Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 8 - Chapter 3

THE DEVIL IS A LITTLE LATE TO THE PUNCH 
Ashiya was at an impasse. 
The eyes Rika Suzuki used to stare at him, as she knelt politely on her side of the low table, felt sharper than the edge of the Better Half blade. He had never dueled directly with Emi’s sword, but if anything, he would have preferred that sight before him right now. That, at least, could be countered with physical force. 
“Ashiya, why aren’t you saying anything to me?” 
“I…um…” 
He was once called a tactical genius. Now, kneeling at a table, Ashiya was incapable of coherent speech. 
They were alone in Devil’s Castle. The tatami-mat floor was starting to dampen a bit along the edge facing the backyard. Rika was rotating her gaze between the rear window and Ashiya. 
Between them, sitting on the table, were two small, empty bottles. 
“I’m asking you to tell me.” 
“Uhmm, I-I completely understand what you wish to say, but…” 
“Y’know, I always thought there was something a little mysterious about you, but I didn’t think we, we were, um…close enough that I could start to get all nosy and stuff, so…” 
Despite stumbling a bit midway, Rika’s voice remained sharp, probing. 
“When you bought that TV, too, I just figured, like, ‘Ahh, I could ask him some other time,’ but…you know.” 
“Y-yes…” 
The rain outside had lowered the temperature considerably, but he could tell that his back was drenched in sweat. 
“And, if you don’t mind me being honest with you right now, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.” 
“I…I suppose not, no…” 
All Ashiya could do was crack a smile, one even damper and more sorry looking than the half-dry laundry piled on the floor. 
“So I’m gonna ask you one more time.” 
“Y-yes?” 
“Where did Suzuno and Urushihara just run off to?!” 
She was no longer phrasing it as a question. It was an order. 
“And in this rain, too!” 
A finger shot toward the window. 
“They jumped right out of there!” 
“Nnnh…” 
Ashiya was solidly against the ropes. 
Just as Suzuno came back to Devil’s Castle upon closing the windows in her room, she received a phone call. It was from Chiho, and while he would’ve guessed Chiho would seek Maou’s aid first, attempting to complete an Idea Link from Sasazuka all the way to Chofu was probably too long a distance for her to grapple with quite yet. 
But did all of this have to happen right now? At this very moment? With her along for the ride? 
It had been just over a month since Chiho gained her Idea Link skill. She had just used it for the very first time. 
Two weeks on from Emi’s unexplained disappearance, they all knew inside that this was worthy of being termed an emergency. One where every second potentially counted. But why did Suzuno and Urushihara have to act that way? Chugging their energy drinks, tossing them on the Devil’s Castle floor, then: 
“Let’s go. Stay close to me.” 
“Sure thing, dude.” 
They opened the window right before Rika’s eyes. What were they thinking? 
“W-wait, you two! Stay calm for a…” 
“Hey, what’re you guys doing? You’re gonna…?!” 
Ashiya and Rika both tried to stop them, albeit for differing reasons. But as the two of them unhesitantingly opened the window and plunged down into the hurricane-force storm: 
“Huh?” 
They didn’t plunge from the second floor at all. They flew horizontally forward before alighting on the roof of the building across the street. 
“Wha…what?” 
Rika, eyes open wide, couldn’t help but open her mouth. Behind her, Ashiya’s head was deep within his hands. 
They must have flown up there to confirm where the threat came from. Suzuno pointed in a seemingly random direction, and with that, the two of them began bounding from roof to roof, making superhuman leaps into the air as they disappeared into the storm. 
“Ah…?!” 
“Ah…!!” 
The look on Rika’s face when she turned to Ashiya was like nothing of this world. She had been, in her own way, a great help to him, and among human beings, he enjoyed her company nearly as much as he enjoyed Chiho’s. That was what made her face at that moment—eyes filled with shock, suspicion, and a longing for some kind of explanation—such a trauma for him to behold. 
So Ashiya found himself kneeling at the tale, writhing under Rika’s stare from the other side, for approximately fifteen minutes after the other two left. 
“Rrgh…” 
“Hm?!” 
Rika’s eyes dug deeper into him. He would be provided with no attorney, no right to remain silent. He knew Rika wouldn’t be willing to accept any of this without some kind of justification. 

But he wasn’t just giving her the silent treatment. He honestly had no idea how much he needed to explain to her. Rika wasn’t part of the human-being contingent of the Devil’s Castle regulars. She was Emi’s friend, and he could tell from their past interactions that Emi had revealed nothing to her. If Ashiya decided to lay out all of Emi’s secrets now, he couldn’t imagine what kind of drama that would wreak upon her return. At the same time, he didn’t have enough of the demonic power he’d require to erase Rika’s memory later on, nor any way to replenish it—not like Urushihara, who apparently received his demonic (holy?) strength out of a bottle. 
They were supposed to be comparing notes about Emi’s disappearance. Why’d it have to turn into this? In a corner of his mind, he complained to himself about how talentless he was proving to be. 
“Well…it’s like this.” 
“Yes?!” 
“Kamazuki, you see…and Urushihara, as well…” 
“Uh-huh?!” 
“They were doing…focus-group testing, for these energy drinks…” 
“And?!” 
“I suppose…those are the results?” 
“Caffeine doesn’t make you do that!!” 
Rika slammed a fist on the table. The bottles wobbled in the center as Ashiya’s back shot straight into attention. 
“I mean, when Red Buck says it’ll give you wings, they don’t mean it literally!” 
She stood up and stormed toward the window. 
“From here, to the house over there, it’s got to be at least thirty feet! You can’t jump that far without even a running start! If you could, you oughta be competing in the Olympics!” 
“Y-yes, I know…” 
“…Look, Ashiya. I’m not trying to accuse Urushihara and Suzuno of being space aliens or supermutants or anything.” 
Ashiya was sure Rika was picturing something close to that in her mind, but there was no point saying that. 
“But even if this was some kinda Hollywood stunt with wires or whatever, you could still tell a little that it’s fake! But they did that all by themselves! Who are they, anyway?!” 
There, at that very moment, Ashiya discovered a glimmer of hope. Rika was preoccupied solely with Suzuno’s and Urushihara’s apparent superhuman skills. It would do little more than buy him some more time, but maybe he could put the blame on their shoulders and play dumb about the whole thing! Would that work? It wasn’t much to cling to, but it gave Ashiya a little hope. 
“And you saw them go off without acting one single bit surprised! You were just trying to stop them or whatever! That can’t be the first time you’ve seen something like that from them!” 
Curse the women of Japan! So sharp-eyed and observant! Even in his current pit of despair, Ashiya felt deeply astonished. Astonished, and back at an impasse again. 
“…If I could be honest, Ms. Suzuki, I have my doubts whether you would believe me or not…” 
Ashiya sighed and resigned himself to his fate. He had never formulated some grandiose scheme to actively hide his true identity, and besides, it was Suzuno who caused all this anyway. Who could admonish Ashiya for being forced to reveal everything in circumstances like these? They all would once they found out, yes, but… 
“…I’m not a stupid enough woman that I wouldn’t believe what I saw with my own eyes, Ashiya.” 
Perhaps recognizing his imminent defeat, Rika sheathed her verbal sword and sat back at the table. 
“And I think I’m…kinda prepared for the worst, y’know?” 
“The worst?” 
“Yeah. What you told me before, about how you ran a company with Maou… That wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t really true either, was it?” 
“…What makes you think that?” Ashiya asked, eyes squinted nearly shut. 
Rika shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. I just kinda thought it. Like, when you were picking a phone after you bought that TV. You said normally, you and Suzuno shouldn’t be getting along at all, right?” 
“Yes, I…think I might have said something of the sort, perhaps…” 
“But when you were talking about Suzuno upstairs at Sentucky Fried Chicken that first time, it sounded like you actually really cared about her, right? Maybe you never got along with Emi, but at least with Suzuno, you treated her like an actual neighbor and stuff. But you didn’t know her at all before she moved next to you, right?” 
“Um…” 
“’Cause if not, why did you say you shouldn’t be getting along? Two neighbors who hated each other’s guts wouldn’t go on shopping trips together, and it’s like… I dunno. Like, maybe you didn’t realize it, but you actually knew each other a long time ago, or maybe you just knew about each other before now. And I’m guessing that’s how it is with her and Emi, too.” 
“Ms. Yusa?” 
“Yeah. ’Cause, like, nowadays, Emi treats Suzuno totally different from when I saw her at the office for the first time. At first, she was so cautious around her that I thought maybe she had worked for Maou or something in the past. Nowadays, though… They get along so well, I’m a little jealous, even.” 
Now, alongside his continued astonishment, Ashiya was cursing himself for all the little mistakes and giveaways they had made. 
He didn’t know when Emi had discovered Suzuno’s true colors, but at the time of their little Sentucky outing, Suzuno was nothing more to him than a girl living next door who had just given them an enormous box of udon noodles. Any care he had betrayed for her at the time wasn’t an act, really, but once he learned the truth, he inadvertently went off script. He knew he should’ve kept up the façade of neighborliness around Rika, but he hadn’t. And Rika wasn’t a dull enough woman that she let that inconsistency escape her. 
“And even before then, I thought you guys kinda had a lot of stuff between yourselves that I didn’t have a window into, but it wasn’t until that shopping trip when I started thinking there was something y’all were keeping from the world. Like, between Suzuno, and Emi, and… Well, I know we only just met, but considering that circus act just now, probably Urushihara too, huh? So what was that, anyway?” 
“…” Ashiya steeled himself. He had mentally prepared for this eventuality long ago. If it meant Rika would be too terrorized to come near them any longer, that was simply destiny playing its hand. Part of him figured that she wouldn’t try selling the story to the media. They had not known each other that long, but on that score, at least, he was confident. 
“Ms. Suzuki.” 
“…!” 
“So. All of us…are—” 
“Eep?!” 
“?” 
All that resolve, all that resignation that drove Ashiya to expose himself, was extinguished by Rika’s short scream. She was pointing a shaky finger at the window Urushihara and Suzuno had flown out of. He turned around, following it… 
“Agh!!” 
…and let out a yelp of his own. He couldn’t help it, considering what was there. 
“Ashiyaaa…open uhhppp…open da window…” 
It was a sopping-wet, semiconscious Maou tapping at the window. 
“H’loooo… Ashiyaaaa…” 
He was the very definition of the word pitiful as he tapped away, plastered against the wall like a drowned rat instead of being out in Fuchu passing his road test. 
Overcoming the first wave of surprise, Ashiya hurriedly rushed to the window and flung it open. It was definitely Maou on the other side—but what flew inside along with the wind and rain was something else entirely. 
“M-my liege?! What are you doing out there?! And who are these people?!” 
“Nnhh… I’m freezing… Uhh, I’ll explain later. Lemme get this guy down. Ngh…” 
Instead of entering the room, he kicked a large, just-as-soaked middle-aged man inside. He lifted his head up from the tatami-mat floor. 
“…Who’s this?” 
“I-indeed…” 
Neither Rika nor Ashiya had ever seen him before. 
“Oh… Rika Suzuki? You’re here? Well, umm… I’m kind of in a hurry, so let’s talk later… Ashiya, can you get this guy in a new set of clothes for me? He says he’s got battle experience, but right now, we can’t afford to let him go free.” 
“My, my liege, what is the meaning of—” 
“L-later, all right? Sorry. Suzuno’s gonna freak if we’re delayed any more. I guess Chiho’s in trouble…eh-choo!” 
“Ah! Huh? It’s only been fifteen or so minutes since Ms. Sasaki contacted us…” 
Maou couldn’t have predicted all of this in advance, Ashiya thought, and there was no way he could’ve covered the distance from Fuchu in such a short time. 
“May I, too, come out, Maou?” 
“Sure, go ahead. Oooh, it’s cold…” 
They turned toward the unfamiliar voice, only to find an unknown woman who was quite literally and unabashedly floating in the air. Ashiya turned to Rika, only to find her eyes darting rapidly between him, Maou, the woman, and the middle-aged man. 
“Your Demonic Highness! This girl…!” 
“Oh, once I’m at my destination, I’ll make her come back here, too—” 
“Okay, here we go!” 
“I’ll explain laterrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…” 
Before he could finish, the two of them left the waterlogged man behind and flew off the way Suzuno and Urushihara had. It took a few moments for Maou’s shouting to fade into the distance. 
Ashiya and Rika watched them go, completely forgetting to close the window behind them for a moment. 
“……” 
“……” 
“……” 
“Well…um. Do you have, ah, the clothing?” 
“Who in the blazes are you, sir?!” 
“Did she just flyyyyyy?!” 
It would be a while before order reigned once more. 
 
Just a bit before Maou received Suzuno’s Idea Link call: 
When she saw him, walking carefree across the school courtyard in the pouring rain, Chiho almost fainted on the spot. Not out of horror—just out of the sheer suddenness of it. It probably should have paralyzed her in fear, but she had already met one of their kind face-to-face (although that one had looked just a bit different). And after everything she’d heard about them, she knew that this guy must’ve been fairly high up among the demons in Ente Isla. One of the bosses, the leaders of the Malebranche tribe. 
That one who had Erone with him… Farfarello! That was the name. He was one of the new guys, it sounded like, but from far away, the Malebranche stalking school grounds right now looked a decent amount larger. 
She was too shocked at first to notice, but he was dragging something along in his right hand. She realized it was Peace and Truth, a sculpture donated by alumni to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the school’s opening. The design was bizarrely abstract—a sphere with geometrical patterns on it, surrounded by three naked men with their backs arched, arms open wide. Ever since it was installed on school grounds, students treated it with equal parts disdain, discomfort, and denial of its artistic qualities. Now it had been either uprooted or snapped off its base by the Malebranche, who was cheerfully walking around the courtyard as the sphere dug into the soil behind him. 
Not long ago, she had made Maou and the others worry for her thanks to an overhasty decision. But, likewise, she knew she couldn’t handle this alone, so she tried to contact Maou. He had mentioned that he was going off for his retest today, but this was probably more important. 
But she couldn’t reach him. Avoiding the students and teachers currently awestruck at the sight of the Malebranche, she had focused on her cell phone with all her might, yet failed to link up with Maou at all. Not even this amplifier was enough to reach Chofu, she inferred. 
She knew that Emi was still missing, and that meant the only one of them capable of taking on that demon in combat was Suzuno. While the attention of everyone else in the classroom was focused on the courtyard, she grasped the phone inside her bag once more and attempted an Idea Link to her. This time, it worked, with Suzuno promising to rush over as quickly as possible. 
“Hey, Sasachi, what do you think that is?” blurted out Kaori Shoji, her best friend at school, as she pointed at the courtyard. Chiho wasn’t about to explain to her. 
“Um… Boy, who knows? Hope it’s not a rabid zoo animal or anything…” 
She silently apologized to the demons of the world. And while it couldn’t have been in response to that, the Malebranche roughly tossed away Peace and Truth like a baby growing sick of their toy. 
Chiho, and everyone else, gasped as the work of art hurtled its way to a corner of the courtyard like a meteor, smashed against one of the soccer goalposts, and shattered. If they had been less lucky, it could’ve hit the school building itself. 
“Maybe I could do something for…a little bit?” Chiho said to herself. Divert his attention, for example. Maybe she could make the Malebranche move away, to someplace where students wouldn’t see him. She grabbed at the phone, seeking Suzuno’s opinion, but realized that Suzuno would never want her acting on her own. It was probably better to sit back and observe how things unfolded, Chiho reasoned to herself— 
“Grooooorrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh!!” 
“Aahh!” 
The Malebranche roared, its loud howl echoing high like a wolf in the wilderness. Chiho reflexively covered her ears. 
“Ah…” 
Then she heard someone gasping in fear nearby. 
“Y-you okay?” 
“I think we better run away…” 
“What should we do, teacher?” 
“What? D-don’t ask me…” 
The classroom was starting to fall apart. Chiho had the vague feeling this was how the seeds of panic unfolded. She looked at the Malebranche, still far away, and came to a conclusion inside her mind. Maou and Suzuno might yell at her later, but there was no time for indecision. If the Malebranche outside did something like that again, that’d just add fuel to the flames of panic. 
“…” 
Chiho slipped out of the anxious classroom and sprinted down the hall before anyone noticed. It was probably the first time she’d run down a school hallway at full speed since kindergarten. 
Soon, without anyone noticing, Chiho was on her way to the rooftop of the old Sasahata North school building. The school had been in operation for over seventy years, and the older building was past half a century old. Renovation plans didn’t look like they’d come to fruition during Chiho’s time at the school, but apart from the classrooms for the third-year students, the building was chiefly used for meeting rooms, student-council facilities, and other activities that didn’t involve hanging out there all day. 
Everyone was too focused on the horror at hand to notice Chiho as she flung herself into the old building, now empty as she sped down the hall and up to the roof. But just before she reached it: 
“…Ah?!” 
She stopped. 
Right next to the third-floor stairway—the only way to the rooftop—was a classroom the students commonly called the “forbidden chamber.” Not that a student died or got locked up in there or anything; it was once the home-ec classroom, but now there was one in the comparatively spiffier, thirty-year-old “new” school building, so it had merely fallen into disuse. 
There was a padlock on the door, but the fitting it hung from was flimsy enough that a child with a screwdriver could’ve pried it open. Chiho had gone here earlier to “witness” Emi making the leap between worlds through her Yesod fragment, but now she could see that someone had bashed in the forbidden chamber’s door from the inside. The hallway was also plastered with comically large, muddy footprints. 
“…He came in from there?” 
Chiho peeked inside the chamber. There was no sign of damage—just some old desks, sinks, and bookshelves with thick layers of dust on them. But she could see brand-new burn marks in the middle of the floor. What could that be? 
“…Oh, now’s not the time for this!” 
She could go in-depth on it once Suzuno arrived. The Malebranche outside came first. Running up the stairs, Chiho was met with a door that was obviously going to be locked. But this wasn’t a problem for her. She looked around the rest of the floor, ensuring nobody was around, then took a deep breath. 
“Welcome to a new morrrrrniiiiing!! A morning filled with hope for aaaaaaall!!” 
Focusing on the powers deep within her, she began belting out the song from the morning radio calisthenics program, activating her holy force. There was no need to go this far for Idea Link purposes—but she wasn’t activating it to cast any other sort of spell, either. She knew from her training that the longer she sang, the more power she could activate—so she sang it over and over, extracting all the holy force she could. 
At around the third repetition, her efforts paid off. She could feel some kind of large mass arrive at the other side of the door. 
“…Did you call for me?” 
It was a quiet, heavy voice, similar to Farfarello’s. Chiho breathed a sigh of relief. He must have picked up on the holy energy she was releasing. 
“…Well, good thing you can speak Japanese.” 
“Who are you? Why did you summon me?” 
“Um, it’s kind of a lot to explain all at once…but I just thought we could talk a bit, before the other students and teachers tried anything dumb against you.” 
“Hmph,” the presence disdainfully grumbled. “Bold words, considering the pathetic amount of holy force you wield.” 
Chiho, fortunately, was mature enough to admit when someone was right, no matter how scornfully he put it. “Well,” she responded, “I really don’t have the power to fight or anything, and I don’t think I could do anything against you anyway. But I called you here for a really good reason.” 
“Oh?” 
None of this was scaring Chiho all that much—partly because this presence was unseen, partly because she was sure Suzuno was nearly at the school by now. 
“Could you open this door for me with your strength? I couldn’t bring a key up here with me. You Malebranche can do that much, right?” 
“…” 
The sense of indecision on the other side of the door was palpable. 
“You see, they’re pretty rough on children in this world. If I asked a grown-up to borrow the roof key so I could talk one-on-one with a demon from another world, they probably wouldn’t give it to me.” 
The moment she fell quiet, the heavy steel doorknob began to rattle. 
“…!” 
Then she could hear it be crushed on the other side. Just as she thought, he had broken down the lock for her. The knob, losing its mounting, fell to the floor by Chiho’s feet. 
The hole it created was occupied by a single, sharp claw, one that looked familiar to her. That scared her—Farfarello didn’t do much to faze her, thanks to the way he relied on Erone for most things, but now, she was about to go face-to-face with a demon she knew nothing about. 
It’ll be all right, Chiho said to herself as she watched the door creak open. These demons… You can talk things out with them, it turns out. 
“Huh. You’ve got guts, don’t you, you puny little excuse for a human girl?” 
The voice was rougher, more uncivilized than Farfarello’s; a good match for his much larger size. The claws weren’t as long as she had thought at first—he had a large body, but the claws and wings and such were actually a bit more compact than the other Malebranche she had met. But the sheer demonic force exuding from him was a far cry from Farfarello’s. It wasn’t Maou-as–Devil King level, but without having unleashed her own full holy powers beforehand, just standing next to him would sicken her enough to keep her from even speaking. 
“You appear to be a human from this nation…but judging by the way you stand before me without faltering… Hmm. You are the one that little minnow Farlo has prattled at me about? The so-called MgRonald barista, general in the New Devil King’s Army?” 
Being asked deadpan by an officer-class demon from another world about her workplace qualifications almost made Chiho laugh. And was “Farlo” the nickname they had for Farfarello over there? It was kinda cute. 
“I suppose there’s no need for an introduction,” Chiho said, attempting to give him a bold smile instead of ruining the atmosphere. “Hopefully you will be just as polite and gentlemanly as the other demon I met before.” 
The large demon roared in deafening laughter, blowing his fetid breath around the area as he did. 
“Gah-hah-hah-hah-hah!! You should know your position in the world, girl. Your voice is shaking. You cannot hide your fear of demons!” 
“Ah…!” 
Chiho reddened at the presence of this unknown threat. 
“But though a rotten ant you may be, you are a rotten ant with guts. If it is human politeness you seek, then allow me to introduce myself first.” 
“S-sure…” 
Chiho took a look at the sky behind the Malebranche’s back. Suzuno still wasn’t there. 
“You may call me Libicocco—as you no doubt inferred, one of the chiefs of the Malebranche. But know this, girl: I am not a toddler among men, like that pipsqueak Farlo. While I rejoice at the news that our lord the Devil King is alive and well, I refuse to accept the appointment of this new set of four generals!” 
The wind and rain suddenly strengthened. It wasn’t her imagination playing tricks on her. The faraway clouds began to darken and bunch up against each other, visibly in motion as they descended upon the cityscape. The power of this Malebranche, Libicocco, was now too much to fully dispel with her activated holy force. That was the main reason why not even Chiho was willing to correct him and mention there were now five generals. 
 
“Ah—agghh!!” 
Suddenly freed from the bonds of Acieth’s telekinesis, Maou fell on his rear end, straight onto the wet ground. 
“Come on, man! What’s with you? We aren’t at Chi’s school yet!” 
“Sorry. A little side trip.” 
The rainwater had now thoroughly soaked him down to his underpants. He looked down at his legs, resigned to his fate. 
“…Damn, this is seriously a major typhoon… Hey, why’re we at MgRonald?” 
Looking up, he realized he was in familiar surroundings—the MgRonald in front of Hatagaya rail station. At least this weather kept anyone from being near them. That was a relief. He couldn’t see how Kisaki and the crew were holding up since they didn’t land (more like drop) within eyeshot of the registers, but scoping out the tables, he could tell the rain wasn’t exactly making customers swarm over. 
“Even if we put up those banners, they’d probably be ripped apart by now, huh?” 
They had turned the vertical banners advertising their new fall campaign sideways, following company storm guidelines, but the weights holding them were still clattering in the wind. 
“Someone was…here, no?” 
“Huh?” 
Acieth was looking nowhere near the MgRonald. She was turned toward Sentucky Fried Chicken across the path. Maou followed her eyes to the rival chain. 
“…Whoa! They all right in there?” 
One of the large windows overlooking the dining area had been shattered to tiny bits. The wind must’ve driven a rock or something through it. Maou hoped that none of the crew or customers were injured, although he couldn’t have cared less about the archangel managing the place. It looked like the lights were out as well—maybe a lightning strike had triggered the circuit breakers. 
“But…he not there anymore.” 
“What? You got something to do with SFC?” 
Perhaps it was a given that Acieth Alla, being so similar in nature to Alas Ramus, would spot the presence of the archangel Sariel. But what did she mean, “not there anymore”? 
“…I’m sorry. You are in hurry. No more delay.” 
“Nnnh………!!” 
Before Maou could reply, Acieth violently cast him into the air. Just as she did, the two of them disappeared into the sky, sucked up by the rainclouds. 
 
“So, Libby-cocka, what brought you here to Japan…or to Earth, for that matter?” 
The howling wind and rain had soaked both her school uniform and her hair. The demon’s huge body and huger magical force unnerved her. Both considerations were making Chiho shiver at the moment as she attempted to push the conversation forward. It didn’t look like he had any Erone-style backup at his side, but there was no telling yet. She recalled the vast army Ciriatto had taken with him to Choshi. 
But Libicocco scowled in reply, a scowl that, even to someone relatively new with demon body language like Chiho, made it clear he was in a foul mood. 
“The way you pronounce your words truly annoys me.” 
“Huh?!” 
She was trying to figure out what the demon wanted—only to have her diction criticized? 
“It is Libicocco. Say it again.” 
“…L-Libi-cocka?” 
As demonic conversations in the pouring rain go, it was generally dissatisfying for both sides. But Chiho kept up with the impromptu language lesson, not wanting to fall further on his bad side. 
“‘Cocka’? Do you want to die? I am not a rooster.” 
“Oh, do they go cock-a-doodle-doo on Ente Isla, too?” 
“Are you making fun of me? Allow me to give you a word of advice: If you mispronounced names like Draghignazzo or Scarmiglione in front of them, they’d have your head off, human. They are young. Hot-headed. Very intolerant of mistakes.” 
“Do…du, Dra…Drag-nihh… Oh, geeeeez.” 
This was too much to handle. Chiho didn’t know much about popular demon-baby names in this day and age, but assuming Malebranche were named by their parents, it seemed like giving them such unpronounceable names was like making them go through life with one hand tied behind their back. 
“Well, no matter. Just remember that much for us. The rest are gone anyway.” 
“Oh?” 
Something about this casually thrown-out statement sounded important to Chiho. But in the next instant, Libicocco’s voice bellowed out again: 
“One more time! Libicocco!” 
“Li… Libi-cocco!” 
“Fine! See? You could do it the whole time! Not quite native-level, but fair enough for a human from another world. I will allow it.” 
“Th-thanks…” 
At least she passed that test. 
“So, Li…Lib…Libicocco, what is it that brings you here…?” 
“I’m here to kick some ass.” 
“Huh?” 
Chiho thought she had messed up his name again, inspiring more ire. But it didn’t seem to be that. 
“When I say that, however, I do not mean grand massacres or anything of the sort. I am here in this set of buildings because that is where the Gate took me. I was merely told that I should bash things up and cause as conspicuous a disturbance as possible, wherever I found myself.” 
“As…conspicuous?” 
“Yes. Like this.” 
With a gnarled grin that exposed rows of pointy fangs, Libicocco summoned a mighty wind as he raised his arms into the air. Chiho covered her eyes with a hand as the rain and wind surrounding Sasahata North High School seemed to compress and whirl within itself, like the school was now in the eye of a major hurricane. 
“W-wait! Stop that!” Chiho shouted. 
The storm on the other side of the border was like nothing before. It was a violent wall of rain and wind, sending roof tiles flying from the surrounding houses, knocking over garden trees, and slicing live power lines in half. 
“See?” Libicocco crowed as he cast his meteorological magic, gauging Chiho’s reaction as he did. “Conspicuous, is it not? Perhaps I should try this next.” 
His clawed fingers danced in the air around him. Chiho couldn’t tell what had changed. But then she felt the hairs on her nape stand up, and then light flashed across a calm, soundless world. 
“Aaaah!” 
Chiho’s scream ripped through the air. It seemed like the wall of rain had set off the light, but then she noticed the countless bolts of lightning that now crashed down from the heavens. They touched down one after another on roof antennas, on telephone poles, and on lightning rods perched over apartment buildings. But their sheer number, enough to make one’s vision fully white, had to be too much for the town to handle. 
“Hmph. This isn’t working.” 
The lights stopped. Chiho carefully opened her eyes, then gasped as she noticed several buildings around the school now on fire. Not even that was enough to satisfy Libicocco. 
“Bah. I was hoping that would generate more of a sea of flame.” 
Chiho was expecting exactly that after such an onslaught of electricity. But with all the precision electronics in modern homes, a lot more thought had been given to lightning protection than in previous generations. Electric lines hung on poles were also more heavily protected than before, since they were now being used for Internet connectivity and a host of other applications; lightning-safe equipment was a legal requirement in all electrical facilities now. The effect of all those wires and poles acting as electrical grounds meant that Libicocco’s anticipated firestorm never came to pass. 
But that didn’t mean he was done. Far from it. 
“Well, I suppose it needs a little more power, then.” 
Of course he would do that. 
“Wait a minute, please! What’s the point of doing all this?!” 
“Huh?” 
“Just spreading chaos like this…? The demons who came here before had an actual purpose. Whether it was getting Satan back or taking Yusa’s…taking the Hero Emilia’s sword away from her, or whatever. Is this all you want to do?!” 
“Rather talkative ant, aren’t you?” 
“Libicocco, your mission is light-years more low class than what ‘that pipsqueak Farlo’ was doing! Why don’t you act more like the arch-demon you are and do your evil with a little more class?!” 
“Girl, do you have the wrong idea about this?” 
“…What?” 
“Right now you, the kids in this facility, and everyone else in the neighborhood are being struck by fear. They’re racked by feelings of horror and sadness. I don’t know what kind of grand mission that little rat Farlo betrayed to you…” He grinned. “But a job like this is what every demon dreams of! Spreading terror and desperation provides us with a feast of demonic power!” 
Once again, Libicocco spread his arms out, straining them even more this time. 
“Ohh…!” 
Exposed to the emanating demonic force, Chiho found it hard to breathe. She fell to her knees. Activating all her holy force at once drained it far too quickly. Time for a 5-Holy Energy ?, she thought—but her spare bottle was still inside her schoolbag. She couldn’t show her back to Libicocco now—this demon was cruel enough to snuff her right out if she did. 
“If you don’t like it, you’re free to stop me by force,” Libicocco scoffed, as Chiho felt her strength wane. “You are the MgRonald Barista, our next great general and leader…am I wrong?” 
Despite it all, though, Chiho kept her eyes on him, keeping her head up and glaring strong as she fought against the cruel force. 
But then… 
“So shall it be.” 
With a dignified-sounding voice and a loud crash, Libicocco’s body disappeared from in front of Chiho. The devilish force surrounding him faded away, easing Chiho’s mouth and throat. 
“Gn…nnh…!!” 
He was now in midair, wings spread wide as he growled at where Chiho was. 
“I am, more or less, another one of the new generals. And I happen to not like this, thank you very much, and so I will stop you by force,” a certain cleric said. 
A giant hammer swung breezily through the air, making the rain splashing around it sparkle in the rays of sunlight beaming down. 
“S-Suzuno!” Chiho shouted with her freed lungs. 
Suzuno, her hairpin transformed into her trademark weapon, let her rain-drenched hair blow in the wind as she turned her eyes to Chiho, safely ensconced behind her. 
“My apologies for being late. The storm wall suddenly grew stronger, and penetrating it proved a trial.” 
“Dude, if you put it that way, it sounds like you got through it all by yourself!” 
Another familiar voice from above them. Turning around, Chiho was just in time to see Urushihara land on the roof, white wings folded behind him. Their color stymied her. 
“Urushihara… Is that…?” 
They were no longer the jet-black that they were during the battle against Maou. They were a radiant, angel-like white. He turned his back to her, resentful at what she was paying attention to. 
“Dahh,” he groaned. “If I knew he was gonna try kicking this much ass, I woulda focused more on filling up my demonic force.” 

“Do not even joke about that, Lucifer,” Suzuno warned, eyebrows furrowed in dismay. 
“I’m not joking,” came the cool reply. “But let’s forget about that for today, okay?” Urushihara looked up at Libicocco, freshly bashed into the air by Suzuno. “That guy opened up a Gate and landed here in this school. That can’t be a coincidence. I gotta admit, I feel kinda at fault for this.” 
“As do I?” 
“Huh? …What?” 
Suzuno and Urushihara both took a breath—coming off as a highly unlikely team to Chiho—and then turned back to Libicocco. He was clutching the side of his body Suzuno’s hammer hit as he gradually landed on the roof. 
“…Lord Lucifer, and…the Scythe of Death?” 
“Mm?” Suzuno lifted an eyebrow. “You know me?” 
“Yes. You match the description that dung-beetle Farlo gave me. And…” 
“And what?” 
“No… It is simply unexpected, is all. If you are here…” 
Suzuno’s gut feeling told her that Libicocco’s force was either on a par with hers or maybe a tad weaker. That surprise strike from the rear must have taken the wind out of his sails. And with Urushihara as her more-or-less ally, there was little chance of defeat even with a full-frontal approach. Maou was on his way, too, for that matter. 
So why was Libicocco acting like he didn’t have a care in the world? 
“…Then this couldn’t have worked out any better.” 
The malice behind his grin was like nothing before it. 
 
“““……””” 
Now there were three people silently watching each other around the table. The new one had trouble kneeling for extended periods of time, so he sat with his legs crossed instead, dressed in a shirt and pants he borrowed from Ashiya. 
“So, uh, who’s this?” 
“I have no idea.” 
Ashiya had given tremendously wishy-washy answers to Rika’s questions so far, but on this one, he was decisive. This man that Maou ejected into the room during his whirlwind entrance and exit—one Ashiya couldn’t even begin to conceive a believable explanation for—he had truly never seen in his life. 
Between his looks, what little conversation they had made, and the way a flying Maou deposited him into the room uninvited, it seemed safe to assume he wasn’t Japanese. The first possibility that came to mind was that he was from Ente Isla, but Ashiya wasn’t entirely sure of it. The mystery man wasn’t projecting holy or demonic force of any kind—so why would your normal, everyday, average joe of an Ente Islan be hanging out in Japan? 
One thing Emi, Suzuno, and Emeralda all had in common—Sariel and Gabriel, too, on the other side—was that they all had superhuman abilities, not to mention the skills needed to traverse between worlds. They had a means, in other words. If this man was just a normal Ente Isla citizen, how did he get here? He didn’t have that kind of ability, and yet, here he was. 
Ashiya flashed Rika a glance. 
“Ms. Suzuki?” 
“Hmm?” 
“I apologize, but I will have to leave you out of this for a few moments.” 
“Huh?” 
Ashiya apologized to her again in his heart, turned to the man Maou just brought in, and opened his mouth. 
<“Do you understand this?”> 
The man blinked, then eagerly nodded. <“Common Vezian…? No, Centurient, is it not? You aren’t from this nation, either?”> 
“Umm??” 
Rika’s eyes opened wide at the sight of these two men speaking a language she had never heard before. 
<“That man, Maou; he was just the same, no? Who are you people?”> 
<“To be honest, I’d like to ask that of you first. You do not appear to be a spellcaster. Why are you here, in this world, now? Who are you?”> 
“Um, hang on a second, guys…” 
<“It would take too long to explain. As you say, I know nothing of magic. I used to be a farmer. In an ideal world, I would have spent my entire life without setting foot outside the rural edges of Saint Aile.”> 
“What language is that…?” 
Rika’s eyes spun. It wasn’t English, and it wasn’t the German or French she occasionally heard snippets of in news broadcasts or documentaries. It sounded like something from outer space to her. She couldn’t figure out where one syllable ended and the next began. 
<“There is not much else I can say. Not so long as I don’t know who you or Maou are. However, I crossed into this world because I am charged with protecting this child…Tsubasa. She is to be given to another person, someday.”> 
<“Given…?”> This puzzled Ashiya. He recalled the girl Maou seemed to be traveling with. <“Is Tsubasa…the young woman Maou brought with him?”> 
<“…”> 
When it came to people in his life named after the word for “wing”—as tsubasa meant in Japanese—Ashiya could think of another person. Someone who crawled around this room for a whole week before coming under their mortal foe’s guardianship—and was now just as missing as she was. 
<“Well. Now I know why Maou saw fit to bring you here. Although…I suppose you aren’t as important as this Tsubasa woman, eh?”> 
Ashiya sharpened his words. He would allow no room for lies or denials. 
<“This woman is a personification of a Yesod fragment, is she not?”> 
<“…”> The man fell silent again. But he didn’t avert his eyes. 
It had not been that long ago. Camio, the Devil Regent, told them what Olba had told him—that there was another holy sword, located right here in Japan, and Ciriatto was on the hunt for it. 
Ashiya couldn’t hide the excitement coursing through his body. In this simple ex-farmer, there existed the potential key to changing the very fabric of reality within Ente Isla. 
<“You… You’re…”> 
He tried to keep the agitation from his voice. His mind was full of haphazard guesses, and he needed to take action on them. 
<“Are you…the father of Emilia Justina?”> 
“…Emilia?” 
This familiar-sounding word, the first she could understand, unnerved Rika. Both of the men noticed the reaction. They couldn’t blame her for it. 
<“Then you’re… Ah, is that it?”> 
<“So it is. What a state of affairs…”> 
Thus Nord Justina, father of the Hero, and the Great Demon General Alciel of the Devil King’s Army made their hellos. 
<“So you’re… It couldn’t be. Is that Maou person the…the ‘chosen one’ my wife talked about?”> 
<“‘Chosen one’…?”> 
<“That was how she put it. ‘When the chosen one is ready to reveal the truth behind the world,’ she said, ‘my daughter must be given her wings.’ I had my suspicions when Maou mentioned Emilia’s name.”> 
This presumably meant Laila, the archangel they knew to be Emi’s mother. But although the angels were supernatural in nature, their existences were just as common and vulgar as anyone else’s. They didn’t have the power to alter destinies and bind the earth by magic with a few choice words, as they were portrayed in the old legends and scriptures. And why would a mere archangel go around calling the Devil King Satan the “chosen one”? Nothing sounded more arrogant to Ashiya. 
“Um…” 
And what about this “truth behind the world” nonsense? Lofty-sounding words, to be sure, but what “truth” can there be behind something as nebulous as the world? Anyone claiming such a thing is about as worthy of one’s trust as a jewelry appraiser or an “expert panelist” on a cooking game show. 
“Hey, guys?” 
Where does a single human being—with a single angel at his side—get off, really, acting all high and mighty about some nonexistent “truth”? Demons like us have no time for such lofty malarkey. It is no more valuable to us than a pebble on the side of the road. 
“Listen to me!!” 
“Ahh?!” 
Ashiya leaped up at the sound of someone screaming, holding a surprised hand against his ear. Rika, looking more demonic than most demons, was by his side. 
“I don’t know what the two of you are figuring out by yourselves, but you mind lettin’ me in on some of it?” 
“Uh…” 
“You are quite…scary woman, aren’t you?” 
Even Nord could tell that Rika being given the outsider treatment was enraging her. His attempts at assuaging her were met with the same cold eyes that slew Ashiya a moment ago. 
“Listen, man, if you want to live out your natural lifespan in Japan, try not to be so honest all the damn time, okay?” 
“Oh…” 
“So, Ashiya?” 
“Y-yes…?” 
“When’re you gonna tell me who this guy is and why Maou and Urushihara and Suzuno can all do stuff like that?!” 
Ashiya didn’t complain about having that muddle of questions thrown at him all at once. It’d result in blood if he did, he knew. But even before Maou floated in, he had already made up his mind. 
“M-Ms. Suzuki.” Ashiya brought his arms out, attempting to place them on Rika’s shoulders to soothe her. “I promise I will tell you, so will you please sit down for a—” 
“That’s not gonna help you get away from me.” 
“Hm?” 
Rika had been about ready to throw fireballs at Ashiya. Now, it was her own cheeks that burned a hot red. Dejectedly, she followed his instructions, all but collapsing to the floor. “So?” she glared as she looked upward. “What is it?!” 
Ashiya demurred for a moment, unsure where to begin. Then he pointed at Nord. 
“So this man…” 
“Y-yes?” 
“Apparently he is Yusa’s father.” 
“Okay……wait, what?” 
She almost walked right through it before her mind backtracked. Her eyes were like tiny dots as she pointed them at Nord. “Emi’s…father?” 
“Indeed. I believe it is likely the truth.” 
“Wh…What? So, is…?” Emi’s face went a little pale as she recalled the abuse she lobbed at Ashiya. “Well, I, I apologize for being so rude, then.” 
“Oh, is fine. I am rather, ah, in dark myself.” 
Ashiya wondered if it was such a good idea for Nord to be so forgiving, but decided dwelling on the topic would be fruitless. 
<“This woman is one of Emilia’s friends in this nation. Her name is Rika Suzuki.”> 
“Rika…?” 
“Um, yes?” 
“You’ve helped Emilia for me… Thank you.” 
He made it sound like Emi was receiving in-home care from Rika or something, but she didn’t comment on it. She could tell what he meant between the words. 
“Oh, no, thank you very much… Um, Ashiya?” 
“Yes?” 
Rika looked up at him after bowing politely at Nord for no real reason. 
“You guys have both been saying ‘Emilia’ a lot, and that’s what her dad just called her now, so, um…” 
An honest answer to this would end it all. It would mean putting Rika in the same boat as Chiho. Chiho was accepting enough, but what about this girl? Slowly, Ashiya began to weave the words that were destined to change Rika’s life, fully aware in his mind that he might have to call upon Suzuno to erase her memories later if things failed to work out. 
“I mean… Is it kinda like how Japanese people give nicknames to themselves if they’re living overseas so people pronounce their names right? Or, like, something based on religion, or a middle name or something?” 
“No.” Ashiya spoke slowly, trying to make sure Rika understood every word on a deep, personal level. “It is the real name of the woman you and I know as ‘Emi Yusa.’ Her full name is Emilia Justina.” 
“…Um, I’m not sure I follow.” The bewilderment was obvious on her face. “Her real name? Emilia Ju…Justina? That’s Emi’s real name?” 
“Yes.” 
“So Emi isn’t Japanese?” 
“That would be the case, yes.” 
“…Oh. Ohh. So if her dad isn’t either, so is it kind of… Like, she was born and raised elsewhere, but then she immigrated to Japan and took a Japanese name like a pro soccer player or something?” 
Ashiya had predicted this. Rika was trying to frame this situation in a way she could comprehend. 
“No, not like that. Yusa’s… Well, Emilia’s homeland exists nowhere on this planet.” 
“…What do you mean?” 
“Well, before that… Do you watch movies very much, Ms. Suzuki? Or play video games, for that matter?” 
This seemingly unrelated question made Rika grow suspicious. “Wh-where’d that come from? I haven’t played games much since I was kid, but I go to the theater pretty often, yeah.” 
“Then perhaps I could put it this way to help you understand the concept. Yusa Emi, or Emilia Justina, is not an…well, an Earthling, exactly.” 
“A what?” 
“This is not quite the correct way to phrase it, but to put it simply, Yusa is an alien from outer space. She comes from another world, one far away from here… One that exists nowhere on Earth.” 
“…Are you screwing with me?” 
It was a completely understandable response. He anticipated this, as well; this anger-tinged reaction. For the average human being, it was a completely natural response. 
“If you are unable to believe me, Ms. Suzuki, then I am afraid I will be unable to explain the phenomena you just saw.” 
“Just saw…? Wait.” Rika suddenly looked out the window again. The rain was thudding against it even harder now. The very one Suzuno and Urushihara flew out of. The one Maou appeared from, then soared right back through, into the sky. 
“From here, to the house over there, it’s got to be at least thirty feet. Do you think there is any human being who can manage that?” 
“…” 
Her eyes darted between Ashiya and the window several times. Seeing these incomprehensible events made her mind incapable of accepting the truth behind them. Perhaps things would be different if reality, in all its vivid intensity, was thrust before her all at once. But Rika didn’t know anything before today. And she had seen only a snippet of the truth. 
“Ms. Suzuki.” 
“Ahh…!” Rika froze, throat emitting a long groan. “Ah… Ah, ah…” 
Ashiya could tell the firmness of the past was gone—in its place, a paralyzing fear of the unknown world she had gained access to. She probably couldn’t speak if she’d tried. 
“B-but how could that…? No way! I mean, Urushi… Suzuno… Maou…” 
She turned over the events she saw, one by one, as the names came out. Yet, the stoutness of her heart drove her to continue defending the fortress of common sense that watched over her brain. 
“I-I mean, that’s crazy. Are you kidding me? This has to be a load of crap. How am I supposed to believe that? Like, I’d believe you more if you said Suzuno and all of ’em are magicians or some kinda ESP masters or something! At least you could claim those exist in the world…” 
“Indeed. If I were in your shoes, Ms. Suzuki, I think I would say the same thing.” 
“Sh-show me some kinda evidence! Like, why’re you saying you’re all space aliens if you’re working part-time and living hand to mouth like this?!” 
“…I have no defense for that,” snickered Ashiya, despite it all. “But even ‘space aliens’ have to sing for their supper, you see.” 
This was exactly why, if something like this hadn’t happened, he never would’ve wanted to reveal himself to Rika. But these were all people from other worlds. People who had no business running into each other in the first place. Ashiya reverting to demon form would be all the evidence he needed, but that was far beyond his grasp right now. 
“I regret that I cannot provide conclusive evidence to you at the moment…but how about this? Once Suzuno Kamazuki returns home, I promise I will have her prove it to you. Assuming, Ms. Suzuki, you are willing to listen to this so-called ridiculous tale to the end?” 
“…” 
Rika gave him a look of sheer doubt. 
<“I cannot blame her for her disbelief,”> Nord whispered. <“I would have laughed it off if someone on Ente Isla told me about this other world, with its civilization advanced beyond all imagination.”> 
Ashiya internally agreed with him. A nation, a world, a civilization of human beings. Everything about Japan was a faraway dream of the future, one that demons, for all their supposed dominance and superiority over mankind, would never have for themselves. 
<“Did Maou tell you about who we are?”> 
<“…No. But I imagine, at least, that he is not human.”> 
Come to think of it, Ashiya hadn’t even given Nord his name yet. 
Emi’s disappearance, and Nord’s subsequent arrival, seemed to symbolize in Ashiya’s mind that the doomed, yet boundlessly comfortable day-to-day life they’d enjoyed in Devil’s Castle was about to fall apart. 
<“You are lucky, though…for I think I may need to have you introduce yourself the next time we meet.”> 
“Huh?” 
Nord, silently following Ashiya and Rika’s argument up to now, suddenly stood up, a gruff look on his face. The long-sleeved ROCK ON SASAHATA! T-shirt he was wearing (won by Ashiya in a drawing at the local shopping center) wasn’t a match for his demeanor, but it didn’t stop him from soundlessly padding over to the window. The building rattled anyway, as Ashiya’s gaze followed to the window. 
The sight made him instantly tense. There, inside the typhoon-level storm, there shouldn’t have been a single person. But now, there were many. 
<“We’re fully surrounded. I haven’t seen them before. Do you know what force they belong to?”> 
Ashiya could answer this question. He could, but the answer was still not one he could fully believe. Had his world ever engaged in behavior as reckless as this before? 
<“The armaments come from…the Knights of the Inlain Azure Scarves, second in rank among the eight knight corps that serve Efzahan of the Eastern Island. What is the meaning of this?”> 
Ashiya had directed the question more at himself than Nord. 
The entire apartment building had been completely surrounded by a dizzying number of knights in exotic-looking uniforms. When did they show up? And from where? More assassins sent by Barbariccia, like with Ciriatto? No. The knights stationed outside were all human. Ashiya could detect no particular magic from them. And although he didn’t know what for, it was clear they were after everyone inside the building. 
“Wh-what? What’s up with you two now?” 
Ashiya’s mind instant sprang back into reality. Depending on how the political cards worked out, there was always going to be the chance that the human world would aim their sights on him, Maou, Urushihara, Nord—even Suzuno. But Rika was different. She was a Japanese woman, completely uninvolved with the affairs of Ente Isla. He couldn’t draw her in to that world; he couldn’t drag her into this battle. 
<“This has nothing to do with Miss Rika,”> Nord said. <“We have to protect her. Don’t we?”> 
<“Y-yeah,”> Ashiya said, nodding. 
<“Are they after me…? I doubt it. I wouldn’t be here if I had not met Maou earlier. So are they after you?”> 
<“It would have to be. It could be our neighbor, perhaps, but either way, we’re the only three people in the building now.”> 
The ominous army outside showed no signs of movement, but with their numbers, a human-wave attack would be all it took to finish Ashiya off. 
<“Can you fight?”> 
<“Under any normal circumstances, I could finish off these forces in an instant. Now, however…”> Ashiya clenched his teeth. It all felt so pathetic to him. 
<“I, too, have never received any formal battle training. If Tsubasa… If only Acieth were back here for us…”> 
This Tsubasa, or Acieth, must have been the woman with Maou earlier. A woman who was probably zooming to Chiho’s aid at the moment, for reasons Ashiya couldn’t fathom. 
Then he realized. If everyone in the forces surrounding them were from the Eastern Island, there was only one man who could’ve pulled the strings behind them: Olba Meiyer. And with Emi gone and Chiho’s school under attack by someone or something, either Suzuno was coming to the rescue, or Maou—whose powers were near infinite, assuming he could get his act together. Urushihara’s motives remained a big question mark, but Ashiya knew there were times when he tapped on a resource besides demonic force to wield his powers. 
It meant that no matter how he put it, there was only one force in Japan right now with absolutely zero ability to fend for itself. 
“The Eastern Island…?” 
Ashiya gritted his teeth. Emi and Suzuno weren’t the only ones in danger. The furor over at Chiho’s school was just a feint. Olba and Barbariccia, their enemies, had their swords pointed squarely at the Great Demon General, Alciel. 
 
“Uggh, this rain is awful… It wasn’t like this at all on the other side.” 
The woman who left the Sasazuka Station building groaned at the driving rain as she surveyed her surroundings. 
“Should I grab a taxi? I don’t think it’s that far from the station, though. It’d kinda be a waste.” 
She stood in front of a neighborhood map as she pondered over which road to take, a wheeled travel suitcase with a large shoulder bag slumped on top of it at her side. But the piece of paper she held in her hand wasn’t some handwritten map, or note, or cell phone. It was, oddly enough, a résumé. 
“Right! Taxi it is! I don’t wanna get all wet!” 
She stuffed the wrinkled-up résumé in her shoulder bag, walked through the hall that housed the turnstiles, arrived at a guardrail on the side of the road, and looked around for an open taxi. 
Then the wind changed direction. 
“Agh!” 
She twitched her nose a little. 
“…What is that?” she said, puzzled. She rubbed her chin for a moment in thought, then turned toward the direction from which she detected a certain scent. 
“Ahh…” 
She nodded, her suspicions apparently confirmed. It noticeably soured her face. 
“Can’t take the taxi there, huh? Shoot. They don’t have a bath, either, do they?” 
Then she trudged back into the station, still griping to herself as she tossed her possessions into a coin-op locker. After that: 
“Hyaaaaaahhhhh!!” 
She screamed as she plunged, running, into the heart of rainy Sasazuka, without so much as an umbrella to protect her. Her carelessly tied ponytail and healthy tan were both instantly soaked, and it wasn’t long before she melted into the long curtain of water before her. 
 
Maou and Acieth, meanwhile, were finally near Sasahata North High School, despite their little side trip. They were encountering a few difficulties. 
“Arrrrgghh!!” 
Maou screamed as he tried battering his way through the stormwall. But his human legs couldn’t even keep him upright against the pounding gale. It sent him reeling along the road before he crashed into a light post. 
“Owwwww!” 
“Wow, big disaster!” Acieth observed, not bothering to comment on Maou’s painful misfortune. 
“Damn it! We made it all the way here and I can’t even see inside!” 
From the outside, it looked like a gigantic cumulonimbus cloud had decided to swallow up the school grounds. It had settled in a neat circle around the property, refusing entry from the outside to anyone and anything. The damage outside this area was far below what he feared—just one (rather recently) downed light post, actually. 
Things, however, were different inside the school grounds. 
“You are no help at all, huh, Maou?” 
“Man, do I hate you.” 
Acieth shrugged, not even bothering to care about her hair slapping all around her head. “Why you tell me to go back to apartment anyway? I no like that.” 
“Well, if something happened to you or Nord, we’d really be up the creek!” 
Figuring that transport was the hard part and he could get together with Suzuno to handle the rest of the dirty work, Maou had ordered Acieth to return to Devil’s Castle and await further instructions. But: 
“Are you suuuuure? It is better if I here?” 
“You are really pissing me off right now!” 
Maou just couldn’t get in the school. Once the local wind speed surpassed forty miles an hour or so, it was hard for a normal human being to even stand up. The wind around this storm was a lot faster than that—going in unprotected would just send him careening back all over again. 
“Wonder if Suzuno’s already in there,” he muttered nervously. He didn’t know what kind of enemy was lurking inside, but recent otherworldly visitors to Japan were proving to be quite a handful to the Devil King, especially in his current inconvenienced state. The sort of foe that not even the Hero could handle without Alas Ramus would (he hated to say) give Suzuno some mean odds to deal with. 
Along those lines, Maou had yet to actually see Suzuno devote her all to a fight. He had seen that from Emi after their knock-down-drag-out on Ente Isla, and there was no doubt Alas Ramus had made her even stronger. But while Suzuno had been his enemy at one point, Maou was equipped with nothing but a pair of boxers at the time, and Suzuno was clearly restraining herself. Her full powers as a magical warrior remained a mystery to him. He wondered how often Church clerics engaged in all-out combat in the first place, not counting exceptions like Olba—but even back in Choshi, she was going on about how she wanted to kill an entire army of Malebranche down to the last man. 
Maou tried to spot her amid the storm, but the howl of the wind and the pattering of the rain, along with the sirens from fire engines all around the neighborhood, made it impossible. The stormwall was already exacting nearly its full force by the time he arrived. It made sense that someone called the authorities to deal with this bizarre weather event. Not that it was Maou’s fault, but it’d still be nice, he thought, if Japan’s general public was willing to accept this as just another freak climate event to argue about online. 
“Hmm… Over there.” 
“Huh?!” 
As Maou descended further and further into panic mode, Acieth unexpectedly pointed at a speck in the air. 
“There. Traces from opening.” 
“Where?!” 
There was no telling where she was pointing to, what with the stormwall, the wind, and the assorted other detritus flying through the air. 
“It is demon-force wind. I think someone forced it open, there. One more push, and I think they smash up the whole thing, huh?” 
“Whaddaya mean, one more push? Who?” 
“Wow, Maou, why you so useless? All right. I’ll do it. You want go inside, yes?” 
“You…can do that?” 
“Mmm… Can you give me little more time? Pop isn’t near me, so…” 
“Pop” didn’t seem to have a lot of holy energy storage potential within him. What was the deal with that? 
“How much time are we talking?” 
“Mmm…one hour?” 
Maou almost fell for entirely non-wind-related reasons. 
“That’s too damn long! It’d be faster to just go back and fetch Nord again!” 
“Wanna do that?” 
“I told you, I don’t wanna get you guys involved in this crap.” 
“Ooh, but it’ll take big power to break that down…and if you were my latent force, Maou, I think that doesn’t make holy power for me.” 
“Latent what?” 
“Force. My sister and me, our power comes from person serving as our latent force. The strength in heart, yes?” 
“Whoa, hang on!” 
That sounded like something extremely important, this little tidbit she just tossed at him. He wanted to explore it more fully, but he could tell listening to the whole story would take even longer than an hour. 
“Just give me a quick synopsis, okay? Are you saying you can siphon power from someone right by you? Even someone like Nord with no magic force at all?” 
“Mmm, not sucking from him, no. More, um, his influence makes me feel better?” 
Maou gasped. It was exactly how he transformed into his full demon self. By turning the feelings people felt in their minds into actual power. 
“Well, can you make me the target for the time being or something?!” 
“Ooh, yes,” Acieth said, quickly nodding, before suddenly switching over to a dour frown. “But I dunno… I don’t like your feeling, Maou. Not sure if I can accept you, or…” 
“How you can say that? This is an emergency! And, geez, it’s only the first time we’ve met!” 
Never in his time in Japan had someone so brightly, cheerfully stated to him that he was physiologically unacceptable to her. She had just said at the test site how swell his hand smelled, too! 
“But you can do it, right?” 
“Mmm, but it is no holy force from you, Maou, so…” 
“It doesn’t matter! We just gotta apply as much power as we can to that rift you mentioned, right?” 
“Yeaaah…” 
Acieth still seemed reluctant. Maou grabbed her hand, clenching at it. 
“Ah!” 
“Please! We have to try something! I’ll take care of you after that!” 
“R-really…? That, first time a man said that to me…” 
Acieth’s cheeks had just a twinge of pink to them. 
“…I mean,” Maou nervously added, “I’ll tell you everything I know about your ‘sister,’ all right?” 
“All right. Go a little closer.” 
Acieth motioned with her eyes as Maou took a step forward, figuring there was some sort of process he had to follow. 
“S-sure, I… Whoa!” 
Instead, what he found was Acieth, eyes closed, bringing her face right up to his. He hurriedly sidled back. 
“Wha-wha-what’re you doing?!” 
“What? It is forehead and forehead, yes?” she replied, clearly surprised by this sudden rejection. 
Maou breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t quite the worst he had feared. But then, he realized exactly the extent of what he had just imagined. It filled him with an inscrutable sort of shame. 
He approached Acieth again, this time carefully, as he brought his head forward. 
“No running, now.” 
“Yeah, yeah,” Maou said, smirking a little at how Acieth phrased the command like a line from an action flick. 
Her forehead approached his. As it did, he spotted a familiar glow. It was purple, and just like with Alas Ramus, it came from her Yesod fragment. So Acieth really was like Alas Ramus. 
“Your latent force, huh…?” 
Just as Acieth’s phrasing crossed his mind again, their foreheads met. Then, the next moment, it was Acieth jumping back, like she just touched something hot. 
“Wh-what is it…?” Maou grew nervous. Was it some kind of problem with the procedure, he wondered, as Acieth gave him a look of shock like nothing he’d seen before. 
“M-Maou…” she said with trembling lips. “You… You’re…” 
“Yep.” 
Acieth’s forehead gave out a stronger pulse of light. 
“You were Devil King?! Like, ‘Maou’ in Japanese? So you have that last name?!” 
“Oh, for…” 
Whether an Idea Link–style force sprang into action or their little love tap triggered a little demonic force, Acieth must have learned the truth just now. Something about her reaction, however, made the moment seem less than dramatic. Yes, his name meant exactly what it sounded like. 
“That’s what surprises you at this point?! What’s the big problem, huh? Use your ears, geez!” 
“It not very creative, no!” 
“Oh, you’re one to talk… Yow!” 
Before Maou could continue pleading his argument, the light from Acieth’s head extended across his entire body. 
“Ay, look at me, leaving body and soul to King of All Demons… I’m sorry, Mom…I am bad daughter to you…” 
“Dude, I’m not some street punk asking your mom to let me date you, all right?!” 
Acieth never failed to seize the opportunity to berate Maou. But now all the light made her practically invisible to him. 
And then, it exploded. 
“Agh!!” 
Acieth was now an array of countless light particles, each still strengthening more in power—and they were all descending upon Maou. 
“Uh… What’s…? This isn’t…?” 
Beyond the initial surprise, Maou’s brain was warning him about potential disaster ahead. As the light enveloped him, he realized he had seen something quite a bit like this before. Quite a few times, actually. Although it was the other way around whenever he saw it. 
“…This is exactly like when Alas Ramus comes out of Emi, ain’t it?” 
It was probably too late, in assorted ways, by the time the thought reached his mind. That was because the pillar of purple of light at the base of the stormwall was tearing through the sky, all but ready to rip it apart. 
 
A dull clanging sound echoed across the Sasahata North High School area as Suzuno’s hammer thudded against Libicocco’s dire claws. 
But the cross-dimensional battle unfolding in the sky didn’t quite have Chiho’s full attention. She glanced at Urushihara, standing on the roof as he watched the fight, and the door back downstairs, ripped open by Libicocco a while back. The twisted knob was still on the floor. 
“Stop worrying, dude,” Urushihara said, noticing Chiho’s eyes on him. He gave the steel door a couple of pats to reassure her. “I can seal this door back shut with holy force, easy.” 
“Y-yeah, hopefully…” 
It still worried Chiho to no end. Urushihara was, after all, a fallen angel—one whose lifestyle fit the term perfectly—and she assumed he was more of a demon in terms of species by now. The white wings, and the power on a level of Emi’s or Suzuno’s, was nothing short of astonishing to her. 
Suzuno must’ve spotted him a 5-Holy Energy ?—but was he safe drinking that? It was the same as what Chiho drank, although her dosages were still being strictly regulated. Just one of those little bottles was enough to send the (allegedly) mighty demon Ashiya into a near coma. Maou himself mentioned that an unexpected influx of holy energy would do nothing to his body but damage it. 
Then she heard a voice from beyond the door, perhaps responding to Urushihara’s rapping. 
“Hey! Somebody out there?! Open the door! Dammit, why ain’t it opening?!” 
It was one teacher or other, boldly stepping up to take action despite the fierce typhoon and the Biblical conflict unfolding over the front yard. 
Urushihara, following Suzuno’s orders, had used his magic to seal off every door and window in the entire school. It was a preventative measure to keep any wayward students from getting caught up in the conflict, but the fact Urushihara engineered the spell gave Chiho no end of anxiety. 
“Sealing an entryway’s pretty high-level stuff, dude. A regular person could, like, never break through it.” 
The fact Urushihara had such an eerily convenient spell on hand was one surprise. She wasn’t entirely sure what the spell was created for, either. 
“Oh, there’s a thousand ’n’ one uses,” he explained. “Maybe you don’t know, living in Japan and everything, but folks like kings and Church officials cast this spell on themselves and their, like, treasure rooms and their sanctuaries to keep intruders away.” 
“I…see…” 
It made sense to her. But why did Urushihara have it? And how did he cast it using holy force? 
“Hey, it’s not just me. Sariel and Gabriel can probably use it, too. It’s kinda a must-have if you wanna call yourself a high-level angel. That’s what he told me, at least, so I learned it.” 
“Told you?” 
This puzzled Chiho for a moment, but Urushihara’s attention was focused back on the fight. No further explanation seemed forthcoming, so she joined him instead. 
It didn’t take long for even her to conclude that the battle was decidedly one-sided. Despite the bulky-looking kimono, Suzuno wasn’t letting the demon so much as touch her. All the bravado Libicocco attempted to dominate Chiho with was long gone—after all the abuse it had taken, the claws on one of his arms had been taken fully out of commission. 
During that first battle she witnessed between Emi and Urushihara, there were so many spells and complex battle strikes exchanged that it looked, to her eyes, straight out of a fantasy blockbuster. By comparison, the fight between Suzuno and Libicocco seemed kind of like a schoolyard brawl, or a round of backyard wrestling. It wasn’t pretty, but watching Suzuno swing a hammer easily as tall as she was, smashing it against a demon that weighed several times as much as her, was undeniably a sight to behold. 
And yet, it was clear to even Chiho’s eyes that she was going easy on him. She had taken his back and overpowered him in a hammer-on-claw duel multiple times, but not once did she attempt to strike a lethal blow on Libicocco. She couldn’t make it out from here on the roof, but they were exchanging more than a few words in the process, too. Maybe she was pleading with him to return home. 
“…Huh. Weird.” 
“What?” 
Urushihara, watching the proceedings above him, cocked his head. “Like, Libicocco sure doesn’t fight like a Malebranche.” 
“What do you mean?” 
“Well, dude, he sucks. He must not be going full bore on ’er.” 
“Is that maybe because he’s in Japan, so he doesn’t have access to his full powers and stuff?” 
“If that’s what it is, he better remove that storm barricade quick, or else he’s going back home in three or four chunks. Like, ditching the rain and stuff would let him devote that demonic force to the fight, but why ain’t he doing that? And that’s not the only thing, either.” 
Good point. It was definitely Libicocco summoning this vast storm over school grounds. Diverting that energy in Suzuno’s direction would certainly make the battle a little fairer for him. 
“Wh-what else is there…?” 
“I noticed this with Ciriatto, too. Why’s he still in demon form?” 
“Um…” 
“Like, this isn’t the kinda situation I had, where I had pretty much an infinite resource of negative energy to tap on all around me. A Malebranche leader’s, like, middle management by my standards, dudette. They ain’t got near the Devil King’s power to retain demonic energy. So how’s he still able to stay a demon while he’s wasting all this strength on the storm? Something’s totally gotta be up with that.” 
“…What’s the big deal with that? If he was going full force, Suzuno might be in a lot more trouble, besides…” 
Urushihara’s argument seemed to be supporting Libicocco more than anyone else. But as far as Chiho was concerned, the weaker the adversary, the better. 
“Naaah, I think Bell could whip his ass then, too. It wouldn’t wind up this one-sided, I don’t think, but still. As it is now, Bell’s gonna lay the hammer down on him sooner or later. I just have no idea why he’s putting himself through this.” 
“Why…?” 
He was right. Libicocco’s bewitching words made her forget about it, but he had opened up the Gate to Japan himself. It was hard to imagine he was relying strictly on a source of negative emotions he could never have counted on. 
Camio had arrived looking for Maou; Ciriatto had come for the holy sword; Farfarello had tried to bring Maou and Ashiya back home. None of the demons who had traveled to Earth had ever fulfilled their missions, essentially. What was Libicocco even trying to do? 
“I don’t like how this is all unfolding when Emilia ain’t here, either. Did that guy say anything weird to you before we showed up?” 
“Weird…?” 
The weirdest thing, without a doubt, was the little pronunciation lesson he’d given her. But there was something else. Chiho recalled the conversation of ten or so minutes ago. What did Libicocco say he was here to do? 
“Actually…he said this was the kind of ‘job’ every demon dreams of… He wasn’t here to kill people in the school. He just wanted to start a ruckus, and make it as conspicuous as possible… I think that’s what he said. But he triggered a ton of lightning, too…” 
“Oh, like those flashes just before we got in?” 
“Huh? Yeah.” 
“It wasn’t that neat, dude…” 
“Oh?” 
“I mean, there were two or three lightning bolts, but they all hit antennas and lightning rods ’n’ stuff. Looked more like a short circuit than anything.” 
“Huh? It was a lot more than just that! There was this massive bolt across the sky, and I couldn’t even keep my eyes open…” 
And yet the nearby homes were far less damaged than either Chiho or Libicocco imagined. Chiho chalked that up to Japan’s superior disaster preparedness, but… 
“I think that was all just illusory magic. The Malebranche’s really good at that stuff.” 
“I-illusory?” 
“Yeah. Like, they conquered the Southern Island so quick because they used dirty tricks, dudette. They used necromancy and illusions to conjure up whole armies of zombies and ghosts and stuff. Then when all the humans were freaking out, it was pretty much open season. I’m guessing he set it up so you were the only one to see that flash or whatever. He’d need a crapload of demonic force to pull off the real thing.” 
“…” 
“Now, the stormwall, though… That’s real. A Malebranche conjuring up stuff like that’s pretty impressive, I gotta admit. Must be one of the old-time bosses, if I had to guess. In that gang, Malacoda’s way ahead of the bunch there, but apart from him, it’s pretty much just street-hood dudes like Ciriatto. He ain’t using near the amount of spells I did, right? Maybe he’s just conserving his forces or something, but if so, I really don’t get why he won’t shut off the storm.” 
“Oh, you know…” Chiho racked her brains for an answer, impressed at Urushihara’s wholly unexpected insight. 
“He wanted it conspicuous, eh…? What was he trying to make us take our eyes off of, though?” 
“Urushihara?” 
“…Oh.” 
Chiho looked up at Urushihara’s voice. Suzuno was up there, behind the back of a nearly limp Libicocco and gearing up to hammer him down onto the school roof. 
“Hnnngh!!” 
She put her all into that swing. It was a home-run blast, sending the demon hurtling like a comet down toward Urushihara. “Ooh, that ain’t good,” he said as he raised his arms. 
“Nh! …Rgh!” Libicocco groaned as he stopped in midair. If he hadn’t stopped, he might’ve caved in the old school building’s roof with his weight. Urushihara must have cast something to prevent that. 
“Yo. Malebranche general. You know she ain’t goin’ all out on you, right, dude? I dunno what you’re hiding, but you keep that up, and you’re dead.” 
“Gnn…nnh…” 
Whether he didn’t want to talk or was too physically drained to, Libicocco could do nothing but squirm above Urushihara’s hands. 
“Whew,” said Suzuno as she gently alighted on the roof. “All bark and no bite.” She slowly walked up to Libicocco, flicking the blood off her hammer. “Now! Release the school from your accursed storm at once! If not, I will be forced to take your life, and I would like to avoid that if I could.” 
“…Kill me if you want,” Libicocco said in a tight, pained voice. “You’re human.” 
Suzuno shook her head. “I will no longer kill simply because my adversary is a heretic…or a demon.” 
“Suzuno…?” 
“You could have fought on more of an even keel if you annulled your stormwall magic. You refused to listen to my repeated warnings. You have another objective you are hiding from me, yes?” 
“…” Suzuno must have found Libicocco’s behavior just as perplexing as Urushihara had. 
“I will kill you only if I decide you have clearly and intentionally blighted the world and its people with your malice. I have learned how to be more flexible with my credo in Japan. I only fight an enemy that shows malice against me. The idea of killing yet again simply because our races or species differ sickens me.” 
“Heh…heh-heh… That ‘credo’ will come back to haunt you in the end.” 
“’Tis better to rue my betrayer than to rue the fact that I failed to believe in him. The human world has grown rather…complex as of late. I would hate to kill, only to wonder if my enemy was right the whole time.” 
Suzuno’s hair, still wet from the rain, shone in the light around her. 
“Besides,” she said, “my friends are not such weak people that a single betrayal would mark the end for them.” 
With that, she shrank her hammer, returning it to hairpin form as she inserted it into a pocket. It would be too much trouble to put it on before her hair dried. 
“…Am I wrong, Chiho?” she asked, turning around. 
Chiho was dumbfounded. She knew exactly which of her “friends” she was talking about. She had always hoped Suzuno would come out with it, but she never imagined it actually happening. 
“Y-yes… Yes, you’re right, Suzuno!” 
It made her supremely happy for some reason, swinging her fists in the air as she reflexively jumped up and down. 
“Uh, y’know…” 
Urushihara—who, it turned out, could read the atmosphere in a room a lot better than she thought—knew what they were getting at. He wasn’t the sort of person to accept it that easily, but he was too lazy to rain on their parade, either. 
“So what’re we gonna do about these stormwalls—?” 
Just as he attempted to move things along, Urushihara’s sight was completely taken over by an intense light. 
“Ah?!” 
“What in the…?” 
“Huh?” 
The three of them looked up at the sky in order. The roof they were standing on had suddenly been engulfed in sunlight. The rain and wind streaming from the inside of the wall stopped, as if releasing the school from its barrage, and now the sun and blue sky were visible once more. 
“…Uh, did you do something?” an accusatory Urushihara asked Libicocco. This couldn’t have been natural. The stormwall itself was still up there. 
“…” 
But Libicocco refused to answer. Suzuno, eyes still upon him, shook her head. “I do not like this one bit. What will happen next?” 
Urushihara squinted at the sun above him, its rays pummeling his face. He raised a hand up to block them. It looked like some sort of all-seeing eye, looking down upon them through the break in the storm. 
“Hmm?” 
There, in the sun, he spotted a tiny black speck, like a small piece of trash stuck to the surface. 
“Whoa, there’s something in the sun…” 
The speck gradually, ever so gradually, grew in size. 
Urushihara’s eyes opened wide—one of the handful of times each year he ever bothered to look serious. Tossing Libicocco aside, he leaped over to Suzuno and Chiho. 
“What…?” 
“Urushi…?” 
His sudden spring to action surprised them both, but before they could voice their concern: 
“Hooff!!” 
Urushihara’s wings spread out wide, shining in the light. All the two women could do was gasp. A searing flame, like a science-fiction light beam, had just crashed down on the spot Suzuno and Chiho were standing on. 

“Lucifer!!” 
And Urushihara had stopped it. His arms were out, and just as he did with Libicocco before, he had made the beam stop dead in the air a few inches over his hands, protecting the girls. 
This, however, was a daunting task. His white wings could spread out no further, his entire body shining as he strove to defend himself, but waves of intense heat were making Suzuno’s and Chiho’s hair blow back behind them. 
“Ghh… Ahh! Shit…!” Beads of sweat ran down Urushihara’s forehead. “What the hell is he thinking?! Bell! Get Chiho Sasaki outta here! I can’t hold this!” 
“Grab on, Chiho!” 
Without waiting for a reply, Suzuno all but tackled Chiho at the waist. Once she was safe in her hands, Suzuno leaped up and shot away from the roof at speeds that could very well make Chiho lose consciousness. 
“Ooh…eh…!” 
Scooped up into the skies at a rate that upturned her stomach, Chiho watched the scene below her. The roof door leading downstairs was starting to bend—a steel door, one that Urushihara’s holy magic was supposed to have sealed off. That was how hot it must have been. Was he all right, dealing with that by himself? The temperature of this gigantic flamethrower was such that the diminutive Urushihara began to shimmer in the haze underneath the beam. 
“Wh-what’s that?!” 
Suzuno had finally traveled high enough that they were free of the beam’s range. She slowed down, but even from here, they couldn’t see where the flame was coming from. 
“Suzuno! How’s Urushihara?!” 
“I don’t know! But if we go back down there, the heat would roast you, Chiho!” 
“No way…” the schoolgirl moaned. 
Then things got worse. Slowly, ploddingly, a gigantic shadow arose away from the beam. Libicocco, tossed aside a moment earlier, had revived himself. 
“Suzuno! Look!” 
“I know! I’m dropping you off in the courtyard, Chiho!” 
Suzuno turned away from Urushihara and the flame, trying to take Chiho to as safe a place as possible. But: 
“D-damn you all!!” 
Somebody was there, in midair, to stop her. Someone that, to someone who had just been fighting a demonic visitor from out of nowhere, was unbelievable to her. 
“N-no…!” 
Chiho, in her arms, began to feel desperation set in. 
“Out of our way now, Heavenly Regiment!” 
The enemy refused to budge. There were five of them there, surrounding Suzuno to keep her from descending. 
“N-not Gabriel again?!” 
The Regiment were the soldier-servants of the angels themselves. They had visited Japan on a couple of occasions, serving as Gabriel’s bodyguards. 
“They bear different weaponry,” Suzuno moaned. “Gabriel’s fighters simply fought with whatever they could find.” 
All five of them were clad in heavy, thick-looking red armor that covered their entire bodies. In his hands, each bore an identical black metal trident. Clearly, this was a different level of cohesion from the ragtag bunch Gabriel tolerated. 
Every barb on every trident was aimed at the two of them. The threat might not have meant instant death, but it was enough to make Suzuno’s mind race. There was no way a Malebranche leader and a Heavenly Regiment platoon would just happen to show up at the same time. It meant only one thing. 
“You… You’ve really done it…” 
There was a tangible frustration in Suzuno’s voice. She still had no idea what they wanted, but there was no turning away from reality now. The demons maneuvering in secret on the Eastern Island were receiving support from the heavens—the angels themselves. It was impossible to believe, and impossible to know why it was happening, but it was the only possible explanation left. 
“Suzuno…” 
“Chiho, don’t move. Ahh, curse this body! I swore to myself I would let nothing faze me…!” 
Chiho couldn’t see it from Suzuno’s arms, but the woman’s voice was now starting to be laced with tears. 
“The black tridents, and the red armor. Iron, and red. And Lucifer, damn him, he refuses to move an inch!” 
Urushihara was now almost fully swallowed by the fire hurtling toward the roof. Suzuno took the chance to curse his name anyway. 
“Archangel Camael! What are you trying to accomplish?!” 
The two of them could now feel seething rage emanating from the Regiment. The reaction made it clear Suzuno was on target. And although this angel couldn’t have heard Suzuno’s voice: 
“S-Suzuno!” 
The flame attacking Urushihara silenced Chiho’s scream as it swelled further in size. 
“Gaaahhh!!” 
As they and the Regiment watched, the little figure on the roof was blown away by the light and flash, falling to a rest just before the edge of the roof. 
“Urushihara! Urushihara!!” 
She doubted he could hear her, but Chiho just had to call out anyway. 
And that still wasn’t all of it. Libicocco, dragging his battered and bruised body, began approaching Urushihara. Chiho held her breath in horror. 
Suzuno had just taken a step further toward Chiho’s ideal world, but now… These insane new events had wounded her all over again. Did that mean everyone was going away? 
“Ngh…!!” 
Chiho looked upward, teary-eyed. Now she could clearly see the figure that had fried Urushihara up so thoroughly. Like his Regiment, he was in a red suit of armor. His body, while still not quite Libicocco’s size, was every bit the hulking mass that Gabriel boasted. 
“Hoh, man… I never dreamed you’d put up with this farce, dude…” 
The unwanted baggage of Devil’s Castle, his holy force used up and his body literally browned and ready for serving, was back to human form. Yet even in his sorry state, he never took his eyes off the sky. 
“Shiiiiit, Bell and Chiho Sasaki’s gonna kill me for this. I totally said you wouldn’t take action, too.” 
“…” 
Between the full-body armor and the full-face helmet, the silent figure looked more like a berserker captain than an angel. 
“So… Camael. Why the change of heart?” 
The archangel Camael ignored Urushihara’s question. He looked at Libicocco, motioning with his head. 
“…Tch.” Libicocco sneered. But he carried out the order anyway. It didn’t involve Urushihara at all. Instead, he spread his tattered wings and began flying straight for Suzuno and Chiho. 
“Sorry, you little ant.” 
Suzuno couldn’t move, hampered in all directions by the Regiment. And unlike their private one-on-one meeting earlier, the look Libicocco gave Chiho was more awkward than anything else. 
“Give it. You know the score.” 
Chiho looked down upon Libicocco’s outstretched palm, scarred and missing a claw. 
“The Yesod fragment. I know you’ve got it. Give it, and all of us are out of here. Now.” 
She found herself bringing a hand up to a pocket on her uniform. 
“Don’t do it, Chiho!!” 
The subsequent scream from Suzuno made her freeze. 
“Don’t give them any more of the Sephirah! Remember what Gabriel and Raguel did to us!” 
“B-but, Suzuno, Urushihara’s been—” 
“…If worse comes to worst, Chiho, I’ll take your fragment and swallow it if I have to.” 
“And you think we demons would hesitate to dissect a human if need be?” 
Chiho now found herself in the middle of a pitched war of words. 
“It would beat simply handing it to you, any day of the week!” 
Suzuno’s voice was clearer now, more resolute. But the bravado was pointless now. All the two of them could hear in response was a cold, blunt command. 
“…You heard her.” 
It was not aimed at the shouting Suzuno. 
“Ngh!!” 
“S-Suzuno?!” 
Chiho could feel a dull impact run across her body. It was accompanied by a throaty groan from Suzuno. 
“Ah…?!” 
Then she saw something horrifying out from the corner of her eye. One of the Regiment’s spears was sticking out of Suzuno’s stomach. 
“Suzuno!!” Chiho shouted. Before she stopped, she felt a strong momentum as Libicocco, who was right in front of her, shrank away. Suzuno had jumped back in midair. 
“S-Suzuno?!” 
“Do not worry about me,” she replied, pained but resolute. “It was the butt end. Hakk…!” 
“The butt end?!” 
To Chiho, not all that familiar with midair warfare, all she could imagine was people’s rear ends in her mind. 
“Agh!” 
She didn’t have much time to dwell on the thought. A red Regiment member was advancing upon Suzuno, this time with the pointy end of his tri-tipped spear aimed at her. 
“Curse youuuuuuuu!” Suzuno shouted in a fashion not befitting a cleric. She swept the tips away with her hammer, glided through the air to dodge them, and tried desperately to create more distance between her and the fighters. But it was for naught. They were far better trained than Gabriel’s posse. Like the lead jet in a dogfight, one of them always made sure he was behind Suzuno’s back; another kept his sights on Chiho, knowing full well she was the weak point. Yet another applied pressure from below, lest Suzuno attempt a landing. 
And even if she managed to shake all five of them off, Urushihara was no longer able to stand—and Libicocco and Camael were still waiting. 
“S-Suzuno! I—you…you don’t have to worry about me, so…” Chiho, swung around in the air and barely able to take the g-forces, had to work hard to keep from biting her tongue as she spoke. “Go ahead and…and drop me, okay…? I don’t mind if I’m hurt a little bit… It’ll be, be easier to fight—” 
“Silence!” Suzuno exclaimed as she threaded the needle in the air, executing an acrobatic maneuver to avoid another spear. “They are after you, Chiho, not I! If I let you go now, it will be the end for us both! …Ngh!!” 
The spear from another Regiment soldier grazed her leg. 
“Suzuno!” 
“D-damn it! Chiho, close your eyes!” 
Without waiting for a reply, Suzuno softly chanted a spell, then swung her hammer at the soldier in front of her. 
“Lightwave Flash!!” 
The face of her hammer began to shine as brightly as the sun, blinding the soldier she targeted. 
“Go awaaaaaaaay!!” 
While his guard was down, Suzuno took a big swing and struck the soldier squarely in the pit of his stomach. She could feel the thud of the impact as the soldier disappeared from sight. 
“Hang on, Chiho! We’re moving!” 
Before anything else, she had to escape the school. As it was, it was only a matter of time before students and teachers would be in danger. Urushihara’s seal seemed to still be in effect, but Camael was just about to vaporize the entire roof of the old school building. She could protect Chiho alone, perhaps, but not the several hundred people currently on school grounds. 
While Urushihara was still on Suzuno’s mind, priority one right now was to keep Chiho and her Yesod fragment free from enemy hands. She zoomed in the air, almost causing Chiho to black out, before a sudden flash of light made her gasp in desperation. 
“Sorry, pal, but your illusions won’t work on Malebranche.” 
“Ngh?!” 
The enormous body that stepped out from the light was Libicocco’s. His remaining good claw was suddenly right in Suzuno’s path. She couldn’t avoid it. Instead she swung her hammer, slowing herself down as she attempted to smash the claw in her way. 
“Graaaah!!” 
Chiho, eyes seared by the light even through her eyelids and still about ready to pass out, heard Suzuno’s scream just as she felt a warm liquid on her cheek. It made her consciousness literally white out. It should have been just a few seconds, but the next thing Chiho saw after the light fizzled and she came back to her senses was— 
“…!!!!!!” 
Chiho writhed as she let out a soundless scream. But her body didn’t move. She couldn’t move it, because now she was in Libicocco’s arms. And Suzuno, who had tried too hard to bring her to safety… 
“…You just had to make this difficult, you little wench…” 
…was Suzuno, lying in the middle of the roof before Libicocco’s eyes, covered in blood. 
“S-Suzuno! Suzuno!!” 
Even from her vantage point, Chiho could tell that something had cut deeply into her near the top of her shoulder. There was another slashing wound running from the visible part of her leg beneath the kimono. Fresh blood was gushing out of it. 
But the worst part of it all was how her hair and kimono were both strewn across the concrete, kept in place by the Regiment soldiers that kept her down with their spears like they were performing a crucifixion. Her great hammer was now a powerless hairpin a few inches away from her hand. 
“Ah…gghh… Chiho, ngh…” 
But she was still trying to reach out to Chiho. 
“Suzuno! …Agh!” 
Chiho tried to reach out herself, but Libicocco was having none of it. He kicked Suzuno’s outstretched arm away, looking down at her with a face that had almost a trace of pity on it. 
“Why must you defy us so much? You’re a Church cleric, no? He, and everyone around you, are all angels! The messengers of the gods, worthy of your unquestioning worship! What would you accomplish by defying them?” 
Withstanding the pain, Suzuno glared at Libicocco, face drenched in blood. 
“Angels… Angels willing to do things like this… I refuse to accept it! The only thing I worship is the path of righteousness… The path that leads us all to peace, and justice!” 
The more she screamed, the more blood pumped out of her wounds. Chiho shivered, unable to speak. 
“How can I accept angels who…who are willing to bargain with evil? Who hurt the people that serve them? Who bring chaos to the entire world?!” 
“Very well. Warriors with a single-mindedness like that… I don’t mind it. But there’s nothing to do for it now.” 
The soldiers stepped up to Libicocco, as if summoned to him. 
“Come on, you little ant. I’m not gonna ask you again. Give it.” 
The warning failed to reach Chiho’s ears. All of her senses were paralyzed. 
“Listen… Koff koff! Ch-Chiho… Never give it up…” 
“S-Suzu…” 
“I said, I’m not gonna ask you again. Do it, or you’ll be damn sorry.” 
They were at the proverbial cliff, Libicocco and the soldiers advancing upon them—the hands of evil, posing as divinity. 
 
“This… What the hell…is this?!!” 
Rika’s shout echoed across the streets of Sasazuka. 
The rain grew stronger and stronger, soaking Villa Rosa Sasazuka’s front yard. Accompanying the storm was the arrival of a group the likes of which she had never seen before—and for some reason, the phone she currently had in a death grip couldn’t pick up any service. 
“Ashiya! Nord!!” 
And now Rika, sunken down on the wet ground, was watching the limp, wounded bodies of Ashiya and Nord. 
“What’s with you?! What’s with you guys?!” 
Rika, in a state of panicked confusion, threw her useless phone into the air. It bounced off the chest of the large man in front of her, the one who defeated Ashiya and Nord, and landed helplessly in a water puddle. 
“Well, this sure got messed up. And here I thought having the Nord Justina was a total stroke of luck for me, too.” 
The man—standing out like the statue of some Greek god among the strange group—shrugged, a look of sheer disappointment on his face. 
“I wasn’t expecting any third parties here,” he glumly muttered as he took a step toward Rika. “Now what’m I gonna do?” 
“Ah, ah…” 
Rika couldn’t move, her legs failing her. She couldn’t be blamed for it. A platoon of fully armored soldiers was scary enough of a sight—but this guy had just smashed Ashiya and Nord to the ground with a single swipe, right before her eyes. She could take a lot of things, but pure, unfiltered violence wasn’t one of them. Her fear had frozen her solid. 
“Man, I really don’t like freaking girls out like this… Hey, uh, let me get one thing straight with you, mm-kay? I promise I don’t want to hurt you or—” 
“S-stay away! Stay away from me!! Help me! Ashiya, help me!!” 
“…Geez, who do you think I am, anyway? I’m not a home invader or any—ow!” 
The man winced at the piece of rock or whatever Rika had just picked up off the ground and thrown at him. 
“…Well, yeah, guess it’s too late for excuses, huh? …Look, I’m sorry, mm-kay? You can cry or scream as much as you want, so just sit tight for a second, all right? …Hey.” 
He signaled something to the group behind him. Four of the knights advanced toward him. 
“Wait… Wait, what’re you…?” 
Rika watched as they picked up Ashiya and Nord, lying motionless on the ground. 
“Where… Where’re you taking them…?” 
“Taking them? We’re not taking them. We’re returning them—back to where they came from.” 
“Where they…?” 
“Ah, no need to worry about it. Oh, and don’t bother going to the po-pos or anything, mm-kay? ’Cause we’re kinda out of their jurisdiction, if you know what I mean. Just chalk it up as, ‘hey, accidents happen,’ y’know?” 
“Ah!!” 
“…Wait, huh?” 
Although still too dumbfounded to speak, Rika suddenly found herself rising to her feet, walking up to the knight holding Ashiya, and grabbing him. 
“Gah!” 
“……!!” 
“Wh-where’re you taking him?! Quit giving me all this nonsense! Gimme Ashiya back! Give him back, goddammit!” 
“Whoa, lady, come on! Can you knock that off? Geez, you spooked me…” 
“Ah!!” 
The knight finally managed to shake Rika off. She flew through the air before landing face-first in a puddle. 
“Hey, whoa, uh…!” 
Now it was the large man who sounded like he was in a panic. Not only did the knight release his grasp on Ashiya’s body—now he had his sword out. 
“Hold your frickin’ weapon, you idiot! Don’t make this more complicated for me!” 
But the man was nowhere near close enough to the knight to stop him. Rika, on hands and knees, looked up to find a sight she never imagined seeing in her life in Japan—a weapon, an enraged knight, and her life ending right at this moment. 
“Nh!” 
She didn’t even have the time to gasp. The weapon seemed to crawl in the air, glinting silver against the rain that tapped against it. But then: 
“Hraaahahhh!!” 
A scream penetrated its way through the air as the knight careened to the side like a rubber ball, just before the sword went all the way down. 
“Whaa—?!” exclaimed the man, astounded beyond belief as the knight was plastered against the concrete-block wall that encompassed Villa Rosa Sasazuka. Slowly, ever so slowly, he crumpled to the ground. 
“Wha…?” 
The first thing Rika saw was a pair of feet clad in flat, rubber-soled shoes. Following the legs upward, she saw a pair of denim pants, posed in the tail end of a classic kung-fu kick. Farther up this person’s body was a black shirt, tanned skin, and a black ponytail. 
“…Who’re you, huh?” Her assailant, so easygoing a moment ago, was now in a flustered panic. “And how’d you get in here?” 
“How…?” 
The woman, lowering her kicking leg with the grace of a kung fu movie star, was wholly unfamiliar to Rika. 
“Since when did I need permission to horn in on your territory?” 
She flashed an evil grin. 
To a man, the rest of the knights, several dozen of them, unsheathed their swords and pointed them at the newcomer. The large man didn’t stop them this time—but despite this threat, the tanned woman held her ground. 
“Mess with me, and you’ll pay for it with your lives, you got that? And that applies to you, too, mystery man.” 
“…Sure like talkin’ big, huh? Who’re you, anyway?” 
“Well, I don’t know this girl or that guy over there, so to put it simply…” 
The woman turned her eye to Ashiya, still under close watch from the knights, and snickered to herself. 
“I’m this Ashiya here’s ex-boss.” 
 
As Suzuno’s bloodstained consciousness faded, she watched in desperation as Chiho fell into the hands of the Regiment. She wanted to stop them, but she could no longer lift so much as a finger. All she could do was writhe in the pain her shoulder and leg were causing her. 
Just as a Regiment soldier was about to lay hands upon Chiho, a beam of purple light, more powerful than the sun itself, burst from beyond the stormwall. 
“Wh-what?” 
“……?” 
Both Libicocco and Suzuno—Camael, too, no doubt—turned toward the source of the light. It came from outside Sasahata North High’s front gate. 
“Mngh!” the demon moaned, fearing the new threat. His wall suddenly weakened by a considerable measure; the border that shut the school away from the rest of reality grew increasingly vague as the rain and wind simmered down. Soon, the entire wall was dismantled. The wind caused by this sudden change in barometric pressure was strong enough to knock down the entire Heavenly Regiment. 
At that moment, the purple flash zoomed across the school grounds like a shooting star. The moment they all spotted it, the storm that had formed the wall up till now followed after it with intense momentum. 
“Huh…?” Libicocco exclaimed as the light and the storm passed by his side. Then he realized his arm had started to feel oddly lighter. Or not lighter, exactly— 
“Agaaaahhhhhh?!” 
Libicocco’s arm, the one he had used to grab the small girl before him a moment ago, was completely gone from the shoulder down. Blood spattered from his wound, coinciding with the intense pain that reached his head. He tried frantically to stop it as he fell to his knees. 
“Ah?!” 
Then he realized that the other human who was lying before him was now completely gone. The spears of the five armored soldiers charged with pinning her to the ground had been neatly sliced halfway down, like someone taking a butcher knife to a cucumber, and were now totally useless. The knights stared, dumbfounded, unable to parse what had just happened, before turning around to trace the path of the light and storm. It was a monster, and now it was standing in front of the downed Urushihara, protecting him. It was human in form, but its limbs, and the two horns on its head—one still partially severed—were unmistakably demonic. 
“Ah…ah…” 
Even though she was still being held by a demonic arm, the sense of serenity and safety Chiho felt now was more than enough to make the tears flow. It was Chiho’s hero, the man who always stepped up for her in times of danger. 
Sadao Maou now held Chiho and Suzuno in his arms. But not as the Devil King he once was. His height was the same as always. And unlike before, it did not physically pain Chiho to be near this demon—and demon he was, as shown by the legs and arms poking out from his UniClo outfit. 
“M-Maou…” 
“Sorry I’m late. I was kinda far away.” 
Maou didn’t take his eyes off Libicocco and the Regiment, but the voice directed toward Chiho remained firm and strong. 
Chiho nodded, the tears running down her already-wet cheeks. 
“…It’s…it’s okay…snif…” 

“You ain’t hurt, are you?” 
“No… Urushihara and…and Suzuno protected me…” 
“Yeah?” 
Maou gave her a gentle nod, then turned his attention toward Suzuno. “You are far…far too late, Devil King,” she said before he could speak up, glaring with what consciousness she had left through the pain. 
With Chiho in his left arm and Suzuno in his right, Maou gently dropped them off on the roof. 
“I couldn’t have possibly gotten here any faster, man,” Maou sneered at Suzuno’s unrelenting criticism. “At least I made it in time, okay? You could give a little thanks for that. Always darkest before the dawn and stuff.” 
Suzuno couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Between Urushihara going down, Suzuno joining him, and the worst just about to happen to Chiho, it was the very definition of “dark.” 
“I would…appreciate it…if you left such dramatics to the Hero. Not you, Devil King…heh-heh…ngh.” 
Her face contorted as a wave of pain seized her. Her entire body was wounded and doused in blood—but she, and Urushihara, were both somehow still alive. 
“You ain’t dead, are you?” Maou asked, back turned. Suzuno shook her head lightly at the question, relieved—relieved that Maou was here, of all things—as the pain dominated her mind. 
“It hurts enough to die…and the fact that it does means I am still safe.” 
Maou nodded. “Great job holding out for that long. I’ll take care of the rest.” 
He was facing an archangel in the sky, a Malebranche leader in front of him, and five well-trained members of the Heavenly Regiment. He had the wounded Suzuno and Urushihara covered, as well as the helpless Chiho—but he still exuded an air of supreme confidence. He looked unarmed at first glance, his transformation to Devil King incomplete, and none of them felt any demonic force from him—and yet, Suzuno felt no anxiety at all. She felt safe, watching him from behind, and that confidence in him filled her heart. 
“Right… I dunno what’s going on here, really, but you guys were sure kicking some ass, weren’t you? That’s the first time I lost three Great Demon Generals in one go since Emi.” 
“Y-you…” 
Maou sauntered up to the kneeling, armless Libicocco. 
“You, you took my arm!” he screamed, still in shock that he had left his guard down around this half demon—the one who, even now, was grinning as he presented the severed arm to him like a prize. 
“Well, look at this Malebranche wannabe, huh? Tryin’ to act all tough around me, aren’tcha?” 
The hand he had held out was surrounded by a purplish gleam. 
“Mmm,” Camael murmured to himself within his iron helm. It was the first time he had spoken so far, although no one else noticed. 
The purple light ran from Maou’s palm across his arm, eventually covering his entire body. Suzuno’s eyes opened wide. 
“It’s not…demonic force…?” 
It wasn’t. There wasn’t a trace of demon energy within Maou, even as he regained part of his original form and began to wield superhuman force once more. There wasn’t any holy energy either, of course. It was just power, in its purest form, making Suzuno’s own holy energy stir as it seemed to overwhelm her. 
She had felt something like this before. 
“Maou…?” Chiho said, voice weak but firm. She must have noticed something was different about Maou this time as well. Suzuno turned her eyes to her. 
Then she remembered. She had seen this once, with Chiho. Over in the city of Choshi, far to the east of Sasazuka—at the Inuboh-saki Lighthouse, the first location in Japan to receive the rising sun’s blessings each day. 
“Well, then. Any of you guys willing to risk your life in battle as much as Emi is?” 
Now there was something swinging in his right hand. Something filled to the brim with overwhelming strength. 
“The…the Better Half… The holy sword!” 
Everyone there—Libicocco, the Regiment, Camael, even Suzuno—called out the name. The sword in Maou’s hand was every bit the carbon copy of the Better Half that was now inseparable from Emi’s body. 
 
“As far as I’m concerned, that guy over there’s enough punishment for what you did to this girl. That’s all I feel like doing, as long as you guys leave right now.” 
The tanned woman took a step forward, paying the large man and his army no mind as they seethed at him. 
“Thing is, though…” 
“…What?” 
Somehow, there was something coming out from underneath her feet. It was billowing out, in fact, further separating them from the rain-shrouded neighborhood of Sasazuka. 
“Mist…?” 
“If you keep doing whatever you want to innocent bystanders like this, I’m not really in a position to let that slide.” 
“Ah!” 
It was pressure, pure and simple. The woman’s eyes shot right through the man’s heart—and with it, a force that was neither demonic nor holy. 
“I don’t really care how your world winds up turning out. That’s y’all’s problem to deal with. But we took care of our business a long time ago. So if you start messin’ around with all of our hard work…” 
The woman let out a hard snort as she took a step forward, sending water flying. 
“We aren’t gonna take that sitting down, is what I’m sayin’.” 
That was all it took to make the knights stagger, struggling to handle the onrush of power. 
“…?” It puzzled the mud-daubed Rika, who couldn’t figure out why the knights edged away from her after seemingly no prodding. She knew this woman was there to help her, but she doubted a lone woman could handle so many of these people at once. 
Then things went in a completely unexpected direction. 
“Okay. We’ll go. Something tells me trying to defy you is kind of hazardous to our health.” 
The man surrendered as breezily as when he first walked up to Rika. 
“But we still have a few things we absolutely have to do, mm-kay? I can take these two with me, yeah?” 
“Wh-whoa!” protested Rika. He was obviously referring to Ashiya and Nord, Emi’s father. 
“I’m pretty sure I couldn’t beat you even if I threw all my muscle into it, but…you know, if you aren’t willing to give me that much, I’m not gonna have much choice apart from giving it the ol’ college try.” 
“Even if all of you die?” 
The man readily nodded at the woman’s not-so-veiled threat. “I’d be dead anyway if I let a golden opportunity like this fall through my fingers.” 
“Stop all this nonsense!” Rika shouted, the tanned woman helping her recover from the initial shock. “Where’re you taking Ashiya and Emi’s dad?!” 
“Didn’t I just tell you, girl?” the strange man said, giving Rika a look. “I’m not taking them. They’re just going back to where they used to be. And I’m assuming, if I’m judging you right, that you ain’t gonna try to get in the way of that, mm-kay?” 
“Hey, can…can you help them?” Rika asked. “I need you to help both of them!” 
It was do-or-die time. This woman was the only person left to turn to. But as far as the other two were concerned, Rika was no longer a necessary part of the conversation. 
“I think you probably already know this, but the older guy’s on this side of things. So’s the demon. They aren’t part of Earth, so…fine by me.” 
This agreement from the ponytailed woman was nothing like what Rika had hoped for. An overwhelming presence loomed in her mind, enough to make the very rain around her seem to evaporate. 
“I’m not allowed to interfere with anything like that, so go right ahead. Just stop screwing around over here, got it?” 
“Got it. Thank youuuu!” 
“No! No, come on! Please!” 
At the man’s signal, the knights once again picked Ashiya and Nord off the ground, along with the man previously smashed against the outer wall. All Rika could do was watch. 
“Hey, what’s your name?” asked the tanned woman. 
“…Gabriel. The archangel Gabriel, although I’m kinda ashamed to say it lately.” 
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” 
This crazy gang of armed soldiers was kidnapping two men, and she was just standing there in the rain, smiling like she enjoyed it. 
“All right. So, Gabe—” 
“You’re giving me a nickname already?” the man called Gabriel moaned. 
“You probably know this, too, but…I know I said I won’t get in the way, but I can’t guarantee that certain other people won’t.” 
“Sure, sure. We can handle that. I promise we won’t bother you anymore.” 
“We’ll see about that. That’s kinda the top two lies a man tells a woman, ain’t it? ‘I’m sorry,’ and ‘I won’t do it again.’” 
“Hah! Got me there. I’ve been around for a pretty long time, but compared to you, I’m still just a kid, aren’t I?” The concept made Gabriel crack a smile. “I’d love to get your name, too, mm-kay?” 
“…Nngh!” 
Ashiya, carried by a knight behind Gabriel, chose that moment to twitch back to life. Rika immediately noticed. 
“Ashiya!!” 
“Oop, guess we went a little too easy on that human body of his,” a disinterested Gabriel said. 
“Wh-what on…? Ngh! Take your hands off me!” 
Ashiya attempted to struggle, but his body wasn’t up to the task. Several knights stepped in to hold him in place. He lifted his face upward in despair. 
“Grh… M-Ms. Suzuki, are you all right…?” 
Then he noticed the woman standing next to the muddied Rika. He recognized her. And the moment he did, his mind began racing. Gabriel visiting Sasazuka right when Emilia was away from Japan. The Efzahan knights from the Eastern Island. Himself and Nord, captured. 
“Amane!!” he shouted. It was all clear now. He had been saved by Amane Ohguro, seasonal proprietor of the Ohguro-ya snack bar off the Choshi coast. She should’ve been occupied enough, running her little sanctuary for the dead over there, but now she was in Sasazuka for reasons Ashiya couldn’t guess. He was at a loss as to why, but right now, she was all he had. 
“Tell Maou I’ll be waiting at the National Museum of Western Art!!” 
“Hey, shut him up,” Gabriel commanded. 
A knight quickly placed a gauntlet over Ashiya’s mouth—too late to keep him from getting across what he had to say. But it was a huge relief: Now, Maou ought to be able to handle the rest. 
“You’re Amane, huh?” Gabriel continued. “Hmm…” 
“Yep. Amane Ohguro,” she brightly chirped. “Not a bad guy, trust me. Oh, and roger that, Ashiya. That’s all I gotta tell ’im?” 
“Heh. Yeah, not a bad guy. Well, at least I didn’t have to actually fight you, I guess. We sure lucked out this time, huh?” 
“Oh, I wouldn’t count my chickens quite yet. Those kids can be pretty tenacious.” 
“I know, mm-kay? I’m just not so sure that last ray of hope he’s got is gonna come through this time. After all…” He turned up to the sky. “He’s dealing with a guy that rules over everything ‘red’ in our world. With an iron fist, so to speak. I ain’t too sure the Devil King can handle that right now.” 
“Everything ‘red,’ hmm?” Amane shrugged. “I don’t remember hearing he can do that, but whatever. That’s all your business, anyway, not mine. So, hey, are you leaving or what?” 
“Wait… Wait a second!” Rika shouted. 
“You got it, miss. Say hi to his boss for me, all right? I’d love to have him over sometime, actually.” 
And with that, they all disappeared. Before Rika’s eyes, the dozens of men flicked out of existence like a TV screen, taking Ashiya and Nord with them. 
“No…way…” Rika whispered, still on her knees in a puddle. And then: 
“…Oop.” 
She fell and fainted, finally overtaken by her fear and confusion. Amane gently held up her body, deftly carrying her piggyback as she looked around the area. 
“Oh, brother… The Sephirots over on their world must be in a huge tizzy right now.” 
Adjusting Rika’s position on her back, the ever-serene Amane walked up the Villa Rosa Sasazuka stairway. Room 201 was luckily unlocked—Rika and Ashiya must’ve forgotten to lock it as they ran from Gabriel. 
“Sorry for barging in. This girl’s gonna get a cold if I don’t put some new clothes on her.” 
After stepping in, Amane placed Rika on the wooden floor in the kitchen area as she started looking for a towel. “Wow,” she said as she marveled at the neatly folded pile of laundry. “He runs a tight ship… Hmm?” 
As she plucked out two towels for herself and Rika, she noticed a sheaf of papers next to the laundry, something like a handwritten map written on the top sheet. She picked it up, toweling off her hair as she gave it a glance. 
“Hmmm… So that’s how it is. Ah, but I gotta change this girl’s clothes first,” Amane said as she began to remove Rika’s ruined clothing. “You better not pick this exact moment to walk in, Maou.” 
Despite all the chaos that had just taken place, Amane sounded like this was an incredibly fun experience for her. 
 
“Maaaaan, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.” 
The half-demon Maou gave his sword a couple of test swings to see how it felt. It was light in his hand. 
“This ain’t demon force, is it? Something tells me the rebound from turning into this is gonna be a total bitch. Hopefully not, but I dunno…” 
Maou might have been uneasy about his newfound powers, but despite his whining, he had just made five Heavenly Regiment soldiers eat dirt in a matter of seconds. 
These soldiers wielded nowhere near the force of the archangel they served, but Camael’s men were still massively more powerful and better trained than Gabriel’s. Suzuno probably could have handled them, actually, if she didn’t have to hold Chiho at the same time, but it was easy for Maou to imagine the difficulty she faced anyway. 
It all happened in the blink of an eye, really. Every time Maou made a move, the roof of the building shuddered as a lightning-fast storm raged over it, the wind and sound barely keeping up. The Regiment soldiers fell like flies, as if the noise itself had stunned them. No one could even follow the action. 
“Ooh… If it wasn’t for Urushihara’s spell, you’d be breaking a lot of windows right now…” 
The sight was majestic enough for a rueful Chiho, her spirits now fully rallied, to get teary eyed as she watched. 
Camael was still apparently satisfied with watching events from above, but all Libicocco could do was watch as the Regiment accompanying him was utterly routed. 
“They aren’t…dead, are they?” Chiho asked. 
“I don’t care.” 
Their shining red armor was all but flattened, shattered like a cookie someone had stepped on. 
“You, Malebranche.” 
“…Yes.” 
Maou didn’t bother looking at Libicocco. He didn’t have to. His voice, along with what the demon had just witnessed, was enough to make him fall to his knees and grovel. He was not the Libicocco of the past. His head was to the ground, and he no longer tried to staunch the blood coming out of his stump. 
“You better not ask me who I am by now, all right? ’Cause I am not in a good mood. I know you’re kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place, but like I give a crap about that. You move even an inch, and I make you pay for it.” 
“…My liege.” 
Even if it wasn’t demonic in nature, the force projected by the Devil King right now told Libicocco he had no choice but to yield. 
“Right.” Maou nodded as he lightly kicked off the ground and leaped over to Urushihara. 
“…I’m…cuttin’ it pretty close this time, dude…” 
He was still on the roof, still unable to move so much as a finger, but not too weak to keep himself from carping at Maou. 
“Yeah, well, hang in there. I’ll take you to the hospital once it’s all over.” 
“…Nice of you. That ain’t too common.” 
“I didn’t think that he”—Maou pointed at the figure in red high above them, still not moved to take action—“was dumb enough to go shootin’ for your lazy ass first. You kept Chi and Suzuno safe, didn’t you? Pretty good job.” 
“…I’m not…gonna give you anything…for that compliment…” 
“Can you act appreciative for a single moment of your life, man? I’m the one dishing out favors right now.” 
If this was your normal, everyday demonic transformation, now would be the time when Maou would lend him some demonic force to heal him. But there was nothing demonic, nor holy, about what coursed through Maou now. 
He turned his eyes to Camael. 
“And you up there. What is this, like, the nth time you guys have messed around with me in Japan?” 
He had to have heard the taunt, but Camael didn’t move an inch. 
“Not that I mind if you feel like meddling with us, but didn’t your mom ever tell you not to be a bother to other people, no matter what?” 
It was patently ridiculous, a demon lecturing an archangel on morals. But it was clear that a lot of angels up there had been violating the rule quite a bit lately. 
“Whether you’re scouting other people or transferring stuff here or there, people in this country say hello to each other first. They say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ They pay money for it. Sometimes they even sue each other. What they don’t do is something as barbaric as start ripping the place apart the moment they show up.” 
“…Devil King,” Camael finally said, his voice low and gravelly. “Satan.” 
“Yeah?” 
“Devil King… Devil King Satan.” 
“Wh-what?” 
With Libicocco yielding to him, the rain and wind had died down quite a bit. That was how Maou could notice that the trident spear in Camael’s hand was rattling loudly in his gloved fingers. 
“Devil…King…Overlord… Satan, Satan… Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan Satan!” 
“Wh-what’re you doing? You’re acting all weird.” 
Camael’s voice ratcheted upward as he repeated the name, like a fuse burning toward some explosive end. 
“Yet again, a demon by that name must get in my way?!” 
“Wh-what? You’re the ones always getting in my way!” 
“Satan! Satan!!” 
“Yahh!” 
It came at a speed easily the equal of Maou’s when he defeated the Regiment. The tips of Camael’s trident glinted for just a moment—and the next, the spear was hurtling downward, ready to skewer him. 
“Gnh!” 
“Nrrgh!” 
With blazing speed of his own, Maou reacted quickly enough to deflect the spear with his sword… 
“Hyah!” 
…and whirled around on the spot, throwing the sword toward Camael’s armored chest. 
Even as off balance as he was after the attack, the angel quickly took action. He swung his spear downward, hoping to absorb the force of the incoming blade. But the sword, which had crushed Regiment armor and cut off Libicocco’s arm before he even realized what happened, was far keener than either of them even imagined. 
“Eh?” 
“Ngh?!” 
Maou thought it was blocked. Camael must have thought so, too. But there was just a slight moment of resistance, when their weapons met—and then Maou realized he had made a clean follow-through. 
“Ergh!” 
Camael’s muffled groan struck Maou’s ears. Maou, for his part, was dumbfounded. Not only did the sword neatly lop off the top of the trident halfway down the handle, it then went on to slash right through the crimson armor like it was made of construction paper. It didn’t make contact with skin below, it seemed—but not even Camael, who had reared back an instant after his weapon was cut in two, could believe the blade touched him. 
Thoughts of battles fought long ago flashed in Maou’s mind. Despite the overwhelming force now at his fingertips, he couldn’t help but smile. 
“…Man, I never had a chance against her, huh?” 
His guard remained up, sword readied in front of him, as he kept a watchful eye on Camael’s next move. Camael threw the hilt of his now-useless weapon aside, ran a hand across the newly-formed gash in his armor, and began to mutter. 
“Satan… Satan, Satan…?” 
“Uh?” 
Maou could tell that his breathing was gradually becoming more labored. 
“Sataaaann!!” 
“What, what? You’re freaking me out—whoa, whoa, whoa!” 
He had thought Camael has lost his wits for a moment, but suddenly, the archangel took the remainder of the spear—the part with the pointy bits—and lunged forward. 
“Satan!!” 
The points of the spear were close to him now, close enough that Maou could see the eyes behind the iron helmet—but he still blocked them easily. It wasn’t that he didn’t expect this surprise attack, but Camael’s bizarre, and terrifying, behavior was starting to unnerve him. 
“Gehh!” 
Then things got even worse. 
“Wh-whoa, are… What the hell?!” 
The blade of Maou’s sword, the one he used to defect the spear, was starting to eat between two of the trident’s prongs with its eerily sharp blade. This made it physically clear just how fine a weapon it was, but it was exactly what Maou didn’t want right now. If he cut through the space between the prongs, there wouldn’t be anything there to keep the rest of the weapon from stabbing straight through him. 
“G-geez!” Maou shouted in a panic. “This is too much of a good thing, man! Acieth, disengage!” 
“Okay, Maou!” 
Two things then happened at once. The sword in Maou’s hand instantly dissolved into a swarm of light particles, which then gathered to a point below the two fighters. It created a human form, fusing upon itself at lightspeed to create a person. A girl, named Acieth Alla—the child of a Yesod fragment, just like Alas Ramus. And just as the now-freed trident was about to penetrate Maou’s skin, Acieth’s willowy fist punched right through the middle of it. 
“Nngh!” 
The dull thud that accompanied the onrush of force, something her arm never should have been capable of, made Camael’s weapon go flying upward. He lost his balance on the rebound, leaving his torso wide open. 
“Yahh!!” 
It was greeted by a flying elbow from her wispy frame. 
“Mngh!!” 
Considering the size difference, the strike should have resulted in nothing but a broken elbow for Acieth. Instead, it sent cracks running across the midsection of Camael’s armor like it was made of glass and sent his body somersaulting through the air before it crashed into the roof. 
“Maou! What happened?!” 
She was surprised to find Maou lying on the roof next to Camael’s crumpled form. 
“I lost my balance while I tried to dodge the spear, okay?!” Maou protested as he picked himself up. 
“Maybe practice limbo dancing more, yes?” 
“Devil Kings don’t practice limbo dancing at all, lady!” 
“…Dude, treat this seriously…” 
Nobody heeded the words of Urushihara, still lying near the edge. 
“I am serious!” Acieth replied. “Time to fight more! These guys, they are more enemy to me than Maou!” 
Acieth’s body, far more powerful (it turned out) than it looked, wriggled in the air as she struck what she presumably thought was a menacing fighting pose. 
“Well, whatever you want, as long as you’re helping us…” 
Maou brought a finger to his forehead. This was Alas Ramus against Gabriel all over again. Acieth didn’t evoke much confidence with her semifluent Japanese, but the hostility she bore for Camael sure seemed like the real thing to him. She wouldn’t be expending all this strength on him otherwise. But what about Erone? He seemed to have no ill will toward Farfarello and the other demons at all. Was it just a matter of differing personalities? 
“I wouldn’t think so, no…” 
“Ugh…” 
“Yeah, I didn’t think that’d be enough to do him in,” Maou said as the sight of Camael struggling to his feet distracted him. 
“Sataaann!!” 
“Oh, great, me again? What’s your problem with me, anyway?” 
Maou was 100 percent sure they had never met before. He’d never seen any angels at all, in fact, until he went to Japan. 
“I mean, I don’t really wanna sic Acieth on you if I don’t even know what you’re angry about…” 
“Oh, I am okay with it!” 
“Chill out a sec, all right?” Maou said, attempting to calm her for a moment so that he could think in peace. 
“…Yeah, just chill out, mm-kay? You too, Camael.” 
Maou and Acieth both reared back, creating distance from the voice that suddenly popped up. 
“Ga—” 
“Gabriel!!” Acieth shouted before Maou could finish, voice tinged with even more hatred than what she lodged at Camael. 
“Whoa, wait—what?!” Gabriel exclaimed, rather surprised himself as he gaped at her. 
“W-wait, Acieth!” 
Maou had to quickly step in to keep the girl from leaping for Gabriel’s jugular right then and there. 
“What, Maou? Lemme do it!” 
“Wait, wait!” he said, grabbing her arm as he watched Gabriel. “We finally got someone I can actually talk to here! Don’t go killing him before I can at least do that!” 
He didn’t expect much from this new visitor—more of the meandering, misleading nonsense that Gabriel had given him last time—but at least he was more capable of coherent speech than Camael or Libicocco. 
“Acieth…?” 
Gabriel, meanwhile, sighed at the sight of the silver-haired girl who was ready to kill him at first sight. 
“My, my, my. All these unplanned events, one after the other…” 
“You pulling more of this behind-the-scenes crap again?” Maou asked, more exasperated than surprised by now. Whenever there was strife in his life, Gabriel always seemed to be part of it. 
“Well, yeah, uh… Or I s’pose you could say that it wasn’t so behind-the-scenes, mm-kay? Kinda different now, though. If that makes me a rat, then gimme some cheese to gnaw on, huh?” 
He shrugged in self-depreciating fashion. 
“I’m going home, Camael. If we keep trying to be greedy like this, it’s gonna bite us in the ass, that much I’m pretty sure of. This latent force is enough of a pain in the butt, but now we got someone waaaaaay rougher getting into the mix.” 
Camael’s stomach heaved up and down. 
“Boy, someone’s in a real tizzy, huh?” 
“I think something’s wrong with him, Gabriel.” 
Maou couldn’t help but butt in at the sight. Gabriel’s suggestion to retreat seemed to not register with Camael at all. He simply kept breathing, loudly and heavily. 
“Yeah. Guess he can’t keep cool when Devil King Satan’s around.” 
“Uh, I don’t think we have a beef with each other, do we? We haven’t even met.” 
“Hey, don’t bitch at me, mm-kay? Bitch at your mom ’n’ dad for naming you Satan in the first place. Maybe things’d be different if you were the Devil King Jimmy or something, but—” 
“What’s so bad about Jimmy? You got a problem with the Jimmys of the world?” 
“Yeah, sure, tell ’em all I said sorry for me. Come on, Camael, let’s go. We can’t flex our full muscle in this world anyway, and neither can they. There’s some seriously bad hombres gettin’ involved, mm-kay?” 
“Wait, you’re going?” Maou snarled. They seemed ready to take off, but he wasn’t ready to let them fly the coop quite yet. “No explanation or apology or anything?” 
“Yeah, um… Let’s just say that, uh, what I saw freaked me out so much that I want outta here ASAP, yeah?” 
“What?” 
“Um… Hey, you. The biggest bum in the world.” 
Gabriel stepped toward the prone Urushihara, chiding him. Maybe he was still sore about how he treated him earlier. 
“You still got that business card I gave you, right?” 
“Business card?” Maou glared at Gabriel, wondering what archangels needed something like that for. 
“…It’s at the bottom of one of my drawers. Covered in dust.” 
“Well, take better care of it than that, all right? Those things don’t exactly grow on trees, y’know! That really hurts my feelings!” Gabriel nodded perfunctorily, a twinge of sadness to his voice. “Anyway, that bum has my phone number, so gimme a call later, mm-kay? Oh, and here’s a little…uh, something for your trouble?” 
He clapped his hands once. Maou and Acieth steeled themselves for the worst, but instead a soft light extended out from the roof to cover the entire school grounds, before vanishing in the blink of an eye. 
“I kept all the storm damage intact ’cause it’d be too weird otherwise, but with that, nobody in this school has any memory of the past hour or so. So can we call ourselves even for now?” 
“…” 
Maou paused. He found himself looking at his feet, then at Chiho and Suzuno behind him. 
“For now…? You planning a rematch later on?” 
“Hey, if you’re up for it.” 
“I’d prefer not to, man.” 
“Even if I told you that we’re in possession of Emilia the Hero’s body?” 
“……!” 
To some extent, he was expecting Gabriel to say that. Considering how much the angels preferred to keep their diabolical plans under wraps and unnoticed, he knew they’d risk a flashy, destructive strike on Japan for one reason, and one reason only—because the Hero Emilia, the greatest current threat to their way of life, was gone. Hearing it from Gabriel’s mouth, though, made every muscle on Maou’s face tense up. 
“Ooh, that’s a funny face you’re making! Not exactly the kinda thing I’d expect the King of All Demons to make, mm-kay?” 
Gabriel smiled, the sheer joy behind it something that Maou had never seen from him before. 
“Well, see you later, Devil King…or should I say, the latest disaster we have to deal with?” 
 
And so Gabriel went “home”—but not after trashing Sasahata North High; taking Camael, the Regiment, and Libicocco with him; and leaving a bombshell revelation in his wake. “Home,” in this case, was much more likely Ente Isla than the heavenly realm. 
“Goddammit,” spat Maou as he looked at the now-calmer sky. It was almost two in the afternoon. He should have been on a train back home by now, all smiles after acing his road test. “Where the hell am I gonna get the money for a third exam?” 
But as he shook an angry fist at the skies above, Maou realized something. His body was back to its human self—back to good ol’ Sadao Maou. Surprised, he turned to Acieth, who was still yelling something toward the area Gabriel disappeared into. 
“…This makes zero sense.” 
Maou set off. Getting Suzuno and Urushihara patched up came first. 
“You all right, Chi?” 
“Ah…” Chiho looked down at herself. Her uniform, as well as her face and hands, were stained with muddy red blood. It was a sight to behold. 
“I’m…fine?” 
She nodded, and then tears began to well in her eyes. 
“This is…all…Suzuno’s blood. She tried to protect me…” 
“…She did?” 
“Gnhh…” 
The prone Suzuno groaned out loud. She sounded like she was ready to faint. 
“I-I’ll go fetch my 5-Holy Energy ? bottle from my classroom! Suzuno needs some right now!” 
“Wait a sec, Chi!” Maou shouted. “You can’t go back lookin’ like that!” 
Chiho being witnessed by other students in her current bloodied state would, at the very least, have an impact on her social life. 
“Let’s go back to my apartment for now. Acieth?” 
“Don’t run, monster! Come back here now! We will fight this fair and square, chicken!” 
“Acieth!” 
“I hate you! All stupid angels! Next time, it will be the last time! You wait and see, I tell you! You assholes!” 
“Acieth!!” 
It took a lot of lung power to wrest Acieth’s attention away from her apparent nemesis. He sighed, a sense of fatigue suddenly overcoming him. 
“Can you take all of us here over to my apartment?” 
“One, two, three… Uh-huh! No prob!” 
Maou wondered whether she really needed to count them or not. 
“Who…is this girl, Maou?” Chiho asked. 
“Hold that thought, Chi. We gotta get Suzuno and Urushihara home first. You’re coming with us, too—we can talk then. We’ve gotta discuss Emi, too.” 
“Oh…!” 
The reminder startled Chiho. She must have heard Gabriel as well as Maou did. 
“So… Wait, Maou, are you gonna go and res—” 
“We’ll talk about that, too, okay? Let’s go. Acieth!” 
“Okay!” Acieth gave a pointless thumbs-up and clapped her hands. “Hop on!” 
“Ah!” 
“Oof…” 
“Ngh!” 
Chiho, Suzuno, and Urushihara all floated in the air, Maou and Acieth joining them a moment later. 
“Take it slow, okay? I don’t want anyone to notice us.” 
“Bossy, bossy, bossy! I will try. I gave my body to you long time, after all.” 
“…Please don’t phrase it like that.” 
Maou, seeing that Chiho was too busy tending to Suzuno behind him to notice the statement, felt a sudden sense of relief. Acieth wasn’t wrong, exactly, but that statement alone would be enough for Emi to slice Maou in half lengthwise if she was around. 
“Nah-ha-ha! You look funny. Okay, here we go!” 
With that signal, the five of them gently glided through the light drizzle that now fell over the school. 
“We’ll be there soon, all right?” Chiho said, using a handkerchief to keep Suzuno’s and Urushihara’s faces dry along the way. “Hang in there. We’ve got some 5-Holy Energy ? in your room, Suzuno.” 
“Some” didn’t describe it. There was virtually a lifetime supply of holy magic now stored in her apartment. That would be enough to help revive the two of them, and it seemed safe to assume that no further threat to their lives was forthcoming. 
Maou kept an eye on them as he thought through his leads. It was vital for him, once he got back home, to extract all the information he could from Acieth and Nord and get a full grip on their current situation. But already he had the suspicion that no matter what the picture looked like, his plan of action looked the same in the end. 
“Back to…that world, huh?” 
Back to Ente Isla, the Land of the Holy Cross, the human world he was once a hairbreadth away from conquering. 
“Too bad we wound up half-assing it so much.” 
It was an expression of regret that Maou wouldn’t have even dared let Ashiya hear, muttered to no one in particular as they floated above the Shuto Expressway traffic. As a conqueror of mankind, as the supreme leader of demondom, he had failed to fulfill his full duties as Devil King. Now he was slumming it here in Japan, living day to day with seemingly not a care in the world. Was that really all right? The doubt had taken up permanent residence in his mind. 
He wanted to learn everything he had access to in this world, and then he wanted to bring it back to the demon realms. That much was the truth. But before he could pursue that dream, he felt, there were certain things he had to do. 
“I gotta do something about my shifts before anything else… Wasn’t exactly expecting to fail twice, so I didn’t schedule any more days off this month… Hope I can find someone to cover a shift for me…” 
That was another concern of his, yes. Flying over Hatagaya Station must have made Maou’s mind jump the track a bit. He shook it off. 
“But now…? I can’t do a thing by myself anymore.” 
He needed Chiho, and Suzuno, and Urushihara, and— 
“I need all of their strength.” 
 
“Oh, they’re back. Heeeyyy!” 
A familiar voice greeted them from below. Maou and Chiho looked down to find someone waving at them outside the Devil’s Castle front door. They were shocked. 
“Amane?!” 
“Huh?” 
It was Amane Ohguro, their summer-job boss from Choshi. She was the niece of Miki Shiba, the corpulent landlord at Villa Rosa Sasazuka, so it wasn’t too strange that she knew Maou’s address. But he still remembered what she’d pulled off above the waters of Choshi, and the bizarre and undoubtedly superhuman way she’d disappeared from their lives. 
“Oh, great, another lead to pursue,” Maou mumbled to himself. It took only a few more moments for him to realize that it was far more than that. 
“…Guh.” 
Urushihara slipped down onto the floor of the interior hallway upon losing Maou’s support. Neither Maou nor Chiho (currently keeping Suzuno upright), had any ability to help him now. That was because both Ashiya and Nord were gone from Devil’s Castle—and in its place was a scraped-up Rika Suzuki, sleeping like the dead and wearing clothes taken from Maou’s closet. 
“Um… Amane?” he asked, voice shaking. 
“Yep?” 
“Where’re Ashiya and the…older guy who was just here?” 
“Kidnapped,” Amane blurted as she quietly helped Urushihara up. “Right in front of me, too.” 
“K-kidnapped?!” Chiho shouted, too surprised to do anything but parrot the word back at her. “Ashiya?!” 
“All I was capable of doing,” Amane calmly replied, “was keeping this woman safe.” She pointed at the recumbent Rika as she placed Urushihara down a little ways from her. “It was them against this gang of armored knights and this lanky goofball named Gabriel.” 
““…!”” Neither Maou nor Chiho could hide their shock. 
“I’m guessing you were expecting this?” 
Yes and no. Certainly it made sense that Gabriel would want to seize one of Emi’s relatives if he was still after the holy sword and Yesod fragments. But why Ashiya, too? It only served to confuse Maou even more—and Chiho, who hadn’t heard about the events at the DMV yet. 
Amane sized them up, then nodded. Rising quickly to her feet, she presented Maou with a sheaf of papers Ashiya had kept next to the laundry. 
“What’s this…?” he asked. 
“It’s written in some script I can’t read. Looks like a map or something, but…” 
“It’s Centurient…in Ashiya’s handwriting.” 
“Also,” Amane interrupted, as she noticed Chiho peeking at the stack of papers, “don’t you think you should be patching up Suzuno right now, Chiho? You look pretty soaked yourself, too. You’re gonna die from the flu if you don’t dry out.” 
“Oh! Right! Sorry, Suzuno, but I need to go into your room, okay?” 
The color returned to Chiho’s face as Suzuno groaned her approval. They both went into the still-unlocked apartment. 
“Whoa! Wow, it’s a complete mess in here… Uh, h-how about you just sit down here, Suzuno…?” 
Maou listened to Chiho’s startled reaction through the wall as he studied the papers. Slowly, the meaning behind them dawned on him. 
“…This is a map of the Eastern Island. The cities, the road links, what areas the other islands have influence in, what the central mountain tribes fighting against Efzahan are up to… There’s some top secret information in here, too. What was he doing with this…?” 
Maou knew that Ashiya had taken to spending a lot of his time writing lately. Is this the product of that? But before he could figure out what his general had left this behind for… 
“Also, Ashiya left me a message for you.” 
“A message?” 
“Yeah,” she slowly said. “To you. He said he’d be ‘waiting at the National Museum of Western Art.’ That’s all. I don’t know what it means.” 
“The National Museum… That’s in Ueno. Ashiya went there on research trips a few times…” 
The Tokyo neighborhood of Ueno was home to a number of large national museums. Maou recalled how they both paid numerous visits to most of them early on, exploring planet Earth’s occult history in an effort to find a way back home. 
“So that map’s from your world?” 
“Oh, um…” 
Then Maou remembered his present situation. Amane was…unusual, no doubt about that. But how did she know from the first time they met in Choshi that he and Suzuno, for that matter, weren’t from Earth? And that went for Miki Shiba, her aunt and their landlord, too, right? 
Amane shook her head as Maou pondered over this. “I told you before, didn’t I? I can’t tell you anything if Aunt Mikitty hasn’t already told you. That’s how the rules work.” 
“Oof…” Maou groaned, discouraged at Amane’s indifference to his plight. Then he heard Rika moan as she squirmed to life on the floor. He thought she had woken up, but instead she settled back down after a moment. It was a relief to Maou that she was sleeping at least, and not unconscious. 
But then— 
“Ashi…ya…” 
“She’s talking in her sleep?” 
“…Help…Ashiya… Help me…” 
“Yeahhh, it musta been pretty scary for her, I guess. She’s just a normal woman, besides. I’m sure Ashiya and the other guy tried their best to protect her, but…” 
That reminded Maou of another key point. Emi and Alas Ramus were on Ente Isla—and now, that almost certainly applied to Ashiya and Emi’s father. They were all back where they used to be—but now, it was undeniably hostile territory to them. Whose job was it, then, to save them? What needed to be done? 
How could he get back to Ente Isla? 
He couldn’t use his own powers. And he still didn’t know what he was dealing with in Acieth. His Gate abilities were powered by demonic force, anyway; there was no guarantee he could build a stable one with any other sort of power source. 
So who could open a Gate right now? Didn’t Suzuno say it herself? That you could open one as long as you had the right amplifier? 
And Ashiya was waiting at the National Museum of Western Art… 
Maou looked up. 
“A Gate… That’s it! A Gate! Hey! Suzuno!” 
Leaping out of Devil’s Castle, Maou zoomed down the hall and banged on Suzuno’s door. 
“M-Maou, wait a…! Y-you can’t come in right now!” 
Maou ignored Chiho’s pleas and opened the door wide. 
“Oh…” 
“Ah…” 
“Maou!!” 
The moment he stepped in, Maou’s face ran right into a curtain with some kind of intricate pattern drawn on it. 
“I told you, you can’t come in!!” Chiho continued to admonish. 
What Maou saw in the dimly lit room before this curtain blinded him was Chiho providing Suzuno an energy drink as she took a wet towel to her wounds, and: 
“M…Maou…youuuuuu…” 
And Suzuno, whose kimono was stripped down to her waist as Chiho tended to the gash on her shoulder. 
“Oh, uh… S-sorry! I’m sorry, but listen to me! This is really impor—ow!” 
“Just get out of here, Maou!!” 
“Gahh!” 
From the other side of the curtain, something rather blunt hit Maou in the forehead with enough force to bend him backward. He toppled over, but came back up to his feet, head still caught in the curtain. He had to get this across to her, now. 
“Maou, you’re really starting to make me angry, okay?!” 
“You…truly wish to die…do you not? Ngh…” 
Even in her current state, the murderous intent was clear in Suzuno’s muffled words. 
“Hey! Oh, Maou! We are one, now, heart and soul! And now you peek at the naked ladies?!” 
Even through the curtain, Maou could tell that Acieth’s timely entry into the room made that murderous rage grow even hotter. 
“I better call the police… Hey, Urushihara, is there a phone in here?” 
“Dude, I’m… I’m a lot more hurt than I look, so…” 
Listening to the sad exchange between Amane and Urushihara next door made Maou feel like he was getting completely shoehorned out of the picture. He left the room—or Acieth dragged him out, more like—and spoke to Suzuno through the closed door. The first thing he spotted as he lifted the curtain from his head was the giant hardback Japanese dictionary that Chiho apparently threw at him. 
“H-hey, Suzuno!” 
“…Whaaaaat?” 
It was weird. She sounded so weak and frail, but the tone of it still made Maou’s hair stand on end. 
“Y-you can beat me up all you want later, so just listen for a sec, okay?” 
“Ooh, you like, Maou?” 
“Shut up, Acieth! Suzuno, listen! You said we could open a Gate if we had the right amplifier, yeah?!” 
“…I did,” came the gravelly reply. 
Maou’s eyes lit up. “I think we got one! There’s an amplifier I think you can use at the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno!” 
“…In Ueno? A holy-magic amplifier?” 
Chiho seemed not to understand Maou’s words. Suzuno, on the other hand, furrowed her brows. 
“L-let me just say… Ngh…” 
“Suzuno!” 
“N-no… I am fine. Devil King, the ‘Stairs of Heaven’ have been the subject of people’s faith for generations. They were carved out of the very earth following oral traditions and those of our scriptures. They are the largest of amplifiers, providing a meaningful contribution to the very concept of holy magic. I do not wish to discount my adoptive home for the time being, but I sincerely doubt any object in Japan would be the object of such a high level of faith and power—to say nothing of an object so close by…” 
“There is, all right? There is! And we don’t even have to pay to get in! It’s the Gates of Hell!” 
“The gates of…hell?” Chiho and Suzuno looked at each other. Maou was starting to sound more like the Devil King again, although they could tell how much he emphasized the free-entry aspect of it. 
“Have you ever seen it before, Chi?” Maou confidently asked. “That really big bronze sculpture outside the front entrance of the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno?” 
Chiho searched her memory as she wrung out her towel. 
“…I think I might’ve, during a school field trip or something. Like, isn’t The Thinker posing above the gates or something?” 
“Yeah, that!” Maou eagerly replied. 
The piece depicted a scene from “The Inferno,” the opening chapter of the Divine Comedy, in which Dante is guided by an ancient poet through the various circles of Hell. It is depicted not as a land of anguish where the dead pay for living a sinful life, but as a world of holiness, created by God as part of His grand scheme. The Gates of Hell was crafted by Auguste Rodin, hailed as the father of modern sculpture; the one at the National Museum was one of seven bronze casts that exist throughout the world, continually absorbing the story of mankind’s thoughts, faiths, and histories as they accumulated over time. 
“It’s the entrance to hell as it was described in the Divine Comedy. That’s exactly what it depicts!” 
“So, so…” 
“It might…be worth trying, yes.” 
“Yeah, totally! I know we can open a Gate with that! So heal up already, man! You too, Urushihara!” 
Maou wrested the curtain from his head and spiked it on the floor to emphasize the point. 
“Ashiya, Nord, Alas Ramus…and Emi, too! We’re gonna save ’em all!”