Disclaimer: I do not own Devilman Lady or any of the characters from the anime or manga by Go Nagai.

Chapter 20

Jun shifted, mumbled something incoherent, then slowly opened her eyes. It took a few seconds for her to remember the last night’s events. Then instantly she was up out of her bed and checking the top bunk. Kazumi wasn’t there. Very nearly to the point of frantically scouring the whole apartment she looked around the room….stopped and blinked when her eyes finally located the girl. She was actually on the bottom bunk, Jun’s bunk, pressed as far into it as she could. Jun was more than a little surprised by the fact she hadn’t realized she was there or woken her up when Kazumi slipped into bed with her. She was also similarly shocked that the girl would want to be close to her considering all that had happened. Jun found it more than a little touching.

Jun briefly considered waking her up, after all the time on the clock showed she was probably only minutes away from being late for school, but Jun dismissed the idea. They needed to talk about what had happened last night. Kazumi also needed her sleep, since there was no telling how long they were out, though Jun vaguely remembered looking at the time and it saying something in the 2:00 AM range. Strangely enough she didn’t feel tired. No maybe that wasn’t so strange. She knew why. She was dreading facing Kazumi later, and that fear had her on edge and wide awake.

Allowing Kazumi some more sleep, Jun went into the main room, picked up her phone, and dialed Kazumi’s school’s number after she dug it out of the phone book. After about two rings a woman, probably the receptionist or secretary (whichever a school’s office had, Jun wasn’t sure which)in the front office, answered. It took a few minutes to handle all of the formalities and Jun just left the reason for absence up to an ‘emergency’. Then with a polite goodbye she hung up the phone.

‘Now what, I’m too…I guess I should say nervous to go back to sleep and I don’t want to wake her up.’ Jun paced back and forth through the room and sighed. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing to wait, considering it would allow her to collect her thoughts and think of what to say. Still as she sat down she knew there’d be no easy way to say it no matter how much time she had to think about it.

“That’s it; that is all you know?” Maeda nodded solemnly. He was probably one of the few men who could do anything but cower under Lan Asuka’s glare and even he was uncomfortable. “So let me get this straight, she evaded our surveillance for unknown reasons, and she was pretty successful at it I might add so you might want to look into that some time in the near future. Then later the same evening, in fact early morning, she returns and we don’t know why. What’s worse we had a beast attack on our hands last night and only HA troops to handle it with. If Jason hadn’t been there HQ would be banging on my door demanding to know what happened and I would have nothing to tell them.”

Maeda nodded and bowed his head. “Obviously there are still some faults in our surveillance system on Miss Fudo.”

“Obviously,” Asuka sighed and stood up. “We’ll if I want something done right I’ll have to do it myself.” With that she donned her red Jacket, pushed past Maeda, and left the office.

“Jun,” The aforementioned woman looked up at the sound of a soft voice calling out her name and realized Kazumi was poking her head out of the bedroom and looking at her with wide eyes. Jun wasn’t sure exactly how long she’d been waiting in here, but it was long enough for Kazumi to wake up.

“Hey Kazumi,” Jun replied, also taking up a soft tone herself. “Are you hungry at all?” The girl stood as if stricken for a few seconds before she gave a small nod. “Alright then.”

Glad for something to do, Jun headed into the kitchen and set to work. Out of the kitchen and set to work. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Kazumi, who sat down at the table and stared at its surface. From that position she didn’t move. She just stared at the table, keeping her gaze fixed away from Jun.

The entire time Jun worked on the breakfast/lunch neither spoke and when the model finally finished up everything in the kitchen and came to the table with two plates of food Kazumi still hadn’t moved. “Well it’s done. I’m afraid even living with you all this time I haven’t gotten much better at cooking.” Again that uncomfortable silence, oh dear. What was she supposed to say? She’d spent all this time keeping her secret from Kazumi and now that the girl knew what was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? Jun didn’t know all of what Satoru must have told Kazumi and even though the girl had wanted to come home with her...did she still trust her? “Kazumi, are you alright?”

The girl jumped a little bit and shook her head silently in answer. Then she looked down at her food and started in on it. Another long, awkward silence descended as they ate, and they even did that quietly. Jun kept casting furtive glances at Kazumi, who seemed to be refusing to look at her.

It wasn’t until they finished that Jun decided to try again. “Look Kazumi, I called your school today and got you the day off. I... I thought we could both take some time to talk about everything that’s happened and...well... what it means...and...” She wasn’t even sure herself now what she was saying so she stopped and looked back to her plate. An even longer quiet enveloped them this time.

At last it seemed Kazumi’s turn to break it, “Jun, are you alright? You got really hurt last night, didn’t you?”
“I’m fine Kazumi, don’t worry. I’m...” She paused a bit, not used to talking this way to anyone, much less Kazumi. When the subject of what she was came up she would usually scream something about her still being human or becoming very quiet. Yet Kazumi needed her to be honest now. “I heal very quickly because of what I am ”

“What are you exactly? Are you what that boy said? Are you really the next stage of evolution? Are you really going to wipe us out? Are you a mon...” Kazumi had started to work herself up, but stopped when she realized what she was saying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...”

“Yes you did. It’s what I am.” Kazumi looked down, ashamed. “I’m not like him, Kazumi. I’m not like the others. At least part of me is still human. I... I really wish all of it was, but... I really didn’t have a choice.”
“What does that man, Maeda, and the woman from the diner have to do with all of this?” Kazumi asked half hesitantly, half edgily.

“Lan Asuka works for a group called the HA. I don’t know everything about them, just that they exist to protect people from beasts. That’s why they need me... there are some devil beasts, things like me, too strong for them to take down, at least without lots of people dying. It’s my job to... to kill them.” From the expression on Jun’s face and the way she said it, it was obvious how much this bothered her.

“My parents... what about them?” Kazumi asked, touching on the dreaded subject. Well really anything to do with the devil beasts became part of the ‘dreaded subject’. But this in particular she’d been afraid of. “Why did you say it was your fault?”

Jun bit her lip and thought for a few moments before sighing. “The beasts, at least some of them, know who I am. TO get revenge for the one I’d killed they came after you.” Jun didn’t add that Satoru had accused her of... well... maybe it definitely was best she didn’t mention they assumed she had ‘that’ kind of interest in Kazumi. “They knew about our relationship and because you knew me they came for you. That’s why I said it was my fault. They wouldn’t have hurt you if they didn’t know I cared about you.”
Kazumi looked back down at the table’s surface, thinking about what Jun had just said. It made sense in a sick sort of way. It explained a lot. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to get dragged into all of this any more than you already had been. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you and... I wanted you to think I was normal.” Kazumi blinked. “I wanted someone from my old life, someone I cared about, who at least still thought of me as a human and not as a monster. You don’t know how much that meant to me; so much so that I endangered you again by allowing you to stay. I’m sorry Kazumi.”
“Didn’t you think I deserved to know? If my parents died because of this, don’t you think I should know? Hell, my life’s in danger and I don’t even realize it? And what about my best friend? If she’s involved in it then I have a right to know, especially if she’s one of them; if my sister’s in danger I need to know...” Then Kazumi trailed off. To tell the truth a large part of her wished she still didn’t know. Though the other part was outraged at the wool being pulled over her eyes, the majority hid behind it; wishing she’d never known the truth. Ignorance really was bliss sometimes. With how much she wanted not to know anymore she was shocked at her own apparent indigence at having been kept in the dark.

Jun was caught in similar state of surprise for a different reason. Had Kazumi been referring to her on those last two accounts? She had to be. She was the only beast Kazumi knew(she hoped, since she didn’t know all of Kazumi’s friends) so she had to be. She still thought of her as her best friend...as her sister? Jun opened her mouth to reply after several seconds of thought, but no words came out; for another sound stopped her. It was a knock on the door. Then a cold, very recognizable, feminine voice called out, “Jun, I know you’re in there! We need to have a talk. Open up. I’m not a patient woman.”