Everyone, except the laughing Y/N, stared at the walking head in surprise and confusion. The head smiled towards Kobeni and tried to walk towards her.
"Eeek!" Kobeni got scared as she backed away.
The head suddenly got lifted up in the air. Y/N stopped laughing and looked at Himeno, who was reaching her hand out, in surprise.
'Does she have telekinesis?' Y/N thought.
"Heh, got you!" Himeno said.
"It's floating?!" Denji asked, as he was also surprised. Blood began to spew out of Power's wrist as she cut it, but not too deep. The blood began to take the form of a sword.
"Yes! A fight!" Power sliced the walking head in half with the blood sword.
The sliced head fell down to the ground with a splat. Kobeni looked like she was about to faint and cry at the same time.
'Oh, I forgot that girl was even here' Y/N thought, referring to Kobeni.
"Gahahaha! That stupid devil started floating because it got scared of me!" Power said with a smile.
"Wrong! It's because my ghost caught it" Himeno corrected, making Power look at her confused.
"Ghost?" Power asked.
"I've contracted a ghost devil in exchange for letting it live inside my right eye. I can use it's right hand, it's invisible and strong. Reaaaaally 'handy' " Himeno explained.
"Aha" Y/N let out a fake laugh.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad" Himeno strolled over Aki, who was holding a gun devil fragment, and placed her arms over his shoulder "Well, Aki? Does it have a piece of that gun fucker?"
"No, it doesn't have a strong reaction"
"That sucks, I was hoping to eat it. Oh well, what now?" Y/N asked.
"We head up of course"
The gang proceeded to get to other floors using stairs, Y/N began to think of a serious question... Why the fuck don't they use elevators? They've already checked 5 floors, and he's getting a bit tired.
"Hey, about earlier, is it ok for you to jabber on about your abilities in front of me? The whole reason why you're with us is to keep me in check, right?" Power asked
"Knowing each other's abilities makes it easier for us to work together, and besides, I've still got my ace up my sleeve, so it's fine" Himeno answered, while still having that smile on her face.
'Do people smile here constantly? Even if this dimension is shitty?' Y/N thought
'Gotta love her optimism. I like her already'
"Oh reaaaaaaally~? Then..." Power suddenly manifested a blood knife and pointed it to Kobeni's neck.
"Eep!"
"If I say that I'm going to kill her, what are you going to do?"
'Damn it, what is she doing?! If she does that, devil hunters are gonna be up my ass!' Y/N unsheathed his dagger and was about to stab Power, but Himeno immediately reached her hand out towards Power, and a hand grabbed her by the neck, choking her.
"Put away your weapon. If you try to do anything funny, I can strangle you at any time and in any place" Himeno said, still calm as ever.
"Ok... I won't... I won't touch her"
Himeno lets go of Power, and she desperately gasped for air. She coughed and coughed, with Denji patting her back.
"It'll be a pain in the ass, so let's just get along, alright?" Himeno said, this time, her smile wider. Power didn't answer and just glared at her.
"One of these days...! I'm gonna eat her!" Power declared.
"Hey, I still haven't got her kiss yet, don't or I'm gonna cut ya in half!" Denji also declared.
Power didn't get intimidated or scared though. As they were got to another floor, Arai and Y/N noticed something weird. But before Arai could tell everyone, Y/N spoke first.
"Hm? Hold on..."
"What is it?" Aki asked.
"We just came from the 8th floor, right?" Aki nodded "Well, we're on the 8th floor"
"Hey, topknot, you sure you didn't miscount?" Denji asked.
"Tch, I'll check it!" Arai went back down the stairs to double-check.
"I'll turn her into steak someday and feast on her!" Power vowed while saliva dripped down her mouth, and still angry at Himeno.
"Speaking of steak, I want one right now!" Denji demanded.
Arai appeared and stopped at the stairs that led to the 9th floor. Everyone except Power looked at him in confusion.
"Huh...?" Arai was confused as well.
"Didn't Arai just go down the stairs?" Himeno asked, Aki nodded, and this just confirmed her suspicion, now all she needs to do is to test it "Hey, Kobeni, stay still and do a double peace sign!"
Kobeni did what she told, she still looked nervous and scared. Himeno rushed down the stairs, but she ended up behind Arai, who was still standing on the stairs leading to the 9th floor.
Everyone was shocked and was still confused about what was happening.
"It has to be a devil's ability..." Aki entered a door but it led back to where they were "Definitely a devil's ability"
Y/N looked outside the window, just to see another room. Y/N scratched his head in annoyance "Goddamn it, are we going through a loop? This shit is like the backrooms"
"Hey! Every window doesn't lead outside, it just leads us to the next room!" Denji said.
Aki leaned on a wall, sweat dripping down his face "It seems we can't get off the 8th floor..."
"Can I blow this place up just to see what happens?" Y/N asked
"No!" Everyone but Power yelled.
<--/// Timeskip ///-->
It had been a couple of minutes since everyone managed to calm down, they stayed in a room and relaxed for a bit.
Himeno was smoking, Y/N was carving the words 'Kilroy was here' on the wall using his dagger, and the rest were either sitting on the beds or just standing around.
"Let's confirm on what we know, we can't get out due to a devil's ability. No matter where or how we tried to get out, we all just end up on the 8th floor" Aki recapped. Y/N turned away from his carving and looked at Aki.
"Hey, we still haven't tried if we can get out by exploding everything"
"For the last time, no! You'll kill everyone!" Aki yelled at Y/N, his anger rising.
Y/N raised his arms up in defense "Woah, no need to shout. If it's about that firecracker, I can assure you that it wasn't my fault"
"I know you're lying!"
"Wait, isn't it because Power killed that devil while it was using its ability?" Denji asked.
Power grabbed Denji by the collar and pulled him up "You're the one who said to kill it!"
"I did not!"
Aki crossed his arms "The ability of a devil gets undone when killed, so it's impossible"
"Hey, Aki, any response from the fragment?" Himeno asked.
"No... It completely died off"
"So it used that devil to lead us to a trap, huh. This is the first time a devil pulled something tricky" Himeno said, nodding to herself.
"Won't other devil hunters come to rescue us once they notice we were gone for a couple of hours or days?" Arai asked.
"Maybe, but if they do, all we can do is hope that they don't get trapped in here like us" Himeno said, silence enveloping the room. Y/N went back to carving.
"...We're all going to die here, we're gonna starve to death" Kobeni said, tears swelling in her eyes.
"If that happens, I'm gonna eat you first... Whatever your name is" Y/N said, trying to scare her.
The scare worked and Kobeni cried out, tears falling down her eyes. Arai went to Kobeni's side to try to comfort her, and glared daggers at Y/N.
"Hey! Don't say something like that, you asshole!" Arai yelled.
"Gahahaha! That face she's making!" Power laughed and pointed to Kobeni.
"Quit making fun of Kobeni, and stop laughing!" Arai yelled again.
Himeno also went to Kobeni's side and tried to cheer her up "Kobeni, fear is a devil's favorite thing. If you get scared, you're just giving them satisfaction"
"But- but it's scary!"
"Then don't get scared, dumbass" Y/N snarled.
"It isn't that easy, Y/N. Come on, don't be rude" Himeno scolded, making Y/N roll his eyes and continued carving "and what's up with you, Aki?"
Aki was staring intensely at the clock that was on a nightstand ever since Y/N scared Kobeni.
"It's been 8:18 the whole time, every clock stopped at 8:18. There's a possibility that just the 8th floor has had the flow of time stopped. In that case, there is no hope for rescue" Aki said.
"Awesome! That means I can sleep here whenever I want, right?!" Denji asked as he tucked himself to bed.
"...How stupid can you be?" Arai asked "We're going to be trapped in here forever"
"Trapped or not, blah blah blah, wake me up if you know" Denji adjusts his position into a comfortable one "It's such a nice bed too, it'd be a shame not to sleep on it"
And just like that, Denji fell asleep almost instantly. Y/N looked at Denji, impressed.
"Well, that was fast... Imma find a marker and draw on his face. Wanna join, Power?"
Power smiled in delight and mischief "Yes!"
<--/// Timeskip ///-->
"Denji, Denji, wakey wakey!" Himeno tried to wake Denji up by poking him on his cheeks, which worked.
Denji yawned, still half-asleep "So... Did we find a way to get off the 8th floor?"
"Nope, still looking hopeless. While you were asleep though, we found out that running water and electricity still run, and we found some food on some luggage when the civilians ran away"
Himeno sighed and continued "Honestly though, everyone is reaching their limits. Aki and Y/N have been trying to find the devil, when I told them to stop and rest a little bit, only Y/N listened. Arai was helping him out at first, but the situation got to him now and he shut himself in a room. Kobeni snapped a bit and tried to drink water from the toilet, so I knocked her out. And for that devilgirl and Y/N..."
"What happened them?" Denji asked, nervous.
"I want to win the Nobel Prize! If I win one, all humans will bow to me! And then I can use that as a stepping stone to becoming prime minister! Since I want to watch humans suffer, I will increase taxes to 100%!"
"What about me? I'm gonna get affected by taxes you know? Although I always evade them" Y/N muttered.
"Gahaha! Silly Y/N, you're not human, you're a devil like me!" Power said, patting Y/N on the back
"That's weird. Is it just me or did those two get closer?" Denji asked.
"Probably because they had a good time drawing on your face" Himeno guessed.
"Huh?" Denji looked for a nearby mirror to check if it was true. It, indeed, was true as multiple hand-drawn dicks were drawn poorly on his face "What the fuck?!"
Power and Y/N looked at Denji, who was pissed off. They then proceed to point at each other.
"Power convinced me to do it"
"Y/N forced me!"
Power and Y/N looked at each other, then glared at one another.
"Lies!" Power yelled.
"You're the one who told me that you were going to eat me if I didn't follow you" Y/N lied.
"Don't believe Y/N! He's framing me!"
Denji calmed down a bit and sighed "Well, they're back to normal"
"Oh... that's good" Himeno lit up a cigarette "Anyway, the four of us should keep an eye on Kobeni and Arai"
"Count me out on that" Y/N raised his hand.
"Why? What are you going to do?" Denji asked.
"Yes, explain yourself!" Power added.
"I'm gonna go with Aki, and help him find that shit devil, I'm getting bored already" Suddenly, Aki appeared out of nowhere, he looked a bit worn out "Oh, nevermind then"
"Himeno, got any cigarettes left?" Aki asked.
"Sorry, this is the last one" Himeno said, pointing the cigar in her mouth.
"Ah, then I'll have that one then"
"Ehh, I guess there's no helping it" Himeno took the cigar off her mouth and gave it to Aki, who used it as well.
"Hey, that's an indirect kiss!" Denji yelled.
"Shut up" Aki blew a puff of smoke "I've got some bad news, the devil that we killed-"
"The one that I killed, right?!" Power exclaimed.
"-is getting bigger... a lot bigger" The ground suddenly started to rumble, and a door burst open, revealing a mass of flesh and heads.
"That's definitely the one... shouldn't it be dead?" Power asked, surprised.
"This is the first time I've seen a devil like this... What kind of a devil is it?" Himeno asked.
The faces in the lump of flesh looked at them "Humans... Let's negotiate a contract... Let me eat the human named Y/N... Dead or alive... it doesn't matter, feed him... to me and I'll return you all... outside unharmed" A raspy voice said
'See? Told you we're like cheeseburgers to them'
'I'd say we're like chicken nuggies, but that also works'
A door beside them opened, revealing Kobeni with a knife "Y/N... let it eat you, please..."