Akira Fudo is just an ordinary high school student until his childhood friend Ryo Asuka asks him to 'save the world.' Dragged to a demonic rave called a Sabbath, Akira fuses with the powerful demon Amon, becoming Devilman—a hero with a demon's body but a human heart. What follows is a story that explodes with forbidden love.
While Akira fights hidden battles, Ryo's suppressed feelings for him burn like a fever. Ryo has always loved Akira, not just as a friend. But he's forced to watch Akira's k
Devilman: Apocalypse of Love - Sharing Secrets — Twisted Vows and the Seeds of Jealousy
The morning sun was beginning to paint the residential streets of Higashimurayama in pale white.
Akira stood before the gate of the Makimura house. Beneath his clothes, the wounds from last night's Sabbath still throbbed, raw and fresh. He'd managed to stop the bleeding from the gash on his left arm, but the area around his ribs ached with every breath.
(*I'm fine. It doesn't hurt. I'm fine.*)
Repeating it to himself like a mantra, Akira reached for the front door.
"I've been waiting."
A voice.
It cut cleanly through the cold morning air.
He turned. Asuka Ryo stood there.
Ryo, who should have been at the Asuka mansion — a twenty-minute walk from Higashimurayama Station, up on the hill — was, for some reason, standing in front of the Makimura house. His fine, almost colorless silver hair gleamed white in the morning light. His blue eyes, the color of deep ocean, were fixed intently on Akira.
An expression utterly unreadable was plastered across his porcelain-white face.
"Ryo... what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean, 'what'? I couldn't reach you since last night, Akira. I was worried, so I came."
Despite the word "worried," Ryo's voice carried an accusatory edge.
He took a step closer.
His slender fingers closed around Akira's wrist.
"Your wounds. Let me see them."
"I told you, I'm fine. More importantly, Ryo, what are you—"
That was when it happened.
The front door burst open.
"Akira!!"
It was Miki.
Her long black hair swayed in its ponytail. She was still in her apron, a spatula in her hand. She must have been in the middle of making breakfast. Her large, bright brown eyes looked first at Akira, then at Ryo.
And then, they narrowed with wariness.
"Asuka-kun...? What are you doing here?"
Ryo turned a cold smile toward Miki.
His mouth was smiling, but his blue eyes held no warmth whatsoever. It was an expression like a sculpture carved from ice.
"Good morning, Makimura-san. You're energetic so early. But this is a conversation that doesn't concern you."
Miki's shoulders stiffened slightly.
"It *does* concern me! Akira is my family. If he comes home in the morning, covered in wounds, and then you're standing at our doorstep too—"
"I have something to discuss with Akira. I'm sorry, but I'll need him to miss school today. Not that I require your permission, Makimura-san."
With that, Ryo pulled on Akira's wrist.
With a force that brooked no argument.
"Hey, Ryo!"
"Akira, there's something I must tell you. It's extremely important. Come on, let's go."
The voice Ryo used only for Akira was completely different from the one he used for Miki. It was gentle, almost coaxing, but with a desperate undertone woven into it.
Akira turned back to look at Miki.
She stood frozen in front of the door.
The hand holding the spatula was trembling.
In her brown eyes, he saw an anxiety and a sense of exclusion he'd never seen before.
"...Miki-chan, I'll be right back."
"...Okay. I understand. Be careful."
Miki's small voice dissolved into the morning air.
Without a single glance back at Miki, Ryo pulled Akira by the hand and walked toward his car.
Akira looked back, feeling as if his heart were being torn out.
Miki was still standing at the door, seeing them off.
He didn't realize it yet — that deep in her chest, something had already begun to stir restlessly.
---
Ryo's car was a high-end import.
The leather seats enveloped his body, and the air-conditioned interior was comfortable. But Akira's mind couldn't settle.
Ryo, in the driver's seat, said nothing.
His silver hair swayed in the light streaming through the window.
His profile was as perfectly composed as a doll's.
"Ryo. Where are we going?"
"My house. There's something I want to show you in the basement of the Asuka mansion."
"The basement? I don't remember ever playing there."
"No, you wouldn't have. It was my father's laboratory. I wasn't allowed in as a child. But now, I manage it."
Ryo's father, Professor Asuka, had been a renowned archaeologist. He was also the colleague Akira's parents had been working with overseas. He'd heard that the professor had died in an accident during research fifteen years ago.
Since then, Ryo had lived alone in the Asuka mansion.
The only help was a housekeeper who came three days a week.
A vast Western-style mansion, and Ryo's world alone within it.
"A laboratory... don't tell me it's for that demon research you were talking about?"
"That's right. You should have confirmed its reality with your own body last night, Akira."
The words caught in his throat.
Last night.
The demonic feast held at the Kaigan Seventh Warehouse on Tokyo Bay — the Sabbath.
Taken there by Ryo, Akira had "fused" with the demon Amon.
Fusion was the demon clan's ability to merge with other lifeforms and hijack their bodies. Normally, a human's ego would be swallowed by the demon and vanish.
But Akira was different.
He had suppressed Amon and, in turn, made that power his own.
Devilman — a being who possessed the power of a demon but retained a human heart.
Ryo had called it "the hope for protecting humanity."
But.
"We're here."
The car stopped.
---
The Asuka mansion was a Western-style house built atop a hill.
The white-walled building towered over a vast plot of land, nearly 2,600 square meters. Ivy crept up the walls, and the trees in the garden were meticulously maintained. Yet, there was a profound absence of any human presence.
Ryo unlocked the door and led Akira inside.
"This way."
From the entrance hall, they moved down a corridor and descended a staircase.
The door to the basement was made of heavy iron. When Ryo input his fingerprint and a PIN code, it opened with a low hum.
"Incredible..."
Akira couldn't help but gasp.
What spread out underground was a laboratory that looked like a museum.
Ancient documents lined an entire wall, and specimen cases held fossils of creatures he'd never seen before. A large microscope and analysis equipment sat on a desk, and a whiteboard against the wall was covered in complex diagrams and formulas.
In the center of the room stood a gigantic skeletal specimen.
It was over three meters tall. Bones resembling wings spread out to the left and right, and from the skull, two curved horns stretched up toward the ceiling.
"This is a demon fossil excavated from an abandoned mine in Nevada 150 years ago. My father acquired it. Its estimated age is 120 million years."
Ryo began his explanation as he walked through the room.
His voice had returned to its usual intellectual and calm tone.
"The Demon Clan — Dimonas. Earth's indigenous lifeforms, existing for approximately 200 million years. They possess the ability to fuse with other organisms and were the rulers of the surface world until the ice ages. However, climate change forced them deep underground, and they now inhabit the subterranean world of Garond. Estimated total population: several hundred thousand."
Ryo spread out a map.
It was a topographical map of the seabed in Tokyo Bay.
"The largest access point is here: the Kagura Rift. A fissure fifty meters wide, located at a depth of 120 meters on the floor of Tokyo Bay. Demons infiltrate the surface from here. In recent years, increased seismic activity has weakened the seal. Last night's Sabbath was part of that process."
"Wait a minute. You've been doing this research... alone?"
"It's my father's legacy. Professor Asuka collected demon-related artifacts and documents from all over the world. I inherited it and further built an information network. The Valga Circle — a codename my father used. Currently, it has twelve collaborators. Archaeologists, occult researchers, a former police officer, a hacker. All of them know about the demons' existence and are fighting."
Ryo operated a terminal on the desk.
The screen displayed numerous photographs and documents.
Unexplained incidents from around the world. Data on missing persons.
"Akira. The situation is more serious than you think. The demons' surface invasion has already begun. They fuse with humans, hijack their bodies, and blend into society. It's impossible to tell who is a demon just by looking. Some government agencies are aware, but they're controlling information to prevent panic."
Akira was speechless.
Last night's Sabbath.
The roars of the demons.
The sight of people losing their reason to drugs and music, being turned into "vessels" for demons.
The power of Amon that had awakened inside him, and its voice.
—Was all of that just the tip of the iceberg?
"Ryo. I went to the Sabbath last night because you told me to. I wanted to know about demons. But I never imagined I'd fuse with Amon... Did you plan this from the start?"
Ryo's hand trembled slightly.
He let out a small breath and looked straight into Akira's eyes.
His blue eyes were dark and clouded.
"Yes. I took you to the Sabbath to make you into a Devilman. Amon is a top-tier combat species among the demon clan. If you could fuse with Amon and maintain your ego, you would become a fighting force to protect humanity."
"Don't screw with me! What were you planning to do if the demon had swallowed me?!"
"But you won! You weren't swallowed! You became Devilman! So I—"
Ryo's voice choked.
He, who was usually so calm and composed, could only lose control of his emotions in front of Akira.
"...I was terrified. When I thought about what would happen if you lost to Amon, I..."
Ryo's slender fingers gripped his own arm.
It was a habit he had when he was alone. He hugged his own body, as if to protect himself from something.
"But there was no other way. Someone has to fight. You're the only one. You're the only person in the entire world who can protect humanity."
"...Why me? There are stronger guys out there. The military, or the police."
Ryo was silent for a moment.
The silence made the cold air of the underground laboratory feel even heavier.
Finally, Ryo spoke in a small voice.
"...Because I wanted you to be by my side."
It was his true feeling.
A voice so faint it was unthinkable from his usual self.
But Akira didn't grasp the weight of those words.
"What, is that all?"
Akira clapped Ryo on the shoulder.
"Alright. Let's do this together. I don't really get it, but if demons are out there, I can't just ignore it. I have people I want to protect. Miki-chan, everyone in my class... I'll protect them."
Ryo's shoulders went rigid.
Miki's name lodged in him like a thorn.
"...I see. That's good."
Ryo's voice had turned cold again.
But Akira wasn't looking at his face properly.
Distracted by the fossil specimens and documents, he didn't notice the change in Ryo's expression.
---
Ryo took a deep breath.
Then, as if resetting his tone, he turned to face Akira again.
"Now, Akira. There's one thing I want you to promise me."
"What is it?"
"This is a secret between the two of us. That you are Devilman. That you are fighting demons. You must never tell anyone."
"Anyone... you mean, not even Miki-chan?"
Ryo's blue eyes clearly flared with irritation.
"Especially Makimura Miki. I absolutely do not want you to tell her."
"Why not? Miki-chan is family. She was worried, and besides—"
*BANG!*
Ryo slammed his fist against the desk.
The specimen cases rattled violently.
"I'm the only one who can protect you! She can't! She doesn't even know what you're fighting! So why does she take priority?!"
Ryo's voice echoed through the underground laboratory.
Not a shred of his usual composure remained.
His eyes were wide, and he was breathing heavily. His complexion had turned even paler; he looked like a completely different person.
Akira was at a loss for words.
"Akira. Please understand. This is a matter of your life. If demons find out, you and everyone around you will be in danger. Leaking information is the same as handing a weapon to the enemy. That's why it has to be a secret. I'm the only one who can protect you. I
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