A thin fog rolled over the foothills of the titular Tomahawk Hills, leading to a gray Saturday six AM. Throughout the hilltops were fancy, modern-style homes. One of these homes belonged to the Yorogami family. It was a small, gated single-family home, connected by a paved driveway winding down towards the base of the hill.
Most notably, of course, was a helipad installed right next to the home’s garage.
Kirino’s parents had already left an hour earlier, leaving her to her own devices for the rest of the day.
Her alarm clock rang out, blinds to a wall-sized window automatically opening. The light seeped in, and the girl calmly rose from her sleep.
She slept on a large futon atop a wooden frame.
To the right was a kotatsu surrounded by cushions, and topped with a cup full of pens and pencils. By that was a door that led into a closet.
To the left of the bed was the window, a plush carpet, coffee table, armchair, and two bookshelves.
The bookshelves were filled with a mix of books, but mostly comics and manga, neatly organized into “Complete” and “Incomplete” categories.
Mounted over her bed was scroll art depicting a raging storm, and mounted on the opposing wall were models of feudal japanese weapons.
She went into her closet, revealing a spacious area, full of a mix of uniforms, gaudy dress clothes, and more traditional Japanese wear. She changed into a simple skirt and a custom made purple kimono top, along with straw slippers and socks.
From there she walked down an exuberant hallway, decorated with modern art paintings on the walls. Through the hall and into the living room, fine oak tables topped with exotic ornaments sat in without a speck of dust. She entered the kitchen, where a housekeeper was awaiting her. He presented her with a meal of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, toast, and milk. She took her time eating, chewing every bite thoroughly and not leaving a single scrap of food on the plate. She nodded to the housekeeper, audibly thanking him for the meal, and walked towards the backyard.
Through the door, hanging on the patio wall were two sheathed katanas. She grabbed one, slinging it around her waist, and took her top off.
Her body was ripped.
Wearing nothing but a sarashi and a skirt, it proudly displayed all of the constant hard work and exercise she put into her own body. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths in and out, enduring the cold sting of the morning air. She stepped forward onto the lawn, as a new servant set up a wooden dummy a few yards from where she stood.
Taking a deep breath, she lunged forward, closing the gap in a second. She drew her sword out slightly, ramming the hilt into the stomach, then followed up with a punch to the nose.
The wood of the dummy slightly splintered at each blow, the heavy weight of its base being the only thing stopping it from being completely knocked over.
She turned, walking back to her starting position, and continued to practice. She varied the moves little, occasionally sidestepping to anticipate an imaginary counterblow, or sometimes going straight for the nose instead of aiming for the stomach first.
For fifteen minutes, she continued practicing acts of closing distance and going for non-lethal yet incapacitating blows, varying in distance. With one final thunk of the butt of her sword to the dummy’s stomach, she stepped back.
The dummy was terribly cracked in several places around the chest and stomach. The face was hammered inwards, the cracked wood beginning to flatten.
She would consider upgrading her dummy material for better longevity, but she couldn’t help but enjoy how beaten up they looked after her assault.
It was a testament to the fruits of her rigorous exercise.
Still, this dummy was of no more use to her.
She turned around to walk back inside. A few yards away from it, however…
She spun around in the blink of an eye, katana drawn. In half a second, she was in killing distance, cleaving the dummy in two across the middle with a perfectly clean cut. The top half fell over with a clunk as it bounced on the lawn turf.
She sheathed her sword, exhaling. Her housekeeper hurried over, handing her a towel and began cleaning the destroyed dummy. She wiped her face of little sweat, and re-dressed herself. She passed the kitchen and walked down a stairway to a home gym in the basement. All she needed was one small warm up, before she began her hike all the way to the base of the hills, to take the bus to school.
Her cell phone began ringing a peculiar violin tone.
She pulled it from her pocket, answering. “You need me?”
“We have eyes on a beast. It’s a flying type, so we need your expertise to bring it down.”
“You can brief me on the details when I prepare tonight. However, I’ll do it alone. I’m sure you can understand why.”
She hung up, putting her phone to the side as she prepped for her morning workout.
Saturdays were an utter blessing for Davis, this one more so than usual. Following the wendigo’s defeat, he barely managed to stumble his way back to the camp with Louise. After helping with packing, he walked her back home, saying he at least wanted to spend the night at his house alone.
That, and he didn’t want to sleep on the couch again.
After being up into the dead of night, he was going to sleep in until 1pm and nobody was going to stop him. He had woken up around 10am, but he was intent to continue embracing the coziness of his bed.
His eyes flew open upon hearing a crash from outside.
He closed his eyes tighter, heart racing. It was a racoon or something. Monsters didn’t come out this early.
Somebody was yelling.
“Davis, you up in there? I kinda need a bit of help out here!”
His heart returned to normal, all the anxiety turning into frustration.
He groaned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Throwing off all the blankets and letting the morning cold sting him awake, he slipped on slippers and shuffled to the front door.
Opening up, he was met with Louise and a mess she brought along. She wore the same shorts and jacket, with a slightly different alien-faced t-shirt, combined with some compression pants.
Next to her was a tipped over wagon, formerly full of papers, charts, stands, books, and posters. Its contents were scattered across the front yard, and she was chasing after a scattered stack of papers as poster tubes continued to roll across the sidewalk. She snatched up a few stray sheets, smiling sheepishly at Davis.
“What are you doing with all this stuff this early?” He rubbed more sleep from his eyes, letting out a yawn.
“Hey, uh…” She stared at the mess. “I was gonna bring some stuff over since your place is going to be our base of operations, remember? So I have all this research and stuff that would be handy for finding more monsters and-”
He yawned again, combined with a frustrated huff. “Fine, as long as you think It’ll help.”
He walked to the wagon, tipping it back onto its wheels. “Could you also call me in advance if you're going to come on over? And come when I’m not sleeping-”
He realized Louise wasn’t anywhere near him. She was already in his living room, hanging up an “I WANT TO BELIEVE” UFO poster.
“I’ll just bring the other stuff in…”
Davis’s once decently kept living room was now transformed into something similar to Louise’s bedroom. Charts, papers and books were scattered across the floor, making walking across a hazard. The walls had even more charts hung up on them, an occasional poster mixed in. Davis crashed on the couch, panting from the past hour of setup while Louise was pacing in circles. He closed his eyes, trying to drift into another nap.
“You know, knowing all this stuff actually exists just opens up way too many places to start! There’s all these alleged sightings around here as well, but I can’t deny them COMPLETELY as hoaxes now. There’s one I personally hear gossip about. Did you know there’s a ghost that haunts our school?”
Davis raised his head, cracking open one eye towards her. “I told you to stop calling me a ghost.”
She shook her head. “No, like really! I first heard of some teachers mentioning that somebody kept getting into locked utility closets, classrooms, and locked rooms all around the school, constantly leaving garbage and wrappers around.”
Davis stared more intently as she continued.
“All the school master keys are in check, so unless somebody is a talented lockpick, which there aren’t because why would somebody lockpick a classroom just to leave garbage behind a desk or something, it clearly has to be some frustrated ghost or spirit!”
Davis sunk deeper into the couch. “No it’s not a ghost. That would be uh… me. I really don’t like being bothered eating lunch. You’re just, stretching way too much there though…”
Louise threw her hands in the air. “WELP. There goes one definitive lead. Well what about you? You said you saw a bunch of monsters in the woods!”
“Keyword here being ‘saw’. I really don’t know how to draw them out, and the wendigo was the most aggressive of the bunch I’m aware of. I really really REALLY don’t want to stake out in the woods every night waiting by happenstance to bump into one. I gotta keep up with schoolwork too.”
Louise huffed. “Saving the town is a bit more important than schoolwork!”
“I still want to have somewhat of a future after this is all over. Hero work is fun, but I’m not getting paid for any of it. I don’t think heroes ever get paid at all?”
“I mean they have to get paid for their good deeds right? How would they afford food? Once we save the town, we tell everyone and get a big reward from the mayor or something.”
“I don’t think that’s how things work…”
“Fine, I guess I’ll have to pick up the extra slack since you care so much about school.”
He shot an annoyed look at her, before glancing at all the charts. He darted from bit to bit, trying to find any bit of relevant, or at the very least comprehensible, piece of information. “Wish that the benefactor gave us some sort of lead or whatever to follow.”
Louise snapped her fingers. “You just reminded me, I nearly forgot all about it. I was browsing a few forums before I came here, checking for any cryptid sightings.”
She scrounged around the room, pulling a brown folder from off the floor. She opened it, handing a piece of paper to him.
“This is a satellite image around the outskirts of town, in the foothills. Notice something funny?”
Davis squinted at the image. The farmland, dirt roads, and occasional abandoned structure showed up fine, but closer to the foothills it was blotted out, as if somebody went wild with the blur tool in a paint program.
“You printed this straight from maps, and didn’t download it straight from any forum, right?”
She nodded. “Verified it myself! My bet is PAIN blotted it out way back when, but when their files got wiped they forgot all about it!”
He sat up more straight. “Hey, a lead is a lead, right? It’s not often people blot out big swathes of satellite images.”
“Yup! It’s a long walk, so I should prepare some food for the hike!”
“Wait, walking?”
She ran over, opening his fridge and pausing at the sight of microwaveable meals. “Oh yeah… I guess we can grab something on the walk over?”
“What do you mean we’re going to hike over there today?”
With Louise carrying a backpack with supplies and a sword at her hip, and Davis with his night vision goggles and jacket full of gear, the two began their trek to the foothills. They paused at downtown to get some sandwiches before continuing on, past scattered small shops and groups of offices.
During the entire walk, Louise kept a good pace, happily skipping a good distance in front of Davis. He had a constant look of death on his face, constantly calling for her to slow down. Louise would slow her pace only briefly, before leaving him in the dust.
Soon, the well paved suburban roads and sidewalks made way to less kept backroads, dotted with cracks and bumps and surrounded by farmland.
The sky began to darken as they passed the normal farmlands and stretches of grazing lands, leading into undeveloped territory. No more well-grazed fields or stretches of crops, but swathes of unkempt land hosting waist-high grass. These fields stretched on endlessly forward, only cut off by the foothills up ahead. Every so often, a dirt path would cut through the tall grass, connecting to long abandoned homes or barns. The only maintained man-made structures were streetlamps, along with utility poles running up to the hills. With what little sunlight was left, the foothills looked a little bit less than a mile off. Louise turned to Davis, who was panting and even further behind. She waved, pointing at the the roads that ran up the hills.
“Hurry up, we’re almost there!”
“Could we sit down for like, twenty or thirty minutes?” He held up a half empty water bottle. “You’re moving so fast, I’ve barely had any time to simply take a sip of water these past few hours!” He gasped between words.
“Sure sure!” She bounded over. “We’re almost there, so I don’t think it’s an issue.” She took off her bag, pulling out a blanket, laying it on the grass next to the asphalt. She took one last sip from her now empty water bottle. Davis stared at her.
“Are you some kinda machine? How am I supposed to keep up with you?”
Louise grinned. “A little bit of exercise in the morning every day never hurts. No, snoring in bed doesn't build muscle!.”
“I don’t snore! Plus, exercise stuff isn’t for me. I’m too busy to make time.”
She shook her head. “When winter break rolls around, I’m gonna make my new exercise walking over to your place and waking you up on time. I can’t have you out of shape.”
Davis sat on the blanket carefully, lying down. “Please don’t wake me up early ever again. Both times, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Louise dropped a packaged sandwich on his face.
“Eat a bit, it’ll help you wake up a bit.”
He flinched and lurched up. He stared, annoyed.
“Thanks.”
He unwrapped it, took a bite, still staring at the darkening sky. Bite after bite, he slowly laid back down.
Louise followed, lying down right next to him. She exhaled.
“Okay, maybe I’m a bit more tired than I thought.” She giggled, stretching out her arms and legs.
The two took their time eating, watching as the sky slowly turned pitch black. Thousands of stars popped in overhead, becoming more and more clear as the sunlight receded. It wasn't long until a beautiful sea of stars dominated the sky.
Davis stared at the sights for several minutes, mesmerized. He glanced over to Louise, who was eating another sandwich.
“You know, uh, a fun fact about the stars?”
“Hm?” She looked up to the sky, chewing her food. “Oh uh, I know constellations a bit? Tell me!”
“You don’t really get a view like this here like you do in cities. All the lights there cause a bunch of light pollution. I mean, this isn’t even the full amount of stars we COULD be seeing. I think?” He looked back where they walked, as some streetlights began to light up.
“I think you need to be completely isolated from any sort of lighting to see them all.”
She stared at the sky a bit more intently. “I never knew that. I thought everybody got to see the same starry sky.”
“I’ve lived in a lot of places when I was younger. My parents were constantly moving around, so I got to see a lot of different skies.”
Louise lurched up. “Is this talk going where I think it’s going? Don’t tell me you’re going to move again soon?”
“Hey hey uh, no? At least I don’t think so. I mean, my parents got sick of moving ME around so much despite having work that moved them around a bunch. So they just still work a lot in other places, but at least send money back to me so I can care for myself and that stuff.”
She sighed in relief, lying back down next to him.
“Okay that’s at least good. My family just works late into the night a lot of the time. Though I do get paid an allowance for doing yardwork on the weekends-” Her eyes widened.
“Oops. Well, I hope they don’t mind me cleaning up the yard a bit late.”
“It’s like, hard to get this view over at my place though with all the trees. I never really thought about appreciating the night sky too much.”
“Mhm. I never stargaze, but it's real pretty.”
"Yup."
The two laid silently side by side.
Davis scrambled through his brain, thinking of something else to talk about. He took his attention to the stars, thinking back to what he just said. Every night was marred with monsters because he wanted to do something with this ability, every other night committed to it so much he didn’t have time to simply look up and enjoy a starry night. Did he really have to do this all? What was his place in everything, did he really have to use his strange powers? Was he actually doing any good killing one or two monsters despite there being so many? He turned to Louise.
She was simply very happy to be out gazing at stars with a friend.
He took a deep breath, trying to quell his swirling thoughts. He stared back to the stars, trying to drown his anxiety with the beautiful sight.
He caught something odd amongst the stars.
He squinted his eyes. He stood up.
“You see that?”
He pointed at a small distortion in the sky. It was small, but looked as if he was viewing the stars through a misshapen glass.
“Oh, like constellations? I think that's the big dipper.”
“No, I see something moving in the sky.”
Louise sighed. “Oh don’t get your hopes up. Trust me, 100% of the time it's just a helicopter or airplane. I could tell if it was a ufo-”
“It’s not a plane, it’s like some bubble-”
The horizon erupted into a blinding flash, a bolt of lightning surging through the air. Davis fell onto his bottom and Louise shielded her eyes. An explosive CRACK resounded through the air. Then, another flash, another bolt of lightning, and another CRACK.
Louise quickly took the gauntlets and headlight from her bag, putting them on. Davis slowly got back to his feet.
“I’m gonna run on ahead to figure out what that is, keep up as best as you can!”
She bolted into the grass, as Davis yelled out for her to slow down.
“Hold on, argh!” He stretched out his hand towards her, before wading in behind her.
After sprinting towards the lightning for a few minutes, there was a flattened clearing of grass, several blades of it cleanly cut and charred where a large, trailer truck sized object had crashed.
It looked like a giant armored shell, with six spherical protrusions evenly spaced from each other. One protrusion was three times bigger than the rest. It had a rugged, rock like texture. She creeped closer, her heart racing.
Second day doing this, first cryptids now a UFO? This is amazing!
She put her hand on it, running along the bumpy surface. It had an unnervingly smooth texture kind of like polished granite. Passing over the larger protrusion, it opened up, leading to a deathly dark interior.
She shined her headlight into it, finding two black glassy eyes staring back at her. It was the face of a tortoise.
Aw man, it’s just another cryptid!
The cryptid opened its mouth and exhaled a blast of air, knocking up a billow of dirt and sending her flying away. She tumbled through the grass but regained her footing, charging straight back. It only took a few moments before she skidded to a halt.
The monster began to float, several feet off the air. The stomach of it was pitch black with shifting, glowing specks that imitated the night sky above. Three more heads emerged from the cryptid’s shell, a total of four staring her down. Four trunk-like legs sprouted from the shell, and a bizarre tail with a starfish-like end swung outwards. It floated towards her, all four heads rearing back.
She leapt back, covering her face as the heads smashed into the ground in front of her. Dirt, grass, and dust exploded outwards, creating a thick cloud of dust. She tumbled back again, bumping her head landing on her belly. She dazedly tried to shake off the blow, prepping to get back to her feet. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had to do something.
Running was probably the best option, but maybe the monster had some kinda weakness?
By the time the dust cleared, the cryptid had retreated back a significant distance, with a fresh cut on one of its heads. There was a new, long-haired figure between the two of them. They glanced back to look at Louise before returning focus to the monster.
She wore what looked like a modified version of a shrine maiden’s outfit, alongside tough looking boots. The outfit was pitch black with purple trim, and a blue and red gradient skirt. There was a water-like insignia on one of her detached sleeves, and on the opposite shoulder was a red, black, and white patterned sash. At her hip was a katana in an antique, yet futuristic looking sheathe.
The beast turned two of its heads to the side, and they began to inhale air. It landed on the ground with a quaking crash, the two other heads locking gazes with the maiden.
The small quake caused Louise to fall over, but the mysterious figure stood firm, placing her hand on her sword’s hilt.
She dashed forward in a full on sprint, the cryptid let forth a blast of air.
Then, a crack and a flash of purple light.
All four heads of the beast stood straight up in the air, twitching around for several seconds, before retreating into the shell.
On top of the shell stood the figure, katana drawn and outstretched. She calmly re-sheathed her sword, still standing and staring down at the beast.
She hopped off the top of the shell without even stumbling on the landing.
Louise got back to her feet, and ran up to the figure to thank her. Closer up, she recognized her face.
It was Kirino Yorogami.
