The hunters began training, the four girls blindfolded and wearing noise cancelling headphones, while walking around the room. With no sense of sight or hearing, the girls were quietly literally blindly (and deaf-ly) trying to find one another.

“That’s it, girls. Just become aware of your surroundings and allow your nose to sense each other.”

Ryoka took in a few deep sniffs from her nose, acting like a dog who just smelled bacon. However, she ended up running face first into a wall.

“Ow!” Ryoka held her nose before yelling loudly, “Nee, is this really necessary?!”

“It is. A hunter must know how to utilize every one of their senses. You don’t realize it, but when you don’t have the other parts of your body to rely on, like your eyes or ears, the sense of smell can be the strongest and most effective of the five.”

“But how?” Yukari asked.

“By stimulating your brain and exercising your nose, it can become stronger, more sensitive, and help you recognize certain scents.”

Karen finally angrily ripped off her blindfold and headphones.

“Takayanagi-san!” she called out the woman. “Don’t you think we should be training in combat?”

“Oh, you’re a feisty one, Iwata.”

“I don’t want to know how to track a vampire by their smell! I wanna know how to rip their head off!”

“Calm down,” she said, jumping down into the training area. “You can’t go purely on offense. If you don’t defend yourself, the enemy will catch you off guard.”

Takayanagi then pulled out a dagger.

“Let’s say, I’m a vampire. You’re out, in the dark… when, all the sudden. Bam!” She suddenly grabbed Karen and held her from behind, holding the dagger to her neck. “Dead. In 3 seconds.”

Karen just scoffed. “Like hell.”

“Oh yeah. What will you do before I slit your throat?”

“First, I’d elbow you in the gut,” Karen demonstrated, hitting her lightly before turning around. “Then, while you’re disoriented, pull my gun out.”

She points her gun, making a “bang” sound.

“Dead. Bullet to the head.”

Takayanagi smirked.

“You know your stuff,” she said, before turning to the others. “Girls! Come here.”

The others couldn’t hear her, so she grabbed them and took their headphones and blindfolds off.

“Takahashi, lemme test you out now,” she said.

“Huh?”

“I’m a vampire, you only have a gun on you. Without you knowing, I sneak up behind you without a sound. What do you do before I snap your neck?”

“Oh, uh… Before you grab me, I try to grab your arms, flip you over, and shoot you in the face?”

“Let’s see you try,” she said before grabbing her from behind.

Juri screamed, grabbing her arms, trying to break her off. But Takayanagi kept a strong grip. The woman then turned Juri around, her nose almost touching hers.

“In the amount of time it took you to try and free yourself from me, you would’ve been dry.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Juri said quietly, her cheeks flushed at the closeness of the woman’s face.

“You need to heighten your senses, that way, your reflexes will kick in sooner. And when that happens…”

As she spoke, she snuck behind Ryoka, raising the dagger. Before she could “stab” her, Ryoka flinched, grabbing the woman’s wrist by instinct, taking the dagger, and pointing it at her chest. Takayanagi smirked.

“Nice~ You’re getting better, Oshima.”

Ryoka smiled, bowing to her. “Thank you!”

The hunter woman then faced the others. “How bout this? I’m going to stake out some activity in the forest tonight. There’ve been sightings of vampires walking around. Would you girls like to accompany me?”

“Seriously?!”

“Sure. It’ll be the best chance for you girls to hone your skill.”

“Thank you, Takayanagi-san!”

“Alright, you girls get ready then,” the woman said as she headed out. “We head out at sundown.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

---------------------------

Gunshots were heard as outside on the shooting range of the Magnolia school campus, two female students were practicing their shooting. Madoka and Marika were practicing their firing arms, both with earplugs in to protect their ears from the loud noise.

“Ahhh~ my arms are starting to get stiff!” Marika whined as she was growing tired of the long practice. “Nee, Madoka-chan, can we take a break?”

“Oh, alright.”

The two put their guns down, taking out the ear buds before sitting down on the bench.

“Hey, do you wanna do something fun?” Marika then asked, making the girl raise a brow.

“What?”

“Let’s go camping!”

“Camping? Where?”

Marika pointed out at the forest just a few feet away from the school grounds. Madoka’s eyes widened in shock.

“Out there, are you crazy?!” Madoka hissed. “There are vampires out there. And who knows what else!”

“Oh, come on, Madoka. We just need to bring out gear and fight them off. Besides, this school is so boring. We need to go and have a little adventure for spring break!”

“Still…”

“Come on, Madoka… Pleeeeeeeeeease~?” The girl pleaded with big puppy dog eyes. No matter how borderline annoying she was, Madoka couldn’t say no to those eyes.

“Fine… But on one condition! You owe me lunch.”

“Deal!”

--------------------------

“So, we’re really leaving?” Nana asked Natsuki.

“I’m afraid so. There’s nothing we can do,” Natsuki said. “The vampire hunters are going to raid this location and if we don’t leave now, we’ll be killed.”

“Will they tear this place apart?”

“Probably. They’ll burn it to the ground, most likely.”

As Natsuki was packing up, she started hearing sniffles from the girl. She looked and saw that she was crying. Surprised by her reaction, she walked over to her and tried to comfort her.

“Don’t worry! Our new home is closed off, so they’ll never--”

“But this place had so many memories… For me and her.”

“You and who?”

“Mako…”

Natsuki’s eyes widened. “Mako? How can you and her have..?”

“Natsuki-nee-chan, you weren’t around. But me and Mako were best friends, long ago. She made a promise that she’d come back for me… She saved me from the hunters and hid me. She said she would come back…”

Nana suddenly fell to her knees, her eyes starting to glow red.

“I waited… so long…”

“Nana?”

“I knew… she’d come back… Even after all these years… My Initiative…”

Natsuki’s eyes widened. “Initiative?”

Nana closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were back to normal.

“I-I’m sorry,” she bowed. “Was I saying weird things?”

“Nana, is your Ini--?”

“Natsuki-san,” Nao spoke as she entered the room, seeming to be worried about something.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think Manatsu-chan’s sick.”

“Where is she?”

“In her room.”

Natsuki left Nana, not noticing her worried glances, as she followed Nao to where Manatsu was. She saw her in her bed, paler than usual with beads of sweat on her forehead.

“She hasn’t eaten at all today,” Nao informed her. “Even if I had told her to, she wouldn’t eat.”

She approached her slowly. “Manatsu… you okay?”

“I don’t feel so good…”

She felt her forehead. “You’ve got a really bad fever. Have you been taking your supplements?”

“Y-Yeah, but…”

“But?”

“They don’t make me feel any better.”

“I see… We’ll need to check on her condition while we’re moving locations. Nao, be sure to bring plenty of medicine and extra blood supplements.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After they left, Manatsu saw Nana walk in. Due to her fever, Manatsu was in a hazy state and didn’t notice her approaching her bed. Nana touched her forehead slightly, a grim look painting her face.

“Poor thing… you might not be able to recover,” she muttered. “But I can at least suppress your symptoms.”

She bit into her finger, making it bleed, then tapped the girl’s shoulder.

“Hm..?” she looked at her, seeing her bloody finger.

“Drink my blood. It will help.”

Manatsu quietly obeyed and the girl’s finger. After doing so, her eyes gently closed and she fell back onto her pillow.

“Rest well,” Nana said, backing away and leaving the room.