1
톡톡톡톡- The sound of typing rang out, and then the door opened.
Aki stepped inside the moment it opened.
Once Kurose confirmed that Aki had moved a little away from the door, he hurriedly tapped out the code to close it.
And the instant the door shut, Aki’s eyes began to see countless needles.
What did those needles mean? There were so many that he couldn’t make sense of them at first, but before long he realized what they were.
One long hand, one short hand overlapping each other, the long hand moving quickly to overtake the short hand. And some other, inexplicable hand overtaking the long hand exactly once every minute.
'Clock hands.'
Realizing the needles weren’t attacking him, but were merely part of the devil’s decoration, Aki felt a little relieved and said, "I came to make a contract with you. Come out already and tell me what you want."
At Aki’s words, the Time Devil let out a disgusting little laugh. Puhuhuhu—
For a long time.
Then, once it had finally calmed down, it began to speak.
-I’ve never once hidden. What a waste of time.
Hearing that, Aki realized something.
The clock hands filling the room. Kurose hurriedly shutting the door the moment he entered.
'Everything I’m stepping on, everything I’m looking at... that’s all him.'
After realizing the truth, Aki swallowed hard and tensed up for a moment, but soon regained his composure and said again, "Then tell me what you want."
The Time Devil, surprised by Aki’s reaction, snickered and answered.
-Don’t let go of the bonds you made. That is my condition.
"...What?"
Aki couldn’t hide his confusion at the answer.
After all, this was the thing that had killed everyone except one person, and even taken one of that person’s eyes. And its condition wasn’t to take a limb, or even demand time, but to not let go of some vague thing called bonds? How could he not be confused?
Aki’s face twisted before he knew it as he thought, 'What the hell is this bastard plotting?'
The Time Devil noticed Aki’s expression. It held out a few needles and poked him with them as it said,
-Time is a chance given equally to everyone. At the same time, it’s a chance you can never get back. And yet there are those who throw that chance onto the ground.
"You mean Devil Hunters?"
-Yes.
"..."
Aki thought about it.
He didn’t think he had used his time properly at all. At least, not by his own standards.
And yet the bastard had set such a light price.
What exactly had I done to earn this bastard’s favor? Which of my choices had been right?
He was curious. He couldn’t help being curious.
So he asked.
"Then did I use my time properly?"
The Time Devil couldn’t possibly not understand how Aki felt.
So it answered.
-Not at all. You didn’t use your time properly even a little.
Aki’s expression crumpled in bewilderment.
But the Time Devil kept going as if it didn’t matter.
-Why the face? Have you already forgotten the day a few days ago, when you threw away your own time for the petty thing called revenge?
Only then did Aki understand why the other Devil Hunters had taken such a dislike to it.
And at the same time, he understood even less why it had taken a liking to him.
But Aki decided not to ask it anything else.
"...Then let’s get the contract over with."
-Yes. The time has come, after all.
He didn’t know what might happen if he asked any more questions than necessary.
After finishing the contract, Aki immediately turned around and walked back toward the door.
As he did, the Time Devil left him with one last sentence.
-The one who took your eye as payment used that eye to waste time.
Aki could guess what that meant, but he soon decided to stop thinking about it.
His contract was over, after all.
2
I was able to leave the hospital a week after being admitted, or rather, a week after fighting Samurai Sword. Thanks to Makima healing me.
After being discharged, I sat in the hospital room and did exactly what I’d already planned to do.
"First, a sword."
I’d broken my sword fighting Samurai Sword. Thanks to that, I had to go buy a third sword before even a month had passed since I’d drawn my second one.
It was annoying having to go buy another one, but what else could I do? Without a sword, I wouldn’t last a year—hell, I probably wouldn’t even make it three months before dying.
After sorting out my thoughts once more, I headed to a sporting goods store.
It didn’t take long to get there and buy a sword.
The hospital and the store weren’t that far apart, and I could just buy the same kind I’d been using.
"After the sword, let’s go to the bookshop... no, the library first."
And buy some cigarettes too.
After unsealing the sword, I stopped by a convenience store on the way and bought cigarettes.
Then I smoked one as I headed to the library.
Once I got there, I made a library card. And then I left right away. It’d be easier to borrow things only when I really needed them than to worry about returning them on time.
After putting the library card in my wallet, I headed to the bookshop.
"Basic workbooks, Japanese study books, spot-the-difference... good. This should do it."
I put the books I bought at the bookshop into a shopping bag and headed to the supermarket.
"Manga, PC club? What the hell is that. What kind of mutant combination is that?"
I got briefly stuck after seeing something weird along the way, but soon looked away and kept going to the supermarket.
At the supermarket, I bought dinner for tonight and ingredients for side dishes.
The amount I bought was twice as much as usual. Since I hadn’t made any side dishes for a whole week, I ended up grabbing all kinds of things.
"...Ugh, fuck. This is heavy as hell."
My hand started losing circulation because of it, but for some reason, getting home wasn’t much of a problem.
Maybe because the arm was new.
Anyway, by the time I got home, I opened the door and started by organizing the fridge.
Galli picked up the books next to me and carried them into the room, where he started arranging them beside the low desk.
Not long after I finished organizing the fridge, I sorted out the ingredients and went into the kitchen.
Then I started cooking.
While cooking, a question suddenly came to mind, so I asked Galli.
"Hey, wait. Wasn’t your whole thing that you couldn’t eat because of the mask? Why have you been drinking and eating since last time? That wasn’t how it was in the original."
Galli took off his mask and answered, "Because the body changed. The part where I got stronger because of the name 'Violence' still follows the original, but the corpse I’m using is different. And actually, reconstructing this body used up a fair amount of my original power too."
"...So you weren’t using Arai Hirokatsu in the original?"
"I don’t know. The original Arai only got shot in the head and that was it, so maybe that’s why he was so strong."
What do you mean you don’t know? You just said the corpse was different.
"I don’t know. It’s complicated."
"Yeah, I guess it is."
After that, the room was filled only with the sizzle of cooking and the cackling sound from the TV.
Once the cooking was done, the clatter of dishes replaced the sizzling.
And after the meal, we did nothing at all and just rested in the living room, watching TV.
That went on until there was a knock at the door.
"Oh, they’re here."
-The only one who’d think that is you! Puhah!
I ignored both of them, went to the front door, and opened it.
The people who had knocked were Denji and Power.
Denji said, "Big bro~ help us kill that old bastard~"
I smiled and nodded at that.
"Oh~ now that’s my boy."
"Yeah. That’s me. Come on in."
Denji and Power came right inside.
Galli and I led them into the room where I’d been organizing the books earlier.
"Memorize that."
And to Denji, I handed a vocabulary notebook and a diet guide.
"Fill that out."
To Power, I gave a spot-the-difference book and a coloring book.
"Uh... big bro, what is this?"
"What do you mean, what? Books that’ll turn your Q-two-digit heads nice and mushy. Now, now! Get to it."
"No... uh..."
"Human! Do not order me around!"
Bang!
After grabbing my new sword, I slammed the desk without even drawing it from the scabbard.
I must have put too much strength into it without realizing, because the desk collapsed.
Denji and Power looked back and forth between the ruined desk and me, who was faintly radiating killing intent.
Then, the moment I said, "Not doing it?", they hurriedly opened their books.
"B-big bro... I can’t read this-"
"Look at this."
I tossed Denji a beginner’s Japanese textbook.
Denji’s face as he picked up the book, and Power’s face as she saw the situation, both soured at the same time.
I sat in front of them and started polishing my sword.
"Hmph-hmph~ Hmph-hmph~"
Before long, I could hear the rustle of pages turning and the rolling of colored pencils.
I also heard some damn curses and swearing, but... well, what could I do? It was the path you chose.
Hang in there by force of will.
Ding-a-ling!
The phone Makima had given me rang.
When I opened the phone, I saw a message asking to meet at the movie theater the day after tomorrow.
"..."
Hmm... I hadn’t thought of anything for this at all.
...
...
...
Ah, I’ve got a good idea.
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