The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

lid and clear vinyl cover into the bin for burnable garbage, washed out the paper cup, flung it into the bag for recyclable papers, leaned against the sink, and sighed.
    “I guess you could say demons have more…forceful ways of solving their problems. But stuff like that… I guess it’s not much different between humans and us.”
    “……”
    Ashiya listened on silently as Maou spoke.
    “…Ugghh, one of those little cups isn’t enough…”
    Urushihara, oblivious to the conversation, placed his strawberry cup on the computer desk, his eyes greedily swiveling toward the refrigerator.
    Just then, Maou’s eyes pricked up.
    “Oh? Hey, Suzuno, where’d you go? Chi wanted you to have some ice cream, too.”
    Maou spied Suzuno passing by the open kitchen window, carrying a set of large objects in front of her.
    “Ah, my thanks to you. I will gladly partake of it once I am finished with this task.”
    They spoke between the iron bars that covered the window. Suzuno appeared to have something resembling a set of small, square logs in hand.
    “…Hey, what’s that?”
    “Hmm? Logs. Why do you ask?”
    “I can see that. I was asking what you’re gonna do with it.”
    The reason why Maou was so insistently asking about his neighbor’s possessions was that, in her opposite hand, she held far more
ogara
sticks than she had any business needing.
    “As a member of the Church’s Missionary Office, I have an interest in this Obon holiday. I decided it would be best to experience it for myself.”
    “…And?”
    “And to begin with, I have to light the
mukaebi
, yes? And then the smoke from this fire will attract the spirits of one’s ancestors back down to earth?”
    Maou hung his head, his suspicions proven correct, before beckoning Suzuno inside through the bars.
    Suzuno, brows knitted, nonetheless opened the door to the Devil’s Castle.
    “What? They say it is best to do the task while the sun is in the air, so I wanted to handle it as soon as—
ow
!”
    Maou cut off Suzuno with a karate chop to her head.
    “Wh-what are you doing?!”
    “Are you trying to burn this apartment down?! ’Cause you’ve got
way
too much fuel for the job!”
    Suzuno’s eyes welled up as she fought back verbally, attempting to invent new and colorful words to criticize him with.
    “I was hardly going to burn all of this! The logs are so that I can build a fire pit in the back garden! I am only going to burn this
set
of
ogara
, and… Ow! H-how dare you strike me while my hands are full!”
    Maou unleashed his second karate chop.
    “That’s even worse! You
saw
Chi buy just one little bundle of them! And now you’re building a fire pit in our yard?! How many ancestors’re you trying to get over here?! You’re not making a campfire!”
    The parcel of land occupied by Villa Rosa Sasazuka was surrounded by a concrete-block wall. The yard, if it was large enough to call it that, was little more than a bare strip of earth.
    Only a single hardwood tree dared to set root inside. Every year, an entire metropolis of cicadas set up shop amid its leaves, seeking refuge from the city’s asphalt jungle and reciting their incomprehensible, screeching cacophony summer after summer.
    “Hey, let’s just calm down a sec, okay? I’ve got some vanilla ice cream for you, Suzuno.”
    “It shall be mine!”
    If the Devil’s Castle lacked AC, it was a given that Suzuno’s room was no less scorching. That might at least partially explain why Suzuno leaped at the ice cream offered to her, topping it with some
kuromitsu
syrup and roasted soy flower from her room. She spent a moment to savor it before attempting to defend herself again.
    “Well, how are you supposed to light a
mukaebi,
then?! As far as I saw in my research, there are monks that build these enormous fires! Vast pyres of flame, set ablaze in pits lined with straw from the
makomo
rice plant!”
    There was no way to tell what kind of research Suzuno could have done in the short time