When the world was forced to acknowledge, so many decades ago now, that monsters were indeed real, it’d come with the side-effect of forcing many hunters into the spotlight. It was only natural, of course; you can’t reveal such a major thing without also revealing those that had dealt with it in the shadows up to that point. For some, it rocketed them to stardom, and they were held up as national heroes for selflessly defending their fellow man without ever expecting a reward for it. For others, it ruined them as they were decried as just as bad, if not worse, as the creatures they hunted.
However, even today, where monsterkind’s existence is a simple fact of life, it still took more time for some hunters to be noticed than others. The most controversial of them all (at least among the various monster communities that no longer needed/could afford to stay hidden) was a Japanese woman named Hyakushiki Momoko. When she’d first appeared on their radar, only the most paranoid had taken more than a cursory note of her. After all, by all appearances, she seemed to fight monsters by trying to overpower them, of all things! She was just another idiot human who’d quickly get herself killed. Why should they bother remembering her?
But every time she hunted, she won. She kept winning again and again against all kinds of things that go bump in the night, and when someone bothered to look into it, it turned out she’d been winning easily. There were no reports of her coming out of her hunts with even a scratch. And it just kept happening! This revelation caused many to sit up and take notice, though the more powerful/arrogant still saw her as beneath their notice.
Things remained like this for about a year, with everyone who bothered keeping track of her just becoming more and more incredulous as the one-sided curb-stompings began to pile up, before she did yet another thing that shocked the onlookers: she had stumbled upon a small werewolf pack, and had...spared them. To hear them tell it, she’d even been pretty friendly. She was, of course, asked why a hunter as notorious as she was (at least among the smaller factions) would ever be anything approaching reasonable to a bunch of non-humans. Her answer?
“I’m a monster hunter. I hunt monsters. Whether you’re a vampire, a werewolf, a human, a youkai, or a tadpole, I don’t care; if you’re not a monster, I have no reason to hurt you. Even if you’re not human, you’re still people until you prove otherwise. It wouldn’t be right to hunt you, simple as that.”
Thus, the controversy. To some in the monster community, this made her something of an icon; a truly human hunter that even they could admire and respect, an example of the best of her kind. To others, however, she was a murderous fool, stepping beyond her station and enforcing her worthless all-too-human morality on them just like every other hunter. Even the hallowed halls of the Tepes family had whispers of this woman, heated debates kept out of the way of the masters. Some viewed her as just another enemy, just as bad as the sanctimonious madmen of Section XIII. Others saw her as a useful tool or even an ally, the more...exuberant of them comparing Hyakushiki to the legendary Integra Fairbrook Wingates Helsing (whether that was justified or not was another debate entirely).
Whatever the case was, it was simple fact that her ever-rising notoriety meant that it was only a matter of time before one of the many counts, alphas, or other leaders would move to make an ally and/or tool out of her. The fact that she was a mere human capable of overpowering monsters made her useful, even if some believe that use was...limited, to say the least. By all appearances, however, Momoko seemed to remain entirely oblivious to whatever furor she’d created in her wake. She simply continued on as she always had, all signs pointing to her being completely unaware of any plans or agendas that may be forming around her.
One day, she was riding on a train to Tokyo. As trite as it may sound, she was even minding her own business. Those around her were giving her as much space as they could without seeming rude; her strange garb made her appear as either a dedicated cosplayer or a member of the JSDF, after all. She’d been content to spend the train ride in silence, but after a moment, couldn’t help but respond to a new presence. “You know, most vampires at least bother to hide what they are whenever a hunter’s around, if only to take them off-guard.”
