I did not know what to think of His newer works, apart from the fact that it was pretty exciting to watch.
Let's see… at first, He created my home, which was way up in the… sky?
But then, at the same time, He made something else; a place down below, loaded with stuff like 'rocks' that had an odd, formless-moving thing atop it in some places; it was kinda gloomy, and in my opinion, things were already getting weird.
However, He—suddenly out of nowhere—spoke aloud, loud enough so that I and the rest of my friends could listen.
He spoke gently, and something brand new appeared as a result. Surprised, we immediately went to see what it was and, like Him, thought it was rather pleasant to gaze at.
Well, most of us did, anyway.
He had also noticed how its gloomier counterpart was kinda 'exuding' into it at times and decided they be better separated, and—in an instant—advertently made it so the newer thing would be called one thing and the other be called something else.
Thus came the end of the first most sensational day of my life; pretty wacky, amirite?
'Okay… so Denji and I are Devils. Right, and we met some… strange, red-haired lady with weird, yellow-red swirly eyes…' To grasp their bizarre situation, Kancho began listing to himself everything he and Denji just went through in the past two days; it was getting pretty tricky due to the sheer amount of factors that might still be at play. 'Pochita and Ono… dead. No, not dead. Alive, I think I can feel Ono in my brain, and Pochita? I think he's inside Denji's heart or is his heart now. Oh, God… I don't even know anymore. Anyway, now we're in a car, probably driving to some local food place to get a meal—'
"What's wrong?" The woman suddenly asked, wearing only a shirt and tie now as she had given Denji her coat. "You're getting awfully sweaty."
"OH—uh, it's nothing. I'm just... confused."
"By what?" She pressed, appearing genuinely interested in what was troubling him so.
"I'm not sure..." He answered, diverting his gaze outside to the passing trees and tilting his contemporary cavalier hat over his olive-colored eyes. "There's just lots of stuff goin' on in my head right now."
"Well, I guess I did save you two, didn't I? It was likely the first time in your lives you've been shown such kindness."
'That phrase you use… 'save…' why doesn't that word sound right—'
Abruptly as he was thinking, a loud 'GURGLE' sounded within Denji's stomach; he was still in the mood to eat something, even after all the blood and guts they had been tearing through just a few hours prior. "That… was my stomach." He confessed apologetically.
"We haven't had breakfast either. Let's grab some food at a rest stop," The girl proclaimed, nodding to her driver to indicate that was their next destination.
"Sorry, uh… I'm broke…" Denji admitted, sweating a little as he had publicized his absence of wealth right before his new crush.
"Same. All the money we had was spent on bread," Kancho clarified. "We're carbivores."
"Pick anything you want. I'll pay." Offered the red-haired woman, immediately getting both of their attention: faces both in surprise and disbelief.
"Really?!" Denji questioned, sweating profusely; to him, this day was beginning to seem too good to be true.
'Well, she did say she was gonna feed him or something… as a pet, weirdly enough. But me? That's oddly generous of her,' Kancho kept his stupefaction inward, thinking it was better than merely showing her how wary or cautious he may have genuinely been of her intentions; when compared to Denji's attitude, he would be a strong outlier. "That's pretty nice of you, miss…?"
"Makima," She responded, reacting with another one of her soft smiles. "My name is Makima."
Ten Minutes
It wasn't long till they parked at the nearest restaurant they could find; Denji was already drooling at the images of food he saw on the menu, specialties he's never believed he'd get the opportunity to try, especially with a pretty girl by his side; he, of course, would have trouble deciding what to eat as it was his first time feasting on anything besides stolen snacks and bread. Meanwhile, Kancho knew precisely what he wanted to eat from the start: a plate with an arranged set of sushi varieties.
"Oh, I think I'll have udon and… udon and... a hotdog!" Denji exclaimed, somewhat distracted by Makima's alluring stature.
"Sure thing," She replied, turning to Kancho to see what he wanted. "And you?"
"Uh, sushi. Any kind, please."
Contrary to his selected variation of cereal grains and meat, an array of footsteps came up from his behind; they sounded urgent, practically as if their owner were running away from something. 'Danger?!'
"H-HELP ME!" A man had suddenly pushed himself to the front of Kancho; he was bleeding from his forehead and had tears in his eyes. "PLEASE, SOMEBODY!"
"I'm a Public Safety Devil Hunter, sir," Makima said, pulling out her identification and showing it to the evidently injured man. "What happened?"
"A D-Devil snatched my daughter!" He answered fastly as batches of sweat molecules began to streak down his face. "Oh, Christ—my little girl, it—it took her into the woods!"
Originally, Kancho was a bit flabbergasted by the man's sudden arrival, believing it was some line cutter who was trying to catch a quick bite. However, for some reason, his mood abruptly went from wanting to finally experience an everyday meal to trying to comprehend what he had just heard. 'Did he say a little girl…?'
"Curry udon and salmon sushi, up!" A woman—most likely the chef—suddenly appeared from behind the counter.
"Oh, that's me," Makima clarified and then placed a hand upon her chin—primarily thinking about the man's testimony and Denji's order, weighing if waiting for his food was more important than saving the man's daughter. "What's your name again?" She asked, turning to Denji once she finally made a decision.
"It's Denji!" He said, blushing and rubbing his hair a little in embarrassment at how she kept her captivating eyes on his own.
Makima then turned to Kancho. "And you?"
"Uh, didn't I tell you my name was Kancho—"
"Okay, you two…" Makima interrupted, placing a finger on both of their bare chests. "I don't want my noodles to get soggy, so you both go kill that Devil by yourselves."
"Huh?!" Kancho exclaimed. 'But, wait—aren't you the professional Devil Hunter here?! I might hurt that kid by accident!'
"Uh, but I'm having udon, too…."
"An experienced Devil Hunter is on the job, sir. He'll save your daughter." Kancho glanced to the side and saw that one of Makima's henchmen was trying to calm down the distressed man. "Please remain inside the building for your safety."
"Really…?" Denji complained, regarding the man's words as signifying that their first assignment was already at hand.
'Pretty inconsiderate…'
"Kancho, didn't you say you wanted a job?" Makima argued. "Wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to show if you can handle yourself as a Devil Hunter?"
"Uh—well, when you put it like that…." Kancho skimmed his proximity in response as he could not come up with anything to defend his side of the argument. "Er—"
His eyes, however, stopped wandering about once he found himself upon the disheveled, unnerving gaze of the father before him—whose irises stared at him with such a beseeching stare that could only be interpreted as a desperate cry for help; he didn't care who or what it was, only that they saved his poor daughter.
"Okay... I guess formal training can come later…." Kancho digressed, shuddering a little once the middle-aged man's eyes began to water again. "... and on account of the circumstances…."
Makima nodded and then turned to the blond. "And Denji... did you forget? You're my pet. Only answer with 'Yes' or 'Woof.'"
'Okay, now she's acting really... weird, 'specially when it's someone who's supposed to be a professional in the department of... hunting Devils….'
"I don't need a dog who says 'No.'"
"Wh... what's that mean...?" Denji asked, confused as to what deeper meaning her words had entailed.
"I heard from an acquaintance in the crime scene division that... our useless dogs get euthanized," Makima explained; her associates now stood behind her, giving her a menacing and authoritative demeanor; unknowingly, Kancho was starting to get a little concerned for his buddy.
'This is getting kinda scary...' Kancho remarked, glancing at his visibly fearful—and drenched with sweat—sixteen-year-old compadre; he immediately knew he had to intervene, feeling that his friend's life may even be at risk by just talking to the woman they had encountered. "Let's just go, Denji. I think we should get this done quickly so your udon'll still be warm."
"B-But..."
"What's your answer?" Makima asked, sounding less lovely than before in Denji's ears; it was as if she were questioning whether he wanted to die right this second.
"AND OFF WE GO—" Kancho suddenly cut in, dragging Denji quickly by the shoulder before she could continue torturing them with her ominous voice any longer.
Five Minutes
"Guh…"
"Gahah…"
Denji and Kancho had spent the last five minutes sprinting through the woods, searching tirelessly for two things: a small child and the Devil that had kidnapped her; unfortunately, it seemed like they were getting nowhere as they moved deeper and deeper into the pines.
"Ah—ah, shit… where the hell's… ugh, that damn bastard, anyway?" Kancho wheezed, always keeping his eyes around his surroundings in case he saw their designated targets. "Damn…"
Then, out of nowhere, Denji suddenly started to slow down and proceeded to kneel on the ground, placing his head in between his legs and hands atop his kneecaps. "Uh… Denji? What's wrong?"
"I just remembered Pochita's dead…." He replied, shoving his head deeper into further solitude. "Blaaah…"
"..."
"..."
"I'm sorry you're feelin' pretty down in the dumps again, Denji," Kancho said with a slight frown. "But… how about this... remember that time when we lost Pochita in the city? We looked for hours—me, you, and Ono—but still couldn't find him, remember?"
"Y-Yeah…?"
"Treat this exactly like that. Let's search for that kid as if it were Pochita and believe that finding 'em is the most—"
"Ahahaha!" There was a sudden eruption of laughter nearby, causing Kancho and Denji to quickly look at each other in confirmation before giving chase after its origin. "Hahaha!"
"I hear her! She's over—" Kancho made a quick slide to the side of some trees and—low and behold—was the girl and Devil they were looking for. "Here…?" Except, to his great surprise, they seemed to be getting along quite well.
"What the heck is goin' on…" Denji pondered aloud, watching the little girl they were searching for, handcrafting a flower headband for the Devil that supposedly attacked her father; she noticed him first and looked at him dead in the eye. "Ah."
"Ah!" She yelped, suddenly putting herself between her captor and her saviors. "Oh, please! Let this Devil go!"
"Uh…" Kancho didn't understand what was going on now. 'What's up with this girl? Wasn't her father attacked… or—wait, could that have been an isolated incident?'
"Wait, what?" Denji asked; he was also confused.
"My daddy… when he has a bad day, he beats me," The girl claimed, glancing back at her Devil companion. "When he was hitting me in the parking lot today… this nice Devil saved me!"
'Wha…? But… the way he acted seemed so genuine. Was that crybaby lying to our faces or something?!'
"So, please! Don't kill him…!" She pleaded once again, putting a little more distance between them.
'Could she be telling us the actual truth…?' Kancho considered, glancing for a second at the Devil at her side; it didn't seem that threatening, and it kinda looked like Pochita whenever he was sad. 'I… maybe, we can let—'
"REMEMBER, KANCHO-BOY. ALL DEVILS ARE PATHOLOGICAL LIARS!"
"Let..."
"Hey… wanna run away together? The four of us…?" Denji asked unexpectedly, putting up a peace sign with both his hands; he then turned to Kancho, hoping he'd agree with his last-minute compromise. "Good plan, huh?"
"... Yeah. I think I can get behind that." He said, kneeling in front of the little girl. " I'll believe your friend is a good Devil, too."
"R-Really?" She stuttered, wiping the tears in her eyes with her wrists. "Y-You mean it?"
"That's right, we were good buddies with a pair of Devils once, as well," Denji commented, sitting down next to them. "Ha… they'll probably wanna kill us if they find out we're gone... huh, Kancho?"
"Yeah… so, do you wanna run away?"
"Ah, ha! Can we?" She asked, sporting a bright smile. "Can we really?"
"Yeah… I promise I won't hurt your—HEH… friend," He said, stifling a laugh.
'Eh? Was that a laugh?' Denji pondered, thinking he may have misheard his friend.
"W-Why—"
"HURT YOUR FRIEND TOO BAD BECAUSE I'M A FRIEND OF FUCKIN' JUSTICEEEE!" He shouted, throwing his cavalier hat to the side and pressing down on the button placed at the back of his head; he already made his choice the second Ono's voice popped into his head. "BIIIIIIITCCCCHH—" His voice evolved to something that sounded somewhat distorted as if it were Ono talking once again.
"YOU FOUND OUT?!" The Devil behind the little girl suddenly became more significant in size, emerging from her arms and seizing Denji's arms with a part of its orange body. "HOW THE FUCK—"
"What's goin' on?!" Denji questioned, sensing himself being lifted from the ground. "AND WHY CAN'T I MOVE MY ARMS?!"
"BECAUSE I'M THE FUCKIN' MAN!" Kancho stated, grabbing the Devil's head and slamming it into the ground with a hard 'CRASH.' "BASTARD! NEVER TRUST A DEVIL UNLESS THEY'VE TOTALLY EARNED YOUR TRUST—THAT'S LIKE, FUCKIN' DEVIL FRIENDSHIP RULE NUMBER ONE OR SOMETHING!"
Kancho then turned to Denji—in his Hybrid form—and began spouting orders as if he were Ono himself. "DENJIIIII, IT'S TIME WE TAKE OUT THIS TRASH FOR GOOD!"
"ARGHH—FUCK THIS SHIT!" He complied and bit down on the cord embedded in his chest, yanking it with his mouth and morphing himself into the Chainsaw Hybrid. "YOU GOT IT, MAN!"
"OW OW OW OW OW!" The Devil screamed, feeling immense pain from the pressure being applied to its cranium and the bleeding he underwent because of Denji's razor-sharp lacerations. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE MUSCLE DEVIL—BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR STRENGTH?!"
"DEMON JUICEEEEE—" Kancho held the Muscle Devil's head to the ground firmly, allowing Denji to perform his part in the attack. "FINISH THIS FFUUUCKER OFF, BUT DON'T HARM THE KIDDD—SHE'S STILL ALIVE!"
"YOU GOT IT!" Denji began thrusting his chainsaws into the Muscle Devil's body, separating it immaculately from the girl's body and bringing the monster an excruciating amount of pain before Denji finally cut off its disgusting head, spraying a blue-colored slime everywhere in the vicinity. "WEEEEAAAAHAHAHAH!"
"LET'S FUCKIN' GOOOOOO!"
Three Minutes
"Aaa—" Makima bit down on a corndog—drizzled with some ketchup and mustard—that she bought as a snack while awaiting Denji and Kancho's return; she suddenly heard some ruffling in the foilage nearby and made the assumption that it presumably belonged to them. "Mm?"
"UGH…" Kancho groaned; he hadn't expected running with a petite child on his back to be such a hassle, but it nonetheless turned out to be quite the grind. "JESUS…"
"I see you're a pair of useful dogs to me. That's nice."
"I… am an employee… ma'am…" Kancho corrected; both he and Denji struggled to stand due to how much energy they lost from turning into their respective Hyrbid states. "Sheesh…"
"W-Woof…"
Six Minutes
The girl was reunited with her father, and the two left in an ambulance, a happy ending for at least some people on this wretched morning. On the side of Denji and Kancho, things weren't so bright as they slowly gave in to the lack of food and sheer exhaustion that enveloped their weakened bodies; Denji was the first to go down, toppling over like a house of cards.
"Uh-oh." Luckily for him, Makima was there to break his fall with her decent-sized mammary gland. "You okay?"
Though, the same can't be said for Kancho, who fell face-first into a pile of mud; fortunately, at the very least, his hat was unharmed. 'Why.'
"I'm sorry… I end up cutting my own body with the chainsaws…." Denji confessed, blushing and acting foolish in front of his crush again. "Looks like I lose too much blood and faint…."
"Ugh…" Kancho wiped most of the mud off his face; the sticky blood from the Devil he killed only made it so much worse. "Give me a break…"
"How did your bodies end up like that?" Makima asked.
"My pet Devil became my heart, and Kancho's fused into… what was it again? His brain, maybe," Denji remarked with a stupid smile. "Unbelievable, right? I still don't wanna believe it either… that Pochita died for me…"
"And Ono gave his life for mine…" Kancho inputted, becoming saddened by the memory of his friend's passing. "It sucks, man…"
Makima didn't respond for a few moments; she knew how these types work all too well. "Historically speaking, your conditions have very few precedents. So few it hasn't even been named, apart from its unofficially recognized 'Hybrid' denotation."
'Wh-What's that mean…?' Denji wondered, feeling a strange hope stir within his heart.
"I believe you," Makima said, pointing at her nose. "You see, I have an especially good nose. I can tell that your best friends are still alive inside both of you."
"No kidding?" Kancho remarked, placing a finger on his head's attachment. 'Least that proves I wasn't hearing things when Ono spoke to me from inside my head…'
"Of course, and not in the poetic sense either…" Makima continued. "Denji's body has two scents. Human and Devil. Though for you, Kancho, it's a tad bit harder due to the number of aromas you carry. Fortunately, I can assure you that—regardless of your overbearing stench—your best friend is probably with you as well."
"Okay…" Denji began, wiping some tears from his eyes after hearing such good news. "Wow… that's a huge relief!"
"Thank you for the… thought, miss Makima," Kancho bowed his head slightly, receiving a nod of approval from her in return; simultaneously, Denji's stomach growled once again. "Yeah, I hear you, man. I'm starving."
"I think I'll eat that soggy udon now…" Denji hummed, aloof to his whatever Kancho was saying, as his mind was fixated on the udon he had ordered earlier. "Aww yeah…"
"You look unsteady," Makima cautioned. "Can you feed yourself?"
"I ca—CAN'T. I can't."
'A full one-eighty. Okay, then…' Kancho joked; he knew this woman would drive Denji down a shady path and kinda wanted to see how it would all turn out, merely for the 'lols,' of course. "I'm fine. Now, show me my sushi!"
The three sat down by a nearby table with all the food they had ordered; Denji immediately began letting Makima 'say ahhh' him his noodles while Kancho ate as if he hadn't eaten in years. It was a shame he wasn't as filled as he had hoped, but it was enough to push him on for the next task if it arose. 'This shit bussin' in every which way! Should've dined and dashed from restaurants if I had known professionally-made food was this good!'
"Good?" Makima asked the two of them, getting a nod from Kancho and a 'Woof' from Denji in that order. "Hm~" She then made a smile directed solely at Denji. "Hard to believe you actually enjoyed that soggy udon… what a good boy. You really are like a dog."
'There she goes again with the weird praises,' Kancho noted as he sent another piece of sushi down his windpipe. "DAMN, THIS TASTES EVEN BETTER WHEN I'M THINKIN' OF STUFF!"
Denji—after having lost focus for about a few seconds—began to chat again with Makima. "Hey, uh… I don't wanna sound rude, but… I forgot your name…"
"It's Makima, Denji," She said with another one of her trademark smiles. "Makima."
"... Miss Makima?" He said, sounding more hesitant than before. "W… what kind of guy do you like?"
His comment almost made Kancho spit out his food in response; it was such a straightforward thing to say that he just had to laugh. "Forgive me, ma'am—I am just… stunned by my friend's boldness."
"HEY—"
"It's alright, Kancho. I know he meant well," Makima said in her most soothing voice, sending ripples down the brunet's spine; he wasn't drawn in by the sensual allure, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling either. "I know how boys your ages are."
"Right…" Kancho didn't know what to think of it and simply waved it off as some one-time occurrence; it may have been probably because her body was so tempting to the senses. "So… uh, what's your reply?"
"Oh, right." She then placed a thumb on her cheek and thought for a moment; it took a second, but she gave them a straight answer, staring right at Denji's eyes as she said it. "Someone like a boy named 'Denji.'"
"Denji…?"
"..."
"..."
"... Dude. That's my name." Kancho died a little from his friend's reaction; it would undoubtedly mark that this would be one of the longest, if not most eventful, days in his entire life.