Work Text:
Denji really hated Public Safety.
Sure, foisted a kid onto him. No, no, don’t go giving him a salary despite the fact he’s technically working for ya still, he’ll be fine raising a growing Devil who seemed to need new clothes every week and the six dogs he inherited (plus one cat, but he’d been caring for Meowy for a while so he couldn’t blame them for that one). Let him go to school? Okay, not too bad… just… turns out school kinda sucked? Don’t get him wrong, Denji enjoyed the chance to socialize with people his age rather than a decade older than him.
Just turns out, when you live in the boonies and miss a decade worth of school, your social skills get deep fried and served with coleslaw. He found that out after the first few days after the welcome committee got tired of him and he found himself adrift amongst established social circles and at the bottom rung of every class. Even the local punks wanted nothing to do with him - which he hadn’t helped by giving some of their obnoxious tough guys the good ol’ nuts or nothing treatment.
Denji was done being the whipping boy for punks, no matter the age.
But, there was one bright side to his life still - well besides Nayuta, and his dogs, and Meowy. And that was being Chainsaw Man! Nothing got his blood pumping like carving up Devils, saving cats standing too close to ledges, or wooing the hearts of babes whenever he went out to tear up the town.
So it made Public Safety's decision easier to hate them.
It had been after they had restrained him in that cellar, that creep Yoshida had taken him back above ground to some cafe to watch the fans of Chainsaw Man march. And Yoshida had made an offer. Stop being Chainsaw Man… and work at a convenience store so he could care for Nayuta. Yoshida was lucky Denji hadn’t picked up a chair and beaten him with it. Because quit being Chainsaw Man to work at a convenience store?! Hell no!
But, of course, it wasn’t that easy. Oh, sure, Denji fully expected to be threatened. You don’t abduct him, tie him in chains, and then only release him after promises to tongue someone’s asshole. But he hadn’t been expecting the offer to boil down to get a job.
It wasn’t too bad an idea - scamming homeless people with cigarettes wasn’t making the ends meet. And Nayuta had been very open about getting the biggest game console of the century in her words: the Sega Dreamcast. So he definitely needed some big bucks for that.
But to quit being Chainsaw Man? He couldn’t give that up. As much as it pained him to think of the state of his wallet on a daily basis, being Chainsaw Man was the one thing keeping him going. Especially with Nayuta keeping him from dating.
Sure he nearly died a couple times, and most women who showed interest in him tried to kill him. But that didn’t mean Asa was like that! She was nice, had no ulterior motives, and genuinely liked him. Plus she was pretty darn cute.
With that in mind, he had tried to refuse… until Nayuta had found them. She’d come crashing right into him, hugging him, and he’d been so caught up in being glad she was safe, he forgot about the creep standing just a few feet away. And then Yoshida had sold him up the river with a simple explanation in his face.
“You know, I think with a job in place of being Chainsaw Man, you could afford anything. Say… the Sega Dreamcast AND the Nintendo 64?”
Denji’s fate had been sealed as yellow and red stars exploded in Nayuta’s eyes. She didn’t care about Chainsaw Man. She wanted him to get a job no matter what! For the consoles, she had declared.
Denji sighed and had agreed, but had been hoping the school would insist he couldn’t. They had a strict policy against students getting jobs, which was what had led to him scamming for some money. But Public Safety just had a way of greasing the wheels whenever they wanted something. And so now, he has a job at a convenience store.
It wasn’t… terrible. It was just painfully dull. And so very, very, VERY boring!
Everyday, after school got out at 4pm, he had to head straight for the convenience store and work a solid five hours to 10pm. Alternating weekends, meaning he got either saturday or sunday off. The flipside of that being weekends he worked a longer shift on that one day, nearly double the time of the weekday.
The shifts gave way to the tasks: stocking, taking inventory, cashiering, cleaning, and other monotonous tasks that would be handed out by the manager and divided up between employees. Denji didn’t mind dirty work, he was quite used to it from his years of working off debt and time cleaning up after barely civilized animals (his pets and Power). That still didn’t make his tasks any more enjoyable.
The only prospect of a job at 7/11 that wasn’t dull was his co-workers, and he WISHED they could be normal.
Such as his manager, a familiar face of Kobeni Higashiyama, the crybaby spider monkey wonder herself. She had apparently left Public Safety, even getting help to fake her death to evade her families financial abuse and make a life for herself as she took night classes. She had been emotional to see her buddy Denji again.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Kobeni wailed the second Denji had walked into her little office - really the converted maintenance closet in the 7/11.
“... Sup.” Denji said casually, munching on a donut he snagged on the way in as Yoshida came to broker his hiring. Better to let the takoyaki creep do the talking while he did the snacking.
“Now, Higashiyama, you know you owe Public Safety a debt.” Yoshida tutted, his voice carrying that ever present cheer it always did. The same slimy smile on his face. “Can’t you give poor Denji here a job?”
“No way!” Kobeni crossed her arms over her chest in a massive X. She looked close to tears and was sweating like a cigarette addicted cat who was out of smokes. “I don’t want him anywhere near me, he brings death and crazy everywhere he goes!”
“Hey!” Denji barked. She wasn’t wrong, but dammit he wasn’t taking that lying down! He also didn’t have a rebuttal. He shrugged, biting into the donut once more.
“Now that may be slightly true, Denji is trying to turn a new leaf.” Yoshida insisted. “He’ll be needing a job to do that, and this is the one place we could guarantee he’ll have time to work and time for school. And, someone who can’t fire him if he thinks about doing a bad job to have the excuse of being fired.”
Hey, that was a great idea! Too bad Denji wasn’t thinking about that, he was thinking about the donut he was currently eating.
Kobeni gulped. She still looked like she may puke if she even shifted her weight. “If I do this… will you promise me no crazy problems?”
Yoshida turned to him. “Denji can you promise that?”
Denji blinked. “You guys have met me right?”
Kobeni whimpered.
That had been the beginning of his career as a convenience store employee. Kobeni was actually a good manager, a little soft spoken like a mouse with anxiety, but she was still good. She didn’t snap at Denji if he was slacking off - he wasn’t sure she could, he thought she might pass out. Instead she tried to gently encourage him to get to work, and he did - hey, he wasn’t a jerk, and a pretty girl was asking him to do something so he did it. Plus, she let him do his homework when they didn’t have people in the store and even helped him with it! She was a great manager.
Then there was his co-worker…
“Heeeeeyyyy, Denji-senpai~!” Denji sighed, looking down at the counter he stood behind, as Fumiko slid up beside him - arm wrapping around him for another round of PDA he had managed to dislike over the last few months. Shocking, him disliking physical contact with a lady, he never thought it would be possible. But Fumiko had a knack for doing the impossible. “Wanna smoke this joint with me behind the store?”
Denji looked down at the innocuous marijuana cigarette, then to the smiling Fumiko. She always smiled, yet it felt like a smirk. He raised an eyebrow.
“Is it laced with acid?”
“Whaaaaaaat?” Fumiko put a hand to her chest, looking utterly offended he even dared to ask such a question. “Just because the chocolate I shared on Halloween was laced with acid, and the water bottle I gave you that one shift was laced with acid too, and because the friendship donut I got for us was laced with acid, you think I’ve laced everything with acid?!”
“Yes.”
“C’mon, you know you love it!” Fumiko smacked him on the arm, pushing the joint against his cheek. She twisted it, urging him to just go along with her usual goofball antics. Why it involved so much acid, Denji wasn’t qualified or paid enough to know. “Get high with me, senpai!”
“You’re like five years older than me.” Denji still wasn’t sure why a 23 year old woman went to school with him. Even besides her being a Public Safety plant, why send her instead of just keep using Yoshida?! Not that he minded being free of the takoyaki creep, but he quickly realized Fumiko wasn’t really a step up. Well, she was kind of more endearing. Otherwise he wouldn’t be smoking the acid laced joint with her behind the store right now.
“... You ever wonder if this is all there is to life?” Denji asked her as they stared up at the glowing neon sign.
“Not really. I have a bunch of doubles around the world due to my contract, so they experience life and we all have annual summits to share info.” Fumiko responded, blinking slowly. Damn she was really high already, Denji didn’t figure she was a light weight. “Hey, isn’t today inventory day?”
Crap, that was right. Denji was incharge of taking count of inventory - Kobeni trusted him due to how good he was at keeping track of goods. When you were used to surviving on a slice of bread per day on a good month, you learned to be good at keeping track of inventory. Hard to do when your mind is getting double teamed by weed and acid while your co-worker drones on.
“You know, you could come with me on my next trip to Italy, I have a villa I visit and the others would like to meet you!” Fumiko droned on, sitting on a shelf and kicking her feet as Denji took track of inventory. He was pretty sure he’d covered Doritos already… good to check again, he added another check mark to several others right next to the snack name on the list. Fumiko was talking about updating her contract with the HIV Devil and getting a clause that meant she wouldn’t turn Denji (Denji wasn’t sure what those letters meant, probably a standardized test), when the automatic doors chimed.
“Damn, a customer. Cover inventory, I gotta head up front.” Denji muttered, tossing the list to Fumiko who groaned at the prospect of doing any work.
“But I’m having a good buzz!”
“Hey, Kobeni left me in charge while she’s at the doctor!” Denji said proudly, even though it had literally been decided by a coin flip. Kobeni was pretty sure with either Fumiko or Denji in charge, the store would burn down. But she had scheduled this examination in advance to make sure her panic attacks would get treatment and couldn’t reschedule, so she flipped the coin and gave Denji the manager tag.
“Fiiiiiiineeeeee!” Fumiko whined, taking the clipboard. “You’re uninvited to the villa!”
“Yeah, yeah, the totally real villa with multiple Fumikos.” Denji waved at her as he walked to the front. He stood at the counter, ready to check the customer out. Or grab the baseball bat behind the counter if they tried to steal. He oftentimes hoped it was a thief.
Instead it was Asa.
He hadn’t seen her much since the attempted date months ago. Well, that wasn’t true, he’d seen her on posters for the Chainsaw Man Church - the new hero of Japan. An ugly feeling of jealousy nestled into his chest. He disappeared only for a week before she popped up into their hearts. He swallowed that bitterness, and put on his customer smile.
Asa met his smile with a frown. “Oh… Denji.”
Seems like she wasn’t happy to see him. She had dodged him at school the few times they even crossed paths in the hall. And he hadn’t really gone out of his way to talk to her either.
“Anything I can help you with, ma’am.”
Her eyes narrowed. Denji smile remained firm. Just keep smiling, that was what Kobeni had taught him. God, he could feel the anger rolling off her like an AC unit blasting some heat waves.
“That’s all you have to say to me?”
“... I can recommend something to you if you need help finding something.”
Asa pinched the bridge of her nose and took a breath. She hit Denji with a deep expression of pure unfiltered annoyance. She placed a bean bun on the counter. Denji liked those. They tasted good.
“I’d like to pay for this.”
“Excellent choice. These are one of my favorites.” Denji said, ringing it up.
“I hate these. They're artificial, filled with chemicals, and toxic.”
“Delicious chemicals.”
Asa sighed. “But… I stopped caring about what I eat a while ago. Cause I realized some toxic chemicals won’t hurt me when I’m already toxic.”
“That’s deep.” Denji said. Damn that acid was still riding in his system.
“You really think so?” Asa raised a brow at him.
“Yeah, you always have such deep thoughts, Asa.” Denji said, looking more at the bean bun than her. It looked like a miniature bean bag chair, he thought, his addled mind wanting to sink into the bouncy little bean bun.
“Y-yeah, of course I’m deep! I have a lot of deep thoughts!” Asa looked rather flushed, before scowling at him. “And if you care about my thoughts, why did you leave me waiting outside school, huh?!”
Denji snapped up from the bun. And saw just how angry Asa looked, but beneath that, he could see in her big sweet eyes how utterly abandoned she felt that afternoon. His heart ached, and he knew Pochita agreed it was a dick move what he did. He gulped.
“I’m sorry.” He said, bringing the bean bun close to his chest. “I was really looking forward to the date, Asa. It’s just…” Denji couldn’t just say his little sister was a Devil who could control people - he didn’t want to have to kick Asa’s nice ass if she tried to kill his sister cause she fights Devil’s now. But, his addled mind was able to breach an answer for him. “My sister is very controlling.”
“She’s controlling?” Asa brow went higher, and her disbelief followed suit. “You let your sister decide for you?”
“She’s a very demanding brat. And I’m all she has, and she’s all I have. So I have to listen to her.” Denji explained, feeling the lie flow easily thanks in part to how true it was. Really he was only omitting how the date had happened, Asa kissed him, and Nayuta was a Devil. So honestly, he was mostly telling the truth. Wow, Acid Denji was smart, who knew? “I’ve had… problems in the past. Like a lot of ladies I’ve met have tried to hurt me or use me and I was kinda… not always smart enough to realize it or do anything but follow along. A lot of them pretended to like me to use me.”
That caused Asa’s expression to fall, looking like she’d been punched in the gut. Wow, he was really selling this, she looked guilty. Maybe selling it too well, he didn’t want her to feel bad, he just didn’t want her to think he didn’t like her, he did! He was just trying to keep her safe from Nayuta!
“My sister just assumed you’d use me, and she’d only stop throwing a tantrum if I didn’t show up. I should’ve told you the next day but a lot of stuff came up.” Denji rubbed the back of his head. Mostly him being jealous of her getting the attention from the public. He hadn’t wanted to talk to her. “Look, uh… maybe it’s a bit late, but I could take you to the movies?”
Asa had looked deep in thought, but was jolted back to consciousness with a shake of her head. “You ignored me for months and now you’re asking me out on a date?!” She looked red in the face, he couldn’t tell from anger or nervousness. She grit her teeth - Denji sucked his, yep that was anger. “After some nonsense about ditching me because of your sister?!”
“Look it doesn’t have to be romantic, just… I wanna make it up to you.” Denji said, and he meant it. Plus, he had better money now, kinda. “I’ll pay, you don’t have to spend a thing, I know you don’t like pricey dates!”
“Wait, how do you know that?”
“Uhhhh…” Oh, right, that had been part of the memories that got wiped. Quick, switch to flattery! “Cause you’re a classy lady?” Asa flushed. Oh, no teeth grit, she was liking the compliment. “Plus, I get alternating weekends off, I can just convince my sister I’m working. She’s really excited about me getting her a console.”
“Your sister sounds like a spoiled brat.”
Denji barked in laughter. “She really is!” And to his delight, Asa giggled. “So, uh… how’s this Saturday-”
“Denji senpai!” Fumiko slid up next to him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. Oh, hello unwanted PDA. “I finished the inventory, and I take it back, you can come to the villa!” She looked at Asa. And stuck her tongue out. “Oh, yo, Mitaka! Good to see you!”
“Uh, hi… you?” Asa looked perturbed. Which was the normal reaction to Fumiko. She looked to Denji. “So… Saturday. Yeah. It’s a date.”
Denji grinned. Fumiko squawked. “A date?! Denji, after all the times I ask you out, you ditch me for her?!” Fumiko clutched at her chest, like she’d been stabbed. “The betrayal!”
Asa looked to Fumiko, then to Denji. “... Is she always like this?”
“Yep.” Denji sighed, totalling up Asa’s order. “All the time. She makes work lively at least.”
Fumiko winked. “I’m his favorite co-worker!”
“You’re my only co-worker.”
“The best one!”