The Chick Class Hunter is Being Filial

The fire in the furnace crackled to life, smoke curling gently into the sky.
Kazuki, crouched down and wiping sweat from his brow, caught Guru’s eyes and smiled softly.

Guru toddled over and clambered up onto Sabbuu’s back.
Kazuki gave her a bouncy piggyback shake.
“Gwuu gonna hewp Sabbuu~”

“You will?”
A sharp canine peeked out from between his smooth, smiling lips.
Guru’s finely tuned “hot guy radar,” trained subconsciously at Hyeonak, started pinging brightly.

'Hmmm. If you wook at him wike dis, Sabbuu kinda handsome too.'
It really was a shame that all his tattoos made people mistake him for a yakuza.
“Hmm. Then, Gwu-chan, could you get me tamago (eggs)?”
T-Tamago? What dat?

Guru’s mouth opened into a little triangle as she tried to remember something similar.
“Gudetamayo?”
“Ahhh? Tama!”

“Hmm? Gudetamayo?”
“Yeah. Tama.”
“Yeh?”

“Yeh?”
Guru and Kazuki stared at each other blankly.
Neither had the faintest idea what the other was saying when a third voice suddenly cut in.

“Eggs.”
Jurim, still lying sideways on the platform without moving a muscle, lazily corrected them without even opening his eyes. Kazuki clapped in agreement.
“Yep, eggs! I’ll make you rolled omelets.”

“Gasp!”
Daddy said someting usefuw!
Guru slapped her hands over her mouth.

'Daddy’s actuawwy kinda usefuw sometimes!'
Moved by this rare spark of paternal usefulness, Guru nodded up and down like a bobblehead.
Was this what it felt like for a parent bird to watch their baby take its first step out of the nest?

“Gwu-chan, you wuv omewehts?”
“Vewy, vewy much!”
Just then, Woojoo appeared, having changed clothes after arriving late to the shoot.
“Me too. I’ll go with you.”

As he lifted his head, he tugged awkwardly at his oversized shirt over his baggy pants.
Guru burst into a high-pitched giggle.
“Woojoo so kyoot~”

Woojoo’s face flushed bright red, and up on his head, Mephisto let out a faint hiss of air through his nose and turned away in disgust.
Guru didn’t care. She reached out her hand.
“Yupyup. Woojoo comes too~”

With Mephisto perched atop her head, Guru walked off beside Woojoo along the side of the yard to find eggs.
After squeezing through a narrow dirt path like a piece of rice cake, they stepped into an open side yard where chickens and chicks were huddled together in a coop.
“Ova dere.”

Guru tugged Woojoo forward with a soft purruk.
Cheep cheep! Cheep cheep!
Cluck-cluck! Cluck!

“Chicky!”
“So cuuute...”
Little yellow chicks were pecking at feed between the hens.

Guru placed Mephisto down among the chicks.

Cheep cheep!
The chubby Mephisto stood stiffly among the fluffballs, eyes darting.

Guru giggled and said:
“Mephi~ dey yo fwiends. Fwiends~”
“Cheep?!”

THUD!
Startled, Mephisto flapped back up to Guru’s head with a poh-ruruk.
“Cheep!”

One chick stared curiously up at him, and Mephisto trembled.
His nose tingled, and tears welled in his eyes.
'Gwuu... is Mephi’s onwy fwiend. Not dese dumb feather cweepies!'

He puffed angrily as the chicks chirped at him.
Sure, they kinda looked like him... Mephisto shook his head furiously.
No way. He was clearly different! Mephisto was Mephisto!

“Cheeeep...!”
As Mephisto swallowed back his humiliation with a sniffle—
“Eggies, eggies.”

“Eggs...”
While the kids were still scanning around, the cameraman gestured at them, silently pointing out where to look.
Guru and Woojoo followed his finger—and immediately froze.

“...”
“...”
Guru turned pale and gripped Woojoo’s hand tightly.

“Da mama chicky’s holdin’ a baby...”
“...Y-yeah.”
Woojoo looked just as pale.

To get the egg, they’d have to take it from the mama hen.
Sepawation fowever!
DUN DUN!

What a cruel and heartbreaking task.
And that wasn’t the end of the trouble.
The giant mother hen glared at them with terrifying eyes.

Cluck, cluck-cluck!
As if to say: Just try me, punks.
“W-What do we do...”

Just realizing the egg was being brooded was shocking enough. But the hen’s vicious aura was a second blow.
Guru was stunned, not knowing what to say.
She thought they’d just pick up eggs lying around like pebbles.

“But da baby chick gonna be so saddie wifout da mama...”
Guru sniffled as she recalled “Gudetamayo: Wobbin’ Awong to Find Mama,” where the chick and the egg went on a journey to find their mother.
Sniff!

Woojoo looked just as overwhelmed.
The bulked-up hen’s chest was so thick it looked like a wrestler. You could barely wrap your arms around her.
Still... Woojoo clenched his fist and shut his eyes.

To eat those delicious rolled omelets, he had to overcome this terrifying, mountainous bird.
Because! Guru said she loved omelets!
“I-I’ll chase her away!”

Woojoo let go of Guru’s hand and stepped forward.
But Guru spread her arms and blocked his path.
“Nooo! Dun do dat!”

“I can do it, so move.”

“But... if da baby gonna come out, it need da mama to snuggwe it...”
Right at that moment, a line of chicks marched between them.

Cheep cheep! Cheep cheep!
Woojoo’s lips trembled at the unbearably cute parade.
“T-That’s true, but...! If we don’t take the eggs, we won’t have any food. And even if we don’t, adults will just take them later. So... the baby’s gonna {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} be taken anyway.”

As Woojoo started making logical points, Guru puffed out her cheeks in protest.
She really didn’t like it—but he wasn’t exactly wrong.
They were in the countryside, where food was limited. Completely avoiding eggs was probably impossible.

“In that case, it’s better to take them before da baby gets too big. If da egg gets bigger... and it hatches... it’s... awful.”
“H-How awful?”
“It... comes out.”

“What does?”
“Da chick dat didn’t fuwwy gwow... inside da fwying pan...”
“Eeeeek!”

Woojoo clamped his hands over his mouth, clearly recalling a past trauma, while Guru went ghost-white just imagining it.
“That’s why I’ll do it. You just stay back.”
Woojoo steeled himself and took a step toward the mother hen.

'Cluck?'
The hen tilted her head and clucked, and Guru quickly stopped Woojoo again.
“Waitwaitwait! Gwuu got a gud idea!”

“A good idea?”
“Yupyup.”
Speaking with firm resolve, Guru opened her inventory.

She hadn’t touched it in a while.
What she pulled out was a bright white tricycle.
With a flick of her foot on the rear wheel, it transformed into a two-seater.

“...!”
Woojoo gasped, and Guru smirked at him from the corner of her lips.
The real surprise was just getting started.

Stroking the new tricycle like a precious steed, she declared:
“200% stwength buff, 3-horsepowew tuwbo boostah engine. An’ it can twansfowm to fit up to thwee wittwe kiddoes.”
It was a special custom tricycle made by S-Rank Amakusa Kazuki using the bones of the S-Rank monster Oonamazu.

“Twansfowms too?!”
Woojoo’s hands began to sweat at the trike’s insane specs.
Any kid would kill to ride it.

Guru, her baggy pants fluttering like a cape, plopped into the driver’s seat with flair and nodded toward the back.
“Woojoo, get on.”
“O-Okay.”

Woojoo cautiously climbed on, afraid of scratching it.
“Where are we goin’?”
Guru draped her arm over the backrest and turned with a confident grin.

She’d been waiting for this question.
“Eggs. We gonna buwy dem at da convenience store.”
Guru’s eyes curved into perfect half-moons.

“Den we can eat omewehts widout takin’ no baby away!”
“W-What? I mean, yeah, but...!”
Before he could finish, Guru gripped the lever on the handlebars and started pedaling—activating the boosters.

Vrrrrrrr—!
A low rumble echoed like the cry of the mighty Oonamazu.
Pleased with her trike’s roar, Guru raised her hand in farewell.

“Gwuu be back sooooon~!”
VRROOOM—
She sped off with a cheerful wave to the crew.

“H-Hey! Kids! Wait for us!”
The cameraman and staff all scrambled to chase after the children in a mad dash.