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

by Satoshi Wagahara

  It made for a complex family tree—a half-angel Hero, a demonic overlord, and the personification of a potential planet. And it was clear as day to both of them that this family wasn’t going to proceed along like any human-driven one.

  “…Well, so what?”

  For once in his life, Maou looked straight into Emi’s eyes.

  “It’s not like stewing over it’s gonna solve anything. There’s no way we can just cast Alas Ramus away at this point, and…like, if you don’t feel like using your holy sword to cut me in two or anything, there’s no point thinking about what happens if she leaves us. It’s just a waste of energy.”

  “…!”

  Something about how clearly he laid out the situation for her robbed Emi of all speech. She had spent years polishing her sword skills in order to run one through the Devil King’s heart someday. It was the whole reason she bore the holy sword in the first place. And now Alas Ramus called it home. Killing Maou with it would mean quite literally dousing Alas Ramus in the blood of her “daddy.”

  “I… Look, that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on slaying you…!”

  She hadn’t given up. And she hadn’t forgiven the Devil King for anything. Emi tried to summon her boldness, just so she could be sure that was understood by all parties involved. But the easygoing smile remained on Maou’s face.

  “You don’t have to remind me, man. I’m not trying to take advantage of this whole deal to mess around with you or anything. Whoa, Alas Ramus, don’t put a death grip on it or anything! Ahh, you’re making it all fall apart!”

  “Agh! You’re getting bonito all over the place!”

  This was what Maou got for trying to have a serious conversation for a change. Alas Ramus’s love for all things topped with bonito flakes made her destroy the entire rice ball.

  “Eesh,” Maou lamented. “Here, lemme have that for a sec. Hey, Emi, you still got those chopsticks that came with it?”

  “Yeah. Please don’t squeeze those rice balls so hard again, okay, Alas Ramus? Here, say aah…”

  “Aaaaaah!”

  Emi gathered the rescued pieces of rice ball into the original container, plucked the tiny pieces up with the chopsticks, and brought them to Alas Ramus’s mouth.

  “Now it’s both of us, huh?” Maou said. “It makes the whole Devil King and Hero thing seem moot by comparison.”

  “…”

  Emi pretended to be too focused on feeding Alas Ramus to listen. Something about agreeing with that statement severely pained her. But Maou didn’t seem to be seeking commentary on it. Instead, she picked off the rice grains sticking to Alas Ramus’s clothes and shouted into the air:

  “Man, this is nice weather, huh?”

  “Whew,” Maou breathed as he stretched out atop the Sasazuka station platform. “What a marathon this wound up being!”

  “…”

  Even at six in the evening, the summer sun was bright as always. Yet Alas Ramus was fast asleep in Emi’s arms. They had spent the rest of the afternoon watching the magical girl run herself ragged around the playground, completely forgetting about their original objective. She had fallen into a deep sleep on the train ride back.

  A fairly constant breeze ran along the riverbanks, but the heat had still all but exhausted Maou and Emi. They were so spent, in fact, that they boarded the local train back to Sasazuka so they’d be guaranteed a seat.

  “Well, Emi, you mind taking the pamphlets with you back home? I gotta explain everything to Ashiya, so…”

  “…”

  It would have been easier for Emi to leave the local train and switch out at Meidaimae station. She stayed on until Sasazuka entirely because Maou asked her to.

  After a day spent fruitlessly casing the Seiseki shops, the two of them had begun talking about purchasing that first (quite expensive) set they looked at. But as long as they were both pitching in for this—as Maou put it—he had to run it by Ashiya first, or else there’d be hell to pay.

  Emi was exasperated at the idea that the Devil King couldn’t buy a single thing without his lackey’s permission, but not even she was expecting an immediate purchase. They both needed some time to consider this.

  What chagrined her about all this was the fact that, thoroughly exhausted, Maou fell asleep on the way home. And ever since he woke up at Sasazuka, Maou was concerned about how angry Emi seemed about something. She was offering no response to anything he said.

  Then he noticed in the white evening sunlight that there was a sheen of light red over Emi’s face. It was pretty sunny by the river, he supposed.

  “Hey, did you forget to put some suntan lotion on? Your face is all red.”

  “…Look,” she rumbled, her voice like an icicle chilled to absolute zero running through his heart. “I can’t believe… I can’t believe…”

  “Um?”

  And now she was shaking. Why? The anger much have been what made her eyes twinkle at that moment, as she brought her head close to his and opened her mouth, ready to spew fire with it.

  “I can’t believe you leaned on me that whole time!! You bastard!!”

  “Huhh? Oh. Did I?”

  This was news to Maou, having conked out almost immediately upon sitting down. But it must have been true. Emi wasn’t one to lie without reason.

  “Don’t ‘did I?’ me! Can you believe how humiliating it was when this old lady got on the train at Sakurajosui station and started going on like ‘Oh, what a fine couple you folks are!’?”

  “Oh? Well…huh.”

  Now Emi’s face was a brighter red. But she still had the discretion to keep her voice down, keeping Alas Ramus asleep and content. If her hands were free at all, she likely would’ve started choking Maou on the spot.

  “I-I tried pushing you away with my shoulder, but every damn time the train stopped, you’d lean back on me again! I thought I was gonna die of embarrassment!”

  “Um. Well. Sorry?”

  “I was all set to abandon you at Meidaimae, too, you know! But you were asleep, and Alas Ramus was, too, and I didn’t know what to… Agggggh! I hate you!”

  “People’re looking, people’re looking,” Maou hissed through his teeth, feeling the heat emanating from Emi’s face during her ever-louder diatribe. “You’re gonna wake up Alas Ramus, so…just calm down a sec, okay? Take a deep breath. I’ll hold her for you.”

  “I…I am calm,” Emi protested as she handed Alas Ramus to the man. She turned her back to him, stretching out to loosen up her body after her extended session on the train being a prop for him. As she did:

  “Ah!”

  “Ooh?”

  “…Oh.”

  She made eye contact with someone. Both of them, along with Maou, froze.

  “Wow, Maou, Yusa, and Alas Ramus?”

  It was Chiho Sasaki, in her school uniform and giving the three of them a look that resembled a pigeon who had just been shot with a BB gun.

  “Um, Chi?”

  “H-hello there, Chiho…”

  Neither of them ever imagined they would run into Chiho now, of all times.

  “What are you guys doing here?” Chiho asked as calmly as possible.

  “Oh, um, we were…just doing some shopping.”

  “Shopping?”

  “Y-yeah,” Emi stammered. “I needed to get something for Alas Ramus, but I…I couldn’t decide by myself, so…”

  “Oh? Yeah, I’ll bet. It must be quite an adjustment to make, her moving to your place.”

  Chiho knew all about Alas Ramus, of course, so it wasn’t exactly devastating news to see Maou and Emi in the same place together. But:

  “…fffhhh…ngh.”

  Alas Ramus chose that moment to wake up in Maou’s arms, her sleepy eyes taking in all of Chiho before her. Her parents, sensing her stirring a few moments before it actually happened, felt chills down their spines.

  “Oh, hello there, Alas Ramus! Did you have a good time out today?”

  “Yeah!” the girl cheerfully replied. “I went
on a picnic with Mommy and Daddy!”

  “Oh, a pic…nic…huh?” Chiho turned toward the couple.

  “Yawwwn… I played a whole lot. And I’m gonna sleep with Mommy ’n’ Daddy…tonight…mmm.”

  It was as if the still-not-quite-awake Alas Ramus was picking the exact words out of her quiver to make Chiho freeze in place.

  “Wow, um…you, and Maou, and Yusa…?”

  “Wait! No! It’s not like that, Chiho!”

  “Calm down, Chi! You know there’s no way we could sleep together!”

  But, judging by Chiho’s complete lack of a reaction, their protests seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

  “We…” Alas Ramus began. “We bought a futon…mmph…”

  “A…futon…?”

  “Chiho! Chiho, snap out of it!”

  “Y-Yusa, are you and…and Maou making a real…a real fam—”

  “Of course not, Chi! Why would I ever want a woman like this in my family?!”

  “Yeah! The same goes for me, too!”

  “Huhh? Mommy? Daddy?”

  “A-Alas Ramus? No, um, Mommy and Daddy aren’t arguing or anything, so…”

  “So the three of you were out shopping for futons? Yusa, you aren’t actually moving into his apartment, are you? You’re gonna be a real family now?!”

  “Chiho! Get ahold of yourself! We can explain everything!”

  “Mommy, Daddy, stop fight…fight…waaaaahhh!!”

  This exercise in torture for the Hero and Devil King continued for ten or so minutes afterward.

  “Oh… So it’s just a futon for Alas Ramus to sleep on during her stay?”

  It ended only with the intervention of an exasperated Ashiya, who happened into the station just a moment too late to avoid the entire headache. His explanation of Maou’s activities for the day as they walked to Devil’s Castle was finally enough to put Chiho’s mind at ease. Maou and Emi staggered along behind the two of them, still exhausted, with Alas Ramus taking up the child seat on Dullahan II as Ashiya wheeled it forward.

  “Boy, that sure was a surprise, though,” Chiho continued. “I mean, you guys really did look like a family back at the station…”

  “Don’t say it.”

  “Oh, don’t say it…”

  “…Wow, that was almost in stereo,” Chiho chuckled as she heard the mutterings from behind her.

  “Well, Your Demonic Highness? How did the shopping journey go?”

  “Yeah, about that… I wanted to discuss things with you a little, so that’s why I’ve got Emi along with me.”

  Ashiya’s eyebrows shot downward. “…Cost-related things, I would imagine?”

  “I think it’d be best to buy her something decent,” interjected Chiho. “I heard that the way babies sleep can affect their bone structure and stuff.”

  “Yeah,” Maou added, “so I figured we could talk about that and other things once we get home. By the way, Ashiya, who were you talking to just now?”

  It was no mere coincidence that Ashiya had come across the group at the station. He was there because he was using one of the public phone booths out front.

  “Oh, no one important. I merely needed to confirm an appointment with an acquaintance of mine.” Ashiya turned the corner to Villa Rosa Sasazuka, one of its windows illuminated. “Bell was quite concerned over whether the two of them could manage a shopping trip without it devolving into an argument.”

  “No fighting, Mommy ’n’ Daddy!” declared Alas Ramus from her bicycle throne, a stern look on her face as she turned around at her parents. Mommy and Daddy each let out defeated sighs in response.

  “She has a point,” Chiho commented. “It’d be best for everyone if we can keep on getting along for good, you know?”

  “I am not sure I can entirely agree with that, Ms. Sasaki,” the Great Demon General in attendance dutifully replied.

  “I so don’t wanna go to work,” Emi uncharacteristically grumbled as she battled the waves of morning commuters around Shinjuku station.

  The entire group wound up having dinner at Suzuno’s place the previous night, Emi staving off Alas Ramus’s repeated demands to stay at Devil’s Castle long enough to get her back to her apartment. Ashiya was more than a little disapproving of the futon’s price, but—thanks in no small part to Chiho’s convincing—it looked like the demons were ready to commit to a Torikawa purchase.

  Emi figured she would have to report all this to Rika in order to avoid any more prying questions, even though she knew Rika would pepper her with them no matter what she tried. The thought didn’t fill her with cheer.

  She was still trying to figure out some way to dodge the topic by the time she reached her assigned office cube.

  “…Rika?”

  Rika was adjacent to her, staring into space. It was very unusual behavior for her, slack-jawed and unfocused, given how much of a morning person she usually was.

  “Rika? You there?”

  “…………………………Oh! Hey, Emi.”

  Her reaction time was suffering.

  What happened to her? She’s a completely different person from yesterday.

  “Hey, uh, remember the futon thing I told you about, Rika?”

  “Futon……? What about it?”

  It was a terminal case. She pounced upon the topic like a hyena yesterday, and now she couldn’t be more disinterested. Emi began to feel concerned—this airheaded act was nothing like her usual ebullient personality.

  “Hey, uh, are you feeling all right?”

  “I…I don’t think I, like, even know anymore.”

  “Huh?”

  “Um, Emi?” Her whisper was almost lost in the morning bell.

  “Wh-what?”

  “Do you think it was always like this back before cell phones? Always so, like, frustrating?”

  “I…I don’t really know…”

  “Ahh, I’m sorry. It’s no big deal. Better get to work, huh?”

  Rika slipped on her headphone mike, the listlessness still clear in her voice.

  “I know things are pretty complicated for you, too, Emi…”

  “Y-yeah?”

  “But it’s pretty important that you have someone to talk to, you know? Like, when you’re trying to make up your mind about something.”

  There was no doubt in Emi’s mind that whatever troubled Rika was intertwined in that remark. She didn’t have time to inquire further. The first call of the day was already on her computer.

  “…Thank you for calling the Dokodemo customer support center. This is Yusa speaking. How can I help you?”

  The awkwardness that began the day was beaten down by both of their workaday responsibilities, and it quickly fell out of sight.

  A FEW DAYS BEFORE: THE TEENAGER IS A PART-TIMER!

  The cold wind, blowing through a window someone had left open, blew the small piece of paper out of her hand and onto the floor.

  “Oop!”

  The owner hurriedly stood to pick it up. There was nothing personally embarrassing written on it, but it was still nothing she wanted to show anyone. Her chair clattered against the wooden floor as she bent over.

  “Ah!”

  Then she looked up, following the other hand that grabbed it before her.

  “Hmm…”

  It belonged to her friend, eyebrows arched as she studied the note’s content.

  “Wh-whoa! Kao!” the owner said, calling her friend by her nickname as she tried to snatch it back. “Don’t read it!”

  “Uh-uh. I’m keeping it,” came the childish reply.

  “Kao!”

  “Sasachi, what is going on here?”

  “What?”

  Sasahata North High School, classroom 2-A. Kaori Shoji, the owner’s best friend both in class and in the after-school clubs she was part of, glumly thrust the paper back into the hands of “Sasachi.”

  “You got at least an eighty-five in everything!”

  “Agh! Not so loud!”

  “Oh, what’s the bi
g deal telling people about that?” Kaori said, slipping behind her friend and putting her in a playful headlock. “I averaged like sixty or below across the board! You just sit there like a good little girl all day, and you’re, like, head of the class! Why can’t you lend me some of those brains, huh?”

  “Agh! I…ergh…hey! Kao, Kao?”

  “Oh?”

  “…I thought I kind of did, Kao.”

  “Oh… Oh?”

  Kaori turned her head back. Her friend didn’t let the opportunity go untaken. She snatched back the paper containing the results from the mock exam the teachers cruelly held right after spring break, placed it on her desk, and slipped out of Kaori’s grasp. With a whirl, she grabbed Kaori’s left arm from below, swung both it and herself behind her back, and squeezed a little.

  “Ah-ha-ha! Agh, Sasachi! Not from the side! That’s cheating!”

  Restricting her friend’s movements, Sasachi began tickling Kaori’s side. “I told you everything that’d be on the test, didn’t I?” she said. “I cut into my study time to help you out, didn’t I? What were you doing after club all spring break?”

  “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, no, no, uncle, uncle, I can’t take any more!”

  Kaori’s legs swung up and down as she attempted to withstand the attack. Her friend, not being that much of a sadist, let go.

  “Phew… I-I was studying, all right?” Kaori said, twirling her hair as she caught her breath. “I mean, you’re a really good tutor and everything, but I kinda had a time crunch going on.”

  Kaori was far from a bad student. But if that was how she fared, Sasachi feared for the worst when it came to her other friend. The one approaching them right now, in fact.

  “Holy crap, Sasaki!” he exclaimed in surprise as he goggled at the test results on her desk. “You’re, like, sixty points ahead of the curve!”

  “Oh, Kohmura…”

  Yoshiya Kohmura sat one desk ahead of her. He and Kaori had been Sasaki’s classmates from their first year of high school, as well as her companions at the kyudo archery club. They were all next to each other in the Japanese-language alphabetical order, and for now—before seats would be reassigned for the new semester—they were all seated in the same column of desks.