The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 7

by Satoshi Wagahara

  Her voice had tapered to a whisper toward the end. Then, realizing something, she lifted her head back up.

  “But…but this does not mean I see logic or justice in your evil ways! Do not misinterpret my meanderings!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Maou snickered to himself.

  “You wonder where people go wrong, though,” Chiho glumly observed. “We’re all innocent when we’re born, you know.”

  “No telling,” Maou replied. “But people make mistakes all the time, yeah? Some people put up sham companies like that, and other people keep tabs on them. Like Mr. Tamura and that Shibuya agent, y’know? Weird place, this human world… The demon realms’re a lot easier to deal with.”

  “Yeah. I’ll definitely give you that.”

  For once, Urushihara actually agreed with something Maou said.

  The group decided to commemorate surviving their brush with financial death with a special dinner that night, complete with pork cutlets from the neighborhood butcher provided by Suzuno. Maou had work from Sunday morning on, and after strictly warning Urushihara to lock the door and pretend he wasn’t there, he set off and ran through his shift, thanking Chiho once again when she arrived.

  They both got off at six PM, with Chiho once again offering some home-cooked food for the night’s dinner. And when the two of them arrived at Devil’s Castle:

  “Whoa! You’re back, Ashiya?!”

  “Welcome, Your Demonic Highness!”

  Ashiya was already home.

  “Ashiya! Welcome back!”

  “M-Ms. Sasaki?!”

  Chiho’s presence was clearly a shock to him. Suzuno gave his shoulder a quick pat.

  “Chiho knows you went out to make back that forty thousand yen. Give it up.”

  “Wh-what? Is that true…?”

  “Thanks for all your hard work, Ashiya. Earning back the money that saved my life and everything…”

  “No, it…it was nothing, really…”

  “Oh, it’s all right,” Chiho reassured him. “Maou gave me the whole story, so at least let me express my gratitude to you and Urushihara, okay?”

  Chiho’s food container contained, amazingly enough, three eel filets done up kabayaki style, broiled in a soy-based sauce. She couldn’t have fished them out of some river; presumably they were bought somewhere, and by the looks of them, they couldn’t have come cheap.

  “Hey, I gotta do this much for you, at least,” Chiho insisted. The three demons, beaten down by the display, gladly accepted the feast.

  “So what kind of work were you involved in?” Chiho asked over the dinner table.

  Ashiya’s face darkened a bit. “It pains me to say it,” he began, bowing his head down a bit as he began his confession, “but I was an instructor…”

  “An instructor?!”

  Maou, Urushihara, and Suzuno were equally surprised to hear the word.

  “Yes. At an overnight camp run by a test-prep center.”

  This struck the entire room dumb.

  “But I wasn’t at the whiteboard teaching students. I was a conversational partner, helping them with English pronunciation and listening skills.”

  “Oh, that sort of thing?”

  Maou nodded. It made enough sense to him. He didn’t know what Emi’s experience was, but he and Ashiya had mastered the Japanese language without the use of demonic force in the space of a few days. They had kept up the language study for a while longer, figuring it would help both of them get salaried positions somewhere, but apparently Ashiya was at the point where he could get work as an English instructor.

  “Lo, I am a Great Demon General…and, ohh, how it pains me to use my powers to train mere human beings. But we need to stay afloat!”

  “That is…one way of putting it, perhaps,” a confused Suzuno said.

  “Aw, it’s fine, isn’t it, Ashiya?” Maou asked.

  “…Huh?”

  “If you’re instructing them,” Maou went on to the demon man’s surprise, “I doubt those kids are gonna go wrong. If you can get a stint there again, I say take it.”

  “Um? Er, all right,” Ashiya replied quizzically. “I doubt it will happen that often, my liege.” Then he turned to Urushihara. “Lucifer! Did anything happen to His Demonic Highness?”

  “Not really, no,” came the reply, the fallen angel too brazenly focused on his eel filet to look at him. “Just the same goofball as always.” But instead of leaving it at that, he raised his head up, a grain of rice still stuck to his cheek.

  “Oh, but…”

  “Hmm?”

  “Ashiya, you fight some seriously rough enemies in this joint, don’t you?”

  “Huh?”

  “He’s got a point, Chi,” Maou observed to the side. “Nothing but honest business for us, though, right?”

  Chiho smiled and nodded. “You said it!”

  “Stupid Devil King,” Suzuno whispered. “As if he has any room to speak.” As usual, it disappeared into the air unnoticed as the meal between demons, holy women, and one normal teenage girl continued.

  Emi, finally at her home in Eifukucho after a particularly annoying Sunday shift, took a peek at the clock. Alciel must be home by now, she thought.

  Considering how she had just spent the weekend, it began to seem slightly ridiculous to her that out of everybody in Villa Rosa Sasazuka right now, the only phone number she had was the Devil King’s. Slaying him was supposed to be her main priority, not sharing digits with him. If Suzuno was planning to stay on Earth for a while to come, Emi thought she should probably try to convince her to buy a mobile phone of her own.

  As she pondered over this, her door intercom beeped at her.

  “Yes?” she said, speaking into the receiver. The intercom screen displayed the scene in the lobby of her apartment building. It showed a man, a Westerner, with a serene smile on his face. In his hand was a small, leather-bound book.

  Emi, watching the man take a breath, didn’t like where this was going. She was right to feel that way.

  “Hello! I was just wondering if you have accepted God into your—”

  “I’m fine, thanks!!” Emi screamed as she slammed the intercom’s receiver back on the wall. Good lord, indeed. Between door-to-door salesmen assaulting Devil’s Castle and religious zealots hounding the Hero of the Holy Sword herself, there was never any letting one’s guard down in this country.

  “Let’s take a shower,” Emi angrily declared to nobody in particular as she stormed off, seeking to put the stress of the workday and entire weekend behind her.

  THE DEVIL PLUCKS A CAT OFF THE STREET

  A rogue cloud had chosen that certain day in midsummer to park itself over greater Tokyo and give the metropolis a little relief from the sun. Cracking the window open brought a pleasant breeze inside, keeping things amply comfortable within the main room.

  However, that wasn’t strictly necessary because the gaps in the plastic sheeting they were using to cover the gigantic hole in the wall let in air on a fairly constant basis.

  But beyond those light flapping noises, all was quiet this evening. And Shirou Ashiya, known—nay, feared—as “the Great Demon General Alciel” in another world, could sense that his master was back. He could hear it in the squeal of the brakes attached to Dullahan II, the two-wheeled steel horse his overlord commuted to work on. It was followed by the ruffle of him placing a cover over it, followed by hesitant steps up the common-use stairway, making sure he had ample traction at every pace.

  Wiping off his clothes, Ashiya took a couple of steps toward the front door to greet his master. The door opened, and…

  “…My liege.”

  There stood Devil King Satan, aka Sadao Maou in this world—Ashiya’s master, the leader of all able-bodied monsters of the demon realms, who once led his armies on a quest to conquer the land of Ente Isla and turn it into an all-inclusive resort for himself and his slavering peoples. He looked no older than his early twenties at most, and none of the awe-inspiring figure he once cut as Devil
King remained. Were you to infuse his now-human body with a little demonic power, however, he would instantly regain his true, fearsome guise, capable of freezing mere mortals on the spot and sending them into paroxysms of despair.

  And inside the pocket of his well-worn UniClo jacket, he was carrying something that Ashiya had a little trouble comprehending at first.

  “…Meee,” it weakly cried as Maou fully removed it from his pocket—a kitten with a silvery sheen to its hair.

  “…”

  “…”

  Master and servant spent the next few moments staring at each other by the front door. Somehow, the master looked quite a bit more apologetic than the servant.

  “I, uh,” he meekly began, “it was shivering by the grease bin, so…”

  “Take it back to where you found it, please,” Ashiya promptly protested.

  “You demon!”

  “So I am. What of it?”

  “Ehhh-choo!”

  The third occupant of the apartment—Hanzou Urushihara, known and not at all feared as the fallen angel Lucifer in their home world—sneezed loudly, startling the kitten in Maou’s hands.

  The next morning, Suzuno Kamazuki—the next-door neighbor to Devil’s Castle, known on Ente Isla as high Church cleric and Reconciliation Panel board member Crestia Bell—found herself puzzled by an unfamiliar sound.

  “…What is that?”

  It sounded like the wailing of some animal, likely a cat, and it sounded frightfully close to her.

  The Villa Rosa Sasazuka apartment building had a back-alley space lined by concrete-brick walls, a rarity in this day and age. It was a favorite hangout spot for stray cats across the neighborhood, but ever since she’d moved in, Suzuno didn’t remember hearing any catfights within earshot of her apartment, and something about the grass in the backyard lawn seemed to deter their occasional visitors from relieving themselves all over it.

  Confused, Suzuno got up off her futon, changed into her everyday kimono, put the futon away in the closet, and began cooking breakfast. The meowing continued uninterrupted the entire time. She took a peek out the kitchen window. There was nothing too cat-shaped within sight. Maybe some stray had given birth to kittens inside the walls or something. It was a bit out of season for that, but anything was possible.

  There was a knock on the door. “Bell?” a familiar voice asked. “It’s me. Sorry for visiting so early.”

  “Emilia? What is it?” Suzuno asked, wiping her hands on her apron as she walked to the door.

  “Hey, sorry to bother you. I needed to deliver something.”

  “Deliver?”

  Beyond the door, carrying a paper bag, was the Hero of Ente Isla, Emilia Justina, currently calling herself Emi Yusa because of reasons too numerous to get into here.

  “Eme sent me a little extra holy energy drink, so I thought I’d freshen your supply a little.”

  “Well! I thank you.”

  Holy energy powered the magical skills that had safely ferried Emi and Suzuno through untold dangers up to this point. Unlike in Ente Isla, however, their bodies could not generate this force by themselves on Earth. It was thanks to the bottles of 5-Holy Energy β sent on regular occasions by Emi’s former traveling partner, Emeralda Etuva, that the two girls could still tap their magic.

  “Are you leaving for work next?”

  “No,” a depressed-looking Emi said as she looked at the next door over. “Today’s a scheduled playdate with Alas Ramus’s ‘daddy.’”

  “…”

  It was enough to peeve Suzuno into silence as well, before she noticed that a certain important part of that playdate was missing.

  “Where is Alas Ramus herself?”

  “…She was looking forward to it so much, she got up before dawn and wound up falling asleep again.”

  Emi tapped her forehead for illustration.

  The holy sword fused within the Hero Emilia’s body had been further infused with the presence of Alas Ramus, a shard from one of the Sephirot jewels that formed seeds for new worlds within Ente Isla’s heavens. She had taken the form of a toddler in this world, and for reasons nobody could fathom, she thought the Devil King and Hero were her father and mother, respectively.

  Since bonding with Emi, Alas Ramus was no longer able to venture far from “Mommy” by herself. She still missed “Daddy,” however, and so Emi was forced to take her “daughter” on visits to Devil’s Castle on regular occasions. Otherwise, the child would bawl at her inside her brain, wailing in a voice only she could hear. It didn’t do much for her continued sanity.

  Having Alas Ramus present only within her mind was convenient at times—it saved on day-care costs, for one—but Emi figured that keeping her in her own toddler body was probably the best thing from a child-raising perspective. It distressed Suzuno, however. The idea of Emi being forced to deal with the Devil King like a single mother dealing with a dual-custody divorce wasn’t anyone’s idea of a happy time.

  “Aahh-choo!!”

  Both of the girls shivered a bit at the sudden elephantine roar.

  “…That was Lucifer, wasn’t it?”

  Emi winced. The sneeze had neatly swept away the refreshing morning atmosphere.

  “What’s going on in there, anyway? It sounds like they’re having a party or something.”

  The furor surrounding Alas Ramus’s arrival on Earth had ultimately led to a large hole being poked in the wall of Villa Rosa Sasazuka Room number 201. The sheet they used to cover it didn’t block sound leaking through to the adjacent apartment even on the best of days, but today was turning into a particularly loud one.

  “I don’t know,” Suzuno replied. “That act has continued anon since morning. Perhaps the chill air made him catch cold overnight.”

  Neither the Hero’s nor the Church cleric’s tone indicated they cared that much about the demons’ physical health. But the next sound made both of them exchange curious glances.

  “Meww!!”

  “Huh?”

  It was that cat again, the same one Suzuno had been listening to since she woke up. They were still trying to grasp the situation, but it sounded like it was only getting worse on the other side of the paper-thin wall. Before long, they could hear all three of them—the Devil King, the Demon General, and the fallen angel—like they were in the same room.

  “Dah! I lost him! Grab him, Urushihara!”

  “Dude, I can’t! Whoa, stay away from me! Nnnaaahh-choo!”

  “How…how dare you defy us, you puny animal! Come here at once!”

  “Mee! Meee! Mewwww!!”

  “What is going on in there?”

  Emi couldn’t guess why there was a cat in Devil’s Castle, but from what she could hear, this new pet wasn’t exactly a marvel of domestic obedience.

  Another few moments, and—

  “…Whew! Finally gotcha, you little sneak! Who’s your master now, huh?!”

  “You’re the one who let him jump out of your lap, my liege.”

  “Dude, would you please just do something about him already—ah, ahh-choo!!”

  “Do you think…!”

  Emi and Suzuno gave each other another look. The same thought had popped into both of their minds. Right now, Maou and his cohorts were, to put it charitably, in a distressed financial state. They still seemed adamant about following the social norms of Japan and finding a legitimate way to eke out a bare livelihood, but they definitely had little in the way of wiggle room right now.

  Were Maou and his demons about to commit one of the greatest taboos Japanese urban culture had to offer? Trapping stray animals on the street and using them to stave off their hunger? The image in Suzuno’s mind was, at least, quite a bit more demonic than the way they had been acting up to now. There was no way Devil’s Castle could support anything like a house pet at the moment—and none of its residents had ever demonstrated interest in the idea until now.

  It took the tandem image of Maou, in demon form, chewing on a kitten’s skull for both Su
zuno and Emi to hurry out the door.

  “Devil King!!” bellowed Suzuno in front of the Room 201 door, taking out her hairpin and deploying the Light of Iron magic. The moment she did, it transformed into a massive warhammer, one that could easily tear the entire apartment building down to its bare frame.

  “S-Suzuno?!” Maou shouted.

  “Open this door at once, Devil King! I refuse to allow this tragedy to continue any further! Feasting on the poor, homeless animals of this city…and yet you dare call yourself a king?!”

  “N-no! What are you… Geez, keep it down…!”

  “Open up! Release the cat at once!”

  Suzuno jiggled the doorknob, ignoring Maou’s protests. It was locked.

  “I’m going in, Bell!” Emi shouted as she returned to Suzuno’s room and leaned out her window. She was actually trying to make it into Devil’s Castle by shimmying across the outer wall. If any passersby saw her, a police visit would seem pretty likely.

  “Face thy divine punishment!!” With a mighty roar, Emi made it across and through the window to Devil’s Castle.

  “Whoa! E-Emi?! How’d you get in?!”

  There, seated on the ground, was Sadao Maou, holding a kitten.

  “Shut up! How could any Devil King capture and consume a poor, innocent stray cat?! That’s just pathetic!”

  Emi raised her sword of justice into the air, took a deep breath as she mentally prepared to stop this great injustice, then noticed something.

  “All right!” Maou shouted. “I see it now! You’ve got the wrong idea, okay? But this guy’s finally chilled out and everything! Keep quiet for a sec!”

  She was all but expecting to come in and see Filet-O-Cat in the frying pan. Instead she was looking at Maou trying to get a feeding syringe into the kitten’s mouth, Ashiya trying frantically to get some sticky, sweet-smelling white powder off the floor, and Urushihara sitting in a corner, watery-eyed and rubbing the reddened tip of his nose.

  “What…are you…?”