“So, the reason I waited here, Emi, is because I had another request.”
“…What are you going on about?”
After the all-but-final snub she gave her this morning, Emi was not expecting Suzuno to come begging to her yet again. In front of a total stranger, no less. She could tell Suzuno was up to something, but without knowing what, there wasn’t much way to combat her.
Trying to push Rika away at this point in the encounter would raise far too many suspicions. That was why Emi was a bit sharper than usual in her response a moment prior.
“…Oh, uh, sorry if I’m being a buttinsky or whatever. Should I get going?” Rika, at least, was a good enough friend to read the tea leaves for her. But Suzuno was too quick to respond.
“No, not at all. It is a simple enough request. I was hoping, Emi, that we could go and visit Sadao’s workplace together.”
“Sadao? Have I heard that name somewhere before?”
“No, really, what are you…?”
Suzuno was more than happy to blurt out Maou’s name in front of Rika. Now Emi knew what she wanted. But it was already too late.
“I want to see this man, this Sadao Maou, at work. I know you bade me not to approach him, but I am not the sort of woman to acquiesce so readily to that.”
“……”
Emi grabbed her head. The sheer arbitrary looniness of her vocabulary was what galled her the most.
Rika, suddenly finding herself an unwilling spectator to the verbal joust, butted in once more.
“Oh, right! Sadao Maou’s the guy you’re friends with, right?”
“See…? Now you’ve done it…” Emi groaned.
“You talked about him when you stayed at my place, remember? Ooh, this isn’t some kind of competition I’m listenin’ in on, is it?!”
“Rika, no, hang on a…”
On the face of it, that seemed the only logical interpretation. Two
women were at physical odds over the heart of one Sadao Maou. That was how
she
wanted to frame it.
Rika cracked a muddled smile as she waved her hands in front of her.
“Well, hang on, hang on! Listen, if you don’t mind me speaking up as a woman witnessing all of this…and I know I’m being a
total
buttinsky at this point…but something like this isn’t going to be solved by just one of you alone. So if you want to really nip this in the bud for good, then I think we need to get this Maou guy in the same room. And yes, I know it’ll be awkward at first, but it’ll save everyone a lot of grief later, you know?”
“No, Rika, it’s nothing like…”
Emi frantically tried to stop Rika’s bubbly imagination from fizzing over the lip.
“…Indeed. Perhaps you are correct.”
Suzuno smoothly turned the conversation back toward Rika, all too ready to consider her suggestion.
“Hey!”
“So where is he, huh?”
“I understand he works at the MgRonald in Hatagaya.”
“Heeeyyyyy!!!”
“Ah, chill out, Emi. Hatagaya’s right by here, isn’t it? Well, the sooner the better, I say!”
“I, I
am
chill! Rika, there’s really no need for…”
“It’ll be fine, okay? Just calm down. Remember, I’m on your side here!”
Yeah, maybe she
thinks
so. That’s the whole damn problem. Emi began to reconsider the value of having friends at all.
“Oh, and don’t you worry, either! A good judge needs to be fair and impartial, you know.”
Rika smiled at Suzuno. As if that girl needed any more goading.
Suzuno, the deceiver, and Rika, the deceived, warmly shook hands. A decent solution failed to find Emi’s brain.
“Hey, stop doing this without any input from me! I’m not going anywhere!”
It was her last resort. But the Japanese coworker and Ente Islan chief inquisitor in front of her chose, by coincidence, the same words to counter her, even though they had very different meanings behind them.
“…Are you sure?”
“…You are
sure
of that?”
There was a twinge of sadness to Rika’s eyes. There was a
mind if I continue steamrolling all over you?
leer to Suzuno’s. Total victory was hers.
“Nnnn…!”
She must have taken Emi’s groan as her admission.
“…Well! Shall we, then? I’ll step aside during the actual proceedings, of course. But now that I’m a total buttinsky, I gotta make up for it as much as I can, right? Besides, I’m an expert at this kinda thing.”
Rika began to walk on ahead.
Now that Rika’s back was turned, Emi flashed Suzuno the basest, most predatorial glare she could. In response, the normally calm and collected Suzuno crumpled her face a bit, as if silently apologizing to her.
“If I asked you to come along myself, I was afraid you would turn a deaf ear.”
“Come along for
what
?!”
Emi lashed out in a hissing whisper to keep Rika from listening in.
“Today, the Devil King is in a position to rule over other humans, no? In a small, infinitesimal way, yes, but…”
It was true. Emi remembered Maou’s pathetic bragging about being promoted to assistant manager.
“So what?!”
It was Saturday evening, but the sun was still high and the city filled with people. It was easy enough to keep their conversation away from Rika’s prying ears as they proceeded.
“So, I am concerned that you are undertaking your mission of slaying the Devil King in a rather…leisurely manner.”
Suzuno’s eyes were sharply pointed toward Rika’s back, looming ahead of them.
“He may seem harmless enough as he goes about his daily business, but once a Devil King, always a Devil King. Once he gains the power to lead and control humans, there is no telling how this leopard may change its spots. I want to avoid disaster before it happens, but I am all too aware that I, alone, am not up to the task.”
Emi wondered what kind of disaster Maou could engineer as a temporary overlord tyrant carrying out a reign of terror against a single MgRonald franchise. Having borne frequent witness to his work attitude, she knew Suzuno’s fears were beyond unfounded.
“I wished to avoid stoking the flames needlessly by taking action on my own, but I knew that if I simply asked you, Emi, you would rebuke me once more. So, I opted to take a different…”
“All right! I get it, I get it!”
Emi heaved a defeated sigh.
There was a time, not too long ago, when she was on pins and needles over when the Devil King might finally emerge from this namby-pamby burger-chef shell.
But now, although she wasn’t ready to forgive Maou for all his past atrocities, she was all but convinced that the demons of Devil’s Castle were harmless to Japan, as long as you didn’t prod them too much.
The idea of advocating for the Devil King still made her queasy, but perhaps watching Maou at work would help assuage some of Suzuno’s fears as well.
“And remember, you were attacked by a masked interloper just the other day. My mission does not end with the Devil King’s defeat—I must also bring you back to Ente Isla, so we may finally learn the truth. Working together will help dispel any doubts that linger in my mind…and, besides, I may even come to your aid if the need arises.”
Were it not for her Church duties, Suzuno would’ve made a killer saleswoman. Emi had to laugh at the full-court press she was delivering.
“Well, right now, the biggest issue is how we stop Rika from going all nuts like this.”
“Stop me from what?”
Rika turned around at the sound of her name.
“…Nothing. Sorry. Let’s get going. I want to get this over with.”
“Ooh,
someone
likes her chances!”
Nothing in the world is scarier than goodwill run amok.
Climbing up the stairs to the Keio New Line Hatagaya station exit, Rika took a good look around her, hand defiantly on hip.
“Well, we’re here…but the MgRonald’s looking pretty dead. Maybe now isn’t the right time for an intervention after all. If it ain’t busy in there, it’s gonna get reeeeeal awkward if this whole thing goes south. Having other people around helps keep things more restrained, you know?”
Perhaps Emi was overthinking it, but something in Rika’s cool, calculating analysis indicated that there was nothing she’d relish more than a total lack of restraint in upcoming events.
“We don’t want to mess up his work environment too much if it gets weird, either… Well, good thing there’s a packed Sentucky Fried Chicken just across the street. How ’bout we head there and formulate a plan first?”
“I know you’re loving every minute of this, Rika.”
The only choice left was going with the flow. Emi could, perhaps, use her holy power to control Rika’s mind from the rear. But she felt ashamed to take such drastic steps against a friend simply trying to help…no matter how far off the mark she was.
Taking a glance at the MgRonald, it was clear Rika was right. The place was far from crowded. If they stepped in right now, Maou and Chiho would no doubt be standing right at the counter, mouths agape.
“All right. First off, tell me a bit more about this Maou guy. Maybe that’ll give us a clue to solving this mess.”
How could it possibly do that? Especially given the roles of the
people involved. Emi couldn’t guess how Suzuno intended to explain her way around this.
Or did she seriously intend to lie about all this and claim she and Emi were in a knock-down, drag-out for Maou’s heart and soul?
Pushing the ponderous door open, the trio entered the lavishly decorated, three-story Sentucky Fried Chicken Hatagaya franchise. It was just as crowded as Rika described it. Emi hoped against hope there were no free seats left.
“Hello and welcome to SFC! We just had a table for four clear out. If you could just make your way to the register…”
The attending employee’s small gesture of kindness quashed the hope within ten seconds.
“Here. We have an easy-to-read menu available to peruse right here.”
The counter was a bit too cramped to have three people peer at the menu simultaneously, so the employee, short in stature and wearing a strikingly out-of-place pair of sunglasses, handed Suzuno and Emi an extra copy.
Emi accepted it without question, not that it was any easier to read than the menu sitting on the counter.
“I’ll have an iced coffee. How ’bout you two?”
“I think I shall order a maple cookie and iced tea value set. With milk, please.”
“…Iced coffee.”
“Sweet! I’ll cover it this time, okay? Oh, and that’ll be all for us.”
The pint-sized employee she spoke to nodded with a smile.
“Perfect. We will have that out in just a moment. If you’re interested, I have a grand-opening coupon here for you to use…”
Rika accepted the colorful flyer offered to her as she brusquely presented a one-thousand-yen bill.
“Right. We will begin preparing your order at once. I am sure our food and drink would be overjoyed at the thought of being consumed by such a beautiful trio of women. Let me give you your change.”
“Okay… Hyuh?”
Her attention turned toward the coupon, Rika extended a hand out without giving the employee a glance. The small grunt of surprise was the result of him cupping her hand before placing her change and receipt in it.
Instinctively, she shot a glance back at him. His back was already turned as he prepared their drinks on a tray, blissfully unaware of Rika’s response.
“Huh. One of those ‘hands-on’ customer service things, maybe?”
Thinking nothing particularly unusual about it, Rika turned her eyes back toward the coupon. After a few moments:
“Well, my apologies for making a group of fine women such as yourself wait for so long. Here is your order.”
It couldn’t have been longer than a minute’s wait, but Rika gave the employee a vague nod as she accepted the tray and met up with Emi and Suzuno downstairs.
“Man…It’s always men like that, you know? They act all nice, but take ’em out on a date, and
you’ll
wind up having to do all the heavy lifting. And that cologne, jeez!”
“Who’re you talking about?”
“Oh, no one in particular. Let’s go upstairs.”
Emi and Suzuno followed Rika back to the stairway. Rika gave a passing glance to the employee from before as she passed by, but he was already concealed by the line of customers who were waiting behind her.
“All right. Now that we’re all settled down, how ’bout we cover the events that led us to this point? This guy…Sadao Maou, right?”
Rika sat Emi and Suzuno down on the sofa side of the four-seat table the employee pointed out to her, then gave them both a serious look, like a judge calling court into session.
“I know you talked a little to me about him before, Emi, but I’d like to get both of your opinions here, while you’re together. How ’bout it?”
“Well, to me, he is the neighbor of the dwelling into which I recently moved…a kind one.”
Emi gave Suzuno a side glance. All gung-ho fervor about slaying the Devil King just a moment ago, and now she was back to
this
.
“And to me, if it were possible, I’d like to kill him right now.”
Emi wasn’t lying about it, but Rika hardly took her words literally.
“Ooh, kind of a big difference of opinion, huh? Sounds like you’re hiding something here, Emi.”
Emi, intending to hide nothing at all, glowered in surprise.
“Listen, Rika, I should really make this clear: There is nothing at all between Maou and me. I don’t want her getting involved with him for completely different reasons. It’s not like we’re fighting over his love or anything.”
“Oh, really? But when you stayed over with me, didn’t you say something about how ‘Maou is all mine’ or something?”
“I did
not
! Quit putting words in my mouth!”
Two months ago, Emi stayed overnight at Rika’s apartment following the tunnel collapse. When the topic turned to Maou, whom Rika spied with Emi at the disaster site, Emi didn’t recall saying anything further than “we just came to know each other, we aren’t even acquaintances, someday I’m gonna give him what he deserves,” etc., etc.
“Besides, why are you so hell-bent on matching me and Maou together anyway? Just thinking about the idea makes me sick! Hanging out with that cruel, wicked, stubborn, thoughtless, bummy freak, someone who thinks he did you a favor just because he lent you a piece-of-crap umbrella…” When it came to criticizing Maou, Emi was full of material to bring up.