Trent and Alphonse stood in the entrance hall of a stately apartment, somehow being intimidated by a trio of teenagers. Well, one teenager, a redhead with a cold stare and an imperious air, her clothes clearly placing her as Takeharu's daughter.
The other two teens were a silver haired young man and a decidedly unsure brunette in a pink cardigan. The young man was dressed in a bright red sweater vest, his face set in a judging mask and his stance a loose boxing one. The brunette literally had a pistol strapped to her thigh and an expression of mild bewilderment as she looked between her own group and the two newcomers.
The blond man raised a hand in greeting and declared, "Yo! I'm Trent, this is Alphonse. We were sent by Takeharu Kirijo."
The Mexican palmed his face and took a sharp breath. "Ok, Trent. Being casual is good and all, but a little more of an air of 'conciliatory professionalism' might have been a better start."
"Well, fine then." Trent replied as he brought his hand before his chest and bowed at the waist. "Greetings, SEES! We are Trent and Alphonse, a pair of freelance Demon Summoners hired by Mister Kirijo in order to coordinate with SEES during Dark Hour Operations."
Alphonse gave him a side glance for doing exactly what he asked while not following the spirit of the request before deciding to just roll with the punches the Canuck threw and gauge the other party's response.
Seriously, what was with this Boke and Tsukkomi routine their dynamic had turned into?
The redhead's eyebrow ticked up, her mouth set in an unamused grimace even as the young man behind her tried to stifle his laughter. The brunette, now completely lost, was looking between them in utter confusion. The redhead ended up sighing, "Despite my father's warning in regards to just what you two are and what you consort with, I'd not expected you to act like clowns."
"I was aiming to break the ice, but it looks like I'd need all of Global Warming to thaw you," the Canuck shot back. "No offense, I swear. It's just… how I operate. Anyways, you heard we were coming?"
The redhead clearly put a massive effort in keeping a straight face, and simply responded, "Yes, my father informed me of your hiring. He didn't give me all the details on it, but I assume that it won't conflict with SEES's mission statement?"
"It will not; if anything, we'll be offering our full support, both under the terms of the contract and on principle." Alphonse stepped in to try and get the conversation on less hostile ground. "As for the details, we're happy to share them with you. May we step in to discuss the arrangements?"
The brunette shook her head and chose that moment to make her thoughts known. "Ok, what is even going on right now?" She asked the redhead in complete shock before staring and pointing at the duo standing next to the door. "Demon Summoners? What? Who are you people?"
"These two are contractors that my father hired in order to assist SEES, specifically in regards to the group that Akihiko and I have seen around Iwatodai during the Dark Hour," the redhead answered, her ams crossing as she eyed the two of them. "And, the two of you can stay where you are while we verify your purpose with SEES."
Alphonse took a breath to steady himself. He never could handle that much intensity all that well.
"The short of it is, we are here to kick out the Cult of Gaia and a second group called the Order of Messiah which we suspect to have infiltrated Iwatodai like the first one." The man began to summarize the contract in formal terms. "We are to do this and dismantle their operations so that SEES might perform their duties unimpeded. Additionally, should SEES require our support, we will provide it to the best of our abilities."
"And, you know what, it's easier to show you rather than give you an in-depth breakdown. We work with demons, who are basically manifestations of thought energy brought into our world." Trent, deciding to just pour fuel on the fire, whipped out a small electronic device and activated it. Alphonse couldn't react in time to the motion and just looked at his companion in horror and resigned anger at what he was just about to do.
From the screen shot a beam of light, which resolved into a tall, armoured woman wielding a spear. The Canadian held a hand out in a flourish as he introduced her. "This is one of my contracted demons, Brynhildr." The Valkyrie's gaze swept over the stunned group, ignoring the fact that the brunette was fumbling to pull out her holstered gun and nodded to them. Trent then reactivated the machine and she disappeared in a burst of light, a smile on his face.
"Questions?"
"I have one." Alphonse instantly spoke up. "Why? Trent, just why? Why would you do this?"
"Because it's faster," the blond replied, giving his friend an innocent look that he instantly knew was horseshit. "Like, imagine giving them a full breakdown on the mechanics of how the Demons intersect upon our world in a stark metaphysical manner which allows them access to arcane energies that most are unable to tap into, along with the fact that the demons come from a multidimensional repository of thought, emotion and memes, shaped by human perception."
The Mexican's eyebrow twitched once, then twice. He was seriously contemplating just giving up, but if he hadn't done it in a year, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction now in particular.
"You know exactly what I meant." He replied. Seeing how no one else said anything, he turned to the redhead and bowed in apology. "Terribly sorry about this. To summarize, we are here to help, and under the terms of the contract, we are to do that and only that. Your father was quite thorough when making it, and we will be in Iwatodai solely for that. We are not to set roots here, we are to keep our associates in check, and we are only to intervene with SEES's operations at your request. Otherwise, we shall remain a separate body from SEES and merely use the dormitory as a base."
"We'll also be acting as minders here, essentially fulfilling the role of a dorm-mother, or whatever they're called," Trent added from the side, not looking guilty in the least.
The redhead was pinching the bridge of her nose, but let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh as she turned her gaze back upon them. "That fits within the information that was passed on to me. As for other matters…I suppose it would be prudent for us to be familiarized with your contracted… demons so that we don't mistake them for Shadows." She looked like she wasn't happy with the word, but said it despite her reservations.
Alphonse rose to his full height and nodded. "We've met the Pseu- forgive me, the Shadows." He then reached inside of his coat. "I'm sure you wouldn't mistake any of them except for one of mine for Shadows, but it's important to introduce you to them now."
He took out a pair of metal cylinders, both with small rings sitting at top. Trent flipped open the handheld computer once more and explained, "There are a few different ways to summon, store, and work with demons. I'm a bit more high tech than Al is." As he said that, the screen glowed and released a warrior woman who was garbed in a similar manner to Brynhildr and wielding a smaller spear. The blond hiked a thumb at her, and declared, "This is Gondul, who is of the same demon race as Brynhildr."
"Well met," the demon remarked, her expression was hidden by her helmet but her voice was warm. "I am the Reaper Gondul, originally a simple Valkyrie contracted to my lord. Let us break our foes and enjoy glorious combat together!"
"Heh, Mitsuru might not be too fond of you, but I think we'll get along pretty well," the silver haired young man remarked, a grin on his face. "I'm Akihiko Sanada, one of the most senior members of SEES."
Gondul's helmet turned towards him and after a few moments of study, she replied, "A bit young yet… give it some time before you make your glorious charge for Valhalla, young Akihiko."
Seeing how no one else had anything else to say, Alphonse closed his eyes and focused slightly. Immediately, the two tubes slid open, ringside first revealing glowing green bars that let out a low thrumming sound. From the circles, two rays of light slithered through the air like serpents before hitting the floor at his sides.
At his left was a huge and very angry looking dog with ratty black hair. It's face looked incredibly off, almost disturbingly human, especially with the way it's red eyes looked like that of a person. It merely gave a low growl. At his right was a petite woman with nearly golden hair, wearing a one slinged green tunic with a rough-looking pelt strapped on to it by a tusk, her arms holding a variety of bangles.
She just took one look at the group in front of her, one to the menagerie of demons and the two summoners and just loudly sighed.
"Damn it, Blackmore, what did you do this time? I know for a fact that not long ago the air was tense and you're partly to blame." She asked.
The man shrugged and answered as he slipped the handheld computer into one of his pockets. "I decided to speed up our current state of affairs. No point in dawdling."
"Normally I'd agree with you, but I can just tell that you could have paced it better and I wasn't even aware of what went down in this conversation." The woman remarked before turning to the children."Genma Atalanta. I don't know if you've heard the name before, but that's me, the woman who wrestled that punk Peleus, got kicked out of the Argonauts because they were all weak and couldn't handle me being in their ship, and killed the Calydonian Boar"
Gondul let out a deep laugh, her free hand coming up to slap her stomach. "Feh heh heh! You are entirely too stuffy! Let loose, enjoy yourself a bit, my friend! There's no point in being so attached to your deeds of the past, look to the future!"
"I'm just giving context in case they lack it." The huntress rolled her eyes at the Valkyrie and gave a measured response. "Whatever I achieve later will come then, it's honestly irrelevant to the now, and I can tell that the now is all business, so I'll keep it as such until it's fine to cut loose and let my hair down."
The Valkyrie chuckled again, and with nerve that even her contractor lacked, reached out and patted the dog. It ended with her hand in its mouth, bleeding, but she kept laughing as she said, "This one is the Black Dog, it does not like people or other demons much at all, so I would recommend against bothering it. You humans are not so durable as me!" As she explained that, she pulled her wounded hand free, a soft light glowing around it as it healed.
"I'm Yukari Takeba, and I'm so entirely lost," the brunette interjected, looking about ready to faint from the revelations.
The redhead sighed as she stepped forward, "I'm Mitsuru Kirijo. And Takeba, don't worry, we've time to figure this out."
"As for our full names, I'm Alphonse Crane, and this is Trent Blackmore." The Mexican reintroduced them. "I hope in the future we're able to work together in friendly terms."
"As Alphonse said, I'm looking forward to a prosperous working relationship with you all," Trent said with a genuine smile, deciding that it might just be better to lay off his usual antics.
Mitsuru nodded to the both of them, her eyes darting to the demons as she answered, "Quite, I hope that our partnership will lead to a quick resolution of the cult issue."
The Canadian grinned and gave a firm nod. "Believe me, most things don't tend to last long when we get involved. Just look at what happened to the Illinois Nazis."
Alphonse groaned. Why did he have to bring up that incident?