Quartz

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

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.”

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

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}

rainee's introduction !

No relation to @Raineh Daze?

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

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.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

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

The Gifted (Reborn) (Looking for more players!)

Do you have a OOP? CS?

@Sailorsadie

Over here.

The Gifted (Reborn)

I'm still interested but I'm a bit short on time. I'm going to see if I can make a satisfactory character on Monday.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Natsumi Fujikawa

Oh no. Natsumi had hoped that they could quickly move on from this awkward situation, but Nakanishi was still pushing the topic. At least she wasn't threatening sexual harassment, but she was… hitting on her? Perhaps she was joking, but if she wasn't, how could she even respond to that? She didn't want to reject a playful request after causing such a blunder and really end up having a bad start with her new kouhai. But actually dating a colleague seemed irresponsible, and Natsumi wasn't even into girls anyways. Oh wait, of course. Since she wasn't into girls, this didn't have to be weird. She could simply accept a platonic date, and if Nakanishi had other ideas, it wouldn't be rude to issue a correction about her orientation.

"Alright, alright, if that will make it up to you," she answered while turning around to face the cat-girl. "Just don't get any weird ideas about me. It was an honest mistake."

Any further conversation between them was interrupted by Ayako. Natsumi sighed before performing her Shinto prayer once again, reverting her mane of fire into normal red hair, and making her way back to the transport.

---

When Ayako dismissed the operatives, Natsumi spotted Kaida talking to Nakanishi, but she instinctively avoided mingling with them. The embarrassment of her earlier blunder was still a bit too fresh on her mind. Instead, she set her sights on Rika. "Excuse me, Rika-san," she said as she approached. It felt wrong to address her so informally, but she didn't quite remember her proper name. She had seen the names of the new recruits listed in the paperwork, but western names were so much harder to remember. "You fought very well out there. You said you've fought demons before, right? Were you transferred from another branch?"

_@Emeth

The Gifted (Reborn)

I'm tentatively interested.

Can you give an indication of what the central story will be? The sheet gives the option to be, say, a member of the Hunters, but is that a realistic option given the intended plot?

We have to save the world again? I thought we were done with this crap!

@Dragonfly 9 You could help us get momentum again if you post that. But it also depends on whether @Hyyde322 is up for getting the story in motion.