Partner in crime

"Hey, I sensed something up ahead," said Rose.

"Lead the way."

They came to a clearing. In the middle of it stood a giant monster. The monster had strange looking tentacle beside it and it has a long neck with thousands of faces on it.

With two human hands among the thousand tentacle hold a weapon which was similar to what Rose has drawn.

"I guess it didn't take that long to find it," commented James.

"Dodge!" shouted Rose and one of the tentacle slammed onto the ground.

"So you are still alive…" said Rose.

"So this is the main body of that monster I killed," said James.

"Roar!" the monster let out a terrific scream that shook the earth.

"What a noisy fellow."

James unsheathes his sword and chopped off the arm that was wielding Rose's sword.

As the monster was agonizing over the loss of its arm, James quickly pick up the sword and pass it to Rose.

"Thanks. Now, it's time to get serious."

"Before that, Rose,"

James calmly walked in front of Rose.

"What are you doing!"

"Rose, what if I tell you that this monster right here is Rin?"

The monster is still wailing in pain.

"What?"

"Well, don't you think it is too coincidental that this monster here ends up with your sword?"

"…."

The monster here continued to wail in pain and then it begins to speak.

"Curse you!"

"Ah, so you can talk, this make things easier then."

"You! How did you end up with my sword?" asked Rose.

"Hehehehehe,"

"Yo, long head, where is Rin?" asked James.

"That girl, she is dead. She killed herself, thinking that she can get rid of me. But it takes more than that to finish me off."

"….."

"So, Rin took your sword hoping that she can end her life with it. I guess up until the very end she wanted to remain human after all."

"….."

A barrage of tentacle came towards them and it destroy completely the forest behind them.

"To think that Rin has to live with such a gross thing inside her…." whisper Rose. "She must have suffered a lot…"

James remember the past Rin told him.

"Yea…"

"So what are you going to do now, Rose?"

"There's no shred of humanity left within it anymore isn't it. So I guess I have to just kill it. And at the same time, put an end to this pathetic existence."

Rose closed her eyes and swung her sword in the air at a great speed. Her sword went ablaze.

She dashed towards the monster, slicing all the tentacles that came towards him like butter. She scaled on top of the giant monster's body, and left a trail of fire on its body.

"After her!"

The monster started summoning its reinforcement.

Rose started to panic.

"Not again."

"Not on my watch"

All of the minions were immediately diced away by James.

Rose thanked James in her heart.

She reached the neck of the monster and started cutting off its neck into many little pieces. The monster fell without its neck and became lifeless.

Rose stabbed her sword into the monster body and the body was absorbed into her sword.

"What was that?" asked James.

"My sword is called the Soul Eater. They will absorb the soul of the evil monster I defeated and become stronger. And with the soul of the monster I absorb, I can see the lives and personality of the monster I defeated, if they ever have one."

Rose's face became serious.

"And I could see Rin's last moment…. She just wanted her life to end."

"Hmm, I guess you have fulfilled her wish. Are you sad?"

"No, I am not. How can I be sad? This is my duty. I have seen more than enough cases of such pathetic cases. Which is why I would not forgive those evil demons. I swear to god I will put an end to the Demon Lords."

"Hmm, about your sword…"

"What about it?"

"I think your drawing does not do it justice."

"Do you want to get smack in the head?"

"No thank you."

"Hey, now I realized, aren���t you suppose to have a partner with you. Exorcists always hunt in pair or so I was told. What happened to your other half?"

"Oh, about that…"

"You don't have to tell me if it is too much."

"it's a long story but to summarize it, I am currently on a solo mission to hunt down all of the demon lords."

"What!!!"

"Jeez." James was plugging his ears with his fingers.

"Has the Church gone insane! Even the Hunter Association will not send their people to a suicide mission let alone sending ONE person to do the job."

"I know right…"

"So any luck with your mission? The Demon Lords are all bunch of sneaky bastards who always like to hide in the shadows and used other people to do their dirty work. They even give the Hunters a hard time. Many Hunters are dead because of them."

"I actually killed two of them."

Rose immediately shut her mouth.

"You…have killed…..two?"

James nodded his head.

"And now I am searching for the last three of them. Astaroth, Pupiar and Resghvar."

"So you have killed Bael and Lus."

"Yup."

Rose looked at James from top to bottom.

"(This one guy manage to kill not one but two demon lords)."

"It's hard to believe…"

"I know right."

"…." Rose was thinking hard.

"Hey, can I tag along with you?" asked Rose

"Erm, I guess you can."

"Great, for now I am going to visit a nearby town to report my mission. Just follow me."

After reporting her mission at a hideout in a nearby town.

"What do you mean you don't where to go next?!" shouted Rose while slamming down on the table.

James was plugging his ear with his finger.

"Like you said, tracking down the demon lords are not that easy."

"Hmph."

Rose was disappointed.

"Rose!" a guy walked in and sat beside their table. "How have you been?"

"I'm doing fine."

"Great! And…er….who is this guy?"

"He….is…."

Rose's mind quickly turn.

"My new partner."

"What?" said James

"I thought Hunter always like to go solo in their mission," said the man.

"It does not hurt to have someone that can watch your back. And don't underestimate him, he is quite skillful."

"If its Rose who said it, then I am assured."

"So what's the deal?"

"A new monster is spotted at a town down south from here and a bounty is being placed on its head. You will be able to reach the place by following the direction on this paper." He handed Rose a small piece of paper. "I guess that's pretty much it. Hunt down the monster and report to the city mayor to claim the bounty prize."

"Ya,ya."

"That's pretty much it. I will be leaving now. Hope to see you again. And to your partner…" he looked at James. "Please take care of her. She is the jewel of the organization."

"A jewel of the organization?" thought James.

"So I am your partner now?" asked James.

"Since you have no idea where to go next. Why not tag along with me to for some hunting? Aside from your solo mission, our main job is not that different anyway."

"I have no problem. It's always nice to kill some demons."

"I will split the bounty equally after we succeed in each mission so don't worry about it."

"I am not really worried about that. But since you said so, I am not going to argue about it. By the way, who is that guy just now?"

"His name is Abri. He is sort of a middleman between the Hunters Association and the public. If people want to look for us, they need to go through someone like Abri. He's the one who has been assigning me target to hunt ever since I joined the Hunter Association. But I don't need to depend on him all the time. Sometimes, I will find my own prey to hunt. It's just so happen that at the moment he has sent out a request for Hunter and I accepted it which leads to today meeting."

"So anything more that I need to know before joining in your little hunt?"

"Nothing much."

"Cool. So when are we leaving?"

"We will depart tomorrow. For now, let us get some rest."

Rose stood up from the tables and walked out of the restaurant. She suddenly turns and looked at James.

"What?" asked James who was surprised at the sudden look Rose gave him.

"We will be sleeping in different rooms," she said.

"Well, thanks for the clarification beforehand. I was actually looking forward on sleeping beside you." James was joking obviously.

"You are joking aren't you?"

"Of course I am joking."

"Good, with your facial expression, it's hard to tell whether you are serious or not."

"Jeez, I totally did not expect to see this side of you. But it's nice to see you are still a woman after all who is concern about this type of thing."

"I am not doing this because of what you think it is."

"So you have some secrets you can't show to other people."

James thought he said something correct because Rose face turn serious and she looked away from James.

"Well, whatever then. Just to assure you, I will not even peek to your room. I swear it under the name of God. So you can rest assured that your privacy is safe when you are with me. Well, under a few condition that I might break my promise."

Rose looked at James.

"If I heard something is going wrong then I will definitely intrude without hesitation."

"So you will be hearing my every moves when I am in the room. I can't find anything more perverted than this."

"Well, technically speaking I am your partner now for the time being, so…"

"So?"

"Before I get to know where I need to head to, isn't it my job to watch your back from now on?"

Rose looked surprised but followed by a faint smile. Her serious look melted for a moment as she heard the words coming from this stranger who recently became her partner She do begin to wander later on how did they manage to crack the ice so quickly.

And James just thought he had said the most cringe worthy thing he could said to a girl. But the words already come out from his mouth and there's no way he could undo it.

"Oh well, call me a weirdo or whatever. It is too late to do anything now," thought James.

"So I guess it's clear to me now what I can expect from you. I will leave my back for you to watch over so don't fail, partner."

"Yea, I will protect you from harm."

Thus, a partnership is formed on this day between Rose Viante the Huntress and James Charter, the Exorcist or as he was more famously known as the Black Priest. What sort of adventure awaits them?