Chapter Text
The sunlight peers through the blinds of apartment 606, the golden beams casting open Asa’s now stirring figure beneath the plush bedsheets. She wakes up alone, as per usual, robbed of the normalcy of having a full set of parents in the household. At least she has her cat Chambo to keep her company and save her sanity, but there was still that underlying wish that she had a family.
She pushed that thought out of the way, there was not much use dwelling on something that couldn’t be changed. That’s how she would put it, anyway. She rolled out of her bed and conducted her usual day to day routine. Get out of bed, brush her teeth, wash her face, make breakfast and get changed afterward so she wouldn’t stain her uniform with toothpaste or food. She would fill Chambo’s food and water bowls, clean the litter tray, water the plants and start any chores before leaving for school that day.
Asa was done with putting her laundry in the washing machine, the last thing she needed to do before leaving. She petted Chambo’s fur, hugging him before she had to go, wishing she could stay home but alas she had to go into school. She didn’t hate the work or the learning, but she did struggle with being forced in social situations with classmates. It boiled down to social anxiety, but she felt a sort of hatred towards people who had a lot of friends or even were in relationships. Maybe it was her yearning for some companionship, something she was deprived from for so long. She didn’t want somebody to complete her but she wanted something to give her a little boost in a way, like the way Chambo does.
The morning went as usual. She sat quietly in class and got on with her work, trying to ignore that chicken devil her creepy teacher - Mr. Tanaka - had brought in. It was idiotic for him to bring in a devil knowing that she had lost both parents to one, but what else could she expect from a deranged pedophile. She hoped he would just die already or get imprisoned, the school wouldn’t do anything about him. Karma would get him one day, hopefully. At least he wasn’t in school today.
They had PE just before lunchtime, and Bucky was of course encouraged to join in much to Asa’s dismay. They had all decided not to kill him a day or two ago, which had achieved their teacher’s goal of ‘teaching the value of life’ or some schmuck. She was mulling over the class decision; sure, Bucky was harmless, but he was still a devil at the end of the day. Could they really expect her to like devils knowing what had happened to her parents? She found it plain stupid, no, she found it disgusting.
Having been too lost in thought, she had no idea that a devil was just killed nearby by two devil hunters, the dead body of Mr. Tanaka sliced in half and his blood being sucked up by the one with red horns and long peachy hair.
“The devil’s been exterminated!” The other devil hunter, a blonde boy with a chainsaw and an eyepatch covering his right eye, yelled out. “This area’s safe now, don’t touch the blood or the body, please!”
Asa had tensed up - there was a devil nearby? How did none of them have a clue what was going on, or did no one care to know what was happening? She stood behind everyone while they got on with playing football, trying not to succumb to another panic attack again.
And if things couldn’t get any worse, Bucky decided to jump up and situate himself in Asa’s arms. Perhaps he sensed her fear, but she didn’t care why, she was too freaked out to think about it. She heard that blonde boy call out to her, and she began to run out of fear. Her heart thudded against her chest, the fear bringing her back to when she was trying to escape from the typhoon devil with her mum. She was being chased, and as she always seemed to do, she tripped herself up.
Her teeth burrowed into the flesh of her bottom lip, why did she always have to trip in the most critical situations? Bucky would likely be crushed to death seeing how fragile he was and how she would be landing full force on her stomach. She was getting so frustrated with everything, how her stupid teacher brought a devil into the classroom, how none of her classmates seemed to care about her, and just how alone she felt. Asa was nearing tears, but then…
She heard the loud thud of a weapon, and felt a hand grab onto her wrist before she was about to fall over, being strongly pulled over to this person’s torso with their other hand holding onto her waist. Bucky had flew onto the ground, safe and without a scratch, just like Asa. Her eyes had opened to see she was safely held, and she took a deep breath to gather her bearings. This person smelled like a dog, not entirely unpleasant, but they smelled like they were constantly sleeping beside one. They pulled away, suddenly shocked and apologetic for getting so close to her. It was that blonde devil hunter. Denji.
“My bad!” Denji exclaimed, backing away from her. Asa’s shoulders were tensed up, her eyes wide. Both of them had a faint blush dusting on their cheeks, uncertain of whether it was from running or because they were in close proximity of one another.
Asa harboured a strange feeling in her chest, just where had she seen him before? He seemed so familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on it. He didn’t have a generic face, if anything he looked really handsome.
“T-Thank you.” Asa stuttered out. She paused. What was his name? Well, maybe she could make one up? What immediately came to mind when she saw this dude?
“…Chainsaw Man.”
Denji’s face shot up in shock, his heart loudly thumping for a split second. Why did this name give him such an intense feeling?
“Chainsaw Man?” He repeated. Asa’s eyes looked off to the side, awkwardly trying to stammer out a response.
“Because…um…” Asa went quiet, eyes scattering across the path and landing on the chainsaw that he had used as a weapon. It was fresh with blood, likely from that devil he had just killed.
“You were fighting with a chainsaw.” She concluded.
Denji hummed an ‘oh yeah’. The pair went quiet, staring at each other momentarily. His eyes respectfully roamed over her face, she seemed pretty familiar too. She had these pretty big doe eyes, he liked how long her eyelashes were and she had a really cute face. A kind of beauty you don’t see too often. Asa did the same as Denji till his face was pretty much memorised, but snapped herself out of it. She didn’t want to seem weird.
“Well…bye, then.” She gave a small wave, turning back around to see her class looking at her. For once, she paid them no mind, too much was going through her head anyway. She ended up joining in their game of football, meanwhile Denji was still looking over at her, that blush still dusting over his cheeks.
He couldn’t understand why his heart had thumped like that, was it because he was so taken aback by her? No, it likely wasn’t, it felt like something else. Ultimately unable to figure out what was going on with him, he ended up leaving with the peachy haired devil hunter - Power - to go grab some food.
He was hoping to see her again soon, as was Asa. She wanted to thank him…and she had a good idea on how she could express her gratitude.