Chapter 1: Monster Hunter

"State your name and speak your purpose?" I asked, firmly, after pinning down a man - who had just entered this room I had no clue why I was in. My sword was to his neck and I was in an easily irritable mood due to the fact I had no recollection of how I got here.

In my confused rage, I grew quickly impatient as he just stared at me in shock and yelled: "Well!? Speak! Or do I have to rip your throat out!?"

"Woah there! Let's just calm down a sec. No need for anyone's throat to be dismantled!" The man put his arms up in surrender. "My name is Aiden and I'm a blacksmith. An extremely talented one at that. Talented enough to know that you have a damn fine blade, miss. Never seen anything quite like it."

His smile in such a situation threw me aback and almost lead me to kill him on the spot. But he was indeed correct. Nokoribi was an exquisite weapon forged from a combination of S grade Elder Dragon ores and soul of a sleeping devil.

"Tell me our whereabouts." I demanded.

"Earth? My house specifically… Sheesh." He gave a frustrated sigh. "You're definitely not human… I should've known. With the two-toned teal and fiery hair and those hypnotic amber eyes." With shock I withdrew my blade and sheathed it.

"So you are a human?"

"Yes?"

He sounded uncertain, as if he didn't know himself. I wasn't sure if he was just saying it because he thought that's what I wanted to hear or he was actually hiding something.

"Is that so?" He looked human, but his red hair and an unusual amount of incomprehensible spirit energy deep within him made me question it. "I sense an ancient amount of power in you, Aiden."

"Oh? Do you now? Are you some sort of sorceress?" He scoffed.

"I'm a dragon actually." I got up and flared my strong wings and revealed my horns.

"Of course you are." He gave me a painful smile.

"Do you know how I got here?"

"On Earth? I don't know specifically. However, I do know the son of a bitch, who brought you to my house." Aiden got out an unfamiliar device from his pocket and threw it on the floor beside me.

Involuntarily, I pointed my blade at it, in case it was dangerous, but it began showing a projection of some sort.

"It won't kill you." Aiden chuckled at me as he pulled up a chair to sit on. Another human appeared but the person definitely wasn't here in reality. It was almost as if Aiden had created a magic mirror.

"What is this sorcery!?" I queried.

"It's a hologram, Miss Dragon Lady. I'm calling someone who will give us both some answers."

"It's Ember to you. As daughter of the Elder Dragon I should be treated with upmost respect!" I growled.

"Yes, yes, of course." I could tell he wasn't taking me seriously and a stared at him with a burning rage. "Mr Kaguya, dear friend, tell me why you've left this fine lady in my room."

"You're complaining about having a beautiful woman in your room with you?" The hologram man chuckled, mockingly. "By now, I could imagine that you've already-"

"Quit shitting around!" Aiden yelled with anger and in an attempt to cut off his sentence. "Once again I'm being put in danger because of your stupid, sympathetic decisions. Don't you ever think 'Hey, maybe my mate Aiden has had enough of these crazy, random, confused people in his house trying to kill him', like ever?"

"Are you jealous because I'm not giving you the attention you want? You know I'm a busy man, but I can be flexible if you want it to just be me and you, Aiden?" I quickly found out that this man was mischievous and seemed like a lot of hard work to deal with.

"What the hell are you on!? I don't care about us! I care about me and the fact my life is always the one on the line!"

"How selfish! I thought we were in this together!?" The man couldn't stop laughing. What an odd relationship I am witnessing.

"Danté, could you stop being an idiot for as sec and actually fucking listen to me. Answer the question." We watched as the man seemed to be staring at something, suddenly more serious. "YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!"

"Can't talk now, but take care and please don't die, Aiden. I need you." He smiled.

"Was that supposed to be sweet? It makes me want to come over and kill you, it was that disgusting." I sniggered to myself slightly amused after realising that Aiden and I had the same murderous impulse when we got angry.

The device shut itself off after that.

"Miss Ember."

"Yes?"

"We're going to go find him. Now, that is if you don't mind."

"Are we going to kill him?" I was eager for battle since I got here, so this would be a great opportunity.

"As much as I would really love to, we can't. He's far too precious to this country right now. But I may allow you to torture him. Just a little. That will probably keep me sane." Aiden gave a sinister smirk. "Aight, let's be off then."

Before leaving, he grabbed a ton of snacks and began shoving his mouth full of food - packing some away for later too.

"You hungry?" His stuffed face and the unappetising sight I saw from when he spoke with his mouth full definitely put me off. I quickly shook my head in disapproval. "Your loss." With that he escorted me out the front door and just as we took a few steps outside, a loud boom filled the air.

A barrier began to forge itself around the house. I looked up and watched as the once crystal clear blue sky was engulfed by one humongous black cloud within seconds. The house was entrapped within a magic bubble in no time.

"Shit. If they were coming, he could've had the common decency to tell me!"

"Who? What's going on? What's happening?" I was completely lost to what he was going on about.

"It's the E.P.P."

"The what?"

"Earth's Protection Programme. I didn't expect they'd arrive so soon... quick! Back in the house. Let's move!" Aiden took me by the hand and darted into his house, slamming the door behind him. It wasn't long before there was a loud knocking at the door.

"Agent Minami and Agent Leona of the E.P.P here. Let us in. There may be some kind of danger in here." A strong female's voice shouted from behind it.

"Sorry! The house isn't ready for any guests yet!" Aiden said whilst dashing back and forth around the room, throwing about weaponry and wrecking his own house.

"Open this door! Or we'll open it by force!... I love saying that. Hehe." A second light voice spoke this time.

"Oh no, that's not necessary! I'd like to keep my house in tact, thanks." How ironic of him to be saying that at a time where he's making a terrific amount of mess! Eventually, he stopped wildly running around and decided to tell me the plan. "I want you to hide somewhere."

"Hide!?" I shrieked. "I am a dragon! I do not HIDE from battle, I take it head-on, pound it in it's face and tear it to shreds!"

"There's no need to battle. We don't want any trouble, we just need to get to my friend. Now please do as I say." He made his way to the door and got ready to open it. "Come on, Ember, please. It's for your safety."

"Fine." I said, reluctantly moving to a spot where I couldn't be seen.

"We're coming in! In 3... 2..." Aiden opened the door and left them to tumble into the house.

"Now, now ladies no need to be falling for me." He laughed.

"Ahaha! That's a good one see – because we've fallen – on the floor." The lighter voice giggled, brushing herself off from the fall.

"Why hello there, Miss Minami. I definitely wasn't counting on seeing you so soon... again."

"Your foolishness continues 'til no end, Aiden. Do you not learn your lesson? Every time these alerts pop up you seem to be involved and every time there's some monster not trailing too far behind." The other woman was already searching the house.

"Leona, always straight down to business per usual. So... to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you two lovely assassins in my house?" Aiden asked, trying to distract them.

"Oh, I think you already know why." Leona frowned at him, not buying it and continuing scanning the place.

"But I'll tell you anyways!" Minami was much chirpier and laid back than Leona. "There's been a gate fracture, which opened yet another muti-dimensional bridge for other species to cross... or in some cases unwillingly get warped into by chance.

"We detected a strange amount of spirit here. I'm supposed to ask if you've seen anything strange right about now... but I'm sure you wouldn't tell us anyways." She sighed. "Sorry about this, Aiden, you do seem like a truly good person though. It's just that we have a duty to exterminate-"

"Any monsters, filthy creatures that don't belong here on Earth. It's our mission to keep this realm safe from harm and no matter what or who we will destroy it and anyone that gets in our way."

Filthy creatures? A monster? Was Leona talking about me!? I was at the very edge of my temper. It was bad enough that Aiden damaged my pride, making me hide instead of battle - but to be insulted by people, who don't even know me, is unforgivable. I lashed out in anger and went straight for Leona's head with my sword.

"HOW DARE YOU!!!" I yelled, charging at her with all I've got.

"Ember, no! That wasn't part of the plan!" Aiden ran towards me in attempt to stop me, but he was already too late. Well... I thought I had her for sure, but she easily dodged my reckless move causing me to stumble a little.

"Bingo." Leona gave a menacing sneer.

I immediately regained my balance and I charged at her a second time without thinking. She brought out a gun and aimed it directly at me then took a shot. Before I knew it the bullet dropped to the floor in two pieces and Aiden was right in front of me with a sturdy silver sword in his hand.

He had cut the bullet in half from such a minuscule distance with ease.

"Here comes trouble." He gave me a furious gaze over the shoulder as I stared in awe. That's not in any way humanely possible, is it? I couldn't help but get so lost in my thoughts that I wasn't focused on my surroundings and I heard a gunshot from behind me.

Before I knew it I was hit and was rapidly losing consciousness...