A very unexpected encounter.

"Ah, welcome Kazuma Sato!" Vanir greeted as Kazuma and Darkness stepped in.

Still mildly distracted by his talk with Ria, Kazuma lazily said, "Hey Vanir, sorry, but I'm here to talk... With... Wiz..." he trailed off, staring at the devil, who was simply grinning. Darkness's own jaw dropped.

"...3... 2... 1..." Ria quipped, grinning.

"WHAT!?" Kazuma and Darkness exclaimed, right on cue.

"Oh, Kazuma!" Wiz beamed as she exited the back room. "I heard about what happened! It's great that you got the charges dropped!"

"I... But... You... You died!" Kazuma pointed at Vanir in disbelief.

"Don't sound so disappointed!" Vanir pouted. "Indeed, you DID kill me, but I have more than one life! I'm the second one!" he grinned, pointing at his mask, which had the Roman numeral 2 on it. "And that releases me from my oath of loyalty to the Devil King! See, while I did pledge my life to him, I meant it, but only THAT life! As such, I no longer serve him! Now I work for Wiz in her store to try turning it around!"

"You've GOTTA be kidding me..." Kazuma groaned, face palming. "...so, are you still going to go after Aqua then?" he asked warily.

"... tempting as that is, I'm in no hurry to lose another life, plus, out of respect for your defeating me, I will hold off... At least until she gives me a reason."

"...I suppose that will do for now," Kazuma sighed.

"So what brought you here Kazuma?" Wiz asked brightly.

"...well, I WAS going to tell you about what happened to Vanir, but seeing as that's now redundant..." Kazuma mused.