“Mmm… So they escaped too…”
“Too? What do you mean by that?”

Yuuji’s eyes furrowed as he gripped his phone tightly. On the other side, Ji-Hye’s voice sounded dispirited, but her words concerned him more. As he questioned back, he heard another person chime in with a response, and his face fell from the news.

“Yuuji, this is Mr Pierce. Both Alpha and Bravo teams have reported sightings of thralls, as well as an escaped vampire, just like you. It seems something has changed in their behaviour, and we’re still questioning the church to find what they know… but the vampires appear to be regrouping on the mountains.”
“Damn it…”

He thought his own news was bad enough, but the others had experienced similar situations too. Since the head vampire hadn’t appeared yet, their movements were more than suspicious, and they were definitely up to something.

As these demons would be blending into human society, they had some knowledge of the technology around them, but it was rare that they would use communicative devices like phones to reach out to one another. Over the years of hunting demons, it had become clear that vampires retained some instinctual connection with the others in their coven, but it wasn’t known exactly how strong this connection was and what were the limits of its use. At the very least, there hadn’t been any known cases of a whole coven spread over countries converging in such a way, so it was a worrying sight.

“Sir, what should our next move be?”
“...No matter what, we can’t let them continue their reign of terror. With their ability to travel unobstructed at night, we won’t stand a chance of tracking them down on the way, but we can at least prepare for whatever they’re doing up in the mountains.”
“Prepare?”
“For now, head back to your base. You will receive further instructions shortly.”
“Yes, sir.”

He sighed as the call ended, and stood motionless for a moment as he collected his thoughts. Every instinct within him was screaming that things would only get more dangerous from here on, and they were already on a knife’s edge from the intense fighting they’d taken part in so far.

As the acting team leader, he would need to pass the information on to his squad, and morale was already damaged from their unsuccessful mission. Fiorella hadn’t outwardly gloated at their failure as it was a loss for mankind more than Leona specifically, but she held a condescending smirk each time the two girls made eye contact, and Leona had distanced herself from the others while trying to retain her composure.

*bzzt*

Before he could step forward, his phone buzzed in his hand. Curious, he raised it once more to view the message he had just received.

  Ji-Hye: Yuu please stay safe
  Ji-Hye: I love you

His worries melted away in an instant, as he smiled warmly. He had done his best to maintain his professional demeanour, but upon hearing the voice of his girlfriend, emotions had risen within his chest that he couldn’t explain, and he was somewhat disappointed that they couldn’t speak longer. Of course, the mission was their top priority, but his longing to see her still remained.

  Yuuji: I will. I love you too - see you soon.
  Ji-Hye: Get Hibiki home safe as well

Alongside her messages came animated emotes showing a cartoonish version of Pajeon throwing pink love hearts into the air. It was cheesy, but secretly he wished that he knew how to send them back in turn.

  Ji-Hye: Claire and Leona too
  Yuuji: Of course.

A wry grin crossed his face as he sent a final response to her, and silenced his phone. He didn’t have the heart to tell Claire and Leona that they had been hasty afterthoughts in Ji-Hye’s mind, but the sentiment was still there, and he would do whatever he can to keep those close to him safe.

Hibiki was a given, but Leona and Claire had also left a considerable impact on him during his time at Phoenix. The fiery brawler had cut through the uncomfortable social shroud that lay upon the class once he had first joined Phoenix, and out of the blue, invited him to an intense battle of all things.

By then, he had already started to get to know the twins as well as Akil and Baozi, but it was only after Leona’s startling announcement that he began to meet the others as well. If it weren’t for her directness and lack of consideration for social norms, he may have never connected with the rest of the class as well as he did.

As for Claire, the room always seemed to lighten up when she was around. Being with someone who acted so true to themselves was freeing, and despite her eccentricities being difficult to follow at the best of times, he knew she always had good intentions.

Even if they were strangers he would try to keep them safe, but now he had seen glimpses of the struggles they faced in life, he couldn’t shake the thought of wanting to help everywhere he could. He reminded himself to not butt in where he wasn’t welcome, but when all was said and done, he wanted them to know he was there if they ever needed him.

“Everyone, listen up.”

Steeling his nerves, he stood before the three of them and cleared his throat. Though he wouldn’t realise it at the time, he had taken on some of Conrad’s mannerisms when acting in a military environment, as he subconsciously admired the man's gravitas.

“Our orders are to return to Château Dupond for now and await further instruction. As it stands, we’re likely to be moving out again relatively soon, so collect any belongings you have on return in case we need to move quickly.”

The others nodded, and they began making their way towards the car once again. While they departed, he noticed Fiorella remaining nearby, and as he caught her eye she made her way over to speak to him privately.

“You are Ishitake Yuuji?”
“That’s correct.”

He stifled a grimace as best he could, and prepared himself mentally. It would be very bold of her to make a move in such a situation, but he made sure to remain guarded as he talked to her nonchalantly.

“You really are as strong as they say… to think you would even grapple a vampire thrall and win. Are you trained in martial arts?”
“I am, though I wouldn’t say I was winning. The sunlight weakened him enough for me to restrain him, but it was ultimately Leona’s hit that decided the fight.”

He tried to deflect the conversation back to Leona’s ability, and for a moment he saw her gorgeous features twist into a sneer. She corrected herself in the blink of an eye and fluttered her eyelids towards him coquettishly, ignoring his last remark.

“A demon hunter training in human-based martial arts? I’m… impressed.”

Though her flirting was aggressive, she wasn’t wrong that it was unusual to see. Most demons were not humanoid, and those that were still had traits such as superhuman strength and speed, or some other ability that made hand-to-hand combat ineffective without the use of physical empowerment spirits. Martial arts were still taught in some places, but the vast majority had changed to incorporate the use of spirits when fighting demons, so the practice of martial arts designed for use against humans was rare.

“I train for the mental fortitude it brings. That’s all.”

While practising detailed physical routines certainly helped his discipline, in the years prior they had been very helpful whenever the targets of his operations were human. As a young teen, even with intense muscle-building exercises, he was weaker than the adults he was fighting, so being skilled in unarmed combat was an ace up his sleeve.

Sadly, despite his best efforts to remain neutral, Fiorella was not giving up on her goal, and she stepped uncomfortably close to him and whispered in his ear.

“I know a few grappling techniques of my own… Perhaps we could practice together sometime?”

Her sultry voice invaded his thoughts, and a sweet smell filled his nostrils. Inside his chest, a raging heat began to burn, but whatever lust was being seeded was quickly being replaced by a more powerful feeling - his anger.

He took a large step back and fought back against his emotions, though he couldn’t hold down the intense scowl that lined his face.

“Not interested. At all.”
“..?”

Her glamorous green eyes widened in surprise as she stood frozen in disbelief for a moment. Once she had collected her thoughts, the ugly, hateful expression she hid moments before appeared again, as she glanced towards the waiting car where Leona was sitting.

“Let me guess, she filled your head with all sorts of nonsense about me?”

He bit his tongue and formed his next words carefully. As much as he wanted to berate the woman, if he exploded here then it would give her more ammunition in her investigation against Leona, as the other church members were not far away and had begun to notice their discussion.

Taking a deep breath in, he looked deep into her eyes and spoke as plainly as he could.

“Even if I had never heard of you, my answer would be the same. This is not the time nor place, and if you don’t realise that, you should take a long, hard look at the person you are today.”

It was all he could manage to spit out, so he quickly turned on his heels and left towards the car. He wasn’t sure whether or not she responded, or even if she took his words to heart for that matter, but for her to brazenly try to seduce him during a mission in front of his girlfriend lit a fiery rage within him. She likely didn’t know his relationship with Hibiki, and potentially didn’t know Ji-Hye existed, but abusing her spirit for such an act was already abhorrent, even before considering the inappropriate situation they were in and the disgusting reason she had for doing so.

He closed the car door with a slam and breathed out heavily. His three companions watched him with curious expressions as they had been out of earshot, but it was obvious what had happened just from watching.

“...I don’t like her.”

In the silence, Hibiki spoke. It was possibly the first time Yuuji had ever heard the open-minded girl speak badly of another person, but he wholeheartedly agreed.

Guillaume, who had been patiently waiting as their chauffeur, started the car without a word, and they began their journey back. As always, his experience shone in moments like this, where he was able to act without speaking, picking up all he needed to know from simple observations.

It was already dark when they arrived back at Château Dupond, and after spending some more time together in the evening, the four of them retired to their beds. It wasn’t until early in the morning that they received their next update via phone rather than the household members as before:

‘Charlie team, you are to make your way to the nearby airport once more, to be taken by Firebird to the city of Geneva where you will regroup with the others.

At 0900 hours, Phoenix will be joined by a contingent of hunters from the church, where you will begin your ascent up the mountainside to lay siege to the vampire’s compound which has just been discovered.

The threat level for this mission is very high. The operation must succeed before sunset at 1700 hours, or chances of survival will plummet.

Good luck.
Conrad Pierce’

With a single message, it was clear - the final push was upon them.