The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 (12 page)

“Hey, Emi, somethin’ bad happen to you?”

“Huh?”

“I dunno, you’ve just had this really peeved look on your face all morning.”

Emi brought a hand to her forehead as her workmate, Rika Suzuki, made the observation.

“Not some kind of trouble with that Maou guy again, I hope.”

Emi flinched back at this, a direct assault upon the very core of her heart.

“Wh-what made you think
that
?!”

“Well, Emi… I mean, whenever you’ve been troubled about something lately, it’s never been about anything
but
him.”

“What? No! No, it hasn’t!”

“Oh, reeeeeeally? I don’t seem to remember you ever acting like this at work
before
I started hearing about Maou.”

That was a surprise.

As the Hero, whose ultimate mission would only be complete once the head of the Devil King was on a pike for all to observe, Emi had always tried to maintain a certain sense of urgency within herself, a willingness to fight at all times. In no way was she merrily wasting her time with the trivialities of modern-day human life! Never!

“I mean, like, whenever we went out to eat, you always looked so happy that it made all my own troubles seem like nothing. Whenever we went out together, too. It’s really been just a little bit ago that you’ve been all serious like this.”

“Oooooh…”

The false bravado in Emi’s heart crumbled instantly.

There was a certain period in Emi’s life when everything about Japan, its food and cultural customs, provided a never-ending parade of new and fresh surprises to her. They instilled new values within her on a daily basis. Everything seemed to sparkle in her mind. She felt confident in saying that even with the entirety of Ente Islan cuisine before you, it would still pale in comparison to the variation and quality of food in Japan.

“Oh, wait! I think your AC broke down this time last year, right? I remember you said you had a lot of trouble sleeping in the heat.”

“……”

Emi softly placed her head on her desk.

It had been just over a year since she came to Japan. The idea that her concerns had grown so mindlessly trivial almost immediately after her arrival made her descend into self-loathing.

“Oh, and that one time you complained about how DokoDemo was giving you too many hours and you couldn’t arrange an appointment with the electric company guy…”

“Rika, you got me, all right? You win. You don’t have to keep beating a dead horse.”

“Oh? Oh. Oop, I got one.”

The call Rika’s workstation received covered up Emi’s groan, offering her welcome solace for a few minutes.

“So what is it, girl? What’re you arguing about this time?!” The moment her call ended, Rika pulled her headset up and leaned over the cube wall to confront Emi again.

“You are
so
enjoying this, aren’t you?”

She flashed a resentful look in response. It was nowhere near enough to faze Rika.

“Hey, it keeps the boredom from setting in.”

The way Rika never hid her true feelings was both one of her greatest traits and one of her most annoying habits.

“Plus, you know, I hate to leave a friend hanging when she’s in need!”

“Something tells me the ‘boredom’ excuse is a lot closer to the truth.”

Emi grinned to herself.

“Things are…well. You know. Kind of a pain. But I can’t sever myself from them or anything.”

“Ohh?”

“There’s a small child involved.”

Rika nodded to herself, elbow planted on top of the cube wall.

“Yours and Maou’s?”

“Well, that’s what
she
says, but… Agh!!”

Emi realized, far too late, that her overly cute attempt to deny all charges only served to dig her own grave.

Even Rika wasn’t expecting such a masterful performance. She put her elbow down, eyes open wide as she gauged Emi.

“Wait, what, really?”

“N-no! Not
that
way. I meant… Well, not exactly no, but
no
, okay?!”

“Whoa, whoa, chill! You’re not making sense.”

Emi attempted to catch her breath as her tormenter attempted to calm her down.

“…Okay, so listen. Seriously this time.”

“Oh, I’ve always been serious!”

She flashed the utterly innocent Rika a look before gathering her thoughts and continuing.

“…So, there’s this little kid at Maou’s place right now, right? Apparently… Well, he’s watching her for someone.”

“She related to him?”

“I don’t know all the details.”

Emi kept her replies deliberately vague. She had to avoid trouble later on, at all costs.

“Do you remember the girl in the kimono you met a little while ago? I saw the child when I came to see her.”

“Oh, yeah… She had kind of a rare name, right? Kamazuki or something? Suzuno Kamazuki.”

“Yeah, her. She lives right next to Maou, like I told you, so I kind of have to see her, whether I want to or not. So that’s how I found out. Anyway…”

Emi placed an elbow on her desk and sighed.

“For whatever reason, this girl thinks I’m her mother.”

“Huh?”

Rika craned her head forward. This plot twist was too good to pass up.

“I’ve never seen her before in my life, and she’s all ‘Mommy, Mommy’…”

“She’s not just, like, really really friendly with you, and that’s why she calls you that?”

“No, I… I think she’s really gotten it into her mind that I’m her mom, you know?”

Emi shook her head as she looked at Rika, whose previously jovial expression was now one of sincere concern.

“Oof… Yeah, that’s a problem. If she was just really clingy, that’s one thing, but if she seriously wants to be your daughter…”

Rika crossed her arms, eyebrows cast downward as she leaned back on her office chair, deep in thought.

“Um, I’m sorry if I’m getting morbid or whatever, but this girl… Did her mother die right after she was born or something?”

“Huh?”

The solemn gravity to Rika’s voice caught Emi in abject surprise.

“I mean, if she was usually with her mom all the time, she wouldn’t start calling other people ‘Mommy’ after being away just a couple, three days. ’Cause otherwise, either you’re, like, her mom’s identical twin, or she never had any memories of her mom in the first place.”

“That…”

That’s nuts
, Emi thought, but she stopped herself from blurting it out loud.

She hesitated because she herself had zero memory of her mother—and, in fact, didn’t know she was alive until just a little while ago.

Now Rika reminded her of some fainter memories, back when she was a child, when she mistook women in her village for her mother multiple times.

Of course, it wasn’t even clear yet whether Alas Ramus
had
a family to speak of. But something about her plea “Mommy, don’t go again!” struck a chord with Emi. It implied she had been separated from her mother, and for some nontrivial reason as well.

“Was it something like that?”

“Hmm… I dunno. I don’t really have the whole story.”

“Ah… All right. Well, hell, it’s Maou’s problem anyway, isn’t it? Why do you have to care at all, Emi?”

Now Rika took pains to lighten the mood. Emi was starting to brood too much again.

“I just figure… You know, there’s only so much someone like you can do here, and maybe we’re both overthinking it, but if you don’t have any intention of seeing that stuff through to the end, why get involved at all?”

Rika gave Emi a reassuring pat on the shoulder. As if on cue, the chime signaling the end of the shift rang out, bringing Emi’s head to attention.

“Yeah, but I already told him I’d stop by today…”

“Oh, Emi! You’re
totally
getting involved, aren’t you?”

Rika suddenly grew quite a bit less reassuring.

“Yeaaah… I guess I kinda got caught up in the mood over there, you know?”

“Well, if you’re just trying to stick to your guns for no reason around Maou and his buds, that’s all the more reason to get out.”

Rika always had a knack for striking Emi right where it hurt.

“It, it’s not that… Okay, maybe a little…but it’s not
just
that.”

Even with Suzuno running guard duty next door, the idea of a baby—even one as supernaturally gifted as Alas Ramus—alone inside Devil’s Castle filled Emi with concern.

That, and…

“It’s not like I’m feeling sorry for the girl or anything but…if it’s fun for her to spend time hanging out with me, I don’t really see any reason to deny her that…”

Rika, looking down at Emi as she awkwardly tried to explain herself, smiled and shook her head as she removed her headset.

“You always were Ms. Nice Guy like that, huh? For better or for worse.”

Because I’m the Hero
, Emi replied internally.

“Of course, I guess there’s really no telling what’s good or bad for the kid until she grows up a little more, huh? In which case, why don’t you just approach her whatever way you like? Think about what’s good for you, not what’s good for Maou or whoever.”

Suddenly, a murmur of doubt crossed Rika’s eyes.

“Say, Emi, you’ve never pet-sitted for friends or anything, right?”

“…Where’d
that
come from?”

“Well, I mean, you’d be amazed what feeding a dog for a day or two does. A lot of the time, it’ll be pure love, you know? So I’m just saying, don’t dig in too deep here. Otherwise I bet it’s gonna hurt whenever she goes back to her family.”

“…Yeah, I’ll remember that.”

“Well, super! Better get going now, huh? Your beloved bundle of joy awaits!”

“Rika!!”

Emi took the time to remove her own headset before chasing her out of her cube.

“Her family, though, huh…?”

Placing the headset in its place on the desk, Emi stood up.

“Hey, you know, Emi, if you wanna make your time with her special, how ’bout this?”

Already back from the changing room, Rika beckoned to Emi, cosmetics bag in one hand. Walking over, Emi was presented with a handful of paper sheets.

“I didn’t know this ’til now, but I guess DokoDemo’s sponsoring this joint, so there’s a pretty big employee discount.”

Six small, rectangular pieces of paper were laid upon the table in the center of Devil’s Castle.

“……”

“……”

“Wuzzat? Wuzzat?”

Maou, Alas Ramus, and Emi sat around them in silence.

“Well, coincidence or not, we’ve got them all together.”

Chiho, looking on from the side, seemed to have trouble determining what kind of facial expression to make.

On the table lay six tickets to Tokyo Big-Egg Town, the hybrid amusement park located next to the well-known Tokyo Big-Egg domed stadium in Bunkyo ward.

The envelope Maou received from Kisaki contained a One-Day Passport that unlocked free access to all attractions, alongside two coupons for discount tickets, all provided as part of a newspaper subscription promotion. Meanwhile, the office packet Rika had given Emi contained three coupons for employee-discount one-day passes—even cheaper than Kisaki’s cut-rate ones.

Either way, both Kisaki and Rika had provided their own respective methods for a couple and their child to create a few memories.

It was clear to everyone involved that there was no way they could coop up Alas Ramus inside a one-room apartment for the rest of her life. Even if she could deal with it, Ashiya would doubtlessly crumble to pieces sooner or later.

“These will serve us quite well, will they not? An amusement park, after all, is built for the enjoyment of young children, I believe. We could combine these coupons and have quite the ball together.”

Suzuno was making perfect sense, but there was a bigger problem at hand.

“Amusement park! With Mommy and Daddy!”

To Alas Ramus, this had all the markings of a family vacation.

Family
, in this case, referring to Maou and Emi.

Kisaki’s act of charity might have been mere coincidence, but Rika
had made a concerted effort to put together a set of three coupons. To everyone involved, it seemed like there were ulterior motives afoot.

Maou and Emi, for their parts, remained motionless, their eyes settled upon the tickets.

Both of them wanted to protest against this outing with every ounce of their spirits, but they also knew Alas Ramus, gifted at picking up on their emotions, would immediately start bawling. The paradox had left them unable to take any action whatsoever.

“…Nugh.”

Maou’s groan of resignation broke the stifling silence. Emi shuddered a bit in agreement.

“Look, if
this
is the kind of thing you’re bringing in here, should I take that as you accepting your role in this?”

“I-in what…?”

“Hey, Alas Ramus? I’m thinking about taking you somewhere, but is it okay if Mommy doesn’t come along?”

“No! Together!”

Her response came from the soul, strongly enough to rattle both their hearts.

Alas Ramus stood up off Maou’s knee to face Emi, almost knocking over a glass of barley tea on the table. Ashiya hurriedly moved it aside.

“Okay, well, how about you go out together with Mommy and I don’t come with you?”