Chapter Seven - The Search Party
Something pokes him in the cheek. Sullenly, Maou contorts his face, unwilling to leave his warm, soft cocoon.
"Papa!"
Only the bright, urgent voice of his foster daughter brings him out of his comfortable stupor. He opens one eye and blinks tiredly.
"Papa!" Again, Alas pokes him in the cheek with her index finger.
"Papa!" she repeats, and this time it sounds very, very reproachful. Promptly, she shoves his boots in his face. "The night is over. We must find my Lucifer!"
"Alas-Ramus!" With disheveled hair and a hastily thrown on robe, Emi rushes in. But as soon as she enters the room, she covers her eyes with one hand and grabs Alas-Ramus's arm with the other.
"Alas, come away from there. This is no place for you. Get dressed, ladies live here," she orders Maou in the same breath. He just stares at her, confused. He is wearing pajamas and doesn't understand her reproach.
"The only lady I see here is Alas-chan," Ashiya grumbles on the other side of the king-size bed. He sits next to the king with his legs tucked under him, demurely covered by the blanket up to his hips, and stares angrily at the heroine. He also wears pajamas.
"Leave Maou-sama's chamber at once!"
"Nothing better!" she hisses back. "Come, Alas-Ramus!"
But the little girl deftly escapes her grasp and jumps onto the bed.
"No!" she yells at her foster mother. "We have to go find Lucifer. Papa promised!"
Maou, who started the first time she said "Lucifer", catches her and hugs her. First, because he hugs her like that every time he sees her, and second, because an angry Emi seems even scarier than usual this early in the morning. She would never hit Alas-Ramus, but now, at this moment, he's not so sure.
"You're right, Alas-chan," he looks sternly into her big purple eyes, the color of which has never reminded him so painfully of Lucifer as it does now. He doesn't often think about it, but the two of them share the same essence of the heavenly Tree of Life, and Alas is even more powerful than God himself, but he keeps suppressing it because he would rather see her as his little girl.
To whom he made a promise.
Guiltily, he looks out the window, through which the gray of the dawn creeps in.
"I was hoping he'd be at the door when the sun came up," he mumbles to himself as his remorse grows. How could he sleep so blissfully while Lucifer is lost out there?
Only at the edge of his consciousness does he notice the heated argument that Emi and Ashiya are quickly getting into. He has learned to ignore such things.
He lets go of Alas, takes the boots from her hands and swings his legs over the side of the bed.
"Your papa will get dressed quickly and then he'll be on his way."
"Yesssss," she exclaims, bringing her right arm in front of her body into a clenched fist, then pulling it down violently - such a perfect imitation of Lucifer that it almost takes his breath away.
"We're looking for Lucifer!" she shouts excitedly, storming out of the room and rumbling down the stairs. "I'm going to get Chi-chan! Chi-chan!"
They don't really know where to start looking, so they start with the most obvious: they walk the distance on the road back to the place where they last saw him.
It was still very early, the sun had not even made it above the treetops, so everything was still bathed in an unreal twilight. The snowflakes dance to the ground with an almost reverent stillness, and there is an almost sacred silence on both sides of the snow-covered road, as if the entire forest had fallen into a deep sleep.
The steady crunch of their footsteps in the snow seems almost like a shameful desecration.
"Thank you for your help, Sasaki Chiho." Ashiya, as always, is concerned with good manners, and so his thanks are also very formal. He even suggests a little bow. "This is really very thoughtful of you."
The high school student blushes with embarrassment.
"That goes without saying," she waves off hastily and gives Maou, who is walking three steps beside her, an embarrassed look. "Urushihara is Maou-sama's friend, so his friends are my friends, too."
An unclear expression flits across Maou's face, making her hesitate.
"You are friends, aren't you?" Suddenly, she doubts that she has correctly assessed the relationship between the three of them. Maybe everything is more complicated than she thought? Maybe they see Urushihara more as a comrade? At school, she always has problems with these small gradations - for her, there are only three categories: Friends, enemies and adults. She likes her friends, avoids her enemies, and is polite to adults.
Uncertain, she lowers her head. If Maou-sama sees the fallen angel only as a comrade, did she perhaps cross the line yesterday when she said that she liked Urushihara? Is she even allowed to do that? After all, she is one of Maou's generals now. Maybe there is a completely different hierarchy within these ranks?
She is so deep in thought that she almost misses Maou's answer.
"Yes, Chiho, Lucifer is our friend."
Lucifer. Not Urushihara. She notices Maou's lapse immediately and sees it only as a confirmation of his statement.
After the first hundred meters or so, they start calling for the missing man without much hope. After all, it's obvious that he can't be there.
But then a terrible thought occurred to Ashiya.
"Maybe a car hit him and he's lying injured in the ditch?"
It's the first time one of them has expressed this thought, and it's as if Ashiya has opened a Pandora's box.
"Hell no!" Maou turns white as snow and immediately begins to intensify his search, now looking behind every bush along the way.
"Is that even possible?" asks Chiho, also trying to calm her crush a bit. "Yes, of course he can get hurt, but his wounds heal quickly, and assuming he really was hit by a car last night, even the most severe injuries should be almost healed by now, right? So he should definitely be able to hear us and respond. Uh, I mean-" she adds hastily, because her own words seem very cold-hearted to her, even if they aren't meant that way, "-it would still be terrible if he was hurt, of course, but isn't it much more logical that he really just got lost? We don't have to assume the worst, do we? I find it rather reassuring to know that he's immortal and therefore at least not in danger of dying."
Maou just gives her a strange look, runs his fingers through his face and sighs deeply.
Ashiya frees her from her confusion. He walks over to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. And while Maou continues to search the undergrowth and calls Lucifer's name again, Ashiya explains to her kindly and very patiently:
"Unfortunately, you are mistaken, Chiho-san. Let me explain: As you know, the power of angels here on earth is just as limited as that of us demons."
She nods hesitantly.
"And while we demons can regain our power, our magic, over the negative emotions of humans, that path is closed to angels, which is why they always carry a source of their sacred energy with them."
Again she nods. Yes, she remembers Sariel's huge, white-hot scepter very well. She doesn't know what source of power Gabriel carries with him, but no one says it has to be as big and flashy as Sariel's.
"And Lucifer has no such source of sacred energy, he has to draw his power from the emotions of humans, just like we demons. And because..." Ashiya hesitates for a moment and takes a quick look at Maou, who has already walked a few meters and turned his back to them, "...all the negative energy from you earthlings that could flow to Lucifer or me is pulled first by our king, we are almost dependent on what Maou-sama allows us to get. Maou-sama is a fair king," he says hastily, "and he doesn't hold back negative energy just for his own benefit. But..." he sighs and squeezes Chiho's shoulder, his eyes shining with sorrow and pain. "Unfortunately, this also means that Lucifer has even less magical energy than Maou-sama or I, since he never leaves the apartment and therefore never meets people whose despair, sorrow or fear charge his magical core. In short: Lucifer is currently just as vulnerable as you humans. And as for his immortality..." He takes his hand away and shrugs helplessly, "...which actually means that, like all angels, he doesn't age once he's grown up. And without enough magic - you might say life force - his regenerative powers fail as well."
"And..." she frowns thoughtfully, "we don't know if he has enough magic to heal injuries that wouldn't be a problem in your world? "
Ashiya nods seriously. "Exactly, Chiho-san, and we demons only have the ability to heal ourselves. If Maou-sama and I give him magic, the extra energy could help him heal himself, but that only helps him to a certain level and neither Maou-sama's nor my magic together can reach that. We are just too weak for that."
She thinks for a moment and then her eyes widen involuntarily as she understands what this really means.
Oh, God.
All this time she thought they were going to meet Lucifer safe and sound, maybe a little pissed off because he got lost in the woods like a little kid, but still in the best of health despite having spent the whole night out here in freezing temperatures.
What a terrible mistake!
She quickly runs to Maou's side to call for Lucifer while he continues to search the trench and the surrounding area for any trace.
Ashiya does the same on the other side of the street.