Occasionally, there are parking spaces in the mountains where drivers can take a break.
It's just a place to park your car. Unlike an interchange, there are no shops. At best, there might be one or two old vending machines, and most drivers stop there just to use the restroom.
The long van that Denji and the others were riding in stopped at that parking space for their final restroom break.
The ones who got out were Nayuta and Reze, and Uchiyamada, the public security officer who had been driving the whole way up to that point.
Uchiyamada—a middle-aged, bald man with an arrogant personality—got out of the car and warned Denji and the others who were still inside.
"Listen, this car—the Remember Cresta—was just delivered. Don't get it dirty or scratch it. And just in case, although I don't think it will happen, I won't forgive you if you drive it without permission. Got it? Absolutely not?"
"Oh, really?"
"The answer is yes."
"Oh, really?"
After watching the bald Public Security officer rush into the men's restroom, emphasizing his point repeatedly, Denji slumped back onto the seat.
The only ones left in the car are Denji and the Devil of False Accusation.
These two aren't particularly close. In fact, Denji dislikes her because she doesn't even try to hide her condescending attitude. She's similar to Power in her bossy nature, but the Devil of False Accusations has a sticky malice in her words and actions. It goes without saying which is better, a child's malice or an adult's malice.
Denji stared blankly at the low ceiling, contemplating his next move. How could he steer the conversation towards swimming in the river and catch a glimpse of her in her swimsuit? He hadn't given up yet.
"The North Wind and the Sun..."
It reminded him of an educational TV fable. He wondered if it could suddenly get incredibly hot right now, forcing the two girls to take off their clothes. Denji crossed his arms and began to groan. He wished there was a powerful devil that could control the weather... like the Sun Devil, for example. If one appeared right now, he would make a contract with it in a heartbeat. As he was thinking such pointless thoughts, he heard a disgruntled click of the tongue, "Damn it."
I glanced over.
The devil of false accusations was biting his thumbnail.
"I forgot my insect repellent."
"a?"
"I have to go back and buy it."
"Even demons can't get bitten by insects?"
"Of course. They're living creatures with blood flowing through them. ...Oh, there was a convenience store earlier. I'll go back."
Saying that, he leaned forward towards the front seat and tried to sit in the driver's seat.
Denji watched the shapely buttocks as they moved about,
"Why don't you just walk?"
"No, it's too much trouble."
"Can't you drive?"
"My driver's license is platinum."
"Hmmmm...?"
The devil of false accusations fastened his seatbelt with a click. He adjusted the angle of the rearview mirror and turned the ignition key.
The engine started.
"...Huh? Are you serious about driving?"
Denji snapped back to reality. This was no time to be daydreaming about the buttocks and body shape of adult women.
Upon closer inspection, the devil had already released the handbrake. Without hesitation, he pressed the accelerator.
A deafening roar, loud enough to shake the vehicle, emanates.
But we made absolutely no progress.
"hey hey"
"Oh, the gear isn't engaged. Let's see..."
As I said this, I glanced around the driver's seat. I found the gear shift lever. I gripped it tightly, but it wouldn't move, so I groaned and tightened my grip. There was an ominous creaking sound.
The woman realized she hadn't pressed the brake pedal.
"This is so annoying. I wish I could just press a button and start like in a video game."
"game...?"
"Doesn't this seem kind of bad?" Denji thought.
Can this guy really drive?
It was something that could be easily understood with a little thought.
Demons don't have official records. Therefore, the possibility of an innocent demon who just put the gear lever into drive possessing a driver's license was zero. She probably only has experience driving a car through video games.
Power's smug smile flashed through Denji's mind.
"Wait a minute."
and,
The accelerator pedal was pressed all the way down.
@
"Okay, all three of them have gone into the toilet. Now the only ones left in the car are the target, the man with the saw, and his female bodyguard."
From the shadows of a tree overlooking the parking area, the three American copycat brothers were observing the situation.
It was an opportunity. The target was almost completely isolated.
Immediately, the fake Reze and fake Nayuta stood up and pointed their fingers at the third son behind them.
"We'll bring the saw-toothed man here now! You stay on standby! Got it?!"
"Hmph, then I'll finish this in style."
The fake Reze and fake Nayuta made faces as if they'd bitten into something bitter at the incomprehensible reply. But they didn't have time to check on the third son's sanity. They had to get Hayakawa Denji out before the real Reze and Nayuta returned from the restroom.
The two imposters nodded to each other and then sped off towards the van.
The youngest son grinned. Once he confirmed his brothers had moved away, he took his smartphone from his pocket. With smooth movements, he connected to the streaming site and started a live stream, focusing on his two brothers as they approached the Long Van.
The live broadcast is about to begin.
"Hey guys! Sorry to keep you waiting! As promised, we're bringing you live footage of a demon hunt today! Our target is that saw-toothed man, Chainsaw Man! Now, my brothers are going to lure him out, and I'm going to take him down in style! So, watch closely, okay? My brothers, disguised as his associates, are approaching the car..."
Suddenly, a roaring sound echoed from the long van.
The rear wheel spun wildly, gripping the asphalt. In that instant, it accelerated rapidly—
Both of them were sent flying.
The third son had never seen a person flying while spinning like a dolphin before.
@
I've never seen the devil of false accusations before.
Denji couldn't see it.
Because he had crashed through the windshield and was rolling across the asphalt.
I wasn't wearing my seatbelt.
That's what made the difference between success and failure.
It rolled nearly 10 meters, bouncing with a blunt, emotionless thud like a corpse from an old open-world game, before finally coming to a halt.
"G... g..."
Blood was being vomited and nosebleeds were spreading across the road.
It was exactly like a murder scene. Next to the dying Denji, the real Nayuta and Reze, who had just come out of the toilet, stood there with their mouths agape.
"Huh, what...?"
"What is this... what?"
Even the Demon of Control, and even the former elite agent, couldn't help but be bewildered.
I went to the toilet, and when I came back, Denji was dead.
"I...I'm alive..."
Nearby, two girls lay face down, and a long van with its windshield shattered into pieces was heavily dented in the front, as if confessing, "I hit them here." And to top it all off,
!?
"M-My Crestaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
Uchiyamada, the driver for the Public Security Bureau, was weeping uncontrollably.
5 hours remaining
Осталось 5 часа.
"Whyy
The parking area in the mountains had turned into a chaotic mess.
Nayuta is still frozen.
Reze hunched over just a little.
"Ahhh..."
The only option is to simply shut down and remove the emotional shutters.
"I wanted to play pretend leisure games."
Muttering to himself, he grabbed Nayuta, who was staring blankly, by the collar.
"ngh"
Hearing the cries that escaped his lips, he threw him into the women's restroom behind him. Next, he grabbed the bloodied boy at his feet by his belt and threw him in as well.
"--"
There was no reaction from this person.
Finally, he retreated into the bathroom himself, crouched down, and carefully used a hand mirror to observe the situation outside. At the same time, he also checked Denji's level of consciousness.
"Denji? Hello? Do you know your last name and date of birth?"
As he said this, he reached out to the fallen Denji and fumbled through his clothes. He pulled up his jacket from his stomach and found a hard foreign object with his fingertips. It was the Chainsaw Man starter.
"I was hoping it would last at least while I went to the restroom."
I pulled it.
Buzz
"Ah...! Oh... I thought I was going to die."
"You probably would have died."
"Seriously...?"
Denji sat up abruptly. He remained dazed for a while, his face showing signs of rapture, but gradually, wrinkles of frustration began to appear between his eyebrows.
"Ah, ahh, that devilish bastard, he's starting to really piss me off..."
"What happened?"
"That female devil blew me away."
"Huh? Is that the Devil of False Accusations? Why?"
Then, in the hand mirror, the door of the wrecked long van swung open.
A grown woman stepped out of the driver's seat. With the face of a demon of wrongful conviction, she looked around with the utmost composure. She glanced at the two girls lying on the ground in the parking lot and completely ignored the middle-aged man from the public security bureau who was kneeling nearby, lamenting the sorrows of life. Her utterly calm demeanor was all the more unsettling.
"Phew"
She noticed Reze pushing the hair behind her ear and waving from the entrance of the women's restroom.
He crossed his arms dramatically.
He slowly approached them and then uttered this one sentence.
"Hayakawa Denji hit him. It's not my fault."
"Huh?!"
Denji instinctively jumped out.
"I didn't do it! How dare you tell such a lie!"
"What!?"
It was a truly compelling performance.
The devil of false accusations covers his mouth with his hand as if he can't believe it, and shakes his head dramatically, acting out the rage that is slowly rising within him.
"You're not going to blame it on someone else...!? You... murderer!"
"Scary?! Reze, this demon is a liar!"
"No! Demons can't lie! Only humans lie!"
"There's no such setting! You're the proof, you idiot! You lying piece of shit!"
"Reze, I swear I wasn't driving! Besides, how can a devil drive?! It's Hayakawa Denji's fault! Really!"
"Arrest him! Arrest him! You're under arrest for lying and defaming!"
"Hey..."
"a little bit"
Nayuta slithered out of the women's restroom with a ghostly look on her face.
"Can you be quiet?"
"Ah"
The devil of false accusations twitches his cheek and averts his gaze.
"I can do it!"
Nayuta smiled. With eyes devoid of the warmth characteristic of demons, she looked at the two suspects side by side.
"There was a loud bang just now. I guess that police car ran over someone lying there?"
"Yes! That's right! But it wasn't me!"
"Not me! It was you!"
"...Honestly, I don't really care who hit whom. It's not for me to decide."
"What!?"
Lili
Electronic sounds echoed in the cramped toilet.
Nayuta fumbled in her pockets without even moving the muscles in her cheeks.
"Hello? Yes, yes—"
She calmly answered questions, drawing the attention of everyone except Reze, who was keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings. Denji and the Devil of False Accusation looked at the little devil anxiously. The youngest girl in the room was in control of the situation.
"yeah"
Nayuta held out her cell phone.
"Me?"
The one who received it was the devil of false accusations.
With careful movements, he placed it near his ear,
"It's the shore."
"cormorant..."
I heard the voice of the man who truly had the power to decide on their treatment.
"I saw it all. Stay there for a moment. I'll be right there."
"Wait! This must be some kind of mistake... Yes, it's a false accusation!"
"You're the one saying that?"
At that moment, Reze raised her voice.
"Oh, Denji, Nayuta, look."
He was pointing to the two corpses lying just outside.
"His appearance and physique have changed. He's a grown man... Was he altered by the power of a demon?"
The bodies were supposed to be those of two girls.
Suddenly, they've transformed into two middle-aged men. Their motionless, breathless posture makes them look anything but Japanese. Furthermore, if they were transformed by demonic power, they certainly aren't civilians.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The devil of false accusations twists his mouth into a triumphant grin.
"Heh heh, I thought so."
"ah?"
"These are the assassins! It seems I was the only one who noticed!"
"Huh? What's that?"
Denji looked down at his ripped surf shorts and blood-stained sportswear, his frustration clearly visible. They were tattered and a mess.
"I can't accept this! I feel like something like this has happened before!"
"Wahahahahaha!"
Reze looked around, making a conscious effort to keep her emotions hidden.
A parking lot in the countryside.
A dented long van.
Two corpses lie sprawled on the asphalt, where tiny shards of glass are scattered.
It was a tragedy.
What would have happened if the other party had been a civilian? It would surely have been a far more serious matter. Although, if the accident had happened in his home country, everything would probably have been covered up.
Kishibe mercilessly pronounces the verdict.
"You devil of false accusations. Don't move from there."
"picture?"
"We won't know if they're really assassins unless we investigate."
"Huh? Can't you use your imagination a little more? There's no way those guys who change their appearance and approach you aren't assassins, right?"
"So, do you know the identities of those men lying there?"
"Enemy, enemy!"
"Who are you and where are you from?"
"That's not true,"
There's no way to know.
If the dead men were famous devil hunters, Reze would have recognized their faces. But the girl, still cautiously surveying her surroundings, shook her head and said, "I don't know."
Similarly, Nayuta didn't know either.
Denji also said, "How should I know, you idiot?"
And the public security officers on the other end of the phone also had no answers.
"So, there's a possibility that the person you ran over was just an unlucky civilian devil hunter."
"...Tch."
The woman sensed that things were going badly for her.
He interrupted the valid point with a long, long sigh.
"Haaaaaahhhh. That's why rotten balls are so annoying."
"a?"
"More devil discrimination. It's so awful. My hands are shaking and I can't stop crying."
"What are you talking about?"
"Shut up. All I want to hear is empathy."
No sooner had I said it than the devil of false accusations appeared.
He kicks off the asphalt and leaps forward with the force of a bullet. His jumping ability is superhuman.
They disappeared in an instant.
A gust of wind whistled through the open space of the parking lot.
"Seriously?"
Nayuta slowly picked up her phone and muttered softly.
"You ran away."
Next, Denji.
"That's the kind of pattern where they don't come back."
Reze turned around abruptly. She stared at them for a full five seconds, but the Hayakawa siblings showed no sign of retracting their statement.
"You've got to be kidding me? Is this kind of thing even allowed in Japan?"
"Hmm, I don't think so. But he is a demon, after all."
"Please don't lump me in with them."
"Oh, really? Then the Public Security Bureau is too lenient."
"...We're going to catch him."
"That's all there is to it."
Reze looked around in all directions. Not only the nearby buildings, but also every single tree in the distant mountain landscape. Was someone lurking, or any trace left behind? Her eyes gleamed with more precision than a telephoto lens. She whispered to herself so no one could hear.
...I wonder if they're even motivated.
@
The third son instinctively lowered the telescope.
I thought my position might be revealed by the reflection of light from the lens.
Of course, I know there's no need to worry about that. I'm hiding in the shadows of the mountains; even if my opponent had devil-like eyesight, they shouldn't be able to spot me.
However, even knowing that, I was still intimidated by the sharpness of the girl Reze's gaze.
A coldness reminiscent of a bird of prey.
A determination and intimidating presence that shows no prey will escape.
I knew the appearance of that girl who was the only one who remained vigilant—the weaponized human known as Reze.
I had just passed her at the supermarket and seen up close the form my brother had transformed into. I had the impression she was just a young woman, a beautiful woman. However, the look in her eyes that I saw from a distance through a telephoto lens just now was so different that she didn't seem like the same creature. It was as if her inner self had completely changed.
That's the real deal.
A true professional working in the underworld, something that we three brothers never managed to achieve.
Before I knew it, I was backing away and running away.
To put some distance between us, we ventured into the mountainous area where there were no roads.
They ran away, they ran away.
What we found at the end of our journey was a narrow ridge trail.
Looking up, the densely colored leaves completely obscured the sky, blocking even the dappled sunlight. It wasn't even 2 PM yet, but it was as dark as before sunset. I didn't know which way to take the ridge trail to get down the mountain.
You can easily find that out by comparing your smartphone's location data with a map.
Look at the screen.
The live broadcast was still active.
"mother..."
On the screen, viewers are engaged in a heated debate.
Broadcast accidents, the person who was hit by a car, the legitimacy of Japanese public security officers, the morality of broadcasters, the ethics of the devil hunter industry, what is justice, what is a devil, and the laws that the government should enact and establish—
They're all idiots.
These guys just want to argue. They want to put others down with comments, they want to feel like they're part of some big movement and be an insider—they're just scumbags who want to feel good about themselves through fiction.
So, if you offer a slightly extreme incident like this, they'll jump on it immediately. Kids who are at the age where they want to worship and narcissists who are obsessed with criticizing will heat up the atmosphere on their own and boost the view count.
See? The dollar money is piling up at such a rapid pace that it makes working hard seem pointless.
The ignorant masses were engaging in their own arbitrary debates, but everyone wanted the same outcome.
I want to see more! Do more!
"Hahaha..."
Shall I give it a try?
All I have to do is fight moderately and escape while it's still safe. It's far more profitable than hunting demons as a devil hunter. And best of all, an unbelievable number of people pay attention to me and affirm me. There's nothing that feels better than this.
But.
In the end, it was just empty support thrown around by complete strangers whose faces and names I didn't even know.
"Are my brothers really dead...?"
The murmur slipped into my ears. Even though I was the one who spoke, it sounded like the voice of a man I didn't know.
My brothers died.
That realization finally sinks in.
"Why"
I know. Because he was hit by a car.
Because I messed up in the middle of the work.
This job was said to be particularly dangerous. They should have been prepared for this to happen.
But then why did you take on such a dangerous job?
—I need a lot of money. So that I can live comfortably even after I retire.
It was all for my own sake.
I deliberately put myself in danger in order to force myself to retire from being a devil hunter, as I was reaching the limits of my mental endurance.
There were safer and easier jobs available.
My brothers weren't strangers.
I finally remembered that.
"Hey guys... Listen to me. My brothers are dead. I have to finish the job I took on as a devil hunter. You'll support me, right?!"