Chapter Text
Seventh period at Fourth East High School. To most of the students it’s almost time to think about what they are going to do once they come back to their homes and families. Others, the slackers, already decided to cut from final classes to indulge in the city's lavish offerings. And the last, the most diligent kind, wanted to invest the free time into their futures, honing their knowledge in the libraries, doing schoolwork together with their peers or engaging in club activities. Devil Hunter Club was an exception in that regard, because the children partaking in it didn’t necessarily work on expanding their perspectives, but rather readied their own inevitable downfalls in a merciless environment that is the hunting profession. They didn’t think about it right away though. They would at the brink of their demise, but now it was all about either feeding their egos or enacting vengeance upon the daemons that caused them harm.
What would happen if a devil was part of the said club, though? For more bestial ones, it would mean a technically infinite supply of regenerative and enhancing crimson fluid, essential for their survival. A dream come true for every devil, to satiate their everlasting hunger. Paradoxically, except for the Famine Devil, who had bigger problems to deal with in her current circumstance.
She was standing right beside the club president at the weekly Devil Hunter Club meeting, where the participants would give their reports and accounts on the monsters that they had met and slain. To the prideful Haruka it might have been deeply interesting, he seemed to take every members’ achievements as his own. To Fami though, the whole charade was but a mild nuisance that sometimes made her escape her thoughts when Iseumi would call a young hunters’ name in a deeper pitch than his usual tone.
‘The aquarium trap was a failure.’ The pink-eyed devil contemplated the latest plot she mustered in order to strengthen her little sister, the War Devil, now going by “Yoru”. ‘Next time I will bear in mind the brainpower of her host. I should’ve taken that into account after she single-handedly slain the Yuko girl with her sword in one strike.’ She looked through the window as if scanning for something, or someone. ‘The boy with multiple earrings and ridiculous fringe, he’s suspecting me now.’ Famine recalled the death glare she received from the boy ‘What was his name again?’
“Hirofumi Yoshida?” Haruka called, his words bouncing off the hall’s walls like table tennis balls.
‘That’s right.’ Fami nodded. ‘Hirofumi Yoshida. Rumors about his skill and experience creep throughout the school’s corridors. He’s certainly going to be intermingling with my plans now that he has seen through me.’ She glanced through the gathered crowd for the prodigy in question, but no one seemed to resemble his posture and appearance.
“Hirofumi Yoshida?!” The Devil Hunter President yelped once again, still to no avail. “Hmph! Mister Hot Stuff already skipping our obligatory meetings. Take that as a bad example, fellow devil hunters!” He directed the remark towards the present students, making the less confident ones frown and exchange glances.
‘He’s most likely attending to his affairs. Possibly still following that blonde boy, Denji.’ Fami narrowed her droopy eyes at the thought. ‘Why would he be doing that though? He seems like a totally unremarkable simpleton. I believe he was the same person who let people use him as a chair for miniscule payment.’
“Asa Mitaka?” Haruka vigorously resumed the attendance check and Fami’s mind wandered to the said person once again.
‘The girl and Yoru couldn’t have chosen Denji without a reason, at least I suppose. There could be something more to him rather than just my little sisters’ need of getting herself a new tool of war. She’s not the brightest one, yes, but she has quite refined instincts.’ Fami unconsciously started moving her thumb around right hand’s index finger while cogs in her brain clicked and contorted. ‘That would make both parties interested in him, which is certainly unexpected. But, again, why?’ Her head leaned even more to the left. ‘This is too bothersome to be left unattended. I need to investigate it, somehow. But how can I make both my sister and this stalker to leave him alone for an extended period of time? They’re clinging to him like limpets.’ The devil asked herself, her poker face becoming more tainted with wrinkles of the extensive strain put on by her planning.
“Ah, I forgot.” Haruka jolted out. “We received information from her teacher that she got a medical leave due to food poisoning until Thursday next week.” The boy remarked, vigorously raising his hand into the air. “Heh, I guess she really shouldn’t have eaten those fish.” He muttered under his nose with a grin. “Remember, newbies, your absence can be only pardoned by a sick note! We won’t accept any silly excuses! We’re taking this as seriously as we can.”
Fami eyed Haruka’s figure during his speech. She started processing the newly announced information. After a second, her lips parted as she softly spoke to herself.
“A golden opportunity.”
···
The large hall was promptly exited by the previously gathered swaths of students as the weekly club meetup had ended after an hour long session. A human mass clothed in mostly black uniforms tried to squeeze itself through the narrow exit doors, bumping their elbows and school bags into each other, rising tension and discomfort as everyone hurriedly yearned to escape the institution to take care of their private matters.
Meanwhile, Haruka was sorting through the newly produced paperwork that was meant to be deposited to the Teachers’ Council. A task that he initially despised doing due to the bulk of work it needed to be fulfilled accordingly. The massive amount of documents was mostly caused by the new students coming to school and opting to join the Devil Hunter Club. Once their enthusiasm waned, the workload also reduced, making itself more approachable to the club president.
His focus shifted as he realized he was being observed by one of his club colleagues, the elusive Fami. During their first meet up, she didn’t strike him as a particularly talkative type, a remark which later proved to be correct. The cold energy she emanated was sufficient enough to fend off the less confident and disinterest the seekers. She additionally insisted on giving her permission to work independently rather than in a group, which Haruka reluctantly did allow for. Fami didn’t seem to have much trouble with accomplishing her tasks, so he decided to leave her as is and only occasionally summon her as additional support to his team. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
“What’s up?” He raised his head towards the grayish purple-haired girl as she approached him, additionally standing up from his seat and leaving the papers on the table.
“Don’t you think some people are not taking the Devil Hunter Club, and by extension you, seriously.” Fami delivered this observation not much like a question but an assured statement.
The boy suddenly felt sidetracked, as the newly-planted doubt started eating away at his overconfidence. “What do you mean?” he asked with a barely noticeable unease in his look, which Fami seemed to take note of immediately.
“Look at the attendance checklist again and tell me how many absences there are.” She pointed towards the list filled with red checkmarks and crosses sitting right beside Haruka.
He hastily glanced at the piece of paper but didn’t bother to count it down. He already remembered the number of absentees after finishing today’s check. “22 out of 100. What about it? That’s the usual amount.” Haruka shot the number off the dome as he tried to process what the usually silent girl was getting at.
“And how many of them authorized their inattendance?” Fami drilled her pink gaze into his form.
The boy felt a weird sense of unease as he reluctantly leaned back towards the checklist to toll the unjustified absences. After half a minute, he muttered under his nose “Eleven.”
“That’s over thrice as much since last week.” She responded sharply, her words digging into Haruka’s shivering poise. “You’re claiming that the attendance is obligatory, yet you fail to provide and execute any consequences to thwart the dropping numbers.” Fami gazed at the chairs left behind the long gone students who didn’t even bother to fold and shelve them back into the hall’s backroom.
“Wh-what the hell?!” Haruka exploded at the criticism. “It’s always like that! People come and go. That’s just the way it’s supposed t-”
“Now you’re making up excuses.“ Fami cut into his outrage like a lightning piercing through the bark of a rotten tree. ”This isn’t how a proper leader should operate, am I not right?” She put her ringed sights back on the boy, her crooked neck rotating to face him in full.
Haruka grimaced angrily at the girl’s words. He tried to make up a counterargument, but deduced that it would be but a mere farce. He realized Fami was perfectly correct and grinned chaotically at the conclusion, finally exclaiming loudly, “Hah! You’re right.” He plopped back onto the seat and leaned with both of his hands on the table, now donning the thinker’s pose. “But what the hell am I supposed to do?! I don’t have any real power to punish these delinquents!”
“There’s a way to partially get rid of this issue.” At those words, Haruka looked up to Fami again, seeking a glint of hope. “Going after all of those people would be counterproductive, as you would come off as overzealous to the loyal crowd. I believe setting an example on one individual would be much more effective.”
The boy considered Fami’s suggestion for a brief moment, furrowing his brows in contemplation. He deeply exhaled as he finally gathered his mind. “Go on.”
“Hirofumi Yoshida.” She promptly replied, to the boy's disbelief. “You will have a couple of our club’s members bring that boy to the next week’s meeting, forcefully if needed. Then, you will make him apologize in front of the whole gathering and express his willingness in taking a part in the club's activities.” As Fami went on, Haruka grew more and more entangled in her deceitful proposal. “In my opinion, having a person with a professional experience express their want of active engagement would greatly increase our club’s, and by extension yours, reputation in the general populace’s eyes. That should be enough to make the current and potential absentees rethink their participance.”
A few silent seconds that ended with a blaring outburst, “…pfft! Hahaha!” Famine raised her eyebrow at Haruka’s reaction, who was laughing his vocal cords off from hearing the devil’s solution. “Do you really think this bullshit plan will work?! People don’t give a damn about these things anymore! They just want to have their club activity passed…” The boy paused, realizing that he just vented out his personal gripe. He decided to continue though. “...there ain’t that many true devil hunters in the making here. I want to focus my attention only on the truly promising ones.”
“Enjoy witnessing dwindling numbers then. You certainly will be seeing those a lot in the coming weeks with this kind of attitude.” Fami spun on her heel as she headed towards the exit door. “I thought that you’d like to get back at him when he barged in on your introduction a couple of days ago, but oh well. I’m sure more and more people will take notice of your inaction and lose interest. Then, the veterans will also resign, recognizing that their wimp of a captain lost a pair.” She turned her gaze at the shocked boy, briefly scanning him with her left eye, continuing her slow stroll. "I certainly will.”
Experiencing a complete loss of words, Haruka grasped that he had been put before crossroads. Either take the route of a risky plot to solidify his leadership, or let it slowly decay, while his hunger for fame will slowly eat at him, reminding him of a wasted chance. “Tch! Hold up!” He scraped the hall’s floor as he pushed the chair back while rising from his seat, stopping the devil in her tracks. That’s what she has been waiting for. A reaction that initiated the second phase.
‘A useful idiot.’
···
As the boy grew older and gained knowledge, he started to realize that life likes to throw people into unexpected scenarios, often to our displeasure. Fortunately for him, he learned to capitalize on it every chance he got. Beggars can’t be choosers. Unfortunately for him, his desperation for funds grew more nagging with every passing moment. The rising rent, bills, inflation, the doom of the always upcoming crisis and stock market crash. Cons of premature adult life were dawning upon his existence. His current plan couldn’t support both him and his ward, and secure their futures as the clientele drifted away from and grew old of his existing offers.
In short, Denji needed to expand his clientbase, as soon as possible. How would he achieve such a comeback though? Well, of course, he used the same method as the last time. He searched for a hidden demand, invisible to the unwary eye, and then exploited it until the source ran dry.
“I definitely deserve a Nobel prize for this one! Gya ha ha!” Denji praised his newfound genius aloud. He was standing by the entrance to the school’s cafeteria, which was overflowing with students due to the dinner time. Nothing about him was unusual in particular, well, besides the eight school bags and backpacks suspended on his upper limbs and back, deeply obscuring his build.
During Denji’s last stroll down the school hallways, his instinct guided him towards the dining hall. He quickly noticed that people usually forgot to put away their stuff into the lockers during lunch and dinner breaks because they run out of classes to be the first in the queue lines. Then, when they dropped their bags on the floor, they would get dirty, because the ground was only cleaned up after the last period and the dining tables didn’t have any hangers on their undersides.
And that’s how he found out the key word to escape his predicament - a hanger. Just like he kickstarted his bench business couple days prior, he again opted to fill in the role of a furniture that was lacking in quantity to meet the students’ needs. Not only that, he charged double the amount he taxed for his “living seat” service. 20 yen for 10 minutes. He not only was earning double the amount just for one person, but, due to his strength, he was able to serve up to ten different clients.
“Dude, that has to be, like, quintuple the cash I was making when being a chair!” Denji exclaimed triumphantly to no one in particular, striking a victorious, nose-up pose, basking in ever so flickering school light. “At this rate, I’m gonna send her to some fancy-ass college in no time.” He beamed elatedly, a smile burning from cheek to cheek, swaying backpacks and school bags with his every movement.
“Who are you talking to?” He suddenly heard a slightly phlegmatic but gentle tone resonate right behind his shoulder. As he hastily turned around, his temporary luggage swiped the air in a wide arc, almost smudging the source of the voice, fortunately only making the person’s skirt fold lightly to the air current. When he finally settled, losing the momentum generated by his motion, his eyes sharpened on a rather slender figure, a head shorter than him, who was now staring at him with her pink-irised look, blackened, bizarrely-shaped earrings dangling right beside her crooked neck, framing it. Those were the only features he was able to catch right before his gaze landed on a cap whose shape reminded him of trouble, particularly, school authorities.
“Aw shit… a cop!” This meant an abrupt change in power dynamics of the dinner hall, as Denji felt the looming punishment for his illegal monetary efforts.
“Stop.” The girl’s gentle yet assertive call stopped him midway through his attempt to escape from an implicit crime scene. “I’m not here to restrain you for… whatever you were doing until now.” She asserted without a smidge of suppressed confusion, making the blondie’s eye-bagged view go back to her. “Is your name Denji Hayakawa?”
He took a more precise scan at her apathetic but comely face, counting up four, no, five moles scattered across the pale surface. “...just Denji’s fine…” The boy finally retorted after a brief consideration, fear of potential detention still in back of his mind. “…and what about it?”
“I’d like to ask you a couple of questions regarding the aquarium incident that happened a couple of days ago.” The girl revealed.
“Ah, really? I thought being questioned for a goddamned hour at the police station was enough!” He remarked, his annoyance audible to half-deaf ears. “Make it quick though, I’m a bit busy, if you couldn’t already tell! Heh!” The blondie snickered under his nose, traces of pride lingering in him.
The girl eyed his posture which was concealed by an unnatural amount of baggage, understanding that this is what was keeping the boy “preoccupied” until her interference. “Not here, not now though.” She stated as her subconsciousness told her that some of the students were starting to gape at them. She deduced that, to the general school populace’s belief, Denji wasn’t a type to be approached by the fair sex out of the blue. An ideal material for gossip, not an ideal situation for her scheme.
“Huh?” Denji raised his eyebrow at the unexpected stipulation.
“What are you doing after school for the upcoming week?” Fami decided to clear the waters before proposing any specifics.
“Oh so you’re talking about that ! Well…” Denji started imagining his plan, visualizing a chart with brackets filled with schoolwork, chores and other miscellaneous activities. When he finally found a gap he spoke up. “...besides trying to make some cash, nothin’ much. I think Monday is my most free day.”
‘Monday, that’s just what I hoped for.’ The highschool devil huntress felt a hint of relief washing down over her. “Then let’s mee-”
“Ah, crap! I almost forgot!” Denji remembered a vow he made recently. “I’m going on a date with Asa to show her so-”
“Asa Mitaka is on a medical leave for the upcoming week and a half.” She cut into his cut-in, producing a shocked expression on his face. “She got food poisoning.” The girl added flatly, unconsciously sprinkling a pinch of salt to the newly open wound.
“Really?!” Denji was flooded with disbelief, which soon made room for regret. “Aw man, I shouldn’t have let her eat those fish then… damn!” After barking out the last word, he sulked, internalizing the thought that his inaction caused the unfortunate, painful sickness to his last date.
The devil hunter member took notice of the boy's distress, but after a short ponder she decided to just follow her rationale. “So, Monday should be good, yes?”
“Yeah, I suppose…” Denji confirmed, now missing the energy he possessed mere seconds ago, resembling a deflated zeppelin, descending unto the ground.
Denji’s lack of enthusiasm and liveliness didn’t concern the girl, at least she wouldn’t admit to that. Not because she was ashamed, pride was an unknown concept to her. The problem ran much deeper than that, depths that she didn’t could or dare grasp as of now, at least not without a proper helping hand. “I believe she will recover from the illness in no time.” She announced while turning away from the boy, not waiting any second longer to not cause anymore suspicion. “I’ll be seeing you then.”
“H-hey, hold up!” She looked back at him, an ounce of vigor visible in his demeanor. “What about your name? Ya didn’t introduce yourself. I wanna know at least the name of the gal I’m gonna go on a date with!”
This line produced something in the girl’s hollow inside, an indescribable entity, perhaps? No, something much more abstract, not quite catchable to a human eye and not explainable to her due to lack of comprehension she just now experienced. The daze lasted mere seconds, but it did make her feel awkward. She finally uttered, “…a date?”
“Argh, whatever! Just tell me your name already!” Denji’s irritation spilled above the rim, though it felt much more like an anger caused by understanding rather than annoyance.
“…call me Fami.” And with that, she walked away into the distance, leaving Denji dumbfounded after experiencing a quite peculiar first interaction with the puzzling girl, now vowed to not be the last one.
After a minute though, he smirked, lifted his luggage-loaded right arm to his nose and took a long whiff. “Maybe I should’ve used that deodorant sooner. I knew it was ‘cause of that damned dog smell!”