Take this flyer, believe with all your heart, and a devil will come and make all your wishes come true!

Yeah, right, Issei thought. He was sitting on his bed with the house to himself on a Saturday afternoon; his parents wouldn't be back until nightfall. It was the perfect opportunity for a devil to come knocking. Problem was, nobody came.

Talk about a waste of time. There was this urban legend going around where for the right price, you could summon a devil, an actual devil to do your bidding. He didn't put much stock into rumours and legends, but Matsuda and Motohama wouldn't shut up about it even though neither of them had actually seen a devil in the first place.

All he knew about devils – which wasn't much, to be honest – was that they came to you, not the other way around. Well, there were genies, but those guys were trapped in lamps, not flyers.

Speaking of flyers, the only thing that stood out to him was the elaborate sigil. Otherwise, it was just an ordinary piece of paper. How could it summon a devil, if they even existed in the first place? He tried focusing on it like the flyer girl told him, but nothing happened. The flyer was cold in his hand, utterly silent.

(And yet, in the corner of his mind, he could feel the paper calling to him, speaking to an abandoned part of his soul.)

He shook himself. If something that spooky actually happened, he'd burn the flyer, bury its remains and pretend he never saw it.

The only reason why he even gave this thing a shot was because the flyer girl seemed so sincere about it working, and there was no way a cute girl could ever lie to him. He'd give it one more try, and do it right this time. If it still didn't work, then that was that.

So he focused on the flyer, staring at the sigil, pouring in a genuine desire to meet one. He wondered if this devil would fit the stereotype he saw in those American cartoons: red skin, horns, and a trident. Honestly, that sounded like an oni minus the trident. Hopefully, this devil would be a sexy succubus. He wouldn't mind giving up his soul for a taste of that.

The sigil lit up, bright crimson.

"Holy shit!" he said, letting go of the flyer as he was consumed by the light. When the light faded, he was still in his room, unharmed.

This wasn't a hoax. It was succubus time.

What he got instead was... a little girl. Issei blinked. Then he blinked some more. The girl was still there. On the one hand, the flyer actually worked. On the other... little girl.

Yup. He was so glad that his room was locked. He'd probably die from sheer embarrassment if someone barged into his room right about now, and he was a guy with no shame whatsoever.

"You summoned me," the girl said.

"I... did?" he said. "Wait, so you're actually a devil?"

Black bat wings sprouted from her back, and they looked way too real to be some cosplay prop. They retracted just as quickly as they appeared, like they were never there at all.

"Happy?"

He chuckled. "I'm convinced."

Even though she didn't have horns like an oni, she was an actual, honest-to-goodness (badness?) devil, and she was pretty – nope, he was not going there.

"I'm Koneko," the devil girl said. "What's your name?"

Damn it, he was so shocked from everything that he forgot his manners. Issei stood up and gave Koneko a bow.

"My name's Issei. It's nice to meet you, Koneko."

"Feeling's mutual." When he looked up, he saw a blank stare on Koneko's face. "You can stop bowing now."

He sat back down on his bed. So far, so good. Even if Koneko was a little girl, the least he could do was be polite. She was a devil, after all, and she was in his room.

His room, with his special alarm clock, figurines, posters, manga and DVD cases... and most of it wasn't for kids. Reality quickly slapped him awake. He had a girl in his room, for the first time ever, and it just had to be a girl who was in like, elementary school or something.

"What do you do for fun?" Koneko asked, with a tone dull that he felt she'd find scraping gum off her shoe more entertaining than teleporting into a stranger's bedroom.

Issei plastered on a smile through sheer force of will. "I watch TV, read books. Hang out with my friends after school and do... stuff."

"What are your friends like?"

"They're cool. We like a lot of the same stuff, so there's always something to talk about. What about you? What kind of friends does a devil have?"

That sounded like a totally fine question, until he actually said it.

"Nice ones."

"Do they know you're a devil?"

"Yep."

Issei chuckled, feeling his nerves start to settle. "Seriously? That's pretty nice. Convenient, too."

Koneko shrugged. "I guess."

Not the reaction he expected, but that was fine. He was actually talking to a devil, and so far, their conversation hadn't fizzled out.

"You guys all go to the same school?"

"Nope. They're all in high school. I'm not."

He whistled. "I guess it can get kind of lonely waiting for them, huh? Not just that, your friends are all older than you."

"It's fine. I get to see them a lot, and besides, I'll be going to their school pretty soon."

That statement might have been uttered as casually as a gentle breeze, but it made Issei do a double take. Koneko wasn't so little, after all. Her slim figure and small size made him assume she was younger than she actually was, even if her hair was silvery-white. The sky blue t-shirt and white capris didn't sell her maturity, but maybe that was all part of her plan.

"What school's that?" he asked, without missing a beat.

She blinked. As listless as her stare was at the moment, her golden eyes were large and so bright. It was cute. She was cute, and now that he knew she was only a year younger than him, it was safe to admit it.

"Kuoh Academy."

Issei grinned. "Hey, that's my school. Maybe we'll run into each other." Then it hit him, the implication. "Hey, won't that be a problem?"

"It won't."

His mouth fell open. "But, how would I'd explain where I met you? I mean, you're a devil."

A slight smirk was his answer. "Nobody would ever believe you."

He opened his mouth to protest, then immediately closed it. "You're right."

Truth be told, he was worried for another reason: he had an awful reputation at school. It wasn't undeserved, but he didn't want people to tar Koneko with the same brush the school painted him with. Come to think of it...

"I thought devils didn't need to go to school," he said.

"We're different." Koneko moved over to his night stand, grabbing his alarm clock. An older girl in cute pajamas was snoozing on the display. "Where'd you get this?"

Issei bit his lip. Was it just him, or did the room get a bit colder? Maybe it was just him; Koneko's expression hadn't shifted one bit.

"At a con. Why, you want one?"

Koneko rolled her eyes. His heart skipped a beat. Damn it. He thought he had nothing to worry about now that he knew Koneko was almost his age, but that just meant she could judge him for an entirely different reason.

"Uh, never mind. Sorry about all this mess. If I knew you'd be coming, I'd –"

"Hide everything?" she said. Her smirk was nowhere to be found.

He hunched over his lap. "Yeah..."

Moments passed as Koneko peered at the girl in the alarm clock, fiddled with some of the buttons. The girl in the clock woke up and said something peppy with her sexy voice, bouncing up and down.

Koneko wasn't impressed. He thought about hiding underneath his blanket. It probably wouldn't make a difference, though.

As soon as the alarm clock stopped making noise, she set it down on the night stand, looking all around his room, taking everything in without asking any questions.

When was this torture gonna end?

"Where's the porn stash?" Koneko asked, after way too long.

"Under my bed," he replied.

She scoffed. "Thought so."

He waited for the other shoe to the drop, mortified beyond belief... but it never happened, and he wasn't sure why she wasn't screeching at him for being a shameful pervert.

"At least you're honest," she said.

"You don't mind?"

She shrugged. "Eh, I've seen worse."

Well, that was a relief, but she didn't elaborate. Instead, she walked over to his bookshelf, stocked to the brim with his manga collection and games, and pulled out a manga volume, skimming through it.

"You like Dragon Ball, Issei?"

Issei's eyes brightened. "Hell yeah! I grew up watching it! I'd come home from school every day just to watch the re-runs, and I'd act out my favourite scenes at school with my buddies. What about you?"

Koneko blinked. "Never watched it before. How is it?"

"It's amazing. Seriously, you won't regret watching it." Koneko nodded, keeping the manga in her hand as she walked back to his bed. "What kind of shows are you into?"

"Tokusatsu, especially superhero shows," she said, excitement creeping into her voice for the first time. "Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, I can't get enough of it."

Issei smiled. "I used to watch it as a kid with an old friend of mine."

At that, her golden eyes actually lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, but I haven't really watched any sentai lately."

"You're missing out. We can fix that."

Missing out was an understatement. Koneko came to life as they started talking about the shows they watched, and it didn't even take five minutes for Issei to feel out of his depth. Tokusatsu had come a long way since he stopped watching it. It wasn't his fault he stopped, though, it just happened.

Come to think of it, maybe he could watch some tokusatsu right now, see if it held up. When he saw Koneko perk up, he knew he made the right decision.

He managed to dig up an old copy of Zyuranger he had on VHS – according to Koneko, they adapted it into something called 'Power Rangers' overseas, which sounded interesting – and led Koneko to the living room, setting everything up.

"You still have a VCR?" Koneko asked.

"Course I do. Not everything's on DVD, you know."

Which was pretty inconvenient. He didn't have internet at home, so he had no choice but to search for his vintage classics the old-fashioned way, and the 'connoisseurs' he bought them from didn't burn them onto a DVD or even a CD.

So his VCR was his lifeline, his gateway to all sorts of experiences, and it just so happened that watching an old sentai show with a devil was one of them. Hey, he wasn't complaining.

"You want anything to drink?" Issei asked.

"Coke," Koneko replied.

Luckily, he had some in his fridge. When he came back to the living room, Zyuranger's theme song had started to play, and memories of Sunday mornings watching tokusatsu with his friend came flooding back. He sat down on the couch and to his surprise, Koneko took a seat next to him, taking her drink with a pretty polite 'thank you'.

Cheesy as it was, he was still able to enjoy Zyuranger. Koneko was definitely into it: she'd even say some of the lines before the actors did. By the time the episode had ended, Koneko had this tiny slip of a smile on her face. The corners of her mouth just barely twitched upwards, but it was still really cute.

"You liked it, huh?" he said.

"Duh," she said, soft and gentle. "I've watched it dozens of times. You?"

Issei gave her a smile. "It was fun. A bit cheesy, though." He saw her smile slip. "Uh, not that there's nothing wrong with that!"

"I get it." Her voice was flat, but she didn't sound mad. Him and his big mouth. "I bet Kamen Rider's more your speed."

"You should bring a disc over." He blanched. "I mean, if you're up for it."

Koneko cocked her head, staring at him. She raised the Dragon Ball volume stlll in her hand. "Can I borrow this?"

"Of course." He glanced at it, and saw it was from the Z side of the series. "Let me get you the first volume so you don't get lost."

They went back to his room, and he couldn't help but notice how short she was. The top of her head just barely reached his shoulder, but that didn't change anything. She was still a devil.

It didn't take him long to find his copy of Dragon Ball, Volume #1 and even less time for him to exchange it. She was in for a ride, that was for sure.

"Thanks," she said, taking the volume with her left hand.

"No problem. Hey, you want to see the rest of my place? Get something to eat?"

Her smile had faded, and her eyes lost some of their luster. Not all of it, but the difference was pretty noticeable.

"Maybe next time. I've got another meeting coming up, and I don't want to be late."

Ah, of course. She seemed way too experienced at this for him to be her only... what were they, exactly? Friends? Acquaintances?

"Don't let me keep you," he said.

Koneko nodded. "One more thing, before I go."

"What is it?"

She held out her free hand. "Form a pact with me."

Somehow, he forgot that devils had to get something out of the time they spent. And they had such a good time.

"You're not going to take my soul, are you?" he asked, partly joking but mostly serious.

"No." Her sheer bluntness threw him for a loop, but that was fine. "Once we form a pact, you'll become my client. Then I can visit you whenever we're both available."

That sounded pretty simple. Almost too simple.

"What do you get out of this? If you don't mind me asking."

Koneko waved the manga he gave her. "This. Besides, we have to watch Kamen Rider together."

There wasn't a lick of doubt on her face, and it made him laugh.

"Hey, I'll take it."

With a smile on his face, Issei clasped Koneko's hand in his. Her grip was firm, really firm, but he could feel the warmth in her palm, the softness of her touch.

"There," she said. "Our contract is sealed. You got a phone?"

He almost couldn't believe his ears. "Do I ever!"

In a flash, he took his phone and exchanged numbers. Issei grinned. It wasn't how he imagined it, not even remotely, but he finally got a girl's phone number.

"That's that," Koneko said. "Tell your friends about deal, just don't be specific. Or else."

He felt a shiver crawl down his spine. Devils were urban legends for a reason.

"I got you. Thanks for showing me a good time, Koneko."

A small smile graced her face, and it immediately put him at ease. "That's what I do. See you around, Issei."

Koneko conjured a magic circle with the same sigil as the flyer and disappeared in a flash of crimson light, taking his manga with him. There was no trace of the flyer he used to summoner.

Issei dropped the phone on his desk and took a seat. Devils existed, and they could be cute girls who liked sentai shows. She even tolerated his... erm, otaku side, which was honestly a blessing.

Or not. He didn't know exactly what Koneko gained from making their pact or whatever, but that wasn't his problem. Maybe this was as far as his luck went and he'd never see her again, but either way, he wouldn't forget this meeting.

It wasn't every day he got to spend time with a cute devil, after all.