Apex Predator

Hyena IV

Kurama was encouraging, but she had to privately admit he could be a little biased when it came to her.

Chrollo shut his book. "Oh?"

Miwa beckoned him closer. Humoring her, Chrollo leaned down so she could whisper in his ear.

He said, "That's doable. Have you been keeping corpses?"

"Yeah-huh. I thought maybe the cannibals would want a BBQ later with us but then Ku—ah—I realized maybe I shouldn't have cannibals in my city," admitted Miwa. "Cause, um, cannibals might, um, not make good citizens."

"Most would agree with that," dryly agreed Feitan. Miwa flushed.

"Yeah. I'm just killing the cannibals I find now," said Miwa, shifting her weight anxiously. "I've got a lot of corpses now."

"If you've enough blood to spare, let's practice," said Chrollo.

Miwa agreed, then winced when a hundred clones popped at once and their memories flooded into her. Her clones were grouped together and split to do different tasks. Whenever a division of her clones had finished their accomplished task, they dispelled themselves so Miwa could create a fresh batch to work on a new project. It was disorienting every time.

"Oh. Looks like another drop ship is coming in," observed Feitan.

Miwa's head whipped around to where the assassin was looking and found that a dozen airships were flying in.

"No," she whispered. "I will not allow it."

"If you continue to destroy all the trash ships that come in, you might anger the surrounding countries," said Chrollo.

"I don't care."

"Excellent policy," sardonically replied Feitan.

"As it may be," said Chrollo carefully, "I would suggest you confirm they're here to dump trash first."

Miwa pursed her lips. "Fine."

(≧ڡ≦*)

All but one of the airships was there to dump trash, but luckily for them they refrained from doing so. Instead, they landed near the outskirts of the forest. Miwa headed over to them in a flash of golden light, fully prepared to blow them all to smithereens if they thought to undo all the hard work she had put forth.

She stood before them, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited to see if anyone would come out. It was several minutes until one of the airships opened up and a tiny man with doe-like eyes and curly brown hair stepped out. He reminded Miwa of a baby deer. Behind him were a few men and women in black suits that surveyed the forested area.

The small man hurried over to Miwa, fiddling with his fingers. "Ehhh... are you... ehhh... the new leader of Meteor City?"

'New leader?'

Miwa blinked at that title. It was odd someone had actually called her that. It made sense—she did take over it—but no one had verbally acknowledged it.

"I am," said Miwa, straightening her shoulders.

She wondered what kind of impression she had made as a leader. She was as clean as she reasonably could be, but she knew her clothes had some tears and stains on them that weren't easily fixed. Miwa didn't feel a rush to replace her tattered clothes until she was finished with construction work.

And nen training since she was working with blood and blood stains were hard to get out.

'I guess when I go shopping with Kalluto I'll have to find something that's cute and good for leaders, thought Miwa. What would that be?'