"I've found the Sex Devil for you."
Hearing the voice on the phone from the shore, honestly, even Fang Mo himself was taken aback.
Turning the Control Devil into the Sex Devil... Initially, Fang Mo had mentioned it casually, although he indeed asked the shore to try to find it later, but Fang Mo never really thought it would be successful.
After all, the Sex Devil is too far-fetched. Although theoretically, some people might fear the concept of 'Sex,' like fearing being violated, being molested, or simply fearing the obligation of societal contributions, hence the birth of the Sex Devil. But this is, after all, something that never appeared in the original work, so it would be normal if Kishibe couldn't find it, right?
However, the fact proved.
Fang Mo still underestimated the strength of this Devil hunter.
In the original work, he could even trick the newly born Control Devil... that is, the reincarnation of Makima, the young girl form of Nayuta, to come to Japan from China. Perhaps he really has some skills in searching for Devils.
Honestly, after hearing this news.
Fang Mo felt like giving up guarding Denji, fighting against Quanxi and Santa Claus... How could any of that be more interesting than researching the Sex Devil?
This is the Sex Devil! If Fang Mo lets Steve swallow this thing.
Then would the concept of 'Sex' in this world also disappear along with it? If the concept of sex disappears, would the human fertility rate in this world become 0? In that case, within a few decades, all of humanity would completely vanish, right?
Well, worthy of being the world under Tatsuki Fujimoto's pen, casually eating a Devil could destroy the world.
Crazy but somewhat comical.
But beneath the absurdity lies a bit of truth.
"Where are you?"
Thinking it over, Fang Mo directly asked the person on the phone: "Don't move from where you are with that... Devil, I'll come to find you right now."
"I've already returned to Tokyo."
The voice from the shore came through the phone: "You should be protecting Denji right now, right? He's my apprentice, you better protect him well, I'll come to find you later, I have something to discuss with you."
"What's the matter?"
Fang Mo asked: "Don't tell me you want me to spare Quanxi."
"...We'll talk when we meet."
Kishibe didn't give a clear answer to Fang Mo, and after saying this, he directly hung up the phone.
"Hey, don't hang up, tell me more about the Sex Devil..." Fang Mo hurriedly tried to stop him, but it was too late, so he cursed: "Damn it, why does everyone like to hang up on me?"
"What's wrong?"
Hayakawa Aki, who was nearby, also asked: "Who called?"
"The old thief Kishibe."
Fang Mo grumbled as he put away his phone: "He found a big toy that I like and was supposed to send it over first, but then this guy just hung up on me. Damn it, I'll decapitate Quanxi right in front of him later."
"..."
Hayakawa Aki looked at Fang Mo strangely, his expression clearly conveying a 'Why would you kill Quanxi when it was Kishibe who offended you?' kind of question.
But he didn't ask any further.
Soon, they called Denji and the others to go out and patrol the streets.
Of course, since it was called patrolling, Denji was obviously used as bait.
So, Fang Mo specifically split up the members of Fourth Special Division like Reze, the Violence Devil, Shark Devil, Kobeni, and others, to distract them. Otherwise, with all these people around Denji, the enemy wouldn't dare to make a move.
After that, the group pretended to patrol the streets.
Before long, it was noon.
As they were discussing what to eat for lunch after crossing a street, an elderly foreign man appeared not far away.
This man looked very old, seemingly in his eighties or nineties at least, with mobility issues and even a bit of strabismus. He struggled to raise one of his hands as he watched the guard squad moving away in the distance.
He laboriously placed his hand on the shoulder of a passerby.
This passerby hadn't noticed him at first, but the next second, he suddenly arched his head back in extreme pain, as if he wanted to scream or call for help, but for some reason, no sound came out.
In the next second.
The passerby's body began to change rapidly.
His skin turned stiff, his expression became rigid and lifeless, his joints quickly turned into the spherical structures of an old-fashioned puppet, and his jaw turned into the open-and-close shape of a puppet, just like Puppet Finley or Billy from Saw, stiff, rigid, and with an indescribable eeriness.
But this was just the first step.
For after the passerby turned into a puppet.
He suddenly raised his hand and harshly pressed it onto another passerby.
Instantly, this passerby also threw back his head in pain, and soon, puppet-like structures appeared on his body.
Like some spreading virus, these two puppets touched other passersby, turning them into new puppets, and these puppets continued to touch others, spreading from one to ten, ten to a hundred, in the blink of an eye, everyone on the street turned into puppets, surrounding the old man in the center.
"Very good, very good indeed."
The old man seemed quite satisfied, slowly nodding and saying, "How could I deliver the gift by myself..."
After saying this, the old man turned and left.
As for the transformed puppet passersby, they rigidly twisted their bodies and followed Denji and his group, continuously transforming others to strengthen their ranks.
In fact, as this large group of puppet people advanced, most people who sensed something wrong turned and ran. But inevitably, there were always people looking down at their phones, not watching where they were going, and the puppet army specifically targeted such individuals. When these people came close, they would simply slap them on the shoulder, transforming these distracted individuals into puppet comrades.
With more and more puppets joining,
Before long, the guards too sensed that something was amiss.
Tamaoki did not speak up; instead, he communicated with Kusakabe through a look. Having been partners before, they understood each other's intentions without words.
"It's almost noon. Let's find a place to have lunch," Kusakabe suddenly suggested. "We hardly had breakfast this morning and are a bit hungry now. Denji, do you have anything you'd like to eat?"
"Me?" Denji, oblivious to the anomaly, scratched his head and replied, "I'm kind of in the mood for meat. Isn't there a Western restaurant in the nearby department store where we can get steak?"
"Then let's go together," Kusakabe and Tamaoki exchanged glances before saying.
"Really?" Denji was immediately delighted. "Haha, awesome, we're going to have steak!"
Soon after, the group entered the department store, and Kusakabe began drawing a magic circle immediately. Denji was momentarily puzzled by this but, seeing the serious expressions of the others, he belatedly realized, "Are we being followed? Does that mean no steak for us?"
While they were discussing this, puppets suddenly charged in from outside.
All the puppets' right arms had transformed into sharp knives. Their stiff, expressionless faces as they moved in groups added an indescribable eeriness to the scene.
However, no sooner had these puppets entered than Kusakabe, crouching over the magic circle, blew a breath forward.
The power of the contracted Devil activated.
Several puppets in front instantly turned into stone statues.
"That's powerful," Denji said, somewhat surprised. "They turned directly into stone."
"If you don't want to end up like them, step back," Kusakabe frowned and warned. "The Stone Devil is quite capricious..."
Before he could finish, Fang Mo suddenly spoke up in defense of the Stone Devil: "Capricious my foot. The Stone Devil is incredibly reliable, you know? The Ghost Devil is just a reclusive trash, and the Fox Devil is notoriously cowardly, but the Stone Devil is different; he really dares to step up when it matters."
Indeed, Fang Mo wasn't lying about this.
In the original story, the characters were tricked by Santa Claus into being transported to hell, where they encountered the ultimate fighter of the series, the fundamental Evil of Darkness. The other Devils were so frightened that they froze in place.
Yet, after Kusakabe activated his contracted power, the Stone Devil actually charged forward.
The opponent is none other than the Dark Devil, representing humanity's terror of the unknown and darkness. This is a primordial Devil of great power. Yet, knowing this, the Stone Devil still charged forward, which is truly remarkable. One dares to summon, and the other truly dares to confront.
Of course, the next second, it was crushed by the Dark Devil.
"...What?"
Hearing Fang Mo's praise for the Stone Devil, Kusakabe was also stunned, as he hadn't read the original work, feeling somewhat confused at the moment.
However, it was during this moment of confusion.
Suddenly, a dense multitude of footsteps sounded from outside.
Following that, a massive wave of puppets crazily surged over, their scale was enormously exaggerated, resembling zombies breaking out, instantly shattering the department store's glass doors and curtain walls.
Kusakabe tried to activate his power, but after petrifying a few puppets, more rushed over, a tactic of pressing forward against the attack with sheer numbers. Seeing this, Kusakabe panicked, as he wasn't Medusa, with a limited number of puppets he could petrify, so he quickly ran out of the magic circle: "No good! There are too many! Run to the second floor!"
"It's the Puppet Devil!"
"Not far away, Hirofumi Yoshida also spoke up: "This is Santa Claus's Devil power. Once touched by a puppet, you'll be transformed into one of them!"
"First of all, retreat!"
Tamaoki also shouted, planning to lead everyone upstairs.
But he had only taken a step when he suddenly felt someone grab his collar, followed by a tremendous force pulling him back.
Tamaoki instinctively looked up, only to find that it was Fang Mo who had pulled him back.
But before he could ask anything, the other party had already spoken.
"Retreat, my ass."
Fang Mo calmly adjusted his clothes: "There's no talking of retreat. The people I personally trained are not cowards. Denji, Power, Aki, Angel, charge."
"...Huh?"
Not only Tamaoki, but Kusakabe and Hirofumi Yoshida were also stunned, hesitating for a moment before hurriedly saying: "No, this is Santa Claus from Germany... Once touched by a puppet, it's over! And isn't the Chainsaw Boy we need to defend? How can you let him go into battle?"
"This moment is the time for judgment."
However, Fang Mo didn't care about these, facing the dense army of puppets ahead, he simply waved his hand forward and said: "Repeat... Lesson Four, assemble!"