Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

<Angels and Demons>

I walked alone down a residential street in a silent world devoid of people, where nothing moved except for me. It felt like exploring a haunted house.

The day before, Ms. Futarishizuka and the magical girl had been with me. This time, though, I was taking a solitary stroll. Belatedly, I realized how reassuring it had been to have the two of them around. If only I could get in contact with Peeps, I thought in spite of myself.

Last time, a strange boy had attacked Takayoshi and Naomi. I began mentally putting together a game plan in case I encountered him again.

“……”

I was fairly certain his physical abilities far outstripped my own. Plus, he could fly. It all came down to how strong my barrier spell was—but if he was to get in close, and my barrier failed, he’d kill me instantly. A single punch to my gut would send my organs flying, and it’d be all over.

With that in mind, I forbid myself from challenging him directly. He was the type of opponent I had to settle things with strictly through negotiation.

I wondered how Peeps would handle it. Unfortunately, that was only a passing thought, and it didn’t help me at all. He’s the Starsage, after all. He’s amazing—he could take just about anything head-on.

“…I can’t afford to be reckless,” I told myself. Finding the cause of all this was a problem best left for later.

I’m too scared. I don’t want to die. This is exactly the kind of situation where I’m supposed to request backup from the bureau. Strength in numbers—ah, what a wonderful phrase. I truly wished I could always outnumber my foes.

That meant my only course of action was to wait quietly until, like the day before, this empty world came to an end. I didn’t know how the phenomenon was created, but based on my previous experience, it didn’t seem to last forever. I’d need to prepare myself to survive at any cost—even if it meant eating the flesh of the dead.

When I returned to the real world previously, time had reverted. It seemed likely that even if I grew old in this world, I’d be back to normal when I returned.

According to what Peeps had told me before, by the otherworld’s standards, I was an elite version of a human. My life span was apparently longer than a normal person’s, and with healing magic, I could probably manage to survive for a few decades here.

With all that in mind, I decided on my primary goal: doing whatever it took to avoid dying. Mentally, I felt like a passenger who had survived a shipwreck and drifted to a deserted island.

But just as I was desperately trying to cheer up my near-shattered spirit, I heard an unfamiliar voice call out, “Eriel, reveal thyself!”

Being on a small road in a residential area with lots of houses, there were plenty of places for someone to hide. Frantically, I looked around. Eventually, I spotted two people on the roof of a nearby house.

“I don’t see any demons around. Be careful!”

“I shall.”

One of them was a young man who looked like a teenager. He wore cargo pants and a parka. His black hair was a little long, parted in the center in a bowl cut. If he wasn’t wearing a school uniform at this hour, maybe that meant he’d already graduated and was employed. Actually, wait. It was possible he’d changed to conceal his identity.

The other person had wings growing out of her back. She had such fair skin she couldn’t have been Asian, and her hair was blond. She reminded me of the man in angel cosplay from last time, but this one appeared to be female. She was shorter than the boy but a little taller than Ms. Futarishizuka. The rest of her was basically in line with her height.

As soon as I noticed them, they moved, floating up into the air and coming down to the ground in front of me.

“Eriel,” asked the boy, “what’s a Disciple doing walking around on his own like that?”

“He may have been fragmented from his demon,” responded the angel. “It’s a common occurrence.”

“Does that mean he’s someone even we would be able to beat?”

“Yes. It is possible.”

The boy and the angel were discussing something I really didn’t like the sound of. Apparently, they were mistaking me for something called a Disciple. Was I going to be dragged into a fight over a misunderstanding? You’ve gotta be kidding. What’s a Disciple anyway? Didn’t Takayoshi and Naomi say something like that last time, too?

“Hold up,” commented the boy. “Isn’t this guy a little old to be a Disciple?”

“I cannot hazard a guess as to what the demons are thinking.”

“Well, this is a lucky break. Let me score a win here for once, Eriel. If we contact the main force, they’re sure to steal my kill. And I’m too much of a small fry to ever get my wish granted otherwise.”

“Understood. Eliminating the target Disciple.” The angel squared up to me.

We just met, and they’re already ready to fight? “Hold on a second,” I said. “Are you mixing me up with someone else?”

“The words of a demon reach not my angelic ears,” said the girl with the wings, flying at me in a straight line at low altitude as if using flight magic.

But was she stronger than an elite orc or weaker? If she was stronger, even Peeps’s barrier spell might not hold. Afraid to confirm the angel’s specs for real, I immediately put an attack spell on standby. Combined with my healing spell, I could take out a leg or two and then heal it up right away.

That was my excuse anyway as I fired a lightning spell at her right leg.

Thunder cracked through our surroundings, and in the same moment, the angel crashed to the ground. The leg I’d shot was completely gone from the thigh down.

She tumbled across the asphalt like a pedestrian hit by a car, veering off to the side. Eventually, she collided with a block fence facing the road and stopped. Blood spurted out from her wound, staining the road red—it was quite a grotesque sight.

“E-Eriel?!” cried out the boy as he saw the angel fall.

As the perpetrator, the bitter grief in his voice stung my heart. After all, the angel girl appeared to be very young—late elementary school or possibly middle school. What she didn’t appear to be, though, was a normal person, so I hesitated to run over to her. The same went for casting healing magic. First I wanted to find out who these people were.

“I’m sorry, but could you let me explain for a moment?” I asked, taking a step toward the boy.

“Ugh… S-stay away!” he shouted in response. His eyes were wide with shock as he stared at me. “An angel would never lose to a Disciple! What the hell are you, old man?!”

“Could you possibly tell me what a Disciple is?” I asked.

“Wh-what? You’re a demon’s Disciple, aren’t you? What are you going on about?”

Angels, demons, Disciples, and isolated spaces—all key words I’d learned in this deserted world. At the moment, I still believed they stemmed from that strange boy’s psychic power. But if that was the case, the terminology seemed unusually standardized. And now a third party was dishing out the very same words. Maybe the strange boy’s power was able to create some kind of miniature world with its own rules.

“What group of psychics do you belong to?” I asked. “You’re not with the bureau, right?”

“Psychics? What the hell are you talking about, old man? Are you senile or something?”

“No, I assure you…”

I’d thought for sure that psychic would be a shared term between us. But the boy didn’t seem like he was lying. After mulling it over for a few moments, I suddenly had a realization.

Maybe this empty world was like the others—the fairy world the magical girl had contact with and the otherworld Peeps was from. They were strange, fantastical worlds, each with its own set of rules that differentiated it from modern Japan. Could this world be the same?

If it was, I could understand this young man not knowing what I meant by the term psychic. But this was still something of a leap, so I hesitated to make that call right now. I needed to get a little more information out of him first.

“I’d like to know more about these angels, demons, and Disciples,” I said.

“…Stalling for time? What, was that the only card in your hand?”

“If you answer my question, I’ll heal her wounds,” I explained, glancing over at the angel. However, her leg had already begun to heal on its own. With a sizzling noise, it was slowly morphing back into its original form, the bones lengthening and the skin growing. I could probably leave her alone, and she’d fully regenerate.

Should I have been upset this frustrated my attempt at negotiation—or relieved that I hadn’t inflicted too serious an injury on the little girl? Since they seemed convinced I was an enemy, I felt a little of both.

“Hey,” said the boy. “You wouldn’t happen to be Abaddon’s Disciple, would you?”

“Abaddon?” I repeated. “I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard of a person or a group with that name.”

“For real?”

“Yes, for real.”

As I turned to check on the angel’s condition, she moved. Raising her upper body, she kicked off the ground and into the air. In the blink of an eye, she was next to the boy again.

“A Disciple’s power is proportional to that of their demon partner,” she said to him. “There is a very low chance this Disciple’s demon has been felled. We must vacate this place immediately and inform the main force that there is another as powerful as Abaddon.”

“Guess running’s the only option, huh?” he remarked.

“I cannot handle this Disciple on my own.”

The girl stood in front of him, protecting her leg, which still wasn’t fully healed. Very courageous of her. Her dedication certainly fit the whole “angel” vibe.

“You can’t even beat a Disciple, huh?” said the boy. “You must be the weakest one out there, Eriel.”

“…I sincerely apologize,” she said.

“But I still love you anyway.”

“……”

Was it just me or was this turning into some strange romantic comedy? I felt a little jealous despite myself. I wish I’d had that kind of romance when I was young.

“Anyway,” the boy addressed me, “could you maybe let us go?”

“I would be fine with that,” I replied, “but in exchange, I’d like you to tell me something.”

“…Huh? Really?”

“I’ve figured out that angels and demons are getting people called Disciples mixed up in some sort of battle. So this empty world is like a battlefield for them, right? If that’s correct, I want to know what causes this world to appear.”

“……”

Angels and demons. My question was predicated on this being a third world, in addition to the otherworld and the fairy world.

The boy made a dubious expression and fell silent for ten or twenty seconds. Eventually, he came back with a more honest answer than I’d anticipated. “It appears when at least ten angels and demons enter a specific area.”

“I see. So that’s how it’s set up.”

In that case, the magical girl, Ms. Futarishizuka, and I had accidentally run into just such a situation. And through the coincidental use of our respective barrier magic, we’d ended up in this empty world—this isolated space—or something along those lines.

Actually, maybe that wasn’t the right way to put it. This battle between the angels and demons was supposed to be happening in secret. So it was more like we’d unintentionally resisted their efforts to cover everything up. The boy’s shock at my presence made sense in that context. Normally, only angels, demons, and the people they called Disciples were supposed to know about this world.

“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve helped me understand a little better.”

“…Anyway,” said the boy, “we’re going to head off, okay?”

“Yes, please do. And be careful.”

Considering I’d encountered this phenomenon twice already in the same neighborhood, did this mean the area had become a hot spot in the war between angels and demons? I could easily see myself getting punted into this world over and over again if I overused my barrier magic.

“D-don’t shoot us in the back, got it?” warned the boy.

“I’d never do that. Don’t worry.”

But in that case, how was I supposed to report it to the section chief? If I went about it the wrong way, it was very possible he wouldn’t believe me. If I hadn’t visited the world personally, I wouldn’t have believed it, either. If I brought up the existence of magical girls, would he believe me then? Or I could simply keep silent about it.

“Eriel!” called the boy.

“Withdrawing from the area,” replied the angel.

The two of them floated up above the asphalt, just as they’d floated down when they first saw me. They seemed to possess strange abilities similar to psychic powers, the otherworld’s magic, and the magical girls’ magical whatevers. I would have liked to find out about that as well, but I hadn’t bothered to, since I really doubted they’d be forthcoming.

And so this magical middle-aged man simply watched as they flew off.

(The Neighbor’s POV)

Today, Abaddon and I are being targeted by a legion of angels.

The isolated space appears after classes are over. I’ve had to deal with some minor tasks from my homeroom teacher, and I’m getting ready to head home. It happens after I finish working in another room and head back to the classroom to get my things; as I’m walking through the hallway, all the sound around me stops.

“Abaddon?” I say.

“Ooh,” comes the answer. “It seems an angel’s Disciple has arrived.”

Abaddon floats next to me. He’s always nearby, from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, and he very rarely strays from my side.

“It’s a little cramped in here,” he continues. “Why don’t we head out to the schoolyard?”

“All right.”

Leaving my things in the classroom, I run down the hallway. My gait is steady. Abaddon has given me the power to interfere with a person’s life force, and using it lets me resist my hunger. My main sources of nutrients are my mother and the men she brings home. I’ve practiced it over the past few days, and now I can absorb just enough life force to make them dizzy but not make them pass out. My chastity is now safe and sound.

This stroke of luck has led to an improvement in my health, and now I’m physically feeling great. I run down the stairs, change into my outdoor shoes at the entrance, and rush outside. Looking up, I can see the near-blinding evening sun in the sky.

“Such a pretty sunset, isn’t it? Wish I could stare at it until night comes.”

“So even demons think things like that, huh?”

Until a few moments ago, I could clearly feel an angel’s presence. But now that I’m outside, I can’t sense it at all. They must have completely concealed their presence. Had they come here by chance, or was it intentional? I’m not sure. If it was intentional, this might be a trap.

Abaddon, on the other hand, is the same as always, masking his presence only partially. This is how he likes it—he wants to take the initiative and hunt the angels’ Disciples down. They probably sense him as a middle-of-the-road demon, not too powerful.

“You know,” he remarks, “when I was an angel, I would admire the flowers and sing to the skies, too.”

“I’d have expected you to be pouring water down ant nests.”

“Hey, that’s your hobby. I wish you wouldn’t project your weirdness onto me.”

“…No, it isn’t.”

I sort of remember doing something like that back in elementary school. I avert my gaze as I recall this. But I certainly don’t remember doing it enough times to consider it a hobby. Maybe a few times at most.

“In any case, it looks like we need to get down to business. They’ve located us.”

“……”

I follow Abbadon’s gaze toward the sky, where some humanoid figures come into view. They’re flying straight toward us from outside the school’s front gate. A good number of them have wings; I can see their blond hair glistening in the sunlight even from this distance. There’s little doubt they’re the angels who’ve come to crush us.

And there are a lot this time. A quick glance shows twenty or thirty of them. Plus, where angels go, their Disciples are sure to follow—they’re probably moving along the ground, out of sight. The Disciples probably had escorts, too, which meant the total number of angels was even higher.

“They’ve brought a lot of friends,” I said. “Will you be all right?”

“We probably missed shooting one of them down last time.”

“Wait, are you criticizing me right now?”

After the previous incident, Abaddon told me he’d defeated every last enemy. Even if we’d let one escape, that was less my fault and more the result of our opponent’s ingenuity, right? I wasn’t there, though, so I couldn’t say much for sure.

“No, I’m only stating the facts. They must have had buddies.”

“…I see.”

“Even I didn’t expect them to come at us with such a huge group this soon, though,” says Abaddon—sounding weak-spirited all of a sudden. I haven’t been with him very long, but he always has this aura of supreme confidence about him whatever he does, so his comment surprises me. It must be the first time I’ve heard him say something like that.

That must mean we’re in big trouble.

In the meantime, our opponents continue closing the distance.

“Should we flee?” I ask.

“That is one option,” he says. “But even if we decide on that, I’d like to try to wipe them out first. I think keeping them in check whenever we bump into them is for the best—we don’t want their momentum to snowball too much, after all.”

“Will that even work?”

“I wish you’d trust me a little more.”

“…All right.”

Right now, my life is what’s most important. Apparently, this game’s playtime is on the order of years, if not decades. Abbadon hadn’t said it this way, but if fleeing now gave the angels an advantage on the whole, while we might escape today, it could lead to prolonged difficulty in the future.

On the other hand, if we were able to defeat this many angels, we would be safe and secure for a while. The fact that I’m calculating risks like this is probably why this proxy war is called a death game. I feel like a piece on a shogi board or something.

“In that case,” I say, “please take them on with everything you have.”

“May I ask for your command like last time?”

My command—the magic words that will allow him to assume his true form. Once again, I say the phrase he taught me. “Abaddon, please reveal thyself this instant.”

“Okay! Just leave it to me!”

In response to my words, his body begins to change. His human form melts away, balling up into a fleshy, writhing mass. By some mechanism, that mass immediately expands, growing much larger. All the clothes and accessories he’d been wearing are swallowed up into it. Within moments, he’s about the size of a car—and he’s still pulsating, as though he’s going to grow even larger.

The enemies all visibly react to Abaddon’s metamorphosis. Things I assume to be magic circles appear in front of the airborne angels. Wondering what’s going on, I look closer. Countless geometric shapes come together into a pure-white circle, which then begins to glow as brilliantly as the sun.

I don’t need an explanation to know I’m in a very dangerous spot. A beam or a laser or something is about to fire out of the middle of that circle, isn’t it? I think to myself.

“Stay right where you are for now!” Abaddon calls out.

I nod, and a moment later, my whole world is blocked out by the white radiance.

At the last moment, my partner bounces into my field of vision. I shut my eyes against the painful amount of light.

“Ugh…” I feel an overwhelming desire to crumple to the ground, but I endure, my legs shaking. If I fell here, I’d never hear the end of it from Abaddon.

The glow on the other side of my eyelids begins to recede after a few seconds. Nervously, I open my eyes and see a massive hole gouged into the surrounding schoolyard, covering everything but the area behind us. It’s like the ground has caved in. Over half the campus has transformed into a bottomless pit.

The only platform left measures two or three meters across the flat part. It feels like standing on the edge of a cliff. Abaddon must have used some sort of barrier to protect me.

“My turn now!”

Without wasting a moment, the mass of flesh shoots forward. It hurtles through the air toward the group of floating angels, who scatter like baby spiders. A few are late to react, and they end up tangled in the enlarged flesh.

I’ve seen this before. The flesh stretches, growing thin before swallowing up the angels whole. It’s like watching someone make a giant sweet bun. Then, the horrible snapping noises reach my ears. “Agh…”

A few of the angels who escaped now turn toward me and prepare themselves. One of them in particular carries an ax and looks quite capable in close-quarters combat. That’s the one who charges at me. He’s a large man with rippling muscles and a handsome face, like an actor in an action movie. He swings his ax high above his head, aiming for my neck.

Disciples can’t hope to match the power of angels or demons. He’s not an opponent I can handle. Instead, I do as Abaddon told me and stand perfectly still.

Then, a piece of flesh splits off from Abbadon’s main body and descends toward me, stopping the angel’s weapon. A moment later, it spreads out and opens up, trying to engulf the opponent just as before. In response, the angel immediately releases his ax and jumps backward. He doesn’t need more than a few seconds to rejoin the rest of his group waiting behind him.

“They have a seraphim with them?” comes Abaddon’s voice from inside the smaller chunk of flesh—the one that stopped the ax. It’s unsettling how his voice remains the same even in this form. “Ugh, what a pain…”

“Does it look like you can safely win?” I ask him.

“I’m thinking I’ll whittle down the numbers of lower-ranking angels, then we’ll get out of here.”

“Understood.”

Ever since I got mixed up in this proxy war between angels and demons, I’ve been proactively gathering what knowledge I can about it. My main sources of information are the school library and the computer room. I frequent them during lunch break and after school.

If the information I’ve gleaned from books and the internet is correct, seraphim are a very high order of angels. Several sources mention that the more powerful boss demons had originally held the rank of seraphim.

In other words, some of the enemies before us are the kind we can’t afford to underestimate.

For a short while after the girl angel named Eriel and the young man with her left, I tried to come up with some way to return to the real world, wandering the streets of this one like a stray. I walked aimlessly for the most part, wherever my mood directed me. At first, the deathly silent streets had been a new and fascinating sight. But after looking at it for so long, I started to get sick of it.

Eventually, I heard a very loud rumbling.

“……”

Since there was no other sound here, it rang very clearly in my ears. I could even pick out exactly what direction it had come from. Now that I’d learned how this world had been produced, I immediately had an idea of what was making the noise—a battle between angels, demons, and the people they called Disciples. I found it easy to imagine the sight of a whole bunch of them having a big, flashy battle.

And that was exactly why I hesitated to get closer to the source of the noise.

Unfortunately, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t become a threat sometime in the future. Currently, I knew more about them than they did about me, and learning more ahead of time would work to my advantage if the bureau was ever forced to interact with them. Including, for example, in cases like these.

And if the section chief caught on to their existence, I wanted to stay in an advantageous position. I’d already been made painfully aware of how important that was through my dealings in the otherworld.

“…Guess I’ll go,” I said to myself.

Maybe it would be okay to watch from afar. Depending on what happened, if I was able to figure out the conditions to return to the real world, I could negotiate to have them let me return in one piece. The glimpses I’d had of this world had made it seem pretty barbarous, so I very much wanted to excuse myself as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, I decided to head toward the source of the sound. I didn’t fly there, hoping to avoid someone shooting me down before I noticed them. I did let my feet hover just a few centimeters off the ground, though, to move more quickly along the road.

Soon, I found what I was looking for. It seemed like a nearby middle school yard was serving as the ring for this fight. Then I saw the angels flying around between the buildings, which all but confirmed it. They held dangerous weapons like swords and axes in their hands as they flew. Thanks to the wings on their back, I knew right away—even from this distance—that they were angels.

As for the demon they were fighting…that was something I didn’t quite understand. What looked like a giant ball of flesh was flying about in the air the same way as the angels.

“……”

Keeping the battlefield in sight, I attempted a careful approach. I used the houses located near the school as cover to slowly get closer. Once I reached a road leading to the school grounds, I heard people talking.

“Not much for us to do, huh?”

“Hey, the less we have to do, the better.”

“You said it. It’s much safer back here.”

“I don’t know if we’ll get much of a reward, though…”

“I wish I could take out at least one by myself.”

“I doubt that’s possible. Even in a group, we’re just Disciples.”

“But maybe if it was a weak demon?”

I saw a group of people standing in front of the middle school’s gate. They were all young men and women, with the oldest in their midtwenties and the youngest in their teens. They wore a variety of clothing, from suits and ties to more casual getups like sweaters and jeans.

Several nearby also had wings coming out of their backs—they had to be angels. Some of them were just as young and cute as Eriel had been, while others had a slender, muscular attractiveness to them. They all wore clothing with designs that didn’t seem to belong in the modern era. The first group must be the people they were calling Disciples.

“Let’s just wait here quietly. That was the plan, right?”

“But why are we even here if we’re just gonna wait?”

“Seriously! If we’re not getting a reward for this, what’s motivating us?”

“They could let us deal with just one on our own, couldn’t they?”

“Yeah, and our angels wouldn’t be able to tell us no, either.”

Given that they were angels, I naturally wanted to have a friendly relationship with them. Unfortunately, as they’d wasted no time challenging me earlier, I was hesitant to walk up and talk to one. If I messed things up, they might all turn on me and attack at once.

First, I needed to figure out what was going on, which meant hurrying over to the school grounds. I took a different route that led around to the school’s rear gate.

I could hear sounds coming from the schoolyard. I went through a parking lot—probably for the teachers—and headed to the yard, hiding myself behind parts of the school building as I went. As I moved, I could tell people were fighting very close by. I was growing more and more nervous.

Finally, I got a good look from around the building.

The first thing I saw was the enormous chunk of land gouged out of the schoolyard.

“Wh…?”

I almost cried out in spite of myself. It reminded me of the spell Peeps had used on the Ohgen Empire’s forces—the one that created a humongous hole in the ground. It was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom. But what surprised me more was the person standing on the only remaining piece of land at the center of the hole.

It was someone I’d seen before.

My next-door neighbor. I’d never mistake that sailor uniform.

“……”

The angels were flying busily around her, like bugs swarming around a streetlight at night. Apparently, they were after her.

As if to resist their attacks, several strange masses of flesh were flitting around the schoolyard. They would fling back the angels closing in on her with swords and spears and block what looked like magical effects being fired intermittently. The clumps of flesh were quite grotesque. If someone told me that this was what demons looked like, I’d have accepted it right away.

And the clumps weren’t neatly cut, like meat might be—rather, they looked like they’d been ripped off of the bone, then left out to rot for a little while. It was enough to make me almost think, just from their appearance, that they were attacking my neighbor.

I listened more closely and heard her speak.

“Abaddon,” she said, “don’t you think it’s inconvenient that I can’t fly?”

“Don’t you think it’s a waste of time to want what you can’t have?”

“If we escape safely, I’d like to be able to fly. As my reward.”

“…Fine, I’ll consider it.”

Who was she talking to? I felt like I’d heard the voice somewhere before, but I didn’t see anyone else near her.

It sounds crazy, but maybe she’s talking to the clumps of meat, I thought. As she spoke, I could see the tension in her expression even from the side. Her words were casual, but it was easy to tell she was in dire straits right now.

Given the situation, I had a feeling my neighbor was a Disciple. Angels were attacking her, which meant her partner was almost certainly a demon.

That made me curious about what, exactly, the angels and demons were after in this war—their reasons for fighting. The name demon made the latter seem like the bad guys; as a good guy myself, I was hesitant to speak with one. But on a personal level, I wanted to help out my neighbor unconditionally.

“Ah…!”

Meanwhile, the combat situation changed. One of the angels destroyed my neighbor’s platform. She was essentially standing at the edge of a cliff, so she began to tumble down into the deep hole. One of the fleshy fragments flying in the air caught her in the nick of time.

“…Abaddon, you’re very slimy,” she said. “And disgusting.”

“The fact that you can say things like that at a time like this is so satisfying to me.”

“Thank you for rescuing me.”

It seemed she had been talking to the fleshy fragments flitting through the air this whole time. The sight was even more surreal than psychic powers and magical girls.

Still, the rescue only granted them a moment’s reprieve. Seeing it as a golden opportunity, the angels pressed their assault, sending what looked like magic into the hole and laying down a focused barrage on my neighbor, who was floating in the center of it.

The ball of flesh supporting her responded by changing shape and protecting her. It suddenly grew very large, then wrapped around her like a seashell.

Its defenses did the trick for ten seconds or so, blocking all the angels’ attacks. Unfortunately, it seemed like their offensive was aimed at holding their opponents in place. As that group let up their suppressive fire, another angel had already moved underneath my neighbor—still fixed in a defensive posture—and began shooting at her.

The attacking angel was a girl whose age didn’t seem much different from Eriel’s. Her striking blond hair reached down to her waist; on her back were three pairs of wings, six in all. That was curious; it was more than the other angels. Sword in hand, she swung, slicing through the wall of flesh in a single strike.

“Ugh… Not a good matchup for me.”

“Wait, Abaddon, is this game over?”

Flames rose from the sliced flesh, burning brightly. A moment later, my neighbor began to fall. She was now undoubtedly at a disadvantage against the attacking angels.

At this point, I couldn’t allow myself to stay put and watch. She was someone I knew, after all.

Letting my body float into the air with flight magic, I shot toward a point beneath her as fast as I could. It was lucky the hole in the schoolyard was so incredibly deep. Because of that, I was able to catch her before she plummeted to the bottom—though it was very close, despite the fact I’d combined my flight spell with one to make other objects float.

Wrapped in my arms, she looked up at me and cried out “…M-Mister?!”

I could understand her shock. I probably would have cried out the same way if I’d been in the otherworld and she’d swooped in to save me from some predicament. And that only made me more certain these were two separate worlds.

There were a million things I wanted to discuss with her, but I focused on responding to the situation at hand by putting up a defensive barrier.

“You wouldn’t happen to be a demon as well, would you?”

A moment later, one of the chunks of flesh swung down from overhead and positioned itself right next to us. The six-winged angel pursued it, swinging down the sword in her hand.

It was terrifying. As a frightened magician from another world, I wasted no time in firing a lightning spell. It struck the tip of the sword with a crack, causing it to veer from its course in the nick of time. The tip soared past my shoulder with blinding speed. A moment later, there was a bang as the defensive spell vanished from around us.

What’s this? I thought. That spell came straight from Peeps. How did she break it?

“What was that I felt just now…?” wondered the sword-wielding angel girl aloud. She had a pretty voice.

A relatively large fleshy mass immediately whipped down from the sky and attacked her. It opened up like a huge mouth and tried to swallow the angel whole.

The angel pulled back, then flew out of the hole.

“……”

Wow, that was way too close. If I’d taken her on with just my barrier spell, both my neighbor and I would be in two pieces now. I wanted to pat myself on the back for that shred of daring. After all, this was the first time anything had ever broken that barrier. If I got out of this alive, I’d have to discuss it with Peeps. That is one sharp sword.

“Abaddon,” said my neighbor, “please trust this man.”

“Well, you know I can’t refuse an order from my Disciple.”

“I should hope not.”

“I’m really looking forward to how this decision affects the game.”

“I’m positive you will thank me for it.”

My neighbor was talking with the ball of flesh. Hearing this, I suddenly realized who that voice belonged to—it was the boy who had massacred Takayoshi and Naomi.

Now wasn’t the time to think about that, however. The angels had assembled in a perimeter around the big hole. We had to get out of here.

“I have a question,” I said. “No need for detail.”

“All right. Ask away!”

“I would personally like to get away from this commotion as soon as I can. Is that possible?”

“I’m happy to hear it! We were just thinking the same thing.”

Despite how chaotic the situation was, we were able to communicate quickly; he seemed used to battles like these, which only raised more questions about this fleshy mass floating in front of me and his relationship with my neighbor.

But the answers could wait until we got out of here. If we messed this up, all three of us could end up following Takayoshi and Naomi.

“At this rate, though, that might be a perilous choice.”

The lump of flesh shook. The surface that had been pointing toward me shifted to face upward. Was he telling me to look up?

When I did so, I saw that the angels had entered a formation above the hole. I could see another waiting before the main gate. To top it off, that one had a humongous magic circle or something floating in front of it. This looked pretty bad. They were ready to finish us off, once and for all.

They must be planning to shoot some kind of magic out of the middle of that circle to destroy us. After all the recent craziness in my life, what with the otherworld and the psychics and magical girls, it was easy to imagine. This magic circle’s design was fancier, different from the kinds I’d seen in the otherworld and from the magical girl.

“This isn’t like you, Abaddon,” remarked my neighbor.

“Well, the one at the front is a high-ranking angel…”

“Is she stronger than you are?”

“I’m not sure. I just know that it’s a terrible matchup for me.”

“I’m pretty sure all the angels you’ve taken out in the past were thinking the exact same thing.”

“Ah. Those words do inflame my fighting spirit.”

As I wondered how to deal with the situation, my neighbor and the fleshy mass exchanged words. Despite being a team, they didn’t seem to be totally in tune. Their banter was actually kind of cool, like they were playing two parts in a comedy routine.

But such lines didn’t really fit a magical middle-aged man. What was I to do? If we went on like this, we were sure to die. That angel had broken my barrier spell with one swing. I doubted anything we could throw at them would get through; they’d probably brush it aside like nothing. Even without prior experience, that much was obvious.

“Now, I have a question for you.” The flesh lump addressed me, making a half rotation in midair; this must have been his front. “Got any good ideas?”

“Good ideas, huh…,” I murmured.

My most powerful means of attack was the lightning spell, but all it had done was slightly divert the course of the six-winged angel’s sword. And my greatest defensive spell, the barrier, had been nullified in a single strike.

We were in a deadlock. But if we just accepted that as reality, we wouldn’t survive the day. Wasn’t there any way out of this?

As I racked my brain searching for an answer, I suddenly recalled the spell I’d been practicing. I’d decided to simply memorize the incantation, but when I’d read it off my cheat sheet at the inn in the otherworld, the magic circle had popped up on my first try. I was so frightened I’d canceled the cast. I hadn’t had a good chance to discuss it with Peeps since then, so I’d put the matter on hold.

But maybe that spell could help us.

It had wiped out over ten thousand Ohgen Empire soldiers in one blast and created an enormous hole in the ground. Its power was beyond debate. Plus, the fact that we were in a world without people meant I didn’t have to consider collateral damage, which lowered my reservations considerably.

The idea still made me uneasy, though. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it. Peeps had mentioned how much spells of the advanced level and above strained a person. Something about his frail body not being able to withstand the technique. Apparently, Java sparrows were pretty fragile. I supposed that made sense, given their tiny size. I’d been supporting him this whole time so he could avoid that kind of strain.

“……”

On the other hand, that might mean I could use certain spells he shied away from even without his help—though, of course, I might still run into the issue of not having enough mana.

With all that in mind, I decided it was worth a try. We didn’t have much of a choice anyway. If we waited for our opponents to attack, they’d annihilate us.

“I can’t make any promises,” I said, “but I may be able to help out somewhat.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Though if you have any ideas of your own, I’ll gladly step aside.”

“…No, if you’ve got something, by all means give it a shot.”

“All right, then.”

We didn’t have the time to discuss it at length anyway. Overhead, the angels’ magic circle was quickly growing brighter, whirring with a low, repeating noise. Watching all the shining energy, or whatever it was, converge at its center had my heart in my mouth. They might fire at any moment.

I hurried to begin the spell’s chant. Fortunately, the cheat sheet was still in my suit pocket. I took it out and started rattling off the words as fast as I could manage. My neighbor gave me a dubious look, but I didn’t have time to worry about her. Someone who didn’t know what was going on would definitely think I was a crazy old man.

But a moment later, her expression turned to astonishment.

“Huh…?”

She was reacting to the magic circle that had just emerged. The familiar design hovered under our feet, glittering with light.

It appeared. The spell’s working! I thought. So I really had triggered it before.

This time, I didn’t hesitate—I read off every last word on my cheat sheet. I wanted to pat myself on the back for chanting all the words perfectly in the middle of such a desperate situation.

No sooner had I finished the spell than I heard the voice of an angel overhead—the six-winged girl who had just pierced my barrier spell with her sword.

“Fire!”

At her order, the angels’ magic circle gave off an even more brilliant glow. But my spell was prepared as well—so in that same moment, I released it.

“H-here goes nothing!”

Maybe it would have been cooler to shout out the name of the spell as I launched it, but unfortunately, I didn’t actually know what it was called.

From above and below, a ribbon of light burst from each of our magic circles.

In the center of the great hole, they clashed headfirst.

“Hmm…”

“Mister!”

It was blinding. Before I knew it, I’d clamped my eyes shut. The low-pitched whirring reverberated inside the hole, much louder now that it was bouncing off the sides. It was like motorcycles with huge engines were idling right beside me.

Nevertheless, I didn’t let off the gas; I kept up the spell’s power. As I did, I felt something slowly draining out of me—my pep, or my enthusiasm, or something like that. This must be what it feels like to consume your mana. Peeps had explained it to me before, but this was the first time I’d actually felt it since starting my magic training.

I assumed the vast store of mana Peeps had given me meant I wouldn’t be able to feel the consumption with intermediate spells or below. He’d said that if you kept going, ultimately, you’d pass out—or in the worst case, you might die.

But since we’d die anyway if the angels beat back my spell, I was going full power. I put as much strength as I could into it.

The rays of light seemed to clash for about ten seconds or so.

Eventually, I felt something crumble, as if my spell had broken through an obstacle.

With narrowed eyes, I looked up and saw the light of my magic stretching out of the hole and high into the sky. It towered magnificently above us. From down here, I couldn’t tell how far it reached.

Did that mean it had pierced through the group of angels?

I stopped pouring mana into the spell. It felt like closing a fully opened hose.

The stream of light, thick enough to fill the entire hole, immediately narrowed until it scattered and disappeared. In the clouds was a single open circle, through which I could see the afternoon sun. Apparently, the beam had gotten pretty high.

Had I pulled it off?

Unfortunately, my overwhelming sense of accomplishment only lasted for a moment.

One angel descended from the sky.

It was the six-winged sword-wielding girl, and she was charging straight for my neighbor.

“Ack…”

Before I realized it, my body had moved on its own. My arms wrapped around my neighbor, protecting her, and my back turned to the angel. Then, I used my flight spell to get away from her sword. Flying in a loop around her, I secured a path to the other side. I had taken off more rapidly than ever before, and the g-forces made it feel like my organs were all leaning to one side of my body.

Moments later, a dull impact rippled through me.

“Ngh… As I thought, my power has sharply decreased,” came the angel’s voice from right next to me.

I ignored her, soaring past and heading straight out of the hole.

“M-Mister!” cried my neighbor.

After the impact, my body had suddenly grown lighter.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a mass of flesh attacking the angel. Leaving her up to him, I decided to focus on getting my neighbor out of here and plotted my course.

I recklessly sent my body hurtling toward the hole’s opening. In a matter of seconds, I’d left it behind and spotted solid ground in a corner of the schoolyard. A moment later, however, I abruptly felt a sense of irresistible exhaustion. Panicking, I dropped my speed and let my neighbor down onto the ground. Then I positioned myself for my own landing.

Or at least, I tried to.

“Oh,” I said. “My feet are gone.”

“Mister! Mister!” shouted my neighbor.

My body collapsed to the ground with a thud.

I looked more closely and saw that it wasn’t just my feet—everything below the waist was gone. I could see my organs leaking from my body; it was extremely grotesque. The blood pouring out of me was dyeing my neighbor’s lower half red as well.

Frantically, I used a healing spell. A magic circle appeared beneath my fallen body.

But in a troubling turn, the recovery was going very slowly.

In the meantime, darkness began to creep into the corners of my vision.

“Mister!” cried my neighbor, supporting my upper body with her arms. “Don’t die! Mister! Mister!”

This is the first time I’ve ever seen her lose her cool, I thought. I knew it was an odd thing to be thinking, given the situation. I guess she can make faces like that, too.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said.

“…I—I don’t matter!” she stammered in reply. “But you have to live!”

“…Please, live a happy life for the both of us. You still have so much ahead of you.”

“M-Mister! Mister?!”

There was no saving me now. Once I realized that, I started spouting what sounded like my final words. As soon as they were out, I regretted not saying something more considerate. But when I tried to say more, I discovered my tongue wouldn’t move.

All the while, my vision continued to darken.

Soon, I could no longer see my neighbor’s face in front of mine.

I’d always taken “safety first” with the utmost seriousness. And now look at me.

I wished I could have said one last thing to my beloved pet bird.

I’m sorry, Peeps.

“Abaddon! Hurry and deal with the angels’ Disciples!”

“Hey, you can trust me. I already handled it.”

I heard my neighbor talking to the mass of flesh.

But those sounds grew rapidly distant, too, until I couldn’t hear them any longer.

Finally, I lost all feeling in my body, and my sight went black along with my consciousness.

My sense of total resignation lasted only a moment, however.

My consciousness returned as though I were waking up from a deep sleep.

The first thing I perceived was the engine exhaust from a car; I didn’t know where it was coming from. Such things had vanished once I’d entered the empty world. A moment later, I felt something soft behind my head. When did a pillow get there? I wondered. This only raised more questions.

I opened my eyes and immediately saw my neighbor.

She was very close, too—almost close enough for our noses to touch.

Apparently, the soft sensation on the back of my head was from her thighs. Due to my position, I’d mistaken them for a pillow, but now it dawned on me—this was the first time I’d ever gotten to rest my head in someone’s lap. It was much more comfortable than the old, roughed-up pillow in my apartment.

“You’re awake!” she cried.

“……”

Partially out of embarrassment, I let my gaze wander to my own lower body. There I saw my lost legs, all in one piece again. And for some reason, even my clothes seemed unscathed—despite all the entrails scattered everywhere before.

“Uh,” I said, “were you the one who—?”

“Ahhhhhh!” she exclaimed. “Thank goodness, thank goodness!”

“Ack—”

My neighbor interrupted me with a tight embrace. I found my face buried in her chest. When I’d first seen her, her sailor uniform had been covered in slimy blood, but the fabric touching my cheek now was completely clean. It almost felt like nothing had happened at all.

Like it had just been a dream—a delusion I’d had.

My neighbor was too overcome with emotion for that to be the case, though. I’d never seen anyone this happy about my safety.

A moment later, I remembered the last time I’d been in the empty world—time had completely reverted.

“……”

Did that effect influence even wounds on a human body? That sounded absurd.

It did, however, explain what was going on perfectly. Perhaps, just as the hands on the clock had moved backward, my injuries, too, had reverted. I’d experienced it once before, so the idea seemed pretty credible.

In the meantime, I heard a familiar voice. “It’s great that he’s safe and you’re happy about it, but maybe you should pick a better time and place for this?”

It was the same voice as the hunk of flesh that had been flying around my neighbor. His words were accompanied by the sound of his approaching footfalls.

“The whole world could be watching for all I care,” answered my neighbor. “As long as he’s safe.”

“Perhaps that’s true for you,” responded the voice, “but I’m sure he has concerns of his own.”

“……”

He was right. I looked pretty miserable right now. I was resting on a middle school girl’s lap, and now she was cradling my head in her arms. It would be very bad if a stranger saw me like this.

Frantically, I shook free of her arms and sat up. As I did, a familiar boy came into view. “You’re…”

“Hey,” he said. “This is your second time meeting me in this form, isn’t it?”

This was the boy who had murdered Takayoshi and Naomi. Like before, he wore a cape and a crown, looking like a prince straight out of a fairy tale.

“What do you mean by that, Abaddon?” asked my neighbor.

“I’m not entirely sure myself. In fact, I’d like to ask him about it.”

“…Him?”

Watching their exchange out of the corner of my eye, I took my phone from my inside pocket and quickly checked the time. Once again, it had gone backward. The phone displayed just about the same time as when I’d checked it immediately after everyone disappeared.

I also had one missed call in the notification bar at the side of my screen. I opened it up to check—it was from Ms. Futarishizuka. She’d probably seen my location suddenly change and tried to contact me. It looked like she’d called just a few minutes ago.

“Excuse me,” I said, quickly standing up and turning back to the boy, “but what happened to that small angel?”

We were still in the corner of the middle school’s yard. At least classes were over for the day; I didn’t see anyone around. If this had happened earlier, it would have been terrible—I would have looked like a middle-aged man who broke into a school and started doing something untoward with one of the students—or something like that.

“I drove her off, at least,” replied the boy. “Though even I can’t imagine what the other side will do next. Considering an unknown element has entered the mix—you, that is—if they want to improve their chances of victory, they’ll probably stay clear for a while.”

“Then, you weren’t able to defeat her?” asked my neighbor.

“They made quite the speedy retreat. I took down most of the other Disciples, though.”

“…I see,” she said, seeming disappointed by his explanation.

I took the opportunity to worm myself into the conversation. “I heard that strange world is produced when at least ten angels and demons assemble in a specific area. Would I be correct in assuming that, since the angels have left, we’ve returned to our world and our wounds have healed?”

“How odd. You’re almost right, but…”

“Am I mistaken?” This was information I’d received right after entering the deserted world this time, from a boy who’d appeared to be a Disciple. He’d had an angel with him, so I doubted he was faking it.

However, the boy in front of me came back with some corrections. “First of all, the numbers don’t matter. And it’s based on the Disciples, not the angels or demons.”

“Disciples,” I repeated. “Are they the ones with the angels and demons?”

“Yep, that’s right,” he said. “Since I killed most of the Disciples and forced the rest to flee, it put distance between her—a demon’s Disciple—and them, and that caused the isolated space to collapse. Outside of that space, angels and demons can’t use much of their strength, so you’ll be safe for now.”

“Then I narrowly avoided death. I owe you my thanks.”

“You helped her, too, so we’re even. No need to thank me.”

Apparently, Eriel’s Disciple had fed me false information. Or maybe he’d been testing me. Whatever the case, I wasn’t particularly interested at this point.

“You really don’t know anything about this, do you?” asked the boy.

“I’d appreciate you explaining things to me, if at all possible.”

“I’m sure—but I’m in the exact same boat, you know.”

“Are you?”

“Remember when I called you an unknown element?”

The angels and demons didn’t seem to know about psychic powers—probably a sign of how well the bureau did its work. I’d entered that “isolated space” on my own, despite being neither an angel nor a demon. From his point of view, that must have been very strange.

I’d probably have to tell him about psychic powers, at least. He was with my neighbor, so I wanted to avoid making an enemy of him. I still had doubts about him based on his previous actions, but now was the time for compromise. There was still room to consider how much about them I would report to the section chief, however.

“Then would you agree to an exchange of information?” I asked.

“Oh, I’d love that,” he answered with a friendly smile.

I decided not to think too hard about what was going on behind his amicable expression. For now, my first priority was my neighbor. As soon as I glanced her way, she hurriedly addressed me.

“Mister, I was really happy you came to save me,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

“Don’t mention it. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing anyway…,” I replied, remembering what we’d said to each other just before I lost consciousness.

…Please, live a happy life for the both of us.

You still have so much ahead of you.

Or something like that.

“Also,” she said, “I’m so sorry for causing you trouble.”

“No, no, it’s fine. You can forget all about that.”

And now I had yet another awkward event in my past I didn’t really want to think about. It had been a life-and-death situation, so the adrenaline was probably pumping. Thinking back on it, I started to feel like the words I’d spoken belonged to somebody else.

It was time to change the subject—by force if necessary. I turned back to the boy and picked a random topic. “Could I ask you something right now?”

“What is it? Ask me anything, and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. My Disciple directly ordered me to trust you; so as long as nothing crazy happens, I won’t lie.”

“The short, six-winged angel with the sword…”

“Oh, you noticed? That angel was quite a bit higher in rank than all the rest. I’m shocked you survived her attack. This world calls her Michael or Miguel or something like that. She’s pretty hard for me to deal with.”

He made it sound like he knew her personally. Apparently, angels and demons were familiar with each other.

I moved this high-ranking angel into the “very dangerous” category in my mind along with the magical girl and Ms. Futarishizuka’s old boss, deciding to retreat on sight if Peeps wasn’t with me. After only one hit, I’d seen that little Mika was hard for me to deal with, too. If possible, I’d like to never run into her again.

Meanwhile, Ms. Futarishizuka had found her way to us. “Hey!” she called out. “May I come over there? I won’t be attacked out of the blue, will I?”

She was on the small road in front of the schoolyard, peering at us over the metal fence surrounding it. The lower half of her body was hidden by the block fence forming the walls of the alley. As she watched us from afar, I couldn’t tell if she was genuinely hesitant to come over or if it was just a joke.

“Do you know her, Mister?” asked my neighbor immediately. The boy looked my way as well.

“Yes, she’s a colleague from work, I suppose…,” I answered.

“She seems a little young for that.”

“She does, but she’s actually older than you—in fact, she’s an adult.”

“Really? I can’t see her as anything but a child…”

At any rate, I didn’t want to keep talking in a place like this. Despite school being out for the day, students might still show up. I was sure there were plenty of kids staying late for club activities. A teacher might even come snooping around. I could get out of most problems with the police badge in my pocket, but it was always better not to have to use it at all.

“I’ll explain,” I replied. “Could we maybe go somewhere else?”

Fortunately, my neighbor answered immediately. “All right.”

The boy called Abaddon had mentioned not being able to refuse her requests, so I doubted he would be a problem. And this way, I’d get more information about the link between Disciples and their angels or demons.

“Shouldn’t you go back to your classroom to pick up your things before we leave?”

“…It’s so annoying to be a student and a minor.”

“Personally, I’d rather you took those things a little more seriously.”

There was one thing I was still curious about, though.

Had Miss Hoshizaki managed to smooth things over with her schoolmates?

We headed away from the schoolyard in Ms. Futarishizuka’s car, driving around with no real destination in mind and the kimono-clad girl at the wheel. She’d asked me if I wanted to take a turn, but unfortunately, as previously mentioned, I was a veteran “papers-only driver” with basically no experience. Since nobody else had a license at all, she’d ended up sitting in the driver’s seat. My neighbor and Abaddon were in the back while I rode shotgun.

“A proxy war between angels and demons?” mused Ms. Futarishizuka. “That is quite a tale, if I do say so myself.”

“I’m not lying,” replied my neighbor. “Whether you believe it is your choice.”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t doubting you.”

Once we were in the car, my neighbor explained all the strange occurrences that had taken place—including the one the day before that had involved Ms. Futarishizuka as well. Since our information had been so fragmentary up until now, I was glad we were starting to get a fuller picture. My neighbor went on to explain the situation she’d been placed in.

“A death game?” I said. “I don’t much like the sound of that.”

“Are you worried about me?” she asked.

“I’d think anyone would be worried if someone they knew ended up in this situation.”

Two people had already died in front of me—and the culprit was the demon she was with. From my point of view, it was difficult to mentally reconcile. But now we knew that if he hadn’t done that, my neighbor would have been killed instead. That made sense to me. After all, I’d personally been in similar predicaments several times before.

“You are right in assuming she is in a very dangerous situation,” said Abaddon.

“A dangerous situation you personally invited her into,” I pointed out.

“You live near her, right?”

“Why?”

“I’m pretty sure that if you’d just gotten a little bit closer to her, she never would have met me at all. And even if she had, I doubt she’d have accepted my invitation.”

“Don’t say things like that, Abaddon!” exclaimed my neighbor.

“But it’s the truth, isn’t it?”

Apparently, he was aware we knew each other. Not only that, but it seemed my neighbor had recently ended up in a situation that had forced her to rely on him. Based on how he described it, I assumed it had something to do with her family environment.

“Either way,” continued Abaddon, “it’s very reassuring to have you two here.”

“I’m not too fond of danger,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka. I agreed with her, but I didn’t want to leave my neighbor out to dry, either.

“This proxy war between angels and demons doesn’t only take place within isolated spaces. It happens here, too—during a Disciple’s normal life. Disciples compete with, scorn, and hate one another. You need more than just physical strength for that, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I believe I understand what you’re saying,” I replied.

“Joining forces with an angel or a demon brings benefits—which I’ve already mentioned.”

According to Abaddon’s and my neighbor’s explanations, angels and demons granted their Disciples wishes in proportion to their accomplishments in the proxy war—and the wishes could be anything. It seemed Disciples were able to negotiate what they would get.

“But we aren’t Disciples,” I pointed out.

“It seems that my partner likes you a lot, though,” replied Abaddon. “Play your cards right, and I might even be able to do something for you through her. You both seem to be fairly well-off in human society.” He looked dramatically around the car.

Negotiations like these probably happened frequently among other participants of the game, which meant it was only a matter of time before the bureau caught wind of the existence of angels and demons. I had little doubt they would soon end up at the top of the pecking order. In that case, I would have to seriously consider our involvement. Most importantly, this had to do with my next-door neighbor—someone I’d known for years.

“It is dangerous,” murmured Ms. Futarishizuka, “but interesting.”

“Yes, and I’m sure you plan on asking this boy to undo your curse,” I said.

“H-how did you know?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? Though, your response was a little hammy.”

“Well, you do treat me like some kind of chauffeur. Or a taxi driver.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m really grateful to have you…” If I was behind the wheel, we wouldn’t get three kilometers before crashing. In fact, I was 100 percent sure I’d hit a pedestrian. This was a huge sedan, after all—there was no way I could drive it safely.

“This incident will alert angels far and wide to our existence,” Abaddon continued.

“Then it’s possible they might go after your partner, too,” I said.

“And I do feel guilty about that! But this was going to happen sooner or later no matter what. That’s why I feel so fortunate to have met the two of you.”

“…I see.”

I supposed I could understand his panic. According to him, this proxy war had only just begun. Making deals like these early on was for the best. If they secured Ms. Futarishizuka’s cooperation, they might be able to settle everything fairly quickly. In a death game, her powers would be practically cheating. If she got serious, they’d hardly even need those isolated spaces. That is, as long as other psychic groups—the bureau, especially—and magical girls stayed out of things.

“Excuse me for prying,” I said, “but do you not have any other Disciples as your allies?”

“Unfortunately, my partner is a very shy kind of girl.”

“Abaddon, why do you keep telling him more than he needs to know?” asked my neighbor.

Ah, I thought. Then, she’s like Miss Hoshizaki. Given my neighbor’s family situation, I couldn’t really blame her. I thought about it and realized I’d never seen her with friends. After a moment, though, I realized my arrogance. How was that any different from me over the past few years? When was the last time I went drinking with friends? I wondered. Of course, my life has been more fulfilling lately thanks to Peeps’s companionship.

“In any case,” I said, “we are willing to cooperate with you.”

“Wow! I’m so happy to hear that.”

“You really don’t need to force yourself,” insisted my neighbor. “I can handle things fine on my own.”

“Wait a second,” interrupted Ms. Futarishizuka. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

Ensuring my neighbor’s safety necessitated a quick decision. One option was to take her to the otherworld, but time passed terrifyingly quickly there. Given her description of this game’s rules, we’d want to avoid that as much as possible. I was sure the Abaddon boy would disapprove, too.

At the same time, if we planned to intervene in this proxy war, I’d run into certain issues with my barrier magic. In cases like the one earlier—where I was out and about on my own—having it up constantly didn’t cause that much of a problem. However it would pose a problem when I was sleeping or doing clerical work at the bureau. In the latter case, people would keep banging into an invisible wall. And I was pretty certain I wouldn’t be able to interfere with isolated spaces at all if I was in the otherworld.

Deciding what form our cooperation should take would require careful consideration.

“I’ll be direct,” I said to Abaddon. “If that six-winged angel attacks again, will you be able to deal with her yourself? In the worst-case scenario, it’s possible an isolated space could appear this very moment, right?”

“One-on-one, I don’t believe I’d lose, at least,” he replied.

“I saw a lot more angels than her in the sky, though…”

“Are you that worried about this girl?”

“If I wasn’t worried, I wouldn’t have intervened.” I’d known her for a while now, and although I had no intention to delve deeper into her business, I wanted to help her out where I could.

“Well, they suffered a lot of damage in that battle, too,” he continued. “Unless the Disciples are total morons, I doubt they’ll try to challenge us again right away. They don’t have enough information on you, either.”

“I see what you mean.”

“If anything, we want your help in the fights between humans, not angels and demons. After all, they mobilized a lot of angels for this battle and still failed. I’d imagine they’ll try a different angle of attack next time.”

“That does ease my mind. Somewhat anyway.”

Depending on our future efforts, there was no telling how the cookie would crumble. I wondered if showing them Peeps’s magic would change their mindset at all. But apparently, for the time being, I’d be helping them out in a more physical sense in the real world instead.

“In that case,” I told him, “I’d like to take the day to think about it.”

“Go for it!” he said jovially. “I think it’s a good arrangement for both of us.”

Whatever the case may be, I’d have to consult with the big man—well, sparrow—back home. I couldn’t decide our strategy by myself, and that went for how to handle Ms. Futarishizuka as well. This would probably take quite a lot of time and money, so I shied away from making any decisions on the spot.

And knowing the Starsage, he might come up with some sort of ingenious plan.

(The Neighbor’s POV)

Today I am experiencing something very difficult as well as something very pleasant.

Both things involve the man from next door.

Whoever first said “All’s well that ends well” was right.

When that angel attacks the man, and he falls to the ground, missing his lower body, my mind goes blank. The world may as well be ending. But with the isolated space’s disappearance, everything goes back to the way it was before. I see him smile, and it makes my heart start pounding with joy instead of fear.

Once again, I have him to thank for my own life.

When I think about that, it makes me feel warm inside.

“What’s up?” asks Abaddon. “You’ve got a creepy grin on your face.”

“I’m surprised to hear you of all people say that, Abaddon,” I reply.

We’ve been in a car for a little under an hour, driven around by a woman in a kimono—whom my neighbor calls his colleague. By the time the sun sets and the sky grows dark, they’ve already brought Abaddon and me back to my apartment.

Since then, I’ve been sitting with my back to my front door.

What time is he planning on getting back? I wonder. After letting me out, they drove off again, saying they still had work to do. He seemed really busy, so maybe I won’t see him again today. Still, even the slimmest chance makes my heart flutter.

“We never got a chance to figure out who they really are,” remarks Abaddon.

“My neighbor is my neighbor. That’s all I need to know.”

“I think that particular attitude could use some work.”

“I’ll rephrase, then,” I say. “We’re not in a position to demand they tell us who or what they really are. Instead of prying into their affairs and making a mistake, I think we should wait for them to open up.”

“I suppose you’re right about that…” Abaddon raises his arms and shrugs. The dramatic gesture suits him perfectly. “But you have done a bunch of research on him, haven’t you?”

“I’ve done nothing of the sort.”

“No? What about all those times you tried to listen in on him through the wall?”

“……”

What can I say? I couldn’t resist. Whenever I sense someone’s presence in the next room at night, my body moves on its own. Like the sound of the shower running—I can’t help it. Hearing it makes the lower parts of my body heat up. If only Abaddon wasn’t with me, I think, I could let myself enjoy it more.

“I’ve seen you peeping in through his window, too.”

“…Promise not to tell him about any of this.”

“Oh, what a shame. If only you hadn’t ordered me—I could have told on you.”

Is he joking, or did he mean that? As always, the demon’s words and actions are beyond my comprehension.

I glare at him to drive home my point. He continues to smile, though. The reaction fits his title of “demon” to a tee. Are all the other demons like him?

Never mind. Thinking about Abaddon at all is a waste of time.

No, I want to feel his presence instead.

I want to think about him—fill my head with him. Ahh, how wonderful he is! I want to talk with him forever. I want to gaze at his face. I want to hear his voice.

Just thinking about him makes me so happy.

“Still,” remarks Abaddon casually, “I wonder who that person with him was.”

“Ugh…”

But my happiness wavers at Abaddon’s words. That’s something I’ve been questioning as well but trying not to think about.

That woman in the kimono who could easily fit in with a pack of grade schoolers—according to her, she’s over twenty. She said she has a driver’s license, and it’s true she drove us back to my apartment. My neighbor seemed quite calm in the passenger’s seat, too.

“He said she was a colleague from work, but she’s clearly a child, isn’t she? Does she have some kind of disease that halted her growth, I wonder? But even if she did, wouldn’t her skin and hair still deteriorate?”

“Wait, did you notice something about her?”

“Not really. I’m pretty sure she isn’t normal, though. Just like him.”

“…I see.”

I’m a child. She’s an adult.

And my neighbor is an adult, too.

Thinking of the two of them together upsets me.

Work colleagues? What kind of relationship do they have, exactly? Are they like classmates who don’t talk to each other much? Or members of the same school group? Good friends, even? I don’t want to consider it, but what if they’re more than that?

No. That’s not right. He’s all alone, just like me. That’s what makes us a perfect match. There’s no way he’s friendly with some woman from work.

“What’s wrong? You suddenly got quiet.”

“It’s nothing.”

Thinking back, they were chatting pretty casually.

And he seemed a little different from when he talks to me.

“……”

It’s fine. He and I are made for each other. We’re a perfect match.

And today he was worried about me and rescued me from a dangerous situation. I want to be the one to help him next. By spilling blood in turn, we’ll further deepen our relationship.

Ah, how wonderful. Just imagining it makes my lower body heat up.

I’ve decided—the next time we meet, I’ll figure out who that woman with the strange way of speaking really is.