All characters depicted in situations are 18 years of age or older and of the age of consent, even if it looks otherwise. Acts depicted are all consensual. No real or fictional person was harmed in the making of this work
Denji and Reze panted in unison. In front of them, the Acid Devil dissolved into a mass of corrosive liquid and blood in the alley. They had won, but Reze, who had fought in her human form to avoid drawing attention, hadn't been quite as lucky at dodging.
She ran a hand through her usual short, dark purple hair. "Good thing it didn't hit my face," she muttered, letting her hair down to inspect it better.
That was when Denji let out a yell, pointing at her head. "Hey, Reze! You have a hole!"
Reze looked at herself in the reflection of a broken shop window glass and her eyes widened. A splash of acid had melted a large section of her hair, right on top, leaving a perfectly round, smooth bald spot in the center of her head. When she parted her hair, the contrast with the rest of her mane was absolute. It didn't hurt, but the aesthetic damage was a disaster.
"Great!" Reze sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'll have to wear a beanie for weeks!"
Denji, desperately trying to be useful to impress the girl he liked, grabbed her hand. "Don't worry! Let's go to my place! If I'm a genius at slicing devils with chainsaws, cutting hair with scissors has to be a piece of cake!"
Once in the bathroom, Reze tried to style it herself first. She gathered all her hair into a high ponytail, but the bald center was so large it looked like an empty halo. She tried to make a bun, but the shiny gap was still there. She tried a side braid, but the bald spot was totally exposed on the crown. She even tried a half updo, thinking the loose hair underneath would hide it, but it was useless.
She let her hair down completely, giving up, and a couple of scorched strands fell into the sink.
Denji appeared with some kitchen scissors. "Leave it to me! I'll give you one of those short hairstyles... a Bob!"
Snip, snip. Denji enthusiastically chopped her hair to jaw-level. Looking in the mirror, Reze let out a nervous giggle. The bald spot on top was still intact, and the ends Denji had cut looked like they had been chewed by a dog.
"Denji, I think one side is longer than the other," she said, amused by how badly he was doing it.
"Wait, wait! I can fix it! I'll take the back up! An inverted Bob with a shaved nape!" he exclaimed, turning on an electric clipper he had stolen from Aki once.
Denji buzzed the nape and cut the bob at an angle. But in his clumsiness, while trying to blend the line near the original acid bald spot, the clippers slipped a little and he cut off a good chunk of the top.
"Oops!" Denji gulped, sweating cold. "Well... the Pixie style is very trendy! Very short, very rebellious!"
He attacked the remaining hair, leaving it extremely short, boy-style. Reze looked at herself. The initial bald spot had "merged" with the areas Denji had accidentally ruined, leaving her head full of uneven patches, spiky tufts, and shaved spots.
"Denji," Reze sighed, turning around with a half-smile and looking him in the eyes. "You could write a book on how to ruin a girl's hair in five minutes."
Denji lowered the clippers, defeated. "Okay, I admit it. I'm the worst barber in the world. But... there's no way to fix this anymore."
Reze let out a clear, resigned laugh, running her hand through the choppy mess. "It's fine. Finish what you started. Shave it all off."
Denji's eyes lit up. He took the guard off the clippers, rested them against Reze's forehead, and glided the metal blade directly over her skin. Bzzzzzzz. Little by little, the last remains of her purple hair fell to the floor. Denji shaved every inch of her head carefully, eliminating the burned patches, the original bald spot, and all the mistakes from the previous cuts.
When he finished, he turned off the machine and brushed the hairs off the girl's shoulders.
Reze opened her eyes. She raised a hand and stroked her scalp, now completely smooth, bare, and shaved bald to a zero. She felt the cool bathroom air on her exposed skin. She looked in the mirror, turning her shiny head to see her profile, and then gave Denji a genuine smile.
"You are an absolute disaster with scissors, Denji," she declared, rubbing her head with amusement. "But... I have to admit, this is pretty comfortable."