The wind blew in the northern mountains of Japan, biting at Tomia's pale and soft skin covered in frosted up blood. The cold and blood was the least of her problems though…she was hungry, very hungry, now the slop from the facility didn't seem so bad to her.
Her stomach rumbled as she grabbed onto her belly, while leaning against a tree and sitting in the snow, the blood on her somewhat washed away from the snow that landed on her and melted away, though not as much as she'd desire.
"What to do…I'm so hungry"
She thought to herself and slowly picked herself up, her legs shaking a little as she did so. Her tail was coiled around her leg as if to offer some warmth, and Tomia started walking, it was about a day since Tomia had escaped the facility and was roaming aimlessly in the mountains, not a single living being in sight…not like mountains would have much life in them anyways, so she was making her way more and more down the mountain…but the cold was slowing her down a great amount, as was the snow and hunger…but also fear, what if the people find her again and will try to hurt her or bring her back? A part of her shuddered to imagine, but a part of her wanted to go back…as horrible as she was treated, at least she was warm and had food, and Gokkumon, Miyuki and Tanmachi were not so bad to her.
"No, there's no way I'm going back." swept through her mind, the silence of the forest breaking only with the blowing wind and Tomia's gentle breathing.
Eventually it was broken up by a rustle in the bushes…food?
Tomia crouched down and slowly crept up, walking on all fours trying to smell what it was, almost like a hunting dog.
She sniffed around as her now feral eyes were fixed on the bush, then she smelled it…meat.
With blinding speed Tomia burst forwards to the bushes and leapt through them.
At the other end she had her mouth open as if ready to pounce but froze up, it was a lynx–she couldn't bring herself to strike, it looked like a cat, an animal she adored the most, for a split second her heart fluttered at the thought that she might have hurt a innocent animal.
As she stood there the Lynx arched its back to try and intimidate her, but as she didn't move it quickly ran away.
A part of her urged her to pursue it, she was starving after all and had not eaten for almost 2 days, but she instead shook her head and brought a hand to her heart area and placed it on her chest, her heart was beating very fast..what was this sensation?
She knelt down and looked down onto her hands and body tainted in blood.
"They kept calling me a monster…maybe I am a monster if this is how I behave?"
A slight tear appeared in the corner of her eye as she frowned, her eyes filled with sorrow as she hunched over and covered her eyes, softly sobbing, feeling terrified of herself, of where she is and what might happen.
After a couple of minutes Tomia stood up and wipes her tears off and starts walking again, the primal part in her forcing her to keep moving and find food.
In the meantime in a place far from the Northern mountains, in Tokyo city a tall skyscraper with the large letters DHC over it.
A large dark courtroom-like office, at a large table are sat 3 figures, an old woman flanked by two old men are seated at the table.
In the middle of the room stands Gokkumon Daiko, standing at attention with his arms behind his back and face staring at the 3 infront of him, his face giving off some discomfort.
The old woman took a deep breath and began to speak.
"Forty-six dead and nineteen mortally wounded, out of which six have passed away in the night. The families of the deceased are distressed and a large sum of money has to have been paid off as compensation. Not to mention, damaged security doors, weapons and out of those who died half were trained Hunters of DHC. Overall estimation of damages amounted to an estimate of 280,000,000 yen…all thanks to one demon that you brought in for your own experiment nine years ago and that's not to mention the PR disaster this is bringing to our table. What do you have to say for yourself Commander Daiko?"
The old woman spoke with a confident and stern voice, holding a large file with papers in it.
Gokkumon took a gulp as he lowered his head and looked back up at the three to ready himself to speak.
"Present committee, I admit and take full blame for what had transpired yesterday. I've taken a gamble with Tomia in hopes that I may be able to show there is humanity in demons and show the possibility of coexistence with them, but with all due respect my efforts were showing fruit were it not for the mistreatment that Facility 3 was showing her, as I requested humane treatment that was not given to her."
The old woman shook her head as she stared at Gokkumon.
"Commander, we allowed this experiment because it was in our interests to see how and if demons can be cooperative, while it is true that your efforts bore fruit we cannot expect humanity to treat these monsters that slaughter humans on a daily basis for centuries now at this point, to treat them humanely. They've been humanity's biggest enemy for centuries now and those are deep scars that won't heal if we shake hands with a couple of demons. In the last 500 years 14,507,064 humans have met their end at the hands of demons and the numbers have been rapidly increasing ever since World War 2 ended."
Gokkumon wanted to speak, to mention that humanity has in the last hundred years killed each other 10x more than the Demons had killed them, but he knew there was no point in that.
The old lady continued speaking.
"Simply put we cannot allow you to follow through with your little experiment any longer, Subject TI is to be completely terminated, your orders are to send out a strike team of at least fifty hunters to ambush Subject TI and terminate it fully. Disobey the order and you will be stripped off your position of power, as in regards to your fault you are to write personalized letters to each family of those who died that day and deliver them personally. Consider yourself dismissed"
The woman said and closed the file in her hands as she started to slowly pack up.
Gokkumon clenched his fist and nodded.
"Consider it done…present committee"
He said and turned heel to walk out of the room, outside the other Top 5 were waiting on a bench, looking a bit worried as Gokkumon stepped outside.
Tanmachi was the one to speak first.
"Looks like there was no chance of convincing them huh?.."
Gokkumon only shook his head as he leaned against a wall, and rubbed his temple.
"Not a second of it, didn't even allow me to elaborate further on Tomia's case"
Bocchi scoffed and shook his head.
"Gotta love the committee, they always know how to best deal with things they themselves never dealt with"
Gokkumon stoodd up again and adjusted his uniform. Then looked towards the group.
"We have orders to set-up an ambush on Tomia with fifty other hunters and terminate Tomia…we are apparently not meant to be part of it"
Miyuki and Tanmachi scoffed with disgust in their faces, Miyuki shook her head and spoke.
"Do these fools not realise she just managed to cut through about thirty men without breaking a sweat? God, it puts a lump in my throat even thinking that we're gonna have to send fifty more men to their deaths and stress out the girl even more."
Gahu looked at Gokumon with his eye wide open.
"Could we not potentially set up the ambush so that we just scare off Tomia? Maybe force an avalanche so that we have to retreat and we lose sight of her then have to pull back?"
Gokkumon shook his head and sighed heavily.
"It sounds horrible to say but the committee won't let down on us hunting her, even if a regiment worth of hunters would be wiped, they'd probably still request us to send even more men after her, in hopes that at last it might be enough."
Gahu sighed and looked down at the floor.
"Yea…that's true, there is not usually any way to convince the committee in anything they themselves don't want to belive."
Gokkumon gestured to the group to stand up and follow him.
They all nodded and followed. The five walked through the hallways, activity bustling in this skyscraper with office workers moving around them.
Gokkumon spoke as he glanced back at the group.
"I should never have brought her to the DHC…maybe I should have just hid her at my home and raised her"
A sad frown appeared on Gokkumon's face, contemplating his own choices about Tomia.
Miyuki placed her hand on his back and with a soothing voice and a soft smile on her face.
"Commander. Stop blaming yourself for this, you're trying to do the right thing in showing the humanity in demons through Tomia, it's not your or her fault. It's because of how cruel others have been to her and how much they kept mistreating her despite the order to treat her like a human. If anyone is to blame on this then it's Facility three and the committee for their mistreatment, she's only but a young girl whose mother we killed right in front of her."
Tanmachi spoke up, her voice loud and clear.
"Miyuki's right Commander! If only people were not such assholes, I'm sure humans and demons would be hand in hand already, and maybe we'd have Tomia walking beside us right now…imagine how cute she'd be in the DHC uniform!"
Bocchi couldn't help but let out a chuckle at Tanmachi's remark.
"A demon working in the DHC? Tanmachi your imagination is always a surprise. Though I'd argue its not far from being a little naive."
Gokkumon chuckled a little as the group bantered, but the weight, he still carried…he had orders to follow, and there's nothing he can do, but to act now.
Four days have passed, Tomia has moved down to the foot of mountains and is currently by a river, kneeling over a dead body of a deer and ripping into it, her claws tearing through the meat as she places it into her mouth and chews at it with ease.
After she is done eating she walks to the river, seeing her reflection, she feels her heart drop.
"I really am a monster, aren't I"
She asked herself, placing a hand on her cheek, her eyes permanently keeping their permanent azure glow and her claws not retracting like they usually would, she glances down to see that her underwear is quite worn now, the snow from the mountains no longer biting at her skin She needs to clean her up from alot of the grime, dirt, mud and blood from her prey on her body. She took a step and stood in the river and cleaning up off of herself what she could.
During this she could hear rustles in the bushes, some animals probably. Being used to it now she paid it no mind, but then more of the rustles…this was much more than that, then a scent she recognized hit her…humans.
The moment she recognized the scent the sound of gunfire filled the forest, the DHC made its ambush, the echoing sounds scaring animals and birds from the forest as Tomia ambushed while she was cleaning herself up ducked and dodged the bullets that flew at her. They were not easy to dodge, but for her it felt almost natural as she locked her eyes onto someone and surged forward, remembering that humans don't shoot their guns if there is a risk of friendly fire, and as she remembered. The moment she got into the bushes and leapt at the closest hunter to her, her claws cut through his neck making his head fall off. The other hunters dropped their weapons and pulled out their sidearms.
Once again, carnage commenced at the hands of Tomia, her feral eyes showing no emotion as Tomia's lips quivered while cutting through them all, one by one the hunters were slain. The tranquil and peaceful forest clearing being painted with blood, guts and innards of humans.
Within a couple of minutes the carnage was over, bodies scattered all over as some Hunters tried to escape…but to no avail, Tomia wouldn't let anyone escape. The blood slowly spilling into the clean water made Tomia snap back into reality as she stood in the river again and watched the river be colored red, the pool of blood spilling through her reflection in the water, tears again appeared in the corner of Tomia's eyes as she grit her teeth…making the thought appear in her head again "I am a monster".
Tomia moved up stream where there was no blood and started washing herself up yet again.
After a long and proper cleaning Tomia was kneeling down in water and readjusting her now cleaner, yet still worn underwear as she stared down at a reflection of herself in the water, now clean again she let out a soft smile while looking at herself. She reached her hand out to try and touch the reflection as she thought.
"So pretty.."
Tomia stood up again and started walking to the hunter bodies, she found some taller dead body where she didn't damage the clothes much and took the white trench coat off of him, she cleaned the blood in the nearby river and put it onto herself, to cover herself up.
Back in the DHC Offices Gokkumon is leaving the committee room again, a deep sigh leaving his mouth as only Miyuki seems to be present today. He then spoke up.
"Termination of Tomia has been cancelled for now, but we are to strategize and give ideas on how to get her, seems like the committee realised their stupid idea of trying to face off against her, after we lost everyone in that forest, it's crazy to imagine that people need to die for the Top Brass to realise that their orders are stupid"
Miyuki let out a soft sigh as she stood up from the bench.
"Well..at least something good came from something horrible, but it could've been prevented if only the Committee took a walk through our boots"
Gokkumon nodded.
"I'm getting tired of the lives we keep sending to their deaths, when all this could've been avoided with a bit of compassion to a demon...maybe.."