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From a distance, it looked like a normal wolf—large and vicious, with dead blue eyes that seemed to leech all the warmth out of your soul.
Yet as you got closer, you could sense hints of electricity in the air, or the tinkling of chimes on the wind, or a sour taste in the back of your throat that would make your brain ring with alarms of, something's wrong, this doesn't feel right, and turn back now .
This was no ordinary wolf. The presence of magic in the air, easily identifiable by Mafuyu’s trained senses, suggested that Mafuyu was currently a few meters away from a werewolf.
The gun strapped to her belt, chamber chock-loaded with rounds of silver bullets, swayed heavily against her side as the purple-haired hunter approached the animal.
Mafuyu shot a cursory glance at the full round glow of the moon as it began to disappear and the sky slowly lit up with the first slow rays of dawn.
She could hear the crackle of bones and whimpers that filled the air as the wolf squealed in pain. Mafuyu stepped quietly behind a tree, and watched, spellbound, as the wolf began its transformation—the animal’s fur blending from gray to off-white to skin and its form diminishing in size. With a heave, the wolf-human hybrid lurched onto its hindquarters—turning into normal legs—as if in a daze, staggering about like a toddler taking its first steps.
It looked almost comical—the big beastly werewolf, the terror of Shibuya, the monster that dominated this night and the animal Mafuyu had been sent to kill—spinning and tripping like a drunkard in one of Miyamasuzaka’s famous mead halls.
A looming figure and slavering teeth turned into a small girl, rubbing her eyes briefly and looking for all the world as if she had just come out of an ill-timed nap, and not a bloodthirsty rampage of Mafuyu’s village. The hunter noted the flowing white-blue hair that ran from her scalp to her knees—an evident connection to the long-haired fur the girl’s beast form held. As the girl realized where she was and began warily scanning her surroundings for any sign of danger, Mafuyu’s heart beat fast as she saw the sparkle of her eyes—light and blinding, instead of the wolf’s deep blue—catch the moon.
She couldn’t help but admire this creature, this weak and doddering person, right at the mercy of her own two hands.
Perhaps I should have shot her before she turned—the wolf would have made a fine trophy on my wall, Mafuyu thought with some regret.
As the girl’s back turned to the hunters’, Mafuyu took out her gun and moved away from the tree, muzzle fixed firmly on the square of the girl’s back. Before every step and movement she made, the hunter made sure to prod the ground and stagger her breath—watching for the right moment to strike. A slow smile fixated on her face as the werewolf yawned and stretched her arms out, Mafuyu’s fingers tensing on her trusty weapon’s trigger as she prepared to strike.
Zzzt!
The girl disappeared in one unnaturally swift movement, crouching down to the ground before Mafuyu could get her shot in. The hunter cursed and clambered out from her position, noting the arrow stuck in the tree just parallel to the werewolf’s position—some wild shot from a newbie up north that had the misfortune of interfering with her kill. She made a quick mental note of the starry ribbons attached to the arrow’s base— Tenmas, she thought sourly —before chasing down the wolf girl.
She was surprisingly fast for being just out of transformation, the girl weaving in and out of the forest seamlessly, dodging branches, and disappearing up trees that Mafuyu shot at furtively. Of course, Mafuyu wasn’t one of the best hunters for nothing—she watched the movements of foliage closely, looking for signs of disturbance and sending silver bullets ricocheting off of thick pines.
Experienced as the werewolf was in the forest, she was newly transformed—and humans couldn’t outrun a creature hunter like Mafuyu for long.
One well-placed shot where two trees interlapped caused a screech of pain and a heavy thump of a body onto the floor. Adrenaline pumped through Mafuyu’s veins as she tore across the forest to where she heard the noise, the hunter grinning widely at her incoming triumph—finding her prey, bleeding from a wound in her leg, crawling vainly away from her landing point.
“Don’t move.” Mafuyu pointed the gun directly at the werewolf’s head.
The girl looked at her and ceased her movements, seeing the glint of the polished handgun in the sun.
Mafuyu’s face slackened as she stared at her target. She could kill her right now, carry the corpse back and be faced with the cheers and adoration of the townspeople, but— where’s the fun in that? All she saw right now was a weak and trembling girl lying prone on the ground beneath her feet. The townspeople would probably attack me for killing her if she wasn't a shifter, she mused—slowly lowering the weapon.
Full moon today… about a month before the next one.
She reached slowly down to her belt where a length of thin leather hung, meant for the horses that she usually had to use when crossing large distances. Let the townspeople deal with her, I suppose.
Mother wouldn't wish for any more… controversies.
Hiss! A plume of smoke.
Mafuyu let out a cry, dropping her gun-hand to her side. One look revealed a half-embedded wooden branch, slick with shifter-blood, lodged within her forearm. The area around the wound blackened and sizzled, skin peeling back in layers as if to avoid the object.
With the ping of a dropped bullet, the werewolf stood up, the flesh of her leg knitting frantically back together over her bullet wound. Her right hand was covered in red and she stared for a moment at Mafuyu's arm—which was reacting to the last-ditch-effort lobbed stick in a way a normal human appendage should not have reacted.
The girl stumbled back for a moment, then ran, loping off into the underbrush while Mafuyu cursed and spat, reaching into the compartment on her belt and taking out a set of silver tweezers. With a teary eye, she pulled out the wood and flung it with a force to the ground—her boot thundering over it seconds later.
Damn. How best to hide this?
She took her leather loop and wrapped it tightly around her arm, hissing as smoky skin snapped to skin. She straightened and shot a few stray bullets into the forest, following the rough trail that the girl had left. No use , she knew—that wolf was smart enough to not stay on the same trampled path, especially not after angering a hunter.
Hunter. Mafuyu sheathed her weapon, flicking her tongue absentmindedly against her canines, filed down painstakingly into plateaus. She glanced at the sky, its rays filtering bleakly through the air. With a throaty exhale—her arm pulsing uncomfortably—she began the arduous journey back to home with an excuse and plan on her lips.
Shifters don't travel far in human form, especially not with such distinct characteristics as her, Mafuyu thought—passing by the unlucky arrow that ruined her hunt from before and pulling it out hard enough to splinter the shaft into wooden pieces.
Not very far indeed. She broke out into a run, her face and arms (the only uncovered parts of her body) beginning to heat up in the daylight.