Chapter 82: The Theory of Lifespan? (EC)

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: The Theory of Lifespan? (EC)

Kotone Asaba asked the black market staff to help Akane Sawatari open a bank account so it would be easier to transfer the money to her.

Hearing this, the black market staff member immediately looked surprised. After all, the girl did not look like a Devil Hunter.

The Minotaur Devil had actually been killed by this girl?

Come to think of it, it was strange too. Why had Devil Hunters from Tokyo Public Safety appeared here?

This person was only an ordinary black market staff member, so he knew nothing about the matter between Tokyo Public Safety and Kyoto’s private Devil Hunters.

While surprised, the black market staff member immediately went to help Akane open a bank account.

Then he directly transferred one million yen into Akane’s card.

When Akane discovered that the full one million yen had gone into her account, she actually resisted it. "Why did all one million go to me? Weren’t we splitting it equally?"

"Reze and I don’t need it. You were the main contributor in this operation anyway, and you’re short on money, so it’s all yours," Kotone Asaba said.

"That won’t do. If it should be split evenly, then it has to be split evenly."

Akane insisted on dividing the one million yen evenly.

Because of what she had experienced in Iwasaki Denta’s team before, she was even more stubborn about things like this.

"Fine, then..."

Kotone Asaba did not say anything else.

It was not a bad thing for Akane to have principles like this.

After splitting it evenly, Akane still had more than three hundred thirty thousand yen on her card. To her, that was still an enormous sum of money.

Akane Sawatari Affinity increased by 5%.

Akane Sawatari’s Affinity progress has reached 30%. Achievement reward obtained: Constitution +1.

In truth, Akane was simply in a very happy mood right now, but her Affinity toward Kotone Asaba also increased a little along the way.

"Um... sir, ma’am, my sister is almost out of school. I should go back and make dinner for her," Akane said to Kotone Asaba and Reze when they left the black market.

"Okay. Go on back," Kotone Asaba said with a nod.

Although she had more money on her now, Akane was still reluctant to spend money on an expensive taxi. Instead, she slowly waited for the bus.

After all, the bus would not be that much slower, but compared to a taxi, it was far, far cheaper.

After parting ways with Akane, Kotone Asaba took Reze to look for a nearby hotel.

He definitely needed to stay in Kyoto for a while, so he planned to stay at a hotel temporarily.

On the way to the hotel, Kotone Asaba suddenly said, "By the way, when you transform in the future, wear more clothes."

Every time Reze transformed into the Bomb Hybrid, the only things left on her body were a dynamite apron that barely covered anything and a pair of underwear.

"Oh~? I didn’t expect you to care about that, Koto~"

Reze had a playful smile on her face, as though she had discovered something very interesting.

"Of course I care. It wouldn’t be good if other people saw you like that."

Kotone Asaba did not look especially embarrassed. He simply said what he cared about.

"I know. Next time, I’ll keep my clothes intact. I only blew them off before because I felt like it made moving around more convenient," Reze said.

In reality, she had long since discovered that whether she blew off her clothes or not had almost no effect on her movement. It was just a psychological thing.

And since Koto actually cared about this, she immediately felt very pleased.

Reze Affinity increased by 5%.

At that moment, Akane had already returned home.

She first went nearby to buy some cheap vegetables that happened to be on sale, and for once, she also bought some meat.

After being a private Devil Hunter for so long, she had finally earned her first real payday in her Devil Hunter career today. Naturally, she wanted to make something better for her sister and help her eat a little more nutritiously.

"Akane, my shop made some extra meat buns today. If we sell them normally, we probably won’t sell them all. If you want, I’ll sell you one at half price and give you another one for free so you and your sister can both try them."

"We’ve got some taiyaki left too..."

At that moment, Akane passed through a street lined with all kinds of food shops. The owners of several shops were all very warm toward her.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you very much!"

Akane bowed and thanked them one by one, then bought some cheap food like she usually did.

If she had not often been able to buy discounted food, life for her and her sister would have been even harder before.

After buying prepared food and ingredients, Akane returned home and started making dinner.

Her sister happened to come back around the same time.

"Akane, I’m home!"

As soon as Sawatari Yui entered, she saw all kinds of ingredients and prepared food on the table. She immediately could not help but exclaim in surprise, "Whoa! Why did you suddenly buy so much food today?"

Sawatari Yui was currently Akane’s only family. Naturally, her facial features were very similar to Akane’s. She was wearing a middle school girl’s uniform, and her hair was tied into twin ponytails.

"I hunted a Devil today and made some money, so I was able to buy more good food," Akane explained with a smile.

"Oh! You’re amazing, Akane! You can even kill Devils now!"

Yui looked at her in admiration.

Yui was still young and did not understand much about Devils or Devil Hunters. She only knew that Devils were scary, powerful bad guys, and Devil Hunters were people who specialized in dealing with those bad guys.

Akane had also never told her sister about the grievances she had suffered before. She did not want her sister to worry about her.

"Akane... what happened to your fingers?"

At that moment, Yui saw that all five fingers on Akane’s left hand were wrapped in bandages, as though she had suffered a very serious injury.

"Ah... this is nothing. My hand just got hurt by accident when I was dealing with the Devil. It’s just a small injury, nothing serious."

Akane looked a little flustered and instinctively wanted to hide her left hand behind her back. But after thinking about it, she realized it was already far too late to hide it now.

"Are you really okay?"

Yui sounded a little doubtful.

"Of course I’m really okay."

Akane did her best to control her expression and avoid giving herself away.

"Then I’ll go do my homework first."

Yui did not keep asking. She put her schoolbag on the desk and started doing her homework while eating a meat bun.

Although Yui was still not very mature, she knew that her sister worked hard every day for her sake. Akane had to work part-time jobs and also had to do the very dangerous work of a Devil Hunter.

Because of that, she cherished everything Akane brought her, especially since Akane spent a lot of money to keep her in school. Yui had always done her best to work hard in her studies.

Akane naturally noticed all of this.

Her sister’s hard work made her feel very relieved, and it was also the source of motivation that had always kept her going. In almost every exam, her sister could rank in the top ten of her entire grade level.

Whenever Yui occasionally did badly on a test, she would blame herself, but Akane definitely would not blame her sister. No matter what her grades were, as long as she had worked hard, that was enough.

When she washed the vegetables, Akane’s left hand could not touch water, so even washing vegetables took her a great deal of effort.

After that, she had to endure the pain while cooking, because her left hand hurt terribly even if she moved it just a little. She did her best to control her facial expression, especially making sure not to make any sound, in case her sister noticed that something was wrong.

After a great deal of difficulty, dinner was finally ready.

When Yui smelled the food, she could no longer focus on her homework. She tidied up the notebooks on the desk, because the desk would have to serve as their dining table in a moment.

There was no helping it. Their family was simply too poor. They could not afford a proper dining table, and there was not much space in their small room either.

Akane brought the finished dishes to the table one after another, then pulled a chair over from the side and sat together with her sister.

"There’s so much meat today. Akane, how much money did you make today?" Yui asked curiously.

Usually, apart from the meat buns Akane occasionally brought back, they rarely got to eat meat. Today, there was actually a whole plate full of meat, which instead made her feel a little unused to it.

"I made a little over three hundred thirty thousand yen," Akane answered without hiding it.

"That much? Akane, you’re amazing!"

Yui exclaimed in surprise.

She did not actually have much of a concept of money. She only knew that this amount was a lot. A whole lot.

"It was mainly because my mentor and his girlfriend brought me along. If I had been on my own, it would’ve been very hard for me to do it."

"Who are your mentor and his girlfriend?"

"They’re two Devil Hunters from Tokyo Public Safety. Public Safety Devil Hunters are much stronger than private ones like me. Today, they became my mentor and his girlfriend, and they helped me a lot."

As they ate dinner, Akane chatted with her sister.

They talked about things that had happened at Yui’s school, as well as the process of how Akane had hunted the Minotaur Devil today.

At that moment, Yui fell silent for a while. "...Once we aren’t so short on money anymore, can you stop being a Devil Hunter?"

"Huh? Why are you suddenly saying that?"

Akane looked at her sister in surprise.

"Being a Devil Hunter is too dangerous. The injury on your hand must hurt a lot, right?"

Yui’s tone was full of heartache.

"..."

Akane immediately fell silent.

If she had a choice, she would not want to be a Devil Hunter either. It really was too dangerous.

It was not just about being attacked by Devils. The contract price for using Devil power could also injure people.

Just like today, she had used the Snake Devil’s power too casually, causing all the fingernails on her left hand to be taken as payment. They had been reduced until only about one-third remained. For these fingernails to grow back to normal on their own would take at least one or two months.

She had learned her lesson this time. In the future, she had to be careful with how much she used the Snake Devil’s power.

Since every fingernail on her left hand had only one-third left, she would not use them for now. She had to conserve the fingernails on her right hand. Otherwise, she would very quickly have nothing left that she could pay as a price. It took far too long for a full fingernail to grow back.

There was also the other price besides fingernails. Nosebleeds were not as easy to bear as she had imagined. When she had a nosebleed, her body clearly felt unwell and weak. It was not as simple as just bleeding from the nose.

Unfortunately, Akane had no room to choose.

As soon as she reached the age when she could work, she gave up on her studies and went out to work. But part-time work was not a long-term solution either, and without enough education, she could not find any good jobs.

Becoming a Devil Hunter was her only way out. It was dangerous, but it also allowed her to earn a large sum of money all at once.

"If something suddenly happened to you... I wouldn’t know what to do..."

Yui seemed to imagine certain scenes, and her voice gradually grew tearful.

"Silly girl. I’m not that easy to get rid of. Don’t let your imagination run wild."

Akane patted her sister on the head and smiled gently.

In the short term, she actually was not worried about much. Her mentor and his girlfriend were accompanying her.

She felt that both of them were very good people. They were not harsh toward her, they were easy to talk to, and when she hunted Devils, they protected her from the side. They gave her a very strong sense of security.

For now, the only thing she needed to worry about was the contract price of the Snake Devil. She could not use the Snake Devil’s power too casually.

However, she would not slack off because of that. Since she had been given such a good opportunity, she had to work even harder and make herself grow as quickly as possible.

"Once you finish your homework, I’ll take you to buy some pretty new clothes," Akane said to her sister.

Apart from buying new clothes, she was also preparing to move somewhere else. The space here was too small, and the environment was not good either.

"Pretty new clothes? That’s great! I’ll keep doing my homework right away!"

Yui immediately grew excited, and her originally heavy mood disappeared.

Akane’s goal had also been achieved. Her sister’s mood had improved.

That night.

On the other side, Kotone Asaba was not doing anything serious either. He was just playing video games with Pochita.

Meanwhile, Reze was teasing Nono at the side. Of course, they had brought back the Pomeranian they had bought at the pet shop in Moscow. It was just that they had been running all over the place today, so for convenience, they had kept Nono in the Kamui dimension the whole time.

Although Pochita only looked like a little dog, after playing games for a long time, he had developed pretty decent skills. By now, he was practically turning into a "gaming addict Devil."

When it was almost time to sleep, Kotone Asaba and Reze were like an old married couple.

They were already used to scrubbing each other’s backs and squeezing together in the bathtub for a bath. Kotone Asaba no longer blushed like he had at the beginning.

After bathing, he no longer worried about Reze stealing his kidney either, and they naturally slept together.

Reze directly used him like a body pillow, hugging him like an octopus.

At that moment, Reze suddenly spoke. "Koto, do you think that a hundred years from now, I’ll be all alone again?"

As a Hybrid, she did not age and would not die. But Koto was a normal person. One day, he would eventually leave her.

Before meeting Koto, she had never cared about the issue of lifespan. Now, she instead felt that not aging or dying was not necessarily a good thing.

This... was a lifespan problem?

If Reze had not suddenly brought it up, Kotone Asaba really would have overlooked this matter before.

"You’re thinking way too far ahead. And how can you be sure that I definitely won’t be here a hundred years from now?" Kotone Asaba said with a faint smile.

According to an ordinary person’s lifespan, it was true that he would most likely be gone after a hundred years. But the key was that he was not an ordinary person.

He had the ability to make himself a Hybrid. It only depended on whether he wanted to or not. If he really wanted to, he could just go to the Soviet military and ask them for a Devil heart.

Hearing this, Reze was slightly stunned, then quickly reacted. "...Are you saying you’re going to become a Hybrid too?"

"I have that plan. I’m just not in a hurry for now," Kotone Asaba said.

Becoming a Hybrid would not have any downsides for him. The Devil heart inside his body would not have any negative effect on him, and it could even make him immortal and allow him to revive infinitely.

He was not like the other Hybrids who would be restrained by the military either.

If he had to name the only downside, perhaps it would be that living too long might become very boring. But at least it was better than dying. If he died, there would be nothing left.

"Mm~~"

Hearing this, Reze immediately felt reassured, and she unconsciously hugged Koto a little tighter.

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