Marked by Daemons

the association

9:47 am September 12th 2019
Infirmary, The Association HQ

The sun pours in through the windows, illumination dancing whorls of dust. Sai opens her eyes wearily, regretting not drawing the curtains the night before. Her head pounds a steady beat and she wishes she could go back to sleep.

The nurses visited her last night after Director Oda, the man who questioned her, left. They couldn't find anything wrong with the scar though. There were no traces of Daemonic energy or infection. It looked like a scar from a years-old wound.

Her hair is still in her mother's braids, and although it had come half off, she refuses to re-braid it. A last piece of her dead mother. She wants to wind back time, to go back home, to hear her parents' laughs, to see them smile, to feel their hugs and kisses... That Daemon...

Now that she thinks about it, Oda had seemed surprised when she told him about how human the Daemon looked. Impossible. He had told his colleague. All the High Daemons were eradicated decades ago.

Does that mean that that Daemon is a High Daemon?

Sai shivers in her covers and slowly sits up. High Daemons are like myths now. If her parents were killed by one, that means that she would have to prepare for a re-assault. She would have to be one of the best Hunters if she wanted to get her revenge. And for that, she has to start training at the most prestigious academies and safehouse for Hunters- the Association.

With renewed energy, she jumps out of bed and hurries out of her room to find Oda.

The building is long and winding, she wonders how there haven't been any Daemon attacks on a place so concentrated with Hunters. Like some Hunters can sense Daemonic energy, most Daemons are lured to Hunters. It's a cycle sort of thing. One cannot exist without the other. That's what her father used to tell her.

As she walks through the corridors, she passes several young Hunters who watch her pass with interest. When she passes the fifth group of Hunters, she realises that all of them are males. There were no females apart from the nurses in this building. She stops suddenly. What if they don't accept girls into their ranks? How will she make it to the other side of the country, where her mother studied, alive?

"Sai, it's nice to see you awake," a familiar voice says. She turns around and sees that it's Director Oda.

"I wanted to speak to you," she says, and then adds as an afterthought, "Director Oda."

He studies her form, her bedhead, and her clothes from the day before. "Let's get you changed first, shall we?" He leads her back to the infirmary and speaks to a nurse. She nods and returns a little while later with a pile of clothes, a hairbrush, a toothbrush and a bar of soap, which she leaves on the bed before returning to her work.

"I'll wait outside."

She closes the room door and takes a wash in the little adjoined bathroom. She then comes out wrapped in a towel and takes a look at the clothes given to her.

They were similar to what the boys she passed before were wearing. A double-breasted white shirt with a button near the high collar and a pair of black pants. She tries them on and they sit on her loosely, the sleeves and the legs of her trousers too long for her small stature. She folds them up hurriedly and brushes down the bits of her hair that are sticking out.

Opening the door, she steps outside worried that Oda might have left, but he is still there in animated conversation with the nurses.

"Director Oda?" She interrupts meekly.

"Ah yes, you're ready. Let's go up to my office then."

She follows him up a flight of stairs that she had missed on her first round. "I was wondering," she starts as they enter his office. "If I could join the Association. I want to learn to be a better Hunter."

He looks up at her. He is not surprised, she realises. He expected this.

"Before that," he says looking away and rummaging through the folders on his desk. "I wanted to let you know that your father wished for me to be your guardian if something were to happen to him and Elise." He slides a file in her direction.

Hands shaking, she opens the file and tears up. Those letters are her father's. The messy scrawl that was hardly understandable filled pages of correspondence between Oda and himself. She hugs the file for a few seconds before reading what was on the topmost letter.

Dear Sam,

I hope this letter finds you well.

Little Sai is all grown up now, and from what I can tell, she aspires to be a Hunter. She begs me to teach her all my tricks with the longsword, and she is catching up fast. She's just like her mother. I hope she learns her mother's technique as well. (I still stand by the theory that techniques can be learned and are not inherited by the way).

She smiles through tears before skimming through the next paragraphs, something about sending in reports of Daemonic activity and how it was rising fast in the past few months.

I fear my time might soon come to an end, Sam. And I fear that I'm putting Elise and Sai in danger. Something big is coming, Elise says she can feel it too.

So I have one last favour to ask you before my time. Please look after Sai after I'm gone. Let her train at the Association. I know it mainly focuses on teaching combat, but I need someone I trust to keep an eye on her. Will you be her guardian?

Love always,

Nick.

She scans the top of the page again. The letter dates the 15th of August 2019. He's been preparing for this day, that's why he suddenly started teaching her in higher intensity. That's why he made sure her mother taught her how to detect Daemonic energy. She regrets not taking it seriously. How she wishes she could go back to the time when she could sit with her head on her mother's lap, where she could talk for hours with the both of them.

She closes the file and looks up at Oda.

"When do we start?"