Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Iruma Suzuki. Fourteen years old, still a child. He was technically not homeless, since he was registered as living with his parents, but the locals would disagree.

Everyone knew Iruma. How he always worked. How he always helped people outside of work. It was common knowledge that he was ‘homeschooled’ and by ‘homeschooled’ he was sometimes, rarely , left at home with books the moment he could read properly. Even rarer than that were the times Iruma could attend classes. And any classes he could attend were freebies from teachers who felt bad when he was working as a janitor for a school.

Later on in his education, he would learn in the classroom that was the ‘real world’. More jobs, and even the occasional shady dealing with the japanese mafia. Needless to say, he was well learned, well cultured, polite, everything you’d expect him not to be, being forced into so many roles at such a young age.

When he was ‘on holiday’ he was camping in the local woods. It was there where he learned hunting and foraging.

And it was during all of the above where he sharpened his instincts to a razor-like sharpness.

His most recent job was on a tuna fishing boat. He’d be away from home for a full week, during which his parents would be relaxing. He was happy to work on a tuna fishing boat. It wasn’t the first time, after all, and when he was around, the local fishermen always seemed to catch more.

During Iruma’s most recent job, they finally obtained what they needed. It had cost them a tidy sum of fifteen thousand yen, just over a hundred dollars, but it would make them multi-billionaires if it worked. And if it didn’t, they knew Iruma wouldn’t mind. He’d be happy his parents had thought about another way to earn money for their hobbies: drinking, eating out in good restaurants, and anything else they wanted to do.

It was an old book about summoning demons, complete with translations. It was obviously pretty old, and of unknown origins. They had tried before, but this time was the one time it would work, they knew it.

“Jorasuze paki nahire wuna qilitivo.

Mitze wali jenu voto hadi kuwuri.

Fasige miwolu vesutine dakapi.

Mujuveri tamo golive kipawa.

Rufesiti dole ramo fize wari!

Pomu nasitu kejoru mifa,

Gove lebi thaware kolusi.

Rujitase mona lirewubago.

Nuti sipowen era mifi xuwo,

Gikasutaru lolijeso podari!

Nigumidovi kelemote napari!

Sullivan wali jenu mona lir kasuta!

zimikilo rite jexu wedawo tisaki burivenu!”

Mrs. Suzuki read the script out loud. For six seconds, nothing happened. The basement was as it usually was.

But then, purple glowing runes coated the walls and floor, and the ceiling glowed black. Feet appeared sliding down into the room, then purple legs, a purple upper body, and a bald, horned head.

It had worked.

“We will sell our son for money!” Mr. Suzuki stated firmly, suppressing the shivers of delight. They would celebrate later.

The demon, seeming to understand, nodded, and produced a sheet of paper with writing on it, and a pen. They were both quick to sign the two dotted lines that were at the bottom, especially after seeing the numbers 100000000. They assumed that that was what they would receive for giving up their son, the one who had never let them down, even as he was being sold he was still working. The boy was always running around for them, and had never deserted them. But it was never enough.

And so, they sold their son to a demon!

Chapter Text

The pitch black sky hung above, and the jet black churning waves thrashed below. The tuna fishing boat was being flung about by the elements with unrelenting and absolutely ridiculous force.

Inside the boat was equally chaotic, the captain and crew each struggled with various things, some tying crates down with ropes, others scrambling around to organise papers in the chaos to some degree, but every effort was fruitless.

In the cargo area, where the days catches were being stored, some of the compartments that held the massive tuna fish were threatening to unlatch their doors, and many more were in the process of succeeding, with the heads of a few of the tuna having to be batted back and the doors slammed shut and fastened like a giant life-or-death whack-a-mole arcade game.

Two people were in the labyrinth of tuna shelves, an average man and Iruma. The adult was well-rested, well fed, and even had regular breaks. The child? None of the above. His breaks consisted of work, his snack times consisted of work, and his sleep, when he was finally able to rest after a long day, was plagued by dreams of work, if he dreamed at all.

“Iruma, you’re gonna take over from here, don’t screw it up!”

“Yes, sir!”

“And if you can’t handle it, I’m docking half of your monthly pay!”

And. It. Was. Breaktime. The time where Iruma continued working. Not that anyone would guess from the words exchanged. The only indicator was the heavy clock that was literally bolted to the wall with industrial screws, a job Iruma had done himself.

The man left Iruma alone in the cargo hold, the heavy metal door slamming shut behind him.

More compartment doors opened, as if on cue, each one in random places far from each other. It was only natural that the boy couldn’t keep up. A dozen tuna were quickly on the floor, and Iruma heard the click of another loose latch opening above him, and another above that. It wasn’t the first time that had happened.

It was, however, the first time his body was unable to dodge anything. He had leant back to avoid one tuna, but he immediately slipped on the tail fin of another, putting his face on a collision course with another of the giant fish.

It was also the first time in his entire life where his blaring instincts that informed him of immediate danger immediately stopped blaring and went silent.

It was then when the world froze in time.

It was then when Iruma found himself falling quiet mid-panic, even though he never realised he was screaming to begin with.

It was then when Iruma found himself in a purple void in a golden… bubble? Tied up in front of a tall man.

His danger instincts flared up at the new situation, but they didn’t scream ‘danger’ at him. It was a new feeling, curiously enough.

He noticed they were moving over a forest of brambles lit by the moonlight, if the spiralling branches were a foot in diameter and the thorns the length of an arm. The brambles were without foliage so the barren ground under them was visible. The grass looked sharp and seemed to writhe.

With a snap of the man’s fingers something within Iruma changed, and his head felt marginally lighter.

“You’re under a spell. You can now understand the demon language and speak it fluently. You have, however, been stripped of your previous language.” The horned man explained in an enthrallingly low voice.

“O-Okay…”

“We are in the Netherworld right now.”

“I kinda figured this wasn’t Japan?”

“Your parents sold you to me, therefore you are mine.”

Iruma mentally paused before he answered. Of course his parents would do that.

Well, if he made himself useful to this demon, he may be able to survive. Maybe.

“That makes sense, yeah...”

It was the demon’s role to be confused, it seemed.

“My child, it seems you are awfully… calm?” The demon inquired.

“I’m one of your possessions now. I figured you’d take care of me the same way anyone looks after their tools and such.” Iruma stated blankly.

“I see… Well, technically you haven’t signed the contract. I will explain everything to you when we arrive home. On a side note, my home is now your home as well. As a matter of fact, it’s just up ahead.”

Just as the demon said that, a single spire rose up from above the forest of giant brambles.

As they got closer and the view widened, Iruma saw that the spire was the tallest part of the enormous building, and that the building sprawled out beneath it, with towers, balconies, different wings of the huge building were also rather prominent, and it all came together at the front door, above which was an archway that had a decoration that was suspiciously similar to the demon’s handlebar moustache.

Outside of the archway, also with the moustache-shaped decoration, was a person Iruma could only describe as a personified red cat, complete with the red cat ears and cat tail, who also wore a red butler suit.

“Welcome home, master. Allow me to carry your bag-?” The person paused, noticing the golden bubble behind the man that seemingly contained a child.

The person cleared their throat.

“Shall I escort you both inside?” They asked.

“Please do. We will be stopping by the living room first, to sign some papers.”

The butler(?) bowed and walked in front of the tall man and the child as they approached the door.

They opened the door and stepped to the side, to allow the others entry, before following them inside.

Iruma had little chance to gawk at the decorations he would obviously have to clean and the plush carpets his very feet would most likely be ruining that very minute if he wasn’t still in his spherical confines, before the pair of strange people dragged his golden bubble into the enormous room they called a living room. Ten huge sofas, five reclining armchairs, an enormous TV and various other pieces of furniture, all of exquisite make, dotted the room. In the back where they entered, was a huge table with a single pen and single sheet of paper on it.

Iruma was freed from his bubble as it burst, but instead of falling harshly, he floated onto his feet, being allowed to regain his balance before the floating wore off.

He stayed standing where he was, quietly watching and waiting.

What would his first order be?

What would the contract entail?

What were his hours?

Who were his colleagues?

The red cat person walked over to the table and took the pen and paper from it. Iruma was about to open his mouth to say something when he stopped, suddenly in a different place and also a different position.

He was sitting down in a huge soft chair, with the soft chiming of a kids mobile above him, the type of toy that hung above a baby's cradle that had various toys and bells on it.

“ Please , young Iruma, won’t you be my grandson?”

The taller demon was kneeling in front of Iruma immediately, and also held his hand as he asked.

“You see, I’ve been alone here all this time, it’s always been my dream to have a grandchild to spoil !”

“Grand… child?” Iruma asked.

He obviously heard incorrectly both times, coincidentally. The third time would be the charm. Or that but negative, at least.

“Levi and Beli bragging about their grandkids makes me so jealous! I’ll buy you anything you want! I’ll spoil you rotten! So please, please, please say you’ll be my grandson!”

“But- But if I was sold to you, can’t I just be anything you want? Another servant or something, I’ve never had a grandpa or anything even remotely as nice…”

“I’ll respect your wishes, if you don’t want to stay I won’t force… Huh?” The demon had expected something along the lines of ‘I was sold to you, I can’t say no, can I’ but instead he got the jaw dropping revelation that Iruma, the boy he wanted as grandchild, had never had anything as nice as a grandpa.

“I-If you’ve never had a grandpa, and I’ve never had a grandchild, why don’t you become my grandchild just to experience something like that? I’ll make it beneficial to you I swear! Please, I’m begging you!” The demon begged, going from a kneeling position to his hands and knees.

‘Please!’

‘Help!’

‘I beg of you!’

Iruma’s three weaknesses. And the demon, his… grandpa? Had said the first and third, and the second was heavily, heavily implied, as he’d be helping the old man get over his jealousy by giving him what he’s so desperate for.

“Excuse me, how do I even sign a demonic contract? Is it signed in blood or something?”

“I’ll- You already want to sign? I haven’t gotten to the best part…”

“You have gotten to it. I’ll have a roof over my head, food and water. That’s already more than I had before.” Iruma admitted.

“Well, Opera, would you please bring it here?”

So the red cat person was called ‘Opera’, Iruma finally concluded. He only hoped he’d learn his grandpa’s name soon. He was, admittedly, kinda scared of asking.

Opera brought the sheet of paper and the pen, which actually had a stamp on the end, to Iruma, and knelt where the other demon was, pulling a collapsible clipboard out of their pocket, and also giving it to Iruma, so he could stamp the paper on a suitable surface.

“Thank you.” Iruma murmured. “Where am I signing?”

“You may use the stamp, it was prepared with your name specifically for this contract.” The red haired demon replied, pointing at a dotted line next to another stamp.

With very little hesitation, Iruma pressed the stamp down on the dotted line.

At that, the room glowed white, and the furniture all vanished, replaced by different furniture. Where the TV was there was a huge, black bed with red covers and an assortment of pillows, there was a set of nightstands next to it, bookshelves by one wall, a desk near those, and everything the bedroom of a wealthy person would need.

“W-What is this?” Iruma asked, wide-eyed.

“Oh, the paper was enchanted so that the moment you signed or stamped it, we’d be teleported to your room to begin the tour. It’s a big place but if you always know where your room is, and where other rooms are from there, finding your way around will be a breeze!”

The demon sounded so happy that Iruma didn’t mention that it would have been equally as useful to know where everything was in relation to the front door.

Come to think of it, he didn’t know the dem- his grandpa’s name. But he had had the chance to get a good look at the man, now that everyone was in decent lighting. As he had seen outside, the one called Opera had red ears, red hair and a red tail, followed by a red butler suit with white accents, not that he’d paid much attention to the accents before.

 The seemingly higher-ranking one, whose name he had yet to learn, wore a purple suit that had looked black at night, so he didn’t make out the colours or style, or even if they were clothes or just black or grey skin, even under the moonlight. He wore a fancy decoration of sorts on his collar that looked like a silver bird skull, and his curved horns were a golden yellow. In the light, his appearance was actually quite striking, in a ‘this man is at the top of the food chain’ way.

“Now then, I can imagine that you’re hungry after your long journey. So, we will show you to the dining room first! The teleportation only affected us two, Opera is still downstairs and is currently finishing dinner as we speak-”

“They’re finishing dinner? Shouldn’t I be helping? Should I set the table, serve even?” Iruma asked with the first traces of genuine panic the demon had seen. The pair began to walk, with Iruma following the demon.

“Is that what was previously expected of you?” The man asked quietly.

“I always worked for my parents. I did every job given to me for money and I did every chore they asked so they could enjoy the money without worry! Family is all about providing for others after all.” Iruma explained. The topic of work was something he knew well and could properly talk about with anyone. Even a demon, it seemed.

“I see. Well here, everything is already provided at all times by Opera, my security demon. A security demon is essentially what humans would call a ‘combat butler’. They cook, clean, do the gardening, and bring my paperwork to my office when I need it, as well as everything in between. And with how rich I am you won’t have to work a day in your life ever again, you can focus on what makes you happy!”

He’d have a roof, food, and even a proper bed. That was what made him the happiest. So should he just focus on eating? Should he pick up skills learned from past jobs and turn them into hobbies? He could fix any appliance if he focused, he could draw quite well but he was rather rusty, he could do some gardening. That was a common hobby back in Japan.

“Grandson, is something wrong?”

“Sir- Grandpa, I’ve never really had a hobby before, I’ve always just worked. I may take a while to find a hobby, that’s all.”

The man suppressed a full-body shudder of happiness in favour of contemplating the life this poor child had led up to that point. The two of them reached the bottom of the stairs and from there Iruma could practically taste the food being prepared, it smelled that good. He quickly forgot his previous revelation in favour of walking faster to the source of the smell, even walking by the side of the demon he was with in order to reach the food faster.

“Lord Sullivan, would you please go sit down? Iruma sir, you too, you don’t have to worry about anything, you’re safe here.” Opera asked. Iruma now knew the name of his grandpa.

The two sat down and shortly after, Opera returned, balancing a plate on either arm and dragging a food trolley behind them, laden with dishes Iruma had never seen before. A slab of purple meat, pink soup, a thick blue sauce, what appeared to be baked grey potatoes and a plethora of other foods.

Iruma quickly vacuumed up each dish set before him with the vigour of a starving lion, and Opera and Sullivan looked at each other, mildly shocked. The child acted as though he had never seen a full meal before. As Sullivan continued eating, he watched Iruma devour the food. It was good food, made with good ingredients, cooked by a good chef. It would be expensive, but with how deep Sullivan’s pockets ran, Iruma would be able to eat like a king for the rest of his life.

Opera left the room with the empty tray and brought more dishes out of the nearby kitchen.

A mixed salad with various colourful ingredients, a scary looking loaf of bread that had a layer of black and purple in the middle, a platter of more different meats, and a pair of what looked like bright yellow fish fillets that were longer than Iruma was tall and half as thick and wide as he was. Everything was nicely seasoned and done to perfection, and Iruma didn’t stop until every plate he had access to was empty.

As if the food put him in a trance, he quickly looked around properly upon coming out of it, and noticed the enormous stack of empty plates that Opera had carefully stacked on the food trolley as Iruma was eating, oblivious.

“I am so sorry! I should have saved more, and now you even have a ton of dirty dishes!” Iruma hunched over a bit, eyeing Opera as if expecting to be struck, but no slap or punch came.

“I was about to ask if you wanted dessert. You eating my cooking so enthusiastically can only be taken as an extremely high compliment, and I have prepared plenty of cakes, as well as various puddings, fruits and other pastries and biscuits.”

“There  is  dessert ?” Iruma asked, his eyes immediately lighting up at the mere mention of sweet stuff.

“Naturally. And since you seem to be able to eat a lot, tomorrow I will increase the quantity of everything.” Opera replied. Their ears were perked upwards and twitching slightly, and even though their mouth was still laid in a thin line, their body language suggested, no, oozed happiness.

“Opera, tonight I only want a slice of lemonmerang pie and a couple of blue berry muffins. Our young master can have everything else, my treat.” Sullivan said, and followed it up with some happy muttering. “My first treat for my grandson! Oh but the next treat will be better, much much better!”

“Very well, sir. I will be right back.”

Again, Opera left with the trolley of empty dishes and returned, this time with the trolley full of desserts they had previously mentioned.

They cut and served a slice of the lemonmerang pie onto a small plate alongside two of the blue berry muffins. Everything else, including the rest of the lemonmerang pie and the blue berry muffins, were Iruma’s.

“How do you get human ingredients in the Netherworld?” Iruma asked, earning a head tilt from both of his new guardians.

“Human ingredients- Oh, you mean the lemonmerang pie and the blue berry muffins? Lemonmerang is derived from human lemons, but the original lemons were selectively bred to be especially sweet, and less sour. Lemonmerang is the first and last dessert the original importer of citrus had heard of and replicated before travel between worlds was forbidden to the public. And the blue berry muffins aren’t blueberry muffins, they’re muffins that have gone blue from the berries in it, the blue specifically being from the moonwart berry. You’ll learn about moonwart plants in various classes, whether you hear about the culinary or medicinal uses or both depending on what you take interest in though.” Sullivan explained to the enthralled Iruma, who was already on his second blue berry muffin.

“I see. That’s interesting. So I may end up seeing other things inspired by human culture during my time here.”

“Yes, it’s very likely. Though, over here, humans are seen as mythical creatures, so you’ll have to keep your identity a secret.”

“Ah, I see. That makes sense.” Iruma replied. He continued the dessert, watched by Opera and Sullivan. Neither of them told Iruma to stop, or even to slow down.

Soon, Iruma finished.

“That was so good! Is there anything I can help with, Opera?” He asked, and the cat demon shook their head.

“You are the grandson of Lord Sullivan, you’re the young master of the house. You will always have servants to do your chores for you. I am not in need of assistance, but thank you for your offer.” Opera replied.

“I see. Ah, I forgot, grandpa already mentioned it, but you do literally everything here. I did have a thought though, earlier, that I’d like to try gardening at some point. Maybe I could help you with the garden at some point? Just to start off…?” Iruma asked. He wasn’t used to having to ask for work, but if he framed it as a hobby, maybe he could be Sullivans grandson AND be useful to the household.

“I am not sure what plants were like in the human world, but the plants here are a lot different, most notably the plants here will most likely try to take your fingers or feet off, or melt your fingernails. I’d rather help you find a book in one of the two libraries here about gardening first, then once you’ve identified what plants you can and can’t touch, we can begin gardening in the garden.” Opera replied warmly.

So, they were willing to receive help, just as long as Iruma didn’t get himself hurt. That was a start. Or would be, once it happened.

“So, for now, what should I do?” Iruma asked the demons.

“Well, for starters, your first day of school begins tomorrow. You’ll be going to the best school in the Netherworld. It’s actually a fifteen minute flight from here, but in walking terms it may be an hour. For now, I can finish showing you around the main areas of the mansion and you can finally get some much needed rest.” Sullivan replied.

From there, Sullivan slowly guided Iruma through the rest of the tour, showing him the living room where he signed the contract, the main kitchen Opera uses, the larger kitchen used for cooking for events, the two other dining rooms, the rarely used main hall, the two libraries and finally, the hallway where the bedrooms are.

Opera’s was at the end, towards the set of stairs that led to the ‘work’ side of the house. Sullivan’s room was next to that, but only because Opera wanted to be there quickly for Sullivan if Sullivan called. And next to Sullivans room was a slightly larger room, Iruma’s room where he and his grandfather had been teleported after he had signed the contract.

It was a long evening, but eventually, Iruma was able to go to bed.

In all honesty, he expected it to all be a dream. He’d probably wake up after going to sleep and find himself in his tattered green ‘tent’.

Chapter Text

Iruma did not in fact wake up inside his tattered green tent.

He woke up in an enormous, lavishly decorated bedroom, the one that a tall demon had told him was his since he was now the demon’s grandson, and he not just woke up, he bolted upright as he heard a knock on his door.

“Come in!” Iruma called out in response to the knocking.

First through the large double doors was Sullivan, his grandpa, and still waiting outside was Opera.

“IRUMAAA!!! How’s my adorable little nugget of a grandson doing today? Your grandpa has arrived!” Sullivan cheered as he entered the large bedroom with his arms spread and a huge smile on his face.

Looking behind the towering demon, he could see that Opera was just coming up from a bow.

“G-Good morning, grandpa?” Iruma said, though the tone sounded more questioning. Still, despite his slight hesitation, the demon, Sullivan, was very quickly surrounded by a shiny, multicoloured jewel-like aura. Well, he couldn’t see any aura, but he just knew. Sullivan was buzzing with excitement.

“I simply love how that sounds! Now, we came to get you up but you seemed to already be awake. Breakfast is waiting, and you know how Opera said they’ll increase the quantity? Well the table is absolutely piled high with food and it’s waiting for you!” 

“Oh! Then I’ll be dressed in just a minute! This is my school uniform, correct?” Iruma asked, sitting up and gesturing to a folded pile of blue clothes.

“You are absolutely correct, Iruma! You are going to look so perfect, and we are going to take a lot of pictures, and I will show you to your new school! If you ever want to- Opera why? -VISIT ME WHEN I’M AT SCHOOL YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND THE ADMINISTRATION WING TOO!” During his little speech, Opera started dragging Sullivan away, to let the young master get dressed in peace, therefore Sullivan had to yell through the door and down the hallway to be heard.

Iruma chuckled to himself. It seemed that that was going to be his life now, but it also seemed like he may be able to enjoy it.

He just hoped that this demon school would be somewhat normal, and the demons within as normal as Opera and Sullivan seemed.

(A/N: Oh sweetie, he doesn’t know that Opera was the Top Dog in school. Neither Opera nor Sullivan were ‘normal’ students <3)

Iruma got dressed, and inspected himself in the mirror. It was certainly a nice uniform, with blue trousers and a blue long-sleeved button-up, a special neck-tie that had a red eye-like glass jewel on it and black shoes.

He sprayed himself all over with his perfume that had been provided to de-humanify his scent and checked his nightstands and desk to see if he’d need anything else.

He figured he didn’t and carefully stepped out of his room, following the direction he had gone the night prior to the dining room. His sense of direction was further assisted by the unmistakable smell of breakfast coming from downstairs.

In no time at all he was sitting at the table eating the mountain of food, and Sullivan was babbling away beside a mountain of other things in the corner of the dining room.

“This is more of that perfume that hides the fact you’re human! Humans are believed to be mythical, so you’re basically a unicorn in a herd of donkeys! Next this is your cane if you get a twisted ankle. I have packed you a whole first-aid kit including three rolls of bandages, twenty packs of plasters, three different disinfectants, a healing potion, and a small bottle of bandage softener just in case the bandages are too harsh! There are also towels in your bag if you get wet, ten spare uniforms, sixty books of spells, the entire set of school text books for each year and all subjects, all the notepads, pencils, pens, everything you need stationary-wise for you for the entire first year, for any and all subjects- some teachers are fussy like that and will demand very specific notepads for their students, but you have everything already- and you have some toys, snacks, drinks, and a whole stack of pocket money for you to buy anything from Camu-Camu’s shop for your first day, just in case you need anything like snacks and various stickers and such- Oh stickers, I forgot stickers! What stickers do you like, shiny, glittery, chrome? Oh no matter, I will buy three of every set just in case!”

Iruma had already vacuumed up half of his food mountain by the time Sullivan paused his rambling to see how Iruma was doing, and he nearly cried with joy, scratch that he’s actually, legitimately crying, to see that Iruma was watching the entire time.

“I uh… Maybe coloured stickers, for organisation. Just the regular coloured circle ones? Does Camu-Camu have those?” Iruma asked, remembering a pack of similar stickers he had seen others use in his previous ‘classes’.

“So organised and diligent! Of course, I’ll buy Camu-Camu’s whole stock for you, grandson!”

“Ah, uh, I’m sure other students will want some too, so why don’t I buy some with my pocket money? I’m sure I won’t need more than a couple of packs!” Iruma reassured the demon.

He was genuinely surprised. The demon had started feeling like family so fast. On top of that, from the tiny clues he could gather, like needing normal stationery and textbooks, that Babylys was going to be a regular school.

(A/N: Sweetie doesn’t realise yet, poor thing!!)

He quickly finished his food as his grandpa finished his speech about everything he’ll have at his disposal. Sullivan quickly started packing Iruma’s school bag with things, but it very quickly got full.

Opera shook their head, though their ears were pointing upwards and their tail was flicking contentedly.

“My lord, the first day of school doesn’t have classes, so he won’t need stationary, maybe just a small notebook to take any important notes. Also, he won’t need half of an entire hospital in his bag, the nursing wing already has all of that. A first aid kit is supposed to be a pack of plasters, a roll of bandages, a bottle of disinfectant, a small vial of healing potion for more serious things and a couple of painkillers.” Opera chided, emptying the useless things from Iruma’s school bag.

“Since it’s the first day and there are no classes, what will be expected of me?” Iruma asked, hoping to gauge what he will actually need.

“Well first you’ll go to the auditorium where everyone will gather to sing the school anthem and then listen to the speech of the representative of the first-years, the top scorer on the entrance exam that you were permitted to not take since I’m your grandpa! Next, the other demons will have to go get their textbooks but you already have yours so you’ll be able to look around at your leisure! All of the classrooms will be open and you’ll be free to talk with any teachers that you see! Oh by the way the hallways all have signs pointing to the classes and such, for the first week of school! So you won’t get lost! Then, after lunch, the public announcement board in the main courtyard will be updated to show everyone’s classes, 1A to 1E and their new classmates! Oh by the way what class do you want to be in! I’ll need to make sure you get put in the class you want!”

Iruma nodded, realising just how little he’d have to do on the first day.

“I’d like to be in the class where I’ll stand out the least.” Iruma decided. Sullivan nodded.

“Ah, so you'll be in the Misfit class! If I put you in the class of troublemakers their antics will overshadow yours!”

“That sounds good! And about my school bag, Opera’s right, a first aid kit is supposed to be small, but since you want to spoil me, how about stuffing three first-aid kits worth of stuff into one? I’ll have more than I need and Opera won’t mention overpacking since it will all be stuffed into the one box?”

Iruma looked between the stunned Sullivan and the smug (not that it was outwardly visible) Opera.

“That’s a perfect idea! What else do you want to pack?” Sullivan asked, and Opera stepped forward.

“My lord perhaps you should prepare your own bag, with your paperwork and such, while I finish seeing to Iruma’s belongings?” Opera asked, and Sullivan nodded.

“You spoil my fun but you’re right. I’ll see you in a few minutes, Iruma…” Sullivan sighed, seeming to have deflated like a balloon. He meekly wandered off in the direction of his office.

“Now then, one first aid kit with three kits worth of stuff was a good idea. What else do you want to take? Camu-Camu’s shop is always open during school hours and he sells stationary, snacks and other little things, so if you forget anything, even on a school day, you will be able to go there for something.”

“Well, I know there’s no class, but how about something to take notes with, for useful information and directions, even phone numbers if I need to? And a spare uniform couldn’t hurt. After that I guess it’s just a matter of my pocket money, a water bottle, maybe a few snacks and a pack of tissues? What else…”

Iruma looked at the pile of things in the corner of the dining room. He got up from his seat and started looking closer at all of the things his grandpa had wanted him to take.

“I may end up getting bored at some point, so a pencil and an eraser for drawing, and a deck of playing cards? Well I doubt I’ll get bored bored, but you never know. And I’ll take a pack of stickers, these ones with the different faces. The notebook I take may end up becoming my diary-”

“Oh? A diary? In that case…” Opera rummaged through the pile and pulled out a small black leather notebook, half of the size of a regular sheet of paper, where each page had thinly-spaced lines, a small mood chart and a water chart.

“Sullivan bought a whole set of these in every colour, I think they will be quite helpful. And there’s a section in the back to write phone numbers and contact details. But if the size isn’t good for you, I can always convert another of the notebooks into a diary for you.” Opera suggested warmly.

Iruma took the little diary and flipped through it. Each page was vertically divided into two, and each section had an area to write the date, a mood chart where Iruma could circle the days mood, and a water chart, a line of small empty glasses of water he could circle or colour, to show how much water he had drunk during the day.

“You’re right, this is actually the perfect little diary! And the cover is smooth enough for stickers to go on it! I am going to absolutely fill it up with all the stuff I’ll be doing!”

“Grandsonnn I’m back!” Sullivan called from the nearby hallway, causing Iruma to jump a bit.

“Grandpa! Opera just showed me one of the diaries you got me and it’s perfect!” Iruma called back.

Sullivan rushed through the dining room door and saw the small black diary in Iruma’s hands.

“And there are other colours! All of the colours of the rainbow, black and white, brown, and five different greys! So if you want the same diary in any colour, or if you want me to buy only a certain colour, please let me know!”

Iruma was soon engulfed in a hug from the tall demon, and for the first time, such an action didn’t trigger his danger instincts. How ironic was it that whenever he had been hugged by any human his danger senses kicked in, but it didn’t for a literal demon?

The hug wasn’t crushing, either, something he was thankful for.

“I haven’t decided on a colour yet, but if I have a preference I’ll let you know?” Iruma asked.

“Ohh please do! It will make me so happy to spoil you properly with anything and everything that you want!”

“Sir, it is time we set off. The walk will take, more realistically, half an hour, according to my quick test last night.” Opera quickly added before Sullivan could get too distracted.

Iruma slipped the black diary into his bag and picked the bag up.

“If it’s too heavy I can always enchant it to be lighter!” Sullivan suggested, but Iruma shook his head.

“I packed everything I’ll need for the first day, so maybe tomorrow it will be heavier, since it will be the start of classes.”

“Right then, Iruma, myself and your grandpa will accompany you to school. The path to school is visible from the front gates of the mansion, and there are no turns you need to take, so walking to school alone is a viable option too, just not today.” Opera said before Sullivan could speak.

“Operaaa! I was going to tell him…” Sullivan pouted, and Iruma laughed.

“I see! The walk to school should be easy enough then!”

“I can’t believe it, it’s the first day and as the principal I have to get a lot of things done!” Sullivan whined. “But! I’ll be able to see you at school at some point today plus I get to walk you there!”

“I see! Well, we will eventually meet back up at some point, so I’ll hopefully have a lot of things to say about what I did and who I saw and all that!” Iruma reassured the demon.

The three went outside and finally departed for the first day of school!

Chapter Text

As Opera had said, the walk to school was a simple path.

What nobody had mentioned was the fact that the path was essentially a solid stone bridge over what seemed to be an enormous canyon where the bottom was so far down that actual clouds formed beneath the bridge and the bottom.

Iruma had only glanced down a couple of times, but he quickly found out that looking down was a bad idea. It gave him goose bumps along his arms and his spine felt unnaturally cool.

On top of that, the bridge itself was a winding pathway, hence why the walk didn’t take ten minutes. If it was straight, that would make the trip so much easier.

After walking for a short while, they came across the first sign board.

“Time for a picture! Iruma, let’s stand next to this!”

“Sure, but… what does it say?” Iruma asked. The language of the Netherworld was something he could speak and understand thanks to the spell Sullivan had previously put on him, but he couldn’t read it.

The characters, which looked like a mix of Chinese, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and demonic imagery, were all different and unique. He had never seen anything like them. As he contemplated what the sign could mean, the symbols changed shape into characters he could recognise.

‘ ENTRANCE  CEREMONY ’ the green and purple sign read.

Iruma glanced at his energetic grandpa, who was the one who was most likely to have put him under a translation spell.

Opera took a photo of Iruma and Sullivan posing next to the sign board. Iruma had quickly noticed that the ‘OK’ hand symbol could be stretched slightly to make it look like three sixes, or 666, thanks to his grandpa, so he copied the hand sign nervously.

Who knew, if he did it wrong he’d get cursed or something?

From the sign board, they were a few minutes away, so they continued at a calm pace. They were approaching the front gates of Babylys when the majority of the school students were arriving.

Strangely enough, nobody greeted Sullivan, as if they couldn’t see him.

“Right, well I'll see you later Iruma! Oh and if you need anything, I’m just a call away! Ta taaa!” Sullivan said, handing Iruma a flat, coffin-shaped phone with a phone case that seemingly gave the phone cute horns and a tail.

Sullivan disappeared in a puff of purple and green smoke to start his day.

It was opened onto the ‘contacts’ page, and Sullivan had already put his number in, alongside the name ‘666 Grandpa’. It seemed that, in the demon realm, putting 666 before the name of a contact registered it as a favourite contact and an emergency contact in one, and displayed it at the very top of the contacts list.

“May I see that?” Opera asked, and Iruma handed them the phone with a nod.

Very quickly, Opera handed it back after tapping on the screen a bit.

“There, you have my number as well. Also an emergency contact. Now you can decide who you want to message if anything goes wrong. I also recommend trying to get the number of the diabology and zoology teacher, professor Balam. He was one of my juniors in school, and we are still close. I’d also recommend getting the number of whoever turns out to be your homeroom teacher.” Opera advised. Iruma nodded.

“I see, thank you Opera!” Iruma gave Opera a slight bow, one that was returned with grace.

“Now then, I believe I have to find your grandpa before I return home to start work. He has a habit of trying to put off his work until later.” One of their red cat ears gave a flick of concern.

“I see, well I will be seeing you later. Enjoy your day!” Iruma replied.

Opera gave a slightly deeper bow. “Yes young master. You have a lovely day, too.”

Iruma was quickly left alone in front of the school gates.

‘Well, this is it. Demon school. My goals? Not getting cursed, my humanity not being found, and no super mega embarrassing failures. Also hope I don’t get bullied, but if I do, it could be worse…’ He gulped, mentally preparing himself. With Opera and Sullivan, he at least had a buffer between him and other demons, but now? None. Nothing.

After a few moments, he lifted his head, held his school bag by his side and started walking through.

“You there!” A voice called out.

‘And there it is, I’m gonna get bullied, before my first class even begins!’

He hadn’t noticed a group of four demons by the school gate in a line, wearing dark robes with red trimming, who all looked somewhat important. Had they noticed his lack of horns?

The one who had called out to him had black hair on one side, white hair on the other and his horns matched. He also wore glasses. The others were looking at him but hadn’t spoken, so he didn’t pay too much attention to them.

“Good morning, what can I do for you?” Iruma asked politely in the same kind of energetic and mildly intimidating tone. It was a somewhat business-like tone, one he managed rather well.

“First years go to the auditorium. There are signs to lead you there. Enjoy your first day!” The demon said.

“O-Oh, thank you. Enjoy your day as well, sir.” Iruma replied, before briskly walking off.

‘They weren’t bullies, just older students or teaching assistants, phew.’ Iruma internally sighed as he started making his way to the auditorium.

“HUAAARGH!” Iruma heard a shout from somewhere up ahead as he continued walking with his head down.

“HUARGH!!!”

Iruma was next to them, off to the side by about five metres, and finally walking past instead of to them.

A demon in a long purple robe similar to the school uniform, who was most likely a teacher, was being attacked by a student who towered over him. Iruma slowed as he walked, so he could stick around to hear what the pair were saying, and heard some rather bizarre things, mainly from the enormous blond student.

The teacher asked what the meaning of the interruption was, and the student, who was essentially the typical battle junkie, replied with a loud, cocky tone.

“I’m testing my skills before the entrance ceremony.” He boasted. “If I defeat a teacher, then I’ll become famous! Strength is everything!”

“Oh I see. You’re a moron.” The teacher clapped back with a completely unamused expression and an even more bored tone.

Iruma noticed that the teacher had everything under control, but he couldn’t help but to call out to the other student.

Nobody had ever intervened when he was being picked on, so sometimes he just had to be the change he wanted. Sometimes being all of the time. This is Iruma, after all.

“Hey, big guy! Why beat a teacher when you can beat the principal!” Iruma yelled, catching the guy's attention.

“Tsk, somebody here doesn’t know the chairdemon, or principal, as you called him. What’s your name?” The blond student called back, distracted from his fight.

Iruma decided to get closer to the pair.

“My name’s Iruma Suzuki. Yours?”

Iruma adopted a neutral tone for the exchange, similar to the one he used with the guy in the black robes previously.

“Sabro Sabnock, of the Sabnock clan. I’ll be the Demon King, one day. So, what’s your idea? If you’re here to fight a teacher, go find your own.” Sabnock replied coldly.

“I’m just saying, you’re wasting your time. I have a better idea: Learn more about the chairdemon, bide your time, and try again.” Iruma suggested.

“Oh, you weren’t telling me to fight him now? You’re smarter than I gave you credit for. You know what, that sounds like a plan, I’ll be heading to the auditorium.”

The teacher stood nearby, with a blank expression on his face. He was clearly not amused by the person who picked a fight with him either getting help, or the situation devolving into a three-way fight. The kid that interrupted the fight, Iruma, seemed surprisingly calm, however, so the teacher guessed he might not fight.

Sabnock sauntered off, and Iruma rapidly approached the teacher. The teacher’s arm was briefly enveloped in a green light before turning to Iruma.

Iruma saw the green light and held his hands up, dropping his bag.

“Whoa there, professor. I just came to say I have a first aid kit on me, no need to prepare for another fight.”

The teacher briefly looked puzzled, before smiling.

“I see, you distracted that moron so you could come help. I see we misjudged each other: the green glow you saw earlier was my bloodline ability, a healing spell. Thank you for your offer, but I don’t need first aid as long as I have mana.”

Iruma picked up his bag with his left hand, and extended his right hand to the professor, who took it and shook it.

“I see, that sounds like a rather powerful ability. Well, it’s been nice to meet you, but I’m pretty sure I need to be in the auditorium, and you most likely have better things to do than get involved with students outside of class. Next time we see each other I hope I’m interrupting something more casual than a fight.” Iruma joked, more at ease upon seeing how normal the school seemed and realising that people like Sabnock are outliers.

“Yes, same here Iruma. I will see you again at some other point. I’m also one of the school nurses, when I don’t have class, so we may end up seeing each other in the infirmary as well.”

The pair waved and parted ways, with Iruma finally being able to hold his head up higher.

The auditorium was nearly full, so Iruma took a seat near the middle, at the back of where the first years were sitting but in front of the first year’s families. He could see the heads and shoulders of a lot of those in front of him, and soon realised one major thing: not every demon had horns, or even animal-like features. There were plenty of others in the crowd who looked somewhat human, excluding those that had naturally brightly-coloured or multicoloured hair.

“Hey mommy! Urara! Konchie! Keebow! Sin Sin! Ran Ran!”

“I hope we’ll be in the same class!”

“Me too!”

“Man, I wonder when we can finally summon our familiars…”

He also overheard some pretty normal things. Other students were waving to and calling out to their families further back, some were discussing classes, some wanted to be in the same class as each other. All of those were conversations you’d expect in a human school.

The only thing that minorly stressed him out were the comments of people around him about something smelling good. He hoped the drink in his bag hadn’t leaked or anything.

One minute, the entire hall was full of noise, the next, a single purple-haired teacher put his mouth to the microphone and silenced everyone with his menacing tone.

‘Okay, that’s absolutely NOT something you’d see in a human school. That- He’s terrifying.’ Iruma mentally decided.

Another teacher stepped to the microphone once the first was done silencing everything in a miles-wide radius with a single spoken word. This second teacher, a man with white horns, normal brown hair and nothing else unusual, spoke in a more welcoming tone, one befitting a normal teacher.

“Thank you all for waiting. Let’s formally commence the welcoming ceremony to Babylys.”

Someone else, who was wearing the student uniform, most likely one of the older students, beckoned for everyone to stand up.

“It is time for the school anthem.”

“Humans only exist to be our food.

Suck them dry, soul, blood, flesh, and all.

Tremble at the sound of black wings as we take flight.

For we are demons!

As we sing this song from our crimson-soaked lips,

Scream for us, for we are demons!

Our castle is the greatest evil!

Its name is Babyls, a solitary place for study.

Sacrificing our souls, blood, and meat without leaving anything behind,

We shall aim for the demon's top!

Scream for us, for we are demons!

And to Hell you all will go.”

And that was why Iruma had to keep his humanity a secret. He understood that. But he also understood that first and foremost, humans were ‘non-existent’ mythical creatures, so even if he was suspected, he’d be able to treat it as slander, and possibly be able to turn the situation to his advantage.

“Next, a greeting from our chairdemon.” The brown-haired teacher said, allowing a brief pause for cheering.

“Incredible!”

“The director!”

“Chairdemon!”

“Yeah!!!”

Iruma heard people cheering, and remembered that the chairdemon, the principal, is his grandpa Sullivan. Earlier, to avoid being spotted, Sullivan had probably used a spell to only let a select few see him.

“Greetings all! My grandson, Iruma, now attends Babylys! Isn’t this wonderful, my very own cute little grandson, right here! Irumaaa!!! How are you doing, are you doing well? Call me if you need anything! Everyone, I hope you’ll all take good care of my grandson! That’s all I wanted to say, thank you!” Sullivan cheerfully said from the stage.

‘Okay this is super embarrassing, please no….’ Iruma very quickly realised his school year would be anything but normal now that it was common knowledge he was attending, and as the chairdemon’s grandson no less.

“And now we’ll have a greeting from the new student’s representative, the top scorer of the entrance exam.” The teacher continued. “The representative of the new student’s, Alice Asmodeus.”

Asmodeus got up from where he was sitting, in a school uniform that was white with golden accents. Clearly, he was a rich kid. With the best background. He’d be the perfect distraction for Iruma to get over how mortified he was about being outed by his grandpa!

Walking slowly and deliberately, he gave people time to take a good look at him and talk about him. Quite a few people, male, female, and probably otherwise, swooned.

“Giving this greeting in his place will be the honour student, Iruma Suzuki Sullivan!”

Iruma’s heart and soul nearly evaporated. He was absolutely not prepared for this at all.

Murmurs of shock and confusion filled the huge hall.

“Iruma, the guy mentioned before!”

“Think he’s strong?”

“Man, wonder if he has golden horns like lord Sullivan!”

“Wonder if Asmodeus knew about this?”

The brown-haired teacher on the stage shrugged, realising that if the chairdemon asked for something, he probably shouldn’t question it, especially when it comes to a member of his family. Passed to the man was a sheet of paper, a script for Iruma, most likely, and he put it on the podium with the hovering microphone.

“Iruma, please come to the stage.” The man with the microphone said.

Iruma stood up, and began his walk of shame to the stage that felt seemingly miles away. He completely ignored any looks he got, and any comments directed his way. If anyone wanted to complain, he’d direct them to the culprit, Sullivan. It was all he could really do.

Upon reaching the podium, he was asked to give his greeting. The script before him had a smiley-face in the margin, curtesy of his grandpa, and a little note about not accidentally falling over. But the main script was gibberish.

Hoping against all hope that the demon that had literally adopted him the night prior actually had his wellbeing in mind, Iruma began to read said gibberish.

“Aberuhauke.

Tarutoudari.

Iusabebe.

Risutouru.

Aburuze.

Sutoumanu.

Aberuge.

Uru.

Mahoraba.

Tsurezaza.”

During Iruma’s ‘speech’, nobody said a word. The entire hall would have been able to hear a pin drop.

After the speech, everyone waited with bated breaths, terrified or stunned, waiting to see what would happen.

Then a green flash of light enveloped Iruma. Just for a brief moment, accompanied by the softest ‘ ting ’ sound that everyone heard in the silence. Whatever he said somehow worked?

The auditorium erupted into wild cheering and applause after a good few more seconds.

“H-Hey you, you can’t go chanting forbidden spells like that!” A teacher, the teacher who previously had the microphone, scolded. “They’re taboo and for good reason , if you were to stutter or read it wrong your body could have exploded! That’s just common sense!”

Iruma paled. ‘ Not for me it isn’t! ’ He internally shouted, somehow keeping a straight face, if not slightly sheepish.

“That stunt was stupid, reckless and crazy! And unbelievably awesome too.” The teacher, that same scolding teacher, finished with a thumbs up.

“Only a complete idiot would use that spell, or an oblivious demon who doesn’t fear death.” The teacher joked.

Iruma stepped to one side just enough to catch a glimpse of his grandpa, the man who gave him the script with the forbidden spell on it, with a recording device, smiling. Iruma gave him a quick glare.

Iruma stepped down from the stage, ready to get back to his seat, when he came face to face with Alice Asmodeus.

“You may call me Asmodeus.” He greeted Iruma coldly, with a deep scowl.

“You may address me as Iruma Suzuki Sullivan.” Iruma mirrored, with the same cold energy. This was the first demon to greet him in such a cold, borderline aggressive tone. Maybe Sabnock, the student who had tried fighting a teacher, wouldn’t be the only outlier in this otherwise normal school.

What if Asmodeus wanted to fight Iruma since Iruma was the chairdemon’s grandson, and therefore supposed to be powerful?

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Asmodeus DID want to fight Iruma. Just not because of Iruma’s relation to his grandpa.

He wanted to fight Iruma because he stole Asmodeus’s rightful spotlight!

‘ R.I.P. Iruma Suzuki. Iruma Suzuki Sullivan, rather. Because I am so gonna die! Though, if this is hell, where would I go after? PLEASE NOT EARTH! ’ Iruma was currently dying inside.

Asmodeus was a whole head taller than Iruma at least, and was an actual demon, unlike Iruma. Needless to say, he had a massive advantage in both physical fights and magic. 

Iruma was a fourteen year-old Japanese boy. His entire life consisted of working odd-jobs in order to support his dead-beat ‘parents’ and as such, he had gained other skills. None of them were related to this fight. Iruma couldn’t draw something for his opponent, or whittle a wooden figure for him. He could only use physical means, not magic.

He could, however, sense danger, and when an immediate attack was coming as well as where from, due to how often he was attacked out in the Japanese wilderness, or any wilderness really, due to how much he had to travel for some of the less legal jobs he had been forced into. His body could dodge any physical attacks, which would give him an edge if he could draw out the fight to exhaust Asmodeus.

He had a plan.

Well, he didn’t have a plan. He had a couple of haphazard and frankly dangerous ideas that were tied together poorly with a fraying piece of thread, and nobody who was completely sane could call that a plan.

But after coming to the Netherworld, he was starting to question his sanity.

And therefore, he could call it a plan. Kind of.

“The head of the first years and the honour student are about to duke it out!”

“This is gonna be so cool!”

He could hear faintly from the gathering crowd.

The pair were in a wide open courtyard, and along the sidelines were many, many demons.

Even inside the nearby buildings, people were watching through the windows.

“Excuse me, can you tell me why we’re fighting?” Iruma asked.

“ I was supposed to deliver the school greeting. The punishment for stealing that spotlight from me is most assuredly death!” Asmodeus replied venomously, and almost shouting.

Alice Asmodeus: a demon well known for his mastery of fire spells. Even from a young age, he had wielded flames and fire as tools of destruction, tempered by his rich background and strict upbringing.

“Since you stole my thunder, I reserve the right to test your mettle to see if you are truly worthy of it!” He continued. This was not looking good for Iruma. “Now, prove to me that you are superior to me, with your body!” He yelled as his fists engulfed themselves in fire.

A powerful fireball was hurled at Iruma, who dodged it, and it exploded against a wall in the distance.

Six more similar fireballs were thrown and smoke surrounded the scene before anyone pointed out anything.

“Asmodeus is so badass!” A nearby student yelled.

“No other demons our age can handle fire like that. But that Iruma…”

“Why can’t the student rep hit Iruma?”

“Is Iruma an absolute beast? He’s not even fighting back, or retaliating, in any way.”

“Is Iruma biding his time?”

Iruma was in fact, biding his time by dodging everything Asmodeus threw at him.

To onlookers, it looked as though Iruma was effortlessly evading each attack. To Iruma, it felt like he was gonna die and shrivel up.

A single more powerful fireball got slung towards Iruma, who dodged again, and Asmodeus nearly fell to his knees from exhaustion.

Iruma was nearly on his knees with exhaustion after having dodged for twenty straight minutes. They were almost where Iruma wanted them, at a draw, he wanted himself and Asmodeus to just walk away from the fight and not speak a word of it ever again.

“What the Hell, I haven’t hit you ONCE!?” Asmodeus yelled.

“This is your last chance to just walk away.” Iruma told the other boy between two huge gulps of air. The smell of smoke was still thick, but the smoke was nowhere near Iruma due to the wind thankfully picking up at some point during the fight.

Iruma was hoping to get Asmodeus to leave him alone. And since Asmodeus hadn’t hit him, he could somehow bluff his way into being seen as a better fighter by the other boy, who’d then finally quit.

“Iruma IS a beast! He’s not even tried to attack Asmodeus!” He heard the comment about Iruma. And he had heard Iruma’s comment about Asmodeus walking away. There was another comment about Asmodeus not being worth Iruma’s time.

Asmodeus felt his fire well back up, though his mana was draining fast. He had to defeat Iruma to restore his honour and dignity.

“Am I so not worth attacking that you won’t even bother???” Asmodeus shouted.

The comments and cheering for Asmodeus had gone to Iruma’s side.

People yelled at Asmodeus to go home to his mommy .

They yelled that he wasn't worth Iruma’s time again.

Or worth Iruma even looking at him.

“Asmodeus, seriously, I just wanted to start school normally! Grandpa was the one who wanted me on stage, grandpa gave me that script, why can’t you see that I just don’t want to fight?” Iruma yelled back, though only Asmodeus could hear him over the crowd’s noise.

People booed Asmodeus.

They sneered and laughed so quickly once they realised Iruma had the upper hand.

“So I am not worth your time? Damn you, I will show you my worth! By the end of this you’ll be dead or wishing you were!” Asmodeus yelled back.

Iruma hadn’t wanted to fight. But he was in a school of demons. He had to prove to everyone watching that nobody should pick on him like Asmodeus had.

Iruma stood up straight, smoothed down his hair and dusted his clothes off, putting on a warm smile.

“You will regret being born.” Iruma said warmly. His previous tactics hadn’t worked. That meant he had to surprise his opponent. All he had done was dodge so far. So he had to end the fight soon, since that was all he could do.

“I will not abide this, if I can’t use magic I will just have to use martial arts!” Asmodeus roared, the flames on his fists sharpening into a single sword.

Iruma was planning on approaching Asmodeus to knock him out cold. Yet Asmodeus was charging him, head-on. It was perfect.

Asmodeus could run. And he could use a sword made from literal fire. But Iruma had survived cuts and slashes, he had survived burns. And he had survived Asmodeus, at least that long.

Iruma dodged out of the way of Asmodeus’s sword, and when the pink-haired demon was next to him surprised at how Iruma had dodged something so close, Iruma threw the hardest punch he had ever thrown, socking Asmodeus right on the neck before Asmodeus could widen the distance between them again.

The flame sword dimmed and evaporated into mist as Asmodeus clutched his throat in pain, and Iruma closed the distance once more with a punch to the nose.

And a punch to the temple with his other hand, and yet another to the throat.

Asmodeus was trying to back off, but he couldn’t speak due to the pain in his neck and the severe disorientation the blows to his face and head had done..

Iruma clenched both fists and locked on to Asmodeus with his eyes, ignoring the tear tracks streaming down the boy’s face.

“That’s it, Iruma’s a beast!”

“He’s… ruthless. I wouldn’t want to fight him, at all!”

“I feel sorry for Asmodeus. It was his own fault but…”

“The honour student isn’t backing off anymore. He must be pissed that the other didn’t surrender.”

“-modeus should have quit when he had the chance.”

“Goodnight.” Iruma smiled warmly.

“I’m sorry.” Iruma whispered to Asmodeus right after.

Iruma pulled his fist back and lunged at Asmodeus, knocking the demon down.

Asmodeus was a dishevelled, bloody and singed mess.

Iruma’s hair was the only thing out of place on him, alongside the blood on his hands and knuckles. And the human boy grinned wildly. He had beaten a demon. And he had discouraged the others from fighting him, hopefully.

“Alright, now the walk of shame. To the infirmary, Asmodeus.” Iruma smiled at the unconscious teenager, loud enough for those closest to the fight to hear. Iruma manoeuvred Asmodeus into a position where he could carry the older boy on his shoulders.

“Eiko, would you follow us with our bags?” Iruma asked, turning to a spectator who had been given the duty of watching over the bags of the two duellers.

It was Iruma who had initially asked, since he didn’t want his belongings getting damaged, and Asmodeus had followed suit.

“S-Sure, Iruma!” Eiko called back. She was another of the normal-looking demons, whose only demonic features were the short, dark horns that stuck out of her hair and her slightly pointed ears, something Iruma noticed that most demons had.

Eiko followed Iruma, who was carrying the heavier boy on his shoulders.

“Man, Iruma mentioned a walk of shame. Is that where the victor uses a walk to the infirmary as a way to parade the loser around to others as a threat?” Iruma could hear a nearby student ask.

“If it is, that makes him even more ruthless.” Another replied.

‘Actually it’s my walk of shame to the infirmary. This was so embarrassing but not taking Asmodeus to the infirmary would be rude!’ Iruma internally wailed.

It was a long and slow walk. A walk that passed through multiple hallways and a courtyard. Normally it would be a peaceful walk. If it wasn’t for the multitude of people snapping pictures of Iruma carrying Asmodeus on his back after the duel.

Eventually, Iruma arrived at the infirmary and nearly everyone scattered, the spectacles of the duel and the ‘walk of shame’ being over. Only Eiko remained, who opened the infirmary door for Iruma and continued to carry the bags she had been assigned to carry.

“Good morning, how can I help-” The person on duty started to ask. “I see. Through here, there are spare beds.”

He was wearing a purple teacher’s uniform, and had black, slicked back hair, as well as a long nose that looked more like a beak due to its absurd length, something Iruma had somehow not noticed previously. It was the professor who had been previously attacked by Sabro Sabnock. The ONE person who Iruma had forged a somewhat positive reputation with in school so far when he had offered the teacher first aid.

The teacher opened the back door, revealing what looked like a fully-furnished hospital wing, complete with the hospital beds.

Iruma laid Asmodeus down on the bed closest to the door and Eiko put Asmodeus’s bag at the end of the bed. She gave Iruma his bag and stepped back to allow the teacher to approach the bed.

“Iruma, what happened? Asmodeus is a strong fighter so I don’t see who could have…” The teacher sighed. “Was it Sabnock? That moron.” The teacher huffed.

“N-No it wasn’t Sabnock, it was a different moron! Grandpa completely messed up the greetings earlier by making me go up instead of Asmodeus, Asmodues got mad and demanded a duel for his lost honour. I gave him multiple chances to back off and such but… Yeah I’m never gonna live this down!” Iruma explained, half complaining.

“I see. Well, I… Congratulations on your victory? Now then.” The teacher gestured to Asmodeus. He laid a hand on the boy’s forehead and Asmodeus’s head glowed green. “He’s fully healed. He must rest now, after using up so much mana. But, tell me Iruma, you don’t feel any different than you did earlier. Did the fight really end so quickly? Did he use his mana too fast? It’s rare to see anyone beat a member of the Asmodeus family.” The teacher asked.

“I dodged his magic so he had to resort to martial arts after a few minutes, and that’s when I was able to get close.” Iruma summarised.

“So you followed your own advice to Sabnock about biding your time. Interesting.”

“On a side note, I’ve just realised that I didn’t get your name, we were too caught up in getting to where we needed to be.” Iruma expertly changed the subject.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that. That was rude of me, I should have replied sooner. I am professor Blushenko. Buer Blushenko. I don’t know how I managed to forget telling you.”

“Don’t worry about it, we were both caught up in dealing with Sabnock then parting ways. It’s been a hectic morning. Oh, about him, I hope I don’t bump into him, he’ll definitely want to fight me for sure. Then you’ll end up having to scrape me off the floor.”

Blushenko paled at the imagery of having to scrape a student from the floor after a fight.

“I’d rather you kept dodging, thank you.” He replied to Iruma, both with a chuckle.

Iruma stretched, putting his arms above his head, and holding one elbow with the opposite hand.

“Seriously, I’m just glad I got Asmodeus here without falling.” Iruma sighed, stretching his fingers, and wincing painfully. His knuckles were badly bruised, and his hands were swollen from sometimes landing on them as he had dodged Asmodeus.

“Hey, professor? It’s not that serious, but would you mind giving me something for this swelling?” Iruma asked, showing his hands to Blushenko. The teacher winced.

“It is as you say, not urgent, but I can heal them no problem.” Blushenko replied, holding out his own hands for Iruma.

Iruma put his hands on the teachers' ones, and they glowed green, proceeding to slowly deflate and the skin tightened around his hands to a normal degree. The colourful purple and red marks on his knuckles were also gone.

“Hahh! Much better!” Iruma sighed, flexing his fingers.

Blushenko nodded with agreement. Swelling was always annoying, and could prove distracting even on a normal day. Iruma was a student who had gone through a pretty stressful day, so Blushenko knew that not worrying about his bruises or swelling would do Iruma some good.

The teacher pulled a pad of sticky-notes from his pocket and a pencil from the other. He wrote something down on it and gave it to the blue-haired boy in front of him.

“Now, Iruma. This is my number. Since you won this duel with Asmodeus, more demons may wish to fight you. If and when that happens, instead of carrying them here I’d appreciate it if you called me. It will be quicker, and next time you won’t be under the influence of a powerful forbidden spell that stops you from accidentally falling. On the off-hand chance you lose, also call me to come get you instead of dragging yourself here, by yourself. Understood, child?” Blushenko asked, straightening his back and getting back to business.

“I understood, professor, thank you! I’ll only call or text you if it’s an emergency or a post-duel situation.” Iruma replied.

“Very good. Now then, I’d appreciate it if we left Asmodeus in peace. I also assume you’ll be wanting to go meet other teachers and students. I’ll let you go, but not before recommending that you buy some snacks from Camu-Camu’s shop, located in the cafeteria hall. You may have won your duel but you’ll need your energy.”

Iruma, Blushenko and Eiko left the infirmary, and each went their own ways.

Eiko was on her way to meet back up with Gaako, one of her close comrades, when she nearly dropped her bag.

As Asmodeus had previously charged at Iruma with his fire sword, Iruma had dodged, meaning that the sword was about to hit another student, Eiko. Since Iruma had immediately punched Asmodeus before the sword hit her and the sword fizzled out, Iruma had saved her life, albeit unintentionally.

“I nearly forgot to thank him for saving me!” She wailed in the hallway, earning a couple of stares.

Iruma had found his way out of the large infirmary room (pseudo-hospital) and back into the chaos of the demon school hallways.

At the hallway intersection he was at was a sign board that gave directions to the nearest facilities and classes.

‘Arts (sculpting, painting, photography, etc.) path A

Astrology classroom, path A

Classroom Lectures (tips and study methods class), path B

Demonic History, path B

Diabotany, path C

Interacting with Familiars, path C

Pharmacology, path C

Seduction, path D

Torture, path A

Training (Physical Fitness and Combat Education), path A

Transfiguration and other essential magics, path B

INFIRMARY, PATH D

ADMINISTRATION WING, PATH D’

“Well, I don’t know much about demon history, so I’ll go see what that class has to offer. Could be helpful.” Iruma muttered to himself, following the hallway that was labelled as ‘path B’.

Now that he was walking around freely, and not worrying about getting to the auditorium or carrying Asmodeus, he could actually look around properly, and that included paying attention to his surroundings.

Just like Sullivan’s mansion, Babylys had very halloween-styled decor, albeit tastefully implemented. Any columns in the hallways had delicate, spiralling cobweb designs, and the occasional floor tile had delicate little bat motifs. Door frames had the patterns of twisted brambles and other demonic imagery as well. Even entire towers towering over their surroundings had bat wing decorations and the occasional face, once he remembered what he had seen coming to school.

Walking along the hallway, he could feel the eyes of other students linger on him as he passed, his fight with Asmodeus still fresh in everyone’s memories. At the end of the hallway, just in front of the start of a staircase was the last classroom in the hallway, and hopefully the one Iruma wanted to make his way to.

Iruma peeked inside to see if he had the correct class or if he had in fact passed it.

Inside was the teacher who had been the one doing the most of the talking in the auditorium, and the one who lightly scolded Iruma for reading the incantation given to him by the chairdemon lord Sullivan. The same teacher also gave him a thumbs up and told him that the spell, when it had succeeded, was actually pretty cool.

Needless to say, this teacher probably didn’t have the worst impression of him. Or the best, for that matter.

“Hey excuse me, is this the demonic history class?” Iruma asked, knocking gently.

The teacher looked away from the window with a jolt and grinned upon noticing who was at the door.

“Iruma, yes this is the demonic history class. Do you want to come in or are you just asking so you don’t get lost when classes start in a few days?” The teacher asked.

It seemed that everyone who had come to the classroom previously was only looking to familiarise itself with its location quickly and move on.

“Well I was hoping to talk a bit, but if you’re having a break I can stop by after lunch or something-” Iruma started, but he was interrupted by the teacher’s grin widening and his entire demeanour picking up.

“I’m not having a break right now. Actually, demonic history is seen as that one boring subject that everyone has to have but nobody particularly likes. My name is Dantalion Dali, or professor Dali, since we’re in school. Come in, take a seat.”

Chapter Text

Upon being invited in, Iruma smiled and looked at the classroom properly. It had beige walls, wooden shelving and various purple accents. It was the first classroom he had seen the inside of, and it looked pretty welcoming.

He stepped inside the classroom and professor Dali sat up straighter, finally having been met with company.

“Oh, according to one of my grandpa’s books, dandelions are a flower from the human realm known for their ability to grow in most soil types. Though you’re neither the diabotany teacher or a mythical zoology teacher, so that line of conversation can’t really blossom. I’m actually here for the exact opposite reason. When I was a child I was fascinated by humans and their world, so grandpa taught me everything about them and gave me access to a ton of books and documents and such, and he kinda neglected the other subjects… Basically I’m super sheltered and I just came to apologise in advance for my lack of knowledge!” Iruma admitted.

Well, it wasn’t a perfect admission, he was a human in a world of demons. But the lie he had just come up with covered his suspiciously broad and in-depth knowledge of humans as well as his lack of knowledge and common sense when it came to demonic subjects like demon history and the like.

“Ohh, that makes sense. Talking about fantasy creatures is always fun, for certain people. And don’t worry about your lack of knowledge, that’s what school is for.” Professor Dali explained. “I know you only came to briefly apologise but I had prepared an activity for anyone who wanted to participate. You’re the first person who’s actually been here longer than a minute though.”

Iruma recognised the look on professor Dali’s face. Even without him saying ‘please’, Iruma recognised the pleading look that was hidden behind the teacher’s smile.

And Iruma, being unable to refuse anything similar to ‘please’, ‘help me’ and ‘I beg of you’, grinned warmly.

“Oh, some sort of ice-breaker exercise where you encourage people to learn about each other and get along? Or maybe a quick quiz? I’m good at ice-breakers but I hate to say it, I’d be the most likely person you’ve ever met who’d be able to get a negative score on a history quiz.” Iruma chuckled.

Professor Dali shook his head. “Ah, no, just a quick writing exercise. But! There is a prize. Nobody likes writing exercises so of course compensation or a prize of sorts is involved. Essentially I’d like you to pick an artefact from the back shelf to write a paragraph about, or a paragraph inspired by, then if your paragraph is the best out of every paragraph written for the exercise you’ll win the artefact in question. Of course it’s not as fun if there are less people, but still.”

“Well, I did bring a notepad and some pens with me just in case I had any exercises to do or information to write down. I can use this activity to actually test my new school stuff before my classes start!” Iruma decided.

It wasn’t like he could just let the second teacher who had a positive impression of him down.

Since he thought about it, both teachers he had spoken to had positive opinions of him (at least as far as he could tell) but both students he had met seemed to look down on him. Asmodeus for obvious reasons, and Sabnock because Iruma didn’t seem strong. Though, next time he met those particular students, he had a feeling at least Sabnock would change his mind. Asmodeus would probably be livid at being beaten by someone so tiny and cute.

Iruma walked to the shelves at the back of the room and browsed the contents. Each artefact seemed old and inconspicuous, more like ragged antiques than anything Iruma would imagine to be an artefact. There was a bronze medallion, a set of giant knuckle dusters, an old black whip that had most likely seen a lot of use, a brown leather notebook and pen with various patches of damage and discolouring, and a few other items.

He didn’t know much about weapons and armour in the demon world, and the medallion didn’t stir anything in him. The miscellaneous items Iruma couldn’t even begin to name were things he couldn’t write about for obvious reasons, so in the end, he took the notebook and the pen off of the shelf and brought them to a school desk where he’d be able to sit down, analyse the objects a bit more and use his own school supplies to hopefully write a decent paragraph.

He set aside his own school supplies, for the moment, to properly observe the artefact he had selected.

The notebook itself was made of old brown leather that had been discoloured and frayed around the edges over the years. It looked more like someone had just folded a piece of leather over a few scraps of paper and stitched it all together with mediocre abilities at best rather than any actual book binding. The pen itself wasn’t much better for wear, it looked like a stick had been whittled down into a pen-like shape and wrapped in the same old leather as the notebook, with two strips of the leather tied together to keep it from unravelling.

All in all, it looked like Iruma had been dumpster diving again, just like he used to do in the human world. The only thing that hinted at any sort of unusual magic was the tip of the pen that glistened with brown ink that pooled ever so slightly at the very tip, but never actually dripped. The ink showed no signs of soaking into the wooden pen or drying up either.

He opened the leather notebook and saw the thinly-spaced lines. At the top of the pages were various random things.

‘Nouns. Adjectives. Abilities. Bloodline Abilities. Blessings/Curses.’

After turning the artefact over in his hands a few times, he put it aside and wrote what was on his mind. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it was just a quick writing exercise. He didn’t have to take it seriously, and that fact made him more comfortable. It even made it easier to put what he was thinking down on paper.

‘The time demons learned how to write was a pivotal moment of demonic civilisation. Demons everywhere began teaching each other how to write, and eventually, it became a part of everyday life. War strategies, shopping lists, potion recipes, the notes students pass when the teacher isn’t looking, everything that has ever been written has been a pivotal part of history to some extent or another. War, mundane activities, socialising, and even medicine have most likely come a long way thanks to demons being able to put pen to paper to write down their thoughts. It’s what I’m doing now, come to think of it. I may not think I’m participating in this rich history, but maybe somebody else who reads this will be motivated to start writing for fun, or even drawing. And maybe that demon will find their name in a history book many years into the future. You never know.

Paragraph inspired by an artefact (book and pen), by Iruma Suzuki Sullivan.’

“Alrighty, I think this is as good as it will get, for a quick exercise.” Iruma said to himself, re-reading it one more time.

“Are you done already? That was faster than I was expecting.” Professor Dali commented.

“I know I was done quickly but I’m happy with this.”

Iruma got up and stepped over to professor Dali’s desk to give the paragraph to the teacher. He folded the page back and forth a few times to weaken its connection to the spine of the notepad then ripped it out in a single, clean motion before handing it over.

As he read Iruma’s paragraph, professor Dali’s eyebrows shot up.

“Even if you had competition, I reckon you’d have won anyway. This is quite the paragraph.”

“Really? What’s so special about it? Would others have leaned more towards the leather part, and how important leather is or something?” Iruma asked. “Or the enchantment on the pen that keeps it inked?”

“Usually, people are more interested in enchantments and effects than on the item itself. When I saw you notice the ink on the pen I was somewhat expecting you to also go in that direction as well.” Professor Dali admitted. “I’d say you’ve earned yourself the notepad and pen. Though, I doubt you’ll use it. Your grandfather has already bought you a ton of stationery I bet.”

”He bought me school supplies, yeah. But I reckon I’ll still use this one anyway at some point. I earned it on the first day, it would be a nice full circle if I used it after graduation to write about my time in school. That or I’ll write every spell I managed to memorise during school. I reckon that would be a good use, right?”

“Well, I suppose you’re right. When that happens I’d like to read it if you don’t mind. Whether it’s the review or the spell list.”

“I guess we’ll see.” Iruma finished, with a warm smile. He put his notebooks and pens in his school bag briefcase and zipped it back up.

“Now, I plan on heading back into the hallways to look around some more. Any recommendations on people to meet or things to see?” Iruma asked.

He had only spent fifteen minutes or so in the demonic history classroom but he already felt content with what he had done, and the productive little chat they had. It was time for him to move on and maybe meet another teacher, or at least see another class before lunch.

“Have you met Buer yet?” The professor asked. He furrowed his brow and was about to clarify who ‘Buer’ was when Iruma gave him a bright smile.

“Yeah, I have, twice already, funnily enough. He’s in the infirmary when he doesn’t have a class to teach. First was when we met briefly before the auditorium fiasco, the next was when I carried Asmodeus to the infirmary. We got along quite well.”

“Oh, you mean after your duel with Asmodeus? I swear when I saw Asmodeus approach you after your speech I thought you were done for! Then when you both walked off I thought you knew each other outside of class so I didn’t follow you. I’m guessing you ended up fighting after all…”

“Yeah. Professor Blushenko is currently seeing him. And he gave me his number so that if anyone challenges me again I can call him to get me or the other demon if we’re injured.”

“Oh man, when you said you got along with him I wasn’t expecting him to have given you his number, he must trust you to some extent.” Professor Dali replied. “Anyway, since you’ve met professor Blushenko, I can’t really give you a solid recommendation on who to see next. After him, all of the teachers are pretty much on the same page, and then there’s professor Kalego. I’d recommend not meeting with Kalego until as late as possible, and even then only exchanging a few words. He’s not the talkative type and would rather be doing anything else than socialising.”

Iruma winced. “That’s the guy who silenced everyone in the auditorium, I just know. I feel it in my gut.”

“You got it, kiddo. That’s the guy you don’t want to mess with.”

“Right, thank you for the advice. I’ll go above and beyond in praying that that guy isn’t my homeroom teacher.” Iruma joked. “Thank you for the little exercise and the talk as well. Talking to the teachers has weirdly eased my nerves more than talking to the other students.”

“It’s a pleasure, Iruma. Feel free to stop by my class between lessons if you need to talk some more. I’ll see you in class in a few days.”

The two parted ways and Iruma left the demonic history classroom, entering into the sparsely-populated hall.

The moment he stepped out, a few people caught his eye, then looked away, stepping off to the side of the hallway.

“That’s the honour student, get in his way and you’ll end up like Asmodeus.”

“That’s him? He’s rather short…”

“He’s short and he’s able to dodge stuff like there’s no tomorrow. It is not worth it!”

Iruma heard the rumours that were already circulating about him and cringed. He didn’t appreciate the attention, but it was necessary to discourage people from picking on him.

As he passed, people stepped further from the middle of the hallway, to let the boy through. One student even pulled another aside, out of Iruma’s way. As he walked, Iruma kept his head facing forward.

He wanted to look around, but he knew that if he looked at anyone he’d either be asking for a fight, or more likely he’d intimidate them. Iruma had encountered bullies in the past, and as much as he hated the comparison, he knew others would expect him to be the type to bully others. He just had to keep his head down and hopefully not cause more trouble until those impressions of him passed.

With his reputation, as reluctant as it was, he’d be safer not going to the cafeteria for a couple of days. There’d be a lot of people there, most likely, and that either meant more people to fear him or more to challenge him. His only option was to go to his grandpa’s office and wait out the lunch break. After that he could walk around some more and see more teachers. If the students were going to avoid him, it would make his education a bit easier, especially if he got along with the teachers instead of the students he could have been friends with.

With his decision made, he headed in the direction of the administration wing where the chairdemon’s office was.

He timidly knocked on the door a couple of times before he heard a ‘come in’ from within, and the moment his grandpa saw him, Sullivan got up from his office chair and went to pick up Iruma with his long, strong arms.

“Dearest grandson, congratulations on your speech! And your victory in your duel! You’ve already made quite the impression, now I’ll be surprised if anyone even looked your way in the hallways, let alone thought of picking on you!” He cheered.

“Grandpa, you’re the one who set up my script for me, you most likely had everything planned from the start, including the duel. I bet Asmodeus hates my guts now.” Iruma complained, earning a chuckle from Sullivan.

“Ignoring the speech, duels are somewhat common in schools, in the demon world. There’s usually one fight a month in public, and behind closed doors, like in the underground gym, there may be more that only a select few even witnessed. You made an impression, but only because you beat a member of the Asmodeus family, and duelled on your first day. Most would wait a week to settle in.” Sullivan explained happily.

“Oh but enough about that, I’m sure you came here for something else. Right?”

Iruma quickly put on a warmer smile. “Yeah, I just came to have somewhere private to sit for a few minutes before I continue walking around. Professor Blushenko gave me his number just in case I ever need healing in future, in an emergency, and I’d like to put it in my phone somewhere private and get rid of the paper trail, so nobody else gets their hands on the number without him knowing.” Iruma explained.

“Oh, I see! Such a careful boy. I’ll be sure to let Blushenko know how seriously you’re taking this as well. I have just started my lunch break after the meeting earlier, all of the classes have been finalised. The students get sorted according to their entrance exam scores, then after that, any changes are made within the first day of school, usually adding people to 1E, the Misfit class! That’s where you’ll be going. Alongside-”

There was another knock on Sullivan’s door, and Iruma made his way to the chair by the bookshelf in the corner, to avoid being in the way.

“Come in.” Sullivan called, and a familiar pink-haired boy entered.

Chapter Text

When the blue-haired boy approached him for the last time, with the intent to finally finish the duel, Asmodeus Asmodeus did not have the strength or the willpower to fight back at all.

The pain in his neck was the greatest pain, but the blows to his head and face were extremely disorienting. He could hear the crowd on every side of him, and Iruma’s voice mixed in with it in a way where he couldn’t distinguish where Iruma’s voice was coming from, all he could use to find the boy's direction was a blue blur through his teary eyes that seemed to be approaching. He saw the figure too late to do much, if anything.

“Goodnight.” Was what the blue-haired boy said loud enough for the crowd to hear.
“I’m sorry.” Was whispered to Asmodeus right after.

Only after an unknown amount of time did he wake up. He had been expecting to wake up in the courtyard with the other boy sneering down at him, the winner always stayed at the site of the duel with the unconscious loser after all, to show everyone that he had won, and to gloat about his victory. The time at the site of the duel was the most important for any demon who at least valued their own image above others.

Usually the victor would demand the loser become a servant the moment the loser woke up in pain, at the site of the duel.

Despite everything that had transpired, Asmodeus woke up in the infirmary of all places.

They had fought, Asmodeus had started arrogantly with the intention of reclaiming his lost honour and pride. Iruma had fought to defend himself, despite not knowing why at first. That in itself was strange, he should have known the pride of the Asmodeus family knows no limits. Though, he seemed to know their arrogance knew no limits, and they were kind of the same thing.

Another thing the Asmodeus heir was expecting was for his bag to have been damaged or stolen, to the victor go the spoils after all, yet his bag was placed neatly at the end of the bed. It was the right of the strong to bully and harass the weak, and Asmodeus was clearly weaker than Iruma. By a large margin as well.

“Ah, you’re finally awake. You wouldn’t believe what happened to you.” The person in the infirmary said.

“I understand that I lost the duel between myself and the honour student, Iruma Suzuki Sullivan. Can you tell me what happened?” Asmodeus asked the black-haired man on duty that morning.

“Just under an hour ago, Iruma carried you here, followed by a blonde girl with your bag. I don’t understand why, only that that was something that is highly unusual among winners of duels. I checked your bag and nothing seems missing, as far as I can tell. You have your notepad and pen, your pocket money, a planner for your schedule and even your hellphone. If I had to guess, I don’t even know why anyone would carry their opponent here, especially you. You were a strong opponent, so he should have been especially focused on showing off the fact he beat you.” Blushenko informed him.

“I recommend asking him, he doesn’t seem like an unreasonable type, and I have reason to believe he hadn’t wanted to steal your chance on stage earlier as well.” The nurse explained. “He said his grandpa was the one who had written the script and that he had given you multiple opportunities to back off and stop fighting as well.”

Asmodeus looked back on the fight that he could remember with shocking clarity, and remembered that Iruma had in fact told him about his grandpa, and about just stopping the fight and parting ways.

“Was I a moron, professor?” Asmodeus asked meekly.

With all of the grace and professionalism he could muster, the nurse nodded. “You were.”

Asmodeus had, in fact, been a moron.

“The kid didn’t seem to want to hurt you and acted in self defence, from what I gathered. The public would disagree though, due to the rumours about the duel spreading far and wide.”

Asmodeus remembered the crowd that had surrounded the battleground where the duel happened, a small but open courtyard. They had, at first, been on his side, but had quickly switched.

He should have listened to Iruma, it was clear by his continued dodging up until the last minute that he hadn’t wanted to fight despite being a stronger demon, and most likely a better fighter. Everything about the fight pointed to that conclusion.

“Very well then. Thank you professor, for your honesty. I’ll go and try to find him, to make amends.’ Asmodeus got up from the bed he had been put in and dusted himself off. It seemed, though, that his uniform had been cleaned and repaired using magic while he was asleep.

“That’s a smart idea. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you again, now that you’ve set aside your arrogance. If you don’t find him as soon as you’d like, try the cafeteria or the chairdemon’s office.” The nurse advised, and Asmodeus left.

At the hallway intersection there was a sign board that gave directions to the nearest facilities and classes. He quickly skimmed it, and at the bottom it said that the administration wing was in the direction of path D, back past the infirmary in the opposite direction.

‘Arts… A
Astrology… A
Classroom Lectures… B
…
…
…
INFIRMARY, PATH D
ADMINISTRATION WING, PATH D’

He doubled back on himself and passed the infirmary again, heading straight to the administration wing.

As he walked, he overheard people discussing the latest news about the duel. Some snickered upon noticing him, but none said anything too loudly. The duel was over, and the winner was decided. Only the cowardly would target someone who had already fought someone that day, as it was believed that a duel a day was the most a person could reasonably handle, and by targeting an exhausted person you were already proving some kind of weakness.

He approached the most ornate door in the administration wing and knocked, silencing the conversation that was happening just inside.

“-The Misfit Class! That’s where you’ll be going, alongside-” Was all he heard before he knocked, but despite Sullivan putting his grandson in the Misfit class the chairdemon actually sounded pleased, instead of angry or disappointed.

It was almost guaranteed that the chairdemon was the one who had forced his grandson onto the stage after all.

Asmodeus only entered when he was told to enter, and he entered with his back ramrod straight.

Iruma, the honour student, was sitting in a chair near the back of the room, out of the way, and instead of greeting the chairdemon, Asmodeus followed the protocol for his exact situation. He spoke to the person who had won against him before anyone else, as was dictated by the ancient code of conduct.

Alice Asmodeus, the heir of the Asmodeus family, dropped to one knee elegantly before the honour student after nodding to the chairdemon and crossing the room.

“Iruma Suzuki Sullivan, I am here to formally declare my loss to you. In our duel, you beat me, fairly and thoroughly. As the loser of our duel, by the Laws of the Netherworld that each citizen and inhabitant must follow, I am to become your servant and serve you with utmost loyalty for the rest of my life. Upon my name, Alice Asmodeus, and the honour my name and lineage bestows upon me, I solemnly swear, Master Iruma, to serve you with every fibre of my being.”

The honour student appeared mortified at the revelation. It was natural he’d feel anger or revulsion, Asmodeus had attacked him repeatedly in the ‘duel’ that Iruma hadn’t even wanted to be a part of.

“Please, um, Asmodeus, stand up?” The other boy ordered hesitantly.

Asmodeus raised his head and stood up slowly. The other boy appeared nervous, for some reason, so Asmodeus avoided any sudden movements.

“As I was saying, darling grandson, after your victory and with young Asmodeus here now being your servant, I am putting you two in the same class.” The chairdemon said cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to the mood.

Master Iruma swallowed and the little ‘gulp’ sound could be heard in the entire room.

“I see, that’s reassuring at least. Is there anything else I should be aware of?” He asked.

In Asmodeus’s opinion, such a question was a good one. Being prepared was something he admired, and as such, his admiration for the boy who had beaten him deepened.

Sullivan grinned beneath his handlebar moustache.

“Actually, my boy, there is! The classes are just about decided, we’re finalising the classes after lunch, as well as the groups of classes that will prepare for the school year. There will be four groups of about 40 students who’ll all be preparing to summon their familiars and stuff tomorrow! Also, something I recommend you go and see is the diabotany tower! Professor Suzy has the infirmary covered when it comes to medicinal plants and other plants for various battlers, or ‘clubs’ as you’d be more familiar with, such as mana replenishments for the magic battler, stamina boosters for the various sports and combat battlers, and even some exotic mushrooms for the torture battler! She’s also known to help first-years often, by giving directions or writing letters of recommendation for certain after school activities.”

“Ohh, diabotany sounds like a useful subject, will it be an optional or mandatory class?” Iruma asked.

“That, my boy, is something you can ask Suzy Stolas herself! As for your servant here, the servitude of a duel loser usually actually starts the following day despite being declared after the duel, so you don’t have to take Asmodeus here under your wing yet.” Sullivan informed his grandson. Master Iruma sighed and smiled.

“Very well. Alice Asmodeus, for the sake of our mental health, I’d like you to take the rest of today to look around the school normally as previously planned. I will be doing the same. Then, tomorrow, we can catch up with each other and discuss our findings. If we happen to bump into each other in the hallways, we can talk briefly then as well. Does that sound acceptable?”

Asmodeus was the other boy’s servant, he shouldn’t have a say in whether his Master’s commands were acceptable or not. Sullivan watched on in rapt interest.

“That’s more than acceptable Master Iruma!”

“Then it’s settled. You may go and continue your day, Asmodeus.”

Asmodeus finally left Sullivan’s lavish office. On any other occasion a demon had to address the highest-ranked demon in the room first, but due to an old law, the first conversation between a newly-formed pair with the master-servant relationship had to take priority. Therefore, he couldn’t prioritise the chairdemon or even speak to him much at all. It was weird, but it seemed that the chairdemon was also willing to respect the rules and let his grandson and Asmodeus talk for a while. He was grateful, though, in a sense.

He could tell that his new Master was a magnanimous demon who treated all others with some modicum of respect, and such a demon would make the perfect master, someone who’d treat their servants with respect and dignity. He couldn’t have lost to a better demon at all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime introduction.

Not that their first impressions of each other were absolutely skewed in Asmodeus’s disfavour.

However, he had been told that he had to continue his day as previously planned, and that meant he had to walk around various classes, and also retrieve his textbooks from the storeroom on the first floor of the first-year building.

He could think about his new Master some other time.

Right? Right???

Actually that was wrong, he knew he’d find himself thinking about his Master anyway, so he realised that holding back would just be frustrating. He still had to visit the torture classroom and the astrology tower, and after that he’d be getting his textbooks. He had plenty of time to think.

He wondered what classes Master Iruma would be taking. For every demon of strong lineages, combat classes were a must.

Art was also helpful as it gave demons more history lessons in the form of art history, context behind paintings and even helped them form broader opinions about more of the world.

Would he take combat classes focusing more on his body or magic?

Diabotany or pharmacology? Or both?

What magic would he decide to specialise in? Asmodeus had chosen fire, and most other demons usually stuck to one, maybe two elements for combat spells.

Has Master Iruma already chosen an element and is already proficient in it?

If so, why keep it a secret?

Or why not keep it a secret? After all, knowledge is power, and if people knew, they’d be able to use it against him.

Was he built for speed, endurance, agility or strength?

Could he actually be focused on healing, hence why he didn’t attack with magic, but fists? Actually that made little sense. If he could heal, he’d have healed him at the scene to flaunt his power more, and to avoid having to carry him.

Or would he? Truly he couldn’t grasp everything about the other boy from his actions alone.

What if Master Iruma was vaguely proficient with every element, all eight? It was rare but not unheard of.

Perhaps he preferred extreme elemental combos, like fire and ice, or earth and lightning? That way he’d never have his element nullified in a fight. That was also rare, but not unheard of.

What was his favourite weapon? Torture device? Food?

What classes would he be taking?

Which classes would be his favourites?

Would he like demonic history or be bored by it? Asmodeus himself found it nice if the teacher had a certain vocal range and type, but professors with tired or dull voices made him feel drowsy. Not that he’d ever show it.

Would he see seduction as a class that was only essential for women, as it had stood for centuries, or would he be the type to ask if anybody knew of any seduction classes for men, just to better woo a potential partner in future?

How would he see astrology? Essential, optional, or redundant at the very best?

Zoology? Asmodeus disliked the focus on creatures that didn’t exist, but whenever a class cropped up about animals in the demon realm he enjoyed it. His enjoyment of that subject essentially depended on if the teacher taught the mythical part of ‘mythical’ zoology more than the actual ‘zoology’ part. Real animals were helpful to know about for ingredients, pelts and other materials. Mythical animals were useless to him.

By the time he had finished that train of thought, he had located where his classes would be, picked up his textbooks and was already waiting by the diabotany tower, hoping to ‘accidentally’ cross Master Iruma in the hallway.

Chapter Text

“Hey mommy! Urara! Konchie! Keebow! Sin Sin! Ran Ran!”

Clara yelled to her other family members that were sitting about twenty rows behind her.

She was loud enough to be heard over the noise everyone else was making.

The people closest to her covered their ears.

People further from her scowled loudly. If that was even possible.

Her family waved back though and that was all that mattered to her.

Nobody loved her family more than she did, and she’d make sure everyone knew.

Her family echoed back just as loudly. “Hey Clara/big sis!”

Except for Urara, he was always quieter and more boring.

(Or louder and scarier as her brothers said)

More normal.

She hated sitting still.

She wanted to go kaboom.

Or at least weewooweewoo like a medical carriage.

But no. She was in ‘big girl school’ and she had to be a big girl inside.

She could play outside.

Suddenly there was silence everywhere, so she had to be quieter.

Suddenly there was talking on the stage.

It was time to make some noise.

She could sing the school anthem, she had practised.

And some ad-libs.

She could play the gebobotanonon.

She could sing, play the gebobotanonon and do ad-libs at the same time.

But when she pulled out her instrument, instead of happiness, other demons looked scary.

She put it away because of the scowling.

She wasn’t normal.

She sang normally though. It was boring.

She wanted to pull some Fredolas out of her pocket to snack on. Mandrakes tasted better when they had been home-grown.

She could ignore that they had been named. Partially.

Okay, she couldn’t. Mandrakes were tasty but the named ones made her sad when she ate.

She heard the boy on stage, not Azz-Azz, talking. It was scary and she understood none of it.

She saw that everyone was equally as confused.

Some looked scared, maybe his words were scary?

He wasn’t though.

She’d have to ask him to play with her.

Of course she’d provide the drinks and snacks!

She always had when others played with her.

The show was over and everyone scattered.

She wandered around a bit, and settled on playing in a garden.

Balls, hammers, maces, chomp books, yoink sticks, balloons, a murder-family blanket set for four, an inflatable house and more.

She brought everything out of her pockets and got to playing.

She played for twenty minutes.

She got bored and decided to tidy up and wander around some more.

She spotted a pile of boxes in the hallway. An empty hallway.

It was perfect.

She started charging up her roll.

Then she rolled.

“STRIKE!” She yelled, giggling.

She stacked the boxes back up, while singing, ready to do it again.

She saw a blue-haired boy walking towards her pile, and heard someone else behind her, who called out to the blue-haired boy.

“Hello, Master Iruma! I have just gotten my textbooks. Have you just come from the diabotany tower?” She heard.

The blue-haired boy, Irumachi, nodded.

She could finally see the pink-haired boy, Azz-Azz.

Were the two close? Did they know each other outside of school? Then why would they fight?

A teacher appeared and made the three of them go whoosh. They were tied together, which was fun!

Clara’s books floated behind them, thanks to the teacher.

“Master Iruma, stay away from her.” Azz-Azz whispered to Irumachi.

She wasn’t normal.

“Why?”

“She’s a delinquent, a wild-card. Everyone avoids her so they don’t catch the crazies.”

“We’re demons, right? What is normal to one may be different for another.”

She wasn’t normal. No demon thought she was.

She had to ask, fast, before they made their mind up.

“Hey, Irumachi, Azz-Azz, wanna play with me? I have a ton of games!”

“ Irumachi ? Azz-Azz? Absolutely not! So disrespectful! Why-”

“Sure! Though you won’t have the game I have in mind. Do you have some pens and paper? We can re-create it.”

The blue one wanted to play!

The pink one didn’t…

But the blue one was the boss of the pink one, so the pink one had to agree!

She pulled out a stack of coloured paper and a stack of coloured pens, as well as a table and chairs.

“Is it a fun game?” She asked.

Irumachi nodded.

“I find it fun and relaxing. I’ve finished walking around the classes for today, so now I just want to sit down, relax, and do things to keep my mind occupied until we go our separate ways for the night.”

She didn’t want to relax, but it was the first time in a long time anyone had willingly spent time with her.

Except her family.

“What’s the game?” She asked.

“Connect four. You take a piece of paper with a grid on it, each player picks a colour, and they have to take turns drawing circles on the paper in the grid until a player can connect four of their colours in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. You cannot copy another player's colour to give yourself a leg-up. It’s a quick, simple strategy game, basically.”

Irumachi was busy creating grids on some of the paper with pens.

He seemed to be in thought.

Clara pulled some drinks and snacks out onto the table to share.

“Here, we’ll hopefully have enough time to fill up these grids.” Irumachi said, holding up the paper grids.

“That’s amazing, Master!” Azz-Azz said happily.

“The game? I guess so. I know another version that can also be played vertically, but the size is limited and it’s only for two players. I like the paper one better. It allows more people to join, as long as you have enough colours. And if you don’t have colours you can all use different shapes. Or even give your shape different patterns using black pens.”

Clara tilted her head in confusion.

This boy seemed so normal, yet he could play and enjoy the company of others.

He also glanced at the snacks with concern.

“The snacks are for you two, don’t you want them?” She asked.

“If you say they’re for us, then we’ll accept them.” Azz-Azz said.

The blue one looked weird, as if he had a picture in his mind that hurt.

“I’ll accept too, but just know, you shouldn’t have to bribe people for company or attention. It’s a bad habit and people will use you if they think they can trick you. Anyone who will only play with you for food and drinks isn’t worth playing with.”

It felt nice but she couldn’t understand why the blue haired boy cared.

“But drinks and snacks are the only reason people play with me!”

“It shouldn’t be! People should play because it’s fun. No other reason. Does anyone ever give you drinks or snacks when you play with them?”

Clara started crying.

“Exactly, you have just realised that they don’t, and that you’ve been used.” He said. “And I’m not gonna let anyone use you again. You’re a demon, you should have more pride than to scrape by by playing with anyone who wants to use you. So, can we play together? I want to play, we can play connect four first, then after that, if we have time, you can choose the next game! If we don’t have time, there’s always tomorrow. Sounds good?”

The blue-haired boy wanted to play. And he said he’d play tomorrow too.

Clara nodded.

“Also, thanks for the snacks and stuff. I have more snacks, so I’d like to share those with you and Azz.”

Irumachi called the other boy Azz! He had adopted her nickname for him, kinda!

Azz-Azz looked puzzled, then happy. He smiled widely.

Irumachi put a lot of snacks on the table to share!

It was going to be fun!

It was going to be the best day ever!

Chapter Text

Iruma jolted out of bed when his hellraiser clock screeched and squawked at its set time.

06:30

He had an hour to get dressed and get breakfast, then half an hour to walk to school. If he was a couple of minutes late on any given day, he could jog or run to school or ask his grandpa for ideas.

He heard a knock and told the demon on the other side to enter. His grandpa entered just as Iruma was getting up off the floor.

“Good morning, grandson! Today’s a special day! You’ll be summoning your first familiar and then flying in a flying race! Of course I haven’t forgotten about your lack of wings, so I’ll let you borrow some of my own mana! I have a ring for you that will hold a tenth of my mana, making it extremely powerful! After that all you have to do is use the fractal spell to fly! I’ll explain it when you have breakfast!” Sullivan cheered.

“I’ll… be able to fly?”

“Absolutely! And, if you use the grand fractal spell, you’ll get a stronger boost!”

Iruma couldn’t believe his ears.

“And this mana will help me summon a familiar as well?” He could only hope.

“You’re still a human, so maybe you’ll summon a demon instead. That would be funny! You could also summon a familiar, since the mana is coming from a demon. I wouldn’t know, but you’ll either summon one or the other. And chances are it’s gonna be a familiar, so don’t worry!”

Iruma decided not to worry. At least not until he got more details. He got dressed, put on a fresh school uniform, and went downstairs. He had already memorised his way to the dining room, the bathroom and the other bedrooms, the essentials, so he was already doing well and settling in.

“Opera, Iruma will be getting one of those rings today. He knows it has powerful magic inside, so he’ll know to be careful. If we could coax his body into growing a native mana reservoir sooner rather than later, it will help him out a lot.”

Opera’s ears twitched towards the door and Sullivan turned to face Iruma with a grin.

“How much of that did you hear, my dear grandson?”

“Something about growing a native mana pool…? Is that even possible?”

“Iruma, all living things possess at least a trace of mana, so in theory it’s possible. If you are unable to grow yours to resemble a demon’s, I’ll just supply you with my own mana!”

Iruma felt like there was more that needed to be said, something important.

However, he was a human in a world that was hostile to humans. His priority had to be survival. And by having mana, he could survive, no matter where it came from or how he got it.

As he sat down, Opera started transferring the mountain of food from the trolley to the table. It was all varying breakfast foods from pancakes and the toppings to sausages, fried demon bird eggs and some sort of bacon. There were various vegetables, some boiled and some roasted, on another large plate. There was also a large platter of sliced fruits, none of which he recognised from earth but he had seen a couple in the demon world, most notably the blue banana with a thick, red, edible peel and the fruit that looked like a solid glob of rolled up and fused red liquorice.

“So, grandson, any questions about the fractal spell? Or my mana? Or the ring itself? I can use cherusil to change the ring to suit your preference too!”

“How do I fly using fractal? Will I have to worry about balance, or falling? How much mana is in the ring exactly, since it’s a lot wouldn’t it be inconvenient to you not to have it?” Iruma fired away his main questions, and had to give his grandpa a moment to absorb the questions properly to answer them.

“Well, fractal is a gravity-based magic at heart, so as long as you can imagine yourself going in a direction and how fast, it will make you ‘fall’ in that direction, and it can be controlled by imagining that gravity is pulling you differently! So while you will technically be falling, you’ll be in control the entire time! That’s the basics! The advanced stuff comes when you have to do the maths and all that, but I gave you enough mana to not have to worry! Grand fractal is the same but the gravity is stronger! Though, for both versions, you can imagine how much gravity affects you, to some extent. Be sure to only use grand fractal in an emergency, okay?”

Iruma nodded.

“Great! Now for how this affects my mana! To put it simply, while it is holding a tenth of my mana right now, I didn’t charge it all at once, I’ve been charging it slowly! I knew you’d worry but I don’t want you to worry about me suffering from mana exhaustion so I made sure to go slow and eat well to compensate! Also, that mana in your ring is now separate from my mana pool, meaning once my mana is in your ring I can replenish fully! There will be exactly zero negative consequences for me giving you a mana storage ring! You will now be able to use mana, just remember to tell me to charge it from time to time, and make sure when you cast a spell that you can imagine yourself regulating the mana! That way, if you do it properly, you won’t use all of the mana at once and will be able to cast more spells!”

“That sounds amazing! But I’m most likely going to forget all that at some point. Maybe I should write it down or maybe you could message me the details…?”

“I’ll message you instructions for the familiar summoning ritual and the flying race, no problem, as well as instructions for your ring!”

Sullivan seemed excited to share his mana. Iruma was excited to get mana and hopefully fit in. Not only survive but thrive too.

“Now, for cherusil. It’s a plain white-gold band, pretty boring. Do you want me to make it yellow gold? Patterns, colours, gemstones?”

“Um… regular gold is fine, I’d like it to remain a solid band as well, if that’s okay?”

“That sounds lovely! My boy has such grown-up tastes!”

Sullivan brought the ring out of his pocket and cast cherusil on it, making the white gold alloy turn into regular gold.

“Anything else, grandson? What other jewellery do you like? Rings, bracelets, anklets? Necklaces and chains even?”

“That-That’s fine, thank you! So much! This already looks so nice!”

“Aww, don’t worry about it, my dear! Just remember that you are allowed nice things. This is your first ring and by no means the last!”

Iruma felt that feeling again, of things going unsaid. His gold band that looked like it attracted good luck might actually end up getting cursed, or maybe something equally as bad would happen.

All that mattered though was survival. He thanked Sullivan again and continued eating. 

After some more time passed, Iruma heard two voices outside.

“Oh, my boy made some friends!” Sullivan cheered.

“Friends? I- oh, yeah. I did! Well, Asmodeus started as a servant but yesterday afternoon we met back up and actually played a few games with Clara! Clara Valac I believe her name was.”

“Valac? Oh my, such a powerful friend at that. A weird family but their bloodline ability is among the most useful out there! Asmodeus and Valac, both powerful families. Both are your friends!”

“My lord.” Opera began. “Isn’t Clara also in the misfit class?”

“Grandson, that’s right! The classes were announced yesterday! Clara is in your class, with Asmodeus! She’s loud and rambunctious, hence why she got put there, her antics will make you stand out less for sure! Anyways, they must want to walk to school with you! Maybe you could try fractal on your way to school, just to get the hang of it? To go slower, you imagine 45% of the gravity pulling you pulling you in the opposite direction, so your normal speed decreases to 5%, then modify those numbers to go slower to land!”

“Oh, I see! I get it, 100% of the gravity affects me, just in different directions! I’ll have to try it! Thanks again for the ring!”

“You’re more than welcome! Now then, don’t keep your friends waiting!”

Iruma picked up his bag and stepped outside.

Asmodeus and Clara were both waiting for him.

“Ra rain ra rain ra roo rain!” Clara seemed to be chanting, stomping on a patch of damp stone. He had no idea what that meant or if he should be scared. Though it did sound like it involved rain. Maybe she was praying for the garden to be rained on by benevolent, lucky clouds?

“A fine morning to you, Iruma!” Asmodeus said.

“Good morning you two!” Iruma replied.

The day previously, they had become somewhat close. Iruma called Asmodeus Azz, and Clara called Iruma ‘Irumachi’ or ‘Iruma-kinz’.

“Iruma-kinz! Will we play today? Let’s race to school! Race, race, race!”

Iruma laughed and stepped through the front gate to meet up with his friends.

“Clara, I actually plan on practising a spell this morning, called ‘fractal’. I’m a weak flyer so grandpa told me that I could fly using fractal instead, or at least use it in an emergency! Isn’t that cool, I can participate in the flying race properly! I was so worried!”

“Fractal? That’s a spell I heard from my mother only gets taught to third-years and above! To think you’re that advanced!”

“Well I only learned of it yesterday, and today will be my first time practising! So, should I practise on school grounds or out here on the way?”

“Here! Fractal vs. wings, which wins which bins?”

“At school, where it’s safe!”

“Boo, Azz-Azz, you’re kinda boring at times!”

“And you’re kind of a dangerous gremlin at times! At least pretend to care about if he gets injured!”

Iruma laughed at their little argument and dragged them away from the Sullivan household gates.

“Come on, we’ll be late! You guys can argue on the way to school.”

And so he had Azz and Clara holding on to his arms all the way to school. Why didn’t they let go?

Neither wanted to be the first to let go. That’s all there was to it.

At the school gates, Iruma noticed the strange people in the dark robes again. They were wishing students who were passing by a good morning, the same as they had the day prior. Iruma could only guess that they were a welcoming committee of sorts.

“Good morning!” Iruma called out to them, projecting his voice the same way they did. He didn’t know why, but he just felt more comfortable around them knowing that they weren’t waiting by the gates to victimise people.

“By the way, Iruma, did you see the class board yesterday?” Azz asked.

“I didn’t need to. I know I’m in 1E and I know both of you are in the same class as me. I don’t need to know more until we get to class. And as for where the 1E class is, grandpa said it was behind the first-year building along the path to the underground gymnasium and the dumps.”

Azz wrinkled his nose. Clara seemed excited.

“That class will reek then, I can assure you.”

“Underground Jim? Must be the Jim-Nysium of all Jims if he’s THE Jim-Nysium and not a Jim!”

“No, you idiot, gymnasium as in the exercise place, not whatever you just said!”

“Grumbly wumble.” Clara pouted briefly.

In her distraction, she finally let go of Iruma to point in the direction of the announcement board.

“You lose!” Azz yelled.

“I did not- OHHHH!”

“Anyways, now that we’re at school, why don’t we see when we’ll summon our familiars? There are four groups separate from each other so that the hall isn’t too full of students and magical beasts. I hope we’re in either the first or last. Gives me more time to practise.” Iruma interrupted.

“Let’s take a look at the information on the four temporary groups then.” Azz recommended, glad to have Iruma provide him with some respite from Clara’s antics, however brief.

The announcement board wasn’t far from the entrance to the school, it was just on the opposite side of the same courtyard.

Clara dragged the other two teenagers to the board, holding their hands and walking in front of them like a big sister with two sluggish brothers. Not that they were sluggish. Clara was just fast. Full of energy. She went woosh.

The announcement board was large enough to display the groups on it and the classes.

The groups were all written on plain paper but the classes were written on coloured paper, with 1E, the misfit class being written on gold paper with an ornate black frame.

Azz scanned the timetable to the side of the group listings and he beamed.

“Iruma, our group will be going last! You’ll be able to train for the flying race for three solid hours before the familiar summoning ritual!”

“Oh, that’s great news! Clara, Azz, let’s make our way to one of the gardens to practise!” Iruma suggested, and the pair followed him, chattering excitedly about what familiar they’d want and arguing over whether a boneraven was better than a cloud fiend.

Once the group was in the garden, Clara threw pillows and blankets onto the floor at Iruma’s feet. “You’re using a spell to fly, not wings, so just in case you fall, here!”

Huge, thick blankets, mattresses and pillows covered the ground around Iruma. Azz seemed happy at Clara’s willingness to be useful to his master.

“Okay, um… Fractal!”

He didn’t start flying right then and there. But he did feel his body get lighter. He focused on this light feeling, trying to make it pull him up. As his feet left the ground a second or two later, he felt himself lose balance.

Iruma faceplanted into neither a pillow nor a mattress but Azz’s chest as the boy pulled the falling Iruma to him.

Clara laughed. Iruma joined her with his laughter. Azz, despite being worried initially, soon joined them.

“Right, again!” Iruma insisted. “This time, when I feel that light feeling I’ll focus on directing it to my core, arms and legs. That should help with my balance!”

Despite his enthusiasm, during his three hours of training, he faceplanted Azz a total of 15 times, Clara 7 times, the mattresses, pillows and blankets 21 times and the floor a grand total of zero times, thankfully.

During those three hours in the mostly secluded garden, he had managed to find his balance and experiment with speeds that merely rivalled a normal demon flying. He did, however, fly close to the ground as he knew a teacher may hear of him practising fractal and get concerned about safety.

The school bell rang and announced the fourth class period before lunch, and that was when Iruma’s group was to summon their familiars.

Chapter Text

The walk to the familiar summoning hall was daunting despite being on school grounds, as it was at the top of one of the tallest towers in the school, and students had to go up fifteen flights of stairs before they managed to get to the stony bridge that led to the entrance of the tower. Since students were not allowed to fly with their wings in the hallways and stairwells, or even outside due to wings potentially damaging the flowers and disturbing the overall scenery, everyone had to take the stairs.

‘Huff… huff… huff…’ “Master, please… Don’t forget about me when I’m gone!”
“Iruma-kinz… Tell my family…” ‘Wheeze’ “That I love them…” ‘Wheeze…’

“Come on Azz, come on Clara, just nine more floors to go. We’re nearly half way there.” Iruma encouraged the exhausted demons.

Demons had wings, and mainly used them for mobility instead of running and walking. Any uphill battle was one a demon would struggle with, and the main battle demons lose is with stairs.

Humans like Iruma, found stairs difficult too, because stairs can be a bitch. Iruma, however, has lived a life of hardship and obstacles. Stairs mean nothing to him except for when he worked in a huge fancy hotel as a cleaner and often had to climb many flights of stairs with baskets of cleaning supplies.

And so, Iruma kept up his swift pace.

“What if this was a race, and whoever won won a drink from my bag?”

Azz and Clara had seen it the day previously when they played together. Iruma always had the nicest drinks and the tastiest snacks, such was the life of a lord of an even higher calibre than Asmodeus’s family.

Azz perked up visibly but nearly tripped.
Clara tried dashing forward but she crashed into Azz.
Iruma stayed a few paces ahead of the duo, frequently turning around to encourage them and watch them pick themselves back up off the stairs.

Stairs, in the demon world, were his friends. He could climb them easily, but demons had a hard time.

After a few more minutes, Iruma was at the top, face-to-face with an ornate purple door. Azz and Clara pulled themselves up behind him.

“We’re here.”

The two demons nodded.

Iruma pushed the door open and at that time, only a few other people were in the hall, still recovering from the climb.

Just inside was a familiar face, one of the people in dark robes that usually greeted people at the front gate.

“Hey, Iruma. You’re just in time. The teacher will be here any minute now.”

This demon was a female with bright magenta hair.

“Oh, that’s good to hear. I guess the teacher must be giving people time to tackle the stairs first.” Iruma replied.

“That’s exactly it. The familiar summoning only takes 45 minutes, the other 15 at the start is to allow people to arrive and gather their strength. By the way, my name is Smoke, and the others, who are in the student council office, are Western, Quichelight and Grave.” Smoke said.

“I see. Thank you for telling me. I’ll have to properly introduce myself to the others as well, especially if I keep causing trouble like I did yesterday.” Iruma quickly bowed his head, both a thank you and an apology, and Smoke laughed.

“Nah kiddo, we’re demons, don’t worry about it. Spells and fighting are a good way to gain notoriety and popularity. You’re gonna go far, kid, trust me. So when you introduce yourself to others, don’t apologise. Chin up, okay?”

Smoke, Iruma realised, was the first upper-classman he had spoken to properly. And judging from what she said, Iruma was at least somewhat popular. Not only that, but she had confidence in him, which made him feel better about being a human in the demon world.

‘When I’m an upper-classman, I want to reassure others too.’

Iruma grinned. “Chin up, got it. Thanks for the pep talk, Smoke!”

“No probs, I’ll see you around. Mix in with the crowd before the teacher shows up, he’s a grump and he will take out his frustrations on people verbally.”

Iruma winced and made a bee-line straight to a mostly unoccupied space in the hall. It was off to the side, near the front, where people would overlook things being slightly out of place if it didn’t interfere with anything.

The hall was huge, and it matched the door: very ornate and very purple. It must be a classic combo in demonic architecture. There were a lot of silver decorations. Silver-leaf on the wallpaper and solid silver chandeliers, most notably.

Azz and Clara followed him, and very quickly, they got back to talking, except now they were talking about the student council. The people around them were talking as well.

‘Hey, look, that’s Iruma!’
‘And Alice Asmodeus! So it’s true Iruma made the student representative a servant?’
‘Who’s the girl with them?’
‘She’s not very pretty, they can do better than that.’
‘She’s crazy too. Maybe they’re keeping her around because of her bloodline ability. The Valac bloodline, y’know?’
‘Damn, Iruma’s already got two useful servants!’

“Silence.” The door opened to the grumpy teacher.

The teacher had arrived, and silenced everyone with his terrifying presence.

The teacher seemed to want to say something, but as he looked around, he couldn’t see what he was after. In any other world he’d be scolding Iruma, but this Iruma got lucky.

“I am Kalego Naberious, or professor Kalego. I am the permanent familiar overseer and I will be watching you summon your first familiars. The chairdemon has provided you with a guide.”

The moody teacher showed the students an animated screen, and tapped ‘play’.

A high-pitched, ‘cutesy’ voice scratched the ears of everyone present, coming from the screen.

An animated heart-shape with horns and a tail performed the summoning spell.

“F-First you take the teacher’s seal!
Next up, draw a circle of blood on it!
Hold the corner up to the flame until smoke appears!
Your familiar will appear in the smoke!”

Professor Kalego couldn’t tolerate the annoying device, so as soon as the explanation was over, he permanently ‘turned off the screen’. How? Jamming his hands through it and tearing it in half like a flimsy piece of paper.

“I am here to decide whether you demons will be useless trash, or trash that can at least have some use. Somewhere. When I call out your name, come to the front and summon your familiar.” He instructed.

Iruma heard the cold hostile tone used by the teacher, but he couldn’t pick up negative intentions, so he could at least relax. It seemed he was the only ‘relaxed’ person in the hall.

After a while, the hall was full of monsters ranging from the size of a frog to the size of a large dog. That would soon change.

Professor Kalego called out for Sabro Sabnock.

An absolute beast of a man, clad in large, hardened muscles and little else save for purple trousers and a crimson cape, stepped to the front of the room where the familiar summoning circle was.

Sabro pierced a finger with a fang and then drew a circle of blood on the seal professor Kalego had provided. He then held the corner to the candle flame, The cloud of smoke expanded rapidly, and neighing could be heard.

“A kelpie! The coolest familiar yet!” Sabro declared.

Iruma could only agree after the smoke cleared to reveal a six-legged scaly teal horse with a few sets of spiky orange fins. The next largest familiar, after Sabro’s, was the size of a large dog, and was called a bloodhound.

Professor Kalego noted down the familiar in the student files, and called out for the next person, Alice Asmodeus.

‘It’s Asmodeus’s turn!’
‘Wonder what he’ll summon!’
‘Can’t be bigger than that kelpie can it?’
‘No idea, but I bet Iruma’s familiar will dwarf everything here. It might even eat some of us students!’

Sabro gave Iruma a grin and a thumbs up as he walked away from the summoning circle. “Hey Iruma! Good luck in there! I hope you at least summon something cooler than what Asmodeus will!”

While Sabro was amicable towards Iruma, he could tell the demon didn’t really respect Azz much.

Azz was making his way to the summoning circle, and with grace and fluidity, he was soon surrounded by smoke.

From that smoke emerged a gorgon snake. It was a white individual, with purple horns and wings, and a glowing fire on the end of its tail. It was just as cool as the kelpie Sabro summoned, its body as thick as Azz and as long as three kelpies.

Iruma could barely hear Sabro mumbling “Mine has more legs and looks cooler.”

Iruma applauded.

“Wow, your familiar is so pretty!” He gushed.

“You’re too kind, Master. I bet yours would make mine look like a puppy though.” Azz replied.

As Sabro disappeared into the crowd (not that he could, being extremely tall), Iruma could make out Sabro’s head dip upon hearing Azz’s comment.

Somehow, Iruma had made some sort of an impression on the blond boy who had previously tried fighting a teacher?

Actually, come to think about it, he had previously thought he’d only get along with the teachers, and yet he had Azz and Clara, possibly Sabnock too given some time.

A green creature nearby also nodded. It was Clara’s fal-fal, a bipedal reptilian familiar that was actually surprisingly rare and especially intelligent. It did, however, look really goofy with its blank googly eyes and round, harmless looking teeth. It was also around a metre tall. Extremely goofy.

“Iruma Suzuki Sullivan.” Professor Kalego said.

That was Iruma’s cue to step forward and summon his familiar.

Iruma had mana. It wasn’t his, but it was mana. But he was also a human. He could summon a demon or a monster.

He used his dull canines to crush the skin at the tip of his index finger enough for blood to pool at the tip, wincing as he did so. Soon after, he drew the blood circle on the teacher’s seal, and smoke appeared. Thick, dark smoke filled the entire hall, and everyone backed away to the walls to make room for what people assumed would be a big familiar, bigger than a kelpie or gorgon snake.

What Iruma summoned could only be described as a mess. The top half of professor Kalego was above the summoning circle and the lower half of the teacher was where he had been previously standing. Where his body would have continued was instead a portal.

“I am so sorry professor!” Iruma yelled as he pushed professor Kalego’s lower half up, out of the portal, hoping to help him.

After the resulting smoke thinned, the teacher and the student stared each other for a good few seconds, long enough for Iruma to realise that the fluffy bird in front of him was the teacher, and long enough for the teacher to know what position he was in as a familiar.

The form professor Kalego had taken could only be described as a grumpy kind of cute. He was a white bird that looked like an owl chick, with a black single claw at the end of each forearm and hind leg, and a pair of tiny purple wings. He also had a purple beak and a tuft of purple hair on his head that looked suspiciously like the teacher’s fringe. Where did the grumpy come from? Well, this was Kalego Naberius. It came from his personality and just transferred to his cute form via the grumpy, black eyes and the vague impression that he was judging everyone for even the pettiest of reasons.

Iruma’s familiar collapsed in shock.

“N-No way, that’s Kalego?”
“How did this happen?

Very quickly, news in the hall spread about Iruma summoning professor Kalego.

“Master Iruma, this is simply amazing! I knew you’d summon something powerful, but not a literal Chet (8) rank demon!”

“I-It was an accident! I’ll ask my grandpa about cancelling the contract, I swear!”

Iruma was uncomfortable with being able to summon a teacher. He was uncomfortable with ordering anyone around anyway. Or even asking for some things, for that matter. Yes, he was uncomfortable with the situation as a whole.

“The chairdemon’s brat has gone and made me his familiar! How?” Could be heard coming from the bird that had been picked up and was being held in Iruma’s arms. It was quiet, but it was repeated louder once the birb finally came to his senses.

“Professor? How do I undo the summoning?” Iruma asked.

“Clap once.” The teacher replied weakly.

Iruma clapped once, and professor Kalego was back in his usual demon form, wearing his usual clothes.

“Now, brat, tell me how that happened or else you’re getting six months of detention.”

“I don’t kno-”
“Wrong.”

Iruma didn’t know, genuinely. But Kalego did not believe that, not one bit. So as it happened, Iruma was supposed to have six months of detention. At some point.

“Now, everyone, the familiar summoning is complete, Iruma was the last. Leave my sight, all of you.” Professor Kalego ordered.

Iruma took Azz and Clara by the hands and also made their way out, Iruma keeping his eyes down-cast and his hands tightly clenched around the hands he was holding.

Azz was beaming brightly, absolutely thrilled by the development.
Clara was enjoying the ride.

Later, in the chairdemon’s office, Sullivan explained to Iruma and Kalego that they were stuck with each other until the familiar contract terminated of its own accord. On top of that, Sullivan called off Iruma’s detention.

Chapter Text

After lunch, the trio made their way to where the 1E class was. They each had visited it the day previously or had been told about it at some point. It was behind the school near the underground gymnasium and the school dumping grounds, inside a tunnel. The tunnel had the persistent smell of garbage and usually had graffiti in it as well.

Iruma had something on his mind, something he wouldn’t or couldn’t have previously thought about. While he considered Azz and Clara to be his friends, he had quickly accepted them after all, he didn’t know how friendship in the demon world worked. He really wanted to ask about that, and more importantly, see where he stood.

At that moment, they were just leaving the courtyard opposite the tunnel.

“Hey… You two? Would you consider the three of us to be friends?” He asked.

Azz and Clara both stopped, puzzled.

“What are these ‘friends’ you speak of?”

“Friends??? Aren’t they a type of demon?”

“That’s ‘fiends’ you idiot!”

Iruma couldn’t help but to laugh at the exchange, but he quickly stopped when he realised the others were waiting for an explanation.

“See, I grew up on the outskirts of all known civilisation, where life was uncharted and dangerous. One concept that was put in place to encourage survival was the idea of ‘friends’. At any point between childhood and adulthood, and even beyond that, if there are individuals you are close to, close enough to eat together and play games every day, you can decide to become friends. Friends eat together and play together, but they have each other's back as well, they’re people you can put your full trust and confidence in, as equals. Where I am from, having friends also meant survival in numbers, where a group of friends could tackle an enemy that a single demon can’t beat. I guess that’s a good way of explaining it.” Iruma explained. He hoped that his comment about where he grew up would make sense. It seemed as if the other two were too distracted by the idea of friends that they overlooked the comment on where he grew up, though.

“So by working together, we can defeat any enemy before us?”

“And we get to play!? But also be allies? That’s really cool!”

“Yeah, exactly! Friendship is a thing that is fun and promotes survival in harsh conditions, and even though we’re at school and we’re safer here than anywhere else, I still feel like we can all help each other grow and fight. Our closeness will help us out in the long run.”

Azz and Clara both appeared to be brighter after that, and their smiles were visibly wider.

“On a side note, I’ve just sensed an opportunity to test the new spell.”

Iruma was able to dodge things with extreme efficiency and accuracy due to his razor sharp instincts, instincts that told him when an attack was coming from and where.

Before the trio was a set of double doors that had clearly seen better days. They were scratched, weathered and worn from many vandalism attempts over the years, plus general wear and tear. Behind those doors was an immediate attack.

He gently held the handle and twisted it, assuming that if the handle wasn’t trapped, then the door opening would set it off.

When the handle didn’t trigger anything, he put his foot to the door.

‘1… 2… 3… Kick!’

The door swung open that hard and that fast he probably scared the people in the room.

As he had guessed, there were weapons poised to strike the next to enter, and as they were flung towards him, he used the spell ‘fractal’ to control the gravity of the weapons and cast them down, away from him. Wordlessly and instinctively.

As if he had always had mana, and as if he had always known that spell.

“Wow!”

“Amazing!”

“Man, I lost the bet!”

“Those who bet on him avoiding any damage, claim your prize money here!”

So that was the misfit class. True to its name, it was full of misfits. The class was occupied with nine visible demons, a few on each side. An owl demon, a lion demon, a silver mop demon whose body was covered in silver hair that was tied into a ponytail at the top and the other demons mostly looked like people with demonic features.

It appeared as though everyone in the room had been betting on whether the next person to step through the door would get hit or avoid most of the damage.

“Hah, that was nothing!” A figure in the back called out.

Tall, clad in chiselled muscles from head to toe, and sporting a bright yellow head of hair and less clothes than anyone else, just the trousers and cape, it was Sabro Sabnock. He stepped forward to the front.

All Iruma could think was ‘He’s really big when he’s not leaning over a teacher. ’

“I was hit by every weapon, without getting hurt at all!”

Sabro turned his back to Iruma and Iruma saw a multitude of weapons sticking out. Arrows, throwing knives, darts, daggers, swords, a morningstar was lodged on his shoulder, clinging to his shoulder for dear life, and a scimitar was practically wrapped around his lower right arm. Sabro flexed his muscles, pushing the weapons out of his body with ease, all of which clattered to the floor.

“As the future Demon King I have to be strong! Strong enough to make it to Yodh one day! Strong enough to protect my allies and block every attack for them!”

“You moron, you’re never going to become the Demon King with that boorish mentality!” Azz started, but Iruma interrupted, by applauding Sabro.

“That is indeed impressive. Block or deflect, if the weapons are now in your possession you can equip your allies with them. While we have different means of blocking, you with your body and me with my mana, I think we can both agree that the weapons are better with us and our allies than in the hands of the enemy.”

Sabro grinned wildly and let out a booming laugh. “I see your reasoning. In true combat we’d have to use everything at our disposal. Very well, I will once again admit you have proven myself wrong about you. You may not look strong, but perhaps you’re smart enough to make up for it.”

“Of course he’s strong, he managed to beat me !” Azz yelled, and Iruma and Sabro chuckled.

“To be fair, while I was dodging and biding my time, you were needlessly using up your mana. The strategy was extremely basic at best.”

As Iruma, Azz and Sabro were talking, the other demons in the room were quietly passing money to those who won the bet, and watching the three power-houses of the class talk. Asmodeus and Sabro were strong fighters, and this Iruma kid had beaten Asmodeus, and had managed to earn the respect of Sabro Sabnock.

The lion demon nodded thoughtfully at Iruma’s strategy. “Indeed it was a simple strategy, but what counts is effectiveness. Sometimes, in that regard, simple is better.” He commented, earning nods from a couple of the other demons.

“Biding your time, Iruma? I see. So that advice you gave me about timing was something you also use frequently. When you lack muscle and physical strength in its rawest form, I can imagine that finding openings to attack is crucial…”

As the trio were talking, footsteps could be heard outside the door. It swung open again, revealing the moody teacher that seemed to dislike light, people and everything within his line of sight that Iruma had somehow summoned as a familiar.

“Silence. You lot, sit down.”

‘Scary as ever…’ Iruma thought, despite knowing the teacher for less than a couple of days.

Once the class was silent, Kalego immediately began to take attendance.

“Alice Asmodeus.” “Present.” Normal and formal.

“Agares Picaro.” “Zzz Zzz Zzz…” Snoozing, sleeping and quietly snoring on his cloud.

“Allocer Schneider.” “I am a learning machine!”

“Caim Kamui.” “Here!”

“Clara Valac.” “Heya, eggy-teach!” Kalego could feel the vein in his neck acting up in his annoyance.

“Elisabetta Ix.” “Here~!” A seductrice. Good thing he was immune to charms.

“Gaap Goemon.” “Here.”

“Iruma Suzuki Sullivan.” “He-” Kalego moved on before Iruma could finish.

“Jazz M. Andro.” “Who wants a free wallet?” That wallet was in fact stolen. And empty. Lied held his hand out and Jazz threw it to the blond-haired demon who wanted it.

“Keroli Crocell.” “Here.”

“Lied Shax.” The beeping and booping of a game console betrayed Lieds presence. Lied had returned to his game after catching the wallet.

“Purson Soi.” Purson never spoke. Kalego could see he was there, and marked him present.

“Sabro Sabnock.” “Future Demon King right here!” Kalego rolled his eyes again.

“Right, this afternoon, you will be participating in the flying race. I will lead you to the lift to the site of the event and explain it to you there.”

Kalego got up and left the classroom, leading the students further underground to a large orange tent.

Everyone got inside the tent and it teleported to the top of a rock formation in the middle of nowhere.

Everyone got out, some confused about the teleportation and others excited about the race.

“Right, everyone listen up.” Kalego glared at everyone, who had started chattering again. That silenced the class. As always.

Kalego picked up a cutesy pink television-style object with comically decorated borders and activated it. It was a digital explanation prepared specifically for the class of 1E by the chairdemon. In its scratchy, high-pitched voice, the figure on the screen spoke.

“You have two choices: Warbling Valley, or Cutthroat Valley!

Warbling Valley is longer but it’s also safer!

Cutthroat Valley is quicker but it’s dangerous!

Your objective is to reach the flag at the end of the course as fast as possible-”

The cutesy voice that had literally just finished explaining was cut off by Kalego tossing the monitor over his shoulder and into the valley, crashing hundreds of metres down against the rocky chasm bottom.

“Due to the guardian of Cutthroat Valley being especially territorial this year, that side of the racecourse will be closed off. If any of you do enter Cutthroat Valley, it is up to you to get yourselves back out. Now, get ready to begin!”

Sabro looked disappointed about Cutthroat Valley being off limits, but seemed to perk up at the idea of the teacher not intervening if they do go into it.

“3… 2… 1… Begin!”

Every demon took off, but Iruma was nervously glancing down. He had practised fractal over blankets. If his mana gave out he’d fall to his death.

“Get gone already.” Kalego ordered, giving Iruma, who he assumed to be a demon, a push off the side of the cliff.

Further ahead, Azz was in the lead. Way in the lead. He couldn’t see anybody else behind him, not clearly anyway. He did see a few pin-pricks that looked like classmates when he last checked, but that had been minutes ago. He slowed down to a more normal speed, swift but easy enough for someone as marvellous as Iruma to catch up to.

“Nobody is catching up… I think Iruma started late. Giving others a head start is honourable but also mildly concerning. Will he be okay?” Azz murmured to himself.

“It’s Iruma-kinz, he’ll be fineee!!! Azz-Azz, just watch!”

That was Clara’s voice. He looked around but he was soon able to tell when he concentrated: on his back.

“D-Damn you, let go of me!” Azz yelled, trying to fling the other demon off in mid-air.

This prompted her to cling to him harder, rodeo-style.

“How long have you been here!?”

“Since the very start, very obviously!!!”

Azz was fuming. Clara was enjoying the ride. He wished she didn’t and that she’d just get off of him.

“So, what path do you think Irumaka went?”

“Iruma-ka? Just what the hell is that nickname? Your other two are already disrespectful enough as it is! And he is most likely going to go through Cutthroat Valley! He’ll obviously want to show off his superior flying skills now that he can combine flying AND fractal, and there’s no better way than that!”

“I see, I see! Yes, that would be impressive! Iruma-kinz will win for sure! Muscle Mountain will have to admit defeat then!”

“M-Muscle Mountain?!” Azz repeated incredulously.

It suited the moron perfectly. He smirked to himself, before letting out a chuckle.

Meanwhile…

The rest of the misfits were grouped together somewhat, with Allocer, Jazz, Gaap and Agares a dozen metres ahead of the other group, consisting of Elisabetta, Keroli and Caim, who were a couple of metres ahead of Agares and Lied.

Agares yawned loudly on his flying cloud-bed. Grumbling about the noise the others were making, and how bright the two moons were, both of which acted as a sun or moon depending on their positions. One never moved from its position, being the ‘moon’ and the other didn’t have a fixed position since it orbited around the planet, instead having a fixed trajectory.

Lied was, as Agares was complaining about, enjoying his game a little too much, despite not having saved before the boss fight.

Caim swooped down and picked a wildflower, coming back up to present it to Elisabetta. It had blue petals with pink spots, and the bud in the centre was white with a brown spiral. It was beautiful.

“My lady, could I be permitted to fly by your side?” He asked the taller demoness, Elisabetta Ix.

“Is that a pick-up line?” She asked in return.

“Absolutely not! I merely wish to be embraced lovingly between your soft, plump, triceps and to gaze, awestruck, at the area where your pectorals lie as they bounce next to my face!” He replied with absolute and utter conviction.

“My, my! Somebody is being honest!” Elisabetta replied warmly, but before he could get his hopes up, she planted her foot on his face and pushed him down in mid-air, sending him barreling downwards for a few metres before he righted his flying and retreated back to the guys group.

Jazz was holding a red demon bird egg with blue and green markings.

“This thing’s pretty cool. I hope it will fetch a good price!” He said to the group, looking at the egg with interest.

“Don’t sell it. Boil it for five minutes and eat it with a pinch of salt!” The lion demon, Allocer, recommended.

“Oh, speaking of food, I have snacks! You guys want some- de gozaru?” Gaap asked.

“Oh, sure! Snacks would be nice about now. I managed to get a bottle of Red Fizzpop, that new soda. We don’t have cups or glasses but we can share the bottle, right?” Jazz replied.

“I HEARD FIZZPOP?” Lied yelled from further behind them. The young demon arrived quickly, overtaking Elisabetta and her group.

“Yup, if you’re willing to share!”

Everyone was enjoying themselves in this race-that-felt-like-it-wasn’t-a-race.

Except for Iruma.

After Kalego pushed him, he fell. With fractal, he had avoided the jaws of most of the birds, but he dodged better on the ground than in mid-air. And so, he was currently in the clutches of what looked like a giant brown crow, even after somehow dodging all other attacks. He had also managed to not hit the rocky wall on his way down, or else he could have torn his clothing, and risked exposing his back because of that. Exposing his back was the last thing Iruma wanted to do.

After a short while, the bird carrying him dropped him above a large nest and flew off in a hurry. Perhaps it had wandered into something else’s territory and was making a peace offering after the mistake? In any case, the nest was huge, which meant that whatever built it had to be massive.

An enormous pile of ruffled feathers moved, then squawked. It seemed to be the sole occupant of the nest. Upon seeing Iruma, it lunged at him, but toppled over awkwardly, revealing a glimpse of a nasty gash on its leg. It was injured, and being a wild beast, it would most likely see Iruma as a threat.

Iruma and the bird held eye-contact, wanting to see what the other would do. The bird was laid out in a way that made it vulnerable, and Iruma was small, and in the animal kingdom, ‘small’ usually had to compensate by acting big and terrifying, looking poisonous, or being able to outrun enemies. Or even blending in, but that was not an option here.

Iruma bent down and picked up a pointy stick. His idea was reckless, and he’d probably die if he was misunderstood, the pile of feathers that was actually a giant horned bird towered over him and was nearly as wide as it was tall, after all. He swung the end of the stick and used the sharpness and the momentum to cut his hand.

The bird seemed intelligent enough to realise that the young individual in front of it was acting in a non-threatening way, so much so as to give itself an injury like the one it had. Iruma then tore some fabric from his shirt and wrapped it around his hand.

Iruma pointed to himself. Then pointed to his hand wrapping. Then to the bird. If it could understand his non-aggressive intentions so far, it would most likely understand what he was about to say next.

“I want to wrap your leg.” He said, pointing to the gash and mimicking the motion he used while wrapping his hand.

The two stared at each other some more, before the bird shifted its weight and stuck its leg out to Iruma.

Iruma bowed to the bird. “Thank you for your cooperation. I’ll do my best!”

He inched closer to the leg to inspect it, and a drop of his blood fell in before he could stop it.

In his limited medical knowledge, the blood of one creature entering the bloodstream of another creature was dangerous, it would most likely kill.

Here, when Iruma’s blood entered the bird’s wound, the wound glowed a golden white and closed up completely, leaving not even a scar. The creature got up and tested it out, soon walking and running around the nest. Iruma chuckled at the sight.

Well, he did chuckle until he yelled in shock from being picked up and thrown onto the bird’s back.

The bird set off, not in the direction of the end goal for the flying race, but to an area that was currently off-limits. Cutthroat Valley.

Chapter Text

Sabro was racing through Cutthroat Valley at breakneck speeds, battling wind and wildlife alike, and flying up around or even through certain obstacles.

“This is the hardest route, but also the shortest! If I keep up this speed I will be first in the race for sure!” He muttered to himself. “Just like I thought, my way is the best way!”

The route he was taking was treacherous, and shortcuts were few and far between. As he flew, he spotted a wider gap between two towering purple rock formations, and he decided to take it as a shortcut, as the wind would be weaker there.

Enormous purple rocky spires towered over a lake of swirling lava beneath, once he got past the waterfall. After the freezing waterfall flight, he appreciated the warm updrafts from the lake of molten rock.

As he turned into this little shortcut, however, he failed to look down, and was batted out of the sky by a giant wing covered in giant primary feathers that were harder than iron. It felt as though he had flown full speed into a brick wall, except the brick wall would crumble, unlike those deathblade feathers.

He hit the floor, rolling to absorb the momentum, before stopping at the edge of the ledge where a giant green demon bird monster was sitting. It roared loudly and what felt like ice shot through Sabro’s nervous system.

For the first time in his life, he felt fear?

He clamped down on the bronze plaque on the thin rope used to tie his cape, and in his hands, a large, bronze battleaxe materialised.

His bloodline ability, one shared by his entire family, was called ‘Weapon Creation’ and those with his bloodline ability could create any weapon they could imagine if they were holding a sample of their desired metal in their mouth.

He charged at the giant beast, but with a single strike of its claws, it ripped a huge chunk from the bronze axe blade.

Sabro, recognising the weakness of bronze, bit down on a different plaque on his cape-tie, a steel one. This was the strongest metal he had access to, though his father had a tungsten plaque as well as gold, platinum and an alloy that was unique to the Sabnock family, called electrum.

He instantly created a grand steel greatsword, and began to charge the guardian of the Valley again, with worse results. He was sent flying with another sweep of its claws and his sword skidded out over the ledge when he lost his grip on it, plunging down into the fiery abyss below. 

Sabro Sabnock was a strong fighter, but he was still only fourteen years old, so while he was amazing for his age, he lacked experience and even if he had experience, he still wouldn’t be strong enough to land a hit. The enormous beast towered over him with glowing red eyes, and it padded towards him. It was a strong, intelligent creature, and it was clearly toying with its prey.

Toying with Sabro Sabnock. He was going to die.

For the first time in his life, he undoubtedly felt fear.

‘If I am to die here, I must put up a fight worthy of a Demon King! N-No, I’ve already failed at that. A demon king wouldn’t fall in battle.’ He smiled bitterly. That was his dream, to become the Demon King. And in a cruel twist of fate, that he totally deserved due to ignoring the advice of the teacher who told him not to choose Cutthroat Valley, he would die before his coronation.

He rolled over onto his front and tried getting up one final time, but the guardian didn’t allow it.

His wings were still out from the flying race, and the guardian stepped on them both with its front paws, crushing them. Sabro was wracked by a jolt of intense pain, worse than anything he had ever experienced in his life. His brain was in overdrive, trying to comprehend the source of this pain, as the pain from his wings had set his entire nervous system ablaze with pain. He was strong, but that was his downfall. He had been arrogant, but because he was strong and battle-hardened, his brain didn’t give up, it wouldn’t let him faint, to avoid even a second of the pain. He couldn’t even scream, all he could do was drool and pant, frozen in pain, paralysed.

He had lived a life with no regrets. He had always followed his desires. He had trained hard for the muscular and powerful build he wanted, and he had studied many books of many topics, strength and knowledge he could have one day used as the Demon King. Very recently, he had met his classmates, a loud and obnoxious bunch he fit in well with. He liked them. And the blue-haired boy, Iruma Suzuki Sullivan, he was an interesting demon, to say the least. Less strength, more strategy, he’d make for a great commander. Maybe they could team up in future. He didn’t know why he was thinking about his class, he had known them for less than a day.

He was even beginning to hallucinate in his pain, because he saw a flash of blue right before his eyes.

He smiled for the last time of his life.

Or so he thought. In his pain he couldn’t hear what the blue-haired boy was saying, but it sounded like he was addressing the guardian of the Valley. Real or not, he wouldn’t let one of his classmates die. He reached his arm out, and pulled the back of Iruma’s trouser leg as hard as he could. It did nothing, he was that weak in his pain.

He felt pathetic.

“-pset, I mean, who wouldn’t be territorial if they had an injured child-” Sabro could just make out a fragment of what Iruma was saying before another wave of pain hit him, stronger than the first. He couldn’t move his head, but he felt the guardian backing off, and was able to see its blurry feet after a few more seconds.

After another few moments, it bowed. It had another creature on its head from what he could see, a creature that hadn’t been there before.

The enormous creature that was about to kill Sabro was bowing to Iruma, a boy half the height and a quarter of the weight of himself.

Soon, he could just about make out the light touches of the other boy.

He was mortified that a classmate would see him that weak, and confused as to why the boy wasn’t flying off to finish the flying race. If he left Sabro to die, Iruma might not come last in the race.

“Sabro, I am going to heal you, and you are not to ask any questions about how. Do you understand?” Iruma asked.

Sabro couldn’t nod. He could barely move anything. Even his hands were in pain, yet very weakly, he held his thumb out in a thumbs-up gesture, consenting for the other to heal him. Looking back, the boy wasn’t a fighter at all, he dodged every weapon, though. It made sense his specialty wasn’t fighting, but healing, or at least something similar.

And frankly, he was glad. He was glad anyone was there at all, now the fight was over. He would either be rescued, or at least not die alone. And it was turning out to be the former. He was especially glad that it was Iruma who had found him. He seemed like a strange kid, but Sabro had come to like the boy, between Iruma interfering with his fight with that one teacher, or how Iruma had proven Sabro wrong about him back in class. Maybe, just maybe, the boy wouldn’t mock him for his weakness or stupidity, like the others would. He could only hope.

Shortly after he had given Iruma the thumbs up, his back flooded with warmth, and his cloudy mind was soon clear. He sighed in relief, relaxing into his position on the floor. If he was being honest with himself, he thought that he was dead, and that the pain stopped because his brain had shut down. Iruma, being the last person he had thought about, was who the deity of the afterlife was pretending to be, to help him ease into the afterlife better.

“Sabro! Are you okay? Say something!” Iruma yelled.

That was not how a deity would act. Sabro turned over onto his back and sat up slowly, looking at Iruma for the first time since before the race. And the guardian of the Valley, though he couldn’t look at it for too long without tasting his own bile.

“Iruma… How am I still alive after-”

“Shh, take it easy. You’ve gone through a lot here. Relax, I’ll get you back safe. Leave everything to me. You can talk later once we’ve finished the race.” Iruma softly told the much larger demon.

Iruma was half of his height, and a quarter of his weight at most, how was he planning on carrying him?

“Fractal.” Iruma said, pointing his right hand at Sabro. It was the incantation to a gravity spell, one of the harder spells to master, but easy enough to learn the basics of. Sabro felt his body get lighter to the point of nearly floating, and the much smaller boy carried Sabro over a shoulder like an inflatable mattress.

“Alright, we’re ready!” Iruma called out to the guardian. The huge creature bowed once more and stretched its wing for Iruma to walk up and onto its back. Iruma cast fractal on himself, making himself slightly lighter for walking on the giant wing, before removing the fractal spell from both of them. They could stay on using their weight and the hand-holds the tough feathers provided.

“Sabro, everything’s going to be alright. Just hold on tight.” Iruma reassured the much larger demon.

“You speak as if I’m still injured, Iruma!” Sabro chided the boy.

The guardian started flying in the direction of the huge red goal flag.

“Yeah well you just fought a huge demonic beast, it’s natural for me to still act cautious. Health is important. Or does the future Demon King think he can recover his stamina in the blink of an eye without eating or sleeping?”

“Iruma. I don’t know what you did, and I won’t question it, since I promised not to, but whatever you did restored my energy as well as fully heal me. I feel alive, and if anything, stronger than before!”

Iruma paled at realising just how powerful and dangerous his blood could be in the wrong hands. Healing blood alone was extremely powerful.

“That’s good to hear, but don’t expect more unless another emergency pops up. It’s a family secret until I have built a good enough support system that will protect my abilities from falling into the wrong hands.” Iruma explained. He could feel Sabro nod against his back.

“Understood. I swear on my honour, I won’t mention a word to anyone else without your permission. If asked, I will tell them you pulled me from the fight before I could get too beaten up.” Sabro promised, and Iruma nodded.

“Thank you. With all my heart. By keeping my promise you’re essentially protecting my life. I hope you know we’re even, and that you owe me nothing but the continued adherence to your oath.”

Sabro had known that Iruma’s healing power was powerful once he had felt it, but to know that others would possibly kill the boy, or try to obtain that power for themselves, it somewhat scared him. He wasn’t scared for himself, a promise was a promise, but he was scared for Iruma.

“Very well, as long as I keep my word, I owe you nothing related to the events of today. However, I feel nothing but the deepest gratitude towards you. I hope you know that if you ever need anything, anything at all, you can come to me for help.”

“I- Yeah, that sounds reasonable.” Iruma replied. He was smiling like an idiot.

They both were smiling like idiots .

Up ahead, they noticed the red flag and the orange tent got larger as they approached.

“It looks like we’re the last to arrive…” Grateful as he was to Iruma, he couldn’t help but to feel some amount of guilt. If Iruma had abandoned him, the other boy would have done better in the race, definitely.

In the silence that followed, Sabro concentrated more on his surroundings, most importantly, what he felt before him. He was sitting behind Iruma, his abdomen pressed against the much smaller boy's back. He couldn’t say Iruma didn’t have wing roots at all, because firstly his muscles were so chiselled the wing roots of another demon wouldn’t touch him due to the valleys along his front, but secondly because the idea of a wingless demon was absurd to the point where he’d question the sanity of anyone willing to entertain the thought, who wasn’t a part of the advanced torture classes at least.

So, Iruma just had really small wing roots, hence why he preferred using fractal. That made sense. He’d entertain that thought over Iruma being a wingless demon any day.

As the guardian of Cutthroat Valley got closer to the goal, Iruma waved to their classmates, who all wore expressions of varying degrees of awe, fear and admiration.

He couldn’t hear their comments over the guardian’s heavy landing, but he knew they’d bombard the pair later with comments and questions.

“Look at professor Kalego, he’s so surprised he forgot to look angry.” Iruma commented, and Sabro laughed. Kalego looked mildly annoyed at a glance.

Iruma dismounted the guardian first, using fractal to control his slide down. Sabro jumped down dramatically. Iruma bowed to the huge creature, and it bowed back before returning to Cutthroat Valley.

“Oh, so you did survive. How disappointing.” The teacher sneered at them.

Sabro was about to retort but Iruma spoke first. “I’m glad we could disappoint you so well. Cheers to surviving to spite the world itself!”

“Cheers!” Sabro cheered, followed by other variations of ‘cheers’ from the rest of the class.

“Everyone, silence. Iruma, Sabro, sit on the floor over there and reflect on what happened today.” The teacher replied.

Iruma and Sabro did as they were told, and they were handed signs to hold. Sabro’s read ‘I will obey directions’ and Iruma’s simply read ‘reflecting’ for whatever reason. While they were sat out of the way, Kalego proceeded to talk about the rank owl, a white, three-eyed owl that had a pouch on its chest, where rank badges are summoned when a demon sticks their hand in. Iruma and Sabro, however, only listened to the bare minimum.

Before her turn, Clara decided to sit nearby and throw tiny pebbles at Sabro, which bounced off harmlessly.

“You  suck!” She spelled out the words with each pebble before being called back to the line. Kalego smirked at them. “Enjoy being pelted with tiny rocks.”

Kalego turned back to face the line.

“This is embarrassing…” Sabro muttered.

Iruma nodded. “It could have been worse though.”

There were a few more beats of silence before Sabro shuffled to face Iruma properly and spoke again, quietly so that only Iruma could hear.

“I couldn’t have made it back here without you. Once again, thank you. Despite our differences, you’re actually a great guy… Also! From now on, you’re my rival!” The last part was declared quietly, but less quiet than before, and Kalego yelled at them to stop talking and reflect in silence.

Iruma was dumbfounded. Being a ‘rival’ sounded important, but he didn’t know how or why. What did rivals even do? They weren’t enemies, Sabro had made that clear enough. Did rivals help each other with combat training? Did the presence of one force the other to grow and vice-versa? He didn’t know. But what he did know was that despite Sabro having shuffled back to face the front, the huge demon was grinning from ear to ear, and was holding his hand out in a fist bump position.

Iruma didn’t know anything about rivals, but he did know it was something good. Iruma grinned in return, and bumped his small fist against Sabro’s larger one.

Something special had just been born.

“Alright, you last two miscreants, you’re up!” Professor Kalego yelled, somewhat ruining the mood. Iruma glared at the floor for a moment before getting up. Sabro made his displeasure more obvious by glaring directly at the teacher as he got up.

Sabro went first since he got to the owl first. He poked his fingers into the front pouch of the rank owl and pulled out a golden badge.

‘Bet (2). I’ll take it.’ Sabro thought, remembering how he had been so close to dying less than an hour ago. The second weakest rank was better than dying in agony, any day.

After Sabro, Iruma stepped forward and stuck a hand into the rank owl.

“Something weird is gonna happen, just you watch.” Lied muttered to Jazz and two nearby classmates.

“The rank owl is a pivotal part of your lives. No matter what you get, there are no second chances. On top of that, this particular rank owl has not uttered a peep in a century–”

“ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! ” The rank owl screamed as it flew off, leaving Iruma with his hand in the air awkwardly.

“I-I didn’t get my badge!” Iruma noticed with a yell.

‘ “Sabro, listen well, child. The throne of the Demon King is currently empty, and has been for a century. However, the Demon King’s Prophecy states that there will be a new king in future. Nobody knows when, or who, there are only certain details we know.

He shall descend from foreign lands, far far away from all known civilisation. All of demonkind shall submit to Him, every lineage shall rise to serve under this foreign Demon King.

Second of all, He shall form blood pacts with many, heal all of demonkind, with those closest to Him being the most blessed by His potent blood.

Next, upon His right hand’s middle finger, He shall wear the Ring of Solomon, the first demon to have ever existed, and also the most powerful. This ring will be the start of an everlasting legacy.

Once the demon with these requirements makes himself known to the world, the Netherworld will respond to Him, and Him alone.” ’

On Iruma’s right hand was a glowing golden ring. It glowed with an unparalleled brightness before the brightness grew and released a black pulse of mana, quickly going from glowing a bright gold to an inky black that seemed to simmer and drip frighteningly. Iruma, having his hand up still, hadn’t noticed.

Sabro was the only one who made the connection with the ring and the prophecy. Yet that connection was quickly lost. The ring of Solomon wasn’t known to emit black light, after all.

Iruma finally noticed and tried getting help with the ring that wouldn’t come off.

Everyone stepped away from him.

“U-Um… Well… On your shoulder. There’s… something.” Elisabetta informed Iruma.

“Professor?” Iruma asked. The teacher stepped back, scowling.

“Don’t wave that around.” The teacher scolded. The creature on Iruma’s shoulder grew as it glared at Kalego.

Kalego immediately adopted a different position as the black thing started screaming.

There was quite a lot of commotion and noise, from Clara trying to sing the creature to sleep, to Azz and Sabro trying to tear the creature from Iruma, only to have their mana depleted.

Kalego raised his arm to strike the finger with the ring, but something stopped him.

It was the principal, Sullivan.

“Principal?”

“Chairdemon!”

“Lord Sullivan!”

The class yelled.

“Grandpa!” Iruma yelled louder.

“Kalego, you looked as if you were about to blast my grandson’s arm off! Naughty, bad!” The principal told Kalego.

“His ring was a danger to the other students!” Kalego defended himself.

The black creature that was hovering around Iruma from the ring grew exponentially and attempted to swallow Sullivan, only for the old demon to blast the creature with a stream of mana.

“Poor little guy, you were just crying because you were hungry weren’t you! You’re as bottomless as my Iruma!!!”

Completely full of mana, the black creature retreated back into Iruma’s ring.

“The Gluttonous Feeder Ring! It can suck a demon’s mana pool dry in seconds if it’s hungry! Feed it well and it’s harmless~” Sullivan told everyone. “Such a rare find, for such a rare grandson.” Sullivan cheered, nudging Iruma discreetly.

Iruma had pulled something unprecedented from a routine event because he was an unprecedented entity within the school, a human.

And with that, the first rank exam came to an end!

Chapter Text

The next day, Iruma, Azz and Clara were standing in front of the announcement board. The classes and groups that had been there were replaced by the results of the first event of the school year: The first year's flying race.

Naturally, the entire poster was large, taking up the entire board, and it showed the results by class, with the times next to them. Every student also had their overall ranking next to their class ranking.

The misfits class sheet was as follows:

‘Agares Picero 0:17:05

Alice Asmodeus 0:13:23

Allocer Schneider 0:16:25

Caim Kamui 0:17:01

Clara Valac 0:13:24

Elisabetta Ix 0:16:07

Gaap Goemon 0:16:16

Iruma Suzuki Sullivan 1:39:47

Jazz Marcel Andro 0:16:13

Keroli Crocell 0:16:09

Lied Shax 0:16:11

Purson Soi 0:16:01

Sabro Sabnock 1:39:46’

Of course, Alice Asmodeus’s score was expected, he had aced the physical section of the Babylys entrance examination after all, therefore him coming first out of all of the first years was expected. What was also expected was for Iruma and Sabro to also be in the top 5 at least.

However, Sabro and Iruma were last place, not only in the misfits, but out of all of the first years, despite being exceptionally talented young demons like Alice Asmodeus.

Not only that, but a few of the others in the misfit class managed to take pictures of Iruma and Sabro riding the giant demon bird called the “guardian of Cutthroat Valley”, pictures that just so happened to end up in the school newspaper.

Needless to say, there were rumours.

Many rumours.

About Iruma, Sabro and what went on while the camera’s couldn’t find them. About why they came in last place.

Iruma shuddered as he heard yet more rumours to add to the growing list.

‘They got sidetracked by their competition!’

‘They did it on purpose, some sort of protest, but what for?’

‘Sabotaged!’

‘They won against that beast and it’s now Iruma’s pet!’

‘Don’t let him hear you, he’ll beat you up or something!’

‘He’s an Alef (1) but he beat Asmodeus, a Dalet (4)! He should be Hé (5) ranked!’

‘So strong…’

He looked around at the demons that were talking about him and they immediately shut up.

He wished that the low-level detection warding glasses his grandpa ordered would arrive, so that he could wear them to school. That way he could go around school as normal while being mostly ignored by everyone else. He already had medium-level detection warding glasses for going out in public, but higher level detection warding was off limits on school property (unless the demon couldn’t help it).

For now he just had to find an empty classroom to sit in during his free period. Azz and Clara had torture classes, Azz because he thought it would serve him well as a high-ranking demon one day and Clara because the metal contraptions were shiny and she enjoyed playing with them.

As a human, Iruma naturally disliked the very idea of torture classes. Azz thought Iruma would have a servant to do the gory stuff. Clara thought Iruma already had all of those weird shiny toys at home. Clara was way off (hopefully).

Luckily for him, there was practically nobody in the library, so he didn’t need to find an empty classroom. In the huge library, there was the main hall and various side rooms to study in or present presentations for the 666 (6th Exam of the 6th school year, conducted on the 6th day before the end of school) which were the final exams before graduation. In any case, they were the least occupied parts of the library, and seemingly always empty at the start of the day.

The sixth one was the furthest from the main entrance, and when he got inside, he closed the windowed door behind him and pulled his black diary out of his bag.

It had been given to him a few days prior, back before he came to school for the first time, the day after he had been brought from the human realm. A lot had happened within the first few days, and he thought it necessary to write it all down. He never knew if he’d be going to the human world again, but if he was ever sent back, at least he’d have his diary to remember his days at school. The first day of school was the 4th of September, the familiar summoning and flying race happened on the second day, and he was on his third day.

He spent twenty minutes going over and writing the significant events of the previous couple of days, before filling out the little mood circles, drawing a happy face for the first day, an excited face for the second, and leaving the third blank for the time being. He also made sure to fill in the first page, the page dedicated to the owner of the diary.

‘About me:

Name: Iruma Suzuki Sullivan

Age: 14

Class: The Misfit Class

Professor: Kalego

💖 Mending things, drawing and surviving

😃 Alice Asmodeus, Clara Valac, Sabro Sabnock

🌏 Japan, Sullivan’s (grandpa’s) mansion, Babylys

📆 04/10

⭐ Survival, cleaning and eating

04/07/և

(happy)

Started school at Babylys.

It was the first day, no lessons.

I planned on an uneventful day of not standing out. Grandpa had the opposite plans.

→ He made me go up on stage and read a forbidden spell (I somehow survived?)

→ As a result, the honour student challenged me to a duel (I somehow survived?)

→ Old rules dictate that the losing party serves the winner (I somehow won?)

→ Because I won the duel, Alice Asmodeus is my servant (I somehow won.)

Other happenings: 

Carried Asmodeus to the infirmary. 

Met professor Blushenko again, in the infirmary this time and he gave me his number.

Met professor Dali and participated in his writing exercise, winning a notepad and pen.

Briefly stayed in my grandpa’s office, where Asmodeus found me and apologised.

Walked to the diabotany tower and met professor Suzy.

Bumped into Asmodeus and also another student, Clara Valac.

Spent the rest of the school day playing connect four with Azz and Clara.

First impressions of the school: Hugely positive!

Of Asmodeus: Started negative, strongly negative. Arrogant and ignorant. Later in the day changed to positive, he seemed to have done a complete 180, very suddenly.

Of Sabro Sabnock: Neutral-negative. Just arrogant/overconfident. He’s blunt and straightforward at least. Highly motivated, lofty ambitions.

Of Clara Valac: She’s so fun! A bit weird but it’s really cool!

Of the teachers: Positive, strongly positive. I already like three of them.

Of the students: Overall fine. Outliers exist.

Other thoughts: Rumours suggest that I am a beast when it comes to strength and ruthlessness, and that my ‘walk of shame’ was to flaunt Asmodeus’s bloodied face. It wasn’t, it was my walk of shame since I did something so stupid on the first day of all days, getting into a duel.

Also, I now have a servant. It feels weird. Azz went from really hostile to actually amicable in less than a couple of hours, I don’t know if it’s an act.

05/07/և

(excited)

Second day, no lessons yet. Starting tomorrow.

Morning, familiar summoning.

→ Spoke to Smoke, one of my seniors. She seems nice!

“Nah kiddo, don’t worry. Spells and fighting are a good way to gain popularity and notoriety. You’re gonna go far, kid, trust me, so chin up, okay?”

- Smoke, և

→ Azz summoned a gorgon snake. As expected, it was really cool!

→ Sabro, the demon who attacked professor Blushenko, summoned a kelpie, also very cool.

→ Summoned professor Kalego. The contract lasts one year. (I may not survive this.)

→ Kalego fainted from shock. I nearly did as well.

Afternoon, flying race.

→ Professor Kalego pushed me off the cliff. (I nearly died)

→ I got carried off by a demon bird and met the guardian’s chick. (I could have died)

→ I helped the guardian’s chick, it took me to the guardian. (I could have died)

→ I helped Sabro, who was about to become dead. Very dead. (I didn’t die???)

→ Azz placed first, myself and Sabro last.

→ I pulled a ring out of the rank owl, and it screamed at everyone. (Nobody died thankfully)

First impression of my actual class: I might not survive, but I’ll probably have fun.

First impressions of my homeroom teacher: It’s professor Kalego. I am doomed.

Other thoughts: Screw it, I’m gonna say it: Sabro Sabnock? Really cool guy. I severely misjudged him, though maybe it’s because the guardian of Cutthroat Valley humbled him. Either way, I actually like him. He’s not just some muscle-head after all. Chances are we’ll become close. Also we’re rivals now so that’s fun?’

Iruma grinned at his diary. The first two days had been a blast. He was purposefully leaving out details, and making his writing as neat as possible. Hiding his humanity. Just in case his diary was ever stolen. Also, it was quite small meaning he wanted to maximise the space.

Since he had only started writing on the third day of school he decided to write each day as it happened, including updating his opinion on Sabro later.

He had another book to try, however. He put his diary aside for the time being. The leatherbound notebook and pen he won from professor Dali’s writing exercise. He pulled it out of his bag, along with the pen, and opened it to the first page. ‘ Nouns .’

What were those again? He didn’t have a dictionary on hand. He wrote ‘?’ just below the title of the first page and was about to shut the book, intending to look up the word in a dictionary at some point when the ink on the page changed.

The word ‘Nouns’ became ‘Objects’ and his question mark vanished.

‘Wh- How? Does it define words in that category? Is it a dictionary-style book?’ Iruma thought.

He had to test, since it was a new enchanted book. What was the worst thing that could happen except for the book brainwashing him into doing the dirty work of a dark wizard because it contained a part of the wizard's warped and messed-up soul?

He wrote down something he remembered from the mansion.

‘Lemon meringue pie’

The words fizzled out without anything happening. So much for that theory? He didn’t even know what his theory was, except that magic books were cool. He shut the notepad and put it in his bag, ready to pull out yet another book, a sketch pad.

The Netherworld was a very new place to him, still, full of new and exciting things. When he had been sold to Sullivan, he had been expecting some sort of servant contract, but instead he became the demon’s grandson. As a noble, chores were beneath him now, though that meant he felt out of place, doing nothing. He had thought of hobbies and concluded gardening would suit him, but from what Opera had told him, gardening in the netherworld was not for beginners. Therefore, for the time being, he had to choose a different hobby. One he had already touched upon at some point in the past, drawing. He had been good enough to draw backgrounds and quickly began to draw people and clothes, working on various manga, and it was something he enjoyed. Therefore, drawing would be a good hobby for him.

At least he hoped.

With a pencil in hand and an eraser nearby, he started drawing a basic pose he used to use as a base to design clothes on.

The hands were simple and blocky and it felt a bit stiff overall, but that was fine, it was his first drawing in about a year, plus it would be a good mannequin for a set of clothes.

He quickly hated it and turned the page, to draw something else. He’d start simple. A bowl of ramen? A bowl of fruit? Something like that.

The bowl was easy enough, he just didn’t know what to draw in it.

The human world was long gone, to him. He had been sold by his parents to a demon, end of. He’d never go back, most likely, and didn’t even want to, so it would be best to forget about earth food. Something he had seen, however, was Opera’s lemonmerang pie.

In a few minutes, he had managed to roughly replicate the look of lemonmerang pie in a dish. It was a start.

Lemonmerang pie and lemon meringue pie. He had only tasted one of them before, and it was the demon version. He had a lot more freedom in the demon world, and was quickly being seen by his peers as an unusual but exceptional demon.

All in all, he was sold on the fact that he at least seemed like a demon, and therefore could manage to survive hopefully.

He was interrupted by a knock on the door to the small meeting room he was in, and he jerked his head up to look at the door, involuntary smiling once he saw who was on the other side.

“Excuse me, Iruma. Would you mind some company?” Sabro asked.

“I wouldn’t mind, come in Sabro!” Iruma replied, and the huge demon stepped into the room where Iruma was working.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I merely wish for a quiet place to read.” The larger demon held a few books under his arm and also had a large tome wrapped up in his long tail.

Iruma moved his diary out of the way, leaving it open on the first page because he still needed to add more notes, and brought his sketch pad closer to him to make room on the desk for Sabro’s books.

Since the flying race, Sabro had thought a lot. About everything to do with Iruma, his highly esteemed rival. He didn’t know the boy at all, but he wanted to.

“Is everything okay? Sabro?” Iruma asked. The larger boy had sat down and placed his books on the table, but he was staring off into the distance, looking at Iruma’s uniform neck-tie.

“I have to admit, I think I’m still shaken up. Physically I’m in excellent condition, but I didn’t really sleep last night. That’s why I’m here. I want to read to stay awake.”

Admittedly, Sabro was rather pale, but not much paler than normal. He still looked energetic on the outside, but knowing his pride in his image, Iruma knew that Sabro was probably faking his energy. He’d been there, done that.

“If you push yourself too hard now, you risk falling asleep in class. Ignore the books, rest up while you can.” Iruma spoke sternly, and Sabro could tell Iruma was serious about this piece of advice.

“I suppose falling asleep in class would be bad for my image. And it’s not like you haven’t seen me at my worst…” It took a few seconds for Sabro to reason with himself, but once he did, he sat back in the wooden chair he was in and closed his eyes. It didn’t look like the most comfortable position, as he was sitting upright and had his arms folded over his chest.

His eyes were closed for a few minutes, and once he looked like he was more relaxed, his eyes snapped back open, quickly landing on Iruma, who was still doodling in his sketch pad.

“H-Hey, may I ask you where you’re from?” Sabro asked suddenly.

Iruma, leaning over his sketch pad, mid-drawing, looked up at Sabro and met the boy's gaze.

“I’m from a tiny village in the middle of a vast expanse of wilderness. Why do you ask?” He asked in return.

“I can’t really relax, so I’m just trying to talk my way into relaxing. It’s something my sister taught me.”

“Oh, I see. So you talk when you’re trying to sleep. I usually try to picture something. The smell of the forests or the sound of rain on cloth, and then I try to think of the last time I experienced those things.”

Sabro eyed Iruma carefully. The other boy had returned his gaze to his sketch pad and was continuing to doodle while talking. Iruma wasn’t paying attention as Sabro flicked his eyes over what Iruma was doing, the doodles of strange, exotic fruits and small accessories, accompanied by a dish of lemonmerang pie. His eyes then wandered over to the black leather book next to the sketch pad, open on the first page. Where the diary mentioned locations, one location Sabro saw that stuck out the most was ‘Japan.’

“Pardon me for the prying, I noticed a name on your book under the locations section. What was this ‘Japan’ like?” Sabro asked. Iruma knew he had left his book open just in case he thought of more things to add, but he closed it after Sabro commented on it in a way that was hopefully subtle. It was not. But luckily, Sabro was as dense as his weaponry.

“Japan wasn’t exciting. The forests around it were. I learnt hunting and foraging there, all on my own from a young age. The game was bountiful, and so were the predators that lurked there. I know my survival instincts like the back of my hand, thanks to my rough outdoorsy upbringing.” Iruma murmured blankly. Should he be scared by how easily he had begun to lie?

“On your own? What about your servants or grandfather?” Sabro asked, shocked and confused.

“I was taught by my parents the moment I could both walk and talk that family is about providing, and that for a stable family life you need to provide everything. So I foraged and hunted while they did other things. It was good training, I learned how to fend off bigger threats than myself and I learned how to pick off prey weaker than myself.” Iruma answered, matter-of-factly.

Sabro had just listened to his rival’s deep-as-hell backstory and could only nod. It was understanding and appreciation, mainly, of the fact that Iruma had to be naturally gifted to survive in the wilderness, able to either tame or scare off other animals and kill on sight. He clenched his fists and willed away the image of a demon fledgeling having to survive alone, because surely that can’t have been the case, by ‘other things’ his parents must have been making sure the area was only inhabited by animals their son could manage. His rival hadn’t lived a childhood of abuse, it was training, as he said, and damn if it wasn’t good training.

It was absolutely not denial but a fact that all demon parents loved their children, or at least cared enough about their offspring to raise them to adulthood.

“You know, when I’m in a better mental position to read, I’ll read up about Japan for you. Surely it can’t be easy so far from home. I’ll introduce some of the customs you’re used to when I become Demon King.” Sabro said. He was speaking to Iruma, technically, but he also felt a weird pressure to learn more about this foreign place and was also speaking to himself.

It was absolutely not denial but a fact that Iruma qualified to be Demon King better than he himself, Sabro Sabnock, right off the bat. Wait, no, the opposite. Sabro was going to be the Demon King. He’d overtake Iruma at some point!

“I’m sorry to sound ungrateful but I’d rather forget about that place. The only concept there I was remotely interested in is ‘friendship’.”

“What’s that?” A foreign concept from a foreign land. He wanted to know more, as the future Demon King of course!

“It’s an idea that encourages the idea of survival in numbers. At any point in a demon’s life, if there are individuals you’re close to, you can decide to become friends. It’s not a contract of any kind, the demons just spend time together in mundane activities and they also have each other’s back as well. They’re equals you can put your full trust and confidence in. In Japan, it was common for a group of friends to go out hunting and tackle prey larger than what an individual demon could. So while it is based on survival in numbers, these numbers are often groups of two to six, to promote closeness and teamwork, but there are really no rules, it’s just demons who get along all working and fighting together.”

Iruma had sat up straighter as he explained the concept of ‘friendship’ to Sabro, something the demon had taken as a sign that the topic was something serious. Iruma tried to convey the idea of friendship as something more demonic so Sabro could understand, and it was clear Sabro had understood.

“Oh, I see! Here, friends are known as allies or comrades, but I like how you described friendship. It seems like the culture you grew up with revolves around mutual self-sufficiency, where self-sufficiency is prioritised at first and then you learn communal activities and social things when you’re mature enough.”

Iruma didn’t know how Sabro had come to an explanation that was so close, yet still so far. However, it was good enough, and Iruma could only smile and nod.

“Myself, I didn’t have friends, because first of all, nobody could out-wait me with my patience, and secondly because I mostly foraged. Any hunting I did was solo since I relied on setting traps and ambushes rather than teamwork. And then my parents gave me over to grandpa when I was old enough so I could explore more aspects of the world. But yes your comment on mutual self-sufficiency was accurate.”

“Right, I get it now. So how about Asmodeus and Clara?”

“We became friends yesterday, before entering our class for the first time. I’d known them both for less than a couple of days but everything clicked into place really quickly.”

That was fast indeed. A demon’s trust and confidence was hard to earn, so Iruma, Clara and Asmodeus, or Azz, must have been very compatible. Iruma had earned Sabro’s full trust and confidence after Iruma saved his life. Asmodeus had lost to Iruma in their duel and became Iruma’s servant before a friend, and a servant naturally had to give their all to their master. Clara? Absolute mystery. She was probably a very open and trusting demon, an extreme rarity in a world of demons and chao and all that.

Yet he couldn’t imagine anyone better for anyone to trust than Iruma. Clara was very lucky. So was Asmodeus.

Iruma had saved his life. He (Sabro) had been extremely brash, extremely impulsive. He’d made a poor first impression on Iruma, most likely. Even though Iruma would make a perfect ally -friend, rather- he knew the other boy had reasons for not wanting to be friends. Sabro would have to work his entire life to be the best ally for someone so naturally gifted.

Or so he thought, before Iruma surprised him and completely threw his expectations to the wind.

“You’d make a good friend too.” Iruma commented. “I think we could work well together.”

So first impressions didn’t count, thank His Majesty, Demon King Derkila.

Before the bell to start the first lesson that day, Iruma and Sabro had become friends.

Iruma, who had previously been sold to Sullivan, was sold on the fact that he made a pretty good demon. He was also sold on the fact that friends were pretty cool.

Chapter Text

Stolas Suzy woke up for the morning, as per usual, at 6am, no matter if it was a school day, a holiday or any other type of day. It was no different at the start of the school year. Waking up early for a shower, breakfast and coffee, was well worth it, and also a good habit to have.

It helped that she always did her work in advance so that she could take the rest of her time slowly and easily. That allowed her to always be as stress-free as possible.

It was currently the third day of the school year, a school year that promised to be exciting as all hell.

Suzy smirked into her coffee cup full of the concoction that was more sugar and cream than coffee. All of her paperwork was sorted, her lesson plans organised and prepared, and she had already planned a few things for the battler she was in charge of, the diabotany battler, or diabolical botany, as it used to be called.

That meant that she could sip her drink and listen in on the other teachers chatting as they left for their classes as well as any teachers who stayed in the lounge with her.

Over in the furthest reaches of the teachers lounge from her desk, there had previously been a sizable group which all were in class by that point. Her class, diabotany, started in another hour. The only others in the teachers lounge were Buer Blushenko, who had just arrived, ready to teach his own class in an hour, as well as Dantalion Dali, whose classes started in the afternoon.

Dantalion had a habit of leaving his work until a short while before he needed to. He never started it immediately like Suzy herself or started AND finished it within the day like Kalego Naberious, but he never pushed it until the last minute. He had a more laid-back attitude which usually made a lot of students like him, and most teachers too. Why was he here in the morning when he could be sleeping in? To gossip with his colleagues, of course!

“Hey, Suzy, come chat with us!” Dantalion called out to her. It wasn’t unusual for colleagues to want to chit chat while waiting. What was unusual was how Buer seemed interested in the topic as well. Well, not that unusual, but Buer didn’t talk that much unless he was interested, unless you were lucky.

“Yis! I’m coming!” The short demoness called back cheerfully. “What are we chatting about? Yis!”

She got up and quickly stepped to the other side of the teacher’s lounge to join her comrades. They had all attended Babylys at some point, though Buer had graduated a good few years before Suzy had first enrolled. Dantalion was a year ahead of her, so he was her upperclassman, though they had never spoken in school despite sometimes seeing each other in the hallways and cafeteria. Being in different years, classes and battlers would do that, to be fair.

“We are discussing the honour student! Iruma! He’s such a good kid right Suzy?” Dantalion started. “Sheltered kid, he came to apologise to me in advance because he only took an interest in mythical zoology growing up and thus it was the only thing his gramps would teach him! So sweet!”

“He carried Alice Asmodeus to the infirmary after their duel even though he didn’t have to, and felt bad about the entire situation. What was your first impression of him? Surely you have something interesting to share, being the diabotany teacher? Your plants usually have a habit of telling you which students are oddballs, either good or bad.” Buer added with a thin but genuine smile.

“Ah, yis! I didn’t even need plants to tell me that Iruma is going to be an interesting student! He seemed to know which were dangerous and which were safe to touch instinctively. The questions he asked were unusual too. He was interested in how they grow and when to plant certain varieties, and not about which ones were the most dangerous or the prettiest! The diabotany battler would be blessed to have him on board! Yis! Oh, and speaking of him, in an hour I will teach 1E, his class, their very first diabotany lesson!”

“Man, I am so glad I came early! I’m gonna be watching your class through lord Sullivan’s new batcams for events! Quality control for new gadgets and all that! I can’t wait! I wonder what his first flower will be? Will it be an automatic B+ or A+? Will it be big and wild or will it be elegant! Or will it have some sentience!”

“Also in 1E is that Sabnock kid. You’ll dislike him for sure.” Buer said flatly.

“The pupil who attacked you? Yis, that was in the newspaper. Maybe Iruma can put him in his place like he did with young Asmodeus. If it happens in my class I can only hope that none of the others get caught in the crossfire. And that my good seedlings won’t get damaged too badly, yis!”

“Oh, Suzy! I’ll see if any students want to volunteer to replant things for you if a fight breaks loose in the diabotany tower. Just imagine, Iruma and Alice against Sabro Sabnock the Teacher’s Terror! Another duel for the papers!”

“I’d pay half my month’s wage to not see Iruma fight, in all honesty. That child fights in self defence but fights ruthlessly, targeting the neck and face. That may not help him against the Sabnock moron if he can’t reach the other’s head or neck.” Buer commented.

“Yis but he’s at the perfect height to deal damage to the family fortune and legs, for immobilisation! He has a chance!”

Both men winced and Suzy chuckled.

“Also! Yis! Iruma and Sabro rode together on the Guardian of Cutthroat Valley, so maybe there won’t be a fight because they already sorted things out away from everyone else! They did come back a lot later than everyone else! Yis!”

“If a duel occurred, Iruma did not inform me. Considering I gave him my number just in case he got challenged again, so I could come treat the participants at the scene, calling me should have been his priority if there was a duel or an emergency they couldn’t handle.”

Dantalion chuckled. “Yeah, Iruma mentioned how you both seemed to get along. What if he and Sabro encountered the guardian, something happened between the three of them and Iruma and the moron made some sort of non-aggression pact while they’re on school grounds?”

“Yis, it is possible! Iruma is the chairdemon’s grandson and is already proving to be quite the formidable student with a track-record of unusual and extreme feats! Winning a duel with a relative of the Thirteen Crowns on the first day of school, summoning a Chet-ranked (8) demon as his familiar on his second day in the morning and riding atop the Cutthroat Valley guardian in the afternoon. We’re already on the third day!”

“Alright, Buer, Suzy! Let’s place bets on what crazy stunt Iruma will pull next! I bet the first flower he grows swallows another student whole! 50 vill!” Dali grinned.

“I bet I’ll have seen him in the infirmary again before the end of the week.” Buer bet 50 vill on this.

Both men looked at Suzy expectantly. Her coffee (that was more sugar and cream than coffee) had gone cold, but still she sipped the last traces of it.

“Yis… I bet my entire monthly wage for this month that I’ll have fun today, teaching the misfit class! Such a varied class, I bet their flowers will all be different and equally as beautiful! Yis!”

Buer chuckled. “I think we should bet on something else. All three of our bets are all guaranteed, pretty much.”

“I bet 50 vill on Clara Valac’s flower being an abomination!” Dantalion bet again.

“Again, this is a Valac. Her mother’s flower was made of a mish-mash of other flowers and was most likely sentient. Suzy’s diabotany books that showcase the most outstanding flowers she’s ever seen will confirm that. Bet again.” Buer smiled.

Dantalion put his face in his hands and let out a big sigh.

“Yis. Perhaps we shouldn’t bet. It’s the misfit class, any expectations can’t be safe to have. All I know is that we should expect the next six years to be fun to teach, as long as the misfit’s are all in the same class.”

“I know it’s the start of the year, but I can’t help but to anticipate future events, like the battler parties, the Harvest Festival and the Music Festival. The grandson of lord Sullivan, the son of Lady Asmodeus and the nephew of Baal Sabnock in the same class? There is abundant power there. Let alone other family lines. Valac, Crocell, Ix, Soi, Picero… Also the Andro bloodline magic and the Shax bloodline magic, as niche as they are. Every individual has so much potential.” Buer said.

Dantalion and Suzy nodded.

“Kalego is so lucky to have that class, I bet they’re a riot!” Dantalion complained.

“Yis, same here. But they could also be terrible. We never know.”

Buer smiled painfully. In his opinion, any class with Sabro Sabnock in it would be a mess, with him vying for leadership over everyone being the catalyst for multiple evil cycles and mental breakdowns from teachers and students alike. It was for the best that Kalego, one of the two Chet (8) ranked demons in the school, was their homeroom teacher.

Dantalion grinned cheerfully. He was ready to watch the school year unfold, and was ready to spectate any duels and fights in the misfit class at any time as long as he was free.

Suzy put another pot of coffee on, to share with her colleagues.

‘Yis. Must tell our newest colleague the new brand of coffee is going down well.’ She thought to herself with a warm expression. ‘He will be pleased with that, and about the misfit class. Robin? Yis, his name is Robin. He’ll have fun too.’