Line 17

Face is the fifth chapter of the third volume of the Devils' Line manga series and the seventeenth chapter.

Summary
Anzai doesn't understand what Lee is saying about ONLO. As far as he knows, it's just an orphanage for devils.

Tsukasa comes downstairs from her room and tells the others that Anzai and Lee left through their windows. Sawazaki informs them that he allowed Anzai to deploy because it's an emergency, but he tells Jill to stay put because if the higher-ups found out, they'd all be in real trouble. Devils are no longer allowed to deploy. He tells Anzai to lay low and get out as soon as he secures the target.

Yanagi sets up Anzai's monitoring system. It measures his temperature and heart rate. Only Anzai has to be monitored, not Jill. Yanagi was told to do so by ONLO.

Zero Four's target, Oryo, is running out of stamina and is seriously injured. Zero Four closes in on him and gives a monologue about eradicating devils. According to him, since there are so few devils, humans should easily be able to eliminate them as long as they stop running away. Before he finishes, Lee punches him in the face, enough to make him bleed, and takes his gun. Anzai tells him not to make him bleed. He's already starting to transform even with the gas mask on. Lee distracts him by telling him it's ketchup, not blood. Even though Anzai thinks he's being stupid, it works, and his eyes go back to normal.

Lee says he only transforms with Tsukasa. As he's talking, Zero Four gets back up and goes in for to punch Lee. Anzai grabs Lee by the hoodie so the punch won't land. This puts Anzai in a defenseless position and Zero Four punches again and smashes the glass of his mask. Angry and with nothing preventing him from seeing Zero Four's blood, Anzai's eyes start to transform again. Anzai hits Zero Four with a palm strike to the face. Then, he grabs his arm and puts him in a hold, securing him. Zero Four starts to taunt him, but Lee delivers a swift kick to his head and he passes out.

Lee then gives him blunt advice on how to deal with bloodlust. He says masturbation is better and more natural than tranquilizers. Anzai doesn't want to admit to having bloodlust. Lee says it exists whether he thinks so or not. How to control it is the real question.

Sawazaki arrives and asks where Katagiri is. Oryo comes out from his hiding spot and asks if his coworkers are okay. Sawazaki assures him they're fine since he left Officer Makimura with them, but then it hits him. The only ones who knew Oryo had information about the Ikebukuro incident were people on the force. Makimura might just be a mole. Sawazaki tells Anzai to keep Oryo at Bar Sakaki and not to answer questions from head quarters. Anzai, Lee, and Oryo head back to tend to their wounds.

When Anzai takes off his mask, Dr. Kanou, the doctor Yanagi has ties to, gets his first look at him from a distance. It seems he'd been watching the skirmish. He thinks Anzai looks just like his father, Tamaki. He then calls Yanagi and tells him he wants to drop by. Then he notices Hans Lee with Anzai and refers to them as "The Child of Light" and "The Child of Darkness".

Zero Two talks with a shadowy figure behind a desk, Zero One. Zero Two says he never met Anzai at the welcome ceremony, but they did meet much longer ago when Anzai was a child at ONLO. Even though they only met once, Anzai still has some memory of him. He explains that Anzai wasn't kept with the other test subjects. He was weaker than the others, so he was excluded from the experiment and kept at the orphanage with the devil children instead. Zero Two wasn't authorized to interact with Anzai, but he says he took things into his own hands. Zero One accuses him of traumatizing him by taking him through an underground hell to see Tamaki Anzai.

Zero Two says he might be suspected in the murder of Fifteen, but he doesn't seem particularly worried about it. Zero One says he's unable to love other people and he agrees wholeheartedly.

Tsukasa and Jill go out to meet Anzai, Lee, and Oryo when they return from the mission. Anzai is ashamed to be seen by Tsukasa when he's partially transformed. He avoids her and jumps up to his room to settle down. Tsukasa is angry that after everything, he's still avoiding her.

Anzai is still in denial about his bloodlust. If he accepts it as natural, then he accepts being a devil - an out-of-control murderer. Even on the first day they met, he lost control.

Chapter Notes

 * Sawazaki allows Anzai to pursue Zero Four who is attempting to murder Oryo.
 * Hans Lee accompanies him.
 * Anzai is the only devil with a monitoring system.
 * Lee punches Zero Four and makes him bleed, but Lee manages to distract him from transforming.
 * Zero Four breaks Anzai's mask and causes him to transform again.
 * They secure Zero Four.
 * Hans Lee thinks masturbation works better than tranquilizers when it comes to bloodlust.
 * Sawazaki thinks there might be a mole in Division 5.
 * Dr. Kanou arrives and recognizes Anzai and Lee from ONLO.
 * Zero Two talks with Zero One about how he met Anzai and traumatized him when he was just a child.
 * Anzai was supposed to be a part of an experiment, but he excluded for being too weak.
 * Anzai avoids talking to Tsukasa again and continues to deny his devil side.

Characters

 * Yuuki Anzai
 * Hans Lee
 * Tsukasa Taira
 * Ryuusei Yanagi
 * Juliana Lloyd
 * Toshiro Sakaki
 * Oryo (Ryunosuke Katagiri)
 * Zero Four
 * Takashi Sawazaki
 * Akio Kanou
 * Zero Two
 * Zero One (spoilers)