Undying and Sleepless

"Aki, what's for dinner tonight?"

"Himeno, why don't you stay for dinner too?"

"Well, since you insist, Aki, I'd be happy to."

With that, Himeno grinned and walked out of the room.

She picked up the shochu she had left by the door and returned to the living room.

"So you came prepared, Himeno. You already had the booze waiting by the door." Meng Fan stood with his hands on his hips.

"I finally got off work early for once. Of course I'm going to have a drink." Himeno set the shochu on the dining table. "Meng Fan, you'd better drink plenty tonight."

"You're not planning to get me drunk and pry some answers out of me, are you?"

"That did cross my mind."

"What's this stuff? Give me some first!"

Power stepped forward, snatched up a bottle of shochu, and held it in front of her to inspect it.

Like Denji, she was illiterate.

She knew even less than Denji did.

"That's shochu. It's strong, so don't drink too much at once."

"I'm the renowned Blood Devil! A little shochu is nothing to me."

With that, she unscrewed the cap and started gulping it down.

"It burns!!!" After a huge swig, Power made sure to share her impressions before taking several more. Her face slowly turned bright red, and her eyes grew unfocused. "Y-you... did you drug me?"

"I told you not to drink too much at once."

"So dizzy... I..."

Power's vision gradually blurred. She held her head as her body swayed.

Thud!!

A second later, she collapsed onto the floor and fell fast asleep.

As he watched Power's body rise and fall with each breath,

Denji unconsciously swallowed.

Deep down, he was very glad Power had joined their team.

A bunch of guys would have been way too boring otherwise.

"Denji, you've never held a girl before, right? Here's your chance."

Sitting in his chair, Meng Fan waggled his eyebrows at Denji.

"Huh? Her?" Denji pointed at Power, his face instantly flushing. "Isn't that kind of wrong?"

"You'd just be carrying her. It's not like I'm telling you to do anything. You've never held a girl before, after all."

"No way. You've never held a girl, Denji?" Himeno looked him over with interest.

"So what if I've never held a girl? I'm not going to take advantage of her!"

Denji clenched his fists and shouted.

Though he very much wanted to hold Power,

the thought of Makima instantly smothered that surge of desire.

He was afraid Himeno would tell Makima that he had secretly held another girl.

Then his image in Makima's eyes would be completely ruined.

"Oh, not bad! I didn't know you had that much willpower." Himeno smiled, resting her chin on her hand.

"Dinner's ready!"

Just then, Aki Hayakawa set two dishes on the dining table. He glanced over and saw Power fast asleep on the floor. "What happened to her?"

"She got drunk after just one bottle of shochu. Give her a glass of combustible oolong tea, and she'd be out cold for sure."

"Drag her out of the way. Don't let her block us from eating," Aki Hayakawa said flatly.

"Denji, drag her into the bathroom."

"Into the bathroom? Isn't that kind of wrong?"

"What, you won't even listen to your master now? Think about what she did to me earlier. I only took a moment to pull my pants up, and she exposed me."

"Fine." Denji scratched his cheek, grabbed Power's hand, and dragged her into the bathroom.

"You really went all out with dinner today, Aki." Himeno rubbed her hands together excitedly at the sight of the food on the table.

They usually ate out when they got together.

They rarely got to eat Aki Hayakawa's home cooking.

"There are more people, so of course I had to make more."

"Aki, you're basically their guardian now. Everything they say and do happens right under your nose."

Aki ignored Himeno, turned back to the kitchen, and brought the remaining dishes to the table.

"Denji, get over here! You're not doing something fucking filthy in the bathroom, are you?"

Denji had been in there with Power for a while.

But even now that dinner was ready, he still hadn't come out.

"Coming!"

At the call, Denji flung the bathroom door open and ran out, bare from the waist up.

Anyone who saw that sight would jump to the same conclusion.

"Well, well, you little brat! You were just saying you wouldn't take advantage of her, and the next second you dragged her into the bathroom and did the deed."

"Denji, that's my apprentice. You sure don't waste any time."

"What the hell?! She puked all over me!" Denji hurriedly explained, looking a little angry. "I'm not that kind of guy!!!"

"All right, let's eat. Aki made your favorite ginger pork."

Once Denji sat down, everyone was there.

Himeno immediately asked Aki to pour the drinks.

After several glasses of shochu, Himeno's cheeks grew faintly red, and her speech became tipsy and carefree. Her eyes, however, remained fixed on Meng Fan. "Come on, tell us your secret."

"I'm not a virgin."

"That's not the secret I want to know. I'm asking about the devil inside you."

"The devil? I already told you I made a contract with the Dream Devil."

"But how did you come back to life? I clearly saw your corpse." Aki Hayakawa could hold his liquor fairly well and still seemed perfectly normal.

"What's so strange about a devil coming back to life? Denji can drink blood and revive at full health. I'm a little different-I can revive through dreams."

"You mean, as long as someone dreams, you can come back through their dream?"

"Exactly. As long as someone dreams about me, I can revive. And after I die, I can enter someone else's dreams and force them to dream about me."

"So you're basically impossible to kill?" Himeno suddenly exclaimed, her voice rising with excitement as though she had discovered a treasure.

"You could say that." Meng Fan chuckled and picked up a bite of food.

"No wonder you survived Makima."

"Aki, now we've got a capable ally. Our odds of surviving just went way up."

"Then can you kill the Gun Devil?" Aki Hayakawa asked earnestly.

"You want me to kill the world boss right off the bat? You're really taking the easy way out here, Aki." Meng Fan raised his glass and clinked it against Himeno's. "To be honest, the stronger a devil is, the harder it is to control. I just can't die. I'm not invincible."

Meng Fan knew his own capabilities very well.

Though he seemed powerful,

if his opponent was strong,

or discovered Meng Fan's weakness,

then even being unable to die wouldn't do him much good.

"Whatever the case, welcome to the Fourth Division."

Himeno drained her glass in one gulp, making it clear just how happy she was.

After all, being a Public Safety Devil Hunter was a dangerous job.

They faced powerful devils without a shred of humanity.

Plenty of people died almost as soon as they started.

Himeno had already watched many colleagues fall before her eyes.

Though she had grown numb to it,

no one wanted to see a colleague they had shared drinks and conversations with suddenly die.

Now a colleague who couldn't die had joined them.

That took a great deal of worry off Himeno's shoulders.

"Don't worry, Himeno. I'll protect you all. After all, I know a friend with more than five kinds of devils inside him. I won't let you die."

Meng Fan drank a glass with her as he spoke.

"He's contracted with more than five kinds of devils? Meng Fan, you've had too much. Someone like that can't exist."

"What if I told you I'm that person?"

"Then you've definitely had too much." Himeno laughed. "But thank you. You're the only colleague I can actually stop worrying about."

"With me and my master around, nobody in the Fourth Division is going to die!" Denji chimed in, his mouth already stuffed with all kinds of delicious food.

Both the food and the atmosphere were unlike anything Denji had ever experienced.

He loved this feeling.

And he swore he would fight with everything he had to protect these hard-won companions.

By the time they had eaten and drunk their fill, it was past nine at night.

Apart from Denji, who hadn't been drinking,

everyone was tipsy.

"Himeno, you can take the bedroom. Those two can share a room."

"Thanks, Aki. I'm going to take a bath first. Anyone want to join me?"

"Seriously? For real? We can bathe together?"

Denji looked thrilled. He had never imagined dinner would come with a nosebleed-inducing bonus like this.

"Himeno's always making jokes like that," Aki Hayakawa said as he cleared the table.

"I'm not joking. I'm heading in first. Anyone who wants to join me can come right in."

With that, she took off her shirt and tossed it onto the floor.

She sauntered into the bathing room with a sultry gait.

Before going inside, she deliberately paused in the doorway and cast a flirtatious glance over her shoulder.

At the sight, Denji and Meng Fan immediately started flailing excitedly as they stripped off their jackets.

They were just about to charge into the bathing room when Aki Hayakawa stopped them. "Both of you, go back to your room and sleep."

"Aki, you're not sending us to bed so you can sneak in yourself, are you?"

"I'm not that kind of person. Besides, I'm staying right here until Himeno finishes her bath."

Seeing the resolve in Aki Hayakawa's eyes, the two had no choice but to give up and return to the room assigned to them.

Meanwhile, Power was still sprawled in the bathroom, forgotten by everyone.