𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐌𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄? (𝗵. 𝗮𝗸𝗶) ✓

2

The car ride was spent mostly in silence, which was only interrupted by the erratic interrogation that Hanasaki exacted on the boy, and the muted hum of the engine below them.

She had managed to learn some things about him. First of all, his name was Denji. He didn't give her a surname, and she got the feeling that maybe this was because he didn't have any living family left. She asked him to confirm this, and her assumptions turned out to be correct. He didn't seem upset talking about it, though. She wondered how long he had been living like this.

How he had come to be this odd mishmash of human and Devil was a different story. Apparently he had made a contract with the Chainsaw Devil, which he had named 'Pochita', and had had his heart replaced with its own. The whole concept of it was strange, but not something completely foreign to Hanasaki.

As a senior member of the Public Safety organisation, Hanasaki had heard of other countries experimenting with so-called 'Hybrids', human-Devil fusions that, unlike Fiends, still kept the human host present and intact mentally. However, these were government experiments, and to find a Hybrid that had formed completely unbeknownst anyone was astonishing to say the least.

Hanasaki's head tilted to the side, cheek pressed against the car window. She ignored the cold, wet feeling of the condensation on her skin, and gazed into the expanse of the sky outside, the sun just beginning to peek its head over the horizon.

Denji found it difficult to not just stare at her for the remainder of the journey. Although her face hadn't shifted from the same, stern expression throughout the entire time they'd known each other, he was still captivated by her in some sense. That sense being her looks. Sure, the sharpness in her steel-coloured eyes was somewhat intimidating, but overall she was, almost effortlessly, beautiful.

"Come to think of it... you probably haven't eaten anything for a while, have you?"

Her voice made him jump, despite her talking just as softly and tonelessly as before. She didn't turn to face him.

"Uh... yeah, I'm really hungry, but I don't have any cash on me," Denji replied tentatively.

"Hm. I surmised as much."

Denji furrowed his brows, misinterpreting her words. Hanasaki somehow sensed that she'd made her remark too vague, and tilted her head slightly away from the window, but still didn't avert her gaze from the sunrise.

"Sorry, I meant I'll pay for you when we get there," she elaborated. "You can get anything you like, I don't mind.

"Heh? Really?" Denji immediately perked up at the mention of food, a broad grin spreading across his face.

And..." she continued, taking no notice of his enthusiasm. "...take this. You'll need it, to avoid suspicion."

She carefully took off her blazer, and handed it to Denji, who beamed at her in response and happily accepted the clothes. His cheeks were beginning to hurt from smiling so hard for so long. No one had ever been this nice to him before; everyone he'd known before had either just laughed at him or passed him off as another filthy, foul-smelling vagrant on the side of the street. Now, this pretty girl was giving him her jacket? This day might actually turn out to be the best one of his life so far!

He spared her another dreamy glance before mentally uttering an ultimate pledge:

"I love her!"