[1st POV]
I got out of the car after we reached the Kan-Etsu expressway. I also helped Makima out of the car because she still wouldn't let go of my hand.
It was only after she closed the door that she released my hand. She held me for so long it felt empty without her. One of her tricks, probably.
"Let's fucking do this," I said while cracking my neck.
The expressway, Yuzawa section in specific, was located in a mountainous area with many tunnels and bridges. We had driven past the blockage a few minutes ago, and the place we were in was close to where the Accident Devil first appeared.
I could already see fire and smoke rising in the distance.
"The devils had disappeared half an hour ago. They are suspected to be hiding inside that tunnel, and the Devil Hunters are already surrounding it from both sides," she said while pointing to the distance where we could see a large mountain.
"They had not done anything to provoke the devils to buy time," she said.
I was not going to ask how she knew all this, even though we were in the same car. She'd probably say it's a secret while giving me a smile.
"What are they waiting for? More reinforcement?" I asked instead.
She smiled, "They're waiting for you."
"..."
"Cool," I said, and it was a genuine comment. I felt kind of cool when she put it like that.
"Let's go," I said and we made our way towards the tunnel that went through the biggest mountain.
On our way there, we finally got the chance to see all the chaos. There was destruction everywhere. The mountain was filled with green, so the craters or the places that lost dirt were easy to spot.
Many cars were crashed, some on the side and some completely upside down. There were a few ambulances and the medical team were busy with anyone who was injured.
The expressway went along the side of a mountain. So while there was a cliff on our right, there was a wall of mountain to our left. There were many small landslides that happened and I saw some of the medics removing the dirt in search of lost bodies.
I gave a glance to Makima and saw that her face was a mask of stoicism. She looked like she was taking a stroll through the city. There was not a single emotion on her face.
I couldn't really judge either because I didn't care about all these people as much as I should.
When we neared the tunnel, we finally saw the military and some police. They let us pass through the blockage they made with their cars and when we walked even further, we finally met with the Devil Hunters situated there.
I smelled that there were 37 or so Devil Hunters in total on this side of the tunnel. There was twice that number on the other side, I think. It was hard to get their scent with this gigantic mountain in the way.
But strangely enough, I didn't smell any devil.
Makima and I shared a look. She couldn't smell it either.
A few people walked up to us, one of them was a familiar face.
"What's the situation, Kishibe?" Makima asked.
Kishibe. The so-called strongest Devil Hunter in the world. He was an old man in a profession where people died young.
"The situation is as you can see," he said with dead eyes and a deader voice. He had two swords strapped to his back, and he didn't wear the coat I was used to seeing on all Division Captains. He seemed to be dressed for war.
He had a pocket flask in his hand, and he downed the alcohol after he spoke to Makima. It's like he needed to drink whenever he interacted with her.
"Is this the weapon?" he asked, his dead eyes rolled towards me.
"This is Jin Nakahara, captain of the 4th Special Division of Tokyo," Makima said quickly. She did not like him referring to me as just a weapon, or at least that's what she pretended to be.
"Okay, so what now?" he asked, "Is he going alone?"
"Yes," Makima answered.
I am?
As if to answer my question, she turned to me. "The other hunters will only drag you down and increase the casualty number. You go inside the tunnel and lead them out, we can assist you from there."
"I was half joking you know. Isn't that... I don't know... hilariously dangerous and borderline suicide?" Kishibe asked, still with dead eyes and dead tone. He was like a zombie.
Makima smiled, "He can do it."
I can?
"Yes you can," she said again, reading my mind. She reached for something inside her pocket and handed it to me.
I squeezed the object and saw that it was a small blood bag.
"In case anything goes wrong," she said thoughtfully.
I threw the blood bag in my hand up and down a few times while thinking. It seemed like a dangerous task but whatever, I had insane regeneration anyway. I doubt there were many things that could kill me before I even know it and the Accident Devil wouldn't be one of them.
I caught the blood bag, "Okay, I'm ready."
"You're insane," Kishibe commented, "That's good."
How was that good?
But before I could ask anything more, the people moved towards the tunnel. Kishibe began shouting orders to the nearby members of his division.
"Make way for the new guy," he said, his tone was even but loud. "He will be heading inside the tunnel so get ready in case anything happens."
The group stopped moving at the last invisible line and I went forward on my own. I took in the scents in the air, still not catching the smell of devils even as I was literally in front of the tunnel.
That was concerning.
I stopped.
I could almost hear everyone holding their breath with my simple reactions alone. I turned towards them with a frown.
"I'm scared too you know," I said while looking at all the Devil Hunters.
No one was impressed.
I grinned and continued walking forward. When I was a few steps inside the dark tunnel and my figure nearly disappeared, I released a loud scream.
"AHHHH!!!"
The tunnel made my scream louder and made it echo. I could hear a few people matching my screams and flinching.
I turned back with a laugh, "Seems good."
Only Makima was smiling widely. I guess the two of us were the only people not taking this as gravely or as seriously.
I finally entered the tunnel fully. It was a wide tunnel but also extremely dark. The deeper I went inside, the darker the place got. It was a long tunnel and after a few minutes of walking, I could barely see anything.
But my eyes worked in the complete darkness. The entrance also gave me some light as the Devil Hunters shone flashlights and car headlights so I could see.
I stopped when I saw something hanging upside down on top of the tunnel. It was a human body, no, a corpse. It was only when I saw it that I could smell the scent of devil.
My eyes travelled down and saw a pool of blood just below the corpse. The body was slowly dripping blood.
...
I did this wrong didn't I? I should've continued walking without seeing the devil, spot the pool of blood first and look up to the corpse and have a jumpscare.
"Unfortunately, I watched too many horror movies," I said to the devil with a smile.
"....."
I got no reply.
"I know that's you, I can smell you," I said again, "Are you going to do something?"
I slowly approached the body. Upon a closer look, I saw that it was a corpse and every part of its body had different levels of decay. Some parts just looked pale, some parts had maggots and a few spots were pure skeleton.
It was quite spooky but I have seen worse.
Trust me, I have seen WAY worse.
It's not bad actually.
Suddenly, the upside down corpse bent its back to an inhumane degree. The burtal snap of bones froze me. Then it moved and ran away on all fours on the roof of the tunnel like it was the ground.
...
Wait, that IS the ground.
"Huh?" I suddenly realized I was the one hanging upside down on the roof of the tunnel.
The realization reversed my gravity and I fell down. I did a flip and landed on my feet. When I stood back up, everything had gone dark.
I couldn't see anything. I didn't even know if I blinked or not because everything was the same. I could see my hands when I brought them very close to my eyes but I could not see my legs at all. They were swallowed by a sea of darkness.
It was getting really, really creepy.
I looked forward, or at least I think I did. I couldn't tell at all with the complete darkness. I walked forward, trying not to stumble as I did so.
I only walked a few steps before I crashed into a wall. I stumbled back.
"So that's not forward," I said and began feeling the wall I crashed into.
The whole tunnel was concrete, but my hands felt something soft. It felt like flesh but it was not warm. When I rubbed the wall with my palm, I felt some hair.
I moved back immediately.
Then the wall opened its eyes.
Eyes.
Ten, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands. They began opening, their eyeballs rolled in various directions like they were the eyes of someone losing consciousness.
The multiple eyes released a glow that was enough to make my surroundings visible again. That was when I realized I was going at the right direction, a devil was blocking the tunnel.
But I wasn't sure if I was still in the tunnel because not just the devil, the walls began opening hundreds of eyes. Only the ground beneath my feet had no eyes.
The eyes rolled around before they suddenly looked at me. Millions of gazes seemed to fall on my figure and I felt my hair stand.
They blinked together too, all at once.
They continued to lock their gaze on me until something caught their attention. They looked behind me and I immediately turned around.
Lights blinded my eyes. I shielded myself and peeked between my fingers. They were the headlights of cars, multiple of them.
They began honking at me. The sound completely filled my ears. They were different honks coming from different cars and they continued to drive towards me.
"Get out of the way!!!"
"NOOOO!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
Screams and shouts filled my ears. The ground grew mouths and began scolding me. They screamed at me to move, some just screamed in terror. It sounded like all the victims of crashed cars screaming at me.
The cars got closer, and closer and closer.
I began seeing ink appear on my skin. I looked at them and under my eyes, they began forming words in Kanji.
Name: Jin Nakahara.
Age: 16 years old.
Death Date: 12th August, 1997
Death Time: 3:17 pm
Cause of Death: Ac-
My body was used as my own funeral tablet.
The cars were going to hit me.
I took out the blood bag from my pocket and tossed it inside my mouth. Although I didn't need it, it would break after my transformation so I drank it now.
I bit at the plastic and blood exploded out. Human blood. It was the most delicious liquid I have ever tasted.
A nice sensation right before pain filled my whole body.
The honks and engine of the cars were drowned out by the furious cry of a pig.
"REEEEEE!!!!!!"
*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*
The whole mountain erupted.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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