Kid and the Beast?!

5 minutes ago,

Akane stood still by the entrance of the merry-go-round size measurement stand, frozen by the macabre scene before her.

Silent screams escaped her mouth each time there was a sound of something being punctured. It goes without saying that the scenery before her was one Akane thought she would never see in her life.

And one she would never forget for the rest of her life… If she survives today, that is.

It was like a grotesque forest of blood and flesh had been made manifested before her -with people as the trees. Almost reaching three digits in number, they had all been caught and strung up by the Mosquito Devil.

Another crunching sound made Akane break into a shiver as fresh blood sprayed against the wall with some landing on her face. She could only watch in horrid fascination as another person got killed by the Mosquito Devil.

"Please, don't kill me. I don't want to die. I don't want to die—ack!"

"Aaah!"

"No… Please help me! Somebody plea—aaaahhh!"

The high-pitched buzzing produced a sound Akane was quite familiar with. However this time, the buzzing had been amplified to such an extent that Akane felt like it was driving her crazy.

With what could only be described as a wicked laugh, the Mosquito Devil extended another of its meaty appendages and stabbed its proboscis into the skull of a bawling man.

Immediately, the man shrunk, visibly losing body figure while the appendage expanded and shrunk as it worked to furiously drain the man of his blood. Soon enough, the deed was done and what was left of the man was a husk that occasionally twitched which showed that it had once been alive and human.

With a satisfied grunt, the Mosquito Devil using its appendages tore the man apart, splaying his bloody remains across the amusement park.

"Gahh~ not gets me pumping than draining a healthy human of their blood." The Mosquito Devil said, its broken voice sounding very cheerful. "Especially when they scream while I do it… The first scream is always the absolute best!"

Craning its monstrous towards its remaining human stock, the Devil said, gleefully. "I'm sure you can all do better than that guy, right?"

Even though the Devil's facial appearance was quite messed up, the sight of it forming what could be an evil smirk jumpstarted the crowd into more fearful hollering.

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"Yes, that's what I want to hear!" The Devil hollered gleefully. "More, give me more. Scream as loud as you can; it only makes the blood taste more nutritious!"

While all this went on, Akane remained where she was unmoving. Fear gripped her limbs with an iron claw, while a cold whisper told her that the Devil knew where she was and was only waiting to be done with all of the humans before it got to her.

"Akane! Run—get out of here!"

Akane froze as her head automatically craned towards the main reason why she had not run away in the first place.

"Papa… Mama… I…"

Akane desperately wanted to say something, anything. The sight of her parents being hung up like that made the guilt within her boil immensely.

'It's all my fault.' Akane thought with tears streaming down her face. "If only I didn't beg them to bring me to the park… If only I hadn't been so persistent. Then Papa and Mama… Papa and Mama.'

It was like she had been wedged where she stood.

"That's right, Akane."

Akane shivered as the dreadful voice of the Devil was being directed at her.

"Be a good girl and listen to your Mommy and Daddy… Not like that will help you much anyway. Because I'm still going to kill them all the same and don't you worry… You were always the main course."

Akane's parents painfully groaned as the appendages wrapping around them both constricted more tightly and pulled them towards the Devil.

"No… No…" Akane knew what was about to happen, and from the looks on her parents' faces, they knew that as well.

"Akane…" Her father turned to look at his daughter one final time, while the mother gave a painful smile and said. "Please… Live."

To Akane, the world stilled and lost its colors as soon as the Mosquito Devil's proboscis stabbed into their—Wait! Wait! Wait!

ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ

"—Wait!" I raised a hand with a grimace that had no way of showing on my face. "Look, erm… Akane-chan. Can I call you that?"

The future Himeno-chan killer and terrorist nodded demurely…

I try not to dwell on the fact that she was too calm for someone whose parents had just been killed, and for being near the same (presumable) species as the killer and move on.

"Let me see if I can get this right." I coughed, clearing my throat, and began. "The Devil suddenly manifested and rampage killing everyone it could get its hands on, and your parents… Got caught up in it. Am I on the right course?"

Akane-chan nodded and pointed towards an indiscernible pile of gore and said. "Mama and Papa…"

"Uh… Right." I nodded robotically.

So this is Akane-chan's backstory, possibly the reason why she turned out to be what she is in the future… Damn, this is all kinds of messed up. Maybe this is why she had that… Detached disposition in manga -well, there was the exception of her shivering in fear when dealing with Makima 'scrunch you when I call your name' shenanigans.

But that can be excused because Makima's well… Makima, enough said.

I cast my gaze towards the Devil in question whose upper portion had been vaporized, with the sky sporting suspicious slash marks. I felt an imaginative bead of sweat trail down the side of my face as I realized as ridiculous as it sounds, this might be my fault.

'After all, it is possible that this Devil might be amongst the numbers I'd vaporized with my [Cero].' Eyeing the girl that rested her head against my bare chest, I suddenly felt conscious of the fact that I might have indirectly been her parent's killer.

"Hey Claymore… Recognize that Devil bastard?"

Flesh rippled and grew as a scaled-down upper torso of the Claymore Devil molded itself, looking at its fellow Devil before turning towards me with a shrug.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not too sure. It didn't look that noticeable when we had been charging at you back in Hell. And I make it a habit not to remember any Devil I kill with my own hand."

"Yeah thought so…" I nodded before throwing an exasperated look at the Devil. "So why did you decide to make yourself look like this?"

"Like what?"

'The bastard.' I seethed internally.

"I know I asked you to have a look at the Mosquito Devil. But I also know you are perfectly capable of doing so in your claymore form. Unless your actual aim was this…"

I gestured towards Akane who had buried her face against my chest, shivering.

It seems unlike my appearance, the Claymore Devil had triggered a much more natural reaction toward seeing the abominable.

Which only made me quite confused, to be honest.

"I won't deny it." The Claymore Devil admitted. "Seeing the girl's reaction to you made me wonder if that Mosquito dude had broken her completely… But it seems it's probably just a unique case. Then again, I'm not that surprised seeing that you don't behave much like a Devil either."

"Just for the sake that I don't want to show the girl something straight out of a horror movie, I'll take your words as a compliment. So get back to claymore form."

Shaking its head, the Claymore Devil's body squirmed and promptly shrank back into the claymore.

"Alright, you can look up now, the Devil's gone," I said to Akane who raised her tearful face to look at me.

Sighing, I stabbed the claymore into the ground and regarded the ghastly décor again.

So this is the norm of Chainsaw Man manga, seeing it in real life rather than from a white and black drawing speaks of a significant difference. But even more than the bloody scene in front of me or the fact that I had just met up with one of the cast characters however minor (or not) her role was.

'Yeah, it's like I thought. Becoming a Vasto Lorde has changed me.' I thought contritely. 'I don't feel a damn thing despite all this.'

Was this for the better or the worse? Concerning the kind of world I am in, the question brings quite a dilemma.

In normal circumstances, I wasn't that good with gory scenes. In movies, I would rather just turn my head or straight up skip that part as the sight of just blood spilling out makes me want to vomit.

Although, I'm quite sure the reason for that was that gory video of human vivisection I had watched when I was a kid… It's disgusting, I tell you.

Anyways, a view like this normally should have made me get on my knees and empty my guts out or even get queasy. But I seriously felt none of that. It wasn't like the gory sight had suddenly gained an appeal, it was rather that I felt nothing towards it.

Blood was blood and gore was, well… Gore.

That I had caused this was unfortunate, but I don't feel any signs of restlessness or guilt. No, it was just awkwardness. It was at that moment I knew that becoming a Vasto Lorde had messed up more than my appearance.

'It's messed up with my 'everything'.'

"Well, think about that later," I muttered and turned towards the rather increasingly aggressive crowd.

Rifles, handguns, shotguns, and all forms of projectiles were pointed at me. I could even spot an RPG around back. Though, I don't think I can fault them seeing as from their point of view; a human child was being held by a Devil who had just finished perpetuating a very heinous act.

I took a step forward and the guns cranked up in an unspoken threat.

"Easy fellas, got a kid here." I gestured towards Akane-chan who stared at the uniformed crowd with an unreadable look. "Don't want anything to happen to her now, do we?"

"Fu-Fuck you, Devil!" A policeman exclaimed from the crowd. "Don't you dare move from there and release the girl, if you don't want to get filled with holes."

The first emotion that got to me at the end of the policeman's tirade was… Amusement. At the sight of quivering guns being pointed toward me, I couldn't help but chuckle trying to see in which dimension they thought that their projectiles had any hope of piercing my skin.

The thought that a gun was used to threaten a Vasto Lorde was so funny I couldn't help bursting into laughter.

Shaking my head, I ignored the now terrified holler for me to conform and tried to put down Akane-chan—only for her to tighten her hold on me.

'Ok… What's this?' I thought in bemusement, outwardly I said. "Look those policemen, however stupid-looking are kind of the good guys, I'm sure they will take care of you."

"No…" Akane-chan said, burying her face in my chest. "I want to stay with you. I don't want to go with them."

Blinking, I turned towards the Claymore Devil who said. "Don't look at me… I'm not so good with any sentimental crap."

"Yeah, cause that Devil's roll."

"Got that right."

Rolling my eyes, I scratched my head with my free hand and crouched to put Akane-chan on the ground, but that only made her wrap her hands around my neck and begin to cry more furiously.

"I don't want to go. Please don't send me away!"

'Gah! You're only making things worse for me, Akane-chan.' I thought as the policeman was already ordering his officers to aim. 'This is about to jump from a frying pan to a fire situation!'

"Erm, Akane-chan. You do know, all things considered, I am a Devil." Even though I know that I'm not, but Akane-chan doesn't. "Not like I'm unhappy with you staying with me, but you've got to understand our racial differences."

But Akane-chan shook her head stubbornly.

Sighing, I said to the policeman. "Well, sorry, seems like I'll be holding on to her a little longer."

The look the policeman threw at me was one reserved for the Devil… Which he undoubtedly thinks I am.

"Men… Aim."

Alright, now this is getting too uncomfortable for my taste.

"Oi, do you not see that I'm holding a girl, here."

"Yeah, I can see that." The policeman said with his finger wrapped around the trigger. "But even more than that, what I see in front of me is nothing more than a rotten Devil… Fire!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The air cracked as the entire regiment simultaneously pulled their triggers. Bullets of all sizes and RPG missiles set course for me and Akane-chan.

The intentions of the cops in front of me have been stated loud and clear; they do not care about what will happen to Akane-chan as long as they kill me. Truthfully, there is nothing wrong with their decision. To spare the lives of hundreds, all they have to do is kill one human.

It wasn't that bad of a deal.

… That is if it wasn't for the fact that I would be pissed off all the same.

What followed an instant later was the sound of a screeching roar. The Claymore Devil was once more in my hand before it blurred once more. The bullets of all sizes and RPG missiles all vanished into thin air—they had all been slashed to dust.

This time my next step sent the police regiment panicking. Pointed guns quivered and shook, some even outright dropping them while staggering back in terror.

"The only reason I'm letting you off is not because I'm kind or anything—I just don't want Akane-chan to see blood spill once more."

There was no need for me to Reiatsu-crush them. From the hypertensive look on their faces, I reckon the pressure behind my words was doing the job perfectly.

"But I dare you to try that again…" I grinned, as somehow their fearful faces made me feel… Euphoric. "I don't mind turning you all into red soup."

Yeah, becoming a Vasto Lorde means more than just gaining power… It changes one's mindset too.

Rubbing my hand against my neck, I muttered to Akane to hold on tight before taking off into the air.

"You guys should first deal with whatever it is you want to deal with, and when you've all calmed down and settled everything, look for me. I won't be hiding much I assure you that."

Shrouding myself in Reiryoku (more for Akane-chan's safety) I took off Mach speed heading towards another site where I had sensed a Devil.

I may have not been able to prevent the tragedy that has happened now, but I'll do everything in my power to stop whatever tragedy that'll happen in the future.

⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙

"Hmm~ after this, I'll have to go visit a certain protagonist-kun."