Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 13 - Chapter 2

THE HERO ATTEMPTS TO WRANGLE THE UNWRANGLEABLE 
“Hello, Bell? Sorry to call you so late. I know this is sudden, but do you think I could stay at your place tonight? …Yeah, I just finished up work, but something came up… Rika came to my MgRonald. She’s got something important to talk about, and we’re not planning to be that late, but I’m not sure I’ll make the last train.” 
“Very well. Please give Rika my regards. Hngh!!” 
“Huh? …Okay, um, thanks. I’ll send a text or something when I’m coming back, okay?” 
“Right. I think I will likely be up late tonight as well, so there is no need to… Curse you!! Feel free to contact me whenever you think you are… Shut up! Ready to come here.” 
“A-all right. Thanks…” 
Things certainly sounded boisterous on the other end. Besides Suzuno’s voice, there was also a mixture of shouting and jeering. It didn’t seem to be her late arrival that bothered Suzuno, but the dull, rhythmic thudding in the background that served as a kind of background music to the whole call also gave Emi pause. 
“Ah, yes. Laila is waiting at her apartment. She has something she wishes to discuss with you.” 
“What?” 
Emi winced. But it was nothing she could complain at Suzuno about. 
“Concerning something wholly different from the request she had of you before, it seems.” 
“You didn’t ask what it was?” 
“I did find out, yes… Just keep quiet, you! I am on the phone, so knock it off!!” 
“Bell?” 
By the sounds of things, someone was in the room with Suzuno. And if this was the way Suzuno was addressing them, it couldn’t have been anyone but her three demonic neighbors. 
“Are you busy right now, maybe?” 
“In a way, yes, but no worries. I have control over the situation. Alas Ramus is on my side as well.” 
What could be going on? Emi had trouble even imagining. 
“Anyway, I did find out, but I think it best that you hear it directly from the mouth of Laila, Emilia, so I will refrain from telling you. She said she will wait as long as necessary, so feel free to visit her ahead of me. She should be awaiting you in Nord’s room.” 
“…Okay.” 
“Farewell, then… All right, if you have an excuse, I would like to hear it!” 
It was with that ill-boding statement that Suzuno chose to end the call. 
“What was that all about…?” 
Judging by the clues, it seemed most likely that Maou had done something to invite Suzuno’s ire upon him. But what did “Alas Ramus is on my side” mean? The sight of Alas Ramus abandoning him would hurt Maou far more than any physical blow Suzuno had to offer. 
“…Ah, well. Before that…” 
Emi used her phone to tell Emeralda, still shacking up at her apartment in Eifukucho, that she’d be staying with Suzuno tonight. After receiving her acknowledgment, she let out a sharp exhale. 
“Right. This is what I should focus on!” 
Rika wound up waiting in the dining hall all the way until Emi’s shift ended. It wasn’t the first time she had gone to her for Ashiya-related advice. However, something was much different this time: Rika knew all about Ashiya’s real identity. She had never seen him in demon form, as the Great Demon General Alciel, but she knew both his history and what goals he had in mind as he lived out his daily grind. 
Even so: 
“Ashiya called to ask me out…” 
Which meant— 
“…………………What should I even do? Ugggh.” 
She looked at the clock. It was already fifteen minutes past ten. It’d be mean to make Rika wait much longer, and stewing here in the staff room would just get her home later and make her more of a thorn in Suzuno’s side. 
“Guess I’ll have to see how this flows.” 
Her resolve firmed up, Emilia marched resolutely out of the room, said her good-byes to Akiko and the rest of the crew, and left the building with Rika. 
“I’m sorry this is so sudden.” 
Rika followed behind Emi, her body looking a measure smaller than usual. 
“Oh, it’s fine. Sorry I made you wait so long. I know we were talking about dinner, but you ate a pretty decent amount, didn’t you, Rika?” 
“Yeah, I guess, but whatever you want to have, Emi!” 
“It’ll probably have to be a bar at this point, I’d imagine.” 
“A bar…? You okay with that?” 
“Why wouldn’t I be? We’ve been to lots.” 
“Yeah, but you aren’t actually twenty yet, are you?” 
“Oh, thaaaat.” 
Emi’s actual chronological age hadn’t reached twenty—when Japanese people could legally drink. This apparently bothered Rika’s conscience. 
“There was no real regulation on that where I’m from, and I’m pretty sure I’m twenty-one by now as far as my Japan registry goes, so I’m fine along those lines. But would you prefer to talk about this sober?” 
“N-no, no, not that. I’m just not sure I can really keep my cool right now, so…” 
She hadn’t been keeping it for a long time now, but Emi nodded anyway. Alcohol right now, she reasoned, would make Rika ramble her way to oblivion without getting anywhere. 
“There’s a diner down this road a little bit. Does that work?” 
“Sure. Sorry.” 
Rika was nothing but apologies tonight. 
“It’s all right. But…you know, you don’t have to treat me. Depending on how this goes, Rika, I might have to drop some truth bombs on you that you won’t like. Let’s have dinner like normal.” 
“…Okay.” 
Their destination settled, Emi and Rika trudged their way to the diner, their legs feeling heavier than usual. It was past ten thirty now, and the diner was more empty than not. Taking a nonsmoking booth, they gave their orders—Rika opting for the free-refills drink bar, Emi attacking her post-shift hunger with the clams vongole pasta set with soup, salad, and drink. 
“Kinda feels like a while since it was just you and I eating together, huh?” 
“Yeah. Too bad we aren’t taking the same route back home any longer. I’m glad you’re willing to come here all the time to see me, but I still feel kinda bad about it.” 
“Oh, don’t worry about it! I mean, regardless of the circumstances, you’d feel kinda weird hanging around the office you got fired from, right?” 
“I don’t think it’s that bad. I mean, all the restaurants and stuff you took me to around that office really helped me get used to Japanese cuisine, Rika. I’ll travel to you next time, so how ’bout we invite Maki and so on if we’re all free?” 
“Yeah, the scene keeps changing all the time over there! Remember that Russian place we all kept going to? That closed down last month.” 
“Aw, no way! I really loved the beef stroganoff there.” 
“Yeah, they kept all the furniture and opened up this pasta joint there, but it just wasn’t any good. Like, with all the Italian and stuff in the area, you can’t afford to disappoint with the food like that. There were a lot of the old fixtures and stuff in the place, too, so it felt sad.” 
“Yeah, with all that fancy Russian stuff they had on the walls, it’d be weird if they opened a ramen or rice bowl joint in there.” 
“Well, it’s never a problem if the food’s good. Too bad the good places can’t all stay open like that, y’know?” 
As they darted from one light subject to the next, the (coincidentally) pasta dinner set arrived. 
“Wow, looking at that makes me kinda hungry now.” 
“Why don’t you get something?” 
“Mmm, I didn’t really do much exercise today, so I dunno if I want anything heavy…hmm…” 
Rika agonized over the subject for a few more minutes before deciding against it. Emi was done with her meal not long after, and Rika took the cue to pour herself a cup of herbal tea from the drink bar, mentally prepping herself. She turned toward Emi in the booth, straightening up her posture. 
“So…” 
“Yeah?” 
Emi nodded at her as she took a swig of water. 
“I think I called you about pretty much the same thing a while ago, Emi, but… You know, this time, Ashiya called me to ask for help purchasing a cell phone.” 
“Wow, so he’s using you as his personal electronics consultant again?” 
Back when Maou had purchased a TV, Ashiya had mentioned to Rika that he was considering a phone purchase of his own, asking for her advice. He wound up not buying one that day, and with the multiple waves of drama to deal with afterward, Ashiya still didn’t have a mobile phone to his name. 
“That’s the general idea,” Rika said, choosing not to deny it. “But he said he wanted to apologize for all the stuff that happened and for not telling me about everything. So he asked me out to dinner.” 
“Bfft!!” 
The instinctual muscular reaction from Emi almost made her crush the glass of water in her clenched hand. 
“T-to dinner?!” 
It was a standard tactic to use whenever a man asked a woman out. But if the man and woman were Ashiya and Rika, that changed things. 
“S-so then?” 
“I had no reason to turn him down, so I said okay. Probably a little too eagerly.” 
Emi had no way of knowing where this eager approval was made, but she could tell that Rika was ready, willing, and able to accept the invite the moment she received it. 
“Oh…” 
She paused for a moment, embarrassed. Then she imagined the two of them having dinner out. It made her want to cradle her head with both hands. This was Ashiya she was talking about. Ashiya who (for reasons different from most others) had no motivation whatsoever to dress gaudily or brag about himself with others. If this was Maou, there would be some of that bragging. He’d probably be inspired to take her to kind of a nicer restaurant. Emi had seen him engage in this kind of date scene once before, and while it wasn’t until later when she learned Ashiya had coordinated his outfit for him, between that and his work attitude, she had learned early on that Maou could hold himself pretty well during more formal occasions. 
Meanwhile, flip that over, and you had Ashiya. He had a clean-cut image and took good care of his looks, but unlike with Maou, Emi had no recollection of him wearing anything memorable at all in public. The more she tried to recall some occasion—any occasion—the more she just remembered him in shorts during the summer or T-shirts while out handling chores. With each memory, less and less of his body was covered. 
“S-so where will you be eating?” 
“I dunno, but I think I understand your worries there, Emi.” Rika let out a wry smile at her clearly disturbed friend. “I know how Maou and his friends live. If we wind up at Manmaru Udon for noodles or MgRonald even, I’m not gonna complain.” 
“I think you probably should, actually.” 
If that was what Rika was willing to accept, Emi wasn’t sure what advice she could offer. 
“But that’s not what you wanted to talk about, right?” 
“Well, no point asking you what Ashiya eats, yeah?” 
“Yeah.” 
“I mean, you told me you might have some truth bombs, but… Yeah. That sort of thing.” 
“What sort of thing?” 
“I mean, what I want to talk about… Basically, I’m afraid it’s gonna be a rehash of all the stuff I already know from you and Maou and stuff. I think it’s just gonna be Ashiya personally apologizing to me, in terms of what he wants to say to me, I mean. Like, he told me that already.” 
“Yeah…” 
Emi hadn’t had much to contribute besides “yeah” for much of this conversation. 
“So, you know…” 
Now Rika was starting to get fidgety again. 
“I’m thinking I should take this chance to really blow it all up.” 
“Huh? Blow what up?” 
“Um, you know, the, uhh…” 
“Yeah?” 
Rika’s face was growing redder by the moment. She squirmed, barely able to piece together the words as her breathing grew ragged. 
“I—I, you know, like, to be honest. I, um, I think I—I really like Ashiya and stuff, so…” 
“I know. So?” 
“…………Huh?” 
“Huh?” 
“…Um, why?” 
“Why what?” 
“Huh?” 
The reddened Rika and the deadly serious Emi locked eyes silently for a moment. 
“You…know? Like, what?” 
“Are you surprised that I knew, Rika?” 
“…Yeah. Like, I mean, I—when I said that—I thought I was gonna, um, die of embarrassment, but I held out, so…” 
That might have been the case, but as mean as it was to Rika, it was already incredibly old news to her friend. 
“Well, I’m sorry, Rika, but…probably, if anyone saw you and Alciel and how you acted, there’s no way they wouldn’t notice.” 
“…You think so?” 
“Probably.” 
“What about, um, Ashiya…?” 
“Him I wouldn’t be so sure about…but I have a hunch, and the Devil King and Bell have picked up on it.” 
Rika blinked for a few moments. 
“Maou and Suzuno……… Gahh?!” 
“Rika?!” 
The sudden shriek was accompanied by Rika’s forehead falling onto the table so hard their glasses were virtually thrown into the air. 
“Oh nooooooooooooooooo! How could I have forgotten?! He totally said so on that daaaaaaay!!” 
“Wh-whoa, keep it down, Rika! What’re you talking about all of a sudden?” 
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, he told me he knew… I knew it, ngghhh, Maou, on that daaaaay…” 
“The Devil King? What did he say to you? You mean on that day when he bought the TV?” 
“Yesssssss! That day!! Maou— Maou said to me, he noticed what I feel, aaaahhhhh!!” 
This fresh young maiden, so hesitant to lay out her true feelings only a moment ago, was now groaning and carrying on like a Malebranche tribesman whose claws had been torn off. 
“He said, ‘Did you fall for Ashiya?’ Like, just like that! Maou did! Maou totally said it, that bum! He told me! Aaaahhh! And then Suzuno punched him out and started choking him! What the hell? What the hell?! I’m, like…! Why did I have to carry on like such an idiot around them, all over Ashiya?! I’m so ashamed, I’m so ashamed, I’m so ashamed I could die, why does life have to be so embarrrrrassinnnng?!” 
“…Devil King…!” 
She had no idea what the context of this conversation was, but Emi would be sure to thoroughly interrogate Maou about it within the next few days. 
“It’s all right. It’s all right, Rika. The Devil King may not be too delicate a lot of the time, but he’s not the kind of guy to just spout that stuff with no prompting, and I’m pretty sure it never would’ve made it to Alciel…to Ashiya, I mean.” 

 

“You thiiiiink? Because I really think it would’ve by now!!” 
Rika lifted her head. The tip of her nose was now bright red, tears welling up in her eyes. 
“L-look, it’s fine, all right? It’s fine. Bell throttled him that same day, so worst-case scenario, the rumor mill stopped right there…” 
“Emiiiii, am I imagining things, because it sure doesn’t sound like you’re very confident about thaaaaaat?!” 
“…Sorry. I can’t give you an absolute guarantee.” 
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!” 
She couldn’t lie to Rika. So instead, Emi gave her honest opinion. 
“B-but Ashiya asked you out himself, didn’t he? And he didn’t act awkward or anything when he did, right? I’m sure it’s fine. Let’s be optimistic about this!” 
“Um, yeah, he sounded the same as always over the phone, but ahhh, I’m nervous, I’m so nervous all of a sudden! Ashiya used to be this really brainy war general, yeah? Like, strategizing behind the scenes so nobody would notice? That kind of thiiiiiiiiiiing!!” 
“N-no, it’s fine, it’s fine! You’d be really surprised how emotional he can be. He can’t hide anything like that!” 
The main emotional moments for Ashiya were limited to when someone insulted Maou, or Urushihara embezzled his funds, or finances grew tighter, or an unexpected expense popped up, but that was really the only thing Emi could tell her. 
“S-so what did you want advice about, Rika?! If you want to learn more about Alciel, then I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can tell you any more than what we did before!” 
“Nnnnhh…” 
Rika looked up at Emi, still teary-eyed. That look didn’t change the facts. Emi had nothing else to say. Whether as Shirou Ashiya or as the Great Demon General Alciel, Emi had only so much personal information she could relate about him. Even considering the grudges of the past, he was a sincere, unaffected, and extremely frugal person, walking around in clothing selected with cost performance first in mind and not being at all picky with what he ate. He wasn’t as obsessed as Maou about obtaining certifications and so on, but all the time spent at the library gave him a fairly broad knowledge of the world, and he would occasionally exhibit some bizarrely humanlike talents to keep the Devil’s Castle from falling in the red. 
But Emi had mostly heard secondhand about all this. She hadn’t witnessed it for herself. His cooking talents were first-rate by homemade standards, one of the few abilities that Emi had to admit defeat with. His skills with electronics were sparse—he didn’t own any and never had the chance to use them—but he had already asked Rika for phone advice, so she’d come into this knowing that. 
“So what I can say to you really isn’t all that different from what I gave you before. I don’t know how much I can help you with this date, honestly…” 
“Don’t call it a date! You’re embarrassing me! I don’t think he thinks of it as a date!” 
“What else do you want me to call it?” 
“I—I don’t know, but… Arrgh, why do I have to embarrass myself so bad like this?!” 
That’s what Emi wanted to know. 
Rika bounced around on her padded booth seat for a bit longer, her breathing uncontrolled and face bright red. 
“The…the advice I want… Ugh, I’m so embarrassed; it’s so hot in here, my heart hurts… I really want to ask you, Emi! …I…” 
The moment Rika tried her hardest to spit it out, Emi’s mind gave her a new vision. She had seen this sort of expression before, these sorts of feelings. 
“I—I want to know whether it’s…it’s okay for me to like Ashiya!” 
“…” 
I knew it, she thought as she nodded. 
“I don’t really know what to say to that.” 
“Oh. c’mon!” Rika craned her neck forward. “Like, I couldn’t ask anyone besides you, Emi!” 
“Why’s that?” 
“Why? Um… I mean, because Ashiya’s…” 
Emi couldn’t help but smile as she watched Rika try to defend herself. 
“Because Ashiya’s friends with the demon who destroyed my homeland? What’s that got to do with you, Rika?” 
“Ah…” 
Rika half rose to her feet. The two of them exchanged glances, one higher than the other. 
“…Nothing?” 
“Is what I think,” Emi said as she looked up at her. 
“Really?” 
“Yeah.” 
Rika gasped. “…Why?” 
“It’s a road we’ve already gone down a long time ago.” 
“Already gone down?” 
“Yeah.” Emi calmly took another sip from the water glass she nearly crushed earlier. “I mean, it’s kind of gone beyond familiar with our interactions these days, but the fact is that me and Alciel are still enemies.” 
“Right, so…” 
“But I can’t just take away the feelings you have for him, Rika.” 
Having her own feelings recited back to her point-blank made the temperature of Rika’s face rise a little once more. 
“You still have those kinds of feelings, too, even after knowing about our past, and you’re worried about that, aren’t you?” 
“Um, well, yeah. You and Suzuno and Emeralda. All you Ente Islans.” 
Rika failed to notice Emi’s use of the word too. 
“Right. But that still doesn’t matter. Of course…” 
Emi recalled images of Rika in her mind, along with another vital friend of hers. 
“I’m not exactly gonna be cheering from the sidelines, and if Alciel tries anything dangerous, I’m gonna put public safety way above your own feelings, Rika. But ultimately, it’s our fault he’s in Japan right now, and you met him and started having a thing for him without knowing any of that. Do you think I have any right to meddle with that?” 
They had just finished up a meal the last time Emi dealt with this, too, hadn’t they? Emi recalled how large and round that girl’s eyes were, at the end of that. 
“So I want you to keep deciding on your own feelings, Rika.” 
“……Yeah.” Rika finally settled back into her seat, giving Emi a blank stare. “And here I thought you’d tell me to think about how people on Ente Isla feel, or about how I didn’t know anything about the war, or whatever.” 
“I won’t talk about that, no, but in a way, what I’m telling you is a lot tougher than that. I mean…” 
“I know, I know. You’re telling me you might kill this guy I like without mercy, if you have to.” 
“Right.” Emi nodded with a grin. “That’s one rule I’m never compromising on. Not that it means very much right now.” 
“Oh?” 
“Like, I really can’t imagine any of them exposing anybody in Japan to danger at this point. As long as they’re in Japan, there’s absolutely no way I could kill them. I used to have my dead father to blame them for, so I could use my grudge about that to draw the line with them, but not now.” 
“Oh…yeah.” Rika let out a soft sigh. “So what do you think about them all now? Maou and Ashiya and Urushihara.” 
“…They’re my enemies.” 
The reply came after a short period of reflection. The point wasn’t lost on Rika, and Emi herself was fully aware of it. 
“My father was alive the whole time, but what the demons did completely wrecked the path of my life, changing it from what it should’ve been…or what I think it should’ve been, at least. That’s as true now as it was then. And there are all these people that died full of regrets thanks to them. All this sadness from the relatives and friends they left behind. I still need to make them take that in, from my heart. The just deserts I haven’t delivered yet.” 
But that simply wasn’t enough, by now, to fan the flames of hatred within Emi. This, too, she was fully aware of. 
“I’ve thought about it time and again. There’s no point obsessing about theoreticals, but even if the Devil King didn’t do anything, Ente Isla was in a constant state of war between its nations. And there’s always war somewhere on Earth, too, isn’t there? Japan’s relatively peaceful, but people are dying on a daily basis in conflicts big and small worldwide. It just so happened that I was confronting the Devil King, and I had the power to face off against him. I was nearly killed countless times, and you know, seeing girls my age in Japan who live these carefree lives and don’t have to fear potentially dying tomorrow…I’m jealous of that. But no matter how jealous I am, I can’t alter my past to be more like theirs.” 
Emi clutched Rika’s hand above the table. 
“Plus, I don’t want to think that making friends with you, and the time I spent here, is thanks to my life being wrecked. If I could live my life all over again, I don’t want to pick one for myself where I didn’t meet you.” 
“Emi…” Rika looked at her hand, her cheeks reddening again. “I-I’m glad you think so much of me like that, but I’m really no one that amazing…” 
“The only person who can decide how valuable you are to me is me, Rika. And you’re a valued friend. Someone I can’t cut out from my life.” 
The words came straight and true to the utterly confused Rika. 
“Nnh… Now—now I’m getting all embarrassed for totally different reasons, girl! You keep buttering me up like that, you’ll make Emeralda all jealous next.” 
“Yeah. But the difference is that Eme is somebody way high up in society. Someone I’d normally never get to talk with. Being able to chat and laugh with someone like that is one achievement I’ve made in my life. She may not look it, but you won’t find a more reliable woman out there.” 
“I’m sorry if this is rude, but I still can’t believe she’s older than you, Emi.” 
“Do I look that much older than her? Wow. I remember Chiho being all surprised about my age, too, long ago.” 
“Well, Emeralda looks like a little girl, and not to put it this way, but maybe it’s the hard life you’ve led that makes you mature beyond your age, Emi. You don’t feel younger than me at all, and maybe you act more your age when it’s all informal like this, but from the side, I mean, you look as grown-up as that manager at Maggie’s.” 
“If I remind you of Ms. Kisaki, that sure makes me proud as a woman, yeah…” 
Emi smiled and removed her hand from Rika’s. 
“But getting back to the topic, there’s really no need for you to worry about me, Rika. Just go where your feelings take you.” 
“Oh, yeah, we were talking about that, weren’t we? But you know, I’m dealing with you right now. Once I’m right in front of him, I might wind up ducking out before I can even do anything.” 
“If it happens, it happens. That’s another choice available to you, Rika. There’s nothing rare about it—wanting to confess your love but failing to in the end.” 
“Ugh, stop it! This is soooo embarrassing!” 
Rika started squirming yet again, hands against her face. 
“I know I shouldn’t bring this up yet again, but I’m amazed you can cut through all the crap like that. Even though these are your sworn enemies I’m talking about…” 
“I told you, we’re past that road.” 
She certainly sounded emboldened, enough even to surprise herself. But Emi’s thoughts about back then were now fully solidified in her mind. Maou, Ashiya, and Urushihara were enemies of mankind on Ente Isla, but none of that had anything to do with Japan or even Earth. They had every right to be loved on Earth, and if needed, she wouldn’t hesitate to take their lives precisely because they were no longer related. 
“When you say that, are you talking about Chiho?” 
“In some ways, Chiho’s stronger than any of us right now, but she’s still only about as mature as her current age. She learned about the Devil King and me strictly solo, nobody to talk to or be protected by. It must have been hellish to deal with.” 
“Yeah, talk about shocking. Like, didn’t you break your leg or something back when Urushihara was fighting Maou and you saved her from getting crushed by highway debris?” 
Rika was recalling what Chiho herself had told her while Emi was incommunicado in Ente Isla. 
“Pretty much, yeah. No joke, it was like she was thrown into a summer blockbuster film all by herself, and nobody on Earth has any memory of it besides her. I couldn’t imagine how scary it was.” 
“Any memory? What do you mean?” 
Emi pointed at her own temple as a quizzical Rika stared at her. “I suppose you could call it memory control? Me, Bell, and the Devil King are able to rewrite people’s memories to some extent.” 
Rika opened her eyes wide. “Really? With your magic or whatever?” 
“It’s two different things, actually. The Devil King uses demonic force; we use holy force. But the effect on the target’s the same, I suppose. And you haven’t heard about the Shuto Expressway falling to pieces, right? Like, people would be talking about that for five, ten years after the fact. But the Devil King put up a barrier to keep anyone on the outside from watching, and then he erased the memories of everyone inside for only a few short moments. Which makes it sound easy, I guess, but you’d need to be a Devil King to pull that off. For us and Suzuno, it takes a lot of effort just to erase one person’s recollections.” 
“Wow, this sounds like something really freaky I’m hearing…” 
“I know I lied to you about where I was from, Rika, but I swear to you that I’ve never done anything to your memories.” 
“Ooh, yeah. I remember Maou saying he could erase all the scary ones when we first started talking about Ente Isla. There were all these crazy revelations at the time, I was like Come on, can you really? But if you think about it, yeah, pretty frightening. There aren’t any criminals or whatever on Ente Isla that take advantage of that?” 
“Hmm, I don’t know. I heard there was a sort of antidote magic that could restore memories, so I don’t think the holy-magic approach totally eliminates them. I only studied the fundamentals so I don’t know for sure, but Bell probably would…” 
“Ah, that’s fine; not like me knowing about that in detail would help me much. It does seem kinda weird, though…” 
Rika had picked up on something. Emi knew what it was but asked anyway. 
“What’s weird?” 
“Like why Maou didn’t erase any of Chiho’s memories with all the rest of them.” 
“…Yeah.” 
Emi nodded deeply. 
“Maou treats Chiho as really, really precious, I’d say. But…not to be mean. I wasn’t hurt or anything, but after that Gabriel guy freaked me out and I came down with a fever and all that… I mean, hey, that was a lot of trauma! And she nearly died, too. I don’t know how any normal person can overcome that kinda fear…” 
“Yeah. And she’s seen all of them in full demon form, too.” 
“By ‘demon form,’ do you mean how Maou and them all look normally? Um… I haven’t seen that yet, but were they, like, whoa, real monsters? Like I’m picturing them?” 
“It depends on how you define monster, but if you’re asking me whether a normal high school girl would want to hang out with one, I’d have to say it would be pretty unlikely. Did you want more details?” 
“…For future reference maybe.” 
Now Rika nodded, her face more severe. She must have been concerned about what her potential love looked like. 
“I’d say Lucifer, or Urushihara, has the least difference between his two forms. The only big one is the large black wings. Otherwise, he looks like he does now.” 
“Oh, they don’t change too much?” 
“Well, as the demon Alciel, Ashiya has two scorpion-style tails.” 
“T-tails?!” 
Technically speaking, it was a single forked tail. Emi, who wasn’t that much of an expert on the rear ends of demons, simply relayed her understanding of it to Rika. 
“His skin’s really tough, like the shell of a lobster, but made out of metal that swords can’t cut through. That covers everything from his face to his arms and the rest of his body. His natural voice is incredibly grating to the ears. You could describe his overall shape as human if you squinted hard enough, but he’s a little taller than how you know him. In terms of the parts he had clothes over, like his feet, I haven’t really seen those in detail, either, so I couldn’t tell you.” 
“A—a lobster…?” 
Rika’s imagination was failing her mightily. All she could imagine was the spiny lobsters that take center stage in a traditional Japanese New Year’s meal, dancing in and out of her mind, with Ashiya’s head on top of them. 
“That’s…kind of hard to picture…” 
“Yeah, well, in terms of looking human, the Devil King’s a good deal closer than that.” 
“Oh, really?” 
“Yeah, but he’s almost ten feet tall, his arms and legs are the size of tree trunks, he’s got horns and hooves on his feet, and there’s also these wings he can take out or remove anytime he wants.” 
Calling this closer to human was a bit of a stretch. It made the look on Rika’s face even blanker. 
“What do you mean, ‘take out or remove’?” 
“I don’t know. Maybe that’s his actual body, maybe it’s demonic magic at work. He can still fly without those wings, though, so I’m not exactly sure what they’re for.” 
“You aren’t embellishing this, are you?” 
“How would I even do that?” 
Emi could understand why Rika would doubt her, having never seen these demons in person. But it was all the truth. 
“Whew… I just can’t imagine them at all.” 
“I doubt they’ll be kind enough to show you if you ask, and it might even kill you unless we take some precautions, so we might have to disappoint you.” 
“Huh? Why would I die?” 
“Being exposed to high levels of demonic force is potentially lethal to normal human beings. These are all upper-class demons so they can take measures to prevent too much force from leaking out, but we can’t guarantee that there won’t be any aftereffects.” 
“……” 
Now it was Rika tensing her face. 
“But you’re fine right now, though. Even without any demonic force, they can live off food like anyone else, and I get the impression Ashiya’s deliberately removed the force from his own body, so it won’t be dangerous to hang out near him.” 
“You’re making him sound like some poisonous spider…” 
“In terms of handling, it might be pretty close to that.” 
Emi’s voice grew a bit louder. The more honestly she talked about these demons, the more it resulted in her slamming the man her friend loved. 
“Man, talk about a thorny path to tread. Beyond thorny.” 
“Yeah,” Emi agreed. 
“But I guess someone else went down that path before me, huh?” 
“Yeah. And if that girl was born in Ente Isla, I bet she would’ve been one hell of a celebrity.” 
“She already is, in my book. Like, before I came along, she was the only one who had this huge secret she knew? No way I could handle that stress.” 
“Yeah… You’re right.” 
Like Chiho, Rika came to know the truth about Emi only after Ente Isla–related events put her in mortal danger. But there was a marked difference in how they were treated after the big reveal. Rika was attacked by Gabriel and the knights of Ente Isla’s Eastern Island, sent there to kidnap Ashiya, and was rescued by Amane Ohguro’s intervention. As she put it, she had come down with a fever subsequently, Chiho coming to take care of her and later guiding Maou, Suzuno, Urushihara, and Amane to provide further treatment. 
What about Chiho, however? Suzuno and Amane weren’t on the scene back then, and Emi and Ashiya weren’t close acquaintances yet. Lucifer and Olba had kidnapped her, she had been caught up in a crazy, out-of-this-world battle, and then she was faced with this guy at work she liked being the demon lord of another planet. There was nobody to share her memories with once it all wrapped up. It was easy to imagine the pain she must’ve felt, between her feelings of affection and her recollection of the fight. Despite all the revelations after becoming full, secret-free friends with Emi, it took a fair amount of time for her to be able to talk normally with Maou again. 
“Chiho acts totally unaffected, but I know she’s suffered a lot. Or maybe is suffering, in fact.” 
She knew about Maou and his true form. Her life had been threatened multiple times. Now they were setting foot upon a new truth once more, but no matter how it worked out, Emi doubted it would do much to change Chiho’s feelings. 

“Can I ask kind of a blunt question?” 
“What?” Emi asked, eyebrow raised as Rika gave her a grim look. 
“Your father married an angel, right?” 
“…Right.” 
Emi’s hesitation stemmed from her still-vibrant resistance toward calling Laila her “mother” with her own tongue. Rika paid it no mind. 
“So have any people ever…been together with demons before?” 
This was a blunt question. But it was one that would naturally occur to anyone who knew about Emi’s parents. And the answer Emi had was clear as day. 
“I don’t know of any.” 
It was literally a case of devil’s advocate. If people and angels could share a relationship like that, then why not people and demons? 
“…No, not like I’d know at this point anyway.” 
Rika gave this a soft smile and a nod. 
“Thanks, Emi. I appreciate you staying up this late to listen to me.” 
She looked up. The clock on the wall was nearing midnight. 
“No, it’s been really fun, sharing a meal with you for a change. Can you catch a train back home?” 
“Yeah, I checked beforehand. I’ve still got enough time, but don’t you have Alas Ramus with Suzuno right now, Emi? You don’t want to be too late, for their sakes, I don’t think.” 
“I warned them in advance…but thanks for thinking about them. I forgot to ask this whole time, but when’s the big day?” 
“Tomorrow afternoon.” 
“That’s kind of fast.” 
“I know, but tomorrow was pretty much the only free day both of us had for the time being.” Rika flashed a bashful smile. “That’s why I came to you in such a big huff, too, hee-hee-hee.” 
“Ohh. Well, I know I said I can’t cheer you on, but still, good luck out there.” 
“Yeah. Honestly, right now, I don’t really know what’s the best-case scenario I should even be gunning for.” 
Rika stood up, reaching for the bill as she prepared to leave. Emi stopped her. “No,” she said, “lemme pay for what I ate.” 
“Oh, I can’t let you do that!” 
“I can’t let you do that. If you go back long enough, I’m the one who oughta be buying you a meal anyway. So let’s just split it today, like always.” 
“…No defying you, I guess.” 
Emi’s emphasis on doing it “like always” made Rika raise her hands in defeat. 
After splitting away from Rika at Hatagaya station, Emi headed down the path toward Villa Rosa Sasazuka alone. 
In her heart of hearts, she saw little chance of Rika’s feelings fully coming across to Ashiya. Her impression of him was that, unlike Maou, he always made an effort to keep a prudent distance from the people he dealt with. He never fully dove into the human being role the way Maou did, didn’t adjust himself to human society the way Maou did—but didn’t act needlessly hostile toward them, either, like he used to. 
“But if it does turn out okay despite that, it’d sure surprise me…” 
Emi watched her breath dissipate into the streetlights as she quickened her pace a little. She had people waiting for her at Villa Rosa. True friends, people she loved wholeheartedly, in the apartment where her sworn enemy lurked. 
It had been a little over a month since she became a regular there, even sharing a workplace with friend and foe. It was hopelessly complex, ever changing, and—as Emi thought to herself amid the light from the telephone poles, cars, and convenience stores that leaked out from all around her—so unbelievably comfortable for her that she wished it could continue forever. 
She was well used to this path, and the light from the apartments already loomed ahead. Two of them were still on upstairs; Maou and Suzuno must have still been up. The sight of those lights gave comfort to her heart, something that began happening somewhere in the past. 
“Oh, man. None of this should be happening, but here we are…” 
After everything she just told Rika, too. Her mind must be crashing with some kind of error again. 
“…Hmm?” 
Then she wondered if her eyes were failing her as well. Something odd was in sight up there—someone kneeling primly in the corridor. Two of them. It made Emi instinctively hide herself behind the wall surrounding the site. 
“Emi finished her shift ages ago. Where the hell is she?” 
“Bell said she had to meet up with a friend after that…” 
It was Maou and Laila. For reasons only they knew, they were braving the cold out there, curled up and shivering. 
“A friend? Rika Suzuki?” 
“I don’t know who, but she said the person showed up at her workplace out of nowhere…” 
“Definitely Rika, then. She visits the MgRonald all the time.” 
“I don’t know that name. She’s friends with Emilia?” 
“Yeah. She’s from Earth, but she knows all about who we are. I guess she’s Emi’s best friend, so she probably knows about you, too.” 
“Oh, really? Well, that’s nice. Having a friend you can talk about anything with.” 
“Yeah, but did this really have to happen today? Thanks to Suzuno, I can’t go inside until Emi gets back, but if Rika’s taking up her time, who knows when she’ll be back?” 
Laila was presumably there to ambush Emi so they could have that talk Suzuno had warned her about, but Maou’s motives were a mystery to her. Their relationship had changed over time, yes, but there’s no way the Devil King would let himself freeze to death just to welcome her to his apartment. The phone call earlier indicated to Emi that Suzuno might have been giving him the business (and then some) a bit ago—did that have something to do with it? If Suzuno wanted to boot him out of the apartment, it seemed unlikely Ashiya would be willing to accept that. 
But as Emi’s thoughts proceeded along those lines— 
“I haven’t done this in a while, have I?” 
She recalled how she used to go on stakeout missions like these to Villa Rosa Sasazuka all the time. The arrival of Alas Ramus allowed her to make regular sanctioned visits instead, but the era before that seemed like eons ago, even though it wasn’t. 
“Y’know, I really think we’re reading too much into this, but…” 
“Whether you think so or not, it’ll sound like nothing more than a trite excuse to a woman. You were wrong in the end, were you not? No matter how effective the attempt, it’s pointless without results.” 
“Like you’re one to talk.” 
“Look, I’m sorry, but it’s true. I’ve met tons of people from a lot of countries by this point, but it’s pretty weird, you know? The way they all get into arguments over the same things.” 
“We aren’t arguing.” 
“Maybe it’d be better if you were. At least you’d be trying to express yourselves to each other.” 
“What’s that supposed to mean?” 
It seemed like a fairly uncommon conversation for a Devil King and archangel to have. It proved to Emi that Maou was out there because he invited a woman’s scorn upon him, but who would be enraged enough to drive him to this? It wasn’t Laila over there, and Emi hadn’t seen him all day today. Suzuno sure sounded pissed over the phone, but Ashiya wouldn’t put up with this kind of treatment on her part. 
Beyond that, the only women who could give Maou this much guff were Amane, Acieth, or the landlord. Perhaps Miki Shiba, the Villa Rosa Sasazuka owner whom Maou and Ashiya found impossible to defy, scolded them to the point that Ashiya reluctantly put his roommate out on the doorstep for the night. That seemed the most likely scenario to Emi. But then the conversation went in a wholly unexpected direction— 
“I mean,” Laila said with a sigh, “it sounds to me like you’re letting her spoil you completely.” 
“Spoil…? Yeah, maybe, but she should’ve known this isn’t the sort of topic we can really tackle frankly with each other, so…” 
There was little force behind Maou’s protest. It wasn’t the cold fazing him—just the understanding that his attempt at a protest was nothing of the sort at all, but instead something he still felt needed to be said. 
“See? ‘She should have known.’ You let her spoil you that way. And that’s led to discontent and distrust in all kinds of situations like this. All over the world.” 
“Yeahhhhh… But what other way was there to settle this?” 
“Whether there’s another way or not, did you even try to find one? Did you show any effort like that to her? Or did you just assume that she’d always respect your will and understand your motivations, so you didn’t bother showing her a little sincerity?” 
“…” 
Maou fell silent. Perhaps the words hit home. 
“Listen. Maybe that girl really is that incredibly broad-minded and strong inside, but she’s still only in high school, all right? She’s only had sixteen or seventeen years’ experience living in this world. You can’t expect her to think the same way as a centuries-old demon like yourself.” 
“I know that. I know that, but… Ugh, I’m freezing. Why isn’t Emi here yet…?” 
Emi let out an unconscious gasp. There was only one high school–aged girl who shared a connection with Maou and Laila—and that was Chiho. Did Maou do something to incur her wrath? 
“Well, let me just say this. Nobody actually likes bad boys, you know? Not even the ones in movies and TV shows with good looks and lots of money and high social status. They always get their comeuppances in shows like those, and that’s because nobody likes them in reality, either.” 
“Quit talking about TV and movies all the time. Your husband’s gonna think you’re some kind of degenerate.” 
“He likes watching samurai dramas, too, so it’s fine. And you know how many of those shows have episodes where fancy-pants gigolos go around abusing women? Usually, they don’t even make it to the third act. They get killed by the yakuza or some corrupt magistrate first.” 
“Uh, what were we talking about again?” 
“We’re talking about how if you hurt the feelings of a beautiful young woman, you’ll always have to pay that back with interest.” 
Emi found much to agree with in Laila’s assessment of samurai-drama tropes but quickly snapped out of it. 
So Maou had hurt Chiho’s feelings somehow. That explained Suzuno’s act over the phone and Ashiya’s willingness to kick him out of the apartment. Suzuno thought a great deal of Chiho, and she enjoyed at least a measure of respect from Ashiya—treating her far nicer than Urushihara anyway. But the Maou that Emi knew would never do anything to hurt her like that. As she just talked about with Rika, Maou had treated Chiho as someone special in his life for quite a long time. Since joining the MgRonald crew, she knew through discussions with Kisaki and Akiko and Kawata that Maou’s public attitude toward her hadn’t changed one bit before and after she learned the truth. 
“Chiho… Hope she’s okay.” 
Ideally, Emi would’ve preferred to leave them to shiver out the rest of the night up there and go give Chiho a big hug to console her instead. But it was well past midnight, and storming the Sasaki residence was out of the question. Plus, this was Chiho they were talking about. No matter how cruel Maou was to her, Emi suspected she would never ever bad-mouth him in any way. 
But what did Maou do anyway? The conversation was lacking much detail so far. 
“You are certainly striking a brave stand here, however. Reminds me of me, long ago.” 
“Ugh, don’t give me crap like that. I’ll kick your ass down the stairs.” 
“Ah, I love it when you react like a little boy like that. It’s so innocent and… Ahhh?!” 
“?!” 
The soft shouting from Laila made Emi peek out from behind the wall. She found her there, leaning against the stairway’s guardrail in an awkward position, trying to catch her breath. Maou must have quite literally tried to kick her ass down the stairs right then. 
“You—you didn’t have to actually do it! What if I fell down?!” 
“You should be glad an angel like you got away that lightly after taunting the Devil King, man. Plus, you know how many times your daughter took a tumble down those stairs? I just thought I’d let you join in the fun.” 
The lunacy of Maou’s excuses put Laila in a silent state of confusion. 
“Did—did you push Emilia down these stairs?” 
“No, she slipped and fell by herself. I even caught her fall once, thank you very much.” 
That did happen once, didn’t it? Emi had grown far more used to those steep, slippery steps by now, thanks to how many times she was going up and down them these days. Growing more connected to the upstairs landing of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, her fear of that stairway was all but gone now. She let out a sigh from the back of her throat, muffled so Maou and Laila wouldn’t notice. It gently ran through her nostrils. 
“So what’ll you do?” 
“…I’m thinking about it.” 
“Not that it’s for me to say, but the longer you leave it unaddressed, the more complicated it’s going to become.” 
“I really don’t need you telling me that. Will you kiss and make up with your daughter for me already?” 
“That’s what I’m waiting out here for, remember?” 
“Yeah, and let me say, if you’re expecting me to thank you for that, you got another think coming. Emi’s one of the craziest stubborn people I know. If she doesn’t like someone, she’s a hell of a lot more ruthless toward them than I am.” 
“R-really? …What do you mean, ‘ruthless’?” 
Emi winced as she detected the slight stiffening in Laila’s voice. 
“You know, she’s had a hard life, so it’s not that easy for her to trust in people. Chi or Rika Suzuki are one thing, but—well, you see how close she and Suzuno are. At first, Emi was so suspicious of her, she practically gave up trying to curry her favor.” 
“…It certainly doesn’t seem that way now.” 
“Not now, no. The only Emi you know is the one you see now and the one you had just given birth to.” 
“I don’t see how that’s not true for you!” 
“I still got a year or so of a head start. I’ve wasted a lot of time hanging around her, one way or another.” 
“…What do you mean, ‘wasted’?” Laila balked. 
As she listened, Emi scowled, her wrinkles deepening. 
“She hates it when things don’t turn out fair,” Maou continued, “and even if they do, if they don’t turn out the way she wants, she gets all emotional about it. She meddles in everything, but she’s such a wimp mentally that she freaks out about the dumbest things. I don’t know how I deal with her.” 
Emi was on the other side of the outer wall and couldn’t see Maou, but she had no doubt he was closing his eyes tight and frowning as he whined on end. But despite all the verbal abuse he heaped up, none of it irked her in particular. 
“What…?” 
Instead, there was a slight, passing thought floating in her heart—like a stubborn curry stain on a white handkerchief—that went like this: Did he really have to go that far? 
“Hmm…” 
Meanwhile, Laila seemed less than interested in this put-down of her daughter, spouted at her by the enemy of all mankind. That, if anything, sparked Emi’s anger. Being her child, things couldn’t help but be complicated in her mind. But she held it back, not wanting to accept it. 
“Although, granted, I think she’s doing a great job taking care of Alas Ramus by herself. She used to go on and on about how I was a bad influence on the kid every time we had a visit, but now she’s hangin’ out here with her every day she has off, as if that’s the new normal for her. Alas Ramus loves it, and I’m sure that’s easier for her, too.” 
“Huh… I see.” 
“That’s the only reaction you have? …Wait, why were we talking about this?” 
“We were talking,” Laila replied, “about why I can’t make up with Emilia that easily.” 
“Oh, right, right.” 
He knew that, but it still made Maou lose his momentum and fall silent. 
Emi felt it was about time to come out. Having all this bile pointed in her direction made her worry that the curry stain in her heart was going to spread, and she didn’t want to admit that to herself. But— 
“You know pretty much everything about Emilia, don’t you?” 
That single statement from Laila glued Emi to her spot once more. 
“…Excuse me? What’re you talking about?” 
“You know her likes, her dislikes, the way she thinks… Almost everything, isn’t it? You’ve clearly been observing her carefully.” 
“…” 
Emi gasped as she felt her cheeks suddenly begin to bake. She sat down on the spot, despite already being hidden from sight, this new reaction throwing her into confusion and fear. 
“Why did I…just now…?” 
“Man, you really shouldn’t say that,” Maou retorted. “You’re gonna give people the wrong idea.” 
“Give who the wrong idea? It’s only you and me here. I’m just saying, you’re obviously taking a lot of consideration for Emilia’s feelings. You give her a lot of thought, in your mind.” 
“Quit talking about that. It was one time.” 
Maou’s voice grew heavier. Maybe he was cupping his head in his hands. 
“You don’t have to act so ashamed about it.” 
“I’m not ashamed. I’m watching her because I have to, okay? ’Cause back in the day, Emi was liable to assassinate me in my sleep at any moment. I had to keep tabs on her at all times or else it would’ve literally been my neck on the line.” 
“But you were watching.” 
“Would you stop forcing the conversation in that direction?” 
“And because you were, you completely failed to notice when Chiho made sure to set up a comfortable, stress-free environment for you.” 
“………” 
“Huh…?” 
The unexpected mention of Chiho’s name drove Maou to silence and Emi to raise her eyebrows high. Maou wasn’t paying enough attention to Chiho? 
“Nice of you to clam up when I said that.” 
“…You’re the one who’s saying I’m giving excuses, no matter what I really meant.” 
“I am,” Laila replied. Emi could almost hear the grin on her face. 
“Even if I was, it wouldn’t have been to you. I’ll have to make excuses to Ashiya, and Suzuno, and Chi, too, even or else I’ll never be let back inside. And why am I kicked out only until Emi gets back here? That makes no sense.” 
“Maybe because it works out right timewise or maybe for some other reason. There’s no way you can visit Chiho’s house at this point, either way.” 
“If I pull anything as crazy as that, it’d make Chi’s mom and dad think less of her.” 
“If you can understand that, why did you miss out on the most obvious thing of all?” 
“That’s the way I made excuses to you and Suzuno and Ashiya and let her spoil me, isn’t it?” 
“Maybe.” 
“Ugghh… Just get here already, Emi… I’m seriously gonna catch a cold otherwise.” 
The conversation settled to an end at that point. Silence ruled over the apartment building once more. 
After all that eavesdropping, it was too clear to Emi that, through some inconsiderate remark or action lodged at Chiho, Maou was kicked out of his apartment until she arrived. That was it, though. That, and Laila’s observation that Maou understood Emi more than Chiho—which, if you turned it around, probably hurt Chiho’s feelings. 
“…I dunno if it was good for me to hear all of that or not.” 
She began to vaguely understand the situation—and that gave birth to a pure form of panic in her mind. She still didn’t have the full picture. Did Maou directly do or say something, or did Chiho react the wrong way to something he unintentionally did? 
That was unclear, but one thing wasn’t: Chiho was growing jealous of Emi over him. 
“Wh-what should I even do…?” 
She couldn’t even blame Chiho for it. Even with all the furor following Laila showing up and Erone causing all kinds of trouble—even with all the brain errors she used as a convenient excuse—she really had been spoiled by Maou’s kindness. 
“Wait. I can’t jump to conclusions. I need to talk things over with Bell. And if it’s true, then I need to apologize to Chiho about this misunderstanding…” 
Before she’d just call it manipulating Maou and remain firm, but now was different. Now she was totally letting Maou spoil her, and she wasn’t only allowing it—she had adjusted her heart to the point that she actively let him do it. And Chiho picked up on that all too keenly. 
“Um, wh-what do you call this? Like, when you’re with a criminal for so long, you…some kind of city name, I think…?” 
She tried taking her phone out of her bag to look it up. Her hand was shaking, her fingertips too dry to work the screen too well. 
“Ah!” 
Finally, the phone slipped out of her hand and hit the asphalt below. Maou and Laila didn’t seem to notice the dull thud, but now Emi could no longer quiet her trembling heart. If she stayed here, there was no telling what direction her mind would race off toward next. She had a long shift today, and that plus the serious heart-to-heart with Rika had just mentally exhausted her. That’s what she had to tell herself, or she wouldn’t even be able to stand up any longer. 
Groggily, she picked up the smartphone, staggering away from the wall and heading toward the apartment. 
“Ah! Emi! God, it’s about time you showed up!” 
“Huh? Oh, um, Emilia. Uh, welcome back… Ah!” 
“Where the hell you think you’re walkin’?! Why did you come here from that direction?!” 
Laila, still too tense and unsure how to deal with Emi to greet her naturally, was pushed aside as Maou rocketed down the stairs. 
“…What’re you doing up there?” Emi asked in a deliberately reserved voice, ignoring Maou’s shouting. 
“What was I…? Look, I’ve been kicked out of my place until you got here, all right? Go see Suzuno for me! I’m gonna die of frostbite in a second! Ashiya! Suzuno! Emi’s here! Please let me back in!” 
“Ah! Wait…!” 
Maou grabbed her by the hand, Unable to shake it off, she found herself pulled upstairs with all his might. She passed by the dumbfounded Laila’s face for only a moment before reaching the landing, followed by the wide, curious eyes of Suzuno and Ashiya as they flew out of Rooms 201 and 202. The shivering Maou took the chance to bound back into his apartment. 
It was rude of him, undoubtedly, pulling her along without a word of warning. Emi stared blankly into space. She had let him do it, all the way, and she did nothing. 
Suzuno flashed an annoyed look at Maou as he fled into his room, then turned toward Emi. 
“Alas Ramus is asleep, so keep it quiet. I believe you saw Laila outside. Did you speak with her?” 
“Um… Yeah. Hi, Bell. Sorry I didn’t text you…” 
Emi found it hard to maintain her coherence. 
“Mm? Ah. Indeed. Well, if you are done speaking with her, I need to discuss Chiho with you for a moment. I know you must be tired, but I can whip up a fresh batch of tea for us…” 
Then Laila chose that moment to stick her neck out from the landing. “Emilia? Um, sorry to keep you after work and everything, but, um, I was waiting for you because I needed to ask you something… I’m sorry, Bell, we haven’t spoken yet.” 
“Oh, you have yet to?” 
““We—we had other things,”” mother and daughter responded in unison. 
“Mm? What?” 
“No, um… What’s up with Chiho?” 
“Laila takes first priority for now. Please make it quick, Laila.” 
“All right. So, um, Emilia… Emilia?” 
Even as she spoke to Suzuno and Laila, Emi seemed less than completely there with them mentally. It unnerved the angel. 
“I’m listening.” 
“A-all right. Um, so, the day after tomorrow, Satan and Chiho are going to visit my…um, the place I’m keeping in Tokyo. I wanted you to join us.” 
“Your place? The Devil King and Chiho?” 
“R-right. I heard that you, Satan, and Chiho are all off work in the evening two days from now, so, uh, what do you think? Emeralda and Bell could come along, too, if they want.” 
“Oh…” 
…came the halfhearted reply to Laila’s fervent plea. 
“Alciel and Lucifer don’t have any plans, but I don’t think they’ll be joining us, so…um, I just want to more fully reveal everything that’s been vague or unclear up to now, and there are some things I want to give all of you, too, so…” 
Ashiya had no plans for two days from now. It wasn’t at all the main gist of Laila’s plea, but that was about all Emi picked up from it. The very day after the one her best friend, so freely open with her love for Ashiya, planned to put all her chips on the table—even after she had the whole story about him. But Ashiya was staying in his apartment, no particular plans in mind. 
Rika’s feelings. Chiho’s feelings. Her own feelings. She felt like she could see them all, but they remained so elusive at the same time. And no matter how great the life-changing transformations they were going through right now, none of them had much of an effect on the world. Emi felt she was losing herself among this vast chain of emotions, unbroken since ancient times. 
And the next thing she knew, she had said— 
“Just do what you want. I’m not really interested.” 
“Ah…” 
“Emilia, are you sure?” 
The reply shocked Laila into silence and made Suzuno beg for confirmation. 
“It’s not like going would achieve anything, and it’s not like it’ll change what you wanna have me do.” 
“B-but I want you to see, so you can tell I’m acting in good faith. I know I’ve been putting myself in and out of your lives up to now, but I want to prove all that’s over now—” 
“If you’re ready to do that, then fine. And if the Devil King and Chiho are convinced by it, great. But it’s not like me seeing your house will earn anything for me.” 
“M-maybe not, but…” 
“The Devil King’s already living like this, and even Sariel and Gabriel aren’t far removed from the Japanese mainstream anymore. I’m sure it’s the same with you, isn’t it? I’m not that interested in seeing it for myself. I’m sorry to make you wait in the cold and all that, but I’ll pass, thanks. Have a good night.” 
“E-Emilia!” 
“I am sorry, Laila…” 
Realizing Emi’s mind was made up, Suzuno stepped in front of Laila and invited Emi to join her inside. 
Once the shocked-looking angel disappeared from view behind the door, Suzuno settled down next to Emi as the Hero ran a hand through the hair of her daughter, sleeping in a corner of a futon. 
“Emilia,” she said softly, “are you all right?” 
“Was that the thing you talked to me over the phone about?” 
“Y-yes. Um, the Devil King resisted the idea of visiting Laila’s residence before you did, so he made her ask you directly first…” 
“Ah. I feel a little bad about making him wait out there, then. After he thought that much about me.” 
“Hmm?” 
The sight of Emi feeling worse for Maou than Laila disturbed Suzuno a bit. But realizing that discussing Laila any further wasn’t a smart plan for tonight, she spoke up to change the topic. 
“Well, in any case. You saw how the Devil King was kicked out, yes? I asked for him to spend the night outside, but Alciel insisted on compromising, so I reduced it to until you arrived. It all began, you see, when I ran into Chiho in town…” 
“The idea of the Devil King putting me above Chiho… That’s ridiculous.” 
“That accursed Devil King was being completely spoiled by Chiho’s good intentions, and it drove Chiho to… Pardon?” 
“It’s not like the Devil King thinks anything of me.” 
Suzuno’s eyes opened wide. “E-Emilia?” 
“What did he say? Or was he out with Chiho somewhere?” 
“Neither.” 
“The Devil King, you know,” Emi continued, expression calm as she kept patting Alas Ramus’s head, “he’s kind to everyone he meets. To the point where I’d call him a friend, even though I’m after his life. He’s been looking out for me only because I’ve gone through a lot of trouble and life changes recently. I’m not anything special to him.” 
“Emilia… Was there something that happened?” 
“I’ll prove it to you. The Devil King’s just as kind to Laila, isn’t he? He talks a big game about how much she drives him nuts, but look at how willing he is to wait patiently until she properly takes care of things. He even went through the trouble of coming up with those contract conditions so me and her could make up.” 
Alas Ramus turned over a bit, away from Emi’s hand. It stopped in midair. 
“Listen, Bell. The only person the Devil King truly cherishes from the heart…the only one he wants to be with as an equal…is Chiho. What do you think we should do to make Chiho understand that?” 
“Th-that…” 
Suzuno fell silent. 
“It’s something the Devil King will have to do, won’t he?” 
“A-Alciel and I spent much of today lecturing him about that…” 
“I’ll bet. Because it might look like he treats Chiho as precious, but really it’s been the other way around.” 
“Y-yes. Yes. And then…” 
“He wants to be treated as precious.” 
“Oh?” 
“…I can’t do this tonight. I’ve had all these complex conversations; my thoughts are gonna get weirder and weirder.” 
Emi lowered her hand from the air and sighed. 
“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, Bell, but I’ve got to tell someone. I hope you’ll listen. I need to organize my feelings a little.” 
“C-certainly,” Suzuno said, clearing her thoughts as she stood there. 
“Just now, when Laila asked me to visit her place, what do you think my first thought was?” 
Suzuno had no reply. Anything she would guess, she surmised, was probably wrong. And that turned out all too correct. 
“I thought…well, the Devil King never visited my house back when I was his nemesis, Emilia the Hero. So the idea of me visiting Laila’s place… Isn’t that the most ridiculous bullshit you ever heard of?” 
“Emilia…Emilia, you don’t really think…?” 
“…You know how chaotic my mind is now, right?” Emi raised her exhausted face to Suzuno. “I don’t get it. I try to think things over seriously, like oh yeah, this is it, this is it, but I know I’m wrong. I’m merely hiding things from myself or trying to explain them away. But I had that thought just now. He never came to my place. I really couldn’t even consider what he had to say about this. Right now, even being with him would be enough to provoke Chiho. There’s no way I could join them the day after tomorrow. If I went there in this state of disarray, I’m worried I’ll wind up hearing about everything from Laila. All so I could escape from Chiho and the Devil King… Am I being weird or…?” 
“Not…weird, no.” Suzuno took a seat next to Emi, lightly caressing her shoulder. “Things have changed far too quickly here for both of us. It takes time to get used to matters.” 
“Bell…?” 
“It takes time,” she softly repeated. “Chiho cried because of her feelings toward you. It was the littlest thing that made her unable to contain her jealousy, and it made her so mad at herself and chagrined that she felt that jealousy that it made her cry. We have forgotten that she, too, has experienced vast changes in her life in a short time. That was how strong she seemed to us.” 
It was true. And neither Emi nor Suzuno had a truly clear idea what was supporting that strength. Chiho was being supported by a firm belief in her heart. That belief alone allowed her to live alongside beings from other worlds who wielded ponderous amounts of power. And it was all so she could remain friends with Emi and Ashiya and Urushihara and Suzuno—so she could continue to share all her feelings, to show affection for what she couldn’t share, to keep from being a drag on them all. And that belief was built on the foundation of her feelings for Maou. 
“None of us was fully used to this at all. Not in any real way. There is still a wall between us and Chiho, in terms of our strength and our worlds, but only Chiho was aware of it. If we want to tear it down…” 
“…Only the Devil King can do that. Ugh. This is so messed up.” 
“And when it is torn down, I believe we and Chiho will finally be on the same playing field. The instant it occurs, if Chiho is the only one to have a firm belief like that…” 
Suzuno turned her face away from Emi. 
“What if it isn’t? What if there are other beliefs in play?” 
“If there is,” Suzuno said with a smile, “then we will become true friends, with no boundaries between us.” 
Laila, meanwhile, was seated outside, back against the wall of Suzuno’s room, head down. 
“Emilia…” she half groaned out—and just as she did, the door opened. 
“No good?” a worried-looking Nord Justina asked. 
“I know”—Laila sighed, her head still down—“that it’s not good to panic about this, but…I don’t know. What have I been doing with my life all this time? I’ve lived for millennia, and I have no idea how to make up with my own daughter.” 
“If anybody knew how parents can find common ground with their children…” 
Nord knelt next to his wife, taking her hand and helping her to her feet. 
“I’m sure their name would be celebrated for all of history.” 
The stern-faced father let a slight smile float onto his face as he cheered up his wife. 
“We’ll have another chance. Look at where we are. You’re still alive, and we’re reunited here in this peaceful world.” 
“…Yeah.” Laila nodded as they left the upstairs corridor together. 
“There’s never any telling how our lives will work out. I never expected to be living in a shared space with the Devil King at my age. Compared to that, a mother and daughter fixing their damaged relationship seems much more likely to occur to me.” 
“And when it happens, you’ll be together with us. The three of us as a family.” 
“You said it… Let’s go back home. It’s cold out here.” 
“Say…” 
“Hmm?” 
The couple looked at each other, halfway down the stairs. 
“I really am in a panic right now. I feel like this truly is my last chance. If I let this run through my fingers, I’m not sure I’ll be willing to wander like this for another few centuries.” 
“As long as you and Emilia remain your beautiful selves, I wouldn’t mind at all.” 
“I don’t want that! I’m not sick of living, but I want to be a human being. I want Emilia to be one, too. I want to treat each day as special, exactly like all the countless families do as a given here, and I want to die at the end of it. I couldn’t imagine anything besides living with you and Emilia.” 
“…In that case, now is the time for patience.” The husband carefully guided his wife down the stairs. “I hope there’s something I can do for that…but it’s times like these that I hate being just another human. If I could fight to protect you both, at least…” 
“You made me human. That’s more than enough of a gift.” 
She gave her husband a peck on the cheek and smiled. 
“Thank you, my dear. I’ll keep trying tomorrow.” 
“Great.” 
“Also…” 
“Mmm?” 
“Um… Don’t be too surprised, all right? About my…place.” 
“Oh? Why’s that? It’s not some palatial mansion, is it?” 
“No, not that sort of thing…but, um, I’ll do my best to make sure you can come over in two days.” 
“Not sure what you mean, honey, but I look forward to it.” 
Their casual conversation disappeared into Room 101. Soon, all the lights were off in the building, bringing a final, complete silence to the Sasazuka night right as the two AM hour passed.