P.O.V. JON
My alarm sounded like the ringing of swords clashing against one another. I was sleeping soundly and peacefully until it rang, and now my only goal was to shut it off. However, my sister beat me to it as I went to do so. She turned my phone off and yanked me out of my bed with such force that I thought she was attacking me. Luckily for her, that wasn't the case.
"Up!" she told me, lively. "We got a request!" As I opened my eyes, the shine of her smile nearly blinded me. Olivia was a girl of sixteen, four years younger than my twenty. She was as tall as I and perhaps almost as attractive. Her hair was woven like golden silk and her eyes were as gray as ashes. Had I not been born she would have been the most beautiful in the family, poor little thing.
I walked over to our small cabinet and started to get dressed, still not knowing what she was on about.
"It's seven in the morning. Can't this wait?" I asked her as I slipped into my black leather coat.
"No. It can't. It's a category three."
I stopped mid-way into getting dressed and tossed my black boots back onto the floor. I removed my coat and swiftly tucked myself into bed again.
"Get UP!" she shouted.
"How can you be so lively this early in the morning?" I asked her with a pillow over my head.
"Hurry," she rushed as she helped me put on my boots. I waved my hand at her like swatting a fly but she continued to dress me anyway.
"If it's a category three then let some nobody hunter handle it. There's no need to wake me from my sleep for it."
"We are those nobody hunters, Jon. Plus, we need the money unless you wanna live in this shitty old apartment forever." She sounded like our mother once did. A soft voice yet commanding as if she was the one in charge. Not like I was the older sibling or anything.
I sighed knowing I was fighting a losing war. "The pay better be good," I told her.
"Better than the gig you found us last time, I'll tell you that," she remarked.
"How much?"
"Five hundred."
I nearly jumped out of bed at hearing how ridiculously low that number was. "Five hundred to risk our lives for what? Some other poor bastard in the middle of nowhere?"
"I won't ask you again, Jon. Either you come or I'm going alone." She gave me this unwavering squint as she told me sternly.
"Fine," I told her surrendering, "But we're buying a pizza on the way back home."
"Sounds good to me," She said giggling. Her laughter was so contagious I couldn't help but smile. Not to mention her spontaneous changes in attitude were amusing.
"You sound like a dying chimp," I told her.
"I fucking hate you," She said through her smile.
As I slipped into my attire, a black leather coat with pants and boots to match. I ran over to the top of our closet and grabbed my black hat with a white feather attached to it. My katana was already strapped to my hip with a leather belt and tucked away safely inside its black shirasaya.
My sister wore the same clothing with the only differences being her white clothes and dark feather. Her hat, unlike mine, didn't curve upwards either and her coat reached past her knees. If someone were to ask me I would say my sense of style was better, but to each their own.
Her weapons of choice were a long sword and a Sawed-off shotgun. Both our weapons were made of Azmundeer steel, a dark metal found deep beneath volcanic areas. It's strong and strangely effective at piercing demon skin.
"Sweet sister, how many times have we discussed you switching to darker clothes? The idea is to be concealed not to stick out. A demon will spot you a mile away, have you no regard for your life?"
"Awwww you care?" She said mockingly. "Besides, I wanna stick out. Let the people see my beauty," she said swinging her hair backward. I sneered behind her back.
By the time I grabbed our backpack, my sister had already opened the door to the outside. The sun broke through our door like a spear and shun down on her like a become. The resemblance between her and mother was stronger than that of mine and father. To tell the truth, it put me off. But she would never hear of that.
"Why don't you let me do most of the fighting this time," I said tucking away my Colt Python.
"I'm the better sword woman, remember?" She told me. "You're better with a gun, so just sit back and assist me... If I need it."
I wanted to flick her forehead after hearing that remark. We walked down our apartment building's flight of stairs. We lived on the tenth floor so it was quite a walk, but the scenery of the city was nice as the sun rose behind it, at least by our standards anyway.
Our car was parked at the corner of our sad parking lot. An old grey Camry. Rusty old thing but it served us well for the last five years so it didn't matter. That and we didn't have the money to replace it even if we wanted to.
"I'm driving," she proclaimed.
"With what keys?" I asked as I hung them over her head, smiling as I finally checked her. My victory didn't last long though. She quickly snatched the keys out of my hand and smiled saying, "Wake up brother, I know you to be faster than that."
She spoke so smugly and highly of herself yet she failed to see the small demon hiding behind her.
"Turn around" I commanded. She looked at me confused but did so anyway, and she too saw it.
A small disgusting creature no larger than a pup. Its head was too large for its body and it's eyes popped out. Its skin was as purple as a human without air and its eyes were as red as blood. Its tail was as long as its body and its limbs seemed too short and fat to be used for walking.
The demon froze as it realized we noticed its presence. Its sight disgusted me to my core, I wanted nothing more than to jump at it and take it limb from limb. I could almost feel its stubby little legs in my balled fists.
I moved my hand toward the hilt of my blade, the demon's head twitched perhaps realizing my intentions.
"Yang," I said. As I unsheathed my katana, the sunlight deflected from the shining steel of the blade and then, a coat of white energy sprung up like fire from the sword.
The demon lunged for me, the claws in its hand stretched to be the size of knives and its teeth seemed even sharper than my blade itself. Still, it didn't frighten me. My sister ducked beneath it and ith a single swing, the demon was cut in two. The Yang flame of the katana seeped into its flesh, burning its blood and skin so quickly it didn't even manage to land on the pavement before its body completely evaporated.
"How is there a demon this far into the city?" my sister asked catching her breath from the surprise.
"I don't know," I replied, "Should we see where it came from?"
"The request first, Jon."
I turned to look at my sister amused, "Are you frightened? Strange considering you're usually the one itching to chase whatever demon we can." I said with a smirk creeping up on my face.
"Stop being an ass, someone needs our help. Not to mention we get paid doing it, so why not?"
"And if the apartment is attacked?" I asked her, waiting to hear her response.
"The likelihood of a demon attacking this far into the city is what? twenty percent? The odds favor us, not the man who made the request, now hurry" She uttered kicking me in the leg.
Laughing, I grabbed the keys out of my coat's inner pocket and started the car.
"Wait what? How?" she asked staring at the keys.
"Where is this request anyway?" I asked ignoring her question.
"Open your D.R. app, I sent you the link so you can see," she said as we both got into the car.
The Demon Request app was an application civilians and hunters alike could install on their phones. For civilians, they could put up requests that alerted registered hunters of nearby demons, allowing them to better target and eliminate the creature. The logo had a black background with a demon's red face growling at the screen.
"A farmhouse an hour away? Shit," I said allowed.
"We've driven further."
"We? I wasn't aware you drove as well sweet sister."
"Shut up and get to driving." she interrupted.
"Don't you think it's about time you got your license? You can hunt and kill demons and the regular but can't drive a car?" I nudged.
"I can drive you dumbass. It's just, why would I when I have my shofar driving for me?" She smirked.
A mimiked her stupid little grin and began driving out of the apartment's parking lot and into the street. I connected my phone to the radio and began playing 'The Good Part' by AJR, readying myself for the long ride ahead.