Deep breaths, Kobeni, eyes forward, Kobeni, this is your break, your lucky day. No one wants to hurt anyone, no one wants to cause problems, this is all about helping and helping. Good benefits, good pay, and it'd go better than the last job, the crazy man with the mouth scar promised it'd be okay, and-

"Higashiyama-san?" The young man's words snapped her back out of her own mind, and a nervous cry escaped her before she could stifle it. The young man exhaled, billowing a cloud of cigarette smoke. "Your hands are shaking."

"I-I-I'm fine!" She forced the words out. They felt unnatural on her tongue, but she continued. "So how old is he?"

"We think he's sixteen. Seventeen, maybe." Hayakawa Aki, her boss for one day, said. "Not new to Devil Hunting, but not particularly knowledgeable about them either. The details of his situation are confidential, but the old man gave you clearance, and the kid's not much of a liar."

"Denji-kun, right?" Kobeni asked, looking over the name of the file again. "I think there's a mistake on the paperwork. Does he have a last name?"

"…no mistake." Hayakawa took another drag of the cigarette. "He doesn't have one. No birth certificate, either. Legally, he probably doesn't count as a citizen. Your role here is more of a formality." Hence why you didn't need your credentials, the words went unsaid.

"So he's just- so he's just Denji-kun?" Kobeni asked, rubbing her neck. "H-how's he been adjusting to Tokyo? To work? I-is everything good?"

Hayakawa paused. "He assaulted me the first time we went on patrol. He makes a mess whenever he eats. He doesn't know how to use toilet paper, so he just uses half a roll every time he uses the bathroom. He doesn't know what a toothbrush is - I found him trying to clean the toilet with mine. And he can't read street signs."

Kobeni's eyes widened.

"Though, I assaulted him first." Hayakawa added. "So the violence isn't random."

"Hayakawa-san, why would- why would you- I mean-" Kobeni's chest felt tight. "That isn't-"

Hayakawa just stared at her. She felt like she was gonna melt into a puddle of shame, like asking the impromptu guardian of a child why they attacked him was a stupid question. Then he exhaled. "It was rash. I thought he was here because he wanted a quick buck. I didn't realize he was one of the exceptions Makima-san has made for my unit. Figured I'd scare him away before he saw something he couldn't unsee."

Like you.

Kobeni swallowed her emotions. Now wasn't the time, she had a job to do and there was a poor kid who needed help and there wasn't blood on the floor or covering the one nice shirt she'd just bought for her new job because she needed to make a good impression if she wanted to last and-

Stop. Breathe. Focus. There was a door in front of her. Beyond that door was a kid. The kid didn't even have a last name, and was working a death job that most people couldn't handle. She had to advocate for him. There wasn't time for her right now.

"Alright." She said. It was barely a whisper, and she repeated it just a bit louder. Then, she opened the door to Hayakawa's apartment. It was freshly swept and vacuumed. The sole pair of shoes in the doorway were scattered across the floor. Hayakawa swore and placed them next to each other on the side. And from inside…

"Honey, sugar, cinnamon…nutmeg? Curry powder, orange jam, plum jam…" A young voice rattled off ingredients from the far side of the apartment. Hayakawa walked into the apartment past her and knocked on the wall lightly. "Ah, topknot! Grab the butter from the fridge? Forgot it again!"

"Use a plate!" Hayakawa exclaimed. He rubbed his forehead as he walked past Kobeni one more time, grabbing a stick of butter from the kitchen and bringing it to the table on a plate. "I've got someone from HQ here to see you. They want to talk to you about how you've been adjusting to Tokyo. Please, behave."

"What, we got some kinda suit?" The voice was muffled by the sound of chewing. "If I do well, are they gonna tell Makima-san?" Kobeni stepped around the corner and took in the bizarre sight in front of her. The boy had blond hair and razor-sharp teeth, and he was tearing into the most overloaded piece of toast she'd ever seen. Jam and butter dripped onto the table, thankfully not quite reaching the floor. The boy's cheeks were a little gaunt, his eyes a little tired. She could see his shoulders through the baggy t-shirt he was wearing. "Hey, lady, ya here?"

"Ee!" She shriveled and died a little, and her words nearly caught in her throat with the unimpressed look he gave her. "Y-you're Denji-kun, right? I-I'm Higashiyama-san. I'm a liaison from the organization to the special unit." His stare didn't change. "I-it's like a social worker. Do you know what a social worker is?"

"Someone who works socially?" Denji asked. "Never heard it in my life."

"Well, a social worker is someone who tries to help people." Kobeni forced a smile on her face. "So I'm here to help you adjust to your new life, and make sure no one is mistreating you!"

"So where were ya when Topknot was beatin' on me yesterday, huh?" Denji laughed. "I've been here two days and you're already messin' it up!"

"W-well, I can help you file a complaint through the system." Kobeni offered, her hands hsaking a little. "M-maybe it'll help?"

Denji grinned, but Hayakawa cleared his throat. "If you do that, I'll put in one about your insubordination." He stared at Denji. "You remember the rules."

"...fine, fine, I'm all good." The kid grumbled, shoving the rest of his bread down his throat. Hayakawa cringed at the sight.

Kobeni didn't cringe though. Her siblings acted the same sometimes, after all. "Denji-kun, how're you liking Tokyo so far?" She asked.

His eyes lit up. "It's the best! There's a spot right across the street, and they've got the best cup ramen! And Makima-san gave me some money till my first paycheck, so I can buy as much as I want!" He paused. "But Topknot says we can't be fillin' up the cabinets with shit food, so I only had the one cup."

"Oh, you like cup ramen?" Kobeni asked. "My sister loves it."

"I do now! Stuff's so good!" Denji grinned. "Plus, I got all the jam I want to put on my toast, and the bathwater's warm, and the plumbing doesn't clog every other day! It's fuckin' heaven, I'm telling you."

That's heaven? She nearly asked. It was just…the basics, the absolute basics. But she forced herself to keep her smile, shaky as it was. "So you're enjoying it here, then? Are you making friends?"

"Friends? Nah." Denji shrugged. "But Pochita's in my heart, so that's what matters most. And I'm doin' this for a reason now, so I'm ready for anything!"

"Oh? You've got a goal?" Kobeni smiled. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"So Topknot was talkin' about how ya gotta try to do something that matters so your life doesn't suck, right? Like trying to protect your family or some stupid shit like that." Kobeni barely managed not to flinch, but the boy continued. "So I thought long and hard about what I wanna do and what I want, and I figured it all out!" Denji smiled. "I wanna touch some boobs!"

Kobeni's smile froze. Maybe he'd misspoken. "What?"

"Well, I was gonna die in a shack a week ago, but now that I got food and a job and a bath and all that, maybe I can actually score. But that's a big goal right now, so I just wanna touch some boobs for now." Denji explained. "Hey, Hikayashama, you're supposed to be helpin' me with my goals and shit, right?"

"Shut up." Hayakawa's voice cut through the air like a knife. "Show some respect, dammit."

Denji stuck his tongue out at him.

"Denji," Kobeni said quietly. "While you're in Public Safety, you're going to respect your coworkers, right?"

"I am?"

"You are." Hayakawa confirmed.

Kobeni shot him a look, before continuing. "Well, part of respecting your coworkers means respecting their boundaries. And that means that when you're talking to people from work, and people in general, you can't be talking about sex stuff to them unless everybody's okay with it. Otherwise, you're going to make people uncomfortable, and they're not going to want to be around you."

"Yeah, but no one wants to be around me anyways." Denji said, more confused than upset. "So what's the big deal?"

"Well, it's only been two days." Kobeni said. "Have you talked to anyone besides Hayakawa-san?"

"I talked to Makima-san!"

"And Hayakawa-san is letting you live with him, while Makima-san wanted you to work here, right?" Kobeni smiled. "That isn't too bad so far, right?"

"...I guess it ain't."

"So let's try to be nice to other people you meet, and maybe it'll go well?" Kobeni kneeled down at the table across from Denji. "What do you say?"

"...why're you so sweaty?" He asked.

Kobeni wanted to cry again.

"Your assignment was in an incident downtown." The scarred man's voice was distant and uncaring. "Probably died. Reports aren't in yet. I'd get to 31st if I were you." The receiver clicked. He'd hung up.

Kobeni didn't have a car. She didn't have a bike, either, because she was saving for a car. She had nothing but a worn out pair of sneakers, frayed at the ends and sheared smooth at the soles. She hated running, but she was good at it; very, very good at it and she ran.

She turned the corner, and the road was filled with sirens and intestines. Electrical wires were downed for half a mile down the street. Officers interviewed witnesses all across the scene, everyone standing ankle-deep in a layer of flesh. The air was foul with the stench of blood. A tiny bit of her brain thanked everything that the devil was clearly not eating well, for saving them the trouble of an entire city block going septic.

She still puked next to the police barricade. "Excuse me, miss, please back up. No one in." An officer said from the other side, arms spread wide.

She wiped her mouth and pulled out a badge. "I-I-I'm a liaison with Public Safety's special division!" She squeaked. "My ward was inside!"

"You're with Public Safety?" The cop snorted. "No wonder this shit gets so out of hand. Get in here. You're fucking late."

Kobeni hopped the barrier. Her shoe slid on the bloody pavement and she nearly lost her balance. The officer said something else under his breath, and tears of shame stung her eyes. Shit, no, no, stop, Denji was in here somewhere and she needed to find him.

She walked further into the scene, watching agents in suits scrub away at the blood, packing devil flesh into cases to be carted off and studied. The face of a bat was half-buried in the gore, fear frozen in its eyes. A little further down, a massive slice of flesh sat without a neck or head. Kobeni swallowed down another bout of sickness and kept walking.

In the distance, she could see Hayakawa's topknot sticking into the air. Someone leaned on him heavily. A woman with an eyepatch and a man with several scars on his face stood by him. Himeno and Arai, if she remembered correctly. The coworkers she'd nearly had.

Arai picked up a cage with the utmost seriousness, a white cat sitting oddly still for something that had come out of…all this. Himeno leaned down and clapped something on the floor, before dragging a girl up to her feet. She must've been Denji's age.

Himeno said something in a cheery tone, and Hayakawa turned towards her. His burden swung with the motion. The first thing she noticed was that she could see the other side of the street through his chest. Something small pulsed within that gaping hole, blood spurting out of the edges in time with its bursts. Above the hole, an eye dangled over a pain-stricken face, split in two with a chainsaw the size of a kitchen knife. Hayakawa's hand was tight around a wrist that ended at a stump.

And even with all that, the corpse cried out in pain. "Dream battle!" It shrieked in a familiarly juvenile tone. "I gotta…" And then Denji fell back against Hayakawa, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Kobeni puked again.

The ambulance ride to the hospital was cramped, dirty, and loud. On the stretcher, Denji screamed about dreams. The EMTs tried desperately to plug the hole in his chest. Hayakawa sat on his own, hands folded, staring at Denji.

And Kobeni sat on the opposite side, holding Denji's hand and trying to force reassurances out around her crying. "I-i-i-i-it'll be okay!" She sobbed, gripping his hand with white knuckles. "It hurts!" He screamed back, and the crying doubled down. One of the EMTs yelled at her, she cried harder. Denji screamed louder. The EMT yelled again.

Then Hayakawa stepped over Denji, peeled his sleeve back, and let a few droplets of blood dribble down his fingers and into the boy's mouth. The hole in his chest began to heal. The chainsaw on his forehead split his skull all the way and replaced flesh with metal. Kobeni cried harder. And when they reached the hospital, Denji was in a mostly stable condition. Someone brought his arm over from the combat zone and held it against the stump, and it knit itself back into place. He passed out again. They put him in a room and hooked a blood bag up to him.

The fiend and Himeno got to the hospital a little later. The fiend's arms were locked up in heavy shackles, but she didn't seem to be worried about it. And when she saw Kobeni's bloodshot eyes, she laughed and laughed and laughed. Hayakawa pulled the fiend away and talked to her around the corner.

"It's good to see you, Kobeni-chan." Himeno said. That was all the warning Kobeni had before the woman threw her arms around her, pulling their heads close together. "I thought we'd never see you after you left~"

"H-Himeno-senpai," Kobeni stuttered, "I-i-it's good to see you."

"I'm not your senpai! We're in different divisions, ya know? Just call me Himeno-san, alright?" She smiled. It was reassuring. It also made Kobeni feel guilty, like she'd abandoned a friend to save herself. If she was being honest, that was exactly what she'd done. "Arai said to send his regards. Ya keep in contact with him at all? We didn't even know you were back in the game."

"K-Kishibe called me a few days ago." Kobeni said, looking away. "H-h-he said he had a good job, and I'd just- I'd just have to- I'd be looking after a kid. Helping him adjust? He said he was a ward of Public Safety, and I'd get good pay, and I was working fast food," and it made her sad and angry having to deal with colleagues who hated her and a boss who worked her to the bone, and she felt bad for leaving Arai to devil hunting alone, and that when Kishibe told her the kid would probably die in the next few weeks if he didn't have any help adjusting, she'd felt bad for him, and, "It seemed like a better job." She finished.

"So what, it's been…" Himeno frowned. "Aki-kun said it was two days ago he showed up? When'd you get the gig?"

"Yesterday…" Kobeni hiccuped. "I met Denji in the morning. Then I went to headquarters to talk to Makima-san. Then I went home. Today I was doing some paperwork at home because I'd met with Hayakawa-san, and got a call to head downtown."

"Well, I guess there's no break in the Public Sector!" Himeno said with a smile. "But don't worry, don't worry! Your kid's pretty tough. He's one of Makima's pet projects, and they don't die so easily. Like our cute little fiend over there. Blood Fiend, goes by Power. Aki-kun thinks she dragged the kid out to die."

"Why would he…" Kobeni's eyes widened.

"Some blood in the spot the Bat Devil had outside of town. Plus, the fiend's a little liar." Himeno pulled out a cigarette. "Figure we'll get the whole picture when the kid wakes up. Want a smoke?"

"N-no thank you," Kobeni said. "I'm alright."

"Suit yourself." The woman took a long drag. Hayakawa came back around the corner, the fiend in tow, and Himeno visibly perked up. "Need a light, Aki-kun?"

"I'm set." He dragged the fiend over to the wall next to Himeno. "Watch her. I'm sitting with Denji." He turned to Kobeni. "You should be here when he wakes up, too."

"O-okay," Kobeni nodded. She got up. "It was nice talking to you again, Himeno-senpai." Himeno complained about formalities behind her, but the door closed too soon for her to make out what the words were.

Hayakawa sat down at a chair by the counter. "Take a seat. Make yourself comfortable. Who knows when he'll wake up?" Kobeni sat down at a stool placed by the foot of the bed. The two sat in silence for a moment, before Hayakawa spoke up again. "The Fiend, Power. She said the two of them got off course on patrol and wound up investigating a Devil outside of town. It had her cat, funnily enough. I just got off the phone with a man investigating the scene, and there is a lot of blood at the site."

"Ah." Kobeni said.

"Now, she did get eaten." Hayakawa tapped his finger on the counter. "So that shows the Devil wasn't exactly her friend. But her blood was exactly where it needed to be, inside of her. The Devil only drank from Denji. Investigators are suspecting foul play, and I'm thinking they're right."

"So the fiend…" Kobeni looked back at the doorway. "What's going to happen to her?"

"It comes down to him." Hayakawa placed an apple on the table and pulled a small knife out. "Witness testimony comes first. If he isn't going to push it, we can still use the fiend. And if she knows we have our eyes on her, she's less likely to act out again. No point destroying an asset."

"Is it really okay to work with a fiend…" Kobeni stared. The girl's eyes were shaped like crosshairs. It felt like she was a target in her eyes, a piece of meat. Something to be played with, bled dry, and thrown away.

"We're the experimental team. The boy on that bed is a street rat with a devil for a heart. The girl in the hall is a corpse possessed by the Blood Devil. They're the sociable ones. Whether this is okay or not is what we're here to find out." Hayakawa went quiet. Then he went about carving the apple apart into bunny slices. Kobeni stared at the plate. Hayakawa wasn't kind when he talked about Denji, but the way he was cutting the apple slices reminded her of how her mom used to cut them, before she was too busy to even look their way. He cared, but he didn't want to look like he did.

"Finally awake." Hayakawa's voice cut through the silence of the room. He kept cutting the apples. "We found your arm. It reattached with a little bit of blood. Guess you really are like a devil." Denji stared at his hand, flexing it like it was new.

Kobeni swallowed. "W-we rode in the ambulance with you. Hayakawa gave you some blood, a-and it helped fix your head." She paused. "The chainsaw cut the ceiling, though…"

Denji frowned. "Why'd he do that?"

"It'd be a pain in the ass if you died before we debriefed you." Hayakawa's words were final. "We got lucky. There weren't any casualties in the city. A few injuries, but no deaths. But the cabin we think the Bat Devil was covered in blood. Your blood. Do you have anything to say about that?"

"...he got me. Then I got him." Denji shrugged. "Don't see what the big deal is. What, ya never got the other guy when he thinks he's in the clear?"

"..." Hayakawa sighed. "Look. You're not telling the truth. I know that, and she knows that." Kobeni squeaked. "You're protecting the fiend."

"Weren't you all chummy with that big devil or whatever?" Denji asked. "Power ain't so bad."

"Friendly?" Hayakawa rolled up his sleeve, exposing a long bandage across his forearm. "I have a contract with the Fox Devil. It takes a piece of my body in exchange for letting me call upon its head. Devil hunters make contracts with devils so they can kill other devils."

"Ouch. Shit sucks."

"Listen." Denji reached for the apples, but Hayakawa cut him off. "If I reported you and Power, you'd both be executed. But no one got killed today. So I'll let it slide under one condition."

"Eh?"

"You're a street punk." Hayakawa said simply. "You don't know right from wrong yet. I've been at this for a long time, however, and I have some ideas of social justice and what's good and bad. And Higashiyama-san has been picked just to make sure that you're learning these things. Listen to us. Follow my orders on the field and her advice off of it. Then, you can keep this 'heaven,' as you called it."

"When the hell did I say that?" Denji asked, snatching an apple. Hayakawa's stare turned cold. "Relax, relax. I'm listenin'. I might not have any grand ambitions or big ideas, but I'm just as serious as the rest of you." He grinned. "You can count on me."

Hayakawa stood up. "Then I can count on you to learn some manners in the meantime?"

"Sure, sure, I'll consider it." Denji shrugged. Hayakawa shook his head and stepped out, leaving Kobeni with the ward. "So what, you're stickin' around? You're gonna need to get your own food, y'know."

"N-no, I'm not hungry!" Kobeni offered, raising a hand. "A-actually, I wanted to talk to you about where you were before Tokyo. I-I-I realized that I didn't ask you about that before…and it's better to hear about it from you than some paperwork, right?" She offered a smile, and hoped it wasn't as week as it felt.

"You gonna cry again?" Denji asked. Kobeni's smile melted, and she shook it off. "Well, I was devil hunting in the country. Me and Pochita." He tapped his chest. "He was my pet devil, but we got hacked up by the yakuza, and he became my heart. Then I wound up here."

"H-hacked up?" Kobeni frowned. "Why would they…"

"Had a debt." Denji shrugged. "It's gone now, so who cares? And they're all dead, so it ain't coming back, either."

"...so you never went to school?" Kobeni asked. "You've just been devil hunting?"

"Well, I've also been lumberjackin'!" Denji grinned. "Kill a devil in the morning, and you still got a few hours to do some logging. A few more if you don't have any food to eat. Me and Pochita were a real team." His smile faded a little bit. "Gotta make my dreams come true for the both of us now."

Right. His dream. The boobs. Kobeni coughed. "Right. That's generous of you."

"How about you, Hikashamaya?" He asked. "Where're you from?"

"Oh, uh…" Kobeni rubbed her neck. "Well, I'm- it's Higashiyama, and I have a lot of siblings and we don't have a lot of money, s-so I'm helping my brother with college." She swallowed down the lump in her throat that always appeared when she thought about her family. "I wanna go someday, too, so I'm saving a little on the side…"

"You're makin' enough to save?" Denji whistled. "That ain't so bad, then, ain't it? And it's all for lookin' after me? I'm self sufficient."

The image of blond hair streaked with blood and a ripcord hanging out of an empty chest haunted her. But she forced the image out of her head and forced another smile. Maybe it was a bit more convincing this time. "I'm sure you are."_

Author's Note: Hello! It's been a long while since I really hung around on , been in other circles for a while, but this is a fic I've been working on for a very long while and I decided I wanted to float it around beyond where I posted it initially on Ao3. I'm going to be uploading one chapter every day until I've caught up, and then the update schedule is going to be every Monday, no specific time but usually in the afternoon. My username on Ao3 is the same as over here, so if anyone wants to just speed ahead they can check over there, but if you do so, please keep the reviews spoiler-free! I hope you enjoy the #KobeniSweep!