The most unassuming Kobeni turned out to be the winner

"Himeno, the window..."

Arai sprang to his feet in excitement.

His eyes were glazed over, but his finger kept pointing out the window.

"Arai, what's wrong?"

"He's fine. He's just too excited."

Meng Fan tossed down his playing cards, declaring the Gouji tournament over.

"What are you throwing your cards down for? I'm taking on all three of you this round!"

"It's over. Time for us to leave."

"Leave? Already? I haven't had enough yet!"

"You haven't, but I'm exhausted." Himeno tossed down her cards too and rolled her stiff shoulders.

"There are birds! We can see outside!!"

Arai rushed to the windowsill and gazed outside in excitement.

The view beyond the window surpassed any scenery Arai had ever seen.

"Hey!! Can you see me?"

He shouted at the police officers below.

One of the officers below noticed Arai standing at the window, waving and laughing.

"Captain, look over there."

The young officer quickly tapped his captain on the shoulder.

"Don't bother me. The people from Anti-Devil Special Division 3 will be here soon. I need to greet them."

"It's the people from the Fourth Division. They're still alive."

The officer forcibly turned his captain around.

He saw Arai waving insistently from a window on the Eighth Floor.

"That's someone from the Fourth Division!!" The captain stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe he was seeing a Devil Hunter from the Fourth Division again.

"That's right. They're still alive."

"They've been missing for four days. How could they suddenly appear? There must be ghosts involved."

"Captain, you need to trust science. There's no such thing as ghosts in this world."

"Even if it's not a ghost, it could be a devil disguised as a human, trying to lure us upstairs."

"You really do think ahead, Captain. So that means the one waving at us is a devil."

"That should be right. Nobody make any rash moves. Wait until the Devil Hunters from the Third Division arrive."

Meanwhile, the enthusiastic Arai discovered that every police officer below was ignoring him.

He was utterly baffled.

Could the people down there not see him?

"Arai, what's wrong? Why are you standing by the window shouting?"

Himeno walked over and looked into the distance.

Her vision filled with densely packed stairways and all sorts of gaudy signs.

For a moment, she fell into a daze.

"We... we're free from the devil's control?"

As she spoke, Himeno suddenly turned to look at Meng Fan.

"Don't look at me. I didn't kill the Eternity Devil. Someone outside did."

"Then Denji must have killed the devil. I knew it all along!"

"You were saying Denji would definitely get killed by the devil earlier. Now you're changing your tune."

"Don't slander me! I never said that."

Their brief bickering ended.

Everyone hurried out of the room.

They happened to see Denji walking toward them in human form, covered in blood.

"Denji, did you kill the Eternity Devil?" Himeno asked at once.

"I guess so. I kept hacking away, and then the Eternity Devil suddenly stopped regenerating."

"Then you really did kill the Eternity Devil."

Everyone agreed that Denji had killed the Eternity Devil.

They showered him with praise.

"Oh, right. Where's Kobeni?"

Himeno turned to look for Kobeni, calling her name over and over in the hallway.

At last, the door to one of the rooms slowly opened.

Kobeni appeared, her face covered in blood.

"Kobeni, are you okay?" Himeno hurriedly took both her hands and asked.

"I'm fine. I just killed the Eternity Devil."

The fear that had filled Kobeni's face earlier was gone.

In its place was a calm that made her seem like a different person.

"You killed the Eternity Devil? You're joking." Himeno frowned, not expecting Kobeni to suddenly say something like that.

"The one who kept knocking on the door was the Eternity Devil. He was holding his heart and insisting that I kill him."

"Himeno, what are you talking about? Shouldn't we get out of here?"

With everyone cheering him on, Denji approached the two of them.

"Kobeni just said she killed the Eternity Devil." Himeno faithfully relayed what Kobeni had told her.

Everyone reacted exactly as Himeno had when she first heard it.

First they were startled, then they sized Kobeni up.

"Kobeni's probably so frightened that she's talking nonsense." Arai knew exactly what Kobeni was capable of and instinctively assumed she was babbling.

"If you're making up an excuse because you're afraid of being kicked off the team, I'd advise you to be honest."

Aki Hayakawa spoke coldly.

A girl as timid as a mouse killing a powerful devil?

She had to be making fools of them.

"You killed a devil that even I couldn't kill? Are you insulting me?"

"Stop picking on Kobeni. She's just so scared that she doesn't understand what's going on."

Seeing that none of them believed her, Kobeni grew anxious.

"I really did kill the Eternity Devil!"

"Fine, fine. If that's what you want to think, there's nothing I can do."

"Tell me, how did you kill the Eternity Devil? With your trembling legs?"

Power burst out laughing after she spoke.

"With this!!" Kobeni pulled a bloodstained dagger from her pocket. "I stabbed his heart, and he died."

"Enough. Stop being unreasonable. Write up your resignation yourself when we get back."

With that, Aki Hayakawa ignored Kobeni.

Everyone else laughed it off as a joke too.

Only Kobeni remained, her cheeks puffed out like a frog's, seething with frustration.

She had finally accomplished something big, only for nobody to believe her and laugh at her instead.

She would have been better off saying nothing.

"Where did Meng Fan run off to now?" While looking for him, Himeno noticed he had disappeared again.

"Himeno, I'm here."

A door suddenly opened, and Meng Fan walked out, wiping his hands.

"Where did you go this time?"

"I was taking care of something private."

"Don't tell me you were..." Himeno glanced at Meng Fan's pants, then at his wet hands.

"Hey, I'm not that kind of guy. Don't get any ideas." Meng Fan hurriedly cut off Himeno's dirty train of thought.

"All right. Either way, Denji killed the devil this time, so I should give him his reward."

Himeno pulled Denji against her side and cupped his face with one hand.

They gazed affectionately into each other's eyes.

Denji blushed, obligingly closing his eyes and puckering his lips.

Himeno's lips slowly drew closer too.

The others beside them hastily turned away in embarrassment.

But a hand suddenly thrust between them.

It forcibly separated the two mouths that should have met.

"What are you doing?" Himeno pulled back and wiped her lips.

"Master!!"

"I think you've got it wrong."

"Got what wrong? Isn't the reward a sloppy kiss with the winner? What else do you want?"

"The sloppy kiss is right, but you've got the wrong person."

"Oh, Meng Fan, don't tell me you're going to say you killed the Eternity Devil?" Himeno smiled, mistakenly thinking Meng Fan was jealous.

"Not me. The person who killed the Eternity Devil was actually Kobeni. You should be giving Kobeni that sloppy kiss."

"What??"

"I told you! I was the one who killed him!" Kobeni clenched both fists and shouted.

"Master, you're siding with someone else!"

"I'm just telling the truth and being fair. Kobeni really did kill the Eternity Devil. If you don't believe me, check the hallway surveillance footage. Denji was only attacking the Eternity Devil's stomach, while Kobeni attacked his heart and killed him with a single stab."

"So what comes next shouldn't be a taboo romance, but a girls' love romance."