"'Urushihara Hanzou'?"

Maou looks up at the complete confusion evident in Ashiya's voice.

"Hm? What's that?"

His general stands looking—the expression he wears could almost be called repulsed—at a scrap of paper taken from the table. Ashiya holds it out for Maou to see, pinching it as if holding a dirty rag.

On it are two lines scrawled in Lucifer's messy handwriting. One is in basic Japanese lettering, the other in traditional characters put in parentheses, as if the writer added it only after being nagged to do so.

"Hmm…That must be the name Lucifer picked for himself."

"'Urushihara'?" Ashiya says again. It is the only one of the two names put in kanji. He briefly gives a glance to the head of purple hair lying in the corner of the room and frowns. "It doesn't sound at all like his name."

"He did mention he didn't want to bother coming up with a name that was similar to his own. This one's good enough for him, apparently."

Ashiya wrinkles his nose and points to the longer word. "He gives no attempt to integrate within the culture at all, my lord. A name like this is unusual, even among the natives in this land."

"It's not that unusual...I've heard of at least one person with the name 'Urushihara'."

"Even so…He could have at least selected characters that described him more honestly."

Ashiya frowns at the characters, 'lacquer' and 'wilderness'.

After all, wild and beautiful are not the first things that came to Ashiya's mind when thinking of Lucifer.

"Ehh…maybe he's trying to blend in more, or something?"

"But does he intend to sever all ties to his demon life altogether? You and I, my lord, at the very least strove to choose names that represented our innermost character, so that while we may be forced to hide our true identities for the time being, we have the slight satisfaction of brandishing who we are each time we write our names! Gah!"

Ashiya throws the paper into the air with a cry of disgust. His voice has grown heated and raised in his ranting, and Maou despairs. His general's tendency to take things too seriously has frankly become a tad overbearing since they got to this world.

Ashiya suddenly snatches a paper, titled "Application for Newspaper Delivery Position" from the stack of documents against the wall and thrusts it in Maou's face. Maou goes cross-eyed from how close the paper is. "Do you, my lord, not feel a rush of pride each time you sign a document or address a letter? Ah," Deep reverence fills his tone as he gazes upon his master's writing. "You truly chose well, my lord! There is no questioning that you are indeed a righteous man of true heart!"

"…We're demons, Ashiya."

"But towards our cause, your will was unwavering, and your motivation pure of intent! Only a true leader could have taken our people as far as you did, my lord. I do not believe you could have chosen more befitting characters."

Ashiya is kneeling before him by now with a tearful gaze, and Maou decides not to tell him he picked the name "Maou Sadao" by more or less random chance, and it was purely by coincidence that it happened to mimic his true name, even poorly.

"Well, you're not one to talk, either, are you? I mean, where did 'Shiro' come from, anyways? Isn't it just a common family name?"

Ashiya stands formally. "I took great care in selecting that name. As a matter of fact, it fits me rather well."

For the life of him, Maou cannot imagine how. He recalls the meaning of the characters, 'four sons'. "Does it?" he replies lamely.

"I would have thought it would be obvious, my lord."

"Just humor me, Ashiya."

"Very well. I am the fourth son to be born of my father. I became the leader of my tribe only after my eldest brother died, and I challenged the other three for the right to the position."

"Hmmm…Politics in the Iron Scorpions sound interesting."

"But this..." Ashiya sends a sneer towards the fallen paper on the ground, "...if nothing else, it exemplifies Lucifer's sheer laziness."

Maou rolls his eyes. "It's his name, Ashiya. Just let it be."

Ashiya inclines his head formally, but there is not an ounce of respect in the motion. Maou chooses to let it slide, however, as he bends to pick up the scrap bearing Lucifer's human name. He considers the two characters as Ashiya busies himself about the kitchen. His mouth turns up in a wry smile. Those awkward, sloppy strokes could have been done out of spite, but here and there the words are smudged with eraser marks, suggesting mere inexperience and frustration.

Besides...it's not entirely unlike him, Maou muses. He'd heard of this 'lacquer' which is so popular in Japan…a chemical coating to provide a beautiful sheen to works of wood or metal. Not unlike how the Demon King's own skills were refined and polished under his first mentor.

And there's no questioning about the second. Who knows how long Lucifer had strayed among the wastelands of Demon World alone, subject to the elements.

This entire time, Lucifer has not moved an inch from his place sprawled out on the apartment floor, not even when Ashiya was shouting. Perhaps he is asleep…though his face is purposefully turned away, and his breathing is not as deep as slumber usually makes it.

The paper is folded and tucked away in Maou's back pocket without further thought. Maou goes over and nudges his prone general with one toe. "Oi, 'Urushihara'," he says loudly. "We're gonna sweep up. Either help or get out of the way."

Lucifer grumbles and shifts; with what seemed like minimal movement he makes his way towards the wall, where the stack of books and papers resides. He pulls aside one thick manga and plops his head on it; within seconds, he is asleep again.

Ashiya certainly wasn't wrong about his laziness. Maou snorts softly. But then again, Lucifer has always been this way. Not like Maou expected him to change.

He lets his sleeping General be, blissfully oblivious to his surroundings.

RN: One shot. Hastily written, I admit, so I'm not entirely happy with the ending. But I'm not bothering to put that much energy into fixing it. Oh well. This plot bunny (why is it called a bunny?) hopped in my head while I was translating, and I realized Urushihara is one of the two, aside from Suzuno, who didn't bother to make his name sound like his Ente Islaean one. Plus the characters were intriguing. They seemed rather elegant for one such as Urushihara.

This AN has gone on long enough. Review below, if you would be so kind.