“Yeah, I mean, the bosses say gather as much monsters as we can, and we do it,” the man burped as he spoke. In his hand was a glass of rum and he sipped from it from time to time.

  “No questions asked?” D, who sat across from the man, questioned.

  “Nope. We don’t ask, help them out with some monster wrangling, and live the easy life. It’s not even that dangerous, our bosses are real monster experts.”

  “Oh, are they?” D asked, while pouring more beer into the other man’s cup. “Then why’re they wrangling monsters instead of I dunno, working?”

  “Psh, same reason as everyone else right? They got tired!” The man boisterously laughed as he took several more shots.

  “Hahaha. Same as you?”

  “That’s right! And I bet you’re the same way too.”

  “Urghhh,” D rolled their eyes behind their mask, “don’t remind me. My old boss was annoying, irritating, super nosey and loved bullying the hell out of me.”

  “Ha! Sounds like you got it hard too. Cheers for us for escapin’! Even if we’re dirty little criminals!”

  The man reached around the table and held D close to him as smashed his glass into D’s cup. The beer splashed onto D’s clothes, but they resisted the urge to push the man away and played along.

  ‘It’s water-resistant, you don’t have to put it through the dry cleaner later. You don’t have to,’ D repeated to themselves mentally.

  “Oh man, this is some great stuff. Pity we have to be leaving soon.” The man took another swig.

  “Oh, really? That sucks, I thought I just made a new drinking buddy.”

  “Haha, you know how it is. Always on the move. ‘Specially when we got rowdy monsters. Gotta get back to main base and start taming ‘em.”

  “You don’t have to do that too, do you? Sounds like a hell of a lot of work for an easy life,” D pointed out.

  “Nahhh, the bosses don’t like it but the big boss has some controlling crystals. Just pop them on a collar and it works fine enough.”

  “Ehh, that’s pretty complicated tech. I only know a few places that sell those,” D exclaimed.

  “Hrm, I think ours had a logo on it. It was a few Asian characters. Least I think it is.”

  “Asian…” D muttered with intrigue. “By any chance did it look like this?”

  D took out a piece of paper and drew a few Chinese characters on it. He didn’t know Chinese, Mandarin, or Cantonese himself, but this specific name was deeply impressed onto him.

  “Oh ohh that’s it! Yeah! I forgot the name but it’s from that big company that went down a while back. They got shut down for making these kinds of things. Just don’t remember their name.”

  “Xian. Xian Industries,” D said with a bit of a rising tone.

  “Ohhh, that’s it! Yeah. Dunno where the big boss got these from but that’s where it’s from.”

  “Don’t know huh…” D muttered.

  D deeply sighed as they always did. They had probably gotten all the information they could out of this man. Any further and they might get curious, which could mess with a few plans. Still, it was a good haul. S had likely picked up a few things themself too, so it would be good to meet up.

  “Well, I gotta go now. Be seeing ya, bud.”

  D didn’t bother looking back. He could hear the man knock back yet another cup of beer, and he was certain he was going to keep going until it was finished. But then, the man slammed his beer cup onto the table and said something that gave D pause.

  “Oh yeah! I remember now! There was this young-looking lizardkin guy that delivered them! I was out taking a whiz when I saw him hand it over to the big boss!”

  “… Hah…” D deeply sighed.

  It was not a second later that D lunged at the man, knocked him out, and kidnapped him.

  ———————————————————————

  Toolbox really didn’t have anything to do. The sun had already set a while ago, and the group had eaten dinner together. Usually she would be taking a nap, but she had to be ready to go at any time. If she missed reuniting with her family because she was too busy sleeping, then she’d regret it for the rest of her life.

  Now, she wanted to do something useful. Carmine was exercising. Plue was sharpening her scythe. Machua was taking stock of her things. Rasa was… doing something with his strings. Even Tam was busily shaking. Sorta.

  ‘I got it! I should search up what an Egotist is so I know exactly what to expect.’

  With that idea firmly set, she decided to borrow someone’s laptop. The natural choice was Machua, who was the nicest person ever.

  “Sure, you can borrow it. Lemme just put the password in.”

  With the laptop successfully acquired, Toolbox got right to work. Which was as simple as typing in an E, a G, an O, and so forth. The result appeared lightning quick, and she decided to click the first one.

  ‘Wait, what if it’s a trap? The first link is a trap and then the correct one is the second one. Or maybe even the third! That sounds like something people would do!’

  The realisation came a bit too late as the page was already loaded. Toolbox tried to find a way to back out, but after a whole minute of tapping random things, she couldn’t figure it out. She decided to just read the article and hope it wasn’t a trap.

  The article was titled ‘An Introduction to the Abnormal: Egotists!’ It was written by some random person with a PhD in Monster Biology from some university in Paradiso City that Toolbox couldn’t bother to memorise. It wasn’t important.

  What did grab her attention was the picture depicting a massive black dragon flying above a broken and ruined City. The dark dragon had a serpentine body and multiple claws, seemingly able to float without wings. The fur that grew from its head and tail was pitch black, just like its scales. The dragon’s mouth had black flames spewing from it, and those same flames were rampant over the City. At the centre of the photo was a woman with blazing red hair, who held a massive sword with one hand. Her other hand clutched her red beret cap. The sword was coloured a dull bronze, though the mane that it sported at its hilt was ablaze with the same red that coloured her hair. She was turned away from the camera and looked up at the dark dragon.

  The caption of the picture was short and concise. ‘Ego Eater Avdotya Orani faces down the dark dragon that would make her into an S Rank. Photo taken 12:08 7/6/958.’

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  After getting over her shock and awe, Toolbox began reading. The most legendary monster in recent times was the dark dragon that nearly brought Idealich City to ruin. Many knew of the dark dragon’s attack, Toolbox excluded, but only a few people understood its classification as an Egotist. Its target, Idealich City, was a City that specialised in hunting down Egotists, and using their parts to create their famous weapons known as Ego Arcs. As an aside, another famous Egotist in recent times was the monster that Erebus Squad hunted in Operation Jormungandr.

  ‘W-woah… Egotists get really strong.’

  Toolbox focused onto the next paragraph. It was an explanation on what an Egotist was. The most basic definition of an Egotist was a monster that eats humans. A monster that actively searches for and devours humans. They were a threat even back in the time of the Lancets and they remain a threat now. Egotists eat humans, and humans hunt Egotists. There can be no reconciliation.

  ‘…’ Toolbox scrunched her eyebrows as she focused. The article continued with further details on Egotists and their origins.

  Egotists were all unique creatures, and each one evolved from individual monsters. Two individuals of a monster species may both evolve into Egotists, yet they could both have different powers, and different forms.

  Differentiating an Egotist and a monster was simple. They felt different. Anyone who had encountered an Egotist would never forget that feeling. The mana that radiated off of them was described as sinister, and people often recoiled at the sheer presence of an Egotist’s mana. But, for the people reading the article that had never met an Egotist, identifying one was simple.

  While monsters as a whole could consume humans, an Egotist’s diet requires the consumption of man. It was unknown why, but various experiments had proven the fact that they needed to devour humans. An Egotist was also as intelligent as a human and may at times be shaped like a humanoid. While the shape of an Egotist may differ significantly compared to their previous monster form, they always retain certain traits. Though Egotists often displayed much more versatility in their powers, they often relied on the original power they possessed as a normal monster and identifying the original monster they evolved from could prove crucial in combatting one.

  Egotists, like any monster, differentiated greatly in strength. While their intelligence was always on the level of a human, the strength of each Egotist was entirely up in the air. The best guess as to their strength, was as always, by checking the purity of their mana, though one could also estimate it based on the strength of their original monster form.

  Second-to-lastly, the author of the article apologised for not being able to explain every aspect of an Egotist. It was still unknown why or how a monster could evolve into one, why they developed the need to devour humans, or even how ‘human’ they could get.

  That said, if one wasn’t a hunter, one was unlikely to encounter an Egotist. Egotists were hunted on sight, and hunts were often organised and declared as emergencies by the Hunter’s Bureau. After all, they, unlike every other monster, would always need to kill and eat a human to survive. If not hunted, someone would die. The article finished with one singular line:

  Humans and Egotists were incompatible.

  ‘Oh man, this is really bad,’ Toolbox thought with sweat on her brow.

  “Oh hey, I read that article earlier,” Machua said from behind Toolbox. “Man, I can’t believe that dark dragon attack was only 38 years ago.”

  ‘38 years ago? Mama must have been a baby back then.’

  “You know, Toolbox. You were really brave for rushing in and fighting that Egotist. I really admire you for going in like that, even though we didn’t know how strong it was,” Machua complimented her casually.

  Toolbox nodded along as Machua continued. She held her hood close with a hand as she sat there listening.

  “You know, that Egotist we fought. It could definitely cast magic. The article didn’t mention they could do that. And also…” Machua trailed off in thought. She seemed to ruminate over her next words before continuing.

  “Toolbox. Your Major Aspect is Convergence isn’t it?” She asked.

  “H-huh!? How’d you know?” Toolbox nearly leapt from her seat in surprise.

  “My best friend has Convergence. So, I think I can tell if someone has it. You use Convergence as a way to direct your pathing to your destination,” Machua stated. “But, you’d be better than me at telling if someone else had it, right?”

  “Sure?”

  “Then you should know if…” Machua bit her lip, considering her next words again. “Ah, you were knocked out, I don’t think you’d know. Never mind.”

  “Wha-? No! Tell me! If I was knocked out, then tell me what happened! If I missed something, I need to know,” Toolbox urged.

  Machua scratched her head before deciding to obey her words. “I was afraid and stressed, so I don’t know if I’m right. But, when you were asleep, it was compressing all of its bandages together into a giant fist and…”

  “It felt like Convergence.”

  “You’re saying it’s… just like me?” Toolbox questioned.

  “Maybe. It can cast magic, it might have an Aspect. But if it does, then does every Egotist? Why didn’t the article mention that? Maybe we ran into a further evolution or something. I don’t know. Can you confirm it?”

  “Mmm…” Toolbox tried her best to remember what it felt like. She was in a total frenzied state then, so she wasn’t really paying attention. But did that Egotist feel similar to her?

  ‘Ahhh, I don’t know! I just don’t know! Why did it have to be another Egotist!?’ Toolbox grimaced.

  “That’s what I thought. Well, I’ll keep it in mind, and I’ll be the first to yell it out if I sense it. You should do the same.”

  “Yeah, I’ll yell real loud.”

  Machua gave her a thumbs-up. “I hope Machi comes back before the alert sounds. Would be a shame if he missed it.”

  ———————————————————————

  “Our beautiful home together… Ruined by this stranger! Who is this man!? Tell me who ruined our relationship!”

  “Oh calm down. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve done this. And besides, I’m sharing this moment with you,” D spoke.

  “Oh, D! You do get me!” S clasped their hands together in faux happiness. “My favourite thing in the world is torturing poor, innocent souls like him.”

  “Mmrrghh! Rrrrgh!” The man, who was tied to a chair, and had a ball gag forced on him, tried to say.

  The trio were currently in the basement of the rented house, and it had already been several hours since D had kidnapped him. He had accidentally struck him a bit too hard, and as such it took the man way longer to wake up than he was supposed to.

  “Alright, seems you want to join our little talk. So, let’s talk,” D gingerly took off the ball gag from the man.

  “You piece of shit! I can’t believe it! I thought you were going to be a friend!” The man immediately began yelling. The basement was soundproofed with a barrier of course, so it wasn’t like his screams could reach anyone.

  S made their hand into the shape of a mouth and opened and closed it rapidly as the man was talking. D snickered at S’ antics.

  After realising his yelling was getting nowhere, and that his throat was getting hoarse, the man gave up and asked what they wanted from him.

  “Location of your homebase,” D stated nonchalantly.

  “What kind of monsters you’re keeping, how to tame them, which one makes the best gifts, and all your other dirty secrets too~” S added.

  “I can’t just tell you!”

  “Okay then. You can just stay here.”

  Both D and S made their way for the stairs. It was right as S stepped onto the first step that the man buckled.

  “Okay! I’ll tell you what I can. But in return you guys gotta let me go, okay? And don’t tell anyone you got this from me,” the man spoke with a heavy breath.

  “”Heheh…””Both D and S laughed.

  ‘What are they, twins?’ The man had to question.

  “Now, I already know quite a bit about Chimaera. You guys only have around 20 people, you use control crystals to ‘tame’ your monsters. Your big boss’ name is Dwyn and he fashions himself the Monster King. He’s collecting an army of monsters,” D rattled off like it was nothing.

  ‘How the hell does this guy know this much already!?’

  “By the way, I got all this from Tam.”

  “The newbie!? He’s never even met the big boss!” The man yelled without thinking.

  “Oh, he hasn’t? I thought he did,” D tilted their head in mock confusion.

  “Me too. Can’t believe he made all of that up. And they’re all accurate? Wow, he’s better than us,” S nodded along.

  ‘Oh, these fuckers are messing with me.’

  “Okay, that’s enough. I’ll get serious now. Can’t guarantee my friend will, though.”

  D took out a table and 2 chairs from a dimension. They then grabbed the man’s arm and handcuffed him to the table. Afterwards, they placed a can of coffee onto it. The chairs were placed on the opposite side and both Phantoms sat in them. D turned theirs around and placed their arms on its back. S folded their legs criss-cross.

  “Get on with it. We’ve waited for you long enough. If you finish quick, you might be able to go home by midnight.”

  “Fuck! What time is it?” The man suddenly asked.

  “11-ish,” D answered truthfully.

  “That’s almost time for-Uh…”

  “Stuck here~” S repeated. “You’ll miss it~”

  “I got it! Fine. Rrrgh. Hate to do it to ‘em but I got no choice. They’ll understand,” the man muttered.

  “First, talk about your thing coming up. It’s time-sensitive after all. And then the base. And then any other things I don’t know.“

  “Ooh, and also the guy that gave you the control crystals, tell us about him,” S added.

  “… We’re just rendezvousing at a certain-“

  “Stuck.”

  “Here.”

  “… We’re meeting up at the side of the City. There’s a little port that can extend out for big cargo deliveries. We’re going to load up our airship with monsters and leave tonight. We’re making use of the port by bribing the company that runs them,” the man explained.

  “Good, good,” D brought out their phone and began typing into it. “Keep going. Base next.”

  “Would you believe me if I don’t remember the coordinates?” The man asked sheepishly.

  “Aw, come on, you can do better than that,” S spoke. She was about to continue, but D stopped them.

  “Their airship’s bound to have the coordinates in there. And we can capture the navigator who’d know it anyway. It’s not an issue.”

  It was at this point, D’s phone began ringing. They looked at the phone and glanced at who was calling them before dismissing the call.

  S stood up and looked down at D. D did not move, save from staring S back in the face. Neither expression could be seen through their masks, but even their captive could tell there was a rising tension. The two stared in silence before S eventually broke it off.

  “Ahhh… This is a lot. I’m gonna go to the little girl’s room. See you two,” S said as they departed the basement.

  D sighed. “Well, continue. S wanted you to talk about the control crystals next.”

  “I don’t know about how they work. Like I said earlier, I saw a young lizardkin guy deliver it to our big boss one time while taking a whizz outside.”

  “Ew.”

  The man continued, ignoring the reaction, “I don’t know shit about them. I didn’t even know they were made by this… uh, Shi-“

  “Xian Industries. An underground company that marks their own goods. Usually, one wouldn’t mark underground goods at all with their insignia, but it purports that it is so capable and the products are such high quality that marking the brand is a sign of confidence,” D explained.

  “Xi-an. I didn’t know they existed until you told me.”

  “Existed,” D stated. “They haven’t been active for a year or two now. New products haven’t been spreading in the market, so they probably went down.”

  “Huh? Then what was that guy doing with the control crystals?”

  D twitched at the question. “Past buyers reselling old goods probably. Or maybe… old employees selling whatever goods they could salvage.”

  “Old employee? I didn’t really get that from the guy. He seemed kinda young, maybe early 20s. He had that sort of fierce look to him, like he was trying to prove something. Or maybe that’s just me assuming through the darkness,” the man mused.

  “I’m a bit interested in old Xian products.” D began tapping their fingers on the table. “Tell me more about the guy. Hair colour, tail colour, ethnicity.”

  “Well, okay then. Black hair, slicked back. Tail’s brown. Uh, some sorta Asian. I only saw a peek, I went back before the big boss could catch me.”

  “Gotcha… I’ve noted that down. Any more details?”

  “Um, no? I don’t know anything about Xian or the control crystals.”

  “Then tell me about what you do in the base. How do you wrangle the monsters?” D asked, their tone speeding up.

  “I just put the collar on that has the control crystals on them while they’re asleep.”

  “So, just the usual. What kind of monsters have you been…” D stopped in the middle of their sentence.

  D stood up and restated their question. “What kind of monsters have you been capturing recently?”

  “Strong and dumb. Easy to capture and control. That’s kind of it. That’s the criteria, though if our bosses want a specific type we follow their orders.”

  “How many do you have? What’s your boss like? Any relations to other organisations?” D barraged the man with questions.

  “Woah there, calm down! What is this the bad cop routine? I’ll tell you man.”

  “It isn’t. I just want answers. And I need you to-“ D stopped in their tracks. They took a step back from the table and rubbed their head.

  “Hah…” D let out a deep sigh. “I have to go. I’ll be back.”

  The man watched as D rushed out of the basement, leaving him truly alone in there. For a long time, the man didn’t know what to do, the realisation slowly setting in that the Phantom might not ever return.