Volume 1

Devils' Line Volume 1 was originally published in Japan by Kodansha, Ltd. on September 20th, 2013. It consists of chapters 1 through 6 (which are called "Lines") and 6 bonus 4 panel comics. It was published in English by Vertical Comics on May 24th, 2016.

Line 1: Dark Side
While riding the train home with her friends Miwako Toda and Shouta Akimura, Tsukasa Taira notices a man watching her in the reflection of the window. Akimura decides to walk Tsukasa home and on their way there he tries to admit his feelings for her, but then they notice the man from before is following them.

They make a run for it in an attempt to lose him and when they think they are safe, Akimura embraces a shocked Tsukasa. Suddenly, they are separated by the man who'd been following them, Yuuki Anzai, who calls Akimura a vampire. He grasps Akimura's head with the hand he had purposely cut with his teeth so that it is bleeding.

Akimura starts to transform at the sight of the blood and he fervently denies any intention to hurt Tsukasa. Anzai sites DNA evidence found at the scenes of three murders that points to Akimura. At this point, Anzai pushes Tsukasa aside to keep her away and she ends up slamming her head into the ground. Akimura says he's been taking medicine and tranquilizers in order to protect Tsukasa, and that he killed those three girls instead of her.

Tsukasa has gotten up and stands behind Anzai as Akimura admits to his crimes. As Akimura reaches a clawed hand gently to stroke her face, Anzai injects him with a tranquilizer and he passes out.

Anzai contact Takashi Sawazaki of F Squad to inform him that Akimura has been secured. Instead of taking him in himself, Anzai decides to help a worn out Tsukasa get home. Anzai tells her a little about devils and how they are very close to humans biologically and how he doesn't think the two shouldn't try to have relationships with each other. As he's telling her this, he notices her mouth is bleeding from when he pushed her away. He immediately transforms into a devil, licks the blood, and kisses her passionately. Before things go too far, he tranqs himself. The bags under his eyes disappear for a minute or two and he answers her question by telling her that he's a hybrid, with human and devil blood. He jumps from the staircase and leaves after trying to reassure her about Akimura.

Back in his room, we learn that this was the first time Anzai has had blood and he is very upset and disgusted with himself about it.

Tsukasa thinks longingly about Akimura as she lays in bed.

Line 2: Safe House
The chapter about a month later with Tsukasa waking up mortified from a sexual fantasy dream with Anzai. She goes through class in a daze, worrying about Akimura. After class, her friend Miwako accuses her of getting scared when people start to like her. Because of that, she starts to dwell on Anzai and how he gave her her first kiss.

Meanwhile, Anzai is dwelling on her as he watches her walk home. Apparently, he's done this multiple times since the incident in Line 1. He follows her and she catches him on her balcony. He says he's come to tell her that he can get her in to see Akimura if she wants. She is unsure because she's mostly been thinking about Anzai. As he starts to leave, Tsukasa invites Anzai inside.

Sawazaki contacts Anzai over the radio to tell him about the status of their current target. She is fleeing on foot. Anzai doesn't respond and goes inside. He can't get the memory of her blood out of his head and his eyes transform. While Tsukasa is making tea he falls asleep in her kotatsu.

He has a dream about him, and his two childhood friends, Tadaya and Yuuko (the target), playing in the snow when they were little. He wakes up suddenly and leaves, flustered at his lack of focus.

Sawazaki confronts a kitchen knife wielding Yuuko on the roof of a nearby building. He tries talking her down. Anzai arrives shortly and catches her off guard. She tells him about how much she loves her human husband. She only sucked his blood because of a stupid accident in the kitchen and she just hopes he's okay. Anzai criticizes her for thinking a human/devil relationship could work out. In the end, her husband is alive and he apologizes to her for not being more careful.

Tsukasa watches all of this because Anzai forgot his utility belt and she followed him, thinking he might need it. He scolds her when he discovers this, but then apologizes when he realizes it's his fault. He decides to warm up in her kotatsu and falls asleep again.

Line 3: Merry Christmas
The next morning, Tsukasa realizes she's forgotten to return a book to her professor, so she decides to head over to the university. Before she heads out, she invites Anzai to have a hot-pot with her. He agrees and tells her he'll meet up with her at the university after his coordination meeting.

At bar Sakaki, Yanagi and Jill of F Squad and the bar owner, Sakaki, are discussing a new article regarding the Red-eyes that makes it legal for a devil and a human to have sex if a doctor is present. They both think it's a useless piece of legislation. Jill jokes that Yanagi can practice tranquilizing her when she and Anzai have sex. At this point, Anzai comes in a firmly denies that they are dating. Yanagi gives Anzai the sedatives he asked for. Jill and Anzai seem to have a dating history, and Jill asks him to come over since she's been seeing him less and less lately. Anzai says he's busy, but won't say why.

Tsukasa goes to Professor Ochiai's office to return the book and she's a little creeped out by how familiar he's acting, but she passes it off as overthinking. He invites her in to warm up and have some tea. He even offers her another book to borrow. As he hands it to her, he kisses her. Tsukasa freezes like a deer in headlights and Ochiai continues his advances.

Anzai waits outside and thinks about how strange he's been acting with Tsukasa and how dangerous their relationship could be. A crashing sound alerts him. Tsukasa has broken a mug against the window of the office and is bleeding. Ochiai has opened her shirt and lifted her bra. He shows no sense that what he's doing is wrong.

Seeing the blood, Anzai jumps up to the window and kicks it in when he sees what's happening. He punches Ochiai repeatedly with all his might and fractures his skull. Tsukasa pulls him back to prevent him from killing him. Anzai tells her to call the police and leaves. In a public restroom, he uses a sedative on himself. When he sees Tsukasa's blood on his hand, he can't help but lick it off. He starts to transform again and he loses himself.

Two weeks later, Tsukasa is still reeling from that traumatic experience, but is trying her best to act normal by having a Christmas Eve party with Miwako and talking to her mom. She's worried she won't see Anzai again.

Anzai ends up getting suspended for two months for what he did to Ochiai. He goes up to Tsukasa's balcony and finds a Christmas present from her. It's a scarf. Since she hasn't locked the door, he goes in and sees her sleeping with his jacket on. He kisses her, which wakes her up and she tells him about the bad dreams she's been having. Anzai comforts her, embraces her, and promises they'll have hot-pot like they had planned.

Line 4: Paradox
In Anzai's room, a police report about a waitress being stabbed is being broadcast. A voice mail from Yanagi plays. He tells Anzai to go to the party at Sakaki's bar and that his physical is coming up. A note on his clock shows he has plans to meet Tsukasa instead.

Tsukasa is just leaving the grocery store with hot-pot ingredients when she is struck by a man in a hurry. He helps her pick up her groceries and she notices the bags under his eyes. Anzai catches up with her and wonders if she's getting sick since she looks a little red. She denies it and he helps her carry the groceries back.

As they make the hot-pot, Tsukasa tries to make small talk about Anzai's hometown, but he doesn't seem fond of Hokkaido. They have the news on in the background. The man who fled from the crime has still not been found. Anzai says the murder might be the work of a devil who tried to hide the blood loss by stabbing the body all over. Anzai warns her about trusting strangers like the one who ran into her earlier. He pats her warm head and begins to transform, but is interrupted by a strange sound from the balcony. It's, Oryo, the man from earlier.

Sawazaki and Jill are on the case from the news. They come across Mr. Okino, the manager of the restaurant, who is adamant that the killer is Oryo. Jill thinks otherwise, because he reeks of blood. The autopsy comes back and confirms that it was not the work of a vampire. Anzai calls in about Oryo and they confirm that he is the suspect who fled. Anzai asks if he was framed, why he ran. He explains that when he senses he might lose control, he immediately turns tail and runs. In the past, he punched a guy in a fight and nearly killed him because he started bleeding. Anzai wonders why he didn't want to drink Ochiai's blood.

They share their hot-pot with Oryo and then Sawazaki and Jill come to pick him up for questioning. Jill sees Tsukasa for the first time and gets jealous, so she calls out to him, inviting him over to her place just to piss him off. Tsukasa starts crying because she's never heard Anzai's first name before and also she's pretty delirious from her cold which is getting worse. Yuuki kisses her to make her feel better, but she passes out in his arms. He takes her to bed and she tells him she wants to go to Hokkaido with him sometime. As the countdown to the new year starts, Anzai tranqs himself. He had transformed from the kiss.

Somewhere in Tokyo, Zero Seven takes a shot at a devil and hits her target. She promises more are to follow.

Line 5: Head Shot
Sawazai and Jill are investigating the body of the devil Zero Seven shot. It's the fifth devil they've found like this.

Tsukasa meets up with Miwako who she hasn't seen in awhile at a cafe. Miwako jokes that she must have gotten a boyfriend and Tsukasa's reaction says it all. Miwako drills her and the way she describes him and how they met causes Miwako to warn her to be careful. At the booth across from them, coffee is spilled on the sniper, Nanako Tenjo. Tsukasa notices and asks the waitress to get some ice for the burn.

Nanako goes to the bathroom to clean up and she discusses her next target with an accomplice through her earpiece. Nanako is worried about accidentally killing a human, but the person on the other end assures her that the technology in her eyepatch can be trusted, according to Zero Nine.

Sawazaki, Jill, and Anzai are gathered in Sakaki's bar. Sawazaki brought them in to warn them that they may be targeted as the next victims. They still aren't sure how they are choosing their targets with such precision because the victims weren't transformed when they were shot and only 1 in 10,000 people are devils. Jill teases Yuuki a bit before admitting she's concerned about his relationship with Tsukasa.

Yanagi comes in looking for Anzai who still hasn't come in for his physical. When he learns Anzai is down to his last tranquilizer he is concerned that he may be becoming dependent on them especially since he only recently had his first transformation. He keeps these concerns to himself.

Yuuki goes out to buy Tsukasa a belated Christmas present. That's when Nanako spots him through her eyepatch. She remembers back to her childhood when her mother, Sayuri, started dating a devil, Morisawa. When her mother is blow-drying her hair, he offers to take over. It's clear that what he really wants in Nanako's blood. Her mother is shown slouched on the ground with a bullet through her head. Nanako cowers against the wall. He drinks her mother's blood. Nanako learned to aim for the head to kill devils.

Tsukasa in making dinner for herself and Anzai. She thinks about how little she known about him. Then, there's a knock on the door. She's surprised it's Anzai since he always comes in through the balcony. He doesn't tell her he's laying low due to the sniper. She assures him her fever's gone and she tries to warm him up since he's so cold. He says he likes her.

Anzai is shot through the shoulder.

Jill mimics Yuuki in the bar and takes Sakaki's wrist to check the time. He mentions her hands are cold like hers. Jill tells a story about how she ran into trouble at the airport because during a pneumonia outbreak she had to go through a thermography scanner, but since she's a devil, her body temperature is naturally lower. They all realize that that is how the sniper is targeting devils.

Line 6: Monster
Anzai regains consciousness after briefly passing out from the bullet. He can't move his left arm and Tsukasa, although unharmed, is panicking. He pulls her down to the floor to keep her safe.

Zero Two scolds Zero Seven for missing the shot.

Anzai contacts Sawazaki to tell him and Jill what's happened. Sawazaki tells him their theory about thermography and how it can measure surface temperatures. Since it doesn't work through windows, Zero Seven fires again to shatter the glass. Shards are sent flying and Tsukasa moves to protect Anzai. In her struggle, one of the shards tears through her face. Zero Seven switches scopes and waits for Anzai to get into view.

Tsukasa is bleeding. Sawazaki tries to communicate with Anzai, but Anzai is starting to transform. He almost attacks Tsukasa, but when she reaches up to touch his face, he starts to cry. Zero Seven fires, but Anzai dodges the bullet. He jumps off the balcony in pursuit of the sniper.

Tsukasa notices the Christmas gift he had brought her. It's a penguin keychain.

Zero Seven takes to the streets to flee from the scene, but Anzai gets the drop on her. As they fight, she blames vampires for the death of her mother.

In a flashback to Nanako's past, her mother's boyfriend, Morisawa, hugs her tightly and starts to transform. Her mother shoots him and grazes him with a bullet. She grabs Nanako, but Morisawa takes the gun and points it at her mother.

Nanako takes out her rifle and shoots Anzai through the chest.

Back in Nanako's flashback, Morisawa drinks from Sayuri's corpse. Nanako sneaks up behind and takes the gun from his pants. She shoots him dead.

A stranger who has been watching the fight grabs Anzai by the let and pulls him up. He introduces himself as Hans Lee, a half-devil, half-human. He tells him the bullet went through his lungs and he's dying. So, he opens a bottle of human blood and feeds it to him to fix the damage.