Can't Be Held Down (Chainsaw Man SI Chapter 1)
His name was Yuuki Akira. Or was it rather Akira Yuuki since this was in Japan.
He was a domestic abuse victim. Nineteen years old, living with his drunk father, and risking his life on his father's mood.
Yuuki didn't have friends because his father guilt-trip him for having a life, when he spent all his time 'taking care of' Yuuki.
Yuuki didn't know how to take care of himself, be it cooking or going to the doctor or making appointments, because his father would do all those things, then berate his son for depending on him, while discouraging Yuuki when he tried to learn something himself.
Yuuki grew up learning to fear going out into the world, while being more afraid of the parent living with him, so close all the time.
Yuuki had bruises, cuts and scraps from whenever his father lost her temper, and punished him for 'wrecking his life, and sucking up his inheritance'.
Every night since he was ten, his father would tell him stories about all the kids that died horribly after they ran away from home.
Yuuki Akira was afraid of his father. He was afraid of pain.
He would sometimes imagine just opening that apartment door, and rather than leave following his father's back to the car, to be driven to college, he could just...walk away on his own.
Not follow the route to college. No walk on the path his father made him practice to go on, even when it was raining, or busy.
But of course, every bad thing that could end up happening to him came to mind.
How would he take care of himself? What if he got sick? What if he got into a fight? What if someone asked him what he was doing on his own?
He would just be taken back home again, and his father would be even more upset.
Yuuki feared his father.
But he feared their apartment door even more.
Because if he dared open it on his own, without his father there...who knows what would happen.
He was afraid when he woke up. He was afraid of wasting time in college doing anything but studying. He couldn't waste his father's money by hanging out with people and not study.
Yuuki was afraid.
He was afraid. He was afraid. He was afraid.
And ultimately, like any story like this, Yuuki Akira died.
Predictably, one time his father was too angry. He took it out on Yuuki. The young man was bleeding on the floor, but would get better with some bandages. Then the dad got a call from someone.
Yuuki wasn't sure who. Some people who knew the man? It was a woman? Yuuki's mom?
His father looked more and more angry. Shouting more and louder obsenities. He gave Yuuki and look that chilled him, but turned away focused on the call.
Yuuki felt it in his gut. He needed to get away.
He looked to the apartment door, and still.
Yuuki ran to his room.
And that's where he died.
His father overcome with rage from that day, and that phone call, broke his son's room door down, beat the young man up, without thinking till Yuuki stopped moving.
It was a tragic tale really.
Yuuki might have lived if he ran a different direction than his room.
Which is why when I took over his body as a Fiend, I wondered if it was karma, or just plain luck, that when I got out of Hell, I ended up so close to that Akira family residence.
Was it due to my nature, of what Devil I am, that I entered the world in that place? Or did the circumstances of Yuuki's home summon me from Hell?
I wasn't sure on the metaphysics of the Chainsaw Man world.
I just knew that I was somehow transported into this world. That somehow I was a Devil that just left Hell. And on that day I witness a young man get beaten to death by his father.
Predictably the cops were called, and the guy was taken to jail, and I found myself with a fresh corpse I could use.
My instincts were telling me to just feed, and writhe and rage against humans. That being confined to a human body was a prison. That it was unacceptable.
I told my instincts to shove it, because being some weird skeleton-looking flesh monster thing, was fucking weird. Looking human felt normal, because my human memories were telling me it was normal.
"Now what?"
I wondered to myself.
Stealing some clothes was easy. Jeans, shirt, jacket, sneakers. I looked like an everyday dude.
If people ignore the small chains coming from the low end of my hairline at the back of my head. But those that be easily ignored, covered up, or someone could think they're a fashion choice.
The shackle with a broken chain growing out of my left ankle, and right hand were more tough to cover up.
So I didn't. People are likely to again think they're some fashion choice if I didn't hide then, and if they don't look too closely.
Back to the important question, I was in the world of Chainsaw Man.
That meant, Devils, Devil Hunters, the...Public Safety Bureau? Or whatever it's called.
And of course Makima.
Yeah, I'm not getting involved in any of that shit.
...Or should I? Lots of people die otherwise? Denji didn't deserve the shit that happened to him.
...Actually, why don't I just do that? Help the kid out before he becomes Chainsaw Man. Or make that contract with Pochita or whatever.
It will be my good deed for the day. Year really. Because Denji's life was shit. Seriously, fuck those yakuza assholes, and that yakuza boss's grandson. Fuck that little fucker's specifically.
"'The old man took care of you, and did so much for you', fuck off!" I muttered to myself, getting weird looks from people on the train. But I was probably a dime a dozen of people complaining about their lives, so it's fine.
Right now I was going to the town that just had the Tomato Devil appear in it. Internet thankfully existed in this day and age, but fuuuuuuck was it slow. Thankfully people still used it to document news and stuff.
The small rural town I arrived in wasn't anything impressive, but had a homely atmosphere to it, as I explored around.
Sometimes I would ask around on some stuff, like "where did the Tomato Devil appear?", "did someone beat it? What did they look like? Where they are?"
Some people got curious about me and my looks.
I just did devil horns and said "rock on!". They took me for some westaboo, rock music otaku. Thank god for stereotypes.
"Okay, so right town, but where the fuck am I suppose to go?" I wondered to myself.
I can't just walk around asking for Denji, the yakuza will draw in on me, and I'd have to kill them then, and that would draw a target on my back.
While wondering about all this, I passed by a grew of business people. Some MIB government looking types. They seem to be doing their own thing.
Could they be Devil Hunters, or the organization they're with?
Well the key to blending in, is to not be self-conscious, so I just ignore them, as we walk past each other. I don't think they even noticed me.
Wait, was one of them a redhead?
"Ah, excuse me for a second?" Said a very calm, soothing female voice.
I turned to see the redhead had been addressing her colleagues, then she turned to face me.
"Stop. Don't move." Makima said to me.
Oh.
What are the odds?
Wait, Makima was searching for the Zombie Devil, who the yakuza made a deal with, thus would have been on course to meeting Denji.
Really, brain? You only now decided to pick up speed?
Fuck my life.
What are my options?
Run?
Yeah, run.
As she ordered the frankly brazen Fiend to stop moving, Makima turned to her subordinates for this assignment, about to tell them that they'll take this unregistered Fiend in.
It was too docile, and easily blending in with the humans, that her tails for this mission didn't even notice those chains. They thought it was some youthful accessories.
This Fiend might be a useful addition to the Public Safety Devil Hunters, or it might be useless, but either way, it was an unexpected find on this mission to find and slay the Zombie Devil.
"Gentlemen, please be more aware of your surroundings." Makima told her minions, who thankfully were competent enough to pick up on what's going on, and got their weapons out. "Now then, what type of Fiend..."
Then something unexpected, completely outside of Makima's imagination happened.
"It's getting away." Said one of the Devil Hunters, as he ran in pursuit.
"Hello, this is Agent Kurosawa, with Team Leader Makima, we have spotted one Fiend, heading for..."
It ran away. Makima blinked at that.
That the Fiend ran away wasn't what surprised and threw off the impossibly unfazed Devil pretending to be human, and working for the Japanese government.
It was that Makima had Ordered that Fiend not to move. She hadn't even thought about it. It was just a routine thing when dealing with unknowns.
Yet it did. That Fiend ran.
"How peculiar." Makima's interest was piqued.