The First Mission: The Aftermath

“I send you on an easy slime-eradicating mission that should have been a walk in the park and what do I find here? Half of the building gone or rather splattered across the vicinity, nearly 80 million yen in damages, three dead mages, signs of demonic presence and you two stinking like a rotten pile of trash and fucking NAKED!”, Yamada complained angrily, but in a very nasal voice because she was holding her nose.

The way she said it made Hinako wonder, if the last part was, what she was bothered by the most. The two women and Kuro stood outside of the facility gate. A team of the MDF investigation squad was currently looking around the place. Yukiko was currently examining the bodies of the three dead. Kuro and Hinako were clad in safety vests on top and around their waist they had wrapped pieces of a curtain, which they had found in a small office building in the remainder of the building.

“But the slime is eradicated… so mission accomplished?”, Hinako said cheekily.

Kuro had to snicker at that remark. Yamada glared first at Kuro, silencing him and then back at Hinako.

“Accomplished? Your task was to get rid of the slime, not half the damn building!”, Yamada remarked very strongly.

“Well, it put up a decent fight, you know?”, Hinako defended herself defiantly.

“Why did fight it in the first place?”

“Huh? How else am I supposed to get rid of them? Ask nicely?”

“What? Why not use the fucking immobilizing crystals, that were specifically design for this purpose?”

“Huh? There are things like that?”

“Of course there are! What? Did you really think they would create a infinite growing slime, capable of dissolve nearly anything and … NOT… have any contingencies plans in case of some of them breaching containment? That would never get through safety and environmental protection standards!”

“Huh… I did not know that... Those would have been handy, I guess…”

“I gave the Otaku a whole bag before you left!”

“Well, he didn’t mention them… He only went on about how wonderful and fascinating way of waste disposal those things are.”

Both women looked at each other and blinked for a moment. Then they both turned to the side where Kuro stood or rather had been standing.

“Where the fuck is that idiot Otaku?”, Yamada uttered enraged, even letting go of her nose.

They both looked around and spotted the yellow and orange of a safety vest further down the road. Yamada immediately began making a few gestures. A purplish shining lens appeared in front of her right eye. She extended the right arm and pointed at Kuro, who turned and tried to dash around a corner. A white circle appeared in front of her finger and not even a heartbeat later, lightning shot out with a crackling and thunderous noise. It hit Kuro right in the side, catapulting him off the ground right into the fence he was running next to. He then fell to the ground and stopped moving. Hinako, perplexed about the sudden intensity of the spell, looked around confused and noticed that none of the other MDF mages seemed bothered by what just happened. Not even Yukiko looked up.

“Get your stupid Otaku ass back here right this instance, Kuro!”, Yamada bellowed, her voice trembling with rage.

Kuro immediately sprung to his feet and came trotting back. The safety vest was half gone and the rest only hung on by a thread. He had a red mark on his side, which had already begun to fade.

“That’s dangerous, you know… What would you have done, if you killed me?”, Kuro commented and scratched the red mark.

“Rejoiced.”, Yamada replied curtly.

Kuro tried for a weak smile and fidgeted around a bit uncomfortable. The rest of the vest finally gave up and fell to the ground as well, leaving him bare-chested.

“Ah, for heaven’s sake… I got a spare jacket in my car… go and put it on.”, Yamada ordered with a big sigh.

Hinako noticed that she seemed to purposefully not look at Kuro, but her eyes flicked in his direction a few times, after he had turned around and walked to her car. Afterwards they explained what had happened here to Yamada.

“So, something… got into the core of the slime and changed it? Something of demonic origin?”, She asked for conformation after listening.

“Yeah, definitely… most probably whatever came out of that box.”, Kuro confirmed.

Yukiko came over after completing her examination of the bodies.

“Holy fuck, you two stink like shit…”, She commented after getting closer to Kuro and Hinako.

“Deserved…. Did you find anything?”, asked Yamada.

“Mhh… not much. Something or someone seemed to have surprised them, a quick fight broke out, but it ended with all three of them getting stabbed in the heart by most likely some sort of blade. All of their blood is missing. Probably used to activate the contents of that box. Maybe some sort of curse or demonic spirit. The glyphs on it may give us some leads.”

“Okay… can you pack it up and send it to Research?”

“Already done.”

“Thanks, Yukiko.”

“How do you know that there was a fight?”, Kuro interjected.

Yukiko turned to him with a confused look.

“Well, their clothes are ripped and a few spots on their bodies have impact marks.”, She explained.

“Ah, okay.”, Kuro said with a nod.

He looked at the three corpses getting put in body bags. Kuro scratched his beard and wondered. He had not seen any signs of a fight when he spotted them earlier, but he had been more occupied with following the demonic trail out of the box, so he could have just overlooked it.

“What the hell is going on… Why were they attacked and killed? To activate the box… but why here? The whole area had been cleared out before… If they were some crazy demon cultists, they would much rather do something like that in a more populated area, right?”, Yamada thought out aloud.

“Maybe they had a target?”, Yukiko guessed and shrugged.

Yamada looked at Kuro and Hinako.

“You mean those two? Nobody knew that I would send them here. The eradication request came in just this morning…”, She pondered.

“Maybe their target was the butchery?”, Yukiko said with a shrug.

“Who would target a simple butchery and uses some kind of demonic curse or spirit for it?”

“Maybe a bunch of demonic vegans?”, Hinako interjected.

All three turned towards her and began to laugh.

“Great, the last thing we need right now… First a new demon cult pops up in the middle of Shibuya, resulting in the leveling of a office complex… then a bunch of cultist thugs tried to kidnap two girls and end up summoning a demon fiend with an ancient artefact right in Akihabara… And now a bunch of demonic vegans attack a butchery? And why the hell are you involved in all of them, Otaku?”, Yamada summarized and gave Kuro a stern look.

“Hey, I’m just an innocent bystander… at least in this incident here…”, He defended himself.

“And why did you not use the immobilization crystals, or at least gave them to Adept Homura?”

Kuro fidgeted even more and lowered his head.

“Thought it would be funny…”, He admitted quietly.

“Funny? Funny, huh? Then you can pay the insurance deductible out of your pay! See? So funny! Haha!”, Yamada snapped back angrily.

Kuro stared at the ground with a guilty look on his face. Yamada sighed deeply frustrated.

“Let’s get this shit wrapped up… We need to make a report to the Grandmaster and then inform the families of the deceased…”, She said with a somber tone to Yukiko.

Yamada then turned to Kuro and Hinako.

“You two are done for today… go home and take a shower… or better yet, multiple.”