Field Trip
Professor Jane and Meme walked down the staircase and entered another corridor. Everything around them was white. Some walls were traced with blue neon lines. An abstract sight.
"Also, stop calling me Meme-Kun. Meme is fine."
"Meme-kun is so gorgeous," Jane pleaded. "It's just right when I call you Meme-kun… don't all the other girls from Japan call you that? Why not me?"
Meme sighed. "It's pretty weird when you say it. You're not from Japan either, Miss Jane. Stick to Meme."
Jane pouted, crossing her arms. "Not fair. I invite you on this lovely field trip, and this is how you treat me? Hmph!"
Meme shook his head. Sometimes, his Professor tended to act like a child. Just to annoy her students. Or was it especially for him?
"Nothing lovely about the trip so far, to be honest. I thought I'd see something more enjoyable. Some mechas that you battle with – not just lab rats."
A doctor who was passing by them in the corridor eyed Meme furiously. Jane twisted her student's ear and stretched it out so that she could affirm it hurt him.
"Ouch!"
"Keep your mouth shut, idiot. They can be lab rats, but without them – there won't be Monster Hunters. Just Monsters. You hear me?" The Professor snapped.
"Yes, yes! I hear you!" Meme replied hastily, wincing in pain.
"Good." She released Meme's ear from her fingers.
Sometimes, she could be childish. But sometimes, she's your usual angry teacher.
For a while, they walked in silence down the hallways.
Meme observed the doors quietly. He could see signs that read many names of the Monsters that had emerged in the past.
The Butterfly.
The Serpent.
The Snake.
The Black Lizard.
The scientists were keeping track of every single Monster separately. They were surely dedicated to their jobs.
"Hm… Meme-kun?" The Professor broke the silence again.
Meme sighed, knowing that Jane would not stop calling him that. "What?"
They finally reached an elevator, and she inserted her Monster Hunter ID to access it. The button selection opened and there were indeed a ton of buttons to choose from. This confirms that this institute indeed had the rumored number of floors.
"Do you know the first thing about the Linked? Humans who possess a bond between Monsters."
The elevator doors opened. The two of them stepped in.
"The first thing? Their minds are linked with Monsters. Which allows them to share the ancient magic which the Monsters possess with the humans."
"Good good," Jane nodded in approval. She clicked on one of the lowest buttons in the selection of the elevator. "But – do you know how we catch the Linked?"
Meme looked up and pondered about the question.
In recent years, a few of the Linked were captured. Many of them were eliminated. But how did they capture them exactly?
"The Linked have some similarities with their Monsters. For example, if the Monster had blue eyes – the Linked would have blue eyes. Maybe blue hair? And some personality similarities, I suppose."
"Oh? Good boy, you've been studying." Professor Jane praised him.
"Pfft~" Meme scratched his neck. "That's just common sense, Miss Jane."
"Now then. Tell me… what would the Linked of the Butterfly do? Guess some things about her. If you're going to be a Monster Hunter, you should learn these things."
The elevator began to move downward. Meme felt the weight on his body getting heavier as the elevator went lower.
"What would the Butterfly be…?"
Meme pondered this question thoroughly, scratching his chin. "I'd say a Butterfly is better fit to be a woman, because – you know."
"Aren't there male butterflies in the world?"
Meme sighed. "Yeah, but you know. I was just being –"
"Go on. Guess more," Jane urged him, smirking at her student.
"Well – there should be something blue about their eyes. Hair…" Meme gazed at his Professor, noticing her blue hair and blue eyes. Jane saw him staring at her – ceasing his words midway.
"Hm? You think I might be the one who is the Monster Link of the Butterfly?"
Meme narrowed his eyes. "Nah. You can't be – you're an S-rank Monster Hunter. How can you be one of the Linked?"
"I might be," she chuckled. "Anyway. Do go on – if I fit more of your descriptions. You could apprehend me on our way out and take me in for being such a pretty little butterfly."
Meme shook his head. "If it was for being the Butterfly, I can't take you in. But if it was for being pretty – I might just have a chance," he grinned.
Jane raised her eyebrow at her student. "Mm? I didn't hear you the first time, my dear student. Can you repeat that for me?"
She banged her hand right beside Meme's shoulder, pinning him against the elevator. Meme smirked slyly, slipping under his Professor's arm to escape her.
"I said nothing, dear Professor. You're hearing things."
Jane eyed him evilly. 'Hmph. My hopeless Meme is slowly growing to be not so hopeless after all. Who knows? I might just fall for him even more,' she thought.
"So, Miss Jane. Could you tell me now what you brought me here for? Because all the lessons you're giving me right now feel sort of useless, you know. I'm in my third year of the Monster Hunter Academy. And you're repeating the basics to me."
The elevator doors opened behind Meme.
Jane rested her arm on her waist, letting the boy figure it out to himself. Meme turned around, only to face a long corridor filled with bright lights and people who were wearing heavy white metal armor.
As if to battle Monsters by themselves.
Meme stared in awe at this as a smile drew from the corner of his lips. He wasn't really into the science department of Monster Hunting.
But the sector for warriors.
That was what he had been waiting for since he began the Monster Hunter Academy. Battling monsters head-on like real men.
Jane placed a hand on her student's shoulder and leaned close to his ear.
"We've come here to show you this. The place where they hold the captive Linked. The real secrets of Monster Hunting that you don't get to learn at the Academy," she whispered. "I'll show you, though. Because you're my student."
Meme felt that his Professor was uncomfortably close to him when she whispered the words in his ear.