Mark and Katana Man stepped out of the car.
The two had been contracted by a third party to investigate the site of a devil attack and figure out what killed it, where it went and then call the client back with the information gathered.
Thus, Mark and Katana Man had found themselves at the abandoned warehouse outside of town.
They opened the giant set of doors and were immediately hit by the heavy scent of death.
"Whooo! Smells like a party happened here!" Mark joked and placed a hand on his hip while trying to wave the smell away with his other.
Katana Man just stared at his employer. He scoffed and pulled out his heavy duty flashlight. Walking inside, Katana Man followed the smell.
"Yeah no that's fine, don't fucking laugh. Not like it was a joke or something." Mark grumbled and followed him, pulling out a smaller light.
Mark looked at the floor and machines in the room. Besides the gore splattering it, there were signs of something cutting through it.
The deeper the two went into the warehouse the more blood splatter and cut marks they saw.
"This definitely isn't you." Mark commented. "You clean your shit up. Unlike Akane, even with Snake she can't do this much damage."
"Do you smell that?" Katana Man asked Mark.
"Hard not to. Aside from the fucking blood it's a pretty heavy smell."
"Gasoline. Think it was just some punk with a gallon, a sword and a death wish?" Katana asked as he continued forward, however Mark had stopped midway through and was staring at something. "Mark?" Katana asked, turning around.
"No KT. I don't think it was a sword that did this." He said looking at a bloody hat on the floor. "You said your Grandpa was a Yakuza right?"
"... Mark, what do you see?" Katana Man asked, mortified at the question.
"Didn't your grandpa hire that kid with the pet devil?" Mark asked, ignoring Katana Man's question.
"Mark. What the fuck do you see?!" Katana Man said as he rushed over to Mark. Only to drop his flashlight.
There, dead on the ground was Katana Man's Grandfather, cut to pieces.
"Looks like that kid had enough." Mark commented and crouched down to look at the wounds on the corpse. "I'm gonna say, he made a deal with his pet, went psycho, crashed a meeting and killed everyone."
Katana Man didn't listen, his ears were ringing as he just stared at the corpse in front of him. Memories of good times flashed through his mind remembering his Grandpa.
"I'm gonna go call the client." Mark said as he placed a hand on Katana Man's shoulder. "Take your time." He said and walked away. Leaving the hybrid to mourn.
Once outside, Mark got to his car and grabbed his cellphone. He got lucky with a client and got one of the newer shell like phones. Typing in the number, Mark called the client.
"... hello?" A deep and tired voice answered.
"Hey Kishibe, we got that info you wanted. You got a pen and paper?" Mark asked and leaned on the car.
"No. Meet me at the ramen shop at five." Kishibe said through the phone.
"Yeah, alright." Mark said with a sigh. A moment of silence lingered on the phone. "You already know what happened don't you? Don't think I can't tell the fucking tire tracks of regular devil hunter cars."
"I just want to know what killed the Zombie devil." Kishibe responded.
"Zomb was here? Shit that was a job I was gonna take soon." Mark groaned.
Katana Man walked back out of the warehouse and just got into the car silently.
"Indeed he was. But enough talking over the phone. My boss could be listening." Kishibe said.
"Yeah whatever, if you are go fuck yourself." Mark growled out. "I'll see you later Kishibe."
Mark hung up the phone and snapped the case shut. With a heavy groan Mark looked back at the warehouse.
Mark said a silent prayer to Katana Man's Grandfather and got back into the car.
The two sat in silence for a moment. "Kishibe knows what happened." Mark said.
"Then he knows what I'm gonna do to the fucking punk that did this, yeah?" Katana Man asked.
"I would assume so. He's meeting me at the ramen shop later." Mark informed Katana Man and started the car. "I'm gonna grill him for some information as payment."
"You going alone?" Katana Man asked as he buckled up.
"Yup. Not to be rude, but an emotional mess is about the last thing I need fucking me over." Mark said as he began to turn the car around and drive away.
"... Fair enough." Katana Man said with a sigh. He pulled out his carton of cigarettes and lit one up while rolling down his window.
Kurozai Ramen: 5 PM/17:00
Mark sat at the ramen bar and looked at the menu as he saw someone sit next to him out of the corner of his eye, with two others following.
"You know I came alone because I trust you, yeah?" Mark asked as he still looked at the menu.
"That's why I'm paying for lunch. I couldn't leave without them following me." Kishibe said as he too looked at the menu. "Himeno and Kobeni, both part of The Fourth division."
Mark turned to see the three people sitting to his right. Kishibe, a very common client who mostly contracted Devil Hits and information gathering. The old man had short graying blonde hair, and a massive scar along his cheek.
Next to him was a woman, maybe a few years younger than Mark. She had short black hair and an eye patch.
Next to her- "What the fucks up with her? Are you taking in crackheads now?" Mark asked Kishibe. The girl next to the one with the eye patch was constantly shifting in her seat, glancing around, but not daring to look at Mark.
"No. Kobeni just has a nervousness issue. Gets it from her family." Kishibe responded. "Are you gonna order?"
"Just the usual." Mark said, turning back to face the menu. "Alright, here's what we found out today-"
"Hey boss, this is the guy right?" The one with the eye patch, Mark assumed she was Himeno, asked, interrupting Mark.
"Yes." Kishibe answered.
"Sweet. Nice to meet you Marksman." Himeno said, getting up and sitting to Mark's left.
"Charmed. Anyways we-"
"So is it true you turn into a devil?" Himeno interrupted again.
"Yes… We found cut-"
"You want to go out drinking sometime?" Himeno interrupted Mark again.
The Hybrid slammed his face into the bar. "FUCK! If I say yes do you promise to shut the fuck up!?"
"Sure!" Himeno answered with a smile.
Mark just stared at her for a moment. "We found cut marks lining the machines and floors." Mark said, turning his attention back to Kishibe. "We also found some Yakuza corpses. I only saw one myself, but KT said he found a lot more. I'm going to say it's safe to assume that the Yakuza presence in the city is next to zero."
"Don't really care."
"Well I do. Those fuckers kept trying to talk me into taking some of their hits. You know how I am with gang warfare."
"What else did you find?"
"Aside from the corpses, which were zombies, after you told me the zombie devil was there I ended up claiming the kill for myself."
Kishibe smirked and pulled out a flask. "I'd expect nothing else from you."
"But yeah, the only other things we found were the cut marks and the unmistakable smell of gas. I remember that the Yakuza had a kid who hunted devil's with his chainsaw devil pet. So I just assume the kid had enough and either took a deal from the devil to give up his whole body to kill them all, or he just killed them with the fuckin thing." Mark finished as the waiter walked up to take their orders.
"The usual for me, Issei." Mark said to the waiter. "Make it large too."
"Yeah, I'll have a large Pork cutlet bowl, and two small plain bowls." Kishibe said, ordering for himself and his two coworkers.
"Aww boss! I wanted a beef bowl!" Himeno groaned out, sad she was getting a small bowl.
"Then order for yourselves. Me and Mark will eat them." Kishibe said as he deadpanned at his coworker.
She immediately perked up. "Okay!"
"But that kid you were talking about, what was his name?" Kishibe asked Mark, ignoring the other two hunters.
"I don't fucking know. I'm not a Yakuza. Why?"
"Because my boss just took in some kid yesterday morning. He's why I wanted you to investigate the warehouse."
"Shit, anyone she takes interest in is usually not good fucking news."
"Mmm." Kishibe hummed in agreement.
"So you think it's the same kid who slaughtered the Zombie Devil?"
"I'm not sure, but you said he had a chainsaw pet?"
Mark nodded. "From what I heard, yeah."
"Well this kid didn't have a pet. But I could smell gas."
Mark sat in thought for a moment, until his eyes snapped open with a sudden moment of realization.
Kishibe saw this look and thought for a moment before a look of dread covered his face. "No…"
"Mother fucker!" Mark shouted and brought his fists onto the bar counter. "I'm calling KT." Mark said as he got up.
Kishibe grabbed Mark by the collar and dragged him back to the seat. "I knew you were insane. Makima has that kid on a leash. If you think two Hybrid devils can kill her and him then your worse than me."
Himeno leaned her head between Mark and Kishibe. "What are we talking about?"
Mark placed her hand into her face and pushed her away. "Fuck off." Mark said before returning his attention to Kishibe. "You think I don't know that it's insane, but think about it like this, who the hell do you think she's gonna sic him on first? Me!" Mark shouted.
Kishibe sighed. "I need a smoke."
Mark sighed and placed his head in his hands. "I need a stiff drink."
The two sat in silence as a young man with brown hair came up with their bowls of ramen.
Mark grabbed his chopsticks and started to eat with a frown.
He was running through all of the things he could try and do to either Kill the punk who might now be a Hybrid, or kill Makima before she had the chance to send the kid after Mark.
"... What if I try and get a team together?" Mark asked Kishibe. "There's a bunch of nuts out there who love the gun devil and myself twice as much."
Kishibe looked at Mark curiously. "What?"
Mark's gears began to turn. "I get a large squad of people together, and have them bring be this kids body. While they're dying and distracted, I get Akane and KT to back them up and kill whoever the kids handlers are." Mark said with a smirk. "Not only would it be hard to trace back to me, but with the amount of people who love me, I could get a decently sized horde of people together."
Kishibe stared at Mark like he had grown a second head. "Your fucking crazy."
"Weren't you the one who told me the crazy ones live the longest?" Mark said, bumping his elbow into Kishibe's.
The old man smirked and began to slurp up some of his ramen.
Mark finished his ramen quickly, slammed a 10,000 yen bill onto the counter and left, but not after getting Himeno's contact information. After the many strings he's gonna have to pull, he'll need a drink.
Bullet Time Office: Four Days later
"Yeah, no. Okay. And what's the truck look like? Alright, and your guys know to meet me in the back, yeah?"
Katana Man was on the phone talking to a weapon and ammo supplier his grandfather used to know.
Ankane was filling out some paper work, mainly crunching some numbers. "Boss! If we can get two more devil hits and five regular hits we can scrape up the money for rockets!"
"No. Fuck the rockets, do two devil hits for a box of grenades." Mark said as he combed through a large pile of applications. "Who the fuck thinks to put their regular job experience for these applications? We're killing a man, not… Wait lion taming? Okay that is kinda cool, welcome aboard."
The Bullet time Office had been in a frenzy the last few days thanks to Mark's grand idea.
Mark was right, a lot of people liked Marksman and the Gun Devil. And a lot of people were okay with killing a man. Who knew?
Mark finished his paper work and wheeled his chair to a large white board, and stood up.
The master plan. Most of the cannon fodder would be pointed at Makima, who would be off at a meeting at the Devil Hunter HQ. In transit, Team 1 would wait and assassinate Makima once.
Mark had quite the experience when Makima stabbed him in the back after he blew her face onto the sidewalk. So he knew she had some devil contract that kept her alive, regular guns weren't gonna do it.
So that's why Mark had more than five hundred men at the ready to keep the bitch busy.
While they were getting slaughtered, Katana Man, Akane and a smaller team of Marks own inner circle would assault the kid, using information from his latest lay, Himeno, Mark knew a few things.
One, the kids name was Denji, and he was, indeed, a Hybrid.
Two, Denji had a handler and a partner, Aki and Power. They would go first.
Three, … Himeno was pretty good in bed, better than him anyway. But Mark kept that information all to himself.
And finally, Mark had a list of the group Denji was assigned to, and small doseirs. With this, Mark planted a spy into the Fourth Division of the Public Safety Unit.
Mark smirked, Kobeni was one hell of a spy. With enough money she would do just about anything. Including report back to Mark.
The whiteboard was full of information on the threat to Mark's life. Denji was only 16 and had been in debt to the Yakuza. However when the Yakuza 'vanished' so did his debt.
His Handler, Aki Kiwagawa. A 22 year old man with two contracts. The Fox Devil, go fucking figure, and a second unknown devil.
Lack of information worried Mark. But he hoped that whoever this devil was, wasn't strong.
Next was the girl known as Power. Or more accurately, the Blood Fiend known as Power. That was all Mark needed to know about the girl. While the blood fiend was dangerous, she would be facing Akane. Mark had trained the girl in multiple fighting styles that are designed to counter people with weapons.
So he was confident.
Then the last two entries were Himeno and Kobeni. Kobeni was to run as a distraction for Himeno while Operation: Broke Saw took place.
"Hey boss, that truck with the weapons is gonna be here tomorrow." Katana Man said, walking up to his employer. "We need anything else?"
Mark shook his head and pulled a dagger off of Katana Man's desk, which was close by. With deadly accuracy, Mark threw the dagger into a picture of Denji's head.
"They move in three days."
"And what will you do?"
"Simple. Someone's gotta be on standby incase she cuts through them like butter." Mark said with an evil smirk.
