The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 13

by Satoshi Wagahara

  Rika noticed that Ashiya was casually taking care to match his walking pace with her own. Every time she spotted their reflection in a store window or mirror on the wall, she could feel something sweet throb inside her. They looked like coworkers in the same company or friends seeing each other for the first time in a while. That, or just two lovers out on a date. It made Rika recognize all over again that, even after learning the truth and having the most terrifying experience of her life, her feelings were still true.

  Right now, she thought, I know I love him from the bottom of my heart. But even so, she couldn’t quite will herself to hold the hand Ashiya dangled shortly ahead of her.

  She continued to fidget just as nervously as they sat in front of the restaurant, shoulder to shoulder, and waited for a table to open. When it did, Ashiya removed his suit jacket, the sight of him in his prim vest quickening her pulse all over again. This constant rush of emotion was already starting to tire her out.

  “Hmm…”

  As Rika worried about whether she’d be able to keep her head on straight for their shopping trip, Ashiya intently peered at the menu.

  “…Ah.”

  Rika took a peek at it as well. Then she spotted the prices. They made her raise her eyebrows a bit. Everything on the lunch menu was over a thousand yen, the priciest items pushing one thousand eight hundred. By Rika’s standards, that was a lot to ask for lunch. She knew full well that Ashiya wasn’t exactly rolling in it.

  “Um, are you okay with this, Ashiya?”

  If he had picked this place himself, he must have been aware of the cost. Still, considering his consternation when they were TV shopping, he might be stretching himself a tad too thin. It was a matter of pride, too, given that he had invited her to this. Rika thought a bit about how she could tell him—as lightly as possible, of course—that he didn’t need to break the bank for her sake.

  “Actually…”

  Ashiya shook his head, eyes still on the menu.

  “I was just thinking about whether I could prepare this golden eye snapper and boiled vegetables combo at this price.”

  “Huh? At home?”

  “Yes. One thousand two hundred yen might seem high for a single dish, but it might be surprisingly hard to save any money cooking this myself, I thought.”

  “R-really?”

  “Indeed.” He placed the menu down and nodded, face cold and calculating. “The snapper itself is not an inexpensive fish. Seafood has been on the rise across the board lately. I would conjecture that a single fillet alone would cost three hundred yen.”

  “Ahh.”

  “In a restaurant like this, it is safe to assume that each customer will order something different. In the family kitchen, however, that isn’t possible—not with the time and equipment your average family has to work with. I have three people to cook for, counting myself, so that would be three fillets at nine hundred yen. Plus, this is all-you-can-eat obanzai, complete with a small bowl of rice and miso soup. Free refills on the rice as well, I may add. If I attempted the same offer in Devil’s Castle, the three of us would exhaust our rice supply in short order. I imagine this restaurant sells a given number of these snapper combos per day, but serving the same dish daily at home will simply not cut the mustard, so to speak. As a result, the amount of work and money it would take to duplicate this dish for a single meal would likely go far beyond expectation. That is why I thought, perhaps, one thousand two hundred yen is actually quite an appropriate price point.”

  “Wow, yeah. Never really thought of it that way, but…”

  Rika was dumbfounded at first, but the nerves faded as Ashiya began to act more and more like his normal self.

  “Oh, and I know it is normally my creed to scrimp and save as much as possible, but since you’ve made the effort to join me, Ms. Suzuki, there is no need to be concerned about such matters today. Times like these are exactly why I engage so enthusiastically in thrift.”

  “Sure. All right. Just make sure you don’t make Maou mad, okay?”

  Rika, it turned out, had nothing to worry about from the start.

  “I will keep that in mind. Well… Now, then. Where should our conversation begin, I wonder?”

  “Aw, no need to be too formal. I’ve already heard a lot about what happened after Urushihara showed up and what went on in Ente Isla and stuff. I’d like to know what went on after you got kidnapped, though.”

  “After that? I did hear word from Ms. Sasaki that you were in ill health for a while. Did you recover well?”

  “Ah, you know how much of an optimist I am at the root of it! Chiho and Ms. Ohguro really looked out for me back there. Plus, I know the whole story, and I’m still going out with you today, right, Ashiya? You get the picture.”

  “Mm. Very well. I interrogated Gabriel and the Inlain Jade Scarves in detail afterward, but none of them had any word about what happened to you. I was quite worried. And in fact…”

  And so Ashiya began to recall what happened after Gabriel kidnapped him, an event that had everything to do with Emi’s own trip to Ente Isla. Rika listened, a calm, collected smile on her face. Much of it was a bit too difficult to grasp in the first repetition, but essentially everyone Rika cared about was safe and sound, and with Emi’s mother back and possessing just the info they needed to tackle the riddles Ashiya couldn’t quite grasp earlier, they had a great deal to look forward to.

  “Sounds like quite an ordeal, but in the end, everyone’s one step closer to their goals, huh?”

  “Indeed. Although, perhaps not in a way I anticipated back when the Devil King’s Army was alive and well.”

  “Yeah, and I doubt myself a year ago would ever seriously believe any of this nonsense, either.”

  Their orders arrived soon after, driving their conversation in the direction of food, Ashiya’s and Rika’s daily routines, matters around the workplace after Emi was fired, and other little trivialities.

  Between Maki Shimizu and the rest of her coworkers, Rika had no lack of fun friends to eat out with, but this lunch outing felt totally different. Ashiya was talented at driving a conversation forward, and he was a good listener to boot. It was kind of funny how talkative he got whenever the topic veered toward Maou, Urushihara, their battle against Emi, or the Devil King’s Army of the past.

  “Regardless, considering our ongoing issues with Urushihara, we need to keep the running phone costs at an absolute minimum.”

  It was a given for Ashiya that he had to factor Urushihara’s embezzlement habits into whatever he bought today.

  The secret behind the very non-demon-like suit came out as well, in the midst of their talking. A little bit before Maou was hired at MgRonald, the two of them each purchased a suit at a menswear store offering a “buy one, get the second for one thousand yen” deal, figuring they might take on jobs in the future that required more formal wear. They never did find that job, so the outfits had spent most of the past year mothballed in the closet, accompanied by a pair of black and white ties for formal occasions.

  “With the store’s stock, they had a rather limited selection for someone of my height, so my liege was forced to purchase the thousand-yen suit instead. It is something I regret to this day.”

  “Well, not much you can do about that. Without a deal like that, the second suit probably would’ve cost twenty or thirty thousand yen otherwise, wouldn’t it?”

  “Indeed. And come to think of it, this may be the first large purchase I’ve made for myself since.”

  “Oh? Well, you oughta get something decent for yourself, then. Do you have any models or brands you’re aiming for?”

  “Not at the moment, sadly…”

  “Ah. Actually, all the companies changed their pricing plans a little after you bought that TV. I think the types of phones you’d be best able to deal with are…”

  After dinner, now fully used to the presence of Ashiya, Rika took a pen and memo pad out of her bag and shifted completely into work mode. After quizzing Ashiya o
n what he was looking for, this was her conclusion—

  “So you want to go as cheap as possible. You can use that Idea Link thing as long as the handset works as a phone at all, so you aren’t picky about brand or model. You’re mainly using it for voice calls but not very long ones. The only people you’re likely to text with it are the people who live in your apartment building. No plans to move outside large urban areas. You don’t download games or music, but you might want to access the Net fairly often. Does that all sound right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Sounds good. It’s kind of a pity Emi didn’t say something when Maou had to switch phones earlier…but I don’t know much about AE, and I guess Maou’s been with that carrier for a while. Maybe he had his own reasons for going with another feature phone like that.”

  Rika looked over her notes one more time.

  “So if we’re going to buy a phone without any monthly payments, how much are you willing to spend?”

  “Monthly payments?” a confused-looking Ashiya asked. “Indeed. If I paid out everything I had, I think I could manage fifty thousand yen…although I understand most people pay by the month for things like this.”

  “Yeah, some of the newer phones go for a ton of money these days. A lot of customers go for monthly payments on their phones on top of their regular bill, but if you go that way, you’re gonna have to shell out at least six thousand yen a month.”

  “Six thousand a month…” Ashiya visibly soured. “My liege’s monthly phone bill teeters around the four-thousand mark, so I was anticipating approximately that…”

  “Mmm, I dunno when she bought it, but if Emi paid for Maou’s phone in one lump sum, it’s that much less he pays monthly, of course. Feature phones don’t use up a ton of data for anything, so that’s probably about right. But, for example, if you buy a fifty-thousand-yen phone and go for a two-year payment plan, that’s gonna be a little over two thousand a month, just ballparking it. You’re a new customer, Ashiya, so you won’t get a loyalty discount, and Maou doesn’t count as family, so you can’t share a common plan. Factoring all that in, even six thousand a month might be kinda optimistic. It might go up a little, depending on which one you choose and how you wind up using it.”

  “Hmmmm…”

  “So that’s why I thought I’d ask whether you want to buy the phone in one payment.”

  “Oh?”

  “Roughly speaking, if you buy your phone outright, there’s a way to keep the monthly bill at three thousand or below. It’s not very common, but…”

  “Not very common? Do I need to perform some kind of complex operation with my device?”

  “Nope. I only mean it’s not very common to see in Japan yet. It requires a smartphone, too, so if you aren’t up for that, it ain’t gonna happen. You gotta buy the phone outright, and your carrier won’t assign you a static e-mail address, so the longer you’ve been using your account, the harder it is to switch over to this. Along those lines, Ashiya, as long as you can afford the device, you can go with that right off.”

  “I’m not sure I follow everything you just said, but is this something you might be able to assist with as an employee, Ms. Suzuki?”

  “Nothing like that. I’m not a full-time employee, and this is something open to anybody if they want it. And even though it’s cheaper, it doesn’t degrade the features and services available to you.”

  “Then why isn’t it more commonly used?” Ashiya asked.

  “Oh, a lot of reasons. It isn’t advertised a lot. Japan’s phone markets evolved in kind of a unique way from elsewhere, and this wasn’t even available in Japan until recently, so it’s only gotten started. But it’s nothing you have to worry about, Ashiya. All that matters is whether you want to purchase a phone outright or not. If you don’t think that’ll happen, you might be able to find a cheaper plan that restricts what you can do, but…”

  “No. The creed of Devil’s Castle is to keep ongoing costs at a minimum. If my monthly fee can become that low and you say it is accessible to me, I have no reason not to pursue it, Ms. Suzuki.”

  “Great. Unless you want something else here, let’s go find someplace selling Dokodemo phones.”

  “It will be a Dokodemo contract?”

  Rika thought a bit over how to explain this to the technologically backward Ashiya.

  “Not exactly, but you could kind of say it is, if you’re willing to fudge the details. Have you ever heard of an unlocked phone before?”

  “Unlocked how?”

  “Um, how ’bout I fill you in on the way there?”

  Rika stood up and grabbed the bill from the table out of habit.

  “Oh, allow me.”

  Ashiya’s hand landed on top of hers as he attempted to snatch it away.

  “Huh?! Ah! B-but?!”

  “I invited you here today to apologize, and I wanted to enlist your help after this. Please allow me.”

  “…Okay…”

  The sense of calm that prevailed after all that phone talk vanished once more as Rika pulled her hand back. Ashiya gave this a satisfied nod, putting his suit jacket back on as he headed for the register. Looking on from behind, Rika tightly clutched her right hand in front of her chest, as if trying to embrace the feeling of this man’s large, slightly rough hand against hers.

  “My, it has certainly grown dark, hasn’t it?”

  “Yeah. It’s only five, too.”

  It was almost five o’clock sharp by the time they left the phone shop. Ashiya, quick to take action once his mind was made up, had fully purchased a slightly outdated Dokodemo smartphone, unlocked at Rika’s recommendation. The store then set him up with a monthly service contract, providing the Dokodemo SIM card that hooked the device up to the Net.

  Reaching this point, however, was an odyssey. The only electronics Ashiya interacted with were home appliances, calculators, and TVs, and now he was trying to purchase a smartphone. When the salesman explained that he could download a pdf manual if he couldn’t figure out to use it, the color drained from his face. Realizing that he wouldn’t even use the phone if left at sea like this, Rika dragged him up to the shop’s upstairs café and gave him an impromptu lecture, beginning with how to turn the phone on.

  As part of this, Rika opened up her phone book app, complete with her name and number right at the top. Maybe that didn’t mean anything to Ashiya, but to Rika, it was an unexpected miscalculation that filled her with joy. Even that fright she received when Ashiya took the bill began to ease itself, with her growing gradually more used to brushing against his hand as they handed her phone back and forth.

  With a couple of well-timed breaks in between, Ashiya had learned how to make calls, send and receive texts, add and dial numbers, and use the map and train schedule apps—all within a mere two hours.

  “Boy, you might already be better than Maou at this, huh?”

  “His Demonic Highness is one thing, but now that we are in the same arena of smartphones, I could hardly allow myself to lose out to Emilia.”

  Rika couldn’t guess what kind of battle he meant to wage in this “arena,” but it was cute to see him act all cocky again. By the time he mastered the map app, he was clearly getting used to the whole thing, his enthusiasm resembling that of a small child in a tall man’s body.

  But this fun moment came to an end all too quickly.

  “Well, I do apologize for making you do all this for me. Thank you so much for everything today.”

  It was five PM, the sky already a deep shade of blue. The househusband had to go home and perform his family duties.

  “…No, um, I’m just glad I could help you out.”

  She knew from before that he had evening responsibilities at home. She had assumed they had a lot more time than this.

  “Indeed you did, Ms. Suzuki. Without your aid, I doubt I could have ever purchased and set this up by myself.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded back.

  “You live in Takadanobaba, correct? Perhaps I c
ould take you there…”

  “N-no, I’m fine. It’s not dangerous or anything, and I know you have to get home soon.”

  Ashiya began to walk off, his hand barely too far away from hers, but the station turnstile just too close for her tastes. It felt like they had been to a thousand places, but Shinjuku station wasn’t even a ten-minute walk away. Seeing the turnstile where they met made Rika feel like a kindergartner back from an afternoon field trip. The fun was over, her friends leaving the bus one by one, and she was all alone and feeling vaguely rueful about it all.

  Something in her said she didn’t want this to end. The feeling would be weirdly gone once she was back home, but the way back felt so painful. It wasn’t like she’d never see Ashiya again—with everything she knew, it seemed fair to say they were closer together than before. But they lived in different parts of Tokyo. They quite literally came from different worlds.

  Then she recalled someone else. Someone they all knew. Someone who deliberately, by her own will, chose to stand strong with all these people.

  “Um, hey!!”

  Ashiya looked beady eyed at Rika as she stood in front of the station entrance, yelling at him.

  “Hey, um… Do you have maybe just a little more time?”

  “Er, yes? Yes. A little.”

  “Okay, um… Umm, I just…want you to listen for a bit.”

  “Listen to you? Should we perhaps go somewhere more private for this?”

  “No, here’s fine.”

  The western exit was starting to fill with rush-hour commuters and people setting off to explore the city.

  “Do you mind if I ask something…a little weird?”

  “What is it? If it is that strange, I think I have already asked a great number of strange and bizarre questions today.”

  “Well, I expected that. This is the first time for you, so it’s fine to act like a beginner. But it’s not about that.”