"Did you beat it?" Denji walked into the room completely naked.
"It was just a Headless Devil, taking care of it was a piece of cake. But why are you walking around naked asking that? Don't tell me you have a thing for corpses?" Arata asked.
"What the hell are you thinking?! No matter how much I like women, I'd never do something like that," Denji roared, covering his crotch. "I fell into the hot spring and got covered in blood, so I took my clothes off."
Denji looked left and right, trying to find suitable clothes to cover his shame. Even a simple piece of cloth would do.
"Use this to cover up for now. Don't let the people outside know you're missing a nut." Arata casually tossed a seating cushion from the floor over to Denji.
"Stop bringing that up!! You think I don't want two perfectly intact balls? It even feels a little asymmetrical when I walk," Denji complained, using one hand to catch the cushion and the other to cover himself, a clear division of labor.
Ever since Arata stared at it that one time, Denji swore he would never satisfy the man's curiosity again.
"I'm just joking with you. Hurry up and go take a shower."
"Fine. But this cushion was just covering a severed head, right?"
"It's fine. Hurry up and rinse off, don't waste time. I'll bring you some new clothes in a bit."
"What's the rush? It feels like you're way too interested in the corpse on the floor," Denji muttered in confusion. Then he suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, where did the corpses of the Cucumber Devil and the Rat Devil at the restaurant go?"
"If you don't leave right now, you won't be able to keep your other nut either." Arata raised his right hand, flashing his gleaming bladed claws.
Denji's body shuddered. Clutching the cushion, he quickly fled the room.
Once Denji was out the door, Arata quickly locked the hot spring room. He turned to look at the Headless Devil's corpse on the floor.
"Time to clean up the body. Even though it was weak, meat is still meat."
Saying that, he suddenly began chanting a spell that humans couldn't understand. He raised a single bladed finger and lightly sliced the tip of his right index finger. Pitch-black blood flowed steadily from the wound.
Using the blood, he first drew a circle around the Headless Devil's corpse. Then he gradually filled the inside of the circle with intricate runes until the drawing was complete.
Arata stood up and repeated the chant from earlier. He bit down on his sliced finger.
When he pulled it out, the blood flowing from it had turned back to a normal dark red, and the wound rapidly healed.
Right then, the runes around the Headless Devil's corpse reacted. A black light flashed.
The Headless Devil's corpse slowly began to sink. Along with the runes, it submerged into a bottomless, pitch-black darkness.
Knock, knock, knock!!! A sudden knocking came from the door.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, the woman you were talking to in the hallway earlier."
"What do you want?"
"You guys haven't come out for a long time, so I was worried about your safety."
"Worried about us? Aren't you afraid of the devil?" Arata asked.
"I am, but I have to consider your safety too. If we really can't catch it, we can leave it to the Public Safety Devil Hunters. Can you open the door first?"
"Hold on, I just took a bath and don't have my clothes on."
"Okay, no problem," the women's bath manager replied agreeably.
But after three minutes passed, Arata still hadn't opened the door.
This made Aki Hayakawa, who was actually the one waiting outside, realize something was wrong.
Aki kicked the door down and rushed inside. "Where did he go?"
The room was completely empty, without a single soul in sight. Running to the hot spring, he only saw a single corpse soaking in the water.
"He might have jumped the wall and escaped," the women's bath manager said, following closely behind and pointing at the partition between the pools.
Aki took one look and firmly believed Arata had jumped over. He quickly took a step back, leaped into the air, grabbed the top of the partition, and vaulted into the next hot spring room.
But to his surprise, the only person in this hot spring was a naked woman taking a bath.
"Ah!!!"
"Pervert!! Creep!!!"
Seeing a man drop from the sky, the woman shrieked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Aki panicked for a second. "I apologize. I'm not a pervert, I'm just pursuing an extremely dangerous private Devil Hunter. Did you see someone jump the wall and come over here?"
"There's no one here but you! You're just a pervert making up lies so you could peep at me."
"I... I am executing official duties. Goodbye."
Aki prepared to leave, but the woman behind him suddenly called out, "Wait."
"What is it? Do you have a clue?"
"A clue? Drop the act. If you wanted to peek, you could've just told me. After all, your face is exactly my type."
Aki froze, his expression instantly darkening. "Excuse me, but I must decline."
Giving her absolutely zero face, he turned and left immediately.
As soon as he rushed out of the room, he ran into the anxious-looking women's bath manager.
"He suddenly ran out of his original room just now, and took his companion with him."
"He came out of the room from earlier?" Aki asked.
"That's right. I don't know how he did it either, but when I went inside, there really was no one there."
"Where did he run off to?"
"By the time I chased the sound outside, they had already driven off in a car."
"Dammit!!" Aki slammed his fist into the wall.
"Is that person very dangerous?"
"Yes. He just killed someone at a restaurant earlier tonight."
"Oh my god, and I thought he was a kind-hearted Devil Hunter." The woman covered her mouth in shock, a wave of delayed fear washing over her.
"If you see him again, notify us immediately."
"If something like this happens again, I'll definitely call you guys first instead of trusting a strange Devil Hunter."
After the conversation, Aki left the scene.
By now, the time had passed 1:00 AM.
In the car, Denji had already yawned more than ten times.
"I'm dead tired. Where are we going now?" Denji asked, rubbing his eyes while holding a fast-asleep Pochita.
"I'm taking you to a five-star hotel."
"A five-star hotel? What's the difference between that and a regular hotel? Can you see the stars?"
"You'll know when we get there."
Arata drove to a nearby five-star hotel. After going through a series of check-in procedures, they arrived at the presidential suite on the top floor.
Denji couldn't care less about how luxurious the presidential suite was. The moment he walked through the door, he hugged Pochita, found a spot on the carpet, and dropped down to sleep.
"Don't sleep on the floor. The bed is inside." Arata kicked Denji in the ass.
"I can sleep in a bed?"
"Yes, because you earned a free trial for a large five-star hotel bed."
Denji picked up Pochita, got up, and walked into the inner room. "Th-this is a bed?!"
"What, you've never seen a clean, rectangular bed before?"
"First time. Maybe I should just sleep on the floor."
"The hell you will. I rented a presidential suite for you and you want to sleep on the floor? Get your ass on the bed."
Arata shoved Denji. Denji fell onto the bed, his body sinking slightly into the mattress.
"So soft!!" Denji looked like he was in pure bliss, fully experiencing the comfort the bed brought him.
"Go to sleep. I'm heading out to experience the nightlife."
Hearing Arata was going out again, Denji fought back his sleepiness and lifted his head. "It's so late, where are you going?"
"Gonna hit up a nearby casino."
"You're really not tired at all, are you?"
"If I told you I haven't slept in over a year, what would you think?" Arata asked.
"How is it possible not to sleep for over a year? I can't even handle missing one night of sleep."
"Just go to sleep. If I could actually fall asleep, I'd already be laying right next to you."
Denji mumbled something unintelligible. Soon after, he went completely quiet.
The room was silent, leaving Arata standing there, looking down at Denji with a smile. "Enjoy it, Denji. From now on, you will be my greatest pawn."
"What pawn?" Denji lifted his head groggily and asked.
This scared Arata into a cold sweat. "You're not fucking asleep?!"
"The bed is too comfortable, it's actually making it hard to fall asleep." Denji rubbed his eyes. "But what did you mean when you said I was your greatest pawn?"