20 Corpses, Power Controlled by Apples

"Does Miss Makima know we're missing?"

"Miss Makima gave the order herself. Of course she knows."

Sword answered Himeno's question.

"Honestly, you came at just the right time, Sword. We just killed the Eternity Devil and escaped." Himeno grinned, as though she had plenty of stories bottled up inside her.

"The Eternity Devil!" Tenten, who wore her hair in two buns, exclaimed from behind him. "No wonder you disappeared for four days. But hardly anyone gets out alive once they enter the Eternity Devil's space. How did you escape?"

"We have him on our team, so we don't have to fear any devil."

Himeno hugged Meng Fan's arm as she spoke affectionately.

Confidence shone on her face.

The two were as intimate as a couple.

Seeing how proud Himeno was of the man before them,

everyone from Anti-Devil Special Division 3 focused their attention on the unfamiliar Meng Fan.

"What devil have you contracted with?"

"Before you ask me, you should introduce yourself," Meng Fan said unhurriedly.

Actually, they didn't need to answer.

Himeno already knew everyone in Anti-Devil Special Division 3.

But out of courtesy, Sword spoke first. "My name is Sword. I have a contract with the Sword Devil."

"She's Tenten. She has a contract with the Explosion Devil."

"Hello." Tenten nodded politely.

Denji's attention was instantly drawn to her.

His eyes involuntarily wandered to the most prominent part of Tenten's body.

Then he turned to glance at Himeno, comparing the two.

Himeno was a mature woman, so it made sense for her to be well-endowed.

But Tenten looked cute and appeared to be under twenty.

To rival Himeno before she was even twenty,

she truly had a bright future ahead of her.

As for Kobeni, who was also young, she didn't interest Denji at all.

No one noticed Denji's gaze. Sword continued introducing the members of Anti-Devil Special Division 3.

"Peter used to be the Spider Devil. Now he's a special member of Anti-Devil Special Division 3."

"Hello, everyone. I may be a fiend, but I'm pretty friendly."

"Peter? That name sounds familiar. You must know Parker, right?"

"No." Peter shook his head.

"What about you?" Sword asked in return, intensely curious about Meng Fan.

"The Dream Devil. If any of you have trouble sleeping, I can help."

"The Dream Devil?" Tenten pressed a finger to her lips and glanced upward in thought. "I've been having a little insomnia lately. Could you help put an end to my sleepless misery?" Her interest was suddenly piqued.

"No problem. Call me if you can't sleep at night. I'm a responsible man."

"Since everything's settled, let's head downstairs," Aki Hayakawa said, unwilling to listen to any more idle chatter.

"Wait. Have you seen anyone else in the hotel?" Sword suddenly asked. "We came up here not just to find you, but to rescue the other survivors too. There should be around twenty of them."

"No. We've been trapped on the eighth floor ever since we came in. We only saw belongings the guests left behind, not any people."

"The Eternity Devil might have eaten them. I saw lots of human limbs and heads on its body." Denji made sure to tell everyone what he'd discovered, hoping to catch Tenten's attention.

When Tenten looked over, Denji made sure to meet her eyes immediately.

"Probably. Peter, check the place out." Sword turned to Peter.

Peter crouched and pressed his palm against the floor.

All six of his eyes closed at once.

"What's he doing?" Meng Fan asked.

"Peter has Spider-Sense. He can detect anything within a certain range. With him around, no nearby devil or human can hide."

While they were talking,

Peter's six closed eyes suddenly snapped open, his expression suggesting he'd discovered something unusual.

"In room 705 on the seventh floor, I found..."

"What did you find?"

"Twenty corpses! And three extremely dangerous objects inside the room." Peter slowly stood up.

"Twenty people all died in the same room?"

"Let's go take a look first."

Everyone agreed and headed for room 705 together.

Before opening the door, Sword asked again, "There aren't any devils inside?"

"No, but I can sense three very frightening things." Peter shuddered.

Besides detecting people and living things within a certain range, Peter's Spider-Sense

could also gauge how dangerous a person or object was.

The more dangerous the object, the stronger his Spider-Sense reacted.

Peter's shudder was enough to show just how dangerous the objects in that room were.

Everyone positioned themselves on either side of the door.

Sword slowly placed his hand on the handle, preparing to ease the door open before charging in.

But suddenly, a foot kicked the door open.

"Quit dawdling! I don't have time to wait for you!"

With that, Power charged in first.

The sight before her didn't frighten Power.

But the others behind her froze.

All twenty people in the room stood where they were, human heads atop skeletal bodies.

Three bright red apples sat in the very center of the room.

"This again!" Aki Hayakawa exclaimed in shock.

He'd thought the Apple Case was over.

He hadn't expected it to happen again.

And so close to them, too.

The corpses were in room 705.

They had been trapped in room 805.

Only a single concrete floor had separated them from the twenty corpses.

"Master, it's that devil that eats bodies but leaves the heads again."

"I can see that. But this time, none of them are hanging upside down from the ceiling. They're standing here instead, and there are more apples on the floor."

"Maybe the hotel room's ceiling wasn't suitable for hanging corpses, so they were all left standing," Himeno reasoned. "Still, these skeletons are standing on the floor without any support."

Himeno lightly touched one of the skeletal corpses.

It lost its balance and tipped backward.

The next second, it fell against another skeletal corpse.

That triggered a chain reaction, and the other skeletal corpses all collapsed in an instant like dominoes.

Clatter!

"I... I didn't mean to." Himeno rubbed the back of her head, looking apologetic.

"It's fine. Someone will come collect the bodies soon anyway."

"More people died this time, and more apples were left behind than before." Aki Hayakawa ignored Himeno's mishap and continued speaking.

Everyone in the room offered their observations, laying out all the suspicious details.

But Power's expression was clearly strange.

Ever since she'd entered, she had been staring blankly at the apples on the floor.

"Power, what's wrong?" Denji waved a hand in front of her face.

"I... I want the apples."

In a flash,

Power, who had been standing motionless, suddenly lunged forward and reached for the apples.

But webs abruptly bound her from behind. "Don't go near them. I can sense that those apples are dangerous."

"How can apples be dangerous? Let me go!"

"If we keep collecting apples, that devil might show itself."

Meng Fan stepped forward and picked up the three apples from the floor.

"Don't touch my apples! I found them first!"

"Calm down, Power. We can have Aki buy you some apples when we get back," Himeno coaxed.

"Other apples taste bad. I only want those three in Meng Fan's hand."

"Power, if you keep acting unreasonable, I'll tell Miss Makima."

Himeno had hoped to use Makima's name to rein Power in.

But this time, Power showed no fear whatsoever.

Instead, she made it clear she wouldn't give up until she'd eaten the apples.

"Do whatever you want! No one can stop me from eating those apples!"

Power bit her lip, and a Blood Blade fell from it.

As the Blood Blade fell, it sliced straight through the webs.

Power caught the Blood Blade and charged at Meng Fan.

Clang!

The Blood Blade clashed with the Blade Claw.

"Power, what are you doing!" The others behind her cried out in shock. They had been companions through thick and thin just moments ago, yet now they were crossing blades.

"Give me the apples, or I'll kill you!"

Power shouted, relentlessly attacking Meng Fan with her Blood Blade.

Meng Fan held the three apples in one hand and parried her blows with the other.

"Power, if you don't stop, don't blame me for fighting back."

"If you don't give me the apples, I won't stop either!"

Understanding Power's intent,

Meng Fan turned and sent Power flying toward the doorway with a spinning kick.

Peter's webs swiftly followed, binding Power tightly.

"What's wrong with Power?" Kobeni, who stood at the doorway, hurriedly backed away several steps.

From the beginning, she had been hiding outside the door, watching everything that happened inside.

Although she had grown braver,

the gruesome scene in the room still kept her from taking a single step inside.

"I don't know. It's like she's possessed." Arai, a grown man, chose to stand behind Kobeni.

"Meng Fan, what's wrong with Power?" Himeno asked him. Whenever she had a question she couldn't answer, Meng Fan was the first person she thought of.

Meng Fan had already reached his own conclusion. "Power ate an apple before, and her appetite grew a lot afterward. Now that she's seen the apples, she suddenly craves them intensely. That means eating the apples probably increases people's appetites. The more they eat, the hungrier they get, and the more dependent they become on the apples."

"The way you describe it, it sounds like the White Powder Drug that appeared a few decades ago. Even a tiny amount would make people completely lose themselves. They'd even destroy their families just to keep using it. Before the government brought it under control, a devil called Poppy appeared."