[1st POV]
"Sweet," was the first word that left my mouth when I entered Aki's apartment.
"Take off your shoes," Aki said quickly when I tried to enter deeper into the apartment. I kicked off the oversized shoes I had, which I got from Makima's subordinates, and strode into the apartment curiously.
"You are like a foreigner with no manners. I suppose it's true that you lost your memories," he commented, but I was focused more on his apartment.
One scan of the apartment and you immediately get a clue about what kind of person he was.
Tatami floors. Clean. Perfectly aligned. Not a single crease, stain, or footmark. The kind of floor that tells you to walk lightly because the owner would probably have a heart attack if you scuffed it.
The main room was a mix of living room and kitchen, but calling it a mix was being generous. It was basically a blank box with a low wooden table sitting a bit further away from the kitchen. The two spaces were so empty they were basically the same thing.
A couple of cushions were around it. There was no sofa, no lamps, and no decorations. Nothing suggested a person with hobbies or friends lived here.
To the left was a small fridge, a gas stove with two burners, a sink barely big enough for a plate, and a few cabinets. I opened said cabinets and found only instant coffee and basic utensils. Oh, there were some stacks of papers too, it seemed he had no better place to keep them.
There was a giant sliding window at the end of the apartment, which led to a nice balcony. That was about the only exciting thing about the apartment. Aki seemed to be a minimalist.
"That's my bedroom. You will be sleeping in the guest room," he said, pointing to the right, which had three different doors.
I reached for the door in the middle, but he stopped me.
"That's the toilet," he said, and pointed toward the door beside him on his left, "This is the bathroom,"
I suppose that meant the last door on the right is my new room. Sweet, but also I would die first in case of an attack from the front door.
"You have a nice home," I said. Although it was small and minimal, it was so much better than the room I was kept in. I couldn't complain.
"Can you cook?" he asked while making his way to the kitchen.
"Yes, but only meat," I said. As a butcher in my past life, I was eating meat every day. Every sale had leftovers that could not be sold, so I mostly ate those to save cash.
"Guess I will have to cook then," he said while opening his fridge, "I'm out of meat."
He took out some ingredients from the fridge and put them on the counter. He snatched an apron from the hanger and quickly wrapped it over his uniform.
"Say Nakahara..."
"Call me Jin, Nakahara is a mouthful. I'll also call you Aki," I said. He shrugged after a thought, finding no reason to deny it.
"Say Jin, why is Miss Makima so interested in you?" he asked.
"Is she interested in me?" I asked while sitting on the floor and playing with his pillow. I sniffed one, and it smelled new. It was obvious he spent more time out working than in his own home.
"New recruits are not put in a division right off the bat. And she asked me to take care of you. That means something," he said while chopping some vegetables.
I hummed in thought. Should I tell him?
Eh, why not? He was going to find out anyway, and Aki seemed like a good dude from what I've seen so far and from the anime.
"I'm a hybrid. I can turn into a devil," I said.
His cutting stopped, and he looked at me deeply, "I thought those were just rumours."
"It's not," I said.
"That makes sense then," he said. Maybe he sounded more relieved than intended because I caught on to it.
"You like Makima?" I asked.
"Huh? Where did that come from? And please refer to her as Miss; she is your superior," he said.
"Just a guess," I said. I think I remember him being deeply in love with her or something. "Can't even blame you, Miss Makima has very big breasts,"
"Please never talk about her like that again," he said firmly.
Simping much. Who am I kidding? I'd have a crush too if I didn't know her flag was redder than her hair.
It was hard to have a long conversation because we had just met, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be so hard to get along with him.
"What are you making?" I asked after a while. A while meaning I've touched basically everything in his living room and checked them out.
"Stir-fried vegetables," he said, "I'm done with the preparation, just need to wait a bit for the rice to finish, and I can fry them lightly. I want the dish to be hot when we eat."
"Sounds good to me," I said.
One thing I noticed since I regained clarity was that there was always a gnawing hunger at the pit of my stomach. It was not too severe, but it was always there. The hunger intensified when I turned into a devil.
Aki took off his apron and came to the living room. He walked past me and headed out to the balcony.
After a few seconds and realising I had nothing better to do, I stood up and went to the balcony as well. There, I saw Aki sitting on the chair at the corner and lighting a cigarette.
"Can I get one?" I asked.
"You smoke?" he asked while handing me a pack.
"Yes. It keeps the flies away when butchering," I said and took out one. I threw the packet back at him, and he threw the lighter at me.
I lit up the cigarette and took a long drag. Damn, I miss this feeling.
There was an odd silence between us as we smoked on the balcony. One thing about smoking was the ritualistic act of it. There cannot be awkward silence when two men smoke together.
"I thought you'd be more of a handful," Aki said when our cigarette was halfway. "But you're much easier to deal with than the other members, and the fiends,"
"I wonder what you expected," I said with a chuckle.
"Your report says that you would be mentally unstable or have serious trauma issues. I read what happened to you. It's hard to believe that you only escaped those tortures today," he said.
It was not just him; I was surprised at myself. I would never expect the way I casually embraced whatever fate was thrown at me. I should be more distressed, right?
"Maybe it's because I'm not a human anymore," I said in the end. "Perhaps it's the devil side of me that can't go insane,"
Aki took a long drag and blew out the smoke. He seemed to linger on my answer for a bit more than necessary.
"Sounds like a good trait," he said in a rather sober tone. Like he wished he could be like me and casually shrug off the horrible things that have happened to his life
I smiled, "It is."
A very good trait to have in this hellish world called Chainsawman.
...
...
////////////////////
(The next day)
We slept early that day, and we woke up early the next morning too. Aki did not make breakfast this time and said we would get something to eat while we were out on patrol.
"Do you usually patrol this early in the morning?" I said with a yawn while walking on the sidewalk in Tokyo.
The city was starting to wake up, too, but it was nowhere near as busy as it would be. I took in the sight of the gorgeous city. There was something about cities in the 1990s that felt oddly perfect.
"No, today's an exception," he said.
Just as I was wondering why today was an exception, he continued.
"I want to make sure we encounter a devil so that I can see you in action," he said, "And even if we didn't, we would end the patrol early and report back to Makima."
"Hmm? Why so?"
"I want to talk about arranging a different apartment for you quickly," he admitted.
I blinked, "Was I a bad roommate? This is not because I stayed too long in the toilet, is it?"
Fun fact, I have no shit. With the glorious things I've eaten both as a human and as a devil, I thought I would have an equally glorious shit. But surprise, surprise, I could not force out a single shit after an hour in the toilet.
Turns out, my body absorbed everything. There was no waste at all.
"No," Aki said, then continued after I thought he was not going to say anything else.
"You snore,"
"Huh?!" he was walking in front of me, so I quickened my pace to get close, "I do not!!"
"Like a pig," he said.
"I've never snored in life. I've even heard myself snore," I rebutted. I was not going to just stand there and let my dignity be tarnished by such a ridiculous accusation.
"I woke up five times last night. Each time I put a pillow on my head, it is a recommended action by the National Disaster Management. I thought there was an earthquake," he said with his plain voice.
"Stop exaggerating!!"
...
We went to a cafe when they finally opened in the morning. Aki and I took a seat on the outside so that we could smoke. It was easy to smoke more when you had a fellow smoker.
We ordered coffee and some baked goods. There was a decorated mirror on the side of the wall, and I stared at my reflection while waiting and smoking.
A young man on the thinner side stared back in the reflection. I did not like my shape at all because I was in pretty good shape in my past life. My profession naturally builds ripped arms, especially on the shoulders.
Light pink hair fell from my head to my neck. It was as long as my waist before the Scalpel Devil cut it while cutting off my head. My facial features could be described as quite soft, but the jawline made them seem muscular.
I was actually a pretty dude when I took a good look. A stark contrast to the abomination from I took while in devil form.
"Do you think I should cut my hair?" I asked Aki while staring at my reflection.
"Do you have money?"
"I figured you'd borrow me some," I said.
"I know a guy," he said after a thought.
"No, I only need your money. Don't recommend me a your barber," I said, and that caught him completely off guard.
He stared at me, "Why not?"
I did not give him a reply. But I turned to him and moved my eyes to stare at the manbun he had on the top of his head.
He was taken aback, "What's wrong with my hair?"
I raised my hand quickly, innocent, "I didn't say anything?"
"Ya, but insinuate it," he accused me.
I shook my head, "I don't know what you're talking about. No one said anything about your man bun."
"You just did. And please don't call it a man bun," he said.
"Fine, and I'll call this chair a stool," I still acted innocent.
Just then, the waitress gave us our coffee and the baked goods. Aki begrudgingly decided to drop the subject, and we ate our breakfast quickly.
After we finished, we were right back to patrolling the city. It was slow going. Tokyo was way more peaceful than I expected. Perhaps the dangerous events were blown out of proportion because the anime covered only those exciting moments.
I learned that most days, Tokyo was peaceful. And even if devils appeared, the Devil Hunters were quick to deal with them without any casualties.
But before I could hold on to this belief for long, we got a call of emergency. There was a devil outbreak near we quickly responded to the call. It was around noon when it happened. At that point, we were near the end of our patrol.
When we reached the location, the police quickly informed us about what had happened. A devil had appeared and became a fiend after the police tried to kill it themselves.
We quickly made our way inside the house, where they surrounded the fiend. There, we saw an old man whose body was taken over by a devil.
"The card devil," I said when I saw the shape of hearts and spades on the bulging eyes of the devil. "Who the hell is afraid of cards?"
"Well, magicians do use them to slice vegetables, I think," Aki said and quickly checked the rooms for any civilians.
He put his hand on the handle of his sword he had on his back, but he didn't make a move. "I'll leave it to you," he said instead.
And so I stepped forward. The fiend tried to run away from me, but I cornered it in the kitchen. When it saw no way to escape, it lunged at me.
I reacted fast and caught the fiend. There was no need to pull or do some action to activate my devil power. It was only a matter of intention.
My arms bulged and grew in size to firmly grasp the devil. And then my head grew. My face began morphing to that of a pig, the colour of my skin turning darker and more demonic as I transformed.
My lower jaw split to make my mouth even wider, and with a sudden clamp, I bit off the fiend's head with one bite.
I swallowed the head, and my head turned to normal again. My first instinct was to look at Aki, and I saw slight horror and disgust on his face.
He only relaxed when he saw my normal face again.
"The pig devil, huh," he said, putting his hands down from his sword handle.
...
"Make sense why you snore like a pig,"
"I don't snore!!"
...
[IMAGE]
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