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The smell of blood couldn’t snap Shigeo out of his trance. Everything felt wrong.
He… did this?
The only being that brought him back to the present was a lady in her mid-twenties, reddish hair and hypnotizing eyes. He could see her lips moving as he tilt his head high enough to see.
“Good job, Shigeo.” The lady, his mentor, smiled with her soft voice, a voice that didn’t match her aura at all.
Looking back at the pile of flesh laying in front of him, he remembered what he did in the first place.
Yes, that’s right. His mentor, lady Makima, was teaching him about the use of telekinesis by killing some devils. If you asked the Shigeo Kageyama from years ago if he would be able to kill a devil willingly with his powers, he would’ve been frightened.
Not the Shigeo from the present.
They were not kind devils, they were going to harm a family nearby, lady Makima said to him.
Thanks to his mentor’s teachings, he got better control of his psychic powers, in exchange, he would help lady Makima with hunting devils who harmed humans. At first, he wasn’t convinced at all, since devils were equally living beings, but lady Makima explained how these devils would kill anyone, even his family, without hesitation nor sympathy.
He never explained to his parents what he was doing in his free time. Lady Makima covered for him by saying that she was teaching him about math (she wasn’t completely wrong) and his parents seemed relieved at that.
He had the feeling his brother didn’t believe her, but sometimes lies like this were necessary to protect the people he cares about.
One afternoon, while he was doing his math homework in lady Makima’s office, a question popped in his mind.
“Lady Makima,” The woman in question looked up from her seat and smiled. “Do you think there’s devils or spirits who are kind?”
Makima stared at him, resting her hand on her chin, thinking until a few words escaped her mouth.
“No things such as kind devils nor spirits exist.”
“Why?”
“Devils feed off fear from the humans, and spirits disturb both instead of going to the afterlife.” She calmly responded. Shigeo always felt heard when he was around her. She was never going to judge him, even if he slashes out whenever he’s not able to contain his emotions, or when he gets a low grade in a math test.
She encouraged him to show his emotions more, actually.
“Your powers are something special, Shigeo, something that will help you protect your loved ones from evil entities.” His mentor said once.
And so, he did.
In command, his emotions could go from 0% to 100% as he ripped devils apart or when he exorcized spirits, all thanks to his mentor.
“If there was a kind devil, they would be here working with me.” She laughed as he smiled.
—
When he was eating some crêpes that his mentor bought for him as a reward for exorcizing a spirit, this time, she was the one who asked.
“Shigeo, if there was a devil who tried to hurt your friends, would you kill it?”
He thought that the answer was obvious, but knowing lady Makima, there was more to that.
“Yes.”
“What if it was not a devil?” She turned to look at him, her eyes as entrancing as always.
“Like a spirit?” He took a bite and swallowed before answering. “Then I would exorcize it, of course.”
“Not a spirit,” She never broke eye contact with him. “A human.”
That made him stop.
A human?
Would he be able to kill another human being?
The answer came quickly, though.
“I would hurt them, so they don’t bother my friends.”
This seemed to satisfy her, because she smiled once again and pat his head, a thing she did any time he did something right.
“Good answer.”
—
She didn’t pat him in the head when he refused to kill a devil one Sunday in the morning.
It was a kind devil, he thought.
They could work with you, he thought.
So why does she want him to kill it?
“This devil was not kind, Shigeo.” She didn’t smile, but her tone was still soft.
“She wanted to find her lover and didn’t harm anyone…”
Makima crouched and looked at him, her face with a lack of expression.
“Maybe now she didn’t harm anyone, but you still hurt her. Devils are vengeful. Tell me, Shigeo,” She tilt her head to the side a bit. “What would you do if this same devil kills your brother as vengeance for hurting her?”
Time seemed to stop.
“Devils are not kind, Shigeo. Their kindness is an act, don’t let them fool you.”
He ended up tearing the devil in two.
He got a pat on the head.
—
The first time Shigeo hurt a human was the time he met his mentor.
He wasn’t even in middle school at the time, but he knew that he couldn’t ignore a young lady getting hurt because of evil entities at the park on his way home.
He approached the lady, ignoring her perpetrators, and helped her get up.
The lady seemed amused, looking at him with intrigue, then he faced the bad people.
“Um, please leave this lady alone.” He yelled (it was not a yell) as he held the handles of his backpack with force. The, he looked at the evil entity, he read once that these were called ‘devils’, and then stared at the man besides it who had blood all over his clothes.
“Don’t get in our way, brat.” The man yelled back, and the devil took this as its cue to attack.
Shigeo didn’t have time to react when the devil pushed him to the side, hurting his head in the process.
In the blink of an eye, piles of disgusting flesh were across the floor, and the man was laying on the floor, no signs of breathing.
He only stared.
And stared.
And stared.
Waiting for it to disappear.
Did he do this?
“Are you alright?” A soft voice spoke from behind.
The lady he saved, who had a tiny smile, got to his level and wiped the blood out of his head.
“I’m…I’m sorry.” He did it, he hurt someone, the thing he feared the most.
The lady tilts her head curiously.
“Why are you apologizing? You saved me.”
“I shouldn’t use my powers against people.” He whispered, avoiding looking at the woman.
“Your powers are amazing.” The lady’s smile grew. “Similar to mine.”
This made Shigeo’s head turn abruptly to look at her.
“You are a psychic?!” Multiple questions started flowing in his head. Finally! Someone like him! That explains her unusual aura!
“Yes. I also work at Public Safety.” She got something out of her pocket and showed him some sort of badge. “Your powers seem undeveloped, but you have a good potential.”
This person was a boss? Maybe... just maybe…
“Miss, could you teach me?” His starry eyes didn’t go unnoticed. She lifted a questioning brow. “My powers, could you please teach me to use my powers?”
The lady stared at him for a moment until she got up.
“What’s your name?”
“Shigeo.”
“Shigeo, I will gladly teach you,” She lifted her index finger. “In return, I would like you to help me to save people from devils. Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you.”
The lady’s name was Makima, she said later as she accompanied him back home, explaining to his parents about tutoring him (he didn’t like lying, but he guessed her powers are secret) and giving him her number to contact her.
Next day, he got ice cream and a pat on the head from Makima for saving some highschoolers from a small devil.
—
“Shigeo, I have an important request for you.” She said while they were sitting inside of a train back to his home, their last mission was a bit far away.
He looked up, waiting for his mentor to continue.
“There is this devil who caught my interest. His name is the Chainsaw Devil.”
He imagined the sounds. Chainsaw? That’s new.
“I would like you to help me to bring him to me. He has been killing other devils.”
He couldn’t believe it.
“Is he a kind devil? I thought those didn’t exist.”
“He’s not exactly kind, but he’s useful” She focused on the trees passing by the window. “He could help us defeat the biggest devil in here.” The Gun Devil went unsaid.
Shigeo still couldn’t get the idea of a Chainsaw devil being helpful and kind out of his mind, though.
“I know what you’re thinking,” She grinned at him. “He can turn into a human, according to a few hunters.”
“How can I help?”
“You have a way with people, Shigeo.” She faced him and patted his head. “You can get him for me, yes?”
He thought about how his grades improved due to his mentor’s tutoring, how his powers were used correctly thanks to her teachings. Lady Makima has been so kind to him, how can he say no to her?
“I will.”