"Did you beat him?"
Denji walked into the room naked.
"Just a headless devil. Easy enough to deal with. But why are you asking that while you're naked? Don't tell me you're into corpses too?"
"What the hell are you thinking?! No matter how much I like women, I'd never do that!" Denji roared, covering his crotch. "I fell into the hot spring covered in blood, so I took my clothes off."
Denji looked around for something suitable to cover himself with.
Even a scrap of cloth would do.
"Cover up with this for now. Don't let the people outside find out you're missing a ball."
Meng Fan casually tossed him a cushion from the floor.
"Stop bringing that up!! You think I don't want two intact balls? Even walking feels a little lopsided." Denji caught it with one hand while keeping the other over his crotch, each hand with its own job.
Ever since Meng Fan had stared at him that one time, he'd sworn never to satisfy Meng Fan's curiosity again.
"I'm just messing with you. Go take a shower."
"Okay, but wasn't this cushion covering the head just now?"
"It's fine. Hurry up and shower. Stop wasting time. I'll bring you some new clothes in a bit."
"What's the rush? You seem pretty interested in the corpse on the floor," Denji said, puzzled, before suddenly remembering something. "Oh, right. Where did the Cucumber Devil's body go last time? And the Rat Devil's body from the restaurant?"
"If you don't leave now, you won't be keeping your other ball either."
Meng Fan raised his right hand, showing off his gleaming blade claws.
Denji shuddered and fled, clutching the cushion over himself.
Once Denji had left,
Meng Fan quickly locked the hot spring room's door.
He turned to look at the headless devil's corpse on the floor.
"Time to dispose of the body."
"It was weak, but it's still a chunk of meat."
With that, he began murmuring an incantation no human could understand.
He extended one blade claw and lightly sliced open a fingertip on his right hand.
Black blood flowed steadily from the wound.
Dipping into the blood, he first drew a circle around the headless devil's corpse.
Then he gradually filled the circle with sigils.
Once the drawing was complete,
Meng Fan stood and recited the same incantation again.
He put his finger into his mouth and bit down.
When he pulled it out, the blood flowing from it had returned to its normal dark red.
The wound healed rapidly.
Just then, the sigils surrounding the headless devil's corpse reacted.
Black light flared.
The headless devil's corpse slowly sank.
Together with the sigils, it descended into bottomless darkness.
Bang, bang, bang!!!
A sudden knock came from outside the door.
"Who is it?"
"Me, the woman you were talking to in the hallway."
"What do you need?"
"You haven't come out, so I was worried about your safety."
"Worried about us? Aren't you afraid of devils?"
"I am, but I still have to think about your safety. If you really can't catch it, we can leave it to the Public Safety Devil Hunters. Open the door first."
"Give me a moment. I just took a bath, and I'm not dressed."
"All right, no problem," the woman in charge of the women's baths replied, satisfied.
But three minutes passed, and Meng Fan still hadn't opened the door.
That made Aki Hayakawa, who was waiting outside, realize something was wrong.
He kicked the door open and rushed inside.
"Where is he?"
The room was completely empty.
He ran over to the hot spring pool and saw only a corpse soaking in the water.
"He might have climbed over the wall."
The woman in charge followed close behind and pointed at the partition between the pools.
Aki Hayakawa glanced up, convinced Meng Fan had climbed over it.
He hurriedly stepped back and leaped.
Grabbing the top of the partition, he vaulted into the next hot spring pool.
But to his surprise,
the only person in the pool was a naked woman bathing.
"Ah!!!"
"You pervert!!!"
At the sight of a man dropping from above,
the woman crossed her arms over her chest and screamed.
Aki Hayakawa panicked for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm not a pervert. I'm pursuing an extremely dangerous Independent Devil Hunter."
"Did you see anyone climb over the wall?"
"No one except you. You're just a pervert making up lies to peep at me."
"I... I'm on official business. Goodbye."
Aki Hayakawa was about to leave when the woman behind him suddenly called out again. "Wait."
"What is it? Do you have a lead?"
"A lead? Stop pretending. If you want to look, you can just ask. Your looks are pretty much my type, after all."
Aki Hayakawa froze, then his expression darkened. "Sorry, but I'll have to decline."
Without giving her any consideration, he turned and hurried away.
He had barely rushed out of the room when he encountered the anxious woman in charge.
"He suddenly ran out of the original room and took his companion with him."
"He came out of the room we were just in?"
"That's right. I don't know how he did it either, but there really wasn't anyone there when we went inside."
"Which way did he go?"
"By the time I chased them outside, they'd already driven off."
"Damn it!!" Aki Hayakawa slammed his fist against the wall.
"Is that man dangerous?"
"Yes. He killed someone at a restaurant earlier tonight."
"Oh my God. I thought he was a kindhearted Fiend." The woman covered her mouth in shock, fear washing over her at the thought.
"If you see him again, notify us immediately."
"If anything like this happens again, I'll contact you right away instead of trusting some stranger who calls himself a Fiend."
After their conversation, Aki Hayakawa left.
By then, it was past one in the morning.
Denji had already yawned more than a dozen times in the car.
"I'm so damn sleepy. Where are we going now?" Denji rubbed his eyes, holding the sleeping Pochita.
"I'm taking you to a five-star hotel."
"A five-star hotel? How's that different from a regular hotel? Can you see stars there?"
"You'll find out when we get there."
Meng Fan drove to a nearby five-star hotel.
After completing the check-in procedures,
they moved into the presidential suite on the hotel's top floor.
But Denji couldn't have cared less about how luxurious the presidential suite was.
The moment he entered, he found a patch of carpet and lay down with Pochita, ready to sleep.
"Don't sleep on the floor. The bed's in there."
Meng Fan kicked Denji in the butt.
"I can sleep on the bed?"
"Yes, because you've earned a voucher to try out a king-size bed at a five-star hotel."
Denji picked up Pochita, stood, and headed into the bedroom.
"Th-this is a bed?!"
"What, you've never seen a clean, rectangular bed before?"
"First time. Maybe I should just sleep on the floor."
"Sleep on the fucking floor, my ass. I booked you a presidential suite, and you want to sleep on the floor? Get on the damn bed."
Meng Fan shoved Denji over.
Denji landed sprawled on the bed, his body sinking slightly into it.
"It's so soft!!"
Bliss spread across Denji's face as he savored the bed's comfort.
"Get some sleep. I'm going out to enjoy the nightlife."
Hearing that Meng Fan was heading out again, Denji fought off his sleepiness and raised his head. "It's so late. Where else are you going?"
"To check out a nearby casino."
"You're seriously not tired at all."
"What would you think if I told you I haven't slept in over a year?"
"Over a year without sleep? No way. I can't even stand going one night without it."
"Just go to sleep. If I could fall asleep, I'd already be lying next to you."
Denji mumbled something unintelligible.
Soon, he fell silent.
Only Meng Fan remained standing there, smiling as he watched Denji. "Denji, enjoy yourself. Someday, you'll be my most important pawn."
"What pawn?"
Denji groggily raised his head and asked.
That startled Meng Fan into a cold sweat. "You're not fucking asleep?"
"The bed's so comfortable that I'm actually having trouble falling asleep."
"But what did you mean when you said I was your most important pawn?"
Before you continue