@Raineh Daze

It had started out as a quiet day. Kaida had made herself comfortable in the break room, with a cup of green tea, watching the magical girl shows Akira had on for Shiro. During her childhood, she hadn't gotten to watch much TV, but the few times she had, magical girl anime had been a firm favourite - and even now, was something she staunchly believed a person was never too old for.

Of course, that was when the alarm had to go off. Putting down the half-finished cup of tea, Kaida frowned and stood up. "Well, there's our own monster of the week."

The scene they all arrived at was a rather different one, a shopping mall surrounded with evacuees. No mass panic had broken out, but fearful murmurs rose through the crowd. "Let's go!" Kaida called, following Akira and Andrea through the purple-gold sphere. "Transformation sequence begin!" One prayer ritual later, Kaida's form rippled and morphed, and she stood in aquatic warrior form before her grouchy teammate, feet apart in a dramatic pose. Putting on the hammiest voice she could, she announced, "Even if my heart is larger than the sea, I have reached my limit!"

A mix of a sigh and a growl rumbled in her head. "I'm not even going to ask what that was about. I will remind you, though, that we have a serious mission to focus on."

Unfazed by the reprimand as she headed towards the building alongside Akira, Kaida grinned. "Heh, couldn't resist," she told both Kazemi and the undoubtedly less than amused Akira. Someone, after all, had to keep morale high.

In the intervening days between missions, Rika had finally gotten her orientation, and now that she had a properly assigned "space," she could hardly be seen outside of it, the training room, or the break room. All indications were that she had something to prove, though if anyone asked, she was simply doing her job. She showed no interest in sparring with any of the others, or in showing off her abilities unless required by joint training exercises. At all other hours of the day, she was reviewing what records of past missions were available to a newbie like her. She claimed that they were useful references, but it was hard to shake the notion that she was looking for something.

Or someone.

When the sirens went off, Rika was in the middle of a set of one-armed pushups. Being close to the vehicle bay, she was among one of the first to board. When Shiro confirmed Devil class, her face darkened for just a moment before Azazel took over, draining the brief trace of emotion from her face. For the entire ride, she was silent and focused, paying Andrea no mind, as hers was entirely elsewhere, until they arrived at the chaotic scene. Though her face remained blank much like Shiro's, internally she grimaced at the order to ignore everything else and focus on the target. Ayako wasn't wrong, but the order still reminded her of how she'd felt abandoned by the DDF during her time of need. Already, she managed to catch that someone's daughter was missing, and filed that information away for now. What she was going to do with that information, even she couldn't say, but she found herself unable to ignore it. As the order came for her to move out, she realized rather quickly that this situation was even more disadvantageous than before. She didn't dare send out her dolls to scout the premises when contact with demons may cause them to explode. She was pretty sure they wouldn't, but with such a dense crowd she couldn't risk being wrong.

For just a moment, she wrested control of her facial muscles from Azazel. "AAAAWLRIGHT, EVERYONE!! PLEASE CLEAR A PATH SO WE CAN GET TO THE STAIRS," she called out to the crowd in her loudest "foreigner voice," playing it up with an American southern drawl to catch everyone's attention over the comparative "background noise" of everyone else. The tall one-armed girl pointed towards a set of double doors in the distance, a stupid and overly friendly grin plastered on her face as the sea of civilians parted for the DDF crew.

Kaeru & Nyoko

---

Kaeru and Nyoko had made themselves busy in the training hall - had to keep himself sharp, after all. Well, Kaeru was. Nyoko was busy trying to stealthily bat and play with the feet of the receptionist who was a mix of nonplussed and amused at the cats antics. When the alarm went off, Kaeru had just finished taking a cold shower just after, barely having time to get dressed as Nyoko would beat him to the transport...and sitting right next to Emi, as if still taunting her to aggressively pet the feline.

So a shopping mall this time. The demon certainly chose an annoying location. So many civilians. Kaeru exited the field, Nyoko trailing behind him without a care in the world, following just behind Kaida as she did what could only be described as her take on a magical girl scene.

"Pfft, wow." Kaeru chuckled. "You've been watching too many magical girl shows, ya know?" Kaeru teased, but it wasn't like he had room to talk about that sorta thing. If you thought about it, he was sort of a magical girl himself wasn't he? Wasn't going to catch him doing any cringe stuff like that, though. "Eh? Nyoko you want to try it? Well uhm...ahaha, why not you little fuzzball. I'm basically a magical girl anyways."

Kaeru struck a pose, legs apart as he'd hold his hands together. Quickly he'd pull them apart, a teasing smile and a wink as he'd spin on a foot.

"From the thundering heavens," Nyoko did her thing, disappearing in a flash of electricity as Kaeru's own body was engulfed in the lightning. "The Raiju of Justice, Kaeru descends!" The spin complete, Kaeru raised a leg and slammed it onto the ground, a thundering peal of electricity stomping on the ground where his foot met ground.

"...Bwahahah, oh man that was terrible. Terribly cute." She'd say, confident if nothing else. "We should work on a team name, Kaida. Maybe a combo attack? Anyways, point me in a direction and I'll kill some demons. See anything Rika-Chan?"

One could never claim that Emi was ever in a good mood when the alarms blared, but when a Devil-class was the source of danger, it noticeably soured the operative's expression. Arms crossed, foot tapping the floor of their transport, she was remarkably quiet as she tried to prepare herself mentally. A small part of her always wondered, as impossible as it could be, if the devil-class that showed up was that one. It wasn't like Emi planned to fight it and get her revenge or anything, but...

Letting out a sigh, Emi did her best to abandon that train of thought. It wasn't often that a monster of this calibre showed up, and each time, it felt like she was worrying herself into incompetency for no reason. Regardless of the demon, she was part of the DDF, and as such, she had a role to play. Personal feelings would have to come second.

With their arrival, Emi stepped out with her colleagues, giving the surrounding area a quick glance. There were still far too many people for her liking, and as much as she'd prefer to guide these people to a much safer distance... there was only so much a small group of combatants could do to lead people away, especially when they also had to be alert for any potential attacks. On top of that, they had their orders to focus on the demon, so they would just have to rely on the emergency serv-

Emi blinked, jolted out of her pondering by Rika's sudden yelling. It... seemed effective enough to allow them easy passage through the remaining crowd, at least. Come to think of it, Rika was proving herself to be quite the dedicated newbie; it felt like every time Emi crossed paths with her, she was training or studying. It was definitely admirable and worthy of praise, especially compared to...

"...Save the cutesie routine until after we conclude the mission, please," she berated the magical duo, stepping past them briskly. Initiating her own transformation, completely lacking in flair and grandeur, it at least helped to hide the momentary smile crossing her lips within the brief flash of light. Sure, it was completely inappropriate to act so playful and unprofessional in this situation, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the cuteness put on display. It helped keep her mind out of the pessimism pit, at any rate. With her fluffy ears and tail manifested, she glanced over her shoulder, businesslike as usual, "Remember, this is a devil-class opponent. We cannot fight it alone, under any circumstance, so stay in formation at all times, got it?"

Natsumi Fujikawa

Natsumi had spent her on-call time about the same way as usual: training and reading and fraternising non-invasively, especially with Kaida. Rika was reclusive enough that her presence as a new employee made surprisingly little difference to her routine. As for Kaeru, well… she had been low-key avoiding them the whole time. The embarrassment of her screw-up still weighed heavily on her thoughts, plus the longer she avoided facing the music the more awkward it seemed, which only made her more evasive. Just because she knew it to be a vicious cycle didn't make it easier to snap out of it.

When the call to action came, she dutifully hitched along in the transport. Although the mention of a Devil-class worried her, she felt a certain optimism about the opportunity to make a less-awkward second impression on the new recruits. But that optimism was soon shattered when she saw the environment they would be fighting in. There wouldn't be a lot of space to fly around inside the enclosed mall building, and there would be a lot of flammable objects and more importantly people to potentially get in the way. This was going to be a pain for her.

Kaida was at least in good spirits. Maybe a little too much. Natsumi performed her more modest transformation as well, feeling a little weird about all the eyes that were on them after Kaida's and Kaeru's display. As she hurried towards the entrance alongside the others, her fiery hair had the benefit of making the surrounding masses cringe away and make a little more space for them. The flames on her head were weak and wouldn't easily hurt anyone unless she wanted them to, but they had no reason to know that. "Kaida?" she called out to her watery counterpart. "I'll try not to light any spreading fires. But be ready to put them out if I do, alright?"

_{@LuckyBlackCat}

@Rune_Alchemist @RolePlayerRoxas @Quartz

Kaida chuckled as Kaeru put put on his own - or rather her own - magical girl act. "Hey, what matters is they liked it." She gestured at several children in the evacuating crowd, whose faces brightened. Emi, being Emi, didn't seem to notice the kids' reaction, instead berating her and Kaeru before taking on kitsune form. At the command to stay in formation, Kaida raised her fist high. "Yep! After all, we magical girls are all about teamwork! Speaking of," she said, turning her attention back to Kaeru, "I'm sure we could pull off a thunderstorm combo attack."

Gathering an orb of water from the air into each hand, she flew upwards, both to avoid blocking the civilians' exit, and so that the water wouldn't conduct any stray electricity from Kaeru. Thankfully, the crowd had mostly parted to the hallway's sides anyway, thanks to Rika deliberately playing up the "loud foreigner" stereotype and shouting for them to clear a path.

Looking down as Natsumi called to her, Kaida nodded. "Will do." The watery spheres swelled as she flew close by Natsumi, heading towards the staircase, alert for both enemies and literal friendly fire. She could only hope that whatever powers the Devil class demon had, this wouldn't be like the last battle that had taken place inside a building - especially as this time, there were many more lives at stake.

The way into the shopping center was largely clear, now, and though people were still filtering out due to the evacuation it appeared as though the building was mostly emptied by this point.

It was perhaps a good thing that the Devil-class was not immediately visible, given how close it would have had to be to the evacuees if it was. At the same time, in such a large building, that also meant that it could be anywhere.

"Attempting to pinpoint the Demon's exact location," came Shiro's soft voice through communications, "There is significant signal interference. There may be other demons present, or the demon may be attempting to make itself more difficult to detect. I will pin it down."

The silence of the shopping center was surreal. Normally such a place would be bustling with activity, but in the moment they were the only ones there. Shops normally filled with people stood empty.

It could have been quite an eerie feeling, knowing that the demon could be anywhere in the vast building, but perhaps it was something of a relief to know the evacuation seemed to be at least mostly successful.

With that being said, there was no way of knowing currently if everyone was already out, and-

Blood.

There was blood, sprayed across the tile flooring, ahead. It was unmistakable.

There was no sign of a body, but the amount of blood made it quite obvious that there had been one there, at some point.

And then there was a sound from within the shop.

It was a sporting goods store, selling a variety of equipment for casual and more serious play. There was no clear sign of anyone inside, but something had moved in there. It sounded as if something had fallen from one of the shelves.

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

Walking through an abandoned shopping centre was a bizarre experience, although this wasn't the first time. Probably? Demons did like to go where people were plentiful, they might even have been called out to this place before, or something like it. At least a space normally meant to hold hundreds ought to give plenty of room for Andrea and the more combat-inclined members of their little group to fight... and afford Akira plenty of things to hide behind when they inevitably got anywhere near their target.

One day, she'd find a better thing to do during a fight than hope that she didn't get targeted instead.

She came to a stop at the blood, looking at it dispassionately. Maybe, once upon a time, she would have been bothered by it but... well, demons killed people. It was what they did, and part and parcel of the job was running into that. More important was trying to work out if this was likely to lead to their target.

"Probably some weaker demon? I don't think a Devil would drag the body off," she offered with a shrug. Someone else might volunteer to investigate the shop, but Akira didn't want to have Andrea go off to engage what was probably nothing more than some demonic hound again.

@Raineh Daze

At the sight of the blood splattered across the tiles, Kaida let the peppy act fall, pressing her lips together. Now this was something magical girls didn't have to deal with, except in the darker shows. Reminders that they couldn't save everyone. She'd been prepared to find something like this - it wasn't the first time, at least for most of the team, and it wouldn't be the last. Still, she descended, bowed her head and uttered a short prayer, letting a small amount of water mist from the spheres to purify the area of death's taint and help any lingering spirit move on to the afterlife. Times like this brought out her inner shrine maiden.

"I'm sorry I can't do more," she murmured into the air, "but we need to stop the ones who did this. May your journey be smooth to the next world." The rituals during her years as a miko had been structured and elaborate, but time was of the essence.

A comforting presence enveloped her, like the spiritual equivalent of a hug. "There's nothing to be sorry for."

Kaida's solemn features softened. "Thank you, Kazemi-sama." She turned and nodded to Akira, who theorised what kind of demon could be responsible for this. "Such a messy eater's most likely a Beast class."

As if on cue, a thud sounded from a nearby sporting goods shop. Kaida's frown returned. "Sounds like we've found our culprit. I'll go investigate." Akira held back, presumably cautious about letting Andrea loose, but Kaida slowly approached the store front and peered inside.

Rika ran ahead, paying no mind to her coworkers' antics so long as they were following closely behind her. Something was different about her today. "...Yeah. Blood," she replied to Kaeru, her tone one of disappointment rather than surprise or horror. She watched Kaida's purification ceremony out of the corner of her eye, her head on a swivel, not really sure if she should be doing that in the event that someone decided it was evidence. Well, she didn't really care one way or the other. Not today, not with a Devil on the loose.

"I agree with the others. It's probably not our target—but we investigate together or not at all." She turned her head to regard the others, then snapped her head back to Kaida as she caught her moving forward on her own. "What are you—wait!" she barked in a hushed whisper, following after her, shadow arm at the ready. "You got a deathwish?!" she whispered frantically. Something was definitely off with her. Gone was the smooth confidence of their previous mission. Though it didn't show on her face at all, she seemed almost afraid. She was still doing what needed to be done, but it seemed less natural somehow.

Kaeru & Nyoko

---

"Nyeheh, but you do think we are cute then Emi-chan?" Kaeru snickered, running up behind Emi and throwing an arm around the other girls shoulder. "You don't have to be shy about it. You'd make a totally mega cute magical girl yourself! We should go hang out sometime after this and we'll get you all dressed and-"

Kaeru fell quiet, eyes falling on the bloodied floor.

The cats ears drooped upon seeing the blood, laying flat against her head as the realization of what had likely happened hit Kaeru. He knew that it was likely a possibility that something like this would happen. That was part of the job. Part of training, even, on how to deal with stuff like that...but it wasn't like training could ever really prepare someone for this sort of thing.

A nearby noise pulled her back to reality, ears standing straight up, now.

"...well the demon probably didn't come here to play football." Kaeru released Emi, a frown a small crackle of electricity ran across her legs. "But maybe I'll play volleyball with its head." She couldn't help but to be angry. Sure, there was still that uncomfortable melancholic feeling of knowing someone had died here...but she couldn't do anything about that now. She just had to make sure this demon couldn't do that again.

Whether it was some lower tier creature like a hound, didn't matter. A demon was a demon, and she was going to deal with it so Kaeru followed after the other three, ready to pounce at the first sign of movement.

Emi, in the midst of awkwardly trying to deny the factual cuteness, had her demeanour change, much like the rest of the group upon the sight of blood. She didn't like to claim she was used to such a sight, but it was a morbid reminder of the dangers these demons posed. Not every sortie could result in zero casualties, and as much as Emi liked to believe that whoever was attacked was somehow still alive... it was best not to pin their hopes on that.

Her ears twitched at the sound of something falling from inside one of the shops, putting her on high alert. Was it a demon? She'd expect them to be a lot more aggressive and unwilling to just hide, maybe it was a civilian accidentally brushing against something? gh, she should've been paying more attention, instead of focusing on the blood...

Kaida took the initiative in advancing, with Rika seeming rather agitated as she followed. Not that Emi didn't disagree with her sentiment, but Kaida was an experienced agent, she was sure that Kaida was fully prepared to fend off a possible attack. With Rika and Kaeru there as well, not even a Devil could hope to surprise them, right? Still, Emi was uneasy. Would a Devil-class even bother with hiding? Would something that powerful feel the need to skulk in the shadows? What was the best way to proceed from here?

After a brief moment of consideration, Emi made her decision, summoning her two clones with a puff of blue, mystical smoke. Wordlessly, they both fanned out from the way they came, keeping an eye on their surroundings, just in case. With any luck, they could serve as a diversion to attract potential attackers, alerting the group just in case her worst fears were realised. After all, she didn't like the idea of leaving Akira with just her own demon as protection.

"Stay alert," Emi advised, now approaching the sports shop. Fox flames danced upon her fingertips as she prepared for the worst.

Natsumi Fujikawa

Natsumi felt her stomach clench at the sight of the bloody mess. She had worked for the DDF long enough that this wasn’t her first time witnessing the casualties of an incursion, but not so long that it didn’t make her profoundly uneasy. Admittedly, she hoped that she would never reach that point. In addition to her own visceral response, she felt Suzaku bristling with animalistic fury inside her soul. The flames on her head burned hotter and brighter along with a rising sense of righteous anger, but she breathed deeply and pushed it down. She couldn’t afford to let loose, not in general and definitely not here. Not with all the flammable furniture, and her flammable teammates, and the potential of flammable victims still hiding inside the mall. That was what she had done when first faced with a demon, after all.

“I’ll take the rear guard,” she called in a semi-hushed tone as she hurried after the others, into the store. “Be on the lookout for any stray people. They could be hiding.”

After the shuffling noise, and the sound of something falling from a shelf, the sports goods store was just as eerily still as the rest of the shopping center. Nothing moved or made the slightest sound. While there was blood out in the main area, there wasn't a single sign of anything of the sort within the store.

Here and there, there were items that had fallen, possibly knocked down during the evacuation effort. By this point, it was impossible to tell if anything had been knocked down recently, so there was no way of knowing where the sound had come from in the first place.

To put it simply, it was impossible to figure out just what had caused the sound.

But it wasn't as if a Beast-class demon was a bad guess.

As they neared the rear of the shop, however-

A figured blurred from around the corner, arms raised, poised to attack. It let out a loud sound, not unlike the war cry-

-of a young girl?

A baseball bat over her head, the girl looked to be no older then roughly nine, wearing a stroped tanktop and denim shorts with orange, striped thigh-high socks.

She paused, the bat still raised over her head.

"... W-wait," she started, "You're not demons?"

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

@Emeth @VitaVitaAR

Rika hissed her concern right away, sounding rather like Kazemi - Oh dang. Kaida winced inwardly and pushed the thought to the back of her mind, hoping Kazemi hadn't heard it. She gave Rika a brief glance, not daring take her attention off of the store interior for too long. "Hey, not like everyone else is far away," she whispered, trying to put her comrade at ease. She didn't blame Rika for her suddenly tense demeanour - she'd hinted at having fought Monster and Beast class demons, but not Devils. "We've got this."

Sure enough, everyone crept forward, following the two into the shop. Items lay strewn all over the floor, but nothing else moved, or made a sound. Kaida kept her guard up, holding the water orbs in front of her, bracing herself for a demon's ambush. She doubted a Devil would hide here, much less knock something down and give their presence away, but if this was indeed a Beast, even they could be formidable if one's guard was down.

Just as they neared the back of the shop, something stirred. Kaida placed her feet apart and swivelled her torso in a battle stance, water spheres swelling as she faced the... child? A little girl, also primed to attack, holding a baseball bat over her head. The tension left Kaida's muscles.

"W-wait... You're not demons?" the girl uttered.

Slowly, so as to not intimidate the child, Kaida approached. She could understand the little girl's distrust. On more than one occasion, Kaida had been mistaken for a demon at first glance, and then there was Andrea. "We're a Demon Destruction Force team," she explained, "or, technically, magical girls." With a warm smile, she made a sideways V sign next to her face, letting the water glob float by her side. "Let's get you out of here. Are you hurt? Do you need healing?"

"I know you want to comfort her," Kazemi spoke up in her head, "but we need to ask her about demonic activity."

Kaida gave the girl an apologetic look. "I understand it won't be easy to talk about, but did you see where any demons went?" She wished she didn't have to ask. For all she knew, the child might have witnessed the incident that left the blood splatter.

Rika was surprised to see a little girl, though it didn't show on her face. At the girl's sudden realization that she wasn't about to be attacked by demons, Rika glanced back at her allies—Kaida, the draconic fish girl, Natsumi with her flaming hair, Emi the nine-tailed fox, Kaeru the cat girl, Andrea the actual demon—and considered her own appearance, with her crimson, dead-doll eyes. Quickly correcting herself, her expression softened as she turned back to the girl. "Not unless you're referring to these devilish good looks!" she exclaimed, smiling wide for the girl, to put her at ease. "You're right, we're not demons. You're pretty smart—brave too—but we gotta get you to safety. I think your dad was looking for you. Big guy, blue-button shirt—sound familiar?" She extended her hand to the girl as she spoke. It couldn't possibly be a breach of orders to evacuate the girl just a few hundred feet back to the entrance. It was right there, and the others couldn't possibly get that far ahead of her in the meantime. Yes, she decided that she'd be her escort.

As she did, a sudden thought entered her mind, and a horrible feeling formed in her gut. Still, she held her invincible smile.

Kaeru & Nyoko

---

It was a good thing Nyoko of all people had told Kaeru very firmly to hold still.

"Gah! A girl! Tch, I almost pounced on you in a totally unfriendly way..." Kaeru relaxed, just slightly, shoulders slacking just noticeably as the others started questioning the girl. Kaeru glanced across the shop, looking for anything that might give them any other indication where this demon was hiding before focusing back on the girl. "Yep, we're here to kill demons! I'm gonna use its head as a volleyball...buuut, I could take a detour and take you back to the defensive line." Kaeru gave her a toothy smile. "Fastest one here. I can be there and back in the blink of an eye."

Natsumi Fujikawa

An innocent lost on the battlefield, just as she figured. At least they found her before any fighting broke out, but it didn't ease her worries very much. For one, because she was still in the line of fire for the time being. But also, she had to wonder, how did this girl end up in this situation? Something must have prevented her from evacuating with the others, but there was no demon in sight to menace her into hiding. Natsumi left comforting the child to the others and turned away to keep an eye on the exit of the shop and the rest of the mall beyond. "There's a little girl here, but no demon in sight," she spoke into her communicator for Ayako and Shiro to hear. "Any luck detecting it yet? It seems like it doesn't want to be found."

A girl...? Well, they were close to the entrance, that should make this an easy one to get out then. If it was a girl. There was, after all, a distinct lack of any nearby demon to have caused the bloodstain, or any remnants of a body here. It could just be that she was lucky and overlooked, or an errant contractor. Or maybe this was a disguise, by possession or consumption or... honestly, Akira didn't really want to think about the number of ways that somebody might be impersonated by a particularly smart demon.

She'd rather take the ones that were confident enough in their power that they didn't bother hiding. Even if they were right about that, it was less of a headache on her end, and it wasn't like the boss was generally that far away, so at least those cases were simple... well, unless something even more powerful showed up.

Then they might be screwed.

"Andrea here could show you to the barrier, then you could leave," she suggested. If they were a demon, then they'd be unable to leave. Hopefully, even if they were meatpuppeting a girl. If she could leave... well, the fact that it was Andrea doing the escorting ought to be a clue, right? That meant their team's strongest combat asset had been (temporarily) sent away on a routine job. It ought to get picked up on, if the demon tried anything after.

And if escape wasn't an option, then having Andrea in the firing line was better than anybody else.

With the discovery of a living girl in the shop, Emi breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that they'd found someone alive, especially after the mess they found outside. Eliminating the nearby demon was a top priority, as dictated by their superiors, but escorting the girl to safety would be a massive help for the team - if not for morale, then at least so they could engage with the knowledge that there wasn't a civilian in the crossfire.

Emi's nails dug into her palms as she thought of that.

"...It... might be best to go with Honda-san's suggestion," Emi offered her own opinion. It was natural that everyone wanted to guide the child to safety, but short of the entire group walking her back, she didn't like the idea of any one of them being along for even a second. Fighting a devil was virtually impossible alone, never mind when protecting a non-combatant at the same time. IT worried Emi that her clones hadn't detected anything as of yet, too.

And frankly, if anyone was to be appointed a potential target, Emi would rather it be Andrea. As long as that demon ensured the girl's safety, she could act as a beacon to draw any potential attacks away from the rest of the group. And while the demon's strength was a constant source of worry, Emi could hardly deny that Andrea was easily capable of shielding someone from harm. The safest place for anyone would ironically be at the side of that demon. Though ideally, there wouldn't be an attack upon them to begin with, she feared that the young girl had probably witnessed enough horror today.