Every character is above eighteen.
Also, this is one of the more story-focused chapters, similar to Chapter 02.
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Zara arrived at the park at the usual time, waiting for Aritimi. She didn't know what they would do or who she would encounter this time.
She checked her phone to see she had a message from Akemi.
"Party tomorrow? I know a good place"
"Maybe" Zara texted reluctantly. Akemi was a new friend and Zara felt weird about it. She wasn't used to having friends.
As the course began, barely a handful of people stayed in the park, but one particular girl caught Zara's attention. She looked like a stereotypical bimbo. The type that appears in horror movies just to show off her tits before the villain kills her.
Zara took a sip from her water bottle, eyeing the newcomer. She looked dressed for a beach party rather than monster hunting. Her skintight white dress stretched across her perfect hourglass figure, revealing most of her voluptuous breasts and her shapely hips. It barely covered her thighs, exposing her long, tanned legs. Her hair was platinum blonde, matching her dress' color, and she had bright blue eyes that sparkled in the morning light.
"Are you also waiting for Aritimi?" the bimbo girl asked.
"Yes," Zara replied, "You too?"
"Yeah, I'm one of her pupils too," she answered.
"Ah, okay," Zara looked at her in disbelief, "Zara Cromwell, by the way," she stuck her hand out. The bimbo took it with a firm, surprisingly strong yet gentle grip.
"Bambi Sinclair," she giggled, her voice as sugary as her look, "But you can call me "Bam" if you like."
"Okay, Bam, nice to meet you...I guess," Zara said awkwardly.
"Oh, my God!" Bambi said semi-loudly with dramatic pauses between the words, "I remember who you are! You are the hunter who caught that monster girl. What was it, a Lady Bug? A Queen Bee?"
"Um, it was a Bug Queen, and no I missed her. I just defeated her but the arriving backup team caught her, not me," Zara clarified.
"It's so super to meet a famous person," Bambi continued, "What's your augmentation? Mine is gold gland implants from a Golden Goliath. It wasn't cheap but Daddy paid whatever he needed for his princess, as he usually says," Bambi chuckled. Zara fought the urge to ask if "Daddy" was her father, lover, or both.
"I can generate this liquid gold thingy from my body," Bambi said as her golden-colored fingernails began to elongate and move freely, "I can produce it from my body anywhere and can move it like an actual body part. I can also use it as golden makeup. Oh, and I can make a golden replica of small objects," she produced a small golden coin from her nails, "Sadly, it cannot be used to pay for things like real gold. Marge said it's not real but an organic gold-like thing that can decay after it leaves my body."
"Cool. I got my cells rewritten by a Flesh Fiend," Zara explained her augmentation, "I don't have too many abilities so far but my body can regenerate and adapt to things quickly, plus I'm much stronger than before. I'm still just trying to awaken my full potential though."
"Wow! How are you still alive? I heard Flesh Fiends casually fuck and eat everything that moves, usually in this order," Bambi gasped.
"I don't know, I was super scared," Zara admitted, "Are you not afraid of monsters?" she asked as she kept scanning the bimbo, she looked nothing like a monster hunter should.
"No. Why should I? One of the top hunters is our mentor. We don't have to worry," Bambi beamed.
"Did you fight monsters before?" Zara asked.
"Wild ones? No, but I did a little training before this course," Bambi giggled.
"Good morning pupils!" they heard Aritimi's voice from above.
Aritimi was standing on the top of a lamppost near the duo. She was barefoot, only wearing her usual jumpsuit. She stood up there with a perfect balance.
"I see you're both here," she said as she landed before them with an acrobatic jump.
"Are we waiting for anybody else?" Zara asked, hoping to have someone else beside this bimbo.
"Nope. Today just only two of you will be needed," Aritimi answered.
"What we will do this time? I hope there will be no bugs," Bambi said.
"No bugs, I swear," Aritimi opened a bright pink portal, "Follow me, pupils."
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To Zara's surprise, they ended up on a beach.
"Whoa! We're going to have a beach party?" Bambi asked, her eyes shining with joy.
"No, we're here to do our job," Aritimi shook her head.
"Oh!" Bambi's smile faded slightly, "By the way, when did Crowsend get a beach? I thought we were too far from the Ocean."
"Because that's not the Ocean. That's the Wolf Lake. A big lake near Crowsend which formed when my mother fought a powerful monster here decades ago," Aritimi explained.
"Whoa! They built Crowsend as a memorial for your mother's fight?" Bambi asked awestruck.
"No. The lake was the result of the fight. It was a crater that got filled up by a nearby river," Aritimi explained calmly, though her eyebrow twitched slightly. The fact that she wasn't douchy toward Bambi made Zara think about who she can be. She must be someone important's loved one because there's no way the HSA and Aritimi would waste time on Bambi otherwise.
"And what are we going to do this time?" Zara asked.
"We are going to patrol around the beach, searching for potential threats," Aritimi revealed, "I know this doesn't sound big or epic, but that's a job someone has to do as well. Public places like this can attract the attention of monsters easily. So many civilians and so many potential victims. And that's just the beach of a big lake. Public beaches at the Ocean's shores have to be guarded by the navy at some points."
"I thought the aquatic monsters were not as big as a threat they were decades ago. Since the HSA made a truce with Cthulhu, most of them avoid the shores," Zara said.
"That's the problem at some beaches. Because of the fewer monsters there, the number of dolphins began skyrocketing. Those hellish creatures rape and murder more people each year than any monster species known to mankind. In the beginning, the HSA was concerned that they were monsters as well," Aritimi said.