The Pain we Share || Aki Hayakawa

Starting New

Many years had passed. You moved into the city to study as a biochemistry major while your father continued to work from your hometown to financially support you. You never completely healed from your mother's death.
Although her chronic illness led her close to her last breath, it wasn't supposed to end this way. You always imagined that although she was in pain, at least her last moments would have some form of comfort and serenity— the complete opposite of what she was given.

Your heart continuously ached and mourned for her, hoping that one day you would bring her justice, as well as the many others victimized by the gun devil's massacre.

Day-by-day you slowly learned to tolerate life without her, throwing yourself into your studies and filling your schedule with extracurriculars, leaving no room for your own negative thoughts to seep into your mind.

You quickly decided that taking an active role in the science side of the devil hunting was within your reach and skill set. Alongside your studies, you managed to secure an internship position with the Japanese Devil Hunting Organization in their devil blood-sampling laboratory. In exchange, they provided you with accommodation and a guaranteed job after your graduation.

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"Alright, I'm done for the day" you exclaimed as you slid your safety goggles off and hung your lab coat.

"Thanks for your hard work today, y/n" your superior Hina said while re-adjusting her dark brown hair into a low ponytail. "Can I ask you for one more favour pleaseee?" she said with black puppy eyes.

"Of course"

"On your way home could you possibly drop off some paperwork to the main HQ building? I would normally do it but have a few errands to run after closing up the lab and HQ needs these as soon as possible. I'll text you the office number, just slide the documents under the door" she said as she eagerly sought through a pile of brown envelopes.

"Not a problem" you said as you grabbed the file from her hands, a red "CONFIDENTIAL" stamped on the outside. "Just please don't forget to text me the office number ok?" you teased her— she was always forgetting things. Her schedule was constantly packed from dawn to dusk so you could understand why, but sometimes it worried you how awful her memory was for someone in their 30s.

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You made your way to the Devil Hunting Organization HQ. It was a wide grey building with many stories and glass windows. You had only ever been here once— many months ago for your orientation, since most of your internship was spent in a lab across the city.

From what you could remember, everyone you encountered in the building was intimidating. Their formal attire made you feel out of place in your simple jeans, sneakers and university sweater. The environment was serious and everyone was much bigger and stronger than you, embellished with scars and wounds from their courageous battles with devils.

Whatever challenges you had gone through must've been a joke compared to the difficulties and losses they go through on a daily basis.

You opened the front door, relieved to see that the main lobby was empty. You figured that since it was past 4pm, most of the office workers had gone home and the devil hunters were likely patrolling or carrying out their duties.

You pulled out your phone to see that you had no new texts. Damnit Hina, I knew you'd forget.

You dialed her number and wandered around the corridors as the phone rang. No answer.

Sigh, what a pain she can be

The hallways were empty and most of the offices were vacant, confirming your assumption that the office workers had gone home for the day. You felt at ease knowing that you wouldn't have to deal with anyone here.

You slowly walked back to the lobby and looked at a board on the wall beside the elevator, which indicated the variety of offices and names on each floor. You tried to look for some type of science or analytics team but you had no luck.

Would Hina kill me if I just dropped by tomorrow morning instead? It is her fault that she didn't give me the proper information... But she did say it was urgent?... ugh

You sighed and tiredly plopped onto one of the couches in the lobby, leaning your head back and running your hands through your (H/L) (H/C) hair.

Yeah, she would probably kill me.

You took the document out of your bag and searched the exterior of the envelope for any indication of who it should be addressed to. Nope, nothing.

You fiddled with the opening flap of the envelope. It says confidential but technicallyyyy I can look at it too since I'm one of the lab technicians right? I'm sure it's the same type of data I'm always looking at. Besides, I'll only look at it to find out which office I should drop it off at.

You stuck your fingers into the envelope, but before you could pull the paperwork out a man's voice interrupted you from behind.

"What are you doing?" he said sternly.

Startled, you sprung into flight or fight mode and jumped up from the couch, dropping the file to the floor and swinging your fist behind you as hard as you could without even looking. You clenched your eyes shut with fear and felt your fist collide into the man's abdomen.

"Wait I'm jus- oH FUCK" he coughed.

You opened your eyes to see the man bent over, clutching onto his stomach. Strands of his black hair covered his eyes and face and he was wearing a public safety devil extermination uniform.

Did I... Did I just punch a devil hunter?