Well, this is probably the fastest you're ever going to see me update this. I don't know. I guess I was just inspired. Now then, reviews…
Anonymous: Yes, there will be a support type. I had that in mind from the start. Take a wild guess at who it will be. And you may have missed it, but Fondue was frolicking in the duchess' backyard in the second chapter. I don't blame you for missing that, though. To make up for it, you get the short scene in the beginning, made just for you.
And thank you, as well as averyshortreview for telling me that I could keep up the lesser demon fights. I don't know how many major events there will be, I don't have many in mind, but I could come up with some. Don't worry.
Chapter 4
Another week had passed since our red haired protagonist that set this story into motion. Every day, they had freed two or three people, and slowly their world began to seem more normal. Of course, that was until you took their new jobs into account. Speaking of jobs…
"Are we ever going to get a reward or something for this?" Charlie asked on day 5.
Elisabeth smiled. "I was wondering when you were going to ask that. Alfred," she turned to the butler, who simply nodded and walked away. A moment later, he returned, holding two slips of paper. He handed one to each of them as Elisabeth told them, "For your help, you will get paid. You'll get a nice little bonus when we finally get Marie back. If you fail at that task, however, I'll bash you over the heads and revoke all your money."
Her two new employees simply stared at her for this, unsure of how to best respond.
Anyway, back to today's exposition, today Elisabeth deemed them good enough to go after a lesser demon of their choosing alone. If they didn't get their asses kicked, then they would be allowed to do it more often, therefore speeding up the purging process immensely.
The purging in of itself was not the top priority, though. In all reality, they were searching for any information the demons were willing to spill on where the major demons were fighting.
They had actually asked Thanatos for the information after realizing that he should know. His response was effectively, 'Go figure it out yourselves!'
Now, this response would normally warrant a good smack from the teens, but neither of them wanted to tussle with the demon that was twice Raphael's size in his normal form and had a gun while possessing the inspector. So they just left it and started seeking out the lesser demons.
So far, though, no luck, and all they managed to do was seal away 16 demons.
And so, now they were splitting up.
Fondue ran up to Raphael, whimpering.
Raphael looked at him, confused.
"What's up, boy?" He asked.
"I think he's getting lonely," Charlie suggested. "He's been here, simply watching, every day, for 2 weeks now."
"Is that it, boy?" Raphael asked, crouching and gently petting the dog's head.
Fondue whimpered again. In response to this, Raphael scooped up his dog and started to sing a lullaby. However, all this did was confuse the poor creature.
"You neglected the puppy!" Charlie scolded playfully. "How dare you, you cruel-hearted bastard."
Raphael stopped his singing and sent a weak glare in her direction. "Do you want to be beat over the head with a stick again?"
"No…"
"Then don't say anything mean about me."
"But that removes all the fun!"
"Enough bickering, you two!" Elizabeth called out, walking down the stairs.
"It's not bickering, it's playful banter!" Charlie told her.
"You called me a cold-hearted bastard," Raphael reminded her.
"So? I've also called you a narcissistic prick and a death-defying son of a bitch, what does it matter to you anymore?"
"You called me a what now?" Raphael asked, having never heard the latter insult.
"Enough!" Elisabeth shouted, hoping to regain some of the lost authority with the two. Luckily, they silenced quickly. "I don't care if it's bickering, playful banter, or if you're actively strangling each other!"
"Shouldn't you care about that last one…?" Charlie asked.
"I said I don't care, so I don't!" Elisabeth screeched while groaning on the inside, both because of the children's obnoxious behavior, and also because she feared she would have an incredibly sore throat later from all the shouting.
The teens took a step back from her. "Alright, geez," Charlie muttered while Raphael worked on calming down the frightened Fondue, who he still held in his arms. "You'd just better hope that we don't start to try to strangle each other, then."
"If you're done interrupting…" Putting on a more official persona, the duchess said, "Today is a great day. You two shall receive solo missions for the first time. Now, because you will be going and fighting outside of my backyard, I have some rules."
Charlie leaned over to Raphael, whispering, "Shouldn't she only be issuing rules if we're fighting in her property?" To this, Raphael simply shrugged.
"You must take the person to a secure place where other demons are unlikely to come to and assist. Or watch and wait until you're done and then attack. Apparently they do that too. That is all." She walked forward and handed them both something. While the teens were looking them over, she explained, "These wireless communicators are for you to use during missions, and only missions, since I know that you like to yammer on and on about how your day's going during the middle of a fight."
"Won't these get knocked off or destroyed during a fight?" Charlie asked.
"You'd better not break them, or I'll break you," Elisabeth threatened with a very serious expression before relaxing it. "Your armor should accommodate for them. Now go kill some people, er, seal some demons."
Raphael put Fondue back onto the ground. "Sorry, bud. But I can't have you getting hurt."
Fondue whimpered unhappily and scratched at the door when the two teens had left the room.
Raphael asked after they were 10 feet away from the building, "Hey, who are you going after?"
"Uh… I guess my football rival. He's annoying, but… I kinda miss his constant challenges. What about you?"
"I'm going for that faux Phantom. I'm starting to miss our dance offs."
Charlie snorted. "You had dance offs?"
"Why is that a shock?"
"It's not too much. But… you haven't danced in a while. It's strange to think now that you used to do it regularly."
"Are you kidding? I still do it regularly!"
"Really?"
"Yes, really! Watch!"
Raphael started to dance to a random, non-existent beat while his companion watched with a raised eyebrow. Eventually, she got bored and started to walk away.
"Hey!" Raphael yelled, stopping his dance to catch up to her. "You don't walk off during a person's performance! At least you should have left a tip."
"A tip?" Charlie asked. Raphael nodded. "I'm your partner and former enemy, and you want me to leave a tip?"
"Yes!"
"That dance wasn't even planned!"
"Yes it was!"
"How?"
"I made it up as I went along."
"That's not planned!"
"Yes it is! Did you see how intricate it was?"
"Doesn't matter! If you made it up, it's not planned!"
Charlie grumbled to herself as she tuned out the boy's response. No doubt it was something stupid in a vain attempt to prove he was correct.
"You know, we didn't listen to Elisabeth's 'solo speech' just for funzies. The whole point is to split up," she reminded him.
"Your point being…?" Raphael asked, probably just trying to spite her.
"GO AWAY!" She shouted.
"Alright, geez," Raphael said, turning to the left and walking down a random street.
Meanwhile, Charlie just groaned.
Five minutes later, the two children had identified their targets and led them away to the outskirts of the city with the promise of candy.
…No, seriously.
"You want some candy?" Raphael asked the fake phantom randomly.
"Yes!" The child squealed, immediately following.
…Seriously.
"Where's my damn candy?" The possessed Urbain asked.
"I told you five times already, I don't have it on me," Charlie growled through clenched teeth.
The boy yawned. "Then why drag me along? Couldn't you get it and then come back?"
"You followed me," Charlie reminded him.
"Oh. Right," Urbain laughed, seemingly amused.
'Maybe now he'll shut up,' Charlie thought hopefully, only for that hope to be instantly squashed like a bug under the foot of a cruel child.
"So, I haven't seen you in a while. Was it because you were gathering candy?"
Charlie's eye twitched. 'Excuse me?!' She shouted in her mind. "…Sure," she replied in as calm a voice as she could muster after taking a deep breath.
They turned a corner, down an alley, but the possessed child failed to notice as he continued. "You'd better have something good, then, since you were gone for two weeks."
"Oh, I have something amazing. I'm sure you'll enjoy it," Charlie replied with a rather evil smile that went unseen.
"Oh? And what is it?"
"Your death!" Charlie yelled, spinning around and activating her armor, shooting the magical purging light at him. She was fully aware that she wouldn't be killing the demon, but she wanted to say something really dramatic, and just couldn't think of anything better than 'death.'
The demon was apparently stunned long enough that he was unable to move Urbain out of the line of fire, and, as a result, was struck.
The demon was expelled from the boy after a moment, and flopped to the ground with a small and pathetic 'Ow.'
Charlie smiled and turned on her communicator. "Yo, I've got 'em out. How's it going on your end?"
"Oh, just fucking dandy," was the reply.
(Over on Raphael's side-a little bit earlier)
"So, I was like, dude, you need a new sales idea. Like, no. It's not good with the whole Phantom R thing. Am I right?" Jerome asked Raphael, who simply groaned in response. For some reason, he just wouldn't shut up! And the demon wasn't even getting the kid's speech pattern right!
"So, eventually, I got him to drop it. But he still wants to keep doing it! I don't understand his obsession."
Raphael let out another groan. It had taken a good chunk of time to find that damn kid. He was surprisingly elusive. When he did, luring him with candy was easy, but now he apparently didn't know the meaning of silence!
Finally getting fed up, Raphael yelled, "AAA! SHUT UP ALREADY!"
Jerome frowned. "Now, that's not very nice."
"Nor is it nice to talk a person's ear off, but guess what you're doing?!"
Jerome was silent for a moment before asking, "There isn't any candy involved in this, is there?"
Raphael was momentarily confused by this somewhat random question. Finally, he answered, "Good job, tomorrow we teach you 'truck.'"
"I'll take that as a yes. What do you want, then?"
"To see you dead!" Raphael spat. "But sadly, that is not an option. So I have to settle with the next best thing. Beat you within an inch of your life, get the information I need, and then seal you away back in that smelly old box for the rest of eternity."
Jerome, or more accurately, the demon, cringed. "Not the box," he pleaded. "Anything but the box."
Raphael adopted a mocking thoughtful look on his face. "Maybe I'll reconsider… if you give me the information I so crave."
"Yes, anything, I'll answer as truthfully as possible!" Jerome yelled immediately.
Raphael smirked. "Good. Then tell me, where are the greater demons hanging out?"
Jerome was silent. Finally, he said, "I… I'm not sure. You think any of us underlings would know? We fled as far as physically possible from the tougher guys. They picked on us in box. You think you humans have bullying problems? Try spending eternity with those bastards."
Raphael frowned. "Dammit," he swore under his breath.
"I know I'm going to regret asking, but can I go now?" Jerome asked.
"No," Raphael growled.
"Why?" Jerome whined unhappily.
"I want you out of Jerome's body," Raphael demanded.
"And where do you want me to go? I can't live very well without a body to possess, and I'm not going with a dog."
"You could always go for a cat, they're aloof," Raphael jokingly suggested. He dropped the joking manner a second later. "I don't care where, I want you gone."
"In the end, you're going to seal me back in the box, aren't you?"
Raphael frowned. "Might. I haven't thought that far."
Jerome looked angry. "I WILL NOT RETURN TO THE BOX!"
The boy lunged forward, intending to strike Raphael. The older boy easily flipped out of the way.
"Fine, you won't go peacefully? Then we'll fight." Raphael donned his armor and fired a light ball at Jerome, who sidestepped.
Raphael growled and was about to try again when he heard over his communicator, "Yo, I've got 'em out. How's it going on your end?"
"Oh, just fucking dandy," Raphael replied, sidestepping a rather pathetic punch before ramming the possessed child with a light ball.
Charlie nodded, satisfied, and returned her attention to her enemy.
"Maybe I'll let you off easy, if you're willing to tell me what I want to know," she shouted to the demon as it struggled to stand.
"Fuck off!" It screeched.
Charlie shrugged. "Suit yourself." She summoned the bases of her weapons and created the blades. The demon's eyes widened. "Want to reconsider?"
"A little," it admitted.
"Good. Now tell me… where are the greater demons duking it out for Marie's soul?"
The demon thought for a second. "Ah, the… ah… that one… underground place…"
"That tells me nothing."
"I wasn't exactly sticking around to watch."
"I can tell. Any more details?"
"Um…"
"Do you know how we can access it?"
"Yeah, that one place…"
"Be descriptive, dammit!"
The demon cringed. It adopted a thinking look and seemed to be attempting to recover a name. "Les…" After a couple more seconds, it snapped its fingers. "Les Invalides!"
"They're under there?" The demon nodded vigorously, so much in fact that it seemed to give itself a headache.
Charlie thought for a second and nodded. Before the demon could react, she sealed it within her jewel.
"Sorry, but I can't let you roam around free. You understand, right?" She was ultimately unsure if the demon could even hear her. Calling over her communicator, she said, "Hey, I got what we need. You will totally believe where they'd been hiding. And you will probably want to smack yourself upside the head for not thinking of it."
There was a surprised and happy gasp. "Really?" This was followed by a gasp of unhappiness. "Ah! Motherfucker!"
"Uh, you alright over there?" Charlie asked slowly.
"Yeah, just nearly got a leg lobbed off, you know."
Charlie hummed lightly in understanding. "Alright. See you at Elisabeth's then. Don't take too long."
Back at the duchess' manor, Charlie informed the older woman of the information she had gotten on the way to the sealing box, which had been conveniently relocated to the guest bedroom of all places.
"So, wait, you just left him there?"
Charlie shrugged. "I needed to get back. Besides, I freed him because he's my rival and I missed his challenges. Not because he's my friend. He'd probably think I'm going soft if he woke up to find me helping him in any way."
The duchess let out a low sigh.
"Anyway, onwards to more important things," Charlie said, trying to get Elisabeth's mind off the fact that there was some poor kid just lying in a random alleyway. "It said that she, and the greater demons, are at Les Invalides. When are we going?"
"As soon as physically possible."
"Uh… shouldn't we go tomorrow?"
"Why?"
"Though it wasn't much, we wasted some energy today. Shouldn't we do it tomorrow?"
"She could be dead tomorrow!"
"She could be dead today! What does it matter? The point is, we're going up against major demons. And if you want to put it into a video game sense, then these guys are the fucking bosses! Not to mention that we're probably going to be going up against 5 of them at the same time."
Elisabeth was silent for a moment. Then, "Not necessarily. I hope you have a high Sneak skill, 'cause you're about to go ninja on that place!"
Charlie stared at the duchess. "What?"
"She's saying that we're sneaking in, not running in guns ablaze," Raphael said, having at some point arrived and decided to pop into the conversation, but not before taking the time to lean against the doorframe and cross his arms in an attempt to make himself look like a badass. "Not that we have guns, mind you."
"I can't help but feel like this is going to get us killed."
"Nonsense!" Raphael laughed, patting Charlie on the head.
"Don't touch me," she growled, to which Raphael simply continued laughing and patting her. Eventually, she got annoyed and jerked back, biting his hand as it came down at the empty space she once occupied.
"Ow!"
"I told you 'don't touch me.' Did you listen? No, you did not. Therefore, you totally deserve that," Charlie told him rather smugly before frowning. "On the downside, you taste horrible."
Before Raphael could say anything back, Elisabeth interjected. "Are you going or not? Not that I'm giving you a choice, though."
"Fine," Raphael sighed, before turning and pointing toward the audience. "But that will come next chapter!"
Elisabeth looked confused.
Charlie, meanwhile, just looked bitter. She scoffed. "Yeah, right. Author dear is probably going to take all of forever to get that one made. Don't you remember how long it took to make Chapter 3?"
"Yeah, that was just a couple weeks ago. I have faith in her, though. More than you."
Charlie frowned in response. "I don't care who has more faith. So long as it doesn't take as long as it took to make #3."
Couldn't help but make a jab at my own update time.
Next time! Shit hits the fan in every way but the literal kind. OK, maybe not every way, but close enough.
Something semi-random, but how do you guys feel about pairings in this story? I don't care either way, but I'll write something in if you guys want to see something. Unless it's of the minor characters, which I won't be focusing on, so… Yeah.