化物狩団 ~Bakemonokaridan~ Book 1

Chapter 1 - Mihoko

Her classmate had handed her a flier after class. "Someone stopped by our meeting yesterday and gave this to us. None of us are really interested, but maybe you are?"

She looked at it. 'Monster Hunting Club'; that had to be some kind of joke. Would that even be allowed in the school? She frowned slightly.

"I mean, you don't have to go or anything. I just thought-"

"No it's all right," she interrupted in a slightly louder-than-usual voice. "I may go eventually. I have something to do today, though." She stood up. "Thank you."

Mihoko had nothing to do that afternoon. She stared at the flier while slowly walking home. Maybe this would be interesting to go to. Her father...no, she'd rather not really think about it. She would tell him about it and he'd be ecstatic, she knew. Probably a better idea not to tell him.

She reached her house and walked inside. Her father wasn't home yet. She put her bag down and wandered into the small kitchen and began to make dinner. Usually, he was back by now but work must have kept him later.

It took about an hour, but dinner was eventually ready. She sat down and was beginning to eat when she heard her father come home. "Welcome home," she said quietly.

"That smells delicious!" He burst into the kitchen and sat down. "Sorry I was so late; thanks for making dinner tonight."

Mihoko nodded without looking up from her food.

"Did anything interesting happen at school today?"

"Not really."

"That's too bad; a little excitement is always a good thing."

She really didn't think so. After a while, she asked, "Are you going out again tonight?"

"Yep! I think we're really close to finding out what's caused all the farmer's crops to die so early this year."

She nodded. "Please be careful."

Her father laughed. "Don't worry about me! Just be sure to do your homework for tonight."

She nodded again.

After dinner was quiet as usual, listening to the radio and doing homework. Her father didn't return before she went to bed.

All of the next day was pretty uneventful. After class, Mihoko pulled out the flier again and looked at it. She figured that it wouldn't hurt to visit at least one of the meetings. The room listed on the flier was a bit strange, though. She didn't know where it was. She approached the teacher, who had luckily stayed behind after the bell. "Excuse me," she said in a quiet voice.

"Hm? What is it?"

The teacher looked busy with something, so Mihoko tried to make the question quick. "Do you know where this room is?" She pointed to the room listed on the flier.

"Ah," the teacher appeared to think for a moment, "I think that's near the first year classrooms."

"Thank you." She headed in that direction.

The teacher was clearly wrong since there were only classrooms in that direction, none of which had a club meeting going on in them. Eventually, she found what seemed to be the right room next to the library. She couldn't hear anything coming from inside, however.

She knocked quietly on the door. "Excuse me, is anyone in here?" She opened the door a little bit. Three boys and a girl stared back at her. "Is this the mee-"

"Oh finally another girl!" The girl jumped up and ran over to her. Mihoko backed up a little bit. This was countered by a light tug on her arm. "Come in and sit down!"

"Ah-"

"Don't scare her away, Chihaya," the boy with the armband said. "Are you here for the meeting?"

Mihoko nodded.

"Great," said the loud one, "what's your name?"

"Mihoko Shitami." Hesitantly, "nice to meet you."

The girl, Chihaya, went on to introduce everyone else in the room (again). It was a bit overwhelming. Maybe coming wasn't the best idea? She decided to sit down anyway.

"Sooooo!" Chihaya seemed easily excited all the time. "What brings you to our club?"

Mihoko fidgeted a bit. "Well, uh," she said, almost inaudibly. She mumbled something after.

"What? I couldn't hear you."

"Well," she started, a bit louder this time. Hopefully she'd be audible; Mihoko didn't really want to repeat herself again. "You hunt...things, right? My father also hunts monsters, at night." She blushed a bit and stared at the corner of the room, which was growing much more fascinating by the second. "I'd like to understand it better, that's all."

It got pretty quiet, but it was immediately broken by the sound of a chair suddenly being sat in properly again.

"Really? Seriously!?" The foreigner, Ezra, slammed his hands on the table. "That is absolutely fascinating!" He smiled at her.

Mihoko wasn't sure if she liked him.

"Is there any way I could meet him?"

"Uh." This caught her off guard. "I don't know, maybe, I guess..." her voice trailed off to a whisper.

She wondered if the rest ofthe meeting was going to be like this.