As Kaiser drifted through the void that was consciousness, a voice came from somewhere beyond his reach.
"How does anyone lose that much blood? That's like the third bag they've given him, and you even healed him."
Then another voice.
"That's the second, one of those is IV fluids, and my healing doesn't work well when people don't have much mana."
"That sounds like it sucks. Why do we keep you around?"
"You keep me around because if you didn't, no one would be there to heal you after you get beaten half to death by a pack of Gnolls."
"THAT WAS ONE TIME!" At the sudden shout, Kaiser felt the world begin to gain more focus. "Plus, I was a C-rank at the time, it's not my fault…"
A new voice this time.
"You're going to wake him."
"Yeah, idiot."
'Where-' "Owww" Kaiser's entire body was in pain, as if his skin was burning from the inside out.
"See, you did wake him up."
Opening his eyes, he found himself in what seemed to be a hospital room with a nurse standing over him, currently fiddling with some sort of medical device Kaiser didn't recognize. But to be fair, he didn't recognize any of the medical equipment in the room.
"Why does it hurt so much?"
For a moment, the nurse looked surprised, but his face quickly shifted to that of a calm professional.
"Could you tell me if you're allergic to any meds?"
"No, I don't think so." Kaiser winced from the pain that even just speaking caused him.
"And what would you rate your pain out of 10?"
"Like an eight?"
Before the nurse could respond, the first voice spoke again from the other side of the room.
"Like I said before, the goblin probably poisoned him. I know that guy was like a doctor or whatever, but you gotta trust that we know what we're talking about when it comes to monsters."
Sitting in the corner next to the door were three figures Kaiser could have sworn he'd never met before, but for some reason still seemed familiar to him. The first was a woman clad in fashionable clothing that he might have been mistaken for street wear, if not for the pair of gauntlets hanging from her waist, which made it more likely it was armor designed to look like normal clothing. They were Hunters, likely the ones who saved him.
At that, the second person suddenly struck the first, though it seemed more playful than anything.
"Please excuse my friend here, she was dropped on the head as a child, and I'm sure getting tossed around by monsters every day hasn't helped any. Though she is right about the poison, it won't kill him, but he is being lightly digested."
'Excuse me?'
Unlike his friend, this man was evidently a Hunter; instead of streetwear, he was wearing priest robes and carrying a staff with a cross on it. While the clothing seemed impractical, it was common for certain types of healers to wear this sort of garb to enhance their healing magic.
"I'll check with the doctor." The nurse responded curtly before leaving the room.
The last man was also clad in Hunter gear, but unlike his friends, he was in heavy armor that covered him from head to toe. Looking at him, Kaiser was kind of surprised the man could even move under all that, especially with the great sword and shield he had on his hip and back, respectively. When he spoke, his voice echoed a little from inside the armor.
What caught Kaiser's attention more than anything, though, wasn't any of their odd appearances but the symbol they all wore. It resembled a coat of arms, and a simple one at that, just a great sword overlaid on a shield. The reason it had caught Kaiser's attention was that he recognized it; it was the symbol that represented the sixth largest guild in the Western continent and the third largest guild in the Eastern territory.
'Wait, they're members of the Glory guild? Wait, they're not just members…'
Kaiser looked back at the armored Hunter, who was wearing red plate armor with a matching set of sword and shield. Unlike most Hunters who used a sword and shield, he used a great sword that he wielded with one hand, and out of the Hunters in the Glory guild, only one person did that; their guild leader. Meaning his acquaintances were likely members of their main strike force.
"Thank you so much for saving me." With some trouble and a lot of pain, Kaiser lowered his head to the three Hunters.
"Hey, no, kid, you don't need to thank us; we were just doing our job." The woman spoke in a hurried, slightly embarrassed tone.
"You didn't have to go through the trouble of bringing me here, though, so thank you."
This time, their guild leader was the one to speak, but before he did, he finally removed his helmet, revealing his face. The man looked much older than Kaiser had expected, given everything he'd known about the guild. His expression was tired and a little on edge; it looked like he hadn't rested in a long time, and from the stubble on his face, it didn't look like he'd shaved in a long time either. That was sort of expected from a guild leader, though, especially the guild leader standing before Kaiser. Unlike most guilds, where the head was simply a high-ranked figurehead for them, Glory's guild leader was both Hunter and manager. Instead, it was their vice captain who was their most powerful Hunter, but he wasn't present.
"Don't worry about it, especially with all you've gone through. Plus, we wanted to ask you some things for our report to the bureau, so really, you're doing us a favor."
The guild leader paused for a moment, then his voice faltered a little as he continued.
"Before that, though, do you have any family? The hospital wasn't able to find you in the city records, so they haven't contacted anyone about you being here."
Kaiser waited a moment, as he weighed his response; however, before he could, the guild-master seemed to have taken that silence as an answer in and of itself.
"I see. I'm very sorry, um, what was your name again?"
"Kai."
He felt slightly compelled to clear up the misunderstanding, but he'd hesitated for a reason. If he told them about his uncle, then that might mean they'd leave him with the bill, and for Rin's sake, he couldn't do that. Even if it meant he'd be the one who'd end up being saddled with medical debt.
"Well, Kaiser, I'm not sure what kind of life you've been living until now, but I'm sure the Bureau will be able to help you. And don't worry about the medical bills, I'll cover them for you."
"Are you sure?" Kai was grateful, but he couldn't help but be suspicious, even if he was doing his best not to let it show.
'Why are they covering my expenses? Even if the Glory guild was rich, I couldn't imagine someone throwing away so much money for no reason. What are they getting out of this?'
"Of course I am, you've been through enough without worrying about money as well. Now, could you tell us what happened?"
'They did say they wanted to ask me some questions. Is that all they want for me in exchange? Maybe they're trying to get me to lie about something? But expecting a kid to realize that's what they want is a little odd…'
Still, Kaiser recounted what happened, from the late warning to his fight with the monster at the gate. He did, however, leave out the old man's cries for help. He also left out how the man had likely screamed Kaiser's name as he was torn to pieces, which made what the healer said next sting so much.
"I hope you don't blame yourself for that man's death. There was nothing you could have done for him."
Kaiser didn't respond no one did for a long moment. When someone did speak it was the guild leader who broke the silence.
"Was there ever a moment when you felt yourself find strength you didn't think you had? Or did it ever feel like everything was suddenly clear to you?"
"Now that I think about it, I think there was a moment like that right before I pushed the goblin down the stairs. Everything felt like it was going in slow motion. Why?"
"That might have been an awakening."
As the man spoke, the healer beside him nudged him with his elbow before whispering to him.
"He has — no mana, you're just getting his hopes up, plus he'd be showing signs of —zation if he'd awake–"
Kaiser strained to hear what the man was saying, but couldn't manage to fully catch that last part, something about signs he'd show if he had awakened, maybe? But that was odd since there usually weren't external signs that someone had awakened. Still, he chose to pretend like he hadn't heard what the healer had said.
"Is there any way to tell if I have awakened?"
"Unless you go to the Bureau, there's no sure way to tell. But there is a way you can use to sort of tell. Most awakened gain at least one skill when they awaken, and if you did, you should have an intuition about how to activate your skills. Try closing your eyes and looking for that power."
'Would that work?'
He'd never heard of anything like that before.
'Wait, no, maybe I have.'
While Hunters were still new and while no one knew how they worked, the only way to know how your skills functioned was via intuition, like every hunter had an instinctive understanding of their skills or at least some of their skills. But over the years, that had become less useful since documented information from other awakened with the same skill was more reliable.
Kaiser closed his eyes and did what the man said, focusing on sensing any change inside him. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, after all; he'd always wanted to be a Hunter, and so he'd trained his body and mind the best he could over the years.
At first, it seemed as though nothing was amiss; as if there hadn't been any change inside him. For a moment, he thought maybe he hadn't awakened, that maybe he'd just gotten a rush of adrenaline and confused that for the moment of awakening.
But then he shifted his approach. Instead of looking for something new, he tried to see if he could activate a skill, and that was when he noticed something: inside him was a ball of energy. That energy wasn't unfamiliar, but now it was as if he were seeing it for the first time. As if it had changed the moment he'd thought about using his awakened powers.
'I awakened! I did it, I can finally become a hunter!' Kai was excited, but that excitement disappeared before he even had a chance to express it. 'Wait, why does he care so much?'
In Kaiser's excitement, he nearly forgot his suspicion about the man's motives for helping him. Hunters saving people was part of their job, even the fact that they waited for him to wake up in the hospital was somewhat believable if they were especially good people, but why did they care if he'd awakened? And what did the healer whisper to the guild leader?
Kaiser opened his eyes slowly, looking at the Hunters with a sullen expression, all excitement gone.
"I don't feel anything. I- I don't think I awakened…"
At that, the guild leader's expression changed, not to a look of disappointment but
'Is that relief?'
Now Kaiser was even more confused; his best theory had been that they were hoping to make a future Hunter owe them by holding his medical bills over him, but why would they be relieved that he hadn't awakened if that was the case? And why did they look so sullen now? And above everything else, was it his imagination or had the man's hand strayed to the hilt of his sword while his eyes had been closed?
'None of this makes any sense.'
Kaiser watched the man's expression, but it remained inexplicable.
"That's too bad, we could use someone as brave as you as a Hunter. So if you ever do awaken, give us a shout; we'd be happy to have you in Glory. But now, I think we'll be on our way."
***
Before they had left, the healer of the party had tried using another healing him one last time, and while it soothed the pain a little, it didn't stop it altogether. At first, he'd hoped that rest would help him feel better. But it soon became clear that would not be the case. Over time, his pain only seemed to worsen, his body seemingly intent on either burning the poison out of his system or die trying. Even after receiving pain medication, the pain didn't stop.
By the time it felt like he'd fully recovered, it'd been a week. Surprisingly, it seemed as though his illness went away all at once, to the point they'd brought in a healer to try to save him, only to find that he was perfectly healthy again. Kaiser just hoped Glory would cover that expense for him, too.
Finally, the day he'd been released had come. Well, released wasn't exactly the right word for it; he had been mostly cleared, but the hospital had wanted to connect him with the Bureau since they believed he'd lost his family in a Gate break. He'd also overheard one of the nurses talking about notifying Glory that he'd recovered, which seemed a bit odd.
Whatever they had in store for him, Kaiser was not interested in, so instead, he simply slipped away while no one was watching. He'd given them fake information about his identity, so even if they did try to find him, they'd find it hard to, especially since Kaiser didn't have any real identification to find.
'So I'm an awakened now.'
While before he'd been a little unsure, now he was not, after all, it wasn't like most non-awakened fourteen-year-olds could fall from a second-story window of a hospital without hurting themselves at all. Not that Kaiser would know anything about that, of course.
Kai had dreamed about this moment for a long time, what he'd do, where he'd go, what powers he'd want. But now he couldn't do any of it. The obvious first move was to go to the bureau and get ranked to officially confirm he'd awakened. But he still felt uneasy about his interaction with the members of Glory; it might have been paranoia, but he had a bad feeling about it all, and for better or worse, he trusted that feeling. So what were his other options?
'How can I become as strong as possible as fast a possible?'
That was the be-all end-all of it, and what that would require was either endless practice or fighting real monsters. Hunters were a singular existence for many reasons, from the unique powers they held to the immense strength they wielded. But another way they were unique was the way they got stronger. Well, actually, not different from everything else, the closest equivalence would be video game characters.
Originally, it was believed that the power of an awakened was set at the moment of awakening, and after that, they could only get stronger by mundane means. Like getting better with a sword or honing their battle awareness. And while they could get stronger that way, people soon began to realize they could also obtain new skills through combat and training, and they could even rank up.
While the way someone could obtain a new skill was somewhat opaque, ranking up was not. The simplest and most common way to rank up was through training and killing a lot of monsters. As long as an awakened was diligent and devoted enough, anyone could rank up. But even if Kaiser was the most diligent awakened in the world, he would still be unable to get stronger as an awakened without being able to fight monsters. And the best place to fight monsters was inside Gates. Which he could not access.
Even if he could get inside a gate, Kai had a hunch that that wouldn't be the best place for him right now.