One above all

by Abusamadres-Sama

In 1977 Kishibe came across a child amidst a massacre that had once been a family's home. He made the decision to take the child with him until he could find a new home for him. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the Control Devil learns that she must become perfect to rise to the top and be someone who can achieve anything. This means using people as well.

28. AAAAAAH MY BACK!

Let's get to the most interactive part of all this shit.

Mart1n2310

LMAO.

desropter

Thank you. In reality, I tried to create a terrifying calm before the storm as best I could. It was my first time attempting something like this, and trying to make it work across three different scenes is very challenging.

Gwynx

Cabron en serio te digo que deberías ir a Wattpad xd, está más chida la versión en epañol y así obtines los capitulos más antes.

AssassinSlayer101

I knew you would love that chapter. Just out of curiosity, how many times have you reread this story? Or more specifically, which chapter have you read the most?

BabylonianKing

Thank you. I will try my best to ensure that the chapters flow smoothly. Even if I feel like I may not be able to do it all the time, I will do my best not to bore you. I promise.

Guest 1

Que bueno que te gustó, pero tú también deberías ir a la versión en español de wattapd si quieres recibir los capitulos más antes. Puse el nombre de mi perfil en la descrpición por si te interesa.

Houses of The Unholy

In deed in deed but will see...

GeneralShepard

Wait, I'm still alive.

r6. fizzz

Here's the chapter you requested, sir, freshly baked for your enjoyment.

godslayer is cool

Oh man, well, there's no other choice. I'll have to start over with this story from scratch and add more domain expansions. Sorry, guys, but it's my job to please all audiences, so this will be the last chapter of "One Above All," and it will be renamed "The Honored One."

Guest 2

It's somewhat ironic that you said that before you stop right before Chapter 21 where Hiro and Makima come to an agreement about what they want and fear. And please don't see Hiro that way. I'm really sorry if I gave you that idea of Hiro being a manipulator; it's quite the opposite. If you keep reading, you'll know that Hiro ultimately only wants the best for Makima because, no matter what, he considers her a good friend. But you'll understand better if you keep reading the rest of the chapters. I apologize if the theme of romance took some time to arrive, but there wasn't much I could do with two 10-year-old kids other than a sweet and almost innocent friendship. Now that Hiro and Makima are teenagers, I have more freedom to delve deeper into the romance; we just have to be patient. Sending you salutations, stranger.

Well im done.

Hello again, Fanfiction community. Thank you all for your words of support for this story and for me. I just wanted to say a few words before you begin reading. I don't know if some of you have noticed, but the majority of the chapters in this story have been completely remastered using ChatGPT, specifically chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 17. Chapters 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20 didn't seem necessary to remaster completely, but there are some exceptions, like the final scene of chapter 16, which was significantly enhanced, although not the beginning of the chapter.

But if you want me to improve a specific chapter or a specific scene from a chapter, let me know, and I'll try to enhance it in case you didn't quite understand what the hell was going on there.

Also, I want to thank Duduktiv for becoming the 300th follower, hip hip hooray! Thank you for supporting this story.

And let's also congratulate Guest 2 for being the 100th review (mine doesn't count, so sorry godslayer is cool). It's incredible how many people have shared their opinions so far. Thank you very much, guys.

And now... READ.

Chapter 27: And the World Keeps Spinning.

Disclaimer: Chainsaw Man belongs to Tatsuki Fujimoto.

0O0O

"What a dreadful situation..."

"I don't think humanity has ever seen an attack of this magnitude before."

"Was it a terrorist attack?"

"I doubt it..."

"We need to consider all possibilities."

"How many citizens lost their lives?"

"At the moment, there are 40 thousand confirmed deaths in Japan alone, but the number will only increase as hours pass."

"Shit..."

"Should we consider the possibility of another attack?"

"I highly doubt it's an attack from another neighboring country, considering that even the United States and the Soviet Union were targeted. Unfortunately, Japan and the United States bore the brunt of it."

"It's not like it's the first time a country sacrifices its own to gain an advantage over others"

"We must remember that we live in a world plagued by Devils; man ceased to be the sole enemy of human existence"

"That just makes it even worse; devils are so unpredictable... But it makes sense according to the reports; bullets rained down as if millions of machine guns were all firing in one place."

"Both the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as China, have access to more than enviable weaponry, but not even they would be capable of launching an attack that could traverse the entire planet."

"So there's no doubt... A devil was the cause of all this."

"Do we have any information about its appearance and abilities?"

"At the moment, we don't have precise information about that, but if we look again at the chaos it caused across the planet in just five minutes, we can assume it's a demon of colossal size."

"As for its abilities... I think it's more than clear that it's related to firearms. Which brings us to our next point..."

"Did this devil arise from the fear of guns?"

"It's very likely. Not long ago, there was a terrorist attack in the United States related to firearms; many people died, and it paralyzed the country for a long time. Also, because the trafficking and sale of firearms have been on the rise for the past five years, it has led to people having doubts about whether they are still safe with so many guns scattered around. With all that combined, it's probable that this devil was born from the fear and skepticism people had about these objects."

"Armed murders, terrorist attacks, maniacs misusing guns and other types of weapons... They only fueled people's fear... In the end, we paid a very high price."

"All the signs were there, but we didn't realize until now. We should have anticipated that something so destructive, with a history filled with deaths, would be capable of creating one of the strongest devils humanity has ever seen."

"Knowing how the creation of a demon works, the fact that millions of people around the world fear firearms only fueled the power of this devil"

"We should have done something about it."

"It's not worth dwelling on what could have been. We must focus on the present."

"What do you have in mind?"

"First of all, what does the Prime Minister say?"

"He's in the same situation as us, just waiting for us to reach a conclusion too"

"Now that we've concluded that this demon arose from the fear of guns, we need to strongly recommend to him to impose a law that restricts the inappropriate use of any type of weaponry."

"We'll get to that eventually."

"Alright. Now I'd like to know, what is the status of our anti-devil forces?"

"At least 70% of all those who comprised the Tokyo Public Security Special Forces were eradicated on the same day. The rest are currently dispersed, assisting various emergency services across the country."

"And the forces in Kyoto?"

"They're no better off than us."

"Tch."

"And it only gets worse; lately, there have been several sightings and attacks by different devils throughout the country. The levels of insecurity have skyrocketed to alarming levels in such a short time."

"Just what we needed..."

"It seems like not only has the fear of guns increased, but also the fear of devils in general."

"Of course, one of those bastards shows up, creates complete havoc as if it's an invitation for others of their kind to come and enjoy, or perhaps it was some kind of mockery, showing that he accomplished in less than 10 minutes what they could never do in centuries... AND THEN SIMPLY DISAPPEARS!"

"We should look at it another way; perhaps he exhausted all his power in that five-minute attack."

"Maybe he's waiting for the right moment to strike again. Just waiting for us to think everything has calmed down, only to destroy the planet again when we least expect it."

"Even if we were to guess when he'll strike again, I don't think we can do much..."

"True... If he's such a colossal devil... How could we ever hope to kill him?"

"...I don't know."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Someone get in touch with Nishimura; we'll have to advance the project."

"The doctor? They say she's currently hospitalized."

"How did she become incapacitated?"

"She just suffered a concussion."

"Then call her immediately when she wakes up; we need her here as soon as possible."

"What about Makima? Wasn't she supposed to meet with the Prime Minister today?"

"We'll have to ask her to set aside the control devil for the moment and focus more on the next phase, or well, anyway, that woman always manages to do two things at once; she'll come up with something."

"And what about that brat Kishibe? Did he survive?"

"For better or worse... He's still alive."

"Damn... What does it take to kill him one day?"

"For once, it's good to know that guy's still alive; we'll need him and Quanxi now more than ever."

"We have a lot of work to do... But since all this was caused by a devil... We should start considering a name."

"Do we really have time for that?"

"People will want to know the name of the devil who attacked the whole world simultaneously."

"In that case... What do you think?"

"The Gun Devil?"

0O0O

What was better?

A single large-scale devil attack capable of extinguishing half a million people in the blink of an eye?

Or several devil attacks that could be considered harmless to the average hunter and occurred every day?

The answer was: None of the above if possible. Everyone wants vacations at the end of the day.

There were times when the gates of hell opened to reveal them to the earthly and human plane, and in all those few times that it happened, things never ended well for people. But this time they went too far.

Sometimes only small flames would come out that could easily be extinguished the same day they spread to the world above, but it seemed that this time instead of fire coming out as normally happened, the damn explosion of a volcano came out.

And yes, that was a fucking analogy.

It had been a week since the Gun Devil destroyed much of Japan and the whole world, and the aftermath was still very evident unfortunately; despite extensive cleanup work, it was still difficult to recover the normalcy with which citizens coexisted. For every piece of debris they cleared from the way, they found two more... And for every corpse they recognized, they encountered ten more completely unrecognizable.

The cleaning of Tokyo would take a long time.

But the psychological aftermath was going to be harder to erase.

How many people lost a family member?

How many children were left without parents?

How many men were left without their wives?

How many women lost their husbands?

How many mothers lost their sons?

How many fathers were left without their daughters?

The list was enormous and full of variants, and there wouldn't be an answer for a long time. Perhaps it wasn't the moment to have an answer to these things when they should be focused on helping and preventing, but it was inevitable not to have hundreds of questions after surviving a massive attack where thousands of people perished; if they couldn't ask them, at least those who survived could have an answer in their place.

But what was better to do in the case of demon hunters? To kill, of course.

Shortly after the Gun Devil attacked, the number of devils recorded in a day skyrocketed to alarming levels, something that usually only happens on Halloween. Because of this, what remained of the public security anti-devil division scattered throughout the city (or at least what was left of it), making sure to keep the devils at bay, hoping that more recruits would join public security in the coming weeks... In the worst-case scenario, it would take months for new recruits to join.

Because it was likely that some would seek revenge against the Gun Devil and would join public security to finish him off; it had happened before in different cases, but now a new generation would come, most of whom would join just to kill that bastard. But on the other hand, there would also be people who would do the opposite, distancing themselves from devils as much as possible.

No one would blame them, but everyone in Public Security thought it wouldn't be bad to have some extra hands as help.

After all, not even the strongest devil hunter of the current era was capable of doing everything alone.

Kishibe withdrew his katana from the now bloodied and rotting flesh of a large, sturdy devil he had encountered during his patrol; the smell was repugnant, but nothing he wasn't accustomed to.

He swung it through the air to rid the metal of blood that had already mixed with that of different devils who had the misfortune of encountering him; he had lost count of how many he had killed that day.

Did it really matter? Not really, unless he wanted to achieve a new record, but he wasn't in the mood to compete with himself again.

Damn, what time was it?

It was probably nearly five in the morning; he could almost see on the horizon how the first rays of light were illuminating the city. Before all this disaster, he wouldn't even have noticed that because most of the buildings that made up the city used to block the first rays of light, so it was difficult to know if it was dawn or not.

Now all those buildings were nothing more than rubble scattered on the ground.

Kishibe slumped heavily onto the still warm remains of the devil he had just defeated. It was difficult to determine the species it was based on; perhaps it had been a rat devil, or maybe a raccoon. Truth be told, the creature now lay so disfigured that it was impossible to guess its original form; besides, he killed it so quickly that he didn't even bother to take a look at its appearance. His mind told him that anything out of the ordinary had to be eradicated without giving time for other thoughts.

With a gesture of fatigue, he tossed his sword to the ground, where it landed with a dull thud. He ran both hands over his face, dragging the exhaustion from his skin and sighing deeply. Exhaustion had become his constant companion, worn out by all the sleepless nights and the scant rest between killing, surviving, and continuing to kill.

Lately, only the burning sting of alcohol in his throat or the sharp instinct of survival that alerted him to the proximity of devils managed to keep him in a state of forced alertness. And yet, sleep was a luxury that would be very rare in these circumstances, a world practically orphaned of human presence and where any shadow could harbor a deadly threat.

Wait...

Deadly?

For him?

Kishibe let out a tired laugh at the thought. The idea of his own death seemed almost comical to him. Despite the constant danger, a part of him refused to accept his vulnerability to these creatures, perhaps it was just his ego from the past speaking, but in any case, these things did not represent a threat to him.

So, that question that had been haunting him for years had come back to him, and the worst part was that it came at a bad time.

Would he ever encounter a devil capable of killing him?

What a difficult question to answer; in fact, he had been asking himself the same thing for years, but unfortunately, he had never found an answer.

Since he surpassed the fifth year as a devil hunter, he began to wonder very anxiously and curiously how his death would come. It was at a time when being a devil hunter for more than two years was considered a feat that only a small percentage achieved.

There were many nights where he would always get drunk and get caught up in that vicious circle full of questions that had no answers and from which he could not escape until the next morning. But after a while, and after receiving the title of 'Strongest Hunter' a revelation came to him, unfortunately not the answer about which devil might eventually kill him.

No, it was a much crazier revelation that he himself invented but that many would probably accept today.

After having killed so many devils over all these years, even after taking the lives of dangerous and detestable humans, damn it, even after surviving the control devil itself... Kishibe knew then that he was the pinnacle of devil hunters of the current era.

And the devil that would kill him would have to be, or would become, the strongest of them all...

Yes, alcohol only helped to fuel his damn ego.

But the fact that he was still alive now, instead of joining the many body bags, only proved that he was a tough nut to crack...

Or perhaps Hiro was right; it only took luck to survive in this line of work.

And speaking of him -

Kishibe cut off his own thoughts when he heard several crashes coming not far from him. With a sigh and taking his sword back into his right hand, he jumped up from the devil he was sitting on, only for the corpse to be instantly thrown away by another monstrously long creature.

Was that... a worm?

As if to emphasize it further, the monster zigzagged for a while longer until it collided with another wall that used to be an entire building. Kishibe had a moment to notice that it was a pale pink color, and there were some circles around its body. When the body finally stopped moving, the monster showed Kishibe what appeared to be its face: a huge mouth capable of devouring cars with teeth sharp enough to be stone peaks, and two black orbs that seemed to be its eyes.

"Well... A worm devil... How original."

This must have been like the fourteenth time in his entire life that he had encountered this thing; normally, it's a good way to initiate rookies on their first day as devil hunters. Those devils that were weak but never tired of coming back here could often be seen, and public security would always have records of them at least once a year.

Heh... By the way... Where would the bat devil be? It's been a long time since he encountered that guy.

A thunderous roar from the worm devil brought Kishibe back to reality; he didn't know if it was proclaiming that it would eat him or if it was angry because he wasn't doing anything. Meh, who cares?

Kishibe was about to take the first step when the sound of something falling at high speed caught his attention; it was only a matter of seconds, but he still managed to know that something was approaching.

Not even the devil could react in time when the upper part of its body was cleanly and swiftly severed, barely perceptible; it couldn't even feel it before its head fell to the ground, destroying a large part of the concrete. A jet of blood shot out towards the ground from the larger remaining part; it wasn't the red color of human blood—some devils have a different blood color, and this one's was a dark purple.

Kishibe watched all this with bored eyes, feeling only a hint of surprise at what had just happened. It was impressive, yes, but something his eyes were already accustomed to. But what his eyes were not accustomed to was the beauty of gray hair and an eye patch that was currently recovering from the fall of who knows how many meters.

Quanxi rolled a bit on the ground before fully recovering. Currently, she wasn't wearing her coat or even her white shirt; she only had a black tank top with a belt with three sword sheaths hanging from the back of her hip.

Right now, they would be two; one of the swords had broken completely from overuse, well, luckily she still had two more.

Quanxi glanced over her shoulder at Kishibe, and he could see that she wasn't any better than him. Her only exposed eye showed signs of little rest, either from the patch over her eye or from how red it looked from forcing it open when sleep was necessary. Her body was stained with blood of different colors, as well as dust and dirt.

Quanxi also looked him up and down, noting that his coat had also been discarded long ago, opting to only stay with his white shirt... Well, it wasn't white anymore.

It could easily pass for a hippie shirt right now.

Neither of them said anything for several more seconds, but eventually, they would both have to be honest with each other; after all, that's how the best relationships between fellow hunters are forged.

"You look terrible" they both said at the same time, being very honest.

Kishibe might have been in love with her, but even he knew that this wasn't her best day.

Quanxi could admit that he was quite strong, but in appearance, he looked more like a crazy wanderer with a sword.

Kishibe sheathed his sword again and started walking back to the street. "Are you done with your part?" he asked in a conversational tone without needing to look at her.

Quanxi took her time to follow him from behind. "Yes, it was exhausting, but I eventually finished everything I was assigned."

Normally, the job assigned to Quanxi required completion by 10 hunters, but she was forced to finish it alone.

"I figured you'd be here; you always liked working in open spaces," she commented when she finally caught up to his side.

Well, this place was definitely MUCH more open.

"It's a habit that never left me"

"Yeah... You always liked showing off for everyone to see"

They walked in silence for a while longer, with nothing but more and more building debris scattered all around them. The dust made their noses itch, eager to sneeze again; in fact, they had lost count of how many times they had done so. They could also almost smell the characteristic odor of decay emanating from the rubble, they knew what it was but they would leave that job to the maintenance and cleaning team.

If only they were alive.

Further away, they could hear the characteristic sound of helicopters cutting through the skies. Those helicopters hadn't descended from there in a long time, and it was very difficult to sleep with those things passing so close.

"Have they said when they'll start the reconstruction?" Kishibe asked curiously, she knew more about these things than he did.

Quanxi just shrugged. "They only finished cleaning up the disaster in southern Tokyo yesterday. It'll take even longer for everything to be back to normal."

"Hasn't the Prime Minister said anything?"

"After his little speech to calm the population, he hasn't said anything else. What did you expect him to say?"

"Maybe they could give us a damn break."

Quanxi shook his head. "You know they can't do that, especially not now."

Kishibe sighed wearily. "I know... But we've been doing this for a whole week with little sleep and probably no extra pay. But the only one I can complain to is the gun devil; he wiped out almost all divisions of the Tokyo headquarters."

"And we weren't the only ones. They'd better hurry up and get new recruits, or at this rate, exhaustion will kill us both." Even Quanxi knew they couldn't keep this up for much longer without resting.

But it's not like the Public Security Bureau had any other choice. In fact, it was damn lucky that both of them had survived that massive attack; by now, Tokyo would probably be overrun with demons everywhere.

But here they were, alive and with their weapons worn down from taking out so many demons along the way.

"Damn son of a bitch" Kishibe growled, cursing the demon responsible for all of this. "Not only has fear of weapons increased, but also fear of devils in general. Now I understand why they've been so desperate in recent years to know if we're still capable of handling this job; they wanted to prepare for an attack like this."

Quanxi said nothing in response, opting to remain silent while his partner vented mentally. It would be good if at least he used that against the devils.

She quickened her pace, deciding that the break was over. "Let's keep going. After all, there shouldn't be many devils left in this area. Once we're done here, we're done."

Kishibe opened his flask and took a deep swig, finishing what little remained. It made him feel better. "Let's do it quickly. We have to go back to the hospital tomorrow."

0O0O

There were many things of which Dr. Yuna Nishimura, the director of the Tokyo Demon Research, Training, and Containment Center, was certain.

She was very sure that both demons and humans were repugnant, and some deserved to cease existing in this world for getting in the way of Public Security.

She was very sure that Kishibe and Quanxi were her greatest success as a scientific doctor and researcher, but at the same time, they were her biggest pain in the ass. She hated them to the point of not wanting to see them at all.

She was very sure that the best way to create good soldiers was to educate them from childhood.

She was very sure that only those with a screw loose were capable of living longer in this line of work. If no one believed her, they better see Kishibe with their own eyes.

She was very sure that the control devil was almost a perfect being who could easily have it all, making it an extremely interesting specimen. Unfortunately (depending on who you ask), it was also a horrible being capable of doing anything to achieve its goals, making it a very unstable demon that could easily be mistrusted.

And that's why she was also very sure that she couldn't trust Makima forever. Eventually, when she grew up, who knows what she might be capable of without supervision.

But following that line of thought, wouldn't that mean that all the work, research, and experimentation invested in her was a waste and a resounding failure? Who knows, she always takes every possible variable into account; we're talking about the control devil, after all.

She was also pretty sure (and if not, may lightning strike her) that Hiro Takahashi was a meddling piece of shit who only ruined her work.

And lastly, she was also sure that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse existed. She didn't really have much evidence, but it was always worth considering all possibilities.

Where would the devils of Famine, War, Conquest, and Death be, especially the latter?

Well... Maybe it didn't matter so much right now.

But to summarize, she was always very sure of many things in her life.

...But what she had in front of her made her very doubtful.

Yuna was in a dark room, surrounded by nothing but deep darkness. Above her, however, there was a small spotlight of white light that helped her see the artifacts carefully placed on the table, all so she could examine them closely.

"What is this?" she asked, knowing she would receive an answer from somewhere. She was dressed casually, but her left arm was covered by a brace that was also strapped to her shoulder.

She may not have died in the gun devil attack, but he left her with a small reminder that she would cherish for an entire month.

"What your eyes are showing you, Doctor. Nothing more, nothing less" came the response from one of the higher-ups. She couldn't tell exactly where they were, but their voices could be heard throughout the room.

"I understand very well what these things are," Yuna clarified with an eerie calmness, "but I want to know why you're showing them to me right now. I thought we agreed that we would start with this once we finished with the control demon project."

What she had in front of her were weapons, very ancient weapons to be precise.

A sword.

A lance.

A whip.

A katana.

And a piece of armor.

How the hell did they manage to get these ancient and dangerous artifacts? She didn't even know.

"We've run out of time, Nishimura. The proof is in your broken arm and all the mess out there" one of the higher-ups explained.

Yuna's eyes began to tremble, not liking where this conversation was going. "... I still believe it's too soon. At least give me two more years with her, just to make sure that—"

"Impossible; we can't afford to waste any more time. We've just lost a significant portion of our hunter forces, and it's very likely that in two years or even less, we'll be facing the same situation again."

"Doctor, we not only need more personnel, we need better weapons. Japan needs to evolve in the field of public security. We've already witnessed what a single demon was capable of in just a few minutes; ordinary hunters would never stand a chance against devils like the gun devil"

Yuna smiled bitterly. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, I understand that."

"More than desperate measures, it's just an early opportunity to test what the combination of humans and demons can achieve."

The doctor smoothed her forehead with her good hand. "Whatever. What do you want me to do with Makima in the meantime? I can't exactly leave her unsupervised."

"Makima has spent a full 7 years among us, adapting to everything we've taught and ordered her without hesitation. We consider it unnecessary to monitor her twenty-four hours a day anymore, of course, we're only basing this on all the annual reports we've received from you, Doctor Nishimura."

"True" Yuna closed her eyes, feeling somewhat embarrassed that they had pulled all that from her reports. Truth be told, she had also been considering the idea of giving Makima a bit more freedom; there hadn't been any significant incidents in recent years, and Makima had proven to be a very obedient girl, even if it wasn't immediately apparent.

Moreover, in this case, it wasn't as ethical to keep Makima isolated from many things; she still needed to learn some things on her own.

But there were still some factors to consider.

"I know this might sound somewhat irrational on my part" she continued "but I believe leaving Makima unsupervised all the time could lead to scenarios where we might lose control"

For a few moments, no one said anything.

"Are you suggesting that it's still not a good time to do that? You, the person who has been in charge of supervising her for so many years and who has more than once confirmed that Makima's behavior has been completely manipulated and controlled to perfection?"

Yuna closed her eyes. "I know it might sound like a very stupid remark, I know. But remember who we're talking about. The control devil is a being that thinks in very different ways than we do; we don't know what might go through her mind tomorrow. One day she might be obeying us, and the next, she might kill someone. I'm not saying we shouldn't let her make her own choices at some point in her life; I even considered the idea myself for some time. But at least we should have a backup plan in case things spiral out of control."

Yuna looked back at the weapons on the table "What I'm trying to say is that even when she becomes an adult and we've managed to make her our ally and tool for the government, we should still have a plan B in case she tries something foolish."

"We understand. The control devil doesn't have the best track record, and although reincarnation is a new concept for this kind of devil, we should still try to take the risk with this. Besides, she won't be completely out of your supervision; she'll simply take a back seat from now on, but her main priority will be this project."

"We know how you work, Doctor. You always manage to juggle two things at once."

Yuna said nothing, pondering the idea of leaving everything to chance 'But this time, I don't think that's the case'

"However, if you're so concerned about what the control devil might do while you're not around, then we'll request that someone else watches over her in your absence, at least until we can confirm with enough certainty that it's possible to let the demon of control live on her own"

Yuna pondered for a moment. "But who would be willing to watch over her? Would even someone from Public Security have the time to watch over her and have the willingness to keep this secret?"

"We'll consider some possible candidates. Until then, await our response."

"Understood" Yuna nodded, still very unsure of how this would all end up.

She would have to make it worthwhile.

"In that case..." She picked up the piece of armor in her hand; it was shiny and very tough despite being almost a thousand years old.

Even if Makima wouldn't be her top priority for who knows how long, she still had plenty to keep herself entertained.

"... Let's start the hybrid project right away."

0O0O

Later that day, Nishimura returned to the research center; it was a mess, of course. Most of the windows were shattered, and those that managed to hold up still needed maintenance. Fortunately, the building's structure had managed to withstand the massive onslaught of destruction left by the gun devil's attack. It was to be expected; the building was designed to contain dangerous devils from top to bottom. It would take more than a simple blast to bring this building down.

Most of the staff had gone home, as only the reconstruction and security teams were needed. Upon entering, she immediately encountered many workers who had been carefully assigned to maintain this place in cases like these. They couldn't allow just anyone to enter and start working.

Everyone here worked under the orders of Public Security, so if they encountered anything strange, they would simply stay silent. There were no employees from any external construction company, only trained personnel who knew how to work with devils nearby.

When Yuna took the first elevator, instead of pressing the button to go up as she normally did to get to her office, she pressed the button with the letter M, which would take her to one of the deepest levels.

Minutes passed until the doors finally opened to reveal a relatively empty hallway, much like the upper levels. The walls were painted a gray color, the floor was made of a beautiful dark wood, almost resembling the hallway of a house or a hotel, to be more kind. There were even framed modern art paintings for decoration.

This looked nothing like a vault to contain a devil; this place put the rest of the vaults to shame. It almost seemed like a nice place to live.

Because it was.

And instead of many vaults of enormous size to contain devils, there was only one door at the end. It was white with a golden doorknob.

Yuna no longer considered this a containment vault; rather, it seemed more like the room of a very peculiar girl.

This was Makima's room, or rather, the hallway leading to her true room.

When Yuna finally approached the door, she didn't even bother to knock; she was accustomed to Makima sensing her presence before she could do anything. Her nose was quite accurate.

And as expected, the door opened with a small creak, revealing the reason why she had come down here.

Makima was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt that could easily double as a sweater, and shorts. She was dressed casually because her classes had been canceled lately; there was nothing to do while this place and the world were being repaired.

However... It was unusual for her to have bags under her eyes despite all the days off they had given her.

Clearly, she hadn't slept much.

"Doctor" Makima spoke without much emotion, and only then did Yuna notice that even her hair hadn't received the care it deserved. In fact, she didn't even have her characteristic braid; her hair cascaded down in a small waterfall until it reached just below her shoulders.

"Makima" Yuna responded with the same lack of enthusiasm but with a more professional tone. "There's something I need to inform you about."

Yuna proceeded to tell her everything that had happened today in the meeting with the higher-ups, at least the most relevant parts.

Makima's expression never changed, not even when she mentioned that someone else would be sent to watch over her.

"So?" she said, indicating that this really didn't matter to her right now. She had much more important things to think about.

Yuna almost wanted to smile at that moment; it was almost like seeing herself in a mirror. "Look... To be honest, I still think you should spend more time studying and helping you develop your powers. But they insisted that we should start the hybrid project right away. So I'm counting on you to keep learning on your own when I'm not around. Sounds easy, don't you think? It's like all those times you went to read in the library and learned on your own. You know how the process works, so it'll be a piece of cake for you."

Makima really couldn't care less about what would happen to her from now on. "And exactly who will they send to watch over me?" Realistically, she didn't care about that either. It's not like they were going to teach her anything she didn't already know.

"I have no idea; they haven't decided yet. But at best, it would be someone who watches you from the shadows if you don't feel comfortable."

"I don't care how it's done."

Yuna narrowed her eyes. "Right..." Both of them fell silent for a moment, lost in their own thoughts and problems.

Yuna finally decided to ask her a question. "Makima... When was the last time you slept?"

Makima looked at her with cold eyes. "Does it matter?" she asked in an almost sharp tone.

The doctor raised an eyebrow "Relax, I just asked you a question" She was starting to sound like a grumpy teenager. Oh crap, as she feared, these moments of rebellion would come.

The control devil pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I have slept... But not for many hours."

"How many exactly?"

"Three... Or four hours at most"

"You should sleep at least 8 hours at your age"

"I can't... You know very well that I can't"

Yuna furrowed her brow. "Yes... But you should relax for at least a day. All this built-up anxiety won't do any good for your body, let alone your lifestyle."

"Is someone like you really the right person to tell me this?" Makima raised an eyebrow.

"No... Not really." She sighed, using her good arm to massage her temple "Kid... I'm serious. You should get some more sleep, stop thinking about him at least for a day"

Makima gritted her teeth "How do you expect me to sleep when I don't even know if he—!?" Makima had raised her voice in a fit of anger and anxiety, but Yuna raised her hand in front of her, and she instantly fell silent.

Yuna's expression was blank; she was really tired of dealing with this crap. It had been like this all week since she woke up.

Makima hadn't stopped bombarding her with questions about that boy, as if she really knew anything, or as if he were her top priority too. But she understood; Makima had no one else to ask about Hiro's whereabouts. But truth be told, Yuna cared little about what had happened to him; he wasn't important to Yuna as he was to Makima. Yuna had a duty to the government above all else.

She couldn't go around looking for Hiro Takahashi's body just because Makima was worried about him.

"Stop acting so childish and just focus on yourself. Remember what I taught you; from now on, you must prioritize yourself above all else. Everything and everyone else is irrelevant as long as you keep moving forward." She saw Makima's eyes widen as she reminded her of that, as if amidst all that had happened, she had forgotten one of the most fundamental rules she had to follow.

"B-but..." Makima tried to retort, but she was already too accustomed to following the doctor's orders. It just demonstrated how well her training had gone over all these years to prevent her from making any arguments about her authority.

She had grown accustomed to following her orders to the letter, like a good dog obeys its owner.

"..." Makima started trembling slightly; the corners of her eyes began to feel somewhat damp.

"And before you ask again" Yuna spoke again without changing her expression "No, Makima, I have no idea where Hiro is"

Makima hated it when she said that.

"Kishibe and Quanxi have kept silent during this past week, but it's because they, like all the remaining hunters, are working hard to keep the devils at bay. That boy's fate is uncertain right now; I can't assure you that he's still alive."

Makima's eyes bore into Yuna, mixing fear with barely contained anger that Yuna didn't perceive "Don't say that!" Of all the things she could have said in that moment, that only worsened her mental state.

"...But I can't assure you he's dead either" Yuna clarified.

Lately, Yuna had been telling herself that if something bad happened to Hiro, they would all be condemned because of him. The only reason Yuna maintained composure while talking to Makima was because even she was holding onto an unpleasant sensation that suggested maybe the boy had survived the Gun Devil attack. It was like one of those premonitions warning of something bad that could happen.

Because if Hiro were dead, it would be terrible.

And if he were still alive, it would be equally terrible.

It was a game of probabilities: a 50/50 chance that he would still be alive or already a corpse. How many chances did he have to survive an attack like that? Millions of people died, and he could have easily been one of them.

Makima looked down, clenching her fist "The uncertainty... It keeps me from sleeping."

"Yes, I figured" Yuna replied.

Makima seemed on the brink of desperation. "I... I at least want to know what happened to him! Can't you tell Kishibe to come and tell us what happened?! He must know something!"

"I've told you already, Kishibe is busy. He probably has more important matters to attend to and won't come to tell you what happened to your... friend" Yuna said in a monotone voice.

"He's doing this to spite me! I know very well he never liked me hanging out with Hiro, and now he refuses to tell me anything to keep me away from him again!" Makima growled, imagining a scenario where Kishibe mocked her while enjoying her suffering.

But it was just a fantasy that Makima created to keep alive the hope that Hiro might still be alive.

Yuna sighed. "Makima... This is why I never wanted you to associate with that boy in the first place. He's not doing you any good; he only distracts you from your main goals. You should understand that once and for all..."

Her eyes were cold as she continued, "Get over it. For your own good and for the sake of others, forget about that boy while you still can. You'll see, eventually, you'll be fine again. After all, there are more important things than him in this world."

Makima was frozen in place as she watched Dr. Nishimura turn to leave, her words embedding deeply in the girl's mind. And for the first time in these seven years... Makima didn't want to listen to Dr. Nishimura.

For the first time, she knew she was wrong, she didn't know what she was talking about. Hiro deserved that attention and more if possible.

But the fact that she was stuck here not knowing anything about Hiro's whereabouts... Not knowing if he was alive or not... It was too much for her. She had endured this anxiety and pain for an entire week. Just imagining him dead, his body crushed by rubble... It made her nauseous and caused her heart to ache immensely.

Not to mention sleeping—sleeping had been impossible for her these past few days. How could she? The most precious person to her was out there, alive or dead, and she had no idea.

And now, to be told it was better to forget about him forever as if there was no hope for him... It only made her want to hide from this cruel world.

No... This... was too much for her.

"I just..." Makima's voice broke, she hugged herself in an attempt to calm down, slowly breaking apart.

Yuna didn't turn around.

Makima let out a sob. "I just... WANT TO KNOW IF HE'S OKAY!" Tears began to flow from her eyes, held back for so long.

Still, Yuna didn't turn, even as Makima started to cry audibly.

When the doctor finally stepped into the elevator, Makima fell to her knees on the floor, staying there by her room door, crying and trembling with sadness.

'Damn you, Hiro' thought Makima with a blind bitterness brought on by sorrow.

But despite being friends for four years, he still found a way to make her cry.

He was the only one capable of bringing out the deepest emotions in the control demon, a power he wasn't even aware of.

"Hiro..." Makima whispered as some of her tears fell to the ground. "Where are you?"

0O0O

The first thing Hiro saw upon opening his eyes was the blinding glare of white lights in front of him, or more specifically, above him. His vision felt so weak at that moment that he decided to close his eyes for a little longer. The sound around him was almost imperceptible; he could barely hear what seemed to be different people talking and walking around as if they were in a hurry.

He felt so drowsy, as if he hadn't rested enough yet; his body felt so weak at that moment that he didn't believe he could do anything other than breathe to keep on living.

Wherever he was, it was a stiff place yet quite adequate for someone feeling too weak to do anything else. Still, it was worth asking himself while his consciousness was capable of processing these almost mundane thoughts.

Where was he?

Why did his body feel so stiff right now?

Had he been asleep?

If so, then for how long?

There was something very persistent as he pondered all these questions; his head hurt—it was as if someone had embedded a massive headache inside him as a kind of joke to make him suffer. It hurt a lot, and each wave of pain came and went like a pulse; its persistence only made it harder to keep his eyes closed.

When Hiro opened his eyes again, the same light blinded him once more, but this time he made an effort to keep them open; when his vision finally fully adapted to the light, the first thing he saw more clearly was a bone-white marble ceiling, which made everything even harder to see.

But as he became more aware of his surroundings, that's when he noticed the faint, yet constant, beeping of a machine nearby. Hiro tried to move his head as much as he could toward the direction of the sound, a slight tilt to the left would suffice. When his eyes finally caught sight of what it was, they widened in sheer surprise.

It was a vital signs monitor.

'What..?'

As Hiro watched the graphs rise and fall while emitting a beep, he began to wonder with concern how he ended up here. His mind finally pieced it all together; he was in a hospital.

Shit...

How did he end up like this?

Could it be that the talk about maturity he had with Kishibe was too much for his young brain and it landed him in the hospital?

But if that were the case, then why did his head and back ache as if he had been hit hard right there? It must have been something else, but his mind hadn't reached those memories yet. It was probably due to all the time he had spent asleep (he didn't know how long), whenever Kishibe came back drunk and crashed on the couch, he would sleep for hours and sometimes forget how he ended up there.

Sometimes he forgot he was living with a kid.

Hiro's breathing began to grow more rigid as he started to panic, but when he tried to expand his chest for a deep breath, a wave of pain surged through him just from that movement alone. His chest started to hurt as if it had been recently struck there.

"Ugh!" Hiro gritted his teeth as he carefully steadied his chest to avoid another wave of pain. Personally experiencing something like this was quite painful and uncomfortable to the point where even a simple breath could make him groan in agony.

"F.-fuck!" When Hiro managed to prevent his chest from making sudden movements, the pain in his head abruptly made its presence felt, as if it were some sort of prompt to make him remember the last moments before falling asleep.

Well, it was definitely helping, but everything was still equally painful.

Flashes of tragic, chilling, and startling memories flooded back to him.

Him trying to help Kenji with his oversized suitcase.

That girl with blonde hair.

The massive blast that hit him afterward.

... And the school bus flying through the air with his entire class inside.

When that horrible memory came back to him, Hiro's eyes widened, and his body shot up from the bed almost involuntarily, pulling some cables that were connected nearby. This time, his back started to ache, and even the slightest bend was a challenge; it felt as if his back had endured several consecutive blows at once.

Now that he remembered better, that gust of wind first sent him flying through the air until the school wall stopped him, then he fell to the ground in the same way; no wonder his back felt like it wanted to break, he had suffered a lot with just two blows.

"Ah... Ah!" Hiro tried to move to ease the pain but felt like he only made it worse.

"Relax, kid. Even though you've been in a coma for a week, your body still needs time to recover, don't overdo it"

Hiro's attention shifted to his right, ignoring all the pain he could to prioritize what was happening around him. To his right, seated on a small single-person sofa, was Kishibe, clad in his characteristic devil hunter uniform, including that enormous coat that reached down to his knees. In his eyes, one could see the accumulated fatigue of several days. Quanxi was also by his side, dressed in the same manner, though she was peacefully asleep on another sofa.

It was also there that Hiro noticed his own appearance; they had completely removed his shirt, and his head and chest were bandaged to try to suppress all the wounds and persistent pain. His hair was quite disheveled, though he couldn't see it, but being in a coma for an entire week surely didn't do any favors to his appearance.

Wait a moment...

A WEEK!?

HE WAS IN A COMA FOR A WEEK!?

Hiro's eyes conveyed to Kishibe all the fear he couldn't express verbally. "Kishibe..?" Hiro asked somewhat hesitantly, unsure if he was real or not; after all, this could be a dream.

"You and him are both quite lucky to still be alive" Kishibe mentioned, gesturing to the other bed on Hiro's left.

Hiro turned as best as he could and found Kenji in the same condition as himself, except he still showed no signs of waking up.

He looked back at Kishibe with desperate and confused eyes, seeking answers to all his questions. "Kishibe... What happened?"

Kishibe massaged the back of his neck. "Kid... You have no idea."

0O0O

Notes: And cut, we'll see each other again next month for chapter 28... Only if the author is lucky enough to not be burdened with idiotic tasks.

Hey folks, it's been a while, right? A month and a week to be exact. The previous chapter was well received by many, both the Spanish-speaking audience and the one in the United States. I never imagined that many would like how I portrayed the Gun Devil attack, especially considering it was a scene that didn't take me more than a day, lol.

This chapter feels a bit weak, just to show some of the initial aftermath of the Gun Devil's attack on the world and some characters: Kishibe and Quanxi are exhausted from overworking, Yuna was forced to set aside other obligations to focus on desperate measures, Makima is losing her mind because she doesn't know if Hiro is dead or not, and Hiro wants to know the context of how he ended up without legs xd, okay not really.

Hey folks, I have something important to tell you, and it's something I should have mentioned back in December but I always forgot to say it here, though I did mention it on Twitter but nobody noticed.

And that is, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, I got into university :D

The bad news... I got into university ._.

If I'm honest, I wanted to wait another year before entering my university phase, I didn't feel ready. But my brain had to kick into gear for the second round of the entrance exam, I got 55... Out of 60 questions, WTF, I only missed 5 xd, and I didn't even study.

My brain decides to start working at the worst times, but well, I guess that's also what has led me to where I am today, writing this at one in the morning when I should be sleeping.

I'm in my second week of classes... and it's not even in person, it's virtual, pffffft. I chose the in-person mode, but in my faculty, they still need classrooms to renovate, and they won't finish them until at least the second semester. What a drag.

And if you're curious, I decided to study a Bachelor's in Literature. I know... Not very original, to say the least, but since I have the habit of reading and writing, and I didn't want anything to do with math and science, this career would suit me relatively well.

It's actually more about research and understanding more than anything else. I'm not saying it will be easy; every career has its own complexity, but at least I hope to adapt more quickly.

That being said, I'm wondering if I'll be able to continue releasing chapters monthly. Remember when I used to publish chapters in 2022, sometimes every three months? Yes, a darker time than this one. If you're new to this story, you probably don't know what the first readers suffered. Some of them aren't even with us anymore unfortunately.

Come on, report here if you've been here since Chapter 1 premiered; you'll see that there are very few of you left.

But these are things that happen in this kind of stories.

But tell me, would you prefer to have weekly chapters and have them pile up without leaving time to read or even for a better development?

Or have monthly chapters where everyone can read at their own pace without being overwhelmed with a chapter every week? That way, even the writer has time to polish the story as much as possible.

There are people who are much more skilled at this than I am; there are maniacs who wrote stories of 350k words in just two months, what madness. And I humbly with my almost 190k words.

But you know, sometimes you have to keep the hype alive somehow. Imagine if I released like 5 chapters at once, wouldn't it be very overwhelming for you to have all those long chapters pending without giving you enough time to read them? By the time you finish them, other chapters will already be published XD.

That's why I consider that releasing a monthly chapter is good to maintain interest in this story... At least, that's what I think. I'm new to this, but if something taught me the distribution of Jojo's Stone Ocean on Netflix, it's that it's not good to release everything at once just to kill the hype on the same day.

But I'm telling you this because I'm still not skilled enough to release weekly chapters. It's already very rare for me to release a double chapter in a month, let alone one per week.

If I were to do that, I'd have to cut several parts of the chapters, even make them shorter, like around 4k words each... And crazy as it sounds, that's not enough for some XD. I've spoiled them with chapters of 10k words AAAAH.

But well... We'll see what happens with me and university. I'm the great abusamadres, I've managed to adapt to all kinds of studies.

What do you think will happen next?

What will become of Hiro and the gang?

Will Makima stop crying on the pillow?

What will Yuna do with the hybrid project?

Will Hiro manage to recover?

Who will be the person in charge of watching over Makima from now on?

Oh, who am I kidding with this question? It's already obvious.

What a week, huh?

Last week was really tough. First, I found out that Rooster Teeth, the animation studio responsible for producing and animating series like RWBY and Red vs Blue, will be closing its facilities. Damn you, Warner, I can't entrust anything to you because you end up destroying it.

And the worst came a few days later when they announced Akira Toriyama's death... Bro.

I already dedicated my words on Twitter and a few here, but I still can't believe it, bro. The guy who created a part of my childhood is no longer here, and that's very sad.

I just want to say here as well, thank you very much, Toriyama, for everything you did for us by giving us an incredible work like Dragon Ball. You will never be forgotten because you will always live on in what you created.

Farewell, this is Abusamadres signing off. See you next time.