章 7: Calcium and Miura Yumiko

The following days passed without surprises.

Of course, Desmon was an incredible pain in the neck for Shizuka and the Service Club.

In the last few days, Shizuka had to chase Desmon all over the school since he kept skipping classes and was often seen wandering around during school hours. Despite her efforts, she could never catch up to him. Nevertheless, Desmon didn't escape getting scolded by Shizuka during dinner.

As for the Service Club, the most affected was Yukinoshita, who reprimanded Desmon daily because he wouldn't pay attention to her explanations. They couldn't really blame him for not showing interest in learning, especially since once his job was done, he'd return to his country, though that date remains uncertain for now.

And so, the days went by with Desmon as a student at Sobu High.

Nevertheless, the day before the Kyoto trip, two boys approached the Service Club, where Desmon couldn't help but notice the boy who entered the room.

One of them was Hayama Hayato, accompanied by his best friend, who had a request for help with confessing to a girl; something quite common among young students.

After those boys left, the girl one of them mentioned came looking for help to prevent the confession from happening; a contradiction in terms of assistance, but this didn't bother Desmon since he wasn't part of the club and instead focused on how to promote his next business venture.

As expected, Desmon was still in debt, and being a student wouldn't free him from the million he owed Lady.

That's why Desmon made a few calls to Morrison, informing him that he wouldn't be returning to Devil May Cry for a while. Since it was a demon-related matter, his absence wasn't an issue, but he'd still need to earn money while in Japan.

He considered starting his own DMC, offering services like problem-solving and assistance; an idea he got from the concept of the Service Club, though he planned on charging for his services; doing it for free would be foolish.

But he decided to put that idea on hold until after the Kyoto trip. After all, who would turn down a free trip?

As for the demons, there hadn't been any signs of them since the attack, but he remained on high alert.

Returning to the present, Desmon is at the train station with all the other students, about to board a bullet train that will take them to their destination.

Before that, he headed to a nearby store to buy something to eat; he's a fan of sweets.

After purchasing a chocolate bar, he thought about heading back to the train before it left him behind. But then, his surroundings changed drastically.

A barrier with strange symbols appeared all around the area, separating him from the people and leaving him alone.

"I thought they were taking their time."

From the ground, several demons started to emerge.

They had the appearance of skeletal beings with scythes, covered in tattered rags.

"Haven't you been taught not to interrupt others while they're eating?" Desmon said, taking a bite of his chocolate bar.

Without hesitation, the skeletons lunged at him, aiming to slice him in two. But Desmon effortlessly dodged the attacks with ease.

-This is pretty sweet. I can see why it's so expensive...

In his mind, the only thing he was focused on was the taste of the chocolate, completely ignoring the demons desperately trying to cut him down.

At that moment, as Desmon mockingly evaded their attacks, one of the scythes managed to slice through the chocolate bar, sending it to the ground where it was stepped on by one of the demons.

"Alright, now I'm pissed. That cost me 300 yen!"

He reached out and grabbed the skull of the skeleton that stepped on his chocolate, slamming it into the ground, then grabbing it by the leg to use it as a weapon against the other demons.

"Which one of you is going to pay me back for that chocolate?!"

Comically, Desmon started moving, swinging the skeleton like a weapon as he tore through the rest of the demons.

Watching a guy use a skeleton to beat up other skeletons was a surprisingly amusing sight.

Quick and efficient, Desmon began wiping out the demons; there were many, but they weren't durable enough to withstand more than a couple of hits.

"I have to admit, you're pretty sturdy." He complimented his makeshift weapon before continuing to obliterate the demons.

Even though more demons kept appearing, it was in vain; they were nothing more than fodder for Desmon.

Grabbing the skeleton by both legs, Desmon began spinning in place, turning himself into a kind of human buzzsaw that annihilated any demon foolish enough to approach.

"Well, that was fun..." He said with a grin, tossing the skeleton into the air.

The poor demon was decapitated by a kick before it could even land.

With the last demon destroyed, Desmon dusted off his hands.

"That should be all."

He stretched briefly, getting ready to head back to the others.

However, to his surprise, the barrier that had been keeping him trapped still hadn't disappeared, so he began walking, searching for the demons that must still be hiding.

"Come on, don't be shy. I'll destroy your skulls gently."

After a few seconds of searching, he found the last two demons.

"Let's finish this quickly. I don't want Shizuka scolding me for being late."

Usually, he would have dispatched the demons and continued with his day, but he stopped when he saw a large blood-red butterfly flying near one of the demons. The demon caught it and devoured it without hesitation.

The demon's body started convulsing, growing larger and changing shape within seconds. Now it was more than three times its original size.

One of the demon's arms grabbed the other demon beside it, transforming it into a new, much larger and deadlier scythe. The blade of the scythe gleamed with an otherworldly purple hue.

An artificial version of one of the demons from Hell was created; a demon known as the God of Death, Soul Reaper. However, being artificial, this demon is not as resilient as the original.

''I see, that butterfly is responsible for Fido's transformation. You learn something new every day,.' Desmon said cheerfully as he drew Alastor from the guitar case on his back.

The previous demons hadn't been worth the effort of drawing Alastor, but the one in front of him seemed like it would be more entertaining.

With a joyful grin, he closed the distance between himself and the demon, Alastor clashing against the scythe, causing both weapons to repel each other.

"You're tougher than the others, but I don't have much time to play."

What's more terrifying: a huge demon with a scythe or a woman in her thirties who's still single and probably going to scold him if he's late?

The answer is obvious to Desmon.

He sidestepped the sharp scythe attack and advanced on the demon, but just then, the demon vanished, avoiding Alastor's strike.

The place fell silent once more.

''Oh, come on, the party's just starting, and you're leaving already?!''

Without a word, the demon reappeared behind Desmon, ready to cleave him in two, but with quick reflexes, he spun around, intercepting the scythe with Alastor.

Both weapons clashed again, repelling each other once more, but Desmon attacked again, and the demon disappeared for the second time.

''Is this some kind of twisted game of cat and mouse?!''

The pattern repeated several times, with attacks dodged and weapons clashing until both reached a stalemate. Desmon deflected each surprise attack while the demon vanished before being struck.

''You're really getting on my nerves.'' Desmon found the situation amusing yet annoying.

No matter if he dodged or deflected, the demon disappeared before Desmon could land a decisive blow.

-Given the circumstances, I'll try this. He thought, recalling the situation up to this point. His battle experience grew with every fight.

When their weapons clashed again, Desmon attacked without hesitation, making the demon disappear, but in one of those exchanges, the demon attacked again. Desmon dodged and struck back, returning to the same deadlock.

So, Desmon began to wonder what would happen if their weapons kept colliding.

The demon reappeared to strike from behind. Desmon deflected the attack with Alastor, but this time he waited for the demon's follow-up swing, deflecting the scythe once again with Alastor.

The sound of their weapons clashing echoed through the area, the rhythm repeating over and over. With perfect timing, Desmon managed to intercept every attack.

After a minute, cracks appeared in the scythe, and Desmon continued the process.

"Let's finish this!" He said excitedly, realizing his plan was working.

A scythe made from some random demon or a devil arm Dante found many years ago; which weapon would be stronger?

Desmon gripped Alastor with both hands before repelling the scythe once more. On impact, the scythe shattered.

The clear winner: Alastor.

Taking advantage of the demon's stunned state from losing its weapon, Desmon hurled Alastor, impaling the demon and embedding it into the wall. He then leapt forward, grabbing the demon's skull with both hands and delivering several knee strikes.

''If Shizuka scolds me, I'll be coming for you in Hell.''

With a mid-air flip, still holding the demon, Desmon showcased immense strength, throwing the demon against the wall where Alastor was lodged.

It would have finished the demon off had Alastor's blade pierced it, but the sword was stuck in the wall, causing the demon to simply crash into the weapon's hilt.

Even so, before the demon could recover, it received a double kick that sent its skull slamming into Alastor.

''What are you eating that your bones are so tough?'' Desmon grinned as he began kicking the demon's skull repeatedly into Alastor's hilt.

If there was a demon protection organization, they would surely sue Desmon for excessive force.

"Did that butterfly have calcium or what?" He complained, growing impatient.

With one final kick, harder than the others, the demon's skull finally cracked, and Alastor's hilt pierced through it.

With its skull destroyed, the demon's body dissolved into red particles before disappearing entirely. The barrier vanished as well.

"Demons must drink a lot of milk..."

With those last words, everything around him distorted, and he returned to the train station.

The people at the station didn't notice his figure appearing out of nowhere in another location.

Desmon walked back to his train, but upon arrival, he noticed that the place was empty.

He sighed when he realized the train had left without him.

As he pulled out his cellphone, he noticed several missed calls from Shizuka.

''Inside that thing, there must be no signal.''

He muttered to himself as he called Shizuka.

"Hey, Shizuka, you'll never guess..."

"Where the hell did you go!?"

"The answer is in your words." Desmond said calmly.

"What do you want..." She stopped to think for a second. "Are you okay?"

"No problem, just took too long to deal with them, and I missed the..."

-Just need to catch the train.

An irrational thought, but not when it comes to Desmon.

While he was conversing with Shizuka, footsteps were heard coming towards him.

''Kya!''

Desmon looked away, noticing a girl in his own uniform, her most distinctive features being her blonde hair and jade eyes. She had a slim figure and good proportions.

She collided with Desmon as she ran while looking at her cell phone, and since he didn't move from such a light blow, the girl ended up backing away and falling to the ground.

"It seems there's a girl who had the same luck as me." Desmon said, focusing on that girl. To then extend a hand to help her up.

Desmon's mother taught him to be friendly with girls, although he usually does so in his own way.

"That must be Miura Yumiko. Her friends said she wasn't on the train during attendance." Shizuka explained.

Yumiko's attention was on Desmon, who was speaking on the phone nonchalantly.

She had heard from her friend that the new student was Hiratsuka-sensei nephew, and he had quickly caught the attention of most of the girls at Sobu High.

"You both can wait for the next train, which will depart in about two hours. Until then, avoid getting into trouble. Tell that to Miura as well." It was the best Shizuka could come up with.

"You know I can easily catch up to them, right?" Desmon said with an arrogant and confident tone.

"Don't you dare do that..." Shizuka began to say.

Before Shizuka could finish speaking, the call was cut.

"That boy is really going to give me wrinkles."

She clenched her fist at the thought of what Desmon was about to do.

Meanwhile, back at the train station, Desmon and Miura stood side by side.

"Hey Blondie, do you prefer waiting for the next train or catching up with them?" Desmon said, hoping for Miura's positive response.

"Huh!? I have a name, you know?"

"That doesn't answer the question."

"Of course, I want to catch up with them. I was going to chat with Yui and spend time with Hayato."

Miura had a great plan for this trip, but it all fell apart when they missed the train.

"That's what I wanted to hear."

After hearing that, Miura started thinking about what Desmon had said. Is it really possible to catch up with them?

"Then follow me; we have a train to catch."

Desmon started walking toward the outskirts of the train station. Shizuka warned him not to cause any trouble, so doing so inside would cause surprise and a future scolding from her.

Miura didn't know much about him, other than Yui mentioning that he's very peculiar, but since he's the nephew of one of her teachers, she didn't pay much attention to it.

Once outside, Desmon walked toward an alley where no one was around, and to Miura's surprise, when she arrived, she noticed Desmon had a motorcycle by his side.

"Is that yours?" Like any girl, it was impressive to see a guy with something so eye-catching.

"You could say so, so get on already to catch up with them." He said with a tone of disinterest.

Desmon got on, followed by Miura.

"By the way, where are the helmets..."

Miura didn't even finish speaking before Desmon took off.

"I don't have any of those.'' He replied cheerfully, using Kurox again in the city since Shizuka had forbidden him from doing so.

With a speed far exceeding the established limit, Desmon headed for the train tracks, which were 1 kilometer away.

At his first opportunity, Desmon noticed that Kurox could use demonic energy to reach incredible speed, but this would stop once he stopped supplying demonic energy. But what if he didn't stop?

After several minutes, they reached the train tracks, where Desmon began gathering demonic energy into Kurox.

"Why are you stopping?"

For Miura, the journey was calm, strangely enough. Although she could tell they were going at an incredibly high speed, there was no turbulence. It was as if those riding on Kurox were unaffected. The truth was that Desmon bore all the brunt of the wind pressure.

"It's time."

After saying that, the rear wheels started spinning at an intense speed, but they still didn't move from their position.

A bullet train has an average speed of over 300 km/h, so if they want to catch it, they have to go faster.

Before Miura could wonder what he meant by his words, she suddenly felt a drastic change in her surroundings. Her survival instincts kicked in, so she clung to Desmon as tightly as she could.

In less than a second, they left their original position.

"What the hell is going on!?"

Although Desmon's body protected her from the wind pressure, her instincts told her that letting go would mean her death. So she held on for dear life.

They were now traveling at a speed of over 600 km/h.

Not even 10 minutes passed before a train appeared in their line of sight.

Inside it, Shizuka was lost in thought.

"He won't do something as foolish as using Kurox to catch up with us, right?"

She shook her head.

"Though if I think about him, this could happen." She shook her head again and simply looked out the window.

"It's very dangerous, and he's with Miura, so I'll trust that he'll wait for the next train."

She cleared those doubts from her mind and focused on the landscape.

Right now, they were on the tracks over the sea, so she took in the beautiful ocean view.

She also noticed a clear sky, a sign that today would be a good day, but something entered her field of vision.

She thought that nothing would surprise her after her first encounter with a demon, but seeing her "nephew" matching the speed of a bullet train was something she had never considered.

Both their gazes met for a brief second, and in that moment, Shizuka noticed Desmon's arrogant smile.

He's someone accustomed to danger, and doing something like this couldn't possibly be on his list of dangerous things to do.

Shizuka was already thinking about how she would scold him, but then she heard a certain characteristic sound of trains.

Since it was a double track, Desmon used the one that was free to go at full speed, without considering the possibility of encountering another train head-on.

But even so, the smile on his face didn't change.

Shizuka got up from her seat and moved toward the last car, which fortunately was empty.

She knew that something like this wouldn't kill him; she had gotten used to it after spending some days together. However, the same couldn't be said for Miura, who was just an ordinary human.

She located one of the hatches on the roof and began to unlock it.

How did she know what Desmon was planning? It's simple.

Last night they watched an action movie together. There was a scene where the protagonist climbed on top of a moving bullet train just before getting shot off by the air pressure.

This could have gone unnoticed if Desmon hadn't mentioned that he could do it too.

And that was the case.

Before the second train crashed into them, Desmon got up and carried Miura, using Kurox as a platform to jump to the other train.

Miura wanted to scream; she wanted to tell him that what he was doing was insane. However, fear and other emotions prevented her from doing so. Her mind was in chaos as she focused solely on holding onto her teacher's nephew.

She was surprised when he lifted her into his arms, and they soared several meters.

Fortunately, they landed on the train they were originally supposed to board, but to their misfortune, Desmon had forgotten something important; that the base he was standing on wasn't the most stable. Moreover, the air pressure only threw them backward.

"Well, I didn't think of this." He quickly turned around so that his back took the brunt of the wind pressure.

The force of the wind sent him flying towards the last car of the train, and though he tried to use the strength of his legs to stop, without a sticking point, he couldn't do anything to stop his trajectory.

Luckily, as they were about to be thrown off the train, he noticed one of the hatches opening. Without hesitation, he used his legs to stop himself at the edges of the hatch, but they still didn't have much time. First, he lowered Miura, who was received by Shizuka.

Shizuka caught her and entered the car with her. Miura lost consciousness due to the shock of thinking she was about to die, and the wind pressure during the jump had also hit her. But since it was only for a few seconds, the damage was minimal.

Once Miura's safety was prioritized, it was time for Desmon to board as well. But before doing so, he shared a look with his teacher.

-If I don't tell her something now, she'll be annoying for the rest of the day.

So, before entering, he was going to apologize. However, he could not because he had not considered that the train tracks had signs.

Unfortunately, before he could enter, he was hit by one of these signs.

His body was sent flying after hitting and destroying a large advertising sign, and when you add the air pressure, his body was ejected as if it were a pressurized chamber.

Desmon's figure disappeared on the horizon as he traveled at over 300 km/h.

Shizuka watched as Desmon was struck and then disappeared from her field of vision, but...

"He'll be fine." She said to herself. Shizuka had seen him impaled and eaten by a demon, so being thrown through the air at a speed that would kill anyone shouldn't be a problem for the demon hunter.

She stopped thinking about her roommate and worried about Miura.

"Miura, Miura!"

Shizuka shook her a bit as she checked her for any injuries or damage to her body.

"I'll really punish him for doing such a stupid thing."

A few seconds later, Miura opened her eyes; she didn't remember what had happened in the last few minutes. Her mind had blocked that near-death experience.

Once she saw that Miura seemed to be okay, Shizuka sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, on one of the tracks, Desmon could be seen lying there.

"I'm sure there were no signs that came out of nowhere in that movie." He said to himself as he got up and dusted off his clothes.

The impact wasn't strong enough to hurt him. In fact, the only time he had been seriously injured was in his first encounter with Dante. To say that Dante beat him up is an understatement.

As Desmon wondered whether he should continue his journey or return to Chiba, his cell phone vibrated. To his surprise, the sender was someone he didn't particularly like.

Let's go back a few minutes to another place, specifically in the local called Devil May Cry

Lady came in to kill some time. Inside the place, she noticed Trish sitting at the desk eating pizza.

"I thought I'd be the only one here." Lady said casually as she sat on the desk and grabbed a slice of pizza.

"Bad luck." Trish replied.

Both of them enjoyed the quiet moment, although they missed the demon hunter who used to constantly complain about debts and having essential services cut off due to non-payment.

"Hey, Trish, don't you want to take a job in Japan? I was assigned one, but I really have no interest in traveling so far."

"Japan? I'll pass."

"I figured as much."

"Why did you accept it if you didn't want to go so far?"

"It was a government request. Apparently, in the city of Kyoto, there have been reports of children disappearing. Some witnesses say they saw a very tall woman taking them, but I don't really think it's a demon, more like a kidnapper. So, I don't have high expectations, but the pay is good, so I decided to take it."

"A tall woman, you say?"

Trish pulled out a small notebook she had next to her and started flipping through it.

"Maybe it is a demon." Trish said.

"Why do you say that?"

"I've been reading about Japanese folklore and demonology. Since Desmon asked me about it. Regarding what I found, there's a legend about a woman over 8 feet tall who usually wears a white suit and kidnaps children. She's known as Hachishaku-sama."

"If that's true, I guess I have no choice but to go. By the way, why did Desmon ask you about it? Hasn't he returned from his previous job?"

Desmon usually avoids Lady, as her calls are only to remind him of the large sum of money he owes.

"Something came up, and he'll be staying there for a long time. And I think you'll be glad to hear this, but today he should be arriving in Kyoto because of a school trip."

Desmon's demeanor towards Trish, in comparison to Lady, is like night and day.

Lady had a big smile upon hearing this. She could collect the money without having to travel there herself.

"It was a good decision to come here." She said.

After saying this, she took out her phone and dialed the number of her number one debtor.

Back to the train tracks, Desmon took out his phone and answered. He would normally avoid answering, but it was rare for Lady to call him so early; she usually bothered him more at night. However, this was due to the time zone difference.

"Tell me, what do you need from me? If it's about the money, I'm working on it, although it'll take some more time." He said tiredly.

"Fortunately, it's not about that. I have a job for you. Trish told me you're in Kyoto, and I happen to need you to deal with a demon in that area. It's not a request."

Lady shared some more details and the demon's appearance with him before ending the call.

"I guess I'll have to go to Kyoto..." Desmon sighed wearily, especially since Lady had assigned him a new job now.

Desmon sighed as Kurox appeared by his side. But then an idea struck him.

"I wonder what expression Shizuka will have if I wait for her at the train station."

He formed an arrogant smile and hopped onto Kurox, with his goal being to surpass the speed of a bullet train for the second time.