I Am All At Sea of Blood: Before Chainsaw Man

Chapter 6 : Initiation

The piercing winter wind flowed through the dark sky, and the faint light from the broken street lamps barely illuminated the scenery. It was only one section of the spacious area which was the Tokyo port. Though the ships carrying the nation's valued resources across the distances were blocked from sight by the many stacks of cargo boxes, its resounding horn was still clearly heard. With its workers evacuated from the area, the choking loneliness only amplified the cold for the two devil hunters stationed there.

Shivering and hugging herself while watching her own breaths turn into white puffs of clouds, the young devil hunter groaned. That day is supposed to be their first real mission as devil hunters, or as their seniors called it, a devil extermination. After months of the grueling training period, it would serve as their last step to becoming full-fledged devil hunters. However, being new recruits that they are, they would still need to be guided by their mentors along the process, or at least, that was what should have happened.

Even though they both had agreed with their respective partners to meet up at midnight on their dispatched site the day before, they were met with nothing but the barren lot that was the port. What started out as a five-minute wait turned to ten, to thirty, to forty, then an hour. As more time passed, they could only guess how long they had waited, but the delayed sunrise did not help in telling them whether it was already morning or not.

Irritatingly tapping her foot, she glanced at her only companion at the moment, a young man with spiky black hair. Sitting on the cold concrete and lovingly munching on his prettily decorated bento, his eyes were bright like a puppy's, contrasting his rather large figure, which was twice her size, and the scar over his left eye.

"Don't you think it's wrong to be eating at work, Yuma-san?" She tilted her head.

"Hm?" The man, whose mouth was full of food, quickly swallowed it and opened his mouth. "Well, our mentors are not here anyways, and it's not like the devil is running around freely. Why not just eat while we wait?"

"I guess you are right. But still, don't you think that you are a little too relaxed with this?"

"I mean, it's not like we can do anything at the moment either." He picked up a piece of omelet out of his bento and hovered it closer to his friend's face. "Here, Anzu-kun, have some! This will help warm you up."

"I'm good."

"You sure? Marie-chan made this for the both of us, you know."

" Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you sure? Because you know, she's..."

"Yeah!"

"Hmmm..." Anzu grumbled, trying to resist the tempting sight of the food before her. But as another cold wind blew through them, she gave up and finally took the bite out of Yuma's chopsticks. "Well, if you put it that way... then don't blame me if she gets mad, okay?"

"Of course. Of course." Yuma shrugged, picking up a clump of rice. "Here, have some more!" He cheerfully smiled as he stuffed it into his friend's mouth.

"You're so lucky, Yuma-san. You have a girlfriend to cook a nice meal for you."

"Definitely. She's amazing!"

"Speaking of which, you both joined in at the same time, right? Is she going to be assigned for devil extermination too?"

"Oh, yeah. Hers was last week, actually."

"Huh?! You kidding! –Ah..." Anzu's hand quickly covered her mouth and gulped down her food. "Damn... almost spilled it there..."

"Hahahah... No need to get overexcited there." Yuma dug into the pocket of his blazer. "Do you need a handkerchief?"