Another month had past and Yuki had slowly improved his physical body, breaking into the second star for many of his statistics as well as increasing the level of various skills. Intelligence was still at one star due to the lack of knowledge available to him. His classes had been the same for the most part with the other first years learning how to control their elements and how to fight.

 

And now Yuki was standing in front of the hidden entrance to the Aether headquarters with the other first years.

 

“Is everyone here ready?” Moyasu asked them. Besides him was Kaede. “If so then I will begin to explain what we are doing today.”

 

“It has been two months since you have entered Aether and begun your training,” Moyasu said. “And now we are going to move on from the basics that you should have mastered in that time. To see if you have what is needed to move on to the more advanced and technical classes, you will be given a simple task that Kaede will now explain to you.”

 

Moyasu stepped back and motioned to Kaede to begin.

 

“We will be hunting in the forest,” she announced. “As a group we will track an animal or weak monster and have one of you kill it with a weapon using your own hands. You are not allowed to use magic for the task.”

 

“No magic?” Aaron asked with a disappointed face. Yuki knew from his time in class with Aaron that Aaron enjoyed showing off his wind magic.

 

“It’s necessary. This is a test to see if you are capable of killing something with your own hands. If you use magic then you are disconnecting yourself from the act,” Kaede explained.

 

Yuki nodded to himself, agreeing. Being able to kill was necessary in order to eliminate monsters without hesitation.

 

“So with the explanation out of the way, follow me,” Moyasu said and began to walk toward the dense grove of trees ahead of them.

 

“Hunting!” Sayuri said excitedly to Yuki as she hopped after Moyasu.

 

‘I hope nothing goes wrong,’ Yuki prayed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

The first prey that they hunted was a small doe that had injured its back left leg, the hoove twisted awkwardly. It was fairly easy to track as the doe’s limping dug deep into the ground.

 

“Aaron,” Moyasu whispered. “You’re up first. When we capture it, you will kill it with the sword on your waist.”

 

“I got this,” Aaron replied with a confident smile.

 

Moyasu nodded and looked at Kaede. She dug her fingers into the ground and Yuki could feel the release of mana.

 

“Ensnare,” she whispered, barely audible.

 

From the ground beneath the lame deer, roots sprout up and wrapped around its legs. As the doe struggled, the roots grew thicker and stronger before the deer was unable to move.

 

“Go,” Moyasu said, pointing at the deer whose head was shaking violently as it tried to break its bonds.

 

“But. It’s still moving,” Aaron protested. “I can’t kill it like that.”

 

Moyasu looked at him with cold, disappointed eyes.

 

“Can’t or won’t? Do you think monsters will just stand still for you to kill them?” he growled. “Kill. It. Go.”

 

Aaron stood up, grumbling, and walked toward the still struggling doe. He stopped before it and looked at the deer who turned its head to stare at Aaron with pleading eyes. Hesitation flickered in Aaron’s eyes.

 

“Do it,” Moyasu ordered. “Now.”

 

Aaron swallowed slowly and swung his sword at the neck of the deer, the blade cutting through but not killing the doe. The deer began to convulse violently, shaking its neck as crimson blood poured out from it.

 

“It’s not dead, Aaron,” Moyasu said.

 

Aaron nodded slowly and after taking a deep breath swung again, the blade going deeper than before. And he kept doing this, blood splattering onto his clothes, until the deer stopped its struggling and at last died.

 

When he returned to the group, his eyes looked hollow and his face was that of someone who had just committed murder. Yuki felt a sense of pity for Aaron but he knew that this was necessary for all of them to go through.

 

“Well done,” Moyasu said, trying to comfort Aaron. “The first time is always the hardest, we have all been through that. Some still to this day.”

 

He patted Aaron on the back before turning to the rest of the group.

 

“You guys are next, follow us,” he said and began to creep through the forest with Kaede.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Sayuri didn’t want to do this. Killing things, it just wasn’t in her nature. Especially cute little creatures like that doe that white boy, Aaron, had killed or the bunny that was now tied down in front of her.

 

Everyone else except Yuki had done their task and their reactions didn’t help Sayuri in her’s. Tracy began to cry uncontrollably when she was told to kill a tiny sparrow with a knife and Leo threw up when he was stabbing a goblin that Kaede had managed to capture.

 

She unsheathed the dagger on her and steeled herself, breathing in slowly as she held the hilt tightly in her hand.

 

‘It’s just a bunny,’ she thought to herself. ‘Just a cute fluffy bunny that did nothing wrong. Come on Sayuri, you can do this. People do this all the time. Come on, come on.’

 

She replied this mental mantra to herself, not actually acting. Her blade was shaking as she held it above the white rabbit that wrapped in vines.

 

“Nagisa-san,” Kaede said kindly. “You have to do this.”

 

Sayuri flinched and struck downward. The blade sunk into the flesh of the animal unevenly and blood squirted out. The sensation was disgusting; the feeling of tendons being ripped, the flesh being torn, and the tremors that ran through the rabbit’s body. It was nothing like what Sayuri had seen in movies. The knife didn’t go through smoothly, cleanly cutting through everything. Instead it would stop halfway to the hilt, forcing Sayuri to push harder which splattered more blood. The smell of iron that mixed with the musk from the rabbit was disgusting and upsetting Sayuri’s stomach violently.

 

When the rabbit had stopped twitching, Sayuri made the mistake of looking down and saw the accusing dead eyes of the animal staring back at her. She swallowed and stood up as tears began to form in her eyes.

 

She ran back to the group and started to vomit into a bush, holding her stomach in pain. When she had finished, the tears began to flow and she started to cry just as violently as how she had vomited.

 

Kaede knelt next to her had rubbed her back slowly, whispering words of comfort and sympathy until Sayuri’s laments subsided.

 

“Thank you,” she said to Kaede, breathing in an unsteady breathe.

 

“I know it’s hard,” Kaede answered with sympathetic eyes.

 

“Let’s go, we have to find one more for Mayumi-san,” Moyasu said.

 

They gathered and began to follow him as he looked intensely at the ground to find any tracks.

 

“Nagisa-san,” Yuki said quietly behind her.

 

When she turned around, she saw the pretty face of Yuki looking at her with his grey eyes.

 

“You did well,” he said. “I know that it wasn’t easy.”

 

Sayuri felt a deep surge of gratitude at Yuki’s words. They were different from the ones that Kaede said. These words were from a teen like her that understood her. She began to smile softly.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered quietly.

 

“Shhh, stay still,” Moyasu said to them. “We found something.”

 

Sayuri looked ahead and saw the tiny head of a deer peeking out of a bush. It was a fawn that could have been more than a couple weeks old.

 

“Ensnare,” Kaede said and the deer was bound tightly with thick roots. Moyasu then motioned to Yuki who went forward without any hesitation.

 

“Good luck,” Sayuri said to him as he passed by her, Yuki giving her a nod of acknowledgement. She hoped that Yuki would be fine, she knew how hard it was to kill. The sensation of the knife stabbing the rabbit still lingered in her hand.

 

Walking toward the bound fawn, Yuki drew a dagger from a sheath that tucked into the track suit he wore everyday from what Sayuri could see. She watched as Yuki reach out and hold the muzzle of the deer tightly. It was hard to tell from the bushes but it seemed as though Yuki was talking to it.

 

Then he raised his blade and in a quick flash sliced through the throat of the fawn, unlike the others who stabbed. Blood sprayed from the wound, covering Yuki. Without stopping, Yuki then plunged his dagger right into where the heart of the deer would be and twisted it violently. The fawn shuddered once before dying.

 

It took him ten seconds.

 

Sayuri was amazed, she didn’t expect that Yuki could be so decisive. He killed the deer quickly unlike the others who had to take several minutes to gather their wills and kill their animals.

 

“Amazing,” Leo whispered in shock.

 

Sayuri looked toward Moyasu, expecting him to start praising Yuki who was able to complete the task easily. But instead of a proud or happy expression, Sayuri saw a dark face full of worry and unease.

 

“Hey man!” Aaron said with a grin as he started to walk toward Yuki. “I didn’t think you would have it in you to do it. You know, cause you look all girly and stuff.”

 

He abruptly stopped talking when Yuki turned around to look at him. It seemed to Sayuri that Aaron’s last sentence had annoyed him. But Yuki looking at him that wasn’t why Aaron had stopped speaking. It was the how Yuki looked at him.

 

In the dim forest lighting, Yuki’s pretty face was splattered with red blood that dripped from his chin. And inlaid on that face were two cold, dead eyes that betrayed no guilt of having just killed.

 

“Ah, um. Sorry,” Aaron said in a small voice.

 

“Is he a sociopath?” he whispered to himself as he shuffled back to the bushes.

 

Sayuri looked at Yuki and as the emotionless eyes stared back at her, she felt a cold chill run down her back.

 

This wasn’t a side of Yuki that Sayuri wanted to see.

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“So how did it go?” Robert asked Moyasu.

 

It was late at night and they were sitting in Robert’s office discussing the results of the trial that the first years were just put through. Well, Robert was sitting. Moyasu stood in front of his desk.

 

“It went as expected,” Moyasu reported. “They all had trouble during the killing and experienced incredible amounts of guilt after the act. Even Leo who had to kill a goblin.”

 

“Good, good. As long as they completed the task then they have passed,” Robert said pleased. “Go and update their schedules. We have important matter to get to.”

 

“Um, before that. There was one thing that bothered me,” Moyasu interrupted.

 

Robert motioned to him to continue.

 

“It’s about Mayumi-san,” Moyasu began. When he noticed Robert’s confused expression he clarified. “Mayumi Yuki. He completed his task but I was worried about the speed at which he did it.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“He killed a cute fawn in ten seconds with no hesitation.”

 

“And? We did tell him to do that.”

 

“Yes but his face afterward,” Moyasu said shuddering. “It scared me. He had no guilt of any kind. No reaction to what he had just done.”

 

Robert rubbed his forehead. He had been worried about this, that emotionless boy. If one had no feelings than the act of killing would come much easier than it would for others. This could lead to problems in personality and morality.

 

“Just keep observing for now,” Robert sighed. “We will have to intervene if he begins to go down a path that is to dangerous.”

 

Moyasu nodded.

 

“Good, now let’s get to the important business,” Robert said, switching topics. “You heard the rumors right? About the European branch?”

 

“You mean those crazy Founders? I have,” Moyasu replied.

 

“Apparently they’re starting to get serious now,” Robert said. “There are reports that they are plotting something. Maybe a takeover.”

 

“Ha,” Moyasu laughed. “They’re not that crazy to do that. They don’t have the strength necessary.”

 

“They didn’t have it before,” Robert said in a worried voice. “There are rumors that they have recently recruited someone powerful and are organizing an assault.”

 

“Still,” Moyasu said. “They wouldn’t attack. We are part of the same organization.”

 

Now it was Robert’s turn to laugh.

 

“Those people are heretics that believe the main branch should be in Europe again because ‘tradition’,” he said. “Like you said, they’re crazy.”

 

Knock Knock

 

Robert turned to look at the wide open door to his office. Standing there was a man in a black suit with a panicked expression on his face.

 

“Yes?” Robert asked a bit annoyed.

 

“We found something in the forest,” the man in a high voice. “You, you need to see this.”

 

“At least tell me what it is first,” Robert frowned.

 

“It’s a demon. It’s weak but it’s a demon,” the man replied.