The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 8 Page 3

  “Um…? Well…” Chiho paused, not expecting this query.

  “Guys, listen to me for a sec! I’m not just getting that license, either! It costs 7,750 yen to apply, and the company’s covering up to 5,700 yen of that! How could I say no to that, huh? And not even Ashiya could say no when I explained where the remaining 2,050 yen would be going!”

  “…”

  Those old, familiar pangs of concern, the voices in Emi’s and Suzuno’s heads wondering how serious the Devil King was truly being half the time, wriggled back to the surface. They knew he was being 100 percent straight with them, and the realization made them both feel profoundly empty inside.

  “…They could’ve covered the whole thing, at least.”

  “They’re just covering the training costs! They can’t pay the actual license fee for me! Company regulations!”

  “Wait. By ‘company,’ you mean MgRonald, yes? Why would MgRonald pay you just so you have the right to haul your sorry hide around on a motor scooter?”

  “Ah, I’m glad you asked! So the Hatagaya MgRonald location I am so proud to work—”

  “We’re starting a delivery service,” Chiho said, attempting to hurry things along a little. “So all the staff twenty years old and up have to get scooter licenses. If you don’t have one, the company’s helping pay for the costs a little.”

  “…”

  “Delivery? You mean…food?”

  “More or less, yes,” Chiho replied to an astonished-looking Suzuno. “We can’t make deliveries on bicycles or anything, so we need licenses for the scooters. I’m still a teenager, so they wouldn’t cover any of my costs, but…”

  “I’m surprised to hear that,” Emi said. “Didn’t you just open a café upstairs? It’s only been a couple weeks and you’re rolling out something new already?”

  “Yeah, Ms. Kisaki wasn’t exactly a fan of that part of it…”

  Mayumi Kisaki, crackerjack store manager at the Hatagaya Station–facing MgRonald Maou and Chiho worked hourly jobs at, was a woman so devoted to her job that she had earned the nickname “sales demon” from her coworkers. In her eyes, it was a given that daily sales had to be double what they were at the same time last year. Having this new delivery system rolled out when MagCafé was still such a new presence in town was currently giving her migraines.

  “They picked us in kind of a hurry,” Maou continued. “We’re near a big metro highway, we’re close to offices and residential areas, and we’re one of the few sites that can do delivery on MagCafé items, too. It’s not that things are going too fast, so much as we’re totally short on people to carry ’em out right now.”

  The idea behind MgRonald’s delivery system wasn’t exactly new. Fundamentally, it was identical to the local pizza joint—if you’re within the delivery zone and willing to spend at least 1,500 yen on an order, just call up the local MgRonald and tell them about it. The system had been gradually rolling out across Tokyo, starting with restaurants close to major highways, and Hatagaya’s number just came up.

  There was just one problem, though: The location was in no position to take on the job yet. Only a few employees had licenses at all, part of the reason Maou was so fervently studying for one right now. And the head count at the location was far too paltry to currently provide any kind of decent delivery service. They had a café counter upstairs to staff alongside the regular one, which meant more manpower that had to stay inside the restaurant at all times. They’d need to invest in multiple delivery vehicles, too. And they’d need either to hire on employees to take phone orders or to train everyone on how to do that, plus they’d need time and people to handle that job. And since orders wouldn’t necessarily come from well-known streets all the time, they’d need a delivery team with a working knowledge of the local area.

  For any of it to work, they needed to bring on some new talent ASAP. And considering the time Kisaki would need to train them up to her quality standards, the two months they had until the delivery program’s November debut seemed to offer very little room for mistakes.

  “Three more people,” Kisaki had taken to muttering under her breath as of late. “I just wish I had three more people here at all times. Two, even!”

  Two part-timers would be enough, in her mind, to keep the shifts full while training a new delivery team. But autumn was on people’s minds now, and school would be back in session soon for college students—not a favorable time to try and beef up the staff.

  “Hey, uh, you looking for a career change, maybe, Emi?”

  Maou was only half serious. Emi sniffed at it anyway.

  “I’m making seventeen hundred yen an hour right now, you realize.”

  “…Never mind.”

  “S…seven…”

  The number floored Chiho, who—as an underage employee—didn’t see much of any salary bump after her probationary period ended.

  “Hey, I have to earn that salary every day, you know? It’s hard. And I’m a Hero with years of combat experience under my belt, so I know.”

  “Y-yeah,” Chiho said, “I know call centers suck sometimes.”

  For her job, Emi took customer-support calls for a major mobile phone provider in Japan. A call-center job could involve a lot of things—the subject matter you dealt with, whether you were making or receiving calls—and while it wasn’t a given that the job was tough, Emi had a pretty stressful one, it seemed like.

  Maou turned to Suzuno next. She cut him off before he could say anything.

  “I am not interested, Devil King. I lack any confidence that I could master customer service and all that unfamiliar terminology to the degree Ms. Kisaki would no doubt demand of me.”

  Maou doubted any of the terminology was really that exotic. But, then again, this was Suzuno. She had that crusty schoolteacher vibe every time she opened her mouth. Picturing her chirping, Good morning! I’m ready to take your order whenever you like! with a permanent smile etched on her face was impossible for any of her acquaintances.

  “Are all of you thinking something…rude about me right now?”

  Suzuno was sharp enough to pick up on the pained expressions across every face. She glowered at her fellows as they quickly plastered on fake smiles.

  “Well, regardless,” Emi said. “Sorry I can’t give you too much advice, Chiho, but hang in there, all right? Getting back to the subject…”

  “…What were we talking about again?”

  Suddenly, they all realized that they had spent the past twenty minutes talking in front of the turnstile. They froze for a moment. It was an odd sight—the Hero and Devil King completely losing track of time as they bounced from topic to topic.

  “We were talking about me returning home. I’ve already requested time off from my company, so all I have to do is have Eme handle the details for me. I’m planning to leave at the beginning of the week.”

  “Whaaa?” Chiho gasped.

  “This is rather fast, is it not?” Suzuno protested. “Maybe you think I can handle things alone here, but there are so many preparations I must make in order to…”

  Her eyes turned to Maou, who stood next to her. She paused, then put down the arms she had lifted in front of her for protest.

  “…I suppose there aren’t, are there?” she said, giving a solemn nod to Emi.

  “See? Of course not.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maou felt obliged to respond, “but I do know you’re making fun of me by now.”

  “We’re not making fun of you. We’re complimenting you. You’re diligent, serious, and you follow every rule in the book.”

  “Indeed. You rise with the morning sun. You are a staunch advocate of frugal living. You pour your blood, sweat, and tears into your labors, and you even engage in active study in order to adhere to the laws of our nation. Who would ever dare to make fun of that?”

  “You could at least look me in the eye when you say that!”

  “Wow, Daddy! You’re really good!”

>   “…Thanks, Alas Ramus.”

  No one could defy the child.

  “B-but Yusa, if you’re leaving next week, then…”

  Chiho stopped, too nervous to continue. Emi nodded, understanding what she meant, and gave a light snicker.

  “Oh, it’s all right. I don’t want to bother people for too long over there—and I’d like to keep my job, too. I’ll be back next weekend. I haven’t forgotten what’s happening on the twelfth.”

  “Oh, okay. Thanks!”

  “The twelfth… Oh, right.”

  Maou and Suzuno nodded in understanding.

  “And lemme just make it clear,” Emi said while eyeing Maou intently, “please don’t make it all weird for us, okay? Bell’s one thing, but…”

  “Aw, you’re no fun,” Maou replied, feigning ignorance. “I was planning on making her a Great Demon General badge or something, too.”

  September 12 came on a Sunday this year, and following intense lobbying from Chiho, the gang had decided to hold a tandem birthday party for both her and Emi on that day. Earth and Ente Isla ran on different calendars, but Emi knew she had been born in the early fall. Chiho’s birthday was actually on the tenth, but that was a Friday, and Maou, whose attendance was an absolute must in Chiho’s mind, worked the closing shift that night. So, they decided on the twelfth as a compromise. Planning things around the schedules of multiple people was never easy for them all.

  “If you don’t mind me ripping it to shreds the moment I see it, then sure, go ahead. Besides, part of the reason for this trip is to see whether all that crap you blurted out had any permanent effect over there or not.”

  Emi pouted at Maou. She had a right to. For all she knew, Ente Isla was now assuming as a given the fact that the Devil King was alive, his Demon General right-hand man was with him, and he had just appointed Emilia the Hero, Crestia Bell from the Reconciliation Panel, and the cashier from the local fast-food joint as his new top officers. Perhaps he had to—it was the best way handy at the time to keep Chiho alive—but Emi and Suzuno would have much to gripe about if the news set Ente Isla ablaze in speculation.

  “I told you, it’s all fine. Probably.”

  “I do not trust you on that!” Emi looked at her watch as she sighed at the offensively optimistic demon. “Oooh, I really better get back soon. It’s almost Alas Ramus’s bedtime.”

  “You’re putting her to sleep this early?”

  “She’s been whining at me to take baths with her ever since we trained in that bathhouse with Chiho. She likes it hot, too. By the time I get it hot enough and spend some time in there with her, it’s practically ten o’clock already.”

  “Hmm,” nodded Suzuno approvingly. “Indeed. The very picture of a dyed-in-the-wool Tokyoite.”

  “Tokyoites don’t come from Sephirah,” Maou grumbled.

  “I guess Erone would come from Hokkaido, then,” Chiho added for no great reason. “All those layers he was wearing and stuff…”

  “…All right. I really gotta go, so… See you on the twelfth.”

  “Oh, um, Yusa?” Chiho called out just as Emi was removing her rail-pass holder from her shoulder bag. “Would it be all right if I got to see you go? ’Cause I’m kind of worried…and besides, it’d be nice to say hello to Emeralda for the first time in a while, if she’s around.”

  “I’m sorry, Chiho, but I promised Eme I’d go over on Monday afternoon, and you’re gonna have school, so…”

  “…Oh.”

  It was easy to forget at times, but apart from her skills at cross-planet, cross-species diplomacy, Chiho was just another urban teen. Emi gave the disappointed girl a pat on the shoulder, Alas Ramus joining her by batting her fat hand against her forehead.

  “But don’t worry, all right? I’m the strongest Hero in human history, remember? And I’ll have Alas Ramus with me. I’m not planning on fighting or going anywhere dangerous. It’s just a quick trip to check up on the family home, pretty much.”

  “Oh! Right!” Suddenly, Maou rushed right up to Emi. It seemed that only now did he remember that she and Alas Ramus were literally inseparable from each other. “I don’t want anything bad happening to Alas Ramus, got it? Just say hello to Emeralda, do lunch or whatever, and get her back here.”

  Emi glared at him, deflecting his bravado back at him. “Where do you get off, telling me that? You’re the whole cause of this in the first place! And you better not try anything funny while I’m gone, either! Anything! Suzuno’s gonna have her eye on you the whole time, okay?!”

  “Hah! Funny! You sure won’t be laughing by the time I get my license! I’ll have an entire new world to explore. Nobody can stop me now! You’ll be crying into your cereal by the time you get back!”

  “I hope you forget to put the tax stamp on your application and they boot your ass out of the DMV!”

  “Pfft! They sell those at the DMV, too! Try again, knucklehead!”

  “Dahh!” Suzuno shouted as she forced her way into the inane argument. “Just go already, Emilia! You’re keeping Chiho and the Devil King here for too long! You have to stop before our holy scripture has to be rewritten to include the tale of how the Hero and the Devil battled over how to pay for a motor scooter license!”

  Fifteen more minutes had passed since Emi last checked her watch. Between keeping Chiho out late and letting the baby stay awake, it wasn’t an ideal scenario for anyone.

  “You have nothing to fear, Chiho,” Suzuno continued. “Perhaps it is not something to brag about, but I have little to occupy my time. I will be there with Emilia when she crosses over—I had wanted to speak with Emeralda myself. Is that quite all right, Devil King?”

  The station’s PA system squawked to life, announcing the imminent arrival of the next train. Emi turned her head up. “All right,” she said, trying to hurry things along. “See you next week, Chiho. I’ll send you a text later, Bell.” And with that, she finally went through the turnstile.

  “Bye-bye! Daddy, Chi-Sis, Suzu-Sis, bye-baah!”

  As Alas Ramus waved with all her might from behind Emi’s shoulder, the three of them feel tremendously guilty.

  “I wasn’t lying, though. They really do sell those tax stamps at the DMV.”

  “It doesn’t… Ugh. I need to walk Chiho home. Are you all right time-wise, Chiho?” Suzuno asked.

  “Oh, sure, no problem there…but…”

  “Hmm?”

  Chiho looked up at the sound of the train Emi and Alas Ramus presumably just clambered aboard, now leaving the station.

  “Yusa’s kind of been a lot more…cheerful lately, hasn’t she?” she whispered.

  “…Why’re you looking at me?” Maou protested, a little self-conscious.

  “What, don’t you know?”

  “Know what?”

  Suzuno sighed as she pushed them both forward. “…We can walk and talk at the same time, you two.”

  “I really do think she’s gotten more cheerful, though. Like, she’s just a ball of energy right now.”

  “Ah, she’s always been that way. Just whine, bitch, and moan, day in, day out…”

  “Oh, Maou, I don’t mean it that way! It’s just…I don’t know how to put it…”

  “She said it herself,” Suzuno said as she looked back toward Sasazuka Station. “About how it was better to seize the initiative on matters instead of waiting for something to happen. It has changed her outlook in all manner of ways, no doubt.”

  “Yeah, it’s sure different from when she was all hesitant and going nuts over what she should do…”

  It seemed even to Maou that Emi’s happy, almost eerie sense of optimism—something she had back when they first met in Japan—had rekindled itself a little over the past few days.

  “But it can’t be just that, though.”

  “Oh?”

  “What do you mean, Chi?”

  “You really don’t know, guys…?” Chiho gave Maou, then Suzuno a look of astonishment. “You two have the most to do with it, too.”

/>   All the two of them could do was exchange awkward glances. Apart from living in the same apartment building, Maou and Suzuno had nothing in common. That was especially true when it came to their involvement with Emi: Save for the fact they all lived in Japan, their relationships couldn’t have been more different.

  “Well,” Chiho continued, “I’m not as involved as you are. And I wish I was. So I’m not gonna tell you!”

  “Wh-what?”

  “Um…?”

  The two of them were forced to watch Chiho glare at them, looking a little triumphant as she did.

  “All right, Chiho, I give in,” Suzuno breathed as she lifted her hands into the air. They were nearly at the girl’s house. “What have you discerned?”

  Chiho turned her head back at her and smirked a little. “I don’t know how much Yusa herself is aware of it,” she said as she turned the rest of her body toward Suzuno. “But we’re talking about the Hero who came here to slay the Devil King going back home, right? Doesn’t that mean that she really trusts both of you?”

  Maou and Suzuno both let out startled gasps.

  “Yusa’s convinced there’s no way you’re gonna do anything mean in Japan just because she takes her eyes off you for a few days. Even if you did, she trusts you enough, Suzuno, that she figures you can handle it. I think this is her way of saying that to all of us. Don’t you think? Although I guess we’re talking about a different kind of trust and stuff, but…”

  This struck the both of them dumb. They were unable to react.

  “Well, thanks for taking me home!” Chiho smiled a little and waved as she walked up to her door. “Say hi to Emi for me when you see her off, okay, Suzuno?”

  Maou and Suzuno kept standing there for a few moments. Their eyes met, and then they shrugged and turned their backs to each other.

  “That’s not good, from the Devil King’s perspective.”

  “…And let’s just leave it at that, shall we? …I’m going home. All this idle chatter has made it tremendously late. You would not want to stir Alciel’s ire, would you?”

  They exchanged no further words as they walked back to the apartment and silently went to their respective rooms.