Author's note: So I just found this anime called Hataraku Maou-sama! (The Devil is a part-timer) I just fell in love it! It is so funny but not in a cliché kind of way. The premise of the story is that the demon Dark Lord (Satan Jacob, aka Maou Sadao) of an another world (Ente Isla) after being nearly defeated by the humans' hero Emilia Justina (aka Yusu Emi) flees with his general Alciel (aka Ashiya Shirou) to our world, modern day Japan to be exact, only to find that there is no magic here, they lose their demonic visage and powers (well most of it) and are unable to return. After quickly deducing that in our world money is needed to get by he starts to work in a fast food restaurant chain. They soon find out that Emilia followed them to this world to kill the Dark Lord, only to find that he is living a simple life here… And all sorts of hilarity ensues.
I noticed that are very few fanfiction stories for this anime (not surprising considering it's relatively new, aired in Spring 2013). So I tried to give it a shot. I like sickfics, so this will be that also. (If it got you interested be sure to check the anime out, this fanfic will make more sense that way too! LOL)
I hope you enjoy :) – I plan this to be a one-shot. Some minor spoilers for those who have not seen it yet due to the characters that appear. Set somewhere around episode 6 or maybe between episode 5-6. I tweaked it a little, they weren't this clueless about human stuff in the anime, but it's just fun messing around with them.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the original plot line.
Arrgh. Groaned Maou Sadao as he awoke that morning. He felt like a truck had hit him last night while he slept. Speaking of sleep, he felt like didn't get any during the night. His head hurt like hell, his limbs felt heavy like led, moving even an inch was strenuous. He tried to slowly open his eyes only to find that the sun shining through the window hurt his eyes if he tried to open them. Damn this human body! Maybe I will just stay in bed today… he thought. That is until he remembered something important. Shit! I've got a shift today at MgRonalds! He made a real effort to get up and get ready because he was determined to become Employee of the Month and get a step closer to promotion, and that was simply not happening if he missed work. Even with all the strength he could muster at that moment all he could accomplish was to roll on his back. He pulled his arm over his eyes to block out the sunlight and groaned again in frustration.
"Maou-sama, are you alright?" – asked a very concerned Ashiya.
"Yes… no… yes… I don't know… I can't seem to get this body to work this morning." – sighed Maou again with frustration as he struggled to sit up against wall.
"You don't look so well Maou-sama." – Ashiya observed his pale complexion with worry creasing his brows. – "Perhaps you have gotten ill? It is a common occurrence to the human body." Just great!
"But I have to go work…" – Maou started but quickly realized that he was nowhere in shape to do that. However determined he was, he wasn't stupid. Also he worked in a restaurant, his boss would have him by the balls if he went to work sick. He cringed at the thought… Nope, not happening!
"I don't think that's a wise idea Maou-sama, I should bring you to a doctor." – Ashiya stated with determination already getting up to take Maou on his back.
"We don't have money for that." – stopping Ashiya in his tracks. Maou remembered their first night in this world before he realized that the human body needed food to work and collapsed at their apartment. He was taken to the hospital, they gave him something called an IV and it cost them almost a fortune. Ashiya remembered too, all too well.
"Okay, but what do we do?" – Ashiya inquired still worried while sitting back down on the floor in their 6-tatami room eyeing his Dark Lord for answers.
"Well first, I will call Kisaki-san to tell her I'm sick." – Maou-san stated while getting his phone from beside him. His boss will not be happy about this… – "Then I will ask Chii-chan, maybe she encountered an illness like this before. Or we could also have Urushihara-san research this on the internet, but first we would have to know what this illness is. " – he said after some thought while dialing his boss. She picked up after the first ring.
"Hi, Kisaki Mayumi speaking." – she answered with a serious voice.
"Hi, tenchou-sama, Maou Sadao, I am really sorry I can't come to work today because I'm sick." – he admitted to her defeatedly. Also his voice was so raspy that there wouldn't really be any denying of it even if he tried to.
"Thank you for letting me know, no worries, we have it covered, get well soon!" – she replied with a more gentle voice. Huuuhh? That was not what he expected. Maybe some yelling, "I am disappointed in you!" or "You let MgRonalds down!" or "Fine, but you can kiss being Employee of the Month good bye!". Just on queue to that thought Kisaki spoke again breaking the silence.
"Maaa-kun are you there? I really hope you recover soon. Don't stress yourself over the Employee of the Month thing. Even with this you are still my most diligent worker. I really have to go now, but let me know tomorrow when can you come back to work. Ja ne!" – and with that she hung up. Maou just stared at the phone in astonishment. He really thought that the tenchou was a much scarier lady. A coughing fit brought him out of his reverie, dropping his phone on the floor. Seriously how can humans endure this? As a demon he never got sick.
"Maou-sama! Here drink this water." – Ashiya handed him a glass of water as his fit subsided which he accepted gratefully.
"Thanks." – Maou acknowledged after carefully drinking some water. He sighed. Seriously this is so pathetic. He reached for his phone again dialing Chiho.
"Moshi moshi." – she picked up with her usually cheery voice.
"Hey Chii-chan…" – he began.
"What's wrong Maou-san?" – she asked worriedly as soon as she heard his voice.
"Um… I've gotten a little ill, so I won't be going to work today. I already called Kisaki-san to let her know. I just wanted to let you know too in case you were working so you wouldn't worry." – he tried to say as smoothly as possible, but his voice got a little rough by the end.
"No, I'm not working today, I happen to have the day off. I will be there in a second." – she answered hurriedly. He could hear in the background that she is already getting ready.
"No, it's fine, you don't have to come over, I was just wondering if you happen to know what we should do to help, Ashiya is a little out of depth here." – he teased looking up at his former underling, Ashiya's face fell with the realization that he is going to take the fall for this.
"Don't tell me that you have never been sick?!" – Chiho exclaimed, a little too loud for Maou's liking. He pulled the phone away from his ear a little.
"No, demons don't get sick, well not with human illnesses anyway…" – Maou trailed off. Come to think of it, he has never fallen ill as a demon either. He heard of some poisoning cases among demons, but that's about it.
"Well judging from your voice, I would say you have a sore throat, a cold maybe… Do you have a fever?" – Chiho inquired after a beat, deeply in thought about how she could help. She really wished she was over there. It would have been much easier to do anything than from afar. And she could nurse Maou-san back to health, almost like a dream come true. Maybe then he would acknowledge her feelings for him… She blushes at the idea.
"Uuhhmm… I have no idea." – the dark-haired boy admitted guiltily. Chiho sighed at the other end of the phone.
"Do you have a thermometer?" – she asked.
"No… what's that?" – Maou questioned, his brows furrowed.
"Okay, I'm coming over, I'll bring you one. Do you need anything else? Do you have cold medicine at home? Food? Other than cucumbers, tofu and udon?" – she knew full well how the boys lived, she has been over there a couple of times. It was honestly a miracle that neither of them got sick before this with the lack of nutrients they were getting.
"Uhhmm… no." – he sighed defeatedly. He didn't really want to be a bother but somehow he knew he wouldn't be winning this.
"I'll bring some cold medicine and some ingredients for a good hearty ramen too. See you soon!" – she said goodbye enthusiastically. Maou just planted his face in his palm. What are we in for…
"So, what is it Maou-sama?" – Ashiya eagerly asked since he didn't hear half of the conversation.
"She thinks it's something called a 'cold' and we should check for fever with something called a 'thermometer'… She said she will be over soon though with anything we would need, don't worry." – he added when he saw his confused and panicking face.
Since he wasn't going anywhere he might as well get back to sleep. He was really, really tired and all this talking just made his throat hurt even more. So he scooted back down into a lying position on the floor, turning away from Ashiya pulling his covers up tightly to his neck. He hadn't realized till now that he was cold, but he was positively shivering. He fell asleep nonetheless.
Ashiya went over to wake Urushihara who slept through the whole exchange, curled up like a little kid in the closet. No one would really guess looking at him now that this was Lucifer, also demon general to the Dark Lord.
"Whaaaaat?" – he whined when Ashiya-san waked him – "Leave me alone."
"Urushihara-kun, we really need you to research something on the internet. It's important. The Dark Lord is not feeling well." – Ashiya explained with such a serious expression that you might just laugh out loud seeing it. Urushihara looked up dubiously. In his short time in this world somehow he became quite expert with computers which came handy in situations like these where they had little or no information on things of this world. But mostly he just used it for online shopping much to Ashiya's dismay as he was trying to rein in the expenses of the household.
"Fine what is it?" – the fallen angel answered with such annoyance that could send some less patient people into a frenzy. Ashiya was more mature than that… sort of.
"Research: colds, illness, treatment, fever, thermometer. We have to be prepared so that we can help the Dark Lord through this and we can't rely solely on humans!" – again he was so serious as if he was talking about battle strategies. Urushihara almost laughed at him but something in the fair-haired demon's expression suggested he better not so he got to the task, firing away at the keyboard.
A little while later Chiho-chan arrived…
"Ahoy, how's everyone?" – she greeted loudly as she entered through the door taking off her shoes.
"Ssshhh. Maou-sama is sleeping!" – Ashiya admonished with a scowl.
"Sorry…" – she said sheepishly setting her bags on the kitchen counter. – "How is he?"
"I don't really know, he hasn't really said anything after he hung up the phone with you, just went to sleep. He has been bundled up in the corner ever since…" – he said looking toward to said bundle.
"Hai. Hai. I can hear you guys you know…" – Maou muttered groggily as he awoke. He turned on his back slowly, stretching a bit then sat up. There was a fine layer of sweat on his forehead and dark circles under his eyes clearly indicating that he wasn't well.
"Wow Maou-san really is sick… for a moment I thought you were kidding when you called." – Chiho muttered to herself but audible to the rest of them. – "Here you should check your fever." – she suggested after fishing out the thermometer from her bag and crossing the small room to Maou to hand it to him. He looked at it curiously, not knowing how it worked.
"Just put it in your mouth, under your tongue and press the button on top and wait for it to beep." – she explained half amused.
"Sorry, we didn't really have a reason to figure out how these things before now…" – Maou muttered embarrassed.
"Don't talk, it will mess up the reading." – came a stern order from the doorway. Everyone looked up only to find Emi, aka Hero Emilia entering with her no nonsense attitude. – "Go figure that the Dark Lord goes and gets himself sick. Mattaku! It reflects badly on me as a hero… anyone could defeat you in this moment based on how you look." – she ranted while sitting down on the tatami in the bit over-crowded room.
They were supposed to be enemies, with her mission to kill the Dark Lord, but no one really questioned anymore if she just showed up out of the blue at their Stronghold as they called it. – "How did you get sick anyway?" – she inquired right when the beep came.
"I have no idea. 38.4. Is that normal for humans?" – the Dark Lord asked as he glanced at the display.
"It…" – the pink-haired teenager began to explain but was interrupted by Urushihara, who was still concentrating on the computer screen deep in research.
"Normal for humans is around 37 Celsius, or 98.6 in Fahrenheit, above 38 C (100.4 F) it is considered a fever, and it gets dangerous if it gets close to 40 C (104 F). Above 39 C (102.2 F) fever-reducers are definitely recommended, but the fever in itself is not necessarily a bad sign only if it keeps up for too long. It helps the body fight the infection." – Urushihara rattled off his research findings in one breath but sounding absolutely bored with it.
"Did you find anything how these 'colds' are caught or what are the treatments?" – inquired the blond demon general almost getting sick himself with worry. That's just how Ashiya was, he felt it was his responsibility to take care of Maou while he provided the income of the household until they could gather enough magic to return to Ente Isla, and felt absolutely guilty when something went wrong… Like the fact that with their limited resources food wasn't the best around here.
"It's a common illness, not too serious, will go away on its own in a few days or a week at most if there are no other complications. There are no treatments per se, but the symptoms can be eased with different medications. Plenty of rest, fluids and light meals are suggested. As to how can one contract it, it is caused by a virus infection, you can be more prone to it if your immune system is weakened by stress, cold weather or other pre-existing medical conditions." – the purple-haired fallen angel continued his rant in his usual annoyed teenager kind of way.
"Right the soup!" – Chii-chan exclaimed suddenly remembering and got up to go to the "kitchen" which was really just a counter in one of the corners of the room. She got the ingredients out on the counter than came back with the bag and handed it to Ashiya. – "There are some cold medicine and fever-reducers in there if you need them." – she said sweetly then returned and got busy with soup-making.
Emi started chuckling and everyone looked at her with bewilderment, not understanding just possibly what she could find funny in the situation.
"What?" – Maou asked her with irritation. To be honest he just wanted to rest and with all these people around and the ruckus they were making it was kind of impossible.
"I think I know how you got sick." – she snickered. – "Seriously it is just beyond funny that the great Dark Lord is reduced to a cold because of a fight."
Suddenly the light bulb went off in Maou's muddled brain as well. It was only a short few days ago that they fought Olba and Lucifer, him getting shot with magic and real bullets several times. Almost dying actually from the huge magic wound to his chest. Fortunately Lucifer was a complete retard and right after the shot he destroyed the highway causing panic among the bystanders which led to him regaining his magic powers and his demonic outlook, and thus healing himself, ultimately defeating Olba and Lucifer, then restoring to city using up most of his acquired magic.
He guessed that even though his physical injuries were healed in an instant, the stress on his human body was greater than he thought. He sighed. This is so bothersome… The others just looked at the two of them confused, not having caught up with their train of thought. He wasn't really in the mood to explain despite the fact that he was usually quick to boast about his quick thinking. Instead he got the bag with the medicine in his lap to examine its contents.
"Allow me." – Ashiya interjected quickly taking the bag from Maou and began to study the patient pamphlets inside the medicine boxes consulting with Urushihara to do research on points not clear.
"Fine, just leave me be." – Maou sighed again and threw his hands in the air in frustration that he was not allowed to do anything. Not that he really had the energy but felt pushed to the side lines again. He slided back down under the covers turning on his side once more, pretending to go to sleep.
Everyone, even Emi shot worried glances toward his back. He really wanted to sleep but he could almost feel them staring at his back and that made it really difficult. After a few minutes Emi got up sensing that she over-stayed her welcome.
"Umm… right. Get well soon Maou. It would really be a shame to defeat you when you are this weak." – she said warily, lacking her usual superior attitude.
"Hai. Hai. Whatever." – Maou muttered and waved from under the blankets. He sensed the worry in her voice but decided not to bring it up and just played his usual flippant attitude. It was kind of nice that the half-angel cared this much, but also a little weird. Emi hated him, he knew that well. He also knew that he deserved that hate. This cold was really messing with his emotions, they were all over the place…
"Here is your soup Maou-san, you should eat then rest, I will leave as well to not disturb you." – came Chiho to him after she was done with cooking, her enthusiasm wilted because of Maou's earlier attitude.
"I'm sorry Chii-chan, I didn't mean to upset you, it wasn't really meant for you. Thank you for your help." – the ebony haired demon apologized as he sat up yet again to eat the meal Chiho has prepared for him although he wasn't really hungry at that moment.
"No, it's fine, I understand that you are in a bad mood. I'm too usually if I'm sick." – she accepted smiling shyly at him. – "I should go anyway when you finished eating, you need sleep to get better fast."
They sat in silence while Maou slowly finished the ramen, which by the way was delicious. They really need some more balanced meals in this household… Chiho left as promised, wishing him a fast recovery. The two demon generals decided it was for the best to leave him be too, after they explained what they have learned regarding the dosages of the medicines. He slept mostly for the rest of the day and with the medicine and a little push from his remaining magical powers he was healthy as a horse again in two days. He really couldn't afford to be out of work for longer… How else would he get a promotion!
