After finishing their syrup-heavy breakfast, Silver and Ponzu stepped out into the city streets with a single goal: find the location of the Hunter Exam.
Simple, right?
It wasn't.
The sun was high, casting long shadows down narrow alleys and across busy intersections. Flyers flapped in the breeze. Pedestrians bustled by. But despite the energy, no official sign or marker led to the exam site.
Instead, the only leads they found were… rumors.
"I heard," a convenience store clerk whispered, "you gotta go to the center of the city. Find the men in black. But not just any men in black. The right one will be wearing black glasses and they will flash you with a pencil like device. If you remember meeting them… you pass."
Silver blinked. "That sounds incredibly dumb."
"You kids looking for the exam?" said a shady-looking man behind a ramen cart. "Then catch the talking bi-pedal cat with a gold koban coin on its forehead."
Ponzu tilted her head. "Bi-pedal cat?"
"Golden Coin forehead?" Silver added.
"Yeah. Talks with a Kansai accent. Got a shiny coin on its forehead. If you can catch it, you pass Stage One."
Silver stared. "We're looking for a talking cat?"
"and bi-pedal! And it bites."
They spent fifteen minutes chasing a normal cat with a shiny bottlecap stuck to its head.
"Wrong cat," Ponzu panted, holding her scratched arms.
"I noticed," Silver muttered, nursing a bruised ego.
Then came the mountain rumor.
A small group of teens—also wannabe Hunters—insisted that the real test was to hike a nearby mountain and touch a massive tree rumored to house ancient spirits.
"At the summit," one said solemnly, "the tree knows who's worthy."
"It's not the tree, its the inhabitant near the tree!" Another one argued. "Rumor has it they will fly you to the exam site directly."
"Will take that as a last result. Looks like it will be the furthest from where we are." Silver muttered as they walked away.
Then there were pop quizzes from random people on the street.
A crossing guard asked Silver to name five different types of mushrooms. Which he failed to answer.
A fortune teller gave Ponzu a riddle involving lemons, betrayal, and shadow clones. Which she doesn't know even know the word shadow clones exists.
A child selling balloons offered to reveal the test site—for 50,000 Jenny. Silver being broke denied to buy the tip while Ponzu believes it is just a scam.
By the end of the afternoon, Silver and Ponzu had gathered nothing concrete—only confusion, laughter, and a collection of weird photos:
Silver standing next to a man-sized cat statue.
Ponzu holding up a golden-plated bottlecap with a disgusted look.
Both of them wearing fake mustaches from a street vendor "test."
As they sat down by a fountain, tired and laughing, Ponzu wiped her eyes.
"You'd think something as official as the Hunter Exam would be easier to find."
Silver chuckled, leaning back. "Maybe this is the first part of the test."
"Confuse you into giving up?"
"Exactly."
Tired, they both sat on a bench in one of the city park.
"Wanna try the tree on the peak of the mountain?" Silver asked as he raised the gold-plated bottlecap to get a closer look.
"And what, fly us to the exam site?" Ponzu replied with a groan. "That's about as possible as—what—meeting a talking, bi-pedal cat?"
"What's so impossible about that?"
Both of them jolted upright.
Sitting with them on the bench, hands holding the gold-plated bottlecap, was a short, cream-colored, bi-pedal feline with large eyes, three whiskers on each cheek, and a shiny gold charm embedded on its forehead.
"What the hell?" Silver exclaimed as he wondered when the cat took hi bottle cap.
Ponzu's mouth fell open. "No way."
Silver blinked hard. "Am I asleep? I think I'm asleep."
"You ain't dreamin" The cat said smugly, polishing his new gold-plated bottle cap with one paw. "Name's Meowth. And you two? You're lucky. You just in time cause i'm starting to get hungry."
"Wait—you're real and part of the test?" Ponzu asked, eyes narrowing.
"Meowth, that's right! And I don't give out answers for free." Meowth said, wagging a claw. "Here's the deal: Catch me a red carp with yellow fins from the river near the Sakura Bridge and i'll take you to the hunter exam. You got one hour. Fail? You're outta luck."
"That's oddly specific," Silver muttered.
"Everything about this exam is odd." Ponzu added with a sigh.
Meowth tipped an invisible hat. "Clock's tickin'. Get fishin'."
And just like that, he flipped into a nearby bush and vanished.
There was a pause.
"…Did that just happen?" Silver asked.
Ponzu stood, already pulling up a digital map on her device. "Yeah. And apparently, we're going fishing."
...
The sky had shifted to twilight, streaked in purple and gold. For the past thirty minutes, Silver and Ponzu had stood side by side, rods in hand, eyes on the water.
Still no sign of a red carp with yellow fins.
"This is impossible," Ponzu muttered, her line slack, shoulders sagging. "What if this was just a prank? What if the cat was just... hungry and playing us?"
Silver didn't answer immediately. He reeled in his line slowly, inspecting the empty hook again.
"Nah," he finally said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Talking cats don't just walk up to you in public and send you on a scavenger hunt unless something's up. I think this is the real."
Ponzu sighed and sat down against the bridge railing, letting her line drift. "My bees are better at hunting than I am. This is ridiculous."
Silver crouched beside her, both of them watching as koi of every color glided beneath the surface. But not the one they were looking for.
Silver's eyes lit up. He turned to her sharply.
"That's it!" he exclaimed.
"What is?" Ponzu blinked.
"You said your bees are better at hunting. So why are we fishing?" he said, already standing. "We don't need to sit here waiting. We need to hunt that carp."
Ponzu raised an eyebrow as she caught on. "You want me to send out the bees?"
"Exactly!" Silver nodded, scanning the nearby trees. "Have them scout under the bridge, along the riverbanks. Anywhere a red carp could be hiding. We're done waiting for it to come to us."
As Ponzu gently tapped the rim of her pink cap, several bees zipped out with purpose, darting down toward the shimmering river.
Meanwhile, Silver jogged toward the edge of the park path, searching for a good-sized branch. He snapped off a sturdy one, peeled the bark, and began sharpening the end against a nearby stone.
"We're not just fishing anymore," he said, narrowing his eyes as he worked. "We're Hunting."
The wind picked up as if echoing his determination. And down below, the bees began their search.