Denji had kept a rabbit when he was a kid.
It had to be said that aside from looking cute, these little animals really weren't suited to be pets. They were picky eaters, pooped a lot, and were even more easily stressed than cats; a single scare could make them jump over three feet in the air.
Although the races of Terra didn't necessarily retain all the traits of their animal relatives, upon coming face-to-face with Rope, Denji felt like he was seeing that pet rabbit from his childhood launching itself like a rocket.
"Wait, where are you going?!"
Amidst Waai Fu's exclamation, the Cautus girl abandoned her luggage entirely. First, she leapt high into the air as if she had seen a ghost. Then, with a flick of her arm mid-air, the spearhead of her grappling hook shot out the window like a bullet.
Immediately after, her entire body slid out the window, pulled along by the tension of the hook.
The whole process was as smooth as flowing water. If Denji had been watching a parkour action movie, he definitely would have given this sequence a glowing review.
But he hadn't forgotten that he was here to seek out an expert and become an apprentice. Therefore, he quickly snatched up a spare grappling hook from Rope's room. Relying on his own decent agility and the advantage of not being afraid of falling and getting hurt, he chased after her.
Although Waai Fu had also practiced lightfoot martial arts, amidst the complex terrain of the slums—filled with illegal structures and all sorts of clutter—she simply couldn't keep up with the acrobatic, grappling-hook traversal of those two. After chasing them for a while and ending up panting from exhaustion, she could only stand in place and pray that no misunderstandings would arise between them.
"Stop! I'm not here to catch you! I'm here to pay you to be my master!"
Denji's grappling hook skills were far less proficient than Rope's, and he wasn't familiar enough with the terrain of the Lower City. It was entirely thanks to his boundless stamina and lack of fear regarding injury—traveling solely in straight lines—that he could barely keep Rope's back in sight.
But Rope ignored him completely. Driven by a powerful survival instinct, she continuously wove through the night as if she were fleeing for her life.
"Damn it! You forced me to do this!"
Denji cursed. Seeing that it was late in the night and there were no bystanders around, he no longer hesitated and forcefully pulled the rip-cord on his chest.
And so, Rope heard the roaring sound of a chainsaw coming from behind. The noise was getting closer and closer, terrifying her so much her heart almost stopped beating.
In his Chainsaw Man form, Denji's speed and explosive power skyrocketed. He extended his built-in, factory-default chainsaws—which were much more intuitive for him to use—while kicking off the rusted wall of a dilapidated slum building for leverage. As he kicked the dust off the wall, causing it to rustle to the ground, his entire body lunged forward using the reactionary force. With the massive boost in speed and power from his transformation, the previously unclosable distance was instantly narrowed.
"I'm doomed!"
In extreme terror, Rope brought out almost every last trick in her arsenal for escaping with a grappling hook. However, although she belonged to a Terran race with physical capabilities far exceeding those of Earthlings, she was still flesh and blood. Moreover, she was a severe Oripathy patient with worryingly poor health.
Under continuous extreme exertion, her chest cavity and internal organs were suffering from oxygen deprivation, and the erosion of her body by Oripathy was subtly flaring up.
Yet Denji could chase her tirelessly. He even had energy to spare to shout from behind her in the most amiable tone he could muster:
"So, stop running! I really mean no harm!"
Nearing her absolute limit, Rope listened to Denji's gentle voice and couldn't help but entertain the thought of giving up her escape.
"I'm so tired! I feel like I'd rather be killed than keep running. Should I trust him? Let me just take one look back. What if he's actually a great hero who only kills major villains and doesn't bother with petty thieves like me?"
Harboring such thoughts, Rope glanced back.
That single glance almost gave her a cardiac arrest—
She saw a monster with roaring chainsaws protruding from its head and arms, sporting a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth, smiling at her and telling her to stop running.
"Who would believe someone looking like that is a good guy?!"
Little Rope once again sprinted madly into the night without looking back.
But this time, she had truly reached her limit. As her body's heat dissipation functions were utterly overwhelmed, the Originium crystals on the surface of her skin began to turn scalding hot. A wave of dizziness instantly struck her, and her vision grew increasingly blurry.
Her body plummeted straight down.
In the final moments of her fading consciousness, she felt as though she was caught mid-air by a sturdy, reliable body. What a pity that the one catching her was likely not a hero rescuing a beauty, but a fiend coming to silence her.
"This is fine too. At least I won't feel any pain..."
Realizing that her life was about to end, Rope thought of the parents who had abandoned her. She didn't resent her family; it was perfectly normal for parents in the slums to abandon their children. At the very least, her parents were crying when they drove her out of the house.
Besides, even if she complained about the world, money wouldn't just fall from the sky. For Rope, who had almost nothing, the only way to survive was to rely on her dishonorable trade.
"Still... I really wish I had a home! Forget it, living this long is already a net positive. What else can I expect when death is at my door?"
And just like that, Rope concluded her final "life flashing before her eyes" moment in Denji's arms.
Denji, meanwhile, looked completely baffled. "What is she babbling about? Why is she suddenly giving her last words?"
He checked Rope's forehead and her pulse. Her body temperature was indeed abnormally high, and her pulse was erratic, but it didn't seem like she was at death's door just yet.
The physical constitution of Terrans was simply too formidable.
Although for the poor, a severe fever combined with the complications of Oripathy was enough to cross the threshold of death. But Denji had recently looted the pockets of several wealthy individuals. In the secret hideout provided by Ah Fa, he had stockpiled quite a few medicines, even including Oripathy suppressants produced by Rhodes Island!
The wealthy valued their lives the most; the emergency medical supplies in Russo and Old Jia's homes were top-tier goods.
Saving a life was as urgent as fighting a fire. Denji didn't even bother to go back and greet Waai Fu. Carrying Rope in his arms, he utilized the grappling hook techniques he had just gained some insight into during the chase and sprinted madly toward his own hideout.
Although he didn't undo his transformation to ensure maximum travel speed—leading to quite a few witnesses along the way—passersby in the slums weren't particularly curious. No one wanted to invite trouble upon themselves.
...
"Greetings, Boss!"
Seeing Denji return, the sensible Ah Fa immediately bowed in greeting. However, he was secretly muttering in his heart: "Why did he bring back an unconscious chick? Could Boss Chainsaw have a hobby of picking up 'corpses'? Should I make myself scarce in a bit..."
Denji efficiently and briefly issued a command: "Save her. Very useful. Oripathy."
Ah Fa understood immediately and nimbly fetched the relevant medications.
Denji could finally catch his breath. He took a bottle of stockpiled plasma drink from the room, took a huge gulp, and began to ponder the girl's bizarre reaction upon seeing him.
He had already recalled Rope's face. Clearly, during their first meeting, she had been quite nice and had even given him directions. Why was her reaction so extreme the second time they met, trying so desperately to avoid him?
Wait, no! She was a pickpocket, wasn't she? A pickpocket enthusiastically giving directions definitely had an ulterior motive!
But still, it was just stealing something. I don't look like a particularly vicious person. Why was her reaction so exaggerated?
The more he thought about it, the weirder it felt. Denji decided to give the unconscious Cautus girl a thorough full-body search.
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