The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Vol. 11 Read online

  This gave them the tools needed to keep anyone from further laying hands upon Emi. But it also made life harder for her. Olba had seized upon her weaknesses. She had yearned for Maou, the greatest nemesis of her life, to save her from him. And she had reunited with her father, a reunion she thought would never happen. It was good for her, perhaps, but it had robbed her of all motivation to remain a Hero.

  The Hero Emilia Justina, the fighter fated to slay the Devil King Satan who threatened all of Ente Isla, was no more.

  But just because her father was here and her hatred for Maou had slackened a little didn’t mean that everything was all neatly wrapped up. Laila—Emi’s mother and the woman behind nearly all the drama around Emi, Maou, and countless Ente Islans—was still missing, her motivations unclear. As were the motivations for Olba and the heavens to make Emi and Ashiya simulate the liberation of the Eastern Island all over again—that remained a mystery as well.

  And what of the mysterious astronaut, the one working and conniving behind Gabriel, Camael, Raguel, and the other angels?

  To Emi, who no longer had the quest to defeat a Devil King motivating her, this was too wide an ocean to swim, the currents too choppy and transitional to read.

  “I’m home, Mommy!” came a bright voice behind the troubled-looking Emi. She turned around, relaxing her expression a little. Nord joined her, a tad perplexed at his daughter.

  “Hi, Alas Ramus. Where’d you get that balloon from?”

  The young girl was carrying a yellow balloon—not a string attached to it, but the balloon itself, carefully, like a summer watermelon.

  “They were passing them out at the station. Advertising for some new wireless net provider.”

  The reply did not come from Alas Ramus. It was Suzuno Kamazuki, who accompanied Nord to Emi’s apartment as his bodyguard.

  “Grampa! Balloon!”

  “Ooh, it sure is,” Nord replied, smiling awkwardly at the proud Alas Ramus.

  The way the family structure around her worked, Alas Ramus was Emi’s daughter, if not by blood. Her “sister” Acieth Alla called Nord “Pop,” but as long as Emi was “Mommy” to Alas Ramus, it only followed that Nord was a grandfather figure to her. Emi had long accepted the “Mommy” role, and watching Nord struggle at being called “Grampa” made her wince a little.

  “Thanks, Bell. Did you behave, Alas Ramus?”

  “Uh-huh!” the girl shouted.

  “Indeed. She was a perfect child.”

  Nord always had security with him, just in case. He was going to stay in Room 101 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka tonight, but whenever he had to go out, Suzuno went with him. She certainly had the free time for it, although she had gone with Alas Ramus just now so that Emi and Nord could discuss their finances in peace.

  “Ooh, but no tellin’ ’bout the donut!”

  “Oh, did you have a snack outside?”

  “Ooh, no tellin’! It’s a secret!”

  “We had best explain to her what a ‘secret’ is,” Suzuno said meekly at this bout of self-incrimination. “She ran up to the donut shop and refused to budge, so I spoiled her a little. I apologize.”

  “Oh, that’s all right. I’ll pay you back later. Did you say ‘thank you’ to your big sis here, Alas Ramus?”

  “Uh-huh! But no tellin’!”

  The child looked up at Suzuno and gave a mischievous smile, balloon still in hand. She knew she had shared an experience with her, but she just couldn’t hide it from anyone else. It made the grown-ups in the room smile.

  “Hopefully this will not ruin her appetite.”

  “Oh, it’ll take more than a donut to do that.”

  “Very well,” Suzuno nodded as she watched Emi and Nord. “So, have you worked things out?”

  “Not quite,” Nord began, pleadingly.

  “It’s not gonna be easy,” Emi interrupted, “but I don’t think we’re out on the street yet.”

  “But, Emilia…”

  Suzuno smiled at the display of family politics.

  “I told you,” Emi fired back, “this is my problem. And it’ll be fine! Compared to everything before now, being jobless and in debt barely even qualifies as trouble.”

  “But…” Nord looked around, upset. “Bell, at least, I’m sure could…”

  Suzuno shook her head. “If that is what Emilia wishes, it is not for me to intrude.”

  “Thanks, Bell.”

  “But…”

  Emi smiled boldly at the lost-looking man.

  “Now, Nord,” Suzuno deflected, “we had best return to Sasazuka soon. Emilia has a guest coming, and we have plans of our own to handle.”

  “Er, yes…”

  “Emilia, Alas Ramus, I will see both of you later.”

  “Sure. Thanks for watching over Father.”

  “Bye, Suzu-sis! Bye, Grampa!”

  “Y-yes,” Nord said as he filed out of the apartment. He gave the building several furtive glances back as they walked the short distance to Eifukucho station.

  “Nord,” Suzuno asked as she observed this, “are you worried about Emilia?”

  “Hmm? Well, no, not at this point, but…”

  “I am.”

  “Emilia’s hardly a young child anymore, and… Hmm?”

  The casual admission made the depressed father stop cold.

  “I know how Emilia works. With all the debt she rang up the other day, I am sure she absolutely insists upon paying everything back by her own power, yes?”

  “Exactly. I told her I could cover some of it myself, but…”

  They passed through the Eifukucho station gate and stepped up on the platform to wait for a train.

  “At far too young an age, Emilia was forced to bear far too heavy a burden,” Suzuno stated. “Now that the burden has vanished, she is unable to find solace. Either she needs some powerful spark to divert her mind, or we will just have to wait for her to acclimate to her current situation.”

  “…” Nord nodded and looked down, face troubled once more. “And I am the one who placed that burden upon her…”

  “I can absolutely ensure you that Emilia does not feel that way. If anything, her current irritation is aimed almost fully at Laila. You, meanwhile, are the embodiment of everything Emilia strove for while bearing that burden. And now that you have miraculously come back together, I am sure she wants no burden to be placed upon you.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you, as her father, it makes me feel pathetic.” His face remained turned down. “I hardly did anything for her as a parent in the first place…”

  Tomorrow marked the official date of Nord’s move from his temporary lodgings in Mitaka to Room 101 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka. Emi had strongly suggested he find anyplace besides that apartment, but he had steadfastly refused.

  Given how they had just made an incredibly improbable reunion after several years, one would expect Emi to invite him to live together, in her apartment at Urban Heights Eifukucho. But reality made that less than advisable. Nord was too close to the core mysteries of the Yesod fragments, far more than anyone else involved, and he needed to be carefully protected. Villa Rosa was at least some distance from Emi’s place. The idea of leaving Nord alone in her apartment while she went off to work concerned her, and he could hardly join her on the job.

  So in the end, she decided that, for better or for worse, Villa Rosa was full of people who understood Nord’s predicament and, in a pinch, could be counted on to help. There was also the fact that Emi’s apartment certainly had the free space, but was set up for single living—a multigenerational family in the place led to assorted inconveniences.

  All this also meant, however, that Nord could not provide day-to-day support for Emi, the daughter he had just met for the first time in six years. He suggested at least helping with her debt a little bit, but even that was turned down today, much to his chagrin.

  Suzuno looked up at this chagrined father with mixed feelings of her own. His daughter was in a bind, and not only couldn’t he do anything about it, but she actively refused his aid. The worry and disappointment were wholly understandable.

  But to Suzuno, the situation didn’t seem nearly as dire as it did on the surface. Her biggest creditor, after all, was none other than Sadao Maou. Maou, who took the kind of regained power he had when he attempted to conquer the world and used it to march right back to the MgRonald by Hatagaya rail station and catch up on his borrowed shifts. The Devil King Satan, back to his normal life, willing to accept repayment for the debt the Hero owed him in money—Japanese yen, no less. After all they had been through, worrying about this turn of events seemed pointless.

  “Though certainly,” she whispered as she recalled the day after Nord and Emi had reunited, “I think you could have handled it better, Devil King.”

  Not long after Emi and Nord returned from Ente Isla, Villa Rosa landlord Miki Shiba generously unlocked the door to Room 101 and let them use it for Nord’s recuperation. Suzuno was there as well, to check up on his condition. She was not left alone for long.

  “Hey, Emilia the Hero? I’m comin’ in.”

  Sadao Maou, barging in from upstairs, expressed a sinister smile as he made his way inside.

  “Ah… Maou…” came the recognizing whisper from Nord. Emi let him inside, still not sure how to deal with him.

  “You know why I’m here, right, Emilia? Why I’m visiting? Huh?”

  Emi raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t how Maou normally spoke; it seemed far too contrived. “…What?” she ventured, fully aware of the kind of debt she owed him.

  “Oh,” he replied, “I just figured I’d like to get repaid sooner rather than later, is all.” He took out a piece of ruled paper ripped out of a notebook and thrust it at her. It was filled with handwritten numbers. Emi, dubious, picked i
t up and gave it a quick look…then turned to Suzuno, face drained of color.

  “What is this?” she barely managed.

  Suzuno peeked at the paper. Titled INVOICE up top in ballpoint pen, the table of figures began with the cost of obtaining Maou’s scooter license and continued on down, covering every expense Maou incurred for Emi’s sake from the day she went missing in Ente Isla. It was Maou’s way of demanding compensation for the yen he’d laid out toward getting Emi back to Earth.

  Emi knew, regardless of past grudges, that she’d have to pay Maou back for all of this. But her shaky voice was all due to the number at the bottom.

  “I know you’re gonna have a few expenses going forward and you have to find a job and all, so I’m not gonna expect it all at once. But you’re an old pro at life in Japan by now, yeah? You know they got a little something called ‘interest’ here?”

  “That…”

  “Devil King, this is simply too much,” Suzuno winced. Maou paid the reaction no mind.

  “Ohhh? I’m sorry, do we have a complaint with this? Because this is a lowball estimate, let me tell you. I’m a fair Devil King, so I’ve taken off everything that was mostly my own fault. This is what’s left.”

  The grand total Maou had outlined in the invoice was 500,000 yen. It was a figure that anyone could tell was all but insurmountable for an unemployed Emi.

  The expenditures began with the salary loss Maou incurred for the regular work shifts he skipped. They continued with the fees for the two failed scooter exams, along with the cost for the upcoming third attempt. There was all the water, food, and camping gear they had bought for their journey into Ente Isla, along with the costs for a new phone to replace Maou’s current one (which, shockingly, still worked). The biggest cost of all, however, was for the scooter itself.

  Suzuno kept wincing as she ran down all the figures. Then she noticed something. “Devil King,” she asked, “what does this line ‘or three hundred fifty thousand yen—discuss’ mean?”

  “Ah, right. Well spotted, Suzuno. I wanted to negotiate with you a little too. The Gyros you bought—would it be okay if you gave me one?”

  “What?”

  “You said it was about five hundred thousand yen for two, right? I kinda like my bike, so I was thinking maybe I could forgive half of that in exchange for one.”

  The Honta Gyro-Roof vehicles Suzuno purchased boasted three wheels, industrial-level horsepower, a roof, and a lot of other features you didn’t see in your typical scooter. Brand-new, it cost several times what a typical two-wheeler would run. Suzuno bought hers used, but they still ran to half a million yen total. Maou had driven one of them around Ente Isla, going so far as to call it “Mobile Dullahan III,” but thanks to the assorted nonsense he got into over there, both of the Gyro-Roofs were still in Ente Isla. Emeralda and Albert said they would gather up all their neglected belongings and send them back to Japan, although that all still needed to be worked out.

  “Half of that five-hundred-thousand-yen figure is the two hundred and fifty thousand for the Gyro, but if you aren’t willing to let me have it, you know, I wouldn’t mind some other model, either. I know these Gyros are hella expensive, but if I ain’t picky, I can pick up a 50cc job for a hundred K or so. So I figure, hey, if you aren’t giving me a Gyro, I figured we could set the total to three hundred and fifty thousand yen instead.”

  “…I refuse,” Suzuno barked back, shaking her head. “I own both of those scooters, and once I have you repair the unauthorized beating you gave them, I intend to sell them back. With your demonic force, it should be a breeze to make them good as new, no?”

  “Well, so be it!” Maou shouted, apparently expecting this. “Guess it’ll be three hundred and fifty thousand then, Emi.”

  “Hold it, Devil King. This entire invoice is ridiculous in itself…”

  Maou held a palm up to the cleric’s face to stop her. “Butt out, Suzuno. If you won’t let me have the Gyro, you’ve no part in this anyway. I didn’t put in any of the money me and Acieth used that wasn’t related to Emi. If you don’t like it, well, I still got the receipts for the camping gear. I got documentation for every single thing on here, okay?”

  “…” Emi fell silent, hand still clutching the handwritten receipt.

  “Wait, you devil,” Suzuno said, voice ratcheting up. “Whether you take my Gyro or buy your own, what basis do you have for making Emilia pay for your scooter? This is nothing like when I purchased a bicycle for you. If you had already owned a scooter and crashed it during the journey, that would be one matter, but this is just you having a childish desire for motorized transport!”

  “Huh? What’re you talking about?” Maou scoffed. “If that’s how you’re seeing it, I could always demand another reward, if you want.”

  “Reward?”

  “Yeah. I mean, me, as long as Ashiya and Alas Ramus were okay, I would’ve gladly abandoned Emi over there. Maybe I played a big part with saving her dad’s fields or whatever, but did you see anyone over there ordering me to get the Hero Emilia away from the Eastern Island?”

  “No, but—”

  “Emi and Alas Ramus are fused together, but if you think that means I wanted to save both of ’em equally, you’re out of your mind, man. Alas Ramus is like a daughter to me, but Emi? She’s my enemy, through and through.”

  ““…””

  The two girls had no response for this fractured logic.

  “So you see? I rescued my sworn enemy over there, and in exchange, all I’m asking for is a lousy, cheap little scooter. You should appreciate my generosity, instead of bitchin’ at me all day.”

  This was jaw-dropping in two different ways. No matter how much griping he did on the way, to Suzuno, Maou seemed to show genuine concern for Emi during their journey. He was even kind enough to leave Emi to herself in Japan, until Nord woke up. He was right—this experience didn’t mean Maou and Emi had kissed and made up. But did he really have to go on like this in front of Nord? It seemed terribly tacky of him.

  “This is all too—”

  “…All right. It’s fine,” Emi interrupted with a sigh as she nodded. “So this will settle it?”

  “E-Emilia?!” a confused Suzuno fired back.

  “If…” Emi looked straight at Maou. “If we’re truly even with this, then it’s a bargain, if anything.”

  Her voice was flat. Suzuno couldn’t guess what drove her to say it. But as she looked at Maou, she realized that he was just as taken aback as she was. The response marked her total agreement to his terms—exactly what he wanted.

  “Oh-hohh? Coming out swinging, huh? I’m talking three hundred and fifty thousand here, Emi, you heard it, right? Like, three hundred fifty thousand? And I only accept actual Japanese yen, minted by the Bank of Japan, all right?”

  “Yes, I know,” Emi said with a nod, retaining an air of calm. “What of it?”

  “What of…? Like…” Maou, for his part, had lost all sense of calm. “Um, are you good for it, or…?”

  “What do you want? You’re the one demanding it, aren’t you? I know I owe you one. I’ll pay it.”

  “Oh…um, really?”

  “But come back once you work this part out.”

  “Eh, which part?”

  Emi tapped on the line that included the scooter. “This is just a guesstimate, right? Find out how much the scooter you want’s gonna be, work out the insurance and all that stuff, then put all that on the invoice.”

  “Uh, yeah… Sure, um…”

  Maou nodded several times as he took the invoice back.

  “Is that all?”

  “Uh, uhmm…yeah,” he awkwardly replied.

  “All right. So, not to be rude, but could you leave me alone? I’m gonna have to go shopping for a lot of things.”

  “S-sure thing. Sorry.”

  The monotone flatness of Emi’s voice made the tension of the past ease as Maou cautiously left Room 101, the picture of dejection.

  “Maou,” Suzuno said to his back—“…!”—only to fall silent once more.

  There was something in his back pocket—a thin magazine, rolled up and folded every which way after he sat on it—and it made her lose her voice.

  “Ugh… This is what happens when you keep doing things in the most roundabout way possible.”

  Boarding the train that rolled into Eifukucho station, Suzuno sighed as she sunk into a seat, not bothering to care about the wrinkles it’d put on her kimono’s belt.