Debut

"It's today," Hiro thought while looking at Hasha who was on his bed, "From today onwards I will be working as a Hunter for brother Ushio." He paused and looked at Hasha. He said, "It's not basically me but - aren't we one - Aren't I like the soul and he is a body that I customized in a game."

Hasha was a Full Dive Offline VR game's player character who was customized by Hiro.

Both Hiro and Hasha were in Hiro's room in a countryside village. Hiro was in white sleeves and gray pants sitting on a chair and Hasha was lying in Hiro's bed. It was already midday.

Hasha had become an E rank Hunter the day before and had joined Ushio's new guild. That day they celebrated, introduced themselves, talked about guilds and other stuff.

"Yesterday was a headache when Bro asked about Hasha," Hiro sighed.

Hasha was a player character of Hiro who came in real life. As a result, Hiro had to make up information about him. Hiro made stuff about Hasha and gave some of his own information.

Hiro turned towards the desk. There were two phones. A black phone was Hiro's and White was of Hasha.

Hasha said, "I almost gave my number - it would have been disastrous."

The white phone rang. It was from Ushio, written as Guildmaster Ushio.

Hiro looked at the phone, "It's brother - oh wait - I'm still Hiro right now." Then he went into the gaming capsule beside the desk. He hurriedly closed the door and put on the headgear then he was logged in.

Hasha who was lying in Hiro's bed opened his eyes. Hiro was now logged in Hasha's body. Hasha got up and picked up the call.

"Hello!" Hasha answered.

"Where are you right now?" Ushio asked.

"In my room."

"Then let's meet at the Hunter Association Headquarter, the same place as yesterday but at the Gate Management Building," said Ushio.

Hasha answered, "Okay! I will be there in … thirty minutes."

"Alright! I will be waiting in front of the building," Ushio said. Ushio cheered, "Today is your big day."

Hasha smiled, "It's also your big day Guildmaster."

"Haha," Ushio smiled, "then later."

Hasha put the phone in his black pants. A fresh breeze was coming in from the nearby green hills through the window. He then looked at the close gaming capsule. He thought, " I may not be able to help as Hiro but as Hasha, I might be some help."

Hiro and Hasha were different except for the resemblance. Hiro was a short black-haired thin boy standing 5.7 ft. tall. While Hasha was 6.6 ft. tall with a lean muscular body, mid-length black hair. Hasha had purple eyes and a purple horizontal line under eyes across the face.

Hasha turned back. "Portal," He swung his right hand horizontally.

A column of White Ray appeared in the room.

Hasha entered the portal and came out in the throne room of his airship, Oasis, in Antarctica.

The room was spacious and had a round grey wall, grey floor, and ceiling. In the middle of it was dark grey, halfback throne.

"Open portal to the city," Hasha commanded.

A white ray portal appeared in front of him.

Hasha entered the portal and landed on the roof of a tall building. The portal led him to the unknown tall building.

"Where did it send me?" Hasha looked around.

Hasha was only capable of opening portals to his ship. And only his ship could open a portal to other places. However, there were some limitations and drawbacks. No one could tell where the portal could open.

Hasha went into the building down the stairs. The building was some kind of company with people in suits and office-type uniforms. He went through the stairs thinking taking the elevator might be risky since most people use it. Even though he took the stairs some workers saw him and were puzzled.

And when he got to the entrance floor the people were surprised. They had questions: Where did he come from? Does he work here? Is that a tattoo on his face?

Seeing a 6.6 ft. tall and lean-built person in casual dress: White sleeves black pants and white shoes, and his purple line pattern under the eyes made people wonder.

Hasha got out of the building even though people were suspicious and puzzled.

"That was tiring and embarrassing," Hasha thought as he got out. He took out his white phone to find out where he was. And then he went straight to the Japan Hunter Association Headquarter.

As Ushio said, Hasha headed to the Gate Management Building of the Association from a different gate.

The Association had many 4 to 5, not-so-tall but wide rectangular buildings in a huge compound surrounded by high walls. Each building had its own entrance gate.

Hasha walked through a large courtyard towards the wide gray rectangular building. At the entrance of the building, Ushio was waiting in black suits and wearing a normal rectangular glass.

"Am I late?" asked Hasha.

"No!" Ushio replied, "Since it's our first day for both of us let's take it easy."

They both went inside. There were many entrance control systems. Ushio scanned his card in it and told the security guard that Hasha was his company's Hunter. Only a few people of a company were allowed to enter.

Hasha followed Ushio. There was a smile on Ushio's face.

Hiro, "He seems better than yesterday - relieved and happy."

Hasha also smiled a little.

They entered a large room filled with large screens on the walls. Every screen had news on it, news of different countries especially about the world gates. There were few people in suits watching the news.

Hiro was amazed.

"So many screens and they are only showing news related to World Gates," Hasha said while looking around at those screens on walls.

Ushio smiled seeing Hasha amazed," This is News Floor." He looked at the screens and in a serious tone, he said, " These World Gates are not something great that one needs to hide. Blitzen called them Gates of Doom, Gates of Destruction, Gates of Extinction. Every country has this kind of room and they also don't hide anything about the appearance of World Gates. Even North Korea."

Hasha looked at the screen where news from North Korea was being shown.

They both went further to the next room.

Ushio explained, "This is the Gate Trading Floor where all the World Gates are known in advance, sold and bought, reserved - every information about world gates is known here before than anywhere."

The Gate Trading Floor was larger than the News Floor and filled with screens. It had giant and wide screens on the walls displaying panels with country and place names at the top, date and time, and round figures of different colors. The round figure had a day or time in it.

The room was partially filled with suited people, people chatting with each other, some drinking coffee or tea.

Ushio explained, "The round figures denote the world gates, the color - gate's rank and the time in it indicates how long it has been since it appeared."

Hasha looked around. Every screen had such figures and they were of different countries.

The colored circles were arranged in a row: the same color in the same row. The colors varied: white, green, yellow, orange, blue, and purple. There was time running in these colored circles. All these were arranged under a day and date.

"Let's go over there," said Ushio, pointing towards reception counters, "that's for our country."

At one side there were those screens on the walls, and at the opposite side was a large reception counter with two rows of large and wide screens above it. It had the same thing shown as others but of Japan.

The top row screen showed 3 panels. The panels had dates and days at the top and 5 rows with one initial A, B, C, D, E at left. These initials denoted the rank of the gates. The top row had initial A, B at the second row, and so on. There were few circles in these rows.

The left was a panel from 1 day ago and had two green circles at the last row, E row. The middle panel was from yesterday with 1 purple circle in the 2nd row -B row, 1 blue circle in the 3rd row - C row, and 2 yellow circles in the 5th row - D row. The third panel was the largest which was of that day.

The third panel was empty with only a date of the day.

In the second row of the widescreen, there were large 24 white circles with a time in them. Below was the total no. of gates.

At the side of reception, counters were columns of screens, there showing national news related to the World Gates of their country. These screens were showing pillar-like world gates appeared in different places of Japan.

Ushio pointed out, "The White round figures at the second row are the world gates that have not been ranked yet. Those are the Gates that appeared after 12 am, today."

"That many! - While all of us were asleep," Hasha looked at the large screen with many white circles.

There were 15 white circles, coin-like, rotating on the screen with no colors or ranks.

Ushio explained, " Till now we cannot predict these gates, when they will appear or how many will appear in a day. There are days where more than 100 world gates appear and days where gates don't appear at all."

"I did read about it," said Hasha.

Ushio explained many things about those figures and others.

White = Unranked gates

Green = E Rank Gates

Yellow = D Rank Gates

Orange = C Rank Gates

Blue = B Rank Gates

Purple = A-Rank Gates

Red = World Collision

A circle in panels denoted they have not been cleared yet.

A circle = Open for anyone - Uncleared and Looking for hunters to clear.

A circle with red subscript (-) = Occupied/ In process of being cleared

A circle with money symbol subscript = Gates for sale

A circle with subscript S = Sold gates

A circle with subscript yellow ring = ranked but yet to be finalized

A circle with subscript R = reserved gates

Hasha looked at the suited people around. He was the only one with

Hiro thought, "So these people are either managers or reservors."

"Yes, all of them are here to reserve gates suitable for their hunters," said Ushio, "I am also here to do that for you."

"I see - then why is it taking so long for those gates to be ranked - haven't they finished scouting yet," Hasha said.

"It depends on the size of the source's territory. The scouts may have already finished scouting some of these gates and might be getting ready to update," Ushio said, "Though World Gates emerge from the desires of otherworldly beings and the color of the World Gates determine the rank of it - it still is a world - a vast another world - a place we do not know of. Scouting gives information about the place, monsters we are fighting, their numbers, and if there are other monsters in that place.

"There may be other monsters living in that area - like swamps - it's a place where Canine lizardmen reside however it is also a habitat for Giant Finned Croc, Green Throne Snake, Giant two-headed blue Crane, and others."

"Is that so," said Hasha.

Ushio continued, "There was a case in Australia a few years ago, a party of E rank Hunters went into the E rank World Gate. And just a few minutes after entering, a Laughing Golden Dragon flew past above them - a troublesome A rank monster."

Hasha was surprised, "A Laughing Golden Dragon - a dragon which laughs while killing its prey - an evil sly dragon." He asked, "What happened to the party?"

Ushio said, "They were lucky. They were in dense Yellow leaves forest, the golden dragon didn't see them. The party immediately came out of the gate and the area was again scouted."

Hasha looked at those large rotating white circles. "It seems the fallen worlds are more dangerous because of its uncertainness," he thought.

At that moment four suited persons came towards Ushio.

"Ushiooo," called happily a middle-aged half-bald man.

Ushio bowed, "Hello! Senior Tanaka."

A brown-haired man said, "It's been a long time since we have seen you here."

"Haha!" Ushio laughed, "it has been, Haruto."

A suited, brown woman said, "You are here means…."

"You have finally found yourself a hunter, Right? Senpai" said a black-haired man who was short among them, "Is he the one? Behind you."

Ushio smiled, "Yes he is the one." Ushio brought Hasha in front of them.

"Ohh! He is tall and has a great build," said Mr. Tanaka.

Hasha bowed, "Hello, I am Hasha. An E rank hunter. Nice to meet you all."

"He looks strong - why don't you join our guild. We will give good salary and other services," joked the young short man.

"Oi Takao! What the hell are you saying? Don't snatch the only hunter I have." Ushio shouted.

Everyone laughed. They congratulated Ushio and called him Guildmaster.

"That's a cool design you have on your face," said the brown woman.

"Thank you," Hasha was flustered.

"Young hunters these days sure like to be cool and stand out, don't they," said Tanaka after seeing Hasha's horizontal purple line under the eyes across the face.

Hasha didn't know what to say and just smiled.

Ushio introduced all of them to Hasha.

The middle-aged half-bald man was Tanaka Suzuki. A manager of Iron Lion Guild.

The brown hair was Haruto Nakamura, a manager of Blade N Shield Guild.

The brown girl was Alisa Saki, a manager of Fuji Guild.

And the short man was Takao Mori, also a manager of Fuji Guild.

All of them were managers whose job was to reserve gates for their guild and also manage their hunters. They were to choose gates that are suitable for their hunters that would help them to gain experience, increase their rank and make both fame and profits for the guild.

They chatted for a while. Everyone was talking about their Guild's hunters and how they refuse to take jobs that are far away and in remote places.

Hasha stood there smiling and listening to their conversation.

Then after some time the 7 Unranked Gates/ White Circles disappeared and appeared in the top row screen in the third panel. They were updated and ranked.

3 orange circles appeared in the third row, C rank row. These were C rank gates. 4 yellow circles appeared in the D-rank row. The circles in these rows and yellow color denoted that these 4 gates were D rank gates.

After seeing the gates being rankled on the screen. People rushed to the reception counter.

"D gates," shouted Takao and rushed to the counter.

"There he goes again without saying anything," sighed Alisa, "I think we should go and check."

"Yes! Let's do that!" said Tanaka. He looked at Ushio and smiled, "Congratulations! You have finally started your guild. And to you too, Hasha, for being a hunter. If there's anything I can do for you don't forget to ask me."

"Yes! Me too" said Haruto, " Once again congratulation both of you."

"I pray for your success," said Alisa.

"Thank you," said Hasha and Ushio.

Then they went to the reception counter.

Hiro smiled inside, "Looks like Brother has some people that he can call friends."

"Now then what should we do?" said Ushio, "Should we wait for the other gates to be ranked since there are no E rank gates right now or go for yesterday's gate." Ushio looked at Hasha.

"I don't mind traveling to far places or remote areas," said Hasha.

Ushio smiled, "Then I will go and check it." He then went to the counter. One side of the counter was crowded and one side was empty. Ushio went to the empty counter.

There were two E rank gates/ green circles in the second panel of the last day and they were unmarked which means it was open for anyone and recruiting hunters to clear it.

A few minutes later Ushio came back.

"We got lucky you know," said Ushio, "They were only 1 hunter short and we got that."

Hasha, "Then we should hurry."

"Yes, We need to go now looking at the location." Ushio said, "They will enter at 10 pm after all of the hunters gather. The location is Tenkawa Village."

"Then how should we go there. Do we take the train?" asked Hasha.

"No, we have our own means," said Ushio.

Outside at the large open parking lot, Ushio showed his white jeep.

"It's best to have your own means of transport you know," said Ushio, " But we will take the train and plane if we have to - get in, we have to drive for many hours."

Ushio started the jeep and began to ride to their destination.

Hasha asked, "Is this yours?"

"The jeep?" said Ushio, "Yes, I always wanted to buy one and also thought it would be useful when I get a hunter for my guild. - It's not brand new - but it's ok as long as it is useful."

"It's cool though," said Hasha.

"Haha, Thanks," Ushio replied.

"About the guild name, what do we say when others ask which guild are we from?" Hasha asked.

"Just say you are from the Unranked guild," Ushio said, "Getting a Hunter was my first priority, and about the name… it can be done later. Besides most of the unranked guilds like us don't last long - the hunters will leave the company later and join the ranked guild."

The guilds were categorized into Rank Guild and Unranked Guild. Unranked Guild were those who had less than 5 hunters.

Hasha looked at his brother and smiled. He said, "You don't have to worry about me leaving so let's go and name our guild."

"Haha! I will forever be grateful towards you," Ushio laughed, "Do you really want to have a guild's name."

"I think it sounds cool when someone gives their introduction along with their guild's name," Hasha replied.

"Most of the unranked guilds are named after people - either their founder or hunters," Ushio said, "How do you want to name ours?"

"Hmm," Hasha thought. He said, " Then how about Ushio's Guild or Ushio Guild for now since it's your guild."

"For now," Ushio was puzzled.

"Later we're gonna have more hunters and become a ranked Guild," said Hasha, "Don't you want that?"

Hasha's words surprised Ushio. He looked at Hasha then he looked at the front. He was touched and happy. He smiled, "Of course!"

They rode for hours. It was a more than 6-hour ride from Tokyo.

Tall city houses slowly disappeared and green hills appeared on their way.

On their way, Hiro was in deep thought," I want to ask why he was fired from his old guild. But ... asking such things on our first official day might make the atmosphere tense - besides he looks happy to work." Hasha looked at the passing trees. Hiro thought, "Let's ask him later after we have done some more work."

"You should rest. There are some more hours before we reach there," Ushio said, "You may have to work the whole night. So, sleep for now. And if you want anything just ask me. "

"Okay," Hasha closed his eyes.

Ushio drove for hours. They reached Tenkawa Village around 8 pm at night.

The village was surrounded by green hills. The hills shone like glitters with lit houses.

And in the middle of the green field, a large Pillar like the Green World Gate from the sky shone the most. The Pillar-like Gate brightened up the field. Jets of Green Lights was hitting the ground, making the surrounding a little windy and noisy.

The area was sealed. There were local police, people from the Hunter Association. Few geared Hunters with their managers were there as well as reporters and streamers. Villagers also gathered around at a distance; Elders, children all were there watching the situation.

Ushio parked the jeep where the other vehicles were parked. Then they went through the crowd of villagers.

Ushio showed his Id to the suited man sitting in a chair in the field. The man checked the list and allowed him and Hasha to enter the sealed area.

Both Ushio and Hasha stood nearby to the Green World Gates.

Hasha looked at the tall gate that reached the sky.

Hiro, "It's … beautiful... Like a stream of lights falling from the sky. I have only seen it on TV and the internet but seeing with my own eyes - it's something else."

"Isn't it beautiful," Ushio said looking at the Green World Gate.

"Yes! It is," Hasha replied.

"The Fallen World behind this gate is also beautiful different from our world," said Ushio, "Strange isn't it. The world taken by monsters - a post-apocalyptic world is said to be beautiful."

The wind was hitting people who were near the World Gate.

Slowly the hunters began to gather. By the time all of the hunters were there. Then they began to gear up. There were more than 33 hunters, both consisting of both males and females.

"Hasha, you to Gear up," said Ushio.

"OK," Hasha said.

"Battle costume - Full golden armor," said Hasha.

Golden light glowed over Hasha's body. Then Hasha's whole body was covered with heavy, full-body, polished golden and black armor. A golden helmet appeared in his left hand. The armor had both modern and knight designs.

He raised his right hand to his right side. "Slayer," he called.

A long light appeared in his right hand and revealed a large silver sword, 'Slayer'. IT was a big, pointed double-edged silver sword with a golden handguard, long and round golden handle. He plunged his giant sword into the ground.

The hunters saw what Hasha did. They were surprised. Hasha was the only one who had used skill to wear his armor and call out his weapon. Others wore it physically themselves.

Some hunters whispered, "Hey isn't that high-level summoning skill."

Others, "No! If it was then why would a high-ranked Hunter come here for Green Gate."

"He must have bought a magic scroll for that - look at his armor and sword - they look expensive - must be a rich kid who wants to show off," said some hunter.

Hasha was flustered.

Hiro thought, "There I did something again."

Some villagers were amazed and found cool what Hasha did.

"You know you look really cool and intimidating," smiled Ushio. "And this sword - it's really big seeing it again," said while standing at 6ft tall silver sword.

"You remembered the information right," Ushio asked.

"Yes, I have," replied Hasha.

"Good! If not the leader of this mission or the gate manager will brief all of you about it, that is if they are not lazy," said Ushio.

Hasha nodded with his golden helmet in his hands.

Then at that moment, a golden and black armored man with a long sword stood in front of the gate. He was a brown young man with red hair.

"Everyone, gather around," he shouted.

"The fallen world may be beautiful but it is far more dangerous than our world, so, be careful," said Ushio, "Don't be nervous and just follow your senior hunters and be alert and don't take it easy just because it is E rank and..."

"Ok! I will," Hasha stopped Ushio. Hasha thought "Brother seems more nervous than I do." He said, "Don't worry Brother I will be back."

Ushio thought, "Uhh! I have done this so many times but why did I act like that." He said, "Ok! Just do your best."

Hasha nodded and went to the front where others were gathering.

All of the hunters gathered in front of the black-armored hunter. Most of the hunters wore metal armor from neck to toe, some wore light armor, some wore robes like mages. However, all of them had worn some hand armor or guard or gloves.

"I am Shin, a D rank hunter and will be your leader for this mission. I hope you all have read about this mission and your positions. Then let's not waste time and make this Gate disappear. Let's come victoriously."

"Yeah!" all shouted.

"Like Brother said he skipped the information," Hasha thought, "Well, It doesn't matter."

"Do your best!" shouted a small child. Then other villagers cheered.

Hasha smiled hearing the cheers.

He wore his half-face golden helmet, unplugged his silver sword.

"Let's do this," determined Hasha looked at the bright green pillar-like World Gate that lit the surrounding.