I sprint through the shopping district, pursuing Abe—
the shapeshifter now disguised as the handsome actor.
After we spotted him at the café, Abe took off immediately. Being a demon, he’s faster than any human, his physical abilities far beyond ours.
“Your Majesty, do the usual thing! Help me out here!”
This was the time to rely on Her Majesty’s commanding power, so I shouted on the spot. Then—
“Already did.”
“Huh?”
“The whole ‘In the Name of Her Majesty’ bit? Just for show. If I flex my power, you obey my orders and can borrow a fraction of my strength.”
“Your Majesty… you were just showing off?!”
“Showing off… matters, doesn’t it?”
“Just catch him already,” Her Majesty snaps.
“And try to be elegant about it.”
With that exchange, I resume chasing Abe.
Still in the actor’s form, Abe weaves through the crowd. I keep him in sight while dodging people—blonde teens, grannies with carts, high school girls, jogging delivery guys—like some reflex minigame. Left, right, left, right, right, right.
Abe suddenly veers at a sharp angle into a multi-tenant building. I follow. He takes the emergency stairs; I spiral up the exterior ones. Signs flash by—English tutoring, Indian curry, karaoke—until, on the fourth floor, Abe leaps toward the street.
I lean out to look. He’s already sprinting away, so of course, I jump too. Rolling on impact to disperse the force, I spring up and run.
Abe glances back, stunned.
“The hell’s your deal?! Who even are you?!”
“The high schooler you got falsely accused, dumbass~!”
“I’m not giving it back! Never!!”
“Haaah~? The hell’re you talkin’ about~?”
Then it hits me. “Not giving it back” could only mean one thing: the Kuromari-chan plush keychain. And Kuromari-chan’s a character popular with emotionally unstable girls. Meaning this demon—
“You bastard~! You’re totally a ‘landmine girl,’ aren’tcha?!”
“You idiot?!”
Abe ducks into a narrow alley. I follow—and freeze. Two women with identical faces stand there, their hair loosely curled, radiating office-worker energy.
“Huh? Why? Why me?”
“Doppelgangers?!”
Both react with shock at seeing their own face.
“Wait, he can copy voices too?!”
This was bad. No way to tell which one was the shapeshifter.
Or so I thought—until I punched the left woman square in the face.
“How’d you know?!”
“Your clothes didn’t change, dumbass! And drop the girly act—you’re busted!”
“Damn it!”
Abe turns his back, reverting to the actor’s form, then dashes toward the main road.
The crosswalk signal blinks green.
An old lady pushes a cart across the street. Abe slams into it, losing balance.
“Hey—be nice to grannies~!!”
I finally catch up, grabbing his collar from behind. Abe twists my arm and flips me over his shoulder. I get thrown, but as my back hits the ground, I counter with a spinning throw of my own.
We brawl, tangled up mid-crosswalk.
The old lady makes it across just as the light turns red. Cars start moving. Distracted, I eat a headbutt from Abe.
“Guh—!!”
He runs—only to get nailed by a car the next second, hurled across the pavement.
“Wha—whaaat?!”
Abe tumbles violently. I stare, baffled.
But within seconds, he staggers up and bolts toward the station building.
Guess his body’s tough too.
“Hell yeah, demon durability! No need to hold back~!!”
I’d been hesitating, but now I pull out the gun Rabbi gave me. The instant I do, a gunshot rings out—my hand jerks from the impact.
Abe had a gun too. His bullet struck mine, sending it skidding into the middle of traffic.
Now, a choice: retrieve the gun or chase Abe as he flees.
In that split second, my body acts on its own—
“Yeah, figures~!!”
—and chooses pursuit.
If I went for the gun, I’d lose him. So my body, ever loyal to Her Majesty’s orders, opts to chase.
Which means—
“I’m doing this whole thing unarmed now~?!”
Abe’s a small-time demon, but still an immortal, overwhelmingly stronger than a human.
“At least let me grab the gun~!!”
I yell, but my body’s already vaulting over car hoods in pursuit.
Abe ducks into the station building. I sprint full speed after him.
We blaze past cosmetics, race up escalators. In the kitchenware section, Abe spins and fires. Plates shatter. Screams erupt.
Still, my body charges straight for him.
“This is insane~!”
Mid-complaint, Abe aims properly this time and shoots.
“Gyahh~!!”
I flinch—but my legs keep moving. Glancing down, I see I’d blocked the bullet with a frying pan.
“I can trust this! Your Majesty’s power—I can trust it!!”
Abe and I turn the mall into chaos, dodging gunfire behind pillars or ducking for cover.
Then, on a floor entirely devoted to clothing, Abe vanishes.
That’s when I realize his plan.
Him running never made sense. He’s unharmed by cars, armed, and willing to shoot up a mall.
So why flee?
Clothes.
Earlier, even when he disguised himself as a woman, I saw through it—his outfit never changed.
But here? This floor has everything. Men’s, women’s, all ages.
Here, Abe can mimic perfectly.
I scan the area.
His wild gunfire left the floor in shambles: clothes strewn everywhere, racks and mannequins toppled.
Most customers fled, but some crouch paralyzed or hide under displays. Staff huddle behind counters.
And among them, Abe lurks—undoubtedly.
But I can’t tell who’s who.
Advantage: Abe.
Instinct screams at me to leave. No reason to fight on his turf.
But—
A little boy cries in the center of the store.
His mother beckons from behind a shelf, but he’s too terrified to move.
Abe shoots indiscriminately. A stray bullet could hit the kid. Too dangerous. I step forward—
“Wait. Could the kid BE Abe?”
Earlier, his mimicry copied voices and even height.
He could easily disguise himself as a child.
Approaching the boy risks a “Gotcha~!!” point-blank shot. A classic ambush. Even if the boy’s real, helping him leaves me exposed.
The smart move? Ignore him.
But—
Whether it’s Her Majesty’s power or my own instincts, my body moves.
Before I know it, I’m crouching beside the boy.
“It’s okay. You’re okay.”
I pat his head, gently steer him toward his mother.
“See? Mom’s right there.”
A light push, and he stumbles into her arms. Relief washes over me—
—just as a gun presses against my temple.
Abe stands there, having shed his disguise.
He looks like some straight-laced guy.
“You’re a hypocrite,” he says.
I grin.
“Showing off matters, y’know.”
“Die.”
Abe pulls the trigger mercilessly.
A gunshot.
But—.
The one who fell to the floor wasn’t me, but the shapeshifter Abe.
And in the now clear view where Abe had fallen, standing there was—.
Her Majesty.
In her hand, she’s gripping the revolver that I had dropped in the middle of the road.
“Your Majesty~ You’re late~”
“You need to learn more elegant ways of fighting”
Her Majesty says, looking around the wrecked store interior.
“However, not bad”
Her Majesty’s gaze was directed at that boy, being embraced by his mother.
“You have the spirit of a gentleman”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Apparently, demons suffer considerably when shot with bullets engraved with crosses.
Abe is writhing on the floor.
“Hey, give back the keychain. Kuromari-chan”
Her Majesty pokes Abe with the tip of her toe.
“No way I’m giving it to you. This is mine. Absolutely—”
A gunshot echoes. Her Majesty shot Abe in the butt. She shows no mercy.
“Hand it over quickly”
Her Majesty says with a cold expression. Abe is crying a little. But with arms crossed over his chest, he puts on a brave act with an attitude of absolutely not giving it up.
“This kind of thing is like a reward for me”
“Is that so”
Her Majesty fires multiple bullets into his butt. Her Majesty is the type of Majesty who gives plenty of rewards.
I squat down and peer into Abe’s face.
“Because of you, I’m now a wanted criminal~ Framing me for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building bombing”
At that point, Abe started laughing for some reason.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You think I’d disguise myself as you just for something like that?”
“Then why did you disguise yourself as me?”
“Because if I had this, I’d be targeted from all over the world. But with that footage, you’ll be targeted instead of me. Because they’ll think you’re the one who has it.”
“Huh?”
When I tilted my head in confusion, Abe looked somewhat surprised.
“You guys were trying to get this back without knowing anything?”
“Just hurry up”
Her Majesty fires the gun again, and Abe cries out in pain as he says:
“Now I’m angry! I’ll use it! Don’t blame me for what happens!”
Her Majesty and I look at each other and shrug as if to say, “What is this guy talking about?”
“I’ll summon the main body from hell. With this, everything—”
Abe reaches into his chest pocket. But he immediately starts to panic.
“Huh, it’s not here. It’s gone—”
Then he frantically looks around. Apparently, he dropped Kuromari-chan.
I also look around. And then—.
A short distance away, Kuromari-chan was walking.
It’s an incredibly fancy sight.
Kuromari-chan has detached from the keychain and is moving as just a stuffed toy.
With its short, two-head-tall legs, Kuromari-chan toddles across the floor and gets into an elevator that has just arrived.
And just before the doors close, it cutely waves its small hand toward us.
As I watch this, I remember that in elementary school, there was a girl who loved Kuromari-chan.
That girl always carried around a Kuromari-chan stuffed toy and talked to it.
Since she was quite a cute girl, the boys who wanted her attention would tease her, saying “That’s just a stuffed toy” or “It’s pointless to talk to it.”
The girl would respond to the boys while crying.
It’s not just a stuffed toy. Kuromari-chan is, Kuromari-chan is—.
“Kuromari-chan was really alive—”
As I say this, Her Majesty gives me a light knock on the head.
“You silly goose”
“Huh?”
“It seems that stuffed toy was inhabited by something extraordinary”
Looking at the closed elevator doors, Her Majesty said:
“That is the Holy Grail”
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