The academy training grounds buzzed alive with cadets shouting, fighting, and frantic drill echoing as if their very survival depended on it, as if any of them stood a real chance of joining the Elite. Yui almost laughed at the thought, but she knew better than to risk being thrown out from the academy’s stone railing overlooking the dusty field by the drill sergeants for her trouble. Instead, she lounged on top of the ledge, legs swinging lazily over the drop, her head resting in her hand with mock sympathy as cadet number 25 fumbled and tripped over his own sword. Pathetic didn’t even begin to describe this batch of ‘aspiring stars’.

All of them looked impossibly young—at least five years her junior, and twice as clueless.

Beside her was Alex, running a whetstone along her dagger with a kind of practiced contempt. Whether his scowl was aimed at the overbearing sun or the cadets' hopeless attempt at training-slash-swordplay was anyone’s guess. Another loud thud—a rookie taking out a low-hanging branch instead of the practice dummy—made Alex’s hand slip, and she shot a murderous glare across the field. If looks could kill, that poor cadet would already be six feet under.

“Half of them won’t last the week,” Alex muttered. “They should quit now, before they end up as bait to slow the vampires down while the real hunters do the work.”

Yui’s grin is all teeth, her blue eyes glinting with something between amusement and malice. She nudges Alex with her boot. “Aw, darling, don’t be too bitter. We were that pathetic once.” A pause, then she smirked. “...Okay, you were. I was always brilliant.”

Hearing steps approach their little private space, Yui’s eyes flickered towards the gravel road leading up to the stone wall. Her voice shifts to honeyed venom. “Now, now, who do we have here? A new recruit or a lost little lamb? Either way, speak up. Unless you’d rather keep gawking like the rest of the doomed?