Gun Devil Flesh

"Wait, it probably isn't dead yet..."

Asaba Kotone gave them a warning, then picked Pochita up, ready to finish off the Carp Devil.

"It isn't dead?"

Ryoko Yamada stopped in her tracks and looked back at the Carp Devil. Could it still be alive without a head?

Ouchihara froze as well. He couldn't see any sign that the devil was still alive, either.

"Everyone, stay on your guard."

Although Aki Hayakawa couldn't tell either, he trusted Asaba Kotone's judgment and made a point of warning Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada.

Just then, before Aki Hayakawa had even finished speaking, the spike-like "fins" on the Carp Devil's back suddenly shot out, hurtling toward them so fast that they were almost impossible to follow with the naked eye.

Fortunately, Asaba Kotone had the Mangekyō Sharingan. To his eyes, those spikes seemed to move in slow motion.

Holding Pochita in his right hand, he touched Aki Hayakawa beside him with his right elbow and pressed his left hand onto Ouchihara's shoulder. Then he immediately used Space Teleportation, taking Pochita, Aki Hayakawa, and Ouchihara with him as he teleported beside Ryoko Yamada and touched her heel with the tip of his right foot.

"Nobody move!"

An instant before the spikes pierced them, Asaba Kotone activated Intangibility in time and extended it to the three people he was touching.

Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada watched countless spikes pass straight through their bodies, stunned with terror. Fortunately, Asaba Kotone's warning a moment earlier had worked, and they stayed still. Otherwise, without the protection of Intangibility, they would probably have been turned into pincushions.

Even Aki Hayakawa, the calmest of them all, broke into a cold sweat when he saw a spike over a meter long pass through his eye, and he instinctively closed his eyes.

Only after that wave of attacks ended did Asaba Kotone move away from the three of them. "Keep yourselves safe. I'll deal with that thing."

Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada were experienced private-sector Devil Hunters, after all, and they soon recovered from the fright.

Ouchihara immediately knocked his fists together, seemingly drawing on his devil power.

A moment later, his body grew considerably larger, and his skin took on a harder texture. A massive black turtle shell appeared in his hands, which he held in front of Aki Hayakawa and Ryoko Yamada.

Aki Hayakawa didn't act rashly, either. He knew the Fox Devil's power wouldn't do much against the Carp Devil, while the Curse Devil's power wasn't something he could use lightly.

He had to assess the situation. If Asaba Kotone proved no match for the Carp Devil and none of them could escape, he would have to use the Curse Devil, even if it cost him a large portion of his lifespan.

Meanwhile, some of the blood that had sprayed from the Carp Devil's severed neck flowed back to its head on its own, forming a new head.

"Huh? My dorsal fins didn't hit you?"

The Carp Devil sounded astonished. It had been playing dead to catch these Devil Hunters off guard and kill them, only to discover that they were completely unharmed.

By then, Asaba Kotone had pulled Pochita's tail, turning Pochita into a chainsaw weapon. With Pochita in hand, he instantly teleported right in front of the Carp Devil.

Asaba Kotone sawed through the Carp Devil's newly regenerated head again. Just as he had done against the Crab Devil before, he cut all the way from its head to its tail, splitting its entire body in two.

"Uh...?"

Asaba Kotone's movements were almost completely unpredictable, and the Carp Devil hadn't even registered what had happened.

Unless someone could notice the brief spatial distortion that appeared when a portal opened, this kind of Space Teleportation was impossible to anticipate.

But the Carp Devil wouldn't die that easily. Just as before, its body began regenerating on its own, and some of the blood it had spilled flowed back into it.

Asaba Kotone narrowed his eyes slightly, forming a theory.

Carp were naturally hardy fish, and the Carp Devil clearly shared that trait. Moreover, this Carp Devil had probably eaten a piece of Gun Devil Flesh, which would have further enhanced that trait.

As a result, the Carp Devil possessed tremendous vitality. As long as it still had enough blood, it could regenerate on its own even after being beheaded or split in two.

Asaba Kotone also noticed that not all of the blood the Carp Devil lost could flow back into it-only some of it could. So if he drained enough of its blood, he could probably kill it for good.

Next, he planned to keep dismembering the Carp Devil and let it bleed.

Pochita was extremely useful at a time like this. Dealing with the Carp Devil using Kamui alone would have been quite a hassle.

Even transferring the Carp Devil into the Kamui Dimension wouldn't help. It would only create trouble for him. Although the Carp Devil wouldn't be able to escape the Kamui Dimension, it could still move around. If he used Intangibility while someone was attacking him, the Carp Devil could hurt him from inside the Kamui Dimension.

Intangibility worked by automatically transferring any part of his body that was touched or attacked into the Kamui Dimension. His body only appeared to become intangible; in reality, the parts being touched were moved into the Kamui Dimension. That meant the Carp Devil inside could hurt him.

He could use Susanoo, but it consumed too much energy. His current body probably couldn't sustain it for long, and using it against the Carp Devil would be overkill anyway.

Gripping Pochita, Asaba Kotone charged at the Carp Devil again. The Carp Devil retaliated with its "fins," and he immediately activated Intangibility, letting all the spikes pass through his body.

The instant the last spike passed through him, he deactivated Intangibility and used the chainsaw in his hands to cut through the Carp Devil's still-incomplete body again.

He gave the Carp Devil no chance to catch its breath, repeatedly dismembering its body, slicing it into piece after piece as though chopping vegetables with a kitchen knife.

"Aaaaaah!!"

"It hurts, it hurts! It hurts so much, aaaah...!!"

Naturally, the Carp Devil's head had also been chopped into several pieces. But it wasn't completely dead yet, and even the pieces of its head could still scream.

Before long, the Carp Devil had been completely drained of blood and could no longer regenerate.

With that, the Carp Devil finally died-or, more precisely, returned to hell.

Among the pieces of the Carp Devil's corpse, Asaba Kotone found a small bullet.

The slimy bullet had blood vessels resembling veins wrapped around it. Those vessels were even still writhing, as though alive.

He felt a little sick looking at the bullet. He recognized it as a piece of Gun Devil Flesh.

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