Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 9 - Chapter 5

EXTRA CHAPTER 
THE DEVIL BLOWS CHUNKS 
The next morning, Suzuno awoke to the sensation of someone slapping one of her cheeks. She opened her eyes, concluding that Acieth had flopped over to her side of the tent yet again… 
“?!!!!!!!” 
…but when it was Maou’s face she saw through the dim darkness, her heart almost leaped out of her throat. 
“Mao—mngh!!” 
Maou immediately put a hand over her mouth to stop the screaming. 
“?!?!?!” 
Her eyes turned into dots, her face flushed red at this sudden threat to her well-being. She knew she wasn’t quite herself last night, but had she really driven him to do this? Panic began to set in, and Maou bringing his face close to her ear almost drove her to asphyxiation. 
“Don’t say anything. Someone’s close.” 
But those few words were all it took for her blood pressure to fall back to normal. Maou’s eyes had deep rings around them—he must not have slept much—but that mattered little to her. 
“…Pickled meat chocolates, microwaved in oil and thawed sashimi…mngh…” 
Then Maou leaned over to quiet down Acieth, the dreams of whom he could no longer imagine, as he used his eyes and a finger to point out a direction to Suzuno. She was still cocooned in her sleeping bag, but a few quick zips and her arms and legs were free. She took out her hairpin, waiting, her long hair spilling out from the top of the colorful bag, making her look more like a carnivorous plant than some insect larva. Either way, she was ready for battle. 
Maou peeked out from a slit at the entrance. 
“Enemies?” Suzuno whispered. 
“If it’s a friend, I’d love to know right now.” 
“I would have no idea who it is. A passing traveler, I would hope.” 
“…Doubt it.” 
Suzuno grasped her hairpin, ready to summon her magical hammer at any moment. The sound of footsteps was unmistakable now—somebody, through the morning mist of the forest, was approaching. A single person, at least—but few travelers would be curious, or foolhardy, enough to wander this far into the forest from the main path. 
“Does Acieth work while asleep?” 
“Apart from having her whine at me afterward, I think so.” 
Maou seemed no more optimistic than Suzuno was. 
The owner of the footsteps made no attempt to hide the sound of their boots against the underbrush. They were making a beeline for Maou’s camp. There would be a fight soon, no doubt. The scooters, and most of their camping equipment, would have to be abandoned. If their luck ran out in front of the capital… 
Then a familiar rumbling voice muttered to itself: 
“<This… They call it a…‘scooter,’ yeah?>” 
Both Maou and Suzuno could understand it. It was an Ente Islan language—“scooter” being something of a recent new loanword. 
“Ahhh… Ahem, who’s there?” 
Then, after clearing its throat, they found themselves being greeted in clear Japanese. 
“The Devil King? Or Alciel, or Lucifer? That Sasaki lady, perhaps, or maybe even Crestia Bell?” 
“Wha…?” 
This surprised Suzuno even more than having Maou violate her personal space first thing in the morning. Not many people on Ente Isla or Japan could name those five people in the Japanese language. 
“I have no idea what this is about…” Maou must have thought the same. He leaned away from Acieth, relaxing his body. “…But shockingly, I guess you’re friendly, huh?” 
He stood up and walked out of the tent, Suzuno hurriedly following behind. 
The morning intruder was as broad and stout of body as the trees that surrounded them all, his skin tanned by the sun. They had to crane their necks upward to see his face—but when he looked down at Suzuno, his face scrunched up. 
“Wh-whoa, what’s that?” the figure asked. “Some kinda new race of demon?” 
“A new race of what? How dare you!” 
Maou rolled his eyes. Suzuno was still in carnivorous-plant mode. 
“Yeah, I can’t blame you. Freaky, ain’t it? But you didn’t just happen to run into us, though, did you? Think we could have a friendly little exchange of information to start out, Albert Ende?” 
“In…deed. And you are sure she’s not a demon?” 
“I am not!” 
To Albert Ende, mountain sage from the Northern Island and one of Emi’s companions on her Devil King conquest, the sight of Suzuno in a modern zip-up sleeping bag was far more bizarre than encountering the Devil King himself. 
“But how did you home in on us with such pinpoint accuracy, anyway?” 
After slapping Acieth awake from her dreams of transforming into fanciful dinner menu items and yanking the sleeping bag off Suzuno’s frame, Maou turned to face Albert once more. 
“It wasn’t that difficult, I’ll tell you,” Albert replied as he carefully eyed the newly awake larva in front of him. He pointed at the scooters hidden under the shadow of a nearby oak. “I heard tell of a woman in Church robes riding some strange manner of wagon, and I tracked them down to here yesterday.” 
“Uh, we’re already the subject of rumors?” Maou and Suzuno exchanged glances. They had made an effort to keep away from the prying eyes of people and settlements, but remaining completely undercover proved even less possible than they had hoped. 
“I wouldn’t be too concerned,” Albert assured them. “Y’all aren’t standing out too much. There are thousands of rumors flowing across Efzahan at any given time. I just happened to pluck out the right one, y’see? Besides, everyone here’s on the edges of their seats right now—far more than when you were invading, Devil King. It’d be one thing if it were all over and we were under demon control again, but all these vague rumors about Heavensky being taken over, without much else being affected… The anticipation is killing everyone.” 
It must have been. The tavern keeper from yesterday confirmed as much. 
“The most common stories are eyewitness accounts of this-or-that demon, I’d say. Mostly animal sightings, if y’ask me, or cover stories for criminals. But that tale of the strange wagon being driven around—it reminded me more’n a bit of what I saw in your land. Japan, I mean. And since I had business in Heavensky anyway, I thought I’d just poke around to see what I could find, y’know?” 
Albert settled down on a nearby fallen tree trunk, sizing up his audience. “So,” he said. “Y’all here to help Emilia?” 
“Indeed,” Suzuno nodded, “but before we discuss that, I need to ask you what is happening to Emeralda. I sent an Idea Link to her the moment I lost contact with Emilia…but she never replied. Until certain events transpired in Japan to open our eyes, we had no confirmation that Emilia was being held captive.” 
“Ahh, well, that’s a bit of a long story, innit?” Albert gave the side of his head a scratch. “The short of it, though, is that Eme received a summons from Saint Aile the day she was supposed to regroup with Emilia.” 
“A summons from the empire?” 
“Yep. I guess Eme’s cover story was that she was inspecting the area around Emilia’s village so she could expose some of the corruption that’s been goin’ on, but…” 
“Was she found out?!” 
“Even worse, in a way.” Albert pointed at Suzuno’s Church vestments. “Your friends are on the move. She’s finally been branded a renegade by the Church. They’re doin’ everything they can to keep Olba’s crimes under wraps. They say she’ll have to face an inquisition at the bishops’ headquarters in the capital.” 
“…At this point?” Suzuno asked dubiously. “Why?” Emeralda, after all, had been in all but open rebellion against the Church since well before Suzuno had traveled to Japan. Why was the Church in a panic to prosecute her now, several months after the fact? 
Albert’s face darkened. “Me and Emilia were guaranteed some level of public safety mainly because of the power Eme wields. Whether I fight for her or surrender to the Church, I gotta go back to her sometime. And along the way, I could’ve helped Emilia get back home in Eme’s place…” 
He pointed his face southwest, toward Heavensky. 
“But about half a day’s travel from her village, I picked up on what musta been a zillion Gates opening up all over the area. Damn, was I afraid. So I made my way to the village, and I saw all these weird guys messing around with Emilia’s village and fields and such.” 
“Demons? Or angels?” 
If Albert thought them “weird,” they must have been quite weird indeed. But Albert shook his head. “No, they were Church knights from the nearby walled city of Cassius.” 
“Cassius?” Suzuno jogged her memory. “There’s a cathedral under direct control of the bishops there… What would their knights want with Sloane?” 
Albert shook his head again. “That’s what I wanna know. But I’m certainly in no position to act hostile at all toward the Church knights. I asked ’em why they had activated so much holy force to open all those Gates, and they said it was for a land survey. Part of the rebuilding work, or whatnot. It made no sense at all to me. First they send Eme to find out why rebuilding’s been delayed so much, then they trigger all those Gates and start ‘survey work’ immediately after? And of course I caught neither hair nor hide of Emilia herself anywheres. I spent two days searching the area.” 
He flung his hands in the air in resignation. 
“So if I can’t make contact with Emilia, I figured, I might as well ask Eme for some instructions. So I go back to Saint Aile, and lo and behold, the whole Holy Magic Administrative Institute’s been shut down by General Pippin from the royal guard. To keep Eme from destroying evidence before her trial, is how they put it. The whole building got put on lockdown, so I couldn’t even retrieve the angel-feather pen I needed to open a Gate. That’s why I took so damn long to get here.” 
“…And that is why you never contacted me?” 
Albert nodded. “Yeah, well, you were in Japan on a secret mission from the Church, no? If someone spotted me communicating with you, I figured you’d have to pay for the fallout as much as I would. I got this from Emilia…” 
From a coat pocket, he took out a smartphone, similar to the one Emi owned. 
“But, man, I wish I’d bothered asking Eme for the number of your ‘phone’ when I had the chance. Biggest regret o’ my life. And if I launched another sonar bolt toward Japan, there’s no telling who’d find it.” 
“All right. Let’s exchange digits now before we forget.” 
Oblivious to the situation, Maou and Suzuno both took out their cell phones. They were both, of course, long out of battery juice. So was Albert’s. Not that they needed any to complete an Idea Link, but the lack of a physical number inside the phone’s memory could affect the accuracy of the spell’s connection. It still functioned as an amplifier, but without the number, it was an imperfect one. 
But Maou was prepared. He took out the LED lantern he had argued so long with Suzuno about purchasing—the one with the radio, solar battery, and hand-cranked charger that actually worked with his ancient phone—and gave Albert’s mobile phone a few percentage points of charge. 
Given Albert’s complete unfamiliarity with electronic devices, Suzuno’s natural suspicion of machines, and Maou’s inability to afford anything on the market newer than five years old, the phone-number exchange took far longer than it should have. But they still managed it. 
“Ooh, nice! I want the phone, too!” Acieth said. 
“…Maybe a kid’s one. I got a feeling you’d run up the bill with in-app purchases the moment I gave you one.” 
“Aww,” she said, ruefully staring at the three phones in their hands. “But okay. You buy it?” 
“I didn’t say I would yet, Acieth… So. Albert. What brought you to Efzahan, anyway?” 
“Simple: I’m just checkin’ up on the vast amount of holy force I picked up on. It’s centered right on Heavensky, like all hell’s about to break loose at any moment. I have some of my men deployed in the Northern and Southern Islands, but thinkin’ about what I saw in Emilia’s village when she got disappeared, I figured this is the spike I oughta be personally checkin’ on. And with you guys all here, something tells me I’m right, eh?” 
“You got it. Emi’s in Heavensky right now…or she’s supposed to be shortly, anyway.” 
“And what’s your proof of that?” 
“That’s kinda rich, isn’t it? After traveling the length of Ente Isla on a hunch? Luckily, the idiot pulling the strings behind all this was kind enough to tell us directly.” 
Maou used the thumb and pinky finger on his right hand to create a pretend telephone handset to demonstrate. 
“Look, Albert, there’s a lot I’d like to ask you later, but can you give us a hand for now? You probably guessed by now that this is about a lot more than rescuing Emi and waving see-ya to this world. I hate to bare my family drama to the world, but Ashiya… I mean Alciel… He’s been kidnapped by the same guys who took Emi.” 
“Huh? Kidnapped? Alciel?” Albert’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. 

“And if you don’t believe that one, try this on for size: Emi’s dad, Nord Justina, was captured with him.” 
“Huhh?! Emilia’s father?! Is that—” 
“Oh, and you know that kid over there who’s ready to steal my cell phone the moment I let it out of my sight?” 
“Agh! Um, Maou, I am sorry! The apology for you!” 
Maou grabbed Acieth by the sleeping bag just as she made an attempt at the phone in his hand. She hung her head in shame—feigned or otherwise—as Maou thrust her toward Albert. 
“Well, guess what?” Maou proclaimed. “This is another holy sword.” 
“Huhhh?” 
“Aieeee!” 
There was Acieth the colorful insect larva, hanging from Maou’s hand as Albert stared intently at her. Suzuno sighed. “I was hoping this could be a more solemn event.” 
“If my hunch is right,” Maou continued, “the bastards behind this show are using Emi and Ashiya to make the world go the way they want it. And lemme tell you, I hate people who aren’t willing to do the dirty work themselves.” 
“M-Maou, I want to go down nowww…” 
“We have kind of a tough road to hoe by ourselves, but it’ll be a hell of a lot easier with you around, Albert. How about it? Wanna mess around with this little farce before they make our friends do anything else?” 
“Sounds fine to me, but…is that the girl Emilia said she ‘fused’ with, or whatnot…?” 
“No. She’s separate from Alas Ramus. She’s the core of a completely new holy sword.” 
“A human forming the core of a sword? …Yes. Well, let’s just hope you go into a little more detail on that later, all right? If there’s a second Better Half here, that’s all I need to know. But…come on, Devil King, you can’t use that, can you? Are you handling it, Bell?” 
“Hmm? No, I…um.” 
The question from Albert was sensible enough, but it still threw Suzuno off enough that she looked to Maou for guidance. It was natural to expect that this so-called second Better Half would run off holy energy—which was exactly what the Devil King didn’t have. But Suzuno had seen it herself—Maou wielding this sword with power that was neither holy nor demonic. He was fused with her, and there was no doubting that by now. 
“Mm? Wait. This makes no sense.” 
“What, Suzuno?” 
“No, I…I think I have been missing something important…” 
Maou winced as he saw Suzuno bring a quizzical hand to her forehead. 
“Well, how about I just show you? Acieth, let me see the sword.” 
“Um, okay! But, uh, I feel not too good. How it works, I don’t know.” 
“Not too good? What, you eat too much?” 
“No! Not that! So mean! But since I come to this country, I feel hungry a lot. Maybe I will not do so good?” She craned her head, still in the larval cocoon in Maou’s grasp. “But, ooh, nothing ventured, nothing lost! I will go back.” 
“That’s not how that saying goes, Acieth…” 
Acieth’s contours were already starting to glow before Maou could finish. The next moment, she turned into a swarm of purple light particles that streamed back into his body. 
“Oh?” Albert leaned forward, surprised. “Emilia would do that, too, no?” 
Maou imagined how much more surprised Albert would be in a moment as he raised his right hand into the air. 
“Bring it out, Acieth!!” 
He focused on his palm. The particles from before formed around in his hand, and then… 
“…Huh?” 
Maou, in his dramatic pose and everything, was the first to voice concern. 
“Wow, you call that a holy sword?” Albert asked, eyes upturned. 
“H-hey! Acieth! What the hell?!” 
“Ooh, I don’t know what happens,” Acieth replied in his head. She sounded just as lost as he was. “I was using almost the full power, too…” 
“You can’t be! It was this huge…thing back at the school! This huge thing!” 
“What is wrong, Devil King?” Suzuno asked, still musing over her thoughts. All Maou could do was give her a simpering look. Which was understandable. Because the “holy sword” in his hand looked to be just large enough to slice up an apple or an orange. None of the sheer power that shone from every atom of the “second Better Half” at Sasahata North High was there any longer. Even worse: 
“Urrp.” 
Maou’s face twisted. He covered his mouth with his free hand. 
“Wh-what, Devil King?” 
The blood drained from his face as he staggered back. Suzuno stood up to catch him, but it was too late. He fell to his knees. 
“Oh, crap,” he groaned, batting Suzuno’s hands away. Then, out of nowhere, he ran off a distance into the forest. 
“Devil King?!” 
“What’s gotten into him?” Albert marveled at the jackrabbit-like speed Maou exhibited when he leaped into the nearby undergrowth. After a moment: 
“Bleaaaarrrrrggghhh…” 
There was a mighty, heaving groan, wholly unbefitting the shaded forest grove they were in, along with the wet, rushing sound of something that should never come out anyway. 
After witnessing Maou striking his action-hero pose, the butter knife he produced, and the “reversal of fortune” that struck immediately after, Suzuno and Albert were afraid to ask what came next. 
A few moments later, after it was all done and accounted for on the ground, the ashen-faced Maou returned, supported by Acieth in human form once more. 
“Are you…all right?” 
“Do…I look that way?” the teary-eyed Maou muttered as he released his grip on Acieth’s shoulder and fell to the forest floor. 
“Acieth,” Suzuno asked, ignoring the out-of-commission Maou for now, “what happened?” 
“Umm, I don’t know! It was like I say, ‘come out, power,’ and someone say ‘no’ instead.” 
“No…? You were denied it?” Suzuno looked at Acieth, then Maou. “Who could do that?” 
“Ooh,” came the chastised reply, “Maou, of course.” 
“Huh? Me?” Maou looked up at Acieth as he attempted to catch his breath. “I told you to come out! Why would I be the one holding you back?” 
“I dunno! It is how I feel, in you. It is a shock! Before, we do so well together.” 
“You—urrp!” 
Maou was about to lunge at the none-too-concerned Acieth, but his stomach wasn’t done with him yet. It sent him back to the ground, hand over mouth. 
“So I s’pose,” a pained-looking Albert commented, “we can’t count on this holy sword at all, huh?” 
“It would appear so,” Suzuno said. “Which puts me rather in a bind.” 
She had been going under the assumption that Maou, paired with Acieth, was all but invincible on Ente Isla—at least as powerful as the angel-dispelling Emi, if not more so if the times called for it. With that out of the picture, they could find themselves underpowered if the archangels of Efzahan decided to push the issue. It didn’t make sense to her. He harnessed the sword’s full power at first blush back at the school. It had no ill effects on him after that. 
“Hmm?” 
Once again, a mysterious alarm bell began to sound in Suzuno’s mind. She sized up the queasy-eyed Maou, the carefree Acieth, and the silent but clearly perturbed Albert, as she fiercely attempted to piece her thoughts together. 
It took the slowly recovering Maou to start griping at her to make it all click. 
“Ahh, dammit, why’s this happening now, of all times? I felt great up until now…” 
“Ah!” 
She finally had it by the tail. She knew it. She should have suspected it was strange from the start, but she never did. Why not? Because she had known this human, this Sadao Maou, for too long. 
“Devil King. You have been back in Ente Isla for days. Why are you not in demon form yet?” 
“…Um?” 
“And beyond that…where is your demonic force? Not even a little of it has returned?” 
“…Oh.” 
Maou gulped nervously at Suzuno’s increasingly shaky voice. 
“Uh…? Yeah, I…should? Wait. What?!” 
His face went pale once more. Now he realized it. How important this was. 
The demonic force wasn’t returning to his body. Ente Isla was a human realm, yes, but it was a world with enough dark energy that the Devil King Satan never had an issue retaining his demonic form upon it. If it was there, Maou wouldn’t have to think about it—it’d flow back into him, and pop, horn-and-hoof time. 
Maou grabbed at his head and legs, double-checking to make sure nothing had changed. It hadn’t. He was dumbfounded. 
“Is this because of…Acieth’s power…?” 
“I dunno,” came the out-of-hand reply. Maou didn’t appreciate the attitude, but either way, it was apparently nothing she was doing consciously. 
Then, watching him fall into full-blown panic, Suzuno realized something else. Something just as important. 
“Devil King… You fused with Acieth on Japan, did you not?” 
“Y-yeah…” 
The question Suzuno posed next had the potential to shake the core of every human and demon involved in the Devil King’s Army invasion of Ente Isla. 
“Why was the Devil King, with his demonic force, able to fuse with a holy sword? With…with a Yesod fragment?”