@Rune_Alchemist

Kaida returned the grin. "Can't blame ya. The food here's pretty good." Her smile widened as Nyoko reappeared with a soft little meow and drifted off to sleep in Kaeru's arms. The cat knew just how adorable she was. With a pang, Kaida recalled the time she'd brought home a stray kitten as a teenager, only for her parents to tell her pets were unhygienic and would distract her from her duties, namely studies and spiritual practices. The kitten had ended up living with her grandparents instead. At least here, as stuffy as some people could be, they were still warm enough to feel more like a family than her blood relatives ever had.

"Anyway, yep, and you're Kaeru?" Kaida asked. "As for missions, it really depends how much demonic activity there is, it can get pretty quiet sometimes. But yep, there's a training hall. I'd spar, but we'd have to stay untransformed... Water versus electricity would be quite the recipe for disaster." With a light chuckle, she watched Emi head into the office, waiting until the humourless co-worker was out of earshot before gesturing to the door and continuing. "Or you could train with Emi. To be honest, she needs to lighten up, and I doubt even she'd be able to keep a straight face around Nyoko."

Kaeru & Nyoko
@LuckyBlackCat@RolePlayerRoxas

---

"Ahah, no worries there." Kaeru responded, running a hand down Nyoko's fur. "The fluff ball here would rather spend her days rolling around in bed and stuffing her face with food. She'd hide all my hair ties to spite me if I transformed right now again." Nyoko made a small mewl of satisfaction before tucking her legs under her body and settling down comfortably. "Come to think of it though...hadn't really gotten to know everyone..." His eyes glanced towards the office. Someone needed to lighten up? "Hey Nyoko? Why don't you go say hi to Emi huh?"

Nyoko looked between the two of them, a tail swishing in a thoughtful manner.

"Eeeh, I know you just got comfy but you don't wanna bother someone? Or maybe I should tell Emi you absconded with the cinnamon rolls? Whoever brought those would probably be suuuuper mad." Nyoko shot Kaeru an unamused glare as if to say that he was an accomplice but ultimately would hop out of Kaeru's arms and strut over to the office where Emi was. "Come on, lets go say hi and introduce myself properly, eheh. Wanna come with, Kaida? It was your idea so I insist."

Nyoko of course, made it to the office first before the other two. She'd silently slink into the room and spot her target, Emi. Quietly and unobstructed the next thing Emi would hear was a light crackling fwoomp noise as the Raiju jumped suddenly onto her desk, and proceed to make a mess of any papers or other small objects on it.

After awkwardly hovering for another minute, it seemed that nobody was going to say anything to her. Which was... fine? Akira honestly hadn't expected anyone to come over, and it wasn't like she didn't have paperwork of her own to do. Aside from any normal report details--and, honestly, Ayako had been watching, so she didn't think they needed all that much information from the field agents--there was the usual bureaucracy associated with deploying Andrea. What was the expected threat, what was the actual threat, how much collateral damage was involved, etc...

Honestly, the awkward part was going to be 'so we deployed an A-rank demon summon on top of everyone present in the building for a Monster'. Would that reflect badly on Shiro, or was something else involved in the detection process? With the number present, should she have held back until it was confirmed to be a Devil? But this was some operatives' first real field action, maybe that changed it.

Paperwork was annoying.

Thus absorbed in her own thoughts, the small girl made her way back to the office, where Emi's desk was being assaulted by... a catgirl? Well, she had nice hair, but seriously, what was this misbehaved contract...? How were they going to control something like this...?

The resident buzzkill sat at her desk, letting out a loud sigh. She really was letting her awkwardness get the better of her. Hopefully a rousing session of report-writing would dull her mind enough that she could return to just being a grump. Better to be that, than wallowing in frustration over personal issues, after all.

Still, even with the document open on screen, she wasn't making any moves to write, merely staring at the template, lost in thought. Arms folded, leaning back in her chair, the young woman was oblivious to anyone approaching, until the sparking kitten leapt onto her desk, throwing a few printouts in dissaray, and scattering a container of pens to the floor. Letting out a gasp of surprise, Emi was brought back into reality, blinking in surprise as she stared at the cat... thing. Wasn't this Kaeru's contracted partner?

"...And just what're you doing here, huh?" Emi asked, the corners of her lips curling slightly, "hate to tell ya, but I'm not the playful type."

She had no idea if the raiju could understand her, but she couldn't help but treat the little fluffball like any other cat she would come across in the street. ...Or one of her kitty plushies, for that matter. Raising a hand, she slowly, cautiously inched it towards the kitty. The risk of static electricity was totally worth getting to pet this cute little thing at least once, though she sudden;y froze, upon realising that Kaeru and Kaida had just entered the office, quickly snapping her hand back beneath the desk, cheeks colouring slightly.

Natsumi Fujikawa

"A freelancer?" She hadn't heard of that being a thing, not in Japan at least. There were unregulated contract wielders, she supposed, but those were only begrudgingly tolerated by the DDF. Wasn't there a woman who got killed fighting Monster-class demons on her own a few months ago? Or did she barely survive? Natsumi was part of salvaging that messy situation, but she didn't know all the details about the disaster response afterwards. She could have requested that information, but looking up death tolls would accomplish little more than making her feel bad. Regardless, Rika seemed too timid to try something foolish like that.

"Well, you were authorized to join by Hirasawa-san, so I wouldn't worry about breaking protocol. At worst, Kubo-san might be irate due to the extra paperwork. Oh, I suppose we should do introductions. I'm Fujikawa Natsumi." She bowed in greeting, unsure if Rika would care for Japanese customs but wanting to be polite. "I've worked here for a little over a year now. Could you, uhm, remind me of your full name?"

_@Emeth

"Eh, well, not sure what else to call it. I protected the neighborhood..." since the DDF wouldn't, she thought, but didn't say. "—and people gave me money, or food, or whatever they felt like." She shuffled a bit, uncomfortable. It wasn't obvious what her situation was, but it was obvious that she had mixed feelings about discussing it. "Ah, Simonova Federica-san. Tha's me," she introduced, giving a slightly limp-wristed salute. "At least it's easy to say in Japanese, innit? Got too many syllables, though. Thus, Rika-san," she explained with a grin. It didn't last long, though. "Right, paperwork. Suppose I should start on it, huh? Don't suppose the DDF is keen to pay overtime, 'specially not to miss 'eight words per minute' here," she said as she moved her one hand, pretending to type with one finger very slowly.

@Rune_Alchemist @RolePlayerRoxas

With a light chuckle, Kaida nodded, strolling alongside Kaeru as they followed the raiju who disappeared into the office. No sooner had she reached the door than she heard the commotion break out. Electrical crackling, the rustling of papers, pens clattering to the floor. Kaida hurried into the room, a rare sight meeting her eyes. Emi, despite her scattered stationery courtesy of Nyoko, was smiling. Actually smiling. Not only this, but she extended her hand as if about to pet the cat scampering all over her desk.

The moment Emi's gaze flicked towards Kaida and Kaeru, she snapped back to her usual businesslike self, but wasn't fooling anyone. Which she likely knew, judging by the blush colouring her stern features. Kaida looked at Kaeru, then back at Emi and Nyoko, a grin slowly spreading across her face as she approached. "We did it! We knew there had to be a way to make you smile! That's the second mission of the day accomplished!" She raised one hand to Kaeru for a high five, and the other to Nyoko, waiting for the cat to tap her paw against her palm. She'd probably get a mild shock - as well as an earful from Emi - but as a DDF combatant, she'd dealt with worse.

Natsumi Fujikawa

Natsumi wanted to know more about the nature of Rika's "freelancing", but it didn't seem appropriate to ask at this time. She struggled to imagine what kind of person would choose to face these monsters if not recruited into it like she was. But Hirasawa had deemed her suitable to recruit, so it wasn't her place to ask questions. "Yes, I guess we should get to work," she responded, glancing at Rika's missing arm for a moment but feeling awkward about acknowledging it. Did she lose that during her "freelance" work? "Feel free to ask if you need help with anything. It took me some time to get used to this job too. Anyways, it was nice to meet you, Rika-san." She nodded politely before turning away to make her way to the office.

Right as she stepped into the office space, she was halted by the sound of Kaida celebrating something. Some distance away, she could see her, Emi, and Kaeru standing around Emi's desk, but she couldn't yet make out what they were doing. Had she missed something exciting regarding Emi? "Exciting" and "Emi" were two concepts that didn't intersect very often. Strategically, she used that moment to unzip the top of her bodysuit and tie it around her hips, the way she had worn it before. That gave her an excuse to stand there a bit longer and listen in on that conversation from a distance.

Kaeru & Nyoko
@LuckyBlackCat@RolePlayerRoxas

---

Kaeru's hand met Kaida's, returning the high five with a grin and an energetic jump and a spin.

"You look super cute when ya do by the way." Kaeru responded. "That aside, heys. Kaeru heeeere. Since we didn't get a chance to really meet and all during the briefing thought I'd introduce myself a bit more properly since I'm a newbie. So what ya up to?" Nyoko, on the other hand, did not respond to Kaida with a high five. The cat, instead, seemed rather nonplussed with the whole event. The cat blinked slowly, a small sound of what seemed to be a minor bit of annoyance coming from her, tail swishing idly on the desk.

Nyoko walked over to Emi's keyboard...and proceeded to lay down right on top of it, mewling towards the contractor with wide, beckoning eyes as she'd roll over, exposing her belly to her and stretching and mewling again.

A small thing to note, was that one of her paws was now pressing against the computer monitor.

Nyoko lightly pressed her paw against it, a small electrical spark harmlessly zapping the monitor's frame.

"Honda Akira," the small girl contributed, slowly edging away from the side of the room and towards the desk, "I've been here... well, longer than anyone else, I think. Even the boss and Shiro-chan joined later." She was pretty confident that even the ancillary staff had also changed during that time? It was pretty unusual for someone to stick to one department in Tokyo quite this long, getting promoted or moving around the DDF would often take you to some other office. But at some point that would have left Branch 247 with a critical firepower deficit on top of its other woes, so she never got the offer. She wanted to stay here anyway.

She grabbed the cat's hand and gave a tug... not really enough to move her, Akira definitely wasn't strong enough or forceful enough for that one, but enough to give a signal. "Get off there, we'll all get in trouble if someone starts using contracts to keep order."

Or was that only if it was her that had to step in? It was a pretty uncommon situation, the handbook wasn't that comprehensive...

@Rune_Alchemist@Quartz@LuckyBlackCat@Emeth@RolePlayerRoxas

Emi shot Kaida a look that was equal parts disapproval and fluster. Those familiar with Emi could probably recognise she wanted to launch into her usual spiel about fooling around on the job, but the presence of an adorable kitty, and its' (equally adorable) owner was throwing her for a loop. It took a great deal of willpower for Emi to regain her composure, clearing ehr throat and hoping she wasn't blushing too noticeably when she replied to Kaeru, "a-as you can see, I'm properly recording everything we... did..."

Her eyes happened to flicker towards Nyoko, who had not only planted herself onto the keyboard, but was practically offering her fluffy belly. The walls that Emi had constructed around her heart were quickly crumbling before such an onslalught of cute, the killjoy visibly trembling with effort to not surrender to Nyoko's charms. Was this a conspiracy or something?! Akira was already cute enough, then she'd met Shiro and had to deal with that bundle of cute showing her lovely face from time to time, and now... gah, there was a reason Emi kept all her plush toys at home! This was far too distracting!

"...Could... could you ask your partner to..." Emi attempted to maintain a calm state of mind and ask Kaeru to move Nyoko away from her PC, but then seeing Akira lightly interact with Nyoko brought forth a fresh wave of cuteness appreciation... and a hint of jealousy within Emi, having to deal with the internal war of 'no time for play, only work', and 'oh god I need to pet her now'. This was manifested ainly with a strange, rarely-seen expression on Emi's face. One of pain, delight, heartbreak and joy.

@Rune_Alchemist @RolePlayerRoxas @Raineh Daze

With a laugh, Kaida looked over at Akira, who tried to forcibly move Nyoko, with no success. The contented feline stayed put on the keyboard, heedless of the string of gibberish she made appear across the screen, her fluffy belly exposed. "Aw, but look how happy they both are!" Kaida's gaze flicked from Nyoko to Emi, whose lips twitched as if she were struggling not to smile. "Go on, pet her! You know you want to! And hey, we've got to celebrate our victory somehow!" They'd all just narrowly escaped a collapsing building, and that was far from the only close call this branch had ever had. It only made sense to make the most of being alive.

Tiny sparks caught her attention. Nyoko had her paw pressed against the computer monitor, a mischievous glint in her eyes, the warning obvious. "I think she's saying pet her or the computer gets it," Kaida told Emi. If Nyoko went through with it, they'd likely all get in trouble for allowing it to happen and have to chip in for a replacement, but it was worth it for the chance of seeing Emi give in to her barely-concealed cuteness adoration.

Kaeru & Nyoko
@LuckyBlackCat@RolePlayerRoxas

---

Nyoko responded by giving Akira's hand a light zap of electricity, an annoyed meow being leveled towards her as she'd wriggle her paw free from the grip. As she'd pull back, the cat would do so perhaps with a bit too much force and with a startled yelp, she'd find herself rolling right off the keyboard and right onto Emi's lap, laying on her back, belly fully exposed and paws up in the air as she'd tilt her head.

"Aha, hey now Nyoko no destroying company property that we can't get away with." Kaeru giggled. The Raiju huffed, rolling over and hopping out of Emi's lap and onto the ground. An electrical fwoomp noise followed before she'd reappear right in Kaeru's arms. "Ah-hey, what feeling left out? Really Emi how could you be so mean as to ignore this. Nyoko's heart broken." He'd say, bringing the Raiju up to the side of his face, pressing Nyoko's cheek against his and giving his coworker a pout. "Guess that means all the more pets and fluffing to myself, eheh~"

Kaeru wasn't looking, but Nyoko just for a few seconds, stuck her feline tongue out at Emi as her fuzzy cheek was nuzzled.

"So, what do you guys do for fun after a mission anyways?" He'd end up asking Akira and Emi both. "Surely the reports can wait yeah?"

Rika tousled her hair awkwardly. Usually, that joke would get at least a reluctant smile. Tough crowd, she thought as she followed Natsumi into the office, not sure what else to do. She separated from the group, finding an empty cubicle, which wasn't hard given how understaffed the department was. Then, she carefully retrieved a cell phone from her pocket, placed it on the desk, bit the fingers of her glove to remove it, and opened an audio recording app. Of course she wasn't going to type up a report; that'd just be stupid. Instead, she spoke quietly into the receiver of her cell phone about the events of the day: how she'd skipped orientation in favor of joining the mission voluntarily, used her dolls to scout the premises for civilians who may have failed to evacuate, distracted the small fry dogs in order to protect Akira, carefully watched the situation with the monster-class demon while her shadow arm did the fighting, used her dolls again to block the exits of the building to prevent any demons from escaping, and finally evacuated with Akira in tow. Aside from unnecessary embellishments, such as calling the monster-class "very chuuni," her report was mostly professional, and revealed several of her contributions to the mission that would otherwise have gone completely unnoticed by her teammates. Notably omitted was any mention of her presenting her body as a literal chew toy for the beasts, however. No, she had simply... "distracted" them.

Once the report was as done as it could be without access to one of the employee computers, she closed the audio recording and put her cell phone away. Following the sound of her new friends' excited voices, she rejoined the group. "Oh, I already did the report, so I'm free," she responded to Kaeru as she arrived. She considered answering the fun question, but quickly decided against it. "—for whatever," she added evasively, scratching her chin. She'd forgotten to put her glove back on, revealing a rather nasty-looking scar. It was as if her hand had been torn in half and sewn back together. Catching herself, she put her hand back in her pocket, trying to be quick but also look casual. It didn't exactly work out, though.

Akira winced at the sudden discharge, and she most definitely did not whimper. She wasn't that bad against pain or--no, wait, yes she was, this was why her role in missions was preferably to stay well away from combat wherever it was possible. On top of being pretty much harmless, obviously, but the bit where even tripping and bruising really hurt? No, that wasn't any good at all.

Still, the girl gave a shrug, "I prefer to do the reports first. Shiro-chan's resting, anyway, and if I was just going to look at my phone it doesn't matter when I do that..."

Plus, it wasn't like they had a big, thriving culture of operatives, here. Between Emi, who'd get expressions at the weirdest of times; the boss, who she'd been unable to turn down on those few times the woman had decided that some special occasion called for drinks; and her,... well, not exactly a group with a ton in common, or the most social one. Hard to get together and do much when three of you would just keep to yourselves and finish working first, wasn't it?

This had to be the first time that being called mean had struck Emi's heart with critical damage, frozen in shock as Nyoko leapt away and returned to Kaeru's arms. Normally, she could handle being called mean, but she never wanted to be mean to a cute little fluff! Oh no, if the little raiju hated her, how was she supposed to cope with that?! It was even sticking out its tongue at her, that could only possiblly translate to "you're a horrible person and only cute people can pet me", right?!.

So depressed over this self-proclaimed revelation, Emi couldn't even find it in herself to berate Kaeru for daring to suggest that reports could be put off for any non-essential reason, simply slumping in her seat with glazed eyes, staring at her desk as she wallowed in despair over her foolishness. If only she had just given Nyoko those pets she was seeking, but alas, she was surely denied that piece of cuteness heaven forever...

Incidentally, the beautiful, fluffy being that Emi did her best to ignore was finding her whole ordeal hilarious, but even Shirokami knew better than to rub salt in the wound. Instead, she simply suggested that Emi stop ignoring her colleagues, lest they all follow Nyoko's example. Jolted back to reality by that unapealling scenario, Emi composed herself as best she could. Let's see, fun things to do after work? Well, aside from shopping for plushies or visiting cat cafes, Emi couldn't think of anything that would be considered fun. After all, she had to remain alert at all times, even during her time off, just in case. It left precious little time for fun.

"...If you're looking to have fun, it'd be best to get your paperwork done first, lest it end up not sone at all," Emi contributed ever-so-helpfully. With Rika noting she had already gotten her own report written up, Emi gave an approving nod, rising to her feet, "see? It's not that hard to get done, and I can take care of everything that doesn't require your personal input anyway, so..."

Ah, she was about to indulge in another lecture, wasn't she? Forcing herself to stop, Emi sighed, and after a moment's silence, knelt down to begin picking up the discarded stationery. She continued, "By the way, er, putting aside what you need to improve on, you did well today," Emi mumbled awkwardly, not exactly used to giving praise - not without a massive heaping of constructive criticism. But hey, new recruits get one freebie, so unless they planned to hide behind a ton of plushie bribes for every mission, they'd best not get used to that.

Kaeru & Nyoko
@LuckyBlackCat@RolePlayerRoxas

---

"I didn't think I'd be working with a buncha social outcasts..." Kaeru grumbled quietly, visibly unimpressed with the responses these people were giving him. He could feel it. A lecture coming from Emi. His extremely fine tuned honed senses of being on the receiving end of many, many, many lectures made it quite easy to endure though. As Emi started on her tangent, it was Kaeru's turn for his eyes to glaze over, accompanied by a look of total disinterest. Seriously, not event he gals here were super into the cute stuff despite all of them being mega cute themselves. Hmm...maybe he could fix that, though? Maybe a spa date with Him, Emi, Nyoko and Rika-chan? Maybe the scary boss lady would be into it?

"Mmmph? Do My ears deceive me? Was that a compliment?" The unexpected compliment pulled Kaeru back into reality, a smug, self satisfied smile slowly creeping across his lips. "Eheh, well, I mean, what else did you expect? This Cutie's got it all. Looks, the best legs in the entire department, and I scored some of the highest on the combat exams, ahah. Some little demon like that is a piece of cake for us." Nyoko meowed in agreement as Kaeru made a point of briefly striking a pose and showing off the best legs in the department. "Thinking about it you guys were suuuper lucky to get me assigned here. I'm suuuuper popular, mega cute, I got a fanclub back at the Dojo, and I can kick the most ass out of anyone here. I'll have this place looking great in no time."

@RolePlayerRoxas @Emeth

Kaida smiled over at Rika, back after finishing the report, claiming she was free. "Hey again." The newcomer still seemed a little nervous, scratching her chin, revealing a large, jagged scar that ran across her hand. Scars and disfigurements, being fairly common among demon hunters, didn't freak Kaida out, but she hoped it didn't hurt. Still, she wouldn't comment, given Rika's obvious self-consciousness as she hastily shoved her hand into her pocket.

"You could always cheer up Nyoko here." Kaida nodded over to the cat, who'd returned to Kaeru's arms to enjoy a cuddle. "A certain someone refused to pet her." She gave that certain someone a mock accusing look. Emi sat slumped at the desk with an uncharacteristic blank stare, as if realising the chance she'd missed, before snapping back to reality and lecturing Kaeru about paperwork.

"Aw, but we're only just back. It's important to unwind after a tough mission," Kaida reminded her. Yes, paperwork was important, but did they have to do it right away after barely escaping a burning building? "I think Nyoko wrote up half your report anyway." She gestured to the jumble of letters and numbers on the screen, courtesy of the cat's earlier rolling around on the keyboard.

The siren went off around midday.

"Shiro-kun has pinpointed the creation of an Emergence Gate below a shopping center roughly ten minutes from our location. There may already be casualties."

After the fully evacuated construction site, a busy shopping center would be an entirely different experience. While other emergency workers would definitely be on route to assist in the evacuation, in this case it was the Department's duty to get there and wipe out the threat as soon as possible.

"Devil class is confirmed," Shiro had said as they boarded the vehicle, "I will detect any further threats on site."

The shopping center was a large building, its and it was surrounded by people who had presumably been going about their daily routine quite freely until this moment. The evacuation effort had only just begun, but for the most part it seemed as if panic had not spread through the crowd as of yet.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're alright."

"Has anyone seen my daughter?!"

"Do... do you think it's really..."

"Mom, I'm scared...!"

"There's no way, right?"

"I hope everyone's gonna be okay..."

Ayako glanced over the slowly-swelling crowd as the evacuation effort ramped up.

"The fastest way to help them is to eliminate the demon and ensure the Emergence Gate is closed," she said, simply, "So no matter what you hear, focus on your objective. Shiro-kun?"

"Deploying Demon Denial Field," came the Doll's monotone voice.

Soon, the hazy purple-gold sheen had surrounded the entire building.

"Move out, operatives. You've got work to do."

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@RolePlayerRoxas@Quartz@Emeth@LuckyBlackCat

Couldn't demons try to be a little bit more convenient with their timing? Or maybe just stick to some low-level fodder for a week or two whilst everyone got settled in properly? No, of course they didn't, and it wasn't really fair or... well, sensible to hold them to account in such a way, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to complain to someone about it.

After all, she'd been in the actual break room at the time, because it had a pretty nice TV in there. And a couch, that was important. Children's magical girl shows weren't her favourite thing in general, but Shiro liked them, so that was what they they were watching. So of course something had had to interrupt when she'd had the adorable not-little sister nestled beside her. At least Akira had learned long ago to never try and watch things live, just record them and catch up when they had time...

Plus she had to hope that the guy she'd tapped to take the cookies out of the oven remembered to do that before the fire alarm went off. At least people should have something to look forward to when they were done.

Grumbling as such, the short girl tugged Andrea through the barrier. Right, devil in a shopping centre, hopefully it wasn't like one of those weird magical girl villains and wasn't going to attack them with the contents of a makeup department or something.