"B-but Mr. Satou, I just don't have that kind of money! Business has been slow lately and your company has started selling the same products for less than we can afford to. There's just no way we'll be able to pay these interest rates."
I pressed my glasses up my nose to a more comfortable position. The light from the window at my back caught it in the perfect way to shine off them. I could tell from the reflection on the wall behind the old man. I had read somewhere that people perceived a businessman with glasses as more competent than one without, and so I had some made for myself. The lenses were plain glass, so they hadn't been too expensive.
The small grocery was hot and humid, the summer heat only being combatted by a cheap box fan next to the countertop. I was sweating through the three layers of deodorant, and it was starting to soak my shirt. Good thing I was wearing my suit jacket, no matter how much hotter it made the room feel.
"Mr. Benson, I understand your position. I sympathize, I really do, but my hands are tied. You signed this contract four years ago and were perfectly happy with the terms then and for three and a half years. But now, all of a sudden, you think the terms are unfair? That's hardly reasonable, don't you think?"
They were, of course. I would know. I'd written them up myself using every dirty trick the Company taught us.
"How was I supposed to know the market would change like it did! Everything was fine until your company opened a Megamart just down the road."
"You're just a bunch of thieving liars!"
I turned at the shout and saw a young delinquent, bleached hair and facial piercings prominent, entering the store.
"John, go back outside. This has nothing to do with you." The old man said, trying to stay calm.
Ah. A grandson, then.
"But grandpa, how can you stand to let this guy lie to your face like that! They knew exactly what they were doing. Didn't you?"
Yes. There had been a staff meeting planning the acquisition two years, two months ago. The first one I had been allowed to attend.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. We opened a store, sure, but only because the previous owners made quite an offer to sell to us. We could hardly have known they would years in advance, now, could we?"
"John, please." Mr. Benson said, and the teenager stormed out, letting the door slam behind him. "I'm sorry about that, Mr. Satou. He's young and hotheaded, but he means well."
"Of course." My briefcase opened with a satisfying thunk. "Now, I understand that the details of your contract with Saratoga Corp. may be a bit much to settle all at once, but I've been given the ability to offer you quite a reasonable offer…"
I drew my pen from my pocket like a sword from a scabbard, and the old man stared at it in horror. I smiled.
XxXxX
I walked out of the local shop with a crisp new contract signing over the store and land under it to the Company. The place had been in the Benson family for three generations, over a hundred years, and it only took me four years and two pieces of paper to take it away. I could already smell the bonus it would earn me. I swapped my briefcase to my left hand and loosened my tie just a touch. Just enough to let me imagine there was a bit more air flow. I couldn't wait to be back in my cubicle under the air conditioner and upload the new document.
The streets were a bit more crowded in the neighborhood since the megastore had opened just a block away, and I jostled more than a few elbows and shoulders as I walked toward the corner to hail a taxi back to Corporate. I'd been with the company for five years now, since my parents had gotten sick of me lounging around the house playing video games all night and sleeping all day. My father had pulled some strings with a family friend and sold me to Saratoga Corp. as an intern.
Little did he know, I had found my true life's calling. Video games were fun and all, I still played them when I had a few moments from work after all, but no amount of killing mobs gave the same satisfaction as getting one over on a real, flesh and blood person in a game of wits and words. I'd always been smart, sure, but the corporate world had shown me just how smart I was. Four years later and I had earned two promotions and was leading the pack hunting for a third. I was top of my department in acquisitions and even my managers were worried I would be taking their job out from under them.
And for good reason. I was trying to. No. I was going to. It was simply a matter of time.
My phone read an hour past my normal lunch break. I could take a short break on the way back to the office to grab some food, then take the last few hours to finalize-…
"I'll show you, you bastard!"
A man's voice shouting. A woman screamed. Feet pounding on the pavement behind me, getting louder. I turned to face the commotion, and felt a line of fire open across my stomach. The Benson boy was pale and sweating, dawning horror in his eyes. He looked down and my eyes followed his. His hands were holding the handle of a large butcher's knife, the blade buried deep in my stomach.
"My suit." I said weakly. My briefcase was heavy, but I didn't drop it. How would it look if I returned to the office with the leather scuffed and torn from the pavement? Blood was staining my shirt and suit jacket. "Look what you've done to my suit."
The woman screamed again, but she must have crossed the street because it was much quieter. There was a dull roar of rushing water in my ears, and suddenly my eyes hurt.
This had better not make me late for…
The world went dark.
XxXxX
I was standing at the end of a hallway, in front of a door made of a beautiful dark wood. Hand-carved by the look of it, but I couldn't place the wood. There was something… unsettling about it, but I couldn't place it. A gleaming silver and glass placard was attached to the wall next to the door and read.
Asmodeus, Archdevil of Hell
Lord of Contracts, Vice, and Sin
Well, that didn't sound good. Where was I, actually? The rest of the hallway was barely lit and made of a similar wood as the door. The floor, too. My shirt was still torn from the attack, and there was blood all over my stomach and chest.
Shit. I wasn't dead, was I? That would be bullshit. If I died it meant Tatsuya would probably get the promotion and that idiot couldn't manage a lemonade stand without two assistants and a sexual harassment lawsuit. I needed to get out of this place and get back to…
My hand knocked on the door of its own accord. The wood was hot under my knuckles and so hard it hurt. There was a pregnant pause, then the door slowly opened on its own accord. My hand was returned to me, and I straightened my tie out of nervous habit.
The room was hotter than a furnace and massive. Not just big, but massive. As in why would such a huge room have such a small door and hallway? Hell, the desk alone was as big as some houses! My eyes followed the wood grain up. And up. And up. Then I saw the… thing sitting behind it, writing something, and I fell on my ass.
"Kazuma Satou. Twenty-four years old, Acquisitions Specialist at a promising start up in your homeland. Wise enough to prostrate yourself before your betters, foolish enough to be assaulted by a weak-willed child."
The thing's voice rumbled and shook my organs, and the room stank of sulfur. Or what I guessed sulfur would smell like, at least. Not like the sold the stuff in supermarkets. It didn't look up from whatever it was writing, and I could see a pair of short red horns poking through shiny black hair.
"Yes, I'm Kazuma."
Ah shit. It just slipped out! I swear!
The quill, I think that's what it was, at least, stopped scratching in what had to be mid-letter and just stayed there. After a second the thing looked up at me and I swear to god, it's eyes were on fire. On FIRE. It just stared for a moment, as though bewildered by what it had just heard. I straightened my tie. I thought it best if I didn't stand up just yet.
"I will assume you are awestruck, terrified, by my presence and ignore that. I assume you read the placard? Then I don't need to introduce myself? Good. Here's the deal, Kazuma." I swallowed at the way he said my name. As though daring me to say something stupid again. "Your soul belongs to me, as strongly as though you had signed it away yourself. The amount of harm you have caused in just four years of working in a corporation? Quite impressive for one of your experience. I am quite looking forward to taking you on as one of my clerks. Hell has quite a lot of paperwork, you see."
I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything. The thing's skin was bright red and his eyes were black and yellow, like a snake's. He towered, even over the desk and could have used a streetlight as a toothpick. It had a finally trimmed black goatee and could have been handsome if it wasn't… you know… the fucking devil.
"However, I have a situation that needs resolving and you happen to be the most… immediate solution at hand. And so, I am going to offer you a deal. I suggest you think very carefully on it before insulting me by refusing."
That really didn't sound good.
"I have a subordinate that has become a bit overconfident in his abilities. I sent him to a new and yet untapped market. Souls untouched by my work and deeds. Hundreds of millions, ripe for the taking. When this subordinate arrived, he thought himself too far away to be easily managed and began taking liberties. This is unacceptable. I am sending you, a weak mortal, to put him in his place. I imagine the humiliation of the defeat will be a better punishment than any amount of physical torture, and should serve as a fine example to the others."
Asmodeus returned to whatever he was writing. Clearly this wasn't enough of a deal to require his full attention. Lucky me.
"Should you succeed at this task, you will be given certain luxuries as a reward. Your recruitment to my forces will be postponed for the duration of your life in this new land, however long you can ensure that to last, and you will take over this subordinate's assignment of spreading my influence. A new cult of Asmodeus in a new land is just what I've been looking for these past few millennia. Should you fail, well. Let's just say I won't be using you as a clerk after all."
I shifted my body around to bow and press my head to the floor. It seemed the smart thing to do.
"Thank you for this opportunity, sir. Uh, my lord?"
I assume it didn't even look up at me. Well, hoped would be more accurate. There was a burning sensation around my neck and the smell of burning meat that made me cry out in pain. Then it was gone.
"Zephaniah will serve as your mentor and supervisor for your assignment. Assume anything she says to be coming directly from myself."
The smell of sulfur, and the heat, grew stronger as something stepped out of the shadows behind me and into existence. Another devil, clearly, but a female one. From my angle on the floor, I could see the hem of a deep red dress with black-furred, cloven feet underneath it. The legs seemed to stretch up for miles, and a serpent's tail whipped back and forth, cutting the air. Her skin was a pale white and she had adorned herself with fine gold jewelry.
Oh, and she had black ram's horns and no eyes. At all. Like, the sockets were just not where they should be. Just smooth fucking skin.
"I will keep a close eye on him, Lord Asmodeus."
"Answer whatever questions he has. Explain his situation in more detail, as well as his gifts. But do not help him in his assignment. Let his failure be his own."
"It shall be done, my lord."
The eyeless chick put her hand on my head and the office melted around me in a swirl of foul smoke. It felt like being dragged into the pits of hell.
I should never have walked away from my video games.
AN: "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the reviews that you plant." – Robert Louis Stevenson, fanfiction author