Three days had passed since they moved into Makima's house.
Morning.
Cael had already gone out early, busy dealing with the reconstruction of the funeral home.
Asa, however, was feeling a little unwell.
She didn't want to bother him, so she quietly went to the hospital alone for a check-up.
Two hours later, the results were ready.
Inside the consultation room, the doctor, a woman in her late twenties wearing glasses, Reika Fujimoto, carefully flipped through the report.
"Asa Mitaka," she said calmly, "you don't have any terminal illness, and there's nothing seriously wrong with your body. The reason you feel unwell is very simple."
She paused for a moment and then smiled.
"You're going to be a mother. Congratulations."
"…Huh?"
Asa stared at her blankly.
"I'm going to be… a mother?"
Her mouth stayed open, completely frozen.
Reika Fujimoto pushed up her glasses.
"What's with that reaction? You're already twenty years old. When you were doing that kind of thing, you should have expected the result, right?"
As a doctor, she had seen far too many similar situations.
Young people only cared about the moment and never thought about the consequences.
The youngest pregnant patient she had treated was only twelve years old.
Compared to that, Asa being twenty wasn't even shocking.
Still, judging from her stunned expression, she clearly had not expected this outcome at all.
The doctor sighed softly.
"The report shows you are about forty days pregnant. The gestational sac is developing normally. If you plan to terminate it, a medical abortion is still possible at this stage and it will cause less damage to your body."
"…Abortion?"
Asa suddenly snapped out of her daze.
"Doctor, what are you talking about? I'm not getting rid of my baby!"
Reika Fujimoto raised an eyebrow.
"You're keeping it? Then why did you look so shocked just now?"
Asa immediately answered,
"I was thinking about what to name the baby."
Reika Fujimoto went completely silent.
…
On the Pacific coast of Iwate Prefecture.
Makima and Cael were walking slowly along the beach.
Not far away, the sound of children singing hymns drifted from a nearby church.
Makima walked barefoot across the smooth sand while the waves gently washed over her feet.
"The paperwork is almost finished," she said softly. "With the devil disaster subsidies and other compensation, you'll only need to pay one-fifth of the total. About twenty million yen."
Cael nodded.
"Thanks, Makima. Without you, I'd probably be stuck dealing with the government for half a month."
Makima smiled faintly and brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
"Why do you still want to reopen the shop? I can support you completely if you want."
Cael looked out at the ocean.
"I can't just sit around doing nothing. I'd get bored out of my mind. And I'm good at dealing with corpses anyway, so I'll just keep running the funeral home."
Makima nodded slightly, as if she understood.
"Then you should reopen it in Shinjuku Ward. There are more people there, and the demand will be much higher. The old location in Ota Ward was too remote."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
They continued walking quietly until they reached the end of the shoreline.
The bell of the church suddenly rang, the sound echoing loudly across the coast.
Makima turned toward the sea and spoke calmly.
"Cael, I want to give you a gift."
He glanced at her.
"What kind of gift?"
The corners of her lips curved slightly.
"Everyone who wants to assassinate you, everyone who wants to take you away from me… I want them to pay the highest price."
Her voice was calm, but cold.
"Operation, begin."
…
At the same moment, in the United States.
A flock of bald eagles circled high above the White House.
Their eyes stared down at the crowd below.
Then—
Gunfire erupted inside the building.
Alarms blared everywhere.
Dozens of armed security personnel, now completely under Makima's control, rushed toward the President's office while covered in blood.
Gunshots echoed nonstop.
Explosions followed one after another.
The heavily guarded White House instantly turned into a battlefield.
Inside the President's office, a middle-aged blond man stared at the chaos outside the window, his body trembling slightly.
President Jefferson forced a bitter smile.
"So… the counterattack has already begun."
The door was suddenly blown open.
Two heavily scarred men rushed in, both holding weapons and documents. Their eyes were filled with eerie orange ring patterns.
One of them pressed a gun against the President's forehead.
The other handed him a blood-stained document.
"Mr. President, sign this. Transfer all Gun Devil flesh owned by the United States to Japan unconditionally."
The man smiled coldly.
"Otherwise, you die right now."
Jefferson slowly turned around.
"…Fine."
But before he could react further—
Gunfire suddenly exploded from every corner of the room.
Hidden bodyguards appeared instantly and riddled the two attackers with bullets.
"Mr. President, we apologize for the scare."
These guards had been secretly trained for one purpose only, to protect him from Makima's assassination attempts.
And now they had finally proven their value.
Gunshots continued outside the White House as soldiers and police desperately tried to eliminate every animal within a one-kilometer radius, cutting off Makima's vision.
Jefferson straightened his tie and let out a bitter laugh.
"Compared to what is about to happen, my safety means nothing…"
He stared at the red phone on the desk for a long time before finally reaching for it.
"When humans make a contract with a devil, the greater the price, the greater the power gained…"
His voice trembled slightly.
"My fellow citizens… please forgive me. This is a necessary sacrifice for freedom."
Click.
The call connected.
"Gun Devil," Jefferson said slowly, "I am willing to offer one year of the lifespan of the entire population of the United States. No… two years."
"In exchange, descend in Japan and kill the Control Devil, Makima."
The contract was sealed.
At that exact moment, patients in intensive care units across the country lost their vital signs simultaneously.
And not only them.
Across the entire United States, millions of people suddenly collapsed without warning.
A total of 6.2043 million lives vanished in the same second.
These were the people who would have died naturally over the next two years.
Because of the contract, their deaths had arrived early.