The nearty had started without any issue. Along with Zenith's family, several other important people had e to the party.

  Several of the S ranks from the city were there, along with almost all of the high ranking members of all of the guilds iy,

  Along with them, several uilds from the region of the try sent some of their members as well.

  The party was really a who's who of the hunters in their part of the try.

  Along with them, there are a number of other celebrities that have gained ihrough one way or another, even though they aren’t high ranking hunters.

  Wheh was walking into the party, he could see a clear differeweewo groups. That would be the career hunters and those who use hunting as part of their career.

  Hunters had a certain air to them. They didn’t really care about formality. And a lot of them were acutely aware of their position in the world. They are the st line of defense when another outbreak happens.

  But in hoy, they are the nicer of the two groups. The others view themselves as much more important than everyone else. They gained power ah from being hunters, but in all hoy, they could never reach the higher leagues. They stopped almost always at A rank, and never broke into the S rank.

  But they always acted like the best of the best. They used their positions as huo leverage tracts and deals with businesses, or they became major celebrities.

  They weren’t weak by any standard and still made it farther than most hunters, but a lot of people saw through them.

  And they were also the people who went above and beyond in the dress code. The guys would be wearing really expensive suits and the women would be wearing very nice dresses, unlike Andrea and Aria, they would be fit for a prom or wedding.

  Zenith had learned from a young age to avoid them, because they looked down on him. There was an ihe year before when one of them tried to hurt Zenith, only to be stopped by Aria, and thrown out by Gideon.

  Right when they got to the party, Daniel and Andrea went their separate ways from their children, telling them they o say hi to a few coworkers and a few of their bosses.

  Aria, Anthem ah decided to look around the party by themselves.

  After they entered, several other notable people ehe party as well. A siurned hunter. A number of iing Hunters. And a few wanted criminals.

  ?

  Zenith and Aria decided to go check out the food and Anthem wao see who else was in attendance. So the three of them also split up.

  Anthem walked around the party seeing who had e.

  Anthem had a number of friends within the higher ranks of hunters. He would ofte people on dives. Also, the club he worked part time, its main gimmick was that they were all hunters. In fact, all of them were part of the same guild. The guild runs 2 clubs, ohat caters to men and the other women.

  Anthem was the only person who worked in the club who was not a member of the guild. They had repeatedly asked him to join, but because he was tracted with the association, he had to say no.

  If he did join, he would be the only S rank, but they had a number of A ranks w in the guild.

  He was currently looking for a few of them. It was a big enough guild to get an invite for the guild master. That plus at least 2 others should be ing with them.

  He had a good idea of who the two guests were going to be, and was really happy to get a ce to see them here.

  Both of them had been friends with him since high school.

  Unlike Zenith, Aria and Anthem were quite popur in highschool. They had a number of friends. Their groups didn’t overp much, so these two were only Anthems friends.

  While he was walking around the party looking for them, someone came up behind him and gave him a big hug.

  Caught off guard at who would be doing this, Aarts spinning around to see who was doing it.

  But the person who was hugging him decided to screw with him and spun around with him, so that he could never find who it was.

  After about 30 seds of this game going on, the persos go of him and Anthem is able to see who it was.

  “Madison” He says, seeing the girl who had been hugging him.

  “What’s up, Anthem” she said ba.

  “Well, I was just looking to see if you came this year? Let me guess, the boss brought you and Liam, right?”

  “Just right. But I saw you first and had to e over” she said to him.

  “Well, should we go find them?”

  “If you want. But where is your family?”

  “Oh, Aria ah are over by the food. And mom and dad went to go say hi to a few of their coworkers and bosses”

  “Oh, so you’re all by yourself right now?”

  “Yes?” he said.

  “Well, how about we spend some time together?”

  “What about Liam? He is our friend as well”

  “He was chatting up a girl when I saw you. I think we’ll see him ter”

  “Well, how about we go have a good time”

  And with that, Anthem was dragged away into the party with his friend.

  ?

  The story behind Anthems pyboy lifestyle and him w at the club dates back a long time.

  Anthem had always wao be close with people. He had grown up watg the picture perfect retionship between his parents, as well as the growth betweewo of his siblings, no matter how one-sided that retion is.

  He had felt kind of jealous, not of Zenith being close to Aria, but that Aria was that close to Zenith. He wished he could be closer to Zenith as well. He would eventually learn that they did not want the same kind of retionship with Zenith, but he still wao be closer to him.

  This feeling was born out of the knowledge of what Zenith was like as a young child, right after he was taken in by their family, and then amplified by an i wheh was 10.

  He wao be close to Zenith from there, and he was able to form a close bond with him, but the damage had been done.

  No matter how good of a bond was formed between them, Anthem wanted more.

  So he started trying to find other people to form a bond with. Whether that be friends, irlfriends or just sex buddies, he tried anything. And some of it helped. Some of them helped more than others, and anything long term was much better than anything short.

  But thanks to the time he spent dating around, he had a hard time f long term retionships.

  After highschool, he lost tact with most of his friends.

  After anyoried to date learned about how he was in the past, they couldn’t move past it.

  He was good at casual dating, and he could always make new friends as a hunter, but nothing was as good as he wa.

  And after a while, it started to be something that made him hate part of himself.

  Then, two of his highschool friends who stayed in town after highschool, and who he didn’t lose tact with told him about these clubs they started w at. The clubs were made for people like him. People who wanted e but couldn’t find it.

  He started out going to the one for men, but eventually he met the owner and started to work for the one for women.

  This worked as a band aid to his problem. He was able to have quick es with people, and the o the club didn’t make him hate himself. It was w to put himself back together.

  ?

  Madison has been in love with Anthem sihey were in high school.

  She stayed in love with him during all of his dark moments. The times when he would go from women to women.

  At times, she tortured herself by staying with him.

  But she was one of the only people who khe truth.

  Since she did stay with him, she also saw the nights when he broke. Wheold her about the mistakes he made in the past. How he hurt the person he loves more than anyone. How all we wants is to be close to other people.

  She started w at the club by act. She was offered a position at a guild and didn’t realize that it was ected to the club.

  She was never good at the club. Very few people would request to talk to her. This lead her to mostly just w as a waitress and helping the others.

  But the guild never dropped her because of her skill as a hunter. She quickly joihe ranks to bee an A rank. She never went for the S rank promotion for some reason, but most of the other members are pretty sure she could be one.

  She would end up ving him to e to the club with help of another friend from high school, Liam. Liam was a lot like Anthem, in the fact that he dated a lot, but he didn’t do it out of desperation or hatred for himself. He just did it. He was also there a lot when Anthem would talk about why he did those things, and wao help him out.

  They thought a more trolled enviro would be good for him to deal with his problems. The club had strict rules that must be followed. This protects both the er and the employee from dealing with problems.

  And it worked a little. After going to one a few times, he started w there as well, with special permission from the guild leader.

  And through this all, Madison never fell out of love.

  She had no pns on telling him until he was in a better pce, but she also wao stay by him until he got there.

  ?

  After they met up at the party, Madison and Anthem hung out the whole time. They eventually met up again with Liam.

  “So, Madison was right? You struck out?” Anthem asked him whe up with them.

  “Good Evening to you as well, my dear friend. Yes, I struck out. The girl was not taking anything I had to offer. She seemed weird” Liam said.

  “Or, she was pletely normal and just didn’t like you?” Madison said, making fun of her friend.

  “Wow. And these two are the best friends I have. I should make new friends” Liam said.

  The three of them spent the party together.

  Eventually, a slow song started to py.

  Liam, aware of the feelings Madison has for Anthem, decided to make a suggestion.

  “Hey, how about you two go out there? Get some dang in” Liam says.

  “What are you…” Madison starts.

  “Yeah, sure. Seems like fun” Anthem says, taking Madison by her hand and leading her onto the dance floor.

  “What are you doing?” Madison started.

  “Having fun. We went on that date the other day. Maybe…” Aarted. “Nevermind, let's just have some fun, like I said earlier.”

  “Yeah” she said and followed him.

  From there, they slowly daogether. Anthem was happy to have someoo do this with, and Madison was happy to be doing this with Anthem.

  When the song finished, it was just about midnight.

  The MC for the event said they were going to start the tdown soon.

  Anthem looked over at Madison and decided to ask her a question.

  “You know, it's tradition to share a kiss at new years” Anthem said to her.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard. What about it? her of us have anyone” she said, knowing where this was leading, and very much wanting it.

  “Well…” he started as the tdown reached 0.

  And as the new year started, Anthem kissed Madison.

  And in the sed, an explosion ripped through part of the building.