The sound of downfall continued to pour into the dimly lit bar - within the ungroomed but young looking tender couldn’t help staring at the man sitting at the counter with a mixture between guilt & surprise.

Still, the man didn’t notice, both continued doing what they were meant to be doing there. That tender tended to the bartop in addition to cleaning a glass far longer than he reasonably should have. On the other hand; the lonely middle-man slumped down with eyes that revealed naught but the hopelessness and regrets that he had no solution to.

His drink was perpetually being refilled with a bottle in front of him. He wasn’t even sure what he was drinking nevertheless he did at least know it helped numb the pain that was his own reality. Scratching his scruffy beard that had been built over countless sleepless nights worrying over when they would knock.

Only a couple years ago he had a bright future with a full head of ginger hair… Now his hair was so thin that it may as well have not been there. Sadly his hair wasn’t the only thing gone either. As far as anyone was concerned; he had no future. Remembering this caused his powerless hand to tighten around the glass while his teeth clenched so hard it felt as if they would crack.

*diling*

Just as he was about to explode, the front door opened, a group of 6ft 6.6 crimson cloaked figures with large wrapped “items” resting upon their backs. All but one shorter figure. The foremost individual of the group - who didn’t choose a random seat to sit down like the rest - instead she stepped up to the counter before pulling her cloak down to cause the watching bartender to widen his eyes. Clearly not expected such a beautiful young "girl" to enter a dingy establishment like the one he ran.

With a mid-length hair that shouted “tomboy” that was split between being navy & indigo in colour (as were her eyes) except for a single patch of white on her fringe.

Her features were sharp to the point of absolute perfection; a literally peerless beauty that quickly made the tender narrow his eyes. Deciding he didn’t want to let a chance like this go… Only to find the girl completely ignoring him to instead hit the middle-aged man's shoulder in an overly friendly manner.

“Care to share a song & drink with a poor old sinner, friend?” A weird phrase for someone who had nary a single wrinkle on her face. However, due to a sudden lightning strike outside, the single scar upon her body was a cat scratch that travelled down from the white poof of hair all the way down her face. Even crossing over one of her eyes at an awkward angle to completely ruin the symmetry of her face… But it was still the scratch of a literal kitten so it wasn’t partially big.

It was big enough for the bartender to frown but it wasn’t as if she was ugly even with the scratch all the way across her face. Because of that,  he decided to go along with his plan, only to stop when one of the other cloaked figures threw their arm out. A throwing knife flying just past the tenders head to pierce right through the phone - a move that got the man to scream & fall on his butt.

Strangely the middle-aged man did not even react to the attack - neither did the ‘leader’ girl -  but instead turned up to look toward his “friend” with those hollow eyes of his. Somehow he decided not to dissuade the girl from sticking around a dead beat like him. “I suppose everyone has their own problems… But it is never easy to let go of your own.”

“Mhm, an honest phrase from an honest man, you have my ear.” The girl didn’t say much; reaching for that over-cleaned glass before presenting it to the middle-aged man who filled it with his bottle.

Nevertheless the man couldn’t help snorting. “What is honest about me? All I wanted was to take care of my ailing mother and maybe do something good - study really hard to become a doctor. Help people, y’know?”

Staring into his glass as tears began to form in his eyes - falling into his glass - as the hand holding his glass began to shake. Not finding his reflection in the liquid; he closed his eyes as his body just silently trembled for a moment. That girl also didn’t rush him. Just silently sipping on her own drink while looking toward the scared tender who did not understand what was happening or rather why nothing else did.

“I succeeded… Got my medical licence and even put up with all the back-to-back shifts that were ‘expected of me’ as a newbie. As time went on I even managed to get my own place, nothing big mind you, just a nice little family clinic where I could make a decent living as well as contribute to my community!” Raising his glass as if remembering how amazing everything was going; it may not have been a lot but it was enough for the man.

Nevertheless, he slammed his glass back down, as if foretelling the way this story was going. “My mother as well as son ended up having the same condition - a genetic disposition that must have skipped me leading to me overlooking it.”

Covering his face as the tears continued to flow.

“I knew exactly the medication as well as treatment they needed and so did the doctor I was seeing for the two of them, he was no quack, but that didn’t matter to them!” Slamming down both of his fists onto the bartop - causing the entire thing to shake - not just once. A repetitive motion that fully expressed the anguish he was going through.

The bartender even had his fear turn from the crimson cloaked figures (who smelled like iron) to instead look toward the middle-aged man. “THAT DAMN FUCKING INSURANCE COMPANY, THAT SMUG KNOW IT ALL BASTARD ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LINE, TRULY THOUGHT HE KNEW BETTER THAN TWO DOCTORS!”

*diling*

Just then another group of figures, this time in something akin to a black military uniform with bubblegum pink highlights, opening the door for their leader to walk in. Most of them appeared to stay outside as the presumed leader only entered with one of their ‘soldiers’ that held a sealed document.

Her being a strangely short girl at 5 foot  despite having absolutely massive breasts with long hair that seemed to randomly switch between black & silver. With her eyes also being bicolour switch between those same two colours. Horns atop of head made her seem like some kind of cosplayer. A feat not helped by the swishing tail & wings that were present on her back

Said leader didn’t even bother to hide the two rifles on their back. Adjusted the military cap upon their greyish-silver hair with pink highlights. The hat had some strange logo the bartender didn’t recognise - a downward facing triangle with two sickles on either side - as did the uniform of all the other girls. Another strange note being that all these militaristic “guests” were female… Even if their leader was androgynous.

That leader also had a pair of large round glasses with bubblegum pink lenses that combined with their expression to make a surprisingly intimidating appearance.

“Those fuckers decided that the two didn’t need the medication… Refused to pay for it… I-I couldn’t let that happen so I decided to use my authority to get them what they needed, they were getting better like I thought, but oh now… That wasn’t enough for those FUCKERS!” Slamming the countertop without paying attention to the slowly approaching figure of that ‘military commander’.

The bartender could only shiver while watching, expecting that newcomer to get angry, waiting for a fight to break out at any time. Even if he wasn’t anywhere near a good person… He had never personally been involved in the ‘consequences’ of the information he sold - exactly the way he liked it.

Fortunately the militia were far more trained than he anticipated; even if the one holding the documents frowned they didn’t do anything. Meanwhile the commander just sat down beside the blue-purple girl before pulling a cigar out from their jacket. Flicking their fingers to generate a pink flame on the end of the cigar - letting them take a hard long drag of smoke as they mumbled “Hurry up Wolf”.

An action that only got a sarcastic “So we’re using code names now, Smith?” from the girl as she waited for the middle-aged man to continue (much to the relief of the bartender).

“They reported me; got my licence revoked for what I did which meant I also was unable to even run my own clinic. Even spread rumours that I lost my licence due to selling drugs on the side. No one… Was willing to lend a helping hand despite all I did for the small community I lived in. Had to move away while my wife decided to move back in with her own parents. Still, I needed money, had to sell everything I owned plus take any job I could while at the same time taking loan after loan with shady groups…”

Patting the man's back - the girl helped with what little she could do while looking toward the bartender at the mention of ‘loan shark’ which made him sheepish as he tried to continue washing up.

“My body couldn’t keep up anymore so it turned out that I was terminal; my mother and son had recovered yet I couldn’t leave them with debt as my last gift… I just… I couldn’t let mom and Jesse deal with that - so I kept up with all that work. Those greedy bastards wouldn’t let me go though. Said that there was one way I could get a ton of money to pay them up while looking at me like a fucking thing of gold…” His tears made it impossible to continue talking.

That girl nodded with a smile on her face, taking a long sip from her drink, before she filled in the blanks of what the man wanted to say. “They wanted your as well your family's organs to be sold to them. Nothing is quite as cushy as getting desperate people in debt then using that to wring them in all they are worth… So you lost yourself and ended up killing the boss in addition to his underlings with his own weapon.”

“I-Impossible!” Exclaimed the bartender in shock but was quiet when another throwing knife pierced through the wall behind him along with a strange “Jehehe~” snicker.

Meanwhile the middle-aged man got very cagey & defensive; backing away from the girl while raising his guard toward her. “Y-you aren’t here to-”

“-kill you? No one can kill you anymore, plus I don’t work for shitty little thugs like that, most of the time I just do my own thing while maybe getting paid for it when I can.” Shaking her head while taking another shot before continuing. “Although I do bet it was no coincidence that you stood up to a shady group only to be buried under a mountain of debt afterwards; you don’t need to worry about your family Mr Harper.”

Offering the lost soul a big grin as she moved her glass up in an invitation to cheer with her.

“I have a lot of contacts plus I like your gumption as a mortal so I’ll make sure things work out well for both of them and maybe get some juicy revenge. Depending on what Smith has my precious little Death present to me… So how about you have a good old sleep, my friend, there is a new life waiting for you on the other side my friend.” Closing her eyes with a soft grin.

The girl standing with the documents even cut in. “Dory foretells good tidings about the 8 year old!” Only to be interrupted by the other multi-coloured girl who said “We’re meant to use codenames according to Smith, Death!” which got a snort from the person in question.

“I am tired…” Hearing that made the man lift his glass up to meet that of the chaos sowing girl as he let out a long tired sigh - his body beginning to become transparent. To that the girl just began to sing, placing her glass onto the counter, not seemingly surprised at all at the scene happening beside her.

“I am the righteous hand of God~♫

And I am the devil that you forgot~♫

And I told you one day you will see~♫

That I'll be back I guarantee~♫

And that hell's coming, hell's coming~♫

Hell, hell's coming with me~♫”

“You righteous?” That androgynous military ‘man’ questioned the singing girl as the last motes of light that made the middle-aged man vanished. Seemingly nice enough to wait till he passed. Although the bartender was somewhere between confused and scared. “Neither of us are anywhere close to what the world would call righteous… Although I suppose you are the only one who can judge that.”

With her job here done; she launched the final shot of hers down to the back of her throat and flipped over the glass onto the counter before pouring out the man's it where he slept. “I gave you what you wanted so give me the downlow on what I paid for, Smith.“

Clearly not willing to discuss morality with a black-hearted mercenary at the moment.

Although the mercenary also didn’t seem to care enough to continue - taking a puff of their cigar to build up until they soon did as requested. “You were right with what you told them but this shitty country still has as terrible of a healthcare system as back in my day. Plenty of other people get screwed over just because they don’t want to pay… As a demon I find myself disgusted with their lack of professionalism”

“You would be; honestly it’s amazing how demons stick closer to the contract than the crooks in this country of supposed freedom. Sorry, I forgot, they technically aren’t criminals. They just decide to use their money to pay off politicians instead of the medical debt of the people using their service.” Snorting at how united these states were in making sure the ‘little guy’ got fucked over.

“Geht die Macht zu den Mächtigen *snort* makes me think they would get along with that.” Letting some of their original nationality slip through before once again continuing on. “From what my girls worked out; they get people desperate by racking up their prices and having their loan sharks swoop in. Those schaf then get convinced to sell their organs to them only for those organs to then be sold back to the wealthier clients without anyone else knowing any better… But I would like for you to not get anymore involved.”

“O~h~?”

“It will prove to be a useful obstacle for my little perle….” Looking towards the barkeeper. “Although they did have a contact that would pass on possible ‘clients’ that you can deal with.”

“W͙͍̪̤͌͋͢i̸̗͓̠̘͓ͪ͗͑ͅt͇̺̼̟̪͉̳̗͆̐̊̓͘h̘͍̞ͧ͑̏́ ̲̥̩̙̖̜̙̃̑͘p͔̙̬̜̩ͥ̅̍́lͨͮ҉̼̺̩͉e̩͇͔̻̭̣̞͌͠å̸̱̻̻̥͛ͣsͬ͏̼̪̙̫͍͎̹̩ŭ̬̫̜͒ͮ͠r̀͊҉̣̠͔͚̲ͅe̸͉̞̺̳̹ͤ~̹̲̝̠̳͍͊́́̚.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“.. so we have no confirmation from the FBI about what occurred last night, however it seems very likely to have been an attack in order to steal some sensitive information which explains the silence. It has at least been confirmed that the perpetrator of the assassination attempt of Alexis Porshi during the closing ceremony of the olympics on our soil has been killed. In other news…”

I had the HoloVision playing in the background of my room however it was hard not to focus on the black flames I was having bounce betwixt my palms. Although I had attempted to have them dance between my fingers; it was clear I did not have enough proficiency to achieve that.

Still, I was certain, there would be far more I could do with these unique flames of mine.

“My rewards were useful nevertheless this mission has also opened my eyes to the fact that this world is more magical than I ever would have believed in my first life… There are also these flames of mine that I am sure could do far more. No way they are only able to disrupt technology or my parents would never have gifted them to me.” So I thought out loud while finally watching that screen - only to cause it to build up static despite technically still working behind that.

I didn’t want to break them.

“But, while mom isn’t here, I should quickly look over the software of the hardlight shield…”