(I do not own Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man and the OC characters in this fic that do not belong to him are mine personally)
(This fic was an idea that I had floating around in my head that I finally decided to put my mind to; more chapters will be published)
In this fic, devils and devil hunters have existed throughout human history and around the world.
Chapter 1, The Rumored Immortal:
For many centuries in hell, a rumor turned fact had been spreading from devil to devil about an undying human being who had endless amounts of flesh and blood that seemed to have a hobby of collecting devil contracts like coins for a coin collection.
The devils who claim they are contracted with this human and the ones that were sent back to hell by his hand have shared his fighting skills and strength, blatant disregard for his own wellbeing, and his ridiculously powerful healing factor that bordered on immortality, which is probably why he has such disregard for himself. Of course, the devils that brag to have contracted with this man won't tell other devils where to find him and what they look like.
However, what some of the devils that have encountered this man do reveal about him is that devils who encounter him and don't immediately attack him are asked to be contracted with and then killed.
Devils scattered around the world have told of him popping up around the globe every now and then, meaning that other devils may have a chance of encountering them as well, with or without a contract after being sent back to hell.
For many centuries on Earth, people from many countries and lands have recounted sightings and stories of seemingly the same individual, possibly even indicating that this person had lived throughout hundreds of years of human history.
All of these sightings and stories had identified some traits of this man, these being that he has been killing devils for a majority of these accounts, possibly has experience in the medical field as he had preformed surgeries and cured illnesses, is seemingly unkillable as he has been witnessed recovering from fatal wounds and dismemberment in real time, and has been seen using multiple devil contracts and possibly has even more.
It also seems that during his hundreds of years of existence, he had been in contact with many new and old world governments. This being on the basis that there had been evidence of direct communications with those world governments and this ancient person.
Official documents have shown government figures or devil hunting agencies requesting for this person's assistance in dealing with devil or human related problems in their country or nation.
Large village in Southeast China, 1609:
It was a bright morning after a day of light rainfall from yesterday, making the surrounding air a little humid and the structures exposed to the elements to have a thin coating of water droplets form on their surfaces.
A marketplace of a central street with many different shops and food stalls continues to bustle with activity, undeterred by the now damp environment. On this particular week, there had been reports of a devil attack that had occurred in the village right next to theirs towards the east. These were told by some of the citizens of that village who had traveled to neighboring villages in order to seek refuge and to send a message requesting for aid.
Suddenly, multiple shops of a side street explode into a shower of planks and splinters as something crashes through them, sending wooden debris, merchandise, and some unlucky people flying.
While terrified citizens run away from the destruction to safety and some hide behind what they can find in order to protect themselves from what may come, a high pitched screech resounds from the area where the shops used to be. Many froze in place and turned to look at the source of the animalistic sound out of curiosity.
There, one dirty grey-pink foot resting on top of what used to be a fruit cart stood an enormous dark brown humanoid rat that was a fair bit taller than the intact shops around it. It had large missing patches of fur that revealed inflamed skin and it was chewing on a still living human's torso and organs with its elongated incisors and rows of additional sharp teeth. (Think of bat devil but as a giant rat instead).
Staring at the now frozen humans in front of it with its beady black eyes, the creature then throws away the now probably dead person and proclaims,
"FEAR ME YOU PUNY HUMANS, I AM THE RAT DEVIL, THE EMBODIMENT OF THE DEATH AND DISEASE US RATS CREATE! I WILL TEAR YOUR WEAK BODIES APART AND LEAVE YOU ALL TO ROT IN A PILE OF HUMAN REMAINS!"
The now identified rat devil then began to charge at the crowd of now fleeing people. Clawing apart the surrounding buildings and rending any unlucky humans in its path of death and destruction into pieces while laughing in an unpleasant wheezing voice.
When it is about to reach out and crush a mother and daughter who had tripped over fallen debris, it's lifted arm suddenly falls off at the bicep as if cut as a gust of wind sweeps by the devil and a gash forms in the ground underneath the recently amputated limb.
"WHAT?!" It screams out in surprise and rage as it recoils backwards,
"WHO DID THIS?! I WILL POUND YOU INTO A BLOODY PASTE ONCE I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!"
As the devil's stump for an arm begins to regrow, the mother, seizing this opportunity while the creature from hell in front of her is distracted, scoops up her daughter and dashes away from it.
Noticing its prey running away, the devil howled, "HEY! GET BACK HERE! SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!"
However, before the rat devil could begin its charge once more it notices a man holding a woven bamboo basket and wearing a conical bamboo hat walk out of a noodle stall beside it. It then proceeds to immediately throw a punch at the man in a fit of rage.
Before the fist could land though, the man steps to the right and out of the way, making the strike slam into the ground instead and enraging the devil even more.
"YOU!" The demonic rodent shouted,
"ARE YOU THE ONE WHO SEVERED MY ARM?! YOU SEEM VERY CONFIDENT FOR SOMEONE WALKING STRAIGHT TO THEIR DEATH!"
"Well, more would have died if I hadn't caused a distraction, right?" The man replied while asking the devil, the bamboo hat shadowing his face.
"SO IT WAS YOU! DIE FOR YOUR INSOLENCE YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN!"
As the rat devil swipes its claws at the insignificant looking human in front of it, the man whispered under his breath,
"so the civilians finally fled huh?"
"Knife."
Before the devil's attack could reach the man, its attacking hand is cut off by the wrist and sent crashing into the noodle stall the man just came out of.
"WHY YOU PIECE OF-"
before the devil could finish its sentence and regrow its hand, a sudden tremendous blow to the abdomen sends it back a couple meters down the street and onto the ground, hands on it's slowly reseting caved in chest.
Looking up, it sees the man it was attacking in a partially extended kicking position.
"Thanks for the boost violence, now then," the man said to himself.
He then unsheathed a dagger from under his hanfu sleeve from a leather case that was strapped to his left forearm. As the rat devil eyed the dagger from its position on the ground, it noticed that the Chinese characters for 'curse' were engraved on the blade's surface.
Slightly crouching and holding the dagger in a reverse-grip to his side, the man near instantly dashed forward and plunged the blade into the devil's left thigh with and shouted, "Curse!" "Sì (four)," a hollow raspy feminine voice intoned from somewhere unseen.
Grunting in pain, the devil grabbed at the man, who jumped backwards a couple feet out of range before it could and slightly crouched again.
Getting onto its feet and looking down at the strangely not healing stab wound, the devil noticed that black veins had appeared around the wound. Suddenly feeling a sharp pain in its right shoulder, it glanced up in panic and saw that the human had gotten onto its shoulder and stabbed it once again with that definitely dangerous dagger. "Curse!"the man repeated. "Sān (three)," the hollow raspy voice counted down.
Slapping its right shoulder in an attempt to kill or pin the human, the man jumped off before it could and landed a few meters away from the devil, slightly crouching again.
Looking at it's not healing shoulder wound and seeing that black veins were spreading from it as well, it shouted at the cause if it's injuries,
"WHY AM I NOT HEALING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!"
"Simple," the man responded, "I'm cursing you."
Dashing forward in a zigzagging pattern and causing the devil to miss its two handed grab at him, the man got behind the creature and jumped onto its back, stabbing it once again in the process.
"Curse!" The man shouted. "Èr (two)," the disembodied voice counted down.
"RAAHH!" The devil roared,
"QUIT DARTING AROUND YOU LITTLE PEST!"
Dropping off of the devil while it was reaching around and behind it's back with both arms in an attempt to grab him, the man dashed underneath and between the devil's legs, getting in front of it and crouching.
Smirking, the man spoke, "bye-bye," drawing the devil's attention before leaping and stabbing it in the chest.
"Curse!" The man called. "Yī (one)," the disembodied voice spoke. Jumping off of and backing a few meters away from the devil before it could grab him again, the man asked, "any last words?"
"FUCK YOU! DIE!" The devil roared, charging at the man in front of him.
"Alright, finish him curse," the man said to the owner of the disembodied voice.
"Líng (zero)," the voice stated.
Before the rat devil could reach its target, it was abruptly halted.
Fading into existence, countless multi jointed skeletal arms took hold of the devil's limbs and torso, lifting it into the air while extending its victim's arms outwards and to their sides, a large cloud of smoke forming behind them.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! LET ME G-"
The restrained devil's cries of protest and squirming were abruptly cut off when a horned human skull with four vertical eyes arranged in a diamond on it's face emerged from the dark cloud and chomped into its neck with long, mandible-like teeth, silencing it.
The skeletal hands that were holding the bleeding out devil then squeezed, hard, causing sounds of breaking bone to emit from the creature currently in its grasp.
The giant skeletal creature that was holding the now dead devil in it's hands, dropped the mangled corpse it was holding into a pool of blood below and disappeared into the darkness of the now dispersing cloud of smoke.
The battle now over, the unnamed victor wiped his bloodstained dagger relatively clean on a cloth he took out of his pocket and re-sheathed it.
The man then picked up the somehow unharmed basket that he had left in front of the noodle stall he came out of and walked away like nothing happened.
Mystery man POV:
As I walked away from the devil that I had just dealt with, I asked the curse devil that I was contracted with how many years I had left.
"Why do you keep asking this? You already know the answer," it replied in a raspy feminine voice from a mouth it had formed on the inside of my hat.
"Because I can and I'm not stopping anytime soon," I replied.
As the mouth disappeared and I went back to focusing on walking back home with my groceries, I pondered current events.
For nearly two decades now, working for the Chinese Devil Hunting Police was the best decision I've ever made in my now nearly two hundred seventy years of existence, being immortal and having been in multiple professions throughout my absurdly long life.
Life can never get boring for me with devils roaming around the world. As a member of the Devil Hunting Police Force, I get paid large sums of money for keeping civilians safe from devils.
This is great because the act of killing devils is fun for me. Since I am a reliable soldier and have a good working relationship with the head of the Devil Hunting Police Force, I am able to take any interesting characters that I meet while patrolling under my roof through legal means.
One such interesting character that I had taken in is the fox fiend named Bái, whom has been living with me as a housemate and friend for four months now.
I had met her when I was sent to patrol a well used forest path that had recent reports of missing people that had traveled alone.
I chose to always be sent alone for assignments as I didn't want others to find out I'm immortal and possibly spread that information and my skills in dealing with devil-related threats were trusted by my superiors.
About forty minutes into the hour and a half long walk down this path that led to another village, some of the devils that I was contracted with alerted me of a devil-like scent nearby.
Deciding to wait for what the being following me would do, I continued to walk down the path while surveying my surroundings.
After about two more minutes of walking, when my head was turned to the left after the sound of birds drew my attention, the sound of the rustling brush behind me alerted me of something running towards me.
Turning around, I instinctively put my left forearm in front of myself, suddenly a crunching sound was heard and a section was taken out of it, my left hand dropping to the forest floor.
Jumping back in order to see what attacked me, I was a bit surprised when I saw a young woman in an old and dirty qipao standing before me. I suddenly realized that she was a fiend, the long dirty white fox ears atop her head and unusual eyes leading me to this conclusion.
The black ringed orange pupils and irises in her black sclera eyes glared at me from both her human ones and the extra ones on each side of her neck, the two on each of her cheeks, and the large vertical one on her forehead peeking out from her dirty white bangs. Baring her sharp teeth at me, she lunged at me while opening her mouth, as if to bite me.
Using the contract I had with the forest devil, I restrained the attacking fox fiend with tree branches that wrapped around her like snakes.
Growling at me after their attempts to free themselves failed, I decided to ask them if they were the cause of the recent disappearances.
"Yeah, and?"
She replied in a voice that sounded raspy from disuse.
"Usually devil hunters like myself will kill devils or anything to do with them if we encounter them," I stated.
"However, over the past few years, I have been taking in fiends that I've encountered and allowing them to live with me until either they die or properly reintegrate into society. Since I've been known to this, the higher-ups decided to designate me as a temporary caretaker for whatever fiend they manage to capture. And since you are a fiend, I can give you two options."
"Oh, and what could those be?" The fox fiend asked curiously, her speech improving slightly.
I lift the pointer finger of my right hand up,
"One, you die because I can't allow an uncooperative devil-human into a heavily populated village."
"Or two," I lift up the pointer finger of my now regrown left hand, visibly shocking and surprising the fiend in front of me.
You can agree with living under my roof for a bit until you get used to living in a society of humans. Since your devil seems to be inhabiting the body of a young woman in what looks like their twenties, they probably had a job of some sort that left skills that you could use to your advantage."
As I finished explaining the second option she had, she, as expected, asked me the very obvious question on her mind.
"Hold on hold on, I still wanna live so I agree to the second option, but, how in hell is your arm fine?! Nearly half of your arm was gone!"
"Well…" I started as I released her from the bindings, the extra eyes on her head and neck closed and disappeared and her sclera turned white.
Unsheathing a sword, I cut deeply into my palm. "I have the ability to heal from any wounds. Missing limbs, disembowelment, decapitation, nothing can permanently kill me. Trust me, I've tested."
Demonstrating this I proceeded to chop my head off with a quick swing of my sword. I caught my lifeless head before it fell onto the ground as a new head grew from my neck.
"I can't have you telling anyone about this. If you do, I will have to kill you and anybody you spoke to about this," I warned her as I chucked my severed head into an open door that formed on the ground and vanished.
"…what was that," she asked me.
"What was what?"
"That door, why did it appear and I suddenly have a feeling of dread when it did?"
"Long story," I said while placing my bamboo hat on her head to cover her ears.
"Right now, I need to bring you to headquarters to register you as my responsibility so that I can bring you home to clean you up, you're pretty dirty right now. I'm going to call you Bái from now on because of your white hair."
After exiting the forest and into the village I came in from, I told some civilians that were nearby that the path was now safe to use and made my way to a Devil Hunting Police Force headquarter to register her as citizen.
Apparently, the body that her devil had taken over was of a young woman named Shū Yí Huang that had gone missing in the woods two weeks ago.
Since the body that Bái was using used to have a job as a seamstress before she died, the higher-ups decided to try and get the fox fiend a job as a seamstress as well in three weeks since they never wanted to use fiends to fight devils because of the possible panic that might cause.
I later went back home with my new housemate, cleaned her up, fed her, and gave her a room to call hers.
After she began living with me, she seems content with her current living situation and sometimes likes to take chunks out of me whenever she felt like doing so, making excuses like, "nothing is going to happen to you anyways."
The ways she attacks is by either taking bites out of someone with an invisible fox muzzle that manifests around her face that instantly consumes whatever it eats or just clawing at them with her sharp durable fingernails turned claws.
Arriving at my wooden dwelling that was located a couple meters beside a river and alongside other such housings, I open the front door and am greeted by my housemate and friend sitting at the kitchen table.
She was wearing a red and white long sleeved qipao and fiddling with some chopsticks.
"Welcome back Ming Chen, I suppose that you've bought the foodstuffs that we needed?"
"I have," I replied while setting the basket I was holding onto the table in front of her.
"And I suppose that you've eaten the breakfast that I made after you woken up, Bái?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't feed the vegetables to the chickens because you didn't want to eat them?"
Awkward silence ensues.
"You shouldn't only eat smoked and salted meat, it's not good for you," I reminded her.
"I did eat some!" The fox fiend argued, "it's not my fault plants taste eating bitter dirt.
Maybe add them to a meat stew next time and maybe then I'll eat veggies."
"You'd just pick out the meat and I'll have to remind you to eat the veggies," I countered.
"Whatever," she said while standing up.
"I've got clothes to make so I'll be gone for the day."
"Alright, I'll make sure to bring something that has chicken in it for you today," I said.
"Be sure to!" Bái called out while putting on a bamboo hat to cover her ears.
"Don't worry, I will."
As the door closed and I got ready to sort my groceries, I guess that some things in this world will forever remain impossible; me dying and for fiends to eat their vegetables without being asked to do so.
"…ah shit" I then remembered something that was definitely important.
"I forgot to call in the rat devil I killed. Now I won't get money for it."
Lamenting, I picked up the basket and started putting away what I bought.
"Welp, there's nothing I can do about it now."
