Line 33

Children is the first chapter of the seventh volume of the Devils' Line manga series and the thirty-third chapter.

Summary
Anzai wakes up in a cold sweat from a nightmare about his talk with Kikuhara yesterday and turning into a devil like he did in Line 21, Metamorphose.

Anzai, Sawazaki, Hans Lee, and Zero Seven are staking out Hinomi Station for Mayu Sumimori (Eleven). According to Zero Seven, the CCC hideout is in a building nearby and because Mayu ran away from home last year, she's been living at the hideout ever since. Ishimaru is on the lookout for her at a convenience store between the station and the hideout. He found security footage of her going in last night, so there's little doubt she's currently at the hideout. Ishimaru goes to join Asami in his car in front of the hideout.

Asami passes the time looking at the documents he's collected about Ishimaru, but he hasn't made much progress in his investigation. He notices something a little off about one of the documents just as Ishimaru comes back to the car.

Sawazaki and Anzai talk about what happened with Kikuhara the day before. He tells him that he remembered Kikuhara came to ONLO to investigate a vampire murderer named Anzai. Sawazaki remembers coming across that same name from his investigation into healing from drinking blood. Sawazaki tells him about the report Jill made about Lee and all of the blood drinking experiments he's been through at ONLO. They ask Lee if he's ever seen memories when he drinks blood over the radio. Lee says he hasn't.

Anzai starts putting some things together. Since there were no large buildings at ONLO, the experiments must have gone on underground in the place he saw with Kikuhara. And if he doesn't know who his parents are, then the only reason he could know he's half devil is if he was a part of the hybrid birth plan too.

Lee jumps over and says he saw someone with blue hair (like Mayu Sumimori has). Then, they spot a girl with blue hair sprawled out in the alleyway below them after hearing a car speed away.

Six hours earlier Zero Six made tea for Sumimori, who was very impressed since she just buys tea in bottles. As they talk, she starts to like him. She tells him she joined the CCC because she didn't have a job and her dad had ties to Zero Two (Kikuhara), so he pressured her to work for him. She felt underappreciated by her parents and sisters who are all beautiful and seem to go through life easily. Zero Six told her to transfer all data out of the hideout at her love's Zero Two's orders. Her feelings for Zero Two have died down after Plan B. By the time the transfer is over, she is exhausted from whatever he put in the tea. He asks her if she knows Jason's name, but she only remembers the "Ishi" part. Zero Six writes down the rest of his name on the desk for her. Since he called her cute, she asks if there's a chance he likes her. Then, he strangles her.

Anzai goes to her and she eventually wakes up. She panics at the sight of Public Safety officers, but she calms down when they don't try to kill her. Asami takes the opportunity to ask her if there is a Megumi Ishimaru in the CCC, while holding him at gunpoint. Ishimaru puts his hand on the knife in his pocket, ready for his identity to be revealed.

Chapter Notes

 * F Squad and their allies are staking out the area near the CCC hideout for Mayu Sumimori (Eleven).
 * Anzai puts together that the underground place in his flashbacks must be the ONL lab and that he was born as part of the hybrid birth plan like Hans Lee.
 * In a flashback, Zero Six drugs Eleven's tea and gets her to start liking him before its effects put her to sleep. He also has her transfer the data out of the hideout and he tells her Jason's real name. He strangles her and dumps her in an alley.
 * F Squad finds her and she is still alive.
 * Asami puts Ishimaru at gunpoint and asks Sumimori if he is a CCC spy.

Characters

 * Kirio Kikuhara (no dialogue)
 * Yuuki Anzai
 * Takashi Sawazaki
 * Hans Lee
 * Zero Seven
 * Megumi Ishimaru
 * Yousuke Asami
 * Mayu Sumimori
 * Zero Six