This is again, a rather serious story I wrote, as it deals with the subject of illegal trafficking, which is unfortunately still an issue in today's world. While there is no explicit assault, if this triggers anything, I apologize in advance. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Beelzebub belongs to Ryuuhei Tamura, not me.

Story 26: Recovery

Characters: Furuichi, Salamander, Labed, Xoblah

Pairings: None

Summary: Furuichi accompanies Salamander's platoon to help them save several women who have been abducted by the Solomon Company.

"So, what's the mission today?" Furuichi asked as he made his way to the weapons room with Salamander, Labed, and Xoblah. Today, he was to accompany Salamander's platoon on another rescue mission, and from what he heard, this was going to be a lot more difficult than anything else.

"This is a pretty serious rescue mission we have today," Salamander said. "It involves the Solomon Company, and it's going to be pretty dangerous."

Furuichi nodded. "So, what happened?" he asked.

"You see, while Naga's platoon were on a search-and-destroy mission a while ago, they discovered a beaten and battered young woman who was unconscious on the ground," he started. "They had brought her back to the infirmary to be healed up, and that was when they discovered that she had been abducted by the Solomon Company and was repeatedly assaulted and was about to be sent off to a brothel in a foreign country. She had managed to escape, but she told them about what she had gone through."

Furuichi stared at Salamander in shock. "So… you guys did a little more searching, and found that-"

"-there is an illegal trafficking circle which many of these missing women have been forced into," Salamander finished. "Our mission today is to save the women who have only recently been captured and arrest these demons. It'll be tough, but this is an opportunity, Furuichi-kun." He gave him a friendly smile.

"I see," Furuichi said. He knew that the missions would start to get harder, like now. But since he was their contractor, he was going to have to take these kinds of missions to get stronger and to get used to being a real strategist.

When they got to the weapons room, Furuichi selected a spear to use and he stood beside Salamander, Labed, and Xoblah as the squadrons slowly started piling in. It wasn't long before all of Salamander's platoon had arrived in the weapons room, and once they were all there, Salamander cleared his throat, silencing all conversations.

"Today's mission is a rescue mission," he started. "You see, several women have gone missing from various parts of the Demon World, and now, it's been discovered that they're now forced into a sex trafficking ring that's been running for many years by the Solomon Company."

Furuichi was still pretty shocked to hear about this. He knew the Solomon Company was bad, but to think they were involved in sex trafficking? Then they were a lot more horrific than he thought!

"This is a pretty recent discovery," Labed tells him. "Only until recently, this has never been known. However, it's been uncovered that they while they don't directly run the trafficking web, they do have connections in other countries in the Demon World that take these women and girls as prostitutes."

"So, our mission today is to go to their hideout where they keep the women and save them," Xoblah finished. "Also, we're going to be contacting other organizations in those other areas to free the rest of the women who have already been shipped off, and make sure they're returned back home safely to their families."

"Precisely," Salamander agreed. "But this is a pretty dangerous mission, as I said before. This isn't a matter of destroying monsters or hellbeasts. These guys are Solomon Company demons who have various resources at their hands, and these guys are just as ruthless."

"Another thing that's important," Labed added. "We're also trying to rescue traumatized women who would've no doubt suffered various atrocities to their bodies and to their person. It's important that you be careful when helping them."

One of the squadrons put his hands up. "After we save these women, what'll happen to them?" he asked.

"Dr. Furcas will take care of them in the infirmary and make sure they recover back to full health," Xoblah said. "They'll have to stay here for a while in order to ensure full recovery and treatment. Afterwards, we'll make sure they're returned to their families."

"You got that?" Salamander asked. "Now then, let's head out."

It wasn't long before they arrived at the location, an old warehouse that had clearly been abandoned for years. To their surprise, they didn't see any guards outside the doors, but they knew they had to be careful. However, when they went up to the doors, they saw that it was sealed tightly. But Salamander wasn't fazed by it.

"Everyone, stand back," Salamander said as he stepped up, holding his hand out at the doors.

At that moment, a ball of flames started to form in front of his palm as he stared at the door in intense concentration. Thrusting his arm forward, Salamander sent a large jet of flames towards the doors, burning a hole in the metal.

Salamander then thrust his arm forward again, causing the doors to explode. Now that there was a hole, they could easily get inside now. Furuichi followed the squadrons as they ran inside, holding his spear up in defense. However, they could hear the sounds of enemies running to see what was going on.

"Labed, Xoblah, you two help take care of the enemies!" Salamander ordered. "Furuichi, you come with me and the other squadrons. We're going to get the women."

Furuichi nodded and followed Salamander and the other squadrons as they made their way down the halls.

"They're this way!" They could hear the enemies coming towards them.

"Dammit…" Salamander got his flames ready. "Get ready, lieutenant!"

Furuichi hastily held his spear out as a few enemies came their way. Having already put some tissues up his nose, he could feel the extra strength coursing through him as he got ready to fight. It was quite obvious these guys were only fodder by the way they were trying to act all high and mighty. However, they were rather easy to defeat.

Salamander blasted his flames at one of the enemies, knocking him out, while Furuichi did the same, kneeing one of them in the stomach before headbutting him. As the enemy nearly keeled over, Furuichi delivered a swift roundhouse kick, thanks to the extra boost of power from the tissues.

Suddenly, Furuichi felt his spear being grabbed by one of the thugs, who grinned viciously at him. However, Furuichi remembered a technique he had learned during training with Hecadoth. Holding onto his spear, he pushed forward and struggled against the guy before kicking him in his gut. Using the opportunity, Furuichi quickly yanked his spear out of the guy's grip before planting the end of it on the ground and jumping up, giving the guy a kick in the chin.

"There," Furuichi said to himself. Salamander looked on, impressed.

"Nice work," he praised. "Let's go find them now."

"Yeah."

As they made their way down the halls, they checked each and every room in the hopes of finding the abducted women. Eventually, they found a large room at the very end of the hallways, but the doors were sealed shut. Furuichi turned to Salamander. "I have a feeling that they're in that room," he said.

"Then let's go and see," Salamander said.

They went up to the double doors and Salamander melted a hole in it with his flames. However, Furuichi was not expecting the sight that was on the other side at all.

In the large room were several young women, all of them bound, gagged, and beaten. Whatever clothes they had on were tattered, soiled, and ruined, but what Furuichi noticed the most was their eyes. All of them had hollow, traumatized eyes that were now filled with fear upon seeing Furuichi and Salamander.

As Furuichi approached one of the women, she let out a grunt of panic, trying to run away. "Whoa, whoa…" Furuichi coaxed gently. "Hey, we're not here to hurt you." He moved his hands behind the woman's head to undo the gag. "Here you go."

The woman coughed and gasped as the gag was removed. Furuichi smiled kindly at her. "It's alright," he reassured her. "We're getting you out of here. We're going to help you get better, and you'll be returned to your families."

She still seemed to regard him with suspicion, but Furuichi still gave her a kind smile. "Here, let me take care of this." He moved his hands to the ropes that bound her wrists behind her back and undid them, freeing her hands.

"Everything will be okay," Furuichi kept on telling her. "You're going to be given some proper food, you're going to be taken care of and nursed back to health, and you'll be reunited with your families. All of you. Recovery will happen soon."

It took time, since these women were reluctant to trust them. However, Salamander noticed that Furuichi was so patient and reassuring towards them. Of course, he knew that Furuichi loved girls and never stopped staring at them, but he had to admit, he really knew how to handle women who had been through a traumatic situation.

Eventually, Furuichi had freed all the women from their bounds and gags and by then, Labed had also reached the area they were in. "Sir," he said to Salamander. "We've just rounded up the thugs and Xoblah's taking them away to be arrested."

"Good," Salamander said. "We'll be going back to headquarters soon. When we get back to headquarters, these women will be sent to the infirmary, and we'll start notifying other organizations to help free the women who have already been shipped off and arrest any clients who have bought them."

It didn't take them too long to get back to the headquarters. Once Xoblah had returned from imprisoning the thugs, they had sent the women to the infirmary to be taken care of by Dr. Furcas. Furuichi couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Those women were going to be safe.

As he helped out Salamander and his subordinates with writing letters to the other organizations, he couldn't help but notice how there was a hint of urgency in their letters. They genuinely wanted those women to be rescued and reunited with those families. Then again, this was involving the Solomon Company, but it still surprised him to see how they were quite determined to make sure these women were safely rescued and the whole circle was put to an end.

"So, how'd you find the mission, Furuichi-kun?" Salamander asked at dinner that night.

"Again, it was pretty brutal," Furuichi admitted. "I was pretty shocked to know that illegal trafficking existed in the Demon World, because this is a legitimate problem in the Human World. But still, it was quite shocking to see those women in the condition we saw them in."

Salamander nodded. "I agree, it was very alarming," he said. "But still, I must say, you handled the enemies quite well." He smiled as he remembered how Furuichi had fought against one of the fodder guys, clearly remembering his many training sessions with Hecadoth. "I'm guessing that Hecadoth taught you how to fight like that, hm?"

Furuichi averted his eyes, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment. "Yeah, he taught me that," he said.

"Impressive, Furuichi-kun," Salamander praised. "Also, I was quite impressed by the way you were able to get those women to trust you. How did you do it?"

"Well…" Furuichi thought for a moment. "I remembered that they were traumatized, so I had to be patient and I had to be careful with them. Also, a lot of reassurance is important, because I needed them to trust us."

Salamander was, once again, quite impressed by Furuichi's skill and reasoning. It seemed like just when he thought that Furuichi had surprised them all, he seemed to continue to take him aback during missions, training sessions, or even when they were just relaxing. Furuichi was just so interesting and he couldn't help but be so curious about him. As he continued asking questions and writing notes down, he smiled to himself. He couldn't wait to do more missions with him.