Waking up, Koku slowly sat upwards, hearing a voice. "Hello, mister." Hearing this, Koku opened his eyes slowly and stared deep into the eyes of the one talking to him. "Hello, Yoru's sister. You're awake, and uhhh quite hungry, no?… let's talk after I get something to eat. Stay here and please don't aggravate the Cratrus's; they may seem ferocious, but they're actually quite soft and unique in their personalities." After saying this, one of the Cratrus's standing guard growled at Koku, having stood up completely while he told Yoru's sister this. He then walked off into the dense mist covering the entire place.
"Yoru looked fine, and her magic seems tranquil; she should be fine, but for now, I should worry about this place more than anything…" Koku thought to himself as he hadn't known where they landed. Ten minutes of walking around in this dense mist proved quite difficult, as the mist was clearly not just any normal mist and at the same time was. So, this was messing with Koku's visual senses. Adding onto the problem, he did not know what to be on the look for, and every square inch of this new place he found himself in seemed like it was full of life forms in the mist, even in front of his face. "It's most likely something to mess with one's perception," Koku muttered as he looked around for any food or settlements.
After another five minutes of looking around, Koku side-stepped suddenly as he heard something ripping through the air. After side-stepping, Koku dodged whatever passed by him very quickly, but just as he side-stepped, he activated his eyes of time (now able to see a second into the future). "Oh?" Koku amusingly said as he found himself having to catch whatever flew past him as it was redirected back at him. "A poisoned arrow." Koku looked in the direction the arrow came from and found nothing. "The trees, mist, and uneven terrain put me at a disadvantage… which is why-" Koku heard another arrow on its way, this time from behind him again. Hearing it, Koku summoned Voidpulse and did a full body rotation while ducking down and turning Voidpulse into a bow to shoot it off into the exact direction of the arrow coming for him.
Whatever was shooting the arrows at Koku, he had hit it. Hearing the body fall from the tree in the mist-bound environment, walking towards it, Koku could see a slender body covered in white, mist-like fur, which was allowing it to blend with its misty surroundings very well. "A Miststalker… these are one of three species, and if I read it right back at the academy, these things are from Amagiri. Which is why the mist is now explained. Well anyways, these things are eatable, but taste horrible~ will do for now," Koku sighed as he picked its body up and rushed back to where Yoru, her sister, and the Cratrus's had been at.
He was able to find them because of his linked connection to the Cratrus's. After a few seconds, he found his way there, but right before he had left, he could feel a pair of eyes on him. He thought little of it since he couldn't find the direction of the gaze, and whatever it was wasn't going to come out; he simply believed it was another Miststalker. "We've located the one we believe to be the envoy of the void… Understood, we'll remain at a distance until further notice," reported a hooded figure standing on a tree branch.
(After arriving back) "Well, I found—welcome back, Yoru, you're not acting feral anymore," Koku teased her. "And you're not acting like an evil mastermind anymore~ anyways, welcome back. I was just talking to my sister about you, and she said you went to find food?" Yoru questioned as her mouth watered.
"Y-yeah, ummm it's not the best, and we'll have to do with it. I apologize in advance." Koku nervously scratched the back of his head as he threw the lifeless body onto the ground right in front of Yoru. "Oh, it's a Miststalker," Yoru noted as she began to skin it. Koku looked in awe as she skinned it like it was nothing. "This thing is more human-like in shape, and she's skinning it like nothing~" sighs Koku began to help Yoru with the cooking of the Miststalker.
"Apologies for not introducing myself sooner or earlier. My name is Koku; may I ask for your name?" Koku asked as he was now starting a small fire. "Kurai. Kurai Reiko, do you not have a last name?" she asked as her ears tilted slightly over in curiosity. "N-no, I have one, I just wasn't ever told my last name," Koku responded to her with a smile. Yoru stayed silent, letting Koku and Kurai get comfortable talking to each other. Eventually, the food was prepared. "Here goes!" everyone said as they took a bite of the meat.
"Ooh, it's actually not bad," Yoru muttered in between bites. Kurai, Yoru's sister, agreed with her, saying that the flavor was quite rich. But when Koku tried it, he nearly puked the moment the meat went into his mouth. After a few seconds of regaining his composure, Koku looked at the sisters and thought to himself as he watched both of them eat and eat and eat some more, "It must be nice having primal taste buds~" Koku forced himself to eat the rest of his piece of meat and later laid on his back as both siblings still kept eating.
(Elsewhere in Amagiri) "The Mistwalkers are acting up? Just who the hell is strong enough to kill a high-grade C-ranked monster in its own environment? Was it one of our guys?" asked a general of Amagiri. "No, it wasn't any of our men," responded a soldier. "Then was it an adventurer?" "I sent some investigators to ask them that as we speak," The commander looked up at the mist-filled sky and sighed. "Those Miststalkers are gonna want blood for one of their kind being killed. It doesn't help that they're territorial, elusive, avoiding direct confrontation by using hit-and-run tactics while having its incurable poisoned arrows, that can either weaken or kill whoever they deem a foe, all this before closing in for the kill." With this, the commander began drinking his alcohol again, just how he was doing before hearing the news of the Miststalkers acting up.