Seconds passed in dead silence… until the stillness was shattered by the sound of something disturbing the lake's surface.
An arm emerged from the water's edge, followed by the body of a white-haired boy.
"I really need to stop getting caught in explosions…" Desmon muttered, spitting out water as he collapsed heavily onto the ground.
The moment the blast started, his instincts screamed that no matter how far he ran, it would still reach him. Everything would be wiped out. But then his eyes caught the lake.
It was his only shot.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Asako and dove in, swimming with every ounce of strength he had. He plunged to the depths, wrapping himself around her like a human shield—just before hell erupted behind them.
Even underwater, the blast made the lake tremble like it wanted to boil. Shockwaves rocked the depths, tearing up sediment and sending seething bubbles to the surface.
"Asako, you still alive?" He asked, turning his head—only to find no one there.
He blinked a few times, then remembered… Asako might still be at the bottom of the lake.
-Maybe she's a mermaid? He thought for a second.
Wasting no time, he dove back in. After a few tense moments, he surfaced again, this time hauling Asako's body and laying her gently on the shore.
"You know, I kind of miss the days when we only met during chases, not disasters." He said with a half-smile, trying to catch his breath as he looked over what remained of the area.
He sighed, waiting for Asako to respond—but she didn't.
She had been dragged deep underwater… and there was no way she could've held her breath that long.
"I don't think JB's going to take it well if her friend died in the line of duty…"
Desmon might seem reckless, but he's far from clueless—he knows exactly what to do in an emergency, thanks to his time with the NYPD.
He moved beside Asako's body, ready to apply what he'd learned for water rescues.
She lay motionless, like a sleeping princess cursed by a wicked witch, awaiting the kiss of a prince to wake her so they could live happily ever after.
But Desmon wasn't a prince—he'd be the hunter who killed the witch, then went out drinking with the reward money.
"Wake up!"
His fist struck the center of her chest with enough force to be effective, but not enough to break anything. She jolted awake instantly, coughing violently and spewing water.
"Good afternoon—or maybe good evening? Honestly, I can't really tell with this sky, hahaha."
Above them, the sky was pitch-black, thick clouds blotting out any trace of Japan's usual blue.
"Where… what… happened…?"
Asako's mind was still reeling—the last thing she remembered was JB's voice, and then everything blurred. Before she could process anything, water pressure hit her like a truck.
"Everything went boom." Desmon said casually, making a small hand gesture. "But we survived, so that's what counts."
"Explosion… survive…?"
Her eyes scanned the area, realizing all nearby structures had vanished without a trace.
"You've got to be kidding…"
"Surprised?" He tilted his head.
"Of course I am! I mean… how did we even survive that explosion!?"
"You know… movie magic."
"As if I'd believe that!"
Taking a deep breath, Asako noticed they were still near the lake, and her soaked clothes confirmed Desmon had pulled her in.
"And maybe I left you at the bottom for a minute, but hey, you're alive, and that's what matters." He said with a grin.
Desmon stood up and offered her a hand.
Asako stared at it wide-eyed for a moment, then shook her head.
"Guess that means we're even now." She grabbed his hand and stood.
With nothing left to do there, they started walking toward the nearest road. The explosion had surely drawn the attention of the authorities—and JB had likely sent a team as soon as they lost contact with Asako. Her phone wasn't waterproof.
"Is this something you do often?" Asako asked.
Once they reached the road, it would still take a while for help to arrive.
"If you mean dealing with demons, yeah, that's routine. Surviving explosions? Not as often… but it's happened."
Who better than Desmon to give a crash course on what not to do when bailing out of an exploding aircraft.
"I thought you were just some guy who ignored traffic laws… but I guess the world's a lot bigger than it seems, huh?"
Dealing with demons on a daily basis would be way too exhausting for Asako. Her job as a traffic officer suddenly doesn't seem so bad.
"The world's full of surprises. You get used to it." He shrugged.
Since he started living alone, he's seen strange places and met some even stranger people—some who seem straight out of a movie.
Slowly, the dark clouds covering the sky begin to dissipate, as if signaling the end of the day.
"I wonder how much longer they'll take…" Asako yawned.
"By the way, how far is it from here to Chiba City?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I mean how long it would take by car to where I'm staying. Or if someone lends me a motorcycle, I'll return it… eventually."
Asako looked at him like he was a complete idiot.
"I think you're misunderstanding something."
"Misunderstanding what?"
"Once they come pick us up, we'll be questioned about the incident—since, you know, an entire research facility just exploded. After that, I need to process you and issue your speeding tickets."
"Ehhhh?! How long will that take?"
-Is there no appreciation for the guy who took down a demon?
The police can be seriously ungrateful.
"A few hours. But I'm too tired, so I'll just toss you in a holding cell and finish the paperwork tomorrow." She said it like it was no big deal.
Desmon might be a demon hunter, but he's still breaking the law.
"Didn't you say I earned a break?"
"You can sleep on the way there—and at the station. Don't worry, I'll make sure you get a nice dinner before I go out for drinks."
He was reminded just how incompatible he is with law enforcement—whether it's here or back in America.
Glancing at the road, a truck was approaching.
-I'll figure it out once I'm far away from here…
"Your offer's tempting, but I've had enough for one day. Not really a fan of being locked up, so… later."
"What do you..."
Asako tried to reply, but the demon hunter vanished before her eyes. She looked around frantically.
"Catch you later, Police-chan!!"
From the top of the moving truck, Desmon waved casually as he rode off.
-When did he even—?!
There's just no stopping him once he teleports right as the vehicle passes.
"Don't run away!!"
Her words fell on deaf ears as the truck faded into the distance.
"No point yelling… really." She shook her head, but couldn't help smiling.
She already knew—Desmon's not a bad guy. Just an idiot who breaks traffic laws.
''Next time, I'll catch you.''
With that thought in mind, she waited a few more minutes for the authorities to arrive.
...
"This day's been so long it feels like months have passed…"
Desmon let out a tired yawn as he climbed the stairs of the apartment complex where Shizuka lived.
Night had already fallen, the sky completely dark. How long had it taken to get back to Chiba?
Saying the trip home was exhausting would be an understatement—from jumping on a moving train to dodging the police who saw him do it.
Who says riding on top of a bullet train is illegal anyway?
-Though jumping between cars to shake off the cops was fun.
The people who witnessed it thought a movie was being filmed—after all, it's not every day you see someone leaping across a highway like that.
Life's not easy without money. Though Desmon has ways to get whatever he needs, that only brings more work—and he refuses to do anything he doesn't want to.
Maybe if he hadn't overdone things… and if that organization hadn't tried to kill him, both sides could've saved themselves a lot of trouble.
But hey, everything happens for a reason.
After all, what kind of world can't take down a teenager with hundreds of assassins?
"Finally, home." He sighed in relief as he stood in front of his teacher's—and client's—apartment.
He instinctively searched for the spare key Shizuka had given him, but came up empty. The lab clothes he was wearing didn't have them.
-Hopefully she's home. Otherwise I'll have to explain why her door's broken later…
Before testing how sturdy her door was, he knocked a couple of times.
Luckily for his teacher's bank account, she opened it just seconds later.
"Forgot your keys?"
A black-haired woman in a sleeveless top and shorts greeted him.
Desmon was so tired he didn't even comment on how good those clothes looked on her—or how they highlighted Shizuka's beauty.
"Thanks for the warm welcome." He said as he walked inside.
"Don't tell me you lost it…" She muttered while closing the door and heading to the living room, noticing that her roommate was wearing a completely different outfit from the one he had on that morning.
"Where did you get those clothes?"
She looked him over, realizing Desmon looked more like a scientist than she did, wearing the classic white lab coat she usually wore at school.
"From a lab. I was going to return it later, but I doubt they'll take it back now." He shook his head subtly as he walked to the kitchen and pulled out a box of cookies Shizuka had hidden.
"With those rips, no way they'd take it back. What were you even doing?" She tilted her head, trying to guess how a simple hospital visit could've taken so long. "And how did you find where I hid them!?"
"I'm exhausted. I'll tell you another day." He replied nonchalantly, popping cookies into his mouth.
"Don't eat all the cookies…"
Seeing Desmon devour the cookies like a vacuum, she rushed to stop him—but the moment she tried to grab him, he vanished into thin air.
"Huh? He was right here—where did he go?"
She glanced around, only to spot him lying comfortably on the couch.
"How did you do that? You've never done that before!"
As a fan of anime and fighting manga, Desmon pulling off a new move immediately sparked her interest.
To Shizuka, it looked like he had teleported—not just moved fast, something she'd seen him do many times—but as if he had broken the laws of physics.
"A new trick I picked up… now that I think about it, you're good at naming things. Mind coming up with one?" He said absentmindedly, fluffing a sofa pillow.
"Are you serious!?"
"Don't want to?"
"Of course I do!! Should I mix Japanese with English? Or go full English? Maybe Latin…" She began mumbling to herself, slipping into her own little world.
Desmon was terrible at naming things, so leaving it to someone else was easier. Not that he planned to shout the name every time he teleported.
"I want to sleep. So, can you keep it down?"
"Sleep? It's still early—it's not even midnight."
"I had a long, dark day… and I don't think I'll want to eat crab for a while."
"Are you an old man or something?"
"Tch. Just let me sleep for three days."
Shizuka watched him with curiosity. What happened to this troublesome guy to wear him out so much? Still, she knew he wouldn't tell her anything until after his doctor-recommended 72-hour nap.
-Guess I'll let him sleep…
"DESMON!!!"
"What part of 'I want to sleep' didn't you understand?" He grumbled.
"I forgot to tell you—you got a weird briefcase delivered. It was pretty heavy to move. What's in it?"
"Hmmm… A briefcase?"
His curiosity piqued, he got off the couch and walked toward the door, where—just as Shizuka had said—a strange black briefcase sat.
"You're not gonna do that teleport thing again, are you?"
"I value my life… and the cookies in my stomach."
"You're so weird."
He ignored that last comment from his otaku teacher and focused on the briefcase.
Desmon picked it up like it weighed nothing and examined it, even knocking on it to make sure it wasn't a bomb—though that wouldn't have helped much if it were.
"You didn't buy something with my credit card, did you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Of course not. Just subscribed to a few websites.''
"Good to kno—wait, WHAT!?"
"Didn't say anything."
She'd definitely be checking her bank statements tomorrow and giving him an earful if needed, but for now, her curiosity about the briefcase's contents was stronger.
"Looks like it needs a key or a passcode… Are you some kind of spy?"
Her expectations of the demon hunter kept growing, as if he had lived some epic life before arriving in Japan.
"I'm bad at keeping secrets, and I talk too much. I'd make a terrible spy."
"Fair enough. You are ridiculously honest."
"Thanks for the compliment."
Focusing on the briefcase as if it were nothing special—and proving that obstacles exist to be broken—Desmon opened it with brute force.
"Oh right… I think I ordered this a few months ago. Took them long enough to get all the specs I wanted. Hopefully it won't break again."
He smiled at the contents.
"You know what they say—if something's good, why not have two?"
Looks like Christmas came early for him.
…
I guess that brings us to the halfway point of the first part.
Thanks to Kagenra's arc, I learned a lot—like, for example, not to drag things out too much, lol.
Originally, after Kagenra showed up a second time, I planned to wrap things up in two or three chapters max. But I wanted to take the chance to include elements that will matter later, so I wouldn't have to explain them again or add more depth to future events... my bad.
Part of me is still satisfied with the result, though, since my first drafts stretched the plot even further—but I ended up cutting those ideas.
As for my absence, it's because I changed a lot of things regarding Desmon's abilities. Plus, with Kurox being under maintenance, a bunch of events that were supposed to happen became impossible. So I had to rethink how to replace those scenes.
At the same time, new ideas started popping into my head—stuff I might not even use in the end. And that kind of overthinking makes it hard to focus when writing, lol.
Maybe I also got a little too into farming for a certain character in a certain gacha game... but that's just a minor detail.
As for the direction of the story, I think it'll stay mostly the same.
Although, I do want to include flashbacks or scenes of Desmon talking about things that happened before he came to Japan—like his time in New York.
And here comes another issue: if you already think Desmon's kind of a bastard who follows his own rules, well… he used to be way worse.
Being more "flexible" with job requests is one thing.
But when someone tries to threaten him or act like they're above him?
That usually ends with Desmon sending them on a one-way trip.
Someone with Desmon's power vs. an average person?
Not pretty… at least, not for the idiots who underestimate him.
Once you're used to something, it's hard to let go of it.
So, why bring this up? Simple. Desmon is a demon.
And as we all know, Japan has demon hunters.
If talking things out doesn't work… well, you can guess the outcome.
Am I trying to justify why he's a killer with zero remorse?
Maybe. Or maybe I just want to show how experience shaped him into someone more considerate over time.
But in the end, I'll go with whatever feels right in the moment.
I might change my mind and scrap all this—making that explanation totally pointless.
I'm an idiot… probably.
Anyway, as a small preview, here are some upcoming chapter titles for the rest of the first part:
-Utaha Has a Request
-Double Date
-School Is Creepy
-И вот так, дети, я познакомился с вашей матерью
-Saint of the Sword
-Jūōbatsu: The Horror of the Realms
-A Clumsy Teacher
-Yoshi and Miyu