[I had to make up real names for all the Hunters except Jin (Taiga Amusuran) and Hyoku (Suyou Rakusuran), whose names are given in the manga. I have no idea if the codename/numbers the Hunters all have are inherited or assigned, but this seemed to make more sense to me.]

Every two years or so, Mon reassessed the rank of his Hunters. Usually no one's number got changed. The only exception came when he had several young people, whose skills could improve almost overnight. That was the case now: besides himself and two others, the Hunters were all less than twenty-five, with the youngest, Suyou and Taiga, barely eighteen. Nonetheless, Mon felt this reorganization to be something close to final. He had been especially impressed by Taiga, in particular - the boy had only four years of training compared to Suyou's twelve, but he learned so quickly that an outsider would have been unable to tell. Really, the Hunters were all fairly even in ability, which made assigning numbers a slightly frustrating task. But when he reminded himself that it wasn't a rank so much as a chain of command, Mon could focus solely on leadership ability, and that made things easier.

Well, Taiga. He was really something special, thought Mon. Much too serious for a boy his age. Mon liked that. He was fast in everything: quick-thinking, quick on his feet, quick to act as well as quick to learn. Adaptive. Mon liked that, too. The only thing he didn't like was a powerful stubborn streak the others had never had a chance to develop. When a Hunter started training as a young child, he learned obedience as a part of his very person, but Taiga had, unfortunately, spent the first fourteen years of his life as the heir to a wealthy house, with an absentee father and no mother, allowed to do almost anything he wanted. It was true that he generally did what Mon told him, but not always the way Mon told him to do it, and only because he respected Mon and wanted to please him, the way a child behaves merely because they wish to please their parents. On the other hand, a little initiative was a good thing in a second; Taiga's free-thinking attitude made him more creative than the others. And he was still young enough that he might yet learn how not to, say, constantly speak out of turn.

Suyou, by contrast, was bristly and braggy and surly, as one might expect from a teenager, but he always did exactly what he was told, so long as it was Hunter business. But he was something of a loose cannon when it came to his temper, and Mon imagined Suyou would approach a crisis, no matter what sort, as something to be solved by punching or stabbing the problem.

Of course, Mon had his veterans: Biham, stoic as granite, bald and reticent as a monk, and Gara, his current second, who looked like a dumb meathead but was actually an excellent spy and a thoughtful strategist. Gara was reliable and proven - but still, Mon felt that Taiga brought something more, something extra. Well, he might end up regretting this, but the numbers weren't permanent, anyhow.

The men listened attentively while Mon gave them their new assignments. It was almost the only occasion they would ever hear their commanding officer use their real names, and since they never used their real names with each other, this proved a slightly surreal experience. But they all remained outwardly emotionless. If Taiga was surprised at his promotion, he didn't show it, and if Suyou was annoyed at his less-experienced agemate being pushed into second place, he hid it expertly. Tala and Akira, who worked so well together, were once again Taga and Sun. Suyou was now in sixth place instead of seventh, and everyone else moved down a number to accomodate Taiga.

After he had finished, Mon announced that, in celebration of everyone's surviving another two years, they would have the night off, and he had arranged a small feast for them in their barracks. This was a modest building hidden in the woods between the Mikado's Palace and the Star Palace where the Hunters, and only the Hunters, stayed, since their comings and goings would be noticed if they shared quarters with the normal Royal Guard. It was its own self-contained little ecosystem, with its own well, its own wall, its own garden and its own bath, its own cooking hearth and an ingenious device atop the chimney to disperse the smoke and keep the building from attracting attention even in winter. To the younger men it had the feeling of a clubhouse, and it was comforting to come back to after a long night.

Mon did not join his men at the barracks. Instead he went to his own home, where his parents still lived, to enjoy a quiet meal with family. For him, too, this night would be a rare opportunity for rest.

The feast their leader had arranged was paltry by royal standards, but for the Hunters it was a real luxury. It seemed as if there was every kind of meat, plus noodles and rice and sticky buns, persimmons and oranges and roast potatoes, fresh vegetables, cake, tea, and, best of all, liquor, a treat they were almost never allowed. When they arrived everything was still hot, but there was no one around. Mon must have had some of the Invisibles deliver it. The group sat down happily to enjoy the bounty their chief had provided, and before long the party atmosphere (and the liquor) had infected even the most humorless among them.

"This fish sauce is incredible," observed Tala - now, either conveniently or confusingly, Taga - who had been training as a cook in his spare time. "I can taste chives and ginger, but there's something else I can't identify. Maybe fennel? And there's something with a little kick to it, some kind of pepper..."

"Yun- I mean, Rai," said Sun, turning to Biham with a grin, "I've always meant to ask, are you naturally bald or do you work to keep your head so smooth?"

Rai sniffed but said nothing; he was too involved in the bowl of dumpling soup he was devouring to reply.

"Perhaps he's just ready to go undercover as a monk," said Suyou, now Hyoku.

"Oh, yes, I didn't think of that! After all, the ability to blend into any setting is one of our greatest abilities," Sun nodded sagely.

"Is that what your hair-ribbon's for? Blending in?"

Sun set down his chopsticks and sighed dramatically. "I think a lesson is in order for the younglings. Clearly they don't understand what they need to be prepared for."

Zen made a sound halfway between a snort and a snicker. Yun's mouth twitched, as if he were trying to keep a straight face, and he sat back to watch. Jin and Hyoku exchanged glances. Clearly everyone here knew something they didn't.

Sun walked over and planted himself directly in front of the two junior Hunters. "I am going to illustrate just what is meant by blending in to any situation," he announced, his expression absolutely serious. "Between the eight of us, we Hunters should be able fill any role, because you never know what persona may be necessary to fulfill a mission. Imagine I have been ordered to kill a mid-level Lower-Ougi criminal and to make it look like a mob hit, without leaving witnesses. I will of course have to get him alone without attracting suspicion, likely in a crowded setting. In order to do this, I must become someone else. Watch," said Sun with a sudden, almost demonic grin. He closed his eyes, fluffed up his hair, loosed the collar of his coat, and then produced a dainty, innocent, uncertain half-smile, fluttered his eyelashes and-

"You can blush on command?!" Hyoku blurted, shocked.

"Of course, Hyoku-chan," Sun replied, his eyes twinkling. He spoke with a voice that astonished the two teenagers before him - the voice of a young woman, high and sweet. "I can also cry on command," he continued, now with a tiny waver; his eyes widened and he blinked quickly, and sure enough, tears welled in his eyes and sparkled on his eyelashes. He sniffled delicately and leaned towards Hyoku. His lips trembling, he bit one forefinger timidly and said, with a little hitch, "Are you and Jin-chan impressed?" Imperceptibly he leaned still closer, until his face was only a hand's breadth from Hyoku's. Hyoku was transfixed, and he blushed a bit himself as Sun ran his tongue along one lip and murmured, "Perhaps Hyo-chan wants to learn how to do this, too? Perhaps... Hyo-chan wants me to teach him...?"

Hyoku's face was bright red now. He mumbled something unintelligible, and Sun sat back at once, cackling. The others burst out laughing as well, and Hyoku scrunched down into his shoulders, humiliated.

"You'd have to play a child, though," Sun said in his normal voice, smoothing his hair and grinning fiendishly. Zen was almost rolling on the floor, he was laughing so hard.

"So," Sun explained, serious again, "once the target's been hooked, I can easily get him alone and make a clean kill, much more easily than if I approached him as a man, and any witnesses only know that the target went into a back room with some woman and the woman disappeared. It's also a good way to get intelligence. After all, anyone would tell innocent Aki-chan whatever she wanted to know. I'm sure Hyo-kun can attest to that," he added with a smirk.

Hyoku scowled, embarrassed at his reaction to Sun's acting and resentful at being made the butt of Sun's 'lesson'. "I can't believe you willingly go undercover as a girl. Don't you feel silly wearing women's clothes?"

"Not at all," Sun said. "A disguise is a disguise, whether it's a dress or just peasant garb.. Do you feel silly pretending to be a fisherman, or a palace guard? Of course not. This is exactly the same."

Yun began to clap, and the others joined in. Sun bowed as he returned to his seat.

"Ah, I've got it! Star anise!" announced Taga suddenly, triumphant.

"What?" several of the others said at once.

"The spice! In the fish sauce!" His explanation was met with blank confusion. Taga huffed and threw a hand up in disgust. "You guys are hopeless."