The dimensional shift this time felt smooth, but the world that greeted him was filled with sharp noise and strange smells. Tom Jacker appeared at a bustling intersection in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The dazzling neon lights from tall buildings bathed him in a sea of colors, a stark contrast to the eternal darkness and putrid scent of blood he had just left in Wallachia.
Using his "Fashion Adaptation" Quirk from his AFO library, his theatrical dark prince attire instantly transformed into a fashionable modern casual suit. He looked around, sensing the familiar hustle and bustle of a big city, but with an odd, additional "note" beneath its surface. A jarring chord of faint, constant fear, as if seeping into the asphalt and concrete of the city itself.
His familiar System Panel popped up with an informative notification.
[System Panel]
-Welcome to Dimension C-69M.
-Brief world analysis: This world is inhabited by Devils, supernatural entities born from humanity's collective fear. The greater the fear of a concept, the stronger the Devil of that concept.
-Main Factions: Public Safety Devil Hunters are a government organization tasked with hunting and killing Devils that threaten humans. Humans can make contracts with Devils to gain power. Special entities like Fiends (Devils taking over human corpses) and Hybrids (humans merged with Devils) also exist.
"Devils born from fear?" Tom smiled faintly. "A very poetic concept. And very full of potential for chaos."
As he pondered where to seek his first "entertainment," a deafening explosion occurred not far from him. The wall of a multi-purpose building shattered, and a monstrous creature crawled out. It looked like a cross between a giant bat and a leech, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and wild compound eyes. It was the Bat Devil.
Pedestrians screamed and ran in panic. Tom merely observed with interest, as if watching a monster movie trailer.
Then, from the opposite direction, two figures emerged. One was a scruffy blond young man with an unkempt appearance, and the other was a girl with long pink hair and a pair of small horns on her head.
"Blood! Give me blood, Human!" shrieked the girl, Power, pointing at the Bat Devil.
"Shut up, idiot! We have to kill it to save Meowy!" retorted the young man, Denji.
The ensuing battle was one of the most unprofessional and chaotic fights Tom had ever witnessed. Denji, by pulling a cord on his chest, transformed into Chainsaw Man, his head and arms replaced by roaring chainsaws. He attacked brutally and without strategy. Power created a giant hammer from her own blood and swung it wildly, narrowly missing Denji several times.
"A Hybrid and a Fiend," Tom murmured, his eyes sparkling. "The toys in this world are truly unique."
The Bat Devil, though powerful, seemed overwhelmed by the brutality and unpredictability of its two opponents. However, it managed to catch Power and fly into the air. Denji, cleverly, wrapped his chainsaw chain around the devil's leg and flew along, fighting in mid-air.
Tom, bored of just watching, decided to join. He didn't fly. He simply teleported, appearing suddenly on the back of the flying Bat Devil, right between the sawing Denji and the struggling Power.
"Excuse me," Tom said, patting the Bat Devil's shoulder. "May I join the game?"
Denji, Power, and the Bat Devil were equally surprised. "Who are you?!" they shouted in unison.
"Just a tourist." Tom ignored them and looked at the Bat Devil. "I like your design, but your voice is too shrill."
With a lazy wave of his hand, Tom used Telekinesis from AFO. The Bat Devil suddenly stopped flapping its wings. Its body twisted by unseen forces, its bones cracking, and with one final jerk, the creature exploded in mid-air, leaving a rain of devil blood and flesh.
Denji and Power fell freely. Before they hit the ground, Tom had already caught both of them with Telekinesis and gently lowered them.
Power immediately got up. "Hey! That was my prey! I needed its blood to boost my public rating!"
Denji reverted to his human form, looking confused. "How... how did you do that?"
Tom looked at both of them, then at the city. "You two seem to work for someone. I want to meet your boss. It seems that's where all the fun gathers."
After some chaotic arguments (and threats from Power that she would suck Tom's blood, which Tom only responded to with an amused smile), they finally led Tom to the Public Safety Special Division headquarters.
Tom didn't wait in the lobby. He sensed the most interesting and controlling aura in the building, then teleported.
Inside her office, Makima was reviewing reports when the air in front of her shimmered. Tom Jacker appeared, casually sitting in the guest chair across from her desk. Aki Hayakawa, who was standing nearby, instinctively placed his hand on his katana hilt, his eyes wide with shock.
"Nice office," Tom said, starting the conversation. "But a little too neat. Lacks a personal touch."
Makima showed no surprise. She simply stared at Tom, her characteristic mysterious smile playing on her lips. Her eyes, with their strange ring patterns, seemed to try to read every inch of Tom's soul, but only found confusing emptiness. She couldn't "see" anything. This anomaly was beyond her control.
"Welcome to Public Safety," Makima said, her voice calm and enchanting. "I don't see you on the guest list. May I know who you are, and how you bypassed our security?"
"My name is Tom Jacker," Tom replied. "And about security, your door seems to be broken." He pointed to the solid wall. "I hear you have a fun special team. I want to join."
It wasn't a request. It was a statement.
Aki glared at him. "Who do you think you are, just barging in..."
"Aki," Makima gently cut him off, her eyes never leaving Tom. "It's alright." She leaned forward. "You want to join, Mr. Jacker? What position do you have in mind?"
"I don't care about positions," Tom answered. "I just want to be where there's the most action, the most monsters, and the most... entertainment." He smiled. "Consider me an 'independent consultant for chaos affairs'."
Makima chuckled softly, a beautiful yet cold laugh. "Very well, Mr. Jacker. I suppose... we can arrange something for you. Welcome to the Special Squad."
She had found the strongest and most unexpected chess piece on her board. And Tom Jacker had found his new playground. The game between them had begun.
The first few days of Tom Jacker's tenure as an "independent consultant" in Special Division 4 resembled a comical social experiment more than a job. Aki Hayakawa regarded him with undisguised hostility and suspicion, seeing him as a ticking time bomb Makima had brought in. Denji and Power, having realized Tom could often "conjure" snacks out of thin air (using his Supply Quirk from AFO), now viewed him as a strange walking snack dispenser. Himeno, with her flirtatious and relaxed demeanor, constantly teased him, trying to read his reactions, while Kobeni and Arai seemed too terrified to even make eye contact with him.
Tom enjoyed it all. He was a fox unleashed in an already chaotic henhouse.
Their first mission came a few days later. Makima gathered them in the briefing room. "A fragment of the Gun Devil has been detected at the Morin Hotel," she said calmly. "I want your team to secure and retrieve it. Himeno will lead."
Tom, who was busy using Telekinesis to make a pen dance on the table, merely yawned. "A hotel? Hope the room service is good."
The Morin Hotel looked ordinary from the outside, though a bit old and worn. As they entered, the atmosphere immediately felt wrong. The air was stale, dust danced in the dim light, and there was an unnatural silence.
"I don't like this place," Kobeni whispered, already trembling.
"Just an old hotel, don't be a crybaby," Aki retorted curtly, his hand never far from his katana hilt.
They ascended to the eighth floor, where the fragment was detected. They walked down a long corridor, checking each room, but found nothing. When they tried to go back, they realized something horrifying. The stairs that should have led them down now brought them back to the eighth-floor corridor. The elevator doors wouldn't open. The windows showed the same outdoor view, but breaking them yielded nothing but a solid brick wall.
"We're... trapped," Himeno said, her expression turning serious. She tried to call her Ghost, but nothing appeared. "Damn it. This is a trap. We're inside a devil's belly."
Panic began to set in. Time was passing, but they couldn't get out. The corridor repeated endlessly. Arai began to despair; Kobeni was already crying in a corner. Denji and Power, after initial excitement, were now getting hungry and complaining.
Tom, on the other hand, seemed perfectly relaxed. He walked down the endless corridor with the expression of a tourist admiring the architecture. "Interesting concept," he remarked. "A repeating prison of time and space. This devil has artistic taste too."
"This isn't the time to admire interior design, Tom!" Aki snapped. "Think of a way out!"
"Why the rush?" Tom replied. "This is much more interesting than looking for old pistol shards."
Hours bled into days. Their food and water ran out. Tension mounted. Himeno, to calm her nerves, began drinking from the sake bottle she always carried. She became bolder, approaching Denji and offering him an "adult reward" if he managed to kill the devil, a desperate attempt to motivate their seemingly only reliable weapon.
Tom observed all the drama with an amused smile. Human interaction under pressure was always the best spectacle. But after seeing Denji seriously consider letting himself be eaten to kill the devil from the inside, Tom decided that this game was starting to get boring.
"Alright, that's enough," he said, his calm voice cutting through the tension. All eyes turned to him.
He walked to the center of the corridor, closing his eyes for a moment. He didn't use his eyes to search. He used his Psychokinesis (via AFO), spreading his consciousness throughout the twisted space-time structure of the hotel. He could feel the devil's essence, a distorted and hungry consciousness, its pulsating heart hidden somewhere beyond normal perception.
"Found it," he whispered.
He opened his eyes and looked at a blank wall in the corridor. "Hey, Time Worm!" he called out. "Playtime's over!"
With a wave of his hand, the wall ripped open as if made of paper. Behind it, not another hotel room, but a giant, dark empty space. In the center of that space, hung a disgusting bus-sized mass of flesh, composed of hundreds of faces fused in agony, melting wall clocks, and countless mouths. It was the true form of the Eternity Devil.
Everyone, even Aki and Himeno, gasped in horror.
The Eternity Devil roared, and the entire hotel shook. "You... how can you see me?!"
"I have good eyes," Tom replied. "And honestly, you're uglier than I imagined."
He wasted no time. He raised his hand, and blue hellfire from the Hellflame Quirk (via AFO) blazed in his palm. He didn't shoot it. He condensed it, then used Spatial Teleportation to move the compressed hellfire sphere not to the devil's body, but directly into its main heart.
FWOOOSSSHHH!
The Eternity Devil didn't even have time to scream. From within its body, a dazzling blue light exploded. The colossal creature incinerated from the inside out, turning to ash in a matter of seconds.
As the devil died, the hotel illusion collapsed. They were back in the normal, dusty eighth-floor corridor. The stairwell door was now open, and light from the outside world streamed in.
The Division 4 team could only stare at Tom in utter shock. He had just resolved an impossible situation, one that had nearly claimed their lives and sanity, with a single wave of his hand and a sarcastic comment.
Aki looked at him with deepening wariness. Denji and Power stared at him with dumbstruck admiration. And Himeno... Himeno looked at him with an entirely different gaze. A mixture of fear, awe, and a very dangerous fascination.
In the midst of the silence, only Tom heard the notification in his mind.
[System Panel]
-Condition 'target defeated' has been met.
-System Notification: Ability 'Limited Space Manipulation (Devil's Belly)' has been copied. Slots filled: 4/7.
-Description: Allows the user to create a pocket dimension or limited space that traps targets within it, repeating space and time according to the user's will.
"A personal trap space," Tom thought. "This will be very useful for 'discussions' I don't want interrupted." He smiled. This trip hadn't been in vain after all.
Exiting the Morin Hotel felt like waking up from a long nightmare. Special Division 4 was greeted by the fresh night air, which felt incredibly wonderful after days confined in stale eternity. They were all silent, each processing what had just happened. The newer members like Kobeni and Arai looked pale and shaken. Denji and Power, after their initial relief, were now just complaining about hunger. Aki Hayakawa looked at Tom Jacker with a complicated gaze, a mixture of reluctant gratitude and deepening suspicion.
Himeno, however, was the first to break the silence. She laughed, a slightly hoarse and forced laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
"Alright, alright!" she exclaimed, putting her arms around Aki and Denji. "We all survived! This calls for a celebration! I'm treating all of you to drinks until morning! And this is also an official welcome party for our newest, most... surprising member." Her eyes glanced at Tom with an unreadable glint.
Although Aki seemed reluctant, and the others too exhausted, Himeno's offer was hard to refuse. Moments later, they were in a bustling izakaya, sitting in a private room.
The drinking party unfolded exactly as one might imagine. Power, after a single gulp of beer, immediately got drunk and began excitedly recounting how she was supposed to be the main hero. Denji was busy devouring all the food on the table. Kobeni merely drank tea and apologized every time someone spoke to her. Aki drank in silence, occasionally glancing warily at Tom.
Tom himself simply enjoyed the show. He didn't drink much, preferring to observe the interactions around him. However, he couldn't observe quietly for long. Himeno quickly moved her seat next to Tom.
"So, Tom-kun," Himeno said, her voice already slurred from alcohol, her breath smelling of sake. She leaned casually against Tom. "You were really the hero tonight. How did you do it? That blue fire... and suddenly destroying its heart from within? Is that your devil power?"
"Trade secret, Himeno-senpai," Tom replied with a smile, completely unfazed by their closeness. "Let's just say I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve."
"I like a man with a lot of tricks," Himeno retorted, her finger playfully tracing Tom's arm. "You know, a strong man like you... you can get anything you want in this world. Money, fame... women."
She stared at him intently. This was her game. She was used to using her charm to get what she wanted, or at least to test someone's limits. But Tom was no ordinary man.
"I always get what I want," Tom said, his tone flat but filled with a self-assurance that sent a slight shiver down Himeno's spine. "The question is, do you have something I want?"
Before Himeno could respond to the provocation, she suddenly felt nauseous from too much drinking. "Oh, just a sec..." she said. She leaned forward, looking like she was about to vomit.
In an instant, Tom's first instinct was to teleport away. But then, a whimsical idea popped into his mind. He held Himeno, and with a very subtle touch of Telekinesis on her stomach and throat, he "calmed" the turmoil within Himeno's body, forcibly stopping her gag reflex.
Himeno, who had been ready for an embarrassing moment, suddenly felt her nausea vanish completely. She stared at Tom in confusion. "W-what did you..."
"Close call," Tom chuckled. "You have to be more careful with your drinks, Senpai."
Himeno was silent. She didn't know what Tom had just done, but it was another subtle yet absolute demonstration of power. This man could even control her bodily functions. Her curiosity was now mixed with a hint of intoxicating fear.
The night deepened. Most of the team members were either drunk or asleep. Himeno, now looking at Tom with an entirely different gaze, decided to make her final move.
"You know," she whispered, her voice now more serious. "I have an apartment not far from here. It's quieter than here." She looked at him with a challenging gaze. "How about we continue this 'celebration' there?"
Tom looked into Himeno's eyes, glittering with alcohol and adrenaline. He saw desperation, boldness, and a wild curiosity there. This was a clear invitation. And Tom Jacker never refused an invitation to an interesting show.
"Why not?" he replied with a faint smile. "Lead the way."
He stood, helping the slightly swaying Himeno to her feet. They left the noisy izakaya, walking under the Tokyo night lights, towards Himeno's apartment. Aki, still sober enough, could only watch them leave with a bad feeling, unable to intervene.