Although he'd never exactly fancied sukiyaki, it suited the client for whom he was currently delivering this food. The white take-out box, currently in a plastic bag, smelled so wonderful that he was regretfully craving sukiyaki. He smelled like barbecue, thanks to his smoking habit.
"Ready ready ready for the take off," he sang merrily. He'd never been a real musical talent, but dang that song was just too catchy to not sing. Too much radio exposure, perhaps?
He turned a corner and abruptly realized the abnormality of all this.
Clouds, dust balls, small ones at that but with menacing eyes and certain teeth. They were floating gently past the telephone poles, yet each with purpose. Directed towards his client's home. It didn't even take a few seconds to process this abnormality.
"...Oh shoot!"
He cursed loudly to himself, running with boosted speed to the place of the Egins, where he knew that a certain exorcist was giving birth. Birth to a new monster, the son of Satan nevertheless. Her water had already broken, as his sources had so alarmingly informed him, and she was already under induced labor. She could give out at any time and the result would be disastrous.
As he reached the fenced outpost of the mansion, Fujimoto Shirou was greeted by a group of cloaked men, otherwise known as the Aria of the True Cross Order. Judging from the severity of their chants and the tightening of the boundary, in addition to the grade A holy water constantly spilled on the usual water, the situation was already dire. He should hurry.
"Over there!" cried a comrade. Fujimoto gritted his teeth and crossed over. "Is Yuri-chan all right?" he asked loudly, ushered into the large bedroom on the first floor of the mansion. Here, a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, was grunting and panting heavily. The man immediately identified her as Yuri Egin, a lower second class exorcist.
"She needs C-Section, stat!"
"Fujimoto-san!"
"Yes! I'll exorcise her child!"
In his younger and naive days, he would have loved to ignore the painful and bloody brutality that is childbirth. But now that he was older, he had to grit his teeth and endure the imagery. Besides, this was no time to be feeling self-centered; this was the matter of life and death, however cliché that expression sounded.
"Please, please!" She was pleading. "Not my son! Not my... son...!"
In ideal circumstances, abortion would be possible. However, Satan – the King of Demons! – had impregnated the exorcist, when she had been caught with her guard down. He didn't want the exorcist to disappear from the Assiah, better known as the Earth.
"I'm sorry."
He wasn't a doctor; he was an exorcist. A Paladin. The most powerful exorcist in the world, potentially a vessel for Satan, and yet he was powerless to save Yuri Egin from the pain of childbirth.
Since when has a mother of Satan's child survived? There was no historical record of such event, no medical records, none.
But he could try. He could try. He wasn't granted the title of Paladin for nothing, even though it had only been months since the last holder's death.
"You rank second? Funny, I could've sworn that it was middle second class the last time I saw ya. Well, you're growing up."
The lead Doctor and his small group, responsible for ensuring the success of the Caesarean section, suddenly shrieked. And so did Fujimoto, albeit mentally.
Her body was now on fire.
Blue, bright cyan, flames flickered before her heavily lidded eyes that had just opened. She stared blankly at the scene happening before her, despite the recently applied dose of anesthesia sprinkled with holy water. They came from the abdomen. Her baby.
"Everyone needs to get out! I'll handle this by myself!"
"I do have a small request for you. When you become a Paladin…"
She started to wince as her child gave a kick in conjunction with the footsteps, but then her lidded eyes closed as she gradually succumbed to the warmth of the flames. This was her son, her child. Even if he was technically the son of Satan, she knew that he would have a promising future. And so she died.
"Please take care of my wife."
Before his eyes stood the flickering illusion of Okumura-sensei.