"Huh? Oh, I did mention the Gun Devil."
"This has nothing to do with you. Stop asking questions. Just jump down here and let me eat you already!"
The Eternity Devil urged her impatiently.
But Goto didn't move forward. She stayed rooted in place, as if something had just occurred to her.
The Eternity Devil, growing annoyed, spoke again. "Hey, hurry up and come down."
"I've been wondering for a while now… A devil as strong as you could have just killed everyone outright. So why bother making such a strange contract?" Goto asked suddenly.
"I'm not in the mood to answer your questions. Get down here!"
"If you want to eat me so badly, why don't you just come up here yourself? Why wait for me to go down to you?"
"…"
The Eternity Devil seemed caught off guard, momentarily at a loss for words.
"As I thought… You must be afraid of something."
Goto turned away and walked off.
The devil below made no move to stop her.
That only confirmed her suspicion this devil was afraid of something, though she didn't yet know what.
A few steps later, she reached her backpack.
She unzipped it and let Pochita out.
"Woof~" Pochita, cooped up for so long, seemed delighted to stretch his legs at last.
The Eternity Devil showed no reaction.
"So… it's not Pochita you're afraid of," Goto concluded.
"Hmph, I've known all along you had a little devil in your bag. This entire hotel is my domain," the Eternity Devil replied. "But it's too weak to matter."
"Then is it me you're afraid of? But I'm just a weak human…"
The Eternity Devil suddenly chuckled. "Maybe I misunderstood after all."
"When the Gun Devil told me to kill 'Pochi,' I was shocked. I thought, why send me after something like that? It'd be suicide. But now I see… you're not the one I was afraid of."
"I'm done wasting time… Human, I'll eat you right now!"
Perhaps because she had accepted the fact she might soon die, Goto spoke calmly. "What's your relationship with the Gun Devil?"
"None of your business. Shut up!" the Eternity Devil snapped.
He truly seemed unwilling to wait any longer. The surrounding flesh began to extend, closing in on the room where Goto stood.
Goto bent down and picked up another item.
Her guitar.
She opened the case, slung it over her shoulder, and reached to play.
Well… if she was going to die anyway, she might as well try.
She wasn't sure if it would work, but not giving it a shot would be a betrayal of the human instinct to survive.
Ding~
The first note rang out.
"Hey… wait, what are you doing?" the Eternity Devil suddenly shouted, alarmed.
Ding, ding, ding.
Goto strummed more notes.
"AAAAAHHHHH! Stop! Stop playing!"
The devil that had just been full of bluster now let out an ear-splitting, inhuman scream.
The surrounding flesh quivered violently, some parts shrinking back.
Goto was playing the same melody she had heard once before back when she had accidentally wandered into Hell.
The Gun Devil had gone berserk upon hearing it. If the Eternity Devil had ties to the Gun Devil, then…
Judging by its reaction, she had been right.
Goto played faster.
She silently thanked that online stranger with the username "Definitely Not a Bad Woman."
If that person hadn't sent her the sheet music, there was no way she could have remembered the tune perfectly from just that one encounter.
The wailing continued as she finished the melody.
"You… damn human… I'll kill you… right now…"
"I can play it again."
"What? No"
Ding, ding, ding.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Two hours later.
Goto had played the same piece over and over.
She practiced guitar so often that this kind of repetition barely fazed her.
The Eternity Devil, however, was a wreck, tormented to the brink of madness.
When Goto looked like she might start again, it cried out weakly, "Kill me… just kill me…"
Goto blinked.
"Make it quick… please…"
From the mound of flesh, a bare, pulsing heart suddenly emerged.
"Cut it… and I'll die… Just stop playing… kill me…"
Goto quickly understood.
She put her guitar away. "Pochita, go."
"Woof!" Pochita barked excitedly, the chainsaw on his head roaring to life.
He charged straight at the heart.
…
Outside the hotel.
Himeno, Aki, and Kobeni were still waiting. Power had wandered off on her own, and the injured Arai had long since been taken to the hospital.
"Uuuhhh… Pochi-chan…"
Kobeni had regained consciousness and was now on her knees, crying uncontrollably.
The other two stared at the hotel in silence, faces complicated.
Click.
The front doors swung open.
Goto staggered out, guitar on her back, bag in hand, bloodstained from head to toe.
"Pochi-chan?" Himeno's eyes widened.
"Huh?" Kobeni looked up, her tear-streaked face breaking into sudden joy. "Pochi-chan, you're alive!"
Aki swallowed hard. "That devil… what happened to it?"
"Oh… it's dead," Goto said weakly.
Dead?
That overwhelmingly powerful, seemingly unstoppable devil… dead?
The two were stunned, unable to believe it at first.
But the fact stood before them Pochi-chan had walked out unharmed.
There was no need to ask who had done it.
Kobeni gave a helpless laugh. "Pochi-chan, you really love to toy with our emotions."
"Strong enough to kill a devil like that anytime, but you just have to let everyone break down first."
"Hehe… Well, I can't say I dislike it…"
In fact… maybe the opposite.
Kobeni didn't know why, but somehow, even though she'd been emotionally toyed with, she didn't mind.
Goto walked up to her.
Thud.
"Pochi-chan?!"
Kobeni panicked as Goto collapsed straight toward her. She quickly caught her.
"Sorry… I'm just really tired," Goto sighed. "Can I lean on you for a while?"
"O-of course…" Kobeni replied, cheeks flushing.
The scene finally settled into a rare moment of peace.
Before long, Kobeni realized Goto had fallen asleep.
"So the devil's been taken care of."
A female voice startled everyone. They turned to look.
It was none other than Makima.
"Makima, why are you here?" Aki asked.
"Because I've been keeping an eye on things here," she replied with a smile. Then she looked at Kobeni again.
"From here on… I'll be taking Pochi-chan with me."