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‘So it’s a fiend?’
‘Well it sure as hell ain’t Aki.’
Aki. The fiend. The gun devil. The thing. Whatever the hell it is.
It’s slumped over in a chair, head too heavy to lift, blind to anything around it and Denji can’t help but think in this state he could finally give Hayakawa a godamn haircut. But he won’t. Because there’s a likely chance that the second he approaches it with a pair of scissors and a razor it’ll point the barrel of a gun at his face and send him back to hell clutching potchita in his hands and begging the primal fear devils to let him off with a warming.
Power is less concerned, she’s about two seconds away from prodding at the gun matted with blood and hair and protruding out of his forehead, if it weren’t for the meowing ball of fur in her arms she’d be on top of the thing already.
‘Do you think it remembers us?’ Power asks, it sounds weirdly sentimental coming from her mouth, like she actually cared about Aki, like she wants the mindless creature infront of her to remember just how much she pissed it off in life.
‘Don’t you think it would’ve killed us already if it didn’t?’ Denji shoots back, eyebrow raised at the way the thing doesn’t even move, the only tell that it’s alive being the rise and fall of its chest which Denji finds to be oddly uncanny and strangely the thing that tipped him off that this thing was once Aki in the first place, the stuttered breath, stupid smoker lungs.
The cat is purring as it looks at the fiend, like it can’t see the weapons sprouting from its former friends’ body.
‘Should we kill him?’ Power asks, oh so full of questions today, but she’s not doing it to be annoying for once she’s genuinely asking. Makima isn’t here, she’s not a call away, she probably assumes they have bullets in their skulls right now, but they don’t and she doesn’t know which means somehow Denji and Power are in complete control of not only the fate of the gun devil but also the fate of their guardian Aki Hayakawa who somehow under all that metal is seemingly responding to their presence. Weird.
‘Maybe.’ Denji responds, but he isn’t sure it’s the right answer, he doesn’t particularly like making decisions for himself, something always goes wrong. But Power is asking him, she trusts him in a way he doesn’t trust himself, he wants to be able to live up to that standard.
‘I mean no. Not unless it tries to kill us. He’s kind of just sat there, that’s not exactly a threat.’ Maybe he’s making a mistake by not sawing the gun fiend in half the second it knocked on the door, but it didn’t make a move for him nor did it make a move for Power. That’s good enough proof as any that it’s not gonna shoot.
Denji turns to look at Power but ultimately the thing starts gurgling.
If the two of them were any smarter they’d have a weapon pointed at its heart, but instead they stand there stunned, looking down on it like it’s a kitten they found in the middle of the road meowing for the first time.
‘S-Sss’
‘It’s saying something!’ Power exclaims, like she’s discovered electricity for the first time, or created frankensteins monster that seems more likely.
‘Come on man spit it out.’ Denji speaks, but he’s smiling, he somehow feels like in the last hour it’s been sat here he’s raised this thing. He’d make such a great devil dad.
‘S-Sssmoke..’ And it’s gurgled and croaky but it’s Aki’s voice and it’s there. The gun fiend’s mouth contorts so familiarly around the word that Denji blocks out that there’s a gun attached to its head, he sees his friend he sees Aki, ever the smoker begging for a smoke even at a time like this, even when he’s become the one thing he set his life out to destroy.
‘Smoke! Smoke!’ Power chants, like it’s the first word she’s ever heard, maybe she’s happy because there’s another fiend or maybe she’s happy because deep down Aki’s voice makes her feel like she’s finally returned home.
The fiend repeats it a few time, getting the hang of speaking again, voice gruff even for Aki.
Denji fumbles around the kitchen for a pack of cigarettes, maybe it’s not such a great idea to put something so flammable around one of the most explosive devils, but Denji has by passed that idea, he just sees stupid smoking hayakawa with that dumb haircut and that awful addiction that he’d super like to try out one day.
He makes his way back over and the thing stops speaking, just opens its mouth for the cigarette. Denji knows he could regret this but he does it anyway, lighting a smoke for the gun devil would be a super cool way to go out, Power would definitely agree. The other fiend is practically glowing, watching as the gun fiend inhales the smoke like he’s been starved of it before finally lifting his non gun arm and pulling it out from his teeth.
His teeth are sharp now, human Aki would hate it, this Aki just breathes out smoke before bringing it up towards his lips again.
It’s Aki under there. He’s still there, half a brain or a quarter, Denji can see him clear as day.