Work Text:
The Hero of Ente Isla, slayer of evil hordes, stood in a tiny food stall shoulder to shoulder with her one-time nemesis the Demon King. The food stall that the legendary figures occupied was one in a long line sprawled across the temple grounds. The sun was starting to drop lower in the sky, casting a pink hue on the clouds above. Neither that nor the late cool of an autumn afternoon did much to relieve her from the sweltering heat inside their cramped space. The heat from the grill radiated onto their faces and prickled Emi’s hands.
Around her, the bustle and chatter of festival goers blended into a low white noise. Emi continued to wordlessly flip the finished taiyaki, golden brown, out of the molds with a cold efficiency of movement and a stone-faced expression. The only sound in the booth was a quiet sizzle as fresh pancake batter hit the steel molds.
Emi held a metal funnel filled with pancake batter that she clicked with perfunctory preciseness, dispensing the perfect amount of batter up and down the rows of fish shaped molds, which were hinged in the middle like a book. After putting the cone aside, she picked up a pastry bag.
Maou looked at her askance, “If you didn’t want to help out, then you didn’t have to come.” He scoffed. “Wasn’t like I was twisting your arm about it or anything.”
Emi started, broken out of her ruminations, and looked indignant. “Well no, it’s not that! It wasn’t like I didn’t want to help out after you said Watanabe-san needed help with the neighborhood association’s booth.” She said tersely, squeezing out a line of red bean paste in the center of each pancake. “Even Urushihara is doing his fair share, so how could I miss a shift?”
“Well then what’s your problem?” the Lord of Demons inquired.
“There’s no problem,” the Hero of Humanity replied, “I’m just thinking.”
Maou shrugged, unwillingly to pry any further or indifferent. She closed the mold and waited for the beep of the kitchen timer to alert her that they were done. It was just like the timer at MgRonald’s for their fries, she thought. The monotonous rhythm of cooking was soothing to her for all her current feelings. The alarm beeped and she opened up the mold and flipped out the sweet fish-shaped pancakes into a steel tray lined with wax paper, where they were waiting for Maou to scoop them up and deliver them to festival patrons.
The final battle was soon to come, she thought to herself. More surprising to her was that despite the odds being so overwhelmingly stacked against them she wasn’t thinking about what would happen if they lost. That was not a mystery.
She looked up from her post in the food stall and out to the throngs of people flowing by them. It was so much more crowded than Ente Isla and yet, even demon invasions aside, still the more peaceful. Thinking about leaving it was--
“Oi, 3 more taiyaki,” Maou grumbled.
“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, turning out the mold. Maou picked out the hot pastries using a pair of tongs and scooped them into paper bags, delivering them into the hands of festival goers with hungry eyes. The rush of customers dispersed and they found the booth quiet again. Emi turned to him. “What are you going to do if we win?”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about, huh?” Maou snorted. “I’ve been sort of preoccupied with surviving up until that point, so,” he said, scratching the back of his neck and turning away, “I hadn’t really given it much thought.”
Emi’s eyes widened. “Really? But aren’t you, you know—”
“—an evil mastermind?” Maou laughed. “Yes, please tell everyone you know that all my dark machinations are —Oh, uh, hello, sir, how many?”
He turned to Emi and held up a single finger as he took the older man’s 100 yen coin and safely ensconced it away in the shop lockbox. Handing it over, he gave a slight bow. “Thank you very much.”
Emi continued to work steadily, her hands never stopping for a moment. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“Should I feel flattered that you value my opinion so highly?”
“Ugh, that’s not it, it’s—”
At that moment, the tarp at the back of the store fluttered and Urushihara stepped through, carrying a box of flour, bean paste, and cellophane paper bags. His expression was weary and flat. “The only plus of this forced manual labor is that I don’t have to listen to your bickering.”
“Thanks,” Emi said, deciding, out of spite, to reserve all her bile for the Demon Lord instead of his General. “Hope it’s not too cold out there.”
Raising an eyebrow, Urushihara said, “Suspicious.”
“Nice of you to come and swap jobs with me, Urushihara,” Maou smirked.
“No way, dude, don’t think about pulling rank now,” he said, and walked off as soon as he had came.
“Oh come on!” Maou sighed. “Not cool!” Throwing his hands up in resignation, he moved to the back of the shop and glumly started sorting through the materials.
He turned back to Emi, who had her hand on her hip. “Look, I’m trying to be serious here.”
Maou gave her a flat stare. “Exactly why I want to avoid this conversation. The last thing I need is for you to have some sort of malfunction while we’re trying to work, ya know?”
She clipped her words. “I think I’ll be giving Alas=Ramus the free taiyaki from your shift.”
Maou reddened, saying, “Hey, that’s not your call! I want at least one.”
At that moment, another visitor to the booth rang the bell for service—this time a familiar face.
“Ashiya! Please save me.”
The demon general smiled serenely, and said, “Sire, I have no doubt in your abilities when it comes to enduring against all odds. 6 taiyaki, please.”
“Disloyal, the lot of you,” Maou said, handing over the sweets, and watching the customers queue up as their conversation continued.
“Nay, your Majesty,” Ashiya replied, shaking his head, “I am merely executing my duties now as assigned since I have been trusted with Alas=Ramus as my ward. Following all those women around at the festival is not a task to be taken lightly. Watanabe-dono was saying there was a pickpocket afoot; they’ve already called for assistance.”
Ashiya nodded sagely and then in a surprising burst of emotion added, ”Worse yet, the hooligan schoolchildren that I’ve encountered here! Did you know they called me a ‘boomer’?” He took a large bite out of his taiyaki. “It sounded pejorative.”
At this, Ashiya squared his shoulders and finished, “Never fear, Sire, for I, Alciel, will faithfully complete my duties AND stay within budget.” He turned and stalked off to find the others, and had he been wearing a cape, surely would’ve given it a flourish.
“… okay, bye, nice talking to you,” Emi waved, and gave a tight grin to the next customer, a short older woman whose grey hair was tightly wrapped into a bun. She toddled to the register and opened up her wallet flat on the counter, picking out a 100 yen coin.
“One, please, sonny.”
“Coming right up, ma’am.”
They heard another clatter as a group of high school teenagers pushed through the crowd, complaining loudly— that it was too crowded, too boring. Their hair styles and outfits outed them as bike gang members. Maou carefully avoided eye contact and hoped that the group wouldn’t head towards their booth. The delinquent was making such a racket, that, were they not two legendary battle-scarred warriors, they probably would’ve missed the set of hands reaching towards the wallet at the front of the booth.
“Hey!” Emi cried, and pointed. “Thief!”
The pickpocket, another young boy, eyes wide, still had his hands firmly on the wallet. Maou dove, but couldn’t grab hold of it before the kid fell backward out of his reach, turning and sprinting away through the crowd.
“Oh my! My knitting coupons!”
Emi bounded out the back of the stand. Maou took a couple seconds to turn off the grills and throw all the taiyaki out into the serving trays. Ducking under the front of the stand, he turned to the grandmotherly woman before dashing off. “Uh, we’ll be right back, Ma’am! This one is on the house!”
The sun had fully set now and as Maou sprinted through the festival, the lamplights flickered on, casting their warm light across the stone floor. It didn’t take him long to see Emi’s bright hair weaving through the crowd. He could faintly see a clearing up ahead and he willed his legs to move faster through the number of people that seemed to be getting ever denser and more difficult to move through.
“Emi!” he called, catching up to her. Just then, they burst into the clearing— a festival dance performance. All eyes on the crowd turned to them, including—
“Mama! Papa!” Alas=Ramus said, cheerily, bouncing in Suzuno’s arms as she and Chiho, decked out in yukata, stood watching the dance. The latter two had their mouths agape, shocked, Chiho frozen in mid-candy apple bite. “Oh, nice look, Chi!” Maou gave a thumbs up as he ran off.
“Um, bye Alas!… Sorry!” Emi reddened as she dashed through, trying to dodge limbs as the dancers pretended that nothing of note was going on.
They reached the edge of the crowd and kept on running, barely seeing a figure in the distance, and they continued deeper into the shrine grounds and the temple at the top of the hill. Their quarry ran up the stairs, the bustle and noise of the festival fell away, replaced with the sounds of nature and empty wind. Even the lights that were brightly shining down below were few and far between here, and it became difficult to see anything but a faint outline in the dim.
“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh,” Emi grumbled.
Willing just the tiniest amount of holy magic, Emi felt her fatigue fade away as she sprinted up the stairs. Maou sensed the increase in her pace and saw her pull away, “No fair,” he grumbled, in a tone a little too petulant for a demon king. “This is all cardio training on my bike, lemme tell you.”
Flying past him, Emi tackled the pickpocket and caught the edge of his ankle. Both fell to the floor and the wallet away from him. Maou picked it up. “Hey, all proceeds go to the shrine and neighborhood sponsors! If you need help, just ask. But taking what’s not yours is a recipe for disaster, let me tell you.” The pickpocket froze for a brief second, and then ran for the hills.
Just as Emi tensed and readied herself for another sprint, she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Eh, let him go,” Maou said. “I’d like to think he learned his lesson.” Down below, the crowd began to cheer. “Plus,” he continued, holding out the wallet to her. “I do think the Hero needs to collect the spoils of victory.”
At that moment, fireworks bloomed in bright golds and reds across the sky. The cheers became even louder.
Emi snatched the wallet out of his hand. “You recognize when I’ve won, this time at least.”
Maou shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far.” He started turned back towards the grounds below, interlacing his hands behind his neck. “But you know, you do a pretty good job when you just listen to your intuition. Don’t overthink it.”
The Hero laughed. “Sounds like something a demon would say. ‘Just do whatever you want, who cares.’”
Maou began walking away. “Come on, we’ve been away from the stand too long.”
Emi smiled. With the recovered wallet in hand, they started the long walk back to return what was lost.