Part 1, Chapter 5

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September 26, 2023

Ruka and Hana were racing towards a reported sighting of a portal opening up near Perry Park, a small local park with a monument to Commodore Matthew Perry, the American naval officer who visited Japan in 1853 and subsequently led the way to the re-opening of Japan to the outside world following 265 years of isolation. As they ran down a street and the sun began to slowly set in the evening sky, Hana pulled out her phone and saw something on the app. "Kishio-san!"

"What's up?!"

"There's already someone taking the mission in," Hana told her as they both stopped and she showed her that indeed, another huntress was already heading to the mission.

"Damn it," Ruka muttered as she caught her breath. "All that running for nothing." They then both got another update from the app, prompting both of them to look at their phones. As Ruka read the update, she sighed and said, "Oh shit..."

"That's not good," Hana also said. The update they got indicated that not only was a Class Five beast reported at the portal, but now a Class Three was as well. "Now we gotta go."

"Fuck it," Ruka agreed before putting her phone away. "Let's go!" Two magical beasts coming in through a portal was rare, but not unheard of.

As they arrived at the park, they found a dark void where one of the trees was supposed to be. Both of them knew exactly that that was where the portal was. Hana told Ruka, "Transform now!"

"Got it," Ruka replied before both of them held out their left hands and their rings began to glow. Within less than a second, both of them transformed and then ran into the void to go through the portal.

Upon entering it, they saw a girl around their age desperately trying to battle back two different beasts at once with a bow and arrow. She had pink hair and was dressed in a pink and red outfit with a ruffled white skirt, and as she fired two arrows at once at a beast with a snake-like head and a lion-like body, Hana yelled at her, "We're right here! Just hang on!"

"Give me your backup sword," Ruka told Hana.

"Oh, right," she replied before pulling out a katana from a sheath on her right side and handing it to Ruka. She then pulled out a much nicer and newer katana from a sheath on her left side.

The girl with the bow and arrow was then suddenly struck by the other beast, who was shaped like a bear, as large as a kei car, and roared at her after swiping at her body with its claws. The girl yelled, "Help me!"

"Hang on!" Ruka then charged at the bear-like beast, who was the Class Three beast and had several arrows sticking out of it, and began to battle it as the other girl watched. The beast tried to bite Ruka, but she sliced through its mouth, spilling blood onto the ground and causing the beast to roar in pain. Ruka yelled at the beast, her ears ringing from how loudly it had roared, "Shut up already!"

The girl told Ruka, "I got ambushed by that bear-like beast just as I was about to kill the lion-snake one!"

"That sucks," Ruka replied. "You really got screwed, huh?" She then charged at the beast again, slicing off one of its paws when it tried to swipe at her.

Meanwhile, Hana was battling back the elongated head of the lion-snake beast, who was also trying to spit venom at her and had several wounds from arrows it had managed to rip off of itself. The venom got onto her clothes and armor, causing her some worry as she tried to swing for its neck, only to miss. "Shit," she said to herself as she dodged a bite from the beast. "It got venom all over me!" She then managed to strike the beast's neck, and was able to cut partially through it before she was forced to retreat again to avoid being bitten.

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The girl then got up and aimed an arrow at the snake beast, telling Hana, "Back up! I can hit him!" She then fired an arrow at the beast, blinding it in its right eye and causing it to yell in pain. With this distraction, Hana was able to complete her cut and swung at the beast again, beheading it with a hard blow to the neck. For extra measure, she then stabbed the beast in its back as it fell to make sure it stayed dead.

Ruka meanwhile had just sliced off a second paw of the bear-like beast. With its two remaining paws, it tried charging at her on them and its stumps. Ruka jumped up and sliced through the beast's back with the sword she had been given by Hana, causing it to stop in its tracks in pain. She turned around after landing on her feet and said, "Now, let me-"

Before she has a chance to actually kill the beast, the other girl fired two arrows at once into the bear-like beast's head, killing it and finally ending the battle. The other girl stepped around the beast's body and told Ruka, "I got it."

Somewhat annoyed that the other girl took the final blow away from her, Ruka replied, "Of course you did..."

Hana walked over to the other girl and asked her, "Are you okay? You looked like you were in a lot of trouble when we found you."

"I'm fine now," she replied as she turned to Hana. "How about yo-" She suddenly stopped when she saw how Hana looked now that neither of them were busy fighting magical beasts. "Woah..." She was taken aback by her appearance and demeanor, which, to her, seemed almost overwhelmingly pretty. The other girl even blushed slightly as Hana looked at her with a sense of concern about how out of it she now seemed. "Oh, uh..."

Hana asked her, "You seem pretty out of it, actually. Were you hit in the head?"

The other girl then snapped out of it and replied, "Oh, no... I'm fine. It was nothing..."

Ruka asked the girl, "What's your name, anyway? I haven't seen you around here at all. Are you new to being a magical huntress?"

"I am," the girl replied before she bowed. "I'm Miyamura Sayaka. I became a magical huntress about two weeks ago."

"Two weeks ago, huh... That explains why I haven't ever ran into you, then."

Hana asked her, "So you use bows and arrows?"

"Yeah," Sayaka replied as she showed them both the wooden bow she used. "It's not fancy, but it gets the job done. I can't really afford anything nicer."

"One of the magical huntresses I'm friends with uses a crossbow," Hana explained. "So I got interested when I saw what kind of weapon you use."

"A crossbow would be nice to have one day, but like I said, I don't really have the cash to afford one." She then put her bow back and pulled out her phone to begin taking pictures for the report. "So, uh... I know this is gonna sound odd, but can you guys help me with writing the report? Writing them isn't my strength as it is, and, um..." Sayaka seemed embarrassed to ask the duo, and also somewhat shy now that she was asking them for help. "It's just... Two beasts at once is... I'm sorry..."

Hana placed a hand on Sayaka's shoulder, causing her to blush once again. She smiled and told her, "Of course I'll help. Me and Kishio-san over there helped you kill the beasts, after all."

After a brief pause, Sayaka asked Hana, "What's your name?"

"Miyashita Hana," she replied before turning to Ruka. "And that over there is one of my partners, Kishio Ruka."

"Hey," Ruka replied with a neutral expression and a wave before she began taking photos of the two slayed beasts with her phone for the report.

Sayaka asked, "Do you guys fight together a lot?"

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