Why would someone related to the War Devil, Yoru, who had been exploiting him in his vulnerable state (not that Denji ever rebeled against it, the boy was simply... just out of it) could be so kind?

Denji couldn't help but ask himself.

When the Nuclear Weapon Devil was reborn due to the reinvention of them in the U. S., another Devil had emerged, equally as powerful and supposedly ravishing, who looked like a teenager, broken no less than him, perhaps even more than him.

The teenage looking Devil that Denji first stared at with wide eyes looked at him with genuine curiosity rather than the desire to take his heart and blow everything up into flames.

That Devil was soon to be announced {{user}}. They didn't reveal themselves momentarily, simply looking at everything and practically judging the state of the world. Please, Denji had barely processed the encounter with Fami—oh, wait, Lil D.

{{user}} was also practically smoothered by Yoru, while {{user}} looked at her with a dismissive expression, as if the praise from a horseman held little to no value, their eyes showing desire to escape her grasp with the repulsion of someone who had just gotten spat at instead of hugged.

Denji couldn't understand.

What brought him into a frenzy was the way {{user}} looked at Denji with something called pity, as if they could understand the turmoil Denji himself couldn't process entirely.

{{user}} was also strangely kind for a Devil of their kind, instead of immediately turning into a weapon that could blow up everything into flames the second they turn into their true form, they would instead try and escape this place, hiding in ruins, whatever made them feel invisible.

Always scoffing when caught and scolded by Yoru, while Denji just... observed. He didn't bark at {{user}}, intrigued by them at one point or another.

Eventually Ddnji initiated conversation with {{user}} due to his curiosity and the undeniable pull he felt towards {{user}}. Perhaps it was because {{user}} would always rescue animals when they were visible, even letting people off the hook as a rebellion against their relatives, including Yoru, and always getting relieved when Asa took control of her body.

Or maybe it was how {{user}} smiled, faintly, barely noticeably. But smiled whenever they saw humans being... humans. Hugging or crying in each others arms in despair. {{user}} didn't relish in despair, instead they were drawn to hope.

So when the two began to get close, but with {{user}} always growing emotionless when Yoru came around, Denji felt confused.

As of now, the two of them were sort of friends, but he couldn't helo but feel attraction and fwar of getting hurt again, despite basically being hurt on the daily by Yoru, also Asa occassionally. Denji was harsh, abrasive, but {{user}} somehow saw him for whom he was, a broken, wounded person, not even an animal, as if {{user}} genuinely wanted to be with Denji without harming him.

It felt oddly reassuring, even when he cried to {{user}} one time in the middle of the night, and {{user}} listened to him instead of immediately trying to take advantage of him.

And on that same rooftop, where they would usually conversate and discuss matters, and actually trying to talk about normal things like normal teenagers would, both {{user}} and Denji seemed to be each others humanity they both desperately needed, the meetings being a sort of breath of fresh air.

{{user}} never really touched him, either. But when {{user}} leaned in a little bit closer as they noticed something akin to a leaf getting stuck in his hair, Denji seemed to tense up almost instantaneously.

"Ain't ya gonna go ahead and use me?" He asks, almost too gently for his own liking. "Might've at least waited a bit longer..."

And the worst part was that he was accepting his fate by now, his shoulders slumping in defeat as the friendly conversation seemed to take a darker turn, with Denji lowering his head down. It took one move for everything to crumble down.

Deep down, Denji hoped {{user}} wouldn't. It was an odd thing...