how to be a human being; hirofumi yoshida

vi.

After the afternoon spent with Yoshida, Saki didn't see him very often, other than the odd hour during school and a couple times walking home, to which he wouldn't stay very long before having to hurry off to devil hunting patrol. There was an increase of devils in the area and private devil hunters like Yoshida were called out in places that Public Safety couldn't reach. To the point she was called in on a Saturday afternoon to meet with Makima again.

The Public Safety building was as busy as always, filled with suit-clad devil hunters bustling about, covered in varying degree of bruises and bumps. There were a handful of Fiends among them, sticking with their overseers, who carried cups of coffee they didn't seem to be enjoying, but would down anyway. Saki enjoyed watching them from her cushioned chair in the corner, where she was waiting for Makima to call her into her office. Her favorite group, at the moment, was a trio of what appeared to be two humans and a fiend – the blonde-haired human and the fiend were pestering the human with a topknot, evidently pressing his buttons until he snapped at them and handed them his cup of coffee to shut them up.

"You lied to us! Tis ditchwater!" the fiend shouted the second she tasted the coffee, spitting out the brown liquid all over her crumpled white button up.

Coffee dribbled down the blonde one's chin as he said, "Power's right! You poisoned this!"

Topknot let out a long, long sigh. "I told you both that you wouldn't like it. Now, stay here and behave while I go buy myself another coffee."

Saki watched as Topknot went up to the nearest vending machine and began placing coins into the designated slot. The second he took his eyes off of his two companions, blondie and Power, began play fighting, and right as Power was about to smash a chair over blondie's head, Topknot turned around with a glare so fierce he could freeze the entire ocean. She wanted to watch him chew the two dumbasses out, only another Public Safety officer called her into Makima's office. The last sight she was privy to was Topknot's face reddening in anger as he took a deep breath to begin yelling. Unfortunately, the door to Makima's office was mostly soundproof, so all Saki got to heard was...

"IF YOU TWO DON'T --- "

The door clicked shut behind her, sending a slight frown to Saki's face. She wished she had more time to watch the show.

"Good afternoon, Saki," Makima's refreshing voice was what Saki heard instead as the red-haired woman stood from behind her desk, a welcoming smile on her face, "How is Fourth East High treating you?"

"I'm assimilating well, thank you for asking," Saki affirmed with a quick nod of her head.

"And Yoshida Hirofumi is doing his job well?"

"Yes," she lied, despite not having seen Yoshida face to face for more than a minute in days. At the very least, she assumed he was protecting her from the shadows, seeing as she hadn't been attacked by any devils nor questioned by any private devil hunters. A small part of her wanted to ask Makima about where Yoshida was and what he had been doing, only to recall the line between Public Safety devil hunters and private devil hunters was not easily crossed and she might not even have the information Saki was looking for.

"Excellent. Your visit today should be short - I simply wanted to check in on you and give you this," Makima picked up a flip phone from a top her desk and extended it out for Saki to take. 

Having seen a couple of her classmates with flip phones, Saki knew the basis of what the object could do, such as calling others and exchanging messages. So, without as much hesitation as usual, she took the flip phone and kept it in her grasp instead of flipping it open and investigating the materials. She would do that later, when she was out of the Public Safety building, and could look dumb as she tried to figure the phone out without anyone else around.

"Thank you, Makima-san," was all Saki could say, fingers tightening around the gray edges of the flip phone as she thought about all the things she could do and all the places she could go with this new form of communication in hand. Perhaps she could even learn more about her mother -

"Makima-san! Power's stuck in the vending machine!" the blonde-haired boy from earlier threw open the door, not at all panicked despite his words. When Saki shifted the slightest bit to the left, she could see behind him that the fiend, Power, was indeed stuck in the vending machine, her horns stuck within the slot and Topknot at her side, facepalming at her stupidity.

A soft sort of sigh left Makima. "I'll be right there, Denji. And please tell Aki to run up to the third floor and grab Angel Devil to go on patrol." She turned back to Saki. "That's all for today, Saki. I put my work number in the phone, so please call if you need anything."

With that, Makima followed Denji out of the office, and before the door could click shut again, Saki slipped out as well. New flip phone still in hand, Saki headed to the exit of the building, casting glances at the progression of Power somehow getting even more stuck in the vending machine while arguing with Denji and Makima appearing as though she was about to press a hand to her face and just walk away from it all. Stifling a laugh, the young girl made her way out of Public Safety headquarters and onto the bustling streets of Tokyo, her memories flooded with the first time she had done this over a week ago.

Except, last time, Saki had company. Company she was admittedly missing.

She imagined Yoshida was off studying at the library, surrounded by mountains of books on either side with his hand holding onto a fistful of hair in concentration or perhaps he was hunting a particularity difficult devil, dodging blows and weaving around cars with that same level of conversation etched deep within his expression. Yoshida always appeared easy-going when she saw him, but when she started and studied him for long enough, she could catch the steel in his gaze, the concentration deep within him that stemmed from being a devil hunter in a devil infested world. It was a handsome look on him.

Even thinking of Yoshida as handsome made a flustered blush rise on the rising of her cheekbones, her thoughts lost and her focus off what lay before her, to the point she didn't notice the figure heading straight for her until a gentle tap was felt on her forehead. Snapping out of her thoughts at the physical contact, Saki looked up to see the one she had just been thinking about so intently smiling down at her.

"I see you got a phone, Saki-san," Yoshida said, his gaze fitting quickly to the cell phone still in the grip of her hand, retuning to meet her gaze without missing a beat. "We should exchange numbers."

Then, like an absolute doofus, he held up his own cell phone in the most bizarre manner. His forefinger and thumb held the very top of the phone, dangling it in the oddest manner. 

Unbeknownst to her, Saki smiled at his action while saying, "I haven't seen you in a while, but, sure."

"Here, I'll put my number in your phone," Yoshida said.

She watched him as he carefully input his number into her cell phone, then did the same for himself. Yoshida's eyebrows furrowed the slightest in concentration, his smiley expression never falling, reminding Saki of what she had been thinking about earlier. And for a moment, a brief fleeting moment, she thought she would like to look at him for the rest of her life. 

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hey everyone! thanks for reading! i hope to update on the weekends, so please stay tuned for upcoming chapters!