CHAPTER ONE - PROLOGUE ARC - GLUTTONY

10 minutes late to class, Riru bursts through the door.

Her long black hair is a tangled mess, her face barely visible underneath. She keeps a hand on her head and breathes raggedly. The class stares in confusion at her unkempt clothing covered in splotches of red. 

She lifts up her head, her bright big eyes now ever so slightly visible as she shows off her sharp teeth with a grin.

"Don't worry! It's just ketchup!"

She makes her way to her desk fully aware of the ceaseless stares that accompany her, pulling a ketchup packet from her pocket and eating it whole. Letting her hand off her head for a moment, a colossal curved horn sprouts from her skull, though she hastily presses it back in without any notice.  

Her face remains bright red. Whether it was the ketchup, her true skin tone peeking through, or pure honest embarrassment was up for debate.

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"Bloodsplatter Moon Lilith Ars Goetia."

The black moon of Hell shines its light through the glass rotunda upon the young devil girl, instigating a chain of audible gasps from within the auditorium.

"An Ars Goetia?", a devil in the crowd stammers. "Is this a suitable task for a royal?"

"A mockery of the throne!", shouts another.

"She is the ideal age, I suppose", another argues.

"Silence!"

The king of Hell, Satan, makes his overwhelming presence known.

"Lilith. The prophecy."

She gulps, reciting the texts to the best of her ability.

"Harkening the first year of the black moon, Goddess Agape was torn asunder, her remains divided into 6 million fragments and scattered throughout the Nine. Unbound by her divine will, death god Thanatos awaits his revival, promising the destruction of devilkind. In 100 years, the black moon shall shine its demonic light upon the chosen. Only through a covenant between this devil and a human, a promise of everlasting love, may devilkind escape annihilation and the Goddess be reborn."

"Well done. May your pursuit bring us salvation." 

The moonlight grows stronger as cheers erupt from the crowd. 

Lilith sighs a breath of relief, though relief is likely the last thing she felt. 

Right now, she was the unluckiest devil in the world. 

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The bell rings, signaling the end of class. 

As she attempts to leave as quickly as possible, she's stopped in her tracks by a fellow classmate. 

"Hey... Riru, right?"

He flaunts a composed smile, his messy hair and nervous eyes telling a different story.

"I'm Mitsugi. Mitsugi Yuto."

"Hi," replies Riru bluntly. 

"Are you... uh... doing okay?"

Riru nods her head. 

"That’s good! So, where are you from?"

"Uh. Earth!".

He smiles again and laughs, though this time it doesn't seem to mask his nervousness.

Riru, desperate to continue the conversation, blurts out her best attempt.

"Do you like ketchup?"

Mitsugi looks surprised. 

"Y-yeah, ketchup is great!"

"Yes!" 

"What do you like to put it on?"

"Nothing! Here!"

She bows her head and hands him a ketchup packet. 

"Oh, uh, thanks!"

Blushing intensely, she immediately runs away. Yuto watches, baffled, dropping the packet. 

Riru's heart is beating fast.

"Could this be?," she thinks to herself. "My first love?"

"I-I-I think I'm in love!"

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What was it about him? 

His scent? His looks? His interest in ketchup? The fact that he's the first student who ever tried talking to her?

Riru kicks her legs in bed as she ruminates on these thoughts.

Her room was an absolute mess, so much so that it could be considered an insult to Satan himself who was paying her rent. A giant pentagram drawn from ash covers nearly the entire area of her floor. 

She rips open a pack of instant ramen, dumping the flavor packet into her mouth while discarding the uncooked noodles. 

...

She takes the noodles back from the garbage bin and chomps on them vigorously.

"Stress eating!"

Her stomach rumbles and she angrily kicks a hole in her wall in response.

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Making her way to the local convenience store, she hears an explosion in the distance. Running over to find the cause of the commotion, she spots a bulky devil terrorizing a local bakery. The bakers unsheath their baguettes in retaliation. 

The temporary opening of the rift between Earth and Hell did not come without consequences. Though the royals of the Ars Goetia valued the prophecy and the resurrection of the Goddess, the smaller warlord factions who mainly comprised the Nine had more selfish priorities. Human flesh was a delicacy to the unrefined palette of devilkind, and many made their way through the rift to get a taste for themselves. Wars between the two species shortly ensued, with humanity eventually developing a countermeasure.

"Where are the devil exterminators?!", yells a baker.

"Those bastards only protect the rich!", scoffs another.

The devil growls.

"WHERE IS IT? THAT SCENT?"

"If you're talking about our bread, you won’t be getting any until we’re toast!"

Frightened, Riru attempts to make her escape before spotting a familiar figure running towards the action.

"Mitsugi!"

The boy turns around, his anxious nature fully displayed on his face.

"Riru! What are you doing here!?"

"Are you okay?", she shouts.

"I-I'm fine. That devil just attacked out of nowhere."

An inexplicable wave of guilt suddenly washes over Riru.

"You should.. really stay away," Mitsugi stammers.

Before he can start running again, Riru grabs onto his wrist tightly, sending him a jolt of pain.

"Ow~! What are you-!"

"You should really stay away too!"

"You don't-"

Refusing to listen any further, she runs away at top speed, forcefully dragging him along with.

The two finally arrive at an empty park, and Mitsugi is tossed onto a nearby bench.

"Ouch!"

"Bwahaha! I saved you!" Riru proclaims.

Abruptly, she turns her back to him, holding her face and blushing intensely.

"I-I saved him?"

"I didn't wanna be saved!"

She meekly turns around.

"Huh?"

Mitsugi hugs his legs, burying his face into his knees. 

"It... it's me. It's all my fault. I'm the reason we got attacked."

"Nonsense! It was the devil's fault!"

"It was my scent."

Riru looks confused. 

"It has to do with my blood, I guess. Something about it smells real tasty to those freaks."

"Freaks..?"

"They've been coming after me ever since the rift opened. Those bakers almost died because of me. You, too! I never really thought about it until recently, but... maybe it'd be better if I just wasn't around."

"N-no! You need to live!"

"Why?"

"U-uh... trust me! You just do!"

Riru grimaces, unable to expose her secret objective.

Mitsugi looks away, defeated.

"What's so good about being alive, anyways?"

"Um... I don't know." Riru says plainly.

The two sit together in silence.

"Sorry. For saving you."

Riru looks as if she's on the verge of tears.

"W-What? No, you don't have to..."

He stops.

"Thank you."

Riru's eyes brighten. She smiles confidently.

"Yes! I made you want to live!"

"What? No!"

He laughs quietly.

Riru's stomach rumbles loudly. 

"Oh... right."

Mitsugi smiles.

"How about I pay you back with something?"

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The bell rings as the two enter the convenience store. Riru excitedly dashes towards an aisle packed full of instant ramen and picks out the spiciest one.

"Are you sure you didn't wanna go somewhere else? How about something a little more filling?"

"No!"

She runs up to the counter and smacks down the package of ramen.

"Hey! You!"

The old women at the register looks over at her with a soft smile.

"Yes?"

"What's so good about being alive?"

Mitsugi looks shocked.

"What a question," she chuckles. "Well... lots of things. I still get to see my grandkids, for one."

"That's it!"

Riru points at Mitsugi confidently.

"We need to have kids!"

"Huh?!"

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The two walk down the sidewalk, Riru munching on her uncooked noodles.

"Uh, you can cook those, you know," Mitsugi laughs nervously.

"Cook?"

Mitsugi's nervous expression morphs into one of fear.

They walk together for a bit in silence. Riru stops eating the noodles, suddenly self conscious.

"Hey, um..." Riru blushes. "Are we friends?"

"O-oh, yeah, sure!"

"Yes!"

"Did you wanna hang out sometime?"

Riru nods.

"Now! And tomorrow! And the next day!"

"I don't think I have time for all that..." Mitsugi laughs. "How about the arcade this Saturday?"

"Well I'm actually very very busy all the time too with stuff."

"Oh, maybe some other time, then..."

"No! I can totally go!"

After a bit more walking, they approach Riru's apartment complex and say their goodbyes.

"See you on Saturday!"

Riru returns to her room, quietly shutting the door.

Then, she shouts.

"I'M IN LOVE!"

She jumps up, her twisted horn once again sprouting from her head and piercing through the ceiling. It's stuck.

"Gah!"

Now suspended in the air, she attempts to free her horn to no avail. 

Suddenly, the pentagram on her floor begins to glow a menacing red. A chorus of screams seems to emanate from it.

Riru clicks her tongue and crosses her arms, giving up on rescuing herself from the ceiling's tight grasp. 

"Accept."

A dark red flame erupts from the center of the pentagram, the face of a devil faintly visible within.

Axe-like blades sprout from the sides of the devil's head, so large it seems impossible for his neck to support them. His four yellow eyes glare menacingly as he fully bares the gnarled fangs erupting from his lower jaw.

"BLOODSPLATTER MOON! YOU ABANDONED ME!"

"Ugh! Not you again! Stop calling me!"

Riru covers her face.

"YUORE SO PRETTY WHEN YOUR COVERING YOU'RE FACE. AND WHEN YOUR NOT TOO."

"Go away."

"YES MY QUEEN."

...

"WAIT NO LISTEN TO ME!"

He squints his eyes and puckers his lips, at least as much as a devil is capable of.

"I WANT YOU..."

"Stop yelling!"

Riru angrily grabs a handful of noodles from the packet and chomps on them.

"Beshides.."

She swallows, looking at him smugly.

"I have a boyfriend now."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT."

...

"NUH-UH."

"Yeah-huh."

"STATE HIS NAME. IS IT DESOLATION DARKNESS PHANTASMAGORIA?"

"It's not you, Des!"

"DID YOU HAVE SEX?"

"Ew! Gross!"

...

"I DON'T ACTUALLY CARE IF YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND BY THE WAY."

"Oh."

Silence.

"BYE."

The flame goes out, disintegrating into ash.

Riru's horn abruptly slams back into her head and she falls on the floor.

"Agh!"

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The next morning.

Riru opens the door to the classroom, late once again. The teacher scowls.

"Take a seat."

She walks over to her desk, making eye contact with Mitsugi. He lifts up his hand in a subtle wave. Riru jumps up and down, waving at him intensely.

"Hi!!!!!"

"Take a seat!"

Rather than doing any sort of work, Riru scribbles in her notebook, now almost entirely covered in demonic sigils. She crudely draws a young smiling boy and a devil girl biting his arm with a heart between them. 

Suddenly, a scream, and a loud bang. 

"RAAAAAAAAUGGHHHHHHHH!"

Riru could smell it instantly, though after all the commotion it was obvious what was happening either way. 

A devil, on school grounds.

Some students yell out in fear. Others quickly make their way to the door.

The teacher speaks up, attempting and failing to sound composed.

"The exterminators will arrive soon. Everyone, stay-"

At that moment, an oversized contorting tongue smashes through the wall of the classroom, blasting the teacher's upper half into a haze of red mist. 

Innards splatter against the back wall. 

Screams erupt from the students.

The gargantuan devil crashes its body through the rest of the wall. It resembles a crocodile in appearance, though the entire front half of its body has been replaced with a giant gaping mouth. Its jaw is unhinged to display a colossal slobbering tongue while additional mouths cover each of its joints. 

"IM BELPHEGOR! I FUCKIN LOOOVE LICKING SHIT! IMMA LICK THAT SCENT RIGHT OFFA YOU!"

The four mouths on its limbs echo its words with a slight delay.

The rest of the students flood out of the room screaming, though Mitsugi stands still, paralyzed.

"Mitsugi! Run!" yells Riru.

Her horn once again bursts from her skull.

She looks embarrassed, yet determined.

Mitsugi snaps out of it.

"R-Riru, you're-"

"Get out! Go! Aaaargh!"

She yanks on the top of her horn, slowly tearing it out of her skull.

Belphegor's tongue shoots towards Riru.

The horn rips out, blood exploding from the hole that remains. She holds it with two hands and swings it in front of her, revealing the other end to be a sharp serrated blade.

In a flurry of swings, the tongue is sliced into ribbons.

"GRAAAHHHHH! FUCK! LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK-"

Dozens of tongues spring out from the darkness of the monster's throat. 

Riru jumps up, thursting the blade down and managing to pin down all the tongues at once.

She grabs ahold of her two canine teeth, ripping them out of her gums and using them to rapidly saw through the tongues like daggers.

The mouth on one of Belphegor's joints extends forward with a tube of flesh, biting onto Riru's right arm and ripping it off.

It swallows.

Riru shrieks.

"YOU TASTE LIKE SHIT!"

All the mouths on Belphegor's joints extend at once, resembling a hungry hydra. 

Riru spits blood, using it to draw a messy pentagram with her foot. 

It glows with a red light, and Riru screams.

"Summon!"

In a blast of flame, a giant minigun sprouts from the sigil.

"LICKLICKLICKLICKLIKCLICKLICKLICKLICKLI-"

Tongues upon tongues shoot out from the mouths, now too many to count. Riru steadies herself, firing a barrage of flaming bullets that pierce the salivating whips in a dazzling display of flesh and blood.

She shoves the minigun back down into the pentagram, pulling out a long curved scythe instead. 

She fights off against the faceless mouths before hearing a familiar voice yell out in agony.

"AAAAAGHH!"

"Mitsugi!"

While Riru was busy fending off three of the mouths, the fourth and final one managed to grab ahold of Mitsugi, who was hiding right outside the door. Blood pours from his thigh as the crooked teeth pierce his flesh. 

Riru runs toward him, but before she can make it, one of the mouths dashes forward and smashes a hole through her stomach.

She vomits, quickly drawing a sigil around the wound. A fire ignites, and her flesh appears once again. 

In an instant, she grabs ahold of her head with her one remaining arm and rips it off, tossing it towards Mitsugi.

The rest of the mouths swarm her body and tear it to shreds.

Her head bites the fleshy tendril connecting to the mouth attacking Mitsugi, chomping down and ripping through it. For now, he was safe.

Riru's mutilated body lifts its arm, just barely able to draw one last sigil.

Upon its ignition, the rest of Riru's body sprouts from her disconnected head. 

Her demonic features were now fully on display, giant claws and blood red skin blending in with the carnage of the room around her. 

Mitsugi lay speechless just behind the entrance.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT! IM GONNA LICK IT ALL! EVERY LAST PART OF YA! YES, EVEN THERE, AND THERE TOO, AND DON'T FORGET-"

"Shut your mouth already!"

Riru jabs her horn blade down onto Belphegor's giant mouth, who was laughing maniacally in a murderous craze. 

This last thrust pins the mouth closed. The devil thrashes its saliva covered body across the room.

"Let's go!"

Riru grabs onto Mitsugi, throwing him over her shoulder and running as fast as she can.

Belphegor manages to free himself from the blade, another smaller mouth erupting from his throat and chasing after them. Each time the distance got too far, yet another mouth would sprout from the infinite depths within. 

Riru spots a nearby janitors closet, swinging the door open and jumping inside with Mitsugi. 

The mouth races past the closet, seemingly unaware of their hiding place.

"The scent that thing was talking about..." Mitsugi cries. "Is it mine?"

"...Yeah. Probably. The smell of blood is stronger for now, though."

Mitsugi's eyes are filled with dread.

"S-so you're a devil, huh..."

Riru has a pained expression.

"Yeah. Sorry."

...

"I knew it!"

"Huh?!"

Mitsugi laughs.

"You should... probably learn to hide it better. Don't want exterminators coming after you."

"...Sorry."

Riru is speechless.

Mitsugi continues.

"And yet... you don't wanna kill me."

Riru seems shocked, tears growing in her eyes.

"N-no! Of course not! I want you to live!"

"You're really weird. Even for a devil."

...

"I love you."

Riru couldn't control what came out of her mouth. It couldn't be described as anything but instinct. 

Blood rushes to Mitsugi's face.

The building shakes.

"I...", he stammers.

The two stare at each other uncomfortably.

In that instant, Belphegor's claw rips through the doorway. 

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The rest of the students in Riru's class hide under the desks in a nearby classroom, trembling in fear.

The door slams open, and a familiar silhouette walks through.

She's drenched in guts, splotches of red covering her entire body. Tears are in her eyes.

She lifts up her head and shows off her sharp teeth with a grin. She coughs up a clump of blood.

"Don't worry... It's just... ketchup..!"

Her unconscious body falls to the floor. 

LOVE X DEVIL

PROLOGUE ARC - END