The Devil Takes the Night Shift

Chapter 5: The Hero is Actually...

Now it was time for another confrontation between these two. However, unlike before it wasn't going to be nearly as heated. The devil knew that there were going to be little opportunities for her to find a way home. So she was going to have to take a few risks here and there to grasp any potential chances. Hopefully, she would be able to overcome this mysterious stranger.

"All right, now I'm gonna give ya the beating of your life." He was already on the offensive, rolling up his sleeve to mean business.

"Hold on." She put a hand up to stop his advance. "I don't even know who you are." He was no hero. At least, not one with a name or face that she was aware of. Being the demon lord, keeping tabs on the one that were known as such to face her was a large amount of her duty. So she needed to find out what he real name was.

"Oh right, I had to change my identity when I came here." He giggled at the realization. This man seemed oddly not that serious despite all his threats. "Name's Joe back on Enatis."

"Joe?" She was not familiar with that name. None of the heroes had names that plain. Plus she wasn't not aware of any wizard going by that name either. How did someone like him go by under the radar? Clearly he had to be pretty powerful if he was able to track her down here so quickly.

"What? You don't recognize me?"

***

And thus, to know his story. One must return to that fateful day. The day in which the demon lord was defeated by the hero. It was then that the man known as Joe would have his life changed forever.

You see, the field she was blasted to wasn't just some empty field in the middle of nowhere. Well, the latter part of the statement was true at least. Instead, she had actually fallen onto his farm of all places. And by fallen, it was more accurate to describe it as completely destroying it by crashing onto it. Luckily for him, the man didn't' get killed during all that.

When he got back on his feet. Joe was met with the sight of everything he ever worked hard for his entire life. All of it had now gone up in smoke. In the middle of all of it, the demon lord.

He cursed when he saw her silhouette. Of course she was the cause of all this. She's a demon lord after all, so he just assumed it was all her fault. Angry, he yelled out to her and started to run at both her and her retainer. It turned out that they had mistaken that he was going to be calling for help. In fact, he lived relatively far from his village. So they could've taken their time.

Which is what he was aware of as well. As a result, Joe ran down the crater towards the pair. All the while yelling out words that cannot be repeated in this story. Either way, that lead to Rame and Mifuru to rush their exit a little bit.

But they didn't rush it fast enough. For despite not knowing of the dangers, nor caring due to his fit of rage. Joe ran after them and took a major leap of faith into the portal after them.

The peaceful serenity of the portal's tunnel was a major contrast to the angry and rage he had while flying after them. However, because of his existence, the transportation ended up being a little corrupted. While Rame and Mifuru were able to make it relatively unscathed. He wasn't as lucky.

While it didn't kill him, he was sent flying way off course compared to the two. He landed someone else, which caused quite a commotion, because he wasn't as calm as they were as he realized the situation he was in.

But quickly he was able to fit into this world, even if his skills as a farmer ended up not being what got him a job...

***

"You're just a dumb farmer?" She was utterly disappointed with what he revealed about himself. He was no hero, nor was he some powerful wizard. No... He was just some simple farmer back on Enatis. Joe was barely any different than about half the population.

"Yep." He answered with a ton of pride in his voice. "Been one all my life."

"I can't believe this." She sighed and put her face into the palm of her hand. Her hopes were now dashed, and she was stuck with some random nobody on this strange world.

"Yep, and now I'm gonna be the one to kill ya." He was ready with an attack. To which, she was unsure what he was planning since he didn't have any weapons on him. Nor was he using magic either, because he would've done so by now.

"And how are you going to do that?" She asked, not feeling a tiny bit threatened by him. With her fighting ability, she was confident that she would beat him. If things really did get that desperate, then she could also use the rest of her magic to finish the job.

"All I need are my fists." He was also pretty confident on his own strength. His body was built on the fields, slaving away under the burning sun in order to make sure all his crops were grown. "I'm gonna kill ya now."

"And then what?" She poked the sole hole in his plan. Even if he found a way to kill her, that would leave him with no way to return home. Admittedly, not that there was much home left, but it's not like he was a major fan of being in a place where the lights were always shining.

The truth was that the two of them weren't in the best position to be concerned about the world of their past. Even if he hated her, and she didn't care an iota about him. If they chose to fight right here, no matter the result, then all that would still leave the winner alone in this world. Notably weakened as well, with little way to regenerating.

"Well, I can't just let ya have free reign here." He was worried about her ultimate goals here. These people were innocent, and even if they were bad. There was no one in his mind that should ever suffer under the rule of a real demon lord.

"Heh, I doubt you could even stop me." She challenged him, knowing that there was little he could actually do. "But I'm not up to no good right now. So lay off my back, will you?"

"As if." He was relentless in his pursit to not allow her off so easy. "You can bet you're not sleeping easy. When I'm not working, I'll be keeping ya under my watch so you don't harm even a fly."

"Whatever." She was done with this conversation. "It's late, so I'm going home."

"Eh?! But I ain't done talking with you!" He yelled at her, but Rame didn't care. Her disappointment was immeasurable, and she was about ready to call it a day.

"Do whatever you want. Follow me for all I care, but I'm not going to do anything bad... Not tonight at least."

"F-fine." He wasn't prepared to realize that the so-called demon lord that terrorized his world for so long to be so... lame. "But if I hear of you committing some crime, it'll be the end for you." With that, he marched off in some weird childlike angry. Rame could only sigh in relief that this was finally over. Her days involved with this guy were far from over. Already, that accent of his, which turned out to be a farmer's accent, was already grating on her ears.

"I guess at least he's not some hero." She muttered to herself as she walked through the dark streets at around midnight. The only consolation for her, was that he would most likely be able to finish her off. This had really been an experience, probably even more extreme than anything she was used to back on Enatis. If he kept to his word, than things were only going to get worse for her.

Though as of right now, Joe, known here as Asaga, was the only other person besides her and Mifuru that was from Enatis. And he was a full-on human too, which was different that their demon bodies. Though it appeared that coming here either took that demon aspect of her, or something about the portal changed her. Because both of them were also no different than the people of their old world, or in this new world.

This really had been an interesting week for her so far. Probably the strangest one she's ever had in her life. Hmm... Week. Something about repeating that word was sparking something in her memory, but she just couldn't fathom why. What was it that she was forgetting now that she was nearing home. As she reached into her pockets to unlock the door, she realized what exactly it was that she was missing.

"Ahh! I completely forgot to get my paycheck!"