-Vol 3: Enemies in The dark-

-Where is Kenshin!?-

It was after a few hours; now the hunters had rested enough to move around. During this time, the government had employed some volunteer workers to go and help the hunters with some water and food. A huge tent had been constructed above the sleeping hunters to shade them from the scorching sun.

These volunteers are the locals who were evacuated by the military last night. After being vacated by the army last night, they had realized precisely what type of tragedy they had avoided previous night. As such they are very thankful towards the military and hunters, to whom they had a few reservations earlier.

Although hunters were arrogant and just didn’t care about the opinions of common populace, the feeling of being excluded from common populace was not a good feeling. Seeing these people accepting them, it gave them a unique sense of happiness.

After all, not every hunter was a narcissist. They need a social life too!

The news reporters and journalists were working overtime to dig as much as possible of the situation from various hunters.

The front of the now destroyed old shopping mall, which was filled with monsters last night; was now packed with humans in the day.

…

At a corner, Maria and Chizue were sleeping soundly under a tent made by their guild members. This tent was very different from all the other tents around and was guarded by a few women. They were all the members of the Fujin guild that was opening a branch in this Mito.

Chizue had a few scratch wounds, which was now bandaged by the doctors provided by the guild. Maria didn’t have any physical injuries as she was protected by Chizue. But she had heavily drained her magic pool and stamina. Her face was a little pale.

The only reason she hadn’t transferred to a hospital was that her condition was not that serious and it would be rude to other hunters.

As it stands, they were not going to wake up until a few hours later.

…

At the very front, where the first line of defense lied, inside a military grade tent, Suguro and all the high ranked officers present last night were sitting around a table. They were heavily bandaged, looking like the mummies they had fought last night.

Suddenly a soldier ran inside and whispered something in the ears of one of the bandaged man before handing him a package. The man’s face turned solemn after hearing the soldier’s explanation.

He had sent a few soldiers to assess the situation inside the dungeon. But what he heard wasn’t what he was expecting. The inside of the dungeon was, even more, messier than outside. Corpses lying at the size of mountains. Vaporized bone powder gathered to form huge white mountains. Rusted and broken armors laying everywhere. The ground had huge scorch marks, probably from a very massive fire type spells.

When the soldiers first saw this, they couldn’t believe their own eyes. The amount of destruction inside the dungeon had far surpassed that of the outside. After an intensive search, they found a golden identity card which belonged to someone named Kenshin. But they didn’t find a corpse or living body. It was still unknown if he was alive or dead. But it was proved that there was someone inside this dungeon, fighting all alone with this many monsters.

He must be a super hunter!

This was the impression these soldiers got after seeing the destruction. After coming back, they immediately sent this officer to report their findings to the major. After giving his report, the soldier excused himself and went back.

The general then placed the package in front of Suguro.

“This is!” Suguro asked confusedly.

“Open it,” the Major said while pushing it towards Suguro. Narrowing his eyes, Suguro opened the package, a golden ID card revealed itself. His eyes widened to saucers.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked with a frown as his breath became labored.

The major then revealed everything to him.

Hearing this, Suguro couldn’t help but feel sad. He was faintly aware that Kenshin was inside the dungeon and was singlehandedly stopping two of most dangerous of the bunch. Now that he had got the proof, he couldn’t help but feel sad.

This was truly a sacrifice worth remembering.

“But we didn’t find a corpse. It was highly unlikely that he was being eaten considering these monsters are undead. There was a chance that he was still alive. It would be best if you send someone to look for him” the major advanced to a now down Suguro.

“Even if you don’t say, I would have done that. I refuse to believe that he had died just like that!” Suguro said emotionally. He had considered Kenshin as the future of Mito. How can someone who was the future of Mito would die just like that?

“Okay,” the major nodded but didn’t pursue the topic.

“So, how many casualties?” Suguro asked.

“Adding to the ones who had died after sustaining some injuries, 2489 soldiers, and 231 hunters,” the major said solemnly. He was a little saddened at the number of soldiers sacrificed themselves to protect the Mito.

But he was proud. He was proud of the fact that it was his soldiers that had sacrificed their lives to protect hundreds of thousands of people. He was proud of the fact that he was their leader.

“I see,” the room returned to silence.

Suguro took this time to look outside the tent. His mind was filled with thoughts about the future. After this situation, the government was sure to change somewhat. He wasn’t worried about that, what he was worried about was the interference of other guilds.

He was afraid that the guilds would take this chance to invade this place. They had already monopolized over hundreds of talented hunters of Mito, now of they invade entirely, then DCB would lose all their standing in this place.

People don't realize it, but if the government had to withdraw in the face of these guilds, then they could no longer enjoy the democracy.

They will be subjected to dictatorship. Suguro was trying his hardest to prevent exactly that, because god forbid if a guild with twisted ideas had to take over, then no one could expect what would happen.

While releasing a sigh, he continued looking outside.

“Kenshin, Where are you right now?”