality of his, and he was sent down to the 2nd."
"I see."
Well, of course. A raid team representing America was hardly going to keep a hunter who did exactly as he pleased.
To put it another way — he was still strong enough to lead the 2nd Raid Team. Line every hunter in America up together, and he might be an irregular even then.
Good.
My thoughts had not fully settled. One thing, even so, I had resolved with perfect clarity.
The training ground lay in the basement of US Hunter Association headquarters. Drawing on an immense store of mana stones, it let hunters spar at a strength close to live combat.
"I'll say it once more. Anyone who strikes a vital point will be ruled the loser."
It was like an octagon in mixed martial arts. Before the eyes of the other hunters, two would step in and fight. If there was a difference from the place Lee Dohyeon had known in L.A., it was this: you could not inflict a real injury, and yet the pain delivered through the special sensors came close to the real thing. The most lethal attack in the arena was a blow to a vital point that briefly starved the brain of oxygen — and it was, at the same time, the method most strictly forbidden.
A heavy blow landed. A scream tore loose after it.
"Hey! Put some strength into it!"
Russell Brooks had just flattened a hunter from the 3rd Raid Team. Past forty he might have been, but the body was solid muscle, the height past six and a half feet, and the wild golden hair tossing about his head made him look like a lion given a man's shape.
"You all right?"
"Nngh..."
"That guy's a complete monster, isn't he?"
"Probably the strongest human on the planet."
The hunters of the 3rd Raid Team could only click their tongues. Gauntlets on both fists — a melee hunter's primary weapons — and watching him throw punches with those left you without words. Every time they met him in an exchange, he was something other than a man. S-Rank hunters were superhumans among superhumans, and even among them he was a monster apart. Surely not even the 1st Raid Team had anyone who could take that one-on-one.
The staff member officiating called the next pair.
⊳ Lee Dohyeon — 3rd Raid Team
⊳ Magner Cogrigger — 2nd Raid Team
Lee Dohyeon, come from Korea. Cogrigger, whose father was Irish — brought to America as a child, and Awakened there. Two hunters on whom an American identity sat lightly had been set against each other. Dohyeon equipped the light armor he preferred and took up a thin-bladed sword. His opponent, Cogrigger, was a tanker with a greatsword in hand. In a one-on-one, a melee damage dealer and a tanker were positions that could actually meet.
"Begin!"
The referee gave the word, and both hunters began to circle, eyes fixed on one another. In a raid they would have fought on intelligence paid for in blood and glory. The circumstances now were different. Neither man knew a thing about the other, which meant the match would break on a single fleeting instant. Even a graze would be as good as a critical hit.
"Poor kid, getting stuck with Magner."
"After Mr. Brooks, Magner's the strongest there is in a one-on-one."
"Close combat, especially? The idea of Magner losing..."
"Huh?"
The hunters of the 2nd Raid Team had no choice but to startle. It was over in an instant. A clean slash tore the air, a scream ripped out after it, and Lee Dohyeon's sword had severed Cogrigger's ankle.
"My apologies."
So said Lee Dohyeon, ankle-severer that he was. Setting the pain to come through was cruel, all the same.
Not that I have any intention of being the one who takes it.
"Dohyeon! What was that!"
"I didn't even see it!"
"You had this much strength in you?"
When Dohyeon stepped out, his teammates met him with open delight. The welcome was fiercer than the end of a hard raid. They must have wanted badly to land one on the 2nd Raid Team.
"Three of ours won."
"Haha. Crushed. Completely crushed."
"Still — last year it was one win and nine losses, so."
The victory, plainly, belonged to the 2nd Raid Team. And yet it was the 3rd who were smiling. Not a single member of the 2nd had expected Magner Cogrigger to fall.
"Well done. Remarkable, as expected."
"Thank you. But, Mr. Royce."
"Yes?"
"I believe I will need the raid leader's permission."
Lee Dohyeon said it to Paul Royce in a confident voice. What had interested him from the start was not the business of teaching an Irishman how a severed ankle felt.
"Heh heh. They may call me Beast, but I haven't lost the power of speech."
"Hahaha..."
"What am I hearing?"
Even believing an S-Rank hunter would not, surely, beat an Association employee to death, the staff member who approached that giant of a man to deliver the message could not help but quail. Astonishingly, Russell Brooks still had no criminal record to his name — and yet the eyes alone looked ready to kill.
"So that cocky Asian said that, did he?"
Brooks laughed as if he could not believe his ears. Word was that the greenhorn over there, Lee Dohyeon, had dared to request a match with him.
Does he think every S-Rank is the same S-Rank? Or did he live in Korea and never hear my name? Even so — biting to death a cat that wanders into a lion's territory is a lion's duty.
"Hunter Russell Brooks has agreed."
"That's a relief."
"Mr. Lee, are you really certain?"
"Of course."
Lee Dohyeon said it to the staff member and to Paul Royce.
Is there really anything I can call confidence? I know I've grown stronger than I was in Korea, but for all I know America has hunters stronger than I am. Even so, I want to see how strong a hunter of that level really is. If I'm going to cower, what was the point of getting stronger?
"All right. We will begin now."
Lee Dohyeon and Russell Brooks stepped in, and their power came alive. As before, Dohyeon was on the verge of taking his opponent's measure slowly—
"Hm?"
Brooks launched himself in a great leap and came charging. The impact crashed down.
"Well, well."
Another crash, and another. He kept driving his fists into the place Dohyeon had just been, and Dohyeon did nothing but evade.
"Where'd all that nerve go, challenging me? You just gonna run like a little girl?"
Dohyeon did not take the bait.
A fiery one, I'll give him that.
When he had put that teammate down earlier, he must not have been showing his real skill. It was not only the strength. The speed was monstrous too. Even in the middle of it, Dohyeon was hunting for a gap. A match between S-Ranks was decided in an instant anyway.
Here.
Unfortunately, the only opening was a vital point. Everywhere else was sealed tight. His opponent was genuinely strong. Even so, cutting the nape would not actually kill the man.
"You little bastard!"
Brooks had read the nimble attack, and his fist came around as well.
"Hm?"
"Hah—?"
In that instant the match was stopped.
"Stop! Both of you got far too worked up!"
The official halted the bout. The special apparatus released, and the hunters' power vanished.
"Hmph. There goes the fun."
Brooks, the heat in him unspent, kept raging. Even so, he could hardly strike the hunter standing in front of him.
"Mr. Brooks."
"Hm?"
Amid that, Dohyeon stopped Brooks as the man turned to go.
He said it without flinching. Confidence brimmed in Lee Dohyeon's eyes.
"Crazy bastard."
Brooks let out a short snort of a laugh and walked away.
"You mean that beast of a man?"
"You've seen him?"
"Only in a video, during training. He seemed awfully barbaric. Did you really fight that man?"
"We never properly came to blows. He was more of a gentleman than I expected, though."
"Oh, please. Not a chance."
"Hannah, it isn't good to judge a person by looks alone."
"It's less the looks than the eyes, the way he walks — that sort of thing. But you, Dohyeon, you're manly and attentive, just like your face. Aren't you?"
"Ah... that's a little embarrassing."
That night I was spending the hours with Hannah at the lodging. Strictly speaking, I was keeping my secretary on overtime. What did it matter? She was my secretary, and she was my woman.
"Hannah... hm?"
"One moment. Excuse me."
I had been leaning in to kiss her when Hannah lightly covered my mouth with her hand. And she was looking at her phone?
"Is something the matter?"
"The Association reached out. They asked me to pass it along to you."
"What is it?"
She lowered her eyes to the screen and read.
"Mm..."
Perhaps sorry she had turned the kiss aside, Hannah pressed her lips to my cheek.
"You want to take part, don't you?"
"...Yes."
I said it with a smile. I wanted, without fail, to be one of the ten. I wanted to gain more in America, and to do that I had to become a hunter who represented the United States. I was settling into my place now. There would be no more need to hide my strength.