1. Horns Up - 8


    Date: 5/18/2024, Categories: Supernatural, Author: AnotherChain

    You sit at the breakfast table, awkwardly tapping your fingers as Lilith glares at you in the seat opposite yours. Her one red eye stares at the countless bruises left over from your first meeting with Eari the previous day. You stare in kind at the conspicuous sling that one of her arms is in. Simultaneously, you both turn your gazes over to the house's front hallway, where a number of contractors are busy repairing the front door.
    
    After a painfully long period of silence, your handler drinks from her mug of coffee and sighs.
    
    "I take it yesterday was rough on everyone, then," she comments, adjusting the straps of her sling.
    
    That's certainly one way to put it. Eari wasn't best pleased about the whole 'getting tranquilised' thing.
    
    "Didn't have a choice. She's a nightmare to transport."
    
    She nods at one of the larger bruises on your neck.
    
    "How'd that happen?" Lilith asks.
    
    There was a scuffle. What about her arm?
    
    "Explosion."
    
    What?!
    
    "Got caught in a firefight with some demon traffickers. Was too close to a burning truck when the fuel tanks blew up. Normally I would have gotten away in time, butsomeonewas distracting me on the phone," she complains, shifting her arm about uncomfortably.
    
    ... Whoops?
    
    "Ngh. Whatever. Your door will be fixed in a day or two. As for the busted furniture, more is on the way, and I've made sure these new articles are tough enough to withstand an Oni."
    
    Your handler drains the last of her coffee, wincing as she ...
    ... accidentally knocks her injured arm off the tabletop.
    
    "Speaking of your newest charge, keep an eye on her. Most isolated demon enclaves are at the very least somewhat familiar with English, but she's from a village in the deepest pits of Hell's equivalent of Antartica. Tough people. Still exclusively speaking in Tongues when we made contact."
    
    Yeah, talking to her is a bit of a challenge.
    
    "Let's hope the university staff have a better time with her."
    
    On that note, what is Eari going to be studying while she's here? She doesn't exactly strike you as a scholarly type.
    
    Lilith snorts.
    
    "She isn't studying so much as she is being studied. The entire college faculty wants to take a look at her; anthropology, biology, linguistics, you name it. She seemed pretty interested in the sports side of college life too. Especially wrestling," she notes, looking at her phone.
    
    You blanch, remembering just how easily the Oni overpowered you. If she joins a wrestling program, then she'll be unstoppable...
    
    As that pleasant thought lingers in your brain, your thoughts drift to the college that the girls are attending. Clearing your throat, you ask Lilith if the Earth-Hell Initiative is in charge of security there while the demons are attending.
    
    "We mostly supplement the regular security there with additional funding, why?"
    
    Gladys. That woman from Mothers Against Hellish Invasion. You don't know how, but she somehow snuck onto the campus and took pictures of the girls. She ...
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