Hey guys!

Since I'll have to wait a little bit for the current Fire Force ark to finish before continuing 'The Devil's Family', I thought I might as well get another story started in the mean time.

I hope you'll enjoy this one just as much as my other story. I simply wanted to do a story that didn't have anything to do with the current plot and this is what I came up with.

Enjoy chapter one!

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The last week had been awful. First, it had started raining and storming like crazy, then an earthquake had hit the Tokyo empire, throwing the entire nation into chaos.

Right now, even the special Fire Force companies were busy with helping the civilians evacuate to higher ground and to dig people out from under collapsed houses. Of course, this was easier said then done since the entire city had been flooded, the streets merely acting as canals for the massive amounts of water that were flowing through them at an alarmingly fast pace.

This had been going on for days now, and the weather still hadn't calmed down at all. The members of company eight were all tired, wet and cold and if asked, would definitely testify that there was no way in hell they would ever get dry again.

The bad weather had only one positive effect. There hadn't been any Infernals showing up for days now, allowing the soldiers to completely devote themselves to the safety of the people. Apparently, the lost souls, as well as the Evangelist's insects, didn't like the cold and wet one bit.

Due to the situation, the emperor had decided to build certain places for the people to go until the water had gone down enough for them to head back home, or at least back to what was left of it. One was the area surrounding Amaterasu. The power plant had been build on one of the highest points in the empire after all, so the area was relatively dry. Other places were the fire stations that had been secured in order for them to still be able to operate somewhat normally and to hold off the water for the time being.

It was the third day after the earthquake, and still they were pulling badly hurt people and corpses out from under the rubble. Thanks to one of Vulcan's brilliant inventions, they at least had a pretty good boat. Sure, it looked a bit… odd, as did all the engineers inventions, but it definitely did, what it was supposed to do, so Obi didn't mind one bit. It was spacious, fast and relatively easy to maneuver and was able to carry quite a lot of weight.

Currently, he and his crew were doing their best to get to an area close to the border of their territory. Due to most of the streets having become unusable, even with a boat, the hadn't managed to get here sooner. The Captain only hoped they would find at least some survivors out here, despite the time that had already passed since the catastrophe.

As they neared their destination, the current got stronger by the minute. Soon, their vehicle's engine almost wasn't able to resist the strong pull trying to force them into the wrong direction anymore. If this kept up, they would be the ones needing to be saved, damn it! Shaking his head, he took a calming breath. As Captain, he needed to keep calm. They were all on edge as things stood already after all.

Despite the situation they were in, things had been going rather smoothly for once. They had come up with a formation that would allow them to keep moving, no matter what. He had positioned Arthur right up front. It was the Knight King's duty to cut away anything, that would block their path. Like this, they could also use those streets, that were problematic for the regular firefighter's units.

Maki was doing the heavy lifting together with himself when they were digging through rubble. Their almost inhumane strength had been the key to quickly rescue a lot of people, with whom the normal fire department would have taken hours for to get out.

Hinawa and Vulcan were responsible for logistics and support. The two of them kept an eye on everything to make sure none of them were injured or made things worse during the rescues they pulled off. Their expertise was very important in order to help everyone getting through this as safely as possible.

Iris was in charge of first aid. Since she was best at calming people down, her role had been selected in order to keep possible survivors as calm and stable as possible and to pray for the deceased.

The last piece of their formation were Shinra and Licht. The scientist was doing some math thing in order to figure out the best routes for them to take and Shinra was using his flames to help steer the boat in the desired direction, working against the current if need be.

Tamaki was assisting him with her flames as well, using them to push their boat away from rubble if they got too close

For any bystander, their little group seemed a bit odd, but they didn't mind as long as they could save as many people as possible like this.

As soon as they found a good spot to secure the vehicle to, everyone except Licht and Iris got off the boat in order to start working. The area surrounding them was a mess. Most of the houses were either collapsed or at least badly damaged, leaving enough rubble in the water for them to stand on.

"Okay people, listen up! We'll start searching for survivors right away. I want everyone to stay in sight, got it? I have no desire to have to search for one of my men as well."

"Yes Sir!"

And so they started searching.

Obi wasn't sure how all of them still managed to keep this up. Even he had started tiring by now. Also, he was a bit worried for his rookies. They all seemed even more exhausted then the rest of them. The evening before, Licht had told him why.

Apparently, their fire didn't mix very well with the current wetness everywhere. They were using a lot more energy to create their flames like this then they normally would. The three of them were pale and quiet and seemed to use every spare second they got to sleep, sometimes even forgetting to eat in the process.

Arthur was the one least affected by this. Since his ability didn't have much contact with the water, he was relatively fine compared to the others. Shinra and Tamaki however were a different story. They had to use their ability on a larger scale, sometimes even under water, which always seemed to leave them close to collapsing once work was done for the day.

He just hoped they would manage to keep up the work until there was time to rest and all of this was over.

Also, Shinra seemed to have trouble with walking through rubble all day without any shoes on. Because of the fact that he was using his ability quite a lot, putting on a pair just wasn't an option, at least if they didn't want to loose a lot of time when he was putting then on and off all day, or have an infinite amount of shoes he could burn through with them at all times.

Sighing, he started to dig through pieces of wood, rubble and everything that one could imagine in a pile that once used to be a multi story building. His colleagues did just the same and for a while, nothing but rain and the shifting of rocks could be heard. He was almost ashamed to admit that he was relieved about that. During their first rescue operation a few days ago, there had been so many people screaming in pain and terror wherever they went… It had been scary. To see and deal with destruction an a scale like this was nothing, one could easily shrug off. Obi was sure, he would hear those tortured screams for years to come.

After hours of digging, they had come up empty. Apparently, the inhabitants had managed to get away safely before the building could have a chance to come down upon them. This was good. They were all used to deal with Infernals, but to have to retrieve real corpses like that… it wasn't easy, especially for the younger ones among them who hadn't been in the business for all that long and hadn't seen their fair share of death yet.

Another problem that they were still facing war communications. The separate units and the government had no real way of coordinating among each other. They had decided to take care of their own area for now because they were sure all the other companies would be doing the same. The only information that had managed to get through had been the one about Amaterasu being used as evacuation point.

Since all this had started, they had found about fifty dead people. He really didn't want to think about, how many there were still hidden under all this rubble, or how many there were in the entire empire.

Of course, not every area had been hit as hard as theirs, but still… It would take a lot of time for them to bounce back from this.

"Captain!" Maki's shout pulled his attention towards something else then his dark thoughts.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Sir, I think, I found someone."

Without wasting any time, he sprinted over to her as fast as possible. Behind him, he could hear the others do the same.

Once arrived, he looked at the female soldier in front of him. "Where?"

"Down there Sir." She pointed into a small opening in between a destroyed Window and a few pieces of what used to be a roof. "I'm pretty sure she's still alive."

Looking down, he managed to make out a curled up form about two meters down. Just when he was about to doubt Maki's assessment, he saw the figure shiver slightly.

"Yeah, she's definitely alive. Vulcan, any ideas? I don't think we can move all this without having this hole cave in."

The engineer took a close look at the scene, making sure not to put too much weight on the pieces that were close to the hole.

"You're right Captain. I think the easiest way would be to maybe get Shinra down there and have him fly her out."

Obi nodded. They had made use of this strategy a few times already during the last few days and it had always worked just fine. "Shinra, you up to it?"

Said teen nodded. Man he was glad the kid wasn't claustrophobic or anything.

"Good. If you need anything or feel that anything's wrong, get out of there, got it?"

"Yes Sir!"

Getting him down there however was a bit more troublesome then they'd expected. All the glass from the broken window made it pretty hard to get down through the destroyed window. Once Shinra had managed to get past the broken glass, the teen had aequired more then his fair share of small cuts. Since the opening was rather small, the kid had left his protective coat behind, so there had been nothing shielding his bare arms from the razor sharp pieces cutting open the soft tissue.

A few seconds after Shinra had disappeared completely, they could hear him curse.

"Hey, everything okay in there?"

"Yes Captain, there is just some glass down here, that's all." Well, if he was admitting this much, the teen had probably managed to cut open his feet just now.

"Okay, how is she?"

After a few seconds of silence, the Devil's voice rang out from beneath their feet. "Well, she's alive at least, but I'm not sure about the rest. I'll bring her up now."

"Okay. Everyone, step back!" Experience had taught him to keep his distance from the teen's flames.

His order had come just at the right time. When everyone had taken a hastily step back, the Devil shot out of the hole, carrying the wet and limp figure of an elderly woman with him. After landing safely, the teen looked at him. "Sir, she's unconscious, I better get her to the boat right away."

"Sure. Are you okay?"

"Yes Captain." Well, the bloody footprints the teen left on his way to their vehicle told him something different,.

"Okay guys, I think we should head to the next area. If we keep this up, we might finish with this street today."

Slowly, they went after their comrade, who by now, had placed the injured comfortably into the boat while Iris was covering her with a warm blanket.

"Sister, how is she?"

The blond woman smiled while looking at her Captain. "Well, as far as I can tell, she isn't hurt. Only a few bruises. Except for that, she's way too cold and will need some food and water as soon as she wakes up."

"That's good to know. Do you think she'll be fine resting in the boat for now?"

"Sure, the heating blanket works here just as well as back home and we have food and water with us. There is nothing I could do at home that I can't do here."

With that, they headed out again. The rest of the day continued on like this. Slowly but surely, they managed to locate a few more people, some injured, some only exhausted. When it started to get dark, they had managed to collect eight people. Since their boat was at it's limit, they decided to turn back. It would take them another hour to get home after all and navigating through this chaos in the dark would simply be too dangerous.

Everyone was doing their best in keeping their guests as comfortable as possible. They had passed out blankets and food rations as well ans administered first aid if needed. Now, most of them were sitting on the floor, dozing off or just starring ahead motionlessly, still not able to believe what had happened to their precious home.

Obi could see his men tiring. Arthur's reactions had become a lot slower then they had been in the morning, almost having them collide with a fallen tree just now. Tamaki only managed to soften the blows if they collided with anything instead of avoiding collisions completely and Shinra barely seemed able to keep them on the right path, letting the current pull them of course more then once. All their flames had lessened in heat and intensity by now as well. They were panting heavily and Obi was certain they would have overheated long ago if it weren't for the cold, wet and stormy weather.

Even Maki wasn't all there anymore. She and their engineer were sitting in the back, lethargically taking care to keep the rookies in their line of vision, in case one of them decided to pass out and fall into the raging waters underneath them. Obi really appreciated their efforts, but he wasn't sure their reflexes were still fast enough to actually do anything about it if it were to happen.

Hinawa seemed to be the only one still on edge. He kept a close eye on their surroundings, in case something happened, Obi himself was at the helm, making sure to keep them steady. His own concentration was slipping by now as well.

If they all had been a little bit less exhausted, they maybe would have been able to avoid, what happened next.

Just as they had made it past the next corner, he managed to make out a small house that still seemed intact somehow. The odd thing about it was however, that the flickering light of a candle could be seen through one of the windows. The lower level was completely submerged, so it was somewhere on the first floor.

Startled, he stopped the boat.

"Hey guys? Can you see that as well?"

After everyone turned in the direction he was pointing, they nodded.

However, just as he was about to steer in the mentioned direction, he took a closer look at the darkening waters in front of them. Boy was he happy that he had done just that. Through the waters surface, there were multiple pieces of rubble sticking up, way to close to each other to manage to get through all of them safely. Also, the current seemed way stronger over here then it had been up until now.

As much as he hated having to ask his exhausted teammate to do this, he really had no other choice.

"Shinra? Would you mind flying over there for a minute? If someone's there, we can take them back with us."

Silently nodding, the teen got to his feet. By now, he had dark circles under his eyes. Before Obi could say anything else, the Devil jumped off the boat and flew towards the lone light shining in the dark.

It frustrated the Captain that he wasn't able to go there himself. That stupid house was only about ten meters away after all.

A few minutes after Shinra had disappeared through the nearest window, the light that had been flickering inside had gone out. Now, they were all waiting with baited breath for anything to happen. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long.

They saw their Devil climb onto the window ledge, carrying a surprisingly small figure in his arms.

"Oh my god, it's a child!" Tamaki seemed shocked. "I just hope her parents are back at the fire station."

Maki nodded, a worried frown on her face, while Iris folded he hands in prayer.

And this was when it happened.

First, it only seemed as if the waves got a little bit bigger, but soon, they knew that this wasn't the only thing happening. Rubble started sliding into the water and the remaining houses in the area begun falling apart as the earth shook once again.

The Last thing Obi managed to see from his rookie was his desperate attempt to throw the small child their way, before the house caved in over his head, dragging the teen into the murky water together with all the rubble.

The waves and the current got even stronger and started to pull apart the rubble that was left of the house, Shinra had been in. Once the earth had calmed down again, The house, the rubble and their comrade were gone, only leaving the crying young girl behind, who Shinra had managed to throw right into their arms before disappearing from the face of the earth.

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When the Captain had asked him to go and investigate that house, Shinra had had a bad feeling about it. He didn't know why, but he was certain something bad was about to happen. Maybe it was because he was so tiered, he wasn't even sure he'd manage to fly over there without passing out, or because of the oddness of the entire scene in front of him, but he really didn't want to go over there.

It took everything had to just manage to get over to the house and climb through the window without falling flat on his face. Once inside, he actually managed to stay on his feet. Wincing, he took one step after the other, carefully making his way towards the source of the mysterious light they had just made out.

Every step burned like fire. His feet had suffered a great deal during the last few days, climbing around those demolished houses, but today had been just the top of it all. While getting out that woman earlier, he had managed to cut himself up pretty good when landing on the ground of the pit the woman had been in. Of course, he had played it off, but as the day had gone on, the pain had only grown.

"Hey, is anyone here? I'm with special Fire Force company eight and here to save you!"

After calling out, he halted in his step for a moment, only listening.

Were that… footsteps? He was certain they were, although it didn't sound like very big feet. A second later, he was proven right.

A small figure stuck her head around the next corner. The only thing Shinra could make out were long brown hair, before a small human, about half his size, barreled into him, hugging him like her life depended on it, while loud sob's escaped the young ones throat.

It was a girl. Maybe seven or eight years old and apparently, alone.

"H-hey now, it'll be fine, I'm here to get you out, don't worry, okay?"

Scared green eyes looked up at him. "Are you an angel mister?"

"Wh-what? I…"

"Well, there is no way you could have come here without flying, right? So you have to be an angel."

He didn't know what to say. His whole life, people had only called him a devil or a demon, but never something as nice as this.

"Ahhhm, no, I'm no angel. I'm a fire soldier and I came here to save you."

"Oh, I see. But how did you get here then?'

Man, she was really curious, wasn't she? "Well, you see, I might not be an angel, but I can still fly. Would you like to see?"

With eyes full of wonder, she stared at him before nodding

"Good. My comrades are outside, I'll fly you over to them, okay?"

"Oh my god, I am really going to fly?" She didn't seem to be able to contain her excitement, completely forgetting her fear in the process. "This is awesome! I can't wait to tell Mommy and Daddy about it!"

Her parents? Shinra hadn't heard any other people in the house. "Hey, can you tell me your name?"

"Sure! I'm Shizuku."

Kneeling down in front of her, he extended his hand. "Nice to meet you Shizuku, my name is Shinra. Can you tell me if there is anyone else in the house? Where are your parents?"

Just like that, the smile dropped off her face. "I… I don't know Mr. Shinra. I'm alone right now. They were gone when suddenly, everything started shaking and… and…" Tears started to run down her face.

Carefully enveloping her in a gentle hug, he did his best to soothe her. "Hey now Shizuku, don't worry. You'll come with us for now and then, I promise you, we'll do our best to find them, okay? And please don't call me 'Mr', it makes me feel old."

"O-okay, sorry."

"Nah, don't worry about it. Are you ready to go?"

After contemplating this for a bit, she shook her head. "I need to go and get Tora-chan!"

"Oh, and who might that be?"

"Please wait here, okay?" With a small bow, she turned around and went into the next room. After a minute, Shizuku returned with a small stuffed tiger in her arms. "She has kept me company."

Smiling, he patted the stuffed animal's head. "Well then, its nice to meet you Tora-chan. Are the two of you ready?"

Now, the girl happily nodded.

Shinra got back to his feet and then preceded to pick up Shizuku, who was now clutching at her plushie as if her life depended on it.

"Don't worry Shizuku-chan, just hold tight for a minute."

But just when he had climbed back onto the windowsill, he could feel the house start to shake slightly. Was this another earthquake, or had the house finally had enough? No matter what was happening, he needed to get Shizuku out of here. Just then, he felt the wall crumble beneath his bare feet. Damn it, there wasn't enough time to fly anymore! In his current weakened state, it would take too long to take off.

"Sorry Shizuku!" Before she knew what was going on, Shinra used the last ounces of his strength in order to throw her towards the boat, while praying to the high heavens that he wouldn't miss.

He didn't get a chance to find out. Heavy pieces of concrete and wood started to come down upon him while he felt himself falling. Suddenly, he was submerged in icy cold, murky water, and still, the house continued to cave in on to of him.

Shinra didn't know which way was up anymore. His lungs were screaming for oxygen by now. Heavy pieces of rubble were carried through the water all around him, just as dangerous as cannon balls, grazing or directly hitting him from time to time. He was getting desperate now. If this kept up, he wouldn't be able to get anymore!

Suddenly, the current seemed to get faster and more violent all around him. Even more rubble was swept away, and he with it. The last thing he felt while being thrown around by the water like a leaf in a storm before everything got dark was his coat that was pulled off of him after being caught on some derbies, and a sharp pain in his head as it made contact with something hard.

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So then, that's chapter one.

Please tell me what you think of it and if you want me to continue this. Leave a comment and follow this story if you're interested, I would really appreciate it.

See you guys next time

nahesa