“We need something on this scale or else we wouldn’t be able to transport all the troops we intended to have. To be honest, though, when Satanael carved out his chunk of the moon, it wasn’t exactly a precision job. I kinda regret not using this thing more effectively. Hopefully I can get Devil’s Castle back up in the air. That’s gonna be the first step toward figuring out how to get Alas Ramus her present.”
“Oh, right, you were here to give Alas Ramus that present, weren’t you?”
Maou’s story was on such a massive scale, beginning with the origin of his species and everything, that Rika had totally forgotten. This massive battle, involving three worlds and a million different races, had all started simply because a little girl had a present she wanted.
“Yep. So any fight that doesn’t directly involve that, I’m not gonna try too hard in. Plus, I got a training shift the day after tomorrow.”
“…Sorry, come again?”
And now Maou was shifting the scale so rapidly Rika couldn’t keep up.
“Huh? I said, I got my first training shift of the year in two days, so I gotta go back to Sasazuka. With Emi it’s more like tomorrow morning, so she’s gotta get back to Eifukucho tonight. Chiho’s going back today—you know, she can’t be away from her family too much during the holiday.”
“Wait, what? I’m sorry, I don’t really understand. Chiho! Hey, Chiho!”
“Hiiii! Sorry, can you fill in for me real quick?”
Called by Rika, Chiho enlisted a nearby demon to tend to the cauldron before running up to her. The demon was hideous, easily several times the size of a human being, but he obediently began stirring the pot after the teenage girl asked him nicely. It was comical. Given that demons didn’t even need to eat, Rika wondered what this one even thought about its assigned task.
“Chiho?! Didn’t you say that Maou and Emi quit their jobs at MgRonald?!”
“Huh?” Chiho’s large, round eyes looked up at her. “No, I never said that.”
“Sure you did! You said they ‘already worked it out’ or whatever.”
“They did. Yusa and Maou worked out their shift schedule so they never have to be on duty here and at MgRonald at the same time.”
“………Oh.”
“With the Gate, they can get back to Sasazuka in about forty minutes, so they’re both still working shifts at MgRonald, you know? Maybe not quite as many as before, but…”
“………Forty minutes? …Oh.”
Forty minutes could get you from Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo to Hachioji, the final stop on the Keio line, if you boarded the express train. From Rika’s home in Takadanobaba, it’d give her enough time to reach Shin-Tokorozawa on the Seibu Shinjuku line or maybe Nishi-Funabashi, the last stop on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. For that matter, if they boarded a Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train at Tokyo Station, they could reach Odawara, on the way to the beaches of Atami, in forty minutes. On the Tohoku Shinkansen, they’d just barely make it to Oyama, way over in Tochigi Prefecture.
“Aren’t these other worlds supposed to be super far away? I mean, what the hell?!”
Rika grabbed her head and kneeled down on the floor. Looking at her, Chiho whipped out the glowing feather pen used back in Room 201.
“I can use this pen to open a Gate without any holy force. I could get one for you, too, if you like, Rika. I’m sure Laila or Gabriel could make one for you, and Emeralda could teach you how to use it in about an hour…”
“You make it sound like I’m learning how to ride a scooter! This is crazy! You’re treating it like it’s nothing! Over in their apartment, you were going on like I was never gonna see Emi and them all again! What the hell happened?!”
“Huh? Was that what it sounded like? I’m sorry. It was so early in the morning, I was kind of tired, and it was, like, super-cold in there. I guess it made me sound a lot blunter than I usually am. I’m sorry… Oh, and can you believe it, Maou? It got down to twenty-eight degrees in Tokyo this morning! I thought I was catching a cold for sure!”
“Wow, twenty-eight? That’s pretty cold. Kinda nice how we’re near the equator on this planet, huh? Makes it hard to figure out what clothing to bring, but…”
“What is this, a vacation to you?! Gimme my tears back!!”
From an impartial perspective, Rika was making perfect sense. Unfortunately, common sense was not prevalent among Maou or Chiho right now.
“Oh, hey, if you wanna borrow a scooter, by the way, I could lend you one. This is your first time in Ente Isla! If you wanna go explore the land, we still got those bikes me and Suzuno took here. I mean, we wrecked them, but I heard Albert’s managed to track down all the parts we need, so I could get ’em repaired for you. It’s the same type I use for MgRonald deliveries, so it’s super-stable. You won’t have any problem keeping it upright at all. You sure don’t need a license here, either, and we got two of ’em, so maybe I could even have Ashiya show you around. He told me you helped him out a lot with his phone, so—”
“Is this really another world?! What kind of alien world has motor scooters?! What am I even doing here?! And oh, God, keep me way the heck away from Ashiya! I’m already panicking enough as it is!”
“Huh?”
“Oh, um, Maou, Rika and Ashiya kinda have some, uh, things going on right now…”
“They do? Huh. Didn’t know.”
He really didn’t. As with their TV purchase, all he was aware of was that Rika provided Ashiya a crash course in smartphone shopping the other day.
“Boy, she looks really stressed out.”
“Oh, hey, Emi.”
“Yusa!”
Emi popped out from the general’s tent, attracted by the sounds of Rika’s agony.
“How could I not be stressed out by all this?!”
“Rii-Sis, what’s wrong?”
And Alas Ramus was in her arms, no less. Rika didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.
“I’m sorry, Alas Ramus! I’m just on the verge of losing my marbles right now! And seeing you here of all places literally just made me think I should’ve gotten a gift for you! As if I had the free time for any of that!”
“…Huh?”
“Yeah! Huh is right! Exactly!!”
Emi was starting to feel sorry for Rika. Handing Alas Ramus over to Maou, she gave the raging Rika an embrace from the side.
“Look, think of it this way. Let’s say we had to move out to the suburbs due to some family stuff. Just pretend that the train line to our new place is over in Sasazuka. Once the New Year’s season is behind us, I’ll be back at my place in Eifukucho every night to sleep, and I guess Suzuno can’t keep the apartment empty for too long at a time, so she’ll be back in Room 202. Besides, when Chiho’s over here, somebody needs to take her back home afterward. The demons need to stay here for longer, what with fixing up Devil’s Castle and all, so they brought all their stuff over here, but none of our lives are really changing that much. See? Look.”
She looked straight up at Devil’s Castle.
“Just think of this as a really big one-room apartment, and it starts to seem a little more normal, doesn’t it?”
“…You’re being ridiculous.”
It was a little too much for Emi to ask for. But it still brought the smile back to her face.
“You know I couldn’t accept this in a zillion years. You and Maou just have all these zany surprises for me, I hardly even know what to think anymore. What does ‘a big one-room apartment’ even mean? That’s not funny. And this apartment’s a spaceship, too? It’s so absurd I’m still pretty convinced it’s a dream.”
“Well,” Maou said as he walked up to his castle, “sorry to disappoint you, but it’s all real. We’re going to use this Devil’s Castle to attack heaven. With the Gate closed to there, that’s the only way to do it.” He placed a hand upon it. “After that… Well, what are we gonna do after that, Emi?”
“I dunno. We can think about it later.”
Right now, Maou and Emi—or M
ommy and Daddy—were working together for a common goal. But it was worth remembering that many, if not most, people on Ente Isla had no idea this battle was taking place. The tragedies engineered by Maou and his cohorts, including the destruction of Isla Centurum at the hands of his Devil’s Castle, were just as vivid and true as they always were.
“I’m not a Hero any longer. If any thought passes through my mind during this battle or even after it, it’s probably gonna be about how we’ll spend next Christmas with Alas Ramus.”
“Huh. Guess things’re pretty peaceful with you after all.”
“They sure are,” Chiho said to Rika. “We’ve all worried and fought and exhausted ourselves long enough. Nobody’s going to complain if we start doing a few constructive things for ourselves now.”
“…Well, I’m glad you’re treating it like this casual easy thing, but you do realize what Emi’s starting to sound like, right? Vis-à-vis Maou?”
Rika meant it as a warning to Chiho, in a way. Chiho was ready for it.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m ready. No matter who I’m competing against, I don’t think I could lose to anyone.”
“Well, if you’re okay with that, then fine.” Rika scowled a bit. “Me, though, I dunno…”
“My liege, may I have a word?”
Suddenly, the voice of an invisible Ashiya echoed across the area. Rika reared back, cheeks bright red with shame, as the rest of them tilted their heads slightly skyward.
“What’s up, Ashiya?”
“Well… Hmm? Is someone there besides Emilia and Ms. Sasaki? I sense another human being.”
“Umm, nothing to worry about. What’s going on?”
Chiho was shaking her head and making a giant X with both arms next to Rika. Maou gave her an odd look but got the message anyway.
“Er, yes… Well, I am afraid we have a problem.”
“A problem?”
“Yes. We’ve learned that, as things currently stand, a full repair is no longer possible. Urushihara told me of serious problems with the engine, the transmitters, the fuel system, and almost everything else.”
“We can’t cover for that with magic?”
“We need to fabricate some new parts from scratch to fully fix it. I will have Urushihara discuss it directly with you later, but that is the preliminary report I received.”
“From scratch…? That stuff was made in heaven! What’re we gonna do about that? It’s not like they were kind enough to leave blueprints for us, right? Man, I don’t remember wrecking it that badly.”
“I would describe crash-landing it in the middle of Isla Centurum as ‘wrecking it that badly,’ personally.”
Maou frowned at this evaluation. It made Emi chuckle a little.
“We might be able to bring it into the air, but if we advanced upon heaven with it, we can expect a healthy counterattack. I think we should act to eliminate as many question marks as possible beforehand.”
“Yeah, but how’re we gonna get the parts we need?”
“One of them’s easy enough,” interrupted Urushihara’s voice. “We can find it in Ente Isla’s Northern Island. The other stuff, I figure we can get in the demon realms.”
“The Northern Island and the demon realms?”
“Yeah, dude. You should contact Camio and have him organize a search party for what we need. I dunno where exactly we can find ’em yet, but I know everything we need, at least.”
“For real?”
Something about Urushihara’s uncharacteristically serious tone of voice was lighting a fire inside Maou.
“Okay, so what are they?”
“They’re called the Noah Gears,” Urushihara stoically replied. “The relics of the Devil Overlord.”
“The Noah Gears?”
“Yeah. That’s what Satan…I mean Satanael called them. It’s one of the few things I do remember from back then. He said they’re the keys to launching Satan’s Ark if they ever return to the moon.”
“How do you know that’s in the demon world?”
“Because heaven’s looking for ’em. I think Ignora knows we need them to revive Satan’s Ark. Gabriel even asked me about them once.”
“Ohhh? So what are they?”
“The Nothung. The Spear of Adramelechinus. The Sorcery of the False Gold. The Astral Gem. Those four things. Satanael just had to make it a huge pain, huh?”
“Mm? Mmm.”
The reasoning behind it was clear enough, however. The Nothung and the spear were mere weapons by themselves. The sorcery was just a chemical formula, the Astral Gem just a big chunk of energy. They were all unusual and wondrous relics, yes, but they were all replaceable. Only when all of them were in the right place did the Devil Overlord’s bequest form the gears that drove the ark.
“Ugh… After all this time, fights from even the distant past are still affecting us to this day…”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“No, not pretty much, you. It was your father who did it.”
“What do you want from me, man? Like it’s my fault my parents screwed up my future so bad. You’re a dad now, too, Maou, so try not to be as irresponsible as those guys, okay? Anyway, that’s my report.”
The Idea Link faded away, returning silence to the surroundings.
“Um, so the spaceship doesn’t work right now?”
“Pretty much. Now we got even more junk to look for. No rest for the wicked, I guess.” Maou cracked his neck a couple of times before taking a deep breath, sighing it out, and steeling his resolve. “Emi? Chi?”
“Yeah?”
“Yes!”
“It’s not gonna be next Christmas.”
He looked straight into the eyes of Alas Ramus in his arms.
“What, Daddy?”
“It’s gonna be your birthday.”
“Ooh?”
“Alas Ramus, I’m gonna have this all wrapped up by your next birthday.”
“Um, and when is that, Maou?”
“When do you think?”
Maou grinned and raised Alas Ramus up toward the sky in his arms.
“Eeeeee-hee-hee!”
Everyone at Room 201 on that day had been there for the birth of Alas Ramus—that little girl, enjoying the sensation of flight in Maou’s hands.
“The time limit’s this summer! The next Obon festival this July in Tokyo! And I’m gonna give you the best birthday present you’ve ever seen, Alas Ramus!”
The bold declaration wafted its way into the air, into the afternoon overseen by the two moons in the sky.
THE AUTHOR, THE AFTERWORD, AND YOU!
There are quite a few occasions in the year when it’s considered acceptable to give gifts to one another. After New Year’s, there’s Valentine’s Day in February, followed by White Day in March, where women in Japan give presents in return to the men who gave them Valentine’s gifts. In the spring, you have the hat trick of Mother’s Day, Children’s Day, and Father’s Day, along with the ochugen summer gift-giving tradition. No time for rest after that, though—Respect for the Aged Day comes in September, and then the year is rounded out with Christmas and the oseibo period. (Let’s not forget birthdays and anniversaries, either.)
I doubt many people go through the effort of preparing something for every event, every year, but I’m willing to bet that most of us are on either the giving or receiving end for at least half of them. Out of them all, however, it’s still Christmas presents that I have the most trouble figuring out.
It’s one thing if you’re a grown-up shopping for a child. It’s just a matter of considering what they’d like and buying it—a book, a toy, some kind of educational thing, or maybe an electronic gadget. But what about all the presents adults buy for each other? I have no idea what the best answer is for something like that. There’s no standard go-to, like a carnation for Mother’s Day or chocolate for Valentine’s Day or some equivalent-value sweets for White Day. For ochugen or oseibo, the standard is some kind of local produce or something the recipient and t
heir family may find useful. Father’s Day is about thanking Dad for his hard work, and Respect for the Aged Day is about hoping your elders stay healthy for years to come; a lot of people receive trips or other presents along those lines.
But what makes for a Christmas present if neither the givers nor the receivers are devout Christians? From what I can tell, in Japan men mostly give jewelry or handbags, while women give men useful business accessories or clothing. Is that sort of thing really well suited for the Christmas season, though? I’m not so sure of that. People might counter that by saying something with a Christmassy design is best—but of course, that’s going to be something wintry, so you can’t use it all year, and there’ll probably be some other limited-time design the very next year. At the same time, though, nobody’s asking you to go into a Christmas date with your lover and bring a tree, or a roast turkey, or some fancy cake as your main present.
Christmas was never originally about celebrating individuals (like with birthdays) or bringing your feelings for other people across (like Valentine’s or Mother’s Day), but in modern-day Japan, it’s now taken on aspects of all those holidays, leading to this crazy sense of expectation among many recipients. Sometimes, I feel like people use Christmas to say something they missed the chance on earlier that year—fathers who were gone for business on Father’s Day, lovers who were too busy to celebrate a birthday, relatives you couldn’t reach before now. It’s your last chance to really celebrate the end of the year without all that other holiday stuff in the background. I imagine most people make up for past omissions earlier than December 25, but if you’re wondering what to get someone for Christmas, maybe think about what you couldn’t do for that person up to now. The answer could come more quickly than you’d think.
Volume 15 of The Devil Is a Part-Timer takes Christmas, which is packed with all those different thoughts and motivations, and stuffs even more complex issues into it.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 15 Page 18
