You both continue down the alley, splashing small puddles of water as you run. You can hear heavy breathing from afar, making you run faster. "Y-Yoru, got any ideas where he could be?"
"It's possible he's still at the apartment.. perhaps Mai has somebody working with her."
"Her? No way.. she'd only been hanging out with us and Denji, and Denji is somewhat smart enough to not follow through with something like that."
You exit the alley and look around. "U-Uh.. where's my apartment again.."
"How do you not remember where your own apartment is?"
"Man, I don't know, everything looks the same!"
"It's fine. I know whe-"
She goes silent.
You feel a hand placed on your shoulder.
"You guys are really mean."
You both look behind you and see Mai's hand right in front of your face. She grabs your head and lifts you up, throwing you back into the alley and running after you. You crash into the side of a dumpster and get up. "YORU! GO TO MY APARTMENT, I'LL BE FINE!" You yell before your jaw drop to the ground. Not figuratively, I mean literally. "OWWWHH!" You pick up your jaw and start running back through the alley. You can hear Mai scrambling on all fours behind you, catching up to you.
THUMP.
You hold your chest, feeling that anxiety you felt before as you slow down for a second. You feel a slash at your leg, cutting your calf open. Even so, you keep running.
"Y/N."
You hear your own voice in your mind, calling your name.
"Y/N."
It calls once more.
"Reality has arrived."
...
"Your D-Day is here."
You trip over a trash bag and fall onto the ground, feeling a deep pierce in your back.
"Save me, Heart."
You look behind you and see Mai holding your heart, watching it attempt to wiggle out from her grasp. It begins to glow a deep blue. She raises it to her head, opening her mouth.
Within a millisecond, you contemplate grabbing it from her. Then, there's that question..
Is it even worth it?
If you let her, it'll all be over.
The years of agony, longing for your heart to be held by someone other than yourself.
You got what you'll forever yearn for.
Would Asa be okay?
Chester might be fine.. but, would she?
She'd cry, but she might live on..
Someone would cry for you.
Wouldn't that be nice?
But.. if she didn't live on..
If this devil kills Asa..
Is it even worth it?
...
It is.
After that millisecond, you snatch your heart from her with one hand, punching her with your other hand as you put your heart back in your body. It travels into your lower torso so it doesn't fall out. You bite her arm and drink her blood momentarily before getting up, reattaching your jaw and beginning to run again. You can hear her already chasing after you.
You can see the end of the alley as you get closer and closer to it. As you escape the alley, she rams into your back and knocks you onto the ground, flipping you over and getting on top of you. She begins to choke you as she sighs.
"Just give up already, Y/N! Jeez! Just let me eat you!"
"N-NO! WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND.. WOULD DO THAT?!" You wrap your arm around her neck and slam her on the ground next to you.
"QUIT JUDGING ME!" You scramble up and attempt to run again, but Mai knocks you over and grabs you by your legs. She swings you up and throws you into a building, picking you up once more as you fall and throwing you into another.
You crash inside and roll quite a far distance, getting up and seeing how dark it is. You can barely make out what you're looking at, but.. are those trampolines?
You're in a trampoline park.
You run over to a foam pit and dive in, making sure you're completely covered.
Her footsteps echo through the silent building as she walks throughout it. "Y/N? Where'd you go? You didn't run off again, did you?"
You remain completely silent as she gets closer to the foam pit.
You hold your breath.
The footsteps stop.
...
"AHA!" She yells out as she lifts up one of the foam cubes. "Aw." She puts it back down and continues walking away. Thankfully, she lifted up the wrong one.
You take your heart out and hold it close to your mouth.
"Heart, form, set three." You whisper as quietly as possible. It molds and shapes in your hands, turning into a bow. An arrow connected by a string to the bow sits in your lap. You slowly poke your head out from the foam pit, trying not to make as much noise as possible. She's standing still with her hand on her hip, looking left from right. Seems a bit disappointed.
You hold the bow out and draw the arrow back, aiming for her heart. When she blew up earlier, half of her body, including half of her brain, was gone. Unfortunately for you, her heart wasn't in that side. Can't kill her by destroying her brain.. but, the heart might.
You wait for a moment before letting go of the arrow, watching it fly through the air.
THE STRING IS WEIGHING IT DOWN! FUCK!
It pierces her lower back, right below her heart. You quickly yank on the string before she turns around, pulling the arrow back to you. She spots you and starts giggling, dropping on all fours and going straight for you. "EEEEEK!" You squeal and scramble out of the foam pit, running for the exit. She tackles you onto a trampoline and you both bounce in the air a bit. You kick her into another trampoline tilted on the wall. She bounces off of it and crashes into you.
"HEART, RETURN!" You stuff your heart back in you and run out of the building. "STOP RUNNING! IT'S GETTING ANNOYING!" She's not even on all fours anymore, she's just straight up running after you. "NO! NUH UH! HEART, ADRENALINE!"
BPM: 200
"HEART, ADRENALINE!"
BPM: 247
"WHAT'RE YOU TELLING IT! QUIT!"
You take a deep breath, puffing up your cheeks and running three times as fast as you were before. "WH- HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" She screams from afar, trying to keep up with you. You slow down for a bit before jumping onto a building, climbing up the edge and starting to hop from building from building. You scan the streets as you do, trying to find Yoru and Chester.
Eventually, you stop and fall over, flopping face first on a roof and panting. You don't wanna move anymore, and your heart is overexerting itself. You roll onto your back and spread your limbs out, looking at the moon.
As you stare at it, all you can think of is Asa. What if Mai forgets about you and goes to find the other two? What if Yoru isn't even with Chester and doesn't have the weapons? Would she be able to beat Mai by herself? Is Asa even awake?
You feel like there's so much you've wanted to say to her, but you felt it may be too early to, or that she'd never say those things back. You never know, really.. what if she secretly hates you? What if they're both still plotting to turn you into a weapon? Are you just being used? No.. no, that would've happened much sooner if so.. but.. but..
...
As the moon stares back at you with all of its imperfections, you close your eyes and let out a deep sigh. You sit up and peek over the edge, looking around.
The cafe you first went to with her is sitting across the street from you.
You know where you are now.
As you place your foot on the edge, you take a good look at the sky.
Despite the never ending horrors that occur, none of it will ever change the beauty of the sky.
That alone gives you the motivation to continue on.
You push yourself off the edge and drop far onto the ground, beginning to make your way to your apartment as quickly as you can.
Once you arrive, the front door is already open.
You rush to your room, swinging the door against the wall.
Yoru and Chester look over at you. Chester's, for some reason, "human" and wiping his eyes.
Huh.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TWO JUST IN HERE DOING NOTHING?! WHERE WERE YOU?!" You scream, walking over to the bed.
Chester stays silent and scoots away from Yoru, looking away from you. Yoru sighs and gets up.
"WELL?"
"He doesn't want to help."
"..Huh? Chester, we don't have time for this, Mai might be here any minu-"
Yoru places her hand on your chest.
"Y/N. Don't bother. Let's go." She picks up a big bag and walks out of the room. You stay and stare at Chester, sighing and sitting on the bed next to him.
"Chester."
"..."
"I know why you're being like this, so I'm going to give you two options, okay?"
He looks at you from the corner of his eye.
"Either, A, you stay here or at Asa's and Mai finds you, then, you're dead. Or, B, you come with us, and you can help us fight her, and we'll protect you if we gotta. Your chances of dyin' are much lower if you come with us."
"..I don't wanna die, Y/N. What about my kittens? They'll definitely die. I wanted to be apart of somethin' so I could have some purpose, and give my kittens somethin' to do. We have those weapons, but, I thought it'd just be Chainsaw Man.. not.. not one of my friends."
"What happened to your confidence, Chester? You're super cool, and you can fight. Since you'd be a little cat, it'd be hard to hit you, and your reflexes would be off the charts. You could really help. We just gotta aim for her heart."
"..Mhmm.. I guuuess.."
"Oh, don't give me that tone, you dumb twink."
"HEY! DON'T CALL ME A TWINK!"
"NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL! MAI CALLED ME "MISS TWINKY" EARLIER!"
"SHE WHAT?! BWAHAHAHA, YOU DON'T EVEN LOOK LIKE ONE! BAHAHAHA!" He starts smacking you and giggling.
"Y/N."
You look beside you and see Asa sitting next to you. You gasp. "ASAAA!" You try hugging her, immediately realizing she's a hallucination. "Man.."
"A-Are you okay? What happened? I, uh.. just woke up."
"NO! I AM NOT OKAY!"
"WILL YOU TWO HURRY UP?!" Yoru yells from the front door.
"GIVE ASA'S BODY BACK REAL QUICK, I WANNA HUG HER!"
"UGHHH, FINE!"
Asa walks in the room and you immediately tackle her, rolling around on the ground with her. She hugs you back and giggles, looking at the back of your sweater. "Wh.. Y/N, you have a huge hole in your sweater.. a-and blood all over your back.."
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah.. Mai ripped my heart out and tried to eat it."
"She WHAT?! THAT STUPID BITCH!" She (gently) shoves you off and gets up, walking to the door and grabbing the bag. She puts it on her shoulder as she walks back to your room and grabs both of you by the ear. "We're going to find her. Now!"
"J-Jeez, since when do you have anger issues?"
"I DON'T HAVE ANGER ISSUES! I JUST WANT HER DEAD! WE'RE GOING!"
"B-BUT I DON'T WANNA GO!" Chester yells, trying to remove her hand. She grabs his hair and starts dragging you both out of the door. "WAHHHH! I DON'T WANNA! MOW! MREOOOW!"
"Y-You don't gotta drag me, too.. well, of course I don't mind, but still.." She promptly lets go of you.
"Asa, are you going to fight instead of me?" Yoru asks, peering her head over Asa's shoulder as Asa slams the front door behind all of you. "YEAH! I AM!.. Although, um.. I.. I do feel a bit sick.. IT'S FINE!" She continues on almost as if she's marching. Seems pretty motivated..
You're a bit surprised she hasn't come to your apartment yet.. she knows where you live and it'd be obvious you're going back here.
Poof.
Chester climbs up your leg and onto your neck. You can feel him shaking a bit, so you pet his neck. He purrs.
You all walk down the stairs and walk down the street. Asa is looking everywhere in sight for her, but, well, she's no where to be found.
As you turn a corner..
Oh..
OH..
OH, OKAY..
You all stand completely still as you watch Chainsaw Man cut Mai in half. She regenerates immediately, and you can hear them yelling at each other.
Mai looks over and sees you three.
Gulp.