Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

THE DEVIL MAKES EVERY PREPARATION POSSIBLE 
“I told you, I have no idea how many days this will take!” 
“We have one week! I can’t spend this much on stuff I’ll only use for one week!” 
“And how is that my fault? What are you intending to do if this takes more than one week, pray tell? We need to prepare for, and invest in, a potential long-term operation!” 
“See, that’s how you always are! Always thinking in worst-case scenarios! It’s not about taking more than one week—it’s the fact that we’re gonna do this in one week in the first place! You gotta do the job in the time you’re given!” 
“What kind of sane person would schedule a time limit he has no chance of sticking to?! If bold words and idealism were enough to finish up your work, life would be far easier for all of us!” 
“Look, I’m just saying you can’t get everything that you want! There’s only so much we can prep for! Maybe politicians can get away with padding their own budgets, but I can’t!” 
“If you start dictating what we can and can’t have, you’ll cut out everything we absolutely must have over there! If you’re going to keep screaming ‘streamline, streamline, streamline,’ I can buy a parrot to do that for me, thank you!” 
“What?!” 
“What, ‘what’?” 
“Ughh! You’re being too loud, you guys! Stop arguing so much!” 
From Chiho’s perspective, it sounded like the extension of some ongoing, meandering debate about consumerism and modern society. Which she didn’t mind. Her issue was with their choice of forums—the camping-equipment section at the Donkey OK shop in Hounancho, about half an hour’s walk from Sasazuka. 
The spark that set off this latest argument was simplicity itself. If they wanted to travel through Efzahan while avoiding capture at the hands of forces from the Eight Scarves, Maou and his companion could never dare stay in a large town. They would likely be camping out most of the time, and they had come here to make the necessary preparations—but when it came to how they would camp out, Suzuno and Maou had some very apparent differences in opinion. 
“Look, it’ll just be three of us over there! It’d be easier for all of us if we just buy a single tent! The fewer things we have to abandon if we’re attacked, the better!” 
“Fah! Such nonsense! We require two tents and one sleeping bag for each of us! We have a need to keep our bodies in tip-top shape, and besides, Acieth and I are women! How could we possibly share a single cramped tent with the likes of you?!” 
Between the amount of weight they’d be transporting on their scooters and the strict one-week time limit he had assigned to the mission, Maou firmly believed that one tent would be enough. Suzuno, on the other hand, was focused on bodily stress—and, for that matter, not having to share a roof with Maou. 
“I-I think she’s right!” interjected Chiho, just as eager to keep Maou from sharing sleeping space with the opposite sex. “It’s not good to sleep with girls in the same bed like that, Maou!” 
“Oh, you think I’m gonna choose this moment to molest you guys? Geez! I thought I was something more to you than that!” 
“Y-yeah! He’s right! Maou is a real gentleman!” 
“Chiho, can you please pick a side and stick with it?” 
“S-sorry,” a carried-away Chiho replied. 
“And it is not a matter of him being more to me, or less to me, than anything! We are talking about a man who works every day of his life yet still lacks the money to purchase so much as a simple canvas tent!” 
“Hey, not everyone gets to live the rich Tokyo socialite lifestyle you got, all right? I got mouths to feed back home!” 
“‘Mouths to feed’? You actually consider people like Lucifer your family? Such a nasty man!” 
“…Look, getting back to the point, one tent’s really all we need for this. Once we regroup with Emi, we’ll have to open up a Gate right on the spot and duck outta Ente Isla anyway! If we don’t, we lose!” 
“Have you lost your mind?! Operating a Gate is impossibly complex! You make it seem as arduous as hailing a taxi, but it is far more difficult! And what if Emilia and her charge are in no shape to move when we find them? There’s no guarantee we will even be able to open a Gate on the spot. We may need to conceal ourselves, and for that, we will absolutely need multiple tents!!” 
“I… Well, can we at least go with these summer sleeping bags, then? They’re cheap, they’re compact, they’re perfect!” 
“Ente Isla is entering the latter half of its autumn! The temperatures might flirt with freezing, or worse! Rescue will be the last thing on our minds if we catch a virus!” 
Any further progress seemed unlikely to Chiho. She decided to guide them in another direction. 
“Uh, uhhhhhmm,” she began. “Uh, hey, so can we drop the tent debate for now and just focus on buying all the other stuff you need? Maybe we can figure out the tents once we know how much everything else weighs!” 
“Devil King! I told you, we have strict limits on the load we bring along! What are you expecting to do with all of that mineral water? We need to bring our own gasoline along, I remind you!” 
“Hey, I’m not who I used to be, okay? I’m human! What if the bugs in the water over there screw up my stomach real bad?” 
“You pathetic excuse for a demon! The water in Efzahan is among the purest in the land, and the food there is equally abundant! There are thousands of rivers and natural springs we can rely on for water—this filter and storage tank will suit our needs perfectly!” 
The water argument raged on. The topic of food was proving just as fruitless… 
“Rice, okay?” 
“No. Udon noodles.” 
“Udon over the campfire? Are you serious?” 
“More serious than you know. An amateur like you would be hopeless, attempting to cook rice with camping tools. A supply of dried instant udon is easily prepared, takes little time to cook, and is lightweight to boot. Truly, the ideal for us.” 
“If you’re gonna go to that extreme, why don’t we just go with protein bars or army rations or whatever? We ain’t gonna be there that long.” 
“Food lies at the core of any expedition. There is no need to go into survival mode with our meals from the beginning, unless it proves necessary to do so.” 
“Well, okay, but udon?” 
…and although things were slightly rosier in the field of insect repellent… 
“We will need some insect spray, Devil King.” 
“I hear you there. I’m sure there’s a ton of bugs out there at night.” 
…they were slightly bumpier when it came to light sources: 
“We must bring a fuel lantern!” 
“No! I want an LED lantern!” 
“There are oil-powered lanterns in Ente Isla as well. If we are forced to abandon our belongings, that will lower the chances of them tracking us down!” 
“But it’ll just make more stuff for us to carry around. We can turn a battery-powered one on and off with the flick of a switch! See? You charge ’em with this crank and it’ll even charge your cell phone for you!” 

 

“A fuel lantern or nothing! We can procure extra lantern oil in Ente Isla, and that will save us precious cargo weight! If you need to charge your phone that badly, bring along an external battery! And…and it hardly even matters anyway! Your phone can serve only as an Idea Link amplifier in Ente Isla, so it matters not a bit whether it is charged or not! Your obsession with battery power is utterly baffling to me!” 
“There’s nothing baffling about it! An LED lantern’s a billion times more useful! Or don’t tell me you’re afraid of using an electronic device as simple as this one!” 
“What?! How could you let science and civilization poison you so deeply?! And you dare to still call yourself Devil King?!” 
“…Stop! Can you guys just stop already?!” 
“Whoa!” 
“Uhh!” 
Despite it all, it was Chiho who finally lost her temper first. 
“Guys, I think we’ve made one thing pretty clear here, okay? Neither of you have any camping experience, do you?” 
“I, uh…” 
Maou distractedly scratched at one of his cheeks. 
“C-camping, well,” Suzuno reluctantly added, “it was usually our monks-in-training who handled the particulars of our missionary caravans, so…” 
“Well, if you don’t know anything about camping, then you’re just wasting your time without a concrete picture in your mind! It’d be a lot easier for all of us if we just asked the staff! That or go to a specialty camping store and have an expert make a plan for us!” 
“…Okay,” the crestfallen Maou and Suzuno replied in unison. 
“Ooh, Chiho! Very strong!” 
Suddenly, Maou’s body began to glow a shade of purple—and at the next instant, there was a silver-and-purple-haired girl next to him, where there was empty space a moment ago. 
“I notice now,” she said, “but Maou, he is no match for the women, yes?” 
“Aghh!” 
Maou and Suzuno furtively looked around, spooked by Acieth’s sudden entry into the scene. Nobody else was around them. That came as a relief—but Chiho’s face was clearly strained as she looked at the ceiling. 
“Ummm, guys! Guys! Let’s get out of here right now!” 
The other three followed Chiho out, question marks above each of their heads. 
“You have to be more careful, okay?” Chiho spat out once they were outside. “There was a security camera focused right where we were.” 
Considering the extreme care Emi took whenever summoning Alas Ramus or putting her away, Maou was being completely irresponsible with his own charge. 
“Y-yeah… Sorry. Hey, Acieth, I thought I told you that you can’t go in and out by yourself…” 
“I had not considered the presence of such cameras,” Suzuno admitted. “Well spotted, Chiho. You are truly a member of the modern generation.” 
“Ooh! Chiho! So nice!” 
“If Suzuki was around to see this, I think she’d start doubting whether you’re really the Devil King or not…” 
Chiho found herself sighing at the three astonished faces looking at her. 
“Oh! Suzuno, did you ask Yusa what kind of preparations she made for her trip? We could use that as a guide once we start browsing around a real camping store.” 
“Hmm… Hard to say. Emilia had Emeralda making the arrangements. She was planning to travel alone once she arrived, however. I suppose it depends on her plans for Alas Ramus.” 
In other words, Suzuno didn’t know. 
“…Well, let’s just go somewhere else,” Chiho replied as she took the lead. “We could try Tokyu Hand, or I’m sure there’s a camping equipment store somewhere downtown. I think we could use some expert guidance right about now. We’re kinda short on time, too.” 
She took a glance at the three people meekly following her. It made a question pop up in her mind. Once Emi safely came back, what then? Rika was taking this calmly enough, or at least acting like she was, but would she forgive Emi for essentially lying to her face during their entire friendship? She had gone directly to work after their chat at Devil’s Castle, claiming she was on the clock for that day. The conflicted look on her face as she left remained an unaddressed concern to Chiho. 
Watching Maou and Suzuno continue their debate from Donkey OK behind her, she realized all over again what a unique position she was currently in. 
“Juggling different cultures like this is so difficult…but even if Yusa and Ashiya come back…” 
She spotted the sun getting blocked by the clouds above, symbolizing the current state of her heart. 
“I wonder…how long we’ll all get to stay together…” 
Nobody in the world could hear the barely audible whisper. 
 
“Thank you for calling today!” 
“““Thank you for calling today!!””” 
“Bringing orders to customers quickly and accurately!” 
“““Bringing orders to customers quickly and accurately!!””” 
“MgRonald Delivery!” 
“““MgRonald Delivery!!””” 
“…And those are the basic keywords, I suppose.” 
Kisaki’s cold eyes scanned the papers in front of her. 
The crew of MgRonald’s Hatagaya station store—Maou and Chiho included—were reciting the lines in front of Kisaki in the staff room, faces taut as they awaited their boss’s next command. 
“Well, this won’t be in operation for a while to come yet, but you guys are gonna be my main weapons for the time being, so I’m handing training manuals out to you all now. Brush up on what’s written in there for me.” 
Maou gave the small stack of copied sheets handed to him an earnest look. 
“You can also go to stores where it’s in operation for training purposes; I can pay you all hourly helper compensation for that. Anyone interested, you can talk to me later. There’s not much of an open period available, though, so the sooner, the better.” 
“Y-yes, ma’am!!” 
“Oh, and I know I don’t need to remind any of you about this…” Kisaki rapped a finger against her copy of the manual and shrugged. “But it’s a given around here that everything we provide, we provide with sincerity. I believe that all of you here, in this room with me right now, aren’t the type of greenhorns who think they have to recite this manual by memory in order to provide that sincerity. Let’s make this day another well-fought battle, all right? Back to work!” 
Maou stole another look at his copy of the manual as the team members shuffled away from the meeting. He would’ve killed for one of the on-site training sessions Kisaki mentioned, but—painfully, for him—he still had yet to obtain a motor-scooter license. It’d be hard to train very well without one…and aside from that, he wouldn’t even be at work (or on the planet) during the available period. 
After navigating a gauntlet of shift juggling and favor promising, he had finally managed to obtain the time he needed for his renewed conquest of Ente Isla. He’d owe nearly every crewmember at the Hatagaya store for it once he returned, but it spoke volumes about his job dedication and his close relationships with his coworkers that so many of them agreed to take on shifts for him, albeit very grudgingly at times. It was nothing he could’ve engineered by going it alone this whole time. 
“Maou…are you sure you’ll be all right?” asked Chiho, perhaps concerned over Maou’s conflicted staredown of the manual. 
“Yeah, I’m sure. Kinda sucks that I can’t attend any training, though. Like, no way I’d fail that exam again, but I’ll pretty much be going by the seat of my pants once delivery starts.” 
“Oh? …Oh.” Chiho blinked, not quite expecting this response, then emitted a smile of relief. “Well, I’m glad you’re still the same old you, at least.” 
“Huh?” 
“I thought you’d be a lot more nervous about tonight.” 
“…Oh. Right.” Maou smiled with Chiho. He knew what she meant. 
Once he was off duty tonight, he would be making his way to Ueno—in other words, he’d be departing for Ente Isla. It would have to be late night, since this was the one shift he simply couldn’t weasel out of, no matter how hard he tried. He had to pick up that manual, at the very least. 
“I mean,” he continued, “once we’re over there, it’s gonna be a pretty simple job. We go over, we pick up Emi and everyone, we go back. If we get any interference, we’ll just have to send ’em running.” 
His face sagged a bit. 
“Over here, though, it ain’t gonna be so easy with this delivery stuff. I’m not really handy with the maps we’ll need to use yet. We have to get the food delivered before it turns cold, but there’s all kinds of traffic rules we’ll have to stick to, too. Red lights, speed limits, hook turns…” 
“Guess it’s a lot of rules for someone like you, huh, Maou?” 
Only in Japan would the Devil King, capable of free flight for the past several centuries, need to worry about how to handle right turns in a legal manner. Chiho smiled at how silly it all seemed. 
“Plus, dealing with customers over the phone… You see how much it takes out of Emi, even, y’know? It’s not like I relish dealing with the weirder characters we get in here. And I guess there’s some kind of freaky meter or monitor attached to the scooters the company’s giving us. Like, what if it spots that I got lost somewhere and docks me points for that on some evaluation system? I’d be so scared of that, I wouldn’t know what to do. Geez, I wish I could attend the training!” 
“Ah-ha-ha…” 
Even with all her concern, not being able to join him in Ente Isla, she couldn’t help but laugh at him. 
“Hey, it’s not that funny! I tell you, it’s a hell of a lot easier if you’re allowed to do whatever you want when you’re dealing with people. Human society puts up all these barriers to that. It’s a huge pain.” 
“So once you rule over Japan as Devil King, are you gonna get rid of all that?” 
“…You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you, Chi?” 
“Yes.” 
Maou sighed at her shameless poke. 
“It just kinda sucks that I have these things I’m worried about, and I can’t deal with them before I have to go, y’know? Have a little sympathy.” 
“Well,” the undeterred Chiho replied, “keep in mind that this time, I’m just gonna be standing here waiting.” 
“Hmm?” 
“That’s why just seeing the regular ol’ Maou here makes me really happy, you see?” 
“Ermm…” 
“So maybe you could try to put my mind at ease a little?” Chiho sharpened her lips in a show of dissatisfaction. “Like, maybe ‘I’ll totally be back here soon’ or ‘I’m gonna bring Yusa and Ashiya back safe’? Something I could rely on a little would be nice.” 
Maou understood what she was getting at. It didn’t make him act any less pained over it. 
“If I did that, that’d all but ensure I died in the third act of the movie, wouldn’t it? I heard something like that from Urushihara once.” 
“Died… Oh, Maou!” Chiho protested. It sounded like an inappropriate joke to him, but Maou refused to budge. 
“Like, if this were a movie and I said something like that to my heroine, then it’s a given that I’ll either die or, you know, things won’t go the way I’m planning them, right? If I go around making these huge promises to people I care about, that’ll get me all psyched up and make me lose my head out there. So during big moments like these, I’d like to… Chi?” 
Maou intended to give a serious response. Now, though, there was a carefree smile on Chiho’s face. 
“All right! I hear you loud and clear! That’s more than enough for me!” 
Maou raised an eyebrow at Chiho’s apparent rapid mood swings. Hearing him use the term “heroine” raised her flagging spirits, no doubt. And there was certainly no denying that Maou was the hero of the adventure film running in her mind. 
“Oh, right! Do you have that thing in hand yet, Maou?” 
“Mmm? What thing? We’re pretty much all set with our Ente Isla gear.” 
“Not that! I mean a present! For Emi!” 
“A present? For Emi? …Oh! Ohhhh!” 
It took a concerted search of his memory banks for Maou to remember. 
“I totally forgot.” 
“Awww…” 
If Emi had actually returned home when she promised to, the entire gang would’ve held a tandem birthday party for her and Chiho. Realizing that, Maou simultaneously realized that he had given exactly the wrong response. 
“But I, uh, I still have yours, Chi, to…uh, I mean, I was thinking about it!” 
Another misstep. Given that it was a tandem birthday party, if Maou forgot about Emi’s present, it was a given he forgot about Chiho’s as well. But Chiho didn’t seem to mind. In fact: 
“Oh, that’s fine. I’ve already received it from you.” 
The response she gave made no sense at all. 
Maou glanced aside. Something told him it wasn’t the first time Chiho had said something like that to him. But at least Chiho wasn’t hurt by his rudeness, and that was what chiefly mattered. 
“Y’know, though, even if I had something for Emi, I sorta doubt she’d accept it.” 
“Oh, that’s all right! Maybe she wouldn’t, no, but the fact that you get something for her at all is the important thing. I certainly don’t think it’d turn Yusa off, at least.” 
Maou saw little point in spending money on a present the receiver would never accept. It all seemed odd to him. Why was she so intent on improving Emi’s impression of him at this point? 
“That,” Chiho continued, eyes fixed upon Maou, “and something tells me that Yusa’s going through a lot of stress right now. Maybe her returning to Japan isn’t going to be this magical solution to everything, but… I mean, if we want her to feel better once she’s back, even just a little, I think you should really get her a present, Maou!” 
She sounded serious about it. Maou remained dubious. 
“So you’re agreeing with me that if I go through with that uninvited offer, she’ll yell at me and shout ‘I’ll never take a gift from the Devil King!’ and stuff?” 
“Oh, Maou! There’s no way Yusa would…… All right, maybe there’s some way she would, but… Oh, you know…” 
Chiho fell silent. She was a lot more confident of her assertion at the start of the sentence, but by the end, it was clear Maou’s scenario was a lot more probable. 
Maou sighed. “Look, I know what you’re trying to say. Once Emi’s back, you want to do whatever you can to get her back to her loudmouthed old self, right?” 
“R-right! Yeah, exactly!” 
Chiho leaned forward a bit, fist in the air to prove her point. 
“Okay, so…what? What’d you get for her, Chi? I’d like something to work with.” 
“Me?” Chiho flashed an invincible smile of confidence. “I went with—” 
“What are the two of you doing? Would you get back to work already?” 
Their boss, exasperated that she was still missing two people up front, stomped up to them from the back room. 
“I-I’m sorry, Ms. Kisaki!” 
“Y-yes, ma’am!” 
Both of them instinctively jumped away from the back room. Only then did they realize how long they had been talking. 
In recent weeks, whenever Maou and Chiho shared a shift, they tended to staff the MgCafé space on the second floor. Their twin MgRonald Barista certifications were paying off for them, in other words. But as they found themselves chased up the stairs by Kisaki: 
“…Pfft!” 
Maou and Chiho each did a spit-take at the faces waiting at the other end. 
“What’s with you guys?” Kisaki asked. 
“Er, no, um…” 
“It, it’s nothing…” 
It couldn’t have not been nothing. Because there, seated around a table at the far end, were Suzuno, Amane, Acieth, Rika—even Urushihara, who wasn’t even supposed to be fully recovered yet. 
“I told these freaks to wait in the apartment,” Maou muttered to himself as Kisaki shooed him behind the bar counter, Chiho choosing to focus on the disinfected duster in hand as she cleaned the tables. 
Once this shift ended, Maou and Suzuno were due to visit the National Museum of Western Art in the Ueno district. It would be their connecting hub to Ente Isla. And Maou knew that Rika asked if she could see them off, but it wasn’t even dinnertime yet. They wouldn’t be leaving until late night—how long did they plan to loiter in here, anyway? 
Part of it could be explained, perhaps, by how Acieth couldn’t physically go too far away from Maou, like with Emi and Alas Ramus. But they had already tested it out, and the distance between Villa Rosa Sasazuka and the MgRonald at Hatagaya wasn’t a problem at all. Besides, he had to focus on his work shift. If she was here, that wasn’t going to happen. 
“So, are those your friends at the table over there?” 
And Kisaki just had to say that first thing, before Maou could sweep them all out of here. 
“I see Ms. Kamazuki and…um, Urushihara? Your roommate, right? That girl with the pretty hair; she’s related to you, right?” 
“Uh? Why…” 
Maou stopped himself before he finished the sentence. 
“Well, I mean, she’s a dead ringer for that young girl Chi and Ms. Kamazuki brought in here before. She’s your relative, too, isn’t she?” 
That was right. Suzuno and Chiho had brought her in once, when they figured seeing Maou at work would calm Alas Ramus’s frayed nerves. From the eyes of Kisaki, who didn’t realize that the toddler and Acieth were sisters, the conclusion to make was rather obvious. The fact that Alas Ramus was the older sister was a point Maou reasoned was better left unexplained. 
“Um… Yeah, that kind of thing.” 
“You seem awful indecisive about it. And I don’t know those other two, but…” 
It was Amane’s first time here. And Kisaki hadn’t been around at Rika’s last visit, either. 
“By the way, Marko…” 
“Yes?” 
“Are you going on a long trip or something?” 
“Huh?!” 
“I don’t see what there is to be surprised about. I mean, you taking time off out of nowhere is a surprise in itself, but you’re gonna be trading off a heck of a lot of shifts. Something’s got Chi all hot and bothered, too, I think.” 
“…What’s Chi got to do with it?” 
“Well, if it doesn’t, then you really are a fool.” 
It had not been Maou’s intention to hide it in particular, but having it laid out for him in black and white like this still made it feel tremendously awkward for him. 
Kisaki looked at Chiho’s back as she fervently dusted a table. “It’d be pretty damaging for my location,” she observed, “if I had to lose two of my most vital weapons at the same time.” 
“…I’ll see what I can do.” 
“Hey, um, Suzuno?” 
“What?” 
“I got her beat when it comes to womanly charm, don’t I? Huh? Don’t I?” 
“…I couldn’t say,” Suzuno replied to Amane’s furtive query. 
“I don’t think she even realizes she’s supposed to be competing with you, dude.” 
“H-hey…” Rika turned to Urushihara. “Is that manager, like, some kind of superwoman, too?” 
“Uh? What makes you say that?” 
“I mean, the Devil King’s practically her lapdog, right? Like, he’s supposed to be this grand pooh-bah of the devil world, isn’t he? Like some kind of god?” 
“Kisaki’s just a regular Japanese woman,” Chiho interjected. “Just like you and me.” 
“Ooooh! Chiho!” 
Acieth quietly squealed with delight as Chiho, duster in hand, came closer to them. 
“She is, huh? But…you call him Devil King, and I’ve seen him make Acieth appear and disappear and stuff, so I’m just wondering, like, why is Maou spending his time working some Joe Schmoe job like this?” 
“It is something”—here, Suzuno took a sip of coffee for dramatic pause—“that baffles me to this day, yes.” 
She was being honest with Rika. Maou tended to whine a lot about his lack of demonic force, but he still had at least a bare minimum stored inside him. Suzuno could tell. And she knew it would be more than enough to let Maou obtain all the money he wanted via illegal means—or mind-control Kisaki into giving him an hourly raise, for that matter. Whether it’d be worth expending magical force to do that was a question Suzuno chose not to ponder. 
“I had thought,” Chiho suddenly said, “that it’s because Maou’s such a nice and serious-minded person…” 
She turned to the register counter, finding Kisaki lecturing Maou on the seven habits of highly effective coffee pourers. Both he and Chiho had passed the required certification exam, but there was still a whole other dimension between that and earning Kisaki’s godlike coffee-making skills. Thus, ever since advancing into MgCafé, Maou had continued taking every chance to hone his bean-grinding techniques during slow times at work. 
“If I had to guess,” Chiho continued, “he had all that power at his fingertips back during his king days, so…probably, he’s come to realize as a human that there’s not a lot he can do by himself.” 
“Oh?” Suzuno prodded. 
“I know this might put you and Yusa off a little, but something tells me that once Maou took over Ente Isla, he was intending to treat humans and demons as equals, at the end of it.” 
The Suzuno of a while ago would have immediately fired back and shouted Chiho down before the argument went any further. Instead, she remained frozen, waiting for her to continue. 
“Why d’you think that?” Urushihara asked instead. 
“Because I met Camio.” 
“Camio?” he shot back. It wasn’t a name he expected to come up. The jet-black avian warrior and current Devil Regent, Camio had appeared on the Choshi beach while the demons were working at Amane’s shop. Currently he was ruling over the demon realms in Maou’s stead—and given the unblemished politeness he showed Chiho, he must have been shrewd at it. 
“And… I mean, you and Maou and Ashiya all look a lot different in demon form, but Camio was way more different. Wasn’t he? And Farfarello and Libicocco all looked so much different from you guys, too. It just made me wonder, do you demons have a lot of… I dunno if I should call them ‘races’ or whatever, but that kind of thing?” 
Chiho looked down, realizing she was now clutching the duster with both hands. 
“I guess Maou had to bring all these different ethnic groups under his control to take the throne, didn’t he? So I just thought maybe he’d try to win the human race over that way, too.” 
“Ooh, I dunno,” Urushihara said in a chiding tone. “All I can say is, he sure didn’t give any orders like that.” 
“He didn’t? Because I think he did.” This visibly riled Urushihara a little. Chiho kept her face stony. “Or maybe, Urushihara, you executed those orders without realizing it?” 
“Pfft! No way! And I know Ashiya’d tell you the same thing, dude. We wanted to rule over the human world, so we—” 
“See? That’s it right there.” 
“Huh?” 
“When you say you want to ‘rule over’ us, you mean that you want to incorporate our society into your own, don’t you?” 
Urushihara and Suzuno, subjugator and subjugated, gave Chiho blank looks. 
“I’m not saying that Ente Isla was better off ruled by the Devil King’s Army or anything. But I don’t think Maou ever intended to…like, wipe mankind from the face of the Earth, is all. Otherwise, why would he treat all us humans with so much respect and kindness once he joined our ranks?” 
“That’s a very astute observation, Chiho,” said an admiring Amane. 
“Yeah. I mean, demons can take people’s sadness—their anger, their fear—and transform it into power. If he really couldn’t stand the sight of mankind, he could’ve been a lot crueler with them than he was. He could’ve made them extinct, easy. But instead, he had four different Demon Generals ‘rule over’ the land. And that’s what made me think—the Devil King’s really that. A king. Not some kind of tyrant. A king can’t rule if he doesn’t respect the power of every single person in his realm.” 
“A king?” 
Suzuno looked down at the reflection in her cup of coffee. She recalled what Maou himself had told her, on that bench in the Shinjuku electronics store: “As long as we’re dealing with other people in this world, it’d be a lot more fun to focus on the good stuff that comes out of it. Plus, I’m a king. I have a duty to live that way for my followers.” She didn’t treat any of that seriously at the time—she wouldn’t have wanted to anyway—but the way Chiho put it, she had to admit that the girl had a point. 
“Well,” Chiho continued, “still, this is all just supposition on my part. It’s probably rude of me to guess at what he’s thinking anyway, so…” 
“What do you say, Chiho? The words, I don’t understand at all!” 
Acieth took just a few moments from the slice of cheesecake she was currently devouring alone to look Chiho in the eye and give her an incongruous thumbs-up. It made her laugh a little. 
“What I mean,” she offered, “is that you can have a lot of different thoughts in your mind at the same time, right? Even if they contradict each other. So maybe he’s just the kind of guy who grabs out at whatever has his attention at the moment, instead of thinking about stuff too deeply. You know?” 
“You mean Maou is not thinking of anything?” 
Chiho paused. Acieth had a knack for interpreting things exactly the way the other party didn’t want them to be. 
“Well,” Amane summarized as Acieth and Urushihara gave her confused and miffed looks, respectively, “I suppose it comes down to this. There are too many people in world history who you could say were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. But what you’re thinking isn’t as complex as all that, is it?” 
She turned to Suzuno. 
“Are you ready to go now, by the way?” 
“Rika took us to a camping store in the city. We should have most of what we need. Oh, but you should have seen the stupor that spread over his face when I told him I would pay for everything…” 
“Oh, yeah,” Rika said with a nod. “And, y’know, something about that made me think, wow, maybe he really is the Devil King.” 
After their failure to communicate at Donkey OK, Maou and Suzuno headed downtown at Chiho’s suggestion—even though Chiho herself didn’t have much of an idea where a good outdoor shop might be. So, figuring they had nothing to lose, they called Rika just as she got out of work—and of course she had a laundry list of suggestions. When asked why she knew so many spots despite not being an apparent outdoors enthusiast, she simply replied, “Oh, there was this time when, like, every fashion mag in the world was doing special features on ‘glamping’ this and ‘mountain-chic’ that, so I just kinda picked up on that stuff.” 
So they finally found a decent store, but of course Maou had to start grumbling about paying actual money for this trip again, so the increasingly impatient Suzuno bluntly stated that, all right, she’d pay for the tents, the sleeping bags, the food and fuel, and everything else they needed to be fully prepared. 
Hearing that, for some reason, made Maou more panicked than anything else. He accused her of making him her “plaything.” So they compromised by going one level cheaper on everything than the stuff Suzuno wanted to buy. It made Suzuno and Rika snicker more than anything—him putting on this blustery war of words over some simple tents and such. 
“How long does the Devil King’s shift continue for, Chiho?” 
“Oh, until ten, just like me. I guess Ms. Kisaki was kind enough to put us together, and, ooh, I better get going for now, so…” 
Realizing she was standing in one place for too long, Chiho gave the group a light nod and returned to the counter. 

Suzuno placed her empty cup on the table, keeping a careful eye on Chiho’s back. She was talking with Maou and Kisaki about something, giving their table the occasional quick glance. Her face was bright enough, so apparently Kisaki wasn’t yelling at her about chatting with customers, at least. 
“Wussup, Bell?” 
Urushihara caught Suzuno blankly staring at the three of them. 
“No, it is just… It feels so oddly funny to me. The fate of Ente Isla rides on the next few days, and it is all taking place not even a hairsbreadth away from the manager of this MgRonald.” 
“Heh, yeah…” He nodded his agreement. “She’s the last to know, huh? And given how both Maou and Emilia look up to her, I guess that kinda makes her the strongest gal in the world, huh?” 
“Ooh! Yes, yes! All time, Maou bows to her! I know Kisaki is strong!” 
“Whoa there, Acieth! I used to be Maou’s boss, too, remember!” 
“Amane? Oh, Amane, who cares?” 
“Well, thank you very much!” 
Ignoring Amane and her odd rivalry with Kisaki, Acieth sat up, resting on her knees in the seat she was on, to gain a better look at the scene behind the counter. 
“Hmm?” 
Then she noticed someone coming up the stairs to the MgCafé space. 
“What is it, Acieth?” Rika asked, following her gaze. She shouldn’t have bothered asking. 
“Yes! It is I! I have come to see you once more tonight!” 
The voice battered against all of their eardrums. 
“Pffth!” 
“Oof.” 
“Hmm?” 
“Is that…?” 
The voice, which thundered upward even before the figure it belonged to was visible, made Suzuno laugh, Urushihara groan, Amane lower her eyebrows, and Rika search her memory. 
“Who…?” Acieth began. 
It was a man, about as small as Urushihara. Small, but blessed with a handsome face—even if his uniform told everyone in the room that he was currently skipping work. 
“My goddess—Oop! Pardon me! Ms. Ki-Sa-Ki! Ms. Kisaki!! I have come for you! I, Sarue, am back for you tonight!!” 
It was Mitsuki Sarue, better known to certain people seated at the table as the archangel Sariel, former nemesis to Maou and Emi and current manager at the Sentucky Fried Chicken across the street from this MgRonald. His lethal weakness against feminine beauty led him to fall into a deep love for Mayumi Kisaki upon first sight of her on Earth—enough so that he abandoned the heavens, and his heavenly post, to live in Hatagaya permanently. He had been banned from the location once thanks to a litany of inappropriate actions against MgRonald staff, but now he was back—with less fervor than before, but his once-every-other-day pace was still doing great things for MgRonald’s sales figures. 
Chiho’s face stiffened behind the counter. Maou, on the other hand, already looked resigned to his fate. Only Kisaki, a relatively friendly businesswoman’s smile on her face, was ready for him at the counter, as far as Suzuno could tell. 
“Hmm? This man… I have seen…?” 
Only Acieth continued to conspicuously stare at Sariel as he turned to the side, still unable to shake her initial surprise. 
After he completed his order and Kisaki turned her back to him to prepare the coffee, Sariel casually turned around to size up the gang at the table. Then time stopped. 
“Kaaaahhh!!” 
Neither Suzuno, nor Amane nor Urushihara, and certainly not Rika, were able to stop her. Acieth had a good look at Sariel’s face now, and faster than anyone could act, she shot to her feet and made a flying leap for Sariel. She raised a fist—the fist that had broken right through the archangel Camael’s armor not long ago. 
The look on Sariel’s face was one of abject shock. Acieth had completed the entire motion in a single instant—faster than Kisaki or any of Acieth’s boothmates could’ve seen—and the pure vengeance oozing out of every pore was palpable. 
“Acieth!!” 
No one was able to react except Maou, who flung his right hand toward the thin arm that even now was making its way toward Sariel’s body. 
“Maou…!!!” 
With a scream of protest, Acieth disappeared in a puff of purple light, just like Emi dematerializing her holy sword. 
“Mm? What was that?” 
Kisaki had just turned around, totally oblivious to the tense half-second that just passed as she placed a coffee cup on the counter. 
“Um, Sarue? Marko? C’mon, Chi, what is it?” 
To her, all three of them, along with the gang at the table, seemed to all be carefully studying the ceiling, pained smiles on their faces. The sheer force of hatred behind Acieth’s actions was purely overwhelming. Chiho was used to stuff like this, but it still cowed her into submission, just as it did Maou and Sariel. 
Sariel found his voice first. 
“Er, no, um…” 
He looked at Maou, then Chiho, then the table with Suzuno and the rest. 
“I…apologize, Ms. Kisaki. Could I make that whole order to go, actually?” 
“Sure, but…what’s up? That’s unusual for you.” 
Sarue’s normal practice was to sit down, then come back for a few additional orders before he was done. The surprise on Kisaki’s face at this request was obvious to everyone else. But the customer was always right. She took out the relevant bags and containers. 
“Indeed, um,” Sariel said in a near-whisper, “I just remembered that I have some work I still need to tackle after this, so…” For a moment, he gave Suzuno and Urushihara a look. “…I’ll be on my way, then.” 
“What’s with him?” the astonished Kisaki said as he left without another word. “Did he eat something rotten, or what?” 
Maou and Suzuno had no response to this. All they could do was watch him carefully make his way downstairs. 
“Well!” Suzuno near-shouted. “We’d best be on our way as well.” She rose to her feet, Urushihara, Rika, and Amane joining her as they stacked their trays above the trash can. 
Each one gave their farewells to Kisaki as they filed away. 
“My apologies for the extended stay,” Suzuno said. 
“Thank you very much!” Rika said. 
“Yeah, uh…thanks,” Urushihara grumbled. 
“I’ll beat you someday,” Amane mouthed. 
“Thank you all very—huh?” 
Kisaki stopped herself as she saw them off—and not simply because that last farewell didn’t sound much like a farewell to her. 
“Wasn’t there one more of them…?” 
“Oh, um, I think she went to the bathroom ahead of the others!” 
“Oh? Huh. Must’ve missed it.” 
Whether Kisaki bought Chiho’s hurried explanation or not, the manager shook her head. As weird customers went, she was still on the harmless side, as far as she was concerned. Then something else came to mind. 
“Oh, hey, I’m going downstairs for a second, guys.” 
“Huh? Oh, sure.” 
“What for?” 
“I’m gonna check our surveillance cameras down there. Something’s bothering me about how Sarue just left outta nowhere like that.” 
“Oh…okay?” 
Sariel may have been allowed back on MgRonald premises again, but that didn’t mean Kisaki had so much as a shred of trust in his behavior. She must have feared that he was picking up chicks downstairs instead of dealing with her tonight—and when she finally, blessedly left the MgCafé, Maou and Chiho breathed a long-yearned-for sigh of relief. 
“Wh-what was that? Acieth just, out of nowhere…” 
“I dunno, but I’d have to guess it was because she saw Sariel’s face… Hey, will you shut up already?” 
Acieth must have been raising a royal hue and cry inside Maou’s head. But Maou had to stop her, or else that fist that smashed through Camael’s thick armor like so much papier-mâché would have struck the completely unprotected Sariel. The two of them shuddered. They didn’t care that much about Sariel’s safety, but the sheer force of the blow could’ve caused untold damage to the building itself. 
“Guess Acieth’s just like Alas Ramus, huh? They both have it in for the angels in the worst way possible. It’s just that Acieth likes taking matters into her own hands a lot more, I suppose…” 
“Erone seemed pretty chill, though.” 
“Yeah, well, let’s just hope Suzuno and the gang can get the whole story outta Sariel… For chrissake, just zip it!” 
Maou looked exhausted. The screaming in his head showed no sign of abating, and covering his ears did nothing for it. Now he understood completely what drove Emi to seek permission for Alas Ramus to visit Devil’s Castle. The crying at night must have been traumatic. 
Suzuno and her companions walked through the front door to find Sariel standing there, takeout bag still hanging from one hand, a weirdly humbled look on his face. He did not greet them. 
“…” 
“Rather calm, are you not?” Suzuno began. “I thought that experience would have shaken you a little.” 
“No,” he sniffed. “I am surprised, yes, but not shaken.” He turned to Urushihara. “Was that the child again? The one who fused with Emilia…?” 
“They’re kinda alike, yeah, but it doesn’t look like it. Two peas in a pod, though, it seems.” 
“Mm? Is it because she’s one of those, then? Another shard?” 
“You know more about that than I do, dude.” Urushihara shook his head. “I don’t know jack about how to handle Sephirot. I skipped out of heaven a zillion years before you started messin’ with that crap.” 
“Oh…did you?” 
“Hey, um, Suzuno?” Rika prodded Suzuno as the two men continued talking, both stern-faced as could be. “That’s the guy from Sentucky, isn’t it?” 
“Ah…yes, you have seen him before, have you not? That is precisely the man. In Japan he is Mitsuki Sarue, manager at the Sentucky Fried Chicken…but in the heavens above Ente Isla, he was known as Lord Sariel, the archangel.” 
“Man, what is up with this neighborhood? Why’re all these Biblical figures so obsessed with fast food?” 
Rika looked exasperated. Suzuno took that as a good sign. Slowly but surely, she was starting to accept all of this. 
“But… Hmm,” Sariel mused. “Indeed. I think I know why Gabriel came here on the day of that big storm now.” 
“““?!””” 
This stopped the other three onlookers in their tracks. 
“So he’s an archangel, though?” Rika asked. “Like, the same as Gabriel?” 
“Hmm? Ah. You were with Emilia before, weren’t you? When you visited my store?” 
“Oh, God, don’t remind me about that day again!” 
Rika and Sariel had met only once, briefly, several months ago. On a day that, now that she knew the truth about Ente Isla, provided nothing but major trauma to Rika’s mind at this point. 
“I will admit to being out of the loop, but have you become aware of our…circumstances?” Sariel asked. “Like Chiho Sasaki?” 
“I… Well, it’s not like I wanted to! It’s just that your friend or whatever went and—” 
“Gabriel? What did he do to you?” 
“You are not aware, my lord?” Suzuno inquired. 
Sariel shook his head. “Nope. He had a team along with him to attempt my repatriation, so I, well, resisted a bit. Just a bit, mind you. But thanks to that, our sales for the day went down the toilet.” 
He stepped back and looked forlornly at the SFC he managed. 
“I mean, heavens, they smashed all the windows, broke all the tables… All that grief he put my customers through! I really had to give him an honest piece of my mind for a change, if you follow me. Whether archangel or not, my Evil Eye, and my transdimensional barrier, are hardly things he can afford to sniff at. All it took were a few carefully worded threats to send him packing. I tell you, modifying the memories of every man, woman, and child in the store after that was such a pain.” 
“Er, yes…” 
“Dude, why are you sounding so much like Maou now?” 
Neither Suzuno nor Urushihara could believe how much Sariel, their former enemy, cared about his apparent new career in the world of quick-service chicken. When he first arrived in Japan, he couldn’t have seen the franchise as anything more than a front to hide his true intentions with. 
“Actually, can I ask you a question, Lucifer?” 
“What?” 
“Why did you leave heaven?” 
“Because I was bored. That’s all. I think I was just asked that a bit ago, too…” 
“I think I am starting to understand your feelings a little, then.” 
“What do you mean?” 
Before he could answer, the previously silent Amane stepped toward Sariel, a grim look on her face. He eyed this unfamiliar woman carefully but continued speaking. 
“The thought never even occurred to me when I was still in heaven, but once I started working in this city, and once I encountered my goddess, Mayumi Kisaki… For the first time in my existence, I started to expend labor for something besides myself. And the strangest thing was…it didn’t feel bad.” 
“Ooh, that’s a little bit different from my ex—mph…” 
Suzuno stopped Urushihara mid-sentence. 
“I expended labor for the sake of someone else…and they were thankful for it. I had never experienced such a thing in my existence before. I suppose it comes as a shock to you in particular, Bell, but…” 
“No. I…have long passed that point in time.” 
Only a truly devout follower of the Church of Ente Isla would understand the portent behind Sariel’s words. They meant that this race, these angels, never gave a second thought about contributing to the world of humanity. That the prayers offered to the Church and its holy scriptures never had a remote chance of reaching the ears of divinity. 
“I have no desire to return to that world. That world obsessed with protecting itself, where keeping the order of things takes precedent over everything else. And you can forget about my becoming involved in any sort of conflict. For now, my sole interest lies in how I can have Mayumi Kisaki recognize me for who I am, how I can walk hand in hand with her in my life. Did you see her now? The smile has returned to her face, every time I haunt her doorstep. If I had followed Gabriel back at this point, it would have been all for naught.” 
Kisaki was currently looking over the camera footage to check if Sariel had done anything illegal on the first floor before leaving. Everyone on hand silently agreed that what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. 
“So no matter what you do, know this: I have no intention of helping you, nor of getting in your way. My sole path in life involves me, and Mayumi Kisaki, and the future we are destined to share forever.” 
“That is so lame.” 
Amane’s harsh judgment had no chance of reaching the completely self-infatuated Sariel’s ears. 
“Thus I care not whether Lucifer is in cahoots with Bell or not. And while I do have my concerns for the two beautiful women who have been opened to the world of Ente Isla, I will not allow myself to worry over them.” 
“You have concerns about them, dude?” 
“It would be impossible for me to ignore such ravishing symbols of beauty. Now, this leaves the other girl, the Yesod fragment, and…well, considering what we’ve done in the past, it is not difficult for me to understand why she took such action upon first sight of me.” 
“Yeah! That! Let’s talk about that!” 
“Hmm? About what, Lucifer?” 
“That’s the part I don’t get, dude. What the hell did you guys do up there? Alas Ramus and that girl couldn’t even stand the sight of Gabriel. Or, really, of any angel, pretty much. What’d you do to the Sephirot tree after I was gone?” 
Urushihara’s question struck at the root of Alas Ramus’s, Acieth Alla’s, and even Erone’s existence. These shards—which bore no ill will toward people, demons, even the fallen angel Urushihara—possessed murderous hostility for all archangels. 
“Well,” Sariel said, “I wasn’t the Sephirot’s guardian angel. I was in no position to do anything, if you will, to the Tree of Life. Not directly, that is. But I can, at least, tell you what the angels’ motivation was for reaching out to it.” 
Sariel leaned his body against a nearby tree on the sidewalk, as if this conversation was starting to tire him. He looked up at the sky, face serene. 
“We were trying to interfere with the birth of a god in Ente Isla. A real one. That was the ultimate aim.” 
This was not enough to make Urushihara, Suzuno, and certainly Rika understand what he meant. Only Amane seemed to. 
“…Well, that was a pretty stupid idea,” she said listlessly, a trace of pity to her voice. “I don’t know where you guys came from, but do you think any mortal being has a chance against the full fury of nature?” 
“…?” 
Sariel gave Amane a quizzical look; Suzuno and Urushihara seemed just as lost. It should have been clear to Amane that Sariel was from Ente Isla—from the heavens above that planet, at least… 
“Because you must have thought you did, didn’t you?” she continued. “That’s why you tried doing something like that—because you thought you could. The Sephirot over in your world… It’s created some serious karma at this point, after all.” 
“Who…are you…?” 
“Oh, like that even matters. Lemme just warn you, though: This Ente Isla or whatever it is…it’s gonna have it pretty rough now, going forward. You prodded the hornet’s nest, and now it’s gonna sting back atcha. Exactly how, I couldn’t tell you, but it will, and bad.” 
“So be it,” Sariel intoned heavily as he pulled away from the tree. “Let it happen. I have no intention of returning.” 
“Lord Sariel!” 
Suzuno called for him as he turned around and began to walk off. His only response was a hand raised to the air. “I told you,” he said. “I’m in no position to support you right now, but I’m not actively opposing you, either. I have no intention of telling you anything, and I have no intention of helping you. That training session before was the exception that proves the rule, all right?” 
“That training session” must have meant his helping Chiho learn how to handle holy magic earlier. They offered to help mend fences with Kisaki in exchange, and he leaped at it greedily like a penguin chick greeting the arrival of summer. To Suzuno, he was in no position to act all prissy about it now. 
“…But,” he suddenly continued, “if Mayumi Kisaki were ever to fall into danger, I am prepared to toss my very life on the line. So no matter what you intend to do from now on, tell the Devil King this one thing for me: Tell him that no matter what happens, I will always step up to protect my goddess, Mayumi Kisaki; the MgRonald Hatagaya location and the crew that she loves with all her heart; and this shopping arcade that it is kind enough to call home.” 
“So,” Amane said as they watched Sariel walk back to his job. “How’s that grab ya, Rika?” 
“Kind of hard to tell. We’ve only talked once. But something tells me he could do a lot better than this, y’know?” 
“You’re damn right, Rika Suzuki,” Urushihara confirmed. “I think we can believe him, though. He’s, like, pretty crazy for Kisaki, and besides, there ain’t an angel or human who could beat ’im. Even with the demons, the only ones who’d try hittin’ Earth right now are the Malebranche, and ain’t no way they could take him on.” 
“Indeed,” Suzuno added. “I am concerned with how much holy force Lord Sariel has left to wield, but…this is perhaps an unexpected, and very welcome, boon for us.” 
Sariel had just declared that he would step up to protect the staff of the MgRonald in front of Hatagaya Station. Which meant that as long as they were on duty, Kisaki and Chiho were completely safe—especially with Amane on the scene, too. And no one was happier about that than Urushihara, given that it meant even the most dreadful of disasters wouldn’t require him to leave his computer any longer. 
“Okay, so…uh, I guess we kinda stormed outta the restaurant, but what’ll we do now?” 
Rika’s question made Suzuno turn back toward MgRonald. “I had thought we would wait until the end of their shift,” she said, “but perhaps we should return home and travel to Ueno later to prepare. My apologies, Amane, but would you mind driving the Devil King’s scooter again for me? To Ueno, this time.” 
“No problem, but what for?” 
“What other reason could there be?” a somewhat irritated Suzuno spat out as she glared at the second floor. “That idiot Devil King never acquired his license. If I let him drive it there and a police officer stopped him, he would be summarily arrested for driving without a license. As it stands, he would never agree to drive one right now. He would gripe endlessly about how he’d lose his job if he was found out, or how Alciel would scream to high heaven at him.” 
“Hey, I know I’m late asking this, but…he is the Devil King, right? Like, the king of an entire demon kingdom and everything?” 
Rika remained not wholly convinced. This was a Devil King afraid of traffic citations, and a so-called Church cleric showing genuine concern about what should have been the personification of evil in her religion. 
“…He is,” a deflated Suzuno replied. “This man who upholds the law, respects mankind, loves his career, and shows concern for the woman who wanted him dead is the King of All Demons and invader of Ente Isla. And that is exactly why Emilia and I have so much trouble with him.” 
The emotions behind that statement were so deep, dark, and conflicting that Rika never would’ve had any chance at fully comprehending them. 
 
It was one in the morning at Ueno-Onshi Park, in a corner of Tokyo’s Taito ward. Admittance into National Museum of Western Art grounds would normally be forbidden at this hour, but there were two people there, walking along a tiled path in the front lawn, watching carefully for guards or cameras as they pushed along a pair of roofed motor scooters packed with camping equipment. 
“Hey, you sure we’re good? No one’s gonna see us?” 
“…Look, are you sure you’re a Devil King?” 
Rika had already asked Maou that what seemed like a billion times. It didn’t exactly put Maou’s mind at ease. 
“I’m just sayin’, this is totally trespassing, what we’re doing right now. Even this late at night, there’s gotta be someone here in this park…” 
“Indeed. There are quite a few drinking establishments in the area. Many of the clubs around here remain open until dawn, in fact. Indeed, indeed…” 
“Look, Suzuno, can we just do this and get outta here already?! What if someone spots Chi and starts askin’ questions or whatever?” 
“Hey, um, Maou?” 
It was Amane who finally voiced her complaints over Maou’s excessive paranoia. 
“This is supposed to be the Devil King’s triumphant return to his homeland, ain’t it? Aren’t you supposed to act a lot more stately about it or whatever?” 
“Acting ‘stately’ isn’t gonna help me if I get arrested doing it! Ugh, I so wish I had gotten my license before this. I know it’s Ente Isla we’re going to, but…” 
“You’re so anal about the smallest things, seriously,” she continued. “Look, if something happens, I’ll fix it for you all, all right? So snap out of it! D’you think Chiho wants to put up with all this?” 
“Oh, no, um… I don’t really mind, or…” 
“Dude, I’m about to fall asleep. I can’t stay up all night like this while I’m still hurt, okay? So can we get movin’ with this, Bell?” 
“Honestly, you people…” 
For the grand departure that it was, it was sorely lacking in tension—something that drained the strength from Suzuno’s face, even though she needed all the strength she could muster right now. 
“Right,” she began. “I need all of you to be quiet. Gate magic requires intense concentration.” Then, without hesitation, she walked past a placard reading “SEISMIC ISOLATION PLATFORM—DO NOT STAND ON BASE” and stepped up to the platform their “gate” was situated on. 
Suzuno, by and large, had one worry at the moment. The Gates of Hell was a sculpture of great portent, to be sure—vast history was chiseled into it, the story of Earth, mankind in all its permutations, writ large upon its surface. Whether that meant it’d serve as an amplifier powerful enough to open a Gate with was another matter entirely. The Gate’s potential was strictly guesswork on Maou and Ashiya’s part. 
“…” 
The bronze doors that formed Auguste Rodin’s masterpiece loomed above her now. Flanked on both sides by statues of Adam and Eve, it was meant to depict the entrance of hell from Canto III of “The Inferno” from the Divine Comedy, which described a certain famous inscription written on its arch: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” 
“‘Abandon all hope,’ is it?” 
“What was that, Suzuno?” Chiho asked. 
Suzuno smiled. “Oh, just recalling the past. Never in my dreams did I expect to savor those words shoulder to shoulder with the Devil King. I’ve a feeling we might just be able to do this.” 
She took a bottle of 5-Holy Energy ? out from her sleeve and gulped it down in one shot. 
“We never had any hope to begin with.” 
Slowly, Suzuno walked up to the gate, eyes fixated above. At the very top was a seated man looking down upon her. It was The Thinker, Rodin’s other masterpiece, and it formed both the keystone for the gate’s door frame and the artwork’s representation of Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy. Suzuno gave it a sincere nod, took a deep breath, and extended both hands toward the door. The next words out of her mouth were none of earthly origin. 
“<Holy soul, connecting life and time, divine our transient world from the yawning heavens!>” 
As she pronounced each syllable, particles of light began streaming from Suzuno’s fingertips to The Gates of Hell. 
“Wh-whoa…” 
Chiho couldn’t help but gasp in awe. Her own magical training enabled her to understand just how much energy was coursing through Suzuno’s body right now. She couldn’t even fathom the sheer quantity of force this stroke of magic required. Not even a hundred Chihos could’ve been enough. 
“Wow, this…this really looks like magic… This ain’t CGI or anything?” 
Despite having seen the Light of Iron and Acieth’s disappearing act for herself, Rika, eyes darting between Suzuno and the gate, couldn’t be blamed for blinking more than a few times at the display. 
The light particles grew thicker, soon forming two bands of light that enveloped Suzuno’s body and began to waver in the air. And amid the sound of her flapping kimono and the trees rustling in the wind, the sound of Amane muttering, “Huh. Weird,” went unnoticed by everyone. All eyes were on Suzuno, of course, so they couldn’t have noticed the fog that was billowing up from her feet and surrounding the entirety of the Gates. 
As the show continued, the bands of light around Suzuno began to emit what looked like lettering in the air. 
“<Nnn…gh… Almost…>” 
The moment the letters appeared, Suzuno’s expression clearly grew more pained. Chiho was struck with an impulse to lend a hand, but if she distracted her now, the entire spell would disappear in a wisp. It was absolutely massive, nothing on the level of an Idea Link. 
“It, it’s opening!” Maou shouted. 
The Gates, being a sculpture, weren’t literally opening for them—but now they could see the light dancing across its borders, and the air within was warping within itself. 
“We, we okay?” Urushihara shouted. He sounded anxious. The wrinkle in space was forming, but it showed no sign of opening for them. As if something was snagged on it, it began to close just as it seemed ready to burst open. 
“<If…if I open it…that’ll stabilize it… Ngh…>” 
Suzuno’s face was in anguish until she looked up. The man at the top of the gate looked blankly down at the cleric from another world. Was this cleric incapable of opening The Gates of Hell? No. This was Crestia Bell, the Scythe of Death herself. What would be a more suitable fate for her than hell itself? 
She took a deep breath, then another step forward. 
“<Do not retain hope… Proceed… Forward!>” 
The call to arms that sent mankind forward against its most formidable of foes. 
“<You must blaze your own trail to survive!!>” 
As her voice rang out, the light bands swirling around Suzuno’s body whirlpooled down to a single point, flung themselves from her small hands, and smashed against the warped space in front of her. 
“<It…it’s open! It’s open! The Gate is open!!>” 
Her sweaty face told her audience exactly how grand and sublime a feat the opening was. Despite her inability to speak the local language any longer, she still had enough of her wits to raise a fist in the air and shout triumphantly. 
“<Let’s go, Devil King! It’s stable now, but it will not be for long! Acieth had better be fused with you!>” 
“S-sure!” 
In a rush, Suzuno climbed on her bike, Maou following suit. Once the helmet was strapped on, she gripped the brakes and turned on the engine. 
“Maou! Suzuno! Acieth!” Chiho called for her friends, just as they were about to depart. “We’ll take care of things over here! Be careful!” 
“Okay!” 
“We’ll be back!” 
Neither Suzuno nor Maou nor the invisible Acieth needed much in the way of words right now. Everyone knew by this point that, no matter where they went, they’d be right back in that cramped wooden apartment in Sasazuka—in Japan—before too long. 
The two scooter engines revved up, plunging Maou and Suzuno straight into the swirling light that spun in front of them. Then: 
“…They’re gone…” 
That was all a dumbfounded Rika could say. Like the end of a grandiose magic trick, Maou and Suzuno disappeared with neither a sound nor a trace the moment they touched that crack that opened in front of the Gates. All that remained was a small rift, an eerie light emanating out from it. 
“…Be careful,” Chiho whispered once more. The ring she was clutching, the one with the Yesod fragment inside it, glowed softly. 
“Okay, so…now what?” Rika asked, still clearly bewildered as her head bobbed between the Gate and Chiho. 
“We wait. That’s all we really need to do. Just wait for Maou and Suzuno to get Yusa and Alas Ramus and Ashiya back.” 
Unlike Rika’s wavering voice, Chiho’s was fully resolute. It was so sure about what the future held for them all that Rika was taken aback by it. 
“B-but…” 
“Well, okay, I don’t mean juuust wait. I need to go to Ms. Kisaki during my next shift and ask her which location I can start my delivery training at.” 
“Huh?” Rika moaned, confused at the ever-so-slight difference in weight between what just happened and what Chiho had just told her. “Wh-why’re you bringing that up?” 
“Because Maou said he wanted to do it,” she cheerfully replied. “I want to tell him everything I learned during my training session once he gets back. That’ll take some of the burden off him once he starts his new position.” 
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a helpful spouse before in my life,” Amane ironically exclaimed. “Well, perfect! That’s what teamwork’s all about, anyways. Doing what you can for your friends.” 
“I…” 
Rika still didn’t know how to parse Chiho. So much younger than her, yet so much more…put together. Brave, even. 
“Ah, you’re still just a beginner at this, Rika,” Amane advised. “Just try to picture Yusa back here safe and sound, all right? Try to mentally prepare for that and stuff.” 
“Prepare for it…?” 
“…’Kay, I’m outta here,” Urushihara characteristically muttered. 
“Uh, but what about that rift?” 
Just as Rika pointed at the Gate hole Suzuno had opened up, it gradually shrank into a single dot in the air before disappearing completely. Beyond it, The Gates of Hell loomed, just as it did during opening hours. Nothing had changed to it; the only evidence Maou and Suzuno had been there at all were the fresh tire tracks they had left on the tile as they peeled off. 
“Well, shall we, then?” Amane suggested as the fog spouting from under her feet began to dissipate, returning Ueno-Onshi Park to its quiet late-night atmosphere. “While nobody’s spotted us, at least?” 
Urushihara took the chance to look at the park’s clock tower. It was half past one—late enough that even a grown-up wandering park grounds might attract police attention. 
“Hey, you sure it’s okay for you to be walking around this late, Chiho Sasaki?” 
“Oh, it’s fine with my parents. I’m going to be staying at Suzuno’s place tonight.” 
“Huh?” Urushihara’s eyebrows rose. “You’re comin’ with me? I thought Amane was shackin’ up in there already.” 
Chiho, in response, sized Amane up with her eyes. “Oh, you’ll be fine in your room, Urushihara. No need to worry about us.” 
“…Dude, I don’t really like how you’re assuming I’m just gonna sit in the closet this whole time.” 
“That’s not really what I meant,” Chiho countered, “but this… Well, I can’t even tell Maou about this, sadly. It’s not really something we could do if he or Yusa or Suzuno were here, and really, if you wouldn’t mind holing up in your closet… Okay, the room is fine, too, but if you could chill inside for a few days, that’d really help us out.” 
“Geez, dude,” Urushihara replied, unable to pick up on what Chiho was saying between the words. “So now you’re commanding me to be an outcast to society?” 
Chiho, ignoring him, turned to Amane. 
“Amane?” 
“Hmm? Why’re you lookin’ so serious?” 
“You said you couldn’t tell Maou and the other demons about anything their landlord hasn’t already said to them, right?” 
Amane’s face, a good length taller than Chiho’s as she looked down upon her, suddenly brightened a little. She flashed a defiant smile. 
“So what about me by myself?” 
“…Well, that depends on what you’re asking, I s’pose. But why do you think you deserve to know more than them?” 
That was the only “examination” Amane saw fit to give her. And Chiho, without a moment’s hesitation, passed with flying colors. 
“Because I’m from this planet.” 
“…Yeah, you got me there.” Amane scratched her head, eyebrows furrowed. “You’re a lot more than just a faithful spouse after all, huh? Eesh, and I thought you were just an average girl with a little more nerve than most your age. Guess not, huh?” 
Her words were ambivalent, but her expression was one of sheer joy. 
“Hell, you’re such a real monster, Maou and Yusa couldn’t take you in a million years.” 
The only other witnesses to this human exchange between worlds were the two Dantes—one above the gate door, the other perched quietly across from The Gates of Hell.