A Demon's Grand Adventure: Prologue

---RELGION, YAMABIKO SHOPPING DISTRICT---

 "Out of the way, out of the way!"

 A nekomata, carrying a huge sack of goods on his back, shoved his way through the crowds, bumping into children and women and just about anyone as he scrambled to get away. Each breath was a hard one, with how heavy this bag was, but he just couldn't let it go. He needed this cash more than ever, stores be damned! This all belonged to HIM now!

 He slipped in through an alleyway and slumped against a wall, catching his breath after a long run. He took a peek out of the alley for a moment before looking upward. Good, no sign of them. A sigh of relief escaped his lips. No more running, no more bounty hunters to worry about. With a smirk, the nekomata took off the sack of goods and opened it, revealing all the gold and cash he stole from the stores. He even snatched one of those mystical crystal balls that dumb bird woman was selling in her store. Oh yes, all of this would fetch him a pretty penny if he sold them to others, maybe to that Greed guy he always heard about.

 He was so preoccupied, he didn't notice someone casting a shadow over him.

 "Yo."

 His fur stood on end as he slowly turned his head, catching a glimpse of crimson hair.

 "You fucked with the wrong place."

 He could hear the woman crack her knuckles as she lifted up... what was that? A halberd? It was huge!

 "So then," said Scarlet with a mischevious grin, "you gonna return what you stole, Felix? Or do I have to show you a few moves before I force you to return 'em, eh?"

 His answer?

He packed up his things in a jiffy and bolted, leaving the buffcubus in the dust. The crowd seemed ever thicker, ever dense as he tried to weave through the hordes of demons that simply wanted to hang around the district. It was pretty difficult, especially with such a heavy sack of stuff he wouldn't part with. Felix could hear the screams and yells of people, especially the battle cry of an angry buffcubus bowling over dozens and dozens of shoppers.

 "YOU'RE FUCKING DEAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" she screamed. Felix was overcome with curiosity and turned back towards her, only to see the halberd swing overhead. A clump of fur fell out and he heard panicked cries and the sound of something falling over and crashing into the ground. He didn't bother waiting for Scarlet to swing again before running for dear life, scrambling up taller demons and leaping onto the rooftops. Not even the yamabikos that echoed advertisements were safe as Felix shoved them off, and Scarlet flew up and swung again, nearly chopping their poor little heads off.

 The entire district was in a panick now as they watched the nekomata run and his pursuer destroy most things in her path to try to get at him. Felix leapped down from a rooftop and into another alley, blending in with the shadows with his dark fur and watching as Scarlet followed after him, confused as to where he went, and running out towards the open streets. He snorted for a moment before sneaking into a clothes store and stealing a trench coat and a fedora and sneaking right out, taking a chance to put them on in the alley before trying to blend in with the crowd. Yes, this wasn't suspicious at all. Nope.

 "YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HIDE, DIDN'T YOU?!?"

 "Ew, trench coats are SOOOO last millenia."

 "You're gonna pay for thinking you can get away from us, little kitty cat!"

 If Felix could pale under all that fur, he would, as Scarlet returned with company. Company with claws and a gattling gun.

 He wailed like a little kitten as the chase scene began anew, this time with a purple haired succubus firing heart-shapped bullets from above and a blue haired succubus launching fire spells every which way. On top of that, Scarlet was causing collateral damage and trying to hurl roof shingles and chunks of buildings in front of him to try to slow him down. He almost thought about surrendering, oh yes he did, but the siren song of cash rang in his head, fueling his desire to run, to escape from the crazy minded, crazy beautiful bodacious babes. Adrenaline fueled him, allowing to run faster and faster, dodge the bullet and fiery hell they were raining on him.

 As he ran faster and faster and weaved through bigger and badder demons, Felix noticed that he was outrunning his persuers, their faces lost to the crowds. He began to slow down as the end of the district was in sight, the path to Devil's Forest in reach. Once he entered the forest, nobody would be able to find him, that's for sure. Not even those succubi. A smirk crossed his lips again as he walked towards the exit, his path to victory. The way is clear, the end was in sight-

 He stopped once someone stepped in front of him, wearing brown robes and a weird red and blue bandana. He groaned internally for a moment before puffing up his fur and trying to look as intimidating as possible.

 "Another bounty hunter tryin' to get me?" he snapped. "You got some nerve! But you aren't going to catch me!"

 The bounty hunter did not move. He simply asked, "Are you sure you rather not turn yourself in?"

 "When I'm just about to get away from you people?! Hell no! Now, get out of the damn way!"

 The bounty hunter stared for a moment before stepping aside. Felix grinned and ran down the path, almost tempted to whistle to himself. That was easy, way too easy! What a freaking pushove-

BZZZZZZZT.

 Thousands of volts of electricity coursed through his body, through his nerves. And before he could even hit the ground and pass out, the great Felix was damning his bad luck.

-----------------------------

 "Hold on a second, lightning traps?!?"

 Scarlet was kneeling beside the twitching, unconscious body of the cat thief, staring at the now-inactive runes drawn into the ground. Tina picked up the bag of stolen goods while Sora picked up the cat and dragged him away to a safer place, as the succubus leader glanced over to the mysterious bounty hunter.

 "I'm surprised that you weren't aware," the bounty hunter replied. "One must not be afraid to use deception to win against the unjust."

 Scarlet stood up and glared at him. "That wasn't what I was talking about! I'm wondering why you didn't use ice traps instead so, I don't know, you can freeze his feet in place before I sock him in the head!"

 "To be quite frank, I wasn't aware you were even here."

 "I hunt bounties all the damn time, you dumbass! You know this because we worked together!"

 "People do change, you know."

 "Well, I'm not most people!" Scarlet huffed, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. "I'm goddamn Scarlet, bounty hunter for hire, and I'm gonna stay that way for the rest of my life! Right, gals?"

 "Yepparooni!" Sora replied cheerfully, happily chaining Felix up with geas.

 "Until it becomes boring and you prefer bodybuilding to fighting," Tina said with a smirk.

 "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Tina." Scarlet sighed and desummoned her halberd before stretching out her arms, turning towards the bounty hunter and smiling. "Good to see you're back from Limbo, by the way. How was it?"

 The demon shrugged and replied, "Quiet. Eerily so, but after a whirlwind of success and the death of Giradin, I needed it before the rest of the Dark Council decided to have my head on a platter."

 "Well, can't blame ya. You actually went ahead and killed him after he screwed with the weak one time too many. And he challenged you to a fight and brought help when he promised it was one on one. And you won."

 "Well, I wasn't going to let a dishonorable, filthy liar win against me. And all it took to find out he cheated was to take advantage of one of the lesser Rifle Demons, so eager to spill gossip after two or four drinks."

 "And you went and killed him, the council that helped Giradin, and Giradin himself, big bad lion demon he was," Scarlet yawned, putting her hands behind her head, a bored look on her face. "And you didn't even invite me to help you kill him."

 "I rather take the high ground and keep my promise of a one on one battle than to sink to his level," the demon replied, his voice cold as ice. "I hope you will eventually see that not everything is about fighting for entertainment, Scarlet."

 "And I hope you can lighten the hell up, with all these rules and shit, Satoshi," the buffcubus grumbled. "You really haven't changed in all these years!"

 Tina overheard part of the conversation and chimed in, "Well, he was in Limbo for quite a while! I bet he even missed out on Gluttony's birthday party! And us kicking Flower Witch butt!"

 Satoshi turned to Scarlet, raising an eyebrow at Tina's remarks. "What's this about Flower Witches?"

 Scarlet grinned and replied, "Long story short, some witches were terrorizing the place and had some Ordrak Stone thingy. We killed the leader and turned the other two in. They were complete jokes, lemme tell ya! I even got pissed because they didn't summon a giant, world-ending monster or anything! That's Witch 101, seriously!"

 Satoshi stared for a moment and put a finger to his chin, deep in thought. Scarlet glanced over at him before asking, "Whatcha even thinking about?"

 "Perhaps they lacked the means to summon this monster... Or maybe they weren't powerful enough or skilled enough..."

 The buffcubus groaned and playfully punched her fellow bounty hunter in the shoulder. "You're overthinking this, Sato!" she said. "I mean, sure, maybe that's the case, but who cares? What's done's done. Or in this case, what isn't done is left undone or something or other. Let's worry about bigger fish we gotta fry, huh?"

 Satoshi glared at Scarlet for a moment before his attention was drawn by a mothman, flying in the skies in a hurry and diving down towards the group. Satoshi and Scarlet stepped out of the way, but the moth demon ended up crashing into Tina and knocking her over, flailing about like a fish.

 "Badnewsbadnewsbadnewsbadnews!" said the moth, after prying itself away from Tina and hovering over to the two bounty hunters. "We have baaaaaaaaaaaaaad news! Horrible news! Horrendous news!"

 Satoshi raised an eyebrow. "And what are these bad news you speak of?" he asked.

 "New threat to demon world! Very scary threat! Terrifying!"

 Scarlet scowled, grabbing the mothman by the fuzzy neck and commanding, "Out with it, already!"

 The moth demon cringed before turning his head to the side, trying to avoid eye contact with the scary buffcubus. "Y-yes, yes! Trouble abrewing with the Council! They kidnapped someone from the Overworld and is holding her hostage!"

 The two bounty hunters exchanged glances before Satoshi asked, "And this concerns us... how?

 Suddenly, the moth sprang up, wings flapping rapidly, his voice now high pitched, strained with worry.

 "The Raven Queen! The leader of the Tengu! They kidnapped her and want to make use of her power to create an unstoppable army! You guys have to stop them! Again! Please!"

 Satoshi could have sworn his heart sank for a moment.

 All this time away... only to be thrown into another adventure, another battle with the Dark Council.