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Chapter 2: Helping Denji

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Helping Denji

Kotone Asaba walked toward Denji.

On the gravestone, there was a photo of a worn-out middle-aged man.

Kotone Asaba spoke to Denji. "Was that guy just now your creditor?"

"...He used to be my old man’s creditor, but the bastard’s dead now. My mom died a long time ago too, coughing up blood because of her heart condition. So now all that debt’s on me..."

Denji looked miserable, his eyes completely lifeless. He didn’t even care who was talking to him from behind. He just wanted to complain to someone.

The total debt was in the tens of millions of yen. There was no way he could ever pay that back on his own. Even if he sold every part of his body, it still wouldn’t be enough.

And on top of that, he had to come up with 700,000 yen by tomorrow. If he couldn’t, that yakuza boss from earlier would chop him into pieces and sell them off.

At this point, he was already as good as dead. All he could do was wait for it to happen.

"I have an elder who was friends with your mother. That person asked me to look after you. Your name is Denji, right?"

That was something Kotone Asaba had made up so he could get close to Denji.

"Huh?!"

Denji jumped in shock and immediately turned around. Only then did he see a boy in a pure white trench coat standing there. He had no idea why the boy’s eyes looked so strange.

There was also a weird orange dog at the boy’s feet. It looked like... a Devil?

The moment he saw Pochita, who looked suspiciously like a Devil, Denji instinctively took a step back in fear.

"Don’t be scared. This is my friend Pochita. He won’t hurt you."

Kotone Asaba crouched down and patted Pochita on the head. "Right, Pochita?"

"Woof~"

Pochita replied with a smile.

Pochita didn’t have any hostility toward Denji, but there wasn’t any real warmth there either.

Because of Kotone Asaba’s appearance, Denji and Pochita had been unable to form the bond they had in the original story.

That was exactly why helping Denji wasn’t just about the Constitution rewards for him, it was also about making it up to Denji in some way.

Only then did Denji relax a little, though he still couldn’t help feeling nervous.

"W, was what you said true?"

Denji asked with a look of disbelief.

The truth was, the moment Kotone Asaba had said his name, Denji had already mostly believed him. After all, how could a stranger know his name?

It just felt too unreal. Right when he was at his most desperate, someone had appeared out of nowhere to help him.

"Of course it’s true. My name is Kotone Asaba. From now on, I’ll take care of you. And tomorrow, you won’t die."

[Affinity +20%]

[Affinity Progress Reached 10%, Achievement Reward Obtained: Constitution +1]

[Affinity Progress Reached 20%, Achievement Reward Obtained: Constitution +1]

Denji’s affinity shot up by twenty percent in an instant. Denji was a pretty simple person, as long as someone treated him well, that was enough.

Grrr...

Right then, Denji’s stomach growled.

That was when he remembered he hadn’t eaten anything for what felt like a whole day.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to eat. He just couldn’t afford to.

"Hungry? I don’t have any money on me right now either, so I’ll have to kill a Devil and make some cash. Let’s head home first."

Kotone Asaba had just arrived in this world, so of course he was flat broke.

But making money wouldn’t be too hard for him. In this world, because Devils existed, a profession with high risk and high reward had also emerged, Devil Hunter.

Public Safety Devil Hunters enjoyed high pay and all kinds of benefits. Private Devil Hunters could take on personal commissions for money, and after killing a Devil, they could also sell the corpse on the black market for a good price.

Whether they worked in Public Safety or the private sector, the vast majority of these Devil Hunters were humans who had made contracts with Devils. By paying a price through those contracts, they gained the power of Devils.

Kotone Asaba hadn’t made a contract with any Devil, but his abilities were more than enough to let him become a private Devil Hunter. Not only did he have double Kamui, he could also use Pochita as a weapon.

"Okay..."

Denji led Kotone Asaba back to his house.

On the way there, Denji kept thinking about what Kotone Asaba had said earlier about killing Devils to make money, and he couldn’t help asking, "Are you a Devil Hunter, Kotone?"

"More or less."

Kotone Asaba gave a slight nod.

Denji didn’t doubt him. Seeing how well Kotone got along with Pochita, he figured Kotone was probably a Devil Hunter who had made a contract with Pochita.

There was a small city not too far from here, but Denji’s house wasn’t in the city. It was on a hillside near the city.

"By the way, Denji, how old are you this year?"

Kotone Asaba asked casually.

"I was born in 1981, and now it’s 1993..."

Denji counted on his fingers twice before finally settling on an answer. "Twelve. I think I’m twelve."

Since he had never gone to school and had never celebrated a birthday growing up, this was the only way he could figure out how old he was.

"Twelve, huh..."

Now Kotone Asaba completely understood the timeline.

In the original story, the timeline was 1997, but he had arrived in the world of Chainsaw Man four years early.

What he was a little curious about was the Gun Devil. It had descended into the human world thirteen years before the original story, in other words, in 1984. But who had defeated it afterward?

Judging by the bullet wounds in Pochita’s abdomen, it was very possible that Pochita had done it. Pochita’s power level fit, and the timing lined up too. Surrounded by the Four Horsemen, Pochita had suddenly vanished and arrived in the human world. Then, after taking down the Gun Devil alone, it had been left with bullet wounds in its abdomen.

On a side note, the full-power Gun Devil was also a mystery. This was the exact period when humanity’s fear of firearms was at an extreme peak. In the human world, other than Pochita, it was hard to say who could defeat a full-power Gun Devil. Makima probably had not come to the human world yet either.

When they arrived at Denji’s house, it turned out to be a tiny, run-down place, enough to show just how hard his life had been.

"You rest at home for now. I’m going to kill a Devil."

Now that he knew where Denji lived, Kotone Asaba didn’t stay any longer.

"Yeah..."

Denji stood in the doorway and watched as Kotone Asaba and Pochita slowly disappeared into the distance.

...

After leaving, Kotone Asaba and Pochita naturally went looking for a Devil.

Devils were born from the names of all things, animals, plants, concepts, everything. The more terrifying people found that name, the stronger the Devil became, such as the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death, Famine, War, and Control.

And even Devils born from things people did not fear all that much were still monsters, not something an ordinary person could handle.

Any kind of thing could give rise to a Devil. And when a Devil died in the human world, it would be reborn in Hell. If it died in Hell, it would reincarnate in the human world. They could never truly be erased, unless Pochita ate them.

That was why Devils ran rampant everywhere, including in the small city where they were now.

It didn’t take Kotone Asaba long to spot a Field Mouse Devil out in a stretch of farmland.