Pov Narrator.
Hours later...
"Move aside, this is a recovery operation!"
A police officer raised his voice, preventing civilians from passing while yellow police tape covered the area. Several people had gathered near the location, watching with curiosity and murmuring among themselves while the news stations broadcast a live report on the accident.
The officers came and went throughout the area, some inspecting the recovered wreckage and others speaking with the emergency response teams. The atmosphere was filled with tension and confusion.
While the police officers did their jobs, a familiar figure remained near the pier, looking out toward the sea. It was Makima. She was completely calm despite the news about the plane crash Isagi had been on. Her expression showed neither sadness nor concern; she simply observed the surface of the water with her usual serenity.
A couple of hours had already passed since the accident had been reported. So far, the only thing they had found was a burned arm. The remains had been taken away for analysis to determine whether they belonged to Isagi or the pilot who had also been aboard the aircraft. The explosion had practically destroyed the entire plane, and a large number of pieces and objects had ended up sinking into the sea, making the recovery even more difficult.
Makima remained silent. She didn't seem sad. Nor worried. In fact, she was quite interested. She knew perfectly well that Isagi couldn't die from an explosion as weak as that of an airplane. He had survived much worse things. He had faced the Explosion Devil. An airplane bomb shouldn't be enough to finish him off.
What really piqued Makima's curiosity was his actions.
Had he escaped?
Was he hiding?
Was he perhaps faking his own death?
Makima looked at the sea again as a small smile appeared on her lips. Most likely, he was.
"Miss Makima, it seems the recovery team didn't find anything else." Aki spoke, completely serious, although he slightly clenched his fist because of his conflicting emotions. "Aside from the arm, they didn't find anything else."
Makima hummed thoughtfully and nodded slightly upon hearing Aki's words. He did seem affected by the news. Although Aki and Isagi hadn't interacted very much, the few times they had were mainly because Isagi had ended up saving Aki himself or restoring some order when Power started causing trouble.
This had created a certain respect between them, beyond the strictly professional relationship they shared as Devil Hunters. Power, for her part, who had also come to the location, looked quite annoyed. She stomped her foot against the ground while clenching her fists.
"WHO WAS THE BASTARD WHO DID THIS?! NOW THERE'S NO ONE LEFT FOR ME TO DRINK BLOOD FROM!" Power growled. Power was... well, Power. They couldn't expect a normal display of empathy from her.
To her, Isagi's loss seemed to hurt mainly because she had lost a rather convenient and unique source of blood, although deep down, she was probably also annoyed that someone had managed to take out her patrol partner.
"I SWEAR I'LL FINISH OFF THE IDIOTS WHO DID THIS!" Power shouted, raising a fist toward the sky.
Denji, for his part, said nothing. But... Fuck, he was actually kind of happy. He tried to maintain a serious expression while watching the plane wreckage in the distance, but things were completely different inside his head.
"(Ñenguele... now that the hedgehog head is gone, maybe I can work things out with Miss Makima. It doesn't matter if there was someone before me. As long as I can be with her, I don't care about that)." Denji thought, clenching his fist with determination.
Unlike Aki, who seemed genuinely affected by Isagi's disappearance, Denji was seeing the situation as an opportunity.
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Isagi observed his reflection in the bathroom mirror of the apartment he had rented after returning to the city. Just in case, he had bought completely new clothes and covered the lower half of his face to prevent anyone from recognizing him when renting the apartment.
He was currently shirtless, with water running from the sink. That was the only sound filling the small bathroom as he carefully inspected his face. Although no one had seen him arrive, if he wanted to keep operating in the shadows while deciding what to do, he would have to change his appearance.
And he already had an idea of what it would be. He took a pair of scissors he had also bought and looked at himself in the mirror while slowly bringing them closer to his hair. He would have to change his hairstyle.
The first strands began falling into the sink while Isagi spoke to himself, calmly analyzing the situation.
"Let's go over everything. Apparently, the higher-ups in Public Safety now want to kill me just because I'm dating Makima. It hasn't even been three days since our first kiss, and they already know. Besides, they acted pretty quickly." He said while placing the scissors on the ceramic edge and beginning to wash his hair, letting the water carry away the cut strands. "Taking on an entire country might not be a good idea."
"Let's see, going over all my abilities, I can definitely put up a fight against an entire country, but the catch is that I still don't know Magatsumi's limits. I haven't tried out Mahoraga yet, and I feel like I've been neglecting cursed energy efficiency a little lately." Isagi said as he finished washing his hair and observed the result in the mirror.
He had only made a few adjustments to get rid of that spiky hairstyle that pointed in every direction.
Isagi ran a hand through his hair, checking that it now had a much simpler appearance. It wasn't a particularly drastic change, but it was enough to make it difficult for someone who recognized him by sight to identify him at first glance.
Isagi wasn't afraid of the higher-ups in Public Safety or the government. After all, he knew that nuclear weapons no longer existed because Pochita had erased them from existence. However, despite how arrogant Isagi could sometimes seem, this time he had to be cautious. He wasn't talking about taking on a small group of Yakuza hunters with a hybrid among them, but an entire nation.
And the main problem was that Isagi didn't know how many devils Public Safety had at its disposal, much less which devils they could make contracts with if they realized that traditional assassination methods weren't working against him.
"From what I remember, Public Safety seems to be able to summon the Hell Devil. If they have the ability to make a contract with him, what other powerful devils could they make contracts with? It's such a pain not knowing these details." Isagi said as he left the bathroom.
He stood in the hallway for a few seconds, deep in thought, before shrugging. It didn't matter. He would find a way to deal with this problem eventually. After all, worrying too much about something he still didn't know how to face wasn't going to do him much good.
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Some time later...
"W-Who the hell are you? Y-You damn freak."
The words came out in broken, muffled gasps from the mouth of a man kneeling on the ground. His body trembled as he stared at Isagi with a mixture of terror and disbelief.
Roots spread outward across his skin, as if they were growing directly from inside him. Little by little, the branches pierced through his body and began extending deeper. Flowers bloomed from those branches, draining all his life energy until he was left completely empty.
All that energy was being transferred to Isagi. He was sitting calmly in front of the man, with Magatsumi stuck into the ground before him. Small, strange black insects with an almost supernatural appearance surrounded the tip of the blade. They seemed to be made of pure darkness.
Something resembling a centipede covered practically the entire blade, extending from the tip until it almost reached the handle.
The area was covered in a field of flowers.
Bodies lay scattered everywhere, completely motionless. New plants were also beginning to bloom from some of them, spreading branches and flowers across the terrain while absorbing the last remnants of energy remaining in those bodies.
They were all dead. Their life energy had been completely drained and transferred to Isagi. The young man whistled as he observed the field of flowers that had formed around him.
"Careful with the highest-quality weapon." He said as he clenched his fist, feeling the new energy coursing through his body thanks to Magatsumi's ability to drain the vitality of the flower field.
A pleasant sensation ran through his muscles. He could feel the accumulated energy being absorbed little by little, strengthening his body and restoring some of his strength. Isagi lowered his gaze toward Magatsumi.
"I'm starting to enjoy using the katana again."
It had been a while since Isagi had stopped using the katana and opted for his fists instead. He had grown accustomed to fighting hand-to-hand and relying mainly on his physical strength and abilities. And landing Black Flash whenever he could. But now that he had tried one of Magatsumi's abilities, things could change.
The ability to absorb the life energy of everything surrounding it was far too useful to ignore. Isagi once again grabbed the katana's handle and lifted it from the ground. A small smile appeared on his face.
"Maybe I'll start using it a little more often. All right, back to work. I'll try that dimensional slash on the devil who was making contracts with this group." Isagi stood up and took his katana, beginning to walk around the place in search of the devil.
The location was a half-finished building. It was probably going to become apartments or something like that, although, honestly, Isagi didn't really care. There were unpainted walls, exposed concrete columns, and construction materials abandoned all over the place.
Isagi had returned to his roots. And by roots, he meant going back to hunting devils on his own and taking care of the people who made contracts with them. This little group of criminals, a small gang in the making, had been making contracts with a devil to gain power and begin claiming territory.
But their fun came to an end when the highest-quality hunter arrived. In other words, Isagi. The young man walked down one of the building's hallways until something caught his attention. He stopped. In front of him was a large board covered in papers. There were documents, advertisements, and sheets pinned on top of one another, some even placed haphazardly. Beside the board stood the devil he was looking for. Isagi slowly opened his eyes.
"No... No, this can't be." He said as he took a couple of steps back in complete shock. "This devil is... Did I just arrive in the heaven of work?"
The devil Isagi had found wore a rather formal suit, or at least it tried to look formal, carried a briefcase in one hand, and had a surprisingly serious and professional appearance.
But that wasn't what caught Isagi's attention the most. All kinds of job applications were pinned beside the board. There were advertisements for office jobs, construction work, restaurants, warehouses, and practically any job imaginable.
The devil stood in front of that enormous board, as if waiting for someone to approach and hand over their résumé. Isagi felt that he had found something far more important than any powerful devil. He had found a potential source of employment.
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Hours later...
Isagi hadn't been able to kill the Job Devil. How could he kill something that embodied work? Unacceptable. So, instead of killing it, he asked it for a job. The devil himself had handed him one of the applications he had, and, strangely enough, it was for taking out another devil that was located on a farm.
Who knew how the Job Devil obtained these things, but, hey, at least now Isagi had a way to find devils without having to search for them like an idiot for days or sit around listening to other people's conversations, hoping to find a clue.
Because, honestly, finding devils wasn't that easy. Not when there was Public Safety, civilian hunters, devils that hid themselves, and those that Public Safety had already hired in exchange for not hunting them down.
Finding devils without having to travel through a bunch of areas or wait until one was detected after accumulating too many victims was a complete pain in the ass.
Now, however, the Job Devil was practically handing him jobs directly. Isagi looked at the application in his hands as he walked along peacefully.
"A devil on a farm... All that's missing now is... I don't know, the Grape Devil or the Radish Devil." Isagi paused, frowning slightly. "Although, if I remember correctly, there is a Tomato Devil..." He stared at the paper for a few seconds, processing that information. "Who the hell is afraid of tomatoes?" Isagi wondered, completely incredulous that a devil with such a concept actually existed.
Isagi couldn't use his shikigami, since most of them were recognized. So, for now, he was limiting himself to his physical abilities and using Magatsumi, which didn't bother him at all.
He was really starting to like the magical katana. And he hadn't even tried its techniques yet. So far, he had only used its edge, which was incredible. It could cut through concrete pillars with ease and pierce practically anything that stood in its way. Besides, he had already tried out the flower field ability and its capacity to absorb the life energy of everything within its range.
But now, if there really was a devil waiting for him, he would throw his ultimate move straight in its face. He didn't care whether it was a weak devil or a fairly powerful one.
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End of chapter.
The "Job Devil" thing is a joke—don't take it seriously; it's just an excuse to make the plot move along faster.