Gwendel lowered his head slightly as Vincent spoke, his eyes closed and his smile contemplative. "I see, well that certainly isn't the best of news," he said. "Yes, it's certainly something we should look into... I'll give you clearance to abort your current task and see if you can figure out this little matter. Oh yes," he said, looking at his watch almost absently, "and if the debriefing is today, he's quite late already." Gwendel looked back up at Vincent and smiled, "We actually had one debriefing scheduled before yours, Mr. Nathaniel. Well, you're free to leave. Thank you for the report."<br/><br/>---------------------------<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">**Two Days Ago**</span><br/><br/>Ebisu gave a rather contented sigh. He leaned against the rail of the ship and watched the freezing waters sway up and down. One couldn't travel in or out of Graecia by plane. At the necessary flying altitudes it was simply too cold. The machines literally froze up. One had to leave by boat, then a plane could be taken after reaching the next country.<br/><br/>Despite the temperatures being far below freezing, the man wore no coat, scarf, gloves, or anything of that nature. Being a Graecian, he felt perfectly at home surrounded by ice and snow. Ebisu stood at about 6' 3", a perfectly average height for a Graecian, though considered tall by the rest of the world's standards. He was currently on his way to Euphoria's capitol Crete, so he could attend a debriefing. There really weren't very many Graecian demon hunters simply because there weren't many demons in Graecia that came near the towns. Since the region Ebisu was in charge of monitoring was closest to the main port town, he was the one who got called to the debriefings.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">**Current time**</span><br/><br/>"It's always so hot here," Ebisu muttered to himself. He'd made it to Euphoria by boat and quickly taken a plane to Crete. He knew he was already late for the debriefing, but he couldn't help it if his plane had been running behind schedule. Still though, he eventually made it to the Head Secretary's office and took a seat in one of the waiting chairs. The first thing he did was lower the temperature a bit. And thank goodness; he'd been ready to pass out.<br/><br/>--------------------------<br/><br/>Battler, flames and all, had just unknowingly walked into Senshi's viewing range. He stopped moving suddenly though as a bell rang in the distance. "Ah! Shoot I'm late!" he exclaimed, running back toward the academy. He had Miss Heather this year for weapons training and he<span style="font-style: italic">really</span>didn't want to get on her bad side. He'd heard a lot of rumors about her and few of them good. Luckily, it seemed like that was actually just a warning bell. He was on time, thank goodness, though he'd been sure to start suppressing his flames again as soon as he left the woods. Battler lined up with the others and prepared himself for... something.<br/><br/>----------------------------<br/><br/>Ijemaru had long since finished reading that book and returned to his dorm room. He was currently lying on his bed and trying to grasp what he'd just learned.<span style="font-style: italic">So...</span>he thought,<span style="font-style: italic">There's another race of beings-- besides humans and demons. There are also Monsters, and they've been fighting underground with with the demons for centuries. They're fewer in number, but they're more powerful and have longer lifespans than either demons or humans. And on top of that, they look exactly like human beings.</span>The Elite Hunter sighed.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">It's just insane. If there really are Monsters out there, why aren't we fighting them too? Why keep them a secret? Maybe.. they want us to leave them alone since they're also fighting the demons?</span>Ijemaru closed his eyes. He knew he had to find out more about this.<br/><br/>There was a knock at his door and he went to answer it. On the other side was an intern at the office, holding a letter out to him. "I was told to give you this, sir," the boy said.<br/><br/>"Oh, well thank you," Ijemaru said, taking the letter and closing his door. He tore open the envelope and read what was inside. The boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh jeez."<br/><br/>A while ago he'd been asked to teach the Demonic studies class (he suspected it was because he knew all of the tedious details necessary to teach the class by heart) but he'd turned the offer down because he thought it would be awkward to teach a class full of kids his own age or maybe even older. Now it seemed the other option for teaching the class had been heavily injured during a mission. Now they weren't really offering him a choice in the matter.