After Yuki left the demon's apartment with a smug look on his face, proud that his pockets have gotten fatter. He returned to his apartment to fix his appearance a little so that he doesn't attract too many eyes to him before he set out to do his mission of getting to know the location of where Lucifer and Olba would be when they attack Maou and Emilia…
It didn't take Yuki a long time to reach the Sasazuka train station, and after buying a ticket for the Shinjuku station that cost him 130 yen, he got on the train, and 5 minutes later, he was at the Shinjuku station.
Since talking to Mashiro, only around 30 minutes have passed, so he still had another 30 to check the underground station on his own, and just that as he started walking around the area, he noticed that it was pretty crowded...
'Hmm, people really are taking advantage of spring break to the fullest… But most importantly... Lucifer and Olba are really cruel to actually not care about killing so many people to achieve their goal... I need to be careful around those beings.' thought Yuki as he watched the various couples in this underground mall avoiding him like a plague. But he wasn't here to destroy his ego, instead he was here to find the coffee shop that Chiho chose to take Maou on a date and explain to him the weird phenomena she was experiencing.
After all, every time the idiots from Ente Isla use the Idea link spell trying to locate and connect to Emilia, they actually end up connecting with Chiho instead and causing a strong earthquake wherever she is from the shockwave of the magic, and because she trusted Maou a lot and had feelings for him, she decided to tell him about this and confide in him believing that he wouldn't judge her or think badly of her.
After all, normal people would think that you are crazy if you tell them that you are hearing voices inside your head talking in an unknown language, and their response would be in a language you will understand very well telling you 'you need to go see someone…'
Back to the underground mall, Yuki kept checking around the area and started to slowly get depressed as he saw how big this place was, it actually had all kinds of shops your mind could think of, from clothing stores to restaurants to coffee shops, to repair shops… But that wasn't all, Yuki even found a shop that sells pet clothing…
'Fucking dogs are dressed better than me now...' Yuki felt insulted seeing people happily buying clothes for their pets when he had to trick a freaking demon for some short change... but he quickly got over it.
'How am I supposed to find that coffee shop when I can barely remember that scene from the anime… I didn't even see a real picture of it, tch' Yuki kept lamenting his luck but he decided to check out every single coffee shop this place has to offer until he finds a place that he somehow finds familiar…
After 30 mins, a tired Yuki was sitting on a bench while looking at the ceiling in despair, exhausted from his fruitless search, but suddenly his phone started ringing and he noticed that it was Mashiro calling him so he picked it up lazily "Hello Mashiro, where are you?"
"I arrived" replied Mashiro, slightly surprised by Yuki's depressed voice…
"Do you have a nice place to meet?" Said Yuki who was resigned to his fate, not expecting much from this little girl, but what she said next suddenly started igniting some of his lost hope
"Um, Chihiro took me to a nice coffee shop and opened recently..." Said Mashiro with her monotone voice…
"n-n-nice coffee shop? Where's it?" asked Yuki nervously wishing that Mashiro was talking about the same shop he was searching for
"It's at the intersection of…" Mashiro started describing the location and suddenly, Yuki's memory that was enhanced thanks to his drawing talent finally remembered the scene that depicted this coffee shop in the anime properly…
He remembered how Ashiya was spying on Maou while hiding at this same intersection until he was startled by Emilia catching him red-handed before they both went ahead and entered the coffee shop to the annoyance of Maou as Emilia wanted to stop his evil scheme of tricking a little girl…
This was the miracle of the memory, sometimes if you ask someone to remember something, they can try their best, yet they would fail to remember it. But if you give them a hint or tell them about something related to what you want them to remember. Their foggy memories would suddenly clear up and there's a high chance they would remember…
Not to mention Yuki who has a 50% increase in his memory thanks to his drawing talent, and there's also his stronger than normal soul which he had yet to know the meaning of…
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Thank you so much Mashiro, you can't imagine how much you just helped me " Said Yuki, full of sincerity feeling like a huge burden was relieved from his shoulders. Because right now, even if this coffee shop Mashiro described wasn't the same one. He at least has a better idea of where to search next.
Meanwhile, Mashiro didn't understand at all how the previously depressed sounding Yuki turned so enthusiastic and started thanking her, but she felt happy, happy that she was a source of happiness to him… so with a slight smile on her face, she replied "Don't be late" Before she hung up the phone and started walking towards the coffee shop…
****
5 minutes later, Mashiro was sitting in front of Yuki after they each ordered some drinks. She ordered an ice tea while he ordered milk coffee and then Yuki said with a delighted look on his face "Mashiro, how did you find out about this coffee shop?"
Of course, Yuki was very delighted because this was the shop that he was searching for all along and he couldn't help but think that his quest for survival was starting to get more and more probable and he finally took one step away from hell…
"Chihiro brought me here once after I came to Japan" Replied Mashiro and Yuki found it expected… so after some more chitchat, they started discussing her manga and how she could improve it…
Of course, Yuki was only using half of his focus on Mashiro because the other half was trying to analyze the view outside the coffee shop to the best of his abilities and he picked up a seat that overlooks the outside just for this…
'Where could you be observing them from? The intersection? No that would be too obvious plus Ashiya and Emilia came from there and they didn't see lucifer or Olba, so that is eliminated, so if I assume they weren't using magic to locate them which would make this mission impossible… This would leave…' As his thought reached this point, Yuki couldn't help but stare at the restaurant that seems to sell traditional Japanese food right across this coffee shop…
'It seems like this is my only chance, three days later I'm going to end up taking a huge risk when this underground mall collapses, but I have no other choice, I can only trust that Maou would help save everyone else when the time comes just like in the anime…' Yuki didn't even notice that he was clenching his fist too tightly around his cup to the point that it felt like he was about to break it and Mashiro clearly noticed this and not knowing what to do. She held his hand gently and said "Yuki… Are you okay?"
Yuki suddenly snapped out of his thoughts as he steeled his heart for what's about to come before he looked at Mashiro with a smile and said "um don't worry, where were we?" and they continued talking about Mashiro's manga and how to improve it for one more hour before they finally decided to go walk around and enjoy their time in this underground mall.
Mashiro had a lot of fun, especially since she found that Yuki didn't seem like the typical people that were reserved even to those close to them, he seemed free and would say whatever he felt like saying not fearing to be judged at all which made him funnier to talk to and she enjoyed her time with him a lot…
"let's meet again once you fix your manga the way we talked about okay?" said Yuki with a smile as he also enjoyed his time with this innocent girl 'Although inside he was thinking, or if I'm still alive...'
"um" Replied Mashiro and didn't know what to say or do before leaving which made Yuki's smile widen as he patted her head and said "it was fun today, so even without your manga I wouldn't mind going out with you again"
Hearing what Yuki said, Mashiro suddenly felt flustered and she didn't know what to say as she simply replied with "um" again before she automatically turned around like a robot and started leaving…
Yuki stood there rooted in place speechless for a while before he suddenly burst out laughing at how weird and innocent this girl is… Then he checked his phone and noticed that it was getting late so he decided to head back home…
By the time he reached his apartment, it was almost 6 pm, but he noticed that Maou wasn't back from work yet and he didn't want to talk to that bastard Ashiya that almost killed him earlier so he simply laid down on his futon and kept conjuring one plan after another trying to think about all kinds of scenarios on how to deal with his predicament… And this continued until it was around 8 pm….
Feeling his stomach growling, Yuki stood up and visited Ashiya and Maou to borrow a knife again, and he noticed that Ashiya had a worried look on his face, this time clearly not from him so Yuki immediately guessed 'It seems Maou and Emilia were already attacked huh, I believe this is the incident where Maou's bike was destroyed so I guess this is why he looks so depressed, this guy cares about a bike more than he's fearing for his life…what a guy… Either way, hopefully nothing happened to Emilia too'
Ashiya didn't complain at all this time, and gave him the knife right away and because Yuki didn't want to alarm Maou that he knows about his identity and risk a change in the quest… He immediately left back to his apartment and started preparing his dinner happily while humming a song, glad that bastard who almost killed him lost his dear bike
'Serves you right bitch, I wish I was there when it was destroyed to witness your cheap heart breaking with my own eyes!' thought Yuki with an evil smile on his face that would put most demons to shame…
They say be careful of a woman's grudge, but a ghost's grudge is on a whole different realm, and Yuki couldn't wait for the day to come when he would pay them back for all of this with intrest…
At the same time that Yuki was thinking about this, both Maou and Ashiya suddenly felt a chill and for some reason, the image of their 'dear' neighbor' carrying their knife popped inside their heads…
'I should lock the door later just in case' thought Ashiya before he went back to prepare dinner...
But then...
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
Knocking suddenly interrupted Yuki from his 'beautiful' thoughts as he murmured to himself "Does Maou or Ashiya need something…" As he approached the door and said "who is it?"
But to his surprise, a feminine voice nervously replied "I-It's Emilia… Can I come in?"
'Huh? HUUUUUUH? Don't tell me? I already changed the story…' was all Yuki could think