The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 5 (25 page)

“Who do you think put up with the humans’ incessant resistance until the very end?”

“Agh! W-wait, wait a—!”

“Ashiya—the Great Demon General Alciel’s body is the toughest in the Devil King’s Army. No greater defensive genius out there. You could hit him with Emi’s sword, and he still won’t get hurt that easy.”

“Die!”

“Nnhh!!”

Alciel’s claws dug their way deeper into Gabriel’s flesh, penetrating skin. Even an archangel could find its match against the strength and demonic force of the Devil King and his right-hand man. Or, for a moment, so it seemed.

“Still, nice tryyy!”

Despite being all but disemboweled, Gabriel shed not a drop of blood as he vanished like a white vapor, his head disappearing in Satan’s hands. The two demons were left bewildered.

“I love fighting you guys. Emilia, too. So direct and to the point!”

The voice came from behind Satan.

There was no time to turn around. The edge of Gabriel’s palm thudded against Satan’s back, with what seemed like no great force.

“Bang!”

“Gaaaahhhh!!”

But even that was enough to send Satan flying. Even barreling into Alciel didn’t stop him from tumbling helplessly to the ground, fully vulnerable.

“Wh-what…?”

“Eesh. You don’t have to look
that
surprised, guys. It’s nothing that world ending. Just a little trick with afterimages, all right? This whole time, ever since I deflected that telekinesis Alciel threw at Raguel, you guys have been fighting my stunt doubles, so…”

Then, apropos of nothing, Gabriel put his hands together in prayer.

That seemed to signal a group of angels to materialize in the air like popcorn, each the spitting image of a simpering Gabriel.

“So basically, the two of you put together can juuuuuust about take on one of my fakes. So just knock it off, all right? Nobody’s gonna criticize you for it. I’m not gonna do anything bad to you, either.”

“You…you think we’d actually say yes to that, you bastard…?”

Satan glared at Gabriel as he arduously brought himself back to his feet.

“Did you do something to Emi?”

“Hmm?”

“That ‘girl’ you talked about,” Satan continued. “How come you know something happened to Chi?”

“…Uh, hello? Anyone home? You just said we hurt one of your friends, bro.”

“That coulda been Urushihara, it coulda been Suzuno, it definitely coulda been Emi. How’d you know it was the one girl least likely to be involved in this?”

“Oh. Yeah. …Okay, guilty as charged, I heard it from Emilia. We met over at Skytree a sec ago.”

Gabriel shrugged his shoulders, plainly ruing his mistake.

“But all I know is that Raguel’s sonar knocked her out, all right? She didn’t tell me about anything else. Boy, I had all kinds of juicy info I coulda leaked out to her, too…”

“What?”

“’Course, what I
did
give her kinda made her lose the will to fight, maybe, soooo… But you really oughta thank me, don’tcha? There’s
one
enemy of yours outta the picture, at least.”

“
What
did you do to her…?”

“Hey, whoa, whoa, nothing! Nothing
that
much. I just told Emilia her dad’s alive somewhere, that’s all.”

“!!!”

The first reaction from Satan’s brain was to recall the Hero Emilia pointing the Better Half at him, screaming about revenge. After that came Emi Yusa, scratched and bruised after falling down his rickety staircase, condemning Sadao Maou through teary eyes about what he had done to her family.

“My liege…?”

Alciel, ever sensitive to his master’s behavior, noticed something was off. By now he had at least a vague sense of what lay at the root of Emi’s deep-seated, monomaniacal hatred for Satan. But why would that bother Satan at all? It never had before.

“Gabriel…has anyone ever told you you really suck at picking up on social cues?”

“Yeah, I seem to remember
someone
in here calling it a ‘B-movie act’ not long ago, no? I’m not gonna say no to that, though, so…yeaaahh, maybe.”

“Is that fun for you? Taking people’s emotional supports and swiping them out from under them?”

“Oh, totally! But not as fun as it is watching
you
worrying about your sworn enemy Emilia, though!”

“…Lowlife.”

Gabriel’s smile weathered the hateful assault Alciel spat at it.

“Ooh, quite the honor! But if I could get in a word here real quick, I think it’d be nice if she’d knock off that boring ‘slay the Devil King’ mumbo-jumbo. Take a broader view of things, y’know? The big picture. Whatever crutch she’s leaning on… That’s just getting in the way, if you asked me.”

“…?”

Satan stopped for a moment, unsure what to make of this. He didn’t have long to ponder over it.

“Gaaaaaaaaabe!!”

Raguel interrupted the proceedings from his perch far above the fight, near Observation Deck 1. As he did, a powerful light burst forth from Tokyo Tower’s antenna.

“Aww, this was just getting fun, too…”

Gabriel dejectedly resented his supposed friend and partner’s appearance.

“A sonar bolt come in, or what?!”

“I dunno, man, I don’t have a TV…”

Satan and Alciel, helplessly pinned down by Gabriel, had no idea what Raguel was trying to do.

“Okay, uh, Gabe, I think we got trouble!”

“Huh?”

“I can’t flyyy-y-y-y…”

“Huhh?”

The voice zoomed by, falling past Gabriel’s, Satan’s, and Alciel’s astonished eyes.

“……”

There, on top of Observation Deck 1, like a duck shot by a rifleman, Raguel lay sprawled on the roof.

“Still safe, huh?”

Another voice came, this one from above where Raguel had fallen from. Craning his neck, Satan saw a familiar sight—in a way, that was. Compared to an angel falling from the sky like an artillery shell hitting him, almost anything seemed normal. Especially her.

Emilia, eyes of scarlet and hair of blue-tinged silver, looked down upon the two demons, a perplexed look on her face.

But everyone—Satan, Alciel, even Gabriel—was transfixed by the person next to her instead.

“Ch-Chi?!”

“Ms. Sasaki…”

Her hair, already saddled by bed head, tore about wildly in the wind, framing her pink flower pajamas and green hospital slippers.

She was supposed to be in a hospital bed, in fact. But now Chiho Sasaki—enveloped in an aura of shining holy energy and holding a bow made of silvery light—was standing alongside the Hero of another world at the peak of Tokyo Tower.

“Maou! Ashiya! Are you okay?!”

“N-no, uh, I mean, I don’t…? Are, are
you
okay, Chi?! I mean, what’s ‘okay’ even mean anymore?! What happened to you?!”

One could look up
flabbergasted
in the dictionary and see a photo of the King of All Demons, shot at this very moment.

“Devil King! We’ll talk later! Just stop Raguel, now!”

Emilia still made sideways glances at Chiho from the corner of her eye as she attempted to stir Satan into action.

“Just save all your stupid questions for after this and figure out a way to get those meddling angels out of the picture!”

With a kick against the antenna, Emilia was instantly between Gabriel and the demons. Her back was turned to Satan and Alciel.

“Wow. Pretty quick recovery. I figured you’d need to see a therapist or something, no?” Gabriel’s attention was still chiefly on Chiho as he spoke.

“…Look,” Emi snapped, “with all this ridiculous crap going on, I just decided that I can save the thinking for later!”

“Ooh, that’s gonna bite ya later, I think. I mean, saving all the hard stuff for tomorrow? That’s pretty much Lucifer’s philosophy, isn’t it?”

“I don’t care right now! Ashiya! Let’s stop Raguel! I don’t want to blow this like I did with Sariel! Once the Gate’s open, I’ll toss him halfway across the universe!”

“By all means!”

It was clear from their last meeting that Gabriel couldn’t beat Emi in a fair fight.

The demons knew what they had to do. One, leave Gabriel in her capable hands. Two, keep Raguel from launching any more sonar bolts.

They surrounded Raguel as he shakily got back up, each taking one side. The sight set Raguel off on another trademark rant.

“What is
with
you pricks, anyway?! Is Laila
that
important to you?! Would you mind not sticking your necks into human-world affairs for a change?! Just go away and take over the world or something! The entire future course of events in heaven depends on whether we catch Laila or not! So butt
out
!”

“Y’know, I don’t remember her being all that much of a big-shot angel. Not exactly the guardian angel of Sephirot or anything, right? Just a single mom with kind of a fancy job title. What’s got you so riled up over her?”

“I’m not touching that question with a ten-foot pole! If I answer that, you’ll know exactly what I
don’t
want all of you to know! These are heavenly affairs! No outsiders allowed!!”

“Ooh, that’s not going to work.”

An arrow of light landed near the raving Raguel, triggering a small explosion.

“Whoa?!”

They looked up to find Chiho, bow still at the ready after firing her initial salvo.

“That was a warning. Your behavior is disrupting the balance of power in this world. Stop using your sonar and leave at once!”

Satan, for the first time, noticed the glowing ring on Chiho’s left hand, the one currently holding the bow.

Raguel looked down where the arrow struck, gnashing his teeth.

“Silence! I don’t know if you’ve possessed that human girl or learned how to control her from afar, but now that you’re here, it’s time to earn my salary! Once I trace your trail of holy energy, my job here is done!”

“They have salaries up in heaven?”

“……”

“…Hey, say something.”

Unlike Shirou Ashiya, Alciel in demon form never bothered reacting angrily to Satan’s terrible jokes. It disappointed the Devil King a tad.

“Seelku etuloo
—oooohhh?!
”

Raguel attempted to lob something at Chiho, who was above him. Satan and Alciel reared back in a panic, but Chiho refused to budge.

Not even the bow in her hand moved an inch, as if she were expecting the attack the whole time.

It sounded as if Raguel chanted some kind of magic…but he gave up midway. Suddenly, he fell to his knees, like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Wha, wha, what is…”

Staring at his hands, Raguel stammered in utter confusion. But struggle as he did, he no longer had full control of his body. Even standing was too much of a challenge now.

“Why do you think your wings disappeared just now?”

Chiho breezily floated down to the observation deck roof, joining Satan and Alciel down below.

“This Yesod fragment may not be the whole thing, but the next time it strikes you, I can’t guarantee you’ll function as an angel ever again. So just go home before that happens, all right? You are not my enemy. In a world far, far away, we are friends.”

“Kah…hah…”

“Wh-what on…?”

Even Satan could see it. The stream of holy force leaking out from Raguel’s back.

The flash that occurred when Emilia and Chiho appeared must have been the light from Chiho’s first arrow striking Raguel’s wings.

“Ai yai yai, that ain’t good…
Hooph!
”

Gabriel, attempting to take on Emilia as he watched Raguel, brought his hands together. The next moment, a ball of light enveloped him, and he disappeared from Emi’s sight.

“?!”

Following her sixth sense, Emi spotted Gabriel, now next to the curled-up Raguel. It was nothing short of instant teleportation.

Satan and Alciel immediately took flight to separate themselves from him. Even Chiho kept a respectable distance. But Gabriel just stood there, showing no sign of wanting a fight.

Then, for reasons only he was aware of, he removed the T-shirt from under his toga and began waving it above his head. The rippling upper-body muscles he exposed to the world as he did would send any would-be bodybuilder into fits of jealousy.

“’Kay, I’m out!
No más!
Fat lady’s sung! This is gonna have to pass for a white flag, all right?”

“Huhh?!”

“Agh, Gabe, what’re you—
Gahh?!
”

Gabriel placed his palm on the head of Raguel, curled into a ball but still willing to fight.

“What are you…?”

That was enough to cut the strings for good. Raguel was now sprawled on the roof.

The shocked Emilia and demon crew to his side, Gabriel tossed the languid, likely unconscious Raguel on one shoulder. Emilia, watching this bizarre act, had trouble figuring out what to do next.

“What’re you trying to do?”

“Ummm, well, how to put it? Now that Emilia’s in the picture, I’m startin’ not to like my chances so much, y’know? That other girl’s some kinda phenom, too, apparently. But you know Raguel’s not gonna listen to a word of it. I mean, I’m not really in a position where I can go double-crossing heaven all the time, but that doesn’t mean I wanna die fighting for ’em or anything. Although…”

He turned his eternally simpering grin toward Chiho, floating in the air.

“Watching you and everyone else on Earth… I’m startin’ to want to see my own world change, too, you get me? So here’s hoping you can keep everything going smoothly over here. Betcha do it too, huh?”

“……”

That last sentence was aimed at Chiho.

“…But anyway. Me and her, we got to that conclusion via two completely different paths, so no funny ideas about
that
, are we clear? Just have fun chewing over all the little hints I’ve been dropping at you. I bet Raguel’s gonna be pissed later, but don’t worry—I’ll make sure him and the Regiment get ferried back home safe, all right? Adios!”

“Agh! Hey!!”

“Wait!”

Emilia and Satan had no chance to stop him.

The ball of light covered them in an instant. In another, they were both completely gone from sight.

Satan expected another strike from some unexpected blind spot. But, after several seconds of silence, no attack seemed forthcoming.