During his morning off, Asaba Kotone planned to take Kobeni Higashiyama out to buy new clothes and a phone.
High school students in this era generally did not have phones, and the phones available could only make calls, so the school had no restrictions on them.
Naturally, he was buying Kobeni a phone so they could stay in touch.
They bought the phone first, then went to a clothing store.
"Pick whatever clothes you like."
Asaba Kotone said to Kobeni Higashiyama.
"Huh?... All the clothes here look so nice. I don't know what to choose. Could you help me look, too, Asaba?"
Ever since she was little, Kobeni Higashiyama had almost always worn her older sisters' hand-me-downs.
She had never bought clothes herself, so she did not know what styles she liked.
She thought anything that looked nice would do, but everything here looked nice. Unable to choose, she wanted Asaba to help her pick. After all, whatever Asaba thought looked good would be best.
Then Kobeni Higashiyama slowly tried on one outfit after another, leaving Asaba Kotone to judge how they looked.
In the end, they picked out three outfits.
Even three new outfits felt like a bit much to Kobeni Higashiyama, since she normally wore her school uniform.
Over the next few days, Asaba Kotone was in no hurry to head to Tokyo Public Safety.
He could have left as soon as he had dealt with Kobeni's family problems.
[Kobeni Higashiyama's affection +5%] [Kobeni Higashiyama's affection progress has reached 80%. Achievement reward obtained: constitution +1]
During this time, Kobeni Higashiyama's affection had risen to 80%.
It looked close to being maxed out, but raising it from 80% to 100% would not be so easy.
After all, the higher the affection, the harder it became to increase.
Although reaching 100% affection progress granted an extra reward, that reward was only five constitution points.
If the entry belonged to a devil, however, reaching 100% affection progress would grant him that devil's abilities. For instance, if he maxed out Pochita's affection, he would gain the Chainsaw Devil's abilities and could even turn directly into "Chainsaw Man."
Humans and devils gave different extra rewards at maximum affection. After all, raising a devil's affection was on an entirely different level of difficulty from raising a human's. Pochita was one of the easy ones. If it were Makima instead...
Five constitution points were actually quite a lot, but Asaba Kotone did not want to linger here too long.
His main goals had been to unlock a new entry and help Kobeni solve her family problems. Now that both were done, it was about time to head to Tokyo Public Safety.
Kobeni still had school, so he certainly could not keep her with him. But with his Space Teleportation ability, he could come back to see her whenever he wanted. As long as she had a phone, they could stay in touch at any time.
Also, yesterday, Asaba Kotone had taken Kobeni Higashiyama on her first devil hunt.
He had barely helped at all. Kobeni had practically completed the hunt on her own.
Afterward, he had also taken her to the Civilian Devil Hunter Guild to get certified.
Now Kobeni was not only an officially certified civilian Devil Hunter, but she was no longer short of money either.
"I'm leaving today, then. Remember to take care of yourself, and call me anytime if something comes up."
"Okay."
Kobeni Higashiyama had known for several days that Asaba was leaving, so she had already prepared herself. Even so, reluctance still lingered in her eyes.
Asaba Kotone patted Kobeni Higashiyama's head, then left.
As for school, he had already arranged things with the principal. He would be leaving today, Friday, saying that he had important business at Tokyo Public Safety.
Outside, Asaba Kotone glanced at his watch, thinking that Aki Hayakawa and Himeno should be arriving soon.
Yesterday, he had called Aki Hayakawa and told him that he now intended to join Tokyo Public Safety.
After Aki Hayakawa passed the message on to his superiors, they approved it on the spot.
So today, Aki Hayakawa and Himeno would drive over to pick him up.
Just then, a car slowly pulled to a stop in front of Asaba Kotone.
As the window rolled down, Himeno said to him from inside, "Let's go!"
At the same time, he also saw Aki Hayakawa sitting in the passenger seat.
Aki Hayakawa and Himeno were partners now, so the two generally worked together.
[Entry activated: Aki Hayakawa] [Reward obtained: constitution +1] [Current affection: 40%] [Aki Hayakawa's affection progress has reached 40%. Achievement reward obtained: constitution +4]
Aki Hayakawa's entry activated immediately, and he received those constitution rewards as well.
Asaba Kotone did not have a very clear idea of how strong his constitution was now. He only knew that using "Kamui" normally put practically no strain on him anymore.
He figured only Susanoo and extremely long-distance Space Teleportation would put him under strain.
For example, transporting himself directly from Japan to the United Kingdom through the Kamui Dimension. The greater the distance, the greater the cost.
Susanoo also had multiple forms: its initial form, first form, second form, third form, fourth form, and perfect form. Those were the ones he could use; there was no point mentioning the ones he could not.
The more advanced the form, the more terrifying the drain became. The perfect form would probably drain his body's cells dry in no time.
Drawing enormous objects into the Kamui Dimension would also consume a great deal of energy, because the larger an object was, the greater the cost.
But that situation would hardly ever arise, unless he wanted to move an entire building into the Kamui Dimension in one go.
Of course, his physical attributes, including strength and speed, were also far beyond those of ordinary people in every respect.
Still, he was a long way behind Kishibe and Quanxi. Even in his old age, Kishibe's Taijutsu remained among the best of any human.
Although Quanxi was an arrow Weapon Human, her Taijutsu in human form was also extremely powerful. She could instantly kill forty-nine Devil Hunters and dolls. He did not know how she compared with the young Kishibe, but she was clearly better than the old Kishibe. After all, humans aged, while Weapon Humans never did.
She was nothing like that Katana "piece of junk," who was not particularly strong in his Weapon Human form and was even more pathetic in human form.
In a world like Chainsaw Man, Asaba Kotone certainly could not compare himself to ordinary people. He still needed to improve his constitution. Ideally, he would catch up to Kishibe and Quanxi in Taijutsu, and truly be able to use "Kamui" as freely as he pleased.
His ultimate goal, of course, was to rampage around in Perfect Susanoo whenever he wanted.
On the way, Asaba Kotone chatted a little with Himeno, though she spent more time joking around with Aki Hayakawa.
Watching Aki Hayakawa and Himeno, he honestly hoped the two could live normal lives together.
Once Makima came from Hell to the Human World, he would certainly not let her control Aki Hayakawa.
In the original story, the reason Aki Hayakawa liked Makima was that she had brainwashed him after taking control of him. By the end, Aki Hayakawa did not even know why he liked her.
Otherwise, Aki Hayakawa and Himeno probably would have gotten together long ago.
So even if he unlocked Himeno's entry later, Asaba Kotone would steer things toward friendship as much as possible. Besides, Himeno clearly already had feelings for Aki Hayakawa.
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