A Human Scent

It was the dead of night, and Arisu rolled on her bed. As far as she knows, Kazuichi was already dead, but a part of her didn't want to admit that. She didn't see him die, nor did she see her body in the vicinity when she went out the next day. The last scent she smelled was by the foot of the mountain, and the scent told her that Kazuichi was still alive.

As of right now, Arisu had slowly whittled down the numbers of the infected in the area just so she would have quieter nights. Her hearing was especially sensitive, more sensitive than any other Hybrids out there (she doesn't know about this since she'd never bothered talking to other Hybrids).

While her thoughts regarding Kazuichi were muddled, she smelled something weird nearby, which made her drool and almost lose control of herself. In an instant, she bolted upright. With bated breaths, she slowly got up from her bed and turned the air conditioning to the maximum, hoping that the coldness would make her feel sluggish so she wouldn't mind the smell. However, it just made her focus on the scent even more.

Feeling a slight annoyance since the savory smell made her feel suffocated, she got up to drive away the people who were nearby. 'Hopefully, they would leave once they saw a Hybrid.'

After putting on her usual outdoor clothes— clothes she used every time she goes out to resupply— she got out of her place and started tracking down the humans who dared trespass inside Kazuichi's place. With him gone, Arisu took it upon herself to guard the place, driving away the Hybrids and getting rid of the infected. But now, the last thing that she didn't want invading the place had actually settled right there.

Using her innate ability as the Hound, it didn't take long before she tracked the scent of the humans who ventured inside the area. She decided to drive them out so she could sleep in peace. 'Hopefully, seeing a Hybrid would let them leave the place... but what if they didn't go away? Ah~ right...'

Arisu was in a tight spot. She didn't think about the situation wherein the humans refused to leave. It's not like she could just kill one of them, this would make the area garner unwarranted attention and other humans might even storm the place.

By the time she was halfway into overthinking the situation, she arrived at a place near the metallic fence that bordered Kazuichi's property. There was a makeshift tent there, as well as a grill that had meat grilling on it.

"What's going on?"

To Arisu's surprise, there wasn't only one tent, there were actually four of them, surrounding the grill.

'There's probably a dozen of them here. If I tried to attack them, they'll outnumber me. Then again, it would be easy for me to get rid of a dozen humans... but that wouldn't sit well with my conscience. For now, I'll try talking to them.' Arisu heaved a sigh, returning to her usual timid self as she approached the 'shelter'.

When she was only a couple of feet from the shelter, a small head suddenly popped out of the tent's opening. It was a small child, no more than four or five years old. She looked left and right to see if someone was around. And then, with a sneaky smile, she tiptoed towards the grill and grabbed a piece of meat.

Before she put it in her mouth, however, she noticed Arisu standing there, wondering what she was up to. That didn't stop her from putting the slice of meat in her mouth before grinning ear to ear. She then returned to the tent as if nothing happened.

"Um... can I help you?" A man asked right behind Arisu, causing her to flinch and growl as she bared her fangs at the man and extended her claws. She didn't even smell the man coming up toward her.

"It's a Hybrid." The other man who was with him took a step back before readying his ax. "Look, we don't want any trouble, we're just staying here for a couple of days, that's it. This might be your hunting ground, but we won't bother you. We'll quietly stay and quietly leave."

Just then, they heard tippy-taps from behind Arisu, and before they could do anything, the little girl who stole a piece of meat stood in front of Arisu. Before Arisu could do anything, she hugged her by her leg. "NO! She's my friend!" The girl declared, closing her eyes just in case her father gives her an ass-whooping.

Since Arisu didn't snitch on her even though she stole a piece of meat, the girl decided to call Arisu her friend— not knowing that she was a Hybrid, of course.

"Y-yo-yo-you're..." The man who was wielding his axe couldn't even finish the first word. Right in front of her, her daughter was hugging a Hybrid by the leg. He felt like he'd faint from shock, but he held his ground since his daughter just put herself in danger.

"Minami, let go of her, right now. I'm warning you... Minami." The dad teared up as he looked at his daughter. He could already see her daughter being ripped to shreds by the hound in front of her.

"Please, Hybrid, we're really sorry for the disturbance, please don't kill the child." The other man spoke up, holding out his hand as he told the father to let go of the axe.

"Please." The dad repeated, dropping his axe and kneeling on the ground.

At this point, Arisu couldn't bring herself to drive them away. They were barely surviving, and now they found a place where the infected don't roam around all too often. She had driven them out, after all, and most of the Hybrids as well as the infected know that this is her territory.

Arisu looked at the kid and grabbed her by her head. The two men flinched, imagining the kid's head burst since a Hybrid was holding it. With a sigh, Arisu patted the child's head.

"As she said. We're friends." Arisu admitted. "We keep a secret together... if that makes sense," Arisu said as Minami smiled at her.