Every character is above eighteen.
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Zara hoped that this week of the course would be fine. However, encountering Aritimi at the beginning of the week was already a bad omen for her.
The park was silent, with only one person waiting for her on a bench. For a brief moment, Zara thought she was seeing Aritimi, but no. The girl was younger, approximately Zara's age. She wore her jet-black hair in thick braids similar to Aritimi.
Her skin was as dark as Aritimi's, except that she was decorated with a plethora of abstract black tattoos, she had them even on some spots of her face.
"Um, hi!" Zara greeted her, "You are waiting for Aritimi as well?"
"Yep," she smiled at Zara, "You must be Zara Cromwell."
"Did you hear about me?" Zara raised an eyebrow.
"My mother keeps me informed about the other gals here. She tends to forget that this is a course and not a competition," she sighed, "By the way, my name's Curtis Williams."
Zara shook Curtis' hand. It was also covered with tattoos. Zara kept looking at Curtis' face until it became awkward.
"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to take a better look at you because..." Zara started.
"Nah, no problems," Curtis shrugged, "I know these tattoos are weird but better than leaving my scars uncovered."
"Scars?" Zara blinked.
"My augmentation. I got bone implants from a Tooth Titan. They needed to open my body at multiple parts to reach my skeleton and left a lot of scars in the process."
Indeed, as Zara took a better look at the girl, she noticed that each tattoo was covering a surgical scar.
"Oh, I see now. But not your tattoos are the reason I was looking at you weirdly. You reminded me of Aritimi," Zara told her.
"Whoa! So all black women are looking the same for you?" gasped Curtis semi-loudly.
"No no no! That's not what I meant..." Zara panicked but Curtis' angry expression was replaced by a big grin.
"Just kidding," she chuckled, "Aritimi is one of my family members, that's why I look similar to her."
"Good to know," Zara sighed in relief, "Damn it, girl. You almost gave me a heart attack. And who is she for you?"
"She is my grandaunt."
"You mean your aunt?"
"No. My grandaunt. She is one of the younger sisters of my grandma."
"Wow! How old is Aritimi then?" Zara wondered. She knew Aritimi had been in the business for a long time but the documents usually didn't mention her age.
"She is fifty-one. Her birthday is on Valentine's Day."
"Incredible. I thought she was somewhere in her thirty's."
"Yeah. Black don't crack, baby," Curtis smiled, "But it's not surprising that she looks that good. Her family is one of the biggest monster-hunter dynasties with the strongest bloodline. They are technically not born, they are bred like hunting hounds. My grandma raised my mother differently, like a real family, but each time I see her, she remind of a robot that unsuccsessfully tries to pass as a human."
"I always wondered what kind of childhood Aritimi had," Zara said, "Lana mentioned something about her family."
"I overheard some stories from grandma when she was talking to my mum. Their childhood was more like being in a military school every day, nonstop. No wonder the members of the big monster hunter families are kinda off their rockers. It's hard to stay normal in a situation like that."
Zara began thinking about her mentor. She felt bad about her, although it was hard to keep her empathy for long as she also remembered all the shit she went through because of Aritimi.
"And, any info on about what we gonna do today?" Zara asked after they stayed silent for a bit.
"Nope," this answer reminded Zara of Aritimi, "I guess we will visit one of Aritimi's old team members but that's all."
Then they heard a loud splash of water from the fountain's direction. It was Aritimi. She was sitting in the fountain's water, naked.
"Good morning, pupils," she smiled, "There's nothing more refreshing than a cold bath in the morning."
And then Aritimi emerged from the water like a goddess arriving to her followers. Her nipples were rock hard and stood erect on her massive breasts. The small patch of crescent moon-shaped pubic hair was more visible now as it kept growing back.
Aritimi opened a small portal and pulled out a towel from it to wipe herself dry.
"Ah, you must be Curtis. The last time I saw you you were smaller than a Gremlin," Aritimi smiled at her.
"Yeah, long time no see," she replied. They didn't feel like relatives as they interacted with each other.
"Can you use your augmentations properly?" Aritimi asked curiously, " I heard you had issues with them after the surgery."
"Yeah, that's true. I still can't use my powers. According to Margaret, the surgery was a success but I need to activate my augmentations somehow."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Aritimi looked at her with a devilish grin, "Your mother asked me to help you activate your powers at all costs so I asked my old friend from the augmentation research unit that we would visit today to help us a little."
"We can go now," Aritimi finished wiping herself with the towel that she then discarded into the same portal she pulled it out of.
"Follow me," she opened another portal and disappeared in its brightness.
"Wow! She is so hot!" Curtis exclaimed as Aritimi was no longer with them.
"She likes hunting and training in the nude. She says it's some kind of reconnecting with nature or some shit like this, but I guess she is just a pervert," Zara replied as they approached the portal.
