"So you're going to the Underworld with Gremory-san?" Furuichi asked as he adjusted his tie. Xenovia was sitting on his bed, a magazine about dating life on her lap, while Lamia sat at the head of the bed combing through some medical book.
"I'm not sure of what exactly we'll be doing, but Buchou tells us that it's an important meeting between the young Devils with power in the Underworld," Xenovia said as she flipped through the magazine. "Well, it was to be expected. Reluctantly you and I can't go on any summer dates. I was told such dates usually warranted the elevation to another tier of dating."
Furuichi sweatdropped as he folded his sleeves. "I'll take you on a date when I next see you. We'll see if that leads to another tier of dating or not."
Xenovia nodded her head enthusiastically at his reply.
Lamia shoved her things into bag noisily, her left cheek being bitten in between her teeth. The pinkette seemed to he in a bad mood for a long time now, and Furuichi was unsure why or how. Well, that was a thing to be discussed at a later date, in personal company.
Still, she continued to glare at him whenever she saw him and it was pretty grating on his nerves. The Lieutenant shook those thoughts aside and slung his bag over his right shoulder. "Well, it can't be helped if we're both busy. The training I have with my men is scheduled to take around three weeks, but if I can, I will see if I can meet you in the Underworld."
Xenovia stood up with a graceful arc to her back. Furuichi burned the sight of her figure stretching upwards from his bed as though it was the most natural thing in the world and smiled. To his surprise Xenovia gave him a hug and squeeze. Thankfully Furuichi's body was stronger than it once was, because he was pretty sure his spine would have snapped otherwise. "The magazine also stated that excessive skinship before long periods of not seeing each other is also important in maintaining a working relationship!" She stated as she pulled back just enough to look at Furuichi's face.
Furuichi tried his best to smother his smirk. Xenovia was such a naive girl, it was extremely cute to see her try and do her best in everything she did. The Lieutenant chuckled and hug Xenovia back, reveling in the feeling of her curves, the warmth of her body, and its softness before letting go. The girl smiled fondly at the lingering feeling of the embrace and sighed.
"It feels as though we rarely have time together to spend at all. I await our next date with great anticipation," Xenovia said with a smile and quickly reached down to grab her bag. "If only things were a bit different. I could have met you when I was still with the Church."
"They probably wouldn't have allowed an affair between an Exorcist and a Pillar," Furuichi commented.
"They would have probably ostracized the both of you," Lamia chimed in. Xenovia laughed, crossing her arms under her bust. For some reason, Furuichi thought that both Xenovia and Lamia had gotten closer in the time he went away. "Either way, you should quickly leave. It would be bad form to your Master to arrive late to a meeting."
"Of course, Lamia-chan," Xenovia said. The little pinkette girl squawked in surprise at the sudden addition of the suffix, and Furuichi stifled a smile at watching her reaction. The older girl waved goodbye and quickly left the apartment, her bag held firmly in between her hands as she raced off to school. Honoka had already left for home for summer vacation, but Furuichi, sadly, would not be able to enjoy the summer time in the comfort of his own room - not to say the apartment didn't provide him enough comfort at all.
He much preferred the apartment over training in some outback with his new squad. But he had to let it go, he had made his commitments, now he had to honor them. But damn it if he didn't want it to! Swimsuits! It was summer vacation and there were swimming pools full of beautiful women in swimsuits that he was denied the ability to see.
Furuichi hooked his Pillar-issued all purpose tactical backpack higher on his back as he breathed in a deep sigh. The little pinkette girl beside him but her cheek as she turned away, her hips set on her waists in a - as he was coming to realise he was admitting more often - adorable fashion.
"Let's go Lamia. No rest for the wicked," Furuichi said with a strained smile. Lamia glanced in his direction from the corner of her eye. The faint dusting of pink on her cheeks grew redder and she nodded sullenly.
"I could be back home with Mama!" Lamia groused as she kicked the ground. "Instead I'm heading to a training programme with you." Furuichi chuckled and pushed the door to his apartment open. As he had expected, his new squad, Pillar Squad A21, were lined up on the other side in full Pillar uniform, sans the coat that was used by Generals and Barons or for ceremonial purposes.
Kattia was standing poised and ready on the opposite end of the line. His First Sergeant was very serious at all the things she set out to do, and that was a bit of a downer dot on Furuichi as that just meant he had to be serious more often too. Lest he disappointed her and his squad by being anything but.
Furuichi fingered the Serpent Pin on his chest, his mind wandering to how far his inclusion in this new organization, and this war, was going to be. He had already mustered up the determination to see this entire war to its completion, and he was ready to see what exactly that determination would end up turning himself into, but he was afraid; like all things, the unknown of what you would become lingered well in a teenager's mind.
"Everyone ready?" Furuichi asked. His squad snapped clean precise salutes. Hecadoth had informed him his unit had accelerated training, due to the speedy nature of their deployment. Beyond that, they were the result of experimental technologies in time dilation fields. Furuichi figured they didn't need much training beyond what they were given, but since he had dug this hole for himself, well, there was no way out of it.
"This training will be...officiated by a friend of mine. This is mostly off the record work and I fully intend to have this be...something of a learning curve for you. For one thing, I will not be training you as Devils, I will be training you as Humans."
There's a rustle through the ranks as they glanced at each other. Before finally, Erwin opened up his mouth to speak. "But, how does this benefit us?"
"In many ways. The weak are the weak, there are many ways how the weak can be destroyed by the strong, but you need only look in the past to see how the weak have triumphed. I...my earlier days were spent avoiding battle, and even that is a useful skill to have. You will learn how to live as the weak, to then empower you as the strong." Furuichi was pulling all this from his ass but it was making due. They seemed to be buying his explanation, which was something Furuichi was eternally grateful for.
"Here you go," Lamia said as she handed out little bands of metal to each of the members. "These are suppression bands; they'll keep your power levels to the level of a human being, which means you can't use magic and your strength levels are equivalent to that of an average human."
"This is a three week training course, one which I fully believe all of you should be more than prepared for," Furuichi stated, then sighed audibly. "Our first stop is meeting your instructor."
Furuichi pulled out a transporter circle that he had requisitioned from the Pillars. With a forlorn sigh at his wasted summer, Furuichi poured magical energy siphoned from his King's Crest into the circle. Before long a red glow took over the hallway, and both he and his compatriots disappeared in a flash of light, both in the area and in his eyes.
He resisted the urge to cry out in surprise, on account of him wanting to keep his calm and aloof impression on his squad. Despite the effect that Furuichi was in no way shape or form happy at having his vision impaired in any way. Maybe it was the Kirin in him talking, but his eyesight was an ability he'd rather have at all times.
Furuichi dropped his hand and blinked away the bright spots in his vision.
"Man you guys are just full of surprising things, aren't ya," a familiar grating voice said. Furuichi blinked away the pain in his eyes and stared at the man standing at the edge of the clearing. He was a yankee, dressed in a casual jacket and jeans, with a short crop of blonde hair.
Furuichi immediately recognised him. "Duran!" He greeted enthusiastically. The former gang member smiled and reached out his hand to grip Furuichi's and they shook in a surprisingly formal manner. His sister Brenda and her father were nowhere in sight, but that was alright, Furuichi would rather have the training be over and done with quickly rather than dwelling on greetings and small talk.
"Been a long time," Duran said, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Surprised me when you told me you joined a PMC group. You do realise I'm at a risk giving you guys training for no reason?"
"It's why I'll owe you one," Furuichi said. "Name it and I'll do it, but I need you to make these guys...something more than what they already are."
"Uh-huh," Duran muttered as he stuck a cigarette in his mouth. "I can do that. Like I said it's a three week training, which you should be thanking me for since I'm using up my leave."
Furuichi grinned in abashment at the grouchiness in his tone.
Duran had been an ex gang member that had helped Oga and him find the Solomon Company way back in their first year. His family had done right by them, and Furuichi had been keeping in touch with his sister Brenda over the years. A couple of months ago Brenda had let slip about how Duran had joined the Marines a while back; which led to Furuichi calling him to train his new squad.
"So what do you have planned for us?"
"You're going to be trained is what is. The training exercise will more or less train you and your men the mental fortitude needed in order to survive in untold amounts of stress on the battlefield," Duran said as he puffed out a cloud of smoke.
"Wait me too," Furuichi exclaimed. "Why?!"
"What's the point of a squad training if the officer isn't going to take part in it? As a grunt, you should be willing to go through the same training as your men. In the end, it'll just increase unit cohesion."
"But," Furuichi started.
"-No buts. You're taking part in it, whether you like it or not."
The Lieutenant bit his tongue from any more protest. Well, it couldn't be helped now could it. If that was how it was going to be then Furuichi had nothing more to do than pray that it wasn't anything too dangerous. He had dug this hole for himself to begin with anyway, so he'd roll with the punches rather than dodge them.
Duran pushed past Furuichi, which was irksome if not for the fact Furuichi could understand he was trying to assert some dominance as the training instructor for their little programme.
"Now, this is how it's going to be, first of all, I will need the names and specializations of each of you," Duran asked, and Furuichi noticed how he paid particular attention to Frank Vaults and his rifle.
With Furuichi's permission First Sergeant Kattia began listing down the specializations and the names of each member of their squad.
Duran listened absentmindedly, a cigarette burning in his grasp as he watched her with an intensity that surprised Furuichi. There was calculation behind that look; a deep seated respect and determination Furuichi had not noticed in him beforehand.
"Good, you seem to be a mixed bag of specialists. This will be your training; and it will be a hell of a training. It is my belief that experience outweighs everything, and that is what I'm giving you," Duran said cryptically. He turned and gave Furuichi a look, and the former 2nd year Ishiyama student only had a moment to express confusion before he realised Duran was looking at something behind him.
When Furuichi turned; well, he had the distinct feeling that he was going to regret his decision of following up on Duran's training.
0o0o Furuichi's Demonic Adventure o0o0
Wind flapped against Furuichi's face as he stared down at the sprawling savannah landscape below him. The seaplane they were passengers of was flying high in the sky above the African country like a vulture circling a corpse; and from where Furuichi was standing, seeing the rising smoke and fire that was visible even that high into the sky, it most definitely looked like a corpse - a desecrated corpse.
"What you guys are looking at is the devastation caused by a civil war between the Alliance for Popular Resistance and the United Front for Liberation and Labour. That down there is a Far Cry from civilization, it's a war zone of depravity and atrocities," Duran said as he handed out rifles to each of the soldiers.
Lamia made a clicking noise as she pulled out her handgun, staring at the offered rifle in disdain.
Furuichi accepted the offered G3KA4 with a cocked eyebrow. "This weapon has seen better days." He didn't need to be a gun expert to know the rust and the overall decrepit appearance of the gun wasn't ideal.
"I don't have free guns to give out. Everything you get is ammunition and weaponry I've procured from the stockpiles in the country," Duran said. Frank shook his head and declined the offered weaponry, instead making a show of shifting the weight of his M14. Duran nodded his head appreciatively and handed the last weapon, an FAL Paratrooper, to Kattia.
"What is the point of this...exercise?" Furuichi asked. There was goosebumps all across his back thinking about entering a warzone, but another part of Furuichi knew that gaining experience in this war would help him face the other, more important, one. There was another, hidden part of him that felt vaguely...excited at the prospect of it. Furuichi could feel something in his soul squealing in delight.
"The objective is simple. The first part of the plan is for you to find a buddy of mine. He goes by the name of Derek Oswald. You'll learn tracking skills and proper stealth techniques by doing this, because, as you'd expect, those militias won't be too happy having foreign uniformed soldiers in their land. The second part is that you will do any jobs my buddy tells you to do. Is that clear?"
"Crystal," Furuichi replied with a sarcastic smile.
"Everything else has already been said. This may seem extreme, but I'm a firm believer in experience outweighing everything. Down there, that is a war, and from what your Lieutenant's briefed me on, that is a war you will face. People who look like each other, live with each other, and know that fighting each other doesn't help a damn anyone. But they still do it," Duran said. "Now get ready to paradrop."
Furuichi shouldered the parachute he was given. Behind him, his squad pulled and adjusted their packs with such efficiency that you'd think they were human trained rather than Devil trained. That naturally put a damper on him, and forced him to operate at a higher level of crisp and alertness. Furuichi felt like his brain was going to fry with all his worries.
The plane's pilot loudly counted down until they reached directly above their target zone. Furuichi braced himself by the door, and when the final number dropped, he too came spiralling down from the helicopter.
The wind whipped at his face, and despite the fear gnawing at the back his spine, Furuichi was able to feel a thrill at the sensation of freefall. It seems he was turning into his own brand of thrill seeker, because Furuichi was sure before he would have scared pissless. Getting drunk on power changed his perception of danger, but not by too much, Furuichi hoped.
He couldn't see or hear the rest of his unit, and that was a problem. For one thing, he didn't know when or how he should open up his parachute. Just as the usual panicTM was settling in over him, his soul began instinctively acting. It pulled on the well of knowledge inside the patch of his soul that was a werewolf.
Knowledge on paradropping, as well as other more intricate details of performing a landing in hostile territory, came to life in Furuichi's mind. With the gain of new information, Furuichi reached into his back and released his parachute.
The feeling of the strap digging painfully into his skin gave a sense of nostalgia - a familiarity that was neither here or there. His feet dangled in the air, and Furuichi breathed in a deep sigh when his feet touched the ground without any incident - and there it was, the flag.
Loud gunfire began echoing to his right, and Furuichi turned, staring into the forest as dust kicked up all around him. There were soldiers about fifty feet to his right, all firing their weapons into the sky at his squad. A part of Furuichi wanted to duck and cover into the forests, but another part of Furuichi - a fiercer part he didn't know he had - knew that by doing that he would be derelict in his duty to his men.
Just like that all the doubts he had disappeared, and Furuichi stood to his full height. He was wearing the suppression band that Lamia had provided him, so he was effectively the same old Furuichi he had been before the Pillars, back when he was Oga's only friend. It was a blast in the past, a nostalgic travel to him, but symbolic in a way. He had been returned to his base, before he got his power, before he became more than just Furuichi, but now he had a semblance of power to himself.
The same, but new, like a Phoenix rejuvenating after shedding it's old skin.
Furuichi glanced down at his gun; he wasn't familiar with it, nor did he trust it with the state that it was in. Even though it would be more dangerous, Furuichi was forced to shoulder the rifle on his back and take out his blade, Aegeus. Ironically, the only weapon he could trust in the middle of a modern civil war was a sword.
He dashed into the tree line, and what little knowledge he was aware of for jungle combat sprang to mind. No, it would be better said that what he knew of hunting in the forests were pushed to the forefront of his thoughts. It seems the werewolf side of him was being extra generous today.
The trees and tall grass seemed abundant in this area, and they allowed him to snake across past the road and behind the gunmen quickly and easily. The Lieutenant didn't dare focus his attention anywhere else but on his prey, and jumped forward, eyes flashing under the sun as they gleamed with the intent to kill.
Furuichi reached forward and wrapped his arm around the burly militiaman. For all intents and purposes he should have been stronger than Furuichi - should have been able to completely flatten the diminutive Lieutenant - but Furuichi was never one for brute strength. When the militia man gripped Furuichi's arm and tried to pull the Lieutenant over his shoulder, Furuichi did not resist.
Instead he rolled with it, his sword glinting under the sun, and when Furuichi finished his arc, the militia man had been the cause of his own death, as the blade had sliced through the man's spine and straight through his throat; and Furuichi didn't even have to adjust his arm.
The Lieutenant landed on his feet and clicked his tongue when the second target turned to meet him. He twirled and tossed the blade, and with extreme luck, the blow connected, catching the man on his bicep.
He roared and pointed his weapon to the sky as he flailed helplessly at the blade digging into his arm. Not wanting to waste time, Furuichi darted forward and gripped the handle of his sword, and with an exhale of breath, yanked it downwards. He sliced through the chunk of flesh, rending that arm completely useless, and sliced sideways, cutting the man across his neck.
The militia man slumped to the ground gripping his throat, blood dripping down onto the ground. Furuichi turned away. Like at the Peace Conference, he didn't feel anything when he killed these men. Then, it was because he was drunk with power, because the magic casters were so insignificant that they couldn't matter in Furuichi's eyes, here it was because he had a job to do, and he had people counting on him to do i-
"Furuichi!" The Lieutenant only had a moment to respond to the shrill cry before a certain small pinkette crashed over his head. His moment of 'cool anime protagonist evaluation' was shattered by being face planted into an ant hill. Sputtering indignity and disgust, Furuichi pushed Lamia off him and spit out the ants that crawled into his mouth.
"Agh! Why?! I was having a moment goddamnit!" Furuichi cried.
Lamia sweatdropped, an apologetic look on her face as she dusted herself off. "Sorry."
"You better be," Furuichi said while coughing.
"Lieutenant!" Kattia said as she landed in a roll - a very cool roll, Furuichi had to admit. "The shooting would have attracted the attention of rogue elements. We'll need to get on the move."
"Right," Furuichi said. "Where's Derek Oswald located in?" The rest of the squad dropped in behind Kattia, and Erwin, the second-in-command - or third depending on your view - pulled out a map and a gps from his pocket.
"West, Lieutenant. We'll have to cross a swamp like area to reach the shanty town that Derek Oswald is located in," Erwin said. He hesitated for a moment, before saying out loud. "There's an outpost in the way, and the area is frequently patrolled, or so says the intel we were given."
Furuichi spat out a gob of crushed ant and slipped his sword back into his sleeve. "Then we move away from them as best we can." Furuichi wasn't acting right there. Now that he was in the thick of it, facing the enemy in the middle of a war zone, everything just fell into place. There was no need to act; he just had to act like regular old Furuichi; as in, the one that was always struggling to stay alive. "Avoiding them is key, our guns aren't exactly trustworthy and we have limited ammunition for them."
"Of course Lieutenant," Kattia agreed as she fiddled with her rifle. "I don't have much experience with firearms either."
"Heh, amateurs," Lamia said as she polished her handgun. Frank Vaults loudly clicked the slide of his gun, and Lamia raised an eyebrow at his obvious provocation.
"Settle down," Furuichi said, the tone coming out harsher than he intended thanks to the sand in his throat. Frank tensed and quickly bowed his head in apology. Furuichi thought the reaction was exaggerated but kept his peace as he turned to the setting sun. "We've burned through most of our daylight. Seems like we'd be working through the night."
"No rest for the wicked," Danica said with a bright smile, toothy and white. Furuichi smiled at her infectious enthusiasm.
"We push ahead; long and as hard as we can. I want Oswald with us by the time the day ends."
o0o0 Furuichi's Demonic Adventure o0o0
Lamia wasn't sure what she expected from the moment Furuichi said, "We push ahead", but she should have guessed. He only seemed to react to any situation in one given formula, that is to run and hide; and that was exactly what he did. Furuichi jumped into the forest without preamble, to the surprise of the squad even, and they quickly went to follow after him, Lamia all the while clicking in distaste at the jungle setting
"Why are we sneaking around? We can easily take these humans out, no problem," Danica said as she followed after the Lieutenant. Lamia wasn't surprised by her behaviour. Furuichi had been ignoring his squad since he got them, only arriving to give the general meetings the gift of his presence, not at all providing his own input as he relied on Kattia and her to do most of the talking. So while Furuichi probably didn't realise Danica's own grievance with what they were doing, Lamia did.
The woman was more of a frontline fighter - battle-horny, as Furuichi liked to use the term. She relished in challenges, big or small. She had at one point spent three days studying math without sleep in order to pass a basic entrance exam into Kuoh Academy, and the only reason why was because Frank had boasted to her about scoring a seventy-three. She made challenges on her own, and the sight of her Lieutenant taking the cowardly approach probably irked her more than she wanted to admit within present company. At the very least, Lamia could see the disappointment on her face.
"No, we can't," Kattia said sternly. "We have limiters that put us on the same basic level as the humans. We'd be dead if we tried anything."
Erwin also shrugged his shoulders from where he was standing next to Kattia. The Lance Corporal kept his eyes leveled on the treeline, narrowing his eyes in such a way that they were almost slits. "Either way we should stay focus. We are on the enemy's home field. They have the advantage of terrain that we don't have."
"You're telling me," Tania remarked as she swiped at a low branch. "I'm a city born Devil. I've never been in the forests my entire life!" She squawked in dismay when she found a mosquito on her arm, and promptly moved to crush it, but because of her now human reflexes, the bug managed to get away with her precious blood.
Lamia was fine with letting the mosquito go though. Demonic blood would be far too toxic for it to last long, and more than likely it would burn up and die within a few seconds. Even so, the pinkette hoped nothing dangerous happened that would require her medical expertise throughout this 'training' exercise. Really, what kind of training was it to drop recruits into the middle of a battlezone! Her feelings on the subject was only compounded with how readily Furuichi accepted the ludicrous mission. The past Furuichi would have balked and tried to do everything in his power to not be here; out in some african hell hole where big burly men were trying to kill each other for who knows what reasons. He left Ishiyama only to enter another one? He would have railed against the idea. This wasn't how that Furuichi worked.
She grumbled beneath her breath, slapping a mosquito away from her face. She was close to the age of fifteen now, by human years, that was. She'd spent some time in a time dilation field with Dr Forcas to train herself in surgery, before she met Oga and Furuichi, and as such she had to wait a few months before her biological body caught up with her mental age. Which had been her growth spurt, for the most part, but Lamia would rather much prefer her smaller frame right now, if only to provide a smaller surface area for the mosquitoes to land on without her realising.
"Enemy units, west side, ten men, assault rifles," Frank said quietly, at a whisper even, but it still seemed to reach Lamia regardless. Kattia called for the squad to stop, and Lamia dropped to her knee, feeling only a little apprehension about her knee length sock getting mucked up by the dirt. It wasn't just about fashion, it was about cleanliness. She only had a few sets of fresh clothes; and that was because she had expected to be sitting out on the training, not participating.
"I see them," Erwin said as his eyes, somehow, narrowed further. Erwin was from a line of Devils that had superb eyesight. His family had once been retainers to the Caim family - before their extinction - and as such had been the vanguard of the Devil army. Their members were blessed with superb eyesight, and thus, Erwin was the best as a support and strategic officer in the squad. "Even spread between them. They seem to be a patrol following a set path."
"I say we engage them," Danica said, punching her fists together. "The more we take down, the less we have to deal with. It's the perfect solution for us, who have the disadvantage of lesser numbers. Take out as many as we can as quietly as we can."
Lamia agreed with her. If they could entirely eliminate the enemy without alerting all of them at once, then they would have served their cake with a ten thousand dollar tray. Duran's friend would be just fine at the end of that, and he can do whatever he wanted to do in the first place without interruption thanks to the entire place being free of enemies. And Lamia can go home - a win-win.
"What do you think, Lieutenant...Where's the Lieutenant?" Kattia asked. The entire squad turned their heads to either sides of themselves, surprise lighting up their features as they realised that Furuichi had disappeared on them. Lamia, worried that maybe he had abandoned them and the mission, tensed her shoulders and was prepared to call Alaindelon to carry that piece of trash back, when Frank made a sharp intake of breath.
"Forward, one hundred metres," he said. Lamia blinked, and squinted her eyes through the haze of the saharan heat to notice something darting through the trees. To her surprise, and amazement, it was Furuichi and he was practically dancing through the trees, dodging in and out of cover to stay out of the patrol's line of sight. Looking at him, she thought she was seeing her old Furuichi inside that man. The man that would run from conflict, skillfully extracting himself from the sight and ire of whoever it was that was hunting him down. The difference between them, however, was too blatant to ignore.
While that Furuichi hid, ran, and did nothing else, this Furuichi used his skills in running away to aggressively attack the enemy. She could see it as plain as day. Furuichi wasn't moving away from the patrol, he was moving towards them. Like a shadow. He seemed to blend into the forest at times, and Lamia had a hard time tracking his movements. More than once she had lost him completely, and only saw him again after a while, and a part of her thought that Furuichi was letting her see him.
"I-I can't keep track of him!" Erwin said as he craned his neck further forward. "He's moving too fast, and...agh! I lost him again!" The idea of Erwin, the one with the best eyes inside the entire squad, to not be able to follow Furuichi was mind boggling, especially when factoring in his heritage.
Even Danica seemed excited as she pushed herself forward, planting her hands on the ground in anticipation as she stared past the distance. "What is he doing?" She asked, and by the grin on her face, Lamia knew the woman was hoping the Lieutenant was about to engage the enemy, so that she could see just how powerful her new Officer was.
Lamia noticed how Kattia was concentrating on Furuichi and, after a moment, looked towards Tania. "He's saying something to himself. Tania can you listen in?" The specialisation of Signal Operator was something relatively important in the Devil Army of old. In fact, it had been assimilated into the European Devils through Makai. Signal Operators were basically messengers, taking orders from commanders and dispensing them throughout the entire army or cohort. The way they did this was by vibrating their Demonic Energy with that of the air, sending these vibrations towards specific locations to be received and interpreted by other Signal Operators. They controlled air, basically.
Tania was able to manipulate this ability by catching the vibrations formed by Furuichi speaking to himself. Of course, words can get distorted in this non-direct manner, but it was still an option for Signal Operators and it was a skill Lamia had always figured to be a very good one to have. So the diminutive SO nodded her head and closed her eyes. Lamia, with her acute doctor's experience, could feel miniscule sparks of Demonic Energy the little SO was using in order to interact with the air. Each was quick and violent, with enough energy for a high powers Demonic Bullet, but small. The air shook around them, and Lamia thought it was harder to breath.
Before long, Tania opened her eyes. "It's all a jumbled mess, but I think he's saying 'First priority; squad safety. Second priority; target safety. Third priority; enemy combatants."
"That means he is going to attack them right?" Danica asked. "'Protect the squad'; eliminate the threats right?"
"Not always," Frank cut in. He pointed his finger out into the open towards Furuichi. "Look." And Lamia did look. She looked as Furuichi paused just out of sight from the patrol and began to creep forward. She watched as he waited, and listened, and then rolled past the patrol into a conjoint tree line that led back towards the squad, and away from the patrol. Furuichi had actively sought after a possible location for problematic encounter, and didn't attack them at all, nor did he just outright ran away.
Honestly, Lamia couldn't act surprise. Nor would she ever. She knew already, that her Furuichi had changed, and maybe it was for the better. But the changes were so blatant, the Doctor inside her was worried.
"Well, where is he now?" Tania asked with some annoyance, her irritation at the disappearing act Furuichi had starting to show herself. Lamia was about to open her mouth and add in her own snide remark, probably about Furuichi's habits on peeking at girls, when the Lieutenant voice was heard behind her.
"I'm right here," Furuichi's voice said. Danica, who had been on all fours, jumped almost five feet off the ground at the sudden sound of his voice. The woman balked when she was in the air, and quickly landed on her feet before she could further embarrass herself. Even Lamia, as used to surprises as she was, had to hold her own heart in surprise.
"OK team; I heard from those guys that there's a radio tower nearby that can be taken down to remove communications from them," Furuichi said. "I think that's our best bet in making this whole mission easier for us."
"Eliminate their main method of communication?" Kattia muttered in surprise. "Take away their ability to coordinate an effective attack or defence on us. Genius."
Lamia knew Furuichi well enough to know that he breaking out into a cold sweat at the word 'genius' being used to elevate him even higher in his squad's eyes. Even so, Lamia could no deny how smart the idea was. Furuichi always had a keen sense of capitalising advantages over disadvantages, and was smarter than he gave himself credit for.
"Exactly," Furuichi said, and smiled his boyish smile. Lamia felt her heart skip a beat. Maybe it had been the fiasco of the memory transfer, or maybe it had been her own developing feelings for Furuichi - what with her life or death experiences with the Ishiyama student tying the two of them together with a bond - but Lamia had come to noticing Furuichi's own set of charms. HIs small shining lights of brilliance, his burning loyalty, or even his small, honest moments; these moments were probably what endeared the young Lieutenant to Lamia in recent memory.
It only took bare moments for Lamia to realise she had thought of Furuichi was the young Lieutenant rather than Furuichi. Lamia shook her head. Let Xenovia see Furuichi as that, as the budding soldier still able to feel love, but let her see Furuichi as the friend she had grown to accept him as. No, Furuichi was Furuichi, no matter what uniform he wore.
"But, we are so much better than them, if we just take off the band's!" Danica whined. Furuichi snapped to her, an expression so much like her Furuichi, yet somehow unknown, seemingly taking over his features.
"No," Furuichi said firmly. A tangible steel behind those words. "You heard the briefing, you heard my explanation. You need to learn what it means to be weak. You need to learn how to be stronger, by being weaker."
Lamia had, of late, been cold to Furuichi for reasons she herself was unsure of, however, she understood what Furuichi was trying to do for his squad, and she approved. So many Devils nowadays were too high on their own power; not least of which could be seen in the Pillars. Many of the members - before Oga and the Ishiyama students had effectively thrashed them - were too eager and battle hungry for war. Now though, they've humbled themselves to the strength of the weak and instead immersed in themselves an acceptance of individual strength meant to push the whole.
In other words, they became an effective fighting force. As an intellectual, and a growing woman, Lamia was able to see the positive effect Oga's presence had on the Pillars. Compounded only by the further influence Furuichi's induction into the PIllars had been. The young man not only further accelerated the growth of some of the members, but he increased the organization's notoriety in the greater Underworld society.
She made a humming noise of agreement to Furuichi's words, and the strong pressure caused by Lamia's involvement - a renowned and respected noble's daughter - and Furuichi - who held the respect of his squad and was regarded as a larger than life figure - caused Danica to duck her head meekly with a squeak.
Both Kattia and Erwin tensed, worried about their teammate and wondering if they would be needed to jump in to defend the safety of their subordinate if the Lieutenant would dismiss Danica from the squad for disappointing him. Lamia winced. Despite their hero worship of Furuichi, the members of Furuchi's squad seemed to think of him as something of a grizzled veteran, expecting only the best and loyal into his unit.
They couldn't have been further from the truth though.
Furuichi blinked his eyes in surprise, and his expression of surprised disappeared to sheepish apprehension; needless to say that only scared Danica further. "Listen, there's no need to be worried. We're not here to fight a war; only do as we need to, and learn. Now, we move out, and hopefully we'd have a few moments of rest soon."
Furuichi then stood up, and without a glance back trudged through the forest again. He only took four steps, just normal average strides, and he disappeared into the foliage, no sign or track displaying that he was there in the first place.
"That...is scary," Frank said, staring at the forest ground. There weren't even boot marks.
Lamia would have agreed, but had she knew that in any other case, this scary skill would have been used to instead spy on women. And in a way, that too was scary, but for wholly different reasons.
I think this arc will be about five chapters long. Since this is as much about the squad now as Furuichi, I'll be developing the squads personality a bit more. Also ill jump to Lamia PoV quite a bit in this arc. I wont make a habit if it I want to keep this fic Furuichi story explicitly, but I figured lamia was probably the best option to pov shift without any real effect on the tone.
Also sorry. I've been...eh, out of it. I got D+ for an exam, and, you know, life is depressing at times. I'll try to get back to my one chapter a week schedule I had going on when I first started this fic. But, its getting harder to maintain, especially when I keep coming up with new stories.
Anyways. What did you guys think?