In Terra, a Hunter and a Bad Woman

This did strike Maria as rather strange.

It wasn't long before Maria returned to Hoshiguma's home.

But Hoshiguma, who had always stayed at home, was nowhere to be seen.

The empty room felt somewhat lonely.

"Did she go out?"

Puzzled, Maria turned her head and spotted a note on the table.

[Emergency mission assembly. I've made food and put it in the fridge. Just heat it up before eating. Remember, heat it up. Open the plastic packaging—the packaging isn't edible. Drink plenty of water too. If it rains tonight, remember to close the windows. Don't say things like getting rained on doesn't matter, and...]

The note began by mentioning an emergency mission, yet Hoshiguma still couldn't resist filling the rest of it with a long list of instructions.

"Do I really look that lacking in basic life skills?"

After staring at the note full of writing for a while, Maria set it down and stood before the refrigerator.

"...Open it from the side."

Maria slowly read the sticky note attached to the fridge, then helplessly shook her head.

After taking out the food Hoshiguma had left inside, Maria pondered for a moment before heading into the kitchen.

"I remember... I use this thing, right...?"

After thinking it over a few times, Maria fumbled around and barely managed to turn on the gas. Then she placed the entire plate over the flame to roast.

The poor ceramic plate was immediately scorched wildly in the flames.

"I do know a thing or two about heating food."

Maria looked rather pleased with the result before her.

Just as Maria waited for the food to finish heating, the sound of keys jingling came from the door.

"I came to see you, Hoshiguma..."

"You're back, Miss Hoshiguma?"

The two voices rang out at once. The pair stared at each other, wide-eyed.

At the doorway stood a weary-looking Ch'en, carrying a bag of gifts.

Meanwhile, Maria stood alone beside the kitchen, her face full of confusion.

After staring at each other for a long time, neither of them spoke...

"Is there something you need, detective girl?"

In the end, Maria spoke first, teasing the girl before her.

"My name is Ch'en Hui-chieh!"

Though she knew this woman, Maria, would never change, Ch'en still gritted her teeth and stated her name.

Seeing the amused look on the other's face, she hesitated for a moment before taking several steps back.

She looked up.

"This... is Hoshiguma's home, right?"

Muttering to herself, Ch'en wondered if she had come to the wrong place.

But Maria merely shook her head.

"She's only taking me in temporarily. This is indeed Miss Hoshiguma's home."

"That Hoshiguma..."

Rubbing her head helplessly, Ch'en truly didn't know how to evaluate her old partner anymore.

She knew Hoshiguma was loyal and righteous, but... righteousness was one thing. Could she really just bring a woman as dangerous-looking as Maria home?

Still, there was no point criticizing her further right now.

Ch'en raised her head and looked at Maria before her.

She opened her mouth, just about to say something, when a strange smell reached her nose.

"Does something... smell burnt?"

"Hm?"

"Are you cooking?"

Ch'en was puzzled, but she still walked into the kitchen.

Over here, the surging flames had already burned the bottom of the ceramic plate black!

"What are you doing?!"

Seeing her heating it directly over the gas flame, Ch'en froze completely.

She turned in astonishment and looked at Maria beside her.

Maria, meanwhile, looked utterly confused.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"Something wrong? Everything's wrong with that!"

Gritting her teeth, Ch'en saw the flames gradually getting out of control and hurriedly rushed over, trying to take the whole plate down.

But the scorching heat made her body recoil uncontrollably.

Her body lost balance in an instant and toppled over...

She tried to turn so that her shoulder would hit the ground.

But someone was faster than her!

"You can't go panicking like that."

With one hand, Maria caught the girl's slender waist and hooked her into her embrace. With the other, she calmly removed the scorching ceramic plate from the heat.

Her fingers nearly went into the flames, yet Maria's expression didn't change in the slightest.

After turning off the fire, she looked down at the flushed girl pressed against her chest and smiled.

"What? Are you longing for something?"

"What are you even saying?!"

Ch'en's tail shot straight in an instant. She decisively broke free from Maria's embrace, her eyes filled with shame and indignation as she looked at her.

But Maria was wholly unaffected, merely watching her with a faintly amused smile.

"...You."

After sulking by herself for a while, Ch'en lowered her head.

Because she felt like she had fallen into the other woman's rhythm again.

This Maria looked like she didn't care about anything, like some icy assassin, but she was actually a terrible person who delighted in teasing others.

The angrier Ch'en got, the more amusing Maria found it.

The best solution was to ignore her!

But...

When she saw Maria turn around and prepare to eat that charred, unidentifiable substance, Ch'en couldn't hold herself back anymore.

"What exactly are you doing?!"

The Tide Turns!

"What am I doing..."

Hearing Ch'en's question, Maria hesitated for a moment and tilted her head.

"I'm eating..."

"Eating... that?"

Ch'en's brow twitched wildly as she looked at the lump in Maria's hand, something whose original form was utterly unrecognizable. A breath caught in her chest.

"You're really going to eat that?"

"This... isn't okay?"

Maria looked at the mush in her hand... It was ugly, certainly, and even burnt, but at least it was edible.

In the early days of the Yharnam Dream Cycle, she hadn't been as strong as she was now and still needed food to sustain herself... Yet food throughout Yharnam had been limited, while there had been so many hunters...

Things had been fine at first. But later, as food became scarcer and scarcer, many hunters starved to death on the road to their hunts.

The fact that Maria had endured that period was proof of a certain kind of luck.

Only...

"Would you like to try some?"

Maria curiously held the mush out to Ch'en, but Ch'en only refused with a strange expression.

She had wanted to scold Maria, but seeing that calm expression, she began to wonder whether Maria truly had never eaten anything good before.

She could actually bring herself to eat this?

"I brought some cheung fun... If you're hungry, eat this instead."

As she spoke, she lifted the plastic bag in her hand and handed the white cheung fun inside to Maria.

"I don't know whether it'll suit your tastes, but... at the very least, I think it'll taste better than whatever you're holding."

Ch'en was already being very tactful, but she simply couldn't call that shapeless lump in Maria's hand food.

Especially when she saw Maria still trying to take a bite, she hurried to stop her.

Unfortunately, Maria merely raised her hand and, with her height and long arms, lifted the food somewhere Ch'en couldn't reach.

Ch'en instinctively rose onto her tiptoes and tried to grab it.

The result was that the distance she had put between herself and Maria vanished, and she pressed herself against her once again.

Only this time, she had done it of her own accord...

And only then did she discover in shock that her other hand... seemed to have touched something soft...

So... so big!

Instinctively, an image of a huge white dough ball appeared in Ch'en's mind.

Maria wore an exquisite, form-fitting hunter's outfit. Whenever Ch'en looked at her, she could only marvel at how well-proportioned Maria's figure was, clearly the body of someone who exercised.

But... only after actually touching her did Ch'en realize in astonishment that beneath that slender exterior, she was hiding a rabbit!

Did that outfit... conceal them that well?

Ch'en froze for several seconds before finally turning her head back, her gaze refocusing.

Before her, Maria watched her with a faintly amused smile.

"I don't particularly mind such things, but... excessively intimate contact is somewhat inappropriate, wouldn't you say?"

"...Yes."

Ch'en, who had been so emotional moments ago, suddenly calmed down. Awkwardly, she withdrew her hand and took several steps back.

Maria set the lump of mush aside again, then looked down at her chest and adjusted her clothes slightly.

This Ch'en... had quite a bit of strength.

Without giving anything away, Maria straightened her clothes and rubbed her slightly aching chest. She said nothing more, merely turning to pick up the cheung fun Ch'en had handed her.

After opening it, she saw several white, skin-like strips...

"It looks... no different from my food?"

After examining it a few times, Maria gave her assessment.

"They're completely different!"