Descending Into The Underworld
Urchin is crouching at the edge of an alleyway and is peering out onto the street with Maka, Shiro, and Zypp right behind him.
“Make sure to always be alert when on patrol. Always be aware of your surroundings because you never know what could happen at any given moment.” Urchin explains to the group. “Sometimes my days are filled to the brim with petty crimes while other days not much of note happens. I am telling you this because those are usually the times when your guard is down the most, but your guard should always be up because bad things always happen when you least expect them.
Maka is growing bored of Urchin’s long winded explanations.
“Boring! When do we get to fight bad guys?”
“Hopefully not today. For all of your sake you should hope that today is as uneventful as physically possible.”
As they keep walking the streets (or I should say that Maka, Shiro, and Zypp are just walking the streets and Urchin is sneaking around every corner while doing unnecessary combat rolls).
This goes on for about an hour until they finally find something interesting happening.
“Shhh.” Urchin says to the others while he slowly peers around a corner with Maka and the others doing the same.
What they end up seeing is what appears to be a confrontation between members of a mob.
There was an incredibly pale man who was way too young looking to have gray hair and had it tied back in a bun, sunken in eyes with dark circles around them, a tattered black suit with a skull bowtie, and was holding a briefcase that was shaped like a cross.
He was talking to two men. One of which Had black, long, greasy hair and a purple suit with the top few buttons undone which showed off his chest hair and the other had a spiky brown hair and a white and red patterned headband and a blue suit with the sleeves torn off.
The pale man seemed to be the one who was currently talking.
“Yoh, Kendo. You know that you are very behind on your protection fees, right?”
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout.” Yoh, who was the one in the purple suit, responds while mindlessly playing with a yoyo.
“...Well, that’s unfortunate…” The pale man responded while opening up his briefcase.
“What are you gonna do about it?” Kendo responded with a sneer while readjusting his wooden sword.
“I’ll give you one last chance…Do you have the money or did you just waste it like you usually do?”
“Who’d like to know?” Yoh said while quickly rolling his yoyo back up before holding onto it.
“I go by many names, but the one you might be the most familiar with… is Hades…”
Yoh and Kendo immediately tense up. Yoh fumbles his yoyo, but manages to catch it at the last second. Kendo’s visual response is a lot more muted, but he is still visibly shaking.
“...Did…did you say Hades?” Yoh says while he is now scared for his life.
“...If I were you…” Hades responds “...I’d start running…I’ll give you a minute long head start…”
Hades pulls a two pronged trident out of his briefcase that has a lantern hanging from it.
“...Are…are you actually serious…” Yoh barely manages to say due to his fear.
“...One…Two…Three…”
“Oh. He’s serious alright…” Kendo said while pulling out a walkie talkie. “All men to my position! Now!”
After Kendo gave the command, he and Yoh went back inside of their hideout while they met up with some of their goons.
“I need you to take care of him.” Kendo says while tapping one of his henchmen on the shoulder.
“Sure thing, boss.” The henchmen says. He and all of the other henchmen (about twenty in total, all with different colored suits and hair) all walk out and confront Hades.
“Hey. There’s only one guy out here.”
“One guy. Ha! What were the bosses afraid of?”
“This should be a piece of cake.”
“...Fifty Eight…Fifty Nine…” Hades immediately spins his trident and puts it on one of the henchmen's shoulders. He immediately slashes downwards and the color drains from the man’s face as what appears to be his soul flies out of his body and into Hades’ lantern. “...Sixty…”
The henchmen stand in stunned silence for a moment.
“...What…what just happened…”
“I knew I shouldn’t have come in today.”
The henchmen were talking amongst themselves in hushed voices until the tallest among them shoved some of the others and walked right up to Hades. This man had tall spiky hair, sharp teeth, a suit jacket was completely unbuttoned revealing a hairy chest underneath, and was holding a giant wooden club with spikes on it.
“Hey asshole! You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!”
“Kong! Are you crazy! You are gonna get yourself killed!”
“Shut up! This guy needs to learn to respect us!”
Kong lifts his club over his head and begins to slam it down right at Hades.
Hades quickly sidesteps this and gets behind Kong and slashes him across the back.
Immediately after this Kong collapses on the group and his soul is absorbed.
“...That…that guy beat Kong like it was nothing!”
The goons were silent for about a minute until another one of them spoke up.
“...What are we doin’ just standin’ around? Let’s get ‘em!”
“...We don’t stand a chance. Whoever tries to fight him will die?”
“...It looks like we’re probably gonna die anyway. If that’s the case I wanna go down swingin’!” The brave henchmen says before charging right up to Hades before promptly being killed on the spot.
“...Let’s get out of here! Every man for himself!”
All of the henchmen start to run for their lives.
“...Look at them, scurrying around like cockroaches…What a pity…Well, since I feel bad for you all I’ll make sure your deaths are quick and painless…” Hades says right before quickly dispatching all of the rest of the henchmen in one fluid motion.
He stands there with his back turned while all of the souls fly inside of his lantern.
After seeing what happened to their henchmen, Yoh and Kong leave their hideout through a hidden exit in the back and try to sneak away.
“...Where do you think you two are going?” Hades says after immediately spotting them.
Both of the men immediately drop to their knees and start begging for their lives.
“...P…please Mr. Hades…We’ll get the money…right Kendo?” Yoh says while shoving Kendo with his shoulder.
“...Yeah…we’ll…we’ll get the money…just give us one more chance, please…”
“...Hmmm…very well…” Hades says while putting his trident back into his briefcase. “...But only one more chance…”
“...Thank you…thank you Mr. Hades!” Yoh says while crawling towards Hades' feet and kissing his shoes. “...We won’t let you down! I swear!”
“...How juvenile…” Hades says as he turns around and walks away, disappearing into the shadows of a nearby alleyway.
Urchin immediately steps out of the alleyway and walks towards Yoh and Kendo.
He picks up Yoh by the shirt collar.
“Who was that? Your boss?” Urchin says with a deep, intimidating voice.
“...Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t…” Yoh says while glancing to the side.
Urchin extends the fingers on his right into long black claws.
“Talk, or else I’ll make you talk!”
“Fine! I’ll talk! Just put me down!”
Kendo shoots a glare at Yoh who shrugs in response.
Urchin drops Yoh and he quickly gets back to his feet.
“I actually have never met that guy before, but he does work for my boss.”
“Then who was that?”
“You don’t know?! That was Hades, one of the rulers of this city’s underworld.”
“If that wasn’t your boss. Then who is?”
“I actually don’t know! Honest! I’ve never met the man before.”
“I find it hard to believe you work for a man you’ve never met.”
“I am sayin’ the truth! He is a man who is completely shrouded in mystery. None of us know who he is. Right Kendo?”
Kendo facepalms and nods.
“What else?” Urchin continues the interrogation.
“...Uh…that’s…that’s it…That’s all I know…” Yoh says while glancing to the side.
Urchin puts his claws up to Yoh’s throat again.
“Fine! You got me!” Yoh yells out. “My sources are tellin’ me that the bosses are gonna be meetin’ up at the main hideout about a week from now, next Saturday.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“...No…” Yoh says with a gulp.
Urchin glares at him with squinted eyes. He then drops Yoh who quickly crawls backwards and hides behind Kendo.
“Kids. Come with me.” Urchin says while quickly walking out of the alley and back to CHS HQ.
Maka stops him.
“Get out of my way kid.”
“So, are we just going to let that creepy guy get away?!”
“Yes.” Urchin says while shoving Maka out of the way as he continues to walk.
“Why?” Maka yells out as she gets in Urchin’s way again.
“Because we aren’t strong enough.” Urchin says while shoving Maka out of the way again.
“...I can take him…” Maka says while crossing her arms.
Urchin turns around and walks right up to Maka.
“No you can’t! We are going back to headquarters so I can tell my team about what we saw. We can then come up with a proper plan and have reinforcements to actually go through with them.”
“...But…”
“That’s enough! Talk back to me again and It’s a detention!”
“What? You can’t do that?”
“I know the teachers at SUPER very well!” Urchin says while poking Maka in the chest. “Who do you think they’ll believe more? Someone they have known for years or some kid who has an ego bigger than her own head?”
Maka grits her teeth and starts to tear up.
Urchin sighs, takes a deep breath, and takes a knee to get down on Maka’s level.
“...Kid, your heart is in the right place, but you have got to think things through sometimes. If I let you follow that guy you would have died. Believe me. I am doing this for your own good.”
Maka just nods while she wipes her nose.
Urchin pats Maka on the shoulder before standing back up.
“...Okay…now let’s head back…”
Maka holds her arm as Shiro and Zypp walk on each side of her.
Shiro puts her hand on Maka’s shoulder, but Zypp is the first of the two to speak.
“He’s right, you know.”
“Zypp! Now is not the time!”
They just shrug in response.
After shooting a glare at Zypp, Shiro turns her attention back to Maka.
“Hey. We might not be ready for a villain that strong today, but that’s why we are training, right?”
Maka gives a small nod.
“Yeah! We’ll get there eventually.” Shiro quickly runs between Maka and Zypp and puts her arms around them. “When we’re strong enough we will definitely get to kick some ass!”
Maka lets out a small laugh. “...Yeah…I can’t wait for that…What is better than getting paid to kick ass?”
“I can think of a few things.” Zypp says seductively with their tongue out.
“Zypp!” Shiro says while jumping backwards and blushing wildly. “You can’t just say things like that!”
“I don’t know. It seems like someone is enjoying it.” Zypp says while looking at Maka who was also blushing.
“What an interesting response.” Zypp says with their hand on their chin.
Eventually Urchin, Maka, Shiro, and Zypp get back to HQ so Urchin can tell his team what he saw.