THE HERO OWES A FAVOR FOLLOWING A WILD CHAIN OF MISUNDERSTANDINGS
The first report of Olba Meiyer’s disappearance sent shock waves across the All Bishops’ Sanctuary, the meeting place shared by the six archbishops that led the Church.
Olba was an important figure in this cabal, not just one of their number but one of the intrepid adventurers who joined the Hero on her quest to dispatch the Devil King.
But the Reconciliation Panel, the self-policing group within the Church that handled the investigation into his disappearance, released a report just as shocking after completing their search of Olba’s office, which lay in the Church’s headquarters within Sankt Ignoreido.
“The Hero Emilia is alive and well in another world?!”
As the report was read to the remaining five archbishops in their sanctuary, Robertio Igua Valentia, the eldest of their flock and the one among them that served as chief canon of the Church, was the first to react, almost falling out of his chair.
“But Olba himself stated to me that Emilia Justina and her Better Half sword disappeared into nothing at the end of the pitched battle against the Devil King Satan!”
“It would appear that was a total fabrication, sir.”
The female inquisitor submitting the report spoke coldly toward the five, all but striking down the oldest among them with her words.
“We have discovered traces of multiple sonar transmissions that he aimed at this other world. The recent capture and holding of Emeralda Etuva and Albert Ende was also perpetrated by Archbishop Olba’s underlings.”
“What…what on…!”
Robertio, whose health had been the subject of recent rumors itself, glowed red in the face at this cascade of unbelievable news.
“Regarding Emeralda Etuva, we have confirmation that she has returned to her home, the Holy Empire of Saint Aile. Other reports state she is publicly avowing Emilia’s safety and spreading the word of Olba’s apostasy far and wide.”
“A-a-apostasy…! Apostasy, by an archbishop…!”
“Canon Robertio! Please, take a breath and calm down!”
Cervantes Reberiz, archbishop and administrator of the Church’s agricultural policy, rose to place a reassuring hand on Robertio’s back as he shot back against the Reconciliation Panel representative.
“My dear lady, please refrain from overly inciting our order with your—”
“If I may, Archbishop, I am merely stating the truth.”
The inquisitor gave them no quarter.
“But…but how we can simply avow that Olba was lying to us…? Perhaps he himself learned that Emilia was alive and set off to help her…”
“I’m afraid that is not possible, Canon. A dead Hero was found to be alive. Why would a lone man not spread this cataclysmic news far and wide, instead keeping it to himself for whatever reasons he deemed fit? It is only natural to conclude that Archbishop Olba had a motive to ensure that Emilia’s ‘death’ was as true as he himself reported earlier.”
The inquisitor sighed, face stern upon continuance.
“And if Saint Aile’s most well-known court alchemist is officially declaring that Emilia is alive, we cannot ignore the impact this will have. It directly conflicts with the Church’s public position that Emilia is dead. I request a well-considered decision.”
“A well…considered…”
Robertio hyperventilated slightly, his anger threatening to make his heart beat its last at any moment.
The inquisitor was not ready to relent, standing firm while facing the panic-stricken canon.
“Will you recognize the mistakes Archbishop Olba has made, or will you continue to push the Church’s decisions upon its people?”
All Bishops’ Sanctuary was plunged into a profound silence.
“Or, to be more exact, will you affirm and condemn the apostasy committed by the archbishop against the Church, or will you instead decide to murder Emeralda, Albert, and finally Emilia herself?”
“This is ridiculous… Emilia and Albert are one thing, but what could we do against Saint Aile’s court alchemist…?”
Cervantes seemed to suffocate on the words. The inquisitor continued, wholly unfazed.
“It is something the Church has always done, ever since the days when the Devil King’s armies freely roamed the land, in order to solidify the Western Island as a monolith under the name of the Church. And when I say ‘the Church,’ I mean myself and the other members of the former Council of Inquisitors.”
The statement made the already-heavy atmosphere around the Sanctuary seem to sag even more painfully upon the council.
But nothing would stop the barrage.
“No matter which option you select, the Church will have to pay a great sacrifice. But if we leave the problem unattended like this, the sun will set for good upon the Church’s infallibility and authority. I doubt many people would choose to place their faith upon a Church so willing to throw away the Hero, the hope of the people, the woman who dispatched the Devil King.”
The inquisitor’s glare pelted like a storm of stones against the shaken Sanctuary. Heavily, Cervantes opened his mouth.
“You are part of the Council of…that is, the Reconciliation Panel, yes? How would you handle this question?”
The woman’s answer was curt.
“I am sure, Archbishop Cervantes, that you understand the import of the Council of Inquisitors transforming itself into the Reconciliation Panel, at least in name.”
Cervantes quickly averted his gaze away from the woman’s eyes.
“In the past, it was the goal of defeating the Devil King that united us. But now, when everyone believes that threat to be gone, it would be a grave mistake to believe that simply any act in the name of the gods shall be forgiven.”
“Wh-what are you saying?”
Robertio did not fail to notice the point the woman danced around.
“I was hoping that the initial shock would subside before I continued.”
She chose her words gingerly as she sized up the five archbishops before her, one by one.
“But Satan, the Devil King, is also alive and well on this other world.”
Robertio fell away senseless, foam dribbling from the corner of his mouth.
“So you’re having trouble drumming up the confidence?”
Saturday morning, the following day. Early in the morning, with the early-summer sun just beginning to make its full presence known, Emi and Chiho found themselves standing in front of the door to the Devil’s Castle.
“Well, I mean…you know.”
Chiho, hiding herself behind Emi as she peeked furtively at the door, was carrying a bulky tote bag. Emi could easily imagine what was inside.
“If I fail here, I don’t know if I can recover from that by myself…”
Fail at what, exactly? It seemed silly to even bother asking.
“I’m just saying, it wasn’t really right for the summer season, but it was, like, a really well-made bento box! Plus, you know, if it’s got poison or something in it, Maou and his friends could be in big trouble…”
“If an Ente Isla assassin was going to poison him, they would’ve done it ages ago.”
Even Emi could be sure of that.
Chiho felt like either potentially disastrous conclusion would be a huge blow to her, but the matter of her own true feelings at the moment was by far the more urgent issue to tackle.
“Well, standing there and blaming us for all of this isn’t going to accomplish anything. Just be yourself. Take the bull by the horns.”
“…All right!”
Emi pushed Chiho out from behind her, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
After a moment, Chiho turned back around, the nervousness still writ large upon her face.
“Uhm, Yusa? I’m sorry. Thank you.”
Behind the terse statement was a full understanding of both Yusa and Maou.
Even if Chiho may already have one foot firmly planted in the events sweeping Ente Isla, from Emi’s point of view, it would not be the most laudable of tactical decisions to allow her any closer to Maou than she already was.
Right now, in full control of her holy energy, there was no longer any obstacle between her and obliterating the Devil King.
She could wipe clean the memories of everyone in Japan who ever interacted with him—there weren’t that many of them—massacre the rest of the Devil’s Castle, call for Emeralda and Albert to zip on over, and make a triumphant return to Ente Isla. That was all there was to it.
But, after a smile with a whirlpool of emotion behind it, Emi responded.
“No problem. I don’t care about them at all, but I want to still be friends with you, Chiho, so…”
That, too, was an honest, earnest slice of Emi’s heart in verbal form.
Whether that heart came across or not, Chiho took another deep, emboldening breath and rang the Devil’s Castle doorbell.
The reward was instant.
“Ah, yes, welcome back.”
“…!”
Chiho was frozen, unbreathing, at the sound of an unfamiliar female voice. Even Emi could clearly see the resolve she spent so much time building up begin to crack and wobble.
Thus, it was not Maou, the master of the house, who opened the door, nor was it his faithful househusband Ashiya. And it certainly wasn’t Urushihara the unemployed shut-in. It was Suzuno Kamazuki, the refreshing morning-glory pattern on her aqua-blue kimono framed by her familiar apron.
Even with her hair put up, the morning sun still shone brilliantly through it. It was already growing humid, but not a drop of sweat betrayed itself on her skin, the milky white of skin which so brilliantly matched her kimono. She was drying her hands off with a towel as she opened the door, indicating her presence in the kitchen until this very moment.
She seemed younger than either of her visitors at first glance, but her firm, refined countenance had an air of maturity that Chiho’s still lacked.
“Ah, good morning, Emi…and may I ask who you are?”
“I-I-I…”
Her voice was calm and collected. Chiho, meanwhile, sounded like someone had superglued her throat shut.
“Sadao, there is a visitor at the door.”
Chiho was struck dumb once more at this unknown Japanese beauty’s words.
She had referred to Maou by his given name. It was a sign of intimate familiarity in Japanese. As far as she knew, nobody else in Maou’s life used it.
Chiho never had, of course, being younger than him and more or less his apprentice at MgRonald. She doubted she could even if asked to.
And yet here was this woman out of nowhere, expressing honest, homespun warmth as she called him Sadao.
Chiho began to find it hard to remain standing—not because of dizziness, but from the sheer hopelessness of it all.
Emi, watching from behind, had no lifeboat to give her. This was Chiho’s battle. Only Chiho had the power to change anything.
“Uh? Is Emi back around again?”
“No, not merely Emi.”
“Huh?”
It was Sadao Maou, the only man in Chiho’s eyes.
“Whoa, Chi?! What’re you doing here? It’s pretty early, isn’t it?”
And his first reaction to Chiho was, at best, indifferent.
“M-Maou…”
Even before the battle began, Chiho’s eyes had already begun to tear up.
Emi brought a hand to her forehead in exasperation. This is pointless. He doesn’t even realize what’s unfolding right now.
“Um, ah, well, um, I, uh, if you’d, uh, like, uh, to eat…”
She bravely attempted to piece a few words together, her voice like a mosquito’s cry, but having the wind knocked out of her so early on made the process painfully difficult.
“Uh, is something up, Chi?”
Even Maou noticed Chiho’s odd behavior by now, but all he did was watch on, warily, as her face quivered.
The lifeboat arrived from inside Devil’s Castle.
“Oh… Is Ms. Sasaki out there…?”
It took the form of Ashiya’s listless voice, one that still managed to boom audibly out the door.
“I hate to bother you, Ms. Kamazuki, but I have some teabags inside the shelf under the sink…”
“Ashiya?”
Chiho noticed that, on the other side of Maou and this unknown woman, Ashiya was lying on the floor, covered by something resembling a blanket.
“Oh, no, are you sick, Ashiya?”
“Yeah, I dunno whether to call it that or not, actually.” Maou scratched his head as his eyes darted between Chiho and Ashiya. “But, like, this is the story behind that bento yesterday, I guess.”
“Huh?”
Chiho, tears still in her eyes, now flashed a look of utter bewilderment.
“Oh, my, look at how finely you chopped these shiso herbs! It’s so beautiful…”
“Yes! And a well-sharpened knife performs half of the work for you. After that, take a leaf, cut it in half, place the halves on top of each other, crumple them up, then cut it into strips, and it could hardly be easier.”
“So how did you get that red-leaf lettuce all crisp like that?”
“Well, first you wash it thoroughly in cold water, then just shake the excess water off. Remove the core and set it aside first. That will help you remove the sand and other bits of dirt you wouldn’t normally see. Much more effective than simply running it under the tap.”
“Don’t you need any soy sauce on this hiyayakko tofu?”
“Oh, no. I use a solution of white soup stock diluted in water. That way, the taste of the tofu won’t clash so harshly against the saltiness. It results in a much softer, smoother flavor.”
Chiho and Suzuno were deep in conversation.
Emi faithfully listened on, a tad nonplussed by this turn of events.
Chiho, learning that Suzuno had come to help Maou keep his home affairs in order after the summer heat got the best of Ashiya’s health (and that she simply had the habit of referring to people by their first names), had finally shooed away the tears from her eyes.
After taking a disdainful look at Urushihara, idly wasting away the morning as he let his neighbor handle all the hard work, Chiho reintroduced herself to Suzuno.
“Well! I should say that the variety of food Chiho brought for us will result in quite a lovely breakfast.”
The dining table was already largely filled by the time Chiho added her own fried chicken breasts and potato salad to it. For breakfast, it was almost too extensive of a buffet.
“Uh…well, hey, thanks a lot, Chi. This is kind of a surprise. Can’t wait to tuck into it.”
Maou thanked her as his hand wavered over the table, belying his total inability to decide on his first dish.
“Of…of course!”
“Thanks a lot, Ms. Kamazuki…”
Ashiya, sitting up, looked almost emaciated as he bowed his head.
“Hmm. We’ve got a lot of people here. Do we have enough teacups and chopsticks?”
Maou began a quick head count.
“Oh, I brought my own.”
Chiho cheerfully took a small box out from her bag.
“Very well. In that case, Emi, I do hope you will sit next to me. I am afraid I have nothing but disposable chopsticks to offer, but…”
Suzuno invited Emi, who had been all but tossed aside by now, by offering a set of wooden chopsticks.
It was a remarkably lively morning meal, a scene that made Emi wonder if this was really the Devil’s Castle after all. By the time everyone had cups and chopsticks, Urushihara finally drummed up the energy to sleepily lurch over.
“Huh. Breakfast already?”
He brushed off the dirty looks all of the other diners flashed him.
“I don’t see any seat or chopsticks or teacup for me, man.”
Maou, Ashiya, and Chiho each occupied one side of the kotatsu table, with Emi and Suzuno sharing the fourth. There was no room left for Urushihara to sit.
Instead, there was a plastic container and fork on the computer desk.
“Our guests come first. And the person who contributed the least to the meal comes last.”
Ashiya was cold as ice.
“…Dude, you’re gonna so regret this. Like, isn’t that the container my Sugiya dinner came in?”
Urushihara half muttered it to himself, dejectedly looking at the disposable plastic bowl as he forked some rice into it.
It was what he deserved, given that even Chiho, who treated nearly everyone she met with kindness, couldn’t conjure any sympathy for him.
“So…how are you, anyway, Ashiya? Are you feeling okay?”
“Thank you for your concern, Ms. Sasaki. Thanks to Ms. Kamazuki’s kindness, I have been given ample opportunity to rest my weary bones. I hardly wish to be any more of a burden to our Devil’s Castle, so I plan to return to my regular routine beginning today.”
“And we have Chiho to thank for that. Such a cornucopia of rejuvenating ingredients she brought along! Nothing like some good meat to revitalize a man’s appetite.”
“Well, thank you! I wish I could cook like you, though, Suzuno.”
The breakfast conversation couldn’t have been friendlier. Emi gauged Suzuno carefully as it unfolded.
The words they exchanged yesterday plainly weren’t enough to dissuade her away from Maou, but judging by her cooking and her friendly demeanor toward Chiho, there wasn’t anything suspicious about her.
And think about this: The maniac burglar from last night took a paintball right on the ski mask. That paint, and the smell, isn’t the sort of thing that comes off in a day or two. It seemed fair to conclude that Suzuno couldn’t have been Emi’s scythe-wielding attacker.
“Ah, experience has a way of making anyone a veteran over time, Chiho. I am sure the day will come when you surpass even me in the kitchen.”
“Yeah, but Mom cooks for the family at my place, so I don’t really get much of an opportunity to practice.”
“Oh, the opportunity will come, trust me on that. I, too, was fed very well by my family through all my life, but in many ways, it was more a matter of them continually pushing food in my direction. Why, when I moved away, they made me bring a virtual larder filled with supplies!”
That solved another lingering mystery in Emi’s mind. Given her experience with the inside of the Devil’s Castle’s cabinets, she was wondering who was footing the bill for all these ingredients.
“They were kindly hoping to aid me with my finances until I found useful employment in the city, but having such an enormous quantity will only lead to it all spoiling in the summer heat. So, if I may say so in front of all of you, having three hale young men with healthy appetites next door has been a great help to me.”
It was hard to tell if Suzuno was trying to relieve Chiho or prove to Emi that she took her advice to give up on Maou. Or neither.
She mentioned she wanted to find a decent job yesterday, come to think of it. Emi, tossing her doubts and worries to the wind, picked up the conversational thread.
“What kind of work are you thinking of, by the way?”
Suzuno, for reasons only she was aware of, gave Emi a strange look.
Emi was a bit thrown by being stared at from point-blank range, but Suzuno took a look at Maou and Ashiya before nodding to herself, seemingly convinced to herself about something.
“I will not ask for a salaried position. As long as the proceeds allow me a bare pittance to live on, I have no complaints.”
The response was crisp and clear. The use of the word pittance was perhaps a bit behind the times, but given her location in Sasazuka, right near the heart of Tokyo, she had a wealth of options to choose from. And given it was toward the start of the month, if she hurried, she would have a decent-sized paycheck waiting for her in just a few weeks.
“A job to make my homeland proud” was setting the bar rather low, but given that she and Emi had only just met, it was the sort of noncommittal response she expected.
Emi didn’t have long to chew on this.
“Well, why don’t you come work at my place?” Maou, as unthinkingly as always, completely failing to read the atmosphere around him and just blurted it out.
“!!”
“!!”
“?”
“……”
“…Ah, jeez.”
Chiho froze in place, Emi’s eyebrows furrowed, Suzuno tilted her head to the side, Ashiya’s eyes turned toward the ceiling, and Urushihara verbally expressed his disgust.
“We’re kinda low on staff for a lot of shifts right now, so I don’t think we’d have a problem taking someone else on. Because, Chi’ll be there, so you’ll have someone familiar around while you’re learning the ropes.”
Did Maou ever stop to think that familiarity with the staff was far from the problem here? Or, for that matter, did it even occur to him why Chiho was on his doorstep this morning in the first place?
Urushihara, sitting away from the dining table, could see the whirlpool of awkward emotions whirling around the center of the room.
“Well, you can’t really make her answer that question right on the spot, can you?”
Emi, finding no other way out of this, tried to extend a lifeline to Chiho.
“You can think of her as a potential applicant, of course, but…you know, there are good things and bad things about having personal acquaintances as your coworkers. So maybe you should, you know, think about it a little more first?”
Chiho looked at Emi, eyes held helplessly open.
“True… You do have a point.” Suzuno nodded her agreement. “Thank you very much for the offer, Sadao. I will give it due consideration. And who knows? Perhaps I will ask you for a formal introduction at a later time.”
“Yeah, uh, sure thing.”
“And if I do, I do hope you will put in a good word for me, Chiho.”
“A-all right.”
Chiho stole a glance at Emi for a moment before bowing her head at Suzuno. Emi’s eyes darted back slightly as she noticed this.
There was no pretense. No hidden meaning. Just a simple exchange of words. A dining table filled with honest devotion and skill. A direct, to-the-point personality to match her direct, to-the-point speech.
To both Chiho and Emi, there was absolutely nothing they could seize upon to make them suspicious of Suzuno Kamazuki.
“Would you like me to maybe show you around Shinjuku and so on?”
Emi decided to bite the bullet first.
Neither Emi nor Maou was willing to let this woman remain content with living in abject poverty and starvation. Emi knew they had to get her introduced to modern society to some extent, even as she knew it would be pointless to expand the circle too much further.
If Suzuno really was just a typical Japanese woman, Emi wanted her life as distant from Maou’s as possible.
“It’ll be easier to pick up on things if it’s just us women together. Let these guys take you, and who knows what kind of weirdo things they’ll teach you.”
“Hey, that’s just being mean!”
Maou spoke up, dissatisfied with this appraisal. Emi paid him no mind.
“Well, even if it is, I’m confident I could do a better job of it than you could.”
Emi snorted haughtily at Maou. He shrugged in response, but declined to take it further.
“And how ’bout maybe you lend her some clothing or something? You know, for work and stuff. I think she looks cute in a kimono, but she’s, like, gonna need a suit and a bag, right? Like, office casual, like you’ve got on, Emi. You could be a secretary or something, right?”
For once, Urushihara said something Emi could agree with, which she appreciated. She was not, however, as much a fan of how he picked up her shoulder bag and bandied it around without permission.
“Hey! You can’t just touch that! You’ll infect me with your unemployed-itis!”
“It’s not a disease! I was just looking at it! Jeez!”
Urushihara bit back at this (in his mind) uncalled-for assault. Chiho gave a cold rebuttal.
“I’m amazed you can just do stuff like that, Urushihara.”
“Aw, quit it already! You’re all treating me like some sort of idiot!” He retreated back to his lair, howling in anger along the way.
“Indeed, however, my chest of drawers is lacking in such things. I have little in the way of purses or footwear. Perhaps I had best atone for that, if necessary.”
“You’ve got more than just…kimonos, right?”
Emi asked the question casually. She had never seen Suzuno in anything else.
“I do not. I have kimonos, and sandals, and these socks, but none of the pairings that you or Chiho are sporting so dashingly.”
The confession was as shocking as it was so breezily given. Her audience exchanged glances with one another.
“Is that…strange, in some way?”
Suzuno looked around, a slight twinge of concern on her face. Even she noticed how this seemed to surprise everyone.
“No, nothing strange about it, exactly, but…”
Ashiya trailed off midway.
“Damn, Suzuno, you’re like some kind of samurai princess.”
Even Urushihara seemed thrown by this revelation. The other two women in the room were less forthright with their amazement.
“…Yusa, if you could perhaps introduce me to a clothing store as well…”
“Umm, sure! If we have the time.”
Chiho and Emi nodded to each other, the nervousness painted on their faces.
Maou interjected between them.
“I dunno, as long as you don’t come out looking all weird…”
He nodded to himself.
“Well, thanks again for letting me visit so early in the morning. Get well soon, Ashiya.”
“Not at all. Thank you for all the lovely things you brought over. Now, no funny business before you take Ms. Sasaki back home, Your Demonic Highness.”
Maou and Chiho left the apartment, Ashiya seeing them off. Chiho blushed a bit in response, a smile on her face.
“What are you, my wife?”
Maou flashed a glare back at his roommate.
“She has loyally served you, my liege, in both personal and business matters. It is only right that you repay the debt with equal kindness.”
“Pfft…yeah. Anyway, see you.”
Maou wore a hangdog look on his face as he went downstairs, Chiho following behind. Ashiya watched for a few moments before shutting the door.
The two of them weren’t due back at work until the afternoon. But it was Ashiya who pushed Maou into seeing Chiho back home, reasoning, “How could you allow Ms. Sasaki to merely wander off after she just brought this sumptuous feast to our door?”
Ashiya did not always have such a rosy opinion of Chiho’s advances on Maou in the past, but apparently he was willing to loosen the reins with anyone willing to help the demons break even on their monthly budget.
Much of this also stemmed from the aggravation at the living vegetable called Urushihara taking root in the corner with no end in sight, although neither Maou nor Ashiya himself had consciously realized this yet.
Emi and Suzuno had left the Devil’s Castle in advance, Emi expressing a wish to show Suzuno some spots around town before work began.
Maou, meanwhile, walked next to Chiho down the sidewalk, the bag containing the assorted plastic containers Chiho had brought along safely ensconced inside the front basket of Dullahan, the Devil King’s trusty steed, as he wheeled it along.
“…Too bad you don’t have a seat or a carrier on the back of your bicycle, Maou.”
“Dullahan, you mean. But, hey, you can’t expect that much from a used fixie, right?”
“Well, it’s still too bad.”
Chiho flashed a chiding smile. Maou was nonplussed.
“Yeah, but if you sat on the back of this thing, I could be cited for upward of twenty thousand yen, you know? I’m skirting the law already when I use an umbrella in the rain.”
Maou was only aware of this thanks to Ashiya having given him an extensive rundown of the fines and penalties involved with Tokyo bicycle law, as well as the potentially disastrous effects this would have on their finances.
Chiho rolled her eyes, giving Maou an exasperated look.
“I know that. I didn’t say I wanted to do it or anything. I kind of meant something else.”
“Mm?”
“Oh, nothing. But anyway, once we reach Sasazuka station, we can just take Koshu-Kaido Road toward Hatagaya.”
With that, Chiho slowly began walking half a step ahead of Maou. He obediently walked behind, still pushing Dullahan. Glimpsing her back, it dawned upon Maou that Chiho lived in a freestanding house. With her family, no doubt. If he kept going, he’d wind up being face-to-face with her folks.
“H-hey, uh, Chi?”
“Mm? What is it?”
Chiho swiveled her face behind her.
“So, uh…thanks for giving me such a lavish breakfast. It was great.”
“Oh, it’s nothing compared to Suzuno. But I appreciate the compliment.”
He could tell there was more than a trace of doubt in her voice, but Maou decided to press on with the question in his mind.
“Listen, uh, are your parents cool with this?”
“With what?”
The weirdly diffident response was enough to stop Maou dead for a moment.
“Oh, uh…I mean, you know, Chi. A girl like you, hanging out in a place like we’ve got? Did your parents mind much?”
“Oh, that?”
Chiho put a finger to her chin as she thought over her answer. The question seemed to faze her little.
“Well, they didn’t say anything, anyway. I told them exactly where I was going, and my mom gave me a bunch of pointers while I cooked, too. Mother-approved, I guess you could say!”
The reply far exceeded expectations.
“Wh-what about your dad?”
Two months ago, when Maou and Chiho were caught up together in a collapse inside an underground mall in Shinjuku, Chiho’s policeman father was one of the first responders. Back there, she seemed less than willing to be seen together with Maou, but…
“Well, I kinda didn’t tell him where I was going last time. It’s fine today, though.”
“Oh. Just fine, huh?”
“Mm-hmm. He actually kinda cried this morning, too, like ‘Oh, you’ve finally got someone you want to give a home-cooked meal to’ and stuff.”
Mother- and father-approved. Even more unbelievable.
“Oh, that reminds me. What’re you gonna do for your lunch bento today? Suzuno’s out with Emi right now, right?”
“What am I gonna do…? Well, I didn’t really think about it.”
He had little reason to. The bento that so violently jostled Chiho’s world was the very first Suzuno had made for him; it was hardly a regular custom yet. So Maou gave the honest truth, a response Chiho replied to without turning around.
“Well…if you’d like, would you like me to make one?”
“…For me?”
That was the most intelligent response Maou was capable of. Chiho stared at him sourly.
“Would I have asked you if I was making it for someone else?”
“Well, no, but…hey, why not? I’m sure Ashiya would be happier with me eating whatever you make instead of living off junk food all the time.”
His formal permission granted, Chiho’s sulky glare immediately transformed into a bright flower blossom of a smile as she skipped into the air.
“Ooh, great! I’ll make sure it’s nutritious and stuff, then. Wouldn’t want Ashiya to worry too much about you!”
Maou may have been slow on the uptake in certain ways, but he still had over a year’s worth of experience living in Japan under his belt. Even he saw the meaning behind a teenage girl going out of her way to cook for some guy she wasn’t even related to.
But there was still something bothering him.
“Well, about that, Chi…”
“Yes?”
“Don’t we…you know, worry you at all?”
“Oh…you mean, you guys?”
Chiho scoped out their surroundings.
“You mean about how you’re demon aliens and stuff?”
The lack of anyone nearby had apparently made her comfortable enough to blurt it out. Her summer skirt rustled in the breeze as she turned around.
“Yeah, kinda…”
Maou was speechless, not expecting it to come out so easily after she’d danced around it at first.
“Well…I guess I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. Maybe you guessed it when you saw me with Emi this morning, but we like to text each other every now and then. So I know a little bit about what you were up to back on Ente Isla or whatever.”
Chiho took a light breath, breaking a sweat under the pre-noon sunlight.
“But before I knew that, Maou, I kinda started liking you, so…”
The words just seemed to pour right out. Maou’s eyes shot upward.
Watching them, Chiho laughed nervously.
“Oh, you don’t have to look at me like that. You must’ve understood what Albert told you, right?”
“Uh, no, uh…”
Chiho prompted him along, albeit without much forcefulness.
“Don’t just stand in the middle of the street like that. There’s a car coming.”
Scurrying back to the edge of the street, Maou watched as a Nekoto Transport shipping truck whirred by.
“But did you notice yet, Maou? The reason why I’ve been so distant these past two months?”
“Not…really, no.”
“When we went to work, right after you fought Urushihara, you asked me if I wanted my memories erased.”
“Y-yeah…”
Chiho took a deep breath, then turned back around. The early-summer sunlight traced across the edges of her billowing skirt, along with the corners of her warm, soft smile.
“Well, I don’t want to forget about the people I like. Ever. No matter what.”
The wind lapped against her ever-so-slightly reddened cheeks as Chiho let her hair blow freely.
“…!”
Maou swallowed. Chiho giggled a bit in response.
“You don’t have to act all shocked to death every time, Maou. Are you really trying to conquer the world, or what?”
“Uh…well, I mean…”
“At least keep walking!”
Chiho had completely taken over the conversation.
“Yusa tried to stop me at first. She said she didn’t want me to regret anything, falling in love with you. But this was all my doing in the first place, you know? I started liking you, and if I want to stop, I’ll do that on my own terms.”
A steel rod plunged straight into the fluffy, cotton candy–like feelings that surrounded them, one that even Maou was defenseless against.
Every iota of her resolve was now revealed, embedded in her smile. Maou had no way to respond.
“Chi…”
“So, you know, even if you see me as nothing but the new girl at work, that’s all right. That, and me liking you… Those are two different things.”
The sunbeams from above told Maou that there was not a single trace of guile within Chiho’s smile.
The Devil King, rendered silent and frozen thanks to a few simple words from a human girl, not even two decades of age, would certainly not be a good role model for his minions back home to follow.
“…This is exactly why you humans can be so scary sometimes.”
“Exactly. And you should be particularly careful around women. Men get the wrong idea a lot about this, but if you mess with us, you’ll pay for it. Big-time.”
“I’ll make a note of that.”
Maou chuckled to himself as he nodded. It was apparently enough for Chiho.
“Well, today’s your first day as shift supervisor, right? Good luck with that.”
With that somewhat forced attempt at changing the subject and lightening the mood, Chiho confidently strode forward.
“Yeah, right. I’ll try my best not to have my entire paycheck garnished.”
He was quick to accept the gesture.
“You are a proud artisan, Sadao. Taking on such heavy responsibility…and blessed with such a loyal, respectful crew, no less.”
“Exactly! I’ll have to try my best not to drag you down! …Um…”
“Hmm?”
“Mm.”
“Huh?”
Maou completely failed to notice that someone else was walking next to him.
“You are truly loved, Sadao.”
“S-S-Su…”
“Suzuno?!”
Maou and Chiho leaped back in unison.
“S-S-S-Suzuno! Wh-when were you over there?!”
Chiho confronted Suzuno, her previously cherry blossom–tinted cheeks now the shade of an overripe apple.
Suzuno was supposed to be out with Emi, but now, out of the blue, she was right alongside Maou and Chiho.
She had a faintly elegant air about her, clad in her kimono and lacquer-coated sandals, carrying a large, traditional kinchaku drawstring bag. But how did she, and the rhythmic clacking of her wooden sandals, escape their attention?
“Wh-when did you show up, how much did you hear, why didn’t you say anything, why are you here, didn’t you leave before us?!”
Chiho, nose bright as a Christmas reindeer’s, furiously blazed away at Suzuno.
“I caught up to you barely a minute ago. My ears picked up the conversation beginning with ‘even if you see me as nothing but the new girl at work.’ I hesitated to speak up because even from afar, I could tell this was an intimate conversation. We did indeed leave early, but I realized I had left my belongings at home, so Emi proceeded on ahead while I returned to fetch them.”
Coolly and dutifully, Suzuno answered each of Chiho’s emotionally charged questions.
“Nnnnhh!!!!”
Chiho’s entire body now shone dark red. Steam began to blow out of her nostrils.
In other words, someone had just overheard her confessing her deepest emotions for Maou.
“Worry not. Witnessing the way you treated Sadao this morning, it was plain to surmise your feelings, Chiho.”
“S-S-S-S-Suzuno?! You’re saying that on purpose! In front of him!”
“On purpose how? Any why is your face such a bright shade of crimson?”
“That’s what happens when you say stuff like that, I’m really embarrassed, what are you even thinking?!”
“That may be, but it would be an even queerer thing if I failed to surmise as much. Besides, your feelings are already quite clear. It does not bother me to hear them out loud once more…”
“I’m not talking about that! Maybe you’re right, but it’s still embarrassing to me! Ugh! I mean… Ugh!”
“Chi, Chi, calm down a little…”
“In fact, Chiho, I find it quite virtuous and attractive, how clearly and blissfully honest you are with your own heart…no matter who it may be pointed toward.”
“Um, that wasn’t a knock on me just now, was it?”
Suzuno remained forthright and honest as she spoke. Chiho, meanwhile, was almost at the boiling point.
“……!!!!”
She let out a voiceless scream, her face resembling the top third of a stoplight.
“Agh! Hey! Wait! Chi!”
Without a word, Chiho snatched Dullahan away from Maou, stomped on the pedals with astonishing force, and was off at full speed.
Maou, left behind, extended a helpless hand toward Chiho as she executed a tailslide around the corner and out of sight. Then he glared at Suzuno.
“Mm. Quite loved indeed.”
“Eesh. You didn’t have to prod her like that. She’s going through a lot at her age.”
Maou hung his head in disappointment, scratching his forehead.
“Ughh… Hopefully Chi won’t get in an accident, zooming off like that.”
Suzuno’s eyes flew open in response.
“…That is a surprise.”
“What is? The fact I’m actually worried about someone else?”
“If I may be so rude as to say so.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think you’re the first to say that. Man, do the folks I know really have that little trust in me?”
The Devil King was now in full-on crabby mode as Suzuno suddenly asked a question.
“What do you think it means to be loved by someone?”
Maou wiped the sweat off his forehead with a sleeve—whether it was the heat or something else, he couldn’t say—before knitting his brows.
“What, are you running a survey or something?”
“No… I meant nothing particularly profound by it.”
“And you expect me to believe that after what you saw? …Well, it’s hard to say, just having it asked like that. I don’t want to just brush it off or whatever, but if Chi trusts in me that much…and, more to the point, if her parents do…then I guess I’ll have to be just as sincere with them. Not that I know what to say to anyone yet. Why’re you looking at me like that?”
He had given an honest reply to this goofball question, and yet Suzuno was now looking back at him like some exotic animal she had never laid eyes on before.
“…Did I say something weird, or…?”
“Huh? Ah, ah…ah, no, n-not at all. It was merely a touch surprising to me.”
“What is?! And, look, shouldn’t you go regroup with Emi anyway?”
“…Ah. Yes. Right.”
Suzuno shook her head, as if shaking the cobwebs out of her brain. Maou took another sleeve swipe at his forehead.
“I’m sure she’s over at Sasazuka station. Lemme show you a shortcut.”
“A…?”
Suzuno once again seemed caught off guard. Maou ignored it.
“You see that alleyway? Walk a little ways down and you’ll reach the Bosatsu Street shopping area. Make a left there and follow the line of shops down, and you’ll wind up right in front of the station.”
“Er…yes. Certainly. Thank you.”
“Also, if you wanna find a job, you’re probably gonna need a phone for people to contact you with. I know you don’t have much scratch to work with right now, but you better buy a cell phone ASAP. There’s a shop or two by the station, but if you don’t see anything you like, I’m sure Emi knows where you could go downtown. Anyway, have a good one.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
Taking another look down the path Chiho took, Maou breathed a dejected sigh before turning his back to Suzuno and heading back toward his apartment.
Suzuno couldn’t help but watch him go. As she did, Maou suddenly turned back around after a few steps.
“Good luck finding a decent job! Try not to let all the crowds freak you out downtown.”
And then he walked off, not bothering to wait for Suzuno’s response.
She stood there for a few moments, finding herself unable to move.
“Did you find your bag?”
Emi, waiting in front of the Sasazuka station turnstile, walked up to Suzuno upon spotting her. Suzuno nodded, still in a slight haze.
“Yes…yes, safe and sound. I apologize for making you wait.”
“Not at all. Is something up? You look a little off.”
“No…but…are we boarding the…um, train? Right now?”
Emi didn’t know why she added a question mark after the word train, but paid it no mind as she nodded.
“Yep. It’s only one station from Sasazuka to Shinjuku, but it’s still kind of far to walk. Oh, and watch you don’t take the train to Motoyawata, either. That’s two extra stops, and it puts you way at the far edge of Shinjuku, too. Do you have a passcard or anything? You’ll have to buy a regular ticket if you don’t, but setting up a fare card now will make it a lot easier in the future.”
“Um…yes. About that.”
Suzuno took a look around her surroundings, plainly a tad confused.
“If I may be honest with you, I have yet to board a train in my life.”
She had a knack for making these jaw-dropping revelations in the plainest, most everyday tone of voice possible.
“…What?”
Emi had no idea how old Suzuno was, but eyed her suspiciously regardless. What kind of far-off forbidden kingdom did she live in if she was old enough to live alone, but still hadn’t seen the inside of a train car?
“And what is this fair card I keep hearing about? Is it used to gain access to the market fair?”
“What?”
“Hmm?”
There was something odd about how Suzuno just pronounced that.
“I…apologize if I said something strange.”
“Uh, strange isn’t the… Um. Well. Anyway, let’s just buy a ticket, all right? I’ll explain what a passcard is later. Tickets are…”
She stopped once she noticed Suzuno standing statuelike in front of a ticket vending machine.
“…Um, can I ask an honest question? How the heck did you make it to Sasazuka?”
This was starting to get silly. She didn’t even know how to purchase a ticket? Whether she was born in Japan or Mars, she had made her own way to Tokyo. It wouldn’t have been impossible for her to completely avoid public transit the entire way, but it certainly would be inconvenient.
Suzuno, meanwhile, was unable to hide her perplexed mood next to the doubtful Emi.
“Well, I apologize if I am somewhat lacking in local knowledge. I used a Gate to come right down upon Sasazuka.”
“Oh, right, that makes…”
The sheer matter-of-fact way she put it made Emi almost fail to pick up on it at first.
“…What was that?”
Her face tensed up. Something told her she had just heard one seriously important confession.
“I said, I came down directly upon Sasazuka through the use of a Gate and have been busy assembling my new identity in the city, so until I grow more familiar with city life here, I’m afraid that I…”
“W-wait! Wait!”
Emi’s pulse surged. She brought a hand to her chest, as if trying to suppress it, and gave her surroundings a close look before bringing her darkened face closer to Suzuno’s.
“A-are you from Ente Isla?!”
This had come almost immediately after Emi concluded Suzuno was harmless. A tad off-kilter, but harmless. Emi’s mind was already plunged halfway into panic mode.
Even Suzuno reacted with surprise at the question, her eyes wide and pointed toward Emi.
“Had you not noticed?!”
How could I have been expected to? Emi thought as she pressed on.
“You never breathed a word of it to me!”
“But you said it yourself! You said you were after the Devil King!”
“What?!”
“I was a tad surprised, as I never thought you would use that name in front of the man himself. But then you advised me not to take any rash action. That I should ‘keep my distance’ from him, or I would be unhappy!”
“Whaaaaat?!”
“I have been through a great number of trials and tribulations in my life, but if it is the Hero advising me to stand down, then stand down I shall. However, even if I pulled up stakes at that very moment, I had no place left to go. Thus I asked you for assistance—assistance you promised to give. Along with your contact information, no?”
“Whaaaaaaaat?!”
Emi was awash in a sea of confusion, but the truth behind Suzuno’s explanation was starting to dawn on her.
Then, the full truth finally hit home. That conversation, just outside of the Devil King’s doorstep, was the result of Emi and Suzuno gravely misunderstanding each other.
“So you did not say that because you knew of my true colors?!”
“How the hell was that going to show me who you really were?!”
Emi felt she had the right to be angry.
“You found nothing at all strange about it?! This dainty young girl, freshly moved into her new apartment, briskly meddling with the lives of the three men who live next door? You thought it was a perfectly everyday occurrence?!”
“Yes! I did! And having you act like I didn’t is really pissing me off!”
This was her reward for preoccupying herself with keeping this strange young girl from getting wrapped up in her destiny. Nobody was “getting wrapped up” in anything. She was involved from the start.
“Then what did you possibly mean when you asked if I was ‘aiming for’ the Devil King?!”
“Huh? That… I mean…”
There was no way Emi could tell the truth. That she’d mistakenly thought Suzuno was attracted to him. She thought the embarrassment would overwhelm her for a moment, but it was really Suzuno’s fault she made the mistake in the first place.
“W-well, why did you ask me if I was ‘in a close relationship’ with him?!”
The reply came clear as day.
“Because I had word that you fought alongside the Devil King!”
Emi’s eyes shot open.
Besides the residents of Devil’s Castle, the only people who knew that Emilia the Hero teamed up with Satan, the Devil King, in battle were Chiho, Emeralda, Albert, and Olba.
There was no way Emeralda and Albert would spread stories that would put the Hero’s name in question. The only alternative was that Olba, still in custody of the Japanese authorities, had found a way to transmit the news to Ente Isla.
And, from there, it was easy to surmise the sort of Ente Islans who could receive that sort of news.
Emi decided to start by declaring her innocence.
“You have got to be kidding me! We had a common enemy! There was nothing I could do about it besides defeat him while the Devil King was in the same location! And anyone who calls it ‘fighting alongside’ him is making a terrible, terrible mistake!”
It was the very definition of splitting hairs, but to Emi, said hair was as long, wide, and visible as a brick wall.
In terms of her intentions, at least, the Devil King remained Emi’s foe during that battle, even as she fought against Lucifer and Olba.
As for how other people interpreted it…that, even she had to admit, was a different story.
It was clear how an external observer could have believed he was watching the Hero and Devil King tag-teaming against an archbishop of the Church. And then she was attacked on the very day she handed over her address and phone number.
“So, what, you thought I joined sides with the Devil King so I could get revenge against the Church?! Is that why you dressed up all funny and attacked me at the convenience store yesterday?!”
Someone closely allied with Olba would no doubt step up to fulfill his most fervent of wishes. That was easy enough to surmise.
And there was every chance that someone would simply want vengeance against the archbishop’s nemesis, completely unaware of his crimes.
But Suzuno, suddenly looking quite a bit more suspicious than a few minutes ago, stared quizzically at Emi as she crossed her arms in thought, acting for all the world like Emi’s accusation was out of left field.
“A ‘convenience store’? How does one sell convenience, exactly? I am not sure what you mean.”
“Oh, if you don’t, how do you think I’m handling this right now, huh?! Are you pulling that act on purpose, or are you really that stupid?!”
Emi used a hand to cup her face.
“I was attacked, all right? At the store! On the day I gave you my info! By someone from Ente Isla! And not to defend the Devil King, but it wasn’t a demon, because whoever it was had the power to cancel out my holy sword! Which means it had to be you…!”
Emi stopped cold. Now everything was out in the open, on the laundry rope of confrontation.
“W-wait a moment, please. Me, attacking you? I have done no such thing! I knew full well that you were Emilia, the Hero! I knew the strength you possessed as a knight of the Church! And while I am not wholly useless in battle, I was hardly so foolish as to wage a duel I had but little chance of winning!”
Emi watched the surprised Suzuno carefully as she defended herself.
That scythe-wielding maniac had taken a paintball point-blank to the face.
Her well-defined features and supple skin made it difficult to notice at first, but up close like this, Suzuno was clearly wearing no makeup.
Those antitheft paintballs were made with a compound you couldn’t rub off with household cleaners. But if Suzuno were last night’s assailant, she would resemble a fluorescent-orange panda right now.
And when they sat next to each other this morning, Emi didn’t smell anything off—neither the telltale scent of the paintball, nor any unusual perfumes that could have hidden it.
Resisting the urge to further shout Suzuno down, Emi gave the dourest face she could muster while hissing angrily:
“…Well, look, I’m sorry if I’m a little slow on the uptake. Can you clue me in? Who are you, and what’re you trying to do, just waltzing into the Devil’s Castle like that?!”
Her voice had grown desperate. And loud, although it wasn’t the sort of conversation any passersby had the courage to butt into. Still, Emi made a point of looking around to ensure Maou or Ashiya weren’t spying on them.
“…My true name is Crestia Bell, chief inquisitor of the Reconciliation Panel.”
Emi did a double take. The term Reconciliation Panel was not one she was expecting here.
“I apologize if we experienced a breakdown in communications earlier. So, once again, I ask you. Could I ask for your help, and your cooperation, Emilia Justina, as the Hero of Ente Isla? I promise I have not come here to hurt you.”
Suzuno bowed her head. It was a sincere gesture, Emi thought. She sighed, noticing the bright red hairpin with the four-petaled flower entangled in a whorl. It was modeled after the Cruciferae family of budding plants—the “cross-bearing” flowers. She looked up at the station clock.
“Let’s save this for after we reach Shinjuku. I don’t want to be late for work.”
With that, she set off for the turnstile.
“Ah…um, what?”
Suzuno stared goggle-eyed at Emi’s back, perhaps surprised that the Hero would put her Japanese employer ahead of her true identity.
“Look, this is the kind of country Japan is, okay? Let’s get moving.”
Emi, feeling a tad victorious, placed her fare card on the sensor and walked through the turnstile.
“W-wait a—ngh!”
She turned around at the sound of Suzuno’s odd groan.
“L-let me go! I—I cannot afford to be stymied here…”
“……”
She looked at Suzuno, the tip of her kimono’s belt caught by the closing gate as she tried to follow Emi through the turnstile.
The thought of the yawning culture gap they would have to traverse, and all the associated trouble they’d have to navigate on the way to Shinjuku, threw Emi into a deep depression.
The true fate of Emilia the Hero and Satan, the Devil King, was discovered within the papers Olba left behind.
From there, she used the Church’s sonar to track down traces of the waves emitted by the Holy Silver of Evolution, the divine tool instilled within Emilia that formed the core of her holy sword. She found what she was looking for from another world.
She also found a shard from the single horn Emilia had reportedly sliced off the Devil King’s head in their final battle. Using it to weave a special sonar pulse that could pick up on the pattern of his demonic magic, she spread signals far and wide across the universe.
The results showed a concentrated presence of demonic force focused in a certain area. But even before she learned of those results, she already had more incontrovertible evidence at hand.
This evidence, however, was not something she reported to the sanctuary. If she did, it was easy to picture the entire panel of archbishops falling dead on the spot.
It came into her hands via a completely unexpected coincidence.
As she pored over the papers in Olba’s study, a transmission arrived on the Link Crystal she used to form idea links across worlds. It had come from Olba himself.
The link was laden with noise, but she could still tell that he was alive, confined in an alien planet with no ability to open a Gate, and seeking help.
And while it sounded too good to be true, she had also taken full note of what he said next:
“Emilia the Hero formed a team with, and fought alongside, the Devil King.”
“I served the Church in its missionary arm…and now it pains me to think I considered myself an expert at analyzing the ways of foreign lands. This nation, Japan, is far beyond my feeble understanding… There is not a single city similar to this on Ente Isla…”
Suzuno was nothing short of shattered.
The uproar within her mind began the moment she was stopped by the turnstile gate at Sasazuka station. She successfully purchased a ticket afterward, but—still unable to tell the difference between a paper ticket and a chip-embedded fare card—she was ruthlessly blocked once more after trying to wave the ticket over the touch sensor.
“You still dare to interfere with me?!”
After screaming at the machine, she tripped over herself at the top of the escalator, sending a wooden sandal flying. This was followed by her politely replying to an station intercom announcement, raising eyebrows across the platform, then losing her footing inside the train during the maze of rail junctions that preceded the final stop at Shinjuku.
Once at her destination, she was awed by the great crowds of people, mistook the red cross in front of the blood donation center for a Church outpost, and—once safely up on the surface—gaped in abject amazement at the innumerable high-rises and cars and human beings that surrounded her.
By the time they finally arrived at Sully’s, a café nearby Emi’s workplace, her face had been drained of all vigor. The sensory overload had quickly proven too much for her.
Sully, by the way, was the name of the man who first founded the chain, in a faraway realm known as “Washington.” Emi avoided mentioning this, figuring it wiser to keep the scope of Suzuno’s terminal culture shock to one nation at a time.
“So…what were we talking about, then…?”
“I know you haven’t seen a TV before, but I didn’t think you’d seriously shout out, ‘Ohhhh. There’s a man inside that thin board on the…’”
“Please, stop talking about that!”
Suzuno clapped a hand on the table to make her point, cheeks already blushing a tinge.
If she was to be believed, she had conducted research into such modern Japanese trappings as computers, mobile phones, and television sets. But the shock of seeing all of this in person was something she just couldn’t control, judging by the barrage of comical exclamations she was making to no one in particular.
“The documentation I had at hand indicated something larger and box-shaped! Then I wouldn’t have been taken so aback! One can hide a person inside a box easily enough!”
“The shape of it doesn’t really matter…and, just so we’re on the same page here, there isn’t a guy inside.”
Picking up the glass of iced coffee delivered to their table, Emi took a sip to quench her thirst.
Suzuno ordered a cup of tea, but had no idea how to use the little cup of nondairy creamer it came with, ultimately rocketing its contents straight onto the adjacent floor.
“What kind of ‘documentation’ did you have, anyway?”
The question had been wiggling around Emi’s mind all morning. Given her claims of having studied the local culture beforehand, her behavior was a poor fit for modern Japan.
“I learned that the kimono was a traditional Japanese garment, so I studied the resources where they appeared the most often. I think you call them ‘samurai dramas’? I also viewed several long-running documentaries depicting modern Japanese life. I thought I could trust them! Some dated from this era that I understand people call ‘the fifties’!”
Suzuno turned her eyes upward as she tried to recall her primary sources.
“Well, that explains all the goofy anachronisms, I guess.” Emi smiled wryly to herself.
“Hey, but which samurai drama did you like the best?”
There was more than a hint of curiosity to the way Emi asked the question.
She was a fan of the genre, after all, but nobody around her expressed even the slightest interest in her fandom. Now, she hoped, she finally had a fellow woman to share her personal tastes with.
“Well…I do like the ones that star wandering ronin, like Oarashi Montaro or Lone Lion and Cub or Three for the Slash! Things like Vice-Shogun Mito, or Maniac Shogun… They did not quite touch the same chord with me.”
“…Oh.”
In nearly every way, they seemed to have nothing in common. Emi sighed as she returned to the main topic at hand.
“So…if we can go back to Sasazuka for a moment… What does the head inquisitor of the Reconciliation Panel want with me? What could possibly possess you to live next door to the Devil King?”
Despite her position in the Reconciliation Panel, it had to be said that Suzuno demonstrated no sign of being a Church assassin after Emi’s life. So far.
But what other reason did she have for taking a Gate trip on over, then? Emi studiously watched over Suzuno, lending an attentive ear to whatever she had to say.
“Well, if I could summarize it for you…”
Suzuno leaned forward, her face betraying her tension.
“My first goal was to ascertain whether you were alive or not. As I followed Olba Meiyer’s trail, however, the only clues I unearthed were related to the Devil King, and his activities in this world. Thus, I reasoned that if I kept a close watch on the Devil King himself…”
“The Hero would show up before long. I sure walked into that mousetrap.”
Emi shrugged. There was no other way to put it. Hook, line, and sinker.
“There is no way for me to express my sorrow for the deplorable crimes Olba Meiyer committed. Judging by the way you acted around him before knowing I, too, was Ente Islan, I can only conclude that his tale of you forging a pact with the Devil King was a complete fabrication. His actions do not reflect the collective position of the Church. I, at least, hope to serve as your humble ally.”
Suzuno leaned several inches closer.
“Now, allow me to dance around the topic no longer. I want you to defeat Satan, the Devil King, and return to Ente Isla with me. I want you to prove you are alive, expose Olba’s crimes, and guide the Church back to the path it must traverse.”
“No.”
“…That was rather fast!”
Suzuno almost spilled her tea as her elbows lost traction on the table.
“You could at least give it a modicum of thought!”
“No. I’m not working with anyone from the Church any longer.”
Emi poured a packet of sugar into her iced coffee, calmly stirring it with her straw.
“But you promised to work alongside me!”
“That doesn’t count. I made that promise before I knew who you were.”
“You care so little about your position, about your honorable reputation within Ente Isla? Why not bring it back to what it should be?!”
“Oh, like I care about what the Church and all the other kingdoms think.”
Emi stared out the café window as she calmly brushed Suzuno off. Suzuno followed her gaze.
“What is…?”
Suzuno scowled as she began the question. Emi halted her, pointing out the subway entrance facing the window with her eyes.
“Could you understand that I’m not exactly welcoming you with open arms, if you consider that you work for a group whose boss triggered a collapse in an underground tunnel packed with innocent people, just to kill me and the Devil King? You know Olba’s here, right?”
“……”
Speechlessly, Suzuno looked at Emi, then the view outside. She nodded, even though her face had I cannot believe this written all over it.
“I had no idea he had gone so far…”
“Olba teamed up with Lucifer to wreck this nation, just for the sake of killing me. Emeralda and Albert know, too. They were there. In fact, you could ask Lucifer yourself later. You know that’s who Urushihara is, right?”
Emi placed her glass down as she turned toward Suzuno.
“That’s why I thought you were that attacker yesterday, too. But even if you weren’t, I have zero intention to work in tandem with someone from the Reconciliation Panel.”
“…Why?”
Emi was all too quick to respond.
“Because the Hero is charged with slaying the Devil King.”
It sounded like the most obvious of truths, coming from Emi’s mouth. It seemed to rally Suzuno’s spirits.
“Then let me join you! I traveled here with the intention of slaying him myself, if I had to.”
“That is my job, and mine alone. Don’t meddle in this.”
“How you could say such things…?”
“Do I really have to spell it out for you? You are a higher-up in the Reconci—well, really, the Council of Inquisitors, right?”
Emi made a point of correcting herself midway. Suzuno fell silent, feeling her blood pressure plummet.
“Listen, I don’t know what you’ve done up to this point. So I do apologize if this is hurting your feelings.”
Noticing Suzuno falling into an awkward confusion, Emi attempted to lighten the mood a little. But, “I don’t want anyone taking me defeating the Devil King and using it for their own gain. That, at least, I hope you understand.”
With that, Emi looked at a clock on the wall. It was getting close to her work shift.
“That, and I don’t know why you’re keeping them fed, but I just want to warn you—if you keep trying to mess around with them in your cute little ways like that, they’re gonna spot you out. He’s still the Devil King, you know.”
“…I appreciate the warning.”
“I’m going to kill the Devil King for my own sake. So just stay away from him, all right? Go back to Ente Isla. And rest assured, I’m never going to let any of them set foot on our homeland again.”
Picking up the check, Emi stood up, took out a wadded-up magazine from her shoulder bag, and handed it to Suzuno.
“Of course, I’m sure you’re still working on your own itinerary. So take this. It’s a free help-wanted magazine. I picked up a copy at the station just now, but there’s a lot of others just like it, so try looking around a bit.”
Suzuno looked blankly at Emi, then at the cutesy pig logo on the corner of the magazine’s cover.
“You’ll want to read that if you plan on staying here a while. Learn a bit about what people do to earn a living in this world. Your speech and your clothing are just too much of a mismatch, you know? Try researching fashion a little. Watch the people around you. I need to go to work. You can get back home yourself, right?”
Leaving the openmouthed Suzuno behind her, Emi paid the café bill and left the building.
Then she put a hand to her forehead and heaved a heavy sigh.
“I hope that brought the message across.”
She had already survived here in Japan for at least a week. Emi doubted this harsh rejection would be enough to drive her to despair.
Unlike Olba, she had already expressed a desire to bring Emi back home. That was enough to convince Emi she wouldn’t do anything to earn further disapproval.
It had been a packed morning. Emi wondered if her spirit could hold out for the entire shift. Perhaps an energy drink was in order. Not 5-Holy Energy ?. A real one.
“Oh! Hey, Emi!”
Emi turned toward the voice.
“…Oh. Morning, Rika.”
Rika Suzuki, her coworker, had just reported in for work. For now, she was the one person in Japan Emi had the frankest relationship with.
“A little morning coffee? That’s a rarity.”
“Yeah, pretty much. I had to meet up with someone I know.”
“Ooh! A man, maybe? You pretty much never talk about your personal life, so…”
“Oh, come on. It was just a girl.”
The two friends walked off toward work, exchanging another weekday’s worth of idle conversation.
“I…I’m really sorry about this!”
Upon reporting to work, Maou was greeted with Dullahan, safe and sound, and Chiho bowing her head down to him like a praying mantis.
Maou laughed it off, but even now she was red in the face, hesitating to lock eyes with him.
Parking Dullahan out back, he joined Chiho inside, searching for a way to soothe her bruised ego.
“…Huh?”
He scowled as he looked around the dining area. Even Chiho, still blazing with crimson shame and embarrassment, noticed something was wrong.
Maou generally reported to work at noon sharp. Thanks to this Mag location—just off Hatagaya station, sandwiched between a residential area and an office-lined street—the lunch rush should already have been under way. Today, though, there wasn’t even the hint of a rush.
Kisaki stood behind a register, beaming. Behind her, one of the college students handling the morning shift kept a respectable distance, his face white as a ghost. That was enough to tell Maou the whole story.
His manager always saved that plastered-on smile for days when sales were down.
“Um, good—”
“It’s been dead.”
“—morning… Pardon?”
If Maou was hesitant to speak up, he was even less ready to continue after hearing Kisaki’s hardened voice.
“Six hours since we opened, and we’re eating Sentucky’s traffic dust.”
“Huh?”
“Our customer numbers are down eighty percent from yesterday. I’m starting to think those bastards at SFC are conspiring against us.”
Even considering the circumstances, a rival franchise opening up right nearby, this was a pretty wild accusation. That 80-percent drop wasn’t unheard of—an “off” day or the wrong weather outside could make all the difference—but Kisaki was absolutely convinced Sentucky was behind it.
“Why…? Why do I have to go back to the office for training starting today?!”
Kisaki bellowed at the empty dining space in front of her, her smile unflagging. The morning part-timers shook in fear.
“It gives me nightmares to even imagine it, but if our customer stats keep up this pace the entire day…”
Kisaki’s death stare swept its way across Maou, Chiho, and then the rest of the crew. Never before had a beautiful woman’s smile sent such frigid waves of fear down their spines.
“You want to be sent to Greenland? Hmm? Are you listening, Shift Supervisor Sadao Maou?”
“No, ma’am.”
The Devil King never imagined what a frog felt like while being eyed by a pit viper. Now he did.
Grabbing Maou’s shoulders from across the counter, Kisaki’s eyes glinted like a predator out for blood.
“Then you have my full permission to do whatever it takes. Destroy SFC.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Chiho and the rest of the crew joined Maou in a stiff military salute.
“Whatever it takes,” of course, meant whatever common sense allowed in terms of ways to improve MgRonald sales, not to physically wipe SFC off the map.
Even at the peak of lunch, traffic still failed to reach what anyone could truthfully call a “rush.” The new Sentucky Fried Chicken, meanwhile, was running a roaring business. Even from the opposite end of the street, that much was obvious.
Even the cheerful smile emanating from the statue of Major Fyres, the friendly old man that decorated the doorstep of every Sentucky franchise in statue form, seemed like a gnarled, ghastly sneer to him.
Once Kisaki left the building, the enraged look in her eyes living up to her unofficial nickname, “The Sales Demon,” Maou tried to fight back with whatever means he had at hand.
More intimate service, without getting too pushy with customers. A shake booth outside, powered by an external cooler. Finally, an employee out front talking up the current free-refill offer on MgRonald coffee. Maou ordered all that and more on Chiho and the rest of the crew. He even ventured out the door himself at times, shouting himself hoarse as he tried to coax customers inside.
But the effort was all for naught. The two PM register check revealed customer numbers down about 70 percent from the day before.
“Well, great. If this is what we get on day one…”
Maou stated out loud what Chiho and the staff were already thinking.
The dining space wasn’t completely devoid of customers, but there was no way these numbers would appease Kisaki’s passionate grudge against Sentucky Fried Chicken.
The chill provided by the slightly overactive AC was enough to remind the entire staff of Greenland once again. It didn’t help warm their hearts.
“Welcome!!”
Maou was the first to speak as the automatic door shuffled open, revealing a new customer. He made a beeline for the counter.
“Hello. I apologize for interrupting you, but could I speak to the manager?”
It was a small, thin man in slightly oversized sunglasses, well-defined lines framing his face. The suitcase in his hand indicated he was a businessman, but between his compact stature and the comparatively novelty-sized glasses, he looked more like a child dressed up as a mob boss from a ’70s yakuza movie.
Maou had already memorized the names and faces of all the top management that dealt with the Hatagaya location. This must be some kind of external business.
With the manager away, it was up to assistant manager and shift supervisor Maou to handle this. He walked up to the man in front of the counter, the crewman next to him stealing furtive stares at this unexpected customer and his request.
“I apologize, sir, but our manager isn’t here today. My name is Maou, and I’m the current shift supervisor. If I’m able to, I’d be happy to handle any questions you may have.”
The man lifted his eyebrows up high.
“Ah, Sadao Maou? Superb. I’ve heard the rumors about you.”
He may have been below Maou’s line of sight physically, but there was something about the man’s demeanor that made Maou feel like he was suddenly below even that.
“Despite the name, they say you are a diligent worker, a superior talent, a thoughtful leader, and above all, a font of human kindness.”
“Er, yes… I appreciate that, sir.”
What did he mean by “despite the name”? People occasionally told Maou that his name seemed a tad old-fashioned for a young man in the twenty-first century, but having this man he’d never met before make such a frank observation rattled Maou a bit.
What also rattled him was the oddly strong scent of mint he noticed surrounding the man as he stood there. It must have been some kind of deodorant or cologne, but such an intense man-made scent was enough to seriously impede kitchen work around here.
“I apologize, but have we met somewhere before?”
And before that, where would he have even heard about Maou, just another fast-food part-timer?
“No, we haven’t.”
The small man cracked a broad smile.
“However, I have been aware of you for a very long time before now.”
This is one of those customers, isn’t it? Maou had trouble shooing the impolite thought from his mind.
Then the man brightened up, suddenly remembering something.
“Ah, but look at me. Here, allow me to introduce myself.”
He took out a small metal holder from an inside pocket, removed a business card, and presented it. Maou nodded to him, accepted it with both hands, and then froze once he saw the position printed on it.
“The…manager of Sentucky Fried Chicken?”
A wave of nervous murmuring erupted across the MgRonald crew members.
“My name is Mitsuki Sarue. I thought I would introduce myself to our new neighbors.”
The man who called himself Sarue smiled lightly as he scratched his head.
“I apologize that I failed to pay a visit earlier. We’ve just been so busy with everything, you know.”
Maou could feel a spark fly from his mind’s tangled wiring.
“Hatagaya is such a wonderful neighborhood, isn’t it? Nestled right between a business and residential zone. Great crowds of potential customers. Lovely women everywhere. I must praise MgRonald’s great foresight in establishing a foothold here first!”
“…Huh?”
Chiho, standing behind Maou, had trouble believing this sight.
“But regardless, I finally found a spare moment just now during our thriving opening-day business to pay a visit. And a good thing, too, since it seems I am not intruding at all at the moment!”
“Yes…in the right environment…”
To Ashiya, Japan was the wrong environment from the very start for their brimstone-scarred activities.
“Maybe I better get in on the ground floor with him, huh?”
“Whoa! Rika?!”
Emi could no longer remain silent. Rika stopped her.
“I don’t mean in a weird way. I just mean, this is a guy who’s definitely gonna be going places in business. I am the daughter of a company president, after all, so I’ve got a sharp eye out for this stuff.”
“What do you mean…? I don’t quite…”
“When you’re running a small workshop, the connections you establish on the front lines become really important. If Maou does another start-up and hits it big, having that connection in place now instead of later definitely wouldn’t hurt. ’Cause you’d be surprised, all the links these little companies share with one another across Japan. I don’t know if Maou’s line of business matches with ours at all, but if it does, I certainly want to know.”
“You know, I never asked, Rika, but what does your family make?”
“We make footwear accessories. Mostly shoe soles and stuff.”
That was never going to be a match for Maou’s despotic aspirations, no matter which world he wound up on, but there was no point popping her balloon now.
“…Well, I will say that Maou certainly does have his sights on upward mobility within the MgRonald empire. And who knows? He might place a shoe order with your family one day, Ms. Suzuki.”
And Ashiya was all too ready to keep that balloon inflated.
“Ooh! If he gets involved with staffing, we’d be happy to provide cheap, long-lasting shoes for his company’s uniforms. No order too small!”
The balloon now occupied the entire dining area, almost smothering Emi.
“You know, I’m sorry to keep ordering people around, but do you think I could go see him? I know you have to report back to him, Ashiya. Plus, I could help him with his sales a little, too!”
“That was exactly what I was hoping. In that case…”
Ashiya flashed an evil grin, a devilish one dripping with intent, at Emi.
“You’ll be joining us, right? I’ll expect that you will. I think I’d like to get some cookies and a thousand-island salad to go, if you don’t mind. We can head to MgRonald after that.”
“You greedy little…” Emi bitterly snapped back at him. But if she didn’t follow his orders, there was no telling how this story would unfold.
“I need to repay Ms. Kamazuki for all the favors she’s provided for us lately, too. I would be glad to cover for it, so please let me know if you’d like anything.”
“Oh, no, I…I plan to make dinner at home, so…”
Ashiya’s attitude toward Suzuno was markedly different from how he acted around Emi.
Emi, noticing Rika ever-so-slightly pouting behind Ashiya’s back, felt her headache grow ever more painful.
The group headed downstairs, finding the place just as busy as before. A fairly long line snaked out from the cash registers.
“…You three wait outside, okay? I’ll be right out once I buy that stuff.”
Emi saw them off, then dejectedly joined the line.
The misunderstanding with Rika was solved, but now she had a wholly different type of problem to tackle.
With an adversary as calculating as Ashiya, failing to repay a favor would no doubt lead to endless bickering afterward…not to mention some form of payback.
Unsure how to offer repayment that would fully satisfy Ashiya, Emi ultimately decided that the only thing to do for it would be violently dismembering him in combat. As she settled on this conclusion, she realized she was next in line to order. She scanned the menu, searching for Ashiya’s requests.
“Well, hello there, my lady. Making a face like that would spoil anyone’s dinner, you know.”
Emi looked up, only to find the undersized employee that took Rika’s order earlier.
His face was compact and thin, and he was clad in a T-shirt and black apron, setting him apart from the rest of the staff.
Judging by the name SARUE written in Chinese characters on his name tag, he must have been the manager or something. He had a pair of sunglasses on, a rarity in face-to-face retail operations like this one, and they couldn’t have befitted him less.
“Yeah, sorry about that. One Gourmet Cookie order and one salad with thousand-island dressing to go.” Emi didn’t appreciate the comment much, but paid it little further mind as she tossed a thousand-yen note on the tray in front of her.
“Absolutely. Ah, there is something distinctively attractive about a young, beautiful woman looking tormented over something…”
Emi flashed the employee a highly dubious look. The complaints were liable to roll in soon if this was his take on customer service.
“But, no matter what it is that concerns you, time has a way of changing everything, whether one wants it to or not. If you find yourself no longer able to change events by your own free will, you may live to regret it.”
“…I’ve never had an SFC employee meddle in my personal life that much before.”
Emi bunched her eyebrows together. It didn’t seem to faze the employee, who nimbly placed her order in a paper bag.
“Indeed. I apologize for my intrusiveness. But allow me to say just one thing.”
He likely just wanted to hand Emi her order, but the man with the SARUE name tag seemed to stretch his body halfway across the counter as he presented the bag.
“Men tend to seize upon women when they are at their weakest. I would advise watching your step carefully.”
“…What’s that mean?”
“Oh, nothing profound, certainly. Thank you very much. I hope you’ll come back again soon. I’m ready to take the next customer here, please!”
The suspicions raised in Emi’s mind at the obviously meaningful advice the employee had for her were blocked by the family waiting behind her.
“Oops!”
A small boy from the group ran forward excitedly, bumping into Emi as he did.
“S-sorry about that! …You know you shouldn’t run off like that! Are you all right?”
The mother, holding a baby in one hand, used the other to grab the child’s presumed brother as she bowed her head at Emi.
“Oh, no, I’m fine…”
There was no way she could press the employee any further. Not with all these people in line, and not with Rika and the rest waiting outside. Emi went away from the register.
“…is allergic to…like shrimp, and crab, and certain types of fruit…”
“Give me one moment to check on that, madam.”
Emi overhead the fading conversation as she thought to herself.
“More trouble’s the last thing I need…” she whispered softly to herself as she left.
She didn’t turn around, too weirded out and not wanting to get further involved, but something about Sarue’s eyes made it seem like she was still being pursued.
“So they’ve got a grand-opening sale running and they’re giving out coupons. Is that it? Anything else?”
Ashiya was in the midst of giving Maou his reconnaissance report inside MgRonald.
“As far as I could observe, even considering that SFC offers a different main menu from MgRonald, it was hard to tell why there should be such an extreme difference in the crowds. The customer service was perfectly normal as well.”
Ashiya went over a piece of paper he had used to jot down his thoughts as he spoke.
“One thing I did notice was that the fried chicken they’re famous for certainly does live up to expectations. It depends on the type of piece, of course, but it tasted wonderful, right down to the bone. Quite a surprise!”
“To the bone? Eesh…”
Maou glared accusingly at Ashiya for a moment. Ashiya shook his head in response.
“According to what I had Urushihara dredge up for me, Sentucky uses some kind of unique trick when cooking their fried chicken. Much like the meat we enjoyed at that yakiniku restaurant, the flame reaches right into the core of the chicken’s cartilage and so forth. The fact that there isn’t much residue left on your plate after you’re done eating seems like a small detail, but I think that tells the entire story.”
Maou crossed his arms and nodded at Ashiya’s very homemaker-like opinions.
“Huh. Not exactly the best way to maintain a turnover ratio, but if you’re willing to sit and linger for a while, it feels a lot nicer having a clean tray in front of you. If someone took the tray away, it’d feel like they were kicking you out, besides.”
“Also, if the signs are to be believed, they grind their coffee fresh for every cup. The beans are supposedly organic, too.”
“Organic? What, they make it out of organs?”
Ashiya corrected the very demonlike mistake on Maou’s part.
“No. Organic means they use beans grown naturally, without any artificial fertilizers and such.”
“Right, but if you grind up organs, wouldn’t that give you this red gunk? Why do they call it ‘Blue Mountain,’ then?”
It was hard for Ashiya to tell how serious Maou was being. He decided to brush it off.
“Well, regardless, it certainly does its job from an advertising perspective. Strictly speaking in terms of taste, I imagine it is refreshing enough for coffee at that price range.”
“Hmm. Now isn’t exactly hot-coffee season, but that could be a problem in a few months.”
Maou placed a finger on his forehead, a perplexed look on his face, before motioning at Ashiya to take a look around the dining area.
“But…yeah, you’re right. There isn’t any real decisive advantage they have over us, I don’t think.”
With sales targets placed high for Saturday traffic, observers from the home office had been phoning in on an hourly basis to report Sentucky’s visitor numbers. Between their numbers and the estimated amount of purchases they made, SFC was ahead of MgRonald by nearly fifty customers and almost thirty thousand yen for the day.
Even worse, MgRonald’s numbers had been steadily dwindling ever since morning. Apart from Ashiya, only a single new party had paid a visit during the dinner period.
“You are correct, my liege. But, after having sat inside for two hours or so, there really is little more I can offer. Beyond that, all I can guess is that passersby are having their attention diverted by the novelty.”
“Yeah. There’s a chance of that…but then, there’s a chance of everything.”
Maou shrugged.
“Well, we’re not just gonna sit here and watch. I’ll see what kind of measures we can take to hit back at ’em. Thanks again.”
The simple verbal reward for his two hours of sentry work made it difficult for Ashiya to keep from turning around and leaving.
“Not at all. I am happy to be of service to you. Now, if I could be of service to your sales figures, I’d like to order two Big Tuna Burger combos, please. Large fries and drinks on both. I have no doubt Urushihara will whine about it, but that should suffice for dinner tonight.”
“If that dead weight in my Devil’s Castle whines about the food he’s freeloading off us, go ahead and punch him out for me. You’ve got my permission.”
“Yes, my liege.”
It was an oddly homespun exchange between the two arch-demons.
“Also…”
Ashiya turned around a nearby table, flashing an ironic smile.
“I do hope you’ll treat the ladies well.”
“Huh? Uh, yeah. Whatever.”
Maou gave a vague nod.
“Once I return home, I intend to take a different approach. I will try to have Urushihara explore more of the company’s underside. Perhaps there is some hidden trick to their business that is not so obvious from the outside.”
“If there is, I doubt he’s gonna find it on the Net. We’re kind of in different categories anyway, so it’s not like knowing their suppliers or cooking methods is gonna help much. Don’t try to overdo it, okay? You’re still recovering and stuff.”
“Oh, there is no need to worry about me, Your Demonic Highness.”
As the two demons muttered to each other in low voices, Chiho briskly assembled the required items together, completed the value meals in a mere minute or so, and handed them to Ashiya.
“Thanks for waiting, Ashiya. And good luck to both of you guys in this fight, okay?”
“Certainly. Thank you very much. I will do my best.”
Chiho returned the thanks with a smile.
As Ashiya lugged the heavy bag out of the dining area, Chiho watched him leave before her eyes turned toward the other group in the dining area.
“Wow, they sure are connected to each other, huh? In business, and in private, too, I guess. Always thinking about how to improve their business… Real pros, huh? You sure know a lot of people with talent, Emi. Oh, uh, counting me, too, I hope!”
“Yeah. Sure. You’re in.”
“These seats are harder than Sentucky’s…”
The trio of women were free-flowing with their opinions, despite not having ordered anything. Turning toward them, Maou flashed a taut, uncomfortable smile.
“Um…if…I…may…ladies?”
“…What?”
One of the women grumpily acknowledged Maou’s presence.
“Would you mind placing an order before sitting down, if you could?”
“Oh? Huh. Small iced coffee. Bring it over for me.”
It was the cheapest possible order on the entire MgRonald menu. Emi, free of Ashiya’s prying eyes, was no longer interested in currying favor with demons. Maou’s temple throbbed.
“We work on a self-service ordering system over there at the counter…ma’am!”
“Okay, will you be nice enough to bring it over if I add an apple pie?”
Emi steadfastly refused to stand up. Barely capable of maintaining his customer-service smile, Maou turned toward Rika instead, sitting across from Emi.
“Ma’am, would…”
“Wow, so you’re Maou, huh? Y’know, considering how loyal Ashiya is to you, I can’t say you’re exactly brimming with charisma. The shift you’re supervising looks pretty darn dead to me, too.”
“…Would you tell me who the hell you freaks think you are?”
The punishing evaluation of his looks and work ethic, coming from someone he’d never exchanged words with in his life, finally pushed Maou over the cliff.
“Ooh, you better watch your words, huh? The headquarters wouldn’t want to get letters about this, would they?”
Rika grinned from ear to ear as she deliberately watched Maou, utterly unfazed.
“Shut up. Even customers have rules they have to follow in here. Who are you, anyway?”
One of Emi’s friends, no doubt. Which meant this girl was Maou’s mortal enemy.
“I’m Rika Suzuki. Emi’s coworker. You’re Sadao Maou, right? Emi and Suzuno and Ashiya told me about you.”
“…I don’t know what Ashiya and Suzuno said, but she couldn’t have said anything good about me.”
“Well, Ashiya and Emi had a kinda one-sided view of you, so I thought I’d go and check you out for myself.”
“Huh. Great. You must love butting in on people’s lives, don’t you?”
Maou glared at Emi, who was lazily resting her head on a propped elbow.
“Ugh… I’m getting no customers. I got Emi in here… I’m gonna be flat broke by the end of the night.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t say things like that, Maou…”
Chiho chose that moment to arrive, tray in hand. “My! You certainly seem full of vigor, Chiho.”
Suzuno was first to greet her.
“Thanks, Suzuno. Busy day?”
Giving Suzuno a smile, Chiho sidled next to Maou, looking a little peeved.
“Yusa is a valuable customer of ours, you know. What did you say to me earlier? ‘As long as they’re paying us, a customer’s a customer’?”
With that, Chiho placed the tray on the table.
“One iced coffee, and one piping-hot apple pie!”
“Oh! Chiho!”
She must have eavesdropped on Emi’s order. Hurriedly, Emi stood up to grab her wallet.
“I’m sorry! You know how I get with Maou, so…”
“Oh, that’s all right. I understand. I’m really not allowed to prepare orders until we put it through the register, but we aren’t going to be crowded for a little while yet. That’ll be three hundred yen.”
Sheepishly, Emi handed the coins to Chiho.
“Pah. So that’s how you treat Chi, huh?”
“Of course that’s how I treat her. You think I put you and her on the same level? That’s being really rude to Chiho.”
“Ooh, zing.”
Rika giggled at the exchange.
“So is this your friend, Yusa?”
“Sure am! Rika Suzuki. I work with Emi all day.”
“My name is Chiho Sasaki. Yusa’s been a big help to me in a lot of ways!”
Chiho bowed politely. Rika studied her face, pondering over something, then beckoned her over with a finger.
“Yes?”
“Chiho, right?”
“Yes… Ahh!”
Without warning, Rika grabbed Chiho, hugging her tightly.
“You’re so cuuuuuute! Isn’t she? She is just the cutest! I mean, this must be some kind of modern Japanese miracle!”
“Agh, agh, agh!”
Chiho waggled her arms around in a futile effort to escape the sudden attention.
“I can’t believe all these amazing people you hang out with, Emi! She’s so polite, she has this superserious work ethic, and she’s cute, too! It’s gotta be against the law to be this cute! She’s a national treasure! They should make her a World Heritage Site!”
“S-Suzuki?!”
“Hey, Rika, you’re scaring Chiho…”
“Yeah, and it’s so cuuute!”
“Come on, Rika, you’re acting like some drunk at two AM!”
“Ohhh, all riiiiight. Sorry I got so excited, Chiho.”
“Gah… It, it’s okay…I think…”
Released from her grasp, Chiho panted for air as she tried to gain a bead on her surroundings.
“So, did you find any good work leads?”
Watching Chiho squirm in Rika’s presence to the side, Maou turned the topic toward the silent Suzuno. She hesitated for a moment, surprised at being spoken to.
“Not yet, no…”
“Oh? Well, looks like you enjoyed the trip around town, at least. That’s good.”
Between the kimono and the balloon still floating above her bag, she looked like someone out on vacation.
“It, it was a social-study excursion!”
Suzuno pleaded her case helplessly, her cheeks turning a tinge pink.
“Social study? Yeah, great, great. Just make sure you keep your purse strings tight, okay? I know it’s easy to get excited out there, but you’re gonna go belly-up if you keep spending money like that.”
Maou turned his attention to Emi next.
“And since she hasn’t found any work yet, try not to turn her into some shopaholic secretary, all right?”
He tried to act as jaded as possible as he spoke.
This struck Emi as an incredibly unfair accusation out of the blue, but she was in no position to reveal Suzuno’s true identity to Maou and his cohorts. Why, she whined to herself, am I the only one forced to keep any secrets here while everyone else is running roughshod over me?
“The way Ashiya put it, it sounds like you had some kind of trouble?”
“Like you need to know. There’s no trouble at all, as long as you don’t do anything to mess up her tranquil, private life.”
Emi attempted to spike the point home upon Maou and Suzuno simultaneously, albeit in two different ways. Maou shrugged and laughed.
“See? I told you. Don’t blame me if you wind up paying for it later.”
The portent behind the simple observation struck a chord.
“Wait, what are you…?”
Emi felt a strange sense of disquiet at the advice. Rika cut her off before she could question him further.
“Hey, by the way, what are you gonna do about all this? Sure doesn’t look like business is booming in here. Emi’s surrounded by all these talented people, so I’m sure you aren’t the lunkhead you’re starting to look like.”
“Oh, so now you’re saying I look like a lunkhead? I don’t really appreciate that kind of feedback from customers, thanks. Bring it up with the regional manager if you care that much.”
“Hey, just think of it as some friendly sales advice.”
There was no stopping Rika now.
“But, here, lemme just come out with it—I’m here because I want to see how you work.”
“Whadaya mean, how I work? Who are you, anyway?”
“Oh, Emi’s friend, Suzuno’s friend, and the daughter of a company president.”
“That doesn’t exactly help me, miss! If you aren’t here to eat something, then get out of here, okay? I may not look like it, but I’m pretty busy right now.”
“You talked about ‘hitting back at them’ just a second ago. What’re you gonna do, huh?”
“You aren’t too gifted at listening to people, are you, lady?” Maou sighed sullenly.
Suddenly, another voice rang out from the entrance.
“You there, Maou?”
An elderly customer entered, carrying something large and green with him. Rika, Suzuno, and the exhausted Emi turned their eyes toward him.
Once he recognized the man, Maou left Emi’s table behind and hurriedly walked over.
“Nabe! You didn’t have to run all the way over here!”
“Didn’t want to let you down, Maou! I figured the quicker, the better anyway.”
The man called Nabe laughed a hearty laugh.
“Well, thanks, though. You know I could’ve picked it up. Would you mind propping that up against the wall over there?”
“Ooh, right. Shouldn’t have brought this huge tree into the dining area, huh?”
“Nabe” slapped himself on the forehead before placing the green mass outside by the door.
“I spent the day clearing off all the small bits and the branches low enough to poke kids’ eyes out. It’s all ready to go! I got you the best one I could find, so have fun decorating it! And now that that’s done, I better get going.”
“What, already? You want anything to eat first? My treat.”
Nabe shook his head in response.
“Thanks for the thought, but I got my wife cooking dinner tonight. Next cleaning run, maybe, eh? Say yello to Ms. Kisaki for me.”
With a quick wave, Nabe turned around and strode confidently out the door.
As if on cue, the free staff on the MgRonald crew began to stream out the back, rolls of colored paper in their hands.
“Wow, look at the size of that thing!”
“We better get this all decorated before we hit rush hour!”
“Hey, I think we still have some of those tiny plastic cones with the tops missing back in the storehouse. You think we could tape ’em on the branches?”
They gathered in the dining area, excitedly talking among themselves.
“So…what’s that big thing out there?”
Noticing Rika’s voice, Maou let the crew do their work on the tree as he returned to Emi’s table.
“What do you think it is? It’s a sasa bamboo plant.”
“Sasa?”
“It’s almost time for the Sasahata Star Festival.”
As she said this, Chiho took out several sheets of colored paper cut into thin strips, along with a black marker.
“Sasahata…Star Festival?”
Chiho continued as Emi tilted her head in curiosity. “Well, every year, the Sasazuka and Hatagaya neighborhoods work together to hold a summer festival. That’s where Sasahata comes from—it’s just the two names put together. We’re actually a little late on decorating, but what goes better with a Sasahata festival than a real sasa plant?”
“I asked the store manager to put in a request with the regional office as a special favor. Kids aged twelve or younger can write their wishes on these colored strips of paper and tie them to the tree to decorate it, and we’ll give them a free small drink in exchange.”
“The Star Festival gets into gear at the end of next week and we’ll have a ton of customers that weekend, so Maou thought this would be a good way to get a leg up on Sentucky Fried Chicken.”
Chiho held her chest out high, justifiably proud.
“Huh. You did that?”
Rika sounded impressed.
“We usually have a plastic bamboo plant we bring out each year, but I figured that doesn’t have the kind of natural attraction to people that something like a Christmas tree does.”
“Maou gave us all these ideas for decorations to make, too!”
The strips of paper had been made into all sorts of decorations, from streamers and origami cranes to little pouches and nets. Considering they were all handmade, the staff had done a remarkably thorough job. Rika carefully scrutinized the example Chiho gave her.
“Wow, this is pretty. But wouldn’t a real-life sasa bamboo plant be expensive? No way they’d spend that much on a part-timer’s request. Or is that your own?”
Now it was Maou’s turn to puff his chest up.
“Heh-heh! You’d think so, right? But these are the kinda things an assistant manager has to charm his way through, you know? That guy earlier… Mr. Watanabe’s his full name… He’s a guy I came to know while I was volunteering with the city’s urban cleanup campaign, and he’s got a ton of those in his garden.”
“You…volunteer with the antilitter guys?”
“Heavens! Donating one’s time for the sake of the community? Sadao, you actually perform such deeds?”
“Huh. So you actually care about the neighborhood you live in.”
The surprise exhibited by Emi and Suzuno was quite a different beast from what Rika exhibited.
“Yeah. Our last cleanup day was yesterday morning, actually. He said yes immediately when I asked, and I was supposed to come over to pick it up, too… I feel kinda bad about making him come here instead, though. He stops by sometimes for a bite with his grandson.”
Now Emi understood why Maou was up so early and out the door yesterday morning. It saved her from a trip to the hospital, that was true, but the idea of the Devil King becoming a model citizen around the neighborhood was not something she found particularly pleasing, especially when faced with this reality in public with all her acquaintances watching.
“So anyway, we can’t keep this tree around until next year, of course, so on the day of the Star Festival itself, I figured we could cut it up into little saplings and give them out to kids. Kind of a mini festival tree, you know?”
“Hmm! You think that’ll pay off, though? I dunno if kids these days would care about something like that.”
Maou waved his finger at Rika’s criticism.
“Well, the sort of kids who’d write their wishes and tie them on the tree would dig it, wouldn’t they? Adults like us, we tend to buy into this idea that all kids care about these days are video games. But, you know, every one of those Star Festival wishes has meaning to it, just like every ornament on a Christmas tree. And it’s having all of that together in one common place that makes it so pretty. It’s a living bamboo plant, so they can decorate their rooms with it and stuff, and if they get sick of it or it dies, the tree and the paper decorations are all burnable, so they can just toss it in the recycle bin.”
In the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, you were allowed to put out small amounts of yard waste with the trash as long as you cut the branches into thirty-centimeter segments first.
“There’s no guarantee this’ll attract customers, of course, but I figured that, instead of the same old generic decorations whenever the season came around, it’d be better to have something that helped connect us to our customers and the area around us.”
“Wow, you’ve really thought this through.”
Listening to the explanation, Rika’s eyes darted excitedly between Maou and the sasa tree. Finally, she turned straight toward Emi.
“He’s good.”
It was pure, unadulterated praise.
“Ooh, did you hear that, Emi? Your friend just said the assistant manager’s good!”
Maou readily took the compliment, standing defiantly over Emi.
“Hee-hee! Don’t make her take that back, Maou!” Chiho tittered at Maou’s all-too-predictable response.
Emi, watching Maou like one watches a toilet flush after emptying one’s stomach into it, scrunched her face tightly.
“…………………………………You apply yourself to your work” was the only thing she finally managed to expel.
It pained Emi deep down to do, or say, anything that might paint Maou in a positive light when the man himself was around. Rika, not quite aware of the extent of this neurosis, gave a satisfied nod.
A crew member ran up to the table, carrying two large plastic objects with both of his arms.
“Maou! I found the broken plastic cones. That, and here are some of the no-parking poles, the kind you fill with water on the bottom to keep them upright. We could probably stick it on these to make it more stable.”
“Ah, perfect! Thanks a lot! Now we just need to decide on a location!”
Picking up the cones and poles, Maou darted outside.
Emi watched him go. Seeing him excitedly direct the crew around as they prepared the Star Festival decorations, fighting tooth and nail to get customers through the door, it seemed utterly impossible for her to see any ulterior motive, any malicious intent to it.
All she could see was an assistant manager who had the trust of his employees supporting him.
“Are you feeling okay, Yusa? You don’t look too good.”
Chiho felt obliged to speak up as Emi wrestled internally over this. Emi smiled, unable to hide the complex feelings welling inside.
“Oh, no, I’m fine. Just thinking about something.”
Her eyes never removed themselves from Maou’s back.
Chiho seemed like she was about to open her mouth again, but another employee chose that moment to call her over to the register.
“Well, if you’re tired, try not to overdo it, okay? I’ll yell at Maou for you after we’re done.”
With that final turn of kindness, Chiho returned to work. Taking her eyes off Maou, Emi watched as the two employees behind the counter performed maintenance work on one machine or another.
The work atmosphere around here, she thought, was something “Ms. Kisaki” must have created. But now Maou, in a position of responsibility, was still perfectly friendly and cheerful, even with customer numbers as far down as they were. It was the truth, one she couldn’t ignore.
All of the crew—not just Chiho, who smiled around Maou for different reasons—were in an equally festive mood as they tackled the project Maou gave them, even though a Star Festival bamboo plant didn’t seem to have much to do with selling hamburgers.
Satan, the Devil King, was a foe that needed to be vanquished. But Emi, watching as Maou tried and failed repeatedly to keep the plant upright next to the door, had other thoughts on her lips.
“But he’s…he’s just not doing anything bad here…”
She didn’t want to admit it. She couldn’t admit it, in her position.
Even if a criminal admits his guilt, serves his time, and becomes a rehabilitated member of society again, that doesn’t make the crimes he committed disappear forever.
She noticed that Suzuno, too, was watching Maou’s back with a puzzled expression on her face.
Even after witnessing the scene for herself, Emi wondered if Suzuno still thought Maou had some kind of master plan for world domination in mind.
Just when he had succeeded in keeping the plant from tipping over at the slightest breeze, Rika noticed something.
“Huh?”
The voice jarred Emi out of her solitary thoughts.
“Rika? What’s up?”
“Well…it’s just they’re kind of getting this huge onrush of customers all of a sudden…”
Rika pointed an unsteady finger out the door. Following it, Emi was shocked. The waves of people flocking toward Sentucky Fried Chicken seemed to magically dissipate. In its place, another wave began to push into MgRonald in droves.
Maou noticed this just when his valiant fight against the sasa plant came to a satisfying close.
“Dude, dude, dude!!”
A surprised smile crossed his face as he half ran back inside.
“They’re here! They’re here! All hands, battle stations! It’s time to rock ’n’ roll!!”
Before Maou had a chance to be clearly heard, the human wave crashed through MgRonald, leaving the automatic door open behind them.
The tables quickly filled up, an air of excitement suddenly filling the dining area.
“Holy… Are you kidding me?! What kinda feng shui did that bamboo give him, anyway?” Rika couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd scene.
“How could this even…?”
Emi found it less than amusing.
“……”
Suzuno focused on the bamboo plant instead of Maou, her face hardened.
“Hello and welcome! Please form a single line in front of the register once you’ve decided on your order!”
Maou’s sharp, ever-present customer service echoed above the din, well across the building.
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