Tuesday was much the same as Monday. I attended school as I normally would, not skipping it or truanting at all, and once that bore of a chore was over with, I only stayed home momentarily to grab my stuff and change into something suited for exercise before swiftly running off to Luna’s.

I don’t know, but there was just something about learning archery (even if, admittedly, I wasn’t actually learning anything) that was invigorating for me. The sensation of achieving something new, something productive, it incentivised me massively to put all my energy into it. With archery, that was a skill born from nothing--not once had I ever held a bow in my hands before yesterday--but yet, I was proficient enough for the skill to be applicable and usable.

I had a way to be helpful, to contribute. But I wasn’t totally content with whiling away my time hanging out with Luna, her servants, and occasionally shooting a bow; it was a pleasant activity, yes, but even then, it felt… Aimless. Like I was wasting my time, really. In my head, no matter how much I tried to push it back, not matter how much I tried to downplay its effects on me, I felt urged to quicken my pace.

I needed to accrue money, and the most feasible way to do that for me was to clear hives. But with thinking that, I encountered a dilemma; It had only been a couple of days since the hive I ventured into by myself and the injuries were still present--thankfully hidden beneath my clothing, however; I felt uncertain about pushing myself further until I was comfortable with how I would hold up.

Furthermore, I didn’t like to rely upon my Specialisation to be useful. As my last experience showed, over reliance on my abilities would only end badly--I needed something reliable to be of use; I couldn’t stretch myself thin. Therefore, regrettably, I held myself back from exploring hives by myself (something quite easy, actually given, given my resolve to never do that again) but also from suggesting to Luna to clear hives faster as well.

This carried on for the whole of this week--Monday to Friday. My days became routine; I’d go to school, go home, go to Luna, and practise archery. Rinse and repeat.

That isn’t to say that my time these past few days was boring, no. While the activities were repetitive, that was about it; as a conversational partner, there was Luna, S1, and S2 to talk to. Only part of the day was spent using a bow; the rest of the day was talking, conversing, and reading--anything, really. It felt less like I was using the time for training and more like I was just spending time with friends, not something I was wholly familiar with.

As such, I fell into a strange, and slightly reluctant, complacency. Hence, a routine emerged.

However, on Friday, something different happened:

“I’m thinking we should clear a hive tomorrow,” Luna stated matter-of-factly. It was rather abrupt; we were just sitting around as S1 practised with Luna’s while S2 was out apparently buying some drinks--Luna seemed sufficiently happy with S2’s ability to function in society to leave her unsupervised.

“That’s… Quite short notice.” She said it so abruptly I had yet to wrap my head around how I felt about it.

“It’s more than last time.” She replied.

“True. You want another servant already?” I wasn’t sure what was an appropriate time scale for gaining more servants. Are they like children where you should only get a new one every nine months? Or more like pets, where it can be a lesser time frame?

“Yeah; my current goal is to clear an intermediate-strength hive but I need to get stronger to do that.”

“Are two servants not enough?” I was genuinely curious; I hadn’t been in intermediate hives often enough to know just how dangerous they could be.

“No, of course not! If I walked into an intermediate hive right I definitely wouldn’t be walking out of it.”

“Oh. Quite dangerous, then.” I felt slightly scolded.

“Yes. So, I think we should tackle another weak hive tomorrow.”

“Okay, then… Should I meet you here?”

“Yep! Then we’ll make our way to the G.U.G. and see from there.”

And so, just like the week before, on the auspicious Saturday, I made my way down to Luna’s place with the intention of tackling a hive--only, this time, I was far more equipped with my own weapon.

It was somewhat early when I arrived--and I felt very awkward doing so, having realised neither of us specified a time to meet up--but Luna seemed to be a morning person as well, awake early, so it proved no issue.

Once I had arrived, we spent little time at her warehouse. Once she quickly checked something and felt satisfied, she announced that we’d better get going and, just like that, I was walking once more, off to the G.U.G.

Hanging out with Luna made me realise that I really didn’t walk much at all before. Luna, for some odd reason, seemed to forego any opportunity to use public transport, always preferring walking instead. What that meant for me and my unhealthy, unfit body was that it felt like each time I hung out with Luna meant sore and aching legs at the end of the day. I had actually taken to stretching before I left the house just to make sure I didn’t pull anything.

At the G.U.G., it was much the same as last time. There’s a designated area that handles the clearing of hives, the public operations point, if you will, and it was there where Luna was talking to the employee behind the desk.

What I managed to gather how the system worked was that, for those not directly employed under the G.U.G., you’d need to reserve a hive to clear. Apparently, it was to avoid arguments between groups on who would get the reward for clearing a hive--a pervasive problem before the governmental regulation of the industry.

Being able to reserve a hive was a mess of a whole lot of bureaucracy to my knowledge. There seemed to be a lot of factors that went into who could reserve a hive and how far in advance one could. From the outside, of course, it seemed like a relatively simple system.

Luna had walked up to the desk with the intention of tackling another medium, weak hive and so, asked if any where available. Unfortunately, however, it seemed there were not. The employee did say that there was a large weak hive that was currently reserved by a small team that was waiting for members to sign on to clear it.

After asking for my opinion on the matter, Luna answered that we’d be happy to join in that initiative and so, we were given the contact information of this group we’d apparently be working with.

A simple phone call later--using my phone because, surprisingly (although, it didn’t really shock me) Luna didn’t own a phone--and we had agreed a place to meet up and introduce ourselves to each other.

“What made you want to clear a hive?” A robust, middle-aged man asked. His hair was cut short, a few grey strands making themselves visible amongst the brown, and his was stern, but with an affable quality to it. From purely appearance, he looked like a firm but reliable individual.

Luna, instead of answering straight away, finished drinking her drink. The silence--apart from the slurping--only served to make me feel more awkward about the situation; we had agreed to meet in a pub (not the most respectable of meeting places but that’s fine) but since the tables couldn’t fit more than six people, S1 was currently standing besides where we were sitting, at the behest of Luna. Without even looking, I could feel the pointed stares at us.

The man, who I had gathered was the leader of this three-person team, correctly identified Luna to be the leader of ours; now that I thought about it, at a glance, with four members, we’d probably seem like a team ourselves, not that we had registered as an official team, though.

“I’ll be upfront,” Luna began, “We’re here for the heart, specifically. Nothing else, just the heart.”

“That’s a hefty order...” The man was clearly thinking about it. Naturally, presenting a heart to the G.U.G. of a hive you cleared was what made you the most money, so monopolising that on a joint project meant needing the other party to relinquish the rights to that. Needless to say, there were countless stories of teams dying inside relatively weak hives--hives where the team members really shouldn’t have died. This was a relatively new industry, and a lot of it could be considered the wild west in the lack of regulations or insurances.

“All we want is the heart. All the corpses, the monsters parts, you can keep for yourselves,” Luna clarified further. At least with this, it sounded like a more fair deal. But even then, payout could be considered a 60:40 ratio, where a single heart alone makes the majority of the money.

“Well, what do you bring to the table?” His lack of initial rejection suggested he was amenable to those terms.

“First of all, we bring four members to your three so it makes sense we would receive more money-”

“But we reserved this hive; you’re just accompanying us.” A pertinent counterpoint; we were using his reservation for our own gain--that naturally gave him an advantage in negotiations.

“-And we bring precognition to the table,” Luna carried on like she wasn’t even interrupted in the first place. The delaying of that seemed to have a great effect, causing the old man to lean back in his seat once he considered that.

Is precognition really that great a Specialisation?

I was probably biased but I thought my Specialisation wasn’t that good at all.

“What kind of precognition we talkin’ about?” The man asked. He was shrewd; asking for further details, knowing that ‘precognition’ by itself was too broad a term. Perhaps his age signified his experience?

“Two System Specialisations of flash precognition,” Lun said nothing more than that, apparently believing it to be enough to convince them.

The old man looked towards his partners before turning back to the Luna.

“Alright; I suppose we can agree to those terms,” He finally relented. 

“I’m Luna,” Luna said, holding out her hand to shake it, “And that’s Charlotte,” She carried on, startling me with the mention of my name. For a moment, my eyes were wide and looking at her.

“I’m Jonathon,” The old man replied, shaking Luna’s hand, “And that’s Owen and Candace,” He identified his two blonde compatriots. Neither seemed annoyed over his handling of the conversation nor introducing them. At the very least, it didn’t look like the group would threaten to break out into discord imminently.

“Who among you has precognition?” Owen promptly asked, his whole demeanour more relaxed and less reserved than the old man’s. What I suspected was characteristic, he got straight to the point.

“Both Charlotte and S2 does,” Luna pointed towards the girl sitting right next to me.

We must look like weirdly discoloured twins sitting here.

It was only now did I truly experience the boatload of awkwardness that having S2 resemble me entail. There would be a whole bunch of questions all the time.

“S2? It’s a rather...” Jonathan paused, looking for a respectful word, “Unusual name.”

“They robots?” Owen, however, ploughed straight through.

Naturally, with a naming scheme like ‘S1’ and an overall white colouration, you’d be hard-pressed to think them human. And you’d be right.

“They’re summons,” Luna elucidated, using the technical term for creatures or minions summoned by using a Specialisation.

“You summoned them?” Owen’s eyes grew intense as he leaned forwards, his whole body involved in the conversation now.

“That’s what I said.” This serious side of Luna’s was not one that I saw often. It felt like half the conversation I spent looking at the other party, half looking at Luna.

“And they’re sentient?”

“Sentient and sapient, just like a human?”

“You can make people?” Owen questioned further. He seemed reluctant to accept this as it was.

“I am a woman; it seems only natural,” Luna replied quickly, her voice straight and serious. From the corner, Candace giggled softly as I myself found myself smiling.

“What’s your ranking?” It was a different question but from how involved he seemed in the answer, he was clearly hung up about Luna’s abilities.

“I’m merely a D-rank, nothing more,” Luna said defensively. It might just have been me, but I felt like Luna was enjoying the confusion on Owen’s face.

“But you’re saying this… ‘S2’ has a precognitive ability?” Jonathan stepped in. 

“That she does.”

“So, your summons have Specialisations as well?”

“Yep; they both do.”

“That’s bullshit; there’s no way you’re a D-rank!” Owen exclaimed.

“Hey; I didn’t rank myself! S2 knows the future in a few seconds while S1 tastes well; neither is good enough for me to solo a hive,” Luna replied defensively. Perhaps, in her haste, she didn’t realise that ‘soloing a hive’ is a considerable feat.

But she had a point anyway.

“Did you name them yourself?” Finally, Candace spoke.

“Yep! What do you think?” Luna asked far too eagerly.

Does she seriously think they’re good names?

“...Sure” Candace spoke after a few seconds of thinking it over. For some reason, I doubted her sincerity.

“See?” Luna quietly said to me.

“What’s your Specialisations?” I asked once the team seemed to have calmed down about Luna. It seemed like rather important and pertinent information and I was surprised Luna hadn’t asked it yet. Perhaps because of her mature handling of this whole situation, it made me think she was more experienced with this than she was?

“I can turn part of my body into high-carbon steel,” Jonathan answered. “I’m technically ranked as C-rank but I’m rather inexperienced which is why I wanted to wait for more people to join for this hive.”

“I have stupidly good aim,” Owen said succinctly.

“I can mimic any sound with my voice,” Candace answered.

It was an interesting assortment of abilities. For clearing a hive, there were generally three roles that you were advised to fill; one to kill monsters, one to defend against monsters, and one to control monsters. If I had to guess, Jonathan and Owen satisfied the first one while Candace satisfied the last one, though I didn’t actually know how useful Candace would be in the hive.

“What about you?” Owen asked Luna.

“I’ve told you; Charlotte and S2 can see the future while S1 is good at tasting things. I fucking summoned them.”

“But you’re saying S1 is useless at clearing a hive; why are you bringing her along?” Jonathan asked. I suppose if you didn’t know what they were like, it’d seem that way.

“Oh.It’s because they’re strong,” Luna answered.

“Should’ve said that in the first place,” Owen mumbled, loud enough for us to hear.

“Well, with all that cleared up, are you ready to go clear a hive?” Jonathan ignored what Owen said.

“Right now?”

“The reservation only lasts for a day,” He gave no more information.

Luna glanced at me, to which I nodded my head yes.

“Sure. I suppose we’re ready.”