"... Did I say we’d meet again after this was over?"
I thought back for a moment to that day, ahead of tomorrow’s Samurai Sword extermination.
"... She was pretty, I guess."
She smelled far more human than I’d expected, too.
Maybe that was why? I didn’t feel that much resistance.
"Still disgusting, though."
-That’s what love is.
"Shut up, would you?"
"You’re fucking loud! Let’s sleep already!"
"These assholes are unbelievable."
I stepped out onto the balcony, lit a cigarette, and focused again on what had happened that day.
Especially the evening.
1
"The story felt like a lie."
"It was decent enough to watch."
"... Didn’t it kill the immersion?"
"I was less thrown off by the story feeling fake than by the way Bond looked on screen."
"A Chinese conspiracy being stopped by an American spy... doesn’t that make no sense?"
"If that’s your standard, then what about Alien? Especially the third one was wild. And the fourth, with the whole hybridization theme, was even worse."
"What are you talking about?"
"Which sounds more plausible to you: a story where humanity goes into space 300 years from now, finds an alien egg, and the alien born from it kills humans... or a story where an American spy stops some guy’s scheme in China after the Communist Party collapses?"
"The Alien story."
"Why?"
"Because 300 years from now, before the Communist Party collapses, Alien-"
"Movie time’s over."
Gongja cut Makima off and stood up.
"......"
Startled by that reaction, Makima followed after him and finished her thought anyway.
"Three hundred years. In 300 years, space travel and alien life will both exist. Hell, there are devils already, so why wouldn’t aliens exist? Hm?"
"...."
Gongja no longer wanted to answer her. If he kept going, this would turn into a long, miserable argument.
Makima’s words were full of contradictions, and he’d snapped at her because he couldn’t stand them. But now that he had, the answer she gave back was anything but ordinary.
In the original, she’d just brushed it off like, Oh, that’s just the bullshit a lowly human says~ So why is she suddenly dragging in every possible argument and trying to win?
No matter what he said, she seemed determined to beat him somehow.
Of course, if Gongja really put his mind to it, he could use any logic he wanted and spend all day talking her down.
But he was already miserable enough at the thought of having to sit through at least four hours of movies. He had no desire to waste energy on a verbal tug-of-war.
So he said the one thing his parents had once told him worked best on someone with a stubborn pride.
"Fine. You win."
Makima looked extremely satisfied at that and grinned as she went into the theater.
"You can tell they spent money on the direction, but the story was weak."
"Yeah... the action was good, and the cinematography was good, but the story felt way too rushed. Still, it was fun. I think they’ll make a sequel."
"....?"
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? Can’t I agree with you?"
"..... No."
"This movie’s break is less than five minutes. Let’s get back in."
Makima tossed her already-empty coffee cup into the trash and stared at Gongja as he hurried ahead into the theater.
In truth, she hadn’t watched the movie at all. She’d only stared at Gongja watching it beside her.
Why had she watched him? She didn’t know. She only felt like she had to take in everything: the way he frowned, the way he smiled, the way he shifted in his seat, the way he sometimes looked back at her, the way he snickered and glanced around. Everything.
What she’d said about the direction and the story had really just been a way to talk to Gongja. If she said anything, he, who disliked her, would definitely pick a fight.
Why had she wanted to talk in the first place? She didn’t know that either. She just wanted to talk.
Anyway, through all those little actions, Makima learned not only Shin Gongja’s personality and values, but also small habits and eating preferences—like always keeping his popcorn on his lap, avoiding caramel completely, and picking out only the cheese-dusted pieces.
So he can empathize with me, too... Come to think of it, he’s always acted selflessly. According to the civilians, he even jumped in to save one man when he fought the Leech Devil, and he takes good care of Denji and Power even though they must be a pain to deal with... His personality is really strange, but that’s what a good person is like.
She could tell Gongja was a good person.
It left a strange sense of discomfort.
But it didn’t last long.
"Aren’t you coming?"
Because Gongja called her.
The third and final movie was one that had a reputation for being difficult to understand.
Makima had already gone into the theater, and Gongja decided to watch it because he intended to go along with her.
To put the movie simply, it was extremely boring. It was so bad Gongja actually swore, saying it had been a long time since he’d seen something this painfully uninteresting.
In particular, the final highlight—the scene where the two leads embraced each other—was so static in its direction, so dull in its camera work, and so tangled up with the vague storytelling that came before it that it only stirred up frustration, Gongja judged.
Makima couldn’t agree with Gongja’s assessment. How could she agree with anything about a movie she hadn’t even watched?
After leaving the theater, Makima and Gongja walked quietly down the street. Gongja had missed the bus stop because he’d been too busy getting angry.
Of course, Makima knew that, but she didn’t bother to call him out on it.
"Phew... Huh? Where are we?"
Thanks to that, the two of them had ended up more than 2 kilometers away from the stop.
It might sound absurd, but both of them had bodies that surpassed normal human limits, so no matter how much they walked, they didn’t really lose stamina. And since one of them was too drunk to do anything but get angry, while the other devil was deliberately pretending not to notice, it wasn’t actually that strange.
They had gone more than 2 kilometers, but still—if they ran, it wouldn’t take long. Gongja quickly turned to head back toward the stop.
If Makima hadn’t grabbed his wrist.
Sending him away now would mean missing a rare chance. Gongja clearly disliked her quite a bit.
So she couldn’t let him go now.
Then how should she keep him?
...She didn’t know. She had no idea. She never really built relationships in the first place. The ones under her control were always desperate to cling to her, and she had never been the one doing the holding.
Grabbing his wrist was only a stopgap, not a perfect solution. So Makima quickly ran through her options.
And in the end,
"Gongja, do you want to drink?"
she came up with a fairly effective solution.
Gongja nodded at Makima’s suggestion.
@
"..."
Makima was currently showering after laying Gongja down on the sofa. He’d thrown up on her again.
Normally, after already experiencing something once, you’d avoid it. But the situation at the time had been...
-But why are you telling me this, Gongja? You hate me. I’m the Control Devil.
It had been a question she’d asked because she was genuinely curious.
-I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time, ever since I started watching you. I wondered... what if you were like this?
Makima could tell those were Gongja’s true feelings. And they were.
-...Could we go out together like this again sometime?
-Hey. An equal relationship is called a friendship. Friends are people who meet up and go around together when their schedules line up.
-...Th-then can we meet again next time?
-Of course. No matter how pissed I get, you’re still pretty good-looking. It kind of boosts my self-esteem.
Makima had been startled by that without meaning to. Of course, she hadn’t shown it.
For the record, those had just been empty words tossed out while drunk.
Then Gongja came up in front of Makima.
-Gongja? What are you doing?
When Gongja grabbed her hair and pressed his lips to hers, she couldn’t keep her expression from stiffening.
And then—uueeek... when Gongja vomited on her, her face twisted completely.
Makima’s clothes were stained with his vomit, and she hurriedly carried Gongja on her back, then ran home.
She hadn’t even thought to go to Gongja’s place. She’d been running too fast.
There was no telling whether she’d unconsciously give Chainsaw Man something to criticize.
Creaaak—
Makima opened the bathroom door and stepped into the living room. There, she saw Gongja sleeping soundly on the sofa.
"..."
As if bewitched, she walked over to him and stared down at him.
"...I think I brought him home safely."
She kept watching Gongja until he stirred, then fell asleep.
2
"Where is the devil Snake Woman left behind?"
"We gathered them all on the fourth floor."
The escape route is roughly secured. Now all that’s left is...
"As soon as I kill that bastard Denji, it’s over. Everyone stay on standby. We don’t know when those Public Safety bastards will come storming in."
The organization members nodded at his words.
"And watch the basement. There’s a zombie army made from trash, and if a zombie bites you, you turn into one too."
3
"Everyone, get ready to go in."
Kishibe said, looking at the building.
"Teacher. If we make it back alive this time, buy us a meal."
"...I teach dogs how to hunt. I don’t hand them prey."
"So that’s a promise?"
I smiled and drew my sword.
"Ohhh~ Teacher’s buying us food? Power! Teacher says he’s buying us food!"
"Fried chicken!"
"...All of you, shut up."
"Why? It’s nice and cheerful."
"And you, stop indulging the kids so much. ...Step back, please."
"...."
Anyway, there were ten minutes left until the rematch.
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