21 Preparations

[Outside The Guildmaster's Room]

Yuin had invited Sora, Del and Rez to her place, she didn't say why, she just asked them to come. Sora wasn't busy and Del and Rez were coming because she told them she had a 'solution', this was probably related to that. Sora had arrived first and had been playing with Rin in the seating room, Del was the second to arrive and she was immediately entranced by how cute Rin was, whilst she had seen Rin before and knew that Sora had formed a bond with Rin through Yuin, that was when Rin was unconscious, to actually see her playing with someone and being happy - she immediately broke down and slowly walked towards Sora, trembling as she asked if she could pet Rin.

S: "Del? When did you get back?"

After seeing the state Del was in Sora accepted, she slowly bent down to pet it, Rin rubbed up against her hand first and Del, losing her self-control, lunged towards Rin, picking her up and rubbing her up against her face.

D: "You're so cuuuuuuute!!!"

Sora watched this all without stepping in, Rin didn't seem to be too uncomfortable, she actually seemed to be enjoying it, a while passed before Del handed Rin back to Sora. Only then did she wonder why Sora was even here in the first place.

D: "Wait, why are you here?"

Sora was shocked, he asked first, but he gave up and just told her.

S: "Hm? Well... The master invited me, I don't know why though."

D: "The master? Are you part of her solution?"

S: "Solution? What?"

D: "So you don't know..."

S: "Um... am I supposed to?"

D: "Well..."

Rez walked into the room.

R: "Hm? Sora?"

Del and Sora shifted their focus onto him.

S: "Oh, hey Rez."

Del looked away from him, she was still embarassed at what he said to Yuin when they had returned.

S: "Del?"

Del's entire body twitched.

D: "Hm? Yeah?"

Rez walked closer to the two of them.

R: "Hey Del."

D: "H-hey... Rez..."

R: "Um... you okay?"

Rez reached out to tap her shoulder but Del retreated to a chair at the corner of the room.

D: "Y-Yeah! I'm fine!"

Del's face had turned red but she was looking down to hide it.

R: "Really? Well... if you say so."

Rez started questioning Sora as to why he was here and how he tamed the kitten, Sora told him about the training they did together and as to why he was here... he responded in the same way he responded to Del, meanwhile Del was staring at the ground, completely quiet.

[5 Minutes Later]

Yuin walked out of her room in sloppy sleepwear, her hair was all over the place but she still had an abnormal charm about her.

Y: "Hey..."

Sora and Rez looked at Yuin, whilst they knew how she acted and what kind of person she was, theystill had to question whether or not this person in front of them was really the one they had the biggest amount of respect for. This thought only lasted for an instant though, they both did a slight bow. Rin just stared.

S+R: "Master."

Yuin just stared at them.

Y: "Oh come on... even when I look like this..."

Yuin waved her hand and a massive amount of wind magic swirled around her, the wind was so dense that it became a swirling fog, after an instant the swirling fog slowed down then dissipated, revealing Yuin in her normal clothes and her hair fixed. Yuin sighed.

Y: "You guys really need to lighten up... come in, take a seat."

Sora and Rez walked in.

Y: "Um..."

Yuin looked at Del, who was still staring at the ground.

Y: "Del?"

Del twitched.

D: "Huh?! What?!"

Yuin pointed towards the inside of the room.

D: "Oh..."

Del stood up and walked towards the door, lightly bowing to Yuin before entering the room.

Y: "Hmmmmmm..."

Yuin looked at Del as she avoided Rez and sat next to Sora instead.

Y: "Oh..."

Yuin smiled but decided not to comment on it right now. She closed the door and sat down with them.

Y: "Now, you must be wondering why you're all here."

All of them nodded.

Y: "Well... all three of you wanted to fight against a strong opponent to get stronger right?"

Sora stood up.

S: "Yes! Are you coming through with your promise now?!"

Sora had a wide smile, Yuin just laughed.

Y: "No, not me, I'm still busy with other things."

S: "Wha?"

Sora slumped, then fell to his chair.

S: "Then..."

Y: "Pretty easy solution to be honest, just fight eachother."

All of them were silent.

S: "Oh, yeah, I was gonna ask you two as soon as you got back anyway... completely forgot..."

D: "Well, that seems like the best idea."

R: "Let's do it."

This seemingly simple solution was one they hadn't thought of until now, mostly because of the fact that it was so simple. Sora was going to ask anyway but was too distracted by the fact that his fight with Yuin may have been what he was called for, and Del and Rez were too caught up in catching up to Sora that they didn't think of fighting him, they had only agreed now because Yuin had said so, if Yuin said that they could fight eachother, it meant that both sides were about equal, one side wouldn't have too much power over the other.

Y: "One other thing."

All of them looked at Yuin.

Y: "I'm making this a public event."

S: "Huh? I don't mind but... why?"

Y: "Well, if word got out that a fight between some of the strongest hunters was being held, alotta people would pay to see it."

R: "Money... seriously..."

Y: "Hey... do you have any idea how much the defenses for this village cost to buy and maintain..."

D: "It's fine, it's not gonna change anything for the fight. Just a couple more people watching."

S: "Yeah I don't mind."

R: "Hmm, good point. Welp, when is it then?"

Y: "3 days from now. Gives you guys more than enough time to prepare"

Sora, Del and Rez looked at eachother, they had been waiting for a chance like this since they had calmed down from the previous fight. All of them had gained a massive reminder of how weak they were in this world, up until now they had been called some of the strongest, whilst they weren't arrogant people, this kind of treatment would have one adapt at least some belief in the idea. From there on they focused strengthening themselves, they were in the top 3 now for the most powerful hunters excluding Yuin, Sora and Rin were counted as one at the number one spot, Del was number two and Rez was number three.

After the conversation with Yuin they all went to their seperate training areas, Sora and Rin went to the same clearing in the forest near the village and Del and Rez went out of the village to hunt random monsters, this went on for two days. On the third, Yuin went to pay a visit to each of them seperately.

[In The Forest Clearing]

Sora and Rin were training with the dummies, Sora had destroyed over 50 now and had to create new ones, this was because he was now using aura, looking to see the most effective way to actually attack, he had also been testing team attacks with Rin, Sora was standing still, readying his sword as Rin stood in front of him, Rin was standing here to act as a block for anything that would try and get in Sora's way. Sora was preparing a vastly improved version of his "Tri-colour strike", through his constant training he had come up with an effective stance for attacking and defending, right now he was enchanting his blade with an extremely pure light and an equally pure darkness, these two powers swirled around his blade then solidified, this was his new, most powerful attack - "Dimensional Split", he had lessened it to the absolute smallest of it's power, if it could slice through the dummy easily at it's absolute weakest state, the damage it could do to monsters like Rin when she was possessed would be immense. Sora's sword flashed and the dummy was split apart, the energy had been sent out instantly, the sword could not even be seen being taken out of its seathe to the naked eye.

Sora exhaled as he let the leftover energy he had gathered dissipate, Rin ran over to him and jumped on his shoulder. He smiled at her as he looked at the dummy. Clapping could be hear above him. Sora immediately looked up to see who it was, leaving his hand near his sword just in case. It was Yuin, Sora lowered his guard.

Y: "Wow, you're command over light and darkness is insane. I've never seen anyone use both at the same time with that kind of quality."

Yuin jumped down from the branch she was standing on.

S: "Thanks, but... why're you here?"

Y: "Oh, I can't visit my children now?"

S: "N-No... but... I don't know why you would come to me specifically."

Y: "Well, what I have to tell you is something you probably won't expect."

S: "Hm?"

Y: "The money from your fight with Del and Rez, it's not being used for defenses."

S: "Huh? Then what's it gonna be used for?"

Y: "Well, to put it simply, it's to send you three to a school."

Sora's eyes expanded.

S: "What?!"

Y: "Yeah, I've been watching you guys grow for a while now, after beating that thing in the forest, I think you guys have the potential to grow even stronger, maybe even more than me."

S: "You can't do that! We can't accept this!"

The price to get into a school was extreme, for one person it was quite a lot, over 1000 gold per person that joined, one would either need to come from a very wealthy family or find the gold some other way.

S: "The price to get into one is insane! What about the village?!"

Y: "The village'll be fine, I've been setting up all the paperwork recently and all the stuff for the defenses are done already, we don't need anymore, money gained from this will literally do nothing but give the village spare money."

S: "Isn't that better though?!"

Y: "Nah, we got enough to work with."

S: "But... why us..."

Sora had been wondering why she had chose the 3 of them specifically, they only rose through the ranks recently, it didn't seem like she had given this offer to anyone else.

Y: "You think I didn't ask the others? They refused, just like you."

S: "What?"

Y: "I've been doing this for over 20 years, I've asked over 50 of the hunters here if they wanted to go and most of them stayed, It's become a cycle for me."

S: "Everyone?"

Y: "Yep."

S: "Why did they refuse?"

Y: "Well, multiple reasons really, some of them felt an obligation to stay, some wanted to stay with their families, some couldn't accept the fact that I would spend so much money on them, some just didn't want to go, one of them even stayed because they liked me... that was awkward..."

Sora stayed silent, the oppurtunity to go to a school was a rare one, not only could they get more powerful more quickly, but you could make powerful allies there and lifelong friends. Sora thought about his parents and the friends he had made here and was hesitant.

Y: "Just so you know, this offer isn't gonna leave until you accept or deny it."

Sora thought about it more.

S: "Is- Is there anyone that's accepted it in the past?"

Y: "Yeah, a few."

S: "Who?"

Y: "You wouldn't know them, it was 4 people that left before you were 5, at that point you were addicted to the stories of the Legends right? You didn't seem to pay attention to the hunter rankings."

S: "Oh..."

Sora looked at Rin who stared at him with a neutral expression.

S: "Can I- Can I think about it?"

Y: "Yeah, the offer stands until you deny it after all, well, that's all I had to say - I need to go ask Del and Rez aswell."

Yuin quickly departed, seeming as though she merged with the air, leaving Sora in a conflicted state, he wanted to take the offer but he didn't want to leave everyone.

S: "What to do..."

[On The Top Of The Village Wall]

The wall that surrounded the village was one made of stone that was somewhat tall, it wasn't enough to completely block out the sun but it was about as tall as a fully grown tree, it was a small wall but it covered a large expanse of land. On the top of the wall were two people, sitting on the edge facing outwards away from the village, it was Del and Rez, they had a good relationship before the fight with the monster but had grown even closer after working on so much hunts alone together, Rez had been very blunt with his words and it would often embarass Del.

R: "Good hunts today, but I don't think we can get any stronger for the fight, we might as well relax."

D: "Yeah."

Rez took out a piece of bread that had some sweet paste inside of it. He had bought two and handed one to Del.

R: "Here, they were selling them at the market, we're rich after all of those hunts!"

Rez had a huge smile on his face.

Del's face went red as she took the bun. Rez had been extremely dense and didn't notice that the way he acted around Del now made it seem like they were more than friends, Del didn't know how she felt towards him, this only started recently after all.

R: "But man, we're fighting against the hero already huh..."

D: "Mm, it is surprising that we can test ourselves this soon."

R: "Think we'll win?"

D: "I don't think we'll lose."

R: "Huh? What does that mean?"

D: "The worst case scenario will be a draw, we need to make that happen at least."

Rez smiled.

R: "So that's what ya meant."

Rez looked towards the sky as he ate the bun. Del hesitated at first but joined him.

...

Y: "Look at you two, hanging out alone."

Del's entire body twitched as her face went a bright red and they both turned around.

R: "Oh! Hey master!"

D: "..."

Yuin smiled, she did this to confirm if Del felt awkward around Rez.

Y: "I've come to tell you something."

R: "Hm? What is it? Is it about the fight?"

Y: "Kind of."

D: "W-Well... wh-what is it..."

Yuin gave them the details as well as the fact that she had given this offer to Sora already.

R: "Wha-"

D: "What?!"

Del had broken out of her embarassment, this was way more of a shock.

D: "A school?! We can't possibly accept that!!!"

R: "Yeah! The money for going to a school... me and Del will probably have to do double the hunts we've done already! And we would still only be able to afford for one of us to go!"

Y: "I'm charging two gold per person, and there's over 6000 people in this village, over 3000 of them will probably come, and there's people coming from all over that have met some of the hunters, I'll probably be able to afford it."

D: "That's not the point!!"

R: "How can we accept that!!!"

Y: "Well, the offer stands until you deny it..."

Del and Rez hesitated.

Y: "Ha!"

R: "What?!"

Y: "You two hesitated, so some side of you must want to go..."

D: "Well of course! It's a massive oppurtunity, but..."

R: "It's..."

Yuin sighed.

Y: "Why does it have to be like this for everyone I ask..."

D: "Hm?"

R: "Every- one?"

Yuin explained the cycle she had been following for over 20 years now.

R: "What?! 50?!"

Y: "Yep. Only 4 accepted. You wouldn't know them, don't ask."

Del and Rez were silent.

Y: "Don't worry, offer's not going anywhere until you accept or deny it, fight with Sora and Rin and then decide."

With a flicker, Yuin disappeared.

Del and Rez looked at eachother. Rez looked at Del.

R: "If you go, I'll go!!!"

Rez had a wide smile on his face. Del's face once again went a bright red.

D: "Wha?!"

R: "Well I'm not leaving if you aren't we're a team now Del."

Rez raised his fist. Del knew that his words were genuine and smiled, whilst she was embarassed she knew that Rez was just dense and his wording needed work. She raised her fist aswell and bumped his.

D: "Yeah. I guess so."

They both looked towards the sky.