The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 4

by Satoshi Wagahara

Ignoring this, Satan issued an order as deafening as the crashing waves beneath him.

  “And tell them also that one of the holy swords is already in my grasp! Tell my people that Satan is in another world, amassing his powers to bring peace back to the demon realms. Use that to quell their disquiet. Ciriatto, I hereby appoint you as Camio’s assistant. Until I return, you must lead my people, and unite my realm!”

  The command of Devil King Satan, supreme leader of every demon that breathes (whether oxygen, fire, or poison gas), echoed across the foggy Pacific.

  At that moment, Ciriatto was joined on his knees by his Malebranche tribe, along with Alciel, Camio, even Lucifer. It was a moment of homage, of united respect.

  Satan surveyed the scene before him and nodded, satisfied.

  “Very good. Anyway, all passengers, prepare for departure!”

  <“Huhh? Brnngh!!”>

  Confusion ruled among the mist.

  Ciriatto, still kneeling in front of Satan, was suddenly enveloped by a cocoon-like fog. He was illuminated by a sweeping beam of light, then vanished with a pained scream.

  The sight made the Malebranche erupt in confused horror.

  “All right, it’s crowded out in the back, so everybody form a line, all right? Don’t worry… Apparently it doesn’t hurt, so…”

  Using the skills he learned manning the shaved-ice machine, Lucifer calmed the crowd as he assembled the Malebranche into two neat lines. As if waiting for this moment, the light swept through again.

  Each of the Malebranche, wrapped in a cigar-like casing of mist, screamed their best Ciriatto-like scream before vanishing, one after another.

  “Y’know, I can’t help but notice some hesitation here. Maybe they’re screaming ’cause they hit the ground at light speed on the other side? I dunno.”

  Satan’s anxious observation dissipated into the now Malebranche-free empty space.

  “Well, Ciriatto’s still a Malebranche chieftain. He’s not gonna die that easy.”

  “Yeah, but at light speed? I dunno if I’d survive that.”

  “Let the sinners pay for their foolish sins. We need to close that enormous Gate now.”

  Alciel, usually silent in demon form unless it was necessary to speak, flew toward the Gate the Malebranche had come through.

  Camio followed behind, Lucifer hurriedly attempting to catch up. And behind him:

  “…Get your hand off my shoulder! I’ll kill you!!”

  An explosion of outraged holy energy chased after Lucifer.

  Behind her, Satan fluttered along, eyes teared up as the bridge of his nose blushed a deep red.

  “Look at how big this Gate is. Who could have…?”

  As they approached, Emilia found herself shivering at the sheer scope of the portal.

  Over a thousand Malebranche fighters, their chief included, had passed through this Gate. Yet it still maintained its form. It was unheard of.

  Since the Malebranche appeared from this Gate, there was no way to go through it from the Earth end. But if there was, it looked strong enough to easily accommodate Satan and Emilia at full force.

  An almost-unthinkable quantity of demonic force flowed from the void, offering a suggestion as to how the Malebranche had retained their forms.

  “It’s definitely a demon-power Gate, but…even if Barbariccia was a gifted underling of Malacoda’s, he’s still a rank-and-file Malebranche. Could he have opened a Gate so large?”

  “Didn’t have to be just him. Olba’s with him, yeah? I guess he’s pretty good at this stuff too, so maybe it was a team job…”

  “Ridiculous, Lucifer. This Gate has retained its arcing shape even after allowing all those Malebranche through. This could never be work of a lone human and a lone demon.”

  “You know, just once I’d like to be called Lord Lucifer by you guys…”

  Emilia gracefully poked her way into the demons’ conversation:

  “But the Devil King could’ve done this up easy back in his glory days, no? He made one robust enough to toss the archangel Sariel in.”

  “Uh, Satan’s right here, lady.”

  “Mm. So?”

  Satan smiled a bit. The sight of the Hero pondering over this issue with the demons seemed oddly comedic.

  “…What’s so funny? Stop making that creepy face at me. I’ll cut you, and I mean it this time.”

  “Oooh, sorry, sorry. But anyway! That’s not the thing here.”

  Satan waved his arms in an attempt to regain control over the conversation. Already his body language was back to human form.

  “…Don’t you see? There’s only one way you can open a Gate, like, anywhere and anytime you want.”

  “…?”

  Alciel, Lucifer, and Emilia all tilted their heads in unison. Satan couldn’t help smiling again.

  “Right, Camio?”

  “Sir.”

  Satan turned to Camio, loyally attending to his side.

  “It always winds up like this, doesn’t it? It always has.”

  “Very true, my liege. And even the Hero is no exception, you are saying?”

  “…I don’t know what you’re mumbling about, but I am seriously looking to cut someone right now, all right?”

  “Now is not the time for that, Emilia. I need your power, too. We have to close the rift.” Alciel’s voice was a monotone as he chided her, his hands arching up toward the dimensional tear in space.

  “…I have been doing so many favors for you guys…” Lining up next to Alciel, Emilia pointed her Better Half at the schism.

  “Don’t blame me if this goes wacky. You got any complaints, bring ’em to Satan.” Lucifer, already looking to avoid any and all responsibility, settled down across from Emilia and next to Alciel.

  “And you wonder why I refuse to treat you with respect. Your travels have changed you but little.” Camio, voicing what everyone was thinking, brought his own talon to the void.

  “Well, like it or not, you’re all in the same boat now. Jeez. Who knows what kinda crap I’d be in if I was alone.” With these few parting words, Satan held the jeweled sword in his right hand.

  Given that it was fitted for Camio, the sword looked like a fancy letter opener when wielded by the larger-than-life Satan.

  And yet:

  “Ahh, this sure brings me back.”

  Bringing the blade of the sword to his eyes, Satan muttered softly enough that his words stayed only with himself. The blade began to glow stronger, redder, and darker. The demonic power within it resonated with Satan’s.

  “I was really this strong, huh? Man.”

  As she lent a disinterested ear to the demons’ conversation, Emilia sharpened her wits as she leered at the dimensional rift. “…All right. I’m gonna cut the force keeping this Gate intact away from the local space. After that, it’s up to you guys. Push the leaking demonic force back and close up the scar.”

  “Cut the force away? You can do that?”

  Emilia’s eyes, and nothing else, turned toward Satan.

  The Better Half glowing in her hands all but evoked the image of the small child inside, eyes sparkling, chest puffed up proudly.

  “I’m saying…that I can.”

  “Huh. Well, that’s gonna keep me up at night.”

  Leaving the snickering Satan behind, Emilia tore off.

  Like a shot of lightning piercing a lake of dark sludge, she made a beeline straight at the eerie Gate, then let off two bolts of purple-tinged lightning.

  The moment they reached the rift, the horizon between the Gate and normal space began to waver.

  “Now!”

  “Right! Shut ’er down!!”

  Following Emilia’s signal, the four great demons thrust their force at the Gate en masse.

  The border wavered, the stable part of the rift growing increasingly smaller and smaller.

  If the foghorn sounded like the roaring of an ancient dragon, the cacophony emitted by the shrinking Gate would have been the dying wail of a slavering, ch
aotic beast, smote by the lightning of some mythical god. It was not of this world, and it was enough to even set the King of All Demons’ ears on edge.

  The fog began to swarm toward the shrinking Gate.

  The dragon roared, as if prodded by the demons’ force.

  And then…

  “The sea… It’s calmed down.”

  Suzuno and Chiho heard the dragon-roar from the deserted Cape Inuboh-saki.

  Buooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnn…

  Buooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnn…

  Buoooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…

  The scream of an ancient god, a lone survivor in his world calling out for his long-fallen companions, echoed loud and long across the Inuboh seas.

  “Suzuno! The fog!”

  The fog began to disappear just as rapidly as it formed, as if the foghorn scared it off.

  “Is it over?”

  “Looks a fair bit like it.”

  Amane appeared once more from the dissipating fog.

  She still acted the part of a cheerful shop runner. Not even a smidgen of the dignified forcefulness she revealed in the fog earlier remained.

  “I took those scary guys and the little birdie back to the world they belonged in. Looks like Maou and crew boarded up that big ol’ pit trap, too. Thing is, though…”

  She turned back toward the ocean and ruefully scratched her cheek.

  “They kinda took a little too much time. I bet they used up all their power in the process. Kind of too far to see, but they probably fell in the water. You know if they can swim at all? ’Cause they got a pretty long haul ahead of ’em.”

  Amane grinned as she sized up Suzuno and Chiho.

  “Huhh?!”

  It all ended in the middle of the night, but by the time the horizon began to brighten and the sun began to hide the starlight, neither Emi, nor Maou, nor Ashiya, nor Urushihara were back.

  All Chiho could do was scan the dark seas for a sign of them, her eyes all but ready to erupt in tears, and all Suzuno could do was pray that Emi’s holy energy wouldn’t disappear from her senses.

  Inuboh-saki Lighthouse loomed above, as it always did, a sentry of light guiding early-morning voyagers to safety.

  There was a pathway underneath the bluff the lighthouse was built upon, letting tourists walk right up to the shoreline.

  Just as the sun was about to poke its way above the horizon, underneath the cape bluff:

  “Yusa! Maou!”

  “Alciel! Lucifer! You’re alive?!”

  The Hero Emilia, hair still a blue-tinged silver, was washed ashore, soaked to the core. Sadao Maou, Shirou Ashiya, and Hanzou Urushihara were right next to her.

  “Huff…! Huff…huff… C-Chiho… Bell… Um… Um, it’s pretty much over…”

  Gasping for air, Emilia transformed out of Hero mode before their eyes, returning to her regular Emi Yusa form.

  “Chi-Sis! Suzu-Sis!”

  Then another, smaller figure appeared.

  “Alas Ramus!”

  “Guess what? Guess what? Mommy and Daddy and tweety-tweet and Al-Cell and Looshifer, and, and, guess what!”

  Alas Ramus could only barely contain her excitement.

  “It was, booooom, then baaaaam, and then we all went zoooooom, then oomph!”

  “……”

  “……”

  Her commentary wasn’t much help.

  “Then it was all light, then tweety-tweet went home!”

  “‘Tweety-tweet’… Camio went back to the demon realm?”

  Chiho tried to ask Maou, but between the important business of lying on the beach and breathing shallowly, he wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

  “The sword…and Camio went back. Then the fog lifted.”

  Emi, her breath a bit more collected, began to move her lips.

  “And right when it did, they all turned human again. Like, six hundred feet above sea level!”

  “Oh.”

  “Ooh, I just wish I could’ve recorded their screaming when they all fell in the water. It was poetry in motion. I mean, if they knew that would happen, they shoulda at least retained enough demon force to fly back.”

  Emi wasn’t one to talk. The exhaustion was written on her face. She might have retained her demi-angel form through the whole ordeal, but dragging three grown men through the rugged Choshi waves couldn’t have been an easy swim.

  “…They really, really owe me now. Don’t these demons ever…plan anything?”

  “Mommy’s all wet! You okeh? You’ll get a cold!”

  “I’m fine. How about you?”

  “I’m okeh!”

  It was the first real battle the holy sword had seen since its fusion with Alas Ramus, but just as the child said, nothing seemed off with her at all.

  “Well, someone was sure a hard worker today, huh? I think you deserve a big reward later on.”

  “Yay!”

  “Well, hello! Talk about a hard day’s night, huh?”

  Amane chose that moment to stroll down from the top of the path, clapping as she took a glance at every waterlogged rat on the shore in order. They knew she wasn’t any normal human being by now, but on the more important question—Friend, or foe?—there was still no guessing.

  Emi and Suzuno tensed up, making their alarm at her presence clear.

  “Oh, whoa, whooooa, why’re you picking a fight with me? I didn’t do anything. Really! I’ll tell you everything I can, so, um… Y’know, even if it is summer, I can’t just leave you guys to dry out down here, so…”

  Emi, glaring upward at Amane, could no longer resist the urge.

  “Huh-choo!!”

  The sneeze was like a shotgun.

  “…See? You’re gonna get a monster cold.”

  Amane pointed up at the cape.

  “How ’bout we all head back to Ohguro-ya? I’ll make sure we pump some hot water into the showers for you. Hey, and look!”

  She brought a hand to her forehead as she gazed at the ocean.

  “What a great morning, huh? The perfect way to end a battle.”

  The sun was now visible on the horizon. As it shyly peeked out, the beam from Inuboh-kai Lighthouse shut itself off. Shutters gradually closed themselves over the light room on the tip of the tower, covering the first-order Fresnel lens that guarded the Chiba seas.

  The most beautiful sunrise in all of Japan, a source of pride for all Choshi locals, unfurled its generous arms of light to the people, demons, and Hero who witnessed the conflict.

  By the time the sun made it fully above the horizon, it was already shaping up to be another hot day in Kimigahama Beach.

  Despite yesterday’s barely controlled chaos, Ohguro-ya, the only beach shop in operation, was preparing to board the treadmill again today.

  As Amane put it:

  “Whether it’s water or javelins coming from the sky, any Japanese worth his salt always keeps the shop doors open!”

  Maou had a word or two to say about that. But what the boss says, goes.

  The day after she witnessed the three demons in their true forms as they waged cross-dimensional warfare with alien invaders, Amane only needed seven words to shut the three of them up:

  “I’m not paying you if you don’t.”

  So there was Maou wiping down the tables, Urushihara filling the kiddie pool with water, Ashiya striving to prepare enough ingredients to cover a crowd as big as yesterday’s.

  “You know, when I first showed up, Chiho and Kamazuki…well, my, they were just beside themselves! What on earth have you been saying to them about me?”

  “Well, I mean, you were just a total riddle to us, so…”

  Maou did his best to make excuses.

  Suzuno and Chiho, from the safety of the inn, looked on as Emi and Maou flew off over the sea.

  Maou resented Emi at first for leaving Chiho at Kimigahama as the Malebranche loomed in the skies. But as Emi explained:

  “If Amane really did have some kind of power, I figured
she’d find her if things really did get that bad.”

  “Oh, now now, it wasn’t just Chiho. There was someone else, remember? What did you think about her?”

  Suzuno, pouting to herself in a corner of the store, flailed about as Amane made her the topic of conversation.

  “I, I was not seeking the aid of anyone! Against the Malebranche, I could fight effectively with one hand as I protected Chiho!”

  “Yeah, I mean, Suzuno’s strong enough, and… Okay, it’s great if she kept Chiho safe. That’s all.”

  “Eeeee!!”

  “Your Demonic Highness, have you learned nothing? She was never even made aware of Camio. The odd woman out, the entire time! You have to at least show a little care for—grrgbbh!”

  Ashiya began lecturing Maou once again, but made the mistake of doing so in full earshot of Suzuno. This time, he was rewarded with a bottle of soy sauce to the back of the head.

  “I am not the odd anything out! I haven’t a care in the world for such nonsense! If I were there, I could have rendered a thousand-strong demon army into so much flotsam and jetsam! But Emilia! What of your performance?!”

  Suzuno frowned a sort of lonely frown as she directed her ire at Emi in the corner.

  “I understand you slew not a single demon, Emilia! What is the meaning of that?!”

  “What? Nothing, really.”

  Emi, seated in a shady section of the shop, was the only one in a swimsuit.

  Her clothing was currently being hurriedly washed after her little overnight swim, but since she had no change of clothes with her, she was forced to rock the beach-gal look the entire day.

  “I just… I stopped letting my hate drive me to kill everyone in my way. If I need to, then sure. I swear I wouldn’t hesitate to take someone’s life…but…”

  Emi glanced at Maou, currently preoccupied with wiping the tables and chairs.

  “If I’m gonna go at it with someone, it’s not gonna be fair unless we go back there first. I think Ciriatto’s a lot stronger than that, too, back home. And I can’t bust out my full strength in Japan, either, of course. It’s easy to kill someone, but making someone on the other side hate you for it… Well, that’s just a pain, you know? This…”

  Emi shrugged and held her arms up in the air.

  “This ridiculous war we’re fighting… I don’t want to keep postponing it to the future. When it happens, I want to win. I want to overwhelm them with my power. That’s why I didn’t kill them.”