Reminiscence

I had a short life. Something you would expect from someone with a job also known as "Death's Bestfriend"

The feeling of complete sensory deprivation caused by the Void Gap, or is there even something to deprive from nothing? I will never know, not ever.

I remember the day I realized what my life was going to be, back when I was only 12 years old, staring at my burning house and into the eyes of a Devil. Or so I assumed it was.

RF

The fire was scalding, I walked with huge steps and minimal breathing, the black smoke was bad for me, I turned the familiar corner and found my dead sister's body under the bed, either from too much smoke inhaled or she died from shock.

Unfortunate.

I saw the piece of metal in her hands, it seems like she did try to use the window. I stepped closer and when I realized that there was something red and liquid from under her my eyes widened.

It was a claw mark, something unusual. Something killed her. The information that there was someone in my house the most probably also caused the fire made me hasten my steps, I took the metal from her hands and slammed it into the window, causing a sound that may or may have not attracted the unwanted arsonist's attention.

Down the window was a pool, it would take a full powered jump and I had 1 last breath in me to do so.

"THERE'S SOMEONE STILL ALIVEEEE!"

A cackling, maniacal voice resounded from behind me, do arsonists get fire immunity nowadays? I wondered from the back of my mind as I climbed up the window, only to have my back neck scorched as a flaming hand caught my collar.

I froze.

"HHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEE!"

A burning humanoid body with bear looking bottom. His claws were of fire and his body emitted heat comparable of an open oven. Or more. I don't exactly know but I'm placing my closest known estimate.

I stared at it's eyes, full of manic rage and absolutely bloodlust, it's mouth was salivating and it lifted me up.

"HUUUUUUUMAAAAAAAN!"

It attempted to bite my neck and I kept staring at it.

Disgusting.

I felt extremely uncomfortable, without any double thoughts, I deemed it not human and stabbed it's neck with the metal.

The metal heated up immediately but it gave me enough time to kick myself out of his grip, the horizontal propulsion was enough for me to reach the pool below and I breathed a sigh of relief.

As I fell, the fire... Devil, stared back.

How disgusting.

It frowned and quickly left and I also felt my body drop to the pool, after a few seconds of recovering I quickly got out of the pool and hopped our fence, just in time as I heard the... not ambulance.

It was a bunch of priests. They saw me and approached.

"Kid! Is there anyone else inside that house?!"

They asked with apphrehensive faces. Did they expect me to not know about whatever Devil that was? I looked to our burning house, exactly at the window I jumped from.

"Does a Devil count?"

They frowned and looked at each other, after a bit, they left me alone and charged the house. Not a bit later, the sound of manic screaming and searing flesh were heard nearby, and soon a flaming body hit the pool.

I approached it, and curiously stared at the Devil.

Or I assume it was.

It's claws were still burning and gripped the stone sidewalks of the pool tightly.

"Is your fire your life?"

I asked unafraid. As weird as it was, I've never really felt emotions. My thoughts ran purely on logic and if it wasn't for my dad having the same defect, I would've never known about it.

Something like a Psycopath.

I stared at the Devil's hands and cupped a handfucl of water from the pool.

"It is huh?"

"STOOOOOP! DON'T HUMAAAAAAAN!"

It was afraid.

I didn't really know what I was supposed to feel here but, I guess... happy? This was revenge, no?

"Hey, should I feel happy or angry right now?"

The Devil looked at me confused, I guess my questions seemed a little off topic.

"I'll just be happy then"

I inhaled and smiled at the Devil, I didn't know what ran through the Devil's mind after my smile but he seemed to freeze.

Whatever, I doused his claws in water and kicked it into the pool.

Just by accident, I saw my rippling reflection at the pool. I was smiling but my eyes were too cold to be happy.

"That's not it I guess?"

I tried to remember how my sister would always smile, her eyes were smiling too, or so she says. I copied the same look from the back of my head, and was satisfied when I looked happy.

That should be right.

"Hey Dad, Mom, Sis. I think this is... revenge? Anyways, have a nice long sleep"

Just in time, a priest arrived at the scene to see me smiling at the drowning Devil.

We both stared at each other.

"You... do you want to keep killing more of them?"

Did he think...?

Did he actually think my smile was because I was happy of killing the Devil? Oh, right. That was... probably the point of revenge.

I nodded and smiled.

The priest looks a little pale.

Oh, well. I assume this is going to be my life from now on.

RF

I was already 17, my life was more or less being brought up to be these exorcists that go around killing Devils.

I honestly didn't care about God or whatnot, I just thought it'd be a good thing to do, well. I don't know about what good I was talking about but something like... not boring. Probably.

Today was the day that we were set out to have our first exorcism, my class was full of very religious folks and they smiled a lot.

I learned how to smile better from them. I still don't understand what makes praying to something that most probably doesn't exist joyful but the ability to mimic their expressions was a cool boon.

After the long plane ride, we've arrived at Japan, it's supposed to be filled with the supernatural and we were not to touch anything aside from a Devil.

So there is more than just Devils? I remembered seeing an Angel once, their smiles seemed so perfect I nearly felt envy.

Nearly. I managed to copy the same smile and now I'm supposed to be the most handsome boy in our class. Whatever that was going to do.

I followed behind out teacher/leader as he took a ride, making sure to listen to his conversation.

"Kuoh Town, how far?"

"That'd be-"

"Ziel! Look! It's an actual Takoyaki! Actual Japanese food!"

A girl wearing sunglasses and braided pony tails screamed right behind my ear. This was some girl who was supposed to be my girlfriend.

I only had my father's interaction with my mother to base out on how to treat a girlfriend, but I guess it was enough.

I took her hands and brought her in front of me.

"If you like sightseeing so much, then stand in front of me Liz"

I smiled at her and hugged her in the waist, she blushed tomato red. It was something I was having a hard time imitating, blushing seemed to require control over body heat.

I can't do those so I could only rely on imitating shy people whenever I should feel shy.

"You're too sweet! I'm going to get diabetes from you!"

Diabetes? Does affection decrease the levels of insulin in a body? I wanted to ask her but that would make it seem like I didn't know about relationships so I kept quiet and reminded myself to check it in the net later on.

Soon, we arrived at a white van hidden somewhere in a parking lot, this operation was supposed to be a secret so I could understand the secrecy.

Each and everyone of us was supposed to help exorcise a very famous or somewhat of high standing Devil that seduced a believer of the protestant church. It was in Kuoh and we were backed up by exorcists from Japan along the way.

The trip lasted for a few hours and Liz made out for a bit because we were conveniently covered by the others.

I truly did not understand the point of kissing. It was apparently a sign of 2 opposite or same genders being in a relationship if they both seemed consensual. But, wasn't saying "I love you" and a reply of "I love you too" enough?

I fondled her a bit to play along and buried my face in her nape. Something in my memory tells me that this fast of a pace really wasn't normal for people on relationships, there was some sort of stage to it and as soon as I said yes to her a few years back, I think we skipped to the sex a bit too fast.

Oh, well. Not like it was my first time.

Who knew nuns were very depraved individuals when it came to certain stuff?

As soon as we felt the van stop, we separated and she fixed herself up while stretched my face, I have to keep my expression, as expressive as I could.

It was a quiet trip to the church where we were supposed to ambush the Devil, in there I saw a brown haired man with weirdly purple eyes. It was rare, but not something I'd bother remembering, our leader spoke with the man for a bit and I saw the man hesistate.

How weird.

After a few more hours of waiting, we laid in ambush above the railing on top of the church.

And soon, a white haired female arrived along with a man.

"Shidou-san! I came as I promised!"

The brown haired man came out. His face was sullen.

"Masaomi. I'm sorry"

Our teacher rose his index finger.

"But, the church has decided"

The man, Masaomi accordingly, grabbed the Devil by the hands and started running. Or attempted to.

Our teacher dropped his finger.

10 of us jumped up from the railings, brandishing our generic holy swords, meanwhile the few from here that were to back us up revealed their holy swords and trapped the 2 in a pincer formation.

"TOUJI! WHAT IS THIS?!"

Masaomi stood protectively in front of the Devil.

Weird.

I was the first to land and held my holy sword in a reverse grip.

TAK TAK TAK!

"MASAOMI!"

Our orders were to kill the 2 of them if need be.

The man refused to allow the Devil to die.

Then it's alright if I strike the most apparent threat first.

We stared at each other's eyes. It was only when fighting that I could take a break from keeping my expressions, the excuse of being "Concentrated" in a fight was foilproof.

But, I hesitated. I never understood the point of hesitance. To me it was a foreing concept.

I never hesitated, once I made up my mind, I did it because hesitating was pointless if you were sure.

So, why did I hesitate?

The brief seconds of thinking a slowing down gave him enough time to be pushed by the Devil. The church was devoid of anything similar to a cross or anything holy as per the request of the man seduced by the Devil.

But it did not matter. I quickly pulled my strike and threw my holy sword at the Devil and jumped back, soon my classmates charged in as well and the fight was brought outside.

The Devil was really skilled. The man, Masaomi got my holy sword and used it to fend for himself.

I changed my priorities.

I took a nearby cross and sneaked my way out the windows, I pulled out an emergency holy water from my exorcism outfit's pockets and placed the contents inside my mouth so I could spit it out. I then sneaked behind the Devil woman.

She noticed me instantly and I met her eyes for a brief few seconds.

They looked different from what I witnessed with the flaming Devil.

It looked almost like... she was sincerely holding back.

"I see"

She heard me say that as I faced the strike and when he last moment it was about to hit me, she stopped her strike and shifted it to a nonlethal stomach swipe.

Fool.

Using the force I spat the holy water to her face and watched her face sizzle. I took the cross and stabbed her in the stomach with it.

"Go!"

I screamed as my fellow classmates all hopped in and stabbed her with their holy swords. Masaomi saw this happen and gave me a glare, one which was pure anger.

"YOU FUCKER!"

He changed course, ignoring the ones he was facing before and the brown haired Shidou did not do anything to stop him, probably realizing that it was over. He looked away from me shamefully and sheathed his own holy sword. The others also did the same, assuming it was over and Masaomi's anger was just the leftovers.

"Ziel! Watch out!"

Liz shouted, she wasn't worried that much it seems. She gave me a thumbs up and sheahted her holy sword.

I turned to our teacher.

'New orders. Kill him'

He mouthed at me. I faced the charging Masaomi and took the weapon the Devil used to ran towards him.

That attracted a lot of attention, Shidou's eyes widened and he turned to our teacher, the other men of that church also tried to run towards us. My classmates didn't expect me to do so but didn't react.

"YOU BASTARD!"

I dodged his initial slash with a duck and flipped the blade in my hands and rose up aiming for his throat.

"Goggh...URk....Ahghhh!"

I placed a feet behind his and made him trip down back first to the ground.

"DAVID! WHAT IS THIS?!"

Touji rushed to our teacher and grabbed his collar.

"What? We followed the orders we were given eliminate the 2 if need be"

"Y-YOU!"

"And he tried to kill my student"

Touji pushed David away and walked towards me. I gave him a smile.

Oops.

Wrong expression.

"Why are you smiling?"

I took back my smiled and hurriedly thought of an excuse.

"Because he was trying to... go against the word of the Lord and as the person to eliminate him, I feel proud"

I sighed inwardly at the convenient excuse and glanced at Liz.

She recoiled a little, I looked at my body and realized that I was drenched in blood. Not good, this was going to take a while to be cleaned.

I sighed again and silently hoped somebody had a spare outfit. Walking around this dirty was bad.

Touji stopped in place and eyed me.

"You're a psychopath"

He whispered, unheard by anybody else but me. After that, we spent a few more days in Japan before returning back.

I wasn't a psychopath I think?

RF

At 19 years old, I officially changed from Exorcist to Expert Modern Exorcist, there was no reason why.

I just felt that, the higher my rank goes as an Exorcist, the more the level of faith I had for the Lord to be and that was impossbile. Thus, our teacher recommended me to be a Expert Moden Exorcist, he didn't see anything wrong with being one as I proved myself to him and the Vatican countless times already.

In just 2 years of being an EME, I gained a moniker, Devil's Nightmare.

Liz broke up with me when she got into a relationship with our teacher, weirdly, she didn't expect me to react and I didn't really expect her words to me back then.

"I never really noticed until recently, but you are pretty psycopathic huh?"

I adamantly refused her words but accepted her breaking up with me. She was being a bit of a time waster.

By that time as well, from one of the Devil I was tasked to kill, I managed to get my hands on a prototype magic gun, created by the "Naberius" or so. After studying it, I managed to recreate it but intead of running on demonic energy, I used holy energy, the same ones for the generic holy swords to create the gun.

I could have never used the word "Successful" more fittingly for my career after using it.

RF

It was the dark of the night, the full moon was out and the streets were bustling with people. My target was a Devil known for having a liquefiable body or so the reports says. I stood on top of the rooftops, binoculars in hand as I watched her walk the world.

I thought of just killing her with my gun but that would attract too much attention, she was unable to liquefy if she didn't know the attack. When I sensed her about to look towards my direction I jumped back.

I remained still for a few minute before calling my database, or rather broker.

"John"

"Ziel~ Moshi-Moshi~"

"Can you tell me which hospital the "Liquid Devil" is visiting tonight for the dummy contractees we set up?"

"Aw~ Kay~... Here's the coordinates-desu~"

...

I checked the message, sent a thanks and 1000$ as payment. I jumped down from the building and went to my motorcycle, it was just a few hours ride and I believed I would arrive earlier.

And indeed, I arrived and set up my preparations, the dummy was on top of the hospital and the hospital was about 13 stories high including the ground floor. I placed C4's around the pillars of the hospital on each floor except the 13th. I packed holy water in my pockets and then my final prep was to replace the sprinklers at the 13th floor with holy water and crosses at 12th, she's going to notice the crosses but think nothing much of it as her target was at the 13th floor, even luckier if she gets lazy and teleported.

Report wise leans towards her walking more but those Devils were rather... weird and erratic. At about 11PM, she arrived and went inside the hospital, walking.

"John is the evacuation complete yet?"

"ZIEL! Shit, I can't make an evacuation, the... they gave you the yes..."

The Vatican was willing to let me kill about 1000 people for a single Devil? Just who was this?

I sighed and brought out the switch. I watcher her walk to the 12th floor and she stopped briefly.

"Distraction set"

She walked up to the floor, mind still muddled by the crosses.

As soon as she walked into the 13th floor, I activated the sprinkles and when she realized they were holy water, she rushed into the dummy's room.

"Panic set"

I aimed a sniper at her, her liquefication lasted for about a few minutes and has a hang time of 30 seconds, pretty unfair but I couldn't complain I emitted my bloodlust and let myself be seen,

She narrowed her eyes and snarled, but it was soon replaced with smug as she thinks that my sniper wouldn't be able to off her.

Not like it would.

I shot and she faced the shot head on, liquefying, I sent a few more shots and when the first bullet hit her and she felt the searing pain of holiness, she ran away and went under the bed.

I kept shooting and holding her off for 2 minutes before I went away.

I stared at the switch in my hands.

And then to the hospital, I saw a nurse helping an old man in a wheel chair enter, and then a few kids excited to enter the hospital.

And just for a moment, I felt a pang of guilt.

My finger hovered on the switch.

Weird.

TUT.

BOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!

The explosions all happened at the same time, counting the time it took to fall, about 15 seconds. I walked to the rubbles with my gun held out. I found an arm with a cigarette lit and took it for whatever reasons.

3 minute 20 seconds.

I scouted each area and arrived at where the stoned were a bit more intact.

3 minute 25 seconds.

I arrived at the highest rubble.

3 minute 28 seconds.

3 minute and 30 seconds.

A water like figure seeped out of the cracks, it was bleeding from the legs and had a slightly hopeful and happy smile in her face, she looked around sighed in relief when she realized that she still was alive. Not for long. I took a puff from the free cigarette I got and rose an eyebrow. It was pretty okay.

CLICK.

"Gotcha"

BANG!

RF

2 more years have passed, my infamy has changed from Devil's Nightmare to The Supernatural Killer.

My missions became even more diverse, from Youkai's to even halflings, sometimes kidnapping and most of the time assassinations. I was even tasked with purposely creating a tragedy to rope some people with sacred gears into the church.

I also gained the habit of smoking. But, today was a different day for me. The Vatican gave me one more of their special task.

They were impressed with me coming back alive from the "Liquid Devil" apparently they thought that it was my suicidal act to bring down the hospital and approved it for that. Too bad for them. It also isn't much of a secret but the Vatican was losing their... secrecy towards me, they often told me some rather un-holy missions and I did them either way.

What I could say is that they seemed to like painting Devils as "Bad" and them as "Good", I killed so many Devils I realized they have more expressions than me.

And if somebody had expressions, they were a lot more human if anything. Makes me wonder how many family and hate I've gained throughout the years.

"Ziel... child, it is always a pleasure to meet such an outstanding EME like you"

I smiled at the priest and gave him a slight nod.

"So, Father Altre. Mission information?"

Altre's face twitched a bit but he hid it well, not well enough for me though. He took out some papers and gave them to me.

"We want you to assasinate this girl"

"Ophis? Never heard of her, what sort of Devil is she?"

Altre sweated a bit.

"She's very strong, don't be fooled by the little girl form, she can... create snakes. All malicious and evil, similar to the serpent of sin from the bible, we found out the she has one... big weakness"

"Hoh?"

"Yes, she's... weak to... err, acid"

Oh, so it's one of those "Figure it out yourself" missions.

"Right, I'll take it"

I went away and memorized the face in the file.

This was going to be pretty easy.

...

That was a mistake caused by my inflated ego. Just accepting the mission was already a failure.