One Above All

Chapter 18: More Conversations and... Gunshots?

Notes: haha in the end if I released it late, what a bastard am I right?

But hey, the chapter is long.

0O0O

"I want to help people"

Yuna frowned once, waited a few seconds for the boy to continue, but when he remained silent without saying anything else, she knew that there was something wrong, then she looked at Quanxi incredulously, as if trying to confirm that what the boy said was true in somehow. Quanxi just nodded silently, refusing to speak allowing Hiro and Yuna to guide the entire conversation.

The older woman looked back at Hiro, her face impassive "Is that all?" she asked herself hoping there was something else.

Hiro knew he hadn't started off well, in fact now that he thought about it, all the times he had told the reason why he wanted to be a hunter it was because he found himself in an emotional situation. Like when Kishibe wanted to leave him in an orphanage, or when he told him that he wasn't going to train him.

Explaining it in a slightly calmer way was going to be more difficult than he imagined, mainly because it was embarrassing. He now he cursed himself for not having practiced before, maybe a monologue would have been good to start.

"Well...Yeah, that's all actually" Hiro replied with a shrug.

Yuna looked at him blankly "You can't be serious. It's the stupidest reason I've ever heard"

"I-it's not stupid" the boy replied.

"Of course!" Yuna corrected.

"N-no! I mean, I think that's a good goal."

"Do you even know what you're talking about?" Yuna looked at him in exasperation "You're trying to become the typical TV hero who's going to save everyone through hard effort"

Hiro felt his arms tremble "I didn't mean it that way, what I meant was that I want to try to save as many people as possible, get them away and save them from the devils"

Yuna growled in disgust at what she was hearing.

"I just want to do that, there's nothing wrong with becoming a hunter and-" Hiro stopped when Yuna put a hand in front of his face denying him permission to speak.

"I'm going to hold you there for a moment," she said, holding back her frustration as much as she could and sounding as formal as her job required.

"Hiro Takahashi, do you know the reason why the Anti-Demon Public Security exists? I don't mean just Japan's, but the whole world"

It was a question that caught Hiro off guard, he hadn't explored much about the history of devil hunters beyond what Kishibe had told him, for the simple reason that there didn't seem to be anything else to ask or any doubt to answer.

He had been direct and simple at the time, but if he had known he was going to use it for a test like this he might as well have studied sooner.

"Umm" Hiro tried to formulate an answer "To save people?"

There were a few seconds where neither Hiro nor Yuna said anything, they just remained silent, the demologist looked at the boy with an indecipherable expression, Hiro didn't know if he had given a good or bad answer. But he knew that when someone looked at him so intently it was because he had done something wrong.

Everything was silent, until Yuna raised her head and laughed.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" An uncontrollable laugh tore from her throat, refusing to stop.