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Chapter 12: A Young Aki Hayakawa

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: A Young Aki Hayakawa

When he realized someone had arrived, Kotone Asaba turned around and saw a handsome young man with a sword strapped to his back.

At first, he did not have much of a reaction, but the more he looked, the more he inexplicably felt that the young man before him seemed a little familiar.

Could this be... the inexperienced Aki Hayakawa from his younger days?

In the original story, the young Aki Hayakawa had only appeared in flashback scenes, so Kotone Asaba did not have a very deep impression of him.

He remembered that in the original story, Aki Hayakawa already had three years of experience as a Public Safety Devil Hunter, which meant that three years earlier, he had still been a private Devil Hunter.

And the current timeline was four years before the original story. Aki Hayakawa had not yet joined Tokyo Public Safety, so it was normal for him to be a private Devil Hunter right now. Kotone simply had not expected to run into him here in Chiba Prefecture.

But that sword on Aki Hayakawa’s back, was that not the Curse Devil’s sword? To be precise, it was a long nail shaped like a sword.

So Aki Hayakawa had signed a contract with the Curse Devil this early. He had probably already signed a contract with the Fox Devil too. After all, he could not casually use the Curse Devil’s power in daily situations. Using it even once would drastically shorten his lifespan, so he probably relied on the Fox Devil’s power most of the time.

"Did you kill this Crab Devil?"

Aki Hayakawa’s face showed no expression as he asked Kotone Asaba.

However, when he saw Pochita in Kotone Asaba’s hand, his eyes changed in a way that was not easy to notice.

Kotone Asaba, who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, had extremely sharp insight and easily noticed the shift in Aki Hayakawa’s gaze. It was a trace of disgust.

He knew very well that Aki Hayakawa’s parents and younger brother had been killed by the Gun Devil when he was a child, so Aki hated all devils, and he regarded the Gun Devil as his mortal enemy most of all.

"That’s right. So I’ll be taking this corpse."

After saying that, Kotone Asaba directly absorbed the Crab Devil’s corpse into his Kamui dimension.

Seeing the Crab Devil’s corpse suddenly vanish without a trace with his own eyes, Aki Hayakawa could not help feeling slightly startled. Just now, he had faintly seen the space over there seem to distort, but it vanished in an instant before he could get a clear look.

It seemed the other party’s devil power was somewhat unusual. He had never seen a devil power like this before.

"Are you also a private Devil Hunter? Or are you with Public Safety?"

Aki Hayakawa asked again.

"Yeah, I’m a private Devil Hunter from out of town. I’m planning to stay in Chiba for a while."

Kotone Asaba began talking with Aki Hayakawa.

Although he still did not know whether Aki Hayakawa would appear in one of the pages of the Affinity Codex that had not yet been unlocked, he felt that a major character from the original story like Aki Hayakawa most likely would. In any case, there was no harm in making contact ahead of time.

If he raised Aki’s Affinity in advance, then if the Affinity Codex page for Aki Hayakawa was unlocked later, his starting Affinity would not be zero percent like Denji and Pochita’s had been.

"I understand."

Aki Hayakawa did not say anything else and prepared to head back.

Kotone Asaba had no intention of deliberately trying to get close to Aki Hayakawa either. Instead, he went to hail a taxi. This way, he could have the taxi take him directly to the Private Devil Hunter Guild and save himself the trouble of asking people for directions.

Although Japanese taxis were extremely expensive compared to those back home, with his financial resources, he did not care about that bit of money.

However, the taxi driver had personally seen Kotone Asaba hunt down the Crab Devil just now. If Kotone had not stepped in, the driver might have been eaten by the Crab Devil on the spot, so he directly waived Kotone Asaba’s fare as thanks.

Coincidentally, Aki Hayakawa also stopped this taxi. Clearly, Aki Hayakawa was also going to take a taxi back to the Private Devil Hunter Guild.

Kotone Asaba and Aki Hayakawa both sat in the back seat. Watching Kotone Asaba place Pochita on his lap, Aki could not help asking, "Is that the devil you contracted with?"

"More or less. He’s my companion. His name is Pochita."

Kotone Asaba answered.

"You treat a devil as a companion? Forgive me, but I can’t understand that."

Aki Hayakawa said expressionlessly.

"Although it’s true that devils are basically evil, there are still a very small number who don’t really bear any malice toward humans. Right, Pochita?"

"Woof, woof."

However, Kotone Asaba knew in his heart that although Pochita did not really bear any malice toward humans, he did not exactly have much goodwill toward them either.

If someone provoked Pochita in his complete Black Chainsaw form, he would kill them without a second thought.

"I’m not interested in any of that. I only know that I’ll kill the devils I want to kill."

Aki Hayakawa’s expression was cold, and his tone was cold too.

Kotone Asaba did not say anything more.

About ten minutes later, Kotone Asaba and Aki Hayakawa arrived at the nearby Private Devil Hunter Guild.

Of course, there was not only one Private Devil Hunter Guild in Chiba Prefecture. After all, it was such a large city, and each area of Chiba Prefecture had its own Private Devil Hunter Guild.

"By the way, do you know where Chiba Rissei High School is?"

At that moment, Kotone Asaba asked Aki Hayakawa.

"It’s in this area. Not far from here. Why?"

"Nothing. Just asking."

After that, Kotone Asaba and Aki Hayakawa entered the Private Devil Hunter Guild together.

Not long after they entered the hall, a female staff member walked over and said to Aki Hayakawa, "Hayakawa, did you finally get yourself a partner?"

Judging from her expression and tone, this female staff member seemed quite enthusiastic toward Aki Hayakawa.

After all, Aki Hayakawa was young and handsome, and his cool, aloof aura was probably fairly attractive to girls.

"No. We only ran into each other by chance. I don’t need a partner."

"Honestly, Hayakawa, you’re always like this. Devil Hunters usually need partners, you know. If you run into a powerful devil alone, you’ll be in trouble."

"It’s not trouble. Either it dies, or I die."

For Aki Hayakawa to say something like that was not just him acting tough. Aki, who possessed the Curse Devil’s power, really did have that strength.

Once the Curse Devil’s power was triggered, death was guaranteed. In the original story, the Curse Devil might have looked rather useless, but the key point was that every time the Curse Devil attacked in the original story, it happened to be against a Hybrid.

Hybrids would never truly die. As long as they had enough blood, they could revive indefinitely, so the guaranteed death effect seemed completely useless.

Looking at it from another angle, if it were used against a powerful devil with only one life, that guaranteed death effect would be terrifying, although the side effect of shortening one’s lifespan was also terrifying.

"By the way, is there anything I can help you with?"

The female staff member turned to Kotone Asaba and asked.

Maybe because Kotone Asaba was also good-looking, she was fairly enthusiastic toward him as well.

"I’d like to know where the black market around here is."

Kotone Asaba asked smoothly.

"The black market..."

The female staff member verbally gave Kotone Asaba detailed directions.

Kotone Asaba was planning to go to the black market and sell the Crab Devil’s corpse. Transactions carried out on the black market would also have related records on the Private Devil Hunter Guild’s side, which meant his achievements would be recorded as well.