"Oi Shoyo, are you serious?"
Ariel promptly follows up with Shoyo's crazy news by confirming if what she just heard is true.
"Yeah, have you ever heard of anything like this?"
"Not once. What kind of sick bastard pretends to be a vampire?"
"No idea. All the victims have died from blood loss due to chunks of their bodies torn off with bite marks around them. Tests have shown that they're without a doubt human teeth. It could be from a vamp hiding their fangs, but that's highly unlikely. Until it's confirmed for sure though, we're just saying it's a vampire going on a spree. The news should be announcing it any second now, so this district is gonna be on high alert until further notice."
"You won't have to worry about us Shoyo, I'll look over your disciples."
"Hmph, good to know."
"If this creep shows himself anywhere near here, we'll take care of em. Right, Iris?"
"Eh, I want nothing to do with this."
"Gah.. You're a Hunter now y'know, it's a job to do something about it if you can."
"Oh, right."
"Well, I have the day off. So I say we do something together before it gets too late."
"I'm down."
"Tch." Ariel clicks her tongue.
"Let's go back inside now, I'm starving."
***
"You guys gonna get your driver's license anytime soon? You've been busy training for the past year, I don't know if you have any experience behind a wheel, Chifuyu. I know Iris doesn't."
It's important for Hunters to know how to drive. Classes are offered at the Hunter Training Academy but not every student takes them.
"Hehe, I do in fact."
"Oh?"
"With a motorcycle actually. My dad let me drive his around in empty parking lots during the morning when I was 14 and 15. I did that a lot, but I still have to get on the road."
"Well, go ahead and sign up to get your permit. I'm sure your pops can help you."
"Yeah, he already told me he would. I just forgot about it when training started."
"What about you, Kagura?"
"I'm glad you asked, check it out."
Smoothly pulling out her phone, she shows her license on it. In Shioto, licenses are mostly digital if the owner has a smartphone. It comes with a special code so it can't be created or replicated by others illegally.
"Hey, nice. You buy a car yet?"
"You see, I'm saving up for one of the most expensive sports cars there is. I knew it was my dream car the moment I saw it."
"Is that so? I came here in my own sports car as a matter of fact."
"You did?! Can I take a look at it?"
"Of course."
A Hunter's annual pay starts at $50,000. They're also paid for individual vampires they eliminate. Members of Odd Jobs will be receiving a different pay rate though. Kagura has a lot more to save up if she wants to buy the car she's talking about.
"Hey Iris, you login to your Hunter Direct Pay app yet?"
"Eh?"
Shoyo asked the question, but Chifuyu follows up responding to her confusion.
"You already forgot? It's how we're gonna get paid, login using your Hunter ID."
"Oh right. Sorry, it slipped my mind."
"Go ahead and do it now, you may be in for a surprise."
What could Shoyo mean by that? Both Chifuyu and Iris want to know.
After she logs in, the two of them look at her balance in absolute shock. Since Shioto is at its most peaceful time right now, that naturally means vampire incidents are at their lowest. Shoyo has already implied that this is just a front. Many people still go missing each month, they already know the vampires will make a big move soon. But that's beside this point. Since vampire deaths are rare right now, the pay for killing them is higher than normal. As of this time, killing a single vampire determined to be low ranking in strength pays at least 8 grand. Iris took out 50 vampires. Shoyo determined some of them to be stronger than usual, so the pay for those was somewhat higher. Plus, Iris took at all those vampires at once, so the bonus for that increased her pay exponentially.
"You obviously forgot, but you did beat 50 vampires alone. You weren't a Hunter at the time so you weren't paid yet. But now, you can truly see the worth of what you did."
No Hunter has ever been paid so much besides a few others in the past few decades. After all, it's been a while since somebody killed so many vampires at once. This also goes to show that a group of vampires with such numbers have not shown themselves altogether like this in a while.
"Fi-five hundred th-thousand..."
"HALF A MILLION?!"
"I'm rich..."
"Way to go girl, that's a lot of money!"
"I never have to work again for the rest of my life."
"Huh?"
"Farewell everybody, it was good knowing you."
Thus, Iris leaves with an epic goodbye.
Or, tried to at least.
Shoyo grabs her shoulder.
"You're funny, Iris. I'll give you that much."
"Eh, I wasn't trying to be..."
"Listen, now do you see your worth since it's come in such a large payment? You can already fulfill your goal, now it's time to think about what comes after."
Shoyo snapped Iris back to her senses.
"...You're right. This is enough for my parents to take it easy for a while and to send my little sister to a university when she's old enough."
Chifuyu pats her on the shoulder. "Good for you, Iris."
She lets out a genuinely happy smile.
'What's next...?'
"As you know, that incident has been kept under wraps. As such, although you got the pay for it, you won't be getting the promotion since that goes through public merits."
"Oh, I'm fine with that."
Bzz
Iris's phone vibrates from a text she got from her dad.
"'Hey, when can we see those friends you made'."
"Ch-Chifuyu!"
"Oops, sorry about that." He read the text aloud.
"Who was that?"
"Her dad."
No remorse for her privacy, but he was asking about them.
"You told Isaac about Chifuyu?" asks Shoyo.
"Yeah..."
"Ha, would you look at that? That means she's grown fond of you."
Iris's face flushes red, she told her parents a while ago about new friends she made and they've been asking for her to bring them over, but she hasn't.
"The text said friends, plural. So she was also talking about..."
They look at Ariel.
"Me?" she says while pointing to herself.
"You think of me as a friend?"
Still red, Iris nods her head yes while looking down. Ariel blushes a little from surprise.
"Well that settles it, we're visiting Iris's home today."
"Can I go too?" Kagura inquires.
"Of course, let's get ready."
Chifuyu chuckles looking at the embarrassed Iris, patting her on her back.