Beelzebub adventures chapter 8
"Remember to take it every three hours. It's the best we can do for you now.'' Dr. Forkas says with his usual playful tone was serious, as the gang had never heard before.
"Remember what I told you about the adrenaline shots.'' Lamia added, while placing Beel near Oga's head, over the pillow his head was resting on.
"I'll remind him, don't worry. Thanks for everything.'' Hilda thanked before the doctor and Lamia entered Alaindelon's body. She took another handkerchief and wet it in the bathroom chamber of the train wagon they were traveling on. Oga looked at her while she placed it on his forehead.
It had been five days since the start of their adventure, which was becoming more of a misadventure every hour it passed. After abducting and interrogating two of the mineworkers Furuichi had knocked out in the tunnels, they didn't get to know much about the reasons of the kidnappings. Since neither Natsume and Shiroyama could remember much of their conscious moments besides isolated words such as "species'', "potential'' and "breeding.'' After crashing the heads of the demons into a big rock inside the forest surrounding the mine at a convenient moment when dire wolves howled nearby, the gang fled and headed to the place they knew the railway went it's way to the city. Jumping over the roof of the first train that passed by, they returned to the city. After going back to the second hotel they had rented, the gang changed appearances and embarked on the next train to the city where Beel pointed the girls were: another important city, more than a thousand miles away.
Fate however, took pleasure on messing with them. Soon enough, the location of the girls started to change time after time, as if their captors knew they were coming close. By the end of the second way, Oga and his gang hide their energy signals for as long as they could. Since Oga had the most training in such art, he had to carry the heaviest burden. The tactic worked, and soon enough, they started to close the distance with their targets. After three days, the tactics of their foes improved too, starting to create multiple decoy signals, forcing Oga and Beel to spend even more energy to filter out the fakes. What started as what was supposed to be an 18 hours trip became a 5 days voyage that started to deplete their funds and Oga's health. By the third day, he was no longer able to sleep at all, except for some momentary episodes of semi conscience in which hallucinations even made him scream in horror. By the fourth day, a strong fever knocked him down, he completely lost his appetite and vomited whichever food he was given forcing he gang members to take turns to watch over him. Eventually, Beel was forced to share his life force with him in order to keep him alive, resulting in a strange side effect: Oga's hair color started to tint with small spots of green, his eyes becoming lighter and greener as the hours passed. After one day, Beel's naps got increasingly longer and his ability to track down people started to dwindle.
By the sixth day, luck seemed to favor them again. Alaindelon was finally able to bring Hilda, and Lamia with them. The wet nurse had been in the Underworld capital, leaving Niko there due to illness. She told them the Demon Lord (or at least, top Brass of his army and intelligence service) was aware of the issue since a few days before by an independent investigation of strange events that had been taking place all over his kingdom in a coordinated way (sabotages, kidnappings, grand thefts). Suspecting a big scale terrorist attack or insurrection attempt, the crown decided to address the problem with heavy hand by declaring a State of Alert of medium level. Along with her, an interesting character of great power was sent by the crown to aid in the operation: lieutenant Jeanpierre of the Royal Guard, a skilled special ops soldier….and also the mustached and a bit more masculine younger brother of Alaindelon.
After sharing all the information they had gathered, the conclusion was not too difficult to come by. An insurgent group, dissatisfied with the peace kept with the Human World, was planning to topple the Demon Lord. While they consolidated their power, the new government would introduce powerful human sleeper agents, demon hybrids on Earth in order to outbreed humans, or at least gather sufficient numbers in order to destroy them in a coordinated invasion.
"So, in other words, they were about to turn me into an Incubus?'' Natsume said with his everlasting smirk.
"This blood test proves it, boy. Your bloodstream is full of demonic mother cells that are slowly modifying your DNA, and will eventually fully transform you into a demon. They were using ultra sound to control you, and I suppose that was going to be the method they would use to possess you whenever they needed.'' Jeanpierre explains.
"But aren't Incubuses already on Earth since ages ago?'' Furuichi wonders.
"Not exactly, boy'' Jeanpierre added in a relaxed but serious tone "Their activity was outlawed by the Demon Lord under death penalty since the agreement he made with Tatsumi Oga. Sure, there are outlaws up there, but they're not enough to carry out this kind of operations. The case of your friend, however, is different: his transformation will be slow enough not to be detected by the current Demon Lord and his authorities. By the time his transformation is complete, the crown of the underworld would have ideally be in another hands''
"And what can you do about me? My friends need my aid but I'm also a walking bomb.'' Natsume asks.
"I can inject you a serum that can slow down the process, but if we don't hospitalize you soon, the change will be irreversible and your humanity destroyed.'' Dr Furcas replied.
"So…is it possible that Paako and the girls are being turned into those creatures too?'' Kanzaki asked.
"It's highly likely. Sure, an Incubus, being a male, can impregnate way more females than a Succubus, being female, can possibly conceive, give birth and nurture in a lifetime. However, the offspring produced by either with humans will never surpass the power of the offspring they can have together. The generals and champions of this mongrel army will most likely come from those unholy unions, while the majority will be half human.'' Hilda remarked.
Horrified at the revelation, the newly gathered team, commanded by Jeanpierre, started to plan their part of Operation Soul Pact. Meanwhile, Dr. Furcas, knowing that Oga was essential for the execution of the operation due to his power and pact with Beel, started to treat the young man the best he could.
"You have been targeted by the telepaths of that organization, who have been sending the those narcoleptic dreams and hallucinations that won't let you rest. Ideally, I would hospitalize you, and then subject you to hypnosis and antipsychotic medication. Since that's not possible now, our strategy would have to focus on making you last as much as you can without collapsing. Here, take these pills. They'll combat your fever and give you a bit of an energy boost. This other ones will combat your psychosis. This metal syringes contain adrenaline.'' Dr. Furcas says, giving Oga the pills.
"Use those only before fights, their effect would only last from 8 to 10 minutes, so use them sparingly, and never inject yourself with more than one unless you want your heart to explode.'' Lamia remarked.
"As you can see, the young prince is lending you his life force to keep you alive. It's a very similar (though slower) process to the one you use when performing the Super Milk Time power up, when your bodies, abilities and souls fuse into one, as your now green eyes and hair prove. In this one, however, you keep your conscience better, since the souls of the prince starts to get destroyed in order to provide you energy. This will end up killing both of you (the infant first) unless we hospitalize you soon.'' Dr. Forcas explains.
Oga closed his eyes for a few seconds, digesting the information he was given while looking through the window of his wagon.
"I understand. Tell the Demon Lord I swear by my blood that I'll deliver him his son alive and will help him save his kingdom and my world. If I don't, he can torture my soul for all eternity. He has my word as King of Ishiyama.'' Oga says.
A tense silence took over the small wagon roof, where every eye was looking towards the agonizing Ogre.
"He has my word too.'' Furuichi added.
"And mine.'' Himekawa and Kanzaki said at the same time, to their annoyance.
''Wherever Kanzaki goes, I go, even if is the last thing I do.'' Shiroyama says solemnly.
"As demons we're both becoming, my fate is bound to Oga's.'' Natsume remarked.
"I admire your will, humans. All right then, time for me to start contributing with you.'' Jeanpierre looked into his military backpack, getting out an artifact that resembled couple of stuffed earphones in the shape of bat ears, with horns on the top of the ark and placed them over Beel's ears. "This will help his majesty Kaiser to track those energy signals better. If he ends up vanishing inside your body, it then you will put them over your ears, young man. Your friends are not more than two hundred miles away.''
"Young Nico can provide you a bit of her own energy too, from afar, in order to shroud our presence.'' Hilda added.
After some more deliberations, the team members knew their roles well and Dr. Furcas left with Lamia. Looking at Beel, Oga took him in his arms and looked again at the clouds outside, the words, screams and sobs of a very particular person resonating inside his head while his arms could still feel her warmth.
"Don't make him ever cry…''