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Yukio carefully reloads his guns, through long practice making quick use of his specially made ammo holsters. Behind him, the other agents check their own weapons; this varies from other guns, to swords or spears. Some, though, don't have physical weapons, but instead spellcraft.
One such person is Miwa Konekomaru, a young trainee Aria; or Mage. He is currently mentally running through the list of spells he knows. Since he is still in training, the only spells he really knows are various basic support types. Unofficially he has a few offensive spells, but he can't use them. Won't need to; this is something of a training mission for him and his fellow trainees. They are here as support and bag carriers.
Yukio peers into the dark opening the ground, a ripped open cellar. This is a base for a living example of a renown class of criminal. The kind that taints one of the most sacred things in this world; the Contract between Lord and Emissary.
Information has placed the demon, the Lord, as the one who has twisted up the Contract. Instead of using the bond to support himself in Assiah, to keep his sanity, he is instead using it merely as a source of power. The Emissary is probably nothing more than a living fuel source, a mental wreck.
The other, rarer kind, is that of an Emissary that somehow managed to turn their Lord into their “pet”. Mockingly calling themselves “Tamers” they use their Lord as attack dogs and wreck havoc in Assiah.
Either way, they are always dangerous in various ways, always clever and powerful. But not clever enough, at least not this pair. After all, Yukio has managed to track them down easily enough. The trickiest part is getting together a team. The toughest part is coming up; the battle.
Yukio checks to make sure everyone is ready, focusing specifically on the trainees. After each and every member confirming their ready state, he nods.
“Move in.”
Perhaps he should have seen this coming. Maybe he's gotten too cocky; he has been doing this much longer than his apparent age suggests after all. He should have noticed the odd inconsistencies with the information.
But how could he have seen this coming?
Yukio curses and ducks back down under cover, just avoiding an attack. Lucky for him that he has enough holy water to make sure his cover stays as cover. Lucky that this is a rot demon and not a fire demon. Lucky that almost everyone has gotten away. There are still badly wounded agents, but even if he doesn't make it out of here they will probably live. The only other people with him are still standing, still unharmed. But that can't last long, especially since three of them are trainees.
Yukio curses, but he honestly can't have seen this coming. Neither the demon or the human are dominate here, both are equal. Both equally rotten and power hungry. It had probably started small, but now they are practising evil blood magic and when the team had come in they had just finished killing a young girl after a long, slow torture. They are ripe and sickening with the taint of evil blood magic, stolen power.
That allows them to hit hard and heavy from the start. So the team is down to a few dregs pinned down by the corrupt Lord and Emissary.
A sharp stabbing pain shoots through Yukio's head then, and he winces. Not obviously, but his eye twitches and an expression of pain appears in his eyes briefly.
Konekomaru notices. To be fair, it is hard for him to not notice Yukio. The youngest of the Gehenna Royal Family and the only one who doesn't have an Emissary. Even his twin brother has one now; Konekomaru knows that personally, since Prince Rin had chosen his childhood friend and fellow trainee Shima Renzō as his Emissary.
Of course, half-demons don't always need Emissaries like full blooded demons did. Still, Konekomaru has to wonder why Yukio has never gotten one. There are records of Rin having a previous Emissary in the past, but nothing for his brother. It's so very strange.
This situation is a nightmare, even for more experienced Order agents. Even Yukio is obviously feeling the pressure. But this – has this ever happened before? An equal partnership between hostile Lord and Emissary. No, Konekomaru thinks it hasn't. It tends to be one or the other because the ones that do get along are the “good” ones. That is the norm at the least.
It is then that all hell breaks loose. The demon and his partner attack. The first two agents go down almost instantly – the human, barriers that would work on demons aren't that effective as the Emissary is trained to fight. Fight like an Order agent.
Konekomaru doesn't have much time to wonder at this, too busy pulling up the strongest barrier spells he knows and layering them as the demon tries to take him down. He bounces off of the barrier and looks...amused. Impressed maybe. Either way, the signs of rot are sinking into the area, even as Konekomaru backs away. He's not physically powerful at all – he's got brains enough to be an Aria but all other Meisters aside from Doctor aren't an option for him since he's too weak for it.
There's a scream and he reflectively looks – sees another trainee melting – then he whirls around to see the demon charging at him....
...and he hears a snarl, a roar. A challenge.
Yukio barrels into the demon full tilt, in full demon form. Except he...there's something wrong. It takes a moment, a terrifying moment where Konekomaru realizes that aside from Yukio he is the only one alive, then he realizes what is wrong.
Yukio has gone berserk.
Yukio wakes up in a fashion that makes him wonder if Shura had dragged him into some ridiculously booze filled party then managed to goad him into drinking way more he should, especially since his body is still (frustratingly) that of a sixteen-year-old. Again. The kind of party where he wakes up with some mining going on in his mind, a mouth like a cesspool, and feeling dirty all over, like he has been rolled in said cesspool for a good measure.
However, he also feels a full-body ache that is foreign to him, like his body is stretched out of shape and not quite put back together in the same shape afterwards.
He can hear the sounds of people murmuring in the distance and he smells something he knows too well; medicinal smells – anaesthesia, herbs, disinfectant, and the scent of pain with the fainter scent of death underneath.
The specific herbs he's picking up informs him that he must be in the Order's medical ward. But he can't remember why he would...
The memory hits him like lightning and he opens his eyes to the painfully bright florescent lights. Wincing, he slowly looks around, confirming he's in the hospital ward. He blinks, seeing one of the trainees of his botched mission beside him. Flipping through his memory, he calls he's an Aria trainee. Miwa Konekomaru. Originally from the Myōō Dharani. Didn't a bad demon plague hit their base sixteen years ago? That is why they are now part of the Order; it is the only way for them to survive. And thus Miwa-kun is in the program. Same for Suguro Ryūji, the current heir to the Myōō Dharani Most High Priest, and Shima Renzō. The last is his brother's Emissary. That meant he has had some interactions with Miwa-kun before their mission together. Quiet, small guy with a fondness for cats if he recalled right. Very polite and sane compared to Shima-kun and Suguro-kun.
“Ah, Yukio. You are awake.” Yukio turns to see Samael in front of him, having entered the small ward room he's sharing with Miwa-kun. His stomach drops; to have his second eldest brother in front of him, the head of the Japan Branch, is not a good thing. Especially since he isn't smiling for once.
Samael takes a seat next to his bed. He doesn't say anything for a moment, letting Yukio slowly sit up.
“You ready?” Getting a nod of confirmation, Samael sighs. “First off, I'll have you know that your mission was a success. Both the rogue demon and his human partner are taken care of. There were casualties though. Of the five agents and three trainees that got trapped down there without the rest of the team, you and Miwa-kun are the only survivors.”
Yukio hadn't expect any less in that regard, though he's surprised that the mission is a success and the rogues wasn't just been driven off.
“The real problem...Yukio. You went berserk.” Samael's eyes meet his filled with a rare amount of seriousness within them.
Yukio goes white. Going berserk is one of the worse things to happen to his kind, to demons. Losing your control, not knowing who is friend or foe, just seeing foe...he's seen a few go berserk over the years. He even seen his brother go berserk once in the past. It is never pretty, never.
But Yukio has never gone berserk before, even without ever having an Emissary to give him an anchor to pull him back from the brink. He has always has control; been proud of it. Perhaps too proud?
“I have a theory that the reason this happened is because you have been holding back all this time.” Samael continues. “The pressure just kept building up without any kind of release. And this mission happened to be dangerous and stressful enough to push you over the edge.”
“How...how is Miwa-kun alive? How am I...” 'Sane. Not a prisoner.' He doesn't say it out loud, but he doesn't need to. There are no guards. No wards. Just the standard medical set up. This after he had gone berserk.
“Miwa-kun proved just how good of an agent he is.” Samael says, a smile quirking the edge of his lips. “Seeing that you has gone berserk, while you were busy dealing with the demon and his partner, he managed to whip up a barrier to contain you. And when you broke free he was ready.”
“Ready...ready with what?” Yukio knows very well that there is very little a human, a pure human, can do against a berserk demon. Hell, even most demons can have trouble depending on the strength of the berseker. And Yukio is of Satan's bloodline. No way he can be handled unless Samael or Lucifer steps in. Rin in the worse case.
Yukio wonders if Miwa-kun had set up a bunch of traps and blocks to hold him back until Samael had showed up. That made sense to him; also explains why Miwa-kun has impressed Samael – he would like that kind thing.
Needless to say, he definitely didn't expect what Samael does tell him.
“Congratulations Yukio. You now have an Emissary.”
Yukio chokes on his breath, then whips his head over to look at Miwa-kun. Now that he is awake and truly aware – and open to the possibility – when he concentrates he feels the bond between them. Frail yes, but there. Explained why there are sharing a room; a new bond needs a certain amount of physical closeness, especially one as fragile as this one.
“It isn't quite perfect, understandable considering the circumstances. But Miwa-kun managed it and the sudden formation of the Contract snapped you back. You passed out immediately afterwards and Miwa-kun called up for backup.” Samael spread his hands, his standard smirk back in place. “Yukio, I do believe you just out did Aniue for the weirdest way to get an Emissary.”
Yukio twitches at being compared to that bit of history. “So...so what now?”
“What now?” Samael shakes his head. “Isn't it obvious? Since you have confirmed you can go berserk, your Contract with Miwa-kun will be solidified once he's awake and healed enough for the process. And he'll be moving into the Demon Dorm with you.”
Samael stands up then, glancing over at the frail looking young teen in the bed beside Yukio's. He then looks back at Yukio, who is staring at Miwa-kun with a strange expression on his face. Something between horror, terror, and some kind of bemusement.
“I'll leave you to think on it. You'll be living with someone else from now on, so you will need to get used to it. And since he's your first Emissary, you'll need the guide books. Any questions that you don't feel they explain enough, you can ask me or Rin for aid.”
He leaves his younger brother behind him with those words. Yukio swallows and turns resolutely away from Miwa-kun, lying back down on the bed. There is nothing he can do about it; it is only logical for him to have an Emissary with the risk of berserking now confirmed to be there.
But it isn't fair to the young human there; his plans have been torn apart at the seams by Yukio's carelessness. Miwa-kun is now forced to live his life forever defined by the Contract he has with Yukio.
So there is only one thing Yukio can do; keep his impact as small as possible.
It is only right.