"The Fox Devil?" "I thought it was some devil that required an incredibly steep price to activate, so much so that you were too scared to even use it in battle," Himeno mocked.
Kana Okura lowered her head like a child who had done something wrong. "Senior Himeno, it was my first time participating in a battle, so I was just too scared. But I promise I won't disappoint my seniors again next time."
"Alright then, I'll forgive you. I hope you keep your word," Himeno said. "Um, senior Himeno, how long are you planning to keep hugging me?" Arata asked. "Oops, my bad, I forgot." Himeno hurriedly let go of him, letting out a cheeky laugh.
"Seriously though, Arata, why didn't you answer any of my calls?" "My phone died and I didn't bring a charger. Next time I head out, I'll make sure to pack a few spare phones." "Are you planning on leaving again?" "Not for the time being, but you never know when someone might come looking for me."
Just as the two were talking, a call from the dispatch operator came in. Two devils had appeared near the Tokyo Shinkansen line. They were identified as the Bat Devil and the Cockroach Devil. Their sudden appearance had forced the Shinkansen to undergo an emergency shutdown.
"You really came back at the perfect time, Arata. We can just sit back and watch the show this time, right?" Himeno smiled at Arata after relaying the mission from the operator. When Arata wasn't around, Division 4 had exhausted a massive amount of effort just to take down a Snake Devil that had eaten a piece of the Gun Devil's flesh. Now that Arata was right by her side, Himeno's morale instantly skyrocketed by a thousand percent.
"We can definitely watch from the sidelines. But didn't Kana Okura just say she wanted to show off her strength? We can let the rookie perform first. If anything goes wrong, I'll step in and help her immediately," Arata said. "That works for me. As long as you're here, I can relax." Ever since Arata left, Himeno rarely smiled, but right now, the grin simply refused to leave her face.
"Let me perform..." Kana Okura's face drastically changed colors. She had only blurted out the Fox Devil as a convenient excuse just now, never expecting she would have to demonstrate it in front of everyone this quickly. "That's right, didn't you just ask for a chance to prove yourself? Don't say your seniors aren't giving you an opportunity. If you end up being completely useless again, you don't even have to bother showing up to work tomorrow."
"I..." Kana wanted to refuse on the inside, but she didn't know how to voice it. Words spoken were like spilled water; there was no taking them back. It was far too late for regrets now.
"Don't tell me you were lying to us when you said you contracted the Fox Devil?" Himeno had mentored plenty of rookies in the past. She had definitely seen her fair share of recruits who hadn't actually contracted a devil but stubbornly lied and claimed they did. Right now, the expression on Kana's face was identical to those lying rookies.
"No, of course not!" "If you're not lying, then put on a good show in front of senior Arata. If you can manage to satisfy senior Arata, you can stay."
With that settled, the Division 4 group piled into a car and headed for the incident scene. Since one vehicle couldn't fit everyone, Aki Hayakawa, Beam, Power, and Kobeni stayed behind at headquarters to wait for news, while the others drove toward the Tokyo Shinkansen.
When the car arrived at the Shinkansen, a loud rumbling noise suddenly echoed out. In the distance, the Bat Devil was hovering in the sky, aiming its snout at a building and unleashing ultrasonic waves. They initially thought it was just randomly destroying the city.
That was until they saw a humanoid cockroach plummet from the sky and land squarely on the Bat Devil's head. This Cockroach Devil wasn't anywhere near as massive as the colossal one Arata had seen previously. It was only about four meters tall, but its appearance closely resembled the alien cockroaches from the Terra Formars movie.
They watched as it violently punched straight through the Bat Devil's eyeballs, ripping them out of their sockets completely raw. Howling in pain, the Bat Devil crashed to the ground. Before it could even beg for mercy, the Cockroach Devil swiftly bit clean through its neck. The very next second, the Cockroach Devil burrowed directly into the Bat Devil's carcass and started feasting.
"A turf war between devils!!" Himeno exclaimed in surprise. "The Cockroach Devil is different from other devils. Every time it resurrects from Hell, the abilities it obtains are different," Arata explained. "It's just a cockroach, leave it to me!" Denji was itching for a fight, but Himeno grabbed him and pulled him back. "Didn't we already agree to let Kana Okura show off her strength this time?"
"Oh right, almost forgot." Denji reluctantly stepped back next to Himeno, deliberately leaving Kana Okura standing completely exposed at the front of the group. Meanwhile, Kana stood completely frozen, sweat pouring down her forehead. "If you summon the Fox Devil right now, you can swallow both devils in one bite and score a double kill," Arata casually reminded her. "Y-Yes, senior Arata." Kana took two shaky steps forward. But since she had never actually contracted the Fox Devil, summoning it was entirely out of the question.
"What do I do?" Kana asked internally, hoping the Reality Devil would solve the problem. "Just perform the hand sign to summon the Fox Devil, and leave the rest to me." "What hand sign?" "Like this..." As the Reality Devil spoke, the exact hand gesture rapidly materialized in Kana's mind.
She formed the fox hand sign with a single hand, stared right through the gap between her fingers at the Bat Devil's corpse in the distance, and called out, "Kon!!" Boom!!!! A gigantic fox head instantly ruptured from the earth, swallowing the Bat Devil's corpse in a single, massive bite.
"This..." Kana Okura was utterly shocked. She knew for a fact she hadn't contracted the Fox Devil, yet the result was right in front of her—it had actually been summoned. "What a massive fox head! It's even bigger than Aki's," Himeno remarked, clearly not expecting Kana to possess this level of strength. "Aside from its full form, this is the biggest fox head I've ever seen," Arata added.
Bang!!! Suddenly, the Fox Devil's eyeball violently burst open. The Cockroach Devil burst outside, tightly gripping the Bat Devil's severed head in its hands. After landing on the ground, it continued to viciously gnaw the flesh off the skull. Immediately after, the Fox Devil vanished into thin air, leaving only the Bat Devil's skeletal remains scattered on the ground.
"This Cockroach Devil is no joke. It can continuously devour the flesh of other devils to strengthen itself," Arata observed. "Senior Arata, I've finished demonstrating my ability." Kana Okura immediately scrambled back to the group. "Not a bad performance this time. Make sure you keep it up in the future," Himeno said. "Understood, senior Himeno."
"So Arata, will you take it from here, or should Denji?" Himeno asked. "I'll take it, obviously!" Denji declared. Every single battle was a form of training for him. The more he fought, the stronger his actual combat capabilities became. Vrrrrrrrr!!! Denji quickly yanked the starter cord on his chest. Pinning his arms behind his back, he broke into a dead sprint directly toward the Cockroach Devil.
Swish!!! In the blink of an eye, twin chainsaws slashed toward the devil's head. The Cockroach Devil hastily discarded the Bat Devil's skull and leaped thirty meters into the air, instantly opening up a massive gap between itself and Denji. But right then, two chainsaw chains shot into the sky simultaneously. Clang!!! The chains rapidly coiled around the Cockroach Devil's body, then violently retracted, yanking the devil straight back down to the earth.
At the exact same moment, Denji leaped high off the ground. Meeting it in mid-air, he executed a crossed-chainsaw slash, cleanly bisecting the Cockroach Devil into two halves. As he landed, a downpour of fresh blood drenched his entire body. "When did Denji get this strong?!" Himeno's eyes widened in disbelief. The entire fight had been decided in a split second. "Don't underestimate the power of a bond buff, senior Himeno," Arata smiled.
"Master, come collect the corpse!" Denji waved Arata over. "Collect the corpse?" Kana Okura stared intently at the devil's remains in the distance. Just as she was preparing to see exactly what Arata was going to do, Himeno suddenly grabbed her by both arms and forcefully spun her around so her back was facing the scene.
"What are you doing?!" Kana Okura couldn't help but feel a surge of anger. "Rookies shouldn't be so curious." With that, countless invisible ghostly hands forcibly restrained Kana's body, completely immobilizing her.
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