Hunters

Lilith shuddered, feeling goosebumps rise all over her body.

She was thoroughly put off by this guy.

Lilith knew a little about Dr. Stylish.

His Imperial Arm had no offensive capabilities, but it could amplify the precision of finger movements by hundreds of times, making it convenient to create all kinds of intricate weapons and even treat the human body.

God's Hand: Perfection!

That was the name of Dr. Stylish's Imperial Arm.

It was an exceptionally powerful support-type Imperial Arm. Any surgeon who got their hands on it would be ecstatic.

And Dr. Stylish could be said to have lived up to this Imperial Arm. After acquiring it, he used its assistance to complete a series of extraordinarily complex human modifications.

The Modified Humans he created possessed all kinds of abilities and were extremely powerful.

It could be said that Dr. Stylish's Modified Humans alone could form an army—and one with considerable combat strength at that.

In particular, Dr. Stylish had developed a kind of giant capable of making people grow enormous, transforming them into massive humanoids.

These giants possessed tremendous combat power and had caused Night Raid no small amount of trouble.

Aside from Dr. Stylish himself, who stood atop the giant's head, even if Murasame struck the other parts of its body, its curse poison could not kill the enormous giant.

The other person was much more normal.

Well, when she did not encounter "evil," she was merely a kindhearted policewoman who loved helping others. But once something even remotely related to "evil" appeared, she behaved worse than any villain.

"Hello, Senior. I'm Seryu Ubiquitous. I heard that you killed one of Night Raid's evildoers. As expected, Lady Lilith is also a person of justice."

She was a seemingly normal, helpful policewoman, but her heart had long since become twisted.

"Hello."

After exchanging greetings with the two newcomers, Lilith asked Esdeath, "What did you bring these two here for? We don't seem to be lacking in combat power."

"Indeed." Esdeath nodded. "But none of us possess an Imperial Arm with tracking abilities, so I asked the minister for two people."

"One is skilled in human modification and has three Modified Humans under his command with exceptionally strong tracking abilities. The other has a rare Biological Imperial Arm. As for its ability... as a dog, its nose should be pretty sharp, right?"

By the end, even Esdeath sounded somewhat uncertain.

Although this Biological Imperial Arm looked like a dog, Esdeath did not know how many canine abilities it possessed.

The reason Esdeath had kept Seryu was because Dr. Stylish had modified her, and with the assistance of her Biological Imperial Arm, she could be quite useful.

"Woof woof."

As if it had understood Esdeath's doubts, Koro barked twice.

Seryu said, "Koro says its sense of smell is very sharp and that it can track things from very far away."

Lilith said, "All right, I more or less understand."

Esdeath said, "Once the Three Beasts... the name Three Beasts is obviously no longer suitable... Since we are a special police organization dealing with Night Raid, we'll be called the Hunters."

Esdeath directly settled on the name.

Lilith had not expected that the Hunters would still be established.

Only, the original Hunters' members now consisted of just Esdeath, Dr. Stylish, and Seryu.

But that was only natural. After all, the Three Beasts under Esdeath had not died, so there was no need to gather so many Imperial Arm users.

Lilith said, "I don't really care about the name."

Dr. Stylish said, "'Hunters'—what a stylish name. As expected of Lady Esdeath!"

Seryu Ubiquitous said, "Hunting evil? Koro likes this name too."

Koro cooperatively barked twice.

Esdeath said, "Good. Once the three of them arrive, we'll go have an audience with His Majesty, then throw a party."

Esdeath was quite gentle toward her subordinates. She hoped the party would help the team get accustomed to one another as quickly as possible.

But this frightened Seryu badly.

Even Dr. Stylish was stunned.

"Y-Your Majesty! Having an audience with His Majesty so suddenly..."

Although Seryu had always lived in the Imperial Capital, she had never seen the Young Emperor who lived in the palace. It could be said that even the Young Emperor's appearance was something she only knew through others' descriptions and portraits.

Dr. Stylish was much the same.

There was not much to say about having an audience with the Young Emperor.

The main point was simply to explain their duties to him. Even so, Seryu was extremely excited.

At the party afterward, Dr. Stylish and Seryu's jaws dropped.

They had never expected that Lilith's tiny body could eat so... ahem, that she had such a good appetite.

From the moment the party began, she never stopped eating, and she continued until the party ended.

At the start of the party, the two of them had wondered why there was so much food. It was enough that even twice as many people as their group of seven would not be able to finish it. But now they discovered that this little food... really did not seem to be enough.

"Um, Lady Lilith, if you're not full yet, I still have some food here."

After Lilith finished all the food in front of her, Seryu held her own bowl out to Lilith.

"No need. I'm full already."

"Ah, this..."

Seryu found that hard to believe.

After all, she had watched Lilith eat enough food for ten people without showing any change. She truly couldn't tell whether Lilith was full or not.

"Seryu, don't mind her. Lilith is just like that. You should make sure you eat your fill first," Esdeath said with a slight smile as she watched Seryu offer her food to Lilith.

"All right."

Seryu indeed had not eaten much. The main reason was that she had fed most of her food to Koro.

The newly established organization, the "Hunters," was soon discovered by the Rebel Army.

Nacita, who had returned to Night Raid's training grounds, then informed the members currently undergoing special training.

When they learned that Seryu Ubiquitous, the one who had killed Shil, was among the newly formed "Hunters," Mine instantly erupted with killing intent.

It was her. It was that Seryu Ubiquitous who had killed Shil.

Mine would never forget that name!

Aside from this news, Nacita had also brought back an Imperial Arms user. No—strictly speaking, she had brought back two Imperial Arms users.

One was a long-haired girl wearing headphones and sucking on a lollipop. The other was a burly man with a pair of bull horns.

That burly man was not an Imperial Arms user, but an Imperial Arms himself—a Biological Imperial Arms. His master was Nacita!