"Everybody get up!!"
"The great me slept in the toilet all night last night, and no one even cared!!"
It wasn't even 6:00 AM when Power's voice suddenly rang out. She kicked open the door to Arata's room, yelling, "The great me is angry!!"
"What time is it? I haven't finished my sweet dream yet." Arata lifted his head slightly to take a look, then let it drop right back onto the pillow.
"You still have the mood to sleep? Hurry up and get up to cook for the great me, otherwise I absolutely won't let this go."
"Go next door and find Aki Hayakawa. He's in charge of cooking, the two of us don't know how to cook," Arata mumbled with his eyes closed.
Having found a target, Power slammed the door shut heavily. Soon after, the sound of Aki Hayakawa's door being kicked open echoed from next door.
Her alarm-clock-like shouting scared Aki wide awake. Naturally, the two of them got into a massive screaming match the moment he woke up.
But it wasn't long before the clattering of pots and pans rang out from the kitchen. It seemed Aki had compromised.
"Aki, you're up early cooking." Himeno's voice chimed in from the living room. She sounded energetic, clearly having been awake for a while.
"All thanks to the great roommate you brought over, making me cook first thing in the morning," Aki sighed helplessly, stifling a yawn.
He reached into the fridge and pulled out five eggs, preparing to make a few egg-based breakfast dishes.
"The great me doesn't eat vegetables, I only eat meat. You'd better make me some beef this early in the morning."
"Power, this isn't the wilderness. You can't just hunt for whatever you want to eat. From now on, you have to follow Aki-kun's arrangements for all your meals." Himeno stood up for Aki, setting the rules early so he wouldn't be worked to death later.
After all, Power had lived in the deep woods relying on hunting to survive. Naturally, she wasn't quite used to the city yet.
"I don't care, I want meat."
"If you keep throwing a tantrum, I'm going to tell Miss Makima."
Hearing the threat of being reported to Makima, the usually boisterous and fearless Power instantly chickened out.
"Fine, eating eggs is okay too, just give me a few extra." Saying that, she sat in a chair and crossed her legs.
"Aki, if there's nothing else, I'm heading out first."
"Himeno-senpai, why don't you stay and have breakfast before you go?"
"No need. Since I got off work early yesterday, there's still some paperwork regarding the rookies I haven't processed yet."
Just as she said that, the phone in Himeno's pocket suddenly rang. Her expression stiffened as she answered the call. Then she shouted, "Aki, we got a case."
Aki understood immediately. He quickly put down the pan and turned off the stove.
"Wake up rookies, we got a case." Himeno rushed over to Arata's room and shouted, not forgetting to yank the blanket right off the two of them.
Hit by the cold air, the two jolted awake.
"Not letting people get a good night's sleep early in the morning, I'm already starting to hate this job," Arata complained, sitting up with severe bedhead. Denji just yawned, waking up pretty quickly.
"Didn't Denji say you don't sleep?"
"It's true I can't sleep, but I can go play in other people's dreams. Like big celebrities, rich heiresses, and so on. I can be the male lead in all their dreams. I was just getting to the good part with Satomi Ishihara, and you interrupted me."
"Let's go handle the case first. We can talk about your dreams when we get back."
"What case is it? Being in such a rush this early in the morning." Arata hadn't even taken his clothes off last night, so he just jumped straight out of bed.
"A passerby getting off the night shift called it in. He was going to a breakfast shop to eat, but ended up finding two skeletons hanging upside down inside."
"Upside-down skeletons!!"
The three of them who had seen this scene with their own eyes were naturally familiar with it. The unsolved puzzle from yesterday had reappeared this morning.
"Then we definitely need to go take a look," Arata said.
"The great me doesn't get to eat again, right?" Seeing the cook was already preparing to leave, Power, who was sitting in her chair waiting for food, didn't forget to complain.
"Power, this is your chance to show what you can do. If you perform well, I'll let you stay in Aki's squad."
"Fine. There better be a devil so the great me can vent a little." Power clenched her fists tightly, swearing to make whatever devil ruined her breakfast pay the price.
Before long, the five of them took a car to their destination.
The crime scene was already cordoned off with police tape. Two officers were standing guard on either side. Since it was early morning, there were hardly any onlookers around.
Seeing the group step out of their car and approach, a sharp-eyed officer hurried over. "You're finally here. If you came any later, I was afraid something might come rushing out of there."
"Did you go inside to check?" Himeno asked.
"We did, we did. Scared us half to death. If it wasn't for the job, I would've run away ages ago."
"Well, you're certainly blunt," Arata joked, then ducked under the police tape and walked inside.
The others followed Arata into the crime scene, leaving only Himeno behind to talk to the police.
"Be careful, there might be a devil inside," the other officer warned from behind them. "I thought I heard some movement coming from in there."
"A devil! The great me was just worrying about not having a devil to kill. Once I kill it, let the great me go back and eat breakfast." Hearing the word devil, Power instantly got excited.
She charged into the shop right at the front of the pack. "Devil, come out and die for the great me!" Power stood in the shop, hands on her hips, yelling at the top of her lungs, completely ignoring the two hanging corpses.
"The corpses are the same as before. The head is preserved and the rest of the body has been eaten completely clean," Aki noted.
"They didn't leave the necks this time," Denji added.
Drip!!
Suddenly, the sound of water dripping into a sink echoed from the kitchen. Drip, drip!! The sound went from slow to fast.
"Someone's there?"
"Coward, come out here." Power swiftly sliced her wrist. Blood flew from the wound, instantly materializing into a blood axe.
Power charged into the kitchen wielding her blood axe. The kitchen was covered in bloodstains. Five shriveled corpses lay sprawled on the floor.
The sink was filled to the brim with blood. An unidentified creature was hunched over the sink, continuously drinking the blood inside.
Power's intrusion startled the dark figure in the kitchen. Whoosh!!!
The dark figure whipped around, sent Power flying with a tackle, and bolted out of the kitchen. In the blink of an eye, it had run completely outside.
Naturally, the others in the room weren't going to let it get away. By the time they chased it outside the shop, a devil with a mosquito's head and a human's body, covered in sharp spikes with a bloated stomach, was waiting for them.
"Just looking at its head tells you it's a Mosquito Devil. We really should have brought some bug spray," Arata joked, not taking the Mosquito Devil seriously at all.
Beside him, Aki Hayakawa quickly formed a fox hand sign with one hand. A massive fox head rapidly lunged out.
But the Mosquito Devil's speed was shockingly fast. It spread the wings on its back and took off straight from where it stood. Even with the Fox Devil's swift entrance, it only managed to bite off half of the Mosquito Devil's body.
Meanwhile, the Mosquito Devil flying into the air rapidly regenerated its missing lower half mid-flight. Then it dive-bombed straight toward the group.
In the very next second, its spear-like mouth impaled Denji's body. The force carried Denji backward, pinning him to the wall.
"Ah!!" Denji screamed in agony, feeling the blood in his body rapidly vanishing.
"This is bad, this devil can instantly drain a person's blood!!"