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┄﹒MORE WALKING WAS IN STORE FOR THEM ALL— ESPECIALLY SINCE IT WAS ALL BEGINNING TO GET MORE ROUGH. erity remained attached to denji in the form of holding onto his forearm, only paying attention to their feet that walked in sync with power's.
"let's grab lunch in this department store." she barely heard and followed wherever denji led her, which was into a nearby store.
though the trio were forced to move at a much faster pace than before, thana being the one to gently pull on erity's other arm; effectively removing denji from her grasp.
"thana?" the girl questioned, now looking up at the fiend in front of her.
she gave her a look. "just stay behind me, 'kay? it's about to get weird." thana gestured towards kusakabe, who remained closest to the doors, but now within a weird circle on the ground.
the next thing to happen deeply confused the kimura female, watching as the people who quickly entered after them turned into stone. she wasn't aware of what was going on.
"stay back unless you want to end up like them. the stone devil is fickle."
"it's the doll devil... if they touch you, even just your clothes, you'll turn into one of them." hirofumi explained plainly.
"how do you all know about every devil so fast..." erity mumbled under her breath, sighing inwardly.
angel took a step forward. "how did you know they were coming?"
"the footsteps of the people at a distance from us were too systematic. watch them and see what i mean. humans have more idiosyncrasies in their gaits."
"miss makima had warned us germany's santa would be coming. all we had to do was stay vigilant and ready with countermeasures." kusakabe spoke before turning around sharply, turning the doll behind him into stone.
"creepy. how many of these things are there?" denji's face was of disgust, staring at the once moving doll now laying lifeless on the floor.
aki eyed the dolls below them, "i don't know what kind of contract santa has... but strong devils need strong contracts. there should be a limit to how many dolls he can make."
they weren't allowed another moment of peace before dozens of dolls suddenly bursted through the front doors, an even more overwhelming amount previous to the ones before.
"the second floor! run for the second floor!" tamaoki shouted aloud, making his own way towards the stairs.
"there are too many of them!" all of them took off into a sprint, heading for the stairs that led up to the second floor. erity and power were at the back of everyone, trying their best to run away from the dolls that were close behind.
"hey! turn them into stone already!" denji shouted at the blond male directly behind him, running up the stairs in a hurry.
"there are too many!" kusakabe shouted back, "i can only do it from on top of the circle!"
"gyaaah!!! climb faster, you trash!!" power yelled at the ones in front of her and erity, looking back slightly and notice how they were gaining on them.
until suddenly two of them jumped onto the blood fiend's back, the last one trying to jump onto erity's before she was suddenly pulled away. thana being the one to pull the young girl away from the dolls, preventing her from their harm.
"power! erity!" denji quickly yelled out— going back to kick one off of power's back while she punched the other. his eyes quickly moving to see where erity went— safe next to thana who stood higher up on the stairs. she was safe.
though she stared at the two with wide eyes— they were still human, not turned into dolls. denji noticed it and raised his voice, "what the hell, man! we aren't turnin' into dolls!" power following his words, "you liar!"
"oh! of course!" kusakabe heaved out, coming to a realization. "only humans get turned into dolls! fiends must be immune!"
"so i almost got turned?!" erity voice was louder than usual, her eyes widening after hearing him. "thank you thana..." her grey eyes traveled to thana's, thanking the fiend.
"kon!!" an unknown voice yelled from in front of them all suddenly, erity not paying attention to what had happened after her near death experience—wasn't the first and wouldn't be her last.
the unfamiliar man turned to face everyone, sweat forming on his face. "that was a little too close for comfort, huh? i'm with public safety extermination division 2. the name's-"
"we've had multiple devil hunters stationed in every building along your patrol route these last several days. we wanted to keep battles short. we can contain the collateral damage that way too." tamaoki interrupted the hunter, staring at denji. "the people turned into dolls can never be themselves again... we aren't running from santa. we wanted to put him down efficiently."
erity quietly shuffled over to denji's side, leaving thana with a nod. she stood close to his side, offering him a small, yet awkward, smile. his orange colored eyes met with her grey ones, not being able to contain a smile from forming on his lips. he couldn't hide anything from her.
"sorry that we've been using you as bait, denji... the dolls can only be controlled from nearby. santa is close. we'll put an end to it all today." kusakabe spoke, ready to end the rising situation.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ APR. 9TH, 2023 — APR. 20TH, 2023
this shouldn't have taken as long as it should have.. i meant to upload this on my birthday and that was last friday LMAOOOO. but fuck ittt, anyway i'm thinking about going to college tbhhh.. would go for forensic science ofc cause i'm a crime lover till i die & i'm just so interested in everything about it🙏 .
