"Aki, how’s the new neighbor?"
"Awful. ...But I guess he’s enough to kill the Gun Devil with."
"No, not that neighbor. The one next door."
"Ah... him... He’s okay, I guess."
"I heard he’s a devil."
"Well, that’s a plausible rumor, but I haven’t seen any of those traits."
Himeno laughed as she watched Aki, whose complexion had noticeably improved lately. Her arm was propping up her chin, and her legs were crossed.
Aki smiled back at her. He didn’t know why, but maybe it was because she was laughing. Or maybe it was because he’d thought of the boy who had helped him manage those two damn nuisances over the past week.
Himeno couldn’t know for sure, any more than Aki could explain why he’d smiled, but she thought it was probably the latter.
"He talks to himself a lot, but he’s pretty well controlled, and he doesn’t have even a shred of violence in him. Also, unlike those guys, he doesn’t recover by drinking blood. Public Safety seems to have classified him as human ever since we caught the Leech Devil two weeks ago... Oh, come to think of it, he’s really good at cooking. And-"
Himeno thought that, judging by how he was speaking so urgently about the boy in a way she had never seen before, it must be the latter.
She listened to Aki all the way through while doing small things like uncrossing her legs or putting food in her mouth.
Then, when Aki finally noticed his own behavior, cleared his throat, and stood up, she got to her feet as well.
After Aki paid, she stepped outside first and pulled out a cigarette, thinking, 'When I first met him, I thought he was just one of the weapons that would replace Aki... but now that I look at him, he was someone with far more value.'
"Hmm... If I use that kid, maybe..."
"Senpai, do you have a lighter?"
Himeno handed Aki the lighter and stared blankly into space.
Maybe I can send Aki to civilian duty.
1
I ended up living in the house right next to Aki’s. ...More accurately, I only found out later that Aki’s place was the one right next to mine.
"Well, if I go by that bitch’s mindset, I’m in a position where I could be Denji’s close friend, or something like an uncle, so it makes sense for me to be living here or in Aki’s house."
I lay under my blanket for a long time, counting the flies stuck in the light fixture.
"Ah, right. I should bring that over."
Then, on a sudden thought, I quickly sat up and headed for the refrigerator.
Inside were several side-dish containers packed with the food I’d made. I took one of them and headed next door.
Bang, bang. After knocking on the neighbor’s door four or five times with my fist, someone came out.
"What is it today?"
It was Denji.
Normally, wouldn’t you ask why someone was here? The fact that he said, "What is it today?" instead of "Did you bring side dishes?" right to my face meant it was Denji, without a single doubt.
Aki, having figured out Denji’s crime, came out right after and pushed Denji aside before taking the container from me instead.
"Sorry. This idiot still hasn’t learned."
For the record, at my request, Aki had started speaking casually to me.
Maybe because of my status, or maybe because I kept pestering him, he had naturally started addressing me that way about a week later.
"It’s fine. But are you heading out on an assignment now?"
I told him it was stir-fried meat and curry with only meat, then asked him that.
Aki nodded.
"Yeah. We got a request for extermination from a hotel this time."
A request for extermination from a hotel? ...That sounded vaguely familiar. Whatever. Not my problem.
"Then I’ll pray you come back alive today too."
"Yeah. You’ll probably get your first assignment soon too, so make sure you survive."
Aki patted my shoulder, then left the house, leading Denji and Power, who were fighting over vegetables in the back.
"..."
I watched them for a while, then went back inside and put on my uniform. It was time to go get beaten up for the day.
While I was finishing up and fastening my sword, the Future Devil suddenly spoke.
-That guy probably acts like that because you remind him of his little brother.
"What are you talking about?"
-You really don’t know?
How the hell would I know?
-Go straight into the bathroom and look in the mirror! Bluish hair, a small frame barely over five feet, and a build that’s not even badly put together—if anything, it’s pretty decent! He’s just like the little brother that guy barely showed in the original story!
"Are you screwing with me? Is being short a crime?"
-~~
"You bastard?"
-Future is the best! Future is the best!
"..."
I made a face clearly meant for it to see, grinding my teeth. Then I finished getting ready and shoved the front door open.
@
Aki was actually my favorite character. I couldn’t help getting invested in the backstory of someone who lost his family and devoted his life to revenge.
Because of that, I remembered almost everything Aki did. And I sympathized with it too.
But I wasn’t invested in every single thing he did or every part of his past.
For example...
Right!
I watched the trajectory of Kishibe’s fist coming at me and lifted my blade to the right. Then I bent my upper body as low as possible to throw off his movement.
But my effort meant nothing. He changed the fist’s path with brute force, rotated his body, and drove an attack far stronger than planned into my left shoulder.
The damage was so severe that something in my left shoulder made a crack! like it had broken.
"I held back. Get up."
He said that to me as I tried to steady myself, groaning and wheezing while he pulled out a bottle.
It was hard to decide whether being trained by Kishibe was something I should be grateful for.
My left arm and shoulder only settled down after trembling for about five minutes. I was sitting on the ground, slowly moving my recovered left arm, when I immediately got up the moment I saw that crazy old man still holding a fist with one arm.
As soon as I stood, Kishibe stuffed the bottle into his jacket, then took out a sheet of paper and held it out to me.
I checked it the moment I took it. There was a strange address written on it.
He said, "Your buddy’s there. Go with him to that address."
The moment I heard that, I knew what it meant.
My first assignment. Yeah, it meant my first assignment.
@
-The target is the Violence Fiend. Be careful. He’s extremely strong.
Surprisingly, that was the entire explanation. ...Would it kill that crazy old man to tell me something useful?
"Um..."
While I was cursing Kishibe in my head, my buddy, Arai, spoke to me.
"Yeah?"
"Uh... well..."
He stammered and hesitated. I wanted to smack him, but I just waited.
He kept stumbling over his words until we reached the address written on the paper.
Then, as if he’d made up his mind, he spoke.
"...I’m sorry. For running away last time. I won’t run away again!!"
This was a ruined factory that had been left in pieces by a massive accident about a year ago, so his words, shouted with all the strength in his throat, echoed like a reverberation.
Thanks to that, I ended up hearing his completely unexpected apology two or three times over.
I blanked out for a moment at his words, then came to and said, "I was wondering what that was about. It’s fine."
"No, I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry!!"
He really did seem sincere. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for him to shout like that and apologize to someone younger than him.
His overblown reaction and voice made me feel guilty for some reason, so I scratched the back of my head.
He kept apologizing.
Before long, the air between us had turned awkward.
To break the awkwardness, to move this relationship forward, I opened my mouth.
"I’m really fine. If anything, I should be thanking you."
Arai’s face twisted slightly in bewilderment.
I ignored it and went on.
"If you hadn’t called people over, I would’ve died right there from exhaustion. No, even if it hadn’t been me, Denji would’ve died from blood loss after the Leech Devil’s attack."
It was true. Because Arai had brought in higher-ranking Devil Hunters—apparently Makima had come too... was it because of Chainsaw Man?—the cleanup could move faster. The fact that Denji and I could still be running around after a fight like that was just a bonus.
He had high motivation and his own sense of judgment. He was built well too, so if he grew properly, he could become something big.
In other words, he wasn’t a bad person to have as a buddy.
"So rather than an apology, I’d rather hear something ordinary from you. Like the word buddy says, we’re going to be doing a lot together from here on out, and we’ll be sharing a lot of things too."
That was how I intended it to be. Experiencing the people around me dying was enough with my parents alone.
"You get it, Arai?"
Arai stayed silent for a while.
Then, after about ten minutes, he said, "Yeah. Shin Gongja..."
But he couldn’t finish the sentence.
Thwack! Thud! Crack!
"You’re human? It’s been a while."
He was beaten by the Violence Fiend, who had appeared at some point without me noticing,
and because his skull was crushed, his arm smashed, his leg broken, and his organs burst, he died.
The Violence Fiend began eating Arai.
Watching that scene, I thought: Experiencing the people around me dying is enough with my parents alone? Who decided that? In this world, anyone can go down in one hit. It’s not like you didn’t know that.
You’re worth 100 points.
50 points. That’s your score.
Only now did I understand the evaluation Kishibe had given Denji and Power, and why he’d given me that kind of score.
I was less crazy than they were.
The Violence Fiend, greedily devouring Arai, fixed its gaze on me.
I could feel a chilling presence behind me, and in front of me, that devil bastard was coming.
There wasn’t much light.
The space was wide.
The floor was slick and sticky with Arai’s blood and dust.
I had to fight in this situation.
Boom!
Its fist and my blade collided.
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