After Akio thought of the various reasons, he had for avoiding Kuroka most of the time, even if he didn't necessarily dislike her but only didn't like how she too persistent in getting everything she wants, as well as the stalkerish atmosphere she gives off that, is uncannily similar to one of my, acquaintances from the pre-petrification event, Akio then finally replied to the words of Kuroka earlier on how and why she will be joining the Family Hunt later while sighing.
[Akio] "Okay, since I probably can not convince either you or dad, to change the schedule of your Hunting Graduation Exam, as well as your insistence to come anyways even If I had managed to convince Dad/Village chief to move your exam, so I guess you are coming to the Hunt begrudgingly Kuroka, so for the life of me, please don't constantly pester me in the hunt to teach more, please just this once. "
And as Akio said those words towards Kuroka with legitimate meaning, Kuroka had just replied to himself.
[Kuroka] " Yeah, Yeah, fine, I won't, Akio, but if I do, would you teach me one of the cool fighting techniques you use. So let's go already. The Village chief is only probably waiting for the both of us now at the village entrance."
And as Kuroka was about to drag Akio, who was carrying many of his hunting equipment with him, Akio then noticed something odd from Kuroka as he then said.
[Akio] " Hey, wait a minute, where are your supplies and hunting equipment then, Kuroka? Even if it is a hunting exam, The examinees should always bring their personal equipment rights and supplies they would use in the hunt. So did you really think you could go in the hunt without any supplies?"
When Kuroka heard this herself, she realized that she actually forgot to bring her supplies with her earlier when she left the house, her house/hut earlier. After seemingly embarrassed for forgetting her supplies, Kuroka ran towards the direction where her house was located at quick speeds.
When Akio saw that, he laughed for a bit before heading towards the Village Entrance while thinking to himself.
[Akio] 'Huh, even though that girl's annoying and a bit dumb to deal with, but I guess it ain't too bad to hang out with someone like that sometimes, huh, and she is kinda cute... But Focus on yourself, Akio. I have no time for that; I need to prepare everyone in case the magi-beasts finally appear, and according to my theory, once I get a hold on one of the most evolved magi-beasts, I could finally research its body to discover how to circulate mana properly inside a living being's body, which in turn would help me finally learn how to manifest at least the mana I have in my body, to a physical state outside.'
[Village Entrance]
So after I walked towards the Village Entrance, I saw that aside from my Father and sister Emily who I knew were gonna participate in today's hunt. I also saw that 5 of my brothers, respectively, named Arnold, Akito, Mikohira, Bane, and Simon, along with 2 of my other sisters named Sasha and Akane.
When they saw me arrived, they just waved towards me as it seems that while they were waiting for Kuroka and me, they seemed to have started to either sharpen the weapons they were using, such as spears, bow tips, swords, ax, etc. When I got close, they started to give me the slight details on the hunt for the next 2-5 days.
[Arnold] " Hey, your finally here Akio, did you get all your supplies and equipment for the hunt ready?"
[Akio] "Yes, I did, brother Arnold so are we going to go to the hunt now, or are we still waiting for some of our brothers and sisters to proceed through the hunt now, and by the way to we have a plan and proper destination to hunt this time brother?"
As Arnold was about to reply to Akio's question, Bane suddenly answered, interrupting Arnold, who was seriously answering Akio's questions.
[Bane] " Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, Akio, everyone from our other siblings had already arrived here, but you know a cute girl would join us this time in the Hunt, and maybe you would be excited to know that you know her very well, hehe."
As Bane said those words towards Akio in a teasing manner, Akito, who was behind him, smacked Bane's head while saying. " Don't listen to this guy's words, Akio; it's just one of your friends from school a few months ago. And dad said to us earlier that the friend of yours that would come this time is joining us to complete her Hunting Exam from the Village School."
[Bane] "Hey, what was that about Akito? I was only teasing him, after all, we all know when suddenly that girl visited our House to ask where Akio was at the time, who knew our little brother, which some of the villager's decided to ignore, would actually have the charisma to make a girl willingly go to a man's family home to find him."
However, as Bane said those words, he then heard an obvious fake cough from behind him, and then as he saw Emily who was glaring at him, Bane, although was not afraid of Emily, decided just to shut up since even though she was weaker, Bane always thought that once weapon started getting angry at you then, It would become quite troublesome.
So after seeing the situation calm down about Akio's friend, Arnold decided to lift the atmosphere by answering Akio's question earlier.
[Arnold] "Anways, thanks to what Brother Bane said, Akio, everyone from our family that will join the hunt has already arrived except for a person that you know very well, that will conduct her graduation test with us, which dad will be the test examiner, although from dad's attitude it would probably be one of us instead to observe her. While for your other questions, Akio, We had already discussed earlier where we would hunt this time, and we had decided to hunt at Jugami Forests near one of the nearby villages of our own, which is also known as Ishigami Village."
When Akio first heard that name, he was surprised as he thought to himself.
[Akio] 'Wait, this older brother just said, Ishigami village, Isn't that the last name of old man Byakuya and Senku. Although I did know this last ten years that there were about one to two villages near my own named Voltin Village, I didn't think that one of the other village's names would be Ishigami, the same name that both, Senku and old Man Byakuya had. Although it may be a coincidence since, by the looks of our village, both American and Japanese sounding names are mostly used, although everyone still uses Japanese words and letters when communicating .'
And as Akio thought of his memories concerning Senku and both Old man Byakuya, he suddenly thought of something that he hadn't realized yet.
[Akio] 'But wait a minute now that I realized it didn't take old man Byakuya a year before the Petrification Event, go onboard in that spaceship that headed to the international space station. According to the god's the great wiping, so wait, all humans on earth were petrified, but what about the people in Space at that time, including old Man Byakuya. So could the great wiping had only affected all the humans on earth and did not wipe out the humans in space at the time?'
'So does that mean possibly after a certain amount of time, or even right after the great wiping happened, the astronauts including old man Byakuya returned to earth from the International Space Station, and were the reason why some humans still had survived until know despite, the research I had on the petrified bodies that, until now there is still not a cure for the certification yet, or at least not enough to cure everyone in the earth.'
And so as Akio had thought of this conclusion inside his mind, now after thinking for a while, decided that in the near future that he will try to visit the people from the Ishigami Village, if he could find some evidence if old man Byakuya were indeed some ancestor in that village, and about what Akio knew of Byakuya's attitude, he should have predicted that old man had left some clue or works similar to the stone tablets in Voltin Village.