Onihunter Yuna 2

69 A Little Hunt (Present)

"Please move on. The park is closed," the policeman said without looking up.

"What happened?"

He raised his eyes. "The entrance gate was damaged. Until it's replaced, we must make sure that no one enters the park."

The blue-haired girl shrugged. "Why would anyone want to go in there? It's been out of business for years."

"No clue. If my supervisor tells me to do something, then I do it. Now go ahead and don't bother me anymore, okay?"

Yuna snorted. "You were certainly entrusted with this task, because of your good manners."

"I'm pretty sure, that you wanted to leave."

Rolling her eye, the high-school student turned away and walked on. She followed the fence, until she could no longer see the policeman. She looked around, then ducked, pushed off the ground and jumped. To her annoyance, she didn't come up high enough to cross the fence. Annoyed, the girl clucked her tongue, pulled off her shoulder bag and flung it over the fence. She took a few steps back, sprinted towards the fence, then torpedoed over it with a mighty leap.

Groaning, she landed on the other side next to her bag. The blue-haired girl picked the bag up, fished out the knife, as she walked to a park bench, and pulled it out of the sheath. She put the sheath back in her bag and deposited it on a park bench.

Let's see who's around.

Casually, she threw the blade in the air and caught it. Sniffing, Yuna wandered on the overgrown paths. The whirring of the cicadas was extremely loud, so she couldn't hear anything else. Even her thoughts were barely audible to her, blasted away by the rhythmic sounds of the insects on the tree trunks.

But then she picked up a scent. Her mouth twisted into a wry grin. Her heart filled with anticipation. As if the unwelcomed pain in her stomach felt that it was about to go away, it rebelled one last time and tried to torture the high-school student.

Yuna quickened her pace and went in for a relaxed jog. The scent brushed her nose again, and now she could pursue her target. She got even faster and finally she ran. The huntress was back and she demanded prey.

A beast stomped through the thicket. Until now it had pursued a squirrel, but the shrewd rodent was able to save itself on a tree. The beast had tried to climb up, but its body was simply not designed for that. Looking for other prey it set off.

The song of the cicadas echoed through the air and the creature lifted its head to look at one of the insects. It had already eaten some of them, but they didn't taste very special, so they were not worthwhile prey. Disappointed, the beast lowered its skull again.

Suddenly something broke out of a bush on the left and a piercing pain ran through the beast, whereupon it uttered a surprised sound. Several times it was stung, then tipped whimpering aside. From the corner of its eye, it could see something blue, then its throat was cut.

Yuna straightened up as the body disappeared in front of her. With pleasure, she closed her eye and felt the energy flood through her body. The tingling disappeared from her stomach.

Better.

Last time she was here, she was able to track down some beasts at the fairy tale castle. Maybe there were others there, so she strolled through the park.

She came across another oni, but in a matter of seconds she threw herself from behind on the beast and rammed the knife point into the head.

The huntress continued on her way, remembering her first hunt in the forest. How she'd slaughtered the beasts, until she met Tirr. It seemed like an eternity that the oni had invaded her home and murdered her family. So much had happened since then. It had been in another life.