Chapter 1

A/N: I'd like to thank Itami for helping me out and other fellows, Winterchild thanks for contributing. I have so much to say to you but a lack of time and page space, you're in every way a brilliant person, don't ever change.

"Come on Manji, you need to eat something." A blonde haired boy patted him on the back, proffering a plate of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon.

"Thanks Sam, but I'm not hungry." Manji looked at the delicious food, his stomach growled, but he felt too nervous.

Today was the day he received the results of their sub jobs. After choosing one of the five classes, they had to choose a sub job when they were thirteen years old. They become apprentices in various trades such as Alchemists, Librarian and Sector Guards. There were many more, but those were the main three.

Manji hoped to be a Sector Guard, who had the responsibility of guarding the Omega Sector from various alien assaults. In battle they piloted fighter jets, providing support from air and sea. They also acted as the frontline in wars.

"You should eat something, it calms nervousness," Sam flipped a pancake and laid it in front of him. Sam was a Page like Manji, but for some strange reason he wanted a sub job as a cook. The breakfast that now sat in front of Manji had been prepared by him.

"I'm sure you'll get the job," said girl with messy red hair, now spooning yoghurt into her mouth, gave him a reassuring smile. Lana, the Ice Lightning mage, had been his oldest and closest friend. She too had applied to be Sector guard. Manji felt a little better but her reassurance didn't completely loosen the knots that had been tightly tied in his stomach.

A boy rushed into the dining hall. "All applicants are requested in the assembly hall now."

Manji's heart did a back flip, this is it, he thought to himself. Lana gave him a quick hug and they headed towards the assembly hall.

The oak doors of the assembly hall creaked open. Manji had seen the hall thousands of times. There were no windows and a long table stretched the breath of the hall there were thirteen chairs each for an advisor on the orphanage .Apart from a few painting the walls were relatively bare. Now it felt larger than ever.

Anticipation crackled in the air as Manji caught snatches of conversation from various people, some nervous others excited, some even downright boastful, but all of them, like him, had hopes and dreams.

"Settle down," a thin man with wire glasses and spiky hair stood waiting for them. A hush fell, conversation died away and the whole hall fell silent.

"I'm going to make this quick," his voice carried through the hall clearly

"I will start by the main three sub jobs, the less common, and finally the reassigned."Manji's heart now beat like a bass drum; his breathing came out in short shallow bursts.

"Librarians, Alan Scribe, Alex Page, Amanda Ink…" The list went on.

"Sector Guards, Adam Buckler Alice blade…"Manji waited and waited past the K's "Landon Garcia, Lexus Swift."

Lana hadn't got a post? She'll be devastated!Lana gave his hand a small squeeze.

"I'll be fine," she whispered "maybe I'll get to be a Librarian, always wanted try being one." But her sea green eyes told otherwise.

"Matthew Strider."Manji began to pray, Matt was the only M named person apart from him, if his name was missed then…

"Noah Hunter."

It took less than a second to realize what had happened, and then the reality sank in. It felt like watching his dream of becoming a Sector Guard curl into ashes after being burned in fire. He would cry, but curiously enough he couldn't. He felt an aching pain just below his ribs, and it sucked. His sadness slowly replaced by a sense of dread. If he was reassigned then what sub job would he end up with?

A voice stopped his train of thought "Culinary, Samuel Cook." Sam had his hands over his mouth, eyes full of joy. Manji smiled a little; at least he managed to get what he wanted. He thought watching his friend doing a happy, and somewhat goofy celebratory jig.

"The reassigned, all of you that haven't been called please remain here, the rest of you are dismissed. You will receive your mentor's information and location later on," informed the announcer. The rest of them filed out. As Sam walked past, he mouthed a "good luck" before leaving at him and Lana.

A small group of ten people remained, "Reassigned, Sector guards."

He and Lana stepped forward; his fists clenched, turning his knuckles pale. Please let it be something good Lana Charter and Manji Andrea please let it be -

"Both of you are reassigned… as Hunters."

At first he felt relived, at least it wasn't farming or tailoring. Then he realized a small problem, he knew as much about hunters as a fish knew about riding bicycles. For all he knew, Hunters could spend their time researching the magical properties of gummy bears. He turned to Lana who looked equally bewildered.

"Any questions?"

Manji raised his hand. "What on earth do Hunters do?"

The man sighed, "Honestly son, I'm clueless. I just got my job two weeks ago and Hunters are a rather small branch of secretive people. Ask your mentor tomorrow, I'm sure he'll explain."

Manji groaned. Well that was surprisingly helpful.

Manji felt odd seeing his orphanage for the last time, he might not miss it terribly, but still it was always a constant in his life. He'd packed his processions in a small bag, belted on his short katana and his steel buckler hung over his shoulder. He took one last look at the mirror, cerulean eyes looked back, I need a haircut,he light hazel hair fell way past his forehead any longer and seeing would be a problem. Onsecond thoughts, a pair of garden shears may be in order, he mused to himself.

"You ready?" Sam asked.

In truth Manji wasn't really that ready .The prospect of not knowing what was coming didn't exactly make him feel any better.

"Sure, bring it on gummy bears." he mumbled.

Manji looked at his location for the last time; apparently he had a mentor by the name of Tristan Lancer. He had a small cabin on the edge of the Ellenia forest, bordering Henessys. He raised his hand to knock on the door. He paused, the strange thing about knocking on doors he thought, was the fact that you never really knew what to expect. He'd imagined Tristan to be tall with a broadsword strapped to his back; then again he could turn out entirely different. It opened before he could even bring his fist down.

Tristan wasn't tall like he imagined, on the contrary he was quite short, and with salt and pepper hair. His eyes were a shade of dark blue, and filled with a certain youthful energy.

"Finished staring yet, boy?"

Manji realized what he'd been doing "Yes, sir" he said hastily.

"Imagined I'd be taller, boy?"

Manji paused "No, sir"

Tristan raised an eyebrow, "Honesty is the best policy."Without further comment he gestured at the door to let Manji in.

Tristan has a neat, clean cabin; some comfortable looking chairs separated the kitchen and living area. The study had a large bookshelf, filled with an assortment of books and a simple oak table.

He looked at the letter opener and then to Tristan's rather messily cut beard. "I wonder if you cut it with that?" he whispered to himself.

"Thinking out loud is a dangerous habit, mind you."

Manji gulped, how had he heard that? He quickly thought of something to distract Tristan.

"Erm Sir, what does a hunter's apprentice do?"

"He keeps quiet."

"Anything else, sir?"

"He asks fewer questions."

"And?"

"If his head isn't full of fluff like a soft toy, he learns. Oh, and the best part, he does the house chores."

"Excuse me?"

"The cleaning boy, I assume you know what this is," he held out a broom and a mop as well as a bucket. "There's wood to be cut, plates to be washed, and floors to be swept. Wouldn't want to miss all that good fun now would we?"

Manji sighed as he rolled up his sleeves as he reached for the broom.

As he worked his way to the living room, he swore he heard Tristan give a soft chuckle. "I forget how much fun it is to have an apprentice."

"Where is he?" Lana mumbled as she cleared through Sleepywoods to an archery range. The steady thud of arrows filled her ears. Having no photo and only a name finding her mentor, Will Blakewood, could take forever.

A slim figure raced towards her, feet flying over the grass, cloak billowing behind him. It faded in an out of view at times like a moving shadow. As the figure got closer she could make out messy black hair and eyes. He stopped in front of her.

He straightened himself up adjusting his cloak "Sorry, have you seen Lana Charter? Oh right, you're her. You're awfully early." He offered a hand, "Will Blakewood."

She stared for a minute, "Aren't you a bit young to be a mentor."

"Ah… I'm a bit of an exception. Did you see my age on that paper of yours "

"It says N/A, is it a mistype?"

"No, you see, I'm 60 years old. "

"B-But that's impossible, you look 25 at most."

"That's the catch... I'm a spirit. "

She choked, "A what?"

"I think it's easier if I show you." An electric blue light burst out of his palm, the light spread out until it surrounded his whole body. He walked up to a tree, went straight through it.

Lana stared "Oh…"

"So theoretically you're dead," she stated after Will had popped out of the other side.

"I think so."

"You don't know?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm dead, but I could be a ghastly hallucination of yours. But there's really no time to linger on the fact that you might be crazy, we have to get cracking."

"Just one last quick question. Pleeeaaase."

Will sighed, "They know you're a ghost, and suddenly they all want jolly Q and A sessions. Shoot."

"Can you die... Erm again, permanently?"

"Are you seriously asking me that? Why on earth should I tell you, I mean you could get bloody angry at me one day and then bam! I'd be dead… again. But, since you ask so nicely, I die of anything except natural causes." Lana blinked a few times, not quite understanding what he meant.

"In simpler words, I can be killed and feel pain in my solid state which I'm in a lot of the time because turning into my erm spirit like thing is energy draining and take focus."

"Oh… can I try it?"

"No."

Manji's arms burned after halving a stack of pinewood for the fire. He groaned, flopping on a bean bag, "Is that enough sir?"

Tristan looked up from a file he'd been reading. He stood up and looked around, the kitchen now gleamed, the floors were dust free, and the fire roared away with its new supply of wood.

"Not bad boy, not bad at all."

"Really?" Manji felt a sense of pride at his master's praise."Uhh…Sir."

"Mmm?"

"I was wondering."

Tristan raised his hands stopping him. "Remember the last time you asked a question?"

Manji paused; his arms hadn't quite forgiven him for that mistake. "I was thinking..."

"I hope you were."

"What do Hunters do?"

Tristan looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments "Come with me," he got up from his chair.

He followed Tristan to his study. His master traced his fingers over the multitudes of books on his shelf, stopping at one with a red leather spine. He selected it, and showed Manji the cover "The Hunter's Bestiary" it read, etched in silver.

"This," said Tristan as he flipped through the pages, "is the most basic and crucial information you will learn as a Hunter." He cleared his throat,"I'll summarize what the book says about it," he added.

"As a hunter, we're investigators for Athena. When anything strange pops up, we do our best to find as much as possible about it," he began

"Strange in what sense, sir?"

Tristan paused a bit as if contemplating whether to talk more. "I'm sure you've heard of the Black Mage."

Manji shivered, "Yes sir."

"When he raises the dead or sends his followers to cause trouble, we're sent to deal with it. We used to only handle dead and dark things, but now anything including murder, enemy suicide missions, heists, you name it, and they call us in."

"Doesn't the Omega Sector handle that?"

"They simply don't have the time, every guard they have is busy fighting alien threats, or flying in to help fight other threats which recently including the temple of time since they never have enough Chrono guards on the watch, and they don't have extensive knowledge on how to handle undead either."

"Hunters certainly aren't as popular as them."

"That's because nobody bothers with the small but more important people."

"How are we more important?"

"The Omega Sector sends people to the rescue after something arises."

"How is that different from us?"

"We're sent to stop whatever said situation is, before anything happens. Which believe me is a lot harder."

"And if we can't "

"If it's bad? Then we send in the Omega Sector."

"What if it's really bad?"

"Then the world could very well end."

"Okay, how often do we have to stop really bad stuff before it happens?"

"Do you consider the world attacked by dark creatures, and the possible prospect of a lunatic with twisted views ruling the world really bad?"

"Yes."

"Then, I'll say about almost every week or so."

"So there's a chance world could end every week?"

Tristan sighed ruefully "Yup, fun for the whole family."

"Do you guys really get a pay raise every week for saving the world?"

"Nope."

"That sucks."

Tristan looked at Manji with a raised eyebrow, "I know right."