New Novel
Chapter 17: The Gun Devil’s Special Nature

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Gun Devil’s Special Nature

Just as Kotone Asaba had finished showering and was about to sleep, his phone suddenly made a noise.

It was either Denji or Aki Hayakawa calling. At the moment, only Denji and Aki knew his phone number. Aki and he had exchanged numbers during dinner so the two partners could contact each other at any time.

"Hello?"

"Ah, it went through!"

Denji’s voice came from the other end of the phone, which surprised Kotone a little. He had thought it was most likely Aki calling him for something urgent at the last minute.

After all, he had only left Tokyo less than a day ago. He had not expected Denji to call so soon.

"Denji? Did something happen?"

"No... I just wanted to see if this phone worked."

Denji’s voice sounded a little guilty.

That was because Denji actually just wanted to talk to Kotone, but he was worried that Kotone would think he was being a bother, so he made up that excuse.

Kotone had already heard it in Denji’s tone, but he did not say anything about it. "It was your first day at school today. How did it feel?"

"It felt pretty good. The teachers were all pretty patient with me. I still don’t know many classmates yet, but I think I should be able to get along with them."

"That’s good. Remember to tell me if you run out of money. And if anything happens, you can call me anytime."

"Okay! Then... then that’s all. You should sleep early too, Kotone."

"Yeah. Good night."

After they exchanged a few simple words, Denji seemed satisfied.

Kotone was not too worried about Denji at school. Since Denji was a Devil Hunter, the teachers would take better care of him, and no delinquents would dare bully him.

Even if someone really did dare bully Denji, with Denji’s personality, he would definitely turn into the Nut Devil and pay them back.

Kotone fully supported that. If it came down to it, the worst that could happen was that he would have to visit the principal’s office for a polite chat.

...

Early the next morning, Aki called. Kotone happened to have just woken up.

"Looks like you’re already up. Eat breakfast and hurry over. A mission just came in, and I’ve already accepted it. I’m heading to the mission location now..."

"Got it."

After getting the mission location from Aki, Kotone hung up.

He glanced at the time. It was only seven in the morning. Aki was way too intense. He had probably been waiting in the guild hall since sometime after six.

Due to the special nature of private Devil Hunters, a Devil could appear somewhere at any time, and a private Devil Hunter would need to deal with it immediately.

Because of that, the Private Devil Hunter Guild was open twenty-four hours a day. There were always Devil Hunters who rested during the day and specialized in operating at night waiting in the hall, or else patrolling outside.

But what Aki was doing had already reached the point of competing with the night-owl Devil Hunters for missions.

That was enough to show how desperately Aki wanted to kill the Gun Devil and complete his revenge.

The cruel reality, however, was that the Gun Devil had already been instantly defeated by Pochita. It had lost its memories, and its body had been divided among the world’s great powers. In this world, the Gun Devil had become an existence similar to nuclear weapons in Kotone’s original world. A country’s share of the Gun Devil’s body symbolized its national power and deterrence.

The higher a country’s share of the Gun Devil’s body, the higher its international status.

In this world, the Soviet Union held the world’s largest share of the Gun Devil’s body at 28%, while America had the second-largest share at 20%. After that came China with 11%, while all the other countries combined only held 4%.

The remaining 37% existed as flesh pieces held by Devils all over the world.

It was important to note that what the great powers possessed was the Gun Devil’s main body. What the Devils possessed were Gun Devil flesh pieces.

As for Japan, it did not seem to have gotten even the slightest share of the Gun Devil’s main body. In that sense, it was shockingly similar to Japan in Kotone’s original world.

That was also why, later on, Japan’s higher-ups would cultivate Makima after she first arrived in the human world. They were even willing to gamble the fate of the nation and use the lives of their citizens as the contract price to have Makima forcibly seize the Gun Devil’s body for them. Aside from seizing the Gun Devil’s body, they probably had other plans as well, but the original story did not explain them in detail.

Because of that, Aki’s revenge was destined to be impossible. The Gun Devil’s special nature was right there. Unless he was willing to make an enemy of the entire world, it could not be done.

After quickly washing up, Kotone casually grabbed a bag of bread and immediately went out while eating, taking transportation to meet up with Aki.

On the way, while eating the bread, he communicated with Aki again. The situation was that a Devil had appeared in a certain factory. What kind of Devil it was still unclear. The guild had estimated the mission difficulty based on information about the Devil’s destructive power, and had therefore classified it as a solo mission.

So only Kotone and Aki were going to carry out the mission together. They were currently each taking transportation toward the factory where the Devil had appeared.

Not long after Aki arrived, Kotone also got there.

The area around the factory had already been cordoned off by police. All the workers who could escape from the factory had already run out. Even while standing outside, they still looked shaken. Someone was crying uncontrollably while calling their family.

There were probably still people inside the factory who had not managed to escape in time, but the police did not dare enter recklessly. Since they were not Devil Hunters, they had no way to fight a Devil.

"Sorry to trouble you again, as always."

After Kotone and Aki showed their identification, the police let them through and said those words.

Kotone and Aki immediately entered the factory. The deeper they went, the heavier the scent of blood became.

By now, they could already see the Devil’s shape. Judging from its appearance, it was probably a Steel Plate Devil.

Its body was a withered human form like a corpse. There was a gaping bloody mouth filled with countless sharp teeth in its abdomen. Its head was an incredibly sharp steel plate spinning at high speed, and its three eyes were not on its head, but on its chest.

On the ground beside the Steel Plate Devil were many severed limbs and chunks of flesh. Blood was everywhere. Clearly, several workers had already been killed by the Steel Plate Devil.

Looking at the scene before him, Kotone could not help frowning slightly.

"It’s my turn to handle it this time."

Aki nodded. This was the kind of coordination he wanted. Last time, he had taken action. This time, Kotone would. That way, Aki would not overuse the Fox Devil’s power and push his body past what it could endure.

As soon as Kotone finished speaking, his left eye widened slightly, focusing on the Steel Plate Devil’s neck.

The space around the Steel Plate Devil’s neck instantly warped. The next moment, the Devil’s neck seemed to vanish into thin air. Its head, the steel plate that had been spinning at high speed, stopped and slammed heavily onto the ground.

The Steel Plate Devil lost all signs of life right away. It seemed that the steel plate on its head was its weak point, and Kotone had directly twisted off its neck and sucked it into the Kamui dimension.