It's All The Same Meat Anyway (Chainsaw Man/CARRION) (SI-OC) (Angel AU)

[Neurax]

AN: This fanfic contains spoilers for Chainsaw Man part 1, and it is recommended you should at least be familiar with the plot of Chainsaw Man to understand what is going on. As this fanfic was written before Chainsaw Man Part 2, and as CSM part 1 is mostly told through the perspective of Denji, which is incredibly limited, I've had to do a bit of possible non-canon worldbuilding to make ends meet as the SI interacts with the world. Which is why I've labeled this as AU.

The other crossover, CARRION, is more or less a video game where you play as an unknown biological creature inspired by The Thing (1982) as you escape from a massive military lab complex populated by hostile humans and robots. CARRION doesn't really have much in the way of a story, so don't worry if you don't know anything about it. There are technical spoilers for CARRION as the SI showcases the monster's abilities, but CARRION is not a very long game (easily completed in 3-5 hours) so I'm not going to bother giving a spoiler warning for that. What little story that was in CARRION has been altered in order for it to fit in with the CSM universe.

This story is also on Spacebattles and Ao3.

Summary: In which a hapless SI isekaied into the world of Chainsaw Man tries his very best to change the future of the original story for the better… all the while having to deal with his newfound monstrous hunger pangs on top of maintaining a fake identity as a human Devil Hunter working for Public Safety, trying to be a good father figure for Denji, and having practically everyone Devil and human alike hunting him down for answers he doesn't have.

With all the odds stacked so heavily against him, one might think he'd be better off staying far, far away from the main cast of Chainsaw Man. But when you're a flying spaghetti monster that's apparently what qualifies as a biblical angel and is what serves as a natural predator to all forms of devilkind here, suddenly the task of changing the future doesn't seem that impossible.

Especially when Makima, resident evildoer and main villain of the story's first part who poses the most immediate threat to Denji and Pochita's safety unexpectedly decides that for whatever godforsaken reason she wants to enthusiastically "befriend" you and refuses to accept "no" as an answer, no matter how many times she is rebuffed. If anything, it's encouraging her.

This can only end well.

Prologue

The president of the United States of America was not having a good day.

Just a few hours earlier, a tremendous earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale had struck the entire western half of the North American continent, causing untold amounts of property damage and hundreds if not thousands of civilian deaths and injuries.

The most obvious conclusion was that barring an incredibly unfortunate stroke of misfortune involving natural disasters, it was likely an attack of Devil origin from a rival nation, or worse, a complete unknown hostile.

Receiving a phone call almost immediately from the Chairman of China, who didn't want a full-blown war on their hands with the United States, reluctantly revealed they had a contract with the Earthquake Devil and confirmed from it that the earthquake was not of devil origin.

Normally, that wouldn't have been taken at face value, given the increasing tension that had been steadily rising between the two nations over the past few years, but not even 1 hour later, someone with information on why the earthquake had happened stepped forward.

The CEO of Relith Science, bound in handcuffs and "escorted" by CIA agents.

Relith Science was a corporation that on the surface dealt in mining and excavation equipment, but in reality, was an off-the-books paramilitary organization that manufactured autonomous robots and weapons adept at dealing with Devils and sold them to the American government.

Apparently, they'd also been experimenting on an inactive biological entity that was equivalent to a bioweapon capable of immense disaster for years without electing to inform anyone outside the higher ups of their private company, until the creature had inevitably woken up from its hibernation, gone completely berserk and escaped containment while inadvertently causing one of the most destructive earthquakes in American history, and was now loose on the world to do as it pleased.

The nation was demanding answers, and rival countries were watching for weaknesses. And that abomination was out there, capable of splitting parts of itself off and flawlessly disguising itself as a human down to the very DNA while also having an enormous main body of flesh lurking somewhere unreachable in the ocean, where it could do whatever it desired. "Complicated" couldn't even begin to describe the situation.

On top of that, it wasn't even a Devil. Relith Science had employed zero Devils or Devil Hunters in keeping it contained, because the creature had eaten contracted Devils and Fiends in the past like no-one's business, to the point where a single human armed with a pistol had better chances at fighting it than most Devils.

The natural predator of devils, a biblical Angel. Because if Devils roamed Hell and walked the Earth, then surely the inverse was also true. The president could hardly believe that statement when he was first informed of its true nature, given the creature's appearance, as it looked the complete opposite of "holy".

At it's weakest form, the Angel was comprised of multiple red wormlike appendages, with a singular "core" holding an eye that shone with an electric blue light. Slightly larger than a basketball, the creature was capable of rapid movement by using tentacles as locomotion, its body coated in bloody mucus that was both slick and sticky. It was capable of rearranging its DNA on command, growing extra mouths, eyes, and even claws and spines at the drop of a hat. As it consumed more mass, it would grow larger and become more deadly. It was incredibly strong despite its low weight, it's body mainly comprised of thick muscle. An aquatic creature that was immune to electricity and resistant to fire.

Thankfully, save for one particular ability that allowed it to survive explosions, it was rather fragile in a direct confrontation. Fragile didn't mean it wasn't incapable of ripping a soldier in half with a careless swing of a tentacle, though.

But worse of all, it was capable of transforming any organic matter (not just meat) into biomass to make "nests", horrible monstrous gaping maws that spat out more of itself and could move if they wanted too. That earthquake had been caused by the creature's "nests" moving simultaneously from Relith Science's facilities into the North Pacific Ocean, where they could gather in the oceans depths and grow and propagate unhindered.

The only silver lining was that the creature wasn't actively hostile to humans. Ignoring the massive earthquake that had happened several hours ago, throughout its mad escape throughout Relith Science's facilities, there were a surprisingly low number of human casualties. The government agents reviewing the security footage told him of how it preferred to disarm humans of their weaponry instead of eating them.

Humans who were unarmed were outright ignored. Humans in Armored Mech Walkers were roughly pulled out of their vehicles and safely deposited a safe distance away while the creature turned their machine into a smoking pile of scrap metal.

The creature had no such compunctions when it came to destroying robots, but that was expected and a nonissue. What was important was that it only killed humans when necessary, and there was even footage of the creature saving a Relith Employee from falling to their death from jumping off a balcony to escape it by grabbing onto their leg with a tentacle and depositing the employee safely onto a nearby catwalk.

"CARRION" was possibly the best anti-devil weapon on the planet, and was nonaggressive and maybe even friendly to humans unless provoked, unlike most Devils. Given its hivemind capabilities, it could easily quell the enormous quantity of Devils plaguing America's part of the world by responding in kind by mass reproduction. It was a walking, one-creature army that seemed to primarily feed off Devils according to past observations.

And thanks to the morons running Relith Science, who decided to experiment on it without attempting to communicate with it first, any chance of peaceful contact or negotiation with it was ruined for the immediate, if not permanent future for his country.

To reiterate, the President of the United States of America was not having a good day.

But going from the satellite reports currently tracking the movements of CARRION's biomass drifting in the Pacific Ocean, Japan was about to have an even worse one.

 

[Neurax]

Fumigation 1.1

If I had to describe the past several months in a single word, it would be traumatic.

Imagine for a moment if you would, that you suddenly wake up one day to not be in your house, but rather an enormous glass cylinder.

You also no longer look like a human and are instead 2 feet of condensed spaghetti monster. There are humans around you, but they have no interest in you aside from poking you with syringes operated by robots.

As you might expect, I didn't exactly take it that well. And maybe, just maybe, I got a little upset.

Well as it turns out, the 2-foot spaghetti monster is surprisingly strong despite its small stature and I didn't just destroy my glass enclosure, I completely fucking obliterated it.

The next thing I knew alarms started blaring, the scientists attempted to freeze my chamber (which I took exception to) and then everything went to hell for the next couple of hours.

Fast forward through me running through a suspiciously video game esque goose chase where I regained the creature's powers to the point where I miraculously gained the ability to turn back into a human, and escape this godforsaken facility.

It would have been bad enough if it was just the same world I had come from and I was now stuck as the lovechild of The Thing and Alex Mercer.

Anyway, it gets worse.

Devils are real here. Devils are a fucking plague on this Earth, and they taste absolutely delicious. I was shoved into a body horror monster designed to prey on these things and I am in fucking Chainsaw Man, a manga I read about a year ago.

Well, at least it's not Berserk, Blame! Or Dorohedoro…

All you really need to know about my powers is that I'm The Thing 2.0. There's really no better way to summarize it. Surprisingly, my monster form didn't actually smell as bad as you might think a living pile of gore would be. Granted, I was still absolutely disgusting and I did get grossed out when I bothered to really think about what my body really was, but I shoved the thought away.

After the confirmation I was in a world not of my own, I did something incredibly stupid that still haunts me to this day.

I used my psionic hivemind abilities to recall all of my biomass to a singular point with Converge because I thought I was being clever and genre savvy and didn't want the government making 15 million different clones of me I didn't have control over.

Well, I didn't account for the fact that the hivemind is rather limited in issuing commands en-masse like how I abused it, so things like "be careful and mindful of squishy humans" and "don't cause a natural disaster" didn't really factor in. This new body of mine was like a rock- no, a boulder in a glass doghouse. Incredibly strong, but precision was difficult in something I wasn't directly controlling.

As a result, all of my biomass moved heaven and earth to get to me as fast and efficiently possible. Which inadvertently caused a series of massive earthquakes as thousands of pounds of monstrous flesh dug through the ground without care in underground facilities, fast and reckless enough to cause heavy friction burns on my bodies.

I really underestimated just how massive and widespread Relith Science's facilities were spread out across the western part of the United States.

By the time I realized what my biomass was doing, stopping would have just made everything for me and everybody else worse, as the military and Devil Hunters began to get involved with the horrifying, burning, flesh and gore monsters the size of large buildings exploding out of the ground like enormous worms into the sea. My new instincts were absolutely begging to respond violently in self-defense to the humans and Devils attacking my bodies fleeing, but I managed to suppress it by giving another Converge command.

Not really my finest moment. And since I still had a human mindset despite my form, I felt like absolute shit at the amount of devastation I had caused.

When I had finally gotten all my biomass gathered in one place deep within the ocean and was reasonably confident of my safety, I… well… threw a massive hissy fit in my new Leviathan form as I properly vented about all the bullshit I had had to endure in the past 24 hours.

Several undersea mountains were lying in pieces when I was done, and I stopped myself before I could do more for fears of possibly causing a tsunami with how big I was now, which was about the size of a large mountain.

I then fell asleep for an undetermined amount of time. When I awoke, I had long and hard thought about what I should do next, what I should be doing with this new life, as staying down here forever wasn't that really appealing.

…

The man's name was Kusumoto Kazuki. 34 years old, had no wives, children, or close friends. His parents didn't appear to keep in contact with him. As for his job…

Kusumoto worked for Public Safety as a Public Devil Hunter.

Now I know what you're all thinking. That I killed this man and stole his identity.

Well, you're wrong.

I found this man's dead body in an alleyway, killed the nearby Devil that killed him, and stole his identity. There's a difference, see?

Jokes aside, I really didn't have a choice to be picky. Since I had probably burned bridges with America, and I didn't really want to try approaching anywhere else just yet, I went to the one place I'd know that I'd have to eventually cut ties with.

Japan. Because I had no issue with sticking the middle finger at Makima.

I wanted to find Denji, grab him, and get him as far away from Makima as possible. Which was actually pretty possible, considering I had the mass of a small island and had powers perfectly suited for infiltration. I wasn't as perfect as Alex Mercer when it came to stealing memories from what I ate (which I was thankful for, as I didn't want a bunch of voices in my head), but I could mimic a human body much better than the Blacklight Virus ever could.

The problem was that my knowledge of geography had always been spotty, and turning into an abomination didn't really improve it. I had no idea where Denji might be.

I will admit that this plan was more born of a desire to do something I felt would be meaningful than it actually being a good idea. Because there were so many ways this could go wrong.

The few first weeks impersonating Kusumoto were nerve-wracking. Especially since I repeatably broke into government offices in Public Safety to sort through paper files to find the main cast of Chainsaw Man.

As much as I wanted to drown the island of Japan in a sea of flesh, there were all sorts of weird and contrived Devil powers out there, and I didn't want to pick a fight I couldn't win, even if I appeared to be some sort of super-predator for Devils.

Also, my Leviathan body had been put into hibernation at the bottom of the sea because it began getting hungry, and I didn't want to devastate the local ecosystem by eating animals.

But at last, I had found someone I was looking for.

The personal files of Aki Hayakawa stared back at me. I couldn't find a file for Denji, so he either wasn't a Devil Hunter yet, or Makima was being naughty in regards to governmental transparency- pfft.

Anyway, I was pretty sure it was the former instead of the latter. Aki Hayakawa only had a contract with the Curse and Fox Devil, and not the Future Devil.

With this, I could begin narrowing down the areas where Denji might be, due to Public Safety's "district system". If I wasn't trying to do this off Makima's radar, this would be a lot easier, but if the process was aggravating and annoying, it probably meant it was the right way to do it.

Maybe. Okay, there might be something wrong with that statement, but let's look past it and focus on what's important.

A transfer to Tokyo landed me in Public Safety Division 3. This really didn't mean anything for me, since I was just going through the motions in regards to Public Safety work.

Find a Devil that's causing trouble, and kill it. Easy, even when limiting myself to a human form. There were a few hiccups here and there, but I was successful in maintaining my human identity and keeping a low profile. Well, almost.

My efficiency in killing devils and personal discretion about my "devil contract" had garnered some attention from my coworkers. I had it written down as "Flesh Devil" but I never used it in view of others, electing to say I'd summoned it out of view to pulverize devils when in reality I typically punched them really hard.

They had made a game of cat and mouse of trying to catch a glimpse of my "Devil", which I was unimpressed by just by the principle of it. If I had a legitimate contract with something way stronger than me that demanded a price every time I used it, I would not be poking the eldritch horror with a stick trying to see what it was if it didn't want to show itself.

And then, I impersonally met the main villain of Chainsaw Man, in a public assembly event where Public Safety Members from Tokyo divisions could mingle and drink cheap beer and what not. The event was meant to boost morale, as Devil Hunters had a high fatality rate.

There's a lot that I could say about Makima, none of it good, but I could tell I was never going to be able to get along with her in the event I was forced to work directly under her command. Our personalities were incompatible, to say the least.

Her body language, all the little movements humans are supposed to idly make unconsciously was practically nonexistent. Makima was basically a living statue that happened to move. Every facial expression made by her lacked sincerity. Her eyes were fucking yellow with rings in them.

Would it have killed her to wear colored contacts at least?

As a fellow abomination masquerading as a human, her poor showing was an insult to my very existence. She was so fake and blatantly inhuman that I might have popped a blood vessel at the urge to yell what she was in an entire room full of human Devil Hunters, not that it would have accomplished anything.

At least I figured out how she could get away with it, thanks to my biology.

Pheromones.

No, I'm not kidding. Makima's body secretes pheromones to get people to like her.

It was so pathetically sad that I almost felt an urge to pat her on the shoulder in sympathy for her lack of genuine friends and sycophants while also proceeding to knee her in the groin.

You might think that my unique constitution would make me extra susceptible to it, but what my body was especially good at was filtering out poisons and impurities. And Makima's pheromones were treated as a poison, which really made me really curious about the chemical makeup of whatever the hell was being excreted from her pores.

As I was still looking for Denji, I spent the rest of the party keeping my distance away from her while doing my best to look inconspicuous and keep the disgust off my face.

…

Finding Denji had been a complete accident.

I was currently wandering around some no-name town on patrol at midnight for an animal devil that had been eating the pets of civilians. I had already found and killed it, but was stalling in reporting its extermination in so I had an excuse to wander around town without looking suspicious.

My phone rang. Reaching into my pocket and pulling a flip-phone out, I opened it with a flick of my wrist and put the receiver to my ear.

"Hello, this is Kusumoto Kazuki of Public Safety. How may I help you?"

"Man, you're stiff as always, Kazuki-san. Lighten up a bit, would you?" A familiar woman's voice on the other end drawled with a playful tone.

"Himeno-san. What is it?" I responded unenthusiastically.

By sheer coincidence, I had met Himeno at that godawful party, and she'd instantly taken a shine to me because I hadn't been subtle enough in my aversion to Makima while everyone else had been gathering around her, slightly to my dismay. I tried to brush Himeno off and get her to leave me alone, but…

"What, I can't call you because I feel like it?" Himeno responded with mock hurt in her voice.

She was too extroverted, and I wasn't that big of an asshole to make her go away by being rude. I didn't immediately answer her for a couple seconds, drawing out the comedic timing.

"I'm not going drinking with you again. Not after what happened last time."

Himeno had gotten shitfaced drunk, and then French kissed me without warning. Normally, that would just be sexual harassment, but considering what I was and how close my tongue had come to extending into a tentacle and growing a mouth of its own from being startled, Himeno had no idea how close she came to getting her throat ripped out.

"Aw, don't be like that~"

Given her personality and tendencies, I knew full well she meant nothing serious by that kiss. I didn't even have a sex drive anymore as a spaghetti monster anyway. The closest thing I felt to lust now was hunger.

I sighed. "Himeno. I'm in the middle of something important."

"Still haven't found what you're looking for, huh?" A wry voice came from the end of my phone as I frowned.

And my night had been going so well.

"No, I haven't found the Devil yet." I lied, dearly hoping that this conversation wasn't about to turn into an interrogation. What was her problem all of a sudden?

"Not that. I'm sure you've already found it given your track record in exterminating Devils. It's pretty obvious that you're using it as an excuse to look for something else without arising suspicion."

I forgot that drunk was Kishibe's student. Damnit, I knew I shouldn't have been as vigilant in hunting down Devils as I'd been. I just couldn't help it, you know? Killing them was practically therapeutic.

"What's it to you? Afraid I'm abducting orphans and sacrificing them in my apartment or something?" I said, slightly annoyed at myself for being an idiot.

Honestly, it was a miracle that I made it this far without anyone catching onto me, considering I was operating mostly on my instincts and had zero infiltration skills before this whole thing.

"… that was rather specific. Is there something you want to tell me, Kazuki-kun?" Himeno's tone had become playful again. This woman, she really enjoyed pushing my buttons.

I grumbled in frustration through gritted teeth.

"How about you take that smug tone of yours and go shove it up your-"

BEEP! BEEP!

"Jackass!" I called out, as I was nearly run over by a car. My eye's pupils slit open a crack, and I was able to ignore the bright light and see the interior of the vehicle for a split second.

Some old man, and a kid with yellow hair wearing an eyepatch. Where exactly where they going at this time of night in such a rush?

The only thing in that direction was an old… abandoned… factory.

Kid with yellow hair and an eyepatch?

"Kazuki-san? Are you alright?" Himeo's voice inquired from my flip phone.

Oh shit. Part of me didn't think I'd actually manage to find Denji before he got turned into a Hybrid. And I found him right before he got killed too.

…Realistically, I should let Denji's hybridization occur. The road ahead was going to be a dangerous one, and Denji had a serious heart condition that had started acting up just moments before he was killed originally.

But… was it the right thing to do?

… No. Having a boy who had lived as a slave for most of his life die for mere convenience when I could have saved him wouldn't be fair.

…

Oh, fuck it. I'm not afraid of that yellow-eyed piece of shit, anyway. I'm coming, Denji!

"Sorry Himeno-san, there's something important I need to do. We'll continue this conversation later."

"What? Hey! Kazuki, don't just- "*click*

That was a conversation I wasn't looking forward too. Sorry future me.

Shutting my flip phone and shoving it back into my pocket, I immediately turned 90 degrees towards the road and began running as fast as I could like a man possessed towards the car speeding off into the distance.

Which technically, I was- no, no, don't get distracted!

My thoughts ran a mile a minute as I continued to run as fast as human limits could allow, the factory slowly getting closer in the distance. There wasn't any way I was going to catch that car as a human, and there were too many people and possible animals around for me to transform.

I really needed to figure out manipulating my muscles to remain humanoid while retaining some of the speed of my monster form. All I could do right now resulted in oddly proportioned limbs tinted with red skin.

Finally, I got close enough to the factory that I was only a fifty feet from the main entrance. I saw the car, empty of both occupants.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck!

My eyes darted side to side. No humans were around, but the same couldn't have been said for any animals that Makima could spy through. I didn't particularly care at the moment however. Worst comes to worst, I could always awaken the doomsday Spaghetti Monster that was sitting off the coast of Japan underwater and have it zero in on my location to cause a big enough disturbance to grab Denji and run away from Makima.

A full transformation back into my original form in this body would take too long if I wanted to prevent Denji's hybridization. However, not all hope was lost. My human body wasn't going to make it in time, but my head might.

In one fluid motion I put both hands on either side of my head, twisted as hard as I could, and proceeded to decapitate myself.

Borrowing a move I'd once seen from a certain Russian assassin in a manga that definently wasn't based on this world, my now headless body cocked an arm back, winding up as muscles in the arm unnaturally bulged and turned red, and threw my "head" as hard as I could at the entrance of the factory that Denji and that Yakuza prickhead had gone through.

Given my body had still been running during this and I hadn't bothered to compensate for my throw, the amount of force used disrupted its balance, causing it to fall over and hit the asphalt rather hard, the ground no doubt being rather rough on my poor Public Safety uniform. Didn't really hurt though.

My head idly soared through the air at a ludicrously fast speed.

I might make it in time…no.

I will make it in time.

One of the eyes proceeded to mutate into an electric blue cornea with multiple pupils, while the other eye rolled into the back of the skull. A faint cracking noise lost to the sound of the rushing wind wasn't heard as my "head" promptly split open and stopped being a human head.

A tentacle lashed out, grabbing onto a pothole and using it to rapidly accelerate my smaller form into the abandoned factory, leaving a trail of red on the ground in its wake.

Behind it, what was left of my human body had started to get up from the fall, reddish tentacles beginning to idly poke and wriggle out of the exposed neck as it got back on its feet and started running as fast as it could to catch up with the part it had sent ahead.

…

"Thing is… I hate dogs. Can't stand the-"

ROOOOOOOOOAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Something in the far-off distance behind him made a horrible, gut wrenching scream full of unbridled rage that curdled the insides of Denji's stomach. Was that the Devil?

Denji stopped, and turned to the source of the noise.

Because of that, instead of being run through with the blade a yakuza that had snuck behind him carried, it instead contacted harmlessly with Pochita's chainsaw.

"Hey, what the hell gives! You guys, you're all zombies?!" Denji exclaimed, backing away from the yakuza as he noticed rotten flesh beginning to appear on the man's face.

Behind him, amidst a crowd of yakuza turned zombies, an unnaturally large torso with a face embedded where it's heart should be frowned at the interruption of the justice for its species.

Before it could open its mouth, something skittered on the ceiling above Denji. The boy wanted to look up, but the nearest zombie began to try and swing a machete at his neck.

It never got the chance.

A red tentacle shot from above and coiled around its torso, and the zombie wasn't so much as smashed against the wall as it was reduced to a fine red paste, along with the wall in question. The boy was forced to shield his eye as concrete dust mixed with bloody mist filled the air.

Something wet and slightly heavy landed on the top of Denji's head, making him almost lose his balance. Denji let out a shout as his vision was further obscured, as Pochita looked up and apparently saw whatever had gotten on his head, whimpering in fear.

There was a brief sound of something sharp being unsheathed and Denji stilled as he saw what looked to be a large number of red tentacles ending with uneven numbers of serrated and jagged blades slowly drop down into visibility to his feet from the "brim" of his uncomfortable hat, all pointing towards the zombies.

"Hmm? Another Devil, helping a Devil Hunter? Doesn't matter, you'll die too!" Zombie Devil bellowed.

A voice that vaguely sounded like nails on a chalkboard whispered a command uncomfortably close to his ear, close enough Denji could feel warm breath brush against his earlobe. "Human, don't move, and hold your devil close."

From all sides, the zombies snarled and rushed the trio, weapons seeking to rip them to pieces. The red tentacles briefly blurred and made a snapping noise akin to a whip.

Denji blinked as all the zombies stopped their assault and stood still.

No.

They weren't still…

Multiple red lines formed all across the zombies as blood spurted and gravity began to make them fall into pieces.

They had been destroyed.

"Wha- What?!" Zombie Devil looked in disbelief at all his zombies having been defeated in the blink of an eye.

"I'm afraid you are heavily out of your weight class, Zombie Devil." The voice atop Denji's head dryly commented.

The hostile's Devil's eyes widened at making eye contact with a singular electric blue eye attached to a tentacle. A multi-patterned iris stared into the Devil's eyes with judgement, and it was as if something unspoken passed between the two supernatural entities.

Zombie Devil paused.

"You… you're not a devil… "A note of genuine fear entered its voice.

Not a Devil?

"Yeah, and you're not a threat either." The voice retorted as its eye shined with a predatory intensity. Pochita began trembling in Denji's arms.

Ẻ̵̺̤̥̌̀͆̔̽̕̚͠A̴̡̫̣̍̄̑͐̐̏̏͑́͝T̵̫̘̓̽̀̾́͌ ̴̧̻͇͚͉̣̝̖͉͒̒̂́̈́È̶̡̧̨̜̣̮̠͜͜ͅÁ̷̧̛͍̥̫̮͇̮͚̱̾̂̽́̀̽̈́̈́̆̓͘͠͝͠ͅT̸̩̝̻̥̤̟̉̈́ͅ ̴̛͎̿̋̂͑͊̎̿̈́͊̌̑̐̽̉͠͠E̸̢͕͚̜̱͉̩̖̣̠̐̇̓͗̍̊̓̇͝Å̴͕̘̔̄̅͘Ţ̵̯̘̗̤͔͓̲̠̜̳͚͓̟͈̟̱͑͒̋̀͠ "You're just meat." Ẻ̵̺̤̥̌̀͆̔̽̕̚͠A̴̡̫̣̍̄̑͐̐̏̏͑́͝T̵̫̘̓̽̀̾́͌ ̴̧̻͇͚͉̣̝̖͉͒̒̂́̈́È̶̡̧̨̜̣̮̠͜͜ͅÁ̷̧̛͍̥̫̮͇̮͚̱̾̂̽́̀̽̈́̈́̆̓͘͠͝͠ͅT̸̩̝̻̥̤̟̉̈́ͅ ̴̛͎̿̋̂͑͊̎̿̈́͊̌̑̐̽̉͠͠E̸̢͕͚̜̱͉̩̖̣̠̐̇̓͗̍̊̓̇͝Å̴͕̘̔̄̅͘Ţ̵̯̘̗̤͔͓̲̠̜̳͚͓̟͈̟̱͑͒̋̀͠

With that declaration, the creature atop shot a tentacle at the wall and removed itself from Denji's head. Denji caught a glimpse of its form as it shot tentacles with luminescent bulbs at the ends at three of the more intact zombie corpses.

The creature rapidly scurried onto the ceiling as it began moving towards Zombie Devil. The corpses were dragged towards it, and-

crunch crunch crunch

Blood rained from above as the three zombie corpses were messily devoured. The more the creature ate, the bigger it grew, as it was now nearly the same size as Zombie Devil.

Zombie Devil, realizing it was outclassed, attempted to pathetically hover away.

The creature's body coiled in on itself like a snake, and proceeded to launch itself like a spring at the fleeing Devil. Several things happened in the span of a few seconds.

Zombie Devil was hit by the fleshy equivalent of a truck as it was smashed into the factory's floor, leaving a large crater in the concrete.

The creature rapidly expanded itself and covered the Devil under a small pile of flesh, covering it on all sides.

Said flesh grew dozens of mouths filled with sharp teeth, and began to squeeze.

"N-no… it wasn't supposed to go this way! The pretty lady… she s-said-"Zombie Devil blubbered as it's ribs began to crack under the immense pressure of being constricted underneath its apex predator.

"I always wondered if she was directly responsible for this mess. Thanks for the confirmation. Goodbye." The creature replied uncaringly.

An enormous maw filled with jagged and sharp teeth clamped down on the top of Zombie Devil's head torso as it was completely engulfed in the creature's body. A singular Crunch served as the final note of the Devil's life.

After finishing adding the rest of the Devil's remains into its biomass, it turned an eye towards where the human and his pet devil had been.

There was no one there.

"… Damnit, I scared him off." The creature slightly sagged in place, and proceeded to sulk.

…

Maybe I shouldn't have bothered consuming anything because in hindsight, that was probably pretty terrifying for a human to watch. Zombie Devil seemed defenseless on its own, so I probably could have easily killed it in my smallest form.

Well, no worries. Judging by the noise and vibrations on the ground I could feel, Denji was running towards my human body… which had just entered the abandoned factory.

And was still missing a head.

I psionically sent a command to it for it to sacrifice some internal human organs to begin reforming its head and vocal cords, while I had my monster body split itself into several pieces, each piece growing multiple eyes while activating photokinesis as camouflage, and scattered them to begin scanning the area for any signs of Makima and her goons.

In the story she didn't show up until it was morning, but since I'd meddled, and Denji and Pochita were still separate entities and not in any immediate danger, that could easily change.

Hopefully my human head would finish regenerating before those two ran into my human form…

…

"What the hell was that?!"

"Arf!"

Denji's heart was pounding dangerously in his chest.

The yakuza who had employed him for most of his life had all died, and been subsequently turned into zombies. They had then tried to kill him, only for some horrifying monstrosity to come and make mincemeat of them, and then eat them like it was nothing.

So, the second the thing was too preoccupied to see what he was doing, Denji ran for his life, not wanting to find out if the creature was going to turn on him and Pochita for a meal next.

Part of him was elated that he was no probably no longer bound to the yakuza anymore, seeing as all of them were dead, and also absolutely terrified about what to do next. It had happened all so fast, that part of him was still processing it.

For now, he chose to run just about reaching the entrance where he had entered just minutes ago. All Denji could think about was escaping, so when he saw a humanoid shadow from around the corner, he didn't bother stopping.

Denji let out a cry of pain as he turned the corner and ran into someone, knocking them over and nearly goring them with Pochita by accident.

"Shit, I'm sorry! Please, there's a Devil or something- "The apologetic plea that had already began to bubble out of his mouth stopped as Denji got a good look of who he had knocked over.

That person doesn't have a head.

A body clad immaculately in a ruffled business suit had already begun to get up. Instead of a head, familiar red tentacles danced idly as they began to form a shape.

"O-oh shit! You- you're that thing!" Denji stammered in fear as Pochita growled, chainsaw spinning in an attempt to get it to back off.

It reached out with a hand, and Denji turned Pochita away from the humanoid monster, shielding his friend with his own body, and braced himself for the worst…

Only to have his hair ruffled in a way that might be called affectionate.

Denji looked up. The headless body was no longer missing a head, and the face of an average Japanese man looked down at him, his hand still continuing to aggressively pet Denji's head with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The man (?) smiled at him, and proceeded to speak in horribly broken Japanese.

"Won't hurt you. Be… not… afraid."

 

[Neurax]

Fumigation 1.2

So, in the end Denji found me before my body was ready for him. Watching him panic through the tentacles of my regenerating form, I tried to run damage control and was moderately successful.

I applied a strategic headpat to a boy in desperate need of one and spoke faster than what my partly reconstructed brain could currently handle.

What I had meant to say was, "Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you." But since the part of my human brain used for language hadn't fully regenerated yet a garbled, barely coherent and mixed-up Japanese statement had come out.

Despite the fact where my monster body which didn't even have vocal cords, I could speak relatively normal through my monster mouths no matter how much damage I took. But I couldn't do the same for my human body since I actually imitated the internal organs as well to function in that state, albeit I didn't need them to be "alive" as a human.

Confusing, I know. My biology was sometimes impractical from a technical standpoint and just plain weird all-around.

Anyway, Denji looked at me dumbfoundedly while I continued to stroke his hair, while Pochita looked at me with distrust and maybe just a little bit of fear in his eyes. An awkward silence grew between the three of us as I finally removed my hand from Denji's head.

My introverted personality and tendency to avoid willingly socializing was really biting me in the ass right now.

What could I say that would allow me to gain their trust…

Those two didn't know it but right now, I was unironically their greatest ally in this world as of this very moment and I desperately needed Denji to imprint on me instead of Makima, at risk of sounding creepy and manipulative as all heck.

Oh, why didn't I find a dead, attractive woman and use that body as a template instead?! I'm going to mess this up! Denji is going to see Makima and proceed to take a 99% reduction in what braincells he has from all those goddamn pheromones she's producing because he's a horny teenager!

Aaaarrgh!

You see that attractive woman over there that is the living personification of Fujimoto Tatsuki's domination kink? She's no good! Look away from that walking pile of garbage, and back to me, the hideous monstrosity disguised as a mere man that stands before you!

Think about what really matters in life! Makima's boobs are temporary, while my flesh is eternal!

Pick me, I'm the better choice!

"Um…" Denji re-started the conversation and I kept a smile on my face, wisely deciding to not let the turmoil occurring in my mind show and just act normal for my current station, a reasonable authority figure who was concerned for the wellbeing of a civilian.

Even if said civilian was an illegal Devil Hunter, as I doubt the yakuza bothered to fill out any paperwork on Denji and file it to Public Safety to have him registered to Private Sector. Because that old man would have immediately gotten bitchslapped by the law for trying to get a young orphaned boy into a profession that had a high fatality rate.

Private Sector Devil Hunters got a very thorough background check in Japan. The government here didn't want any unstable crazies running around with Devil powers. One of the few things they managed to do right, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the Japanese government lost all my respect by default when they put Makima in a position of power despite knowing she was a Devil instead of immediately killing her. But I digress.

Since I wasn't a heartless bitch like Makima, and not even a real Devil Hunter working for the Japanese government, I would very easily overlook that small detail and not proceed to arrest him like I legally should have if I actually cared as much about my job as I appeared too to my fellow coworkers.

"I'm sorry for startling you. Are you and your friend okay?"

"I… think so...? Um, sir?" Denji stammered out a painfully respectful response.

I did the standard Japanese bow of apology. "Good, I'm glad you're safe. Forgive me for my rudeness, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Kusumoto Kazuki of Public Safety Division 3, a Class B Devil Hunter. Refer to me however you please. You are?"

"D-denji, sir. Just Denji." C'mon buddy, I just said I wouldn't hurt you. There's nothing to be afraid of.

I stopped bowing to look at him, and straightened. "Very good. Denji-kun, I was investigating the town for a Devil when I happened to see two civilians enter an abandoned factory late at night, and assumed the worse. Thankfully, my own contracted Devil- Pochita let out a snort- made it in time. I'm sure you have questions, and I will answer them, but we need to leave-"

One of my drones spotted a car on the empty highway in the distance, heading down the road towards our location.

"-right now." I finished, doing my best to keep my tone even and nonthreatening, but Denji still flinched. Unsurprising, given his experiences with any sort of authority.

Those yakuza were lucky the Zombie Devil had killed them before I could do it. I wouldn't have made their deaths quick, that's for sure.

"Am I in trouble, sir- "I cut Denji off as he clutched Pochita tighter.

"No. We're just avoiding something annoying." Assuming Makima didn't already know that I wasn't who I appeared to be and try to Control me, my presence here as a human would leave too many questions to be answered. And I really didn't want Denji to ever see or meet Makima in the flesh at all, if possible. Having Pochita right there too probably wouldn't help anything either.

Both Human and Devil tilted their heads in confusion at my vague statement, as I reached a hand out to the sky. A set of car keys was flung by a tentacle from one of the drones atop the massive building that had been on clean-up duty for the zombie corpses, and into my palm.

Having the ability to split oneself into multiple entities to multitask was an incredibly convenient and busted ability. It's also how I escaped Relith Science in just a few hours, as I ate that entire botanical garden for biomass and overwhelmed the facility with hundreds of small spaghetti monsters all piloted simultaneously by my personality, strong enough on their own to bend steel in half individually.

There was no need to consume humans for biomass, when I could just eat plants and use the combined power of hundreds of tiny drones to do everything. And if I needed something bigger, they could always combine with each other.

I was absolutely broken as an Entity in this narrative.

Walking over to the former Yakuza Mob Boss's car, I unlocked it and opened the passenger door in the front. "Now get in, and make sure you hold onto something. This will be an unpleasant ride for the first few minutes." I said, eagerly beckoning for Denji to get in.

Thankfully, Denji didn't kick up a fuss and did as I said, getting in the car with Pochita, who stayed in Denji's arms and continued staring at me with suspicion.

Trust me Devil when I say that you want to deal with me, instead of your obsessive yandere stalker that's in love with an idealized version of you that doesn't truly exist anywhere but in her own imagination. Who would murder Denji in a heartbeat to have you fuse with him, so she could have her precious "Chainsaw Man".

As Denji fastened his seatbelt, I got in the driver's seat, fastening my own seatbelt as I turned the keys in the ignition. Kusumoto Kazumi didn't have a driver's license, and instead typically commuted to work by train. This would be the first time I had driven a car in a couple months since I'd been turned into a fleshy horror, and my driving skills had probably atrophied.

Who needed cars, when you could turn into a red blur in seconds? Not me. I shifted the gear into drive while putting a hand on the wheel, and proceeded to slam my foot on the accelerator.

Admittedly, my definition of "fast" might have been a bit much for a normal human.

The ensuing joyride had Denji scream in fear for his life at least twice, as I probably broke a dozen traffic safety laws to get them as far away from Makima as I could for the moment.

Looking back, I would say that yes, my driving skills had atrophied quite a bit.

…

They were here. My drones were all in position, as I waited to commence what would be the most dangerous thing I'd done since I'd escaped Relith Science.

Engage Makima in combat. Well, not really.

It was more I planned to jump her ass, and indispose her so she wouldn't be able to give chase. I was pretty sure that outside of the rat thing from Dishonored she could do, Makima couldn't teleport anywhere near Denji on her own.

Several shadows cast by streetlamps showed them getting closer as the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the abandoned building.

The footsteps stopped, as three figures entered the main room where my bodies waited, camouflaged in the shadows.

Makima looked upon the carnage of the room, or rather lack of it, with a frown.

I had eaten all the evidence, and Denji was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there was a crater in the middle of the floor, and a bloody mucus stuck to the walls and floor, coating the near entirety of the room.

"Looks like someone beat us to the punch. The hell is this stuff?" The man on the right side of Makima idly commented as he bent down to inspect the mucus on the floor.

"It would appear so." Makima agreed emotionlessly, eyes scanning the room. Was it an act, or did she have no idea what had happened?

Makima took a few steps forward, and presumably sniffed the air. She tilted her head upwards, eyes closed.

"Something strange is in the air. Not just blood. Something… familiar." She reached down, and got some of the covering on her hand. Standing up, she-

...

Makima, what the fuck are you doing. No, don't put that in your mouth, you disgusting-

-licked the mucus off her hand with zero hesitation.

Noooo!!!

"Bitter, as expected. But this taste… I…" She trailed off, looking pensive and not finishing her sentence.

What about the taste?! What? Tell me! Despite it not doing anything to me, I felt incredibly violated all of a sudden. Was this what other Devils felt like when I ate them?

Makima frowned, and stuck her tongue out.

It was melting.

Oh. Well, that's good to know. My bodily fluids are equally caustic for her. Nice.

clank

A drone hiding behind a pillar tossed a soda can on the floor out of sight, and the two Public Safety members stiffened at the noise while Makima didn't react.

I just need them to get far enough into the room… so I had the same drone begin to scurry around and make a racket.

"Looks like whatever killed the Devil is still around, Makima-san." The man on Makima's left decided it was his turn to contribute instead of being a background prop.

Let's get this show on the road.

Roll roll roll

Another soda can rolled around the corner, this time visible to all three of them. The two Devil Hunters warily approached it while Makima stood back.

Something clattered onto the floor to the side of Makima in the distance, and she turned her head to look. In the darkness of the factory, a blue eye glimmered with a bit of movement.

There was a faint whistling noise, and Makima blinked as two pebbles shot out of the darkness, a split second away from her eyes.

Just as the rocks began to puncture her corneas, she reacted.

"Ah."

splurt!

Makima's head rocked back from the force behind the two stones as her eyes proceeded to pop and explode.

"M- Makima-san!" Both of the cronies responded in almost perfect unison and attempted to respond to the assault. Unfortunately for them, I wasn't in the mood to play around. The door to the factory room was shut by a drone hiding outside, shrouding the room in near-total darkness.

Deactivating photokinesis, an enormous red monster materialized from thin air directly above them on the ceiling. Two massive tentacles disengaged from the mass, hovering menacingly and-

Splurch! Splurch!

Both Devil Hunters- no, there was something weird in their chests where a heart should be- both Hybrids were immediately impaled from behind by biological spears and lifted into the air. Using a slightly lesser variation of parasitism that wouldn't attempt to take over their bodies, I proceeded to let my biomass go nuts with complete disregard for their safety.

CRUNCH! SNAP! CRACK!

Hundreds of spines, blades, and what have you violently erupted from their bodies as they were shredded from the inside out, dismembering parts of their body.

Once I decided they were no longer a threat I dissolved everything formed from my mass back into my tentacles in one motion, and slid them back out of the Hybrid's backs, depositing both torso's of Makima's cronies like a sack of bleeding potatoes as they roughly hit the floor next to their limbs.

Somehow they were still alive, but it wouldn't be for long. Unfortunately, they probably wouldn't die for good, despite the fact I did my best to destroy their hearts.

Maybe if I ate the hearts, they would die, but Makima would likely get serious if I tried to break her precious toys in front of her. And I had no desire to try and take over them with Parasitism, as she probably had a "chain" directly connected to both of them she could use to try and hijack me.

The room was filled with their bloody gurgles as Makima slowly turned around in the pitch-black room and walked towards my largest form, her eyes still destroyed.

She stopped about 10 feet away from me, and proceeded to look up the wall in my direction. Makima probably couldn't visually see my true form, only smell and hear my writhing mass of flesh.

But man, did she look creepy through my thermal vision right now.

"You have a familiar scent. Have we met before?" Makima asked politely with that smile on her face growing wider, seemingly unbothered by her missing eyes and dying employees lying in pieces and choking on their own blood as steam began to pour out of her ruptured eye sockets.

Using both hands, she started to reach into them with her fingers to remove the pebbles.

I didn't answer Makima, instead stretching my tentacles to their very limits to important parts of key infrastructure in the building I'd weakened with drones just minutes before she arrived, and proceeded to bring several hundred tons of concrete and debris down on top of her and her dying Hybrids.

All three were crushed with audible sound, while my monster form was spongy and strong enough to ignore the shit falling on top of me.

Once I was sure Makima wasn't going to burst from the rubble, the largest biomass form absorbed all the drones that squirmed out of the destroyed area and proceeded to squeeze through a small crack in the building and retreat, as Makima had been sufficiently indisposed enough for the car to make a clean getaway before she could give chase.

…

With my human body, once we were a decent enough distance away, I slowed the car down to a snail's pace and begin driving more smoothly as the crash course in re-learning how a car worked was successful in rapidly improving my technique compared to 5 minutes ago.

I flicked a turn signal on the lever behind the wheel's side as I proceeded to turn right down a street.

Most of the biomass formed from the Zombie Devil and it's minions save for several drones that had stayed behind to waylay Makima and her entourage, were currently scuttling throughout the sewer system underneath the road this car was traveling on, serving as a biological GPS to make up for the fact I had no idea where I was as I used them to go in the direction of the drone I kept dormant in a large lidded soup pot on the cupboard shelf in Kazuki's apartment.

As such, the mental waypoint I had dubbed "The Forbidden Spaghetti" was our final destination.

My drones dropped in through a storm drain, if you're wondering how they got down there on such short notice. I sent several drones ahead of the car in every direction possible, tasked with killing any rats they could find down there.

Did I say how nice it was to be able to multitask like this? Let me say it again.

It's really fucking great.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. There were no cars following us. Good. Turning my torso towards Denji while I kept my eyes on the road, I held up a finger.

"What-"

"Shhh. Flesh Devil, do it." I shushed him. Makima might be listening, and I while I knew she could listen through things like rats and birds, I wasn't sure if that extended to insects as well even if they didn't "hear" like mammals did.

Better safe than sorry.

Tentacles proceeded to come out of my suit's arm cuffs and pantlegs, and splitting into multiple branches, began "feeling" the entire car space with dim luminescent bulbs which could "see" heat signatures and vibrations.

The duo jerked as a tentacle brushed past them to open the passenger side glove compartment, and another lightly patted down Denji as the rest of the car interior was quietly groped by a shitton of tentacles.

Pochita growled at the proximity as I invaded their personal space multiple times, but quite frankly little dude? Tough shit, deal with it. I don't want Makima hearing my capabilities from my own mouth. She could speculate like everyone else.

Hmm. Nothing living in this car, except Denji and Pochita. I didn't find any listening devices either.

What about the trunk?

One of my tentacles formed a spike, and punctured the back seat's cushion, going through the plastic divider and into the trunk interior. The end of the tentacle retracted its pointy end and grew a lump which proceeded to swell up and expand like a balloon, completely filling the space of the trunk with hollowed out flesh and crushing anything living that might be in there.

Nothing let out a death knell or crunch, so that probably meant it was empty too. After forming an eyeball and bioluminescent light/feeler tentacle to double check, I affirmed the trunk was safe.

We were going about 40 miles per hour, so the sound of rushing wind would drown out any noise that was already muffled by the car exterior to anything clinging on outside.

All of the tentacles retracted back into my clothes, and I made an a-ok sign.

"Alright, it's safe to talk now. I'll answer mostly anything you ask to the best of my ability, so don't hold back." I said as I gave the green light to Denji, and prepared to be bombarded with questions.

"W-what are you?!" Denji blurted out the second I finished talking, as I internally winced at his lack of restraint and volume.

I have to remember, he's just a kid who's been a slave most of his life and has almost no social skills or verbal filter, so I need to be patient with him. Still… starting off with a tough one, huh.

Right, so Denji had the bare minimum of education… I don't think he even passed elementary school before everything went to hell for him. Math was the only thing he was good at. No doubt a detailed explanation on my biology would go over his head, so better keep it short and simple.

"Not human, and not a Devil either. This isn't my actual body, it's a false one constructed and designed to help me blend in with human society. What I actually look like is similar to that thing that rescued you from getting killed back in that factory, but I can be both big and small if I want to. I'd appreciate it if you'd keep that fact to yourself though, I don't want unwanted attention." I responded.

Denji seemed a tad overwhelmed and gobsmacked at my nonchalant demeanor and flat out admitting that I was an abomination. I didn't even need to look at him to know his mouth was hanging wide open.

It felt good to finally come clean to someone else, after so many months of draining subterfuge and fruitless dead ends.

"If you're not a human or Devil, does that mean you're an Ange-"

"Don't call me that." I snapped in irritation. Denji flinched back, and I winced at my over-reaction.

I sighed loudly as I scratched my head. "Sorry kid, I didn't mean to get pissy with you. It's a sore subject for me, as I've done a lot of bad things unintentionally ever since I'd woken from hibernation since I didn't bother thinking about the repercussions that I'm not proud of. I sure don't feel like I'm an emissary of the Big Man in the sky, I'll tell you that much."

"But yes, I am what you would call an Angel. The primary purpose I was created for… was to hunt and kill Devils, adding them into myself and perpetually keep growing." The admittance felt like bile crawling down my throat, and not the kind I used for an attack.

"Are you going to hurt Pochita?" a trace of fear in his voice.

"No. The Devil you're holding is just as much a victim as you in some ways, and keeping you together is the safest option. Plus, you two have made a life contract together, correct? You are contract-bound to get in my way if I attempt to harm him."

Denji tilted his head, not understanding. "Life… contract? I just made a deal that I would give Pochita my blood, and he would be my weapon to kill Devils with."

Incorrect. From what I recall of the manga, the actual contract Denji had made with Pochita was something along the lines of "You save me, and I'll save you." Denji giving Pochita his blood was just a basic fulfillment of the original pact made.

Denji probably just didn't realize the severity of the price he'd paid, or didn't put as much thought behind his wording. Which was expected, since he was an uneducated teenager who had lived a cruel, irregular lifestyle.

Devil Contacts were always followed to the wording of the literal statement. Words could not describe how lucky Denji was that the Chainsaw Devil wasn't actively malicious like the other 90% of all Devils.

Life contracts almost always guaranteed the creation of a Hybrid, which put Denji on Makima's radar the second he spoke it aloud in that graveyard. Better let him know what he'd inadvertently done.

"A life contract to summarize, links both Devil and Human together in union with a promise to protect each other the best they can."

"So, like marriage?"

"Hah!" I laughed aloud and snickered. "Nothing like that. Most Devils aren't really appealing personality or body wise for those kinds of feelings to occur. Though there are some nightmare fetishists out there."

I don't think he understood that last sentence, judging by the confused sound he made.

"Just know that if you died in that warehouse, Pochita would have fused to you to create a Hybrid Devil, a human with permanent Devil abilities that's "technically" immortal and can consume blood to heal your injuries. The issue is that you would of course have to die and lose the ability to communicate with Pochita for that to happen, and Hybrids do not have human rights in society."

"O-oh…"

Silence filled the car as Denji mulled over what I had told him.

Turning my head, I gave Denji and Pochita a cheeky grin as I lost my previous cold, no-nonsense demeanor, and showed him the side of me I usually kept inside my thoughts. "I said it before, but I'll say it again. Sorry for scaring you. Despite my true appearance, I genuinely mean you and you friend no harm."

Denji seemed to slightly lose some tension in his body from my response, while Pochita remained on edge and ready to attack, despite the fact he wasn't going to be able to do anything meaningful to me in that form aside from be an annoyance.

My left eyeball proceeded to extend out of its socket on a cord of flesh, and turned to keep an eye on the road while I continued looking at Denji and Pochita for a reaction. Pochita seemed unphased, as Denji looked at my blatant display of body horror with more morbid curiosity than disgust, now that he knew I wasn't going to eat him.

Right, this was a kid who had no problems making friends with Devils and Fiends since his best friend was one. Ignoring the fact I was way more complicated than the typical Devil, I probably fit well within his possible-friend categories.

What a plus, since he was going to be around me for the foreseeable future whether he liked it or not.

"Next question?" I offered, mirth in my tone as I enjoyed his reaction a bit too much. I always did like to show off a bit, and having someone respond positively to my shapeshifting after all that screaming I'd endured from Relith scientists and employees was doing wonders for my self-esteem and mental health.

Denji snapped out of his awe and didn't waste any time. "Why did we have to get away from that place so fast? And why did you have to do all that icky stuff a second ago?"

Ah, the Makima problem. As long as Denji and Pochita were bound together by that contract, she would forever be a thorn in their side, trying to kill and hybridize them together. Telling Denji the full extent about the danger Makima posed right this moment was currently a no-no, since I didn't want to him to freak out knowing that Conquest of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had it out for him and his friend, but if I worded it vaguely enough…

I could inform Pochita of the danger, and how much they really needed me. Not that I was planning anything dubious, mind you. I wanted them safe and able to enjoy a happy and quiet life to make up for all the bullshit they'd had to go through so far.

Chainsaw Man's ability to erase concepts was too dangerous to mess with, and it would be better if it forever remained unreachable and unable to be used again. The fact that the devastation of nuclear bombs had been forgotten about meant that the world was a much worse place to live in with nations unafraid to throw world shattering supernatural powers at each other, Gun Devil being a perfect example of this.

I idly tapped a finger on the steering wheel. Absolute power corrupts, I wouldn't even trust myself to not try and reshape the world to my liking with an ability like that. I had enough on my plate already as a Lovecraftian Biblical horror, thank you very much.

But yes, I should give Denji an answer that was both informative and vague, while being truthful and not too scary. Let's see…

"Someone bad is after your Devil friend, and are the ones responsible for those yakuza contracting with the Zombie Devil to try and kill you." I paused. Denji was hanging onto my every word, worry in his eye.

Was I really going to do this? I'd already gone past the point of no return, but the pressure of knowing I was about to completely fuck over what was left of CSM canon was weighing down on me.

…

I stopped looking at Denji, my left eye retracting and facing back towards the road.

"Her name… is Makima. She's the leader of Public Safety, and is interested in Pochita, wishing to hybridize you with him for an ability he has. She would then proceed to blackmail you into her service on pain of death and would manipulate you as she saw fit, discarding you when you served your purpose. We aren't friends, and I came to Japan to get you and Pochita away from her."

Pochita shuddered at the name. So, he knew her as Makima, then, and not just the Control Devil or Conquest.

"Why? And didn't you say Hybrids were immaterial to death or something?"

"Immortal is the word you're looking for, and sure Hybrids can't die, but they experience pain like everyone else. Trust me when I say that being tortured into submission is a very real thing that happens to them in this world. As for why…" I trailed off, frowning.

"Unfortunately, that is one of the few things I can't give you a direct answer to yet, for your own personal safety and peace of mind. Just know that you two are a victims of unfortunate circumstances beyond your control, but I have fortunately managed to find you and intervene in time to avoid having you and your Devil suffer a terrible fate. As long as I am here, you don't have anything to worry about." My tone sobered, as I reached out with a hand and squeezed Denji's shoulder, as he looked troubled by my words.

A silence fell over us, as Denji digested all that I had told him. We had finally gotten into a section of Tokyo I visually recognized. Just about a ten-minute drive to the apartment now.

"Why? Why would you help me? Everybody else… they treated me and Pochita like dirt! And- "Denji began to finally crack down, building up steam as he began to ramble on and air his multiple grievances to the world.

I wasn't that good at touchy-feely stuff like this, so I quietly listened to him speak, letting him rightly vent about how shitty his life had been up until this point. When he had finished, with tears dripping from his eye with Pochita attempting to comfort him, I spoke my piece.

"Denji, I'll be blunt with you. You've had a horrible life. No child should have gone through what you did. But you know what? Things will always get worse before they get better. And you've just been through the worse. You're no longer a slave to the yakuza. You didn't die to the Zombie Devil. You survived up till this point on your own merit, and while you still have some bumps down the road, I'll be happily right there beside you to help you out from now on if you'll let me."

"You- you will? Really?" Denji stammered.

I reached over and lightly tussled his hair. "Of course. I understand that you may be hesitant around a complete stranger you know nothing about and met less than thirty minutes ago, but know that I will protect you with my life and every faucet of my ability, Denji. It's a P̴̡̡̛̫̻̲͉̞̟̼̫̮̭͋̑̐͒̏̒̀̄͌̎͆͜Ŗ̴̺͉̗̤͕̪̙͓̬̆͑̇̓͊͂̋͊͌͒͌̄́̏̾͑̚͠͝Ǫ̸͍̮̳͇̺͈̪͉̂͂͋̆͑̕͜M̸̢̨̮̫̜̞̥̻̹͉͚̠̟̺̱̯͎͔̫͕̣̲̯̺̹͆̑͂̓̾̌̿͆͆͋̽͊̓͛͝ͅI̵̻̞̟̭̼̘͚̪͙͕̘͚̹̞̙̜͖̫̞͂̿̌̈́̿̆͌̈̀́̚ͅͅͅͅS̶̢̨͉̪̗͈̬͔̩̳̖͉̯͉̭̈̾͆ͅͅĒ̵̛̛̼̣̜̫͚̝̻͕̜̖̿̽̆̋͑̾̀͂͐́̓̽͘͜."

The second those words left my lips; my bodies shuddered as my metaphorical spines tingled, as if I felt my entire collection of biomass begin to get a soaring feeling. It was probably me just getting emotional about how shitty a hand this boy had been dealt in life though, so I didn't give it much thought.

Grummble…

I turned to look at Denji, who was blushing in embarrassment.

"…I suppose we should first get you something to eat before we get to my apartment. You're skinnier than a weed. When was the last time you ate?"

"A piece of bread, yesterday morning…"

"Unacceptable. Let's find the nearest 24/7 convenience store and I'll let you buy whatever you want." I muttered as I began looking for one.

"Woah, really!?" Denji perked up at the promise of food.

Maybe this could work out after all.

…

Back at the abandoned factory…

A hand burst from the rubble, a red-haired woman pulling herself out of the collapsed building and getting to her feet. Blood poured from the top of her head and mangled limbs, but she didn't seem particularly bothered despite her ruined suit.

Instead, a smile was present on her face.

"Wonderful…"

She hadn't dared to hope when she'd first heard of the descriptions of the unknown "Devil" that had ravaged America's west coast months ago. When a familiar roar Makima hadn't heard in centuries had echoed throughout the factory, and the owner promptly killed Zombie Devil in the blink of an eye and stopped the human's death, Makima felt a sensation akin to a bucket of cold-water splash over her.

She had quickly gone with two Hybrids in tow in hopes of encountering it, and wasn't let down. Ruthlessly, it didn't hesitate in cutting them and her down.

There was no mistaking it. That entity was who she thought it was.

Thousands of years ago, on a battlefield populated by a singular entity that clashed against a legion of Devils led by a Horseman of the Apocalypse, they battled for supremacy.

An enormous collection of Heavenly Flesh with hundreds of maws, angrily screaming at the world as it devastated Devil ranks with a mere swipe of it's tentacles, hundreds of Devils consumed by it in an instant.

It simply multiplied itself into a never-ending army that grew off her enslaved Devils, while she had to continue finding increasingly difficult ways to replenish her ranks against the Angel.

Her complete antithesis. A creature that had perfect control of itself instead of others, and was built to be completely immune to her power.

She remembered adrenaline rushing through her centaur-esque body, forced to dodge as it's numerous bodies charged through her rank and file with bellows that shattered the Earth's crust and reached the Heavens, slaughtering Devils by the thousands while nearly killing her with every close-quarters engagement with it's limbs.

Every failed attempt at consuming her sent a thrill sparking throughout her body.

The one and only enemy over her entire existence that she'd ever truly acknowledged as an Equal. Only it was allowed to defeat her, and she was the only one allowed to defeat it.

Everyone else was unworthy.

Years later, standing on a mountain of tens of thousands of Devil corpses and a decimated landscape full of holes and devoid of plant life, she had landed what she thought to be the final blow upon it with her bow.

Partaking of it's toxic flesh in homage to an act among Devils that let them grow stronger by consuming the flesh of stronger Devils as it laid dead, The Control Devil forever changed it's form to that of a human as an act of respect for the Angel's tendency to disguise itself as them to sneak up on Devils.

An ancient Enemy. A beast that was a twisted, mirrored reflection of herself. She had thought it had been completely destroyed that day, but part of it had managed to survive, and rise from the ashes once more.

Makima's fist clenched, nails digging into her skin and drawing blood. Her grin had expanded to show teeth.

A beloved Rival who had returned from death to come find her, and had mockingly ruined her plans and stolen her idol with its human vessel as a declaration of war, fully intent on resuming their conflict and finishing what they'd started more than a thousand years ago.

To put it simply, right now…

Makima- no, Conquest was overjoyed.

 

[Neurax]

Fumigation 1.3

The shopping trip had only taken a few minutes at best.

A homeless boy with torn clothes and a blatant Devil got some dirty looks from the employee manning the cash register, but me looming behind them in my Public Safety uniform and giving the cashier a Kubrick stare kept their mouth shut as the duo loudly and obnoxiously fawned over various food items.

While I did have food at the apartment, it was only the bare minimum required in order to keep up appearances at being a human being, considering I had eaten plants for subsistence in the past several months, having forgone the consumption of Devils briefly until Zombie Devil to keep a low profile.

Denji would probably enjoy anything I'd give him considering he'd eaten nothing but bread for years, but I wanted him to be able to indulge himself for once in his life that wasn't under someone else's thumb. Case in point, at the bags filled with junk food and soda that Denji was carrying that he'd picked out and was practically drooling over with Pochita.

I on the other hand had gotten much more nutritious "real food", along with several jars of nutrient supplements to begin fixing any vitamin deficiencies Denji surely had.

I told him to not get anything more than he could finish in a few servings, since we had to be prepared to move at a moment's notice depending on what Makima would do in response to my actions.

We left a convenience store I'd found with several bags of groceries, loaded them in the trunk, and got back into the car. There was a loud rustling sound, as Denji dug into a bag of potato chips, sharing it with Pochita.

I blinked as a random bit of trivia about long-term starvation popped into my head.

"Denji, I know you're hungry, but try not to finish everything you have over there before we get to my apartment, otherwise you'll get sick and throw it all back up. Eat slower so you don't choke, and chew with your mouth closed please."

Teaching Denji proper social etiquette several years late when he's already a teenage boy is going to be an absolute pain, I can feel it in my human bones already. Lord, please give me the strength to be patient with this boy.

At least this Denji will be easier to deal with than his canon counterpart, considering he didn't mentally snap from the stress of being hybridized since I stopped that.

"Mrrrggkkay. Srrry." Denji sure didn't sound that apologetic, given how he was decimating that extra-large bag of potato crisps, but he did slow down his eating speed by a small margin.

Good enough. I started the car and resumed driving to my apartment.

Not eating any Devils since I came to Japan and body-jacked Kusumoto's body seemed to be the right call, as Makima seemed to instantly realize what I was when exposed to my true appearance, which had some worrying implications.

She'd called me "familiar", huh? So, either she'd encountered Angels before, or this particular creature in specific. Which one though, the former or latter? Or both?

Former meant that all Angels were like me, which was… sort of expected at this point, but absolutely terrifying if one really thought about it.

What kind of fucked up world was Chainsaw Man behind the scenes, that what I was now… was "normal" for an Angel?

But if it was the latter… that meant that this monster had a history before I'd woken up in it. A history with Makima, of all people. That was bad, really bad for keeping my capabilities a secret from her, if she already knew everything I could do from the past assuming that was the same creature.

The drones I had in the sewer had left us to spread out amongst Tokyo right now, climbing out of manholes and storm drains close to Public Safety offices and government buildings nearest to my apartment, attaching themselves to anything with access to an electrical grid so they could maintain photokinesis and keep their invisibility while they waited for something interesting to happen.

I had noticed from my time in Relith Science learning how to use my new form, that this "Angel" was more of a glass cannon than an upfront fighter. An ambush predator, if you will.

I was great at starting and ending fights in that direct order, but if my initial assault failed and I couldn't retreat... then it got rather messy. For me. My fights tended to go poorly when I ran into something that had could negate the overwhelming speed and offence that I had, or was sufficiently prepared for me.

Which was why I had tried to use the bare minimum with my abilities when engaging Makima to keep an element of surprise for later. Not that it probably did much, in hindsight.

The only reason that "fight", if you could call it that, went so well was because Makima just stood there and did nothing except talk to me, or at least attempt to before I dropped a building on her. She hadn't used her finger gun, or control powers despite knowing my location. Those Hybrids hadn't transformed either before they entered, despite Makima surely knowing something wasn't right about the situation with her ability to hear through animals and possibly bugs.

Going from the manga, Makima didn't seem to react well to surprises, given her reactions in the manga in scenes where Denji appeared on television for the first time, or when a resurrected Power came out of Chainsaw Man's mouth, and finally when Denji had managed to stop her regeneration with a chainsaw made of Power's blood.

So why hadn't she been visibly upset that I had derailed her plans, and taken Denji and Pochita? Why wasn't the nightlife in the city currently bustling with brainwashed Devil Hunters looking for me?

Had I been played, somehow?

I didn't know, and it was making me anxious and paranoid. I wasn't arrogant enough to think I was smarter than a creature that was the personification of humanity's fear of Control, and her thought process was likely completely alien when compared to my human logic. Who knows what sort of blue and orange morality is going on in that devil intestine-filled head of hers?

Could Makima even take "no" for an answer for anything without throwing a bitch-fit or planning something horrible for later in revenge, or was that her required, default response as the Control Devil?

Currently, I had two clear routes I could take, all depending on what Makima did.

See, I didn't want to leave Japan if I had too just yet. In not letting Denji be hybridized, I had inadvertently created another problem for myself.

Denji had a heart condition, one that had been steadily getting worse before he was originally killed. I hadn't seen him cough up blood yet, but I took it into consideration anyway. If he was going to remain a human for the long-term future until he died a death of natural causes from old age, and not become a hybrid, he was going to need a heart transplant at the bare minimum soon.

But since the Life Contract was a thing, that likely meant that Pochita would fuse with Denji when he died of natural or unnatural causes. Making his hybridization a foregone conclusion, assuming I was able to keep them safe for that long.

As long as Makima didn't get her hands on them for the immediate future, I wasn't going to worry about that yet. Another problem for another day.

Fleeing to another country and setting up a new identity for myself and Denji would be easy once I found criminal elements that no-one would miss, but still wasn't something I could just do at the drop of a hat if Denji's heart instantly failed out of the blue. It would be a lot easier to use Kusumoto's identity to have the surgery done, then get the fuck out of Japan with Denji.

I didn't know how long Denji had until his heart failed, but ideally, I wanted it taken care of before we went out to sea. Even if we got in a boat and I moved it as fast as I could with my Leviathan, I wasn't sure how much of a surprise Denji's heart could take, even if I warned him.

Pochita would fuse with Denji if he had a heart attack, but I would rather they not fuse at all just yet, not until something could be done with Makima, as a Hybrid couldn't just not use their powers.

The chainsaws would come out eventually, and Makima would find us wherever we were in the world. What she could do was probably limited outside Japan without access to the bulk of her resources, but I didn't want to keep dealing with her forming out of piles of rats to continually harass us like a demonic extended car warranty salesman.

She wasn't invincible. I just didn't want to fight her while Denji and Pochita were still in the crossfire. And I didn't have a current plan to get past the "contract with the Prime Minister" (if that wasn't a bare-faced lie) that allowed her to resurrect and reliably put her down for good.

As opposed to Makima's "Mental Control" powers that allowed her to modify memories and brainwash people, my "Physical Control" powers with parasitism completely took over the target's body, but leaving their mental faculties intact and untouched while I was piloting them.

Meaning they were a slave in their own body that wouldn't respond to them while some monster played with it, and irreparably damaged their body's cells because I welded my own nervous system on top of theirs like some metalworking intern's art project and ripped it off when I was done controlling them.

Understandably, I didn't like using parasitism on humans if I could help it.

So, if I body-jacked the Prime Minister and told Makima that the contract was over it wouldn't actually work, because it would no longer be the Prime Minister's mind speaking that, but me instead piloting his body. Plus, Makima probably had more contingencies that weren't covered in the manga that allowed her to cheat death.

Canon Denji had just gotten lucky in the end by finding a loophole.

I wasn't sure what would happen if I used parasitism on Makima, and was too afraid of what might happen to find out.

My current guess? Makima and I would have the world's most intense tug of war contest between who could get complete control of each other as our abilities clashed with each other.

And since I had the mind of a normal human and not an actual Angel, I wasn't sure if I could win that battle.

Since I hated her guts, I also couldn't defeat her with the power of "love" like Denji did in the manga by eating all the meat of her cut up body that couldn't regenerate with the intention of becoming one with her.

Yeah, that was how Makima was defeated in the end. Pseudo cannibalism.

I wasn't eating her. Ever.

One, because fuck her. Two, because I think my entire biomass across the world would literally internally combust in disgust and shame if it didn't end up killing her and she got off to it. And three, if her pheromones were treated as poison, the rest of her body probably didn't taste that good anyway.

I ate Devil meat, not trash and refuse shaped like a human. But now that I thought about it, Chainsaw Man was basically a story with Makima's weird fetishes as a main plot point.

And I was practically the embodiment of vore, with what I did to Devils to make more of myself…

What if Makima's obsession with being eaten by Chainsaw Man to become one with him shifted to me? Hell, what if my potential past self was responsible for her damn obsession with being eaten in the first place, which was why she was so happy to see me?

My biomass collectively shuddered as one, an ominous chill running down my human spine as sweat dripped down my forehead.

…Yeah no, like that's ever gonna happen. Her whole "eat me" thing with Pochita was about her seeing Chainsaw Man as "superior" or "equal" to her, and was getting overly dramatic because Chainsaw Man kept rejecting her by killing her over and over. Or something like that.

I doubt Makima saw me as anything more than a major annoyance that's in her way of Chainsaw Man. I hope.

For someone who had "supposedly" just wanted a genuine hug from someone she had respected in the end according to Pochita, the fact that Makima really didn't know how to properly compromise for what she wanted was a laughably tragic degree of irony, because she couldn't stoop to the level of giving up dominance in a conversation and asking for a hug.

Morbidly hilarious. The Control Devil really is a woman.

I'm not addressing that second point, for fear it might be true. Nope, the thought never happened. Damn freak.

And getting back on topic, I couldn't just create a (fake) human heart and shove it into Denji's chest and hope for the best. With enough practice on animals, I might be able to give him an eye back that I could spy through at will to keep an eye on him (hah, punny), but a heart was completely out of the question.

Given how important the organ was, I would need to actively devote a part of my concentration to maintain the "heart" let alone getting it into Denji's body safely in the first place, and due to my parasitic nature, there was a likely chance it would grow teeth and eat Denji from the inside out if he became sufficiently agitated and I was distracted.

Due to how my powers worked and the fact I couldn't just perfectly "absorb" another person's memories, I couldn't take over a heart surgeon with Parasitism to perform the procedure myself, as not all the skills would translate perfectly.

Also, I didn't want to straight up murder an innocent for a reason like that. Parasitism was always fatal on living targets, no matter what. Devil Hybrids were probably able to survive a body-jacking, but for everyone else it was guaranteed death.

I couldn't convert a human into an… Angel either, or at least I didn't think I could make another separate entity with a consciousness piloting it that wasn't mine. Already tried that with a poor bastard I had accidently ripped in half back in Relith Science laboratories, back when I was still learning just how strong I was and how fragile humans were compared to me.

Unknown Relith scientist I'm forever sorry for my fuckup and I won't ask for forgiveness, because I don't deserve it.

If Makima locked down the country, we would have to bail to the nearest beach immediately. I would immediately remove myself and Denji from Japan, with Pochita ready to become Denji's heart in case he had a heart attack from the ordeal of getting close to my Leviathan as we sped into the ocean and towards the nearest landmass that wasn't Japan.

Don't look at me like that. I never said my plans were the most elegant thing ever conceived. And I would be personally controlling it to prevent any mishaps with hunger around the two. Something that small wouldn't be an appealing meal at that size anyway.

Alternatively, if Makima took a more subtle approach I could continue impersonating Kusumoto Kazumi and try to get Denji a relatively normal life while I paid for a heart surgery the normal way. Once the surgery had gone off without a hitch, I could disappear with Denji and Pochita overnight to someplace like Canada, or America if I was daring.

She hadn't done anything yet to my knowledge. So, the only thing I could do for now was wait and take precautions for a response. Now that I had managed to secure my two wards, subtlety was no longer as necessary and I could be more aggressive since Makima was now aware of my presence.

The only drone that wasn't currently watching the city or the one in my apartment was a singular one condensed with the largest amount of mass I'd used on Makima and her Hybrids that scurried its way to the heart of Tokyo's sewer system.

I was going to set up a Hive Nest, the first I'd have made since my escape from Relith. But I didn't intend to use its as its intended function as a factory for drone bodies, however.

If necessary, I would use instead it like I accidently did in America to cause a localized earthquake in Tokyo, and have the Hive Nest run berserk and rampaging underneath the ground throughout the city while spawning lesser drones to pop out of the cracks in the earth and harass civilians and Devil Hunters alike, tying up any forces Makima could possibly gather.

My drones were unfortunately very fragile against direct attacks, but they had speed for days, and in a claustrophobic urban environment filled with buildings with hiding places and cover with a myriad of potential projectiles to throw at lethal speeds, I was in my strongest fighting environment, trumping even the ocean.

So I wasn't that worried about a scuffle with Japan's entire military force, normal and supernatural. The Hive Nest and all it's spawn would be destroyed eventually, but not before making an enormous pain in the ass of themselves.

Civilians would die, a lot probably, but I hadn't come this far to be defeated just because I wasn't willing to go all out when it mattered. I had made my bed by rescuing Denji, and now I had to lie in it to make those sacrifices worth something.

"Sacrifices", that I would be responsible for by intentionally letting lose a rampaging monster in one of the largest and most populated cities in the world.

I was very self-aware of how much I sounded like a massive hypocrite right now. But playing nice would do me no favors if I wanted a chance of escaping Japan.

My phone chose to rang at that very moment, and I violently jolted in response as I was currently a tense bundle of nerves with how much fretting I was doing, startling Denji and Pochita in the process.

Pulling the flip phone out, I frowned as I looked at the caller ID on screen. It was Public Safety Division 3 Leader, Fukushima Satoru, my current boss and direct superior.

Since Devils didn't exactly wait for daytime to cause trouble, Public Safety Devil hunters tended to be up at all hours of the day and night while on duty, having several days off at a time to avoid sleep deprivation and whatnot.

I was slotted as a "night owl", meaning I worked mostly at midnight and the early morning.

Fukushima himself was a laid-back man who took it easy most of the time, but knew when to be serious when the situation demanded it. The laziest workers in high places in job hierarchy were always the most efficient and effective ones after all.

I gestured to Denji with a finger to my mouth for him to be quiet as I answered the call.

"Yo, Kusumoto! How's my favorite employee doing this fine morning?" an energetic voice practically blared out of the receiver as I held the phone away from my ear.

While "Kusumoto Kazuki's" personality was fairly stoic, Satoru Fukushima's meshed with my real one fairly well, so we got along fairly amicably as colleagues despite appearing to be polar opposites.

"Good morning, Satoru-san. I'm doing alright. Is there something you need?" Keeping my tone even and casual, I waited for Satoru's response. I couldn't let my guard down for this conversation. If he asked for my location in some fashion and insisted on knowing where I was, I would assume that he was compromised.

"Ah, it's nothing that urgent. Just wanted to inform you that due to your recent increase in performance, you're now eligible to join a new experimental division that's higher pay and higher risk than normal, led by Makima-san who'll be the Division leader. Given your track record towards killing Devils and how much you seem to enjoy pulping the bastards, you interested?" Satoru said in exposition.

Special Division Four, most likely. My immediate gut reaction was to say I wasn't interested, and refuse. But before I could, I stopped myself.

Ah. So that's her game.

"Sure. When does she expect me to report to her?"

"Eh, she told me to tell you to come by her office at HQ as soon as possible so she can fill you in on the details. Don't keep her waiting would ya, Kusumoto? Makima-san's a busy woman, and I don't want her nagging me about your lack of punctuality."

"…I'm always to work on time, Satoru-san. You know this."

Makima wants me to approach her directly as "Kusumoto Kazuki" on the unspoken threat that she'll turn Japan into a warzone if I don't show up.

"Mah, I'm just ribbing you Kazuki-san. Chill out."

Quite ballsy of her, considering my first appearance in this world to the global community at large was causing a series of natural disasters that resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties and left thousands homeless and injured.

While I wasn't eager to do something like that again, what's to say I wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat from her perspective? Even one Hive Nest rampaging uncontrolled in Tokyo would result in more devastation than I'd ever caused in America, due to how compact the city was and because it would intentionally be destructive this time.

Although she probably didn't care about that.

Is Makima just that confident/arrogant to assume I'll come talk to her instead of running, or does she have some kind of Devil/Fiend/Hybrid with an annoying power to track me down and perfectly counter me in the event of a real fight?

I shudder to think what could take on the Leviathan and win, especially if Makima had it. Would she use an attack from Angel Devil that was stronger than 1000 years, and could that unwieldy but ridiculously powerful form avoid it?

Urgh… what a pain. It hasn't been an hour yet since I found these two, and I already miss the days where I didn't have to play mental chess against literal she-Satan.

But I suppose if the process is aggravating and annoying, it's the right way to do it.

"I see. Send Makima my regards and tell her that I accept, but that I'll be a little late to work today. Something important with family came up."

Naturally, I was petty enough to deny Makima the satisfaction of making me come in exactly when she wanted to me to, enough for me to risk provoking her.

"Roger~" *click*

Hey, I was already expecting that conversation was going to end poorly, might as well live life on it's edge while I could, eh?

…

Finally, we were at my apartment. Denji grabbed most of the groceries and followed up the stairs behind me with Pochita at his heels, while I walked up to the door.

Behind the apartment building parking lot, there was a river sectioned off by a fence with a whole industrial drainage system attached to it.

Denji heard a creaking noise, and turned his head to see the car being grabbed by an enormous red tentacle coming out of the river that wrapped around it, proceeded to crush it like a tin can, and dragged it into the drainage system to be disposed of at a junkyard when I had the time.

"Woah!" he exclaimed.

"We won't need that car anymore. Too bothersome, and I don't have a driver's license anyway." I assured him. I could always steal a new one GTA or Saints Row style if we needed to.

Taking my keys out I unlocked the door, opened it, and gestured welcomingly. "After you. You can set all those bags on that counter over there." I said, pointing at the counter in question.

As I had transferred to Tokyo, this apartment had been provided to me by Public Safety for lodging. I regularly checked it for spyware and pests, so unless I had a bug or rat infestation in the span of a few hours that my soup pot drone hadn't detected and taken care of, it should be safe to talk without eavesdroppers.

The apartment wasn't that big, consisting of a small entryway, a living room mixed with a kitchen, small bathroom, and bedroom. Aside from a large couch and television in the corner and a couple books I had laying around, it was sparsely decorated. Had I had guests over on regular occasion, I would have tried harder to make the space more lived in.

In hindsight, "Kusumoto Kazuki" was way, way too focused on killing Devils across all of Tokyo, even for a Devil Hunter. I never took any vacation days, wanting to keep looking for Denji.

Himeno was right in her assumption in that Kusumoto Kazuki had an ulterior motive for his vigilance, and Makima was now likely looking into the entire personal history of this man in his service to Public Safety to figure out when and how he'd been replaced by an imposter.

Which would be rather easy to find, considering how he jumped from a Class C to B in just a couple months after suffering an "accident" in an alleyway and contracting with the "Flesh Devil" who had happened across him to survive his fatal wounds that hadn't been seen by anyone else.

Closing and locking the front door behind me, I walked into the living room and promptly collapsed on the couch, splaying out uncharacteristically as I completely "took off" Kazuki's personality.

Denji and Pochita were looking around with wonder, this apartment probably seeming like the lap of luxury compared to that dinky shed they'd been living in.

"So kid, watcha think?" I asked as I currently laid down, a hand over my eyes as I massaged my brows. I didn't think I could get headaches, but I might be about to be proven wrong with this whole mess.

"This is amazing! You really get to live here?"

Man, I really wished I could have killed those yakuza by my own hands.

"Yup. Okay- "I sat up on the couch, patting the part next to me for Denji to sit down, which he did. "-now let's talk about what may or may not happen next."

Rubbing my neck, I began to explain a dumbed-down and very less detailed, sanitized monologue about what I had thought about on the way here.

Basically, we had to be ready to leave at any moment. But there might be a chance we didn't have to depending on the outcome of the meeting with Makima. I didn't want to kill more innocent people if I didn't have to, so I was going to talk to Makima with appropriate preparations and countermeasures in place.

Depending on the outcome of the meeting, we would either be out of Japan in a few hours, or we would be settling in for the long haul. I wasn't hurting for money, but a heart replacement surgery was very expensive, and I didn't want Makima to immediately realize what I was doing if she knew about Denji's weak heart. So, more deception, basically.

Denji watched behind my shoulder as I pulled the rug in the living room back, and removed a loose floorboard. A large backpack was thrown at him, which he caught.

"Put all that food you picked out and those nutrient bars with the large water bottles I bought into that backpack, would you?"

"Kay."

As he carried out the task I'd given him, I proceeded to pull out a bound folder full of files and a nondescript sack that was tied at the end.

I hadn't been completely idle while looking for Denji. All sorts of scenarios had been running through my head as I had hatched my strategy under the sea those several months ago, and I had all sorts of countermeasures prepared for different occasions.

Why was I going through all this trouble instead of running, when Makima already knew what I was?

Well, the fact that she'd reached out to me by giving me a "promotion" instead of starting a war showed a faucet of her behavior I could abuse.

The Control Devil wouldn't blatantly break the law to get to us if I didn't do anything drastic.

Despite everything, Makima was still an entity bound by the Japanese government, and beholden to follow the law. She could bend it a lot, twist it, but outright breaking it with no room for interpretation was something she seemed aversive to, going off the manga.

Makima had no concrete proof I was an imposter to try and arrest me, and Kazuki's record was immaculate. A blood test wouldn't reveal anything, thanks to greater parasitism.

Which meant that if I was smart enough about it, Makima would lose any possible chance of getting custody of our dynamic duo if I grabbed them first.

Someone of her stature would get a lot of raised eyebrows if she adopted a homeless boy and his Devil out of the blue, especially since the government and several Devil Hunters not under her control like Kishibe knew what she was, and Denji still had his human rights, and could say "no" to becoming an official Devil Hunter without being killed.

Opening the folder, I proceeded to pull out a sheet of partially completed adoption papers, as well as a Devil requisition form. I handed Denji a pen.

"Do you know how to write?"

"Uh-huh."

Having him sign his name at the bottom, I also had him fill out any other information I didn't know onto the paper.

What I was doing wasn't so much as illegal as it was practically unheard of. Adopting Denji on the spot as Kusumoto Kazuki's legal son would be easy since I was a government agent and he had a unique living situation, and I had already put in the bulk of the framework for adoption weeks ago.

Getting Pochita though, legally… would be a little harder. But not impossible.

Surprisingly, not all Devils were killed or forced into servitude by Japan's Public Safety. As Devils could reincarnate, having one that was friendly and a non-problem for long term was ideal.

It rarely happened, but yes, some people were able to keep non-malicious Devils akin to pets or roommates. Which was what I was going to do with Pochita with the Devil requisition form.

The process would require two experienced Devil Hunters above the class of C preforming an assessment on the Devil in question, judging if it was truly malicious or not to humans. Since Pochita had been bonded with Denji for years on end and Denji was still in one (relative) piece, we could skip several parts of what was usually a lengthy process.

I was going to need help from another Devil Hunter.

Well, wasn't it convenient that I knew Himeno, who was a class A?

But fuck, I really shouldn't have made that "orphans in my apartment" comment. She's going to give me hell for that.

 

[Neurax]

Fumigation 1.4

After Denji and I finished mulling through the paperwork that could be done until Himeno got here in the morning, I began questioning Denji about his past and other personal details to correlate our story with what I remembered from the manga.

I was really going to have to sell this performance, so I needed every bit of information I could get to fabricate something strong enough to stand up to Makima poking it when she questioned me, assuming she didn't try to Control me the second I walked into the room with her.

Which I had preparations for in the event she tried, don't worry.

Luckily, I was a master at flying by the seat of my pants and improvising on the spot by now. That typically happened when you went from a normal civilian to a monster escaping a hostile government facility, to finally infiltrating another country with someone's corpse as a meat puppet while you tipped toed around one of the most despicable villains I had seen in all of fiction.

Thus, I wasn't afraid to take risks and had become much bolder than I had ever been before I woke up in Relith Science.

I had very little to fear either with having no true main body or "core" to be destroyed, so the consequences of failing in my infiltration weren't as severe as they might have been had I been a normal human. Pain wasn't really something I felt either anymore, as the sensation was spread out amongst all my bodies thanks to Hivemind meaning that with the Leviathan, it was currently next to nonexistent for me.

It just would have been annoying had infiltration failed, since I would have had to dig into the earth and infrastructure and set up multiple Hive Nests, transitioning to a full-on war with the entirety of Japan as I tore and deforested the island nation apart with hundreds upon thousands of drones looking for Denji.

Just because my drones were "fragile" didn't mean they weren't completely helpless in direct conflict. Their speed and strength didn't decrease in the slightest when detected, and I had no upper limit on how big I could make drones, which increased in strength as they got bigger (but lost precision) and were able to facetank hits at the cost of biomass.

Since I wasn't an amoral psychopath who wanted an immense death toll, I was eager to avoid this outcome, within reason. If Makima thought I didn't have the nerve to commit to a full-blown war and tried to take advantage via blackmail/etcetera, she was going to be in for a very nasty surprise as I ignited the rug where she was standing on fire and started hostilities off by casually destroying a very large portion of Tokyo.

Being feared didn't seem to do anything to Angels, considering I hadn't decreased in power after what happened in America. I guess that kind of makes sense, with the whole BE NOT AFRAID thing that they were known for.

Denji seemed to just accept that I inexplicably knew parts of his past despite having not met him until today, though that might be the whole Angel thing at play.

If you lived a really shitty life and some random guy showed up and rapidly improved it in the span of an hour without asking for anything in return and asked you to come with him to a better place, would you really question it that much? If I were Denji I sure wouldn't, even if I would have thought the guy was absolutely off his rocker, especially with all the flesh and gore monsters scuttling around.

Denji telling me his life story didn't really add anything I didn't already know to my knowledge. It was more or less the same, sans that memory of him killing his abusive father that Denji had suppressed.

I did however start brainstorming with him how exactly we were going to explain his presence to Himeno, and then Makima if Denji had to go to Public Safety HQ for some garbage legal reason Makima was using to get close to him.

Currently, the story was that after I had hung up on Himeno, I had seen him and that yakuza fuck enter an abandoned factory and that the entire premise screamed suspicion in my eyes.

Entering, I had stumbled across him about to be killed by Zombie Devil, saved him, and proceeded to question him. Realizing that I had basically stumbled across a child slave that didn't exist as a proper documented citizen and it was the early hours of the morning with every orphanage or similar facility closed, I took him to my home to get some humane treatment.

Which wasn't illegal, or anything. I was a government agent with a squeaky-clean background and could do something like that without reprisal, especially with a boy with no parents/legal guardians.

Naturally, me being the only person to treat Denji like a human being in a long time and not a dog had gotten him to grow attached to me, and because of his Devil being well-tempered and attached to his hip, I decided to save him from being subjected to the state orphanage system mixed with Public Safety and just took him in in order for Denji to be able to get a remotely normal life.

It was something that Kusumoto Kazuki would do in the eyes of his coworkers with the personality I'd slowly altered and cultivated, as a person with a strong sense of duty, and it wasn't like it was even a lie either. It just happened that "Kusumoto Kazuki" wasn't really Kusumoto Kazuki.

Not that anyone else but Makima knew that. I wasn't going to reveal the full extent of Denji's contract to anyone either despite the fact that Makima already knew it, since the Japanese government were that shitty enough to force a hybridization if they thought they could freely get a Hybrid under their employ with no strings attached. Fucking bastards.

So, if Denji did hybridize while we were still in Japan and my Public Safety masquerade was still intact, I would immediately become the person legally responsible for keeping him under supervision by default thanks to this paperwork. Which wouldn't change a thing between us, except me now teaching him how to properly fight in his Hybrid form instead of flailing around on instinct like he did in canon.

The "fact" that Devil hybrid powers were fully instinctual and couldn't be trained was pure bullshit and myth meant to help better control them. While a Hybrid's power couldn't be increased by conventional means by training, their minds and reflexes could be improved upon.

Revealing me as an Angel to everyone wouldn't help Makima if she wanted to get rid of me, thanks to what that other one that had appeared 13 years ago did and made a big stir worldwide. It was gone now, probably went back to Heaven.

I had bigger priorities to worry about right now, so the other Angel was something that could be revisited when I was no longer in Japan.

Anyway, Japan's Devil Hunters would be in awe, and the Japanese government would be more likely to bend over backwards for me to join them for real if they knew what I was.

Why didn't I go talk to the Japanese government then, you ask?

Because I had been four months into my infiltration before I found out about the other Angel from an old newspaper sitting in a file case, had no idea what sort of reaction I would get from humans before that moment, and I was expecting the government to be all controlled by Makima anyway when push came to shove, so I thought it pointless.

And with the timeline of human history being altered with the erasure of the Nuke Devil, Japan's government was still an expansionist imperialistic nation from WW2 era that had happily committed war crimes with pride for the sake of expanding their influence, and thus were all enormous assholes that I really didn't want to be associated with or give them all the impression that God approved of their actions.

It would make everything much more complicated, as I didn't want to stay in Japan forever and have to deal with the nightmare of having to tolerate Makima on a daily basis as my fellow "colleague" if the human government and Devil Hunters were stupid enough to actually expect an Angel and Devil to get along with each other, let alone cooperate and coordinate together.

I could barely tolerate Makima's presence in the same room as me, let alone having to actually interact with her. No thanks. I'm pretty sure Japan would burn in a few days in that scenario as I eventually snapped and threw all caution to the wind, kickstarting a civil war and wrestling for dominance with Makima in order to overthrow and destroy the shitty Japanese government by force.

So, fuck em'. They could go rot for all I cared. I'd rather go back into Relith Science's laboratories than permanently stay here in this dystopia that was Makima's playground.

Himeno was also onto me, but it she probably thought my deal was something entirely else more benign and didn't think I was an imposter, given how she was the type that had a bleeding heart under layers of cynicism and that cheery attitude. I would find out soon anyway, as she'd probably bring it up when I called her after I got Denji cleaned and in bed.

Right now, I was still sitting on the couch with Denji, Pochita sitting at his feet.

Reaching into my binder folder, I pulled out a picture of Satan.

"Here, this is a picture of Makima. If you see ever her and I am not around, do not talk to her. Do not listen to her either, completely ignore her like she isn't there. Everything that comes out of that mouth is an act intended for manipulation. Understand?"

"She's pretty…" Denji seemed enraptured by the photo and I frowned, my gaze hardening.

I needed to rip this shallow attraction out of its bud, and crush it right this very second.

"Don't be fooled by that attractive appearance. Makima is completely rotten to the core, is probably the reason you had a shitty life up until this point, does not give two shits about you except for your life contract with Pochita, and wants you as a slave." I rattled off a list of complaints, as Denji seemed to slightly deflate with every grievance.

But just to put the final nail in that particular coffin… I looked at the Devil in the room sitting at Denji's feet.

"Isn't that right, Pochita?" I put the Chainsaw Devil on the spot, who had the biggest chance of anyone in convincing Denji to look past the surface of a pretty face.

Denji stared at Pochita.

Slowly, Pochita nodded it's head in an assent of yes, and Denji paled and dryly swallowed.

A smart person will always follow the intuition of their dog towards another person it doesn't like. With luck, Denji would never fall for Makima as hard as he did in the manga, now that he had no delusions about what she wanted with him.

Of course, that would all have to stand up to Denji actually getting close to her without Makima trying to control him, but with luck Makima would never have an excuse to get near Denji. She didn't currently have a reason, and Pochita appeared too weak as a Devil for someone as high up as her to take interest in him without looking suspicious to the humans watching her.

Taking the picture back from him and shoving it back into the folder, I stood up and stretched. "Alright. My drones tell me that Makima doesn't seem to be doing anything right as of this moment, so we can probably relax and get you cleaned up."

Denji tilted his head. "Huh?"

"No offense Denji, but you are filthy. It doesn't bother me given how I'm not really the epitome of a neat freak, but I'd imagine you've probably forgotten what it feels like to be fully clean and that's terrible." I pulled Denji up off the couch by his arms, not shying away from touching him despite just saying how dirty he was.

"We can't have you appear like that in front of Himeno anyway. So, you are getting a thorough bath." I said, as I put my hands on his shoulders and began pushing him towards the bathroom as Pochita followed at our heels.

"A-ah, wait…"

Understandably, Denji did not seem keen on being cleaned by a stranger, but I wasn't having any of it. I needed to check his frail human body for injuries that hadn't healed properly and possible infections, so I would be aware of them if we went on the run and Denji didn't Hybridize in the process.

"While I currently am assuming the form of a man, I am actually genderless Denji. Human bodies are nothing more than flesh and bone to me, no matter their shape. And I am not going to do anything to you aside from helping you clean all those years of dirt that have been caked into your skin off."

To help reconcile that fact for Denji, all my human skin turned blood red as I turned my head away from him, it splitting in half and becoming a mass of squirming red tentacles as "hair", and a singular shining blue eye where my right eye would normally be to serve as my "face". The mouth I spoke through was hidden from view in my "hair" as to not frighten Denji with its toothy maw.

Let me remind you all that I had no sex drive anymore, nor am I a degenerate, before you all start screaming at me for what I am doing. I was pure in my intentions, and was only doing this in case Makima decided she was going to preemptively attack, as I didn't want Denji getting too comfortable in a hot bath. There would be time for that later.

Not having a sex drive anymore had been more of a blessing than a curse so far. It meant that Makima literally had no sway over me now, because when I was still a normal human, I hated everything about her personality but I will admit I had found her physical appearance sexually attractive.

Not anymore. God had seen fit to help me ascend to a higher plane of existence by removing my horny, and now I was the ultimate anti-simp against Makima as I saw her for what she truly was.

A sociopathic manipulator with zero redeemable personality traits.

I closed the bathroom door behind us.

…

One session of gently wrangling a hesitantly cooperative teenager through a hot bath later, and Denji no longer looked as homeless and feral as he did before, having been sufficiently shampooed and soaped.

His hair looked ridiculous puffed up like that.

I had offered Pochita the same courtesy, but the Devil didn't want me touching it. So, Denji did it instead.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" I said with my head having returned to normal, rummaging through the wardrobe in my bedroom to find some clean clothes for Denji to wear.

Heavens above, he was skinny. Practically all of Kusumoto's clothes were several sizes too large for him.

"I guess not… still felt pretty weird though." Denji said wrapped in a towel, his skin now a light shade of red from the hot water and having been thoroughly scrubbed with a washrag and soap, Pochita sitting on the bed next to him.

Aside from clear signs of starvation, malnutrition, and Denji's missing nonessential organs, I didn't physically see anything out of place. Denji was still going to get a checkup at the doctor, but for now I could rest easier as his heart seemed to be the only major thing that was wrong with him. The surgery that had stolen Denji's right eye had also appeared to have been done correctly, as I saw no rot in his empty eye socket.

That would make a possible transfusion much easier, though I still needed to practice more with my abilities before trying something like that.

"Don't worry, that was a one-time only thing. I'll respect your privacy in the future, as I just needed to check your health from living on the streets for so long." I assured him as I picked out a button up shirt with jeans and a belt, and handed them to him.

Those clothes he had been wearing before were going to be disposed of. They were more rags barely held together than actual clothes at this point. Kusumoto's clothes were incredibly baggy on him, but the bits I'd given him managed to fit without sagging off.

If the interrogation with Makima (ugh) didn't end in fire and brimstone, I guess then one of the first things I would be buying for Denji would be new clothes.

After some struggling with the belt to make the pants fit, Denji was now fully dressed in Kusumoto's clothes. I brushed his hair, trying to tame it with a comb with little success while Denji slightly squirmed under my ministrations.

"Try to get as much sleep as you can, Denji. If Makima responds violently to me interfering with her plans it's going to be a very unpleasant and restless next couple of weeks as we travel and get set up a foreign country."

"Okay." Denji was taking this with way too much nonchalance. Maybe it hadn't sunk in for him yet, and he felt like this was a particular vivid dream.

He'll acclimate eventually, I guess. I'm not going anywhere.

Saying goodnight and bidding him a restful sleep, I then left the bedroom to give the two some space and privacy. Well, there was a drone in the ceiling above them, but I only had that there as a precaution for any teleporting shenanigans from Makima, in case she tried something while I wasn't watching them with my human body.

It couldn't hear noise as it currently was anyway, only "saw" heat signatures and vibrations.

Now then… Himeno. I pulled out my phone and began dialing her number. Hopefully she wasn't asleep right now-

[~!~]

[ADEQUATE DOMICILE FOUND. SURROUNDING AREA DEVOID OF ADVERSERY CADGERS.]

[BEGIN PROPAGATION?]

Ah! Looks like that drone from earlier had finally found a suitable location to burrow into and grow without being too noticeable to the surrounding inhabitants of Tokyo, and had just informed me it was ready to begin the formation of a Hive Nest.

I gave it the go ahead to start.

{ASSENT.}

…

Within the Tokyo sewer system, meat festered and grew.

The CARRION drone squeezed itself into a crack in the wall it had made seconds ago with a tentacle and began to compress it's biomass inside, before rapidly expanding.

Strands of flesh shot out of the hole like macabre cobwebs covered in bloody mucus across the cistern, as the biomass began to bubble and hiss, undergoing metamorphosis.

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump.

A massive heart the size of a pickup truck formed slightly embedded into the wall and earth, a large set of jaws opening at the center. Red tentacles with bluish veins extended from all sides of the "organ", puncturing through brick, concrete, and dirt to form "roots" that searched for biological matter and further entrench itself within the ground.

Once complete, it would resemble a nightmarish subterranean octopus with a human heart for it's head, and a mouth with teeth instead of a beak located on said "head".

Saliva and other bodily fluids poured from it as it settled into it's new home, the massive organism quietly gurgling with a faint tempo of a heartbeat in the tunnels beneath an unknowing city.

…

I had just successfully gotten off the phone with Himeno, who I had managed to convince to stop by my house later in the morning with the promise to continue our previous conversation and a free breakfast, when I became aware that my human body had been approached.

Pochita sat in the living room, looking up at me with determination on it's face. No doubt it wanted the actual explanation for my actions, and not that vagueness I'd given Denji for his own peace of mind.

"Chainsaw Man, Hero of Hell. I was hoping you would come to me on your own. Let's have a little chat, shall we?" I greeted him, Pochita stilling at the title I addressed him with.

"Is Denji asleep?"

Pochita nodded. My ceiling drone was tracking Denji's breathing by vibrations, so if his heart stopped or he woke up coughing blood, I would know.

"Good. He needs it."

I got off the couch, and sat crisscross on the floor across from Pochita so I didn't tower over him as much. I didn't want to unintentionally remind him of Makima, who had undoubtably been an inhospitable, domineering little nuisance in their previous encounters.

I crossed my arms.

"I understand you are wary of me considering our races are eternal adversaries, but unless you start massacring innocent civilians, I will not harm you. You are Denji's best friend, and I am willing to put my instincts aside and tolerate you for his sake, and I would ask that you do the same for me."

Pochita seemed to acknowledge by this dipping it's head, but still looked like he was glaring at me.

"You don't have to like me, but it's going to raise eyebrows amongst this man's coworkers if you constantly act on edge or afraid of me, assuming we aren't immediately running from Makima in the next few hours. In their eyes, you're just a nonthreatening Devil who has been "tamed" and I am just another fellow human to them despite both not being true, and it's better to keep it that way to avoid further trouble should we be staying in Japan for a little longer." I continued.

"I want Denji to have a better life, just as you do. And I have suspicion that Makima and I have a bloody past together, which puts me in the same boat as you. So, I suggest we join forces against a common enemy."

Pochita didn't seem to object to this, but looked confused at the "suspicion" part of my sentence. I elaborated.

"Don't understand how I don't know? Humans found me and messed with my body while my main consciousness was dormant, and I've lost most of my past memories as a result. Most of what I've gleaned since I woke up from hibernation seven months ago has been from observations from afar, and knowledge of a possible future I saw from a vision."

A lie, but easy explanation for why I wasn't more Angel-like.

Pochita looked at me skeptically.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways. Perhaps it is for the better I am like this." I said cryptically, not really wanting to discuss how I had read the future in a manga as a former human. That might be a bit much, even for this world.

If I ever met Future Devil, it was probably going to love me whether it knew I was an Angel or not.

I clapped my hands together.

"Now that we don't have to worry about Denji overhearing this and freaking out, let me tell you everything I currently know about this mess with nothing held back. Can you converse in human tongue in that form? I won't tell Denji if you can and are hiding it."

Pochita shook his head.

"A pity. There's a lot I don't know about you and would be interested in finding out. Ah well. I suppose we'll just have to settle for yes/no questions and answers for communication that isn't nonverbal when you have questions for what I am about to tell you."

I then proceeded to tell Pochita the story of Chainsaw Man, where Denji had originally died in that factory and fused with him to become a Hybrid, and everything that had come afterwards to the best of what I had managed to remember.

To be frank, the Devil looked absolutely horrified with what I told him. I would be too had some stranger told me that my incredibly persistent stalker who wouldn't leave me alone or take no for an answer would proceed to ruin my best friend's life and gaslight him, leaving him scarred with severe emotional damage that would follow him for the rest of his immortal life, and there was almost nothing that I could do about it.

Denji really had a strong bond with Pochita, not surprising considering his dream was to be able to touch something without destroying it (if I remembered correctly), and Denji hugged him on the regular.

Once I had finished, and Pochita had asked all the questions he wanted too, we both put our heads together (metaphorically) and began to counterplan against Makima's possible plans for what she likely wanted with the both of us short and long-term…

…

Denji woke up, feeling more comfortable than he had in a long time. It was so soft and warm, he didn't want this moment to ever end…a stray though passed through his sleepy mind.

This isn't my shed.

His remaining eye shot open, and Denji blinked in confusion at his surroundings.

Wait, this wasn't the shed he and Pochita slept in for years. Where was-

Oh. OH. That hadn't been a weird dream, then.

Slowly, he sat up in bed, disturbing the sheets. Pochita, who had been curled up next to him, stirred.

"Pochita!" Denji exclaimed happily. His best friend wagged his cord-tail, and licked his face in greeting.

"That all really happened…" He murmured in awe, taking in his surroundings.

A normal bedroom, something Denji hadn't seen in years. He was dressed in clothes that smelled and felt fresh. He was clean, his skin smooth and hair soft. The familiar dizzying ache of hunger wasn't as bad as it usually was, and there was even a glass of clear water nearby on a bedside desk, which he quickly used to quench his thirst.

The water felt heavenly going down his throat.

Denji thought he would never see something like this again, and would spend the rest of his life forever working off that debt he'd inherited from his father until he died. Tears welled up in his eye as he used the sleave of his borrowed shirt to wipe them away.

Pochita wuffed, and nuzzled against him in comfort.

"It's alright Pochita. I just… need a minute."

Denji's nose twitched as he became aware of the smell of something good in the air, and his stomach rumbled. Now that he was more awake, he could realize there were slightly muffled voices speaking in the apartment.

Getting out of bed, Pochita following behind him, Denji crept up to the door of the bedroom, and cracked it slightly open, peeking through.

"You know Kusumoto, most people typically go to an orphanage to adopt a child. Not pick them up off the street. Should I be worried for Denji-kun's safety, considering what you said a few hours ago?" A teasing voice came from behind the slightly opened door of the bedroom.

A woman Denji didn't recognize that was dressed in a business suit with an eyepatch was sitting on Kazuki's couch, grinning. The television was on beside her, playing the morning news.

That must be Himeno, then, as he remembered the lengthy conversation he had with his savior last night. She was going to appraise Pochita so that Makima-woman couldn't have an excuse to take him away.

How could someone so pretty be such a bitch?

"Oh, shut up. I told you already it was a poorly worded statement, it's not like that." The man (Angel?) who had turned his life upside down in the span of a few hours said gruffly from out of view in the kitchen area, as various sounds echoed throughout the apartment.

Denji mustn't have been subtle enough in opening the bedroom door, because Himeno turned her head in his direction. The two ocularly challenged individuals stared at each other. Himeno waved at him with a smile on her face.

Hesitantly, Denji gave a half-hearted wave back.

"Kazuki, I think Denji-kun's up."

There was a sound of footsteps, before Kusumoto Kazuki walked into view. In Denji's eye, Kusumoto's current human form briefly interlaced with that of the tentacle-head humanoid in a suit with red skin.

Denji wasn't sure exactly what he felt yet about the man who had rescued him, but he didn't get a bad feeling from him like he had some of the yakuza members in the past who tried to get him to perform humiliating acts for money. The Angel said a lot of complicated words that Denji didn't always understand, but he didn't get impatient with Denji when he asked questions, and had also asked him for his opinion on stuff he didn't have any idea about, like his thoughts and opinions mattered.

If Denji was being honest, Kusumoto might be his favorite person so far, aside from Pochita.

A hand reached out, and ruffled his hair.

"Ah, Denji. I see you're awake, good morning. Did you sleep well?" Kusumoto asked, his tone warm.

"Y-yeah. I did." Denji felt embarrassed as a pleasant feeling coursed through his chest at the man's words, finger scratching his cheek as he looked down.

"Good. I was just finishing preparing breakfast, so why don't you and Pochita join Himeno-san on the couch while I serve it?" Kusumoto took his hand off Denji's head.

"Okay." The two walked over, Denji sitting down on the couch while Pochita jumped onto his lap.

He jerked as an arm wrapped around his shoulder.

"Heya, kiddo. Name's Himeno, and I'm Kazuki's colleague. Nice to meetcha!" The woman explained as she happily side-hugged Denji.

A girl was hugging him.

"Denji-kun?"

Denji was in bliss.

"Hey, Denji-kun?"

A hand waved itself in front of his face before repeatedly poking his cheek, still garnering no reaction from him.

"Kazukiii~, I think I might have broken him." Himeno whined.

"Already? I thought I told you to at least try not to overwhelm Denji." Kazuki sighed behind them in the kitchen with an exasperated tone.

"Wah?! All I did was hug him!" Himeno exclaimed with offense and turned her head, pouting at the other adult in the room. Behind Denji, Kusumoto gave her an unimpressed look and walked over to the trio with a folding table, setting it down in front of them with utensils.

It was followed by two plates of food, while Pochita got a large bowl. Denji finally snapped out of his stupor, and looked down at his plate.

"This is…"

"Never had bacon and eggs? Better get used to it, Kazuki-san here's big on western dishes. Itadakimasu." Himeno said, already digging into her plate with her knife and fork alongside Pochita, who was ravenously devouring his portion.

He... could get used to this.

…

After breakfast had concluded, Himeno and I got right down to business with the Devil requisition form. I had already briefed on Pochita on how he should act and what to watch out for when it came to Himeno's personality.

Case in point, what was currently happening in front of me.

Himeno took her job as a Devil Hunter seriously, yes. But Pochita was probably the least-threatening Devil I'd ever seen appearance wise in his current form, and with my reputation as someone who enjoyed killing Devils and him having my approval, alongside after having passed Himeno's inherent suspicion with flying colors since he was acting as more or less a strangely shaped but friendly dog at the moment…

"He's so cute!"

Pochita was currently being treated as a plush toy, which he was managing to take in stride despite looking slightly unenthused with a sweatdrop as Himeno squeezed him in a hug. I guess Denji was the only one who got a free pass when it came to touching him.

…I'm so glad Makima can't see or hear what's happening right now, as I would be greatly concerned for Himeno's personal safety in the near future from the impending yandere jealousy of doom with the magnitude of a black hole behind us.

Makima must never find out this happened. Ever. Himeno's life depends on it.

After she was done with harassing Pochita, we finalized the rest of the paperwork and had completed it. It would have to be given to our current Division leader for approval… which meant that I had to personally hand Makima the paperwork equivalent of "go fuck yourself" to her face, and might even get to watch her sign it.

I couldn't wait to see her reaction.

Even if she said no, it wasn't like I was going to let her get ahold of Pochita with my cover as a human already blown, as the Tokyo Hive Nest was there for a reason and Makima definently knew how much destruction it was capable of on short notice if I subtlety threatened her with it.

Let's see how she likes being on the other end of dealing with someone unreasonable for once. I wasn't taking anything other than a straight yes for an answer.

No compromises, or "deals".

…

As I was saying goodbye to Himeno before she left for work, she stiffened, looking at something behind my shoulder.

"Kazuki. Why is there another Devil in your kitchen doing your dishes?"

Indeed, a mouthless drone comprised of an eye core and tentacles had climbed out of it's soup pot dwelling and was hanging from the ceiling over the kitchen sink, two mucus-free tentacles holding a dishrag and a brush while a third merrily made it's way through grabbing dishes and cleaning up the large breakfast I'd made for my guest and two new family members.

The drone's eye extended in Himeno's direction, and it waved energetically to her in hello with another tentacle as it continued to wash dishes without a care in the world.

"Oh, that's just Spaghetti. He's friendly."

"You named it?!"

At those words, the drone "accidently" lost it's grip on the ceiling and let out a high-pitched squeak as it fell into the sink with a large splash, sending soapy water all over my countertop and kitchen floor. The drone flailed with its tentacles as it feigned helplessness and tried to pull itself out without making a bigger mess to no avail, only succeeding in making more water splash onto the floor.

Denji snickered at my little comedy skit from across the room, as Himeno looked significantly less on edge now.

If I was going to join Special Division Four and work in the pair up system it used instead of going solo like I used too, the "Flesh Devil" was eventually going to have to make an appearance. I was using Himeno, an experienced Devil Hunter, as a test run to see if she recognized what it was or not.

As I had stayed in human form for the past seven months and Japan's information from the outside was heavily censored to the public, I wasn't sure what sort of reaction I would get from other people regarding my true form. From what I saw before my human form had joined my mass in the sea, most seemed to think the earthquakes were the cause of a Devil.

Any Devils or Fiends who had concepts remotely associated with the Earth or Gore were probably enjoying an extreme power boost right now, thanks to my actions.

Maybe I should have left a human drone in America for surveillance purposes before I "packed everything up" and left, but it was a bit too late for that now. I had been rather emotional at the time, and the thought hadn't even been close to crossing my mind.

Excuse me for being a normal civilian who had just been through multiple traumatic experiences in the span of a few hours, was handed immense power I didn't know what to do with let alone be qualified to responsibly use, and didn't become some soulless know-it-all power-grinding munchkin tryhard in the process.

I didn't get my mental process properly sorted out and de-stressed until that nap I had taken at the bottom of the sea. Quite frankly, it was a literal miracle that I hadn't gone insane and ended up losing my humanity throughout that whole ordeal.

It was unlikely Himeno would realize, but I wasn't sure how good America was at keeping it's military secrets from other countries, so better find out now with someone I had a good rapport with and could convince to be quiet about what I was, without having to resort to permanent parasitism for "silencing".

Parasitism was fatal on living targets when I concluded it's use, but it could technically be held indefinitely without killing the original host and letting them have some control over their body as long as I was careful to not let my concentration slip.

I'd rather not subject Himeno to that however, as I genuinely liked her despite her rampant drinking problem, nicotine addiction, and tendency to start groping the nearest person whenever she got too drunk.

Walking on the wet kitchen floor over to the little menace, I fished the drone out of the water. Holding it by a tentacle as it hung limp against gravity while dripping and soaking wet like a cat, an evil idea that was revenge for that kiss from several weeks ago popped into my head.

"It's nonaggressive unless provoked, Himeno-chan. Here, catch!" I had a shit-eating grin on my face as I threw the drone at her head with the intention of it becoming a facehugger.

Unamused, Himeno simply reached out with a hand and used her contract with the Ghost Devil to stop my drone in midflight, just mere feet away from her face. Not discouraged despite being held in a telekinetic grip, the drone defiantly wiggled it's now-stubby and short limbs in a grabby gesture towards her.

Of course, this was all acting. If I really wanted it to touch Himeno, the drone's tentacles would extend.

"Very funny, Kazuki. So, this is the Flesh Devil I've heard so much about and that most of Division 3 has been trying to catch a glimpse of?" She observed the drone with a critical eye as it continued reaching for her face with no success.

"That's right. Don't you think it's cute?" My tone was smug.

"I think your definition of cute needs some work. I'd hate to see what you consider ugly." Himeno remarked.

"Well, you've seen our new division leader, so I'm afraid to inform you that you've already been cursed with that knowledge." The response slipped out of my mouth like second nature, not ever wanting to miss an opportunity to insult that red haired bitch.

Himeno choked back a laugh at my retort. "Hah! You're a riot as always, Kusumoto. Never change, and don't let Makima-san hear you say that. I wouldn't want you to suffer an accident on your first assignment in our new division."

"I'm sure I'll manage." I dryly responded as I walked over to the drone and put a hand on it's center of mass. Himeno released Ghost Devil's hold, and the drone scurried up my arm and forced it's way into my uniform's neckline, disappearing inside.

"Gross. You keep it in your clothes?" she made a face.

I was not going to elaborate to Himeno that it had actually merged with my human body. Having a Devil live like a parasite in one's body was not unheard of or illegal for a Public Safety Devil Hunter, but it would be extremely disturbing for her mental health to get that impression.

Even if it was basically true. Man, Himeno's going to freak if she ever finds out what I really am and what I actually look like. I might take too much pleasure in informing her how close she came to dying for a really stupid reason because of her poor choices in stress relief. Maybe that'll curb her rampant fornicating when drunk by a significant margin.

Was having oral sex with an Angel considered blasphemy?

Probably, though I had no real hard feelings about it, and damning her soul to Hell because of it sounded dumb and like disproportionate retribution. If I ever speak to the Big Man in person without my mind shattering to pieces from awe, I'll put in a good word for her.

"It's not as uncomfortable as it looks. Spaghetti is well behaved, and I got used to it being there pretty fast." I assured Himeno as I straightened my tie that had been disheveled from my drone.

"Wow. I didn't take you as the type to enjoy that kind of stimulation, Kazuki."

I stopped what I was doing, and shot Himeno a glare at her smug face.

"I don't want hear that from you of all people, Miss "anything that moves"."

…

Leaving a drone with Denji and Pochita should things go awry, I said "farewell" to the duo as I left the apartment. All the drones I had used for surveillance save one had gone back into the sewer and were lurking around outside in wait.

Walking into a public bathroom just outside the train station I took to work and going into a large single room intended for the disabled, I locked the door.

I dropped a bag onto the ground as I proceeded to take off my Public Safety uniform, hanging it on a hook on the stall door as I looked over the bathroom with a critical eye.

It seemed to be airtight and closed to the elements. No potential eavesdroppers.

If everything went to plan in the next hour or three, Makima would lose any chance for possible custody of Denji or Pochita, barring foul play. And I was more than ready for foul play, and even expecting it to be honest.

As for avoiding Makima's Control Power in case I didn't have immunity from Hivemind or being an Angel… I opened the bag on the floor and pulled out the nondescript sack I'd taken from the floorboards in the apartment several hours ago, and pulled out its contents.

In my hands, I held a wireless detonator fashioned from a television remote and a collection of small, but effective homemade bombs made from household chemicals and reagents as the second part of a set I had made and tested a few weeks ago. Part of my preparations in the eventuality of having to deal with that Devil woman with my human form.

How did I know how to make bombs and what was I planning to do with them, you ask?

My first templated human, Joseph Hayden, a Relith scientist of African American descent who had discovered the creature in a dormant state many years ago (before I was shoved into its main consciousness) and was stupid enough to try and take samples by poking a hibernating flesh cocoon with a syringe without wearing any protective gear, had some very interesting hobbies before his untimely death by parasitism.

My flesh split itself open as tentacles poured onto the floor to form a second Kusumoto Kazuki comprised of a singular drone mass, and seven holes in its human body located at key points opened as the original put the remote explosives inside it.

Not having any metal in them to avoid the metal detectors in the Public Safety office, the bombs were more than destructive enough to completely destroy this human-shaped biomass in the event Makima tried to control me. I was counting on my Hivemind to at least be resistant enough to Makima's Control that I would have the time to detonate the bombs before her power completely subsumed me.

She couldn't use Control on what no longer existed in front of her, after all.

The original Kusumoto Kazuki with the larger drone mass composition suddenly changed shape, it's human skin becoming darker and facial features changing.

Joseph Hayden and Kusumoto Kazuki were now standing in the same bathroom together, both completely naked.

Simultaneously, they moved as one to two separate piles of clothes, one a Public Safety uniform hanging on a door and the other clothes one might find on a dockworker in the bag.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Joseph Hayden." The African American spoke in accented Japanese, haphazardly throwing on the dockworker clothes as quick as he could.

"Kusumoto Kazuki. This is going to be a blast working together, I just know it." The Asian agreed, as he methodically put on the Public Safety uniform.

We left at separate intervals, 15 minutes from each other. "Joseph Hayden" wasted no time in travelling to the nearest point closest to the ocean by whatever means necessary.

…

Kusumoto Kazuki approached the door to Makima's office at the Public Safety Tokyo Headquarters.

While he looked fairly composed on the outside, internally I was slightly hyperventilating from the stress of the possibility of failing to detonate my countermeasures in time and being turned into a brainwashed slave, and was taking up every component of my thoughts.

Inside the Tokyo sewers, a CARRION drone smacked another of it's fellow brethren hard enough to send them flying into the wall, shattering brick and rebar.

Calm down. Makima's Control power must require some kind of mutual feeling on both parties, as an explanation for why she hadn't just controlled everyone in the story by virtue of being a self-obsessed megalomaniac who thought she was better than everyone else save Chainsaw Man.

Likely, it worked by Makima viewing herself as superior while her target also felt she was superior to them in some fashion. Makima probably also needed to feel in control of the situation at hand when she did it, too.

Did I think Makima was smarter than me?

Sure.

Did I think she was better than me in every way, shape, or form?

Fuck no. I definently had more common sense than she did.

Makima was an incredibly shallow and flawed individual at her core, and her overconfidence in always having complete dominance in a situation had been her ultimate downfall in the end. As long as I always remembered that, I wouldn't be afraid of her no matter what she said to me.

Reaching the end of the hallway and stopping, I reached a hand out and knocked on Makima's door.

"Come in." A muffled female voice from the other side responded.

It's showtime.

 

[Neurax]

Fumigation 1.5

The interior of Makima's office was exactly as you might expect a space inhabited by the Control Devil to be. Nice, orderly, and incredibly symmetrical.

I hated it on sight.

Closing the office door behind me with a ca-chack that practically echoed in the silent room, I stared at the Devil sitting behind the large oak wood desk, who was perfectly positioned behind a large window with blinds to be in the very focal point of the room to anyone entering.

Makima sat upright in a chair with her hands folded on her lap, wearing a Public Safety uniform sans the jacket, posture perfect with one of her classic hollow smiles on her face as she stared right back at me.

Her gaze on me felt eerie, not that mere observation would reveal me being any different from a human. This was probably the closest I'd ever been to her as a human or a monster.

Now that I was forced to look at her up close with human eyes and not my thermal-vibro vision, I could further see how her appearance was practically designed to be alluring to humans.

Makima's skin was flawless, facial features excellently proportioned, and her hair silky and soft-looking. I'd bet she didn't use any makeup or similar accessories either.

The only "imperfections" she had were her unnatural eyes and the fact that being with an enclosed space with her pheromone production was making my mouth salivate like crazy as my currently human biology tried to repeatably purge the poison from my bloodstream.

The air was filled with a cloying sweet smell that felt suffocating to me, like someone had sprayed several different brands of perfume in an area.

The saliva that was being filtered into my mouth by the poison tasted sickeningly sweet on my tastebuds. Discreetly, I tried to swallow so I wouldn't choke on my own spit.

Man, I really wanted to gag right now.

"Thank you for coming. Won't you have a seat?" Makima's voice was pleasant to the ears, as her yellow ringed eyes watched my every move.

Was that an order, or a sugge- oh bother, I'm not second guessing everything she says to me, not over something that insignificant. I'll go crazy otherwise.

I promptly walked over, and took a seat in the chair facing opposite Makima with the desk serving as a barrier between the two of us, followed by a muffled fwump as I dropped my bag on the ground next to my chair.

There was a moment of silence, as both of us sized each other up. Makima rested her chin on her interlaced fingers, elbows on the desk as she looked at me with a smile on her face, while I simply frowned and crossed my arms.

My, that's an incredibly unprofessional pose you've taken towards an employee you've never met before Makima.

…

…

…

Was she expecting me to crack from mere eye contact?

Sorry to disappoint, but these past months have greatly increased my composure in high-pressure situations. Also, you are speaking to a highly-disposable body that is currently made up of seven explosives and several feet of expanded bastard.

Say anything weird, and it's sparky boom-boom time for your office, with an (un)natural disaster as an added consolation prize for Tokyo on this fine morning.

Just when I was about to open my mouth and make an inappropriate quip about custom-made contact lenses, Makima finally decided to break the silence and start the conversation.

"I don't think we've been acquainted yet, despite having seen each other before."

Is she referencing that party three months ago, the abandoned factory, or both with that sentence? I doubt Makima ever took real interest in Kusumoto Kazuki until the events of this morning. She was probably embarrassed, if she was even capable of that emotion, of how she had missed such an obvious infiltration in retrospect and didn't want to admit it.

"My name is Makima, a class A Devil Hunter. I'll be leading Special Division Four, a new experimental squad combining Devil Hunters with Devils and Fiends in servitude to Public Safety for assignments." Makima continued, blinking.

Still resting her chin on her hands and smiling, she tilted her head at me with her eyes closed, her hair following her motion. "Fukushima-san certainly had nothing but praise for you, and I look forward to seeing your capabilities during our time together. Let's get along, shall we?"

Somehow, I severely doubt that is going to happen.

I grunted. "Kusumoto Kazuki, formerly of Division 3, a Class B Devil Hunter. I'll be in your care." I stated stoically and all business, trying not to dribble spit out of my mouth while showing no outward reaction to Makima trying to fake friendliness.

That little action just now wasn't half bad. Makima actually looked like a normal human woman in that moment, though I knew better.

Your vile charms have zero effect on me, witch. I crave not the flesh of infidels in carnal passion, for I am holy spaghetti and am beyond the baser instincts of Man. Begone from thy sight, trifling wench!

But alright fine, I'll admit it. Makima wasn't terrible at acting like a human, actually quite good at it really. Even when observing her from afar, she was practically indistinguishable from one when it came to social interaction, sans her lack of unconscious body language and occasional stiffness.

Straightening up in her seat, Makima extended a hand towards me, presumably wanting a handshake.

I gave her outstretched hand a blank look like it was a live snake for a half-second, before uncrossing my arms and reaching a hand across the desk to not leave her hanging.

I probably shouldn't openly defy her for something this meaningless just yet if I wanted a chance of this meeting going well, besides it wasn't like she actually needed physical contact to use Control.

Makima's bare hand met my gloved one, and we completed the handshake.

…Nothing catastrophic happened, surprisingly. The texture of her hand I could feel through the thin glove was… smooth, like warm porcelain.

My living statue comment from earlier may actually have some merit, considering Makima didn't actually have internal human organs and her innards were all Devil intestines like the rest of her kind. All Devil biology made mine look rather mundane by comparison, and didn't even make sense from a scientific or technical standpoint.

The gory mess Canon Denji had made when killing Bat Devil wasn't an artistic choice, Devils really were all intestines on the inside. Fucking weird.

…why is she looking at me like that?

Makima seemed expectant in her gaze as we shook hands, like I was about to do something.

Did she think I didn't have any restraint, and was going to break my human disguise and attack her because of our incredibly close proximity?

Sorry to once again disappoint, I'd rather not waste my time and kill some poor Japanese citizen by fatally harming you. That's also incredibly sad, if you expect that as the default response to someone knowing what you really are Makima. As much as I would like to rip your arm off and force it down your throat to make you choke on it, it wouldn't accomplish anything meaningful.

Well, it might make me feel better. But that's beside the point.

…And would you let go of my hand already?

It had been more than ten seconds now since we had shook, and Makima was still clinging onto my hand. Her facial expression looked… odd. She was still smiling, but I'd say she also looked… confused, if I had to guess?

"What exactly are the details of this new Division you want to set up, Makima?" I said to stave off this growing awkwardness, and winced internally as Makima's lips noticeably went flat as she slowly blinked.

For a couple seconds, she didn't move whatsoever, staring blankly in my direction.

What's her problem-*creak* ACK! That's one hell of a grip you have there, Makima! Let go!

Suddenly, Makima had jerked and tightened her handshake, the leather of my glove creaking as her ringed eyes focused like a damn camera lens and her smile got even more pronounced than it was before. Holy crap, that is creepy!

Did I set her off with the lack of honorific or something?!

For those not in the know, in Japanese society, not using honorifics when addressing someone was either something you only did for close friends, family, or lovers. Alternatively, it was extremely disrespectful otherwise as it basically meant I didn't respect Makima or her higher social station above Kusumoto Kazuki.

Kusumoto Kazuki was born and raised Japanese, and was supposed to be a model employee. And he had just disrespected his "superior" out of nowhere. Given that reaction and how Makima was intensely staring into my eyes with her own right now, I'd say she noticed a lot.

"Could you let go of my hand, please? It's rude to squeeze that hard." I chastised Makima with faint reluctance in my voice, instead of jerking it out of her incredibly tight grip like I wanted to and potentially incite violence.

I wasn't sure how strong Makima was compared to me with this current form, but given she was physically capable of ripping someone's (Pochita's) heart out of their chest, I'd rather not test it even if I was highly resistant to pain and blunt force trauma in general.

I shouldn't give her more ammunition by not acting as Kusumoto Kazuki would anyway.

Makima blinked owlishly at my words, and looked down at her hand holding mine in what was practically a death grip with an expression that screamed "oops". Did she not realize what she was doing, or was she faking surprise?

"Oh, yes. Of course." Hesitantly (?), she finally let go as her facial expression turned neutral.

With my hand returned to me I took a moment to pull on my gloves, readjusting them as I gave Makima a frown with a slightly raised eyebrow. If that had been an intimidation attempt of some sort, it had failed miserably and only succeeded in weirding me out.

Not off to an exactly great start in keeping up appearances as a human Devil Hunter, though Makima wasn't doing that great either, not after that thing she'd just done with her eyes. Though was she even trying to blend in as a human in the first place?

I'd think so, given that it seems rather questionable to have a Devil leading a bunch of Devil Hunters around.

Makima briefly flexed her hand in pause while still looking at me with an undecipherable expression, before folding her hands on the table and continuing her conversation with me in a much more emotionless tone than before.

"As I mentioned before, Special Division Four is a new experimental division designed for higher performance and more proactive Devil extermination duties than normal Divisions, which are more peace-keeping focused. The main difference with this Division from other special Divisions is that we are integrating numerous Devils and Fiends into this taskforce than usual, instead of strictly human Devil Hunters."

While there were Devil Hunters in normal Divisions partnered with Fiends and individual Devils who were their own entities instead of being contracted, it was scarcely distributed and uncommon. Most Public Safety Divisions had less than seven to ten instances of friendly members of Devilkind in them as a whole.

It was uncommon because most Devils were negatively inclined towards humanity, and attempting to train them into being genuinely obedient or reasonable was usually more trouble than it was worth, and almost never stuck permanently.

Fiends were a lot easier to manage since they took on characteristics of the humans they possessed, which could lead to cohabitation if the personality and memories of the original human cadaver being possessed wasn't a complete ass and enough of their brain was intact.

An example of this was, or would be Violence, who was probably the nicest character ever despite his Devil concept being… well, y'know. Also, just realized Makima intentionally set Arai up to die in canon so she could acquire a Fiend who was easily controllable and well-tempered despite their Concept.

Goddamn, that is so fucking cold-blooded. "Saved" him, my fucking ass.

Reaching for a folder on her desk, Makima picked it up and handed to me. I took and opened it, flipping through one page bio summaries of the employees of the newly minted Special Division Four.

…That's definently way more people than canon. Wait! Is that- I recognized some of the faces of the new people that were here from the manga!

Makima's Hybrid squad (sans Quanxi, Reze, and Katanaman) were now part of Special Division Four, giving us a current total of twenty people, including myself and Makima. It was weird actually seeing the full names of those four, plus all the nameless Devil Hunters who had died in the Katanaman Arc.

Twenty people in a division wasn't an unusual size, as some Divisions could number at 100 people or more on average, but…what the fuck? I'd caused a change this big already, just by stopping Denji from being Hybridized?

Damn… how badly did I fuck over Makima's original plans just by being in the right place at the right time?

I was starting to regret coming in here with her if she'd basically been forced to change her entire game plan because of what I did. Definitely at the very top of her shitlist right now. Those smiles from before must have been ones of tranquil fury.

Was the whole "Kill Gun Devil" overplot even going to be a thing anymore, considering Makima had basically orchestrated all that nonsense to originally weaken Chainsaw Man?

Gun Devil probably wasn't even a problem originally in canon, considering how badly that Angel from before had handed it's ass to it in an instant thirteen years ago, as ETERNITY basically telefragged the fucker after it descended from Heaven and sent Gun Devil's corpse parts all across the globe from the blowback of it's first and only attack.

That's right, Gun Devil went out like a bitch despite causing so many human casualties. All attack, no defense.

At the very least, the incident confirmed that there was some sort of safeguard for Humanity in the event of a catastrophic Devil attack that had the potential to be a major threat to the human race. Any Devil who caused too much destruction got an appropriate response.

I guess it really said something about Humanity that we all continued to be bastards despite knowing God was real in this universe and looking out for us all.

Judging from it's appearance and abilities described by that poor bastard who had been the sole survivor at the location where ETERNITY had bent Gun Devil over it's knee and smacked it's ass to oblivion, it had been comprised of multiple concepts as opposed to a singular one like most Devils.

My monster form looked nothing like what ETERNITY was described as, so we were likely made from different concepts.

So, perhaps Angels were probably a lot stronger than most Devils as a whole at the tradeoff of there being a lot less of them around and being less inclined to show up on Earth, probably so humans didn't get complacent and lazy. Not that I really knew that for sure, since I was apparently only the second Angel (technically first, but Relith didn't realize what I was until ETERNITY's appearance) to be discovered in modern times, according to the information I read on Relith Science's computers.

ETERNITY hadn't exactly been chatty to humans either about the Angel agenda before buggering off. Probably for the best, as this world really didn't need Lovecraftian Alien Superweapons who's intended function was to safeguard Humanity from the Apocalypse getting involved in petty wars between mere human civilizations.

I had zero intention of helping any countries wage war. They could all go stuff it. But I wonder what sort of Angel would have been awakened in response to Makima succeeding in acquiring Chainsaw Man and beginning to erase concepts willy-nilly… whatever it would be, it was pretty much guaranteed to be a perfect counter for her.

Likely needed some way to deal with her army of brainwashed goons, while also nullifying or trivializing her Control ability... something themed around chaos or improbability, maybe?

Eh, who knows. We likely wouldn't see it since I didn't plan on letting things deteriorate to that point. If Canon Denji could stop Makima despite having all the odds stacked against him, I could probably do much better "my-selves" in that regard when I finally bothered to actually come up with a way to defeat her.

Anyway, this was going to be an absolute clusterfuck, especially if the four Hybrids were overtly brainwashed like they were in canon and singing nothing but praises for Makima.

Hopefully, Makima could and was going to make her brainwashing more subtle, or everyone else in this Division was going to know something was up if Makima didn't turn the rest of them into sycophants who were in "love" with her.

Which if she did, I was going to proceed to completely devote all of my spare time and drone resources uninvolved with protecting Denji and Pochita into finding the address of wherever Makima lived and completely trash her house and belongings, while leaving her dogs alone and in one piece.

There was such a thing as going too far, after all. Not that Makima understood that. And then I'd keep doing it over and over again to wherever she moved next, just to piss her off.

As long as she lived in an urban area, nowhere was safe from malevolent spaghetti monster vandalism. Nowhere. Am I petty, given the right circumstances?

The answer is a resounding yes, especially if it's Makima suffering because of it. But what on earth was she planning with this entourage of people, and me?

Well, if anything, this definently confirmed she had some sort of interest in me, or rather my predecessor. I basically replaced Denji and had turned the entire story of Chainsaw Man on it's head by flinging shit in Makima's face.

What a joy. Canon was utterly ruined beyond repair, and most of my future knowledge was probably useless now going forward. Good thing I more or less didn't give a shit at this point and had gotten quite good at improv, ay?

I made sure to keep Makima in my peripheral vision as I continued to look through the files. She had gone back to blatantly staring at me with her face cupped in her hand as she rested an elbow on the desk. Since I didn't want Makima to realize I was actively paying attention to her, I couldn't get a good read on her current facial expression. But I think her lips were upturned.

Honestly, I wish she would just stare at me emotionlessly like before instead of doing that.

Just because I'd stolen Denji from her did not mean I was his replacement, and every little action she was currently faking to try and get me to lower my guard down was ultimately meaningless and a waste of time on her end. Denji and I were very different individuals, and I wasn't underestimating Makima no matter how harmless she currently looked.

My current plan that I would resort to by default if she got uppity and tried something looked a little something like this.

1. Blow myself up if Makima's Control power affected me, or alternatively attack her as a temporary distraction if I was immune. I didn't need to succeed in killing her, just needed to keep her attention away from being able to directly coordinate a response for a bit.

2. Have my waiting drones grab Denji and Pochita, and have the Hive Nest and it's drones rampage through Tokyo while they got those two to a boat that "Joseph Hayden" was currently scouting for.

3. Use the shortly inbound Leviathan as a "docking station", and have the enormous mountain sized screaming wall of flesh be a meat shield/deterrence against Japan's military forces as I had a detached portion made of several Hive Nests grab onto the boat and fucking swim as fast away as it could back to America.

4. ???

5. Profit.

As I had next to no knowledge about the outside world thanks to my previous actions in completely leaving America and the fact that Canon Denji's POV from the manga was incredibly limited, there wasn't much I could currently do to improve steps 4 and 5 of this "plan", even if I wanted to.

In contrast, my current plan regarding how to deal with Makima… was that there was no plan and to just wing it, quoting Japan's #1 Devil Hunter. I couldn't out-plan Makima in the long term, so I wasn't going to even bother trying, instead taking a reactionary approach.

Might sound stupid, but I had a biological nuke ready to blow at any moment with an escape route, so it wasn't like I was completely banking on this harebrained scheme.

I came into this room with the expectation that I would be soon fleeing Japan and killing a shitton of innocent humans as a result, and thus anything that happened in here that didn't immediately result in that outcome or me being brainwashed was an unforeseen and positive result.

A creature of logic that always planned accordingly like Makima couldn't even comprehend the notion that I would do something so reckless like approach her without an actual plan, especially with her immense ego. Not that it was actually that reckless, in my case.

My goals are beyond your understanding Makima, because I have no such "goals" regarding you in the first place. I only came to Japan in the first place for Denji, not to permanently deal with your worthless stinking ass.

So, you can come to whatever conclusion you want, it'll be wrong and I'll react accordingly to however you respond.

I closed the folder, having finished flipping through it and handed it back to Makima, who had straightened back up into a much more professional posture at some point during my internal monologue, which she took.

"Quite a collection of individuals you have here. I notice that at least two of these people are new Devil Hunters who have never been on an assignment before. Isn't that a bit reckless, if this is supposed to be a task force that sees regular and intensive combat with Devils? Wouldn't it be better to have them apprentice in another Division, before giving them the option to transfer to this one?" I spoke.

Just because I was expecting to flee Japan didn't mean I was going to slack off with my acting. I had impersonated Kusumoto Kazuki for seven long months now, and I'll admit that sometimes I felt like the man himself, even if I was missing most of his memories.

Sometimes, I wondered what his opinion would be on seeing his image being used like this…

Well, it wasn't like I was the one responsible for killing him in the first place or had intentionally let him die. Rigor mortis had already set in long ago when "Joseph Hayden" had originally found Kusumoto Kazuki's body in that alleyway.

Anyway, what I asked was a valid question. Kobeni Higashiyama and Hirokazu Arai were complete greenhorns, even if Kobeni was pretty much safe from causality's flow due to her Devil contract that probably had something to do with a Monkey's Paw, sacrificing her emotional stability or becoming the target of misfortune as a price in exchange for hyper-competence or incredible luck when her life was in danger.

Either that, or Kobeni desperately needed some anxiety medication and therapy. An abusive homelife was no joke, and could really mess a person up for years if not the rest of their life, having to endure that on a daily basis.

It didn't matter if this squad was full of Fiends, Devils, Hybrids, A Horseman of the Apocalypse, an Angel, and several human Devil Hunters. Those two were a possible liability if Makima was making this out to be some sort of special black-ops suicide squad. I would be incredibly unimpressed if Makima was using them as fodder for some reason.

If Makima was surprised that someone didn't immediately accept her words at face value and was offering constructive criticism, she didn't show it. Instead, that fake smile was back again. Oh brother.

"Those two have been informed and are aware of the risks, and have signed the appropriate legal documents that absolve Public Safety of responsibility should they perish in this line of work." Makima said almost cheerily.

Kusumoto Kazuki slowly blinked.

…Excuse me?

What. You did not just say that so nonchalantly. What kind of leader figure is apathetic to the well-being and safety of their own comrades? Oh wait, you are. My apologies for actually expecting you to meet my incredibly low standards when it comes to being a decent person, Makima.

"A trial by fire, huh? Well, I hope you can realize it's on you at the end of the day if something goes wrong, despite what a piece of paper might say." I said dismissively, with Kusumoto visibly unimpressed with her response.

Fucking hell, I just had to go and open my mouth instead of nodding like a yes-man. Makima paused at my words as she was putting the folder away.

"Kobeni Higashiyama and Hirokazu Arai will be receiving a more intensive training regimen than most normal Devil Hunters starting out, to offset their lack of experience. They are also surrounded by more experienced peers who will further help them in gaining experience. Public Safety does not intend to throw them to the wolves, as you are implying." Makima elaborated, her eyes narrowing but still keeping her smile.

Fucking liar. And you're upset because I ridiculed your poor choice of words? Makima, you do realize that you basically said you don't care about their safety by not elaborating with that after your original sentence, right?

Shit like this is why you don't have any friends.

I know that you don't give a crap about other people, but you could at least have the decency to pretend you care, especially when talking to an unknown who could blackmail you with that information, as I'm pretty sure your callous disregard for the lives of Public Safety employees is a clear breach of your contract to protect all citizens of Japan.

Although the wording of her contract is probably slightly different, meaning Makima can "interpret" it however she wants for wiggle room. And I just remembered that the Japanese government didn't give a shit about what she did as long as Japan came out on top, darn I can't use her slip up against her.

Damn you Kishibe, for letting Makima do whatever the hell she wanted. Despite being Japan's #1 Devil Hunter, you sure failed hard in realizing that Makima has malicious intent until it was too late.

But to be fair, the higher ups of the Japanese government were practically useless in keeping her properly in check, The Control Devil was intended to attract and deceive humans with me being mostly immune to her bullshit, and I know the future of what happened in an alternate universe while you don't so I'll give you a free pass.

Back on point, is Makima doing this on purpose trying to rile me up, or does she really think what she said is socially acceptable for someone of her position?

Let's find out.

"I see. I'd suggest you immediately follow up with that next time, Makima. Otherwise, someone will come to the conclusion that you do not care about the lives of your fellow colleagues, much less your job." I said calmly, my tone neutral and posture still.

I didn't bother adding an honorific this time intentionally, because if I did that would be admitting to her that I had screwed up in the first place. In fact, I was never going to give her one, no matter how odd my blatant disrespect would seem to other people assuming I still had my false identity intact by the end of this conversation.

Makima's facial expression didn't change from the hollow smile, though her right index finger twitched on the table at my words. A reaction. No clue what sort, but I'll guess it was negative considering that she could make people explode by pointing at them.

"I'll keep your feedback in mind for the future." Makima responded, her tone still remaining pleasant and unbothered despite my thinly-veiled jab at her.

Hm. I guess it was too much to hope that simple disrespect would visibly annoy her aside from that finger twitch, her skin must be much thicker than I thought. Or I was giving her a desired response.

Makima was trying to piss me off, wasn't she? Could she have intentionally done that finger twitch to make me think that I had gotten a reaction and I'd be deceived, when in reality she was unbothered?

Man, I hate having to deal with malicious smart people who are a real piece of work. I'm a rather lazy laidback fellow normally, you know? This conversation already has at least three or four layers of social interplay to it already, and it hasn't even been five minutes yet.

Is this what all my future interactions with you will be like if I don't end up fleeing Japan? Seriously, what an absolute pain.

Empathy and concern for your fellow coworkers isn't a trait typically present in most imposters, bitch. Even if a good one would pretend to care, which fine, that's fair. Very sad for Japan's Devil Hunters though, that a body-jacking abomination cares more for the well-being and safety of them than their de-facto leader.

Unless… Makima thinks I've gotten too attached and is looking to see if she can use them to manipulate me.

Himeno, I'm sorry, but you were the one who approached me in the first place and putting too much of an effort in pushing you away would have been too suspicious. As much as it's going to hurt me inside, I am prepared to sacrifice you in order to escape Makima's grasp.

Hopefully, she won't go after you if I have to run away with Denji and Pochita, though I wouldn't hold out much hope. In the event this meeting goes well, I'll make it up to you somehow for putting you in Makima's crosshairs.

"Why exactly do you want me in this division, anyway?" I continued after a pause, eager to keep moving this strangely-civil conversation along.

How long it would remain civil for, I didn't know, but I'd reckon the pleasantry would rapidly devolve once we reached the topic of my newly adopted son and pet devil. I'm surprised Makima didn't immediately start the conversation about my "family matters" comment from earlier.

Makima pulled another folder out of the desk. Internally, I stiffened as I recognized it as Kusumoto Kazuki's personal file. Looks like it was finally time for the interrogation to truly begin. Is your interest in me impersonal or personal, Makima?

Impersonal interest means I can just treat you like all the other assholes in this world who are only interested because I'm an Angel, albeit you're a slightly more dangerous one.

Personal interest complicates matters greatly, and means I'm in deep, deep shit.

"I've been looking to fill the roles in this new division with people of all talents and specialties. Looking through your record, I've noticed you are particularly adept at "search and destroy" assignments, as well as being a heavy hitter due to your Devil contract. Given your after-action reports, you don't waste time, and are incredibly efficient in your duties." Makima explained, leaning forward in her chair, her hand tracing the paper.

Flattery doesn't work on me Makima, or at least not from you. If anything, coming from your lips it's a curse.

"Most of the Devil Hunters in this division lack… brute force when compared to the inhuman members, and the fact you were able to make use of that in the past without causing much, if any property damage or having your Devil be seen shows me you prefer surgical strikes despite the destructive potential of your attacks and know what restraint is." She continued, flipping through my file.

"Your point?" Where are you going with this?

"That is why I would like you to join this division as my second in command." Makima smiled at me as she closed my file, looking expectant at my response.

Whaaaaaaatttt?!

For a moment, I had an immense urge to sigh out loud and visibly slump in my chair. Fuck, it is personal. Very, very personal.

That was extremely out of character for Makima from what I knew of her, and incredible favoritism for someone she had never personally met before and knew was an imposter, which meant…

Who the hell was my predecessor to you, and what exactly do you want with me saying something like that?! That's not something you say to a past enemy you've fought before!

The second in command of a division was more or less attached to the Division leader's hip and an extension of their will. If I accepted, I would still "technically" be Makima's subordinate, but the power imbalance wasn't nearly as wide as it would have been had I was just a regular member of Special Division 4.

If I was second, Makima legally wouldn't be able to simply pull rank on me and tell me to shut up and do as she said, as the first and second basically needed to come to an accord to get anything done. In other words, she was offering me a position that would allow me to directly interfere with how this division was ran, should I desire.

Why in the absolute hell would the Control Devil do that?!

I don't like this. This is the second time that Makima hasn't acted as she should have according to the manga. First, it was not getting upset in having Denji's death prevented by a mere stroke of luck, and now freely offering someone to share authority in some capacity with her.

I was expecting her to jump on the opportunity to get me under her thumb, but instead she wants me to have possible independence from her while still technically being her subordinate? She doesn't just expect me to kowtow to her as her second, does she?

Unless I've severely misunderstood Makima's character, there's something incredibly wrong with her current behavior. As much as I would like to drop the masquerade by having my head split open and blatantly asking what I was to her and she wanted with me, I doubted Makima would outright tell me and it would certainly escalate the situation to its breaking point.

So instead, let's see what happens when I politely refuse.

I tapped a finger against my arm, carefully watching her reaction. "I appreciate the gesture, but I'm afraid I will have to decline that offer, Makima."

Immediately, Makima frowned and her folded hands clenched at my response. "May I ask why?"

That tone holds clear disappointment and something else I don't recognize.

"I have no experience leading others, and have only ever worked solo or in disorganized groups in what was basically a free-for-all instead of a coordinated effort. I'm honored you think so highly of me, but it would be better to choose a much more experienced Devil Hunter as your second. It's only been a few months since I was promoted to a class B, after all."

My answer was perfectly logical. What Makima was offering me, it made no sense realistically. While there were instances of Public Safety Devil Hunters jumping up the ranks in sporadic fashion, what Makima was doing was a lot different than a field promotion.

She was handing a person she'd never met who had no experience leading others governmental administrative duties where the outcome would reflect directly on her. Kusumoto's record was good, but not that good to warrant such a reaction.

That was an awful lot of trust to put on someone you knew wasn't friendly with you and would probably try to actively sabotage your plans. Was she doing something along the lines of "Keep your friends close, and enemies closer"?

Makima mulled over my answer, gaze unfocused as she visibly bit her lip. Unless it was acting, that was definently a clear indication of erratic behavior. I'm surprised she didn't immediately give me a quarter-second response like with my previous retorts.

Had she actually expected me to accept without question? That meant that accepting was falling into a trap, right? What was that trap though? Anchoring me to Japan?

If Makima had any clue of how I worked, she knew that trying to keep me on a leash like a Hybrid was literally impossible given that a singular drone could make a Hive Nest all on it's own with no limitations on range thanks to Hivemind.

Why, I could probably spread across the entire world if I wanted too…!

…Japan is an expansionist, imperialistic nation who has practically no allies among other countries, given that the Nazi's don't exist anymore, and Italy switched sides near the end of WW2…

Uh-oh.

I guess Makima was trying to befriend/recruit me in her own backward way, for Japan's agenda and/or her own personal interest. And for whatever reason, she was playing nice instead of trying to brain-rape or threaten me yet.

Well, threatening me wouldn't really have had an effect given that I had no "original body" and basically spoke to everyone using a disposable proxy that had an extremely reduced sense of pain, but my point stands.

Given that I hadn't folded to her whims and she seemed to be currently having difficulty in attempting to mount a response to my refusal, evidently Makima wasn't used to actually having to do things this way.

Did that mean she couldn't use Control on me, then? Or was she trying to lull me into a false sense of security before attempting to do so?

Inside my inner suit jacket, a tentacle budded from my arm's flesh and subtly snaked through my sleeve into the vest part of my uniform, curling around the tv remote detonator in an interior pocket, and primed itself to press down on the button I had wired for detonation at any given moment.

Makima looked up from her pondering at me as I did this. Fuck, I momentarily forgot she has a really good sense of smell, and my monster-self had a rather distinctive scent for her apparently.

She probably didn't know that I was rigged to blow given how the bombs were encased within my flesh, but knew I had just done something incredibly suspicious in that moment. Instead of calling my suspicious behavior out however, Makima proceeded to finally answer my previous response.

"On the contrary, I disagree. While it's true the situation is a bit unprecedented, I feel your rapid progression through the ranks in recent months shows you have potential and drive to fill the position easily. The fact that you've shown concern for your coworker's well-being when given the impression they are underprepared makes me believe you will go above and beyond to provide for the needs of your fellow colleagues."

Makima still had a frown, but seemed confident that what she said would surely sway me.

I wanted to snort. Yeah, sure. Your wording is still shit, and why don't you go apply your own words to yourself and become a better person instead of relying on me to clean up after your moral inadequacies, Makima?

Trying to simultaneously pass your attempt to piss me off as a test while also using my empathy that you seem to lack as "proof" I'm suited for a leadership role, that's still technically under your thumb when it comes down to it?

How inspired, it makes me want to puke.

"I'm afraid I must once again refuse. Even if I did accept, I simply don't have the personal time anymore to handle all the responsibilities that position demands. The end of my latest assignment in extermination of the Coyote Devil that had been killing and eating pets of civilians led into an unexpected development for my life outside work." My second refusal was firmer than the first.

Makima really didn't like that response, as her hands began to slowly fidget in… agitation, yes that was definently agitation.

Why was the Control Devil so intent on having me accept this position that put us on similar standing ground? It's like she has conflicting desires with how she wants to interact with me, and is attempting to fulfill them all at once.

But her eyes seemed to light up as soon as I mentioned "unexpected development". Ugh, I accidently gave Makima a foothold she was intent on grabbing. Denji and Pochita would have come up in this conversation eventually, but this was the point where things would start to get messy.

"Ah yes. I recall that Satoru-san said you would be late to our meeting today because of matters pertaining to family. Has something happened with Mizuno Kazuki, pardon my forwardness?"

Makima once again smiled at me with her eyes half lidded, probably expecting me to not have an answer and try to brush off her inquiry, no doubt thinking I hadn't bothered in interacting with Kusumoto's remaining family.

Well, I don't pardon you bitch. And unfortunately for you, I'm prepared to answer that question.

"My mother is doing fine, thank you for asking. Last week I spoke with her, I believe she was looking eager in starting another one of her floral tapestries she's so fond of. I plan to go visit her in the fall and pay respects to my father's grave." I supplied her with a detailed response.

As it turns out, Kusumoto Kazuki was estranged from his mother and father for almost five years due to disagreements in his change of career choice. Something they'd been right in, considering how I found Kusumoto in the first place.

Honestly, how a class C had survived almost 5 years working for Public Safety before biting it given the immense fatality rate was the real mystery here. Kusumoto must have been playing it really safe and kept his head down before he finally got unlucky.

I didn't know how bad the disagreement had been, but it was mostly his father who had had an issue with it, with his mother having grown distant with Kazuki uninterested in making amends until I had reached out, trying to figure out the man's past in the event of this exact scenario.

Nakahara Kazuki, Kusumoto's father, had died of a heart attack three years ago at the age of 71.

Mizuno Kazuki was 68, and had been surprised with her son attempting to reconnect with her. She had been… extremely pleased to say the least, and it was all incredibly awkward dealing with her eager affection in her attempts to reconnect with who she thought was her son as a stranger wearing their body.

The woman was wholesome, to say the least. She should take well to Denji, considering she hadn't been exactly shy in poking me about giving her a grandchild or several to spoil. Ugh, why were Japanese parents so obsessed with their kids having children?

As I was raised in an individualist western society, I found eastern collectivist culture to be so strange at times.

Makima seemed somewhat offput by my unwillingness to immediately elaborate what I meant after that answer, her smile slowly beginning to drop as she realized that I wasn't tripping over myself to give her all the details and she was going to have to work to pry anything useful out of me.

"Oh. Well, good to hear. Then, I wasn't aware you had any other family members…?" Makima trailed off questioningly, brow starting to furrow.

I straightened, cracking my neck as I reached up to scratch an itch.

"As of an hour ago, I am now the legal adoptive guardian of Denji Kazuki, an orphan boy who was an undocumented Japanese citizen in former servitude to the yakuza for several years, who are now deceased after an incident with a Devil. I ran across him after finishing my previous assignment and after some time spent with him, decided to take him in as my own." I delivered this statement in complete monotone, as if I were discussing the weather.

Bleh. In my opinion, Kazuki was so unfitting tacked onto the end of Denji's name like that. Not like my real western last name would have sounded any better though. Denji Harrison? Bleugh.

Makima seemed taken aback by my answer, surprising. Did you think I was going to try and hide what I'd done from you?

Tempting, but unless I wanted Denji and Pochita temporarily living in the cramped sewer and slumming it with my drones by playing poker or something (absolutely not), I doubted I could beat you in a cloak and dagger match when it came to this sort of thing.

That's why I was instead taking a direct, blunt approach powered entirely by sheer audacity in hopes it threw Makima off. So, I wasn't going to break the door down, in a manner of speaking.

Instead, I was going to destroy the entire fucking building and leave the door as the only thing left standing.

"You… adopted h- a child?" Ooh, almost slipped up there, Makima. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look good to your watchers if they found out you knowingly let an orphan boy remain a slave to the yakuza for years on end. Even for this shitty country that was going too far, especially since you were a Devil on a (loose) leash.

Pfft. That face Makima was making right now was pretty funny like that, with her mouth just the teensiest centimeter open. I thought she'd know this already, considering the stop I'd made on the way to Public Safety HQ.

Then again, I had indiscriminately killed every rat, bird, and bug I could find in the surrounding areas of Tokyo with my drones. Probably a bigger reason why Makima hadn't been more aggressive with me, as she realized I knew about her supernatural hearing and that the sewers were practically crawling with drones from all the "lower lifeforms" I'd eaten in the past few hours.

"Yes, I did. The main reason I was late was because I had to stop by Family Courts Agency to drop off adoption paperwork to finish officializing it." I unhelpfully responded with a grin.

Makima's lips soured, looked visibly aggravated with this response. Even if Denji's situation was more heavily entwined with Public Safety than it first appeared thanks to Pochita and Zombie Devil, child adoption was completely unrelated to Devil Hunters and out of her jurisdiction since Denji was still human meaning she couldn't do shit to prevent it since I'd already gotten everything approved.

However…

"Pardon my rudeness, but are you sure adopting a child is a good idea? Public Safety Devil Hunters have abnormal working hours and a high fatality rate, and it would no doubt be heartbreaking for the boy if you were to perish in this line of work."

Makima's voice was full of mock concern as she leaned forward in her chair towards me. She'd even slapped on a "worried" look, the sheer fucking nerve of her.

Hooh?

Why Makima, I didn't know you had such a bleeding heart for a human you originally slated to die and hoped to have turn into a Fiend with a favorable "eager to please" disposition and personality with extremely low standards so you could have a do over with Chainsaw Man and groom the amnesiac Fiend into your fucktoy who was solely reliant on you for everything. Funny, you not understanding love is what originally screwed your plans over since Pochita's love for Denji is what made the Devil decide to become Denji's heart and create a Hybrid instead of possessing his body to become a Fiend.

And my oh my, is that a threat I hear?

I leaned forwards towards Makima, mirroring her pose as I gave my response with a wide smile and my eyes half lidded.

"I appreciate you are doing your job and worrying about the livelihood of Japanese citizens, but to be frank that's my problem to deal with, not yours. Denji has grown attached to me in our short time together, and it's not like he's had a normal life to begin with." A note of steel entered my voice as I shot Makima's feeble attempt to get me to reconsider down.

Don't talk to me or my son ever again, bitch. I'm the daddy now, and you've just lost custody.

Makima's fingers twitched in irritation as her brow furrowed. Somehow, I think it was genuine annoyance. She couldn't bring up Pochita as leverage right now either, since that would be admitting she knew about Denji's situation which I wouldn't hesitate to use against her as blackmail.

Himeno was currently out on an assignment, and the Devil Requisition form was still in my bag waiting to be presented to her. There was no way she could reveal she knew about Pochita yet without breaking the masquerade first, which her ego wouldn't allow her. Makima wanted me to slip up first, and then try to grapple onto me from there.

The Devil leaned back in her chair, lightly rapping her fingers on her right hand against the table.

"Why would you go so far for a boy you just met a couple hours ago, instead of just dropping him off at an orphanage?" Makima looked absolutely puzzled, though that was certainly an act. Even if she didn't understand empathy, she knew damn well why I had intervened and that everything coming out of my mouth was purely intended to spite her.

Sounding a bit callous there, woman. Hit a little too close to home? You jealous that nobody wanted you as an individual growing up, but rather as a tool to be used for Japan's agenda?

Honestly, I'd offer you sympathy if it weren't for the fact you'd try to use it against me.

I tilted my head. "Why, you ask? Tell me, Makima-" Putting my right fist over my heart in a Devil Hunter's salute, I mockingly "bowed" towards her in my chair.

"-is it not our sworn duty as defenders of the weak to help the less fortunate who are in need?"

Makima paused her finger rapping at my challenge, eyes narrowing at the faintly hidden conceit in my tone. She was beginning to emote negatively a lot more now, probably a good sign I was reaching the end of her patience and beginning to get under her skin.

"Our duty is to ensure we do whatever is necessary to keep Japan on top and in working order, no matter the cost necessary to achieve that goal. Public Safety Devil Hunters are the Japanese government's dogs, intended to put their lives on the line for the greater good." Makima's voice was monotone and emotionless, her facial expression neutral as she gave me an incredibly rehearsed sounding response.

The "greater good" spiel? How unoriginal. And I noticed you didn't include yourself in that statement about dogs by not saying "We".

"Dogs, huh?" My tone was unconvinced as I raised an eyebrow at her.

Makima blinked. "Would you say the word is not accurate?

I put a hand on my chin. "Hmm. I suppose, but… while dogs are loyal, they also tend to be easily manipulated and eager to please. Is that how you view your fellow colleagues? How incredibly rude of you."

Makima's facial expression didn't change, but her body slightly tensed in her chair at this statement, realizing I had switched gears and had begun to get more aggressive in my responses and was fully intent on verbally attacking her.

"It would be foolhardy to let every Devil Hunter working for Public Safety know how much the odds are stacked against them when it comes to fighting Devils. Any misinformation is done with the sole intention of keeping morale up. Are you not a dog yourself, given how eagerly you've hunted Devils down in the past seven months?"

Makima's expression towards me seemed cold in that moment, similar to how she had looked down at a defeated Chainsaw Man.

Admittedly, if I wasn't some horrifying abomination right now and just a normal human, I probably would have just shut up and tried to get out of her line of fire with submission or appeasement at that moment. Unfortunately for Makima, her visible anger only made me more relaxed and confident. She should go back to faking pleasantry if she really wanted to unnerve me.

Unintimidated, I lightly snorted at the comment and gave her a look of disdain. "Me, a dog? Hah! I'm a bit too rabid and parasite infested to be a dog really. Why, I'd probably bite off any hand that tried to collar me."

There was a noticeable pause in the room after my statement, as if something in the air changed. For some reason, my human spine was tingling like crazy.

Makima crossed her arms, mirroring my pose as her expression turned positively frigid, lips downturned and eyes glowering at me like headlights of dull gold.

"Is that so? I have no use for mad dogs." Despite her words and the face she was making, Makima's voice was full of… eagerness(?), as her once absent body language was now practically bristling in aggression.

What are you, a psychotic child who's been denied a toy they wanted and wants to now take it by force? Grow the fuck up and act your age, you millennium old demon. I'm the younger person in this room here, and yet I feel older than Kusumoto Kazuki (34) or Joseph Hayden (28) combined right now, having to deal with the temper tantrum of a (dangerous) brat.

Unbothered by Makima beginning to lose it, I tutted at her, waving my hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Tch, what is with you and the dog thing? I'd appreciate it if you didn't slap inaccurate labels on me. To be honest, I'm more of a cat person anyway, love the moody little fuzzballs. But since we're now talking about dogs apparently, I'll humor your analogy for a moment."

Weirdly, Makima actually seemed to visibly calm down at my words, her facial expression losing it's harsh features and body language returning to stillness. The hell?

"Oh?" Her tone still contained traces of anger, but now it sounded more inquisitive.

"You can't predict what a mad dog could do, right? Devil's fear what they can't understand, so you might say that having one around might be effective in dealing with them, if you wanted to shake things up a bit."

Makima's lips twitched at the word "predict" while her brow furrowed. Interesting, I'll note that down for later.

"That rhetoric… I didn't realize you personally knew the number one Devil Hunter in Japan, Kusumoto."

Finally acknowledged the man who's face I'm wearing, Makima? If all I knew it took was talking shit to you, I would have done it much sooner. What an "honor", considering you aren't using an honorific for his name either.

Technically, I could use Himeno being Kishibe's student as a reason for that line of thought, but Himeno was "sane", and I didn't want her getting more of Makima's petty ire, especially once she realized who it was who helped me secure Pochita.

"I don't. It just seems like common sense, really. If a leader's troops are all predictable, then they are only as good as that leader is. Do you really think you can account for every single detail by yourself, Makima?"

Surprisingly, she didn't answer my statement, instead giving me another odd look. Strange, I thought for sure that would piss her off again.

You know, you should really at least attempt to be denying my claims that you are Public Safety's de-facto apathetic leader. If this conversation is being recorded so you can use my words as future blackmail against me, I don't really care by this point.

Blackmail is worthless, considering I'm only here humoring you to avoid a higher body count of innocents and to avoid extra potential danger to Denji and Pochita. You have nothing truly damaging to use against me, and I don't really give a shit about what you try to pull with me as long as I'm not brainwashed by the end of it.

"You never did give me a proper response to why you adopted that boy." Makima's tone was somber, as she fiddled with a lock of her hair.

I raised an eyebrow at the sudden mood whiplash. Are you trying to befriend, enslave, or fight me? Make up your damn mind, demon woman.

And you didn't give me a response to my question just now. You're brazenly changing the subject?

"Because it was the right thing to do. And is that question really relevant to this conversation?" I was fully intent on dragging my heels on anything relating to Denji.

Slowly, the Devil grinned with closed lips. Warning bells went off in my head. That's not good. I mentally rewound the current conversation, trying to see where I slipped up.

"It is actually. Your extermination of the Coyote Devil took place in the town of Kichijoji, correct?" Makima steepled her hands, as I realized she was suddenly gearing up for an offense of her own.

"-citizen in former servitude to the yakuza for several years, who are now deceased after an incident with a Devil-"

Ah, son of a bitch. Fuck me and my big mouth, I accidently gave her another foothold on what was probably the weakest link on my side of the masquerade. The fact that I had killed a Devil that I wasn't assigned without immediately reporting I'd done so or waited for a superior to arrive on the scene to sort all the potential bureaucratic red tape out.

Yeah, that wouldn't have gone well had I stayed. Having to fight Makima and two Hybrids (probably Flamethrower and Spear judging by appearance) in a straight up fight while also simultaneously protecting two near defenseless individuals, on severely limited biomass with no large quantity of water or a Hive Nest nearby? No thanks.

And since my blood was probably toxic to all Devils, I couldn't force feed Pochita to bring back Chainsaw Man as a bash buddy so we could wreck Makima's shit together. Plus, I'm pretty sure Pochita couldn't control himself or his strength in that state, so he'd be a danger to Denji, who would probably be scared by the 7-foot behemoth his friend turned into alongside my even larger uncompressed monster form.

"Yes." I grunted, annoyed at myself for my earlier carelessness. Makima's previous reactions must have all been fake with the intention of distracting me and getting me overconfident before going for my throat. She had played me. Darn after-action reports required to be written to the very letter. Habit must have made me slip that bit in without realizing.

Kichijoji, where I had finally found Denji, was a backwater town on the outskirts of Tokyo. Probably conveniently placed within Makima's range, not that I knew that since her personal file was either heavily restricted or nonexistent, and it wasn't like I could ask around about her whereabouts.

"I see. I was hoping to ask you about that actually. You see, earlier this morning I was called in to deal with a Devil sighting at an abandoned factory once owned by Tojho Ironworks…" Makima had opened a drawer on her desk, searching for something as she continued talking to me.

A picture was placed down in front of me. It was the aforementioned factory, only it was now light out and the building itself was mostly destroyed. My drones really had done a number on it.

"So, imagine my surprise when I arrived with two fellow Devil Hunters, and found clear signs of a fight but no trace of the Devil that should have been there. As you were the only other Devil Hunter in the area, were you the one responsible for killing it?" Her voice was inquisitive, features… smug. Gah.

Leaving without a report wasn't blatantly illegal since Zombie Devil hadn't been engaged with a Civilian or Private Devil Hunter, but I could be reprimanded for not adhering to protocol and it allowed Makima a perfect avenue to start asking uncomfortable and hard to answer questions, especially if she addressed the fact that my "Devil" had attacked her and fellow Public Safety employees and I would have to fake ignorance.

I was hyperaware of how Makima was intensely watching me right now, trying to read my body language. Casually reaching over, I picked the photo up and rubbed my chin.

"Hmm. So that's what the place was called. Yes, that is where I found Denji. I didn't personally see or kill whatever Devil killed those yakuza Denji told me about, as I sent my contracted Devil ahead to take care of it when I saw two civilians enter an abandoned building at about 1 in the morning. I never actually entered the factory interior itself." Thankfully, I didn't mention Zombie Devil by name.

Makima looked triumphant that I had admitted my involvement to her. Hrmph, don't get too cocky bitch. You haven't won yet.

Interlaced her fingers in a "lecture" pose, Makima frowned at me with a look of disappointment, which did absolutely nothing to make me feel ashamed. "And you did not bother confirming the Devil's death with your own eyes or waiting for a superior to arrive?"

Oh, fuck off. You'll never be "superior" to me with that rotten personality of yours.

"I trust my contracted Devil to be thorough, and I thought it more important to tend to a boy who was suffering from long term starvation and was on the verge of collapse. Unless you want to tell me you consider mere formalities to an already solved problem to be more important than the livelihood of a Japanese citizen in need?"

There was a note of challenge in my voice at that last part as I quirked an eyebrow at Makima, flicking the picture of my handiwork back on her desk.

Makima stilled, realizing the verbal trap I had laid for her. Even if she could get away with revealing her sociopathy, she probably wasn't keen on being brutally riposted through the chest with a scathing criticism by someone who wasn't interested in submitting to her and had revealed themselves to be actively trying to ruin her plans.

"…I suppose you have a point. In the future however, please follow proper Public Safety protocol to avoid complications. In the meantime…" Makima, realizing a lost cause, was forced to abandon that current avenue of conversation and was likely going to switch to the elephant in the room as a means to put pressure on me.

The fact that my "devil" had attacked her.

Makima flipped through Kusumoto's personal file. "An interesting Devil you've contracted with. The Flesh Devil, I believe you have it written down as?"

How predictable. Now, here's where things really get tough if I want to bother keeping some semblance of my false identity intact. Public Safety didn't know what the Flesh Devil looked like (I'd checked the Devil registry), but it wasn't hard to put two and two together now that I had confirmed my involvement to Makima.

"That's right. What about it?"

"I don't suppose you can tell me why it was ordered to attack me and my associates, as well as destroy government property?" Makima's tone was expectant as she did a gendo pose while smiling.

Wow, I guess she wasn't planning on sweeping that small detail under the rug then. I was kind of enjoying our shared masquerade, kind of a bummer Makima just broke it. Had she forgone diplomacy since I was being uncooperative and was trying to put pressure on me, expecting me to get violent or nervous with that blunt statement?

Well, two can play that game.

"You were attacked? Goodness, I hope no one was badly hurt." Somehow, I managed to say that with a straight face as I filled my voice with mock concern and kept my body language calm.

Makima's smile widened in amusement. "Just a few bumps and scrapes here and there. Your "Devil" didn't accomplish anything permanent aside from ruining a perfectly good building and a few uniforms, I'm afraid."

That smug tone was irritating.

"My, that's quite a rude thing to say about a fellow employee. Humor me. Why do you think I ordered my Devil to attack you?" My entire body feigned boredom, as I rested my arm on the chair and leaned my chin on my hand.

Yes, Makima. Give me a clue as to what you think my intentions are with you, or just outright tell me.

"That's what I would like to know. You do realize the consequences for misuse of a Devil Contract and attacking a fellow Devil Hunter in foul play are quite severe, correct? Imprisonment for several years with no chance of payroll is the bare minimum sentence you could potentially receive." Makima fluttered her eyes as she leered eerily at me.

My eyebrow twitched in irritation, as she gave me nothing useful and tried to uselessly threaten me. Makima mistook my irritation as a sign she was getting under my skin, as her lips quirked.

As if any prison could hold me, considering I made my first debut in this world by successfully breaking out of one meant to contain me. Now that I was in the ocean and free to go wherever I pleased, containing every instance of me was literally impossible. Good fucking luck in trying.

"You seem awfully confident whatever attacked you was the Flesh Devil. I distinctly remember recalling it before I left the factory with Denji. Could you give me a physical description?"

I recall destroying Makima's eyes and attacking her in what was pitch black darkness. Aside from a split-second glimpse, I don't think she got a good enough look at my monster form. This was a perfect opportunity to dig for information.

Makima made a checkmark with her thumb and index finger, as she placed it against her chin and looked up at the ceiling as if in thought.

"Hmm, if I recall… black skin layered with golden scales. Orange eyes, and hundreds of gaping mouths."

She leaned towards me, quirking an eyebrow as she smiled.

"Sound familiar?"

Hah, absolutely not!

Hope budded in my chest at her words. Assuming Makima wasn't lying to deceive me, that meant whatever instance of this Angel she had run across wasn't the same as me. Which meant my abilities were probably different from what sounded like a much more upfront combat-oriented version of me.

Damn, why couldn't I have scales? All I got was an incredibly energy intensive move that hardened my flesh and turned it rigid and grey. So unfair!

So naturally, I didn't hesitate to burst her bubble. "It doesn't. For starters, Flesh Devil has red skin."

A beat, as Makima blinked at me and tilted her head.

"It does?" Her tone was absolutely confused. That was good, incredibly good.

"You know what? How I about I just introduce you two, and we'll see if Spaghetti really is the one who attacked you or not." My tone was amused.

"…Spaghetti?" I almost laughed at Makima's flabbergasted expression as she seemed incredibly unimpressed by my naming skills.

"He bears a striking resemblance to it. Come on out, buddy." I lightly tapped my wrist as Makima watched my moves intently. My sleeve rustled.

A pupilless blue eye peered out from the edge of my sleeve. The lack of detail was intentional, as I didn't want some sort of primal instinct between the two of us activating if Makima saw my real eye, considering what happened earlier with Zombie Devil.

It was followed by eight tentacles as a volleyball sized mass budded from my skin, hidden by the interior of my jacket as it crawled up my arm and onto my shoulder. The mucus covering was disabled to avoid making a sticky mess, but the tentacles themselves were still dexterous enough on their own to grip things.

I was now missing most of my internal organs as a result, and the drone was a bit smaller than normal thanks to the low biomass composition of my body and the fact I put one of my bombs at the very center of it's center of mass, but it sat energetically on my shoulder as tentacles waved in the air.

Makima's facial expression was neutral as her nose twitched. My drone waved at her.

"… the smell is the same, but it looks different…?" Makima muttered something I didn't fully hear under her breath as her brows lightly furrowed.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, Makima."

"…It has a peculiar smell. Is it… always that small?" She looked at me with a weird expression, as if expecting me to elaborate.

Leaning my head over I loudly sniffed my drone, as it gave me an offended look.

"It can get bigger if it wants to. But I'm surprised you could smell anything at all, considering the impromptu bath in my kitchen sink this one took this morning. Perhaps it needs another one?" My tone was smug, as I poked my drone in good natured ribbing.

It proceeded to slap me across the face with a tentacle in offense, hard enough to leave a mark.

I rubbed my cheek. "Gack. Alright, I deserved that."

Makima watched our byplay with eerie stillness. It was kind of creeping me out to be honest. She opened her mouth, and then closed it, her hands fidgeting as if mulling her next course of action.

There was an uncomfortable pause as my human body and drone both stared at Makima, who stared back. Then, Makima's posture relaxed as she proceeded to smile and lean forward in her chair.

I'm not sure what exactly was going on in that head of hers, but I was instantly on edge.

"May I touch it?" Makima said, not waiting for my response and already reaching a hand out with the full intention of making physical contact with one of the drone's wiggling tentacles.

Jokes on you, I am about to make you severely regret not having any manners.

"Ah… Makima, I wouldn't do that if I were you…" I trailed off warningly, "apprehension" in my voice.

"Why? Does it bite?" Her tone was full of - was that provocation? - as she continued reaching for the nearest tentacle, hand now just mere centimeters from red flesh. Makima, you sound a little too eager saying that.

Too bad I have no intentions of humoring your vore kink.

"No, it won't… it's just that Spaghetti can be rather- " I didn't get to finish my full statement in time, thanks to her impatience.

Makima's hand made contact with the tentacle. The drone's entire body twitched, and then all hell proceeded to break loose.

The tentacle wrapped around the entirety of Makima's arm in a split second, and she tensed as the rest of the drone's tentacles suddenly shot out and blurred past her, wrapping around her chair as it proceeded to propel itself off my shoulder, disturbing some papers on the desk as-

splat!

-it completely attached itself to Makima's face, tentacles wrapping around her head tightly as it mercilessly facehugged her with it's squishy body. Her chair skidded back slightly on the wood floor from the force behind the drone's momentum. Unfortunately, it didn't fall over.

"-touchy, when given consent, or the impression of it at least…" I trailed off, "regret" evident in Kusumoto's voice as he proceeded to sigh in "exasperation" and put his face in his hands.

Deafening silence filled the room, broken only by the wet sounds of my drone squirming on Makima's face and my slightly labored breathing as I desperately tried not to laugh.

The pupilless eye core of the drone was situated to be just in front of Makima's left eye as the two entities currently had a staring match. Through the thermal vision of my drone, I could see that her entire body was beginning to heat up and she was twitching all over in what was probably mounting rage.

Despite this, I didn't feel worried. Quite the opposite, actually.

Internally, I was hysterically laughing my head off by just how fucking stupid this situation had become in an instant.

"…" Makima was silent and completely still as her personal space was utterly violated by living spaghetti.

"…" I stilled, my hands tightly gripping my chair in preparation to throw it in her direction, as I anticipated a violent response.

Slowly, Makima reached up with her hands, and pulled the drone off her face with a surprisingly gentle grasp, which revealed another completely unreadable expression as she proceeded to stare my human body down.

My, how intense.

Idly, a stray tentacle gently slapped against her face, before proceeding to curl around her other arm in preparation to attempt to dismember it with the rest of it's other stretched tentacles grasping the rest of Makima's limbs and torso in a faux-hug. The Devil stiffened at the full body contact, probably realizing how much of a compromising position she was now in.

More or less restrained to her chair with only her hands semi free.

"…Well, Makima. Congratulations. It looks like you've made a friend." Kusumoto's face was chiseled stone and voice completely devoid of emotion as he stared her dead in the eyes, though there might have been a hint of a sneer on his lips.

Despite not having gotten any mucus on her face, Makima's cheeks were completely bright red from indignation with her bottom lip trembling as she was absolutely speechless from the sheer audacity of my cheek.

My goodness. That's quite an interesting shade of red on your face, Makima. It's almost the same color as your hair.

I think I've successfully made you reach an entirely new peak of anger.

 

[taovkool]

I mean, Angels looking like a bunch of tentacles would be mighty sus. Somehow, you managed to make it work.

Don't recognize CARRION, but Chainsaw Man is my niche favourite. Watched.

The threadmarks are a real mess though. You might want to fix that.

 

[Neurax]

I mean, Angels looking like a bunch of tentacles would be mighty sus. Somehow, you managed to make it work.

Don't recognize CARRION, but Chainsaw Man is my niche favourite. Watched.

Click to shrink...

I more or less took the concept of biblically accurate angels looking horrifying and ran with it. Would be a nice twist in the crapsack world that is Chainsaw Man that even the angels are nightmare fuel.

Never used QQ before, and I'm unsure why the threadmarks are so fucked. Trying to fix... there we go, it should be good now.

 

[LordTom]

Happy to see you alive. It was a joy to read it again.

 

[Neurax]

Happy to see you alive. It was a joy to read it again.

Click to shrink...

Thanks. Fumigation 1.6's taking quite a while since I've had to rewrite it multiple times from the SI and Makima setting each other off too early or getting too...vicious with each other. I've had to retcon so many different bad ends already... mostly from it being a direction I did not want the story to take. I want this to be a mostly positive story that could probably be classified as a fix it fic, though a "earn your happy ending" varient. I'm the type of writer that goes off on a tangent when I have an idea, so there's like 10k of stuff for this chapter I have lying around that I can't use for the final product.

Fumigation 1.6's gonna be a doozy to read when I finally finish it up, and I'm honestly having a lot of fun writing it out.

Spoiler: Retconned bad shit that's been removed (so far)

Makima...
-Got her throat ripped out after receiving a "reason you suck" speech, did not enjoy it in the slightest.
-Underwent several mental breakdowns in different ways in various scenarios, ranging from the SI letting it slip he was human and Makima being unable to accept the fact a human was keeping up with her, all the way to getting verbally rejected for no room for interpretation.
-Got gaslighted by the SI in a really nasty way I don't want to elaborate on that looking back in hindsight, yikes, was really cold-blooded and way too cruel for the SI's character.
-Used Control on SI, really didn't go well as she was left curled up on the floor vomiting blood by the end of it.
SI...
-Nearly got sexually assaulted by Makima since she thought she was being propositioned by the amount of crude sex jokes the SI was throwing at her at some point in the conversation and was... incredibly enthusiastic at what she thought was consent. I can't put that one on Spacebattles, and the SI doesn't have a sex drive for that exact reason.
-Got force-fed Makima's blood unwillingly and lost control of his body to his instincts as Makima proceeded to get really affectionate and creepy with him.

 

[Travisplo]

You also forgot to threadmark the first post.

 

[Neurax]

You also forgot to threadmark the first post.

Click to shrink...

Ah, thanks.

 

[ThedudeManBro]

Mmmm. Nice very nice. I honestly think this might be the only chainsaw man fic I've enjoyed reading.

As for the story? It's amazing so far, and I only got two things to say/ask:

1st-yea the retcon you made were perfectly done honestly. By the pacing and the interesting turn this story was having, any of those things you cut would legitimately tank the quality of this amazing fic if kept in it.

2nd-at the Malus of having someone asking for lewds if you dont Tag #nolewds, would you be amenable to bring this story to the NSFW portion of this site, if only so more People might notice and enjoy this? NSFW content isn't only porn, thicc gore is also a requisite you can have to put it there, and to be fair I'd love a NSFW fanfic that didn't drag that accursed Catalog with it.

Either way, i'l Still enjoy this fic for the legit Chuckles and concern for the characters as well as intrigue on their fates in the story you are weaving, so please keep up the good work!

Also wow, maybe it's the QQer in me, but Makima looks both thirstier than a Neet in the Sahara and gushing harder than the Niagara falls!

 

[Neurax]

Mmmm. Nice very nice. I honestly think this might be the only chainsaw man fic I've enjoyed reading.

As for the story? It's amazing so far, and I only got two things to say/ask:

1st-yea the retcon you made were perfectly done honestly. By the pacing and the interesting turn this story was having, any of those things you cut would legitimately tank the quality of this amazing fic if kept in it.

2nd-at the Malus of having someone asking for lewds if you dont Tag #nolewds, would you be amenable to bring this story to the NSFW portion of this site, if only so more People might notice and enjoy this? NSFW content isn't only porn, thicc gore is also a requisite you can have to put it there, and to be fair I'd love a NSFW fanfic that didn't drag that accursed Catalog with it.

Either way, i'l Still enjoy this fic for the legit Chuckles and concern for the characters as well as intrigue on their fates in the story you are weaving, so please keep up the good work!

Also wow, maybe it's the QQer in me, but Makima looks both thirstier than a Neet in the Sahara and gushing harder than the Niagara falls!

Click to shrink...

Yeah, a main point behind this story is to see how Makima would actually interact with someone she perceives as an Equal, and what would happen if said Equal interacts with her in meaningful discussion/etcetera. Naturally I have to balance things on a tightrope if I want them to stay true to their characters and coexist with the other without things going nuclear or having them be out of character. So while things might seem like they've all gone right in Fumigation 1.6, that chapter will built off the backs of dozens of discarded bad scenarios that I wrote more for the hell of it and writing practice, as these two are going to have serious violent conflicts with each other in the future.

Makima is of course a massive problem child with tons of issues, most prevalent is that she has incredibly high (insane and conflicting) standards, is relatively unused to having to compromise in anything, and is still a creature that is the negative manifestation of Control that enjoys suffering under her sphere of influence despite all her "cutesy" behavior with the SI. I do not intend on sanitizing her character so she's (immediately) a better person, and there will be multiple instances of her displaying less than desirable traits and behavior that the SI will have to deal with and run damage control on.

The SI also genuinely hates her right now, as with his sex drive gone, what was an enormous hateboner for Makima is now just hate and obsessive paranoia, though his obsession with Makima is incredibly justified and is "healthy" in the sense that he isn't a yandere for Makima like she is for him. What is going to ultimately allow a working "healthy" relationship between him and Makima is that the SI is actually a pretty decent person who's pretty chill when he's not forced into responsibility and having to put his foot down, and is going to reluctantly accept his role as her "guidance counselor/parole officer". He also feels somewhat sorry for her as Makima has a pretty tragic backstory, wanting friends but not knowing how to form relationships without fear, that will ultimately push him to try and rehabilitate her with varying degrees of success.

I put this story in the SFW section of QQ since I don't plan on it becoming porn, but might put it in the NSFW section for more attention and so I can get more descriptive with the copious amounts of body horror and graphic violence in the future. And... yeah, Makima is pretty horny for the SI for reasons that will be fully revealed in Fumigation 1.6. I'm sure you can guess some of them already, but that discussion can come when I actually finish the damn thing. Having any sex scenes happen... well, while Makima is pretty consenting, the SI doesn't have a sex drive since he wouldn't be able to keep his hands or tentacles off her with how visibly eager she would be. Putting his dick in Makima would only fix like maybe 75% of her issues anyway but would also open a ton of new ones, so it's better to just keep dangling "We'll bang if you improve your behavior." in front of her in the future so the SI has something as an incentive and ammunition to use against her.

Question: I'm pretty new to QQ (new as in I joined today), so how would I move this story to the NSFW section if I wanted to? Can I set location with thread tools, would I have to ask a moderator, or do I just repost it in the NSFW Creative Writing forum (or is that against the rules)?

 

[TimelordLucario]

Thanks. Fumigation 1.6's taking quite a while since I've had to rewrite it multiple times from the SI and Makima setting each other off too early or getting too...vicious with each other. I've had to retcon so many different bad ends already... mostly from it being a direction I did not want the story to take. I want this to be a mostly positive story that could probably be classified as a fix it fic, though a "earn your happy ending" varient. I'm the type of writer that goes off on a tangent when I have an idea, so there's like 10k of stuff for this chapter I have lying around that I can't use for the final product.

Fumigation 1.6's gonna be a doozy to read when I finally finish it up, and I'm honestly having a lot of fun writing it out.

Spoiler: Retconned bad shit that's been removed (so far)

Makima...
-Got her throat ripped out after receiving a "reason you suck" speech, did not enjoy it in the slightest.
-Underwent several mental breakdowns in different ways in various scenarios, ranging from the SI letting it slip he was human and Makima being unable to accept the fact a human was keeping up with her, all the way to getting verbally rejected for no room for interpretation.
-Got gaslighted by the SI in a really nasty way I don't want to elaborate on that looking back in hindsight, yikes, was really cold-blooded and way too cruel for the SI's character.
-Used Control on SI, really didn't go well as she was left curled up on the floor vomiting blood by the end of it.
SI...
-Nearly got sexually assaulted by Makima since she thought she was being propositioned by the amount of crude sex jokes the SI was throwing at her at some point in the conversation and was... incredibly enthusiastic at what she thought was consent. I can't put that one on Spacebattles, and the SI doesn't have a sex drive for that exact reason.
-Got force-fed Makima's blood unwillingly and lost control of his body to his instincts as Makima proceeded to get really affectionate and creepy with him.

Click to shrink...

I don't suppose you'd be willing to post those as outtakes or omakes, would you?

Question: I'm pretty new to QQ (new as in I joined today), so how would I move this story to the NSFW section if I wanted to? Can I set location with thread tools, would I have to ask a moderator, or do I just repost it in the NSFW Creative Writing forum (or is that against the rules)?

Click to shrink...

Either ask a mod or repost it, it'll probs be fine.

 

[Neurax]

I don't suppose you'd be willing to post those as outtakes or omakes, would you?

Click to shrink...

Maybe, but unlikely to happen. I often cut and paste stuff out of tangents I've already written, so it's less I have an entire scene written out and more a lengthy snippet that wouldn't make coherent sense posted by itself, especially since I have like 3 different files for Fumigation 1.6 with how cluttered one got with stuff I couldn't use, and the other with me restarting the chapter on a blank word document. I'll probably throw it all in one folder labeled "Extra" when the chapter's done.

The only one that might really work was that one scenario I wrote where the SI gaslighted Makima to make a point about how betrayal of one's trust hurts as he felt that a hands-on experience might allow her to empathize with the humans she's manipulated, but it got really fucking dark quickly. The SI more or less became the villain of the story with how badly he abused Makima's growing feelings towards him by getting her hopes up only to brutally verbally and physically reject her at a critical moment that left her a sobbing wreck lying in a pool of her own blood. Realistically, it pretty much destroyed any chance of Makima ever trusting him again and would likely have caused her to spiral downward into incredibly self-destructive tendencies. Who knows, I might actually post that one sometime from just how badly shit hit the fan for Makima due to the actions of her future past self from canon.

So stuff is already being used in a much better and constructive way in the finished 1.6, as I'm planning on incorporating a detailed and complex fight scene, as well as a much more passive/nicer "reason you suck" speech in 1.6 that comes off more as a casual observation instead of the scathing criticism it originally was that'll steadily freak Makima out at how abrupt and nonchalant the SI presents it to her with logic she can't refute. Makima isn't aware of her desire to want equal relationships with others since she can't understand the notion, so that lite speech will serve to illuminate her to her own faults as a person, and she'll actually listen to the SI since she sees him as an Equal.

 

[Lazerwolf]

This is pure beauty. Hahahahaha I'm laughing my ass off at spaghetti sticking to her face

 

[Neurax]

This is pure beauty. Hahahahaha I'm laughing my ass off at spaghetti sticking to her face

Click to shrink...

That is going to become a reoccurring gag in Spaghetti treating her "affectionately" no matter his size or shape, much to the amusement/horror of everyone else watching while Makima is grudgingly unable to do anything serious about it in order to keep up appearances and prevent further harassment in public. She also may or may not like the physical contact.

 

[Oddboy]

Chainsaw Man and... Carrion? Huh? (fun little game, that)

And then it turned out pretty good! Wasn't expecting this combo to work as well as it has so far.

Watching this now.

 

[LandWhale172]

Man, I'm loving this story so far.

edit: I want a Makima POV interlude so bad XD

 

[Neurax]

Man, I'm loving this story so far.

edit: I want a Makima POV interlude so bad XD

Click to shrink...

After Fumigation 1.6 is done, there's going to be an Intermission chapter before the next arc of the story that basically sets up and hints at all the stories future arcs in addition to some worldbuilding. Things are a bit different in this AU of Chainsaw Man when it comes to the aggressiveness of other countries, and Makima may or may not have done something that has the eyes of the world's upper governments directed at Japan, especially America who haven't forgotten in the slightest about their "little" incident with CARRION.

But getting to the point I was originally trying to make (I can't help but gush about this story) and back on topic, next chapter after Fumigation 1.6 will have an Makima POV interlude. It'll either be in first or third person, and basically be a heavily summarized collection of her thoughts on the whole encounter with her "Rival". I haven't gotten to writing it yet as there's still so much to do for Fumi 1.6, but I'm heavily considering doing it in the first person just to make the reader shit bricks at seeing Makima's clear cut thought process, similar to how we've been seeing the SI's.

Oh and one more thing. Makima actually has a personality and individuality in this story. In Canon CSM, we never got to see the "real" Makima in full as we only ever saw her mask when she was manipulating others or when she was being a massive evil bitch. But there were enough clues thrown around to imply that Makima was more than just the Control Devil and was her own person. Her apartment was heavily decorated and she owned animals, if that crap she told Reze was true and wasn't just for spite she had a "friend" in the countryside, she liked watching movies, and there's a couple other examples I can't think of right now. Evidently, now that she's dead-dead we'll never know who Makima really was under that mask, so it's fair game on how I want to present her as long as I make sure she still displays her negative traits and other stuff shown in canon.

Another purpose of this fanfic is to show the audience the "real" Makima, as she'll be more genuine with the person she sees as Equal than she will have been with anyone else in her life if not existence. This is going to immensely creep the SI out at first, who wasn't even remotely expecting to find an actual person under all those masks and manipulations, especially with how casual and outright silly Makima will get with him, basically treating him as her friend that will send his paranoia skyrocketing as he's incredibly unsure at first if she's actually being genuine with him or if it's all one massive ruse.

 

[Amanofmanytentacles]

That is going to become a reoccurring gag in Spaghetti treating her "affectionately" no matter his size or shape, much to the amusement/horror of everyone else watching while Makima is grudgingly unable to do anything serious about it in order to keep up appearances and prevent further harassment in public. She also may or may not like the physical contact.

Click to shrink...

Because the SI is biased towards seeing Makima in a completely negative light she may have been blushing in embarrassment rather than anger, who knows it's up to interpretation.

 

[Amanofmanytentacles]

Also CARRION, Chainsaw man, plus [PROTOTYPE] references? You are just pushing all of my buttons. I'll be watching this closely

 

[HerebyChoice]

God tier crossover mechanics being displayed. Great character interaction. Instant follow.

 

[boomerpyro]

"BE NOT AFRAID" indeed, huh.

 

[Zettabeam]

A story set in Chainsaw Man? That's great, I really like Makima so this will be fun to read.

Anyway, I've got a question: if he's an angel, how will he react towards the angel devil?
Is that why Makima is going to fuck with that devil here, come to think of it?

 

[Neurax]

A story set in Chainsaw Man? That's great, I really like Makima so this will be fun to read.

Anyway, I've got a question: if he's an angel, how will he react towards the angel devil?
Is that why Makima is going to fuck with that devil here, come to think of it?

Click to shrink...

Angels are intended to be the inverse of Devil's in this fic, so instead of all hating each other with the occasional pacts/ecetera, Angels are all on the same side and friendly towards each other for the most part. Very friendly when not slaughtering the wicked, and fortunately (or unfortunately, if you ask Makima) Angel Devil registers as an Angel in this fic, and is inbound for some long overdue affection and getting his wings fluffed. As a hint, Angel Devil is touch starved, and the SI is physically immortal and thus immune to his lifesteal. I'm pretty sure you can guess what is going to happen (nothing lewd tho).

Past CARRION has influenced a lot of Makima's actions and preferences, and I guess you could say that she originally sought Angel Devil out because she wanted to scratch that itch of having an Angel under her command, even if it wasn't a real one. A past action she will come to regret but will be unable to do anything about given how powerful Angel Devil is and the fact that the SI has decided he's baby now, and not something she wants to contend with given how she's about to learn in 1.6 the best way to piss the SI off for real and make him lose the carefree attitude is by threatening others he cares about to get to him.

Spoiler: Elaboration

And Makima is going to realize pretty quick she heavily prefers interacting with the smug jackass messing around with her/letting her mess with him back instead of the malfunctioning, amnesiac, incredibly-bloodthirsty bioweapon with a paradoxical hatred of Humanity (from her point of view) who has no parameters or rules of engagement when it comes to holding back. As established in the prologue, CARRION was not made for human cities or current civilization in mind, and a real fight with the SI pulling all the stops and getting The Leviathan involved would not be good.

 

[SummoningConfig]

This is a good story i wish we had more like it, assimilator/extreme shapeshifter is an underutilized SI power and CARRION is a great source.

 

[f0Ri5]

It's soooo good!

I know this isn't NSFW, but maybe there's hope for some lewd handholding?

 

[Neurax]

It's soooo good!

I know this isn't NSFW, but maybe there's hope for some lewd handholding?

Click to shrink...

Yes.