Mephisto sat at his desk with his legs crossed on top of it, his eyes fixed on the screen of a pink flip phone. He chuckled slightly to himself and quickly typed a message. There was a loud knock on his steel door and he waved his free hand casually.
"Come in!" he called.
The heavy door was pushed open and in stepped a relatively short woman with long, brown hair pulled into a high ponytail and bright, teal eyes. There were a few small moles on her face and she had a hobgoblin perched on each shoulder. Her frame was considerably slight and she gave off the appearance of a young forest spirit. Mephisto looked up and a small smirk played on his lips.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of the Angel of the Forest? Or would you prefer I call you 'The Full Metal Bitch'?" he asked with a hint of a laugh.
The woman smiled slightly and pulled out the chair across from him. She sat down and crossed one leg over the other. "You can just call me Yuri. I mean we're both Sergeants here, right?" she said conversationally.
He nodded, still smiling. "You still haven't answered my question. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
The small smile disappeared from her lips. "It's just…" she looked up and teal eyes met green, "I'm not sure what we're doing is right," she said.
Mephisto raised an eyebrow. "What ever do you mean?"
She took a deep breath. "I know this all started before I was born. But Dad's told me the stories and I have my own opinions on it now. I think this was our fault in the first place," she said with great conviction.
Surprise flickered across Mephisto's face but he erased it immediately. "You think the demons taking over Assiah was the fault of the Vatican and the Knights of the True Cross?" he asked.
"Yeah, I do. But it's the conception that we should be divided into demons and humans that's the cause of all this madness! Since the beginning of the Vatican we've been murdering demons left and right with no mercy at all. Demons have been known to threaten or even hurt humans but that's only because they're curious. I don't blame them for rallying and fighting back against us. We deserve what we're getting. This is our comeuppance for thousands of years of bloodshed," she told him. She spoke with utter confidence in her words.
"And why are you telling me this now?" asked Mephisto in interest.
"I thought you of all people would understand," she said, "I mean…you are a demon, Mephisto."
"As intelligent as ever, Miss Egin. Your words are quite powerful. Possibly you are trying to persuade me to change sides. But I must tell you, I have not picked a side yet. In my lifetime, I still have ages to pick a side," he said with a tiny smirk.
"I'm sure you do. But unlike you, I am not blessed with eons of life. I just needed to get this off of my chest to someone who won't report me to my father and get me executed," she replied.
"You were right to pick me. Any other would most certainly have told your father immediately. But I won't," he told her.
She nodded and stood up. Her eyes flickered to a deck of cards on a side table and laughed. "Taken from your soldiers again?"
He nodded. "They are functioning under the impression that I dislike gambling."
She laughed again. "How mistaken that impression is," she said before exiting through the same door.
She closed it behind herself and Mephisto leaned back in his chair. "My my, Miss Egin… with all these powerful opinions I do wonder why you are still planning to fight in tomorrow's battle."
Shiro woke with a start the next morning, gray light pouring down on his face. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He had half-hoped that yesterday had been a crazy dream but when he saw the sleeping forms of the rest of J-Squad he knew there was no such luck. He sighed and swung his legs off the bed.
Okay, I have to fight in a battle today but that's no big deal. I'm good at killing demons. I didn't become a powerful exorcist by sitting around, he said to himself. And then a different thought struck him. Maybe if he performed well enough in battle that cute assistant would agree to going out with him! Feeling much more heartened, he stood up and walked confidently through the straight middle hall of the barrack to find breakfast.
It was not long before officers started waving the soldiers toward their respective helicopters. Mephisto was leaning casually against the steel wall, texting someone on his pink phone. Shiro stepped on first and strapped himself in above one of the several drop trap doors. The rest of J-Squad followed him and also strapped themselves in.
"Hey, Fujimoto there's something wrong with your suit!" jeered a burly man, "There's a dead guy in it!"
Everybody else laughed but Shiro was more concerned with finding a light for his cigarette.
"You got a light, Sarge?" he asked Mephisto.
"I don't smoke," Mephisto replied.
"Why does nobody else smoke?!" Shiro exclaimed in exasperation.
Mephisto would have said something more but pieces of armor had begun to come out of the wall and close around the soldiers' arms and legs. Shiro lifted his right arm to examine the built in machine gun.
"One minute until drop!" Mephisto called, texting again on his pink phone.
Shiro rolled his neck and stowed his box of cigarettes back in a pocket. Chest plates and helmets descended from the ceiling and fixed themselves firmly on the soldiers. All the other members of J-Squad were laughing and punching each other lightly in the arms.
"Thirty seconds until drop!" Mephisto said in warning.
For a heartbeat Shiro knew something was wrong. The front of the helicopter exploded sending shards of steel sharp as knives into the soldiers. The dark haired woman shouted in pain as her cheek was sliced open. Mephisto looked up in mild interest as a piece of debris pierced his white top hat. A horde of coal tars rushed through the open space and congested the air. Shiro reached up and slammed his hand on the red release lever and the trap door fell open under him. The straps disappeared and he plummeted downward. He reached behind himself and clutched the flap to release his parachute. The ground rushed up to meet him and he tugged down on the flap. His parachute expanded and he touched down on the ground lightly.
It was pure chaos. Helicopters were crashing every few feet. There was no real order to where soldiers were moving. Everyone was just trying to avoid the exploding aircrafts. Explosions torrented from the ground in flumes like hot pulled off his parachute roughly and thrust it aside.
"Ha! We made it!" shouted the burly man from J-Squad.
"Behind you!" Shiro exclaimed pointing to the quickly descending helicopter. A black shadow was cast over the man before it made jarring contact with the earth, flattening the man in the process. Shiro dashed off forward in no real direction. He raised his gun and quickly switched off the safety. He slid down a sand dune and looked around. His eyes fixed on a woman standing on top of a large gray rock. Her armor was pale blue and silver with huge shoulder plates. Her dark brown ponytail whipped in the wind and in her right hand a huge axe was clutched tightly. Shiro recognized her as the woman whose picture had been printed on the bus. The Full Metal Bitch… She locked eyes with Shiro and they stared into each others eyes for a long second.
A blast wave struck her hard in the back and she flew forward almost gracefully. All other noises grew quiet and distant. Time seemed to slow down to capture the moment of her slow arc downward. She crashed into the ground and the noises roared back in protest to being muffled. Blood dripped from her mouth and her teal eyes were glazed over, open but unseeing. Shiro stumbled back but kept advancing in the same pointless direction. He didn't have time to worry about soldier women he didn't even know the name of.
He ran through the carnage with a mind on fire. What was going on?! How could the demons be completely massacring the human forces. He aimed into a group of hobgoblins and fired several shots. They turned on him and he launched an attack of bullets on them.
"No demon gets the better of Shiro Fujimoto," he said through gritted teeth.
The horde was gone and Shiro leaned against a sand dune, looking around. He had no idea which way to go. Something screeched loudly and his head whipped around. A huge demon he had never seen before came barreling toward him. It had a black lion-like body with long, blue tentacles for a mane. Oversized fangs protruded from its slavering mouth. It gave a screeching howl and Shiro turned his gun immediately on it. He squeezed the trigger forcefully but no bullet shot out the end. His eyes widened and he squeezed the trigger several more times in vain.
"Shit!" he swore to himself. There was no time to reload. The thing was only a few feet away now. Shiro gave it a huge uppercut to the chin with his gun arm and let his left hand scrabble over the sand for anything at all that he could use as a weapon. His left hand bumped against something cold and hard. Engraved letters read 'front towards enemy'. The demon sank it's claws into his armor making a significant dent. Shiro snatched the thing up in one hand and shoved it into the demon's mouth. It's fangs punctured it immediately and the object exploded. The blast sent Shiro skidding several feet backward into a huge granite rock where he made jolting contact. Blue blood from the enemy sprayed everywhere, completely bathing him in the substance. His vision swam in and out of focus with blackness creeping slowly across his vision.
"Shit…a suicide bomb…" he cursed to himself. His face was drained completely of color and his breathing came in short, ragged gasps. His head fell back against the rock and he stared up at the gray sky, watching the explosions blur until they looked like orange and yellow splotches. His eyes fell closed before his body went completely limp against the rock.
"On your feet, maggot!"
Shiro's eyes flew open. He was laying handcuffed on top of a pile of camouflage duffel bags. A tall man with blonde hair and icy blue eyes was standing above him.