Introduction arc

The Introduction arc is the first story arc of the Fire Brigade of Flames series. It follows Shinra Kusakabe and Arthur Boyle's enlistment in the 8th Special Fire Brigade, and the Fire Officer Newcomer Tournament. The arc takes place between Chapter #00 to Chapter #08.

Prologue: Shinra's Enlistment
On a train, a human is set ablaze, while at the same time, Shinra makes his way towards the train station, where he bumps into a girl and scares her away with his awkward grin. Upon arriving to the station, an alarm goes off, which announces that the train was caught in flames, after which, people begin evacuating the premises as a Flame Human crawls from inside the train carriage. Before Shinra could take action, the 8th Special Fire Brigade arrives. The brigade confronts the being, eventually managing to destroy its core. After the ordeal, Shinra notices a falling light and uses his ability to save Iris underneath, and later introduces himself as the team's newest recruit. When the brigade returns to the headquarters, Shinra is introduced to Takehisa and Akitaru. When asked why he joined the brigade, Shinra replies that he wishes to become a hero. After the girls have a shower, Shinra is introduced to Maki and Iris. The brigade members soon begin talking about the Human Body Ignition Phenomenon and that their mission is to unravel the secrets surrounding it. In bed, Shinra recalls the death of his family. Straight after, the team is notified that a fire has broken out, which forces to them to depart to the scene.

Shinra's First Official Mission
Shinra goes on his first mission with the brigade, where a woman turned into a Flame Human. After arriving at the scene, Akitaru warns the crew of the falling debris in the factory, in which the fire is taking place. Heading into the building, Shinra contemplates the act of destroying a Flame Human and how it is equivalent to killing a real person. Shortly after heading in, the brigade comes across the burnt corpse of the last employee of the factory, whom they set out to save, who failed to escape, making their primary mission to extinguishing the threat. At the scene, Akitaru reminds Shinra the purpose of the blue lines. Distracted by Maki showing her Second Generation abilities, Shinra is caught off guard by the Flame Human, who knocks him unconscious, causing him to recall his past, before being woken up and told to stand up. Shinra finally decides to fight. With the squad cooperating in order to deal with the intelligent Flame Human, Shinra launches himself towards the enemy, igniting his feet in the process. The boy delivers a kick to the core of the Flame Human's heart, sending her to the afterlife in peace. He overhears the spectators chanting for him while the rest of the crew praises him, saying that he has finally become the hero he longed to be. Elated, Shinra shows off a delighted smile.

The Knight King
Akitaru informs Shinra that a battle tournament will be held between the newcomers of all Special Fire Brigades. Meanwhile, Arthur arrives at the 8th Special Fire Fighting Church. Shinra, excited to see the leader of the 1st Special Fire Brigade, the man who saved him in the past, bumps into Arthur while waking through the corridor. On the roof, Maki shows Iris how she can create fireball creatures, but their conversation is cut short when a fight breaks out between Arthur and Shinra. The former unsheathes his bladeless sword, which causes Maki to question his weapon, to which the boy responds by introducing himself as the "Knight King" and calling the two girls "princesses". Shinra and Arthur start squabbling again, but it is cut short when Takehisa arrives to see what was behind all the ruckus, pouring some water on Maki's fireball and telling her not to play with the flames. The commander orders Maki to fight the two boys, with the girl asking the two not to underestimate her, quickly disposing of Shinra. Maki then attempts to extinguish Arthur's Excalibur, but fails. Using her combat skills, she makes the boy kneel before her, kicking him in the face with her knee, causing Arthur to insult Maki, which forces her to create a huge creature out of the flames of both Arthur's sword and Shinra's flames. After the battle, Shinra is baffled and thinks to himself that he needs to become stronger, so that he can protect people when the time calls for it. In the meantime, Takehisa extinguishes Maki's creature, much to her horror, and Akitaru, who has been lifting weights this whole time, ponders about how long will it take for Arthur to arrive.

Arthur's First Official Mission
Shinra, Arthur and Akitaru eat at Ippudo Ramen, where the two Fire Officers fight on who can finish their meal first and afterwards, on their way back to the headquarters, Arthur has a conversation with Akitaru. Back at the base, Takehisa gives Shinra a battleaxe, and offers Arthur one, but he refuses to accept it, viewing Excalibur as the only weapon he requires. Akitaru then complains about the maintenance and wishes that the brigade had a stoker in their ranks. In the meantime, Mikako returns home, only to see her father, turned into a Flame Human. The siren notifies the brigade of trouble and Maki gathers up the team. While in the Matchbox, Akitaru requests Shinra and Arthur to hide their weapons in public. When the team arrives at the scene, Akitaru starts feeling pity for Mikako. He then notices that both Arthur and Shinra are displaying their weapons, and takes them aside to have a talk, telling them that, since purifying Flame Humans means killing their bodies, their loved ones also lose them forever, and tells that if a person cannot hide their weapon in the eyes of the families of victims, they have no place in the brigade. After they finish the conversation, a gigantic flame bursts out from the balcony. In the meantime, two men are ecstatic that their plans are in full fruition. Back at the scene, the brigade storms into the building. They get into the room, where Mikako's father greets them. Arthur volunteers to take care of the threat, but Shinra tells him that the being has done nothing wrong, however, Akitaru reassures Arthur to go, with Arthur claiming that the man must be in pain. The rest of the brigade start praying as Arthur impales the being with his Excalibur. Akitaru then reassures Shinra that what they are doing is for the greater good and that the most frustrating job is to get used to it. Takehisa then notices powder, seeping from the ceiling, as the roof collapses straight on the brigade. Akitaru ignores safety precautions and runs straight for the Mikako's family portrait, but gets rubble fallen on his body. The man, however, dedicated and furious, exclaims that he has been training for this every day. In the meantime, a shady character, smoking a cigarette, mumbles that the brigade is smoldering for a fight, while the opposing threat is just playing around. After reassured that Akitaru is fine, the brigade moves out of the building. While outside, Akitaru delivers the picture he managed to save to Mikako, telling her that her parents were fighting for her sake. Shinra apologizes for not being able to do anything, while Akitaru just assures him, and everyone else, that all they can do is get as close as they can to the ones who are left behind.

Fire Officer Newcomer Tournament
The Fire Officer Newcomer Tournament begins, where Shinra meets Tamaki, but is pushed away by the girl's vulgar personality. In the meantime, Maki gets fascinated after seeing 119. Arthur claims that Mamoru looks like a geezer, and not a dog, but Maki corrects him, saying that the animal was modified. She then informs both Shinra and Arthur about the other guests, among which are the president of the Haishima Heavy Industries and the priest of The Holy Sol Temple. Shinra, however, tells her that he's more concerned with a stern-looking man in the crowd. Later, Shinra meets the man from the 1st Special Fire Brigade who helped him in the past, and approaches him. The boy introduces himself, but the man just shoots him down and leaves. Shinra attempts to catch up to him, but is interrupted by Tamaki, whom Shinra accidentally gropes, leaving her with an attempt to slap the boy. Shinra pleads the man for his time, while Tamaki bumps into Arthur, embracing him, then pushing him away for supposedly being a pervert. In doing so, she bums into Shinra again, which causes him to grope the girl yet again. The announcer informs the contestants to gather up, which leads to the man telling Shinra that he doesn't remember anything and that he should just get ready for the competition, which makes Shinra wonder if the man is hiding something. The competition starts, with the mission of the contestants being to siege a building, save those in need of saving and defeat the Flame Human inside. Shinra wonders about the abilities of each Fire Officer, reminding himself that their skills were checked before the competition. A man gives the signal for the contestants to start, which leads to Shinra using his powers to jump onto the building with ease, while Tamaki uses Nekomata to substantially increase her mobility in order to catch up to him. Shinra ventures inside, where he sees a fallen man and a stranger inside, who appears to know about Shinra's past.

The stranger taunts Shinra about the incident twelve years prior, but the boy, despite his curiosity, orders the man to get away from the brigade members he injured. The strange man then threatens to kill the unconscious people, but Shinra uses his abilities to make him fall back, though the man dodges all of the boy's kicks. The man then takes out a peculiar bottle from his pocket and asks Shinra to entertain him for information. While outside, Maki talks with Akitaru about the whereabouts of both Shinra and Arthur. They spot a peculiar boy, a contestant of the tournament, who uses his Third Generation abilities to punch holes inside the building, being scared of his own flames, which makes the surrounding people speak about him being a juggernaut. The explosions cause Tamaki, who was inside the building, to fall straight onto Arthur, making her get into an intimate situation yet again. In the meantime, the mysterious man throws some sand at Shinra, which causes an explosion. The man uses it as a diversion to deliver devastating attacks at Shinra, using both martial arts and accelerating with the flames, generated by the explosion. He then creates card-shaped projectiles from the fire of his cigarette and throws them at Shinra, injuring him. Shinra, fearing death, shows off his devious smile, which makes the man give him a reward in the form of information that his younger brother, Sho, is still alive.

In denial, Shinra doesn't believe what Joker is talking about, though he thinks back to the moment he spoke to Burns and noticed that he seemed to be hiding something. Joker tries to lure Shinra over to his side by mentioning that the Special Fire Brigade itself could be lying about something. Telling him to give up on being a hero and become a devil, Shinra grins and confronts him about the fact of the matter is that he still injured two of the Fire Officers. Thinking to himself, still baffled about the possibility of his little brother still being alive, he says he can't take anything that the Joker says to face value. Resulting in another attack to defeat him, Joker blocks all his moves, but compliments on his ability of trajectory and staying mid-air while kicking. Shinra goes for the fly-kick, but misses and causes an eruption, noticed by Tamaki and Arthur who were just round the corner. Arthur being a gentlemen, tells Tamaki to go forth since she is a lady, but Joker notices her coming and shoots his fire-card at her, only to be intervened by Arthur's Excalibur. Shinra, surprised to see the pair, tells them that an intruder has appeared at the tournament and that they should go and get the Commanders for help, but neither listen due to thinking it was a lie so he could win himself. Annoyed, Shinra states that he wouldn't lie in such a situation. Arthur strives toward Joker thinking of him as the fake Flame Human for the tournament, but lacks against Joker. Tamaki appears and entraps him with her tails using Nekomata, but a sudden set of exploding powder appeared before her, unknowing that it was dangerous. Shinra grabs Tamaki and saves her from the explosion. Joker then releases all of his powder around the entire building, and tells Shinra that if he wants to be a hero, then he'll need to save everybody. Shinra looks at the injured Fire Officers in despair as he knows he probably won't be able to save them. Joker leaves, calling Shinra a Devil and telling him that he is welcome to join the "Joker's Brigade" anytime.

Shinra thinks on his feet and grabs the two unconscious Fire Officers and tells Arthur to cut a hole through the ceiling for them all to escape. Arthur follows through, commenting that only princesses can order around knights. The cuts on the ceiling are so fine that it didn't fall through, forcing Tamaki to use her tails in Nekomata form to push through it. As the powder begins to detonate, Shinra begins to fly out the hole while everybody grabs onto him, Tamaki accidentally grabbing his private parts. All of the Officers manage to escape in a pinch safely, though Tamaki and Arthur let go of Shinra and begin to freefall high up in the air. As Shinra looks upon them thinking how he can save them, Burns appears out of nowhere to capture Tamaki hastily but calmly, while telling Shinra to land with the unconscious Officers safely. Arthur lands with a heavy thump on a blanket laid out by the other members of the 8th Special Fire Brigade. As everybody lands safely, Burns and Tamaki walk over to Shinra, and he thanks Shinra for saving Tamaki, though he says such words are wasted on him, and thanks Burns politely instead. Akitaru runs over to Shinra and notices all of his bruises. Patting him and calling him a hero, Shinra thanks him for his compliments, all the while Shinra thinks about the prior events; about how his little brother is said to be still alive and if the Special Fire Brigade is something. Burns quickly demands a brief on what happened, and Shinra explains to everyone about the intruder. The conversation ends with Akitaru telling Shinra that he'll let him on the real reason on the 8th Special Fire Brigade forming.