𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐌𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄? (𝗵. 𝗮𝗸𝗶) ✓

1

The evening had drawn in quickly. During the car journey the sky had gone from a dusky blue to near-black. The storm-bruised clouds overhead made it impossible for even the faint halo of the moon to make an appearance.

As Hanasaki and her two escorts climbed out of the vehicle, they were met by the harsh chill of the wind and the looming sight of an abandoned warehouse. It was, to put it plainly, a shell of a building; its thin, rust-mottled walls of corrugated metal were all but caving in on themselves. In front of the ragged entrance of the warehouse, to the left of where they had parked, stood another car, although neither its driver or passengers were in sight.

They wasted no time in assessing the dangers of entering a building on the verge of collapse. The three of them strode in, only to be a hit by a bitter, coppery stench. The reek was so strong that Hanasaki had to swallow to get rid of the taste.

It was dark, darker even than outside. Their field of vision extended to just a couple feet beyond the entrance. What they could tell, even from here, was that someone had gotten there before them.

The floor was drenched in blood. Bodies were littered everywhere; well, to say 'bodies' might be a bit of a euphemism. More like 'body parts'. No corpse had been left intact. Limbs had been amputated, upper bodies disembowelled, necks beheaded, and some had even been cut completely in half. There wasn't a shortage of gore, that was for certain.

Hanasaki blinked and squinted in an effort to make her eyes get used to the lack of light quicker. She took a few steps forward, surveying the scene further. Upon closer inspection, the corpses weren't completely human. They looked to be devils from the greyish-green pallor of their skin and the abnormal tumours sprouting on them. So whoever had overtaken them was clearly not on the devils' side, but it wasn't guaranteed that they were on theirs either.

She glanced back up, only to be greeted by the sight of a figure staring directly at her. The person had their shoulders hunched, arms hanging limply by their sides. He looked to be a young man, lean and bare-chested, ribs faintly outlined above his stomach. He wasn't human either, seemingly. Starting from his elbows and ending about a foot outwards from his middle fingers, cutting directly through the middle of his forearms, grew two chainsaw blades, one in each arm. His head looked more like a whole chainsaw, including both the engine and the blade, which pointed from where his 'forehead' was. He had no visible eyes that she could discern. Where the filler cap would've been was his mouth, which was lined with long, needle-point teeth. His jaw was hung slightly open, and he panted out hot steam in an almost mechanical rhythm.

The chains were stationary; Hanasaki figured that if this devil had wanted to kill her, he would've done it already. But, no, he was still just staring at her in complete silence, apart from the sound of his breathing.

With careful steps, making sure to avoid any stray organs, she made her way over to him. He didn't move.

"You did this?" The question was obvious, seeing as he was both the only living thing present in the warehouse before they got there, and splattered in blood.

No answer, for a moment or two. But he seemed to pause.

And then, a stagger, and a muffled, tinny response that sounded something like 'hug me', before falling backwards.

Of course, Hanasaki didn't actually hug him. He was an apparent devil, after all, and he had just massacred an entire horde, the remains of which had just gone cold around them. Instead, she merely stepped forward and grabbed his waist before he could topple over. He was far too heavy and tall for her to hold upright, especially as he seemed barely conscious, so she just cautiously lowered him to the ground.

His head lolled backwards as Hanasaki held him in her arms, and gradually, the inhuman parts of his anatomy began to melt off. The liquid metal pooled below him, sinking through the ground as if it had never existed in the first place.

Hanasaki, without a hint of surprise in her voice, said only the realisation that had dawned as his devil features disappeared.

"He's human."