The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 (6 page)

“……”

He saw Emi, eyes like small dots as she looked at the apple between her sword and her nemesis.

“…?”

Maou was at a loss, but still unable to move.

“Y-your Demonic Highness…rrngh…”

Ashiya spoke up for him, only now recovering from his tumble downstairs.

It was an odd sight he was met with. The Devil King, guarding his head with a giant apple. Crestia Bell, hands to her cheeks in surprise. Emilia, her holy sword still aimed downward. And:

“Is that…?”

But what particularly grabbed his attention was the human hand that just grew out of the apple.

Or hands, to be exact. Two of them, infant-sized, popped out of the large, round apple, arms following behind them.

“Uh.”

“Wha…”

“What the hell is
that
?!”

Ashiya and Suzuno grunted inscrutably. It was Emi, in the end, who shouted loud and clear.

Seeing hands grow out from an apple was nothing short of astonishing. Maybe this really
was
a fruit-shaped demon after all. It was entirely possible.

The biggest problem, however, was that these hands, unmistakably those of a human baby, had stopped the full brunt of Emi’s holy sword in its tracks.

This was not a matter of Emi hesitating or letting up at the last moment.

She was in a state of white-hot fury, so not even she had considered whether she could really slice through both the apple and Maou in one swipe. That should have been more than enough to at least cleave the fruit in two, though.

Emi reared back in a panic, just as Suzuno removed the hairpin from behind her head.

“Light of Iron!”

As she spoke, the cross-shaped hairpin in Suzuno’s hand instantly transformed into a gigantic, holy, power-driven war hammer.

Just like Emi a moment ago, Suzuno was on high alert, tense and wary against this unknown foe.

Staggering to his feet, Ashiya took a moment to figure out what to do.

But even with his experience as chief commander of the Eastern Island invasion force and his reputation as the demonic horde’s most brilliant strategist, he had never prepared for the situation of the Devil King pinned beneath an enormous apple with arms as it confronted the holy sword–wielding Hero.

Suzuno, for her part, appeared similarly hesitant, not moving an inch, hammer readied in her hands.

“…Uh, so, like, what just happened?”

Only Maou, unable to see the other side of his apple, lacked a full grasp of the scene. He warily looked around him, fruit still held high.

“M-Maou?”

It was Urushihara who finally responded, on his feet and looking on from the corridor guardrail.

“I think you, uh, maybe wanna put the apple down for now.”

“The apple…? Aghh! What’re
those
?!”

Maou gradually lowered the apple, only to be greeted with the sight of two infant arms groping around in the air. That earned the fruit an unceremonious toss to the ground.

“Ahh!”

The group around the mystery object gasped in unison, instinctively afraid of what kind of damage a jolt like that could do. Then they watched as the giant apple plaintively rolled across the ground.

“Ah, ahhhh…!”

Emi, caught right in the apple’s sights, sprinted off without skipping a beat.

But the apple pressed on. Worryingly so. Maou hadn’t thrown it with
that
much momentum. And he didn’t curve it like a baseball so it’d follow Emi’s path, either.

“Yeaaggghhhh! What, what,
stop
it!!”

The apple merrily chased Emi around the apartment building’s front yard, flailing its arms like propellers.

Maou and Suzuno, no new ideas coming to mind in response to this, simply watched.

Finally, the apple settled down in the middle of the yard—finally out of juice, perhaps. Emi gasped for breath, cornered like a rat against the concrete fence.

But the fruit refused to give. Pudgy little hands continued to grope toward Emi’s direction, even with the apple now firmly in stasis.

“Hey, uh, Emi, you gotta admit, it’s got its eyes on you, or hands or whatever, man.”

“
Huff
…
huff
… Wh-who does? Get it away from me!”

Emi’s rage toward Maou was now dissipated, replaced with frantic confusion over this shocking turn of affairs. Her eyes darted pointlessly between the sword in her right hand and the arms extended her way.

Those arms were strong enough to withstand the full brunt of a holy sword.

Or, to be more exact, it felt like some kind of cushioning force stopped the blow, like when you slap your palm against the surface of water.

Emi was beginning to get the impression that she had a lot more enemies impervious to the Better Half than expected. If this apple was one of them, that implied it was related to the heavens, or Sariel, both intent upon seizing her sword.

It made sense in her mind, enough so that she opted to dispel the sword into her body for safety’s sake.

That happened just in time for the next cataclysm.

The moment Emi’s sword was gone, the groping hands instantly slumped to the side, as if exhausted of power.

Watching them drop like a stringless puppet summoned another scream from Emi’s throat as she backed away.

“Yaghh!
Now
what?!”

The apple unpeeled itself, was what, the yellow skin unraveling like a tightly wrapped bandage.

Underneath this shell, built like a reinforced shelter to protect
its contents, the apple was hollow. And there, in front of everyone except Chiho, the giant arm-toting apple said:

“…
Bipf!
”

It was now a small girl, its stifled sneeze ringing across the dumbfounded Villa Rosa Sasazuka front yard.

“……”

“……”

“……”

“……”

“……”

Everyone was stunned at this latest metamorphosis.

Not even able to gauge each other’s reaction, the group’s eyes fixated upon the baby that appeared from the apple.

“…
Bipf!
”

As if responding to her second sneeze, the yellow skin discarded around the girl once again floated in the air around her, leisurely changing shape until it transformed into a yellow dress that fit snugly over her, like she was wearing it the whole time.

“Mm?”

Maou was the only one to notice the emblem that appeared on the girl’s forehead the moment the dress took form. It was purple in color, shaped like a crescent moon. “Ooo!”

And then it disappeared in another instant.

The girl scratched her forehead a moment, right where the emblem had been. Then she looked around her surroundings, making the pudgy little hands that stopped Emi’s holy sword cold into fists, with which she lazily rubbed her eyebrows.

After a moment of staring into space, she laid down on the ground…

“…
snif
…”

Then fell asleep.

The Lord of All Demons, the half-angel Hero, the Great Demon General, the Reconciliation Panel cleric, and the fallen denizen of heaven looked on.

All of them, each born from similarly outrageously unlikely
circumstances, found it equally impossible to comprehend what they had just seen.

“All right…
Hold up.
”

Maou, much to his credit, was the first to snap out of it.

“Wha, what, what on, what kind of, who…”

His speech, however, had yet to crest the waves of confusion ravaging his mind.

“How, how, I don’t know, how would I…?”

Emi was no different.

“Ma-Maou!”

Urushihara managed to squeak out a shout from his vantage point upstairs. Suzuno and Ashiya shuddered at the sudden thunderbolt of speech as they looked upward.

But Urushihara’s eyes were turned far away, toward the Sasazuka rail station.

“Dude, someone’s coming!”

The words were enough to propel everyone back into an ad hoc silence.

Regardless of what this apple girl was all about, there was no way to tell how many people witnessed that huge flash of light. No matter what, they had to avoid the neighbors’ prying eyes.

“H-hey, Emi!”

“Wh-what?!”

“Get this…this kid? She’s a child, right? Get her upstairs!”

“Wh-why
me
?!”

“She’s a girl! So’re you! Pick her up! I’ve never carried a human baby before!”

“What, you think
I
have? I mean, I hugged one once, okay, but she hadn’t been lying in the dirt when I did!”

“Hero! Devil King! How foolish the both of you are!”

Suzuno sprang into action.

Gently, taking care not to wake her, Suzuno used her well-practiced hands to pick up the apparently supernatural girl, now fast asleep after giving the neighborhood the shock of their lives.

“Ooh, good one.”

“Clerics such as myself must learn how to handle the young for their baptismal ceremony! You! Alciel! I wish to bring her up to Devil’s Castle! Bring some bedding out!”

“D-don’t you order
me
around, Crestia! Ow ow ow ow…”

Ashiya grumbled to himself as he painfully lurched up the stairs.

Following behind, Suzuno deftly removed her zori sandals at the base of the stairway, climbing up each dust-ridden step in her white
tabi
socks.

“Hey, you go up there, too, Emi! Why’d Suzuno take her sandals off? Bring them up to her!”

“Probably to keep from slipping, I’d guess! …Whoa! Bell! The bag!”

Grabbing the things she and Suzuno dropped when the Gate opened, Emi awkwardly climbed the stairs.

“That, and… Hey, Chi! Chi, what’s up? I haven’t seen… Huh?”

Maou, at this point, finally realized that neither Chiho nor her trademark panicky voice had played any role in this affair.

Looking around, he spotted her right where he had shaded her from the Gate’s light, staring into space in front of the tree.

“Uh…hello? Chi?”

Wild supernatural events like these shouldn’t have been enough to put Chiho in a stupor by this point.

Did the torrent of light from the Gate have some damaging effect on Chiho, totally unprotected against demonic or holy energy? The dreadful thought crossed Maou’s mind.

But, looking more closely, a twinge of red crossed her cheeks as a content smile spread across her lips. She was lost in reverie.

“Hey, Chi? Chi?”

“…We did it.”

“Huh?”

He brought his ear closer to pick up her whispering.

“Maou…
held
me. He went up and held me tight. Hee-hee! So tight…”

A hand went to her relieved, joyful lips as she whispered.

“Ahhhhhhh…” Maou groaned plaintively to himself. “Hey!”

“Agh!”

He had clapped his hands in front of her face, eliciting a shout.

“Please, Chi, back to reality!”

“Ahh! M-Maou! I, uh, I, that—!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to chat about it over coffee, okay? Let’s go back to Devil’s Castle!”

“Um? Ah, ah, ah! M-Maou! Hand, hand!”

Unwilling to wait out Chiho as she navigated the road back to reality within her brain, Maou grabbed her hand and ran up the stairs.

Everyone, including the apple girl, was now ensconced inside the Castle, each exhausted to the hilt for their own individual reasons.

With the apple girl to one side—sleeping peacefully on her back atop a limp blanket—the demons, non-Earth humans, and high school teen silently consumed their ice cream.

To be exact, Chiho more picked at her ice cream, her mind on other affairs. The other five were wolfing theirs down in a futile attempt to flee reality.

Emi was the first to finish her cup.

“Okay, well, I need to go, so—”

“
Wait
a sec!”

Maou grabbed her leg before she made it any closer to the door.

“Hey! Let go of me!”

She tried to shake him off. Suzuno pointed a finger in the air.

“Sshhh! You’re going to wake her, Emilia!”

Emi meekly sat back down, her face resigned.

“…Bell and I don’t have anything to do with this! You guys figure something out yourselves!”

“…Like hell it doesn’t! That baby girl made a total beeline for you!”

They kept their argument to a well-advised whisper.

The apple, back in pre-infant mode, had indeed all but called for Emi by name. Whether it was attracted by her holy energy or just
happened to be rolling in her direction was unclear, but considering she was drawn to Emi almost from the moment she drew her holy sword, the former reason was more likely.

“You have to take her with you! Or at least, like, stay here until we figure out what’s going on!”

“Forget it! You know what happens whenever you try to ensnare me in your crap? Nothing
good
, that’s what! I want out of here, as soon as I possibly can!”

“His hands… So
tight
…”

Chiho continued staring into space next to the raging feud.

“You think
I
like this, either? You, constantly butting into my daily life and making me solve all of your problems? I’m
sick
of it!”

“Well, you’re sure gonna have to do it now, aren’t you?”

“Like hell I am! You made that mess yourself, lady! And now I’m gonna make you
sleep
in it!”

“Stop being gross! I always live up to my promises! It’s not
my
fault if you keep pretending I promised you the world and a half!”

“Will you quit acting like—”

“Both of you, be quiet! You’re going to wake her up!”

Ashiya softly took them both to task. Their voices had gradually ratcheted up in volume as they quarreled.

“So tight… Maou’s hands… So big…”

“…What happened to Chiho, exactly?”

“She’s been that way ever since we all came in here.”

“Silence, Lucifer. Nobody asked you.”

Suzuno groaned as she placed a hand upon her temple. Outside of Ashiya and his attempts at defusing the situation, there was nobody she could rely on.

“This is all
your
fault for lighting that freaky fire anyway! You called her over here like all those customers when you put that dumb tree out at MgRonald!”

“How is
that
my fault?! And what’s the tree got to do with it?! You didn’t even know what a
mukaebi
was! What right do
you
have to whine at me? That stuff’s common knowledge in Japan! It’s got nothing to do with me!”

“Hah! I knew it! You really
did
summon her! Whatever fumes of demonic power you’ve got left must’ve reacted to another traditional Japanese ceremony!
You
brought her here;
you
take responsibility!”

“What the hell d’you mean by ‘fumes’?! I’ve got a
strategic reserve
, dammit! You could at least
try
to help out a little whenever trouble shows up!”

“Help out? As if I’ve never done
anything
for you before now?!”

“Well?
Have
you? ’Cause lately, it’s mostly been you stickin’ your neck in my business and gettin’ nailed to crosses and stuff!”

“What?!”

“You wanna go, or?!”

“Will the two of you shut
up
already?!”

Suzuno, no longer able to bear the vitriolic (if still markedly hushed) war of words between the Hero and Devil King, mercilessly aimed a Light of Iron attack upon both of their heads.

Ashiya and Urushihara had no way of stopping her.

“Agh! Wait! Sorry!”

“Hey, if you’re trying to be funny, then
rngh
!!”

The hammer hit more squarely upon the taller Maou’s forehead.

There wasn’t much strength behind it, but even a regular, nonmystic hammer could be a murder weapon in the right circumstances. Maou grimly stared at Suzuno, eyes welling up with tears.

“Nnnh… Aphh!”

Time stopped at the quiet yawn and the rustling of movement.

The apple girl sat up, yawning as she rubbed her eyes for a few moments. She looked around the room before her eyes settled upon Maou’s.

“Uh… Hey.”

Maou dared a greeting as his bleary eyes took in the scene.

“Oooo?”

It was hard to tell if his message came across, but she should have understood the nuance of it, at least.

“…Hell-oooo.”

He shouldn’t have worried. The girl’s voice was halting, but it was clearly the simple Japanese of a child—not the Japanese that Maou
and Emi relied upon their idea-link skills to cultivate when they first arrived here.

Maou, unable to understand how this girl from the Gate became so erudite in minutes, approached slowly, to keep from scaring her.

“Y-you can speak Japanese?”

“Mm, a li’l.”

“A little, huh? Hmm. I see.”

Maou nodded distractedly, then turned around, looking for someone, anyone, to step in. He was greeted with silent eyes from Emi, Suzuno, Ashiya, and Urushihara, all urging him to continue.

A bit frustrated by this, Maou drummed up some more courage and turned back toward the apple girl.

“So, uh, what are you?”

“Ooo?”

The apple girl looked back at Maou, bewildered, perhaps not understanding the question. Maou winced internally.

“No, uh…I mean, your name. What is, uh, your name?”

Maou recalled his work training, pretending the girl was just another precocious child at the counter next to Mom.

Now the girl’s eyes flickered thoughtfully. She yawned another little yawn before answering.

“Alas Ramus.”

“Alas Ramus?”

“Mm, Alas Ramus…
Bipf!
”

Another slight sneeze. Perhaps it served to wake her up; her half-opened eyes were now wide and clear as her head swiveled this way and that.

“Ah!”

Urushihara and the gang reared back at this sudden burst of activity, but Maou, a bit more used to unexpected behavior from customers’ children, successfully retained his composure.

It gave him his first chance to take a closer look at this girl calling herself Alas Ramus.

In human terms, she was no more than a year or two old. Her hair was silver, the rare sort that was light enough to reflect the sun’s
rays, but a single tuft of it was purple at the end, as if dyed. Her eyes shone violet as well.

Maou’s eyes turned toward the girl’s forehead for a moment, but nothing was on it any longer. Saving that concern for later, he tested out another question.

“So, Alas Ramus, where did you come from?”

“Mm, h…home?”

After a moment, she had responded with a question of her own, one patched together with a couple of indistinct words.

“Um… Oh, home? Well, yeah, I guess you did come from home…but… Like, where is your house?”

“Hou… House? Don’t know ‘house.’”

Maou scrutinized the questions in his head carefully.

“…Do you have a mother or father?”

“Mo…fa?”

Alas Ramus shook her head, confused. Either she didn’t know, or the words were too long for her.

“Well, I mean…uh, can you tell me about your mommy and daddy, Alas Ramus?”

This was a lost child, one who at least seemed human enough. It wasn’t much of a leap to ask about her parents.

“Daddy is…Satan.”

Assuming the answer was anything but
that
.

Maou immediately felt the eyes of everyone in the room fixed upon his back.

“I see, your daddy is Satan. …Wait.”

“Did she…”

“She just said…”

“‘Daddy is Satan’…”

“…Right?”

“M-Maou?!”

Chiho, lost in her own little world up to this point, quickly snapped back to reality, all but lunging toward Maou.

“You, you, you had a
child
, Maou?!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a sec, Chi!”

“Is…is it one of those things?! Did you have a wife and kids back when you were Devil King?!”

“No! Nothing! So just calm down for a bit! I’ve never had anything like that!”

“Is…is that true, Your Demonic Highness?!”

“Oh, come on, Ashiya! Don’t start on me, too!”

“My liege fathering a child out of wedlock would be earth-shattering news across the demon realms! She must be provided with the most gifted of tutors at once in order to prepare her for the throne! And yet you’ve kept this child from my knowledge for…well, obviously
months
, at least! What is the meaning of this?!”

“Wait! Why is everyone so freakin’ convinced that this is
my
girl?!”

“But, oh, what sort of devilish strumpet did you have liaisons with, Your Demonic Highness?! Our forces were mostly comprised of men, but did this saucy encounter occur before we invaded Ente Isla?!”

“No! I’m telling you, it’s not like that!! …Hang on.”

Near Maou’s hand, as he was interrogated in stereo by Chiho and Ashiya, the girl who called herself Alas Ramus climbed out from under her blanket.

“…Nff!”

Both hands clinging to the tatami mat floor, she scrunched her doe-eyed face courageously as she slowly, tentatively tottered up to her feet.

It became clear, if not particularly useful to know, that she was old enough to stand up by herself.

Swinging her arms and legs back and forth with all her might, Alas Ramus made an unbalanced dash across the several feet between her and Maou.

Everyone’s countenances softened a bit at her fervent efforts, but as their eyes followed her, Alas Ramus proceeded to grab Maou’s hand and bring it to her nose, as if smelling it.

“…Daddy.”

Then she beamed widely and hugged him.

It is difficult to portray in words the tension in the room at that moment.

Chiho’s and Ashiya’s faces clenched, mouths agape like a goldfish plucked out of its bowl. Urushihara fled to a corner of the room, hoping to avoid getting dragged into the mess any further. Emi and Suzuno stood blankly, unable to even process the event.

And it went without saying that Maou, the officially certified father of the child, was plunged into the deepest depths of internal chaos.

“W-wait! How come you’re so sure I’m your dad?!”