Warning: Mentions of blood and gore.
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"I would like you to know, C5 can be troublesome."
(Y/N) was currently walking with Mr. Khan on their way to C5's cell. Today, she started work again and she was assigned to work with the old man keeper, Mr. Khan, who watches over the child-looking demon, C5. Mr. Khan is C5's keeper and has been for almost 25 years, which shocked the lady. The demon looked like a young boy but she knew demons can be deceptive.
Mr. Khan noticed her shocked expression and decided to give her a small lesson. "Transmutes, like C5, can alter their bodies to become anything they want. In C5's case, he altered his body to appear like a normal human boy to deceive us. He has even changed his personality to be more childlike, carefree, just like any other kid. But after years of research and DNA testing, the scientists have determined that C5 is around 114 years old, maybe older."
"114?!" (Y/N) gasped.
"Mhm. A transmute demon can look like an innocent newborn baby and be well into its 50s. Don't you have a transmute yourself?"
The lady nodded, remembering all the times Akai shifted his body into something grotesque to scare her. "I've seen A1 shift a few times. I wish I can get the image of an arm sprouting from his mouth out of my head." She shivered.
The old man chuckled. "You'll get used to it, don't worry. I've seen much worse than that in all my years here. You know, I've heard some things about that A1 of yours. Real brutal but not unusual things."
The lady looked up at the old man intrigued but confused. "What things? From where?"
"I'm close friends with the Chief of the Capturers, we're drinking buddies. He told me some details about A1's capture one night. It put up a great fight, managed to kill two of the Capturers that day, rest their souls. The anesthesia they used on it seemed to not have as big of an effect on it as they thought, it kept waking up every one or two hours with more hostility each time. The first hour, A1 got a jump on the crew and slashed one of the Capturer's arms open through its cage. Luckily A1 isn't poisonous or the doctors would've had to amputate the arm."
(Y/N) was silent for a moment as she took in what the older man has said.
Akai killed two people. Usually, when a demon kills a worker, they're immediately put to death. But she guessed it was different when it came to Capturers, they are risking their lives each time they go above ground to catch demons.
Mr. Khan patted her on the shoulder to reassure her. Seeing how worried she got at the new information. "We lose many brave people in this field, unfortunately. Demons are unpredictable, that's why we should never let our guard down around them. You're new to this line of work, so all I have to say is, don't get comfortable around any demon. They may act tame, or calm, or not a danger to you, but you'll never know if that same demon will take your life. My advice may save you one day."
Now thinking about it, (Y/N) has been getting a bit comfortable around Ki and Akai. A good example is when she braided Ki's hair and offered to do the same with Akai. Her whole plan going into this was to treat them normally and not as monsters to gain their trust. But maybe that was a bad plan, she's starting to treat them like how she treats her friends. Back home, her friends would tease her for being too nice and now she sees why. She doesn't want her demons to use her kindness to their advantage, so taking the elder's advice, she'll have to start being more strict with them while also not being cruel.
The two arrived at C5's cell. The steel wall was down, covering the view of the inside. (Y/N) watched as the old keeper rummaged through his coat pocket for his keycard and unlocked the door.
When they entered, the room was pitch black. The only light coming from the red led light above the door.
Mr. Khan pulled out his tablet, finding the controls for the light as he called out to his demon like he was calling a child. "C5, it's time to wake up! We have to do your weekly inspections."
(Y/N) tried to look around the dark room for any sign of the demon but it was too dark. She heard some shuffling around in a corner and the ruffle of a cover, gasping when two bright mint-colored eyes stared directly at her then to Mr. Khan.
When the lights finally turned on, C5 squinted at the brightness, throwing his blanket over his head.
"Ah, there you are." Mr. Khan walked over to the demon and sat down next to it, gesturing to (Y/N). "I would like you to meet our guest! This is Ms. (L/N), she'll be working with us today and tomorrow."
C5 recognized her from when she waved at him a few weeks ago, he shyly waved with a small hand.
(Y/N) smiled and approached, crouching down to be face to face with the adorable demon. "Hi! It's very nice to meet you! I hope we can be friends!" C5 shied away from the lady's smile, hiding in Mr. Khan's arm.
The older man chuckled. "C5 tends to be shy around new people. He's only used to being around me but he'll open up soon." Mr. Khan got up and went to his desk to start on his work, leaving (Y/N) with the shy little demon to keep company.
She stood up and looked around the room, the cell was very different from what she was used to. C5 had his own twin bed, a trunk of toys, a small shelf of books, and a black teddy bear with only one eye missing. The Keeper would've called the place a child's bedroom if it weren't for the monitors, scratched walls, and sizzled out circles on the floors.
"You have such a nice room C5! I'm jealous." (Y/N) cooed when the little demon shyly smiled with pride at the compliment of his room. She sat down next to him and picked up the teddy bear laying on a pillow, holding it carefully. "What a handsome bear! What's his name?" She asked, handing the bear to the kid.
C5 took the bear and held it close to his chest. He peaked at his keeper, who was busy filling out some paperwork, then scooted up to (Y/N) and whispered in her ear. "Sunny."
"Sunny! That's a very nice name!"
C5 nodded towards his keeper then held up Sunny, hoping the lady understood his gestures. (Y/N) looked back and forth between the bear and Mr. Khan, what is the kid trying to say? When she finally understood, she almost died from the cuteness. 'He named his bear after his Keeper oh my god!'
Mr. Khan finally finished what he was doing and walked over to a section in a wall where he pressed a button and a cart with containers rolled out. "C5, are you ready for your inspections?"
C5 pouted when he saw the familiar cart roll out. He shook his head in protest, making the old man sigh. "Come on. Don't be like that. I promise afterward, you can spend the rest of the day playing with Ms. (L/N)."
At this, the little demon brightened up and grabbed (Y/N)'s hand, pulling her over to the cart with him. The older man chuckled. "That's the spirit!"
C5 stood in front of the cart as Mr. Khan unhooked a headpiece device and placed it on the demon's head, the piece pushing down C5's dark brown hair, covering his mint eyes. Mr. Khan started to explain to (Y/N) what the inspections were about. "For demons who have been with us for more than five years, the scientists ask the Keepers to perform small inspections that are similar to the experiments they do. Such as, testing their blood, taking samples, asking questions, whatever the Scientists may need."
The old man turned to the cart and pulled out a long empty syringe. While the younger Keeper cringed at the needle, C5 barely flinch, moving his brown locks to see. Mr. Khan crouched down and gently grabbed C5's arm, feeling around for a vein and sticking the needle into the demon's bloodstream. (Y/N) watched in wonder as Mr. Khan lifted the plunger and a black substance started to travel from the demon's arm into the syringe. She remembered learning about demon blood in school, about how toxic it was to humans. A simple drop of demon blood onto human skin can cause massive burns, bruises, loss of feeling, rashes, bubbling, and if lucky enough, nothing at all. All demons don't have the same blood and this is proven by how it reacts to air, some evaporate, some solidify, some become goopy, and some can burn through anything. She wondered what kind of blood C5, Ki, and Akai had.
When Mr. Khan was finished, he inserted the syringe into a glass tube and closed the lid. C5 stared at his blood in the tube then looked down at where the needle went into his skin, seeing the wound quickly heal up.
After taking the blood sample, the Keepers moved on to the rest of the inspection. They sat C5 down and started asking questions, while (Y/N) went down a list of things to ask, Mr. Khan observed the demon's brain waves through a machine that measured in hertz. The purpose of this was to see what made C5 angry, sad, stressed, scared, happy, excited, feral, or calm. But because the demon adopted a childlike mindset, it never focused on any of the questions, deciding to play with Sunny instead. It was frustrating repeating the questions over and over until he finally decided to listen. When he did answer, the only results were calm, confused, happy, and inattentive.
But when (Y/N) asked, "What do you miss most about being above ground?", C5 paused and thought about it. He took a minute to decide an answer, his changing expressions giving away his indecisiveness. When the demon finally decided, he broke away from his childlike attitude. His bright mint eyes went dim, losing his posture for slouching over, making a look that made the young Keeper shiver in her seat.
A voice so deep and scratchy spoke up instead of the cute kiddy voice that (Y/N) has grown so used to. "I miss..." He looked up to the lady as she stared back with wide eyes. Mr. Khan knew this voice, hearing it a few times over the years. This voice came out when the child persona was broken.
"I miss my family..." C5 began staring at the metal floor as he got lost in the memory of being above ground. His hand clawed into Sunny's neck as they twitched every so often.
(Y/N) quickly turned to Mr. Khan when he moved in his seat. He was watching the hertz spike at a certain level, telling him that C5 was under stress. (Y/N) also looked at the machine then back to the demon. She was scared to get his attention, believing he might lash out since he wasn't acting as a child at the moment.
"Don't worry. The question seemed to trigger a change in C5's mindset. Give him a minute and he'll be back to his child persona." Mr. Khan patted her shoulder, reassuring her that she wasn't in danger. She nodded and continued watching C5, noticing how he slowly started to change appearances. The dark brown hair got longer, his skin became green in certain spots, and his pupils becoming more slitted. (Y/N) moved a little closer to see the changes better, noticing that C5 was growing as well. That question really broke him.
These changes suddenly and rapidly reverted back to before as C5 shook his head as if waking up. (Y/N) jumped back with a gasp, C5's bright mint eyes looking at her in confusion. He turned to his Keeper and tilted his head, the familiar child voice back. (Y/N) sighed in relief at the much preferred sound, that deep demonic voice will forever be in her nightmares.
"Are we done yet?" C5 asked, hugging Sunny who now had a hole punctured in his neck.
Mr. Khan nodded, saving the data into a file on the machine. "We'll stop for now and pick up the rest tomorrow. Let's relax for the rest of the day."
C5 smiled happily. (Y/N) moved forward and removed the headpiece off of C5 hesitantly. He watched her as he continued smiling, ready to play many games with the lady.
For the rest of the day, C5 had (Y/N) participate in the games he came up with. He couldn't play his made up games with Mr. Khan due to his old age, but (Y/N) was much younger, so he's gonna take advantage of her time here. While the demon was having lots of fun, (Y/N) wanted to pass out. All of C5's games were tiring, majority of them involved her chasing him or him chasing her. One game was exactly like hide and seek but scarier, C5 made (Y/N) close her eyes and he went around the room hiding all his plushes then hiding himself with Sunny. The game would've been easy if the lights were on, C5 asked Mr. Khan if he can turn the lights off to make the game harder, unfortunately to (Y/N), Mr. Khan agreed.
She had to go around the dark room and find however many hidden toys then to try and find the sneaky demon. Whenever she got close however, C5 would dart out from his spot and either sneak to another hiding place or jumpscare the Keeper by making snake sounds and rattling his rattlesnake tail that he grew. While (Y/N) struggled in the dark, bumping into anything and everything, Mr. Khan took this time to catch a few zs. Quietly snoring in his chair with C5's blanket draped over him
When it was close to the end of the day, C5 was all tuckered out. (Y/N) sat on the bed with C5's head on her lap, she draped his blanket over him as the demon slept soundly. She also wanted to take a nap after the long day C5 put her through, the idea of her comfy warm bed made her wish the time would pass faster.
Mr. Khan woke up from his nap some time ago before the two finished playing. While C5 slept and (Y/N) nodded off, he was busy picking up the toys and cleaning up the mess the demon made. (Y/N) offered to help but Mr. Khan declined, knowing if she moved, the demon would wake up.
As he cleaned, the two Keepers quietly chatted together. Mr. Khan told (Y/N) about his days as a Capturer before he switched to being a Keeper. "Beyond the city above, there is a countryside with long fields of grass, old buildings used for farming, and destroyed factories after years of neglect. The experience of being there was amazing. My team and I came upon this farm, we believed it was likely used to harvest meat judging by the slaughterhouse and many empty animal pens."
(Y/N) listened closely, trying to visualize each detail of the outside world as much as she can. She's been above ground but only in the shuttles, she's never been to the city or this countryside that Mr. Khan speaks of. She can only form an image of what above ground would look like with the pictures she's seen throughout her life. But even those aren't enough compared to actually going.
"The further we went into the farm, the more evident it was that demons had occupied the place. Dried up blood everywhere, skeletons of animals that happened to pass through, some areas trashed completely, we noticed that many of these were recent so we got our equipment ready and prepared for anything to jump out at us. Me and two other guys went towards the slaughterhouse, the most bloodiest place there. The outside was gruesome, there was a fresh cow carcass leaning against the door, its entire torso ripped out and scattered across the area and there was a pile of bones with flesh still rotting on them in this large bin, the smell was beyond foul." (Y/N) cringed at the imagery.
"We went inside and came across not one but two demons fighting over a carcass. Luckily for us but unfortunately for the Scientists, the more stronger demon took down the other, killing it after it ripped its throat out. We called in the rest of the team and had a tough battle at taking on the demon. It was of the muscle types, had these huge swollen arms that it used to rip steel beams from the building to hurl at us. When we got too close, it would swing its arms and smash down at us like it had wrecking balls for hands."
"Wow..." (Y/N) gasped.
Mr. Khan chuckled at the lady's awestruck expression. He was too when he first saw that demon, truly a highlight of his days as a Capturer. "After hours of fighting, the one hundred or so tranquilizers we shot had finally started to take effect. The demon got slower and weaker until it completely collapsed altogether. We loaded it up, adding more anesthesia to keep it under, and made our way back here."
"No one got hurt?" Asked (Y/N). A demon like that has to have caused at least injuries to the team. There's no way everyone got out completely unscathed.
"A few of us did but luckily no one died. One man had broke several bones, a woman received a large gash across her thigh from a steel beam hurled at her, another woman had to go through emergency surgery for injuring her spinal cord. The rest of us had bruises and scrapes, but nothing too serious compared to the three."
"Ohhh." It was relieving knowing everyone made it out alive. Hearing his story made her second guess why she wanted to become a Capturer. The outside world always amazed her, she would dream of seeing the oceans, cities, desserts, everything. But being a Capturer isn't all about traveling the outside world, Capturers are risking their lives whenever they emerge from the underground. She thought she would be ready to take on demons, simply knock them out with tranquilizers and make them go to sleep but it's not that easy.
Maybe she's better off as a Keeper instead.
"The demon we captured didn't stay around for too long. When it was given a Keeper after showing it was ready for one, it... well... killed the Keeper the moment they stepped in the cell. We were called in not long after to take the demon to the Hold where we injected lethal toxins into its bloodstream, ending its life. It was better that way, the demon wasn't tamable and it was too risky to release it."
C5 shifted in his sleep. (Y/N) looked down and saw the innocent face of the child. It made her wonder how some demons can be monstrous but others can look like C5. She looked back up at the older man with a new question. "What made you decide to become a Keeper?"
Mr. Khan thought about but it was a simple answer. "I got old."
(Y/N) mistakenly laughed before quickly covering her mouth in embarrassment. She made sure she didn't wake up the demon sleeping on her lap either. "I'm sorry!" She whispered apologetically to the old man.
Mr. Khan shook his head, quietly chuckling also. "No need. I switched jobs because there comes a time where you get tired of seeing the bloodshed that comes with wild demons. I've seen too many brave Capturers die at the hands of demons and far more injured, some still dealing with the injuries to this day. I wanted something more peaceful and was offered a job as a Keeper by Mr. Fidero. C5 isn't my first demon to watch, I was assigned to him after my first died during experiments."
(Y/N)'s eyes widened at the last statement. 'Died during experiments?!' "What do you mean died?"
Mr. Khan shrugged. "Complications I guess. It's rare for a demon to die during experiments though."
Right now, Ki and Akai were in experimentation. Knowing that they could potentially die somehow made the Keeper worry.
Mr. Khan noticed her expression, a bit confused. "What's the matter?"
"Uh.." She was wondering the same thing herself. "I guess I'm worried about my demons. They're with the Scientists right now."
"Worried?" She nodded, almost scared of what he'll say. Is it weird to worry about a demon?
"It's ok to worry. A Keeper can grow a bond with their demon as time goes by, like C5 and me. It makes getting new ones harder."
The work bell ringed, signaling the end of today's work. (Y/N) carefully lifted C5's head and scooted out of her spot, replacing herself with a pillow. Both Keepers quietly left the room after packing up, Mr. Khan making sure to turn the lights off and locked the door behind them.
(Y/N) breathed out in relief. Finally she was off duty and ready to relax in her room. She thought watching C5 would be like watching a normal child, oh how wrong she was.
"Tomorrow, we'll finish up the inspections and I'll be able to send the data to the Scientists. You'll be returning to your own demons Wednesday, correct?"
(Y/N) nodded. "That's what I was told."
They both started heading out towards the exit. Many other Keepers headed in the same direction while others stayed behind to finish up some things or to chat with fellow workers. As they walked by cell after cell, (Y/N) observed some demons whose cells were visible.
"A word of advice, when your demons are returned, I advise you keep your distance for a little awhile." Mr. Khan spoke. (Y/N) looked at him confused so he further explained. "The first experiments are always the worst ones. If you were able to build a bond between you and your demons, that bond may be gone when they are returned."
"You mean... they will look at me differently?" She hoped not. Luckily, Ki and Akai, well maybe not Akai, weren't hostile towards her when they first met. But if what Mr. Khan is saying is true...
"They'll get this mindset that you were the one who allowed the experiments to happen. They'll blame you for the pain they went through and all trust will just disappear. All I'm saying is, be careful when you're demons are returned. Keep your distance until it is safe to approach them. It may take some time before a new bond is formed."
(Y/N) kept thinking about this even into the night. She wouldn't be surprised if Ki and Akai didn't trust her anymore, they did go out fighting before the guards were able to subdue them. It would be surprising if they even talked to her. Guessed this came with the job, building, breaking, then rebuilding bonds all over again. She just hoped that Ki and Akai wouldn't take the experimentation too personally, especially putting all blame on her, she couldn't say no to the Scientists even if she wanted to. Hopefully, if she can explain to them that she had no power in whether they got experimented on or not, it'll clear things up. But a demon's thought process doesn't work like a human's.
She'll just have to see on Wednesday.