Chapter Text
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“-and always, check the corner at Oakwood twice.”
“Uh huh.”
“Throw salt over your shoulder before you leave. Every single time you think it's perfectly normal, but before you know it a minor demon’s trailing you all the way home.”
“Uh huh.”
“Make sure you replace the flowers on the-”
“Uh huh.”
“San?”
“Yeah, that's great.”
“San!” Hongjoong slams his spoon on the little cafe table hard enough to finally snap San out of his trance.
San smiles at him sheepishly.
His eyes had trailed off following a familiar head of bright green hair seated casually at the back of the cafe. San had been staring wistfully at the stranger’s unwavering focus on his band sticker ridden laptop.
He’s seen the guy a few times at this cafe, and it’s really hard to forget someone with stripey, bright green hair. He also sort of looks like he walked out of 2009, which is even more memorable. He really wants to talk to this cool, emo guy, but Hongjoong’s kind of in the way.
Well, Hongjoong and San’s literal job .
Hongjoong sighs and pinches his nose bridge like San’s an overbearing headache, “This is why I can't send you on a job alone.”
San perks up, fully at attention. Now he's listening.
“What do you mean?”
“You keep getting distracted halfway through my instructions!” Hongjoong groans.
“What? No I don't!” San cries defensively. This one time is different! There's a cool guy across the cafe!
“I'm sending Mingi with you.” Hongjoong rubs his temples.
“What? Again?” It's San’s turn to slam his hands on the table, “Hongjoong, I can handle myself! I promise! I've been doing this for ages!”
“You can handle yourself when you can repeat my exact instructions back to me without fail.” Oh Hongjoong’s mad now. Uh oh.
San gulps, “um.”
His mind is unfortunately devoid of literally everything Hongjoong had just told him. He flicks a glance between Cool Green Haired Emo Guy and Hongjoong.
“That's what I thought.” Hongjoong closes his eyes dismissively.
“It's just a patrol, Hongjoong! I'll be fine! I've gone on tons of those!”
“With me present.” Hongjoong says dryly.
“Ok, but nothing ever happens on patrols anyway!” San protests.
“Nothing ever happens on patrols because I’m there to make sure that nothing does!” shit, Hongjoong’s really mad now. His voice is rising and his patience is clearly draining.
San decides he needs to back off and accept his fate. He’s only been training under Hongjoong for around a year now. He can’t expect himself to be trusted to handle things on his own so soon.
But Jongho got to go on his first patrol alone after six months of training, and Mingi after three! His thoughts are no help.
San has to remind himself that Jongho’s a monster hunting prodigy and Mingi was raised by monster hunters. They're both another level compared to him, a complete newbie in the field. Sure, he has a third degree black belt, but that’s not much help when a werewolf’s coming at him at the speed of a car. He would get just as mauled as anyone else in that situation.
San sighs, defeated.
Hongjoong just pushes his chair back in and retreats from the table. His coffee cup is drained while San’s is still half full. Hongjoong’s always been all business. Couldn’t he just sit and have a chat like a normal person?
“8 PM tonight.” Hongjoong utters before he turns around and steps out of the cafe.
San is left alone with his thoughts. His thoughts and Cool Green Haired Emo Guy across the cafe. He wants to approach this guy. He wants to, so bad, but the snake bites glinting under the guy’s lips and dark clothing spell out a world of conversation starters that San has no idea about. San is anything but emo. He doesn’t recognize any of the band stickers plastered on Emo Guy’s laptop either.
San’s glued to his seat, too scared and clueless on how to start a conversation with this guy. How do extroverts do it? Just walk up to somebody and strike a conversation like a match?
San grows more nervous the more he looks at Emo Guy because whatever he’s doing on that laptop looks really important. He hasn’t even taken a single sip of his drink yet.
San finds himself spacing out a little bit just looking at the guy. He’s not trying to be a creep! It’s just that Emo Guy is so nice to look at, like free eye candy. The dark stripes in his hair and silvery piercings are a direct contradiction to the rest of him. His face is small and round and San kind of wants to squish it like a stress ball. Is that weird? That’s probably really weird. Who looks at a stranger and decides they want to squish them?
It’s right then that Emo Guy’s eyes trail away from the laptop and meet San’s. San nearly spits out his drink at the statue-like intensity of this guy’s stare.
San downs the rest of his coffee (he's gonna regret that) and dashes out the door. His heart is running a marathon in his chest.
Why is talking to cool people so damn hard?
×××
The patrol is boring, as always. San’s left trailing after Mingi as they make their rounds around their Guild assigned quarter of the city. The sun slinks down the sky, painting the suburbs a beautiful orange. San has always liked the way the sun peeks at them through the vast woods as it goes down. He used to wave at it between the trees as a child. It’s stupid, but he finds himself doing it again tonight. Mingi's not the type to stare at him like he's a weirdo for it. Hell, Mingi's not even paying attention.
The evening air is still stiflingly warm, but without the summer sun beating down to amplify it the heat’s much more bearable. Mingi, for god knows what reason, has on sunglasses. The sun isn’t even going to be up for the majority of the patrol! There’s literally no point! He probably just does it because he thinks it looks cool (it doesn't).
Mingi also has his ever present earbuds in, so San can’t quell his boredom by talking the man’s ear off. This leaves him zoning out while Mingi drags him to the florist’s to get several bouquets of flowers. San quite likes flowers so this part excites him. They’ve bagged a few bouquets of chrysanthemums in fiery oranges. They’re bold and brash and definitely not orthodox (hunters are usually supposed to use white), but Mingi isn’t the most orthodox hunter. San likes that about him. Mingi doesn’t have a chronic stick up his ass like Hongjoong and Jongho.
When they leave the shop a thought occurs to him. Would Emo Guy want to talk to him if he got him a bouquet of flowers? Was that too romantic? San didn’t have a crush on the guy or anything! He just really wanted to be friends! Flowers were definitely too romantic. He didn’t want Emo Guy to get the wrong idea. He discards the thought as quickly as it came.
They’re on graveyard duty tonight. Which is a lot less exciting than it seems. When Hongjoong first introduced the concept to him, San had thought the place would be teeming with monsters looking for a fight. Zombies crawling out of the ground to snap up some brains, ghouls shoving each other to make way for fresh human flesh, ghosts running rampant about the land. Instead, ‘graveyard duty’ actually involved replacing the flowers on all the graves in the nearby Cemetery. This was done to make sure that zombies, ghouls, and ghosts stayed away from the area.
The graveyard isn’t particularly creepy either. It’s just a whole lot of graves and a whole lot of grass. San’s never seen anything stalk around the graveyard before. They keep it well protected. They always have.
The two of them split up the bouquets between each other and get to work. It’s a pretty calming activity, just walking around the graves, dusting them, reading out the names on the headstones, and placing fresh flowers on them. It’s really methodical, and San usually lets his brain go haywire while he does it. Unfortunately tonight, the only thing gracing his mind is Emo Guy. San groans internally, tired of how often this guy is plaguing his thoughts.
He fears that he isn't going to be able to get this guy out of his head until he talks to him. But, how? How was he meant to just go up to a very squishable, kind of scary, very emo looking guy and strike up a conversation? San's like the opposite of emo. He’s wearing athleisure 90% of the time. He listens to EXO and doesn't know a thing about rock music.
Wait- Mingi listens to rock music. Maybe he has a few pointers?
“Mingi! How do you talk to cool people?” San blurts out before he can stop himself.
Mingi’s on the opposite side of the graveyard so he yanks out an earbud to hear him better, “What?”
“I said, how do you talk to cool people!”
“Oh uh,” he places down a few flowers and moves to the next headstone, “you're literally talking to me right now?”
“Not you ! Like an emo person!”
There's a pause.
“San, are you trying to get a goth girlfriend?”
“What? No!”
“There's no shame in admitting it, bro! We've all had a crush on at least one emo girl from 2009!”
What on Earth is Mingi on about right now?
“I'm being serious, Mingi! How do I talk to someone with different interests than me? Making friends outside of work is so hard!” San accidentally places this flower down a little too aggressively and apologizes to the headstone.
“And the ‘different interests’ in question involve being emo?”
San nods, then realizes Mingi is facing away from him and says, “yeah.”
“Well, do you know any emo bands?” Mingi asks even when San’s a hundred percent sure Mingi knows the answer to that question.
“...does VIXX count?”
“No.” Mingi snickers, “I'll send you a playlist, man. All the basics. Fall Out Boy, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Evanescence. You could just listen to Black Parade and call it a day, I think that’s like the most basic of basics.”
San doesn't recognize any of those names except Paramore. He listened to a few of their songs in middle school. He's gonna try. He's gonna try really hard for Emo Guy, but first he has to get through the rest of this mind-numbing patrol.
They finish up with the graveyard in a matter of another hour, flowers all placed, graves all cleaned. They make a few more rounds around the city, combing through the streets as cleanly as they can manage with just the two of them. Hongjoong’s instructions are still a blank in San’s head, but Mingi knows them like the back of his hand. He follows Mingi and keeps his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary as always.
Of course nothing is amiss. Monsters usually went for young prey, anyone college aged or younger. Their assigned quarter takes up a historical district of the city and a college campus, meaning most of the fresh blood that monsters crave is gone over the summer. It’s just random tourists that come around and leave after they've seen the sights and maybe the college too if they're prospective students. San ends up spending more of his valuable patrol time practicing knife tricks as he’s walking than actually finding monsters to hunt. Why did Hongjoong think he couldn’t handle this? Nothing ever happened during patrols, let alone summer patrols.
It’s when they get back around to the corner at Oakwood, the last stop in their patrol, that San’s brain screams out at him that he’s forgetting something. San answers back to the voices gnawing at his mind with a yawn. It’s nearing midnight now, and he wants to be in bed looking up emo bands to impress Emo Guy with his emo knowledge.
It’s still hot, and sticky, and the corner at Oakwood doesn’t help with how congested it feels. The corner at Oakwood got its name from the small general store down the road called ‘Oakwood’. The store closed down eventually, but the name stuck. It’s a group of rickety old buildings that look like they've been glued together haphazardly, and also a demon hotspot. The demon part adds to the congestion. It’s stuffy and warm like hell’s leaking out a little bit. He doesn't know who or what keeps summoning demonic entities out of the corner at Oakwood but he would like them to stop, please.
Mingi crosses his arms in front of him and looks around for a bit. They’ve already checked this place, and it’s still just as empty as before. The ‘hell leaking out’ feeling is a constant thing, it’s not what’s off. Whatever’s off is a sinking feeling, like a boat filling with water, but he can't pinpoint where the water’s coming from.
Mingi turns away from the corner, and San follows obediently. There’s still something off though. Something scratching at the back of San’s memory like a feral raccoon.
They're several feet away when it finally clicks.
“Mingi, the salt.”
“Huh?”
The odd sinking feeling is crashing into San, rocking his boat.
“Hongjoong said to throw salt over your shoulder before you leave this place.”
Mingi chuckles, “Oh, you actually remembered this time!” he turns around on his heel to face San, “I was just testing y-Oh shit !”
San feels the boat tip over. Well, that, and the body slamming into his back, shoving him face-first into the pavement.
Claws wring the nape of San’s neck like a wet cloth. He can’t breathe. San scrambles for the salt, heart in his throat. He doesn't know what's on top of him. A demon, most probably. He can hear the quickening pace of Mingi’s footsteps. Of course Hongjoong’s instructions come back to him at the last possible second.
A hand catches one of his wrists just as San grabs a fistfull of salt. The creature’s kind of dumb, grabbing the hand that isn’t going for a weapon. San flings as much of the stuff as he can at his weird angle, which admittedly isn’t a lot, but he’s grasping at straws. A little salt, if any, should be enough against a demon.
He waits for the telltale sizzle, the smell of burning flesh. There isn’t any.
Instead, he feels the claws digging into his neck release and hears a loud hissing noise. Was he attacked by a giant cat or something?
He jumps to his feet as quickly as he can, slipping a random knife into his grip. Mingi has the creature in a tight grip. It’s thrashing around, hissing, screaming, baring pearly fangs.
It’s definitely not a demon or a giant cat. The hungry red eyes paired with an extremely pale human form are basically a confirmation of its species. A Vampire.
With how Mingi’s able to keep a hold on the creature it’s clearly a lesser vampire, thankfully not a newborn. Newborns and Truebloods, the bane of any hunter’s existence. Both extremely powerful and near impossible to take down. He needs to focus. It's an easy kill. He’s killed at least three other lesser vampires like this before.
But then the screeches grow more coherent. Actual spoken word instead of just feral screaming.
“My sire will make you bleed!” the vampire cries, “she will feast on your corpses, drain you down to your last drops!”
They’re taught not to engage if a monster tries to talk. A hunter can never be sure whether there’s power behind those words, or if they're just empty supervillain style threats. Mingi follows these procedures to a tee, focusing all his strength on holding the creature still.
“San!” Mingi calls, and San knows how to answer.
San switches out the random knife for a silver stake strapped to his thigh. He fixes his stance. He allows the tunnel vision to take over, aiming straight for the monster’s chest. The precision a hunter needs is almost medical. He can’t miss. If he misses they're both dead.
San inhales, and then exhales away his nerves. He dashes forwards and drives the stake into the vampire’s chest in one swift motion. One he's practiced over a hundred times
The vampire thrashes violently, screeching like a banshee. The smell of burning flesh invades San’s nose, but he holds firm, looking the creature in its blood red eyes. A stake through the heart is the closest to an instant kill he has, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely instantaneous. The stake needs to stay in long enough for someone to behead the creature.
The creature’s constricted pupils find San in all of its violent thrashing. It yanks out one arm from Mingi’s grasp somehow and winds its wiry, bone-colored fingers around San’s bicep. It smiles maniacally at him, even as it burns around the stake.
“She will hunt you, hunter.” its voice is nothing more than a hoarse growl, “she will hunt you dead !”
San knows not to let it phase him. He isn’t supposed to listen, but nothing a vampire has ever said to him has ever sounded so much like a warning. A warning with supervillain style cheese, but a warning nonetheless.
“You’re lucky I’m warning you! You’re so-” the vampire’s words are cut off by the silvery glint of a blade tearing through its throat.
The head drops from the body, rolls away from the both of them, leaking dark blood the whole way. San cringes away from it all. If there’s anything he hates about his job, it’s how violent they have to be about vampires. San doesn’t like decapitation very much. A lot of monsters don’t talk like this. A lot of monsters don’t need to be decapitated to die. Mingi’s grown used to it. He shoves the corpse to the ground like it offended him. It crumples and lays still. Dark blood continues to stain the ground beneath them.
It's dead.
Thankfully in the morning all traces of the vampire will be gone with the sun. It leaves less for them to clean up.
Mingi swipes a rag over his blade to clean the blood off and looks to San with a raised brow, “that's…unusual. It's not vampire season yet.”
San nods, very aware of the late June heat.
‘Vampire season’ refers to the time when vampires were most active. Which is typically fall, when college students bustle through the city streets like they were just asking to be picked off by monsters of all kinds. It’s not unusual to find vampires outside of this time, but they’re normally only the most feral kinds. The kinds that burn up immediately at a touch of sunlight, that thirst restlessly for blood and slaughter civilians with no other thought on their mind. Most can’t even speak actual words, too fixed on their animalistic need for blood. They aren’t particularly strong or as articulate as whatever just came stumbling out of the demon corner.
“It could just be a coincidence,” San poses hopefully.
“In Demon Central over here?” Mingi gestures to the rickety old buildings.
Mingi’s right. Vampires and demons don't ever congregate, but that didn't have to mean something was up.
“Maybe it got lost?”
“Tough chance,” Mingi turns and makes sure to throw salt over his shoulder this time, “let's report back.”
Mingi’s movements are a bit more rigid. He was probably spooked by the whole ordeal. San can practically feel the way the man’s flicking his gaze around under his sunglasses.
San knows well enough that Mingi’s easily frightened (kind of a contradiction in this kind of work), but it sticks out to him that the vampire has still got the man on edge. Mingi isn't usually that shaken up once monsters have been killed. Once the thing that jumps out at you in the night can't jump, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Maybe it had to do with how the vampire had broken through his hold in its last moments? Maybe it had to do with its message? San doesn’t think the message holds weight if he’s honest. At least he hopes it doesn’t.
San tries to not let the situation eat him up from the inside. The way an actual articulate vampire came out during an off time. Everything’s slightly off tonight even though the vampire’s dead. He sighs. Overthinking it will do him no good.
He throws his own handful of salt over his shoulder and follows Mingi back home.
This whole vampire thing, it's probably nothing. It's usually nothing. Please let it be nothing.
×××
San’s back at the cafe again the next afternoon. He takes a guess that Emo Guy’s gonna be there around then. Every time he's seen Emo Guy has been during Hongjoong's briefings in the afternoons, so it's a fair assumption. San finds himself fumbling through all of his newfound emo knowledge from last night. He can’t remember any of the names of any songs from Mingi’s playlist. He knows a few of them are really good and others aren’t his taste at all. He prefers softer songs, and most of the songs Mingi sent him were loud as hell. It's okay though. He can live with that.
He's trying to at least match bands with their logos in his head when Emo Guy enters the cafe. San tries not to stare at him, but it's so hard when the hair jumps out at him like a neon sign. Emo Guy places his order at the counter and slides into a seat at the table next to San. He's, horrifyingly, just an arm’s length away.
San gulps. Wills himself not to panic. It's not working. Emo Guy whips out his sticker slapped laptop. There are so many logos all over it, and they’re overlapped. San can't really figure out which one he's looking at. He can't pick out just one to point out. He turns away, realizing he's been staring. Sweat drips down his neck. Oh wow. This is so nerve-racking.
San’s drink finally arrives and he's thankful for the distraction. A steaming latte with a cute foam heart decorating it. Ok, how is he supposed to actually interact with Emo Guy at all? Whatever plan he had in his head is crumbling in practice. He can't remember anything. Emo Guy seems busy once again, and San is too scared to actually say anything.
Emo Guy's typing away on that laptop. He stops occasionally to stare at his screen for a few seconds, and then gets right back to it. San’s trying not to stare, but the slight furrow of Emo Guy’s brow as he concentrates is entrancing. Emo Guy is unfairly eye-catching from across the cafe and at the table right next to him. He's like a highlighter.
San pulls out his phone. He needs to phone a friend on this one. He isn't gonna achieve this interaction on his own.
Mango 🥭
MINGI
MINGI
MINGI
MINGI
MINGIIII
MINGIIIIIIIIIII
SONG MINGIIIII
SONG MINGIIIIIIIIIIIIII
WHAT
OK OK SO EMO GUY IS RIGHT NEXT TO ME WHAT DO I DO????
HELP PLS
bro I'm in class
Its a guy?
MINGI PLS
ok fine
just like point out one of the stickers on his laptop
THATS THE PROBLEM I DONT RECOGNIZE THEM
HES GOT THAT SHIT LAYERED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER
ok just chill
complement something of his
it doesnt have to be all that specific
OK ILL TRY
San takes a breath. Throws a few more glances towards Emo Guy. He’s making this so much worse than it needs to be.
He reaches out and taps Emo Guy on the shoulder. The breath leaves him when Emo Guy’s gaze is trained on him and not the laptop. There’s a question in the slight furrow of his dark brows. San didn’t notice before, but one of Emo Guy’s eyes is just as green as his hair. It kind of looks like a contact lens.
“Uh…” San starts. There are a million things fluttering through his head right now. His eyes flutter from Emo Guy’s gaze to his lips and then to his dark ripped hoodie, and suddenly he's forgotten what he was going to say, “your um…hair.”
“My hair?” Oh. Woah. Emo Guy’s voice is so much deeper than he'd expected.
“Uh, I really like your hair!” San blurts out before he can think better of it.
Emo Guy’s eyes widen and he points to himself disbelievingly, “you like my hair?”
“Yeah! It’s really cool looking!” San can feel his face heat up. He’s doing terrible isn’t he?
Emo Guy tucks a strand of green behind his ear, “Thank you,” he breaks into a soft smile that sends San’s heart soaring. Wow. Emo Guy was so unfairly pretty like this, “I like yours too.”
“Mine?” San’s suddenly reminded of his bright as hell firetruck red hair, and he probably turns that shade too with how hot it’s getting in here.
Emo Guy nods, “It’s very bold.”
“Thank you but I-uh…I actually kind of lost a bet.” San concedes.
“Really? What kind of bet?” Emo Guy questions, his eyes burning with curiosity.
San can’t say no to a look like that, “Yeah, it was super dumb. My friend wanted me to go with him when he dyed his hair again, and he kept urging me to get something done too. I told him ‘no way!’ but he decided we’d leave the decision making to a game of rock, paper, scissors. If I won I’d get to keep my natural hair, if he won I’d have to dye it and he’d decide what color.”
“...and I’m guessing you didn’t win?”
“Nope,” San sulks, “And he picked, like, the worst color too!”
Emo Guy lets out a small laugh, “I don’t think it's the worst.”
“You don’t need to sugarcoat it just because I’m a stranger,” San finds a smile stretching across his lips.
“No really!” Emo Guy insists, “I…I don’t mean to be creepy, but I’ve actually seen you around here a few times, your hair definitely caught my eye. In a good way!”
San raises a brow. He hadn’t expected Emo Guy to be looking at him too.
“It suits you better than, say, green would!” Emo Guy pipes up, “my friend told me about this color theory thing. Certain colors go better with each other than others. I wouldn’t say that your red hair clashes too much with anything else on you, so it suits you!”
San doesn’t know a thing about color theory, but he smiles despite himself, “Thank you.”
San peeks at Emo Guy’s laptop and the terrible curiosity that’s plagued him for days returns, “What are you doing on there?”
“Oh, um. My homework,” Emo Guy says sheepishly, “I’m a computer science major. I’m taking a summer semester.”
“Oh,” so he’s a student. Strangely, San didn’t expect that, and a STEM major of all things. San shudders at the prospect of fighting through math problems or coding or whatever it is computer science majors do.
“Yeah, what do you major in?”
“Oh, I’m not a student,” San feels the embarrassment creeping up his neck again. School was never really his thing growing up. Sitting next to someone studious enough to be a STEM major makes him feel a little stupid.
“Oh, sorry for assuming. Do you work?” Emo Guy’s smile is controlled, polite.
Ah. That's the kicker. The one question San didn't think he would be asked. Even though asking someone where they work is perfectly normal. He’s a monster hunter! He's supposed to have a cover story ready for situations like this, but San doesn’t really try to make friends outside of monster hunting. Well until today he didn't. The cover story’s being made on the spot.
“I work at my dad’s taekwondo studio,” The lie tastes bitter on his tongue. It's not a total lie! He used to work there full time before his apprenticeship with Hongjoong, but now it’s just somewhere he helps out when he has the time. San doesn't like lying, even if the lie is meant to protect his friends or soon to be friends.
“Oh, you do martial arts?”
“Uh, yeah,” he rubs the back of his neck, “I help teach little kids. It’s not much, but I really love it.”
Emo Guy sighs, eyes trailing into the distance, “Doing something that you love, huh. Sounds nice.” There’s a hint of panic in his gaze, almost like he didn't mean to let that slip.
“You don’t love computer science?” San’s a little confused.
“...Not really.”
“Not really?” San echoes.
Emo Guy looks a little hesitant, “I just need a well paying job, stable career, and money to send back home.”
San tilts his head a little, “Is computer science how you want to get there?”
Emo Guy’s eyes widen a little. San fears he’s hit a nerve somehow and prepares to backtrack.
“...It’s not about what I want to do. It’s just something I have to do,” is his answer.
San frowns, “But it is. It’s your life. That has everything to do with what you want to do.” Emo Guy’s a complete stranger. He shouldn’t be prying, but he looks so…trapped. For lack of a better word.
A sad smile tugs at Emo Guy’s lips before it melts into something more playful, “you're offering life advice, now?”
And San’s back to floundering, “I didn't mean to! I mean- I'm not telling you what you should do or anything! You don't have to listen to me at all if you don't want to-”
Emo Guy laughs all warm and sweet, it's the most genuine laugh he's heard from him yet.
“Do you have a name? I can't keep calling you Buff Tomato Guy in my head forever.”
Buff Tomato Guy . Oh San is about to explode from the amount of embarrassment coursing throughout his body right now. Buff Tomato Guy. He's going to kill Mingi someday. Stupid red hair.
“San. My name's Choi San.”
“Choi San…” San realizes now that he's saying his name, Emo Guy has a bit of a lisp. It's endearing if anything.
“What about you?”
“Yeosang. I'm Kang Yeosang.”
Kang Yeosang.
San finds himself smiling wide. Finally the mysterious green haired guy that he’s seen for so long at the back of this cafe has a name. He’s not just an enigma running a marathon at the back of San’s head. Finally his brain can give him a break, and he can focus on his job.
After all, Yeosang is just another innocent civilian in a city teeming with monsters. Another person San has the responsibility to protect.