Chapter Text
“Mitaka, your partner is Hayakawa.”
Asa's grip tightened on her pencil. She slowly turned her head around behind her. Off in the back sat Denji. He was fast asleep, drooling and slobbering all over his desk.
Awesome. Asa was stuck with him. The Chainsaw Man delusional wannabe fanboy. The guy who stood her up just the other day.
He was so annoying. Who the hell asks someone out on a date, only to stand them up? Denji, that's who. The stupid bastard probably just wanted to embarrass her. Whatever. It's not like Asa cared. Denji was stupid anyways. And he was much too messy and disorganized. His clothes were all wrinkled. His teeth were weird. He was super totally dishonest. And probably a terrible person. And an even worse boyfriend.
Also, Asa didn't need a relationship. She was way too focused on getting her body back from Yoru.
At the end of class, Asa gave Denji's chair a little kick. He was still asleep, and the small puddle of drool had grown until it was nearly dripping off the desk. Gross.
“Hey. Denji.”
The boy jumped up, looking around wildly. “Huh? Whaa? Who? What's going on?” His eyes settled on Asa and he relaxed. “Oh, it's just you. Is class over?”
“Yeah. You've been asleep this entire time,” said Asa. She looked at him distastefully. Denji had a stupid expression on his face. The cheek he'd been sleeping on was squished and red. He blinked slowly.
“Huh? Oh, uh…yeah. Sorry,” he mumbled, “‘S just that I've been doing a few all-nighters.”
“Oh? Scrounging for more cigarette butts so you can scam the poor homeless junkies?”
Denji rubbed his eyes. “Nah, ‘s not that. Just that my little sister has more homework than usual, she's been making me help her out. Dunno why she's doing that, she already knows the stuff…” He let out a yawn. “So, what did I miss?”
Asa blinked. Little sister? Ah, the one Denji mentioned during their aquarium date. The sort of friend-roommate-little sister he was going to send off to college. Now Asa felt a little bad about being so hostile over his in-class nap. But only a little. He was still a dick.
“We were partnered up on an assignment about devils. Our topic is on devils disguising themselves in buildings.”
It was barely noticeable, but Asa saw Denji's face twitch, like he had remembered something.
“So like at the aquarium, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Right, the aquarium. Where they went on a date together. And then Denji had asked her out on another date. And then stood her up. “Anyways, I know a place where we can meet someone who can give us more information on that. We can go there tomorrow. Stop by my house in the morning.”
“Oh, alright. Sounds good.”
“Yeah. Okay. Bye.” Asa spun around and walked out of the classroom. As she gathered her things, Asa couldn't help but feel irritated at Denji's attitude. He didn't seem the slightest bit remorseful for standing her up. Like. Literally what the heck?? Did he know how embarrassing it was to be waiting all day for him?
Asa slammed her locker shut. Dickhead.
Knock knock knock knock
Ugh…
Knock knock knock knock
What an obnoxious noise. Asa tried to tune it out.
BANG BANG BANG
Asa woke up with a gasp. What was that–oh there's someone at her door.
Asa opened the door to her apartment, greeted by Denji's grinning face.
“Morning Asa.”
“What are you doing at my apartment?”
Denji blinked. “Uh. The assignment? You said to stop by your house.”
Oh yeah she did say that. “Oh, I forgot. Sorry about that, I'm not ready at all. Just come inside while I get dressed.”
Asa cursed herself in her mind as Denji sat down on her couch. How the hell did she forget? Why did she sleep for so long?
“ Today we can attempt to turn him into a weapon again .”
Asa's eye twitched. Oh yeah, because Yoru wouldn't shut up last night. All she did was ramble on about things that probably weren't even real. World War Two? Yeah right, no way the world would ever let a country get that bad. Nuclear weapons? The concept of such a thing even existing made Asa laugh.
Asa grabbed some clothes and entered her bathroom.
“ Your conversation with him yesterday was good. Very very good. Nothing makes people feel more guilty than killing a helpful and kind family member, especially if they have a daughter or little sister. His spinal cord will make an excellent sword, capable of slicing through boulders like butter. ”
Asa undressed herself, climbing into the shower and turning it on. “That's only if we could even turn him into a weapon. Ah!” She recoiled at the freezing cold water. Stupid ass heater. It never worked.
“ I just had a thought Asa. Imagine how incredible it would be if I could turn Chainsaw Man into a weapon. Ahh… ” Yoru sat on the closed toilet seat, staring at the ceiling dreamily. “ The destruction a Chainsaw Man Chainsaw could bring about would rival the incredible destructive power of Nuclear Weapons…how I miss Nuclear Weapons… ”
“Nuclear Weapons this, Nuclear Weapons that, were you two lovers in the past?” Asa stepped into the water that had finally heated up to an acceptable temperature. “Actually, don't answer that. I don't wanna know.”
“ Where exactly are we going today? ”
Asa grabbed a bar of soap. “A place a friend of my mom asked us to meet up at. He used to be a devil hunter so he should know about devils pretending to be buildings.” She cleaned herself, washed the soap off, stepped out of the shower, dried off, and put on her clothes. Yoru watched as Asa brushed her teeth and hair.
“ Interesting. Once we have collected our data from this friend of your mother's, perhaps we could– ”
“Oh my god shut up.”
Asa stepped out of the bathroom. Denji was sprawled out on her couch. Why was he so relaxed? There was no reason that Denji should've felt so comfortable in Asa's house. How irritating.
“You're out. We can get going.” He pointed at the backpack on his back. “I got my notebook and stuff in here. You can just copy down all my stuff once we're done.”
“Okay.” Asa walked out the door, hardly waiting for Denji to catch up with her. He ran to her side.
“Hey, you said a place where we're meeting someone who knows about devils and buildings. Can you like. Uh. Explain who that is?”
“An old friend of my mom works there. He used to be a devil hunter and he once took on a job where he was trapped inside a devil disguised as a house.”
Denji furrowed his brow, like he was trying to remember something. “I was gonna say something but I forgot what it was…”
Asa rolled her eyes. Denji couldn’t stop finding ways to look worse and worse.
“We’re here.”
Denji and Asa stood at a gate. Inside was a large building. It wasn’t much. You wouldn’t even be able to tell what its purpose was just from outside. Asa struggled to undo the lock on the gate, her eye twitching when it refused to unlock.
“Shit,” she muttered. Hovering to hide it from Denji’s view, Asa gripped the lock and quietly whispered to herself.
“Lock pocket knife.”
The stupid lock turned into a pocket knife. Asa stuck it in her pocket.
“Woah, the lock disappeared! Where did it go?”
“I ate it.”
Instead of looking at her like she was stupid, Denji looked almost impressed. “I’ve also eaten my fair share of inedible objects.”
Asa rolled her eyes. Of course he had. He probably ate rocks for fun when he was a kid, it’d explain why his teeth were so fucked up. Denji was stupid like that. Glue, erasers, pencils. Probably stuff like that.
“Let’s go inside.”
Asa opened the door to the building. The overhead lights flickered on. The two began walking through the halls. After several minutes of climbing stairs and walking through empty halls, Denji spoke.
“Hey uh. So what exactly is this building?”
“...I don't know.”
“You don't know?!”
“No!”
“And it's so empty, where is everyone? Where are we? Why is this place so quiet? Where's the guy we're supposed to meet?”
Asa screamed and gripped her head in frustration. “I don't know, okay?! I have no idea what I'm doing! I don't know where he is or why he wants to meet here!”
“Dude, what the hell?!”
“Shut up!” Asa kicked the wall. “Whatever. This is dumb. Let’s just leave.”
Asa walked away at a brisk pace, not even checking to see if Denji was following behind her. God, she was so stupid. They’d been wasting their time. Denji probably thought she was stupid. And unreliable. And a liar. She probably was. She totally was.
Whatever, his opinion didn’t matter. Asa didn’t care what he thought, all she cared about was getting a good grade on this paper.
Asa stopped on the second floor. She looked behind her. No footsteps. Weird.
“Denji?” Asa called out hesitantly. “Are you there?”
No answer. Asa jogged back up the stairs, looking up and down the halls.
“Denji? Where are you?” There were several rooms along the halls, was he in there?
“Denji if you’re playing a prank this isn’t funny. If you’re in the rooms, just get out, we need to get going.”
There was a creak from down the hall and around the corner. Asa huffed. “Stop playing around, if we get a bad grade on this paper, it’s gonna be your fault.” She rounded the corner and saw an open door. There. Asa looked inside the room.
And then she blacked out.
When Asa came to, she was uncomfortably aware of the light shining in her face. Bright fluorescent lights that hurt her eyes and had no business being so blinding.
“Asa.”
She laid on the floor, sprawled out. Yoru was standing over her. She didn’t even have the decency to at least stand in front of the light.
“Get up.”
Asa stood up and dusted herself off. “Wow, not even a “are you okay, Asa?””
Yoru sniffed. “Why would I ask that when I know for a fact that you’re fine?”
Asshole.
“I heard that.”
Piss shit fuck asshole.
“Stop that,” Yoru snapped. “We have no time to stand around and act like children. It seems you’ve fallen for a devil’s trap. We need to find the devil and kill it immediately.”
“Okay, but I don’t think we’re even in the same building,” Asa pointed out. The layout and walls and lights were different.
“My point still stands,” said Yoru. “We must get moving.”
Asa looked around. They were standing in an empty gray hallway that stretched on in either direction as far as the eye could see.
“Which way do we go?”
Yoru began walking. “This way.”
Asa huffed but followed anyways. The hallway was completely bare, just smooth gray walls. Mind-numbingly boring.
After walking for who knows how long, Yoru froze.
“Asa, there, do you see that?”
“See what?”
Yoru pointed down. Asa looked to see where she was pointing.
“Oh wait yeah I see it.”
The two ran forward until they were stopped in front of it. There was an end to the hallway. A gray wall and a door.
Yoru pressed her ear to the door, narrowing her eyes.
“I don't sense any presence behind the door, nor do I hear or smell anything. It should be safe to open, but I suggest you stand back anyways Asa.”
No need to tell her twice. Asa didn't have a death wish. She stepped off to the side until she was practically hugging the wall, cautiously watching as Yoru grabbed and handle and hey wait a minute Yoru isn't supposed to be able to interact with things–
Yoru flung the door open and jumped back cautiously. Nothing flew out from inside, no ominous appendages reaching out to grab anyone.
“It looks like it's safe,” Asa observed. She and Yoru walked in through the door.
A little something was bugging Asa. Normally, Yoru couldn't interact with things unless she was in control of Asa's body. But Asa was in control of her body, so how come Yoru was able to open the door?
No time to dwell on that, though. The door slammed shut behind them, and when Asa turned around to look, it was gone. Just a dirty, dark yellow wall.
“Where are we?” she murmured.
It was a small, dimly lit room. The walls were grimy and yellowed by years of smoking cigarettes. The ground was covered in cheap beer bottles and pieces of trash. A single large old leather chair was placed against the wall.
The air smelled stale. No other way to describe it, just old and stale.
It wasn't a closed room. There was an empty door frame on one of the walls.
Yoru wrinkled her nose. “The home of a bum who's going to die of liver failure or lung cancer any moment.”
A loud shout quickly caught Asa and Yoru's attentions. Cautiously, Asa looked out into the other room. It must’ve been the living room, evident by the musty couch, the dusty coffee table, and the TV that looked like it was about to explode any minute.
“Fuck!” A loud clatter and the sound of glass breaking rang out in the air. A tall man walked into Asa's sights, tearing his hair and kicking items on the floor.
“God fucking dammit! That piece of shit beat me at the casino. I'll kill that stupid son of a bitch next time I see him,” the man screamed. He grabbed a bottle off the floor and threw it against the wall. It shattered, eliciting a quiet whimper of fear from the little boy huddled in the corner. The man turned to look at him.
“Fuck you cryin’ for, huh? I don't see you fucking doing anything ‘round here. You wanna cry? I'll give you a fucking reason to cry you little shit.”
Asa's eyes widened as she realized that she recognized the little boy. It was Denji. He couldn't have been older than eight.
Denji shook his head.
“‘M not crying, I promise!”
The man scoffed and turned away, showing his face to Asa. He was like a carbon copy of Denji, must’ve been his father.
He walked out of the room and returned a moment later holding a bottle of beer. He flopped onto the couch, popping the cap off and taking a swig.
“What are you looking at?”
Denji had glanced over at his father for only a second, quickly averting his gaze when he spoke.
“N-Nothing.”
“You looking at my bottle? Huh? Is that it?”
“N-No–”
“You want some?”
Denji shook his head, but his father ignored him, staggering over and grabbing Denji by the chin. Denji began shrieking and flailing as his father brought the bottle to his mouth, pouring the beer down his throat. Denji sputtered and gagged, choking on the foul-tasting, acrid alcohol.
“Yeah, drink that up,” his father sneered. “What, you don't like it?”
Tears began running down Denji's face as the bottle emptied. His father clamped a hand over his mouth, stopping the boy from spitting out the bitter drink. Denji tried to swallow, but gagged. He screamed as the beer shot from his nose, burning his nasal cavities.
He curled up, sobbing loudly as tears, snot, beer, and saliva dripped down his face. Denji's father threw the empty bottle off to the side and stumbled away.
“What the fuck.”
Asa was in a state of shock. What the fuck just happened? What did she just witness? Was she hallucinating? Hesitantly, she walked over. Denji didn't react to her, could he not see her? She attempted to put her hand on his head, but it simply phased right through. She couldn't interact with anything.
“Yoru, I-I have no idea what the hell is going on,” she stammered. Yoru stroked her chin thoughtfully.
“Perhaps this is one of the Chainsaw boy's memories.”
Asa almost gagged at the thought of this being an actual memory belonging to Denji. This was a horrifying scene, even more so if it was actually a lived experience.
Yoru tapped her on the shoulder.
“Asa, another door appeared.”
Another door had appeared, the same one that brought them into this memory. Asa made a beeline straight for it. She didn't want to be here any longer.
Before closing the door behind her, Asa hesitated for a moment to look back at Denji in the corner. Curled up and pitiful, Asa felt her throat tighten. Was this really the same stupid boy who never shut up about Chainsaw Man and drooled all over his desks?
She forced herself to look away. Asa slammed the door shut, leaving the scene behind.