Chapter 121: Gabriel, Demons, Itsuki and the Crab
After that, Tanuma Tsubasa left, Miko had a bit of coffee, and once she finished submitting her documents, she also left.
Fujiwara Chika went to the board game club today; she didn't come to the student council room every day.
Sakurai Saki didn't stay long either—today he had to pay a visit to Gabriel's house.
At the bike parking area, Sakurai Saki wheeled his bike out of the school.
Then he got on and started riding—getting to Gabriel's place would take a bit of time, and he had even skipped his "rental boyfriend" job today because of this.
"Hope it's really something important. Don't come asking me for money again,"
Sakurai Saki muttered as he felt the breeze brush past.
Last time, she said she was dying and begged him to save her, so Sakurai Saki gave her some money. And the result? Even now, Gabriel still hadn't paid him back!
Gabriel: (๑>•̀๑) ehe
Was she seriously trying to default on the debt? Or planning to sell her body to pay it off?
But even if she really did make that kind of offer, Sakurai Saki had no intention of accepting. This useless angel was nowhere near the level of the demon Vignette—Vignette, even though she was a demon, was more of an angel than an actual angel. It was the kind of joke only hell would come up with.
Vignette: ꒰ঌ(..◜ᴗ◝..)໒꒱
He got on the train and passed through the bustling downtown area.
By the time he arrived at the rental apartment, it was already pretty late. He climbed the old staircase to the second floor, and Sakurai Saki took out a key—he had a spare key to Gabriel's place.
He opened the door and stepped in. The floor was surprisingly clean—it looked like Vignette had come by to help clean a few days ago.
Only, the lighting in the room was dim, kind of gloomy.
Sakurai Saki walked over to the curtains and pulled them open.
"Aki~ you came!?" Gabriel seemed to have heard the noise, and her cheerful face peeked out from inside the room.
She was wearing a hamster onesie… which reminded Sakurai Saki of an anime.
What the hell is this? Himouto Gabriel-chan? This isn't good—just a pile of awful things bundled together.
"Why'd you buy that outfit?" Sakurai Saki asked curiously.
"Doesn't it look fine?" Gabriel said as she did a spin.
Gabriel: ʕ̢̣̣̣̣̩̩̩̩·͡˔·ོɁ̡̣̣̣̣̩̩̩̩✧
There was absolutely nothing to see here. This outfit had no highlights—it was just a very plain one-piece pajama.
"No different from when you wore your gym clothes before."
"Didn't feel anything?"
"Would you feel anything for a piece of pork? Especially a piece of pork that comes begging you for money every month?" Sakurai Saki said irritably.
"Pork?" Gabriel was not having it.
(｡•̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ꐦ) !!!
She quickly walked up to Sakurai Saki.
"Is there any piece of pork as cute as me?"
"There's one right in front of me." Sakurai Saki's logic was ironclad.
Gabriel couldn't find a crack in his words.
She glanced down at her own chest—flat, undeniably so. Truly pitiful.
Gabriel's chest was only slightly bigger than Shinomiya Kaguya's.
But it was clear she was going for the cute style, completely different from Ojou-sama Kaguya's path.
And the Yamato Nadeshiko-type character like Kaguya… probably didn't need those two extra lumps anyway?
Kaguya: (ꐦㅍ _ㅍ)
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. I called you here for something serious. Aki, a few days ago, someone from the sky sent a message down saying that the sky has recently been maliciously manipulated." Gabriel began.
"That was me." Sakurai Saki didn't like to lie.
"You? What did you do?"
…To show off in front of a girl…
That reason… was kind of hard to say out loud.
Sakurai: (,,¬`‸´¬,,)
"I couldn't go home that day, the rain was too heavy."
"Oh, I see." Gabriel recalled the downpour that day—she was a bit scared, too.
Luckily, this rundown apartment was sturdier than she thought. Otherwise, she might've had to find somewhere else to live.
"You called me over just for that?"
The two of them sat down on the sofa.
"No, there's something more important I wanted to tell you. Um~ recently, a lot of low-class demons have been sneaking down here from the Demon World. They're all intellectually inferior and don't meet the criteria to register as citizens in the Demon World," Gabriel explained.
"They disguise themselves as normal people and do bad things. Like robbery, theft, arson, murder, stuff like that."
Sakurai: (•̪ o •̪) ohh
Weren't the residents of the Demon World supposed to be kind and honest?
I mean, they did manage to raise an 'angel' like Vignette. But now it seemed… things were even more chaotic than he'd imagined.
Gabriel noticed what he was thinking.
"Vignette is a high-class demon, with extremely pure blood! If she develops properly, at the very least, she'll reach the rank of an ultimate-class demon. Wiping out a few weak alternate-world beings would be child's play for her."
"As for low-class demons, they're born from the Blood Sea of the Demon World. It's rare for any of them to have pure blood—most of them are mixed-blood."
Mixed-blood?
Sounds weak as hell.
"Both demons and angels have been dealing with this matter lately. I'm telling you in advance, just in case you… um, go overboard." Gabriel had been sent down to Earth by the angel school to "gain life experience," and was once assigned a mission:
To build a good relationship with Sakurai Saki.
At first, Gabriel thought her mission target was some great evil demon overlord, but it turned out to be someone… actually pretty easy to get along with.
"Do low-class demons have any distinguishing traits?" Sakurai Saki rubbed his forehead.
"They like rap. Like, rapping—rap music!" Gabriel said.
Sakurai: ∘ ∘ ∘ (｡· v ·｡) ??
Rap?
That triggered a traumatic memory in Sakurai Saki's mind.
The memory of Shirogane Miyuki rapping in the karaoke room—his rap almost sent Sakurai Saki straight to heaven!
Now, low-class demons from the Demon World were into rap too?
It's time to unleash our side's secret weapon!
"Normally, low-class demons won't attack ordinary people, unless…" Gabriel's expression turned serious.
Sakurai Saki also fell silent.
A few seconds later——
"Unless they're so broke they go insane!"
Sakurai: （ ￣￣ー￣￣ ）
These disgraceful demons should just return to the Blood Sea and reincarnate already. Please apply for a remake here!
"So… they actually follow the rules of the Human World to some extent?"
"Nope, Aki. The good news is, if they're not broke, they won't commit murder or arson. But the bad news is — low-class demons are broke 24 hours a day." Gabriel winked with her right eye while trying to act cute.
Sakurai Saki's face twitched with stress lines——
"You mean there's a bunch of demons running around Tokyo right now committing murder, arson, and all sorts of crimes?"
"Don't worry so much~ relax a little. We'll wrap this up in two weeks tops!" Gabriel patted her flat chest with a bop bop sound.
Sakurai Saki recalled the angels he had met.
Gabriel ꒰ঌ( – ⌓ – )໒꒱: an internet addict whose only redeeming quality besides eating and gaming was her cute face.
Raphiel Ainsworth Shiraha ꒰ঌ(≖⩊≖)໒꒱: aka Raphiel or Raphi, silver-haired, one of Gabriel's friends, also an angel. Outwardly, she looked like a regular angel, but in the dark, she seemed pretty "black-hearted." Gabriel and Sakurai Saki had talked about her before, but not much. Saki had only met her once.
Vignette ꒰ঌ(..◜ᴗ◝..)໒꒱: … wait no, she's not an angel.
Conclusion: angels are totally useless. ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)
"If I run into them, can I kill them?"
"Of course you can, but it'd be better to call me. I'll get someone to deal with it." Gabriel's tone suddenly turned enthusiastic.
This time, there was a reward for catching low-class demons! Gabriel was really looking forward to it!
As long as Sakurai Saki could catch one, Gabriel could use the reward money he earned to pay off her past debt!
...
Evening.
Somewhere else.
The Nakano Quintuplets' apartment.
In Itsuki's room.
"Eh! I lost weight!" Nakano Itsuki stared at the scale in disbelief.
She had eaten a lot today, and had been eating pretty well recently—yet she lost a whole 5 kilograms!
"Could it be… I have a body that gets slimmer the more I eat?" Itsuki's mood immediately skyrocketed with joy.
And so, she decided to go downstairs and eat a late-night snack!
(っ˘ڡ˘ς)
After she left—
In a world Itsuki couldn't see—
A crab claw appeared in midair exactly where she had just been standing. It was a creature with a vague shape; at the moment, only part of it could be faintly seen.
What was this thing? A crab? Or maybe… an Oddity?
Yeah, "Oddity" was probably the more accurate term.
...
Note: I'm not sure what ranking system to use for demons, so I just went with the DxD-style ranking.