The Bounty Hunter

November 2nd, 2089

Terra’s POV

“Minato!  Are you ready?” my mother called out as I walked down the stairs.  “Yeah!”  I called back as I came to the entrance hall.  “Good, we can’t be late.” My mother nervously said.  Her hair was elegantly put up in a bun, framing her face and showcasing her beautiful features.  She had a little black dress on which further emphasized her head-turning looks and figure.  My dad was standing next to her, filling out a black tuxedo extremely well, his rugged good looks somehow complementing the elegant suit.

My father picked up on my mother’s nerves, and he gently placed an arm around her and pulled her close.  “Relax, dear.  I know that we’ve had some setbacks recently, but don’t think about that tonight.  It’s a party after all.”  He then gently kissed her, much to my dismay.  Seeing one’s parents being romantic is always distressing.  After the kiss, my mother smiled brilliantly at my dad “I can always count on you to cheer me up.”  The atmosphere between them turned the pinkest of pink.

GAHHHHHH!  My eyes!!!!!  And it’s not only my eyes that are suffering.  I can hear their heartbeats picking up and I can literally smell the arousal.  My parents are clearly in the mood and if I weren’t here, I have a feeling that they would end up… late to the party.  If my mom wasn’t infertile, I know I would have ended up with at least two or three siblings to look after.  *Shudder* Let’s end this before I get traumatized.

“Mom, Dad we need to leave now or we’ll be late.”  Pop, there goes the pink atmosphere.  We piled into the limousine and left for the Grand Tokyo Hotel, the largest and fanciest hotel in Japan.  The ballroom where the gala was being hosted was in a classical Greek style, with large marble columns and various statues of gods and goddesses adorning the surroundings.  The enormous chandelier that was the centerpiece of the space was made of crystal and glittered in the light it provided.  It was opulent beyond belief and filled to the brim with various notable personages.  My parents and I made our way to where my grandfather was, garnering appreciative looks from various individuals.  I was too used to such looks to be bothered, my mother was too preoccupied to notice, and my father was too dense to realize it.

“Yuuna, I’m very glad that you could come.”  My grandfather greeted as he gave my mother a brief hug.  “Hello Father, the party looks wonderful.”  My mother replied with a small smile.  The nervousness that she had had around her father seems to have vanished.  The two of them have been getting along rather well, and they have all but reconciled.  I daresay that my mother is going to be written back into the family and the will, and I’ll eventually be meeting the relatives who I never knew existed.  “Minato, good to see you.  Terrance, I’m glad you could make it as well.”  My grandfather said, prompting my father and I to return the greetings.

“Unfortunately, the rest of the family has already dispersed amongst the guests so I cannot introduce you all at the moment.  I plan on having a quieter family gathering later on so everyone can get to know each other.”  My grandfather spoke.  “For now, I would like to reintroduce you to some old acquaintances.”  He promptly dragged my parents off, giving them barely enough time to say good-bye.

I was left to my own devices, although I was told that the youths around my age were congregating over on the far left of the ballroom.  Naturally, I headed to the far right.  There are some secluded areas there, perfect for me to hide in until this gala is over.  I have no desire to mingle, nor do I actually know how to.  I casually leaned against an ostentatious marble column and calmly sipped my non-alcoholic beverage that I was handed by a server.  Out of curiosity, I decided to focus my attention to the area where the others of my age were.

There were a couple of pop idols, a few child actors, and the like who were politely chatting.  Several others seemed to be the children of corporate executives or political figures, and then there was a true ojou-sama.  She had light red hair curled into drills, green eyes, and a nice figure.  Her dress was clearly made from the finest materials, and she had the classic snooty look that high society members often sport amongst those they deem inferior company.  She seemed to be looking around for someone, and when she couldn’t find them I could see the beginnings of a tantrum starting.

I chose to look elsewhere at that point, having no interest in watching that debacle further.  I felt the start of one of my hallucinatory headaches coming on and sighed in irritation.  My vision became blurry, with unintelligible shapes moving randomly while crackly voices rattled around in my ears.  I couldn’t understand a single word spoken, and it served no purpose except to exacerbate my throbbing headache.  I took another sip of my drink, patiently waiting for the half-assed vision to dissipate.  I have no time to try and figure what these visions are, not when I learned from Kira that Pandemonium has fully infiltrated the Tokyo criminal underground.

The moment she told me I left to go exterminate them, but I quickly ran into an impasse.  Not a single criminal was an actual demon, they were all being manipulated from the shadows.  Unless I was willing to kill thousands of people, there was no feasible way to eliminate Pandemonium’s influence.  And what scared me was the fact that I was considering it.  I was actively contemplating massacring not hundreds, but thousands of people.  Sure, some were horrible criminals, but others were likely just desperate people trying to get by anyway they can.  I felt shameful at the realization.  I don’t want to be a cold-hearted bastard anymore, I want to be someone who can share everything about themselves with their loved ones and not have to worry whether or not they will recoil away in disgust.

But what other choice do I have?  I have made next to zero inroads in dealing with Pandemonium, apart from minimizing their overt activities in Japan.  This isn’t the other world, where I had managed to build-up a network of contacts and informants.  I have no intel on where to strike and have been stuck trying to predict the actions of a mad demon lord.  Irene’s random searches have been ineffective and I don’t know what to do next.

“Minato!  What are you doing here by yourself?” My thoughts were interrupted by my father, who was as usual looming over the crowd.  I gave him a shrug, and ignored his subsequent frown.  My parents are well-aware of my anti-social tendencies, but that doesn’t mean they approve.  “Daiki and your mother are busy chatting up some big-wigs, you should take this opportunity to make some friends.  Daiki even made sure to mention you to some of them already, so you’re expected.” my dad then placed an iron grip on my shoulder and easily dragged me away despite my protests.  We skirted around the dancers that started appearing as the orchestra played.

My dad eventually stopped in front of the ojou-sama I noticed from earlier and an older man who had the same shade of red hair and green eyes.  “Hey, Chairman Byrne.  This is my son Minato I’ve been telling you about.” My father introduced me to one of the most powerful men in the world as casually as can be.  I stifled a smile of fond exasperation at my dad’s actions.  Mom told me that he’s always been like that, unflappable no matter the situation.  Chairman Byrne gave me a friendly smile as he shook my hand “It is a pleasure to meet you at last!  Hayashi has mentioned you several times now, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity.  He’s quite fond of you.  Allow me to introduce my daughter, Aoife.”  He took the hand of his daughter, who gave a small curtsey in greeting.

“Hello, I am Aoife Byrne.”  The next few minutes were spent engaging the Byrnes in polite conversation.  The Chairman was quite charismatic as well as insightful, and I rather enjoyed talking with him and my dad about business and various other things.  Aoife was mostly quiet, although she did occasionally contribute to the conversation.  Her boredom was becoming quite apparent, so when the orchestra’s music could be heard in the lull of our talking I felt the expectant looks from both my dad and the Chairman.  *Sigh* “Would you like to dance, Aoife?”  I proffered my hand as expected of me, to which Aoife smiled “I would love to.” and took it.  I took her out to the dance floor and we started waltzing.  And right as we were out of sight of our parents, the friendly expression on her face vanished.

“Listen here, the only reason I’m pretending to associate with trash like yourself is because my father is forcing me to.  Don’t think this means anything, even if you’re passable in appearance.  Are we clear?”  she said haughtily as we continued keeping time to the music.  That was exactly what I wanted to hear.  Last thing I need is for an ojou-sama to start pursuing me.  I relaxed slightly, causing a small smile to grace my face as I responded “Yes.”  Aoife blushed, but made no further comments as we danced in silence for the rest of the song.

We exited the dance floor to notice that our fathers were talking with my mother and grandfather some ways away, leaving us to our own devices.  “Tch, what are they trying to pull here?” Aoife grumbled.  “I don’t know.”  I answered.  If I wasn’t already engaged, I’d suspect that they were trying to set us up or something.  “Well, Father would be upset with me if I just abandoned you.  Come along.”  Aoife then turned and walked away, fully expecting me to follow.  I wasn’t going to, but I made the mistake of catching the gaze of my mother.  Her eyes promised me a great scolding should I snub the heiress to the Global Trading Company.  Reluctantly, I trailed after Aoife while doing my best to tune out whatever she was talking about.

I closed off my senses to a certain extent, making myself oblivious to any non-threats.  It’s a wonderful way to ignore someone without them realizing.  “Vivi!  Over here!”  Aoife suddenly cried out, startling me back into awareness.  “Who?” I murmured reflexively.  Aoife scoffed at the question, “She’s one of the few people with the heritage and sophistication to be worth my time.  You can go away now, it’s been long enough that no one would find it strange.”  Before she finished her sentence I was walking away.  “Who was that?”  A new, familiar voice behind me was heard as I left.  “No one important.”  Aoife said hastily.  “Oh?  The only time you’re so secretive is when you’re crushing on someone.”  The other girl teased.  “What?!  No, that’s not it!”  Aoife was trying to deny it as I stopped eavesdropping.  I migrated back to my family, where my parents and grandfather were talking.

“How has the trouble that’s been occurring at your firm coming along?  Has it been resolved yet, Yuuna?”  Daiki asked as my mother sipped from her wineglass.  “No, it’s gotten worse.  One of the partners is attempting a hostile take-over of the board.  I don’t know what possessed him to do so, but I’ve been placed in the position where I have to support one side or the other.  I don’t care for office politics, but I can’t stay out of this.  Whoever wins this struggle will most certainly purge the opposing side afterwards.  If I choose wrongly, I could lose everything I’ve worked for.”

Their conversation stopped when they saw me approach.  Mom and Dad have tried to hide the recent troubles they’ve been having at work from me, but they’ve been unsuccessful.  Mom has that intracompany war going on, while Dad’s restaurants have been getting harassed by the Health department.  “How was your time with Aoife?  You two were dancing so beautifully that everyone couldn’t look away.  Remember, you already have a fiancé.”  My mother teased me as I openly rolled my eyes at her words.

“Yes, Aoife is rather notorious for being difficult to deal with.  Yet, she seemed quite taken with you.  Mr. Byrne was also rather impressed by you.  He congratulated me on having such a remarkable grandson.”  Something about my grandfather’s words was disconcerting.  I can’t place my finger on what it is precisely, but my intuition was warning me to be cautious.  “Enough with the teasing you two, let’s enjoy the party.” My dad chided them, saving me from any interrogation about my time with Aoife.  And we did just that.