Free The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 5 by Satoshi Wagahara Page B

his purloined ice cream bar, tossing it into a side wastebasket.
    “That box is for plastic. The regular trash can’s next to the fridge.”
    “Oh, who are you, the Grand Pooh-Bah himself? Come onnn…”
    “No! No ‘come
onnnnn
’!
I’m
the one he’s gonna yell at, all right? Just go away! You’re driving me crazy! Why are you even
here
?”
    Even Urushihara was nearing his limit now, no longer bothering to hide his irritation.
    “Y’knowww…”
    “What?!”
    “You were the golden child. The archangel closest to Mr. Big himself. And now you’re griping and moaning about some bozo getting angry at you? Now
that’s
rich. And you actually care about separating the garbage. This’s too surreal. I can’t even find it in me to laugh.”
    Gabriel knew exactly what he was going to do with this topic.
    But Urushihara betrayed no sign that it riled him any more than he already was. “Yeah, sorry. That was then, this is now. ’Sides, you were the one who talked about how important image is to us. If you’re gonna call yourself an angel, you could at least try to recycle.”
    Urushihara sniffed derisively and focused his attention back on his screen.
    Gabriel paid it no mind.
    “Why’re you even with that young demon wannabe anyway? I mean, I know everybody’s saying how much of a wimp you are right now compared to your glory days, but I kinda wasn’t around for those, you know? So I’m just wondering, what were you thinking? Like, sue me for asking, but what drove you to shack up with the demons over in their world…?”
    “It’s ’cause I was bored.”
    “Bored?”
    There was a chuckle lodged in the response.
    “Yeah. And it’s fun here.”
    “Fun? Sitting in this sweat lodge, watching Web videos, cowering in fear that your new lord’s gonna chew you out for tossing a bottle in the wrong bin? Not to rub it in, bro, but I’d take the Internet café
I’m
staying in any day over this pigsty.”
    “It’s fun. And at least it’s not—”
    “Whoa there, tiger! No making fun of Internet cafés.”
    Urushihara’s purple eyes made their way through the overgrown hair covering his forehead on their way to staring Gabriel down.
    “At least it beats staying up
there
. Staring into space for hours on end until it finally drives you insane.”
    “Yeaaah, and your little escape’s
kiiiind
of becoming a huge pain in the neck for me.”
    “Helps pass the time, right?”
    Gabriel declined to answer. A huddled mass of cicadas swarmed around the trees in the backyard, making the heat and humidity feel even worse with their incessant cries.
    “I hung out with Satan ’cause I had nothing to do, dude. I was so devoid of anything to occupy me that it was freaking me out. No other reason besides that. So, we done here? If that’s all you needed, the door’s that-a-way.”
    “Ah,
there
he is!”
    “Uh?”
    Just as he was about to shoo him outside, Gabriel stopped him cold.
    “I slogged my sorry hide all the way down to beautiful sun-soaked Sasazuka because I wanted to ask about that Satan guy.”
    “So? Ask him about himself. It’s not like Maou’s out on a trip or anything. He’s somewhere in Shinjuku.”
    “Ahh, but he’s not gonna tell me anything
now
, is he? Plus, he’s still pretty young, yeah? Not like you. I just thought asking the likes of
you
would save us all a lot of headache.”
    This manner of coercion was familiar to Urushihara. He had heard enough of it up in heaven.
    “Plus, the way I see it, instead of asking someone with nothing but secondhand knowledge, asking someone who knows the guy directly would give me much more accurate intel to work with, am I right?”
    “Huh?”
    This made little sense. Sadao Maou was the Devil King Satan himself. There was nothing secondhand about him.
    Gabriel wagged a chiding finger at Urushihara.



“What I’m trying to
tell
you, Lucifer, is I’m talking about someone
else
. The ‘Satan’ that
you
were playing around with. Not the