//------------------------------// // Yet Another Incident // Story: The Hunter // by Steventheman //------------------------------// Koakuma lay on the bottom bunk, hands over her face. She knew that entering the supposed “Secret Wing” of the library would be a mistake. She let her curiosity get the better of her, and now she had a curse. A curse of ending up in a strange land, in a strange bed, in a strange underground complex owned by a strange race’s strange military with a very strange human...who snored very loudly. And strangely. Koakuma could only describe it as sounding like a dog getting strangled. She rolled the thin pillow over her ears, ignoring how her calves fell over the metal bedframe. Basically, at that moment, being Koakuma was suffering. The devil looked at the clock - The only time reference they had. 3AM. Or PM. It wasn’t like they knew what outside actually looked like. She closed her eyes in an attempt to get some sleep, but her mind was racing too fast. If Koakuma had come here because she entered the Secret Wing, then how did Marisa get here? Was Marisa also in the Secret Wing? A particularly sharp snore pierced the pillow. Koakuma growled, before getting up. She stared at the sleeping witch, before pushing her onto her side. “Uhh...what?” Marisa sleepily asked. “You snore like a dying cat. Shut up!” Koakuma growled, returning to her bunk. “Ah, right...” Marisa replied, before rolling onto her back again and going back to sleep. Koakuma stared at the top of the bunk bed, wondering if there was enough bedsheets and blankets to hang herself with. Surely death would be better than this. Marisa jumped off the bunk. Koakuma remained in her bed, still staring at the top of the bunk. “Hey, kid,” Marisa yawned, slipping her black dress on. The devil slowly turned towards the witch, her eyes bloodshot. “You need to see a sleep specialist. That noise you created last night can only be described as sonic warfare.” “Sonic warfare? That’d be a great name for a band,” Marisa laughed. She knocked on the iron door. “Hey! I want breakfast!” A slot on the door glowed blue with telekinetic energy, before opening up, revealing a pair of eyes, before it closed again. Marisa heard the sound of a lock clicking, before the door opened. “W-124, T-543, please follow me.” Koakuma rolled out of the bed onto the cold floor. She slowly got to her feet, and began shambling towards the door. Marisa played around the with the small container of butter. They had given her some bread, an apple, a small plastic stick and two tiny plastic containers of butter. She turned to the guard. “What the hell is this?” Marisa finally asked, pointing at the inadequate ration. Koakuma looked sternly over at Marisa. “Be nice.” “If you think this can sustain an eighteen year old female for more than an hour, then your entire society is fucked.” “Marisa, no- Wait, you’re eighteen?!” Koakuma wasn’t sure to be more shocked at the sudden profanity or Marisa’s young age. “Why, how old do you think I am?” Marisa replied at Koakuma. She turned back to the guard. “In case you didn’t know, I’m absolutely starving here. This is screwing up my diet,” Koakuma snorted in derision. “If you diet, then I’m the Queen of France.” “Shut up, your Majesty,” Marisa replied. She turned back to the guard. “Are you even listening? Are you deaf?” The guard stayed silent. “Koakuma, you know medical things. Go see if this dude’s dead.” “How do you know that I know how to pronounce a clinical death?” “Because you live with a woman who is one dusty book away from lung failure,” Marisa folded her arms. “And since I doubt that your maid values life at all, or that Remilia is even aware of the fact that Knowledge squats in her mansion, I think it falls on you to be a carer.” “Well, I’m not. Miss Knowledge is perfectly capable of functioning independently,” Koakuma said. “She can take her vitamins just fine without me.” “I am alive, if that’s what you’re asking,” the guard finally declared. “What, so why did you ignore me?!” Marisa demanded. The guard remained silent. “Screw this place. Koa, give me your bread,” Marisa put her hand out. “What? No!” Koakuma defended her food from the witch. “I bought you ice cream, you owe me!” “You stole the ice cream!” “Did it taste any different because I stole it?” Marisa asked. “Hey, I’m just as hungry. Just eat your portion and deal with it.” Marisa relented, before glancing at the guard. She leaned over the table towards Koakuma. “Hey, what if we kill that guy and cook him? He’s a horse, horses are edible.” “No, we are not going to kill and eat a prison guard.” “Coward.” “Specimens!” a loudspeaker declared. “Your conversation makes for interesting listening.” Marisa facepalmed. “Genesis!” “In thirteen minutes with insufficient food, you have shown anger at a third party, attempted to steal someone else’s food, and then felt ready to commit murder in order to obtain food,” Genesis noted. “So, you created an experiment? What was your hypothesis? See how long you can screw with Marisa Kirisame before she loses her patience? Because I lost my patience with you when we met.” “No, we were just testing what happens when you are given insufficient food.” “You’re a crappy scientist if you think we would’ve reacted in any other way,” Marisa replied. “This would’ve worked much better had you given us proper portions of food for a while, and then cut down the portions until they were nothing. Not only that, but that “third party” is complete bullshit, because he was ignoring me. Of course I was going to get angry with him! Who made you a xenobiologist, because they should be shot for gross stupidity.” There was only silence from the loudspeaker. “I might eat the guard just to spite you,” Marisa yelled. She sat back down and turned to Koakuma. “Did you meet that son of a bitch when they interrogated you?” “That guy on the microphone? Yeah, he was pretty threatening towards me.” “Yeah, he’s...socially challenged,” Marisa picked up the first piece of bread and took some crust off it, before eating the crust. “Maybe his mother didn’t hug him enough, I don’t know.” Koakuma stared at Marisa. “Do you ever think about what you say before you say it?” “Why should I? Nobody pays me to think.” “...Nobody pays you at all, you don’t have any employment,” Koakuma responded. “In fact, have you ever had a legal job?” “Once, when I was thirteen.” “And what happened?” “Got fired. Claimed he saw me stealing. Which I didn’t.” “Marisa, I know you too well by now to-” “No seriously, I actually wasn’t stealing anything. He fired me on a hunch because he lost a few apples or something,” Marisa spread some butter onto the second piece of bread. “From that point on, I thought ‘Why should I make the effort of coming clean, and getting a job when people just fire me on baseless accusations anyway?’” “Wow...” “Joke was on him though, he had to close down the shop a month later because someone kept attacking his suppliers. And hey, the current gig I have is the greatest. No contract hours, pay is whatever I want, I can call over my friends and nobody will yell at me, I can come into work high, or drunk, and nobody bats an eyelid...” Koakuma stared at Marisa again. “You have a strange quality, where you can make me empathise with you and maybe give you the benefit of the doubt, and then you proceed to piss away all that good will with the next thing you say.” Marisa shrugged. “I’m an acquired taste. Like beer, or horse.” Genesis listened intently on the conversation. Unlike Equestrians, these creatures had absolutely zero problems with using profanities - Equestrians rarely swore, as it was seen as a sign of brutality, or unintelligence. Humans and youkai, however, said whatever they wanted. Koakuma’s...colourful description of Marisa proved that. In addition, Marisa talked about eating ponies more than was comfortable, in front of a pony. Genesis turned around towards General Irons. “Sir, these creatures...they’re absolutely perfect. They consume meat and are very loud about that fact, their language is similar to ours in many ways, but they do not have the mental block against profanity most ponies have.” Irons furrowed his brow. “Carnivorism and swearing isn’t enough. Ponies know of those facts and choose to ignore them. We need them to be shocking. They need to inspire fear.” Irons looked into the screen at Marisa talking to Koakuma, listening intently. “-So this youkai caught me out in the forest once. I was pretty wasted, and she kept messing with my vision. Broke my nose walking into a tree. So when I found her, I managed to create a new spell just to shoot her. I can’t remember what I did, but it hit her so hard she became a lamprey chef.” Irons allowed a small grin on his face. “Of course. Their natures.” “What do you mean?” “Humans and youkai. They’re violent creatures. Think about your average pony. Now, show them some blood. What do they do?” “Well, they freak out.” “Exactly,” Irons replied, lighting a cigar. “From what that devil told me, their world is literally an eternal war. Their economy is sub-standard, civilians are ‘acceptable losses’ and they actually had to implement a duel system to stop so many fatalities. The war is ceremonial at this point. They do it because it’s what has always been done.” Genesis’s took a sharp intake of breath as he remembered something. “Oh, we also decoded some of their combat system’s magic.” “Oh?” “Well, it is definitely not of Equestrian origin. The language written on the cards is indecipherable, and from a test fire of the card we have, it failed to function. Not even a combat mage could get it to work,” Genesis explained. “We asked T-543 about the magic of her world, and she said there’s so many different forms. The primary division is “Eastern” and “Western” magic. Where Eastern magic is powered by a connection to the land, and to the religion of the user, Western is powered by the sheer willpower of the individual to cause supernatural effects in a natural world, and appears to also be connected with physical fitness.” “Well, if their non-lethal magics don’t work here, then we’ll have to be more careful with what we send Kirisame out with,” Irons took the cigar out of his mouth and extinguished it on an ashtray. “I have just the idea...” “What?” “Call up the Everfree Containment Zone. I want them to release one anomaly and try and influence it towards a major population center. We’ll track it, and set Kirisame up with it. We’ll get to see if Kirisame can really hold her own in a fight, and the public will start talking.” “But sir, aren’t we trying to keep them a secret!?” “Think what a little public paranoia can do. When you tell your ponies that what you do is to protect them from a clear and present threat, they’ll agree to anything. The threat of foreign invasion? Increase military spending. Changeling outbreak? Well, a firebombing is not out of the question any more. Alien invasion? And the government is doing nothing? Well, the military is our only hope now.” Irons gave a small chuckle. “Of course, the primary risk to all this is the Democratic Party in the senate. I know how to stop them, it’s a small matter of simply making the public believe something. After all, if you can’t trust your own media, then who can you trust?” “And how will you stop them?” “It’s easy to stop terrorist sympathisers in your government. Just accuse the right pony and the entire rotten structure falls down. Once I’m done with them, ‘Democrat’ will be a profane word you call the asshole at work. A little atrocity here, and the senate will be scrambling to counter the ruthless confrontation of the Democratic Party of Equestria. And who else should be trusted with emergency powers than the trustworthy, thrice-elected Free Party leader, Senator Irons?” Genesis grinned. “Sir, I like the way you think.” “What do you think I pay you for?” Irons smiled back. “Anyway, keep up the good work. I’ve got a date to get to in Canterlot. Promised my wife that I'd get home early today."