The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 1 (22 page)

“It would be a bit of a miracle if there weren’t any, Your Demonic Highness.”

Ashiya, back to human form and completely unscathed, was doggedly attempting to keep his Great Demon General robes from falling off his body.

“But if it weren’t for your great powers, anyone in the cars caught up in the Shuto Expressway collapse wouldn’t have had a chance. The cars on the Koshu-Kaido road, too. And it’s nothing short of a miracle that the nearby houses and such weren’t more badly damaged.”

“Yeah, well, people like us usually don’t start goin’ at it in this world. I bet at least a few people didn’t evacuate in time. I tried to
make the magic barrier as large as I could manage, but who knows if I got everything covered under it…”

Lucifer remained silent.

“I have an idea.” Emi, dressed in a business suit that had all but fallen to tatters due to her falling down the stairs at Maou’s apartment then joining a life-or-death clash of ponderously enormous magical forces, spoke up as she looked down upon Lucifer.

“Why don’t we just hand this guy over to the cops? We could say he was some kind of terrorist bomber or something.”

“I was thinking that too, but… Like, maybe that’d cause a big furor to start out, but there’s no actual evidence at all, and plus, it’d be kinda pointless anyway. I bet the cops wouldn’t mind closing the book on that string of robberies, though.”

The pants and shirt on Maou, stretched to the very limit of their fibers following their owner’s recent transformation, were now hanging loosely off his body, as if draped on a deck chair.

“Yeah, I’m sure, but…I mean, what’re we gonna do about all
this
?”

“Beats me. Not like a Great Demon General drained of all his magic power is gonna help us much.”

Said draining and absorption of Lucifer’s magical force was the one and only reason why the suddenly-human demon officer was so meek and docile now.

Ashiya himself still retained some magic, obtained the same way Maou had obtained his just now, and Emi had yet to exhaust her supply of holy force either. For Lucifer, whose stores had been fully tapped, there was no chance of even scratching them.

“Um…”

Chiho was the one who sheepishly interjected. She had no obvious injuries, and except for a light case of exhaustion after having Lucifer suck all the negative emotion out of her, she was fine. Compared to Maou, she looked oddly refreshed and ready for the day.

“I-I guess this is kind of a silly thing to ask at this point…”

“What’s up, Chi?”

The response, and the voice that delivered it, was unmistakably Sadao Maou. But Chiho still clearly recalled the enormous creature that had taken his form just minutes ago.

“Well, what…what
are
all of you?”

It was the obvious question of the hour. Maou, Ashiya, and Emi exchanged glances.

“Well…like, it’s kind of embarrassing to just put it out like this, but I’m the Devil King over in another world.”

Maou honestly did look embarrassed, distractedly scratching the side of his face with a finger, as if someone had just revealed one of his hidden nerd hobbies to his coworkers. It was enough to make Chiho burst into laughter even before she could process his words.

“Yeah, not that you believe it, huh?”

Chiho waved her hands in the air nervously. “Oh, no, no, no! I mean, I saw all of that…stuff you did, so. And that’s how you did all
that
, too, right?”

Her finger was pointed at the crowds of onlookers, overturned cars, and other debris scattered around the area, still frozen in time underneath the magical barrier.

“Yeah, more or less. But, you know, that much is pretty easy, so…”

“Your Demonic Highness, I know humility is considered a virtue in Japanese society, but you really shouldn’t be afraid to take more credit here.”

Ashiya was already back to his usual griping-househusband tone of voice.

“These guys are all demons, keep in mind. Myself, I’m all human. Okay, half angel, but—”

The utter seriousness of Emi’s interjection made Chiho spasm in laughter once more.

“Oh, come on, Chiho!”

“I-I’m sorry! It’s just so…goofy!”

“Wait, you’re half angel? ’Cause that’s news to me.”

“What? How could you
not
know? You’re the Devil King! Who did you think I
was
this whole time?”

Emi snapping back at Maou’s half-baked response was all it took for Chiho’s laughing to grow louder.

“I just thought that… Ha-ha-ha-ha! That angels and demons and stuff… They were all just these big made-up things, but…seeing you all…right here…”

The effort to speak while laughing eventually caused Chiho to choke on her own words. Emi worriedly slapped her on the back a few times.

“Well, look, Emi, you weren’t exactly sharing your personal info with me over there, right? I just thought you were, like, a really strong human, is all.”

“Oh, so you thought a regular human could just walk around with enough Holy Silver in her body to summon her sword?”

“…Guess not, huh? Well,
that
sure explains a lot. I wondered how you could transform like that.”

“If you think
that
was a shock, imagine finding you guys looking like
humans
for the first time!… Breathing okay now, Chiho?”

“Y-yeah. Sorry.”

Emi brought her lips to Chiho’s ears as she composed herself after her laughing fit.

“You see now? There’s nothing special at all between me and Maou, so quit worrying, okay?”

“Y-Yusa…”

All this laughing and blushing was keeping Chiho’s circulatory system fairly well occupied. Emi breathed a sigh of relief, yesterday’s misunderstandings now a thing of the past. Maou and Ashiya, looking on, couldn’t help to smile to themselves.

“You know, though…” Maou furrowed his brows, his face betraying his embarrassment.

“I guess it’s pointless asking now, but Emi, if you had that much power left, why didn’t you attack me before now? Like, until yesterday, you could’ve reduced me to a pile of ash any time you wanted.”

“Oh, that?”

Emi shrugged, as if the idea meant nothing to her.

“Well, a Devil King as cowardly as you are, you might have been pretending to be a weak, helpless human being until the moment you decided to bare your fangs, right? Plus, like I told you, if I fought at full power like that, even if I managed to defeat you, there’s no guarantee I’d have enough power left to control the Gate. That’s pretty much it.”

“Oh. Makes sense.”

Maou nodded his agreement. Then his face turned white as he grasped the meaning behind her words.

To put it another way, if Emi had decided to give up on returning home, she could have utterly destroyed him at any moment. She had every chance in the world to pull it off before now.

Emi, perhaps noticing this, sulkily turned her back to Maou.

“I know I don’t act like it sometimes, but I’m a Hero. A leader. My people respected me. I can’t just prey on the weak and defenseless like that.”

“The weak and…? That’s kind of mean.”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, well, what about
now
, huh? I got all my power back, and you used all of yours up! I could crush you like a bug! How about
them
apples?”

Maou struck a semiserious battle pose.

“Oh, suuuuuure.”

But Emi was totally unfazed. Grabbing Chiho at her side, she held her close, while Maou’s potential love interest hid behind her shadow.

“Hey, Chiho, that guy’s using his ‘I have my power back’ crutch to try and pick on me.”

The tactic was as barefaced as it was effective.

“…Really, Maou?”

And what’s more, Chiho looked honestly crestfallen as she looked toward Maou. He cringed, shielding his face against her sheer innocence.

“D-don’t look at me like that! I… There’s no
way
I’d actually do it! I am the proud, noble king of the demons! When it’s time to fight,
I fight fair and square! So stop looking all sad like that, Chi, okay? Also, that was
low
, Emi!”

Ashiya sighed, looking even sadder than Chiho as he watched Maou frantically make excuses from the rear.

Lucifer, for his part, seemed utterly lost, as if viewing a scene from another dimension.

“What has
happened
to all of you?”

The question brought Emi and Maou back to reality. In tandem, they planted a foot upon Lucifer’s head for speaking without permission.

“Nnrgh!”

“Yeah, that reminds me, this guy comes before any of that. That and Sasazuka. What’re we gonna do?”

Maou looked around his surroundings as Ashiya crossed his arms in intense thought.

“As they say, Your Demonic Highness, if you make a mess, it’s your job to clean it up. This world’s been very kind to us. Leaving it in chaos before returning home would make even a demon’s conscience feel guilty.”

Ashiya’s response could not have been less demonlike. But it was the reference to “returning home” that made Emi’s face stiffen.

“…So you
are
going back?”

“Of course we are. With my liege’s powers restored, we no longer have anything chaining us to Earth. Ente Isla is always our first and foremost target.”

The words from Ashiya’s mouth were cold and frank.

“Going back? Back to your family, or…?”

Chiho’s question, a justifiable one for a girl with an incomplete knowledge of Maou’s world, went ignored.

“Well, hang on. I’m signed up for a bunch of shifts this month, and
grnh
!”

“Your Demonic Highness, is your part-time job at MgRonald more important to you than the conquest of Ente Isla?!”

A swift swat with Ashiya’s flattened hand was enough to momentarily rearrange Maou’s face.

“Listen to me, my liege. I will grant you that without your hard work for Ms. Kisaki and the Hatagaya rail-station MgRonald, our time in Japan would have been far more difficult than it was. But what possible value does a contract with the human race hold, one written without the benefit of demonic force behind it? I know we will both miss the thousand-yen hourly pay you were receiving—”

“Wow, a thousand yen at MgRonald? They must’ve
loved
you.”

“You stay out of this, Emilia! Your Demonic Highness, how saddened would your former compatriots of the darkness be if they knew how apparently elated it makes the almighty Devil King to cook beef and pork and chicken and potatoes all day? I understand you have made a work promise to Ms. Sasaki here, one you are loath to break. But it is the very sadness, the negative emotion, from such a harmless young girl upon seeing this promise broken that we demons
thrive
upon!”

“Hah! You think that bum’s work friend will be
that
disappointed? Missing her big chance to learn how to clean the soft-serve machine?”

“Wait…what? You aren’t quitting, are you, Maou?”

“The one desire that drives us demons forward is the subjugation of Ente Isla. That is something I have repeated to you endless times since we were banished to Japan. We have a mission, and it simply must be completed! Your Demonic Highness, I beg you to show me your resolve. You must deal Lucifer his just punishment, settle matters with the weakened Hero Emilia, and bid a final farewell to Sasazuka!”

“Man, I don’t remember you mouthing off at me that much as a demon…”

Ashiya’s rapid whining wearied Maou’s ears.

“Okay, so how’re we gonna clean this up
and
get back home?”

“We have done nothing wrong here, my liege. Your only responsibility as Devil King is to give Ms. Kisaki formal notice of your departure. It wouldn’t do to make her think you bailed out without telling anyone.”

“Aww…but we almost hit the top for regional sales for the last special promotion—”

“Enough about Hatagaya! You have another entire
world
to be concerned about!”

“We only just bought that fridge, too. And the washer.
And
my bike.”

“And you now have the power to navigate across the Gate, Your Demonic Highness! You no longer have any
need
for home appliances!”

“Um…so, what do you want from me?”

Lucifer, wallowing in self-pity after being knelt down and stomped upon, spoke up, his face still being held against the rubble. Instead of his former demon cohorts, it was Emi who responded first.

“Oh! Now that you mention it! Lucifer, were you the guy who called me up at work?”

“Uh, yeah…?”

What remained of Lucifer’s demonic pride made him quick to admit the crime.

“How did you find out where I worked?”

“Oh, yeah. You got, like, harassed at work, didn’t you?” As Maou lifted his foot, Lucifer gingerly turned his face upward.

“Yeah I did!” Emi snapped. “What was
that
all about?!”

“That, uh… Well, you dropped this, Emilia, didn’t you? During the first attack?” With Emi’s foot still firmly upon his head, Lucifer took out a folding wallet illustrated on the outside with brown bears, white bear cubs, and yellow birds.

“Ahhh! My wallet!”

Emi snatched the fancily decorated wallet from Lucifer’s hand.

“You had some kind of work ID in there, so I used that to track you down…”

“Oh, eww, Lucifer, you poked around inside a girl’s wallet?”

“Simply disgraceful. That could be grounds for a lawsuit in this day and age.”

The looks of disgust on Maou’s and Ashiya’s faces were sincere.

“You can’t just look inside people’s wallets like that. That’s
personal
.”

“I always knew you were a bad seed, Lucifer, but who could have known how depraved you truly were?” Chiho turned toward Lucifer, her previous pangs of fear now transformed into utter disdain.

“Hey, Ashiya, what’s the name of that character on her wallet?”

“Um, Re…relax-a-Bear, or something like that? I’ve seen it quite a bit lately.”

Maou’s face contorted itself, as if showing pity for Emi.

“Chiho carries around a Louis Videon wallet, you know. I don’t know if it’s fake or what, but
Videon
, man. What’s
this
thing?”