I was careless that time. I let the condition of my friends compromise what I should have been focusing on. I was supposed to be watching the armored one, keeping her pinned down… but I looked away for ten seconds… and the next thing I knew everything was bright, all I could hear was ringing, and then I was falling… when I landed my vision was a blur. I couldn't feel anything really… but my vision was clear enough to recognize the red fluid coming out of my side. My submachine gun was lying there beside me as figures in black began approaching me. I saw vague figures of my friends going down one by one.
"He's alive, thank goodness…" one of them spoke.
"Get him out of here." another spoke.
I couldn't even grab my gun, and it was right there. I couldn't hardly move my fingers as one with red hair lifted me over their shoulder and began carrying me away. I was furious… tears streamed down my face as I lay helplessly draped over her shoulder.
"Boss, what do we do?! We might hit you if we retaliate!" my vest radio asked.
"Just… open fire…" I choked out, and muffled gunfire began going off.
The one holding me fell down as bullets riddled my body too. If we took even one of them with us, then it was worth it. My vision began going black as one began CPR on me. Everything started going cold… and then… warm… was I dead…? I weakly opened my eyes to find myself in a medical facility. Kobold nurses with a human doctor were checking my vital signs… I had friends who worked like this… but these people… were MON employees. The logo was emblazoned on their upper backs beneath their medic logo. I was covered in bandages and had a respiratory device over my mouth. Both my arms had IV's in them as well.
"Good, you're awake. You gave us a scare there… having to jump your heart six times in three hours… we were afraid we were going to lose you." the doctor sighed with a smile.
"I know you must be confused, but it's okay, you're at MON Headquarters, you're safe now." one of the nurses told me while smiling… and it pissed me off.
"Unplug me… I'd rather die a martyr… than be converted…" I growled.
"Your name is Ryuji Satogami, 19, O+ Blood Type, served a grand total of six months in juvenile hall… and joined the Demonic Fang group who opposes friendly relations between humans and extraspecies." a woman spoke walking into view.
"We don't oppose it, we just don't approve of how you're regulating it…" I growled.
"I'm Agent Smith, by the way. Believe it or not, many of us aren't too happy with it either. We work tirelessly to try and make it so every extraspecies can someday experience the cultural exchange with humans. That includes repealing and passing rules and regulations on a regular basis." Smith sighed cleaning her glasses.
Author note: Ryuuji will indicate who speaks by last name if the speaker has a last name for him to use.
"So, what… just going to keep me locked up?" I asked angrily.
"Actually, my superiors have decided that rather than throwing you in a jail cell, we're going to appoint you as leader of MON Response Team 7." Ms. Smith sighed.
"There are only six MON response teams…" I commented.
"Not anymore." she smiled getting close to my face.
I'd have decked her if my arms weren't restrained by the IV's. She had my bed wheeled through the facility where many extraspecies and humans were being treated. They wheeled me to a dark room where Smith's little bitches were now standing in a circle around me. I recognized the redhead, and I scoffed guessing that it was too much to ask that MON had at least ONE casualty.
"Watch the attitude, bud, the fact you aren't a zombie is the only reason I'm not ripping you a new one." she growled.
"Zombina, be civil." Ms. Smith scolded her.
"The psychopath ordered his buddies to open fire on him. Who knows what he could do?" Zombina argued.
"When I recover you'll find out." I growled and Smith gripped my shoulder.
"Now girls, he's our newest coworker effective immediately. I want you to put the fact he fired at all of you intending to kill you behind you." Ms. Smith ordered with a smile.
"Why the hell should I accept a job at the place I'm trying to destroy?!" I demanded to know.
"Violence won't get anything accomplished. So change it from the inside with peaceful means. Prove to those who work here that the regulations are wrong. With enough evidence, we can repeal and revise protocols and the like. We had to kill a lot of humans and extraspecies because of your group… so be the one to let them drop their arms." Smith told me.
I hated the very thought of putting on one of those black suits, but she had a point. All we ever did was start shootouts with MON whenever we could find them. We've secretly recruited many extraspecies and humans too, having them submit fake forms to lure them into the open. I spent a solid month recovering from the wounds, and even then they said not to overdo it. Many of the other agents said that I'm lucky that I survived the bullet hell that I ordered they rain down on me. A lot of them were already nicknaming me "Bullet Hell" because of my cockroach level of tenacity.
When the doctors cleared me, I begrudgingly moved into the lodgings they'd prepared "conveniently" one block from HQ. I had no belongings, so my only clothes at the moment were the underpants, pajamas, and work suits they provided me. They'd confiscated my weapons from the raid too, which sucked ass. Apparently the first thing that'd happen in the morning would be getting put in the training program so I "know the rules". At the very least the bed was comfy and the place was already stocked with food.
The time was 1:23am, and someone had snuck into my new home. Too bad for them, I'm a very light sleeper. The intruder received a hard left hook making them trip over the desk chair and fall over as I flipped on the light. There was a guy with flat brown hair wearing an agent suit holding his now bloody nose.
"That's some good morning…" he groaned.
"It's 1:23 in the morning. I don't have to be up for another four hours." I growled.
"Come on, you're a newbie, right? I figured you'd want to see one of the rarer sights of the extraspecies babes working here…" he spoke standing up plugging his nose with tissues.
"In other words you're a voyeuristic senior coworker right out of a manga…?" I commended.
"It's not being a voyeur, it's being supportive of their hard work." he chuckled.
"The way you're grinning says otherwise." I sighed.
Begrudgingly I walked to the front yard with him. Sure enough, down the road came several kobold and centaur women with bouncing chests, heavy breathes, and glistening bodies from their sweat. Just like a monkey, he was staring at only two things… T&A. I snuck back into the house and sure enough I heard a loud metallic smack and seconds after a horseshoe with a bit of blood on it rolled into the doorway. I left him in the yard and went back to bed. I'd lost some valuable sleep time, so I decided to make up for it I'd be fashionably late.
When it was actually time to wake up, I heard a voice as I showered followed by the sound of my bed creaking a bit. I finished my shower, dried off, and got dress walking back into my room while fixing my tie. Zombina and the heavily armored one were in my room.
"Man, I was hoping to body slam you because you're a bit late…" Zombina told me with a pout.
"Just because I elected not to go to college doesn't make me a slacker, profiler…" I commented.
"Who's profiling?!" she snapped at me.
"We haven't formally introduced ourselves as your seniors, have we?" the armored one spoke while taking off her helmet showing her face.
"Guess not. You know who I am though." I sighed.
"I'm Tionishia, but just Tio is fine. I'm an ogre." she smiled.
"How can you be so nice to an ex-terrorist like him?!" Zombina exclaimed in shock.
"Isn't the keyword in your sentence 'ex'? That denotes being formerly of that occupation or position. In other words, I know he won't perform terrorist type activities while working for us. Smith-san already said that she's watching his every move as well, and we know how she is." Tio calmly replied countering her argument.
"Jeez, just get to the training grounds!" Zombina barked, so I decided to take my sweet time walking.
When I arrived, as was typical in high school, the instructor scolded me for being a grand total thirty minutes late. That meant I missed the whole "I'll break you and rebuild you" speech that every trainer gives you. I did wind up getting a solid ten minute lecture on what I already know about the training as a result though. I'm supposed to be learning the skills necessary to be able to not just control the extraspecies enrolled in the program but also the extraspecies on my team. Speaking of teams, there were only three other agent trainees there with me.
First up was learning proper greetings to different extraspecies. It was high school all over, as we were three extraspecies to properly greet to see how much we knew about greeting already. My lineup was a minotaur, a dragonewt, and a mermaid. When the whistle blew, the minotaur didn't extend her hand which meant a greeting to test strength and bravery. To her shock when she went to head butt me I leapt up to meet her forehead managing to make her back up a bit in shock. I simply wiped the blood from my forehead and moved on as she nodded her head.
The dragonewt is a proud species, so instead of a hand shake I bowed to her. I saw her face light up and she tried to kick me in the face. She avoided eye contact afterward, which meant that she wasn't prepared for it. They're often just treated to handshakes putting them on the same level, so not many know about the whole bowing thing.
Last, but not least was the mermaid. She had an expectant smile on her face and extended her hand, expecting it to be shaken. I took her hand and instead kissed the knuckles making steam burst from her ears as her face became bright pink. They love tragic romance, so I figured a sign of affection even though we can't do anything would make for a great greeting. Then the whistle blew again and my instructor stomped over to me.
"What the HELL are you doing, Satogami?!" the instructor barked.
"Greeting them the way their people do and expect." I replied.
"You're here to coexist, not give them special treatment!" she barked again.
"Well then, racist, I'll have you know that it's really rude to disregard their culture and force ours on them." I argued and her face became red like magma.
"Ten laps!" she ordered, and even though those laps sucked ass I could tell I won that argument.
The sore loser then had me handshake them before he'd let me catch up to what the other trainees were doing though. It seemed no matter what I did I pissed her off. Dangerous Situation, enemy has a weapon and yours is at your feet, I disregarded my weapon and downed by enemy. I think it pissed her off more because the other trainees didn't even consider it an option and began trying to mimic me. Truth be told, it was training in the Demon Fang all over again, but about 200% easier. Her rage went through the roof when I didn't let my partner down me when it was his turn to try it. By the time lunch rolled around I was already sent to Smith's office.
"So… you got sent here, according to this note, for disregarding orders and being a smartass… that true?" Smith asked.
"Smartass, yes, disregarding orders, no. She asked me to properly greet them, so I greeted them the way their people usually greet each other. She said to detain my opponent while my weapon was at my feet, so I did it the way I usually do it." I replied.
"So in other words you're showing off. We can't exactly punish you for that, since you're showing results. I guess it's your reputation built upon the fact it's the first day." Smith sighed.
"My bad…?" I commented.
"Well, we can't exactly remove you from training because all agents have to complete it. Just try not to show off as much, okay?" she asked.
"I'm just showing my skill. You'd think I'd be praised for thinking outside the box. Not every enemy is going to come from the front, they aren't always just going to have a knife, and you won't always have the time to figure out a way to get your weapon from the ground to your hand." I explained with a sigh.
"So what you're saying is our training is flawed in a way." Smith grinned.
"Well that's putting words in my mouth, but if you want to interpret it that way…" I spoke thinking about it.
"You're partially correct. We only cover one-on-one situations with the best case scenario. We don't teach you a thing about unfair odds or varied circumstances. Those are on-the-job kind of lessons. In the meantime, try not to piss off the instructor more than you already have. I'll see if I can't get something done about the program itself." Smith told me with a smile.
When I got back to the training yard, every trainee was unconscious for some reason. All it took was looking up the yard to see the instructor was absolutely livid to find out the reason. I walked toward her and she charged me. She ran right into my fist knocking herself out. That boys and girls is why we don't charge people in a blind rage. Just about everywhere becomes a weak point. With both the instructor and my peers rendered unconscious, I took a lunch break at the house. With no money to use the food court, I found myself a little glad that home was next door.
The following day I learned that the instructor that was trying to go drill sergeant on us was just a sub that Smith called in because her desk was swamped with work. The stand in allowed her to catch up on the sea of paperwork in her office, and also earned me a reprimanding because I knocked out the sub. To be fair, she went berserk, which was why I was given tantamount to a slap on the wrist with their speech on morals.
"Today, because I don't want to spend more time on this than necessary, you'll be given your first partners today." Smith told us.
"So, you're just neglecting the rest of the training?" I asked.
"Not at all. We just believe that it's hard to work with an extraspecies if you don't get to know how their species works. We could give you the best training available, but if you don't know how to work with them and their pros and cons then we'll be in a tough spot." Smith replied smiling.
So we were taken into the facility to a white and grey room that could easily house 200, and there were red boxes of varying sizes with clipboards beside the doors. Smith had us line up alphabetically. The lights over certain boxes were darker than others it seemed.
"Inside these boxes are prospective extraspecies who will be eligible to finish their own training in the next month or so. You're to choose one to be your first teammate. Each of you will then be in charge of caring for them." Smith told us.
"Go on the buzzer. There's no time limit on this so take your time, ask questions to each one, get to know each other a little, see what qualifications suit what you're aiming for." Zombina ordered, and seconds later a loud gym buzzer went off.
I explored the clipboard information first. It had their picture on it, their name, species, blood type, medical information, and a lot of other usually classified stuff. In other words, they wanted us to know exactly who we'll be talking to in these booths. What I looked for was their skills though. They had a big variety too, but I'd as of yet to see one bearing the skill of tactical combat. Sure, the two minotaurs that were there had superior strength listed, but nothing saying they actually knew how to act in a variety of situations. The cyclops among the group had blacksmithing and strength listed, but no combat skills.
I was halfway down the immense room before I knew it. At the very end of the hall was a black box compared to the other red ones. It made me curious, so I grabbed it and began to read. Her name was Bolt, a kobold, 18, B- blood, and had tracking, cleaning, and tactical warfare listed. Oddly enough, she didn't have a picture on her clipboard. At the very bottom of the last page it had "due to unprofessional behavior, this prospect is highly unadvised" written in bold. In the entire hall, she was the only one who listed the skills I was aiming for at the moment. So I opened the door entering.
She had golden fur, which I guess is how she got her name. She was wearing a black muscle shirt along with red cargo pants. For some reason she was barefoot. I sat down as her tail wagged somewhat happily.
"So you're Bolt?" I asked.
"Yes, sir. Skilled in tracking, cleaning, and combat." she replied.
"This lists you as unprofessional… mind elaborating?" I asked.
"I… have a bad habit of getting attached. I got so attached to my buddies that I left my post after one got downed in a mock assassination operation. That caused the entire thing to fall apart…" she told me sighing while with a depressed tone.
"While that may be unprofessional, that doesn't make it a bad thing. I'm pretty sure you heard about me at the extraspecies training grounds, but I'm ex-Demon Fang. We cared about each other and worked toward making it so we aren't imposing unfair restraints on extraspecies. Telling you not to care about coworkers because it's unprofessional is exactly one of the things I'm highly against. Supposedly I'm recruiting, so you won't have to worry about being scolded for it with me." I told her, and she smiled wide.
"Really?" she asked looking hopeful.
"I've done a lot of bad things, I've shot people… but if there's one thing I'm not, it's a liar." I sighed and she leapt across the table hugging me.
I took her to get the paperwork filled. Smith wouldn't stop grinning the entire time. Evidently she had some kind of plan for me. When the day was over they'd already modified the house to be able to contain at least six people. It used to be one story, but now it was two despite its height and length looking like it was more than that. They'd already moved Bolt's things inside as well. They weren't kidding when they said I'd be taking care of her.
Bolt was like a puppy exploring the house wagging her tail. I admit it was nice seeing someone not secretly wanting to hit me or worse. I prepared dinner while she unpacked, and to be honest it felt nice. In Demon Fang, we always had to have people looking out for possible MON raids while we tried to cook as fast as we could. I didn't have to rush it causing imperfections in the meal. My first day in Demon Fang we got raided during a meal… if it wasn't for some of the older members I'd have been captured long ago.
That night as I lay in bed I couldn't help thinking about what Demon Fang must be doing without me there. Hell, they must have already figured out that MON has me pinned under their thumb. It began storming too, making me remember when Demon Fang picked me up from my old house. A loud thunder clap had my door fly open and Bolt leapt through the air in slow motion landing on top of me shaking. Another clap sound making her cling tighter to me.
"You okay?" I asked.
"I-I hate thunder… it hurts my ears…" she whimpered.
"Well clinging to me won't exactly help." I joked with her.
"It helps me sleep during storms to hold onto someone… s-so just for tonight… let me sleep with you…?" she asked.
I couldn't say no to those eyes. You know the look, when a puppy really wants something from you? That look. She crawled under the covers and snuggled close to me. She'd tense up when the thunder would clap, but she eventually fell asleep holding onto my arm. It was very hard to not pop wood while she was holding onto me. When morning came, I felt her bosoms on my face. Sure enough, she'd changed positions in her sleep. I had to gently wake her up, which escalated to having to roll her off because she's a heavy sleeper.
Morning exercises got interesting fast though. Smith prioritized immediately learning to work with teammates. The goal of the day was to find a specific item. Each item was unique to each time so we couldn't just follow another team to success. If we happened upon another team's item we weren't allowed to say anything either. Our item was a rare flower, called a Mountain Firecracker to be exact, hidden somewhere in the building. I had Bolt begin sniffing the inside of the building for a flower scent. She found six different traces, so whether we liked it or not we had to go after each scent trail.
The first trail led us to a female agent who had perfume of that scent. The second led us to the printer on the fourth floor. Then Bolt said there were now 25 scent trails. That gave me two theories. Someone's moving the pot it's in around to spread the scent, or it's literally on someone working here as they go about their day. We kept following the scents, but I still kept a sharp eye out. I'd never seen one before, but I knew what a normal firecracker flower looked like, so if the two are related it couldn't be that hard to identify.
A solid two hours of searching went by and eventually we hit a fresh line of scent. Bolt dragged me through the halls, up some stairs, through more halls, and into an office where she pounced a poor unsuspecting dryad. She was shaking with fear as Bolt sat on top of her panting like a dog.
"I found her! I found the source! Praise me! Praise me!" Bolt demanded with her tongue hanging out.
"Good job… sorry she pounced you, we were asked to find the flower on your head." I explained to her.
"T-The flower on my head? Y-You could have just asked and I'd have plucked it for you…" she weakly choked out.
"Sorry about that… guess I got carried away." Bolt apologized while rubbing the back of her head.
We reported to the grounds to find that apparently we took the longest to find our object. Smith then told us the one she intended us to find was on the front desk in a vase. At the least she apologized for making us go on that goose chase. After that experience she let us do weights instead of searching for a second item with the others. With all that walking, I was glad to be hitting the weights. Bolt was slightly saddened, which led me to believe she really liked walks, or she was into collars and leashes. An image began forming while I did curls and then I smacked myself in the face with the weight to dispel it.
"You okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine… there was a bug." I replied.
"Did you get it?" she asked.
"Yes. I got it." I replied.
It was a solid four months of training before at last the graduation ceremony came around. We were all officially being named MON Agents. In other words, I wouldn't be relying on the company to fill my place with supplies. I was on a paycheck and would be budgeting. Dear god, I was going to be a functioning adult. Never thought that'd happen with my track record. I'd call my folks to let them know if they didn't disown me. I wouldn't be too surprised if they called the cops, only to find out the cops were the ones who gave MON permission to do this to me.
Morning came and my alarm woke me up as usual. Bolt startled me by being at the side of my bed fully dressed panting with anticipation. Someone was excited for her first day of actual work. I had her make a pot of hot coco for me so I could shower and get dressed. She was confused at first, but appeared to figure it out as I heard the coffee maker working from the shower. Once I was finally dressed she was sitting at the table looking proud of herself. She tried putting the coco in a filter and having the water pass through like coffee grounds. It didn't work all that well, so I had to dump what didn't get poured in from the filter into the pot to mix it. I then told her that she had to put the powder in the pot and then let the water be poured from there. It didn't affect the flavor, so I wasn't too annoyed by it.
Smith was there to greet us at the doors. She had a particular grin on her face as we approached. I didn't like it at all.
"Hey there, junior agents. I need a favor." Smith told us.
"What do you want?" I asked anticipating something typical of an upperclassman prank.
"There's a particular homestay I haven't had the chance to go and check up on. Can you two go do that for me?" Smith asked.
"Why do we have to do your work?" I asked.
"I'm swamped with paperwork, and the top brass won't let me delegate it to anyone, but I really need a progress report from them. So, as new agents who haven't been given an assignment yet, can you do that for me?" Smith asked.
"Fine, where's the address?" I asked, and he handed me a vanilla envelope.
Much to Bolt's delight, we walked there. It was a nice morning, not too hot, not too cold, and there was a gentle breeze. Mornings like that, it sucks when you have to drive everywhere instead of enjoy the weather. We arrived at the residence of a "Kurusu Kimihito". I rang the doorbell, and there was a mass of sounds from inside. Sure enough, the guy in the picture on the dossier answered the door.
"Hello. Can I help you?" he greeted us.
"I'm Agent Satogami, this is my partner Bolt. Smith sent me to check up on you, since she hasn't gotten the chance." I told him.
"Oh. Well, come in then." he chuckled opening the door more.
In the living room was the source of the ruckus. His charges had been playing a game and it seemed the doorbell startled them causing them to fall all over each other. I helped Kurusu untangle the group and sit down.
"Girls, this is Agent Satogami and Agent Bolt." he introduced us.
"Is Miss Smith sick?" the Lamia asked.
"She's swamped with work, so she sent us in her stead." I explained.
So I began with the usual questions our training said to ask. The consensus seemed to be that they really enjoyed their homestay conditions. It was on the way out that I noticed one not in the files of his homestays. A slime, hiding pretty poorly under a desk.
"Are you aware of the slime?" I asked him.
"Oh. That's Suu. Smith let her stay here… because she didn't want to deal with the paperwork." Kimihito replied with a chuckle.
"You know both of you could get in trouble if she isn't registered properly right?" I asked him.
"What?" he asked back.
"It's a Sheltering Offense, according to our rulebook. All extraspecies, without exception, are required to be registered as a homestay. Otherwise we have no means of knowing if they're legal or not." I told him.
"It says that?" Bolt asked.
"If you'd read the book at least half as thoroughly as I did, you'd know." I gently scolded her.
"You aren't going to take Suu away are you?" he asked.
"Too big a hassle. I'll come back with paperwork so you two can fill it out later." I told them with an annoyed sigh.
"So, Slimes aren't banned?" he asked.
"No. It can just be a royal pain to get them to answer questions sometimes." I told him, and after saying farewell we returned to HQ.
The instant we got in the doors someone was already shouting my last name. To my surprise, it wasn't a senior agent… but my mom and dad. Both looked remarkably excited to see me.
"You decided to stop that terrorist nonsense…" mom spoke while crying.
"We knew you had it in you to be good." dad sighed with relief.
"Mom, dad, did you even listen to the details of me working here?" I asked.
"Regardless of how, you've gone straight. Do what you can to make up for the trouble you caused, okay?" mom pleaded.
It was good to see mom and dad again, I will admit that. I didn't appreciate the looks my coworkers gave me making me feel embarrassed about the scene they made. We reported to my new office on the third floor, and party favors went off as we entered. The agents I'd graduated with were there with Smith. A banner was hung in the upper part of the room congratulating me on becoming a good guy.
"The entire time during training you didn't associate with your peers at all. That'll be a problem later as you become more experienced, so I figured what better way than a small celebration?" Smith told me.
Regardless of if I wanted to, I had no choice. I sat down introduced myself to my peers, since all of them were presumably older than me. That made it polite to do so first.
"I'm Kanji Bando, and this is my partner Saki. I'm easily the oldest of us in this room. I may be old, but I'm also wiser than you think. So if you have a problem, feel free to come see me." one of them spoke.
Bando was a pretty large guy. Not in the sense that he's fat, but that he's got muscle despite his age. He seemed friendly enough though, even though his partner looked really nervous sitting beside him. She was a blue-skinned Oni, so while she was roughly his height she was uncomfortable around new people.
"I guess I'll go next then. I'm Sanae Yoshino, this is my partner Rei. If you have any need to call upon me, don't." the girl of my peers spoke coldly.
Yoshino seemed to hold my reputation against me. She held her long black hair up in a braided bun and wore glasses with a red frame. Her partner, Rei, was a Raptor Harpy. She had her red hair cut short, and was perched effortlessly on Yoshino's shoulder. It actually explained why she wore the shoulder harness throughout our training. She must have finally convinced her it was okay to ride her shoulder.
"That just leaves us. I'm Yosuke Hajime. This is my partner Yuna. She's a Wyvern, awesome right?" he introduced himself.
"Shut up." Yuna barked at him.
The level of spike in Yosuke's hair seemed unnatural to me. At the very least he seemed to be a nice guy. His partner looked to be unused to flattery and often took offense to it almost as bad as being given an insult. The two had an odd chemistry though.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'm proud to announce that you'll all be recruiting your own teammates to make a squad of four not including yourself." Smith told us.
"We get to choose?" Hajime asked.
"From packs of dossiers listing potential agents. Don't see any that peek your fancy, see if one of your peers has one you find appealing." Smith replied.
That made things a little interesting. We were being trusted to recruit our members. That meant going to personally see them. The question would be what to do if negotiations fall out with them. They wouldn't give us weapons with live ammo, naturally, which would make where we fire matter in how fast we down them. Things were going to get interesting.
End Chapter 1