Welcome to the tenth chapter of this story! I don't have much to say here, other than let's get into my response to reviews/comments!

[Response to Reviews/Comments]

(Qoutev) TACO SENSEI: I can't explain what's up with "her". You'll see who she is soon. But know that Bold Her is different from Italics Her. Two different people. Just like CSM, the plot for this is going to move really fast. Downtime is non-existent and life is suffering.

(Ao3) Athing: Thank you for the explanation! Honestly, that's very creative! And yeah, you should feel bad for Kel. It's only going to get worse! Teehee~!

Also, Gun Devil OP af. Like, even 35% of its power was… you know what? After you watch the Anime, I highly suggest reading the Manga. I did, and it was not a mistake. Lowkey, it's the best Manga I've ever read, and that includes One Piece.

(Ao3) GrassiestGrassOnGrass: Here, have another! Also, Aubrey's reaction is going to be priceless. And it's not her contract, it's Sunny's. Sunny was the one who made the contract. Her contract was done when she died, so technically The Shadow Devil is contracted with Sunny, but in the body of Aubrey, if that makes any sense.

(Ao3) Pouuko: Don't you worry about it. It shall be fulfilled.

(Ao3) Rolldens: OH! You are so off dude. Like, extremely off. The Truth is something far darker than you might realize. Sunny and Mari's father is… well, he is important but not right now. He'll be more important in a later arc. After this one.

Now, onto the chapter!

xxXXxxXXxx

Mr. Wright was annoyed. Not only had that brat Kelsey knocked off her mask, but he had seen her face. Well, not her face, but it was her current face. It was a confusing mess of affairs at the moment, but it wouldn't exactly take long to write itself out. All she had to do was wait.

Then again, Mr. Wright was aware of just how potent this boy was. His affinity for attracting Devils was… immense. Devils weren't usually attracted to a person's scent. Not unless that person had undergone severe amounts of trauma and withstood it. That's why this Kelsey Desoto person is so… interesting to her. Second to Basil Faye.

And while she'd love to sink her claws into Basil, that'd have to wait. At least, momentarily. Back to the topic at hand: Kelsey Desoto.

Of course, his unconscious form made it hard for her to reason with him. But it wouldn't take all that long for him to awaken. She needed something from him. A Contract, to be precise. Not with her—she already had one with someone else, and one she heavily valued above all else—but for him to Contract with someone else.

Her Boss, Ms. S, was hellbent on making sure Faraway experienced the pain that the rest of the world had felt. The same pain like she had felt. It was petty, but the stench of Death is what attracted her to Ms. S. And while she used Ms. S's face, prior to her… accident so to speak, it was meant as a reminder to anyone who saw it.

To remind them that Death, no matter the form, was something to Fear.

Ah… being The Death Devil was fun. Her sisters always were afraid of her, because even Devils feared Death. Well, True Death, anyway. Ah, she was rambling again, wasn't she? The topic… what was that again? Oh, yes, Faraway, and Ms. S.

Ms. S had one goal. And that goal was to make sure that Faraway knew the existence of Devils. Experienced them. And then, be eradicated by them. Ms. S had protected them blindly for so long, and now, she harboured hatred for the small town. The small town that dared to forget her. The mayor swept everything under the rug to maintain peace.

Was Ms. S's sacrifice all for nothing? She made the ultimate sacrifice for this town. She tried, and failed, to defeat The Suicide Devil. It resulted in her premature demise. Or, at the very least, her near death. As a result, The Suicide Devil was able to torment Sunny and Basil. The very thing Ms. S was trying to stop.

And what did The Mayor do?

Nothing.

He. Did. Nothing.

Oh, when Ms. S found that out, she was furious. But unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it. That was back then, though. Now, was a completely different story. Soon, she would be able to, all it would take would be just two more weeks, and then her revenge would be seen through.

But first, she wanted everyone that she cared about paired with a Devil and led to The Big City so that they could survive the attack that The Gun Devil would subject Faraway to.

Or well… it was more appropriate to say the attack that she had planned to do to Faraway.

All that had to be done is for the plan to succeed. They were close to making it work, too.

But then, that pesky mayor got involved and interfered.

There was no doubt that The Grief Devil and The Shadow Devil were on his side now. The Grief Devil always was a pain in the arse, and The Shadow Devil was always a creep, despite that they were still major losses. Powerful Devil's lost to the person who caused this problem.

It pissed Ms. S off. But, nothing was to be done now.

That left The Drowning Devil and The Aracnapobia Devil. And yes, The Aracnapobia Devil was different from The Spider Devil, because where the Spider Devil relied on the fear of spiders The Aracnapobia Devil got its fear from Spiders, Tarantulas, Crabs, Lobsters, all of it. It wasn't a Primal Fear, yet, but it was close enough.

Not that it mattered. Not yet, at least.

Mr. Wright sat atop a rock, one leg folded over the other with her arms crossed, eyes narrowed underneath her mask as she waited for Kelsey to return to the land of the conscious. Now that Mr. Wright thought about it, she kinda over did it. Maybe she should've not knocked the boy's head around like that.

Oh well, it wasn't like he was dead. He'd wake up sooner rather than later.

And luckily for Mr. Wright, she was correct about that assertion, as it didn't take long for the boy to stir from unconsciousness, and when he did, when he looked up at her, he grimaced, baring his teeth with anger in his eyes.

"You! You—"

"Enough with your anger. I have no time for your nonsense, Kelsey," Mr. Wright interrupted, eyes narrowing underneath the mask. "There's no point in getting angry when all it will do is lead to your family's demise, along with your own." As Mr. Wright said that, her arms remained crossed. The boy didn't scare her, even in the slightest. Not much could scare her because she was a Devil.

"¿¡Qué ganas con esto!? What's the point in any of this?! I-I mean, y-you used to be—"

"Used to be and what I am now is different. Is what she would say if I was her," Mr. Wright said, smirking under her mask. That blew the wind out of Kelsey's sails, seeing as his face went from angry to confused and… disheartened in a matter of seconds.

"O-Oh… so… it's just like what happened to Sunny…" Kelsey said, looking away from Mr. Wright. "You're pretending to be her, even though she's still dead. Right?"

Mr. Wright sighed. "You're half right and half wrong. I don't want to explain it to you, mainly because it would be wasted air trying to, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Sunny is still very much alive. He simply made a contract with a Devil," Mr. Wright explained, making Kelsey raise an eyebrow.

"A Contract… with a Devil? I mean…. My cousins told me about those before, but… I have never seen one…." Kelsey murmured, looking up at Mr. Wright. "A-Anyway, that doesn't matter! W-What do you mean that thing is still Sunny!? I saw its real form right before my very eyes! All those chains and sharp teeth! That wasn't Sunny!"

Mr. Wright shook her head. Just how stupid could this boy be? Then again, these people, this town, knew nothing about Devils. So she could excuse the ignorance for a little while longer. After all, it wasn't as if he knew about Contracts and how they worked; at least not in full.

"Ah, and that's the type of thinking that will get your family killed, Kelsey," Mr. Wright explained. There was a distinct gleam of fear in his eyes that made her want to pounce. However, unfortunately for Mr. Wright, Ms. S had plans for Kelsey, so she could fall into her natural ambitions.

That didn't mean, however, that she couldn't manipulate his current way of thinking into something more beneficial to the cause.

"After all, Devils take various shapes, sizes, and forms. Hybrids are one of them. Sunny simply replaced a part of himself and merged with a Devil so that he could live. All for the sake of you, Basil, and Aubrey. And now you wish to trounce all over that because you're scared of him?"

"H-Huh—"

"But that's fine!" Mr. Wright clapped her hands together, interrupting Kelsey and bobbing her head to the right with a wide smile underneath the mask. "You've dedicated yourself to killing him, and thus I will grant you the chance to do so!"

It was at that moment that a suffocating air filled the forest, one that Mr. Wright produced. It was only a 16th of the power she had at her disposal, so she didn't really have to go all out with it. Just enough to make Kelsey listen to her.

"All you have to do is bring me Basil and the fun can begin~!"

xxXXxxXXxx

Walking out of the mayor's building, Aubrey and Sunny remained quiet. In Aubrey's hand was a piece of paper that, in large bold letters, decreed her to be a part of Faraway's Official Devil Hunter Organization. Sunny, on the other hand, was chomping down on a slice of pizza he had gotten from Ginos on the way there. He had offered to buy her one, but she declined.

Sunny thought it was rather stupid of her.

From what Sunny was aware, Aubrey wanted nothing to do with Devil Hunting. It made sense, considering the two Devils that he had fought now were fairly strong. Those two Devils are The Wolf Devil and The Shadow Devil. Neither of them stood a realistic chance against him, even with him being a pretty bad fighter.

"You're not a bad fighter. If that was the case, you would've died twice now. You just don't know any material arts."

"Doesn't that make me a bad fighter?"

"*sigh* no, but you are quick on your feet. Sometimes that's better than being able to throw jabs and punches correctly. Especially seeing because you're immortal."

Sunny sighed. Grief made a great point, but at the same time, knowing how to fight would be good too. Sure, he had defeated two Devils now, but knowing how to fight would make it easier. The problem was that he didn't have the right kind of body for fighting.

He was overly skinny, he had no muscle and mostly flabby skin, and the muscle he did have wasn't really all that good.

Maybe he should consider going to the local gym.

"Yo, Sunny. I'll see you tomorrow," Aubrey's voice cut through his thoughts as Sunny glanced over at her.

"You're going to go home?" Sunny asked as Aubrey stuffed the letter and her hands into her jacket pockets.

"Yeah. Talk to you later," Aubrey replied, turning to go across the crosswalk off to their right, when she stopped, looking over her shoulder back at Sunny. "Hey, actually, before I go… Shadow mentioned that there was a part of the contract that you had made with him. Can you tell me what that's about?"

Sunny bit down on his tongue on accident, making him yelp, before shaking his head. He looked over to Aubrey, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. This was just the kind of thing he had hoped wasn't going to happen. Aubrey was looking at him expecting an answer, the only answer he had was one that he knew was going to send her off the deep end.

This… was not going to be fun to explain.

And so he didn't.

"Later."

As fast as his legs could carry him, he ran, which only annoyed Aubrey. Unfortunately for her, he was too far away for her to chase after him, and thus, Sunny was saved from embarrassing himself and possibly pissing off the only girl he had known in his life that he would consider calling a friend and wasn't his dead sister. Seriously, the last thing he wanted to do was tell Aubrey that he had to have sex with her.

But, then again, it was either that or death. And the last thing he wanted to do was die. But at the same time, he also had no real interest in doing "the deed." Period. End of discussion. He had always felt that way, so it made it even more uncomfortable that he was pretty much being strong-armed to do it. Sure, he didn't mind going on dates and stuff, but he just never found that kind of thing—sex—to be at all interesting.

Hell, to put things into perspective, he cared very little for the idea of Porn. Something that most teenage boys used because they couldn't get any "action" so to speak. He just found it disgusting that someone would record themselves doing something intimate with another person and post it online for others to enjoy.

Or, another example, Porn magazines. Why would someone purchase that kind of thing? A bunch of pictures of nude women in erotic poses thrusting their breasts out like they were important. Sure, some people got off to that, but he didn't.

He thought that maybe he was attracted to guys instead of women. But, as it turned out, that was a definite no. How? Well… he had a laptop in his room, and his curiosity and questioning had got the better of him.

Needless to say, the answer to that was a fat no.

So, he concluded that sex, in general, was just something that he wasn't into. Not with women, and neither with men.

Opening the door to his home, Sunny took off his shoes and left them at the entrance, just in case he needed to go out for any reason. The Mayor had his phone number if he wanted to call him to hunt another Devil.

He hoped that wouldn't be for a while.

Walking into his living room and plopping down onto the couch, just as he was about to turn on the TV, the phone went off. Sunny groaned, putting his hands into his face with enough force to make the slapping sound audible enough for it to echo. His hands slid down his face as his expression became filled with annoyance.

He did this to himself, he jinxed himself.

Getting up from the couch, Sunny walked over to the landline that had been bolted onto the wall. He took it off the receiver, hit the answer button, then muttered. "Suzuki household. What do you want?"

"Sunny? It's the Mayor."

"Because of fucking course it is…" "Ah, Mayor? Let me guess, Devil?"

"You're right on the money, Sunny."

"Get Aubrey to do it. I need to have a shower."

"Are you sure? She could get hurt."

Sunny paused, biting his lip before sighing. No, he wasn't about to be guilt-tripped. Besides, Aubrey was a better fighter than him. And he reallyneeded a shower. Like, badly.

"She's a Hybrid like me. She'll be fine."

"Sunny, I—"

Sunny hung up. He sighed, he was going to have a shower damnit. This was going to be Aubrey's problem now. Not his. Besides, he had taken down two Devils already, and he had already collected his pay from The Mayor for defeating The Shadow Devil by sealing it within Aubrey, which, by the way, was 50K.

So, yeah, he was set for a while. Besides, Aubrey needed the money more than he did at the moment.

What could possibly go wrong?

-To Be Continued-