“Ahhhh, I wish I could’ve had some Christmas caaake… Or some roast turrrkey, at least…”
“Then why not enjoy that for lunch today? I am sure we can find a restaurant nearby offering that much right now.”
But after getting so worked up about Christmas, New Year’s, and all the traditions associated with the holiday period in Japan, Emeralda was now pouting like a spoiled child. A job, however, was a job, and she owed both Albert and General Hazel Rumack for allowing her to be gone from Saint Aile for so long. Emi, alas, couldn’t get out of work today, so it was up to Suzuno to guide Emeralda around.
“Oh, but that’s only good when you eat it the day you’re meeeant to. Cheating and having it earrrrly isn’t riiight.”
“It isn’t?”
Considering how unrecognizable and far removed Japan’s Christmas food offerings were from the original intent of the holiday, the date on the calendar didn’t seem to matter in Suzuno’s eyes. But Emeralda was adamant. “Thiiink about it,” she said, wagging her finger. “No matter how great it taaastes, you can’t have that…um, ozoni, you call it? The rice and vegetable soup thing. It’s toootally New Year’s food.”
“Um. Well, if you say so, perhaps.”
Emeralda was already thinking ahead to the next holiday. Suzuno was disinterested. She had yet to experience a Japan-style New Year herself, and it wasn’t like Emeralda would know more about one than her, so she fairly well doubted the validity of her protests.
“Ohhh, but doesn’t ozoni make it sound like a French or Itaaalian dish? Like, ‘Oooh, waiter, I’ll have a piiizza margheriiita ozoooni, please’?”
“Ah, I have actually heard about experiments along those lines—using French or Italian ingredients to make an ozoni-type soup. I will stick with tradition myself. Mochi rice balls, vegetables, clear soup stock, and all is well.”
“…Waaaay to miss the joooke, Bell.”
“Huh?!”
Being criticized by Emeralda came as a bolt out of the blue to her.
“But no point complaaaining about it, I suppose. Time to pick up some souvenirs and prepare for the jourrrney.”
“Er, yes…”
Suzuno still didn’t get the joke—if there ever was one—but regardless, their first stop was the main concourse of Shinjuku Station, where Emeralda quickly whipped out a handwritten shopping list and began marking out her stops. Suzuno took a peek at the memo, only to find something written in large text on the bottom.
“Stockings? Um… Fifty of them? What will you do with fifty stockings?”
“Huhhh? But stockings are must-have items for thiiis time of year.”
“As souvenirs?”
“Oh, yesss! Chriiistmas is a time when you give presents to someone you looove, and presents go inside stockings. That’s a ruuule!”
“E-Emeralda, wait a minute! I think you are mixing up your facts!”
“Hmmm?”
Suzuno breathed a silent sigh of relief that she had noticed the mistake before any money had managed to exchange hands.
“As the tradition holds, Emeralda, it is Santa Claus who puts gifts in stockings for good little children. Just him! And that only applies to children, I should add!”
“Huhhhhhh?!”
The gasp was loud enough to make passersby stop and gawk.
“Besides, we are on our way to the UniClo by the Shinjuku Station west exit, are we not? I am not sure they sell the kind of stockings you can insert presents in. Er…probably.”
She had not seen many of them herself, but Suzuno assumed that a discount clothing store would not be the right place to find the festive stockings Emeralda was likely imagining.
“Oh, dear, have I been making a mistaaake?”
“You have. Or not a mistake so much as mixing things up a bit. But yes, adults exchange presents with one another as well. Why not buy a few Japanese souvenirs for the trip back? You can have them gift wrapped for Christmas easily enough.”
“Hmm…mmmm, I’m not suuure…”
“About what?”
“Here I thought that my presents needed to be these small oblong thiiings so they’d fit in the stockings. So I asked Emilia to buy some local wine for meee on the Net.”
“…Oh.”
As Emeralda quivered with concern, Suzuno racked her brain to recall what shopping on the Internet was like.
“And they did not gift wrap it for you?”
“I didn’t aaask. I thought you put it in the stooocking.”
“And the Western Island’s current season… No, that will not work. The Nativity Festival is close at hand there as well. It is no time for a court sorcerer like yourself to go around with bottles of wine.”
“Nooo, so I thought I would hide it in the stockings thiiis culture has…”
“Enough about stockings. Nobody in the court knows about this world apart from Albert and General Rumack in the first place. How did you plan to explain the custom of putting wine bottles in stockings?”
“Ah…”
Emeralda’s face had an I didn’t think about that expression written all over it.
“For now, perhaps we could buy some festive packaging? There may even be some wine gift packs you could purchase.”
“A-all riiight…”
As she looked at the utterly abashed Emeralda, Suzuno couldn’t shake the feeling that she saw someone make a similar mistake before. She searched her memory to figure out who it was as she walked around, looking for gift wrapping. Then, as they passed by a MgRonald, she realized something: Emeralda now was essentially Suzuno herself six months ago, performing the Obon festival in all the wrong ways and getting reamed by Maou for it.
“Belll?”
“Oh, no, er, I was just marveling at how far along I have come.”
She wasn’t karate-chopping Emeralda the way Maou did to her, but she was confident that she had grown used to life in Japan far faster than Maou or Emi did. She received a great deal of support from them, of course, not to mention Ashiya and Urushihara and Emi and Chiho. But it had still been less than a year since Sariel and the Church duped her into fighting against Maou and Emi.
“How many people do you plan to give gifts to, Emeralda?”
“Umm, not thaaat many…”
She counted on her fingers as they got on the elevator. It wasn’t too many after all; Emeralda was really mostly buying things for herself. Realizing that, Suzuno finally felt comfortable giving her some more casual advice.
“Thank you so muuuch for your help! I thiiiink I can save face with theeese gifts…”
They had gone on a little shopping spree in the end, bouncing from wrapping paper to this and that thing. It was morning when they began, but by now dusk was about to arrive. Their hands were full of shopping bags, and not even that was everything they had bought—a decent amount was on its way to Emi’s place.
“Th-this is fine and all,” Suzuno said as a beaming Emeralda bowed at her, “but…are you sure this is all right? Providing these sorts of souvenirs to General Rumack?”
Her main concern was the giant Relax-a-Bear doll they had won at a skill crane game at the arcade.
“Oh, of courrrse! She may not look it, but she loooves cute stuff.”
“Wh-what a surprise…”
For Hazel Rumack, young commander in chief of the Saint Aile knights and key leader of the Federated Order of the Five Continents currently rebuilding the Central Continent, to like cute things was a shock. The fact that Emeralda had scored this enormous plushie after just three hundred yen’s worth of playing was another.
“You have a thing for cute stuff, too, don’t youuu, Bell?”
“Well, yes, but not quite like this, perhaps…”
“And providing gifts like theeese to the right peeeople will help procure the buuudget we need for the neeext year.”
Suzuno scowled at the idea of a bright, overstuffed bear serving as an advanced tool of political negotiation. Wouldn’t this technically count as bribery? A
lthough she had once handled most of the Church’s dirty work, she would have preferred—she thought as she looked into Relax-a-Bear’s drooping eyes—that the “clean” members of the clergy kept themselves that way.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
Then Suzuno looked up, noticing a familiar building.
“Ah, yes. Emeralda, this is the office that Emilia used to work in.”
“Oh, reeeally?”
She tilted her head upward, Relax-a-Bear still in hand, as she spotted the Dokodemo sign at the very top.
“So is Rika here, too?”
“I suppose she could be. Whether she is on duty today, I cannot say.”
Suzuno did hear that Rika helped Ashiya procure a smartphone recently. This they did alone together, unlike the television purchase of a while back. She thought a bit about Rika’s behavior during that TV run but quickly shook her head.
“…No. Impossible. Not Alciel and Rika, of all people.”
No, Rika looked like too upright of a woman for that, and unlike back then, she was now fully aware of Ashiya’s true nature. That included the evil Ashiya had gotten up to on Ente Isla, of course, and Rika couldn’t have been the type of woman to remain true to him after that…
“Ngh.”
Then she recalled someone near and dear to them all, who remained true to the Devil King despite knowing everything about him and his past. She attempted to douse her imagination before the fire spread any further.
“Belll?”
“No, but Alciel did return home before too late on that day, and I do not believe Rika has been back to the apartment since…”
“Um, Bell, are youuu…?”
“H-however, the Devil King has appeared awfully busy as of late and the other demons have exhibited some strange behavior… Could it be…?”
“Ohhh, Bell!”
“Hmmm? What is it?”
“There! Over therrre.”
“Mm?”
“It’s Rikaaa.”
“What?!”
Suzuno looked up to find Rika Suzuki waving her hand from across the street. She usually got out of work about now, so walking past her office at this time of day made this encounter less unlikely than one would expect.
Rika gestured at them to wait there and walked to a nearby crosswalk. Only when she began to cross did Suzuno realize that someone else was behind her—someone unfamiliar. A coworker, perhaps?
“Wow, Suzuno! What’s with all that stuff you and Emeralda are carrying? You must’ve shopped ’til you dropped today!”
The Rika who arrived seemed just like the one both of them were familiar with. “Oh, where’s Emi? Not with you today?”
“No… Unforrrtunately, I need to return home as soon as possible.”
“Oh, really? Um… Back to your, uh, family’s place?”
Rika spent a moment considering the figure following her before choosing that turn of phrase. It signaled to the Ente Islans that the woman behind her wasn’t aware of who they were.
“Indeed, and I thought I would purchase some souveniiirs for the trip back, but Emiii said she couldn’t escape work duties todaaay, so…”
Understanding Rika’s intention, Emeralda made a point to use the name Emilia went by in Japan.
“Thus, I have Suuuzuno here showing me around instead.”
“Oh, I see. Kinda sudden, though, isn’t it?”
“No, not exaaactly. I really should have been home sooner than this aaactually.”
“Yeah? But you’ll be back, right?”
“Ohh, that depennnds…”
Life as a court official usually meant Okay, the job’s done. I’m gonna take off for a month didn’t fly with the upper management. Plus, depending on Emi and Laila’s future relationship, Emeralda might be forced to shoulder the most difficult responsibility of any politician in Ente Isla. Japan tourism was pretty low on the priority list for the time being.
“Y’know, I was actually back at my parents’ old place until the day before yesterday, too. I only got back to work yesterday. Good thing I got to say hello to you before you left!”
“Your parents’ old place?”
“Yeah, over in Kobe! I hadn’t been back in ’round two years. Time sure flies when you’re having fun and stuff… Oh, right!”
Rika finally recalled the woman twiddling her thumbs behind her.
“This is Maki Shimizu. She came on the job after me and Emi did. Maki, this is Emi’s friend Suzuno Kamazuki and, um…”
She paused for a moment, unsure whether to introduce Emeralda as is. Emeralda picked up the sign.
“My name is Emeralda Etuuuva. I knew Emi back when we were in class togetherrr.”
“Oh, right,” the woman said, “Emi mentioned you were staying at her place for a little while. My name’s Maki Shimizu! It was great hanging out with Yusa and Sasaki earlier!”
““Sasaki?””
Suzuno and Emeralda looked at each other, not expecting the name.
“She means Chiho,” Rika explained. “Maki knows her, actually.”
“Actually, it was you, Rika, who told Sasaki about me! That’s why she came over!”
Maki seemed unnaturally excited about this, balling up her fists and everything. If she knew Emi and Rika, then maybe it wasn’t so odd that Chiho was part of their circle. But why was she acting so deferential to Sasaki despite clearly being older?
“Oh, wait, were youuu the person Emi mentioned to meee?”
“You guys know Sasaki as well?”
“I do.”
“Yesss!”
“So how have Yusa and Sasaki been since?”
“How?” Suzuno wondered, unsure what Maki meant.
“I guess,” Rika explained, “Emi and Chiho went to Maki’s place and talked about career advancement for a while.”
““Career advancement?””
“Uh-huh!” Maki agreed. “Yusa was staying over for a couple of nights, but I guess she had a few questions about going to college at that time, so I gave her all the advice I could about that. Sasaki joined us on the second day, and I guess she was worried about what to do after high school as well, so I worked with her through a few things, too!”
“Emi did that…?”
“Wow, college, huuuh? College in Japaaan?”
“Yes! We were looking at a few different agricultural schools.”
Suzuno and Emeralda were, by coincidence, both picturing the same thing: So she wasn’t accepting Laila’s request…?
They couldn’t say how serious Emi was about university studies, but she had always talked about taking useful, advanced things from Earth and bringing them to Ente Isla. Her chance encounter with Nord on Earth also gave her a more concrete goal in life—to rebuild her home village. It was only natural for the daughter of a wheat-growing family to pursue higher education in agriculture, and if that was what she wanted, she was bound to learn far more in Japan than at a school back home. Japan’s universities generally ran for four years, too, so if this was the path she wanted to take, it meant she’d have to stay in this country for at least five more years.
Emeralda appraised the news with a natural smile. “If thaaat’s what she waaants, then I would aaabsolutely support it, yes.”
“Emeralda…?”
“Perrrsonally, I would put Emi’s life ahead of pretty much aaanyone in the world…including her own faaamily.”
She was expressing her own resolve there, in ways Rika and Maki wouldn’t have seen. At that MozzBurger in Nerima, she had learned the full nature and the cause of the threat facing Ente Isla from Gabriel. Even with that in mind, though, Emeralda wanted to put her full, unflagging support behind Emi pursuing her own happiness.
“And if anyone gets in Emi’s waaay, I’ll gladly risk my liiife to take care of them. With all the hope you’ve showed her, Makiii, I think Emi needs to take advaaantage of that.”
“Yes,” Suzuno agreed, “I am now fully aware of the strength of your drive, Emeralda. And I am sure goi
ng to school with Chiho would be even more attractive to her.”
“Mmm, well, unless they pursue the same major, they’ll probably wind up in different schools, or departments, or whatever. Staying together can be a lot harder than it sounds.” Maki grinned a little. “Oh, but it seemed to me Sasaki was considering a third option besides school or work, and she seemed kind of motivated in that direction, too, if you know what I mean…”
Suzuno and Emeralda didn’t.
“Oh, quit being mean,” Rika replied with a grin.
“Aw, but you knowww…” Maki’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she smiled. “Isn’t it fascinating to see? I mean, if you know these two girls, then of course you’re gonna be interested in the guy both of them have in their sights.”
““…!!””
Suzuno and Emeralda tried their hardest not to gasp right there. She had to be talking about Maou, even if the women had him “in their sights” for very different reasons. What kind of advice had Emi and Chiho been asking Maki for anyway?
“And that little girl Alas Ramus called him something different, but the way she saw him as his daddy tells me that he and Emi have a pretty close thing going!”
Suzuno and Emeralda broke into a cold sweat. Maki was both wrong and dangerously not wrong at the same time. It wasn’t their position to butt in on his personal life, but there was no way letting yet more Earth natives in on the secret behind Maou and Emi would accomplish anything for anyone on either side. They’d prefer if Emi actively worked to avoid that, but she had a tendency to leave her sides open sometimes—a bit like her mother, actually.
As they thought about this, Rika raised a hand. “Oh, that reminds me—if Emi’s working but you two are out on the town, then who’s watching Alas Ramus?”
“Oh, right. She is with Ashiya, so I could guide Emeralda around.”
“Ahh, I see. Well, she’ll be fine with him, huh? Is he getting along okay with his new phone?”
“The one you helped him find?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Well, I do not interact with him very much, but he did say the phone makes it easier to reach people.”
“Oh? That’s good.” Rika smiled a little and turned to Maki. “Okay, Maki, unless you wanna keep poking this horse until you get kicked, let’s leave it at that for now. I’m gonna hang out with you all day today, remember?”
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 15 Page 7
