dakishimetai | denji

十八

"Ame's going with us?" Denji asks before jumping in his spot, eyes glinting in excitement. "This is so great! I can't wait to show her our line of work! I hope a devil suddenly appears so I can show off!"

"Please calm yourself down." Aki sighs, massaging his temple. "Were dealing much more now that were taking her out in public again." He adds

Denji immediately latches and clings himself to Ame's side, taking her by surprise. "Don't sweat it, buddy! Power 'n I can handle anything! But mostly me!" He stuck his tongue out to him.

Aki wondered if this was a good choice or not. Bringing Ame out, as per Makima's choice, is already risky. But devil hunters from various divisions are outside to do field work with them as well, so it should be safe, right?

"Is this really okay?" Ame asks, barely touching her food. "Were here eating and the others are-" Ame could not finish what she was saying as two gun shots could be heard outside of the quaint little restaurant they are in. Hearing those sounds made her slightly jump in her seat.

"What was that sound?" Denji asks, lifting his head up while he chews on his noodles.

"Only an idiot wouldn't know that" Power responded, chewing in between. "It's the sound of a drum."

"A festival?" Aki asks

"I've never been to a festival..." Ame confesses

"Seriously?" Himeno asks, turning her head to look at Ame with wide eyes

"Are you for real?" Denji asks, to which Ame nodded her head.

"I mean, I've heard of festival names before and people, mostly parents, present their daughters with dolls." Ame spoke, catching the four of them off guard.

"Dolls?"

"What are you talking about?"

Suddenly, Ame's face turned red, her hands gripping on her wooden chopsticks. "I-I mean...parents present their daughters with dolls so they won't have trouble being married right?" The four of them blinked before bursting out into laughter.

"Are you talking about the Matsuri Festival?" Himeno asks, taking a sip on her drink. "That's just superstition! No need to believe in it!"

As a smile finally painted her lips, Ame nodded her head. Before she could even dive into the ramen that was ordered for her, a hand suddenly clamped on her shoulder, catching her again by surprise.

"Not cool, dude." Denji spoke, annoyed as he yanked the man's hand off her shoulder. "Touching women like that? How low of you."

"This woman's doing a good job not eating her ramen. She knows what's good and what's awful." The man who sat behind Ame spoke to them.

"Who are you?" Himeno asks, wary of his appearance.

Denji's eyes were trained on the man sitting behind her before darting down to notice the slight tremble in Ame's hands. "Look here, man. She's shaking. At least apologize to her." He demanded.

But the man simply shrugged Denji off. "You just don't know good flavors from bad. Well, not like you can help it. Apparently if you only eat the same sort of things when you're a kid, it dulls your taste as an adult. And if you lose your sense of taste, then your overall happiness will decrease."

"But I am happy!" Power barks back at him

As Ame's hands continued to tremble, Denji shot Aki a knowing look. Catching the message, Aki nodded his head to Himeno and Power.

"Let's take our leave." He announced, getting up from his seat.

"You can get up, right?" Denji stood up from his seat, an arm securely placed around her shoulders. "Let's get out of here and get some air, yeah?" As Ame nodded her head, he stood behind Ame, letting her walk out first as he didn't trusted the guy talking to them.

"My old man was the nicest guy in the world. He took me all sorts of expensive places and let me try good food." The guy begins to say, "He may be a yakuza, but he had a good heart. He may have killed a number of girls, received money from selling drugs, but everyone loved him. My old man made a lot of people happy. I myself included." Slipping his hand inside the pocket of his coat, the man pulled out an old, developed photo.

"You liked him too, didn't you, Denji?"

As Ame turned her head to look at the developed photo, her eyes slightly widened in surprise. The memory of meeting Denji at the old rundown building flashing inside her mind.

"What are you trying to say?" Denji asks

"You know him?" Aki asks

"The gun devil wants your heart. And the unknown devil this woman."

Before anything could escalate, Ame turned around and took Denji's head around her arms. The pain of being shot in her left elbow brought a different kind of pain through her. Although the pain was temporary, Denji didn't took it so kindly.

"Don't move your arm." He said to her, directing Ame to the corner of the restaurant. "I'll call paramedics and-" His eyebrows furrowed as he watched Ame twisted her left arm to look at her elbow before taking the bullet out with her bare hands.

"How did you..."

"I'm alright!" She smiled at him with her eyes closed. "This bullet isn't lethal. And I even didn't bleed! See?" Ame then proceeded to show the bloodless bullet that hit her elbow to him. 

The ground began to shake at rapid acceleration, because of it, the ceiling cracked and began to fall down. Using his body, Denji shielded Ame from the rubble and as long as the ground was no longer shaking.

"The hell was that?" Denji asks, slowly sitting up to look around. Eyes trained on the katana devil.

"Go help them, Denji." Ame mumbles, pushing Denji off her. "I'll be fine over here! I'll stay with Himeno." Ame spoke. As much as Denji didn't wanted to leave Ame behind, he had no choice but to help his fellow colleagues. Sprinting up on his feet to help Aki and Power defeat the katana devil. As Denji left, Ame scrambled to get to where Himeno is, placing her head on top of her lap.

"The bullet has hit your vital organs." Ame says, ripping a piece of her sleeve to suppress the bleeding. "Please don't move so much." She adds, pressing the cloth onto her chest.

"Please" Himeno begs, looking up at Ame's eyes with desperation. "Just this once."

Letting out a breath, Ame nodded her head. Afterall, the sight of human's dying weren't new to her. She's seen people come and go in life. And yet, despite it all, she's still here. Ame longed to have a normal life like them too.

"I'll offer you my everything...so let me use all of you" Himeno mumbled to a hand that soon grinned and multiplied.

"Hey Ame" Himeno calls to her, looking up at the wish angel. "Can you...grant me a wish?"

Blinking her eyes, Ame bit her inner lower lip. "Denji's my defective wish and person. But for you, I'll go back to square one." She said, offering Himeno a small smile.

"It's not really a wish" Himeno chuckles softly, her right arm twisting and disappearing. "I just want to ask if someone ever really loved me. Someone like him." She voiced out.

Ame didn't needed to ask to who was she referring to. A simple action of just nodding her head to Himeno brought a wave of calm to her before completely disappearing from her lap.