The First Mission: Part I

“What’s our first mission?”, Hinako asked exited.

They were currently sitting in the back of a MDF truck on route to their first mission.

“Exterminating a magical pest problem…”, Kuro answered with a sigh.

“Oh, nice. Finally, something right up my alley!”

“Ever been slime hunting as a kid?”

“Huh? Yeah! We had an outbreak of ‘em back home in Osaka when I was in high school, so they organized a town wide hunting challenge, to get rid of the problem. I got first.”

“Good, this will be a piece of cake for you then.”

“We’re going to squash some slimes?”

“Basically. Think you will be able to handle it yourself?”

Looking at Kuro’s faint smile, Hinako knew that it wasn’t to be just some slimes, but she did like challenges.

“Fine! You can leave everything to me and don’t have to lift a finger. But in exchange you’ll treat me to food and drinks for the next month!”, Hinako offered with a cheeky smile.

“Deal.”, Kuro agreed immediately.

This unsettled Hinako a little more, but she shook the feeling and went back to checking out her new stuff. She had changed into her new, mostly black combat uniform. It had magically infused fibers weaved into it, providing extra protection and making the cloth shimmer slightly purple. Additionally, she got top of the line magical combat gear. It consisted of a knife made from magic conducting metal and the newest model of magical discharging device, which was basically a gun capable of shooting magic bullet if the user knew how to convert his magical energy into them. Hinako also got a small first aid kit and some tools for magical reconnaissance and suppression. She looked over to Kuro. He was wearing his usual jeans and T-shirt outfit.

“You don’t take any gear with you?”, Hinako noticed.

“I am not allowed to use them.” Kuro replied curtly.

“Why not?”

“They end up breaking when I use them…”

Hinako looked at him confused, but could not ask further, because the truck stopped.

“We’re here.”, The driver said through the small window connecting the back of the truck to the front.

Kuro stood up without a word and opened the back door. Hinako followed him outside. They were in some industrial area. Some MDF mages were already in the area and one of them came over as he noticed them.

“You the… extermination squad?”, He said and had to hold back a smile.

Kuro said nothing and just turned to Hinako next to him. She looked a bit surprised.

“Y-yeah… Yes, we are!”, Hinako said shaking her confusion.

“Alright. The bastards are in the slaughterhouse. We surrounded it with a barrier, so they couldn’t escape. Follow me, I’ll show you the way in.”, the Mage explained.

He led them a bit further down the road to an entrance to one of the industrial grounds. The air around it shimmered silvery. Two Mages stood in front of the gate.

“Let them in. They are the extermination squad from the special forces branch.”, The mage leading them told the others.

The two Mages made a few hand gestures and a opening in the shimmering wall behind them opened up.

“All yours… enjoy.” The first Mage said as Kuro and Hinako entered.

They stood in the courtyard of a huge building complex, which seemed to be a meat processing facility. The barrier closed behind them immediately.

“Something tells me these will be no ordinary slimes…”, Hinako muttered.

“Did you know that they are using slimes in waste disposal and recycling facilities?”, Kuro suddenly asked.

He went straight to the big entrance door to the main hall.

“Yeah. I read that somewhere. Apparently, they can use the magic crystals they excrete as some kind of fuel.”, Hinako recalled as she followed him.

“That’s right. It’s really fascinating! It took them around forty years of research, but they managed to create a kind of slime that can literally absorb any sort of waste you feed it and convert it into energy. They do that by growing and when they reach a certain threshold part of the slime crystallizes storing the absorbed energy. With an efficiency of over ninety percent! Truly revolutionary…”, Kuro explained as they went down a hallway.

“I didn’t take you for an expert in waste disposal.”

“Oh, I read about it a bit recently. Truly interesting topic. You can even get rid of toxic and hazardous material without having to worry about an impact on the environment. Perfectly safe…”

Kuro stopped in front of a big metal door with a small window you could look through.

“Well mostly…”, He added.

“Mostly?”, Hinako asked confused.

Kuro looked through the window in the door and then turned back around.

“They had to create a highly resistant and adaptive type of slime creature capable of efficiently breaking down the compounds in the waste and they should grow fast for economic reasons. So yeah… while they are in their containment and absorbing what we give them in a controlled manner, they are really safe… but if one or even a small part of those fucks get out it can turn into a huge problem really quick… and getting rid of them can be a pain in the ass…”, He explained calmly.

“How big are we talking?”, Hinako asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kuro opened the door.

“About this big…”, He said and stepped aside.

Hinako took a step forward and looked into the room. It was a giant hall with cow and pig parts stored on rows of hooks. There was a huge pile of meat and bones in the middle of the room. Countless empty hooks lay around it. A rotten smell wafted against Hinako and made her nearly gag.

“What is this smell?”, She asked disgusted.

“Rapid meat decomposition.”, Kuro answered.

Hinako looked a bit closer at the meat pile in the middle. She noticed that a black sludge seeped between the meat pieces and started to completely engulf them. Then tentacles of the viscous liquid shot out and attached themselves to new carcasses. Hinako watched in disgust as they were dragged across the floor onto the growing pile.

“Have fun.”, Kuro said and pushed Hinako in the room.