Line 35

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

Summary
Sawazaki manages to subdue the devil attacking him, but his scalp and arm are bleeding. A second devil comes charging from behind Ishimaru and Ishimaru knocks him out just in time. Asami peeks out from the computer room to check on them, but Ishimaru kicks it closed again. Four more devils are now heading down the hall towards them.

Ishimaru tells the situation over the radio to Anzai who is hurrying to the hideout to help. Since the bodies in the hall aren't attracting the attention of the devils, Ishimaru assumes they must be devils too. The third body is human and the devils are swarming over it. Anzai tells them to hide that human and he'll be able to help, but Sawazaki tells him he's bleeding too and if Anzai deploys he'll be fired.

Anzai remembers back to his high school days, talking to his friend Tadaya about their plans for the future. They both say they plan on joining the police. Tadaya reminds him that Anzai wanted to grow up to be an artist when he was a kid. Anzai dismisses it and Tadaya is looking forward to protecting people from devils since they are the only ones who can.

This motivates Anzai to continue to the hideout. Jill also wants to go too, but Sawazaki tells her to stay on standby.

Asami tries to comfort Zero Nine who is in shock from the sight of dead bodies and the devils rampaging outside the door. It should take him only ten minutes to copy the list of CCC member names. Asami notices the name "Kaoru Ishiyama" written on the desk and at the same time receives a message from Takimoto who was helping him investigate Ishimaru.

Sawazaki and Ishimaru decide to lure the devils in two directions to get them away from the door to the computer room. At first, all of the devils follow Sawazaki upstairs because he's bleeding, so Ishimaru cuts his arm with a knife and gets three of the five to follow him down the hall. Ishimaru manages to shoot one in the head, but his second shot misses and one of the devils bites his neck. Ishimaru sees Anzai leaping to the windows and he shoots the glass so Anzai can break in. Anzai tranqs the devil who was biting Ishimaru and Ishimaru shoots the other. With the devils taken care of, Ishimaru tells Anzai to help Sawazaki on the next floor while hiding the bite wound with his hand.

Asami comes out of the room to confront Ishimaru alone. The message he got from Takimoto revealed that he falsified his work background. And the writing on the desk couldn't have been written by Zero Nine or Eleven - the only two people who used the computer which meant it had to have been written recently by someone else. He supposes it was written there to trick Eleven into giving the wrong name because the fact that she was so easy to find is also suspicious.

Sawazaki is having trouble with the two devils who followed him. The one that bit him has already healed. He shoots at them, but he's trying not to kill them. He takes out a tranq as they gang up on him. When Anzai sees this and Sawazaki's blood, he transforms and charges forward. Instead of going after Sawazaki, Anzai pummels one of the devils and bites the face off the other. He strangles them until they fall to the floor. A blood-soaked Anzai stands over Sawazaki with a thousand yard stare. Once he's coherent enough, he walks away. Sawazaki thanks him for saving his life. Privately, Sawazaki regrets not using lethal force. Anzai goes to cool off on the roof and again thinks back to his innocent high school days with Tadaya and their dreams for the future.

A report goes over the radio that F Squad is "hunting devils" and several squads are moving in to stop them. Ishimaru tells everyone on standby to leave. Asami accuses Ishimaru of reporting the raid to Division 5. Ishimaru admits to being Jason, but not to leaking that information. He wasn't expecting a trap like this. And even though the CCC thinks they deleted the list, Ishimaru is positive that isn't the case. He may be a member of the CCC, but he is actually an undercover agent for Public Safety General Affairs, Investigation Division 6, Section 11. He says that Makimura is also an undercover agent.

Makimura holds a gun to Kikuhara's head on the roof of a neaby building.

Chapter Notes

 * Anzai decides to protect Sawazaki and Ishimaru even if he'll get fired and even if they're bleeding.
 * Ishimaru and Sawazaki split up and, with their blood, lure the five devils away from the computer room where Zero Nine and Asami are copying files with the CCC members' names.
 * Anzai arrives and he helps Ishimaru before helping Sawazaki. He transforms and savagely attacks Sawazaki's devils.
 * Asami deduces that Ishimaru is with the CCC. Ishimaru confesses he is actually an undercover agent for Public Safety and so is Makimura who is on the roof with Kikuhara.

Characters

 * Takashi Sawazaki
 * Megumi Ishimaru
 * Yousuke Asami
 * Yuuki Anzai
 * Tadaya Hiruta
 * Yuuko Tamaru (no dialogue)
 * Juliana Lloyd
 * Zero Nine
 * Seiichi Takimoto
 * Tsukasa Taira
 * Hans Lee (no dialogue)
 * Mayu Sumimori
 * Ryuusei Yanagi
 * Kirio Kikuhara (no dialogue)
 * Takeshi Makimura (no dialogue)