"Phew,"
I sighed as soon as I received the message telling me I had killed it, and slumped over, falling flat on my face, but I ignored the pain.
[That was exhausting.]
I snorted. "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. How many times did I die again?"
[I don't know. Does it matter?]
His question hit me hard. I wanted to scream, to argue, but deep down, I knew he was right.
It didn't matter. In a world like this, where humans were simply walking sources of nutrition, and more importantly, a certain reed haired woman was the puppeteer of devils and humans alike. It didn't matter.
But to fuck with it.
Kai wasn't staying here long term. He just had to figure out how to end his First Nightmare, and boom. He was getting the hell out of here, and that too at double speed.
[Well,] The system sounded nervous. [We better make ourselves look presentable for Makima, don't you think?]
I giggled all of a sudden. I could imagine him perfectly in my mind, nervously straightening an imaginary tie, and trying to settle his spiky hair.
[ I so do not look like that.]
"You do too."
[Do not!]
"Do tooo~~" I sang in a playful voice.
[Ugh, why do I even bother to argue with you?]
I laughed again, then noticed the mess around me.
"Umm, should we clean up?" I questioned the system, geniunely confused. Was it mentioned anywhere in the manga about what happened post-devil hunting or about the property damage? Because I had just guessed that devil hunters didn't have to pay one single cent. I mean, yen.
Now, the system snorted. ["No shit,sherlock."] He mimicked me in a babyish voice. [No, we're just going to leave everything as it is, and when the Devil Hunters come, we're going to be like 'Hey! You stupid, you dumb, and I just did your job for you. And anyway, introduce me to your busty boss, who also happens to be one of the Four Horsemen and will do anything for a puppy.]
"Hmmm," I put my hand below my chin and pretended to think. "When you put it like that, it sounds like a great idea!"
The system didn't bother to respond. Probably thought I was a dud anyway.
I dragged myself up and tried to clear the debris from around. It was a nightmare, and I had to grab some paper towels from the buildings, or more accurately, the remains of what remained.
While cleaning, my eye caught onto the headless corpse of the wasted Devil. I have to admit, he gave me a really good fight, and I have the weird feeling that I destroyed him before he really went all out.
Because of my ADHD needing something for my mind to think about even when I was doing normal stuff, I whistled 'Apocalypse' by Cigarettes after Sex, simultaneously calculating all the combinations that could have been used by him to make his last stand even more dangerous.
[Aren't you going to do anything?]
I furrowed my brow. He had shut up very nicely for the last couple of minutes, and it felt nice whistling without anybody to tell me what to do. And of course he had to ruin the atmosphere.
"Like what?" I asked him.
The system facepalmed. [Like collecting your loot, idiot.]
Loot? What was he talking about? I didn't get a single memory-
Oh.
I looked at the corpse, where I could see black smoke, that seemed almost liquid rising from the corpse. Above it was a screen saying-
[Necromancy is available on this target!]
"Alrighty then, ARISE!" I shouted at it, hardening my guts for the soul ripping sensation that would follow.
Strangely enough, it didn't.
[You have failed attempt of Necromancy on deceased BASEBALL DEVIL!]
[Attempts remaining:2]
"WHAT?" I exploded. The system chuckled.
"It wasn't even that strong dude! Why can't I summon it?"
[Cap.]
"Agh! Okay, chill,chill. Try again." I told myself, trying to calm down. This HAD to work on the second try.
"Arise!"
The smoke rose, and started to form a figure, more solid than my first attempt, and a smile started to form on my face too. However, just as the details begun to show, the shadow dissolved and fell back into the corpse.
[You have failed attempt of Necromancy on deceased BASEBALL DEVIL!]
[Attempts remaining:1]
I slapped my hand against my legs. "Come on,bro, just fucking get out already!"
[I think you should look this over again.] The system suggested. He cut off my retort and continued, [Its not just some random wolf or dog or jackal that you can summon against its will.]
At my feet, the Dungeon Jackal whined.
[Its intelligent, low intelligence admitted, but its still an intelligent Demon ranked monster. It might not want to serve eternity as your servant, so you'll have to convince or trick it to come out.]
His words made sense. In the Job Change Quest, Rizzwoo had the same problem trying to extract Igris' shadow, and he had to give the guy a motivational speech to ere- I mean, arise.
Maybe I had to do the same thing.
I sat down crossed legged in front of his corpse, and grinned down at it. "Hey, Devil. What's rocking? I don't why I'm asking you that, because you're dead, and I killed you, and it'll be near damn impossible for anything to be rocking for you right now."
The system rubbed his eyes wearily. [Seriously, what kind of main character did I get stuck with?]
"Hey, I'm doing my best here right now!" I informed him, quite angrily. I groaned, and took another shot. "So, yeah, things aren't good for you right now. Besides I reviewed your fight. It was brilliant man! You could be on a national team with that. How many home runs did you get last game? It must have been pretty high,right?"
[I hate to interrupt your extremely precise, methodical and surgical process, but I think you were the last person who played against him. And well, he lost.]
"This is going horribly."
[I quite agree.]
I rubbed my face again, and took my final shot. "Look bro, you might have lost against me, but I'm pretty sure that you won plenty of other games. And you want to know why we're same?"
The corpse didn't respond, because well, it was a corpse. But I rambled on anyway.
"Its because everyone loses at some point of their life. I lost. You lost. And here's where we're different. We both got chances. I snatched mine, and I gave it everything I got. It might've landed me in hell, but I'll get out. I know I will. Why? Because I won't stop fighting. I won't quit."
I extended my arm towards him. "I'm giving you the same chance. What you do with it, is all upto you. So this is my final offer- Arise."
The smoke curled, and mixed up. Slowly, more and more of it combined together to form a vague representation of the figure I had just fought. In a couple of seconds, details began to appear.
I didn't celebrate though. I held my breath. This was where it all went wrong last attempt. Would he take my offer?
The smoke solidified completely to form a copy of what the headless figure on the ground had looked before it met me. It's arms weren't baseball bats, neither did it wear a glove. They were both features that was currently dormant.
It was a feet shorter than the corpse, and it had a black body with neon orange highlights going through them.
[You have gained Shadow: Baseball Devil!]
[Name: Baseball Devil
Rank:Elite
Type: Devil(Chainsaw Man Universe)
Description: A devil born of humanity's unnatural fear of baseball. He is extremely strong, being able to subdue most sport devils. Additionally, he has a superiority complex, believing itself to be unstoppable. After listening to the Player's speech, it has decided to continue fighting and become the strongest sports devil.
Skills-
Baseball Bat Transformation(Lvl 2)- The Baseball Devil can transform its arms into baseball bats, gaining a higher attack power. However, its reflexes are reduced significantly.
Baseball Glove Transformation(Lvl 2)- The Baseball Devil can transform its hand into a baseball glove. Although being less durable and having less attack potency than the bat, its reflexes are just below lightning speed.]
Hmm, interesting.
Very interesting.
A superiority complex and an ambition to become the best sports devil?
"Don't worry vro, I'll make sure you get your goal."
The Baseball Devil looked at me gratefully, and then bowed. I waved my hand, trying to tell him that it was fine.
[Why? You should feel like a king, should you not?]
"Maybe, but I got much more important stuff to deal with-"
My eyes rolled out, eyelids shut and I slumped over, snoring.
[Got the music in you, baby, tell me WHYYY!]
[Got the-]
***
Sora Takahashi leaned against the window, watching the fading scenery as the car sped by. He was hungry, but right now, work was important than his craving for a pizza.
He had received a call about 15 minutes ago, saying that a devil was rampaging near the outskirts of Tokyo. He had hurriedly dressed up, and jumped in the car that Public Safety had sent for him. It had been 3 minutes already, and he was still not there.
He nervously tapped his finger against the window, thinking of the worst case scenarios. According to the report, it was supposed to be a low level Devil, as it had simply smashed stuff, and was barely any human casualties. Much more concerning however, was the property damage. But Public Safety could take care of that. They always did.
He ran down the names of the devils he'd killed so far this month. Owl Devil. Blanket Devil. Snake Devil. Now that had been one heck of a horrifying weekend.
Among the Devil Hunters, he was one of the strongest in Japan. It was understadable after all. He was trained by Kishibe himself.
But now, he was hungry. He swore to stop by Pizza Hut as soon as the job was done. And knowing Miss Makima, that would be around two hours, one hour and 40 minutes for the paperwork, twenty minutes for everything else.
The car screeched to halt, and the driver informed him. He sighed, prepared to summon his contract, and stepped out of the vehicle.
He was not prepared for what he saw.
Around him, the entire area was desolate and deserted. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it meant that the civilians had evacuated.
But the landscape shocked him. Just about all the tiny shops and buildings nearby had been destroyed and reduced to rubble. Debris lies everywhere, and even by damage standards, this was really bad.Takahashi immediately went on his guard. If there was a devil capable of doing so much damage, he has to be ready for an ambush.
AN-Devil in question
But what truly shocked him was neither the wreckage nor the remains. it was the fact that the air wasn't silent.
He could hear a whistling from behind a building. It was odd, because he had never met a devil capable of singing or anything. They always seemed so stupid, somehow. He prepared his sword, ready to summon the Nail Devil at the bat of an eye, and jumped where the sound was coming from.
In less than a second, he saw a blur racing towards him. He instinctively put up his sword, and in the next moment, there was a deafening clang as another blade collided with his sword,the sound ascending its frequency.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the figure said." I suppose I mistook you for another devil."
He was a child.
Takahashi's brain short circuited. A kid, here? Didn't all the civilians evacuate? Maybe this kid was left behind. It wasn't that uncommon during an attack.
But that wasn't even the most unsettling thing about him. He was around 7 years old, dressed like any kid his age. He held a tāntō in his hand, the same weapon which he attacked Takahashi with.
Unknown to even himself, Takahashi was still sweating from that attack. Had Kishibe not drilled swordfighting into his essence, and had he not had quick reflexes, well, the knife stopped just short of his cheek.
But the boy didn't at all posess the aura of a devil attack victim. He looked cool, calm and detached, although a passive smile played on the corner of his lips.
The older man tried to keep a happy face. Clearly, this kid needed comforting."Hey kid.Where's the devil?"
The kid tilted his head slightly to the side. Fortunately, Takahashi was used to explaining things to slow people. "I mean-"
"I know what a devil is," The kid interrupted him. "Who doesn't?"
The Devil hunter was irritated. He had been expecting at least one good fight that'd help him build his appetite, but here this cocky kid came along. What was he so arrogant about anyway?
"And anyway, if you want to know, come with me." The kid didn't look at him twice, and instead turned on his heel and made his way forward.
He wasn't giving a good first impression at all.
Cautiously, the man followed the young boy. He might lead him to the Devil after all. He might be resting, or searching for something, or-
Sora stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It had to be some absurdly good dream.
"Well?" The boy asked him, a grin blooming on his face." What do you think?"
Behind him, lay a head. It might be have been horrifying for others, but Sora was a trained veteran.He had learnt to cope up perfectly with this hellish reality.
It was a devil's head.
With a silver scythe embedded in it.
**
"Take him along," Takahashi told one of his partners. The man nodded, and tried to steer the child, who had introduced himself as Sosuke Aizen, back to his car.
The boy walked along nonchalantly, his hands stuffed in his pockets, as if the area belonged to him, and they were his father's cronies.
Takahashi was about to speak up, but he bit his tongue as he remembered who he was about to reprimand.
A boy, 7 years old, who had killed a high level Devil, all by himself.
"Wait," Aizen asked. He turned around to face Sora, and the older man looked questioningly at him.
"Where's my money?"
Money? Takahashi furrowed his brows. "What money?"
The boy looked at him incredulously. "The money I get for killing the monster? I put my life on the line, you know. I could have died!"
Nobody asked you to, brat.
Takashi thought about simply giving a few hard words to the child, and sending him away.
At that second though, another guy spoke up,
"Why don't we take him to Miss Makima instead?"
AN-
2514 words.
Hey I think I'm getting the hang of writing chapters with 2k+ word count.
And if you wanna know why it's so late, in my defence, I binged Lookism(anime) in one night.
So yeah, shit happens.
And I think I dropped a pretty hard quote in this chapter.
Enjoyyyy!