It was five in the morning.
The sky was beginning to lighten.
Alarms rang through the dormitory of Osaka's Anti-Devil Special Fifth Division.
Soon, a large hand slapped down on an alarm clock.
The ringing abruptly stopped.
An ugly man with a buzz cut climbed out of bed.
"Ahh..."
He stretched and let out a deep yawn.
Then he put on his slippers and turned on the light.
The instant the light came on,
it triggered a chain reaction among the men still sleeping in the room.
One immediately pulled his blanket over his head.
Another rolled over and kept sleeping.
Another was completely unaffected, thanks to his eye mask.
"Everybody up! To help you rookies adjust to the Fifth Division faster, the captain and I agreed that starting today, we'll get up at five every morning for a run."
The buzz-cut man was a team leader in the Fifth Division.
The Fifth Division's hunters had different living arrangements from those in the Fourth Division.
They all lived in dormitories in an apartment building.
This was a rule established by the Fifth Division's captain.
He thought it made group operations more convenient.
It also saved them a considerable amount of time.
"Team leader, what time is it?" A man with hair past his shoulders kept one eye tightly shut while forcing the other open.
"It's only five! At home, I don't get up until after nine." Another man checked the time on his phone, then hugged his pillow and went back to sleep.
"Once you join the Anti-Devil Special Fifth Division, you have to be ready to get up early at any time. All of you, out of bed!"
The buzz-cut man yanked the blanket off the motionless man wearing an eye mask.
But the man still didn't react.
"Hey,