"You blew a hole in a mountain?" Jackson asked, wide-eyed with surprise. Alice laughed it off. "Yeah, sure did, Rockerboy. But enough about me—how'd your research go today?" Jackson offered a half-hearted smile. "Nothing yet. But don't worry, we'll have plenty of opportunities to battle more demons, and I can collect more DNA from them." His cheerful grin returned as he added, "Matter of fact, we can check the board to see if there are any targets." Alice raised a brow. "There's a board for hunting demons? Like an adventurer's guild?" "Exactly," Jackson replied. "We're gonna try to catch a halfie alive, study it, and see if I can finally figure out why they're becoming demons—and maybe even find a way to reverse the curse. You with me?" Alice met his gaze without hesitation. "Absolutely."
As Alice and Jackson walked through the halls, she admired the statues of demon hunters from ages past until one name caught her eye—Ryan Clark, the most famous of them all. Legend claimed he was the only hunter to descend into hell itself and slay an archdemon, and, if the stories were true, he made it look effortless. "You staring at the Ryan Clark statue?" Jackson asked. "Yeah. I'm new to this world, but somehow I already knew who he was. Maybe I'll be like him someday." Alice turned back to Jackson with a grin. "Hey, Rockerboy. We going demon hunting? If so, let's get moving." Jackson took the lead, guiding her toward the main bulletin board. "Hey, Alice, been meaning to ask—what's your rank?" "My what?" Alice blinked, confused. "You've got a Demon Hunter Association badge, right? It should show you there." Alice pulled out her badge and handed it to him. Jackson squinted, then nearly shouted. "Let's see… you're an… S-rank?! How the hell are you an S-rank?" Alice shrugged casually. "I don't know. The hunter who found me gave it to me after I woke up in the hospital." Jackson's cheerful tone vanished, replaced by sudden gravity. "Which hunter found you, and why were you in the hospital?" Alice recounted everything—her fight with Hal at the Inn, the chaos that followed. Jackson seemed fine hearing it, but when she mentioned David, his eyes widened, as if something deeper had just been revealed.
"David who?" Jackson asked, his tone dead serious. "David Jones—I think that was his last name. I can't quite remember," Alice replied. Jackson glanced around the foyer, then back at the jobs board. After a moment's thought, he pulled down a listing for eliminating three C-rank demons from a town five miles southeast of the barracks. "Follow me," he said, taking Alice by the arm and leading her toward their dorm. His expression hardened. "So… do you have any idea who you've tangled yourself up with?" Alice shook her head slightly. "Not really. All I know is that he was there after I blacked out fighting the demonized Hal. He gave me this hunter's badge and told me to find Jessica. That's it." Her voice was calm—unusually calm, Jackson noted. He stopped, his gaze heavy. "Well, Alice… you've become indebted to one of the most notorious hunters the Association has ever produced. He kills demons with a near obsessive relish, has no qualms about cutting down his own hunters if they get in his way, and he's gone AWOL so many times that even speaking his name is taboo among us." Jackson drew in a deep breath, his voice dropping lower. "He's also responsible for my mother's death. She was partially demonized but still clung to her humanity. But he killed her without remorse."
Alice took a moment to process what she had just been told. After nearly two minutes of silence, she finally asked, "What do I need to do going forward? I know for a fact he'll want to see me again." Jackson met her gaze directly, his expression unflinching. "Give him just enough to get by. Nothing more, nothing less. And anything we talk about stays between us—at any cost. Got it?" He waited for her response. "Yeah, I got it. No more, no less," Alice said firmly. Jackson glanced down at the papers he'd pulled from the board. "We're gonna take on a couple of B‑rank demons and bring them back to my lab for analysis. Get ready—you've got twenty minutes." His demeanor shifted back to normal as he spoke, the intensity fading from his voice.
Alice spent most of the twenty minutes infusing various tools with her aura. She topped off the brass knuckles the dying hunter had given her, then reinforced her arm and hand wraps so she could unleash her full punching power without the knuckles putting stress on her bones. She infused a pair of dual batons as well, giving herself a potential range advantage—assuming the demons they faced were smaller than the fire demon. Once everything was prepared, she packed the tools into her bag and headed to the dorm entrance, where Jackson waited with a single katana strapped to his side and a couple of potions in hand. "What're those for, Rockerboy?" Alice asked. "Just backup items in case we get into a pinch—though I don't think we'll need them," Jackson replied. "You ready?" Alice nodded stoically, and the two of them left the compound, heading toward the last known location of the demons.