Chapter 9

A lurid blue painted the room as the sunrise mingled with the curtain shade. Aside from the chirping of one lonely cicada to fill the lacuna of sound, there was silence. No shouting, no slamming of sliding doors, no morning rush. Just silence and one cicada.

There was a tightness in my throat. At first, I thought it might just be that I needed a glass of water. But as the unfamiliar ceiling reminded me of where I was, of where I had ended up, I felt a hand. My hand gripped around my neck. Startled, I quickly let go, coughing, and turned over to swig from the glass on the bedside table. Trickles of tears slipped out.

My alarm hadn't woken me up. I checked the alarm clock and the time read 6 am.

I can't deal with this. I'm going back to sleep. Is that okay, Katsura?

—

"You want to do what now?"

Kurose was shaken with incredulity.

"A contract with the Punishment Devil," repeated Sasaki, more certain this time. We stood just outside Asakusa Station again, in a little nook off to the side by the ticket booth at the end of the indoor shopping street, which is where Sasaki had swooped in.

"You saw what that thing is capable of," stated Kurose, his nose twitching as he massaged the bridge with his fingers which would become sticky with still-clotting blood, a habit he'd developed since yesterday. "And you, as a greenhorn, want to contract with it?"

Tendo would shoot him a stare each time he did it, taking the much cleaner option of placing a bandage over her scar instead. "We have plenty of other more reliable options," she proposed. "The Fox Devil, for example, is one of the most contracted devils in Public Safety. She's willing to let most people contract with her, for prices as low as just some dead skin, so she's cooperative. You'll be especially lucky if you're a guy with a pretty face. Then she'll let you summon her head."

Kurose whimpered in response to this.

"Oops, sorry Kurose. I guess that won't be an option for you anymore…"

"No need to rub it in…" he whined, once again prodding at his fresh scar desperately as if it would magically go away if he tried hard enough.

"Naturally, the head's not an option for you, either," Tendo continued, directing her attention back to Sasaki, "but a reliable devil, no matter how we use it, is better than an unreliable one. Take Mr. Escape Artist for example."

"Even if it did contract with you," breached Kurose, "who knows what kind of price it might ask for. It's in the name, after all. Punishment Devil. Any chance it gets to make you suffer and no doubt it's gonna take it."

"But it's powerful, right?" asked Sasaki.

"Of course. You saw that yourself yesterday. Destroy buildings, wipe a hundred people out in a few seconds kind of powerful."

"Has anyone else contracted it?"

Tendo seemed to start shuffling her feet at this. "...Not currently, no. But there's been quite a few applications."

Sasaki reacted especially to the last part, leaning forward.

"Let's put the break on this conversation," suggested Kurose. "Are we making a move? I'm feeling hungry."

"Can't you think with your head instead of your stomach or…" Tendo glanced at us while she whispered to him, "other parts of your body for a second, Yutaro?"

"Michiko, my body is a temple, and it all works together in unison. We have to be in top form for our missions, and you know what we're planning to do tomorrow… we'll definitely want our bodies to be ready for that."

"...Fine, I guess you're right again."

"As always."

"Yeah, and I'm the queen of China."

"You are?"

"I wish." Tendo capped off her back-and-forth with Kurose with a clap and turned back to us, maintaining her composed posture. Her chin was raised, I noticed, a cool gaze no doubt chiselled from experiences with devils made even the delivery of casual words carry an air of importance, but the messiness of her hair shaved away at that image just enough to reveal the visage of something underneath.

"You know what, you two did a good job today. You're not only alive, and not in a hospital bed, even if you should be," she paused for a moment, "I'll look at getting you looked over, actually. The point is, you assisted us in capturing a devil. So… how about you join us for lunch? Ramen sound good?"

I agreed contently, while Sasaki to my side seemed to be struck by the idea, her knees buckling and drool visibly escaping her lips. "Yes please…" she pleaded.

"Ramen? You cheapskate…" complained Kurose.

"Complain all you want, you're not the one paying, bud," responded Tendo.

Led by Tendo and a more reluctant Kurose back up the shopping street in search of ramen, Sasaki beamed in my direction. Turning to her and wondering what she had on her mind, she gestured down to my feet with a head tilt.

Oh yeah, I was wearing the brown loafers today.

—

Passing under the glass ceiling of the narrow tunnel that made up the station shopping lane, shops sandwiched in slapdash spaces, we slipped through the hordes into the ramen store by the entrance, crammed so efficiently beside a convenience store that we almost walked right past it.

Its dirty glass doors littered with outdated and colourful advertising flyers, Sasaki took a chance to glance in at the less-dirty glass cabinet stood outside, which displayed an array of different ramen options in deliciously lit presentation bowls. From how she pressed her face closer with each movement, I thought she was about to reach in and start chewing on a plastic piece of pork belly or lick one of the poorly photographed images of noodles.

"There's so many… how does anyone choose?"

"We can't choose if you hang about outside all day. Come on, in we go, the real food's this way" I said, pulling her by the arm. Ducking under the drapes, my own curiosity was finally satiated. The paper lanterns, the unnecessary calligraphic signs, the wooden barstools and bamboo eating mats lined up corner to corner… It was a tacky facade, but I couldn't stop myself from unleashing an "Ooh…"

"Ooh?" questioned Sasaki.

"Oh, uh, its nothing."

Tendo beckoned us over and we ambled over to the counter to order. A perfectly bald older man with glasses and a thin beard toiled away in clouds of steam behind, who, upon noticing Kurose's hungry lean and the tapping of his finger against his sleeve, took to serving us.

"Oh… uh… uh…" dithered Sasaki. "Wh…What do you recommend?"

The chef pointed to the house special.

"Wavy, medium thickness noodles… pork belly… soy sauce-based broth… ahh yes please, sir!" Sasaki could barely contain herself. Meanwhile, I was out of my depth too. I had no idea what passed as good in a cheap ramen restaurant. My father would have lectured me just for sticking my nose in the door.

"I'll have what she's having," I said, not wanting to waste time.

Salt tickled my nostrils as the bowls arrived with a satisfying clatter. Tendo readjusted her hair tie, while nothing could stop Kurose and Sasaki from digging in, splitting their chopsticks and flinging pieces of hot meat and mushrooms into their mouths. Steam billowing up my face and a savoury dew glistening on the surface, I dipped my spoon in for a taste.

I took a sip. Hmm… It's a little too dry. And the noodles are getting soft already. Not enough soy-

Sasaki's chopsticks jingled in her empty bowl, and she patted her chest.

"You're… already done?" gasped Kurose.

"Is… that weird? Sorry… I haven't had much to eat… and this was perfect. So delicious…" she sank in her seat. I dwindled, a brimming bowl still in hand.

Yeah, you know what? I'll think I'll just… finish this.

Sasaki stewed in her post-food paralysis for a moment. Her head churned with the gases of half-digested pork, she breathed out her next sentence.

"I want to be able to eat like this all the time. Actually, no. I want to eat even better than this. I bet there's ramen out there with even fancier toppings. Like furikake or bonito… or… cheese?"

Maybe not that last one. Although, who knows.

"I never want to eat bad again. And everywhere we'll go, in the restaurants and bars, we'll get the best treatment. Don't you think that'd be amazing, Reika?"

"It would be nice to eat here rather than getting bento from the convenience store."

"Exactly. If I can get the Punishment Devil, maybe people will even invite us out for meals to places. Then we wouldn't even have to pay."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," cut in Tendo, still slurping on some noodles. "Since you keep insisting, I'll tell you about the few people that have contracted with Punishment. It doesn't go for low offers."

"Eyesight. Toes. Anything that makes living that little bit harder," emphasised Kurose, now drinking a can of beer. "Oh… although I guess there was that one guy that-"

Tendo quickly shushed him.

"Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, no easy deals with this guy. If you want its power, you'll need to be prepared to sacrifice something."

"We'll be in Tokyo for a bit to deal with the clean-up operation," mentioned Tendo, dabbing her face with a napkin. "Asking for a contract as a greenhorn is a good step. Devil Hunters need everything at their disposal, and contracts give us some of our strongest weapons. When you head back, talk to Kishibe about it." She lifted the bowl to her chin and drank down the rest of her broth, purring under her breath: "Because I'm sure as hell not talking to him about it."

"I can't wait to see what Kishibe has in store for us when he hears the news of what we did," chattered Sasaki excitedly.

—

Kishibe held out two lollipops toward us.

"Huh?" exclaimed Sasaki and I in unison.

"Your reward. Actual payment for you," he said, pointing one of the lollipops at Sasaki, "will come a little slowly due divvying up, since there's a little bit of contention over in HQ about who did what and who was involved. This kind of bureaucracy is typical of the brass, though, so for now, tide yourselves over with these. You two like cola flavour?"

We opened our mouths to answer, but Kishibe interrupted again, rooting around in his pocket.

"Doesn't matter actually, cola's all I got. You'll have to live with it."

Sasaki took to unwrapping hers, while I stuffed mine in my pocket for later. I wasn't in the mood for something sweet right now.

"So, Himeno."

I jerked upon hearing him say that name and acknowledged him.

"Himeno?" Sasaki raised, jostling her hair about like a dog searching for its missing ball. "Himeno… Wait, that was the name the lady at the hotel desk said when I found your room."

"As I was saying," said Kishibe, unfazed, "Himeno, you any clearer on what you want?" Sasaki was a little taken aback that the name referred to me, but wasn't bothered by it for long.

"I hear you were part of the mission too. Can't pay you unless you're on the payroll, though. Unless you're fine with getting another lollipop," he jested flatly.

I held out my hand jokingly, which earned a gruff look, before pulling it back.

"It's hard to say. But…" I reached to the sheath I'd brought with me, lifting it by the strap, and held the handle of the black nail kept inside. "I'm not content with putting this to rest until I know it's where it needs to be."

"And I guess I owe it to the person who once wielded it too," I wanted to say, but the words didn't come out, so I read them aloud in my head, unheard.

"Practical. I like it." He took another swig from his flask. "I'm in no mood to waste any more time on you two, so now we've finally got this settled, I want to get straight to training."

"Uh, sorry to sound rude, sir, but… it's quite late. Do we really have time to train?" Sasaki pondered.

"Any time is time to train. A trainee without training isn't worth the birdshit on my car window. And they sure aren't worth much more than worm food out in the field. The fact that you two even survived against Punishment is nothing short of a miracle, but it's one we're going to use. If you really want to contract with it, Sasaki, that goes double for you."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked, which spooked Sasaki, unnerved by the fact that I'd question him so plainly.

"It's that or you die. And I don't want the fact that you two bit the dust because I didn't train you on my conscience. Means I have to spend more on booze." He studied his flask. "It's avoidable, so not doing it is impractical. Got that? So, we'll get to it. Starting tonight."

"Understood," responded Sasaki, quick on the uptake. "If it means I can be strong enough to be worthy of contracting with the Punishment Devil."

"One more thing. I like it when people call me 'sensei', so make sure you call me that. I won't respond to anything else."

"Yes, sensei," we both replied, mine being notedly slower and quieter.

He slumped toward us, which we recoiled at initially, and he threw his arms around our necks in a sort of drunken hug. I drew my shoulders together as much as I could, frozen still, until I began to squirm at the sheer strength of his grip around us.

"Welcome to Public Safety boot camp, girls."