Shinzu Hayashi, Runic Hunter

With a desperate need to gain his parents approval once more rekindled within him, Shinzu decided to pour his attention into amassing his own fortune. Of course, despite his eagerness to learn, Shinzu’s lack of commitment did mean that he was moving from job to job at a rather worrying pace. Over time, he had sort of become a jack of all trades. A lot of general knowledge, but no real specialisation or focus in any particular areas. The only thing that really stuck was him picking up cooking and earning a position as a head chef in a fancy restaurant. Of course, even that didn’t work out in the end because of Shinzu’s tendency to push his love of spicy food on less willing customers. For some reason, he also felt more at ease playing around with the knives than he did actually doing any real cooking. 

After a while, Shinzu seemed to be at a loss. He was learning and doing what he loved, even if it was getting him nowhere in life. However, that alone was never going to lead to his parents praise and happiness. Around the time the last of the Magi relocation centres shut down, Shinzu suddenly found himself gaining a surge of interest revolving around all things Magi-related. While books and news reports satisfied his hunger for a short while, the teen realised that he needed more. He needed to do more. He wanted to understand everything about this new topic of interest. 

Over the next few years, Shinzu enrolled himself in the Rune University and spent most of his time learning Rune Magic. In his mind, this felt as if it was the best way to grow closer to the Magi. He wanted to ‘become’ one in order to learn how they ticked. He wanted to see the world through the eyes of someone able to use magic in order to better understand what drives and motivates them. It was a noble quest. An attempt at understanding the unknown. However, like most things in life, it didn’t hold Shinzu’s attention for long. 


Despite the prestige that came with being a student at the University, it was never going to pay the bills or earn his parents respect. Besides, sitting in a classroom all day scribbling runes wasn’t going to satisfy Shinzu’s thirst for knowledge either. He needed to do some field research. Having been self-reliant on his own cooking skills whilst away from home, Shinzu’s talents with wielding a knife had never dulled (despite his inability to cook anything remotely non-spicy). This led to Shinzu eventually being approved as an honorary Hunter.

Although his hands were full with learning Rune Magic, Shinzu liked the idea of branching himself out and gaining the resources of two separate organisations. The job also commanded quite a bit of respect. The pay wasn’t half bad either and more importantly, it allowed him to interact with Magi every so often. Sadly, it was never anything useful. The bloodthirsty Magi always seemed to be taken down on a kill first, ask questions later basis by his Hunter comrades. In contrast, the more ‘innocent’ Magi always seemed to be more open to negotiation. However, the moment Shinzu ever seemed to express his intentions of allowing them to escape, they always seemed to flee immediately without giving Shinzu even the slightest opportunity to satisfy his curiosity by asking them the nagging unanswered questions constantly on the back of his mind.

It was always the same. Magi, for one reason or another, always seemed to be unwilling to converse properly. Perhaps they were simply unused to being in the presence of someone willing to hear their side of the story. Of course, that was until one fateful day. On a routine bounty hunt mission, Shinzu had managed to track down a Magi guilty of killing sixteen civilians in a fit of rage after his human wife had been executed in front of him. Naturally, Shinzu felt as if he understood the Magi. Who wouldn’t react violently to such an atrocity after all? Shinzu felt somewhat benevolent that day. He felt as if he was the only human in the city that could understand what this Magi was going through. “Wait!” Shinzu remembered uttering something to that effect. “I am not here to harm you! I am not your enemy! I understand! I understand what you are going throu-” Shinzu also remembered how that was the most he could say before his voice was cut off by a fierce typhoon.



Shinzu awoke several days later in hospital with a terrible head wound. Apparently the targeted Magi had escaped. Although, not before killing several more innocent civilians and a Hunter along the way. At first, Shinzu wondered if he had been spared. Was the fact that he was still alive proof that Magi were capable of mercy and human emotion? No. Shinzu learned from the doctor that he was found in a pool of his own blood. By pure chance, the tightly wrapped headband had ended up adding pressure to the wound, slowing down the blood loss. While to the Magi it probably looked as if Shinzu was going to bleed out from the head injury, in reality, the pressure bought Shinzu a precious few extra minutes of sustained life, which was just barely enough time for the medics to arrive on scene. It was a lesson in life Shinzu had never learned before. From that day onwards, he learned that not all things in life require understanding or probing. Some things are just the way that they are.