Somewhere deep down in the demon world, the royal family gathered in the throne room where the Great Mother was screaming at the top of her lungs in anger

The screaming was currently directed at Hilda because of something having to do with Beelze.

If I leave now while she's distracted I can get back to my game...

Mastema thought to himself as he glanced over to the nearest exit.
He guessed that if he planned his next move carefully that the old woman wouldn't notice.

He was wrong.

"And you!"

"Huh?"

The old woman was suddenly staring daggers at him.

"You dumbass!" She fumed. "Who the hell just gives a human their powers and leaves to participate in a bingo game!"

Mastema (being Mastema) did not bother to take her seriously.

"Someone who wanted to win?"

This resulted in the old woman placing him in a headlock.

"You sorry excuse for a general!"

"Mother!" Iris yelled seeing her brother-in-law start to pass out. "Please!"

"Fine!"

Mastema was able to breathe again and proceeded to act as if nothing happened by glancing over at the exit again.
He thought that if he really wanted he could run away before she could stop him.

"I'll give you a chance to explain yourself."

He sighed in defeat.

"You really think I would leave my powers to just anybody?"

"You shouldn't even be giving your powers out like that?! Am I the only one with their head straight here?" She took a deep breath in and changed her demeanor. "I can't let things be. I will have to step in!"

"W-What!"

"For the sake of my nephew and the demon world I will travel to the human world." The great mother glared at Mastema. "Don't try to stop me."

Yet again, Mastema (being Mastema) ignored her and made a run for it.
He was more worried about his bingo game.

Back in the human world things were a little different.

It had been several months since Ogas fought Fuji and left the town a mess.
Thankfully, things were restored and people carried on with their lives as if that never happened.

Now that things were much calmer, daily life had become much easier to deal with and it was especially better with Mastema gone.

My nights were spent actually sleeping instead of staying awake until 3am because Mastema wouldn't shut up about eating more candy.
I had been able to sleep soundly with no interruptions. I loved it but others didn't because I had developed a habit of oversleeping.

Which had resulted in Rin barging into my apartment to wake me up from time to time.

Today was one of those times.

She had come into my apartment, found me sleeping, and tried waking me up. After poking me and calling my name out several times she decided to drag me out of bed and throw water at my face.

"Wake up Etsuko!"

"Rin? Wait...why are you doing here?"

"You don't remember?You promised you'd come with me to drop off Ryota!"

"Oh that's right!"

She hung her head because she knew that when she asked me a few days ago there was a high chance I was going to forget.

"Sometimes it's a good thing I know you so well." She replied shaking her head. "What would you do without me?"

"I probably would still be sleeping without you."

She hung her head again at my response.

"I knew you were going to say something like that."

We were both interrupted when little Ryota came in.
Rin had previously told him to wait outside while she got me but he started to get nervous without her.

"Nee-chan, we might be running late if we don't get going."

"I'm so sorry, Ryota. We'll be out the door in a second!"

Rin didn't waste another second and threw me in the bathroom then tossed some clothes inside.
Once I was changed she grabbed my hand and his then ran out the door.

"W-Wait Rin! I have to lock my door!"

"There is no time!"

As we were running we passed by a familiar figure.

"Etsuko?" Toujou asked, not understanding why we were running. "Wait! Where are you going?"

"Just follow us!"

He immediately obeyed Rin's order without hesitation.
Eventually we all got to Ryotas school in one piece.

While Rin was giving her little brother a pep talk, I turned to Toujou who just stood there looking at me waiting for an explanation.

"Today is his first day of kindergarten and Rin is worried that he may have a hard time making friends because his confidence is a little low."

Toujou noticed Ryota slightly tremble.
This pierced the red headed man's heart.

"Okay, I know what I must do."

I raised an eyebrow at him not knowing what he meant.
Toujou became extremely serious and walked towards the little boy.

"Ryota." He called, huffing his chest out.

"Y-yes, Rice Boy!"

"You have to believe in yourself!" He said loudly, puffing his chest out and beaming with light. "Rice Boy always wins when he believes in himself. So you must do the same. Especially as my number one fan!"

Ryota's eyes watered.

"So you will go in there and have a good first day!"

"Yes, Rice Boy!"

Everyone who was around us had stopped to watch and they started clapping after Toujou's motivational talk.

I sighed watching my boyfriend's ego go up by 1000x but froze when I sensed an unfamiliar demonic energy.

Whoever this demonic energy belongs to...it's watching me…

The Great Mother smiled as she stood up high on the roof of the school building.

"There you are~"

Next thing I knew a young woman appeared before me with a gun in her hand.

Acting fast, I jumped out of the way as she pulled the trigger and some sort of ball attached to a string shot out.

What the hell was that?

The young woman smirked.

"That was good." She clicked the side of her gun, reeling the ball back into place and aimed it at me again. "Having Mastemas powers doesn't change the fact you're still a human!"

"Will you quit trying to shoot everyone with that!" Yelled a little boy running up to the young woman.

This little boy looked way too familiar.
Then it hit me.

"Oga?"

"Yo."

The young woman smiled at them both but clearly she was pissed.

"Tatsumi you're in the way!"

She then snapped her fingers and the floor beneath me turned black.
In an instant I fell in.

Toujou who had finally noticed what was going on watched me disappear and started running at full force towards the young woman.

The Great Mother noticed him before he could even get close.
She aimed her gun at him and pulled the trigger with ease.
The ball hit him square in the face.

"Ha! That didn't even hurt!"

Toujou emerged again but this time it wasn't his usual self.
He was a pre-teen again.

"I don't have time for you." The Great mother said turning away. "You're going to be late Tatsumi."

"Just stay put. I'll sort this thing out and get Takenaka back."

Toujou looked down at the little boy and raised an eyebrow.

"Do I know you?"

"It's me you fool!"

"When did you learn how to talk Baby Beel?"

Oga shot him a glare while the real Baby Beel just watched them with a blank stare.

"Forget it! Just stay put!"

After being pulled down to the ground, I looked around trying to figure out where I was but saw nothing. I was able to walk around but it felt like I was walking in place because I was surrounded by straight up darkness.

She mentioned Mastemas name before she brought me here...wherever this is?...

I stopped walking and focused my energy in trying to summon one of my skeletons.
Instead of a whole skeleton man appearing only a foot landed before me.

I can't even use the full extent of my powers here?!

Back in the human world, Rin slowly walked up to Toujou not sure what just happened. She had successfully got her brother to his class in time and once she came back to join us, she saw me go down some black hole and saw Toujou get shot at.

"Um...Toujou…"

"We have to get Etsuko back!"

"But Toujou…"

Just as he was about to speak again, she pulled her compact mirror and shoved it in his face.

"Wait! What the hell!"

He snatched the mirror and looked at himself closely. Rin was about to say something when she noticed something laying behind him. She walked past him, to the spot where I disappeared and found a skeleton foot.

"Etsuko-chan?"

Back in the void that I was in, I couldn't help but to let out a loud sneeze.

How can I have allergies down here?

I remembered that wasn't what I should be worried about and reached into my pocket to make sure I had brought some extra candy with me.

Yes!

Considering wherever I was at was limiting my ability to summon my demonic energy then I was going to need to eat as much candy as I could.

I hope this plan works because if it doesn't then I am in real serious trouble because I'll be drained of my demonic energy and I will be stuck here.

I focused my energy again.
I now understood that I would have to summon a skeleton man piece by piece.

So this time I summoned a leg.

Let's connect the foot to the leg.

"This for sure is her!" Rin exclaimed seeing a leg appear next to the foot and connect. "That means she can get back somehow!"

"C'mon Etsuko! You can get out!"

"Etsuko! Etsuko!"

Again, I couldn't help but to let out a loud sneeze.

What am I even allergic to down here that makes me sneeze?

I ate another piece of candy and continued.
It took a long time to summon each piece but after a while I was almost done.

The last thing left to summon was the skull.

Although I was worn out, I was in the position I wanted to be because by having not only one skeleton next to me but also the other skeleton in the "outside" world then I was able to connect both of my power sources.

I don't know what the hell Mastema did this to this lady but I'm not letting her take it out on me.

Activating my king's crest, I was able to establish another connection to the "outside" world and with that I placed the skull on my skeleton.

The skeleton kneeled down and I positioned myself firmly against their arm.
It pulled its arm back then at full force launched me into the air.

I reeled my arm back and summoned demonic energy to gather around my hand.
Once I gathered enough, I formed a fist and swung forward.

Time to get out!

The skeleton that had been outside swung it's fist down and firmly placed it against the ground.

Acting like a kite during a thunderstorm, it was there to absorb my blast in order to create an opening that was created by the connection I established between both my power sources.

I wasn't sure for how long this opening would be able to stay because I was getting ready to pass out, I made sure to use the very last bit of my energy to transform the skeleton that was down in the void with me.

It had jumped up right after me and it suddenly grew 10x its size.
It moved quickly to stick it's hand through the opening to hold it the opening still.

With it's other hand it pushed me through the opening.

"Etsuko!"

My eyes landed on Toujou, who I was glad to see but when I focused closely on him my expression changed because I was confused as to why he was a tiny version of himself.

At this time as well, the kids were coming out of the building because I guess there was a fight between Baby Beel and Aoi's little brother so the school teacher decided to move everyone outside away from the broken glass that laid around the room.

"Dabuh!" Baby Beel yelled excited not only seeing me back but seeing my enormous skeleton man pull itself out of the void.

"AHHHH What is that!" The school teacher's eyes widened so much she was close to fainting.

The Great Mother who had previously been crying over seeing her grandson defeat Aoi's little brother and help him up, wiped her tears and smiled.

"After living a long time there aren't many that have been able to surpass my expectations and today I was able to see both Oga and that girl do just that."

"This is really what you wanted to see?"

The Great Mother nodded at Hilda's question. She then walked out of their hiding spot (behind some bushes) and walked up to me.

"Don't get near her!" Toujou yelled holding me beside him.

After coming back, my body nearly collapsed due to the strain I had put it in by using so much demonic energy. Especially when I was in that weird void that made it impossible to properly manage my power.

Even if Toujou was not in his regular body he did move in time to catch me.

"Don't hurt her!" Rin had been beside me as well and had just opened a new bag of candy to give me.

The Great Mother looked down at them and chuckled.

"No need to fuss."

She then took out another gun but this one was different than the one she used before.

In an instant she fired it and it hit me on my forehead.
I quickly opened my eyes and shot up.

"There all better~"

Ignoring the screams of both Rin and Toujou, the Great Mother put her gun away and glanced down at my mark on my neck.

"I'll let things be for now."

"Huh?"

It wasn't much later on that I was told who exactly the Great Mother was and told why she was in the human world. Hilda had explained she had visited to make sure Baby Beel made some friends but also to see if I was worthy of Mastemas powers.

Apparently right after she was satisfied with her visit she had decided to leave.

I hope she never returns…

Toujou had watched me make a sour face and raised his eyebrows. Thankfully he had gone back to his normal self and was no longer his pre-teen self. So things had gone back to normal.

He had just picked me up after one of my work shifts and was walking me back to my apartment.

As I was deep in thought, I didn't notice he had moved closer to me until I felt his arm wrap itself around me.
I snapped out of it and looked up at him with a slight blush.

"You made a face." He answered bluntly. "It looked like you were upset."

A small smile formed on my lips knowing he was trying to comfort me and I leaned in against him.

"I was but not anymore."


It feels good to add a new chapter to this story after many years!

Although it has been a while since I was active, I did try to write this chapter multiple times but it just never felt right. Then life happened and I ended up super busy. Then 2020 happened and I found myself thinking about Etsuko again. So after some time I got a version that felt good.

I hope you all like it! :)