Demeter

The Yakushima islands were huge. Unbelievably huge. Damian, Adrian, and Persephone found themselves being driven through a road leading deeper into the islands. Persephone was uncharacteristically mellow as they drove and there was nothing Damian could say to bring her to say anything back.

The scenes beside them changed to another ocean view. This one had a beach with multiple people standing in a group and looking out over the horizon. The woman driving crested onto the beach and stopped some distance away from the gathered people. One of them turned around and began walking towards them.

"I suggest you highlight," the driver said, "Your brother is not in the best of moods today"

Damian quickly opened the door and came down, allowing Persephone to step out as well. Adrian used the other door. Thalus had on a blue shirt and jean trousers. He put his hands in his pocket once he saw them come down and waited for them to come to him.

"You're late," was the first thing he said to them and Damian automatically bristled in anger. Not even a hello? The bastard.

Persephone's head was bowed, and her eyelids were clenched tightly. She had such a strong aura of hope radiating from her that it was almost visible.

"Persephone," Thalus said and her head snapped up so quickly Damian could've sworn she sprained it, "It's been a while. I hope you're training hard"

Persephone's smile was blindingly beautiful, "Y-Yes brother! I am!"

Okay, Damian thought, maybe less of a bastard.

Thalus nodded and then turned towards the crashing waves of the ocean, "It's almost time," he said, "Follow me"

They all moved closer to the group of people standing in front of the ocean and Damian saw some of them look at him in distrust. He turned his eyes away and faced the waves, "What are we looking at, exactly?" he asked.

Thalus rose his hand up and pointed towards the ocean. For a moment, there was nothing, and Damian rose a brow in confusion, but then the water exploded outwards.

BOOOOOOMMMM!

It was a large humanoid thing that was mainly made up of…seaweeds?

Damian stared in disbelief.

It began making its way towards the shore and some of the people took steps away from it, but before it could come any closer, a tentacle burst forth from the water and latched onto its neck. It was dragged back into the water, and then the largest octopus Damian had ever seen broke out.

Crouched on top of the octopus' head was a single woman. She was using one hand to hold onto the octopus and the other one was stretched to the side. She waved her hand forward and the octopus swung its tentacle into the river, slamming it into the torso of the humanoid sea-weed thing.

She clenched her fist and four of the tentacles wrapped around the weed monster and then she splayed her hands to the side.

RIPPPPPPP!

Damian actually winced in pity at the sight of the seaweed being torn to shreds. The octopus then threw it into the ocean and it simply floated there -dead.

The woman stood straight and the crowd of men and women cheered for her as the octopus floated closer to shore and allowed her to dismount. She had long blonde hair and black eyes that seemed permanently stuck in a state of boredom, she was dressed in a pair of shorts and a thin loose top.

She was also extremely beautiful.

"Mother," Thalus said and Damian did a double-take. This was Persephone's mother!?

The woman looked from Thalus to the three of them. Her gaze rested on Persephone for a moment and Persephone ducked her head while retreating in on herself.

"My name is Demeter," she began, "And I hope your presence here will not bring any problems."

She didn't look towards him specifically, but Damian could tell she was talking to him.

Demeter turned to Thalus, "You can direct them to clean up. Oceanus will help"

Thalus nodded and then directed the people gathered to move towards the ocean. Demeter looked back at them.

"Follow me," she said and then began walking towards the car they came in. She held her hand out to one of the two women in front of the car and was handed a folder. She threw it at Adrian, "There have been reports of missing animals in the eastern islands a few notches from here. We currently don't have enough leeway to allow any bit of food to go missing, so we called you in. Your mission is to find out the reason behind this and report back to me. I hope you understand that?"

Adrian nodded.

"Good. Thalus will be your handler for the duration of the mission. I heard you've worked together before, so it should be easy to work together again. Until then, don't disappoint me"

Demeter turned and began walking away from them.

Damian watched her go in disbelief. That was it?

He looked towards Adrian, but he saw him going through the folder curiously, so he turned towards Persephone instead. Damian felt his heart constrict.

There were tears in her eyes.

Once Persephone saw him looking at her, she brought her hand up and rubbed her eyes with her sleeves. She brought it down and gave him a weak smile before turning to Adrian, "W-What does the folder say?" she asked

"Nothing much," Adrian said, "Just coordinates and addresses of some people who lost their animals. Maybe we should go from door to door?"

"Won't that take too long?" Damian asked

"Maybe. But let's pass it by Thalus and see how to go about it"

The three of them turned around and saw Thalus with his hand held up. There was water swirling around him and gathering up the seaweed, allowing the large octopus - Oceanus - to push it out onto land. After w while of doing this he turned away from the ocean, said a few words to the other people gathered, and then began making his way towards them.

"You've been briefed?" he said

They nodded and Thalus waved his hand towards the two women who were still standing in front of the car. They handed him a key and then left. Thalus entered the car and they entered after him.

"I'm sure some of you already know this, but for the sake of the new blood, ill say it again. The Yakushima islands cover a vast area of water with close to twenty small islands and one large main one. Seafood is no problem, but the amount of regular food we can get here depends greatly on the imports we receive from other parts of Japan, and even then, it is small. The news of missing animals o the eastern island was at first dismissed as a one-time thing, but over the past three days, five more animals have gone missing. We can no longer just overlook it"

The middle compartment between the two front seats opened up and their guns came up.

"We're only going to be scouting for the problem today, and if we find anything we'll report it back. Under no circumstances would you wander off on your own."

The three students picked out their guns as they came to another part of the island, this part had a port with a speed boat floating over the water. Thalus stopped the car and they all came down and moved towards the boat.

The speedboat was bumpy and slightly uncomfortable for Damian - who had never been in any form of sea transport till that moment. He held onto the side of the boat throughout the ride and was just grateful that he didn't have any form of seasickness.

After a few minutes of sailing, they got to a small island that looked like a floating forest. Thalus got down with the three students following him, and then they all moved into the forest.

Damian thought for sure that he would be coming upon a small settlement that housed only a few fishermen or something like that, but instead what he was a large circular estate. They basically just tore out a circular portion in the middle of the forest and built modern houses in it.

Thalus made his way onto a long road leading into town, greeting people and smiling at children who ran up to him and Persephone. Persephone was a natural with the children, she would pet their heads and make sure to keep her gun away from them while still managing to keep up with Thalus.

Damian got the feeling that she was used to this

He and Adrian, though, were not.

They followed behind them but they were not spared from the barrage of children who kept trying to grab onto their guns. Damian eyed a particularly annoying child who kicked him when he couldn't grab onto the gun and was about to kick him right back -

"We're here," Thalus said as they stopped in front of a large building with a fence around it. They managed to send the children away - well Persephone did, anyways - and then they made their way into the building.

The man who opened the front door gasped once he saw Thalus and attempted to bow, but Thalus held him by the shoulder and brought him back up

"No need for that," Thalus said to the man, "I just need to discuss some things with you. Can I come in"

The man nodded - and after telling them to wait outside - Thalus entered the house.