Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

Inside the shopfront of Golden Bear Bakery, Kuuyasa(wearing a black sabre tooth tiger-themed onesie with purple spikes running down the spine and a hole in the back for her tail), Kēki, and a sulking Oleka with a band-aid on her forehead sat in one of the windows while eating the kitsune muffins Kēki made. Maxwell defeatedly rubbed his forehead before turning to Zalroth, who was in the middle of opening his status.

"So, all you need is to see this?" Zalroth asked. Maxwell didn't respond as he looked at the status before signing agitatedly.

"There's always something..., looks like I'll need to use a measuring device anyway," Maxwell grumbled.

"That so?".

"Unfortunately, if we want to give you an accurate rank we'll have to use a kaiser measuring device; as you mentioned before, you only got the kaiser system recently, so the status menu won't display anything for a while until it's synced up with the network itself," Maxwell explained, with Zalroth amusedly smirking.

"Ah, the wonders of technology, am I right?". Maxwell amusedly scoffed as he took his folding touchscreen phone out and unintentionally opened it to its triple screen length.

"As much trouble it brings me, even I have to admit it has its perks... like blocking spam mail," Maxwell remarked as he refolded his phone to a normal phone shape. Maxwell clicked a few buttons before his phone began to make wave noises.

"What a peculiar ringtone," Zalroth thought as Maxwell continued to wait for the call to connect. After waiting for a few seconds, Maxwell sighed as the call went to an answer phone. He ended the call and placed his phone back in his pocket, grumbling about how much of a pain Katika was.

"That aside... what do you intend to do with Kuuyasa?" Zalroth asked, making Maxwell raise an eyebrow at Kuuyasa's name.

"Who- oh, the boss-type kaiser beast. Under normal protocol, we would kill... her so the gate would close so none of the kaiser beast in it escape but...," Maxwell said before clearing his throat, "But given all the survey teams couldn't find a single trace of any of the other kaiser beast it wouldn't hurt to leave... Kuuyasa be.". Maxwell mentally sighed, and Zalroth smirked as he crossed his arms.

"But wouldn't that mean more paperwork for you, in the end?" Oleka grumbed from across the shopfront. Maxwell's face contorted into an aggravated grin before he gave Oleka a death glare, making Oleka sheepishly avert her gaze as she continued nibbling on her muffin. Maxwell sighed as he softened his expression and turned back to Zalroth.

"Besides that, I'd rather not get on your bad side given how easily you evaded Oleka's attacks, and I'm also grateful you didn't retaliate in any destructively offensive ways.".

"Because that would mean more paperwork for you?" Zalroth asked, to which Maxwell nodded.

"But to get back on track, you intend to take Kuuyasa under your wing, right, Zalroth?" Maxwell asked. Zalroth nodded, making Maxwell sigh.

"Then I suppose we'll have to head to the Hunter Bureau. So we can officially make you a hunter and have Kuuyasa properly assigned as one of your kaiser beasts," Maxwell stated. Zalroth placed a hand on his chin and nodded while Kuuyasa mindlessly nibbled on the muffin with the kitsune face and a red crystalline object.

Later that day, Zalroth (with Kuuyasa piggybacking on his shoulders), Maxwell, and Oleka entered the Hunter Bureau building a white brutalist-styled building with six large banners of various hunter groups.

"What do those mean?" Kuuyasa asked as she pointed at the banners. Oleka followed Kuuyasa's hand before a smug grin formed on her face.

"Those are the banners for the top six hunter guilds which make up the Hunter Bureau," Oleka smugly explained.

"Ooh...," Kuuyasa uttered half amusedly. The group made their way into a modern lab-looking hallway with large windows which have views of large square-shaped open spaces. Kuuyasa peered through the glass and watched the various ranked hunters training/going through testing. As the group continued to walk down the hallway, a light pair of footsteps echoed from ahead, making Maxwell grumble to himself as the owner of the footsteps stopped in front of the group.

(The person before the group was a super short, young-looking human female; she has slightly long scruffy cyan hair with two plumes of hair which looked like fox ears, silver eyes with bold white rings around her eyes, pale skin, slightly plump breasts, and plump thighs)

(She is wearing a baggy lab coat, adult-sized silver/dark grey checkered shorts with black suspenders connecting to her lab coat, black leggings, and pink fur slippers)

"Hi-hi, Maxi~," the woman said as she waved her hands at Maxwell. Maxwell rolled his eyes before sighing, making the woman giggle.

"So, mind telling me why you didn't answer my call, Katika?". Katika cheekily and goofily giggled as she closed her eyes and flirtily waved a hand at Maxwell.

"Oh, Maxi, I knew you cared," Katika said flirtily as she peeked at Maxwell, only to see him unamusedly staring at her. Katika silently huffed before crossing her arms, "I dropped my phone in a hydraulic press.". Maxwell placed his hand on his weary face and loudly sighed.

"You... there isn't even a hydraulic press on this site," Maxwell uttered defeatedly. Katika dismissively shrugged before placing her hands behind her back, followed by her touchscreen phone with a large hole in it sliding out her sleeve and flopping on the floor.

"Let's move on from the state of my phone; I can't remember the last time you recommended someone," Katika remarked, "So, what's the basic run down?". Maxwell, not feeling like asking Zalroth to show his status again, let out a sombre sign.

"Other than him being level 1, having zero plus HP and zero KP, all other stats say N/A," Maxwell stated. Katika nodded seriously. She crotched down and stuffed her broken phone back into her lab coat's sleeve.

"I see, so you brought him here because he's a new hunter, and want to have him do the Open Hunter Evaluation?" Katika said.

"Indeed, so you wanna do it right now, or do you wanna have a snack brea-.".

"Katika," Mawell uttered sternly. Katika pouted and turned on her heel.

"Fine, fine, we'll do the evaluation now!" Katika huffed before marching off like an army soldier. Zalroth couldn't help but smirk and mentally chuckle in content at being reminded of Chronia at the dynamic between Maxwell and Katika.

"Mr Zalroth, they're leaving us in the dust!" Kuuyasa murmured frantically. Zalroth glanced upwards before hurrying after Maxwell and Co.

Meanwhile, Alice's limo remained as rigid as a rock in the middle of a long road spanning lines of cars and various other vehicles. Alice repeatedly tapped her finger against her shoulder while Minia and Nola playfully ran around the inside of the limo.

"Maybe I should've taken Devo's offer to... nah, knowing him, he's probably in the middle of the fifth gate he stumbled across," Alice grumbled defeatedly.

"Right... stumbled across," Chronia remarked with an overemphasis on the stumbled part, making Alice half-heartedly giggle as the traffic light ahead turned green.

Elsewhere inside a dungeon, the last of an army of brutalized bear-sized ant kaiser beasts uttered its last breath before collapsing into the cavern ground. Devo let out a defeatedly bored sigh as he pulled his hood over his eyes.

(Devo is a tall male human teen; he has super dark purple hair with dark purple undersides, purple eyes, and tanned skin)

(Devo is wearing a dark purple hooded trench coat with a purple inside and black fur cuffs/fur around the hood, a white shirt, black fur trousers, and black hiking boots)

"Good grief, why did it take so long to find some kaiser ants?" Devo thought aloud as the shadows underneath the kaiser ants' bodies grew. Shadowy hands reached out from the enlarged shadows and dragged the kaiser ants into the shadows, followed by the shadows shrinking away.

"Why did Alice even like ants?... wait when she said cute insect monster, did she mean bees?". Devo itched his forehead before he balled up his fist. He released his balled-up fist and dropped a white metal circular token with a glowing rabbit insignia to the ground. The token shined before a small glowing rabbit made from shadowy white kaiser energy.

"A portal, if you would.". The rabbit nodded before it kicked the air and conjured a portal to the bridge leading to Freedom City.