Reuniting with Shino and Akihiro was certainly a blessing, though in a rather unfortunate twist, Mika was unable to make the most of it.

Though he was able to visit them from time to time, his 'occupation' as a contract killer, or a 'long distance hatchetman' as Alastor called it, kept him from doing so as often as he wished. Even so, the pilot was still mostly fine with the amount of time he was given to spend with his old friends… at least until the year came close to its end.

According to Alastor, or his talking cane at least, near the end of every year, around the October to December time periods, business would ramp up significantly, or in layman terms, the higher ranking members of Hell would send more of their killers out to get some heads or broker out some business partners and deals before the yearly extermination took place.

"Let's just say that more than a few thousand demons are killed during the yearly exterminations! And, well… after every extermination, business becomes pretty bad, what with the culled population and all that," was something the microphone had said once. "So expect to work doubly hard near the end of the year!"

Mika honestly didn't have much of an opinion regarding that topic. Work was work, after all, and though he had more things to do, courtesy primarily of Barbatos, who had rung up Mika more often for jobs, he still had some free time to spend with his friends…

2 months before the yearly extermination

"You know, I didn't think it'd be this easy, to kidnap the apparent lackey of Alastor, but here we are!"

As the puppet looking demon spoke, Mika simply sat rather awkwardly in a chair in what appeared to be an interrogation room. The pilot was tied down to it in a truly uncomfortable manner, and as he wiggled a little in it, he couldn't help but sigh.

Figures, he supposed. He was just trying to have a good time for once in Klub Kaiju, having been invited there by Shino after being put through the metaphorical grinder, courtesy of Barbatos and Alastor, only to be kidnapped by goons who worked with the Overlord, Velvet. Why they wanted to kidnap him was a mystery, especially seeing as how Mika was never instructed to attack any locations that Velvet owned, at least not in recent memory, and how they even managed to kidnap him was even more of one.

"You know, I wish he'd show more emotion, honestly," commented another puppet demon, slapping Mika on the cheek with his hand. Rather unfortunately for the demon, however, because of how he was a puppet, his slaps didn't do much to hurt the pilot. If anything he just gave the guy a few light taps, and for the most part, Mika seemed entirely uninterested in the whole situation as he listened in on the conversation. "Erm… why did we kidnap him again? It's not like he did anything bad to the boss or sommet, right?"

"The boss says that Vox and Valentino want a word with him, and half of his ass too if you get me. Honestly it's weird but hey, what can I say, the kid looks like a good piece of ass," admitted the first puppet demon, glancing at Mika, hoping for a reaction, only to be disappointed when he got none. "Jeez, look, the boss won't be here for quite some time, so what the fuck are we gonna do?"

"We could always try and remove those limbs of his," suggested his friend, to which the puppet demon shrugged.

"Yeah, sure, but-" was his response, one that was cut off when they heard Mika's Barbatos issued phone ring a little. They had stripped the pilot clean of everything that was on his person before restraining him for good measure, including his phone and jacket, and upon noticing the latter ringing, one of the two picked it up and held it up against his ear.

"Moshi moshi?" greeted the puppet demon politely, or as politely as a demon could anyways… only for…

"EAT THIS YOU DIRTY FUCKERS! GALAXY CANNON!"

And at that, the entire building shook with the force of a tidal wave. As for Mika, his brows raised high onto his head when he realized what was happening.

"Shit."

Some time ago

"Those fucking kidnappers wanna kidnap a friend of mine, eh?! Well tough fucking luck!"

As he said that, Norba Shino sprinted towards the building which was used to hold Mika. The damn blokes thought they could get away from him, eh? Well, unfortunately for them, the Ryusei Go pilot had pretty good spatial awareness despite what some may think, and that, combined with the bonuses that came with having parts of Gundam Flauros attached to him, heightened his senses enough to spot his old pilot friend be dragged out of Klub Kaiju and off to parts unknown.

It was rather amusing, all things considered, what with them just using some demonic energy to paralyse Mika from afar and lifting him up over their heads and rushing out of Klub Kaiju. Shino would've been lying if he said that he didn't laugh out loud upon seeing it unfold right before him, though after he had his laugh, the pilot was quick to rush after his friend and his kidnappers.

Though they had sped off by car, Shino was more than capable of keeping up with them thanks to his mechanical limbs, with him barging past whoever got in the way with little remorse. Sure it was rude, but politeness be damned! His friend was just kidnapped and he needed to fix that! That and this was Hell. Apologising for bumping into someone wasn't exactly you did down here.

Hell, if anything, Shino reckoned that him shanking a guy in the stomach with his forearm shield when he tried to stop him from sprinting after the car was more commonplace than actually apologising.

Before long, Shino trailed the car to a massive warehouse, one that looked incredibly conspicuous even in Hell. The place looked like an abandoned toy factory, one that was decorated with puppets… puppets that were bleeding, and an overall grim atmosphere that made Shino shudder, if only for a moment, before he sighed.

"Dear me, Mika. Why did you have to get kidnapped by Velvet's crew, Mika?" grumbled Shino, facepalming as he shook his head. He could tell that it was Velvet's place just from a glance, and though he didn't wanna touch the place, he did still have to save his pal. "Hm, going in is definitely a second death for me… and they probably won't give him Mika if I asked politely…"

And then he remembered his cannon… and he smirked.

Cracking his neck, Shino took in a deep breath as the cannon that rested flat against his back flipped up and over his shoulder. Norba held its sides with both his hands to steady it as he got down to one knee, knowing from past experience that he would need some stabilization before he fired this thing, and once he was down, a small 'canister' on his back shifted upwards and connected to the rear of his 'back cannon', locking in with a satisfying cling.

'What did Yamagi call this again? A Pseudo Dianslief launcher? Electro-whatever cannon? Eh, either way, it's still my Galaxy Cannon,' thought Shino as he heard the electromagnetic charger on his back rev up. It was weird, having such an advanced piece of tech stuck onto his back, though he reasoned that it was less technology and more demonic magic that powered it as he shrugged and took aim, lining his shot up at the base of the building in order to maximise damage dealt.

Then he stopped himself when he realized… this was very unsportsmanlike for him to do!

Pausing briefly as he pulled his phone out, Shino casually dialed Mika's number into it before and put it on speaker. As soon as it was done, the young man hummed silently to himself as he waited for someone to pick up, and when they did…

"Moshi moshi?"

Shino's smirk was so wide that it threatened to split his face in half.

"EAT THIS YOU DIRTY FUCKERS! GALAXY CANNON!"

And right as the electromagnetic shell was discharged from his cannon… Shino realized that bringing the entire building down while Mika was still in it was probably a bad idea.

Several minutes later

"Look, Mika, I didn't mean it…"

"Yeah. I know. It's just hard to be happy when an entire building was dropped onto you."

As he stated his reason for being pissed off, Shino couldn't help but chuckle awkwardly. Sure, he did save his friend, but it was probably a bad idea to have targeted the foundations of the building he was in and bury Mika under several tons of debris. It definitely wasn't his intention, far from it… though it was what it was…

"How'd you even survive, anyways?" asked Shino, scratching the back of his neck as Mika rolled his gauntleted Barbatos shoulder, raising a brow as he glared at Norba, still having not forgiven him for dropping an entire building on him, though he still replied nonetheless.

"Demons are more resilient I guess," replied Mika, to which Norba shrugged.

"The other two didn't survive," pointed out Shino.

"They were made of cotton," countered Mika.

"Touche…"

And at that, an awkward silence stretched on as Shino whistled awkwardly while Mika just walked, seeming rather irritated as he flexed the fingers of his Lupus Rex hand, only to slap it when one of his fingers jammed up a little.

"Hey… would you forgive me if I got you an entire pack of raisins?"

"Maybe."

"Then consider it done! On the assumption that Otachi won't bite my head off for leaving my job, of course."

"If she does, I'll kill her."

"Or she'll take you and lay eggs inside you that eat their way out of your stomach."

"Do I look afraid?"

"...no. Heh, never change, Mika, never change."

1 month before the yearly extermination

"You know, I never thought you'd ask me to help out."

"And I never thought that I'd come down to Hell and become Barbatos, but there's a first for everything."

At that, Akihiro couldn't help but scoff a little as he raised his right arm up to block a swing from a baseball bat, which shattered against his Full City gauntlet. The demon, a fish looking sonova gun, appeared bewildered that his wooden bat shattered against a metal surface, though before he could process it, Akihiro pummeled him in the face with his elbow, caving his skull in and sending him flying back.

"Yeah, there really is a first for everything, and all things considered, I guess I can understand why you need help? Breaking into a high security warehouse isn't an easy thing to do alone, and one that's owned by Velvet and Baxter is another thing entirely" said Akihiro, raising a brow when he acknowledged how they had quite literally tore through an entire army's worth of demons. The pilot frowned a little at that, not exactly taking any pride in all the violence, though he didn't dwell much on it as he turned to see a large puppet based demon fire off a rocket launcher, sending the projectile soaring towards him. Akihiro winced at that before he leaned to the side and dodged the shot, only to raise his right Full City arm up for a counterattack.

Narrowing his eyes a little in concentration, Akihiro had the knuckle guard of his Full City arm flip out first and snap onto the back of his hand, and once that was done, the pilot twisted his hand down, causing a barrel to emerge from his right arm gauntlet. And, with another flick of his wrist, a small, unguided missile was ejected from the barrel, with a massive amount of steam being expelled near the back as it flew towards the large puppet demon, who didn't have any time to react before the missile impacted him and reduced him to a fine red mist.

"Ah. There were a lot of people to kill this time. Barbatos says that this job is from Lucifer," explained Mika as he used both the claws of his Lupus Rex hand and the sharp digits of his gauntleted Barbatos arm to slash at one of his opponents several times, ending his flurry in a double downwards, X shaped slash that sent him flying off to parts unknown. With that done, Augus ducked under a swing from a metal bat before he lunged up and kneed his attacker in the face.

Not letting up, Mika launched another kick with his left foot, ripping apart his opponent's stomach with the golden claws of his foot, before he leapt into the air and launched a roundhouse kick to the demon's face, and the moment the sole of his feet hit his target's face, Mika activated the pile bunker, and the result was something that even Akihiro flinched at.

"Lucifer? You've got some connections, don't you?" commented Akihiro, to which Mika shrugged before he blocked a strike from a sword that looked very much like Barbatos' Longsword from a demon. Narrowing his eyes at that, Mika seized the demon that was wielding the Longsword's wrist before kneeing them in the stomach, forcing them to let go of the weapon and allowing him to seize it. And, with it in his hands, the pilot began to use it as best as he could, with him delivering a flurry of messy yet destructive swings at his opponent, ending in a downwards slash that sliced them in two.

"Barbatos and Lucifer are friends I think. I don't care much about either, but I get a good pay bonus if I get this job done, and it seemed difficult, so I decided to ask you to help," explained Mika, short and simple as Akihiro pummeled a fish demoness in the face with his knuckle guard, caving her skull in, before he activated his sub arms to catch a pair of pufferfish demons who attempted to get the jump on him from behind. The pilot of the Full City raised a brow when he saw them puff up, though he didn't comment much on it as he had his sub arms fling them off to parts unknown. "There's something in here that he wants."

"And what would that be?" asked Akihiro, glancing over to see Mika using the sub arm of his Lupus Rex arm to shoot his pistol as he choked a demon in his hands. It was rather amusing to watch, honestly…

"Don't know, don't care. I just know Lucifer wants it and will pay a lot for it. So let's get this over with," replied Mika, to which Akihiro shrugged.

"Fine by me."

Several long moments later

"I think we got them all."

"You think?"

As Akihiro asked that question, with the sarcasm quite literally oozing from his voice, both he and Mika leapt off the cartoonishly tall mountain of demon corpses that had piled on during the past hour or so. They had quite literally fought and killed an entire army's worth of demons all in the span of an hour… more or less!

Sure, said army was very incompetant and easy to handle, though it was still an accomplishment.

"So… should we look for the thing Lucifer wants?" inquired Akihiro, to which Mika shrugged and looked around, only to raise a brow when he saw a conveniently located safe off to the side of the room they were in. Upon seeing it, the two jogged up to it and examined the thing. "Think it's in the-"

And Akihiro didn't even have time to finish that statement before Mika slammed his Lupus Rex fist into the safe, scrunching up the metal and allowing him to rip the door off.

"Subtle as always," quipt Akihiro as Mika reached into the safe and read the contents.

"..."

"So… what does it say…?"

"What the fuck."

And at that, Akihiro peeked over at the piece of paper Mika was holding… and he too found himself at a loss for words.

'The specific spell you use to give sentience to plushies'

"..."

"..."

"The pay for this had better be worth it…" grumbled Mika.

And to that, Akihiro readily agreed.

A few days before the yearly extermination

"Hey Mika, you've got a package!"

Raising a brow when he was called, Mika looked up from his Lupus Rex claws, claws that he was sharpening before he was called, and glanced over at the one who had called him, namely Husk. likewise, Alastor, who was sitting by the side, reading a book and drinking from a cup of questionable liquids, looked up from the literary disaster that he was scanning through and looked over at Husk with great interest.

Admittedly, both Mika and Alastor felt some form of shock when they saw what Husk was holding. As he had said, it was indeed a package, a massive one at that, with it being almost half as tall as Husk was. And, if the strained look on his face was anything to go by, the package was heavy as well.

"My oh my! This is certainly unexpected!" proclaimed Alastor in amusement as Mika raised a brow and got up to his feet, genuinely having not expected a package to be sent to his way as he did so. Glancing over at Alastor, the pilot raised a brow at him, only for the Radio Demon to raise his hands up defensively. "Now now, Mikazuki Augus. I'm as much in the dark as you are on who sent this package."

… well, though he didn't believe him completely, Alastor didn't seem to be lying, something that was a little assuring as he took the package from Husk's claws. Oddly enough, it didn't seem too heavy to him, though he did have mechanical limbs, so he supposed there was that…

"Well what the fuck are you waiting for? Open the damn thing," grumbled Husk, crossing his arms as he glared at Mika, who just set the package on the ground as he sat in front of it. As he lifted a claw up to rip the package open, both he and Husk noticed how Niffty was staring out at them from the room toilet with a curious expression.

"Open what? Oooooh… a package?!" proclaimed Niffty, going from shocked to excited within a split second as she smiled and rushed up to Mika and Husk's side, tossing a plunger up over her shoulder as she did so. Husk winced a little when the little gremlin quite literally slammed into his side, though he didn't comment much on it as he snorted. "Open it, Mika!"

"Ah," was all Mika bothered to say as he used his golden claws to rip the package open.

And when he saw the contents of the package… the pilot was quick to go silent as Husk, Niffty and, Hell, even Alastor raised their brows at it.

"I… don't really know what I was expecting, but sure…" muttered Husk in bewilderment as Mika grabbed the unwrapped 'gift's' handle and lifted it up to eye level.

"I'll agree with you this time, Husker. I wasn't expecting that either," admitted Alastor, sounded sheepish, or at least as sheepish as he could, as he smirked. Even so, Mika didn't acknowledge any of their comments as he stared at the gift that he was given by an, as of now, unnamed individual, and after some time, he couldn't help but snort.

"Cool…" muttered Mika, and not long after, his Barbatos issued phone rang rather violently, prompting him to answer it with a raised brow… and immediately, his eardrums were destroyed when Shino screamed at him from the other side.

"HOLY SHIT MIKA YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT JUST CAME IN THE MAIL!"

Some time later

For the most part, Mika didn't like taking jobs when they were given to him by Alastor.

Simply put, the Radio Demon had a hard on for giving him absurdly difficult tasks to complete. Pitting him against an entire army was very common when it came to Alastor, and though he was capable of single handedly completing almost all that was asked of him… Mika would be lying if he claimed that he didn't struggle with murdering an entire army on his own.

Even so, from time to time, he would invite Akihiro and Shino along with him to join him in the hunt. Their help did make his jobs much easier, though not by much as two extra pairs of hands, or three pairs if one were to include Akihiro's sub arms, could only do so much.

Hell, a good example of how excessive these missions were could be seen now, as Mikazuki, assisted by Akihiro and Shino, with the three of them raiding a Vox warehouse at the behest of Alastor. On a regular day, Mikazuki would've called for help from I.M.P, especially considering how heavily guarded this warehouse was, and yet, today was different.

Why, you may ask? Well, it was because today was the day Mika, Akihiro and Shino were, simply put, rearmed with new gear.

"Show me what you can do…!"

Widening his eyes as his pupils dilated, Mikazuki rushed towards a demon with a massive greatsword in his hands. The sight of one of Alastor's latest lackeys rushing towards him was enough to make the demon pause briefly as he wondered if he should stay or run the fuck away, though the thing that really struck terror into him was the thing that Mika was holding off to his side as he charged at him.

To call the weapon he had a mace would be an understatement. The more appropriate term would be a massive, tapered and sharp slab of metal stuck onto a long metal pole, or, as Mika liked to call it, the Ultra Large Mace.

In his hands, the Ultra Large Mace was a rather light weapon, perfectly balanced and incredibly destructive. In short, it was just as powerful as it was when it was still a weapon that was used by Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex. Better yet, the Ultra Large Mace still retained all the gimmicks that it had back when it was still an Anti-MS weapon.

And with all that in mind, Mika narrowed his eyes as he tightened his grip on the handle of his Ultra Large Mace as he closed the distance between himself and his target demon, who readied a swing with his greatsword. As soon as he was close enough, Mika widened his eyes a little, and as if on command, the handle of the Mace lengthened itself, in turn extending the Mace's reach as Mika swung it at the greatsword wielding demon.

The full length of the Mace's handle allowed the pilot to swing the weapon at his target whilst also staying out of range of the greatsword, and with a single slam, the Mace sent the poor demon flying off to the side.

Huffing as he watched the demon fly off to parts unknown, Mika was quick to turn and jab the tip of the Ultra Large Mace towards a demon that was attempting to sneak up on him, only for said demon to catch the Mace by its sides. The demon had four arms in total, two organic and two mechanical in appearance, and he held onto the mace with all four of his hands as he offered a victorious smirk.

"I gotcha, bastard!" proclaimed the demon, only to pause briefly when he noticed how the spike on the very tip of the Ultra Large Mace seemed to be vibrating a little as he held onto it. The four armed demon seemed confused for a moment… though within seconds, his entire head was obliterated when the Ultra Large Mace's Pile Bunker burst forward and pulverised his head.

"Hmph," muttered Mika as he retracted the pile bunker and held the mace off to his side, raising a brow as he heard the sound of several ejected shells off to the side. That had to be Shino, Mika reasoned. The guy undoubtedly got the longer end of the weapon stick, what with his mystery package having contained not only the twin Assault Knives that were used by Gundam Flauros, but also a short barrel cannon that was also used by the Gundam and a Partizan that was used by Ryusei Go III. The guy was practically a one man army by now, and Mika made sure that he stayed far from him to make sure that he wasn't caught in his crossfire.

As for Akihiro, however…

"Mika, watch out!"

When he heard the aforementioned guy yell out, Mika turned and saw him rush to his side and help him block an incoming missile shot from a bulky robot looking demon with a rocket launcher in place of his head. As the dust settled, Mika nodded towards Akihiro in thanks.

"Thanks," thanked Mika, only for Akihiro to grimace and look past him, and instinctively, Mika ducked down. His instincts were correct, as Akihiro was quick to swing the weapon he had in his Gusion Rebake hand off to the side, in turn striking a robot looking demon with knife hands in the chest with his weapon. "Thanks again."

"Heh, no problem," assured Akihiro, smirking as he ripped the blade of his weapon out of the chest of his most recent kill and rested it on his shoulder. Mika raised his brows when he saw that Halberd of his. The Halberd was, simply put, a scaled down version of the weapon used by Gusion Rebake (Full City), complete with a telescopic handle.

Even so, that was not the only thing that Akihiro had received from his package from the unknown person. No, the other thing that he had gotten was the Variable Scissor Shield, which was latched onto his Full City arm. The Scissor shield was, like the Halberd, a scaled down variant of the one used by the Full City. Thus far, the guy hasn't used it in Scissor mode just yet, opting to use it as a shield until he needed to use it as a weapon.

"Hmph, jealous?" teased Akihiro, sounding rather playful for once as Mika raised a brow, not expecting that as Atland laughed a little, though both paused a little when they heard an explosion off to the side, prompting them to turn towards it with raised brows, brows which were raised further up their faces when they saw Shino be flung out of the explosion and land in front of them, with his two Assault Knives and Partizen landing not too far from him not long after. "S-Shino?"

"OH MAN THAT WAS AWESOME!" proclaimed Shino, smiling widely as he flipped up to his feet and dusting himself off. Once he was dusted off, Shino picked up his dropped weapons and offered a thumbs up. "These new weapons are something else, eh?"

"Ah. They make my job much easier," said Mika, nodding as he rested his Mace on his shoulder as Shino smirked.

"Yeah, it'll make my job easier too… though we should probably finish this one before we talk about future jobs, eh?" quipt Shino, smiling as he motioned towards a handful of demons that were still somehow alive in the warehouse.

And to that, Mika simply shrugged before he slammed his Mace down into the ground, cracking it more than it already was as Akihiro chuckled a little while Shino smirked and flipped his Assault Knives around in his hands, revolver style.

"Man, I feel bad for these fucks."

"And I never thought I'd be agreeing with you."

"Ye- wait what?! C'mon Mika!"

A short while later

To say that the entire warehouse was obliterated would be quite an understatement.

Though perhaps more so the fault of Shino, the complete destruction of the warehouse was not planned by any of them. Even so, they completed the job that was given to them, and as such, they couldn't really complain about that. Besides, Alastor never said that they had to keep the warehouse intact, now did he?

Both Akihiro and Shino seemed rather content with being able to relieve some stress with their friend, with Shino's smile being noticeably wider as he marched on while Akihiro walked a little more upright. Mika himself didn't seem to have any opinion on the whole matter, though it was nice to be able to use a weapon that wasn't his pistol for once.

"So, the yearly extermination's gonna be happening in a few days," piped up Shino, smiling a little as he stretched. Akihiro raised a brow at that before nodding, having been reminded at it, while Mika just shrugged. "It's a pretty weird way to handle the overpopulation issue in Hell, but it doesn't really matter too much to me. If any Angels try to kill me, I'll just kill em back."

"Ah. Angels are just demons but stronger, right?" replied Mika, raising a brow as Shino laughed at his pal, flipping his Assault Knife in his hand as he nodded. On the other hand, Akihiro shrugged as he cracked his mechanical knuckles.

"In a way, yes, but they're also specially trained to kill demons of all kind. We might be at a disadvantage if we fight them head on," pointed out Akihiro, to which Shino scoffed.

"Well, they've never fought Tekkadan, now haven't they? We've fought worse in the past, and even if they do manage to kill us again, we're not gonna make it easy for them!" proclaimed Shino, clenching his hand into a fist as he spoke. Akihiro chuckled a little at that while Mika just smirked a little as he shook his head.

"Ah. If they want to kill us, we'll make it difficult," agreed Mika, only for Akihiro to rest his Halberd against his shoulder and speak up.

"Considering how we've got these things now, I think that won't be too hard," pointed out Akihiro.

And to be honest, Mika agreed.

Having the Ultra Large Mace did make him feel just a little stronger…

Yeah, basically filler.

But it was fun to write, and I hope it was fun to read! I'm sure all of you are tired of filler by now, but not to worry, the chapter after the next one will be getting into the canon at long last!

But until then, I hope you don't mind the (very) slow burn pace of this story. If you hopped off, I don't blame you… but if you're still here, then I thank you!

Now onto the review replies!

Dead344156: thanks!

Locke Lynx: well I believe I commented on how Alastor killed Bael near the first few chapters… so…

coldblue2015: firstly no probs! And regarding your questions, I think I kinda answered the one on weapons indirectly. Alastor most likely knows quite a bit through word of mouth, and Mika finding a love interest is unlikely but not off the table for now (wink). And thanks for the worry. You stay healthy and safe too!

zeonstar360: hey for all we know, Carta could've went to heaven… *cough*

King of 2211: indeed it does!

starscreamer11: heh… I do have a thing for slow burns…

Vegeta-Lover27: well I'm glad you liked it, and here's more!

See you guys next time.