Love, War, And 03

"Yo, Yuko!" 

He waved at the girl as soon as he saw her. She was outside of her house, apparently just resting on a chair. Ayumu could see that her leg was definitely messed up, considering it was all bandaged.

She waved back at him. "Yo! You and Asa came to see me, huh?"

As they approached, Asa nodded. "Yeah, we were worried about your leg... How's recovery going?"

Yuko sighed. "Just as shitty as you would imagine, but at least it's gonna recover in the first place. That's better than nothing, right?" She shifted her gaze towards Ayumu. "Forget my leg though, how are you already out of the hospital?"

He puffed his chest up in pride. "I'm just that guy."

Yuko tilted her head. "Hah?"

But her confusion didn't deter him one bit. "Basically, I'm different from other people. When someone gets a life-ending injury, I just get a scratch. I'm like Superman, except cooler."

Yuko snorted. "Right. Welp, I'm just glad you're okay." She squinted her eyes. "Really though, how are you up so soon?" He prepared to do the same bit once more, but before that, Yuko's eyes widened. "Are you that scatterbrained?"

Ayumu looked down. "Huh? Why am I suddenly being bullied?"

Yuko burst out laughing. "Don't worry, I'm not bullying you. Just having a crazy realization about the type of person that you are... I think." She paused for a moment. "Hey, you two wanna grab some chairs and sit too?"

Ayumu put a hand on his chin. "I've got the time... I guess." He did kind of want to test his abilities, but spending time with girls was more important.

Asa nodded. "Yeah, me too."

And her lookalike groaned. "Ugh, what a waste of a day." But Asa paid her no mind.

And neither did Ayumu. For now he was keeping the idea of just observing Asa and doing nothing else. Although his guard was raised just in case she suddenly tried to eat him or something.

Even if that didn't sound too bad.

Yuko giggled. "That makes me happy! You guys really are the best."

Before long, Asa, Yuko, and he were all sitting side by side. It kind of made him feel like one of those old men who just stayed outside listening to the radio all day. Except he didn't even have a radio.

This was a golden opportunity to progress his investigation, however. "Hey Yuko, do I smell?"

Yuko raised an eyebrow. "Um... what?"

And Asa was the one who really answered to her. "Yeah, you do." As she talked, her lookalike once again pinched her nose. As if just being reminded of it brought back an instinctual reaction.

But it wasn't Asa's opinion that he was looking forward. "Is that so... Do you agree with her, Yuko?" This was a very specific test, so he needed the opinion of the glasses-wearing girl.

Thankfully, she actually humored his strange question. "Not really, to be honest. Where is this even coming from?"

So, as expected, only those with weird ghost thingies... and the Bat Devil could smell his scent like that. Which more or less confirmed that Asa was a demon of some sort, just like Chainsaw Man.

Unless he was jumping to a ton of conclusions and Denji wasn't even Chainsaw Man in the first place. Considering the dog with a literal chainsaw on top of his head that followed him, though, there had to be at least some connection.

Ayumu waved her off. "It's nothing. It's just that Asa isn't the only person to call me smelly today, so I'm beginning to get worried." As usual, Denji had complained about his cologne.

Asa blushed. "I-I wouldn't say you're smelly per se... It's just that you smell."

He tilted his head. "You aren't making any sense."

She gritted her teeth. "Look, it's embarrassing talking about a guy's smell! So... You smell really strong, but it's nice." Oh?

Did the Bat Devil think the same when he decided to eat him?

Asa's lookalike was blushing too. "I wouldn't say it is nice. It is more akin to something overly sweet, to the point that it is rotten. Makes me want to retch." H-he hadn't asked for her opinion, so whatever!

Now feeling uncomfortable, he tried shifting the topic. "So... um... about the bullying thing..." But his mind couldn't leave Asa.

Should he tell her? That he knew of her secret? What if that made him come off as a dude trying to push for something? Or what if she was evil and tried attacking him? Clearly not all devils were bad, but it was a risky gamble.

What was she even the devil of? Denji was obviously the Chainsaw Devil... Maybe she was the Scar Devil?

Asa immediately paled. "What about it?"

While Yuko actually gained somewhat of a shy smile. "Ah, I want to talk about that too. I've come up with some ways to deal with it—."

"I've dealt with it already. M-maybe." He took a deep breath and tried to ignore their surprised gasps. "It's a I know a guy who knows a guy type of situation, but I think this has been more or less handled."

Asa squinted her eyes. "What kind of situation even is that...?"

He shrugged. "It's complicated to explain, and I don't even know if it's actually gonna work or not. So don't think too hard about it." Though asking that of her might be a little too cruel.

Yuko pushed her glasses up. "Oh! You're acting pretty cool, Ayumu." That comment sure made him feel pretty cool. "Even if Asa stops being bullied though, it's not like bullying in general will stop, right?"

"Y-yeah, I guess so..." At those words, his prideful expression slowly shifted into a frown.

What a demanding girl! Of course he couldn't just end bullying as a concept, what the hell did she expect!? She wasn't cute enough to ask for something crazy like that! ...Those were the words he wanted to say, but he controlled himself.

Asa, noticing his falling mood, quickly interjected. "Even so, I'm really grateful you're doing all of this for me..." She played with her hair for a bit. "It's because I'm cute, huh...?"

He nodded, a grin making its glorious return to his face. "The cutest." He had promised himself that he wouldn't flirt anymore, but he couldn't help himself.

Asa avoided his gaze. "You're shallow."

The Asa lookalike snorted. "You're shallow. Just this morning you were talking about how all some celebrity had going for her was being cute, and now you go and start melting to pathetic compliments like that."

She continued. "But this isn't a bad opportunity. You like the boy at this point, no? So let's ask him out, make him ours, and then turn him into our weapon." Oh?

The whole weapon talk was barely registered on his brain, instead thoughts of dating a girl were consuming him. Asa was probably some sort of devil, though... Would he date a possibly dangerous devil?

If she was cute like Asa, the answer he had arrived towards was yes.

Yuko raised a hand. "Hey, am I cute too Ayumu?"

Answering to that was as easy as breathing. "Of course." But most girls were kind of cute. It kind of came with the territory.

Asa's blush immediately disappeared. "Loser." Oh, this had been a trap all along...

Her lookalike scowled. "Asa, do not see this as a problem. The fact that he is enough of a loser to go after any girl is a good thing. Again, we must turn him into a weapon."

Asa grumbled to herself. "Just shut up already..." He agreed with that!

He wouldn't just go after any girl. If she was a killer or something like that, he would back off! That is to say, he did have standards, they were definitely obscenely low, but they did exist. Although if the girl felt really bad about it... maybe he could consider it.

Hah, he totally was the worst kind of loser.

Leaving that aside, why did Yuko have to betray him? "This loser feels like people are looking for opportunities to kick him until he can't get up again." He took a deep breath. "Speaking of opportunities to kick things, you guys still up for Devil Hunter?"

Asa's gaze was filled with disbelief. "You're still up for fighting devils even after all that?"

"Of course I am." He chuckled. "It's only natural a warrior gets wounded! What's important is winning the war!"

Asa's lookalike raised her eyebrows. "Hoh, what a show of guts... or bravado." Did Asa's schizo ghost devil thing have to criticize literally everything he said? It was starting to get annoying. "And don't get impressed by it, Asa." Oh?

Asa was holding her arm and blushing. "At least rest a bit before you go throw yourself into danger again."

Yuko nodded. "Yep! I'm going to be resting too, for obvious reasons." She pointed at her wounded leg. "So we can be rest buddies. Let's try to pair up once again next semester or something."

For a moment, he was going to disagree, but after some consideration, he relented. "Okay, I'd rather work with you guys than go solo, I suppose." 

Also, he still didn't really know anything about his powers, if he even had them. So it was better to go on a training montage about control and self-discovery before getting into dangerous situations again.

The Asa lookalike clicked her tongue. "Don't go along with those two, Asa. Remember your mission." A mission, huh?

The girl frowned. "Actually... um... I won't be waiting for you two, sorry."

He smiled. "That's fine. And I wouldn't even be against helping, I genuinely don't feel tired at all." In fact, he felt more energetic than ever before, if he was being honest. "In fact, now that I know this, I might just show up!"

Yuko nodded. "Yeah, nobody wants to hold you back... I'm a bit curious now though. Why do you want to become a Devil Hunter...?"

The Asa lookalike glared at her. "Do not tell the truth to the girl."

Asa frowned. "I... um... It's just something I kind of want to do, I guess." So essentially the same as Ayumu. Although Asa was obviously not being honest.

Yuko hummed. "I see, can't blame you for that, devil hunting is pretty cool. It also pays pretty well." The exchange being that it was an incredibly dangerous job.

Also, Ayumu was pretty sure the members of the Devil Hunter Club didn't even get paid in the first place. All the club did was make your resume look prettier for when you eventually graduated and actually got a job as a member of Public Safety. It also didn't really help you train, as shown by the fact that to enter it was a sink-or-swim style mission.

Basically, it really seemed that the only reason to join the Devil Hunter Club was getting cute girls.

She looked at Ayumu. "And what about you? Why did you decide to join?"

To get some ass! "I just felt it was my duty to protect people." He pointed at himself. "Like I said before, I'm tough, so I better use that in some way that benefits society." He was lying through his teeth.

"Oh, that's pretty altruistic..." Yuko pouted. "In comparison to that I'm kind of a joke. My parents died in a devil attack, so I just kind of ended up feeling like this was the profession for me." Oh...

Ayumu now felt a bit worse about his desire.

It wasn't like he didn't know that there were many people who became Devil Hunters out of revenge, of course, but it still felt bad to actually meet someone like that. But it's not like he was doing any harm, right? The more people hunting devils, the better.

Asa's eyes widened. "I-I lost my mom to a devil attack too! To the T-Typhoon Devil... So I know how you feel." Two dark backstories!? 

And now he felt as if the two girls were looking at him, as if expecting something.

What was he supposed to do!? His parents were indeed dead, but his father had died in a car accident, and his mother had killed herself afterwards! It wasn't the type of thing that you could compare to being killed by devils...!

He stuttered out a lie. "M-my parents got killed by a devil too... Yeah." It was a shitty thing to do, but as long as they didn't find out, no harm done. Yeah.

Yuko let out a gasp. "Oh my gosh, it's like we are all dark avengers!" He was a fake avenger! "Are we protagonists of a manga or something!?"

Strangely enough, Asa frowned at that comment. Yuko quickly comforted her, however. "Ah, I'm not trying to pity you into waiting for me, Asa. We are all protagonists, not side characters, so no need to wait!"

That's right, everybody was the protagonist of their own story.

Some were more protagonist than others, however.

 

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Ayumu had expected weird things to happen due to his angel identity eventually.

Maybe a girl would trip and fall on top of him, leading to him accidentally grabbing her breasts. Maybe a devil would attack school, and he would have to defeat him while keeping his identity a secret. Maybe a distant relative would die and leave behind a huge inheritance, behind a huge mystery.

He hadn't expected some weirdo to suddenly bite his shoulder from behind.

As soon as it happened, his jaw hit the floor. What kind of ultimate sexual harassment was this!? And they weren't even being gentle either, he could feel them genuinely pressing their teeth as hard as they could.

He tried freeing his arm, to no avail. "Hey, can you please let me go?" It was such an insane situation that he didn't even scream.

His confusion outweighed whatever fear he could have possibly been fearing.

In his response to his pleas, the person simply let out a moan of pleasure. He couldn't quite see who was doing the biting, since it came from behind, but the voice sounded feminine.

He blushed. "U-um, I'm serious here. Please." Why was he the one feeling embarrassed!?

Since the strange person didn't seem to want to comply at all, he became more forceful in swatting her away. Eventually, maybe because he just got lucky or because the person came to their senses, he was freed.

He immediately turned around to get a good look at them.

He had been right. It was a girl biting him, and a super cute one. Which just made things outright unfair, really. How was he supposed to get mad at this weird cannibal when she was cute!?

He cleared his throat. "Um... an explanation, please."

The girl tilted her head, no emotion showing on her face. "You smelled yummy." Oh, understandable.

Like he would say that! What kind of excuse—.

Wait a second! "I smell...? Is that really it?" It was then that he noticed someone else.

There was a cute black-haired woman next to the strange girl, she was hiding her face in clear embarrassment. Was that her ghost? Or just someone watching this situation and not knowing what to do?

The strange girl nodded. "Yes."

And the girl next to her shrieked. "At least apologize! You just bit a dumbass teenager!" Was the dumbass really that necessary!?

The girl sighed. "Sorry for biting you."

Wow.

This girl was stupid in a special way.

That was kind of cute. "Hey, what's your name? Mine's Ayumu Sanada." 

"Call me Fami." Her name was kind of cute too.

Everything about her was cute... but she was most likely a devil. Assuming his earlier theories were true, of course. Which was kind of scary, just how many girls were secretly devils? Was this kind of like that lizard people talk conspiracy theorists would throw out?

This merited more investigation... and there was an easy way he could go about this. Though it was also incredibly embarrassing to pull it off, and he had never done so before. Also, it was kind of unwise in general.

But... it's not like he could ignore a girl biting him, right? "Okay, nice to meet you, Fami..." He took a deep breath. "Do you want to... um... hang out after school?" That's right, he was asking her out on a date.

He wouldn't outright call it a date though, because that way rejection would sting a lot less. He had already pretty much been rejected by both Asa and Yuko recently, so his heart needed time to recover before any crazy maneuvers.

He had free time after school, since that whole devil-hunting thing on whether he should rest or not hadn't really been solved. So Asa would understand. 

Fami considered for a moment. "I... hmm..."

The girl behind him gasped. "What kind of idiot asks someone out after that...!?" I-It's not like Fami would actually eat him. Even if she wanted to, she clearly wasn't strong enough to pull it off! "Just reject him so—."

"I guess I wouldn't mind going on a date with you." She read his true intentions! "As long as you pay for the food." 

He gave her a thumbs up. "I'll pay for everything, don't worry!" Typically he was a guy who lived a pretty frugal life, so he had a ton of money saved up.

Although... if Fami really was gluttonous enough to bite a stranger just because he smelled good, then maybe Ayumu knew a better place to take her than some random restaurant. A place that might save him money too!

Since this was the first date of his life, he would pull all the stops and definitely make this unknown devil his girlfriend!

 

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"He didn't show up." Asa Mitaka's expression was constantly shifting between anger and embarrassment. "He didn't even show up to say he wouldn't show up."

Yoru, the War Devil that lived inside of her head, raised an eyebrow. "You two didn't truly agree with anything, correct? This is more or less expected." She pouted. "So stop feeling like that."

Since the two shared a body, and more importantly, a brain, whatever Asa felt, she felt it too. Lest to say, suddenly having to deal with the problems of a teenager was quite the wild ride for the living embodiment of the fear of war.

Asa bit her lip. "He didn't show up." She was muttering to Yoru, it was a bad habit that she had developed, instead of speaking with her in her mind. "People are looking at me."

It was clear that she was waiting for someone, and also clear that this someone had not shown their face.

This was so embarrassing.

Yoru sighed. "It matters not, let us go on the hunt. It's not like the sugar-smelling boy would have been good for anything except being bait." Even if he would make for some damn fine bait.

Too fine a bait even, Yoru might get distracted by it.

Asa gritted her teeth. "Screw this. I'm gonna go home." There she would... scream at a pillow or something.

To no one's surprise, boys were stupid.

Yoru glared at her. "The clock is ticking, Asa, and I am not a patient woman. If you make us lose such a great opportunity to kill Chainsaw Man, I will kill you—wait a moment!"

"We can go later! Shut up!" Asa Mitaka was already walking away, covering her ears.