The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 2 (28 page)

“Quit it! Now! Both of you! Don’t you understand how easy I’m making this for you?!”

Sariel removed his hands from Emi’s chest long enough to thrust them high, the anger writ clear on his face.

From out of thin air, the scythe from earlier materialized. Holy Silver must have been at its core as well. Letting his rage drive him,
Sariel took the tip of the scythe and pressed it against the blouse over her chest.

“If I may say so, I am allowed to place the Holy Silver above Emilia’s life if need be! I had pity on you, and you repay me with nothing but this incessant blather! I have no qualms with slashing it right out of you, you realize!”

Chiho gasped at Sariel’s fearsome tirade. Emi refused to back down.

“So? Go ahead. I don’t how the Holy Silver’s fused into my body, either. It’s just too bad I wouldn’t get to see you all heartbroken after the Silver disappears along with my body.”

Emi was drawing a line in the sand. Sariel ejected an irritated grunt.

“In that case, I’d be happy to work on this girl first.”

Sariel’s purple eyes turned toward the fallen Chiho, scythe still pointed squarely at Emi.

“A human intimately tangled with the demons. Transporting her to Ente Isla and examining her body may offer us a way to rescue those tormented by the demons of our own land.”

Chiho’s face drained itself of blood. Her eyes were still determinedly fixed upon Sariel, but she was still just a teenager, one with no special powers save a half-angel friend who was currently affixed to a cross. If she were tossed into an unknown world by herself, she’d be well and truly helpless.

“I dare you to lay even a finger on Chiho. You’ll be sorry!”

Sariel cackled as he turned back toward Emi.

“Well, I appreciate your spunk, but what exactly do you think you can do now?”

Emi’s dark eyes focused themselves upon Sariel. The frustration was palpable.

“Not me.”

“What?”

Her hatred bubbled, even outclassing Sariel’s, as she seethed.

“I said, if you lay a finger on Chiho, the Devil King’s not gonna let that go.”

“The Devil King?”

The sheer hilarity of the idea outshone any surprise Emi intended. Sariel laughed, loud and mocking.

“So
that’s
your big reveal? The Devil King? Emilia the Hero pinning her hopes upon the Devil King?! You’ve been in collusion with him this whole time, haven’t you?”

“No, I haven’t. Didn’t you notice? You were across the street from MgRonald.”

Emi spoke with a firm voice, even as she felt a damp haze gather over her heart.

“That girl’s an employee over there, and the Devil King’s her assistant manager and shift supervisor. If an employee’s in danger, it’s the boss’s job to step in.”

“Have you lost your mind, Emilia? Do you truly believe the Devil King would stay beholden to the laws and practices of a human world? You are fully aware of the Devil King’s current state. A puny weakling with only the barest flicker of demonic force left. Even if he came here, what could he manage against an archangel like myself?”

That much was true. Maou was just another young man, one with no more evil force than a low-level demon grunt back in his own realm, if even that. But even if his goals and behavior had gone off on a pretty massive tangent as of late, the trademark Devil King pride he retained hadn’t faded one iota.

“He’s not beholden to anything. He
protects
it all, all by himself. That’s Sadao Maou for you. Shift supervisor at the Hatagaya rail station MgRonald.”

“Yusa…”

Emi’s eyes met with Chiho’s, seeking her approval.

Chiho, face wet with tears, gave her a firm nod.

“This is a perfect farce! The Hero, trusting in the Devil King! Heh-heh-heh… Well, where is he? I want to see this human-loving Devil King for myself! Let him take the stage whenever he likes! Not that he even exists! And not that he could even fly up here anyway. Bell’s Light of Iron would have pounded him to ash by now.”

“I think I have my doubts about that.”

Emi flashed another look at Chiho.

“Chiho, have you ever thought about why you were taken up here?”

“Because Bell followed my orders and took her hostage so you would obey me. What other reason is there? That’s why I made her take everything else from the scene, too, so the police wouldn’t catch our scent.”

Chiho’s and Emi’s belongings had been stacked on the far side of the heliport.

Emi chuckled at Sariel. It almost seemed like an expression of pity.

“Then shouldn’t Bell have taken Chiho someplace where I couldn’t see her? She’d be a much more effective hostage that way. She kind of loses her value if I don’t have to worry about her safety. Bell isn’t stupid. Everything she does, she does for a reason. That…”

Not even Emi was completely sure of this. But the agitation she displayed at the intersection seemed to provide the answer she was looking for.

“That, and she heads the Reconciliation Panel. The council that reconciles the false teachings of the past. Better watch that your faithful guard dog doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it.”

“What if she does? Then I’d punish her. Simple. And I hardly need to worry anyway. As long as I am an archangel, there isn’t a cleric in the Church who would dare defy me.”

Building one of the Tokyo city hall is 797 feet tall. It was high enough that the air turbulence was blowing gale-force winds across the roof.

A particularly strong gust had tossed Emi’s long hair toward the heavens when he finally arrived.

“Hahh…hahh…hahh… S-sorry to…to interrupt… Urrgghh…”

The soft voice all but disappeared beneath the force of the wind.

But it still rang true to the three people who heard it.

“Why…the hell…isn’t…the elevator working…huff…huff…”

There, by the penthouse that served as the roof exit, was a man who couldn’t look more out of place on a high-rise heliport.

“Ah… Ah!”

The surprise and joy Chiho felt brought a wide smile to her tearstained face.

“Maou!”

He had a grimy old mop in his right hand, he was topless and decked out in a pair of boxers, and he was also covered in scabs and scars. But to his damsel in distress, he was as a knight on a white horse, confidently galloping to her rescue.

Emi, meanwhile, was greeted with the forlorn sight of a near-nude Devil King clambering to the rescue on a rattly used bike.

“Don’t look at me!”

“
That’s
how you say hi?!” Maou coldly interjected, even as the fatigue almost made him lose consciousness.

“Also, don’t look like
that
! Why are you dressed like that?! Get out of my sight!”

Emi, in the unenviable situation of being restrained by Sariel and on the precipice of being undressed herself, didn’t have much recourse apart from shouting.

“…Well. This is a surprise.”

Sariel closed his gaping mouth, then repositioned his scythe from Emi’s chest toward Maou.

“You appear quite human to me. Bereft of all your demonic powers. You couldn’t have defeated Bell.”

“…Does it look that way? She beat the crap outta me. And who knows what she woulda done
next
if I let her.”

Maou certainly didn’t sound like he was enjoying the evening’s events much.

“This is bewildering to me…but you are far from well, I see. It is an unbelievable sight indeed, but here it is! You are truly no longer the Devil King I once knew, Satan.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting the limp-wristed freak across the street who stank of cologne all day to be the Evil Eye, either. Still chasing after all the lil’ girl angels up there?”

“…What?”

A deep rumble tempered Sariel’s voice.

“Yep! Heard you’ve been harassing a lot of people. Not that I’m gonna say who.”

Without explaining further, Maou turned toward Chiho and Emi.

“What did I just say? Don’t
look
at me!”

Ignoring Emi’s singularly out-of-place protest, Maou steeled his gaze back upon Sariel, the two now facing each other.

“’Course, I don’t really care what’s going on with you guys up in heaven anyway. What I’m worried about right now is the fact that you hurt one of my coworkers. You put Chi through a lot of crap, you bastard.”

“Maou!”

Chiho was choked up with emotion.

“Listen. As far as I’m concerned, until you get back home, you’re still on the clock!”

“…Maou?”

Chiho froze. It wasn’t the gallant reassurance she expected.

“A manager needs to take responsibility for the safety of his employees when they’re in transit, too! And I’m gonna make you
pay
for getting my precious staff involved in all this Ente Isla BS!”

“…Maou…”

This time, Chiho’s voice was filled with disappointment.

“I’m the assistant manager right now. The safety of my crew at work is priority number one! Chi here is a valuable member of my staff! And no Devil King, no shift supervisor,
ever
abandons his crew!!”

“…Ngh.”

This was Maou’s final blow to Chiho’s self-consciousness. Her head slumped as she held back the tears.

“I’m afraid I have no clue what you’re talking about. But there is one thing I know for sure…”

A sharp sparkle formed in Sariel’s purple eyes.

“And that’s how foolish you must truly be, attempting to stymie my mission with that fragile husk.”

A hazy aura of gold flowed out of Sariel’s body. It was an onrush of
holy power riding on a sudden torrent of wind, one so intense that the restrained Emi next to him had to close her eyes.

“I don’t give a crap about your Holy Silver and swords and stuff. In fact, if you’ll help keep that crazy Hero in line for me, go right ahead. All I care about is getting Chi out of here…”

The shock wave of holy power would have been enough to vaporize your typical demon. It was still enough to make Maou break into a sweat.

“But it looks like that’s not gonna happen… Jeez. Well,
this
is great.”

Beams of crackling light coursed around Sariel’s body. Without any demonic force backing him up, Maou couldn’t even lay a finger on him.

All he thought about was how he was going to carry both Chiho and the mop with him as he ran away. But then:

“?!”

It was difficult to describe how the atmosphere changed in that instant.

The air around the heliport, arguably the most purified place on Earth thanks to Sariel’s holy energy, suddenly grew heavy and humid.

Then a blindingly dark cloud began to form over the landing zone, pushing the holy energy back as it blinded everyone standing upon it. There was a prickly feeling on Sariel’s skin, like his hand was on a static ball.

“Wh-what is…?”

The eerie presence was enough to even make Sariel waver.

“This is…making me sick…”

Chiho sounded out of breath as she groaned. Emi swiveled her head around, straining to see what was happening.

Only Maou remained serene. More than serene. In fact, both of his eyes were now the color of blood, as if fighting back against Sariel’s aura.

A flash of bewilderment crossed his face, but only a flash, as he realized what was behind this phenomenon.

“Oh, hell. I didn’t really feel like helping Emi, but…whatever.
Listen up, Sariel. You scared Chi and put a blemish on my potential career track. Those’re both high crimes, you know.”

Suddenly emboldened, Maou took a single step toward Sariel.

That enough made the atmosphere all the more oppressive.

Sariel screamed, the appalled shock obvious on his face.

“This…demonic power! You! Why?!”

Until this moment, he was Sadao Maou, just a normal young man.

But in mere milliseconds, the air that surrounded him had transformed into something grotesque.

That overwhelming sense of intimidation. Those bloodred eyes. The demonic uncanniness that now pervaded the air.

“Whoa! Devil King! Knock that off! If you do that now…”

Emi tried to warn Maou about his upcoming transformation, but Maou shook his head, a defiant grin on his face.

“Quit worrying.”

He snapped his boxers against his hip.

“These underpants are supposed to stretch to the contours of your body. They ain’t gonna rip, I promise.”

Then, as if the statement was the catalyst that sparked it, a rapid metamorphosis took place.

“Who the hell was asking about your boxers, you dumbass?!”

Emi’s scream was muffled by the violent, otherworldly gale that stormed across the heliport in an instant.

A supernatural red glow enveloped Maou’s half-naked body. His muscles expanded, his legs becoming gnarled and beast-like. And the UniClo undies, built for hot summer nights like this one, deftly handled every change in size and shape. Particularly size.

The one-horned Devil King, with his bloodred eyes and cloven hooves, had descended upon the Tokyo sky.

“Whewwwww…”

The transformation complete, the boxered Devil King Satan began twisting his neck, as if performing calisthenics.

“Ahh, feels great. The hell did that bastard
do
, anyway?”

He stretched out the rest of his limbs as he spoke. The answer was provided to him shortly.

“You transformed while leaving Chiho in her current perilous state?! You fool!”

She flew in like a shooting star from the direction of Shinjuku station, her hair flowing in the wind as she wielded her golden war hammer.

“Bell!”

Suzuno, better known as Crestia Bell to Sariel, alit next to Chiho as he watched, a look of malice on his face. The first thing she did was create a barrier of holy energy around herself and Chiho.

“Pffahh!”

Chiho immediately exhaled, as if ejecting the dark, grimy air from her lungs.

“Whew… That was rough.”

“Are you all right?”

“Y-yes… Oh! Suzuno!”

Chiho, who had witnessed the moment Bell sent Emi flying, tensed up for just a moment. Then her eyes opened wide at the sight of the cell phone thrust before her.

“I apologize. I will explain later. For now…”

Bell turned toward the demon and his terrifying crimson eyes.