“Y-Yusa, knock it off!”
Finally, Ashiya stepped up from behind to stop her.
“Here, calm down a little, Chi.”
Maou, for his part, tried his best to appease Chiho, but—
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
“Please stay silent, Maou.”
The quiet battle between the two women continued unabated, the sparks almost visibly flying as they stared each other down.
“No, I mean…I don’t want to cause any trouble for the café, so… How about we just go outside, okay?”
The rest of the staff and customers had picked up on the conflict between Chiho and Emi, but strangely, only Maou and Ashiya—the demons—found themselves cringing at the attention. Maou tried his best to defuse the situation—
“Oh! Now I remember. You came to our restaurant the other day, didn’t you, lady?”
“…What of it?”
—but they refused to listen!
“You were talking to Maou then, too, as I recall. Are you his ex or something?”
One didn’t even have to see how the edges of Emi’s lips tensed painfully tight for a moment to understand how much force the term was infused with.
“Nngh!
What
did you say?!”
The exasperated growl was Emi’s way of expressing the rage and humiliation having that accusation leveled at her caused the first time the police hauled her and Maou off. But Chiho interpreted it as a sign that she was right on the money.
“I thought you might be. Well, how I approach Maou shouldn’t be of any concern of yours anymore, should it?”
“Can you stop talking stupid for a moment? He and I don’t have that kind of—”
“You don’t? So why are you always lurking around wherever Maou is?”
“Look, our relationship can’t really be summed up that easily, okay?”
“Oh, so you were
that
close with him? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“What would
ever
make you think that?”
“What other way
is
there to see it?”
Whether they were listening to each other or not, the accusations and ranting had gradually ratcheted up. Feeling the intense, cold stares from the other customers on his back, Maou spoke up, a cold sweat pouring down his twitching face.
“Can the two of you just calm—”
He never managed to add the word
down
to the end.
A loud rumble coursed across the café, accompanied by a sound that was impossible to describe.
At first, no one could figure out what was going on—neither Maou, nor Chiho, nor Emi, nor Ashiya, nor any of the other witnesses watching their no-holds-barred battle royale with bated breath.
The next moment, someone shouted out:
“Earthquake!”
Someone else chimed in:
“It’s a big one!”
The next scream was drowned out, along with every other sound in the underground corridor, by a massive, stomach-churning groan as the shaking began.
They were underground, but the up-and-down motion was so intense that it was impossible to remain standing. Utensils and furnishings fell to the floor as the lighting and window glass shattered.
“Look out!”
Whoever said that, and whoever heard it, were greeted by a crack in the ceiling that opened up in the blink of an eye.
The rumbling and shaking was incessant, as the crack spread its ominous tentacles toward the support columns and the floor.
“It’s gonna fall…”
The ceiling began to buckle, all but pulverizing the table Maou and Chiho were sitting around.
“Maou!”
Chiho screamed, but her voice failed to reach him. He could see the ceiling crumble above them, but his feet were frozen to the ground, unable to flee amid the shaking.
The entire corridor began to collapse. Through the rain of debris, Chiho’s fear reached critical mass, her consciousness melting into the darkness.
She could feel her eyes opening, but there was nothing but darkness to greet her. Confused, Chiho jerked involuntarily.
It was the first time she had ever lost consciousness like that, but her memories of a moment before brought her fear right back to center stage. Gingerly, she tried moving her tensed-up limbs, making contact with countless pebbles and small rocklike objects on the ground.
“Wh-what’s going on?” she whispered to no one in particular.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.”
A woman’s voice was right nearby.
“Wh-Who’s that?”
“It’s me.”
The voice rang out in the darkness, slightly unclear through all the obstacles.
“You…”
The face she could faintly see floating up through the dimness was the woman who’d so rudely interrupted her little date with Maou.
The sight of the woman made Chiho recall their conversation before all of this happened. Then she noticed her face in the meager light. It was marred by something black flowing down from her forehead.
“Are…are you all right?!”
“Oh, this?”
It continued to flow as she absentmindedly wiped her face. A scream erupted from deep within Chiho’s throat.
“This is nothing big.”
“But…but all that blood…”
“It’s not as bad as it looks. It’ll clot up in a little bit.”
The woman, acting like she had just scraped herself slicing an onion, clutched a cell phone in her hand. It was their current light source, all the light Chiho needed to stare at the blood streaming down the woman’s forehead.
“This is bad news, though. We’re completely shut in.”
The woman flashed the cell phone’s light around the area. Rubble from the underground corridor loomed around them on all sides. There was just enough space for Chiho and the woman to stand upright.
“From…from the earthquake?”
“Yeah. I guess the corridor collapsed. There’s probably a ton of people buried alive in here.”
“H-how long was I…?”
“It’s been less than half an hour since the quake. It looks like we’re breathing okay, so there must be some path for air to get through.”
Chiho tested out her body. Nothing hurt in particular. And, perhaps because of the woman’s blissful calmness, she was gradually overcoming her fear of the darkness. She took a deep breath. “You’re acting pretty calm about this.”
“Yeah, well. A little while ago, things like this were an everyday occurrence. You seem like you’ve gotten used to theatrical fights, though, so aren’t you acting a little calm right now, yourself?”
“It’s because I have an older sister who’s probably crying alone right now.”
Despite their circumstances, at that, the woman smiled. “I’m Emi Yusa. And just to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing between me and Maou.”
“My name is Chiho Sasaki. Let’s just leave it at that for now.”
United by a common crisis, they shook hands. Chiho was surprised at her own serenity amid this disaster. She wasn’t alone, which was a major factor, but that alone wouldn’t explain how undisturbed she felt.
“Maou…?”
“Nowhere near us, that much is for sure. He can’t be that far away, though.”
“No, I mean…”
They were all circling the same table, and now he was gone. Which meant…
“Oh, you’re wondering if he got crushed by rubble?”
Chiho’s mind was boggled at how easily Emi was able to suggest such a horrible fate.
“Well, it’d make me more than happy if he died right here…”
The follow-up was even worse, but her tone of voice indicated that Emi thought little of it.
“…but he’s definitely alive. No way am I gonna let him die now. I want to kill him by my own hand. Dying by accident in a disaster like this… That’s just pathetic. I’m not letting him off
that
easy.”
She sounded incredibly confident. The resolve behind her voice even coaxed a strange sense of courage out of Chiho’s mind.
“Yeah… You’re right. I’m sure he’s safe.”
“Of course he is.”
Having said her fill, Emi sat down next to Chiho. They both had a grasp of each other’s positions within this confined space, so Emi powered off her cell phone to conserve battery time. Darkness dominated once again.
“This is kind of weird, though, isn’t it?”
“Weird? How so?”
“Like, having this perfect little space here, just big enough for the two of us.”
“…Oh.”
Chiho herself had watched disaster-relief news reports at least once or twice in her life. Considering how often they involved survivors spending days trapped inside rubble, completely immobilized, before finding rescue, being safe and able to move inside this space was beyond a miracle. It was an unnatural phenomenon.
“There are probably little pockets like this all across the rubble. I think I can feel miniature-sized magic barriers nearby. Lots of them, too. Maou must have done something or other.”
“Magic…barriers?”
Chiho repeated the unfamiliar words back, but Emi continued, wholly unfazed.
“If I had to bet, I’d say that nobody’s dead in here. In fact, the farthest barrier isn’t even fifty meters away. This might not be as widespread as it looks.”
Emi was half-talking to herself by this point, showing no signs of waiting for Chiho’s reply.
“I suppose we all need to thank him…but what would drive the Devil King to do this? Just deciding to save all these people’s lives spur-of-the-moment?”
“Um…you mean Maou?”
Emi’s apparent nickname for her ex sounded a bit contrived to Chiho’s ears.
“If he had enough magic force left to create this many barriers in the space of a few seconds…he’s more of a potential menace than I thought. He probably created this pocket for us, too.”
“Here? Maou…made this?”
“Yeah. So he could save us. This pisses me off
so
much! Why would a demon go around rescuing heroes? I mean, it’s like
I’m
some kind of egocentric villain here now, just because I couldn’t create a protective wall with my holy force!”
Emi spat out the words, chiding herself in the darkness.
“Um…I’m not really sure what you mean, Yusa…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just talking to myself.”
A soft, bitter chuckle coursed across the space.
“Look, what do you even see in Maou?”
“Huh?!”
The unexpected question made Chiho lean back, startled, in the darkness.
“What…what…what’re you talking about?!”
Chiho wildly flailed her hand in front of her face in a “no” motion, despite the total darkness.
“You were mouthing off at me because you like him and didn’t like what I was telling you. Weren’t you?”
“L-like? I-I’m not, I don’t like…”
This threw Chiho into a state of frustrated confusion. She thrashed her arms and legs around for a moment, looking around the completely black landscape as she whined in frustration. It continued for another minute before she responded, her voice cracking.
“Y-you…you can’t just
tell
, so easy, like that!”
There was another bitter chuckle in the air.
“The girl herself is always the last to know. Anyone watching you, it’s totally obvious. I’m not too sure if Maou himself knows yet, though.”
“Nngh…”
Chiho could feel the blood rushing toward her face.
“Wh-wh-what do you think of him, Y-Yusa?”
“Me?”
“You seem like his total enemy or whatever you said, but you’re always hanging around him… It
seems
like you were kind of close, anyway.”
“…I’d absolutely hate to use the word
close
to describe it. I’ll admit that we’ve kind of known each other for a while, but…”
“How long?”
“Well, I knew about him first, but I guess he started paying attention to me around two years ago.”
“Did you both graduate from the same middle school or something?”
“No. If we did, maybe we would’ve had a more stable relationship, though.”
Emi chuckled to herself.
“But I’m telling you the truth here. If you start liking him, it’s gonna be tough for you. That’s why I tried to stop you, at least.”
“Well…yeah, but I still don’t really understand.”
“You will soon enough…or maybe it’s better if you didn’t. For now, anyway.”
As she said this, Emi raised her hand and placed her finger on Chiho’s forehead in the darkness.
“You’d better sleep for a bit. The Devil King’s been acting really self-conscious around other people lately.”
It was over in an instant. The tip of Emi’s finger glowed softly as it pressed against Chiho’s head. When the glow disappeared, Chiho was already lost in a deep sleep.
As she breathed softly, her body slowly, gently laid itself down.
“Sorry you had to listen to all that complaining. You’ll forget all about it by the time you wake up.”
Emi placed her finger on Chiho’s forehead once again. The glow returned for a moment, then quickly disappeared.
“You’re right nearby, aren’t you? I just put Chiho to sleep!”
As if in reply, a large magical force ballooned up nearby, beyond the rubble. For a moment, Emi’s eyes opened wide at the unexpected size of it.
“Yeah, thanks for
that
conversation.”
Maou’s voice chimed through the sound of falling rubble, followed by several small rocks crumbling to the floor. Then, there was another presence in the darkness.
“You putting it that way, though…I guess our relationship’s pretty complicated, huh?”
“Gee, you think? It’s not like either of us
wanted
to be near each other. It’s a pain in the ass, mostly.”
“You said it.”
Maou’s voice sounded like he was standing on top of something. Emi squinted her eyes. There was some sort of ambiguous, unknown power lurking within his words.
“You help Chi out, okay? We’re getting out of here. I don’t think anyone’s seriously hurt, but we can’t all just sit here and wait for rescue.”
A light flickered in the darkness, an ominous, bloodred glow that summoned horrifying memories in Emi’s mind.
“D-Devil King!”
“What?”
The reply was strictly matter-of-fact.
“You…you look… What
happened
to you?!”
“Dunno. Just kind of happened.”
His face, at least, was unmistakably Sadao Maou. But there were horns, the classic symbol of the demon race, poking out of his black hair. One of them was cut off halfway—exactly where Emi’s sword sliced through it, not long ago.