"Woof!"
The orange, dog-shaped devil seemed to notice Su Tang and barked at him.
"Pochita." Hearing the sound, the girl squatted and scooped the devil into her arms.
Seeing the devil squint its eyes and wag its tail in her embrace, Su Tang drew his hand back out of his pocket.
Huh—so it was a kept devil.
To be honest, this was the first time Su Tang had seen such a scene. He'd heard rumors of certain extremely weak devils—the kind you could crush by hand—choosing to become human pets or collectibles to survive, or even being used as teaching tools by some schools, but those had only been rumors.
Seeing it now with his own eyes, he thought it wasn't bad at all.
For example, that Leg Devil he'd killed this morning—if it hadn't mutated by swallowing the Gun's flesh, it probably could've been a collectible too.
After all, those many and varied beautiful legs each had their own charms—full-figured, slender, fair, dark… Lay them out at home, or just spread them on the bed, and for a leg-fetishist it'd be paradise.
Similarly, there were the Breast Devil, the Mouth Devil, the Butt Devil, or, more straightforward still… the Dick Devil?
Hmm… thinking about it that way, the Gun Devil really was quite hateful.
Coming back from fantasy time, Su Tang realized he was already by the sedan.
"I'm here to pick up—"
He hadn't even said the word "goods" before the sedan's driver cut him off.
He was a squinty-eyed blond punk, the very picture of a small-time thug.
"Hey, mutt."
He was calling to the blond girl.
Ignored, Su Tang stood to the side and raised an eyebrow.
"Hoo." Blowing a smoke ring, the punk dangled his hand out the window and leered at the girl. "Here—eat this cigarette for your grandpa, and I'll give you a hundred yen."
It looked like a taunt, but his movements were like teasing a dog.
Su Tang watched with interest, curious—wasn't this punk afraid the girl would fly into a rage and have the devil kill him?
That devil might look like a dog, but the chainsaw on its head wasn't just for show.
Curious or not, Su Tang had no intention of watching further.
He wasn't petty, but he sure wasn't big-hearted either.
Rapping his knuckles on the sedan's hood, Su Tang said, not too politely, "Hey, is this how you do business?"
His "pastime" interrupted, the punk glanced over impatiently.
But Su Tang didn't look at him—he looked at the back seat.
There sat an old man with white hair and beard and glasses—the local gang boss of this area and Su Tang's counterpart in the deal.
"Oh, Mr. Su Tang."
The gang boss sat steady as Mount Tai in the back, not even bothering to roll down the window, and spoke to himself: "You made it quite fast."
"Cut the nonsense." Su Tang frowned. "As agreed: cash in one hand, goods in the other."
"Young men are always in a hurry." The boss's tone remained calm. "Very well, let's complete the deal quickly. Your patronage—one million yen."
"One million yen?" Su Tang laughed in disbelief. "Didn't we agree on two hundred thousand? What, is this license made from your mother's ashes? Did it become a limited edition and appreciate fivefold?"
"Pfft—"
The girl tittered at the side.
The punk glared at her first, then glared at Su Tang. Through clenched teeth: "Kid, do you know who you're talking to?"
"Your wild daddy." Su Tang tossed back without interest in trading insults and looked to the boss. "Two hundred thousand. Deal if you want; if not, beat it."
"Looks like you're in a hurry for this license." The boss sounded supremely confident. "In this area, we're the only ones who can make a license this indistinguishable from the real thing. Young man, think it over."
Su Tang felt he was playing a qin to a cow.
Two hundred thousand was already a high price—he'd deliberately picked the highest spec to ensure quality—yet the local outfit had no manners and jacked up the price at the last second.
Even the Black Hand wouldn't pull that. Word gets out and your name on the street is ruined.
Sensing Su Tang's refusal, the boss added, "Wait—I have another job."
"Oh?" Su Tang looked up and realized he wasn't the one being addressed—it was the girl.
"Denji-ko, kill him. The fee is a hundred thousand yen." The boss said blandly, "The reward from that devil you hunted earlier must be mostly gone by now. Kill him and you'll live well for a while."
Su Tang wondered if everyone in Tokyo had a screw loose.
He was only worth a hundred thousand yen?! No—wait—the boss had actually put a price on his head?
Before he could say anything, he saw the girl named Denji-ko shake her head.
"No. He isn't a devil. I'll swallow that cigarette butt instead. Make sure you pay me the hundred yen."
As she spoke, she reached for the cigarette in the punk's hand.
"You dumb—" the punk cursed, then pulled something black and hard from under the seat and pressed it to Denji-ko's forehead.
A gun.
"You think the boss was asking for your opinion? Don't push your luck or—uh…"
He didn't finish.
Because he suddenly realized something cold had been pressed to his own forehead.
Su Tang raised his gun and smiled. "Using a gun to scare a pitiful, underage little girl? You've got a gun, huh? Who doesn't?"
As he spoke, he glanced at Denji-ko.
Her eyes were wide, her body trembling. Su Tang couldn't tell if it was fear or excitement.
But he knew the punk's trembling was fear for sure.
"Sigh." The boss in the back seat sighed and shook his head. "Young man, what's the point."
When he finished, it was as if a signal had been tripped.
Clatter-clatter—
A volley of sounds erupted. The street that had been empty suddenly spewed a crowd of armed men with hair of every color from every corner, encircling Su Tang and Denji-ko.
"Heh-heh. Young man, you didn't think I couldn't find out information on my counterpart, did you?" The boss lit a cigarette and exhaled. "Since we know you came from San Francisco, how could we not make any preparations?"
"Give it up. Hand over the gun, and you might still have a way out."
Silence.
About two seconds.
"Seriously… is there not a single normal person in all of Tokyo?"
Shaking his head with a sigh, Su Tang lowered his gaze to the ground—to the shadows that were surging and roiling—and smiled:
"Then, right now… who has more people?"
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Chainsaw Man: The Covenant of Flame Demon [ 71 Chapter ]