The hallway was silent.
Yuko stared at the hand protruding from her chest. Her own blood dripped down her stomach. Dripped to the floor. Dripped like time slowing to a crawl.
"Wha-" Asa's voice cracked from somewhere behind her.
"Hey-" Yuko's own voice came out wet. Wrong.
She looked back.
Through the pain, through the shock, she reached into Asa's memories. The boy's face surfaced—the quiet one, the one who sat in the back, the one who never spoke. Tanaka.
But this wasn't Tanaka.
The eyes were wrong. The smile was wrong. The way he held himself—like the body was just a coat he'd put on this morning.
"Oh..." Blood bubbled up her throat. "I didn't expect you... Human."
Asa saw past her. Saw the figure behind. Saw the hand buried in her friend's chest.
"Tanaka...?!"
The hand changed.
Flesh shifted. Bone plates slid into place. Fingers fused, elongated, curled—becoming something else. A hook. An anchor. Something meant to catch and hold.
Human pulled.
Yuko lurched backward, dragged by the thing embedded in her. She tried to plant her feet, but her tentacles scrambled for purchase on the blood-slick floor. Human didn't stop. He pulled and pulled, winding up like a fisherman reeling in a catch, until he was turned fully away from Asa, Yuko's body trailing behind him like a broken doll.
Then he whipped around.
Yuko flew.
Through the air. Past Asa's face. Toward the wall. Toward the broken windows. Toward-
Asa moved. Barely. Threw herself sideways as Yuko's body hurtled past. The impact when Yuko hit the wall was loud enough to shake dust from the ceiling.
Human stood where he was. Arms folded. Smiling.
"Hi, Asa Mitaka."
Asa's hands shook. Her legs shook. Everything shook.
"Tanaka..." She forced the words out. "Did you make a devil contract too?"
"Tanaka?" Human's brow furrowed. Genuinely confused. "I don't know this guy-"
Tentacles exploded from the wall.
Human moved, lazy, unhurried, letting the first two whip past him. The third he caught. The fourth he ducked under. Yuko was already recovering, already reforming, already raging.
"The Human Devil!" Her voice echoed from somewhere inside the mass of flesh. "How nice to see you!"
She pulled herself from the crater in the wall. Her wounds were closing. The hole in her chest was knitting itself shut. Her brain pulsed, exposed and terrible, under the fluorescent lights.
"You're a bully too, you know." Her voice was calm again. Too calm. "I know everything about you!"
Human tilted his head. That same curious tilt. That same predator's interest.
"I didn't know I had fans." He almost laughed. "I never had those. It's nice to have one."
Tentacles lashed out. Human danced between them.
Asa stumbled back. Her back hit the wall. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Two monsters. Two of them. Fighting in her school. Fighting like she wasn't even there.
"Yoru." Her voice was a whisper. "Yoru, what do I do...?!"
"You need to do this alone." Yoru's voice was tight. Strained. "I can't take over when you're scared, remember? You're on your own now."
A pause. Then, quieter: "Even though I hate this... I want to see that bastard on the floor right now."
A tentacle whipped toward Asa. She ducked, barely, felt the wind of it passing over her head. Another came from the side. She rolled. Came up gasping.
Human had thrown it. Mimicking Yuko's attacks. Stray? Deliberate? She couldn't tell. Couldn't think. Couldn't-
"Yoru." She was running now. Dodging. Weaving. "Teach me how to turn things into weapons."
"I doubt that would make a strong weapon." Yoru knew what she was thinking. Knew and was already dismissing it.
"Just do it!"
She threw herself under another tentacle, Yuko's or Human's, she didn't know. Didn't care.
"Touch something that belongs to you. Call its name."
Yuko's attention flickered. For a moment, just a moment, her eyes found Asa. Found her running, dodging, surviving.
"Asa!" Her voice cracked with worry. "I'm telling you, there's no-"
Human's arm shot forward. A blade now, not a hook. It buried itself in her gut.
"Gurhkk-!"
"So Justice is really blind!" Human's laugh echoed down the hallway.
Asa didn't hear. Didn't see. Her hand was on her chest. On her uniform. The fabric was rough under her fingers. Cheap. Ordinary. The same thing she wore every day.
But her mother had bought it. Her mother had held it up in the store, squinting at the price tag, counting coins in her palm. Her mother had ironed it the night before her first day.
It was hers.
It was hers.
"Super Strong Uniform Sword!"
She ripped.
The fabric tore free from her body- not ripping, transforming. Folding. Twisting. Becoming something else. A blade. A sword. Neatly folded cloth edges sharpened to impossible edges. Her ribbon wrapped around the hilt. The ends jagged, serrated, ready.
She stood in her underwear. Bare legs. Bare arms. Sword raised.
"Yuko!" Her voice didn't shake. "I'll stop my bullying problem by myself! And Tanaka-" she found him through the chaos, through the blood and flesh, through the monster wearing her classmate's skin "-or whatever devil took his body- STOP IT!"
Yuko's eyes went wide. Reading her mind. Reading her intent.
"Asa, you don't get it!" Her tentacles coiled, ready to strike, ready to protect, ready to- "I'm doing this for Justice-"
Human moved.
Not to attack. To speak. To cut through her words like his blade had cut through her flesh.
"Shut up, will you?!" His voice was sharp. Dismissive. "Justice is nothing. Pathetic. Quaint."
Yuko froze.
Something in her face cracked.
"I..." Her voice trembled. "I... ENOUGH!"
Asa ran.
The sword was up. The blade was raised. She didn't know where she was aiming. Didn't know who. Just forward. Just moving.
Human saw her coming.
Saw the sword.
And for the first time, something in his expression changed.
He looked at the blade. Really looked. The way you look at something that might actually hurt. The way you look at something you didn't expect to exist.
He dodged.
Asa's sword passed through the space where he'd been and kept going- kept swinging- kept cutting-
Toward Yuko.
Yuko caught it.
Her tentacles wrapped around the blade. Squeezed. Held.
"I told you." Her voice was gentle again. Almost sad. "It's pointless."
"Weak." Yoru's voice was a whip crack.
Asa's hands trembled. The blade was stuck. She couldn't move it. Couldn't-
"Asa, stop this-"
Yuko didn't finish.
The sword in her grip sang.
It cut.
Not where Asa was swinging. Not where Yuko was blocking. It cut everywhere. Through tentacles. Through flesh. Through the arms that held it. Through the legs that braced. Through the body that had become a monument to justice.
Yuko looked down.
Her tentacles were separate from her body. Her legs were separate from her hips. Her torso was separate from itself. The pieces were falling. Already falling. Already gone.
Her mouth moved. No sound came out.
Her eyes found Asa. For one moment. One last moment.
Then she was a hundred pieces scattered across the hallway floor.
Asa stood in the middle of them. Sword still raised. Breath coming in gasps.
Across from her, Human was still there.
He looked at the pieces of Yuko. Looked at the sword in Asa's hands. Looked at Asa herself, standing in her underwear, covered in blood that wasn't hers.
Asa stared at the floor.
At the pieces. At the blood. At what was left of Yuko, scattered across the hallway like something that had never been human at all.
Her hands were shaking. The sword was still raised. She couldn't lower it. Couldn't move.
"GYAAAAAH?!"
Yoru's voice exploded in her head. Not words. Just noise. Shock.
"STRONG?!" Yoru was screaming now. Disbelieving. "You've surprised me, girl! The weapons I made from killing people were average at best!"
Asa's mouth moved. Automatic. "Buh- sure but..." She looked at the sword in her hands. At the uniform her mother bought her. At the thing she'd just done. "It was because my mother brought me that uniform before she died. It's special to me. I didn't mean to do this though-"
"Quick!" Yoru's voice sharpened. "Swing it at that fraud!"
Asa didn't move.
She was looking at Yuko. At the pieces trying to reassemble. At the mouth moving, making sounds, trying to say something.
It was Bucky. All over again. The thing she'd killed. The thing that kept twitching. The thing that wouldn't stop being there.
"Asa!" Yoru was shouting now. "There's a devil right in front of you! Take the chance and kill Human!"
Yuko made more noises. Garbled. Wet. The sounds of something that should be dead and wasn't quite there yet.
"Yuko?!" Asa's voice cracked. "Are you still alive, Yuko?!"
She wasn't.
The pieces were still. The mouth was still. The thing that had been Yuko was just meat now.
Asa knelt.
She didn't see Human move.
He was behind her. The blade where his arm should be was raised. The angle was clean. The momentum was perfect. The same way he'd cut War, the same way he'd bisected her weapon, the same way he'd killed so many before.
"Goodbye."
The blade started down.
And stopped.
"Huh- ?!"
An arm. A hand. Holding him. Fingers wrapped around his wrist like iron. The force behind the swing, enough to cut tungesten, had been stopped cold.
Asa turned.
Tanaka's body was frozen mid-swing. His face was twisted- not in pain, in frustration. In disbelief. And behind him, holding him in place, was a girl.
Same school uniform. Earrings. Moles scattered across her face like stars. Her expression was calm. Bored, almost. And her eyes-
Ringed eyes.
Human knew her. Asa saw it in the way his body went rigid. In the way his breath stopped. In the way his arm, still raised, still blade, trembled against her grip.
"D- "
She touched his lips. Pressed a finger to them. Shut him up before he could speak.
"Not now, you troublemaker."
She looked past him. At Asa. At the sword. At the pieces of Yuko scattered across the floor.
"Do you want to save her?"
Asa's brain short-circuited.
"Huh?!"
"I can save her." The girl's voice was flat. Like she was offering to lend a pencil. "Do you want to?"
Asa stared at her. At the ringed eyes. At the calm expression. At the impossible strength holding a devil in place.
"Yes..."
The girl smiled. Small. Almost fond.
"Anything for my little sister."
She turned. Started walking. Dragging Human with her like he weighed nothing.
"Little sister..." Asa repeated. The words didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. She collapsed.
Human was struggling now. His arm had changed back. Both hands were clawing at the girl's grip. His feet were braced against the floor. He was trying with everything he had to break free.
She didn't even look at him.
"If I was in my prime," he snarled, "I would have crushed you for even touching me."
"Always 'if' and 'when'." Her voice was bored. "Never 'is' and 'did'."
She dragged him past the broken windows. Past the overturned desks. Past the blood drying on the floor.
"Now stop bullying my sister."
She didn't look back.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The courtyard was chaos.
Devil Hunters were everywhere. Forming perimeter. Questioning students. Trying to figure out where the threat was, what the threat was, how to contain it.
"We're Devil Hunters!" One of them was shouting into a radio. "We were notified about the devil attack!"
Another was waving students toward the gates. "Does anyone know where it was last seen?!"
A girl in glasses was crying. A boy was clutching his arm. Someone was asking where their friend went, where their class was, what was happening.
And then-
The ground shook.
Not hard. Just a tremor. Enough to make everyone stumble. Enough to make them look up.
Yuko's head crested the roof.
Gigantic. Tentacles spreading out like roots, like branches, like something reaching for the sky. Her brain pulsed, exposed to the afternoon sun. Her mouth was open. Her eyes were gone. But she was moving.
Students screamed.
Devil Hunters shouted orders.
The school groaned as Yuko's body pushed through it, tearing through floors, through walls, through everything that had once been ordinary.
The sun was too bright.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Huh...
What was she doing again?
The sky was big. Blue. Stretching forever in every direction. Clouds moved slow. The sun was warm. Everything was so far away.
She blinked. Tried to remember.
Below her, little people ran. So small. So fast. Like ants when you kicked their hill. She watched them scatter, watched them scream, watched them disappear into the buildings and the gates and the nowhere.
Oh wow. Look at all the little people.
Her eyes drifted. Found the school. The building where she'd sat in class. Where she'd watched Asa from across the room. Where she'd learned about justice and evil and all the things that were supposed to matter.
School.
School was where the bullies were. Where they laughed. Where they put raw meat in shoes and whispered behind hands and made people feel small.
Of course.
She understood now.
"Of course." Her voice came out huge. Shaking the windows. "Bullying won't end... as long as schools exist."
Her tentacle moved. Not thinking. Just knowing. It swept across the building, through the walls, through the floors, through the roof.
The school collapsed.
Not slowly. Not piece by piece. All at once. Walls crumbled. Windows shattered. Desks and chairs and the things that had once been classrooms became dust and rubble and nothing.
She laughed. The sound echoed across the courtyard, across the street, across the whole stupid city.
"AHAH! I did it!"
Something cut her tentacle.
Not all the way. Just a slice. A line of pain that made her hiss and pull back. She looked down.
Two people in suits stood below. Next to them, a gigantic mantis arm sprouted from the ground like a plant. Insect. Jagged. Wrong.
"Is that your weapon?!" Her voice cracked with outrage. "More awful bullies?! Take this!"
She slammed her tentacle down. The black-haired man didn't even have time to scream. Just- gone. Splattered across the rubble.
The blonde man ran. She swiped. He was cut in half.
"Whew."
She surveyed the damage. The school was gone. The Devil Hunters were gone. The bullies were gone.
Everything was quiet.
Then she saw her.
Asa. Kneeling in the rubble. Her uniform gone. Her sword gone. Just her underwear, her bare skin, her exhausted body curled against broken concrete.
"Asa!" Yuko's voice softened. She shifted her massive body, trying to get closer without crushing anything. "Are you okay?! Are you okay?!"
She reached toward her friend with a tentacle. Gentle. Careful. Just to check. Just to make sure.
A sound behind her.
Small. Human. A girl, hiding in the rubble, making noise, making fear.
Yuko blinked.
The girl was already in her tentacle. Swept up. Held in front of her face. The girl was crying. Screaming. Begging.
Yuko's voice came out cold. "You did this."
"No!" The girl thrashed. "It wasn't me! It wasn't me!"
Yuko's tentacle tightened. Her mind reached out, reading, searching-
The girl's thoughts were loud. Panicked. Guilty.
She'd laughed. When the shoes had meat in them. When Asa walked home barefoot. When the whispers followed her down the hall.
"Die."
The tentacle drew back. Ready to pierce. Ready to end-
"Hey!"
The voice cut through everything.
Yuko paused. Looked down.
A boy stood in the rubble. Blonde. Scruffy. Pointing at her like she was a stray cat he'd found in a dumpster. He didn't look scared. Didn't look impressed. Just... there.
"You bad devil!" He jabbed his finger. "Let the girl go!"
Yuko stared at him. "Mind your own business!"
The boy shrugged. His hands went to his chest. His fingers found something. A cord. A string. Something that hummed when he touched it.
"Welp, you've left me no choice."
He looked to the side. Smug. Ignorant. Like he was about to do something he'd done a hundred times before.
"I don't wanna blow my cover..." He pulled the string. "But a superhero can't sit idly by in an emergency and all!"
"I told you to buzz off!" Yuko slammed her tentacle down. "Stay out of my way!"
The tentacle should have splattered him. Should have turned him to paste.
Instead-
Chainsaws roared.
The tentacle was cut in half. Clean. Straight. Like it had never been whole at all.
"Owwww!!!" Yuko pulled back. Stared at the flayed tentacle. At the boy standing in the middle of it, chainsaws sprouting from his arms, his head, his everything.
The girl in her grip gasped. "Chainsaw Man?!"
"Ta-daaaa!" He spread his arms. Posed. Like this was a show.
"Omigosh!" Yuko's voice climbed. "Chainsaw Man showed up! What am I going to do now?!"
She started spinning. Tentacles whirling like helicopter blades, trying to create distance, trying to find space, trying to think.
"Stay away! Stay away! Stay away!"
Chainsaw Man walked through her defense like it wasn't there. Tentacles parted around him. Cut when he wanted. Dodged when he didn't. No pattern. No plan. Just... moving.
"Why can't I hit him?!" Yuko's mind raced. "Oh yeah! I can just... read his mind!"
She reached out. Pushed into his thoughts. Tried to find the next move, the next strike, the next-
Nothing.
There was nothing there.
No plan. No strategy. No thought at all. Just static. Just noise. Just the vague shape of a girl's face and a bowl of ramen and the word "cool" repeating over and over like a broken record.
She couldn't read something that wasn't there. Couldn't predict someone who didn't even know what they were doing.
Chainsaw Man swung. A tentacle fell. He stepped. Another. He ducked. Another. He was through. He was on her. He was winning.
Asa's eyes opened.
The world was blurry. Her neck hurt. Her head hurt. Everything hurt.
She pushed herself up. Rubble shifted under her hands. Dust filled her lungs.
Above her, something huge was fighting something loud. Chainsaws. Screaming. The sound of things being cut.
She looked up.
Chainsaw Man stood on Yuko's corpse. Tentacles lay severed around him. Her brain- exposed, pulsing, dying- was already collapsing.
He was breathing hard. Not from exhaustion. From adrenaline.
"Yeah!" He pumped his fist. "That's how you-"
Asa's body moved.
Not her choice. Not her control. Yoru surged forward, shoved her aside, took over like she'd been waiting for this moment her whole existence.
"Chainsaw Man!" Yoru's voice came from Asa's throat. Loud. Triumphant.
He turned. "Yeah?"
Yoru smiled. Asa's face. Wrong expression. Wrong everything.
"I'm back, bitches!"
"Wha- "
"You- "
A figure appeared between them.
Tanaka's body. Human's presence. His arm was already raised. Already changing. Already ready.
Of course he was.