Kael's POV
The next gate assignment came through my board at seven in the morning and Reiss flagged it before I had finished reading the overnight reports.
"Sector twelve," he said. "B-rank classification, two-hunter team assigned. Renshi and a B-rank named Sena… she's been on several of his team missions."
I knew who Sena was. I had read her file three weeks ago with the attention I applied to anyone operating in consistent proximity to Akira, and what I had found was someone sharp enough to have noticed the rank discrepancy early and loyal enough to have said nothing about it to the board.
She was competent. Good instincts, solid technique, the kind of hunter who made everyone around her incrementally better by the quality of her attention.
One B-rank hunter and a D rank hunter in a B-rank gate should have been straightforward.
