Chapter 17: Two Devils Enter a Bar Part 3

September 28th, 5:10 PM

Making his way towards the school exit, Denji thinks on the ideas that were discussed on how to confront Kawasaki in the bar. The best option would be for them all to talk in the VIP room, but the worst case is to talk to her in the public area.

He pushes those thoughts aside, in favor of imagining what will come out of the inevitable discussion.

Not anything good, if she's working herself to death over it.

Making his way back home, he starts to message Yui, asking if they'll be arriving earlier or later. She responds that they'll try and be a few minutes past the scheduled time. She mentions that she doesn't know the whereabouts of Hiratsuka-sensei.

Denji's got a good hour before he should head there, so he swings by his home, and changes his clothes. Explaining what's going on to Kobeni, she's surprised to hear that they have a private room at a fancy bar.

Denji heads out for the night, but his gaze is caught by his neighbor. The one who knows what he really is. They stare at each other for a minute, but Denji breaks away first, waving, and making his exit.

Arriving at the bar after walking there, he's just about on time. Entering the elevator, he heads up to the bar. When it opens, he starts looking around, seeing if there's a familiar face he can stick to. While looking, he's surprised at the sight of a very familiar redhead.

Angel is here, and there's very few people around him, leaving at least two bar seats available on either side. Denji walks over and grabs a seat to his left.

"Hey Angel, what're you doing here today?" Denji starts

"Not much, but with a getup like that on, it seems you've got something planned. Would it have anything to do with Yoshida asking me not to use the private room today?" He chuckles

"I see he told you already. Did you show up just to screw around with what's going to happen?"

"Kinda." Angel finishes his drink, and waves for the bartender.

The bartender comes, but it's not Kawasaki. Angel orders another drink, and orders Denji's go-to drink.

When the bartender turns his back to make the drinks, a voice breaks their conversation.

"Hayakawa?"

The two of them turn their head towards the voice, and are met with the sight of a very beautiful woman.

This woman just so happens to be his homeroom teacher.

Shizuka Hiratsuka is here, wearing a lovely silver dress, with a lovely diamond necklace as well, and to top it off, her hair is in a braided bun.

Her fear filled face breaks the otherwise beautiful presence, as he's reminded of the fact that she's most likely uncomfortable with devils, and is most likely concerned for his and the patron's well-being.

"Hey sensei, grab a seat." He pulls the chair next to him out for her.

She hesitates for a moment before sitting down. When she does, their drinks arrive. They grab their cups, and cheers them, as usual. All while Hiratsuka watches in utter confusion, but when she sees Denji start to drink, she grabs his cup.

They look at her with a face of irritation

"Why though?" He asks

"You're a minor, and I don't care what you have to say about that." She admonishes him

"Lady, take a sip of that and tell me how much alcohol is in that." Angel counters

She's confused, but still takes a drink. Upon realizing what it's a non-alcoholic drink, she looks away while returning his drink.

She doesn't speak after that, and the next five minutes is spent waiting for the remaining members to arrive.

After some more time passes, Hiratsuka speaks.

"So, how exactly did the two of you meet?"

They look at each other for a brief second, but Angel answers for him.

"We met after I went to a cafe after a battle, and hit it off. That's about all." Angel lies

"What, you just walked into a cafe, right after fighting something? Wouldn't you be covered in blood, or something at least?" She tries to pick apart his counter in confusion.

"Listen, it doesn't really matter, so drop it, ok?" He wants to get off this topic.

Denji is just in the middle, watching the two go at it.

Before the two can get even louder, their attention is drawn to something behind Denji. Turning around, he's pleasantly surprised to see his club mates, all dolled up, in lovely dresses.

Yui waves at him, and Yukinoshita is looking at him, but her attention is clearly on Angel.

"Cool, you look the part." Denji says absentmindedly

Yui starts to blush, and Yukinoshita seems to loosen up, if only a little. Shaking her head, she refocuses on Denji.

"Well then Hayakawa, I believe you promised a VIP room for this request. Now show your proof." She orders.

"Yeah, yeah." He waves her off.

Denji and Angel get up from their seats, and start walking. The three others follow suit, and they all walk towards the VIP section, briefly talking the bouncers of the back rooms.

When they give the all clear, they continue on to the room they own. Yui's looking around in awe, Yukinoshita is unfazed by this level of quality, and Hiratsuka is watching the two, trying to understand how they have a room for a place this fancy.

They get to the room, and Denji swipes his card into the scanner, unlocking the door. Angel opens it, and holds it for the others. They eye him warily, but enter anyways. The lights flip on and Denji and Angel take their regular seats.

"Umm, where do we sit?" Yui asks.

Denji and Angel look at each other briefly, then start to slide across the booth seats, until they're both on one end. He gestures to the now empty seats.

Yui slides in first, moving next to Denji, with Yukinoshita and Hiratsuka following. Angel then presses the button to summon a waiter, and they wait for a minute.

At long last, they're in the final stages of the plan to complete their request.

The door opens, and in comes Kawasaki Saki.

She looks around at the larger group, before her eyes land on the two regulars of the room. She approaches the two of them, and begins to talk.

"Hey you two, the usual?"

They nod, and she turns to the others. Obviously recognizing them

"And what would you ladies like to order?"

Yukinoshita speaks up with her thoughts

"Well, before we make any orders, we'd like to ask you to sit down and have a chat with us." She gestures to the bar stool that sits across from Yui.

"Sorry, but I don't get paid to sit and talk. Is there anything you'd like to order, or no?"

Yukinoshita's face falls flat at being shot down. Around this time, Hiratsuka starts to add herself into the conversation.

"Kawasaki, please. Just a few minutes, we need to talk to you about something important."

Saki's face softens mildly at that, and she glances at Denji. He doesn't know why, but she takes a seat after that.

"Fine, but only a little." She pulls the bar stool out and sits down. The next few minutes are spent with Yukinoshita trying to find out her reasons for working, with the occasional interjection from Yui or Hiratsuka. They don't bring Denji into the conversation, either out of their own idea, or just forgetting he was there. Saki makes the slightest glances towards him every now and then.

After about 8 minutes pass, Saki gets up from her seat.

"Listen, this has been a very interesting talk, but as I said earlier, I don't get paid to sit around. Sorry, but I've gotta go." She turns around and walks out the door before anyone can giver her a reason to stay.

The door closes, and their heads drop, with only Denji and Angel looking around, unbothered at the failure. Glancing back at the table, Angel notices she forgot her notepad with their orders on it. He grabs at it, slapping Denji's shoulder to get his attention away from his phone, gesturing him to take it to her. He does, and makes his leave, ignoring the voices asking where he was going.

By the time he's back in the public area, Kawasaki is behind the bar, mixing drinks. He slides into an open seat, and starts waving the notepad around to get her attention. When she finally does, her eyes snap to her pockets, only to see that she did indeed leave her notes behind. Making her way to him, she grabs it and tries to take it, but Denji doesn't let it go.

"Can we talk?" He asks halfheartedly

She looks at him with curiosity, but mostly blankness in her eyes.

"If you're here to ask me about my reasons, just forget it. I don't want to tell anyone for my own reasons. Just as I'm sure you don't want to explain why you're working with a devil hunter." She takes her notebook back, and starts mixing their drinks.

He sighs

They're never going to complete this request.

Setting their drinks down in front of him, he pays for them and makes his way back to the room. Opening the door, he's overcome with a tension. The three girls that came with them are sliding to the other end of the booth, trying to keep some space from Angel.

Their attention is drawn to him after a moment, and he makes his way back to his seat, handing Angel his drink.

"Well Hayakawa, what did you learn?" Yukinoshita demands.

"Absolutely nothing. This request is completely fucked." He gives with a smile.

The girls seems disappointed at that. Yui turns to Hiratsuka and asks her what they should do.

"Frankly, Yui. There's nothing we can do. She won't talk, and threatening to call her parents isn't going to help."

She looks at Yukinoshita.

"I'm sorry Yukino, but he's right. This request failed." She says somberly.

The eyes of Yukinoshita drop down to her lap, but the split second that he could see them directly, he saw sorrow, and stubborn refusal, all in one.

Silence reigns over the group.

Only broken when Angel's phone starts ringing.

Ignoring everyones eyes on him, Angel pulls his phone out, and only Denji can see the caller.

Kishibe

They glance at each other for a moment, before turning their attention to the girls, who're looking at them expecting something.

Angel gets up, briefly explain that he needs to take this call. Leaving Denji aight the other occupants. Quiet is the majority, with only the faint mumbling of Angel's voice from outside the room.

Glancing at the people opposite of him, he can see Yui's curious face watching the door. Yukinoshita is facing downwards, but he remembers what he saw last in her eyes. And finally, his teacher. It is at this point that he realizes that she's looking at him.

Before he can ask what she's doing, Angel walks back in, and signals Denji to follow him. Getting up, he hears Hiratsuka speak up.

"Hey, where are you going? Is there a time limit on the room?"

Turning back to face her, he responds.

"Something came up, and don't worry about a time limit. You can leave whenever you want."

Before he can turn and shut the door, Yui speaks up.

"Thanks for bringing us here Denji. This place is really cool!" She says excitedly.

Smiling back at her, he nods, and makes his leave.

Walking down the hall besides Angel, he asks at last.

"What happened?"

He gets no response for a moment

"Some cameras picked up sights of two weapon devils yesterday."

Facing Denji, the next words make is chainsaw heart drop into his stomach.

"They were sighted near your high school."

To be continued in Chapter 18: What's important.

A.N: Hello again, it has been too damn long, but I'd like to briefly explain my thoughts about this chapter. I couldn't imagine a way for them to complete the request because Denji doesn't know about scholarships, and the arguments that were present in the source material were basically just a back and forth about what different social classes can do and value. I couldn't imagine any way for Denji to contribute to that argument. So instead, I expanded my brain to the fourth dimension, and came up with the truth. This is a fanfiction. I can do whatever I want, including this wonderful thing called Canon Divergence. I spent way too long trying to get him into an argument, when I could just remove the argument all together, and still have plot development. Now that they've failed a request, how will this affect Yukinoshita's pride? That's for later. But right now, some other things to think on. This arc has been completed, and we're sliding into the next arc. About a week or so will pass, which will put them around the start of October. The next arc is going to be not really an arc, but more of some more plot and character development, using Yui's bday as a catalyst. And before anyone says anything about the birthday being wrong, just ignore that fact, and roll with it.

Until next time :)

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