✔ The Hunters | Garou

TWENTY FIRST HUNT

TENROU'S RUMINATIONS

"People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spider's webs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go."

Soft murmuring woke me up from my sleep.

I opened my eyes and squinted at the artificial light. The smell of antiseptic was in the room and I felt so nauseated.

Where am I?

I looked down and found that I was heavily bandaged and lying on a bed.

Am I at the hospital?

The curtains around my bed were drawn, and I could see someone else's bed next to mine. They were talking in quiet murmurs to someone.

What time is it? What happened to me?

I strained my memory, trying to remember what happened earlier. Then scenes of my riding to the forest behind S-city park, fighting Garou, and being defeated by him came to mind.

But in particular, his reply to my unprompted confession, "And I don't."

I felt a wave of different types of emotions. My eyes welled up with tears in pain of the rejection, and my teeth grit in anger that I was so foolish enough to be played by him. After all that I had done for him, he just had to do this to me.

I paused for a moment and sighed. But wasn't it expected? He's a Hero Hunter, and I'm a hero. I'm a part of the Association so, of course he would treat me like crap.

As I tried to push the thought of Garou aside, I looked around in search of my phone, and found it on the nightstand. I noticed my rose barette sitting right next to it and I immediately felt a pang and a sense of relief at the same time.

I strained to reach my phone, but it was out of reach. My hand was however in reach of the hair clip and I took it in my hand carefully to observe it.

The pink cloth that made up the rose was dirtied with blood and dirt. The glue that held the rose was coming off slightly, the metal clip's teeth were bent outwards, and the mouth was dented. It looked pathetic.

At that point, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was destroyed completely, but the fact that it still remained and was in my hand at that moment made me feel like my love for the giver of this clip was just as resilient as the gift itself.

Where did this resilience come from? I've known him for a year back then, and then we were estranged, and then we met again, being around each other for only about four to five weeks at most. I wasn't the most experienced in love matters, but I knew for sure that love isn't built in one month.

All the thinking made my head ache and my eyes water. I kept the clip back on the nightstand and strained again to get my phone. My straining to reach it was heard by the two people outside the thin walls of the curtains, and one of them pushed the curtain open.

"Onee-chan!" cried Zenko, who was standing in front of me, her big black eyes welling up with tears, "You're awake!" She ran to my bed and gave me a hug. Just behind her was Bad, who was still on his bed, looking squarely at me without saying a word.