CHAPTER 3: Don't Regret it Later
'How the hell did I get stuck with that lazy bum as a partner, and why a devil to boot?'
Needless to say, Aki was quite exasperated as he walked home from one of the new routine patrols introduced after the recent attacks from the acolytes of the Gun Devil, with the main source of his ire being the new partner assigned to him by Makima the other day.
'This has to be some kind of karma for setting up Power as Denji's partner, though having her around the flat seems like punishment enough sometimes…'.
At this thought Aki lets out a long sigh, his hand instinctively going to his jacket pocket for a cigarette only to come up empty.
"Oh yeah…" he sighed again, suddenly regretting his decision to quit.
Robbed of his favourite pastime his mind wandered back to his conversation with Makima over the assignment of the Angel Devil as his partner, he had told her from the start that he wouldn't be able to get on with the devil, though he didn't have much of a choice but to go along with her choice after she brushed off his concerns and made his participation in the expedition to destroy the Gun Devil conditional on on successfully working together with the Angel Devil.
'It would be a problem enough to work with a devil, but working with him will be difficult considering he is as lazy as he is powerful, though at least he isn't violent unlike most of the others, then again he is dangerous enough when he actually decides to use his powers', Aki thought back to the briefing he got from Tendo and Kurose on the Angel Devil's powers, with the ability to sap someones life just by a touch, as well as creating weapons using said life force, with their strength varying depending on how many years were used.
'Honestly….' Aki thought, a frown creasing his face 'All of those powers are pretty useless if he refuses to do his job, but if Makima thinks its necessary I don't really have a choice in the matter'
Rounding a corner Aki's thoughts turned to Makima, namely the root-and-branch reforms she instituted to Special Division Four in the wake of the massacre of most of its active devil hunters, with the biggest being the replacement of lost members with fiends such as the Violence Devil, Angel Devil, Princi and Beam to name a few. Even though he knew that the founding purpose of Special Division Four was to try a more radical approach towards devil hunting, it still rubbed him the wrong way that so much of the team was made up of Devils, and even more so with how quickly the decision was made.
'I'll have to ask Makima for more details about the changes, though I'd assume she just had a number of emergency contingencies like this prepared in case of a huge loss of manpower', though even with this thought Aki couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, remembering the cool attitude that Himeno had towards Makima.
'No, there's no point being paranoid, especially since Makima was directly supporting us from Kyoto', moreover, he did remember a drunk Himeno mentioning that her master Kishibe didn't much like Makima when they were out at a dive bar in Shinjuku a few months back, so he might be able to pry the reasons out of him at some point.
As he neared his street his mind turned to that night in Shinjuku, it was Himeno's idea to go out that night after returning from retrieving a small fragment of the Gun Devil from a devil that was infesting the upper floors of a classy hotel in Central Tokyo, turned out that a devil that feeds off of the fear of heights when powered up by the fragment was a force to be reckoned with, managing to kill half of their squad before he and Himeno clambered onto the roof of the high rise and put down the Devil. Himeno had always taken the loss of teammates hard, but when they went out after that mission it was the first time that she asked him, many rounds deep, if he wanted to leave public safety with her. At the time he was sure she was joking, but seeing how hammered she would get after the more intense missions they were sent on, as well as the number of times she repeated her request for him to leave Public Safety with her made him suspect that she was serious.
He was never able to give her the answer that she wanted, his personal quest to destroy the Gun Devil coming first over anything else, only after Himeno's death did the idea of leaving Public Safety enter his mind again.
'No point in regretting my decision now, my life is on a timer as it is, and the Gun is still out there after orchestrating the attack of Special Division Four, the best I can do is continue hunting the pieces and ensuring that those brats don't die in the process'. As Aki turned down the street to his flat, he just hoped that Denji had eaten out rather than attempting to make his own dinner again...
Denji had spent most of his spare time that day slaving behind the counter of the Hayakawa residence's kitchen counter, though not for any benevolent reason like giving Aki a break from making dinner after a long patrol shift, instead, having had little to keep himself busy, with Reze not working and Power being out of town, Denji decided to work on his tolerance of coffee, with the evidence of this practice strewn all over the counter in the form of coffee granules, sugar and a couple of patches of spilt coffee from his previous attempts.
Denji stared at his latest attempt in dread, sure it looked significantly better better than his last attempt, but that was a low bar considering that when he tried the last one he ended up spitting it out near instantly, being both grainy and too bitter. Clearing his mind of the memories of his last cup and steeling himself he took a swig of his latest creation, praying that the milk and sugar would be enough to make it drinkable, then he heard the rattle of a pair of keys unlocking the front door.
'Shit, Aki must have finished up his patrol early!', Denji pinched his nose and swallowed the rest of the coffee, barely taking the time to taste it as he scrambled to tidy up the mess he'd created, settling on just sweeping most of the mess into the sink as Aki walks through the door, taking off his shoes at the door and hanging up his work jacket before looking at Denji standing behind the kitchen counter.
"You better not be expecting me to make dinner tonight" said a drained Aki, giving Denji a deadpan look before making his way over to the fridge behind the counter
"Nah, I ate plenty after the patrol anyway, managed to ditch Beam and grab something to eat at the café' responded Denji, who had shifted himself to hide the mess in the sink and around the counter from Aki, who had fished out a tin of beer from the fridge.
Aki cracked open the can and took a swig before sighing, "What's behind you Denji?"
"I don't know what you mean…" replied Denji putting his hands up as Aki turned to face him,
"I wasn't born yesterday you punk", Aki narrowed his eyes, "And your acting is about as convincing as Powers', so move out of the way.
"So just why were you trying to make coffee anyway?", said an exasperated Aki as he sat opposite a chastised Denji at the table, "and how did you manage to screw up making something were the requirement is to just add boiling water?"
"Rude!", snapped back Denji, still huffing over being chewed out for the mess he left over the counter, "but if ya need to know it's because I was given a cup the other day by this hot chick at the café, and I wanted to know how to make some for myself", with Denji's expression changing from morose to proud as he spoke, "Oh yeah, she totally likes me by the way".
Aki blinked in surprise at Denji's admission, all thoughts about coffee leaving his mind, 'What!?', Aki was in disbelief, sure he knew that Denji was unpredictable and scatterbrained at the best of times, but this was unbelievable!
"Wait, what?", said Aki, mouth open in shock.
"Well… she bought me a cup of coffee, she also touched me and smiled at me a lot" responded Denji, "Soooo… I'm pretty sure that means she likes me…"
"No not that!", snapped an exasperated Aki, pinching the bridge of his nose before continuing, "I thought you were after Makima, with you pining after her since you joined Public safety and all, or are you really so dense that you forgot?"
Denji blinked at that, "Well, its not that I don't like Miss Makima", a conflicted look appeared on Denji's face, "I mean… she gave me this life I'm living, got a place to live, a good meal every day, so of course I'm grateful… But this chick… appreciated me for me I guess", with this Denji looked away from Aki to the side.
Suddenly Denji put his head in his hands and groaned, "Ughh… I don't know about any of this man… are you done interrogating me now you dick?"
Aki's face softened after hearing Denji's reply, "Yeah, yeah I'll let up…", they sat there in silence for a moment before Aki got up again with a sigh, "Wait there, I'll cook up something quick for us"
Aki returned from the kitchen a short time later, putting two plates down on the table, making a zoned-out Denji jump a bit.
"It's just some plain rice balls, no complaining" said Aki, walking back to the counter and picking up two cups of fresh coffee and placing them by the plates of rice balls.
"A tablespoon of coffee, add a cup and a half of boiling water, stir and leave it to brew for a couple of minutes then pour and add whatever amount of milk and sugar it is you want"
"Huh? What are you on about", asked a confused Denji before digging into the rice balls.
"I'm telling you how to make a decent cup of coffee, so that you don't make another mess in my kitchen next time you want to impress this 'hot chick' of yours", replied Aki with a barely visible smirk on his face.
At that comment Denji started coughing, having choked on his food, finally recovering an embarrassed Denji responded, "What the hell man, you can't just come out with stuff like that when I'm eating!"
"Well judging by that response, I was dead on the money" replied a smug Aki as Denji pouted, taking a sip of the coffee, cringing at the the bitterness as he drank it.
"Bleghh… not sure I'll ever get used to that taste, but it's better than the last one anyway" grumbled Denji, "Since when did you make coffee anyways?"
Aki rolled his eyes, "Its not that difficult, and its basically a requirement for stakeouts, used to have to make it for Himeno the morning after the divisions work drinks, was the only way to get her to function for the day, especially if the sadists who put together the patrol rota gave her an early shift", Aki replied, a smile coming to his face as he remembered the time a hungover Himeno had been in such a rough condition after one such instance that she had thrown up on some poor student on the train.
"You were real close to her huh?" Denji said, "Did you never think of getting with her, cause I know you like Miss Makima too and all, but ya seemed a lot closer with your buddy than anyone else".
At that Aki opens his mouth to reply only to close it again, looking blankly at Denji for a moment, before finishing his coffee and getting up and throwing on his jacket again.
"I need to go out again for the night patrol so I won't back till later, make sure you clean up before you go to sleep", ordered Aki while slipping on his shoes before leaving the apartment.
"Huh", a confused Denji blinked, "What the hell was his problem?".
"Phew…", an exhausted Reze slumped down in one of the café's booth seats, resting her head in her hands, she usually managed to avoid the night shift most days, however today was not one of those days.
'How does a café with no customers even end up being this filthy?,' she had been busy cleaning the place for over an hour after close, and with there only a couple of elderly customers through her whole shift. Even worse was that the customers today didn't even try to make any small talk, they didn't even acknowledge her when she gave them their orders!
'It's a shame Denji wasn't here today…', the boy had shown up to the café a couple of times since she first invited him, with him often already being at his regular booth near the window when she arrived for her shift.
'Heh… thought it would be a bit harder to seduce the Chainsaw than this, they briefed me to be prepared for this mission to last months and it's only been a week…', any humour that Reze took from the ease of seducing Denji was quickly replaced by an uncomfortable feeling in her gut – guilt.
'What I'm doing here isn't right', she knew that in her heart, what she was doing here was manipulating a poor buy, the same age as she was, to fall for her, only to sweep the rug out from under him at the last minute and steal the chainsaw devil from his chest. What choice did she have though?
'If I don't do this then what will they do to me?', the Soviet government wasn't exactly known for their forgiveness after all, even after the reforms of the past decade…
"Girl, are you listening to me, Reze!", Reze jumped slightly and looked up to see her manager, Mr Kayo giving her an exasperated look from behind the counter, presumably in the middle of giving the shop a last look over before close. 'Geez… was I really so out of it I didn't notice that old geezer?'
"Finally, thought you were sleeping there kid, I'm in the middle of locking up so you'll need to get moving soon"
'Geez… was I really so out of it I didn't notice that old geezer?', recovering from her surprise and embarrassed at being caught off-guard, she went straight to her usual snarky responses when dealing with him.
"Sorry boss, I'm just so, so tired from all the unpaid overtime I can barely keep my eyes open", Mr Kayo just rolled his eyes at the typically sharp-tongued response, shifting slightly to lean against the counter.
"I've already said you'll get your overtime hours as part of next months paycheque, so stop being dramatic, you can blame the server that quit yesterday for that"
"Cheapskate" chirped Reze, always eager to remind him of the fact whenever she could.
"Yeah, yeah kid, don't take your bad mood out on the person paying your wages"
Reze gave him a puzzled look at that, "What do you mean?", she didn't think she was acting too much differently from usual, was she?
"Don't give me that kid, you've been in a bad mood all day because your little admirer didn't show up", Reze opened her mouth to splutter out a reply only to be cut off before she got the chance.
"Don't give me any stupid excuses kid, you've been distracted all day, and every time a customer came in you looked like someone kicked a puppy", the manager gave her a knowing look as Reze recovered from her embarrassment to a practiced pout.
"Geez boss, there's no reason to embarrass a girl like that, I just think he's funny is all…" responded Reze who, even with her training wasn't able to keep a faint blush off of her face.
At that Kayo chuckled and raised his hands in mock surrender, "Fine, fine I know when to let up, just make sure you don't regret anything later", Reze flinched at that, though thankfully Mr Kayo had turned around before he noticed, she didn't want him prying more than was necessary.
"Anyway kid, you better be getting going now, just gotta do a couple things before locking up, so you go home and get some sleep", with that he disappeared back into the staff room leaving a confused Reze sitting at the booth with a troubled look on her face.
Reze flopped down on her bed, exhausted from the long shift, for once looking as drained as she felt.
Recently it had been taking more and more out of her to keep up her act. Naively she had thought that she had everything under control, but the fact that that manager of all people had been able to read her so easily was beyond frustrating!
And why couldn't she shake this feeling of guilt? Its not like she had any qualms with previous missions, it wasn't as if Denji would be the first innocent person she's killed, or even the first person she's tricked and deceived, so why?
Who was she kidding? She already knew.
'Its because he's the same as me, an orphan, a tool, a slave'
'It's because he's funny, compared to me he's so full of life, he hasn't let his lot in life break him, always joking around and making those goofy faces', Reze smiled at the memory of Denji half-choking on his first cup of coffee before she froze and sat up straight in her bed.
She looked at the side cabinet beside her bed, on which sat the same flower the boy had given her, which had since been placed in a makeshift vase in the form of a filled water glass. The realisation hit her like a freight train.
'Shit. I like him', she had fallen for her target, after all her missions and training she had fallen for the target of her most important assignment yet.
'I thought Denji was easy to seduce, and here I am, falling for him without him even trying, feels kinda unfair…', she barked out a mirthless laugh at the thought.
"Don't regret anything later, huh?", she brought her knees up to her chin.
"Now how the hell am meant to do that…? "
Thanks again to everyone who's read this so far, and apologies for the long gap since the last chapter, has been quite hectic with uni work, but I should (hopefully) be able to get the next chapter out faster than this one. Also, any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated, since I'm inexperienced at this type of writing. Cheers!
*Will also probably cross-post this fic to AO3 at some point since I finally got around to making an account*