Chapter 0

Shinra Kusakabe's Enlistment is chapter zero of the Fire Brigade of Flames manga series.

Short Summary
A human suddenly ignites on a train, causing Shinra Kusakabe to decide taking action but, he was stopped when the 8th Special Fire Brigade stepped in and extinguished the Flame Being. Shinra joins the crew and Akitaru Ōbi explains to them about the Human Body Ignition Phenomenon. Later, the crew gets a new mission, the first mission with Shinra assigned.

Full Summary
On the train, a human is set ablaze. In the meantime, Shinra Kusakabe attempts to catch up to a train, but he bumps into a girl instead, who gets scared out by his awkward grin. Annoyed that he wasn't able to catch up to the train using his "ability", Shinra arrives at the train station, where an alarm goes off, warning people that the train was caught in flames, causing the conductors to evacuate people to safety. A Flame Being crawls from inside the train, making Shinra ready himself to attack it, but he is interrupted by the 8th Special Fire Brigade who arrive at the station to save it. Takehisa Hinawa shoots a Special Fire Extinguishing Bullet at the creature, in an attempt to extinguish it, but it retaliates by launching a fireball, which gets deflected by Maki Oze. Akitaru Ōbi then uses his Core Annihilating Pilebunker to destroy the Flame Being by attacking its core. After the event, a light pad starts falling on Iris, but Shinra manages to save her, and the boy introduces himself to the brigade.

In the 8th Special Fire Fighting Church, Shinra formally meets Takehisa and Akitaru, the latter which makes fun of the boy's grin in his resume, causing him to want to see it first-hand. He then asks Shinra why he joined the brigade, to which the boy replies that he wishes to become a hero, only to be questioned by Takehisa and reminded of his past as a "Demon". In the meantime, Iris and Maki are having a talk in the shower about how Iris was saved by Shinra. After that, the two girls meet the boy, with Shinra getting aroused by the scent of the two, commenting he hasn't been around the other sex in a while due to the training school only being boys. The five brigade members then start a meeting where they discuss the Human Body Ignition Phenomenon and that their mission is to unravel the mysterious surrounding it.

While in bed, Shinra recalls his past experience, foreshadowing the death of his mother and younger brother, and how his grandmother was unwilling to accept him to live with her. Shinra claims that there was another "black shadow", besides his own, on that day. The boy's train of thought gets cut short when a siren notifies the brigade of a job, causing Maki to run into Shinra's room and tell him to get ready. The brigade members then get into the Special Armored Fire Engine and move out, with Akitaru encouraging Shinra to do his best while on the job.

Characters

 * In order of appearance

Trivia

 * On the cover page, the souls of Maka Albarn and Soul Evans, two main characters from Atsushi Ōkubo's earlier series, Soul Eater, can be seen, in more fire-like forms.