Hugo and Hyena easily reached Hugo's home since the walk between the two houses wasn't that far. Hyena laughed joyfully and held his stomach, but Hugo could only think of all the things wrong with Satoshi and why he hated him.
'Hehe, there isn't much to this list except the fact that he was one of the people who... sigh, never mind. There is no point thinking about it!'
The two reached the house without speaking a word to each other, but when they finally got to the doorstep of the house, Hugo made the weirdest request to Hyena.
"Uhh, Hyena, I'm gonna need you to take a bath."
"Huh, why?!"
The request took him by surprise, that was no secret.
"One, you stink. Two, you stink, and three, we're going somewhere tonight."
His explanation was concise and insulting making Hyena grumble about his misfortune.
"Seriously, what the hell happened to you? I remember when we first, you were acting like a goddamn pussy cat, now you're like a badass cool motherfuck!"
Hugo listened to what he said with a curious look, but his answer was far too strange for Hyena.
"Just like you, my personality during the skydancer exam was fake, I dropped it halfway through them. And other than that, do I also have to explain why I used that personality...
... If not, then don't bother me and do what I've ordered."
His words sounded forceful, but they hardly contained any strength within them, he was either unmotivated... or just plain disdainful.
Hyena walked into the house and looked at Hugo from the corner of his eyes.
'He's changed. Before his words sounded so stiff like he's never had contact with humans in his life... no! He hasn't hanged, he was always like this in the first place; carefree and aloof, disdainful and arrogant. Compared to his, my arrogance is barely anything!'
. . .
A few minutes passed, and Hyena came out, looking shiny clean.
His sheen layer of bronze skin on his body was more prevalent after he took a bath. He also combed his wild hair back and only a few strands of hair poking out.
"Damn, your nails and hand, they're not as horrendous as before!"
Hugo marvelled before the sight of Hyena's fingers, it was now far cleaner than before. In such a short time, this guy also cleaned his nails!
"Nice suit!"
Hugo complimented on the dark suit Hyena wore. Anyone who saw him now would have no idea that he was the same person from the Skydancer exams.
"Thanks anyway, where are we going?"
Hyena quickly changed the topic before the divergence could get out of hand.
"Oh, we're going to hunt monsters that's all."
At first, Hyena was already storing up his rage for a ridiculous answer, but it seemed he wouldn't be receiving one anytime soon.
"Eh, why didn't you say that at first, I wouldn't have felt so weirded out!"
"What goes through that thick skull of yours?" Hugo looked at him and speechlessly shook his head.
Hyena laughed awkwardly and glanced at Hugo occasionally as if to see what he was planning by looking at his facial expressions.
"Before we go hunting, let's get somebody along." He spoke after a brief minute of pondering.
"You don't mean..."
"Yep, Mystique is coming along too!"
"Oh, you meant Roku, I thought we were talking about Alpha2!" Hyena laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.
"..."
"Whatever, you can call him too if you like."
Hugo's expression was dreary and looked like he was with the dumbest person the earth had to offer.
Hyena tapped the communicator ring on his hand twice and spoke into it.
"Call Short stack!"
"Calling Short stack." A female robotic voice spoke out from the ring and into everyone's ears.
"..."
"Oh, you finally picked up! So, Hugo and I are going to do some night hunting, wanna come?"
Hyena paused for a minute and for some reason narrated what Alpha2 was doing out loud.
"Eh, you're on a guild raid, cool! Anyway, you can come anytime when you're less busy."
"Kid couldn't make it, I guess we'll just have to do without him then."
Hugo nodded understandably as he heard the sounds of fighting in the background.
"Let's get going!"
. . .
"Whew, he disconnected the call, close one. I still have things to do, huh, an attack?! Take this, Ha!"
Alpha2 was currently standing in his living room, playing VR video games.
'Hehe, dumbass, I didn't lie to him, what I said was true, my in-game guild, the Scorpions is currently on a raid!'
He might never have shown this trait during the exams... but Alpha2 was very clever.
. . .
"Remind me why I should come again?"
An annoyed sounding girly voice spoke to someone across her.
"Calm down, we just need you to rack up some points."
"And why I should rack these points up?"
"So you'll have significant merit."
"What's the use of significant merit."
"This..."
The voice trying to defend his argument could no longer do it and just gave the first excuse that came to his mind.
"We're making a skydancer group and we want you to join!"
"Huh?!!"
Two people yelled out in shock at Hugo.
"Hugo, why didn't I know of this!"
Hyena rushed forward to grab Hugo's shirt and shook him hard and fast.
"Yeah, when were you planning to tell me, your best friend this!" For people who were not familiar with Ruki, this would be the first time they'd see her talk so much. But Hugo had been practically living with her for over four years now, and Hyena was friendly, so they were pretty much familiar.
'If Ruki gets angry, then I'm done for, I need to figure something out quick!'
"Calm down a little, let me explain!"
The two's anger quelled somewhat and before Hugo could say 'when', the questioning had already begun.
"Fine, explain yourself?"
"Well... I just want to order people around, is that asking too much?"
"..."
Ruki instantly understood what was going on and looked at him like one would a helpless creature.
"Sigh, obviously you have no reason for suddenly wanting to make the group-"
"No, I have a reason!"
"So what is it?"
"I was looking for an excuse to make you come along with us!"
Hyena judgingly looked at Hugo and Roku's sweet and innocent eyes turned disappointed-looking.
"Heh, of course, even if you wanted to use another excuse to cover our first one, it wouldn't work. After all, you can't use a lame anime excuse like 'I want to protect the people I love!', hehe my elder brother is the Light Swordsman, and I am now SS Rank skydancer, Mystique! Who would dare harm us?"
Hugo looked down guiltily and thought of how much he envied this girl.
'She's so charming and bold yet still so introverted. Someone like me can never hope to protect someone so perfect as her, I'll just give up here.'
"Well, I'll let this one slide and I'll even join your little night hunting squad, but as for your 'guild', unless you have a real reason for making it, I won't join it." She flicks her head to the side and blushed slightly while doing so.
"Thanks, I owe you one!"
"Whatever."
"Hehe, it's time to hunt!"