After packing up the Snake Devil's remains, Denji noticed that Kana Okura hadn't left yet. "Hey, you, get over here." "You called for me, senior?" "You shouldn't have any problem carrying this thing back, right?" "I... I can try."
On the outside, Kana Okura looked like a humble, obedient rookie. But in her heart, she had already murdered Denji countless times over. Working at the cafe back then was already humiliating enough. Now that she finally had power, she still had to follow someone else's orders. If the Reality Devil hadn't insisted that she use the members of Division 4 to uncover Arata's true strength, she would have killed him right then and there.
"I'll leave it to you then." Denji dumped the cooler full of devil flesh squarely onto Kana's shoulder. The sudden, massive weight almost crushed her to the floor.
"Careful now. Don't keep making a fool of yourself in front of Division 4." The Reality Devil's whispers suddenly echoed in her ears. The heavy cooler pressing down on her shoulder suddenly felt as light as a sheet of paper. "Indeed. People without power will be looked down upon no matter where they go. If you keep acting like this, you'll definitely get kicked out of Division 4," another effeminate-sounding devil chimed in.
"If you ever need money, just let me know. I'll help you," a third, deep, booming voice added. "When are you going to give me the powers of the other devils?" Kana asked internally. "It's not time yet. Right now, you haven't provided us with a single valuable clue." The voices faded, and everything returned to reality.
"Hey, don't you dare forget about the Great Power!" Power caught up to the group from behind. "Oh, you're still here? I thought you went home." The moment Denji lost sight of Power, he had completely abandoned any thought of looking for her. He never needed to worry about her safety anyway. Because the second any situation threatened her life, she would absolutely turn tail and run faster than anyone else. In other words, the moment her HP dropped to 60%, she instantly entered 'flee combat' mode.
"What are you talking about?! As if the Great Power would ever run away from a fight! I just lost too much blood earlier, so I went to eat some bread!" "Eating bread restores blood now?" "Bread made with carrots obviously restores blood!" "Give me a piece to try." Denji stared at the bag in Power's hands.
"In your dreams! The Great Power doesn't like sharing with others." Power hugged the bag of bread tightly to her chest, then turned around and slapped Kana Okura right on the butt. "Not bad, rookie. You just got here and you already know how to do the heavy lifting. What's inside?"
Her butt suddenly getting smacked instantly ignited the fury burning inside Kana. It reminded her of the disgusting, groping hands of the cafe manager. "She's not a part of Division 4 anymore. I'm making her resign as soon as we get back," Denji said coldly. "Make her resign? Why?" Power asked, completely unfazed as she chewed her bread.
"Because she's completely useless. Division 4 doesn't need people like her," Denji said without a shred of emotion. "So she's just trash." The word "trash" struck Kana Okura like a hammer to the skull. Back home, her alcoholic husband used to constantly scream that word at her. She had absolutely had enough of it.
She instantly decided to kill Power first. Her eyes flashed with a murderous glint. She turned around, aiming her palm directly at Power. The cooler on her shoulder crashed to the floor. But two seconds passed, and the entire situation just turned incredibly awkward.
"What..." "Where is my power?!" "What's wrong with you?" Power looked at her, totally confused.
"Stop dreaming. If you don't provide intel, we won't give you power. Consider this a convenient way to make you recognize reality." "..." Kana's face twisted with intense frustration. She had no choice but to lower her hand and clench her fists. She had been so consumed by the desire to kill the people looking down on her that she completely forgot about the rule of equivalent exchange.
"It's nothing. I just wanted to shake my senior's hand." Realizing she had lost her power, Kana suddenly forced a smile onto her face. "Shake hands? Stow away your filthy thoughts! I would never shake hands with a human. It'd dirty the Great Power's hands!" Power completely ignored the outstretched hand and walked right past the group.
"My box!" Denji dove toward the cooler. Thankfully, it had only cracked slightly. The chunks of devil flesh spilling out from the crack caught Kana's attention. "I'm so sorry, senior. It was just too heavy, I couldn't hold onto it."
"Lord Chainsaw, I better carry it. We can eat the meat together when we get back." "Who said anything about eating it?! I already told you, this isn't for eating. It's a present for my master." "Lord Chainsaw has a master?!" Beam asked in shock. "Of course I do! He's the strongest Devil Hunter in the world!"
"The strongest? What devil did he contract?" "You just need to remember his name. He's called Arata." Hearing the name 'Arata' made Kana Okura feel like she had been given a new lease on life. It had been far too long since she last heard that name. Even the tiniest shred of information about Arata made her ravenous.
"As expected of Lord Chainsaw! What an incredibly creative gift for your master." "My master loves devil corpses the most. If you ever see a devil's corpse from now on, remember to bag it up and deliver it right to Aki Hayakawa's front door."
Arata likes devil corpses! Kana Okura instantly provided a sliver of intel. Immediately, a small fraction of her lost power returned to her body.
... Meanwhile, in China. As evening fell, the streets were completely empty, save for the whistling wind. Inside a mahjong parlor, however, it was exceptionally lively.
"Mahjong. Self-drawn, full flush." "Pay up." "Boss... we've lost everything down to our underwear. We seriously don't have any money left." Two guys who had been out looting were caught by Arata and dragged into the parlor. With Quanxi there, the four of them made a perfect table for mahjong.
By now, Arata had won 25 rounds. Quanxi had won 15. The two looters had only managed to win 2 rounds between them. Not only had they lost all the money they scavenged, but they couldn't even keep their boxers at this point. "Throw your underwear on the floor, consider it collateral."
The two men looked at each other, but neither dared to disobey the order. They had already tried to run away once, and they had thoroughly experienced the consequences of doing so. "Boss, we literally have nothing left to bet. Can we please stop playing?" "It's fine. If it comes down to it, you can just start plucking hairs." The two men were horrified, blurting out in unison, "You're so cruel!!"
"How bold of you. Slap their mouths!!" Arata commanded. Quanxi moved instantly, appearing right in front of them. Slap slap slap!! Ten slaps a second. She kept it up for ten full seconds. By the time she stopped, both their faces were swollen like balloons. "Stop hitting us! We'll keep playing!" the two men begged for mercy.
Squeak!! Squeak!! Right then, the agonizing screams of rats echoed from the tomb. Arata instantly understood the signal. "Never mind, I've lost the mood to play. I'll send you guys away now." "Send us away? Where?" "Anywhere but City P. I'll just send you somewhere at random."
With that, Arata summoned a Mirror Gate and sent the two men away, considering it their reward for playing mahjong with him for six straight hours. Boom!!! Suddenly, City P began to shake violently, as if a massive earthquake had struck. Arata and Quanxi exchanged a single glance, instantly understanding what needed to be done.
Quanxi lifted her eyepatch and pulled out the arrow hidden beneath. The very next second, the Crossbow Devil took the stage. "You defend the city. I'll go back-door his base." "No problem." With their roles decided, Quanxi smashed through the window of the mahjong parlor and landed on the street.
Arata stepped through a Mirror Gate, emerging from the dressing mirror he had placed on Mount P earlier. Boom!! Massive fissures were beginning to tear across Mount P. The peak of the mountain was slowly rising higher and higher into the air. An absolutely colossal underground tomb was violently breaking through the earth and ascending toward the surface.
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