In Quadruneber of 2073, Kada Susten was a senior in high school, about a month away from graduating. She was a good student; paid attention in class, always did her work, and never skipped a lesson even if she was sick. While she wasn’t the smartest person, the girl was diligent in her studies, mainly due to her father's influence.
When Kada was still a young child, her mother had abandoned her and her father. This left her father broken and bitter. From then on, he constantly pressured Kada to do well in school, so that she could get a good job and take care of him in his old age. It was selfish, but her father was all she had, so she didn’t want to disappoint him.
The student was waiting at the bus stop, like she did every morning, and sat alone on the bench staring up at the gray sky wondering if it was going to rain. She was dressed in her usual navy school uniform. Her two long black braids were drooped over her shoulders. They were a stark contrast to her exceedingly pale white skin. Since she always stayed inside studying, her complexion was almost ghostly.
She took off her glasses and wiped them since they were fogging up. After returning them to her face, the girl looked over at the posters on the side of the bus stop’s shelter. Since the last time she’d looked, the number of posters for missing animals had increased drastically. For the past few months, several people’s pets had gone missing, and no one could figure out why. Not a single one had been found either.
Kada lived in a small town in the country just north of Horage, along the western coastline. It was a port town, so that’s where most of the business came from. Since the city was littered mostly with hard working sailors, crime was pretty scarce, making it a pretty peaceful place to grow up.
She remembered it always being peaceful too, even when the war was going on. The girl was still young, so she couldn’t remember too much in detail, but she did specifically recall her country surrendering without a fight. However, nothing actually changed after that. The adults talked about it to no end, but daily life remained the same. This disappearance of animals was the most she had ever seen her neighbors get so worked up in years. It led to wild conspiracies such as they were being hunted by a monster that humans couldn’t see or nabbed for government experimentation.
The girl stopped thinking about it after she got on the bus and read one of her textbooks the entire ride to school. As she walked through the halls, she noticed a familiar face, and excitedly rushed over to him. “Hey Bosef!” the student cheerfully greeted the one person she could consider her friend.
Kada didn’t have anyone else, and didn’t try to get close to people. This was her father's influence as well. On the birthday after her mother had disappeared, she had a big party with a bunch of friends she cherished. They had all pitched in to get her an extremely cute stuffed animal that she’d always wanted. After the party was over, though, something had set off her likely drunk father. He took the stuffed animal and burned it in front of her, grumbling that she shouldn’t be wasting her time with such things.
Afterwards, Kada couldn’t look her friends in the eyes anymore and had avoided trying to make new ones. The same incident had also left her with an obsession with cute things. She would often stop by pet stores to play with the young animals, or visit toy shops and browse. The girl didn’t dare take anything home, fearing that it would meet the same fate as her birthday present.
Bosef wasn’t an exception to this. He was the cutest person Kada had ever met—quite short, with dirty blonde hair, and an adorable face that would make any girl envious. Kada had stuck with avoiding people up through high school, but he had been just so cute that she couldn’t stay away. She would suddenly find herself going out of her way to offer him help with various things, and a relationship had been built off of that. She also couldn’t deny that she had at least a slight crush on him.
“Oh hey, Kada…” Bosef slowly responded, not looking away from his phone. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly perked up and inquired, “Oh, I’m actually glad you’re here. The math homework was too hard, so I didn’t do it. Can I copy yours?”
“Sure,” the girl didn’t give it a second thought and began to dig through her bag. Once she found it, she handed it to him and mentioned eagerly, “You know, if you’re really struggling, I could tutor you some time.”
“Nah, this is plenty. Thanks,” Bosef uninterestedly answered before heading off to copy it.
During lunch, Kada went and bought food for the both of them to eat together. They did this every so often when Bosef wasn’t hanging out with someone else. He would say a few sentences to her every so often, but ignored her for the most part and would do his own thing. The girl would mostly just enjoy that she got to be with him. Deep down, she knew she was being used, but it didn’t really bother her. It was different from just feeling lonely all the time.
A few days later, the girl suddenly had the impulse to follow him after school. They had been ‘friends’ for about a year now, but she knew almost nothing about him. He never really opened up to her at all, even when she would ask specific questions in an attempt to learn more and get closer. Luckily, Kada was the type that didn’t draw much attention. Most people barely even acknowledged she existed. It was quite convenient for tailing someone, though she had no real experience with it.
Her curiosity grew even more as she followed him outside of the town’s limits. She had no idea what he could possibly be doing out so far, watching him as he continued walking down the side of the road before suddenly diverting down a dirt path. Kada was starting to have second thoughts, but didn’t want to give up after coming so far.
After a while, she lost sight of him down the path but steeled herself and kept following the trail. The girl was regretting the idea more and more as the sun started to set. She was just about at her limit, and was going to turn around, when she heard a bunch of faint, strange cries in the distance. As the student followed the path, the cries got louder, and she recognized them as the whimpers of pets.
Kada kept going until she finally reached a decrepit building alongside a body of water. She had never seen the place before, but could guess what it was based on stories she’d heard. A few decades ago, it was a private cove that followed a river out to the ocean, used by smugglers. The area had then been abandoned ever since they got caught and their operation was shut down.
The girl peered inside the building. There were dozens of cages stacked up on rows of shelves with a small animal in each one. She counted several dogs and cats, and even a bunny trapped inside them. All of them that could cry out were doing so. Some, however, looked too weak to even stand, let alone seek help. She recognized them all. They were the pets from the posters she had seen. Not every animal was accounted for, but most of them that she remembered.
It took everything in her power not to immediately bust in and save the pitiful creatures. She knew it wasn’t the right time, however, and needed to gather more information first. What is going on?! Kada asked herself frantically. Did Bosef do this? Is he the one who's been capturing them? Why, though? I don’t get why anyone would do this to poor animals!
She crept along the outside of the building, doing her best not to make any noise. She was also holding back tears, which was getting harder every second listening to the helpless moans. Once she got to the corner near the waterside, she peeked around it and saw Bosef. He was standing on the end of the pier with a rope in hand. She had no idea what he was doing until he pulled it up and heard the worst cry yet.
At the end of the rope, there was a small puppy caged in a lobster trap. It was at that moment that she saw the look on his face. There was no sign of that cute boy she knew. Bosef bore an expression that disgusted her to no end, one of psychotic bliss. He barely let the puppy catch its breath before submerging it again while cackling to himself. She understood what he was doing now, he would ‘play’ with them like this until they died.
Kada could feel her blood begin to boil. How could anyone do something so horrible to something so defenseless, so innocent, so cute?! The thought was met with unceasing fury as she rushed towards him at full sprint, grabbing a piece of broken railing along the way. Bosef turned around just in time to see her, but before he could say anything, she bashed him over the head with the railing, knocking him unconscious.
The girl looked around in a panicked frenzy, unsure of what to do next. She eventually saw the rope and pulled it up as fast as she could until she was able to get the trap onto the pier and then checked on the puppy. It was exhausted, but still breathing. She set the trap aside briefly after confirming the animals safety. Before anything else, the student needed to decide what to do about Bosef and began looking around again.
That was when she noticed an anchor just a few steps away on the wooden deck. Kada untied the rope from the trap, secured one end of it around Bosef’s ankles, then tied the other around the anchor's ring. She did her best to push the heavy piece of metal, but it would just barely budge. So the girl sat down and pushed with her feet. It was moving more but would still take ages and a ton of her strength. She never did manage to get it over the side of the dock. Instead, the dilapidated board under the anchor broke from too much strain.
With gravity on her side, the anchor rapidly sunk down into the water, dragging Bosef down with it. Kada watched him disappear into the darkness. Just before she lost sight of him, he woke up, and reached a hand up towards her, before fading away into the black. All the student could do after that was cry. She cried endlessly for minutes, and it felt like the tears would never stop. Suddenly, she felt the flowing trail on her cheeks burn with immense heat, then a sudden flash of silver almost caused her to fall over into the water.
When Kada got a hold of herself, she felt it was time to go home. The girl ultimately decided against setting the animals free, not knowing if they would be able to make their way back to their owners. When she got back into town, the student made an anonymous call to the police, informing them of the pets’ location using a public phone. After she got back to her house, her father tried to berate her about dyeing her hair; which she hadn’t even noticed had changed.
The daughter just walked past him and stared daggers, causing him to shut up instantly. Her eyes wouldn’t stop hurting for some reason, so she just went to bed immediately, finally falling asleep after crying a bit more. The next morning, she realized that the pain was caused by her glasses. Without them, she could suddenly see completely clearly, but when she put them on it made everything blurry and hurt her head.
Over the next month, Kada barely spoke to her father, or anyone else really. She just kind of floated through those days, like she wasn’t even there. No one really bothered her about her sudden changes, except for one teacher whom she made give up with a single look. The day after she graduated, she ran away from home with only as much as she could carry in one bag.
On that day, she swore to herself that she would never live for anyone else's sake, and enjoy her life just for herself. She only went as far as a few towns over and didn’t leave the country. Once she figured out how her Curse worked, the girl decided to become a pool attendant. Swimming was never her strong suit, so that way she could practice during her free time and make enough to get by.
Once she was more confident in her swimming, she became a lifeguard at the beach and worked there for the next few years. After about a year, she decided to work on improving herself, and spent most of her savings on her anchor and having it refined in the way she wanted. On her days off, she would go to the nearby woods practice melting objects with her ability and fling her weapon at trees.
Kada lived a pretty simple life and didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her future. That was, until she found out about Drim and Phon. Their influence caused a new surge of inspiration to spring up inside her, making her want to live every minute to its fullest, and she headed off to a new life.
◆◆◆
As Kada continued to fall towards the ground, approaching what could potentially be her doom in the form of a giant monkey fist, she began to reflect and felt a twinge of regret. She didn’t really have any remorse for killing Bosef, it was more that she regretted how she acted afterwards. She shouldn’t have been so cold to her father. Yes, he was a jerk, but she felt she could have behaved better—maybe spoken to him instead of cutting him out of her life.
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The woman also regretted the self-centered life philosophy she’d adopted after becoming a Fiend. Kada had been hurt from being betrayed by someone who’d used her, and that made her want to be as selfish as possible. The truth was, though, that she liked helping others and feeling useful. Yes, someone else was getting something out of it, but she couldn’t deny the good feeling she got.
Deciding to live her life only for herself made her just as egocentric as the ones that had wronged her. If she could, she would do things differently—spent the past few years helping others more instead of only training and keeping her abilities to herself.
Sure, she had saved a few people as a lifeguard, but anyone could have done that with proper training. It didn’t utilize her unique gifts. At present, her biggest regret was having stolen the job from Drim. If she wasn’t so selfish and had asked them, maybe they would have taken her along and shown her how to hunt properly.
Well, none of that matters now, the Fiend felt the anguish of defeat before opening her eyes. She snapped out of her funk and glanced back down at the Gorrizard. The girl resolved herself to staring at her fate head on instead of just waiting for it to finish her. Who knew, she might be able to do something as long as she didn’t give up, or a miracle could happen. Kada was starting to feel motivated again. She tightened her brace with her arms, but then dropped it the very next moment, stunned by what she saw next.
An arrow suddenly flew right in her direction, and she feared it might hit her. However, it was aimed lower and struck the monster directly in the back of the neck. The beast froze completely, its arm no longer moving at all towards Kada. Seconds later, a terrifying volley of arrows followed the first. There were so many that the girl couldn’t even hope to count them. They all struck into the Gorrizard’s neck, one after the other, in what seemed like less than a second.
Kada realized she must have been close to hitting the ground, and was getting ready to activate her Curse, but the next thing she knew, she was in someone's arms. The woman stared up to see her savior, though it was hard to make out their face from the bright sunlight behind their head. She thought for a second she might already be dead and it was an angel carrying her, but after a few more seconds, she realized it was Drim Drazah who was holding her like a bride swept off her feet.
She couldn’t help but immediately feel supremely flustered—completely awestruck and captivated by Drim as she stared longer than she should have. A new thought raced in her mind, Was he always this attractive?! and she couldn’t help blurting out, “Has anyone ever told you how handsome you are when you’re saving their life?”
There was a second of the worst awkward silence she’d ever felt while Drim just confusedly gawked at her until he finally answered, “Err… No…?” Kada was suddenly glad for how dark her skin was. If she was still her pasty-skinned old self, her face would be gushing red from all the embarrassment she was feeling. She was also starting to feel quite self conscious about being held and started to squirm a little. Drim let her down, pointed behind his head, and informed her, “You have to aim for the back of their neck.”
“Huh?” Kada ungracefully replied—her turn to be confused.
The Slayer pointed to the gorizzard, and she finally connected the dots as he explained further. “The neck is the only weak spot, if you hit them anywhere else, even the brain, they’ll just regenerate.”
Kada could only just nod at what he said. Really, she wanted to urgently flee the scene, with endless feelings of shame that she had to be saved, embarrassment from having Drim catch and hold her, and a little bit of annoying extra thumping in her chest that she was trying to write off as over-excitement from it all. However, she knew that if she were to run now, there’s a good chance they’d never cross paths again, and that had become an unacceptable option.
There was a ton she wanted to ask him, and to thank him for what he’d done. In the moment, though, she couldn’t think of a single thing to ask and decided to go with the thanks first, but even that came out as an awkward stammer. “Thank you… Really, thanks… I, err…,” she stopped talking when she suddenly found herself getting lost in staring at him again. “OWWWW!” Kada let out a cry, feeling a sudden pain on her head.
“Oi! No flirting with the brother!” Phon was suddenly behind her and had hit her with what looked like a gavel, but a children’s toy version of it. There had also been a slight squeak that sounded when she was hit. Kada was honestly glad for the sudden strike, though, since it allowed her to recompose herself.
She turned to Phon and blathered, “Well that’s fine. You’re pretty cute yourself you know.” Kada had been half joking to help lighten the mood, but was still a bit serious. She really did think Phon looked cute, especially when she looked annoyed.
The Vixen’s face twisted, clearly appalled as she screamed, “And that goes double for me!” before whacking Kada on the head again. It was a much harder hit that time, so the woman felt the need to rub her head in response. She wondered how such a toy could hurt a Fiend so much, but then guessed it was due to the strength bonus of being wielded by another Fiend.
“So, is that what you went to go pick up?” Drim asked, now staring at his sister and the gavel.
“Yeha, I had a feeling I’d need it,” Phon replied, holding the gavel up in a proud, showy manner. “It’s collapsible too, so I’ll be able to take it anywhere. I also bought a tiny spray bottle to potentially use, but after seeing her Curse, I figured water wouldn’t bother her too much.” The Vixen then looked over at the collapsed Gorrizard and wondered, “Don’t you think you went a little overboard, Drim? I’m pretty sure it was dead after the first arrow.”
“Oh, I just wanted to be sure it was really dead…,” The Slayer defended his action while looking away and rubbing the back of his head. His sister continued to stare at him like she knew he was lying, and he spoke again in a very unconvincing tone, “Actually I just made a bunch of new arrows and wanted to use up the old ones!” She stared a little more intently now and made an annoyed grunt. Drim sighed and finally admitted, “I thought maybe the town could use it as an attraction or something, world’s largest pincushion, or something like that…”
“There it is...” Phon was content. “I know you’re always thinking of how you can help other people Drim, but I have to say, your ideas aren’t always the best.” Her brother stared up at the sky while letting out a wry laugh to move on from the situation. Eventually, his eyes wandered over to the third wheel.
“Oh yeah, Kada…” Being suddenly addressed by the man caused a little jolt to run through Kada who had just been standing there awkwardly. Half of her hoped that they would just ignore her and she could run away, but the other half was happy that she was being concluded. Drim continued, “Do you mind telling us about your Curse? It’s quite interesting, but I don’t think I understand it fully.”
“Uh… Sure!” the woman answered excitedly, surprised that they were taking such an interest in her. “I can turn any solid into a liquid if I’m touching it and then turn it back. I can also melt anything of that same material I’m touching even if I’m not in direct contact with it. That’s how I was able to melt just my anchor, since the chain is made out of the same metal.”
“I guess that’s cooler than just being a mole-person,” Phon interjected, amused by her own imagination.
Completely ignoring his sister’s comment, The Slayer , “Does it work on living things too?”
“Uh, yes and no,” Kada tried to figure out the best way to explain it. “It works on like plants and stuff, but doesn’t work on animals or humans.”
The woman was a little shocked when Drim suddenly summoned a rose, even though she had seen him do similar things on videos. It was still jarring to see in person. “Can you melt this?” he held it out to her.
“Yeah sure, it shouldn’t be hard,” Kada was a little happy that she got to show off. “Though I should explain a bit more. I can only melt the material I’m touching. So I could melt petals, but to do the stem, I would have to touch that too. I could do both at the same time if I touched both, otherwise it’d have to be separately. Like, dirt is actually made up of a whole bunch of materials, but it’s not an issue since I swim through it and am continuingly touching it. I can melt stuff with any part of my body and radiate it enough that I can do it through thin clothing.”
The woman plucked one of the petals from the rose in Drim’s hand. Suddenly, all the remaining petals melted away, and the liquid fell to the ground while the one in her hand stayed solid. “I can also control the stuff I melt to a certain extent. The more materials I’ve melted and try to control at once, as well as the amount I've melted, the harder it becomes. Something like these petals are no big deal, though.”
From the ground, the globs of green water started floating up back towards the stem that Drim was still holding. They swirled around it for a little bit, then the petals became solid again, back to their original positions and completely reattached. The man absorbed the rose which startled Kada again and prompted her to comment, “I think your guys’ Curses are much weirder, though.”
The siblings gave each other ponderous glances as they contemplated her abilities, comparing it to their own. Kada decided this was her chance to leave, not wanting any more awkward moments. She was worn out for the day and headed back over to the now decaying Gorrizard to pick up her anchor. The girl then set down her thermos, unscrewed the cap, lifted the anchor just above it, and melted it, guiding the liquid into the thermos. Originally, it would overflow any container she tried to put it in, but she had learned to compact it with her Curse.
When she was done, Kada walked back over to the Drazahs for a final goodbye, “Well, I guess I’ll be off. Don’t worry about the monster. You did the work so, you deserve the reward, and thank you again for saving me. Really, I mean it. I owe you my life.” She gave a deep bow before walking off in the opposite direction. For a reason Kada couldn’t quite figure out, she felt lonelier than ever before
“Hey, Kada…” Those words from Drim caused Kada to freeze on the spot, and an unnatural panic began to swell up in her at the thought of what he might say next.
“Ahh Cosdamnit, here it comes…” Phon muttered, bracing herself.
“Do you want to join us?” the man asked sincerely. “Like, I mean become one of the Fiends For Hire, and fight with us, and do jobs and everything?”
Tears began to pour down Kada’s face, following the lines of her Curse Mark precisely. It was the first time she had cried since the night she’d killed Bosef, but this was completely different. The tears were from happiness. She turned around to face them, smiled with a huge grin, and simply yelled, “Yeah!”
Fiends For Hire Text Conversation 3
Date: Monarchber 20th 2077
『Kada: I finished packing up my old apartment. I should be back tomorrow.』
『Drim: Cool, see you then.』
『Phon: Hey Kada. Is that your natural skin color?』
『Kada: Oh no, this is a tan. I used to be super pale』
『Kada: Hang on, I’ll send a picture (Attached File: Highschool3.pic)』
『Drim: Wow, you look like a completely different person』
『Phon: Huh, I didn’t think Fiends could get tans with our extra resistances and all』
『Kada: Well, it didn’t happen quickly. That’s the culmination of several years of working every day outside in the sun while wearing minimal clothing』
『Kada: I think it’s permanent too』
『Drim: What do you mean?』
『Kada: I had tan lines originally, but then one morning I woke up and they were completely gone. The tan had taken over my body completely with no sign of my original skin color』
『Kada: It hasn’t faded since then at all either』
『Kada: Here I’ll show you (Attached File: Sungoddess.pic)』
『Drim: Interesting choice of file name...』
『Phon: Drim don’t open that!!!』
『Phon: Wow, it really does cover your entire body. Remind me if I start getting tan to let it fade before it’s too late.』
『Drim: Well it looks like I win. You’re doing the shopping tomorrow Phon』
『Phon: Fine fine』
『Kada: Wait, were you guys using me for a bet?! Rude! I demand reparation!』
『Drim: Well we’ve already asked our friend to ship us a new phone for you. It should be here by the time you get back. How’s that?』
『Kada: That’ll do...』
Discord, , and Amazon Release (Pending), can be found on the Fiends For Hire .
What would you do if you found someone torturing/killing animals
