Roses are Blue

~~~

When Shiemi had decided to have a third child, Rin was concerned. Within two years, she had given birth to two babies, and while he admitted that he didn't know a lick about pregnancies or childbirth, it didn't feel safe to aim for another so soon. He didn't mind her trying for a girl again, even if he didn't think it was necessary to keep up this tradition after all this time. He just didn't want his wife to get hurt for the sake of pleasing her relatives. "I'm not saying we shouldn't try. I'm just saying that we should wait a while. Maybe two or three years?"

But Shiemi wasn't just doing this for the sake of traditions or securing an heir. Yes, it had to be done, but for her, this was another addition to their growing family. Another sibling for Atsuhiko and Kazuki to play with and be close friends with. It was a sweet thought that she was looking forward to. "I'll be fine. I've given birth twice already, so I'm sure the experience toughened me up."

So Shiemi became pregnant with their third child, the second one sired by a member of the Grigori Agency. And when she went into labor, she once again gave birth in the sacred garden, surrounded by servants from the branch family serving as midwives and doctors while her worried husband clutched her hand. It was all very normal, just a standard childbirth despite the setting.

Until the baby came out feet first. Then everyone became concerned. The woman who had been guiding the baby out said it would require a C-section. Rin, upon being told what it would involve, obviously got upset (like anyone would when someone was suggesting cutting one's wife open to retrieve their child). Shiemi, however, was willing to go through with it (like any mother who loved her child enough to risk her own life). Through the entire procedure, which was somehow as terrifying as when Atsuhiko and Kazuki were born despite being comparatively ordinary, Rin held onto Shiemi's hand as tightly as possible without hurting her and focused only on her face.

In the end, their daughter was born healthy, despite her unusual birth. She was blonde with green eyes, and seemingly ordinary. She didn't cause the plants to die or bloom, didn't turn into a monster, or anything like that. Their relatives would be disappointed that the child's abilities weren't as prodigious as Atsuhiko's, but they didn't care. Shiemi was happy that her baby was alive. And Rin was relieved that both his wife and daughter were alive.

They named her Shizumi.

~~~

Compared to her siblings, Shizumi was an ordinary child. She had no powers over the aspects of life that Atsuhiko did, and she didn't have a problem like Kazuki had. She could make friends with other kids, and other kids didn't avoid her like the plague. No teachers or adults outside of their home had worries or concerns about her. Rin and Shiemi didn't particularly favor one of their children over the other, but Shizumi was definitely the easiest of the three to raise because of that ordinariness.

Unfortunately, she had her share of troubles due to her older brothers--whether or not the boys meant to trouble her.

Kazuki loved his sister too much to ever try and hurt her on purpose, of course. She was the only child who was willing to play with him at school (and at home, after Atsuhiko said he didn't want to keep "humoring" his younger brother by being his playmate). But sometimes, she would be in the vicinity when he got possessed by a demon. She usually didn't get hurt, but she did get jumpy around her brother for a while. And when she did get hurt, Rin and Shiemi had to deal with the aftermath.

Like the time when a demon possessing Kazuki broke her arm when she was 6 years old and he was 7. Not only did the two of them have to convince their youngest son that it wasn't his fault, they had to tell their daughter that it wasn't her brother who hurt her, that he felt very bad for what happened, and she had no reason to be afraid of him.

"It's very important that you don't be afraid of Kazuki," Rin had told her once after they had come home from the hospital. "Your opinion of him matters a lot to him."

"Opinion?" The young girl pronounced in confusion.

"Uh, how you see your brother. If you see him like a monster or a bad person the way other kids at school do, it would make him very sad. You wouldn't want that, would you?" As someone whose only friend in his youth was his twin brother, Rin understood how important such things were. But each time something like this happened, it was difficult to repair the kids' relationship. After all, Rin never hurt Yukio during his angry outbursts, but Kazuki couldn't control what demons did to the people around him using his body.

"But Atsuhiko calls him a monster all the time."

"And that's wrong," said Shiemi as she held onto her daughter's uninjured hand. "We keep telling him that it's not funny to try and hurt Kazuki's feelings." Even though Atsuhiko never said such things as if they were jokes, but heartless facts. "The big brother who loves you wasn't the one who hurt you. So please don't let this ruin how you see him, honey."

Shizumi pouted and stared at her mother. "How come you don't make Atsuhiko to play with Kazuki?"

"We don't wanna make anyone play with anyone else. We just don't want you to hurt your brother's feelings," said Rin. He didn't add how Atsuhiko had started to be difficult lately.

She continued to pout, but she didn't argue. Still, it felt like she hadn't believed what her parents had said. As if she thought that they were forcing her to be friendly with Kazuki at the risk of her wellbeing. It wasn't their intention, of course. They just wanted their kids to keep being friends.

(Then someone at their elementary school spread rumors about Kazuki being part-demon months later, and Shizumi started refusing to spend time with him for both her safety and her popularity.)

Atsuhiko, on the other hand, seemed to purposely mess with Shizumi. He was never violent towards her, only using his words, but the things he said often got to her. For example, a few months after her arm had been broken, he told his sister what he learned about their family: that Rin wasn't their biological dad, and that Shizumi was only born because they "needed a girl to take Mother's place when she died".

"It's not true, right, Daddy? Tell me it isn't true! Tell me that you're my daddy!" She exclaimed after running to meet him in the kitchen.

It really hurt Rin's heart to see Shizumi looking up at him with a pained expression. She had a problem with him being half-demon before, and she only stopped being afraid of him because he promised that he wasn't like the things that possessed Kazuki from time to time. "Of course I'm your dad, baby! Your brother just likes to get under people's skin," he said as he patted the blonde girl on the head.

Then came Atsuhiko's voice from the living room where he was watching TV, totally monotone, "He's lying."

"Atsuhiko...!"

"Think about it. He didn't say anything about being part-demon before, either. You don't think he'd lie about being our dad?"

"That's enough! Go to your room!" He sternly told the eldest child. Atsuhiko left without a word. Once he was gone, Rin squatted down to make eye contact with Shizumi. This really wasn't the sort of conversation he wanted to have while the kids were young--especially when Shiemi wasn't at home. He figured he had to choose his words wisely. "...Do you remember when we watched that movie about the boy who was raised by apes? Even though they weren't related by blood, they were still a family because they loved each other. It's...sort of like that. I'm your dad because I love you, and I want to raise you and take care of you. Nothing else matters beyond that."

Once again, although she didn't argue with her dad, it felt like she didn't accept what he had said. As if 6 years of love and care didn't mean a thing in the face of genetics. She still called him "Dad," but from that moment on, she occasionally referred to him as just "Rin". It wasn't as cold or as hurtful as what her brothers called him, but somehow, it felt like the start of a gap between Rin and his daughter.

~~~

Middle school was, unfortunately, when Shizumi's personality took a shift for the worst. Her parents blamed the girls that she hung out with. She had known them in elementary school--the only two people who were willing to interact with her despite Kazuki's reputation and her abnormal family. Come middle school, the two girls began to embrace a delinquent lifestyle, and Shizumi followed their example. She skipped school some days, snuck off somewhere with them after school without telling anyone, and she slept over at the house of one of the girls without her parents' permission or knowledge. Her parents had disciplined her, but that seemed to push Shizumi closer to her friends and further from her family.

Then one day, while Shiemi was sorting the laundry for washing, a cigarette fell out of the pocket of one of Shizumi's skirts. As soon as she realized what it was, the blonde woman snatched it up off the floor and marched to her daughter's room. She made no attempt to knock and announce she was coming in, just throwing the door open and entering. Shizumi was on her bed, looking at her phone when her mother held up the cigarette and stiffly asked, "What is this?"

Shizumi did a double take at the sight of the cigarette. "Huh? Where'd you get that?"

"I found it in your clothes. What are you doing with a cigarette, young lady?"

"Why do you think it's mine?"

"Because it was in your clothes! That makes it yours!"

The blonde girl gave a grunt of annoyance. "Why're you making such a big deal about it? It wasn't even lit."

Shiemi could feel her face heating up as her patience was reaching its limit. "Because you're 12 years old!! You shouldn't even be holding one of these! Do you know how terrible these are for your health?!"

"Chill out, Shemihaza-sama," she muttered mockingly with a half-lidded gaze. "I forgot I even had that thing. 'Sides, I prefer drinking over smoking." Before her mother could snap and start screaming at her for what she said, Shizumi added, "I'm kidding."

Shiemi had to take a deep breath before she found herself screaming at her daughter. "It isn't a joke. This is serious. Things like this could kill you! You need to stop letting your friends force you to do stupid things like--!"

Shizumi finally decided to sit up and snap, "The only person who forces me to do things is you! You're just complaining because if I drop dead, you'll have to go through the effort of popping out another daughter!"

It took a few seconds for Shiemi to get over the shock of what her youngest had said, before exclaiming, "That isn't true at all!" Which was a lie, in a way. Yes, if something happened to Shizumi, then either her mother would have to birth another daughter by chance or, Atsuhiko would be responsible for siring one of his own in the future. But it wasn't as if Shiemi only cared about her daughter for the sake of heirs and traditions. "I care more about your wellbeing than anything else! Why on earth would you think otherwise?"

After all these years, Shizumi's parents' had recognized a certain habit of hers to just stop talking after hearing something she didn't agree with. After giving her mother a skeptical look, the girl went back to staring at her phone, saying nothing. And although Shiemi continued to tell her things, after a while, she realized she was talking to a wall and just stopped. She left Shizumi's bedroom, crushing the cigarette in the palm of her hand.

Following that day, Shizumi stopped training with her mother. In her opinion, she didn't care about Shemihaza, the Order of the True Cross, or her family. So why bother pretending to be the good little heir to a Grigori title just to keep everyone but herself happy?

~~~

Shizumi continued to misbehave over the years. Each time her parents lectured her, it went in one ear and out the other. Each time they disciplined her, she grew more dependent on her troublemaking friends. Each time they tried to convince her that they did indeed love her and saw her as more than an heir or something to humanize her brothers, she gave them a dirty look. And when she finally graduated from middle school, Shizumi had assumed that she was going to attend the public high school with her friends. Her parents didn't feel bad about bursting her bubble when they said they were sending her to True Cross Academy.

"It'll be good for you to be around some decent children," said Shiemi. There was no point in hiding how she felt about her daughter's friends. It had been obvious for years by now.

"I don't wanna be around decent children! I wanna be with my friends!"

"You'll make new friends at the academy," said Rin.

"I don't want new friends! Let alone the sort of shitty friends you two had growing up!"

"That's your problem, then. Because you're going, no matter what."

"Your brothers are happy at the academy. Aren't you two?" Shiemi asked Atsuhiko and Kazuki, who had been visiting home for dinner when the conversation of Shizumi's high school plans came up.

"I'm utterly miserable, and everyone I'm forced to interact with is either too high-class, too high-strung about maintaining their grade average, or a freak like most of the people in this family," Kazuki spoke with a half-lidded gaze and a mouth full of rice that showed just how little he agreed with his parents.

"Everyone I'm forced to interact with is either average or uninteresting. And if I could, I'd remove every girl who keeps trying to date me off the face of the planet," Atsuhiko spoke flatly before popping a piece of tofu into his mouth.

"Nothing's stopping you from leaving the schoolgrounds to visit your friends after classes. But the curfew's obnoxious. If you're out too late, you get in trouble. Get in trouble too often, you get sent to the headmaster to be punished."

"Of course, you could always cause enough trouble to get expelled."

"Shit, if you're willing to get expelled, just run away from home before school starts."

"KNOCK IT OFF!!!" Rin screamed, silencing both of their sons before they could give their sister anymore terrible ideas.

"You'll be fine. It'll be a change for the better," Shiemi told Shizumi.

The blonde girl didn't bother to look at her mother as she clicked her tongue and picked at her food. "Yeah, because it's definitely been good for those two weirdoes."

~~~

When Shiemi decided that she wanted another child with Rin, it definitely came as a surprise to everyone, Rin included. He would've been content with just raising Atsuhiko. He didn't mind if he didn't have a child that shared his blood. But Shiemi did. She specifically wanted a child with Rin. It didn't seem fair to her that people thought they should be denied that because they were worried about another Blue Night occurring. And besides, it wasn't like she wasn't she wasn't going to do another in vitro fertilization. Sooner or later, she would birth the heir to the title and position of Shemihaza. But for now, she wanted something that was born just for her and her husband to love, and nothing else.

The birth of their second child was small compared to Atsuhiko's. It took place in a room that the Doctors of the Order used for operations that couldn't be done in the public hospital. The Grigori Agency was against it being birthed in Amahara, lest it turn out like its father and burn the plants around it. Rin was for it, too, to Shiemi's surprise. There were no exorcists present, save for those with meisters as Doctors and actual medical knowledge of childbirth, and Rin. He thought that if the child turned out "like him" and there was no one around who would turn hostile, it wouldn't "lose its shit". And if it did...well...he'd take care of it himself somehow.

But rather than a child born swathed in flames, their second child was born without fire, or screams, or any sort of chaos. He didn't seem demonic in the slightest. But more noticeable to everyone in the room was that he was silent and unmoving. The doctors had already expressed their worry when the child wasn't moving at all during the childbirth, forcing them to do all the work. When one of the doctor's set the child down, checked his heartbeat with a stethoscope, and announced that they couldn't hear anything, his parents could feel their hearts breaking.

"Wait a minute! It's faint, but I can hear..."

The doctor trailed off as the baby's eyes snapped open. They were blue like his father's...until they glazed over with a white film. Then he began to cry. And spasm like he was having a seizure. Bones cracked as his limbs contorted and grew. Other appendages grew from his body. Concerned with their own wellbeing, the doctors began to back away from the child as it changed into some monstrous thing with a face that barely looked human, let alone like that of a newborn child.

Chaos followed. It was only Rin fighting, as he made sure none of the doctors came in with weapons on them (just in case), and Shiemi was barely in any condition to help out. Truthfully, he wasn't even trying to win. He didn't know what was going on with the newborn, but he was only trying to calm it down, or knock it out at worst. He didn't want to kill his child.

Thankfully, it didn't have to come to that. Just horrific and painful to watch as its transformation, the monster turned back into a baby. A crying, red-faced living baby whose body showed signs of being injured from something that its body couldn't handle, and whose wailing was probably from the pain of what he went through. The doctors did what they could. One demonic trait that the newborn had inherited was an accelerated healing rate, which made treating him both easier and harder than it should've been.

But after minutes (that felt more like an eternity) of being forced to listen to their baby's cries of pain, the newborn was placed into his mother's arms. And his parents were concerned about what had happened, for a moment, they could be happy and coddle their second son.

They named him Kazuki.

~~~

Kazuki was...special. He had a condition that made him more...sensitive to the creatures that came from Gehenna, and easier to possess. It wouldn't matter what his state of mind or his mood was like. If there were charms or blessings. Happy or upset, demons could possess him. And it happened often. There were people like him, of course, but they were uncommon. They also didn't live what most would consider long lives, either due to the physical duress on their bodies due to possession, or due to their mental states diminishing. But his parents were hopeful that neither of those things would happen to Kazuki. He had the benefit of being raised amongst exorcists--people who knew how to control his affliction.

It wasn't easy, of course. Even as he got older and was taught how to keep possessions at bay, one would always slip through. At least at home, his parents would be able to restrain him until it was properly exorcised, or Kazuki willed it out of his body. At places like school, where only ordinary people were about, his possessions usually led to someone getting hurt and possibly ending up in the hospital or just traumatized for life, either a teacher or a student. From as early as kindergarten and up to elementary school, Kazuki became known as a safety hazard. Adults and children alike feared him and preferred to only have to interact with him when necessary.

Even his own siblings preferred not to interact with him. In Atsuhiko's case, he just considered dealing with Kazuki and his possessions a nuisance at worst and entertainment at best. ("I don't know why I have to be your keeper because we're related.") While Shizumi, between being injured by him mid-possession one too many times and worried about how other kids avoided her for being his sister, wanted to avoid being around him outside of the house. ("Stop asking to spend lunch with me. I don't want anyone to see me with you.")

Somehow, Kazuki didn't mind that sort of treatment. "It's not bullying," he told his parents. They had just lectured Shizumi for admitting that she didn't want to spend time with Kazuki like any of the other kids in school. "They just don't want to get hurt, so they try not to be around me. It's not like they tell me to go away or say they're gonna hurt me. I'd do the same thing if I was them." It wasn't the sort of thing a 7-year-old child should say.

But neither his father nor his mother could convince him that it wasn't right to treat him like that. "You're a normal boy," said Rin. "No one should treat you poorly for something you can't control."

And then something much worse happened. Somehow, a rumor began to spread at the school that Kazuki was part-demon. To be precise, the rumor was that his dad was part-demon and that whatever was wrong with Kazuki had to be because of that. And when teachers confronted the child who started the rumor and told her it was rude and mean to lie about someone you didn't like, she said, "It's not a lie! My dad is an exorcist like his dad, and my dad said that he's part-demon! It's totally the truth!!" So now, every child at school knew that about Kazuki.

Including Kazuki and his siblings.

It wasn't like Rin and Shiemi were intending to keep it a secret from them forever. Like the truth about Atsuhiko and Shizumi's biological father and the expectations of Shemihaza's bloodline, they were going to tell them about Kazuki's relation to demons--to Satan when they were older, more emotionally mature and better able to handle that revelation. Kazuki's reaction after learning that confirmed that they had been right to do so.

"YOU LIED TO ME!!! ALL THIS TIME, YOU LIED TO ME ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE!!!"

"We didn't lie. We were going to tell you when you were older!" said Shiemi. She reached out to touch the crying child and comfort him, but he just slapped her hand away and jumped off of the couch to keep his distance from his parents. "Kazuki!"

"You let me think that Kuro was a fairy! That gods and angels weren't the same as demons! But they're all the same! They're all demons! They're all freaks! I'm a freak! YOU'RE ALL FREAKS!!!"

"None of us are freaks, okay?!" Rin snapped. "You're human and so am I!"

Kazuki was clutching his head with both hands and glaring at the ground. "I should've known! There's nothing normal about a tail, those teeth and that fire...! I'm so stupid!"

"Beyond all of that, you're no different than anyone else! This changes nothing!"

"And getting hit by a car or having my body torn up during a possession, and then healing from it like nothing happened...! The voices were right all this time...! So stupid!"

"Despite all your problems, you're still just a boy! You're still a normal kid like anyone else!"

"YOU DON'T GET TO SAY THAT!!!" Kazuki screeched, still refusing to look at Rin or Shiemi. "Monsters like you don't know what normal is!!"

"That is enough!" Shiemi raised her voice for the first time this entire argument started. "No matter what he is, he isn't a monster! He's your father, and he loves you, and you will show him respect!"

Kazuki didn't bother to apologize, or even continue screaming. He just ran off to the room that he shared with Atsuhiko and slammed the door behind him. When his parents went after him, the door was locked, and Rin had to resist the urge to bust it down instead of trying (and failing) to get Kazuki or Atsuhiko to open the door.

Months later, shortly before he turned 8, Kazuki fell out of a window on the highest floor of his elementary school. His parents wanted to assume that it happened because he was possessed at the time. And when he opened his eyes in the hospital and started sobbing, they wanted so badly to believe that it was because he had been scared and was so happy to be alive.

They didn't want to think he was crying for the opposite reason.

~~~

After his accident (because it was an accident, right?), Kazuki changed. Before, he at least tried to fake being happy for the sake of the adults in his life. Now he didn't bother. He was quiet and sullen most of the time. His opinion of exorcists had changed for the worst. On average days, he referred to his parents as Mom and Dad. On bad days, he referred to them as Shiemi and Rin. He no longer told them about his possessions or anything how his day at school went. He wouldn't come directly home after school and stayed out until after dark, and sometimes, he left home late at night and wouldn't come home until the sun was rising. Trying to get information out of Kazuki was near impossible, and when he did say something to Rin and Shiemi, it often felt like he lied to them just to get them off of his back.

By middle school, at the age of 13, it was as if Kazuki had divided people into two categories. There were the people he considered "normal" and "human" who understandably (in his mind, anyway) avoided interacting with him like he was a leper. And then there were the "freaks" and "weirdoes" and "monsters" like his family, exorcists and the like, who purposely interacted with demons (be it hostile or friendly), or were descended from demons, or were demons whom he wanted nothing to do with, yet ironically were the only people willing to try and talk to him and make him understand. Because Rin and Shiemi (and even Yukio, on occasion) didn't stop trying to reach him.

And then that year, on Christmas Day, the Okumura family woke up to find that Kazuki wasn't at home. Neither was Yukio, who had been coerced into staying over on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the family the following morning. Later, Yukio had been found near the river that ran through True Cross Town, badly beaten up and a leg bent in a way it definitely shouldn't be. And when he was finally coherent enough to actually explain who or what had attacked him, the younger Okumura twin stated, "Kazuki."

What had happened was that Yukio noticed Kazuki leaving the house late that night on Christmas Eve. He followed the boy, keeping enough distance so that he wouldn't be noticed. Kazuki had gone to the river, and after just staring at for a moment, he jumped right in. So, Yukio immediately rushed over to the water's edge and jumped in after him, grabbed ahold of the boy, and pulled him back onto dry land. But as his uncle began to demand an explanation for his behavior, Kazuki started yelling about how he had ruined things and tried to fight him. It wasn't even much of a fight at the start, with Yukio easily overpowering him, but midway through, Kazuki became possessed, his body twisting and transforming, and the fight shifted in his favor. And once he had knocked Yukio out, he left.

Kazuki was eventually located by the police, no longer possessed, attempting to jump into the river at another location. He did attempt to fight them off, but this time, he wasn't overcome by a demonic possession, so they were able to bring him back home to his parents.

An awkward silence fell as soon as the police had left the premises. Kazuki stood by the door, soaking wet, staring listlessly at the floor and showing no signs of moving closer to his parents. His parents were standing next to him, silent. After a moment, Shiemi made the first move by wrapping an arm around her dark-haired son and guiding him over to the couch to sit down, forgetting that he was still in wet clothes. Shizumi rose from the end of the couch she'd been sitting on with an exasperated sigh and left for her room. Either she knew what was going to happen, or her brother's presence annoyed her.

Shiemi sat down on the couch beside Kazuki. He didn't attempt to move or look at her. He just kept staring at the floor. Rin was still standing, and he couldn't help looking uncomfortable. It was only a while ago that the couple had discussed how they would handle the boy once he was home, and now they found themselves speechless.

"...Kazuki?" his mother began once the silence became too uncomfortable for her. "Are you okay?" It was a stupid question, she knows, because he obviously wasn't okay, but it came out without meaning to. The blonde woman rubbed her son's back in a way that she hoped was comforting as she continued, "Your uncle said that...he saw you jump into the river. Is that true?" She hoped that he would say no.

"I was possessed," he answered flatly.

"If you were possessed, why did you tell your uncle that he ruined things?" Rin asked. His tone was even. His expression was neutral.

"Because I was possessed."

"Stop using that as an excuse!" His father snapped. Although he sounded angry, he didn't look it. Just concerned. "You weren't possessed when you said that! Or when you tried to pick a fight with your uncle! Or when you jumped in the river! So stop lying and tell us why you were there in the first place!!"

"Sweetheart, if it's about Uncle Yuki being hurt, he's okay. He's in the hospital, but he understands that you weren't the one who hurt him. We all understand. You don't have to be ashamed to admit that you lost your temper and let your guard down. So please...tell us why you went to the river."

"...Why?"

"Why?" Both Rin and Shiemi asked, the former with a heated tone and the latter with genuine confusion.

"Because we wanna know why you'd throw yourself into a deep river in winter like you have a death wish!!" Rin saw the way that his wife had recoiled at the end of that word. He hadn't meant to shout. He hadn't meant to say that last part, either. But his brain had thought of that word like it couldn't stop thinking of the awful reason that both of them worried was the truth.

Shiemi's one-armed embrace became tighter as she brought Kazuki closer to her and made his head rest on her shoulder, as if that would help either of them feel better. "We were so worried when your uncle said you did that. It's dangerous to do things like that! You might've hurt yourself, you know! We would be heartbroken if something happened to you, Kazuki!" At some point while she spoke, tears had welled up in her eyes and she had started to stroke Kazuki's hair. "You would tell us if something was seriously wrong, wouldn't you, sweetheart? You would tell us if you had a problem or you...were feeling bad? You know that we'd do anything to help you!"

Kazuki's expression hadn't changed the entire time his parents had been talking. But finally, he spoke, "I'm sorry I can't be the son you want."

And then he tore himself away from his mother and ran towards his room. His father gave chase, refusing to end the conversation there, but the boy managed to run into the bedroom, slam the door shut, and lock it behind him. Rin banged rapidly on the door, shouting, "KAZUKI!!! You don't get to run in your room and hide after saying something like that!! Just talk to us, damn it!!"

After banging for a solid minute, the door opened to reveal an annoyed Atsuhiko, holding a notebook. "I can't study with you making noise, Rin-san," he said as the nephillim walked past him and into the room. When it became clear that Rin was just going to continue grilling Kazuki, who was lying facedown on the bed in his corner of the room, the blonde son left and closed the door behind him. He went to the living room and sat down on the loveseat across from the couch. After taking a moment to get comfortable, he glanced at his mother, who had been crying quietly as she stared at the floor in shock. Then after he looked back to his notebook, Atsuhiko said, "Shouldn't you be in there trying to talk with your suicidal problem child, Mother?"

That word triggered a reaction in Shiemi. She got up from the couch and ran towards the boys' bedroom. There was the tiniest part of her that felt like nothing she did would be of use, but she had to try. She would hate herself if she didn't try to help him when he was hurting.

~~~

Kazuki's problems didn't get better. But they didn't get worse, either. He still wandered off on his own after school or in the middle of the night, but he would at least send text messages saying so--even if his parents told him not to come home. He still sometimes referred to his parents as "Rin" and "Shiemi," but he hadn't referred to them as "monsters" or "demons" in years. (He did still call them freaks, sadly.) He still got possessed, though it didn't happen as often, and he still heard the demons in Gehenna speaking in his head saying all sorts of things. His relationship with his siblings was still seemingly nonexistent, and he still said that he understood why Shizumi treated him like he had the plague even at home. He still didn't have any friends, and he still thought that people had a good reason for fearing him.

And as far as his parents knew, he hadn't done the sort of thing that he had done that Christmas Eve night (and possibly, they now feared, back in elementary school). But they worried that he was still trying to do it behind their backs, and now he was putting in the effort to try and look like he was stable.

Before his parents had known it, Kazuki was going to high school. It hadn't been his plan originally, as he had insisted that "there's no point in me getting a high school diploma" and "no one's gonna hire a guy who could get possessed at the drop of a pin," but with some nudging and coercing (not pressuring, no matter what Shizumi and Atsuhiko said), he decided to attend. Even if he did complain about them sending him to True Cross Academy like his brother, and the likelihood of him sharing a room with a "freak" or "some weirdo training to be an exorcist," and how he wasn't going to enjoy a place filled with "rich kids and high achievers".

"Don't sweat it. What're the chances that someone who knows you will be there?" Rin had asked the morning of True Cross Academy's student orientation.

"You know I'm on the internet, right? Freaking out on videos?" Kazuki asked dully, swatting Rin's hand away when he kept attempting to fiddle with his tie.

"Like anyone remembers any of those after a few years. Just think of this as a fresh start."

"If you get lonesome, you can always come home to visit," said Shiemi. He didn't immediately say he wouldn't come home, so she considered that a good sign. "And you and your brother can keep each other company at school!"

This time, the dark-haired boy responded with a "Like hell!"

When his parents saw him off, they both felt hopeful. They ignored the little dark voices in their heads that suggested things that could go wrong. Even if things didn't get better for him, they couldn't possibly get worse, right?

~~~

Shiemi's firstborn child wasn't fathered by her husband in the warmth of a bed shared by the two of them. It was fathered by a distant cousin whom she never met who was willing to donate his sperm for in vitro fertilization. Because while no one protested the current Grigori marrying the son of Satan (loudly and in front of certain individuals, at least), they all pointed out that no child sired by him would be able to succeed Shemihaza. For when it came to the descendants of two nephilim, they never received traits from both sides of the family. It was one or the other, and the blood of stronger demons would always prevail until their descendants were no different than humans biologically. And while Shemihaza was the Emperor of Life, Satan was the incarnation of Gehenna itself. Besides, it had always been a tradition for the first and second branches of their family to have children between each other, to ensure that Shemihaza's bloodline didn't thin out quickly. Shiemi had wanted to complain, but Rin didn't mind.

"It ain't like you're gonna run off with the guy. We're the ones who'll raise the child. I'm the one who'll be its father. What does it matter how it was born?" She supposed she should've realized that would be his reaction, given his history.

They had been expecting a normal pregnancy. Shiemi, her mother, her grandmother, and even her great-grandmother were born that way. The birth of the last descendant of Shemihaza that involved a cradle barrier was centuries ago. That was how thin the bloodline was these days.

So, everyone should have been surprised when the child was born in the sacred garden--because traditions, traditions, traditions--and something strange happened. Plants grew out of control. Plants died and revived within minutes, over and over, like a repeating loop of a video. Seeds were seemingly forced to spread and grow in the blink of an eye: grass, and flowers, and trees and such. Even the people who were taking part in the childbirth admitted that they felt sick or simply didn't "feel right", whatever that meant. All that because a little baby was brought out of the safety of its mother's womb into the noisy world. It was a miracle, they said.

Except it really wasn't. In fact, such things hadn't been uncommon these days: people birthing or siring children with traits and abilities of demon ancestors they never even knew they had. Some sort of atavism, scientists and doctors of the Order said. Perhaps caused by the thinning of the barrier between worlds, they all pondered. Either way, that was probably the result that the branch family had wanted: an heir with power worthy to be called Shemihaza.

Unfortunately, the child was a boy. Even after all this time, traditions had to be maintained. The role of Shemihaza had to be inherited by a female. (Because traditions, traditions, traditions.)

Rin and Shiemi hadn't cared. They loved him even before he was born. They loved him even if he made the plants in that most sacred garden die and revive, and he caused people to be sick as if they developed a disease. He didn't mean it. He didn't know any better. He was only a baby. Their precious son with pale blonde hair and green eyes like his mother (and possibly most likely his father).

They named him Atsuhiko.

~~~

Contrary to his name, 9-year old Atsuhiko developed into a cold child. He didn't make friends at school. Only talked to other people when he had to. Kept to himself a lot. He didn't even seem to be all that fond of his siblings who were born one and two years after him. Of course, his parents tried to get him to open up. They told him that there were probably kids in his class that would like to be his friend.

"I don't want to be friends with anyone," Atsuhiko spoke dismissively as he continued to do his homework. "If anything, I want them to leave me alone."

"You don't mean that," said Rin as he looked over his child's shoulder. "Nobody wants to be alone."

"I do. What makes you even think you know what I want, Okumura-san?"

Rin bristled at being addressed so formally by his own child. He wasn't sure when it happened or how he learned it, but at some point, Atsuhiko had learned that Rin wasn't his or his sister's biological father. Since then, he either referred to him as "Rin-san" or "Okumura-san". Sure, it sounded more respectful than the things his second son was calling him lately, but the use of honorifics felt like a wall. A way of saying that he didn't consider them family, and that Rin should stop trying to act fatherly. His parents figured he just needed time to adjust to the truth, just like his brother. They were both still kids, after all. Children who didn't mean nor entirely understood the cruel things they said. Or realize that some adults did indeed care how their kids viewed them.

So, Rin ignored the coldness (or rudeness) and responded, "I didn't fit in with other kids in my class when I was your age, y'know. I told myself that I didn't care if they didn't wanna be my friend. But deep down, I still wished I could've been friends with those kids."

"What do you want me to do? Do what you did and make friends with people like you?"

"Of course not. You can make friends with anyone you want."

Atsuhiko finally stopped looking at just his homework and looked up at his father (no matter what he said or thought about their lack of blood) with a bored expression. "Exactly. And I don't want to be friends with those kids at school. So just go away, Okumura-san."

Rin backed off then. There was no point in pushing. He couldn't force Atsuhiko to be friendly anymore than he could force Kazuki to love him. But back then, he felt like he should've tried harder.

~~~

In his last year of middle school, Atsuhiko said plainly that he wasn't going to True Cross Academy. It had nothing to do with grades, because he was a brilliant boy. Or money, because even if being an exorcist of the True Cross paid less than one expected, Shiemi's family was richer than one would expect. It was because he saw no point in going if he had no interest in being an exorcist.

"I'm sure everyone expected me to join the Grigori Agency sooner or later, just because I popped out of the current Shemihaza. Like I want to spend my days as somebody's bodyguard."

Shiemi wanted to deny that statement, but she knew that would just be a lie. In regard to Shemihaza, their branch family made up members of the section of the Grigori Agency responsible for that particular Grigori. But children of the main family who weren't Shemihaza or their successor were also expected to be involved in the agency--out of filial love and duty. And Atsuhiko, whose powers only seemed to get more impressive with age, was deemed as someone who would be potentially useful in protecting Shemihaza.

But his mother never wanted that. She never wanted any of her children to feel like they were forced to join the Order of the True Cross because of who they were, or who they were related to. She was going to tell him that he could still go to the academy and not have to be an exorcist.

But then he said, "Besides, it feels like the world would be better off if demons wiped people off the face of the planet."

Shiemi frowned and fixed a weak glare upon her oldest son. "That isn't funny, Atsuhiko. Don't say things you don't mean."

"What makes you think I don't mean it?"

"Because no one genuinely wants that sort of thing to happen!" At least, not any sane person. And her Atsuhiko was sane. For as off-putting and cold as he could be sometimes, her son was rational--sometimes to a fault, but still. He just sometimes said things just to get a rise out of people--no different than his brother and sister. "Human beings aren't so hopeless that they don't deserve to exist. And I don't expect you to join the Grigori Agency anymore than I expect you to become an exorcist. No matter what anyone from the agency says, I won't let them push you into joining. So, you can go to the academy and do whatever you want."

Atsuhiko sighed in exasperation and looked away from his mother. "Somehow, I doubt that."

~~~

Atsuhiko had always tried to be an independent child. Once he learned how to walk home from school by himself, he didn't bother to wait for his parents to come and pick him up--or even walk home with his siblings. When he was old enough to do so, he learned how to cook for himself--and only himself. And as he got older and more able to do things on his own, without needing to ask for help or inform others, the more isolated he became.

Rin and Shiemi should've realized that when he started going to True Cross Academy, he would choose to live in the dorms. Trying to get him to come home to visit was like pulling teeth, and when he did, Atsuhiko treated it like a chore that had to be done to placate his parents. It honestly made them wish that they gave in to his initial wishes and let him go to the local public school. At least then, he'd have no choice but to come home. But private school had allowed their eldest child to almost entirely cut his family out of his life before he was legally an adult.

His siblings didn't care, though.

"There's one less freak in the house without him here," said 15-year-old Kazuki one night after his parents had successfully 'pulled a tooth' and had convinced Atsuhiko to come home for dinner one evening.

"Do I have to keep telling you not to insult your brother like that?" Shiemi asked while preparing the table. Rin was in the kitchen finishing dinner.

"It's the truth, not an insult. And he's used to it."

"It isn't the truth. And I won't have you saying things like that while your brother's here."

The dark-haired boy gave a groan and slapped a hand over his eyes. "I can't wait until I'm old enough to move out... I'm gonna move as far away from this town as possible. Get a new number. And a new name so no one tracks me down."

"At least not many people'll care if you get lost. I have to stick around to pop out kids and make sure the shitty bloodline keeps going," came his sister Shizumi's flat reply while she was reading a manga.

"For all your bitching and moaning, you'd miss home as soon as you move out," came Rin's voice from the kitchen area.

"Yeah, right," came the kids' flat reply in unison. Shiemi just shook her head.

Shortly after, there came a knock at the front door. Then it opened, and Atsuhiko walked into the house, blank-faced, like he always was when he came home to visit, even as his mother walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug as she welcomed him home. With a neutral expression, he returned the hug, albeit a bit half-heartedly. He did the same when his father pops out of the kitchen for a moment. Just another act to please his parents.

He didn't bother to act so warmly with his siblings. The first thing Atsuhiko did when he approached where his siblings were sitting was look at Kazuki and say, "I see you're still alive."

His brother glanced at their parents and bitterly said, "Unfortunately."

The blonde teen then looked at his sister and only greeted her with, "Good evening, Shizumi."

She responded with a flat "Good evening, Atsuhiko," without even looking away from her manga.

After that, they were all dead silent, not saying a word to each other. This was them playing nice: avoiding saying the biting, awful, insulting things they really wanted to say, and in turn, avoiding lectures and disapproving looks from their parents. So that they could have dinner together and their parents could pretend for a little while that they were a normal family.

First and most obvious, Adell being Zenon's vessel would mean that instead of the village of the Snow Clan, Fake Zenon targets Holt Village instead to kidnap baby Adell to raise as his child. The only survivors were Adell's biological parents, who went after Fake Zenon to save their son, and Adell's adoptive parents, who had no choice but to stay behind because they had no combat ability. The former pair still ends up becoming enslaved by the imposter, and the latter slowly forget about them and Adell due to the curse.

As far as his childhood goes, Adell (also would be named something else, but still Adell here for convenience) would turn out differently than Rozalin. For starters, he's not content with just being a homebody, and when Adell escapes from the mansion one day to go and explore the world outside and interact with people, the fake Zenon purposefully affects the residents of Veldime so that they become violent monsters and attack him, which leads to him getting scars on his face like he does in Disgaea 2. Luckily, Shura and Selion (Adell's real parents) arrive to "save" Adell before Zenon can reawaken and cause a massacre. The imposter thought this incident would make Adell more docile, but instead, it makes him want to train and become strong enough to be a worthy successor to his "father". When he tries to have his servants prevent this behavior, Adell trains in secret. When he sends Tink to both look after and befriend Adell to corrupt him into becoming a typical pampered rich kid, he ends up becoming his training partner--albeit against his will, because servants who've failed to curtail Adell's training in the past have been "disposed of" by his father, and Tink would very much like to stay alive, so he keeps it a secret.

Meanwhile, the Snow Clan has been whittled down to a small population due to their failed attempt to assassinate Zenon in the early years of his reign leading to the deaths of most of its members after a retaliatory attack on Snow Melody. Amongst those who survive are the orphaned Fubuki, Yukimaru and Rozalin, the latter of whom ends up being adopted by the siblings. When what little is left of the clan loses the will to fight back, the three of them train together in the ninja arts with the hopes of slaying Zenon themselves. Rozalin wants to end Zenon and his reign of suffering as much as the siblings do, but like in canon, she doesn't like to fight, let alone kill. To steel herself, she develops a kuudere kind of personality.

Years later, when Fubuki leaves Snow Melody to find Zenon and Yukimaru goes after him to help, Rozalin is left to her own devices. Not wanting to feel useless, she heads off somewhere and brings back a summoner and her family (Adell's adoptive family). In exchange for providing them with a place to call home, she'll summon Zenon for them to kill. When no one else in Snow Melody wants to risk fighting him, Rozalin takes on the weight of defeating Zenon herself. But instead, Adell is summoned "by mistake". After a short fight between the two, it becomes clear that Adell is Zenon's only son. Rozalin decides to use this to her advantage and insists that Adell take her to see his father, hoping to either kill Zenon or use Adell's safety as leverage to make him reverse the curse. Adell doesn't know where his father is, never having met him, but lies about it, and instead drags her around all over Veldime. Unlike Rozalin in canon D2, Adell isn't trying to kill her. He wants to explore Veldime, and figures that after having won a fight against Rozalin, he's strong enough to protect himself. Initially, he thinks Rozalin will simply be killed by his father, but when he grows to like her and reveals that he doesn't know where Zenon is, he promises to undo the curse on Veldime, either by convincing his "father" to do so or by beating--not killing--his father and becoming the Overlord so he can undo it himself.

And from there...who knows what could happen?

Side info that's not important to the story:

Rozalin's weapon of choice is a bow, but game-wise, she'd also be good with fist and staff weapons. She prefers fish to canon Rozalin's love of meat. Also, just like Adell in canon, she's somehow immune to the effects of Zenon's curse for unknown reasons.

Adell knows how to use magic, but prefers melee combat. He prefers to fight for sport and hates to fight to the death. His childhood belief that he can only rely on strength to survive in the harshness of the outside world is influenced by the beliefs of Zenon within him.

Unlike Rozalin, Adell adapts to life in the outside world relatively quickly. He goes from expecting to be waited on hand and foot to being willing to do chores.

Axel isn't considered dead to the world. But after several encounters with Adell that lead to fights, Rozalin decides to use the fact that he's constantly got a film crew following him to announce on live TV that Axel is a Demon Lord who's after Overlord Zenon's life. This forces him to join the party for his own safety.

Taro is still smitten with Rozalin, though she treats him like a little brother rather than a servant. Hanako, however, develops a mild crush on Adell that's much more forward--even after she makes herself his vassal.

Instead of a red form, Tink has a black form based on something from his Disgaea 2 concept art. It's supposedly more combat-oriented, and the concept has Jojo-esque onomatopoeia surrounding him while he's sneering.

'It's only Monday…and I'm wishing it was Friday already!' Zeroken thought while sitting at his desk, flipping through the pages of a comic book as his classmates went about the classroom doing their usual morning routines before the start of homeroom: chatting, goofing off, hurriedly trying to finish the homework they neglected over the weekend, etcetera.

Then the bell rang, and on a reflex, the young demons took their seats—or in the case of those too big for seats, they just sat behind their desks—and waited for their teacher to enter the room. But when the door opened, instead of their serpent-bodied homeroom teacher Ms. Gorgon, a stranger entered their classroom. Two, in fact. The first to come in was a man with deathly pale skin and dark hair, dressed in black clothing with a tattered cape, and the man who came in close behind him was relatively taller, dressed in red and had long, silver hair. The children stared in confusion as the shortest of the pair stood behind the podium that Ms. Gorgon tended to stand behind and cleared his throat.

"Good morning, students! I have some upsetting news to give you," said the cape-wearing man while the other stood beside the podium with his arms folded behind his back. "Over the course of the weekend, your teacher, Ms. Gorgon, died choking on a black pretzel." A few sympathetic kids gasped, but most of the class cheered, thinking that it meant they were free of her classes. If the man was surprised by their positive reaction to hearing of their teacher's demise, he hid it well as he continued "I will be replacing her as your teacher for the rest of the school year." He held out his hand and the taller man gave him a piece of chalk. "You may call me…" He turned around and began to write out his name on the blackboard. Ordinarily, most of the students would take the opportunity to goof off while their teacher's back was turned, but the way his companion glared at them sent off a serious wave of killing intent that made them uncharacteristically behave until their teacher underlined his name and stepped out of the way for them to read it. "Mr. Valvatorez! And this is my aide, Fenrich."

The students, however, only heard their teacher give his name. "VALVATOREZ?!" Some gasped. Some gulped. Some went bug-eyed. One even fainted and fell out of their seat. Only a handful of students didn't seem affected by the mention of his name. For you see, there are some demons who are so infamous amongst others that one need not go to school to learn about them in some convoluted history lesson: Baal, the terrifyingly powerful Overlord who never seemed to die (permanently, at least); Zenon, a demon who slew 999 Demon Lords and 99 Overlords in a single night; Zetta, an Overlord who could literally kill a weaker being by looking at them—with laser eye beams; and Valvatorez, a vampire so feared for his power and the atrocities he had committed that he was called by the title of "tyrant".

Mr. Valvatorez didn't seem affected by their shock and awe and continued on, "I hope that we all get along and that you will live up to my expectations of you!"

"You aren't Tyrant Valvatorez!" Emizel, who sat in the front row, shouted as he pointed an accusing finger at their new teacher. "He stopped drinking blood centuries ago, and since he was a vampire, that means he has to be dead by now!"

Fenrich gave the boy a murderous glare, making him flinch and put his hand down so he could start trembling in fear. "Lord Valvatorez isn't some commonvampire, brat! Even without drinking blood, he's been able to survive. That's how powerful of a demon he is, so you should be thankful he wishes to teach you rugrats how to be proper demons!"

"That's only half-right, Fenrich," Mr. Valvatorez said with a serious expression on his face. "I've survived all these centuries without blood through the strength of my will and something of great importance! Something that has provided me with so much strength, and whose benefits trump those of blood!" The students began to listen with rapt attention, wondering what it could be that a vampire would find so much more enticing than blood. "Without it, I would likely be reduced to a pathetic shell of my former self! That glorious thing…" The kids were holding their breath in anticipation as Valvatorez suddenly threw out his arms, his cape billowing behind him in a way reminiscent of a bat's wings. "…is sardines!"

"…Sardines?" The students repeated. Even the kid who'd fainted automatically came back to consciousness to stare at their teacher like he was a lunatic.

"So…you've been surviving…on sardines?" Zeroken asked, arching an eyebrow. "But those things are puny! How can the blood you get from those be enough to replace the blood you get from humans?!" Ordinarily, he'd be intimidated to talk back to a greater demon as infamous as Tyrant Valvatorez, but he—along with the rest of the class—were starting to question whether this man was even a vampire, let alone such a famous one.

Rutile, who also sat in the front row, raised her hand before she began to speak, "Um…couldn't you get more out of bigger kinds of fish, like salmon, or tuna, or carp?"

"It's not the kind of fish that's the problem here! It's the fact that he's eating fish at all!" Emizel snapped. "What kind of vampire would eat sardines over human blood?!"

Mr. Valvatorez pounded his fist on the podium, and for a moment, it seemed like he was going to get angry. All of the kids fell silent, expecting to be wiped out or have their blood drained…but instead, their teacher smirked. "Oh, how naïve you children are. So steeped in traditions and stereotypes! We, as demons, should be ever evolving, to keep up with the humans who are also always evolving and finding different ways to be bigger nuisances than they already are! And I have found evolution through a steady diet of sardines!" And thus began an impromptu lecture about sardines…

'So he really does eat nothing but sardines?' Emizel thought with a skeptical look.

'But there are so many better kinds of fish to eat,' thought Rutile with a look of disappointment.

"His breath must be terrible…!" Zeroken accidentally said what he was thinking, causing Fenrich to glare at him. "Uh, I meant, his breath must be terrific!" While he was willing to talk back to his teacher, his aide seemed far more intimidating.

The lecture on sardines went on…and on…and on…until the bell rang. At which point, the majority of the students stampeded out of the room while their teacher's back was turned. A few unfortunate students even got trampled in the rush towards the door, but even they crawled for their lives to escape the classroom. Valvatorez turned around to find the last few students patiently walking out. "Hm? What's this? Where are they going?"

"The class is over, Lord Valvatorez," Fenrich pointed out. "They have to go to their next class."

"Really? Time sure does fly when one is lecturing, doesn't it?" The vampire asked as he looked up at the board, which was filled with random words and a diagram of the anatomy of a sardine. He then looked at his aide, arching an eyebrow as he asked, "Be honest with me, Fenrich: did I do an excellent job? And remember, be honest."

"Well, Lord Val…" The silver-haired demon began as he looked aside. "While your knowledge about sardines is vast and your dedication to spreading word of their capabilities is admirable…this was a math class. So while they've learned a great deal about something that could benefit their health…"

Valvatorez raised a hand to silence his aide. "Say no more. I was so eager to teach my students that I forgot that I am responsible for teaching them certain things." He held that same hand over his head and grimaced, looking as if he was fighting off a headache that was about to start. "I cannot afford to screw things up any further on my first day as a teacher! For the next class, I will stick to the subject no matter what!" He then arched an eyebrow and put down his hand to look at Fenrich in confusion. "By the way, what is my next class, Fenrich?"

"I believe it is a Home Economics class, sir." Valvatorez looked puzzled, but didn't voice his obvious confusion. "…It's a class that teaches skills that are useful in the practice of homemaking, my lord. But I believe they're only ever willing to teach how to cook."

"Cooking?! They're teaching demons how to cook? My, times have changed…" The vampire said as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Are you going to be okay with teaching such a class, Lord Val?"

"I must be okay, Fenrich! Anything less will show how unworthy I am to mold the minds of my students! Now, we must be off to this Home Economics classroom to prepare!"

Fenrich arched an eyebrow. "But…the class is just before the lunch period. That won't be for several hours."

"Even better! That gives me more time to come up with the perfect strategy for teaching the class."

"To approach the mundane act of homemaking the way you would a battle… As expected of my lord!" The teacher's aide said as he followed his vampire lord out of the classroom.

X-X-X

Several periods later, the ringing of the bell had several students begin rushing to their last class before the lunch break. But Emizel wasn't among these hurrying students. Instead, he was moving away from the direction of his next class as the hallway became empty. 'That sardine-loving crackpot is in charge of all the classes that Ms. Gorgon had to handle, and I'd rather not deal with him for the rest of the day.' The blonde boy's thoughts were disrupted as Zeroken ran into him from behind, forcing them both to fall to the floor in a crumpled heap. "What the hell?! Get off of me, you idiot!"

"Noooo! Why'd you have to get in my way?!" Zeroken cried as he tried desperately to untangle himself from Emizel. "She's gonna catch up with me!"

"She?"

Just as Emizel asked that, Rutile walked up to the two boys on the floor. "Zeroken, Emizel, what're you doing? We're going to be late for Home Ec.!"

The silver-haired boy sprang onto his feet, standing on top of the smaller demon in the process, and made to run off, but Rutile grabbed hold of his arm and squeezed tightly. "ACK! Lemme go! I don't wanna go to that class with that weirdo teaching it!"

Emizel narrowed his eyes and stood up, throwing Zeroken off of his back in the process. "You're skipping that loser's class, too?"

Zeroken grimaced. "I usually don't mind Home Ec. since it's such an easy class, but with that sardine-obsessed guy teaching it, it's pretty obvious what we're gonna be forced to make!"

Rutile's eyes widened in shock. "You can't skip!"

"Sure we can—we're demons," the blonde boy pointed out. "We're expected to skip some of our classes. You're the weirdo who's never absent unless she's sick, and even then brings a legitimate doctor's note to school as an excuse!" His arm ended up getting grabbed by the cat-eared girl as well. "MY ARM!"

"But think of how much it will hurt Mr. Valvatorez if some of his students skip on his first day…" Rutile said with watery eyes. "We should at least give him a chance to make up for what happened during homeroom."

"Think of how much you're hurting us right now!" Zeroken cried as they were dragged down the hall, towards the Home Economics class.

X-X-X

Meanwhile, Valvatorez sat at the desk normally designated to the Home Economics teacher, one hand propping up his face while the other tapped on the surface. His expression was neutral as he stared at the empty seats that should've had students sitting in them. "What on earth could be holding them up…?"

"Perhaps they're skipping class, Lord Val," Fenrich suggested as he stood next to his lord. "Demons are expected to disobey rules, after all. You'd have better luck teaching a class of Prinnies to be punctual."

"While I'm glad they're being exemplary demons by skipping class, how in Hades am I supposed to teach without any students?"

"Maybe this is a sign, my lord. A demon like yourself shouldn't have to deal with teaching a bunch of inconsiderate brats who don't even want to learn." 'Besides, Lord Valvatorez is destined for greater things…just as soon as he regains his former power.'

The vampire slammed his fist down on the desk. "Negative, Fenrich! Such behavior means all the more that the children of the netherworld need a teacher who's actually willing to go through the effort of disciplining them and molding them into atrocious, malevolent demons who deserve to be proud of themselves! Otherwise, they're going to grow up into wimps whose idea of evil acts are mere misdemeanors like…switching labels or…not washing their hands! Being unhygienic isn't even remotelyevil! It's just disgusting." With a fire in his eyes, he suddenly sat up, his cape almost knocking his chair over in the process of billowing out like a pair of wings as he bellowed, "I refuse to allow my students' development to be stunted by their own laziness! We'll hunt 'em down andlight a fire under 'em that'll have them eager to learn and work hard!"

Fenrich looked impressed with Valvatorez's dedication to teaching the youth of the netherworld, but he still had to resist the urge to sigh as he bowed and said, "As you wish. All is for my lord."

Just then, Rutile entered the room, still dragging along Emizel and Zeroken. Valvatorez and Fenrich stared as she made the boys sit behind a desk and promptly sat between them. "Good morning, Mr. Valvatorez," she greeted their teacher politely while her classmates grumbled to themselves.

"Ah, good morning. I'm glad to see that some children are serious about their education! I was worried that I'd have to go looking for my class," the vampire said with a pleased look on his face. "Anyway, because I was a bit too eager to begin teaching you all this morning, I overlooked the important duty of performing the roll call…meaning I don't know any of your names. So, if you would, please identify yourselves."

"My name is Rutile," Rutile introduced herself politely. "I came from the human world and am still getting used to life in the netherworld, so…please bear with me."

"Zeroken…" Zeroken spoke his name with a sigh of resignation.

Emizel huffed before saying, "I am Sir Death Emizel, the son of Death King Hugo!" In response to that bit of boasting, Zeroken rolled his eyes and made a gagging sound.

Valvatorez blinked. "Did you say Death King Hugo? Death King Hugo is your father?"

The blonde boy smirked. "That's right. I bet that terrifies a pathetic excuse of a vampire like you!"

Fenrich gave him a murderous glare as killing intent rolled off of him in waves, terrifying not only Emizel, but also Rutile and Zeroken. In fact, all three students bunched together for protection like a gang of tiny orcs. "What did you say, you brat?!" The teacher's aide growled, causing the students to sweat.

Valvatorez wasn't as offended by Emizel's comment as his aide, however. Rather, he was surprised and stared at the boy in shock. "Hugo has a son now?! Hades, has it been that long since I last saw him?" He held a hand to his chin and bowed his head in thought. "When we last met, we battled for eight days straight before he suddenly called it off on account of it being the day of the Red Moon. Ah, good times…"

"Eight days straight?!" All three students cried out in surprise.

"You actually survived a battle with Father...? And for eight days…?" Emizel spoke in wide-eyed disbelief, his lips parted in awe.

"Yes, and he most assuredly would've won if Hugo hadn't run off like a coward," Fenrich said with a smirk.

"Now, Fenrich, I'm not so proud that I wouldn't admit that we were pretty even back in those days," said Valvatorez.

"W-wow…! Maybe this guy really is the Tyrant Valvatorez!" Zeroken exclaimed.

The blonde boy slammed his hand down on the counter. "No way! He's lying! I refuse to believe a guy like this is the Tyrant Valvatorez, or that he fought my father to a standstill!"

Rutile looked confused. "Why is he even called a tyrant, anyway? He doesn't look so bad..."

Their vampire teacher frowned and wagged a finger at his puny class. "No, no. I'm not a tyrant. I'm your teacher. And today, I'll be teaching you how to make delicious sardine tacos!" And with the power of food, the topic switched from "tyrant" to "tacos".

"Ooh, tacos! Even if they've got fish in 'em, tacos are always tasty!" said Zeroken.

"I've never actually had a taco before…but I've always wanted to try one," Rutile admitted, looking excited.

Emizel, still upset by Valvatorez's revelation, frowned. "I'm pretty sure sardines don't belong in a taco."

"Nonsense!" Valvatorez exclaimed as his cape was blown dramatically behind him by some inexistent wind. "Sardines can go with everything! You just need to open your minds and hearts to the possibilities of the glorious sardine!"

"Why the heck do we have to open our hearts?! And to sardines, of all things?!"

X-X-X

Minutes later, the teacher and his students were wearing aprons and at work preparing their respective tacos. While the students had to work on their own, following the instructions on the whiteboard along with the occasional input from Mr. Valvatorez, the teacher was constantly being assisted by his aide against his will.

"Fenrich, there's no need to help me," Valvatorez said with a frown as Fenrich sprinkled sauce boiling in the pan with various containers of seasoning.

"It's my pleasure to help you, Lord Valvatorez," the silver-haired demon said as he continued seasoning.

"Fenrich. The students won't want to rely on the knowledge and ability of a teacher who has his vassal do everything for him. As a proud and noble demon, I refuse to be considered incapable of even the most minor of tasks—even when it's something like cooking!"

Fenrich sighed and stopped seasoning. "Of course, my lord. I have no wish to tarnish your pride. I've helped as much as I ought to anyway."

Valvatorez nodded and began basting the sardines in his pan with the sauce he made. Then he quickly placed the basted sardines into his tacos and began putting on the finishing touches. "And voila!" He exclaimed as he held up one of his completed tacos. "Your sardine taco should look just like this."

Zeroken held up his plate of tacos proudly. "I put peppers in mine!"

Rutile looked apologetic before bowing her head. "I'm sorry, but…I didn't put tomatoes in mine. Is that okay?"

Emizel stared at the tacos on his plate warily. "I still think this is going to taste awful…"

"Well, there's only one way to find out: I shall eat your tacos! My palate will determine your grade," Valvatorez explained.

"What?! So you're gonna fail us based on your biased tastes?!" The blonde boy exclaimed. 'Granted, that's what Ms. Gorgon did, too, so I expect it…'

"Never!" The teacher exclaimed as his cape billowed out behind him. "As both your teacher and as an honorable demon, I won't show bias in regards to your grades!" He then approached Emizel, picked up a taco from his plate, and took a few bites. He chewed with his eyes closed, only opening them after he swallowed. "C."

"A C?!" Emizel exclaimed. "I followed the instructions to the letter!"

"Your sardines and taco shell are both burnt, and the sauce you used was over seasoned. It's edible, but nothing to write home about, so it deserves a middling grade." Ignoring the lukewarm glare that Emizel was giving him, Valvatorez moved on to Zeroken. He took a single bite out of one of his tacos and suddenly flinched. "Guh!"

"My lord?!" Fenrich gasped.

"I'm fine! I'm…fine," the vampire rasped before he stood upright, swallowed, and cleared his throat. "D."

"D?!" Zeroken exclaimed in shock. "W-why a D?! It's edible!"

"Too much peppers!" Valvatorez exclaimed. "Peppers are all well and good, but if you use too much, their spiciness will overcome the taste of the rest of the meal. You can't taste any of the other ingredients—including the sardine! And it's supposed to be the star of the dish!"

The white-haired boy snorted. "No offense, teach, but your constitution obviously isn't built to endure the taste of spicy food! I'll show you!" He picked up one of his tacos and held it out to Emizel. "Emizel, take a bite."

The blonde boy began to glare daggers at him. "Why me?! It's your taco, so you prove it's not too spicy!"

"Fine…" He turned to Rutile. "Rutile, take a bite."

"Zeroken!" Valvatorez bellowed. "If you wish to prove me wrong, you must do so with your own mouth! Now, eat it!"

Zeroken flinched. 'Damn it! I've been called out by Tyrant Valvatorez! My pride as a man is on the line now…!' He stared at the taco he was holding, lip quivering and sweat forming on his brow. He then opened his mouth wide and quickly shoved the entire taco into his mouth, eating it all in a flash. A second later, he threw his head back and breathed out a large stream of fire as he screamed, "HOT! HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT, HOOOOOOOOOOT!" When he was done screaming, he fell over backwards, off of his seat, and landed on the floor with smoke rising up from his mouth.

"Oh, no! Zeroken!" Rutile cried out and began to kneel on the floor alongside of him, trying to stir him back to consciousness.

Emizel snorted and began to smirk. "I guess his constitution wasn't built to endure spicy food…!"

"See? It'd only be a taco worth a passing grade to something immune to heat or dead taste buds," their vampire teacher said as he moved on to Rutile's plate. He picked up one of her tacos and took a bite out of it. "…A-minus."

"A-minus?!" Emizel snapped. Zeroken probably said the same thing, but all he could do was writhe on the ground.

"What did I do wrong?" Rutile asked, poking her head up from behind the counter.

"Too much salt. It's bad for you. You should always remember to cook healthy foods and nothing that should affect your health in a poor manner. That includes adding too much of a particular seasoning. Excellent work otherwise."

"Too much salt…" The cat-eared girl repeated as she nodded.

"Too much salt?" The blonde boy snorted. "We're demons! The amount of salt we eat isn't important!"

"Emizel, don't tell me you're one of those kids who think getting cavities and clogged arteries are examples of how 'cool' you are. Tsk-tsk. How sad…" Valvatorez said, clicking his tongue in disappointment.

"Of course not! I meant we're too durable to be— Oh, never mind. Arguing with a dope like you is pointless…" And with that, Emizel slumped forward and let his face hit the counter, as if he couldn't stand the sight of his teacher anymore.

Said teacher nodded and smiled. "Exactly! Arguing with me is pointless unless you have something to prove me wrong," he said, completely ignoring the fact that he'd been insulted.

Then, as if he couldn't stand losing an argument to his selectively ignorant teacher, Emizel raised his head and pointed an accusing finger at the vampire. "Oh, whatever! I doubt your tacos came out any better than ours anyway!"

"Oho! We shall see about that! Everyone is free to have one of my tacos!" Valvatorez exclaimed, gesturing towards the plate on his counter at the front of the desk.

Zeroken sprang back onto his feet and poked his head up from behind the counter along with Rutile. "Really?!" He exclaimed. "Alright, free food!"

Fenrich's eyes briefly reflected concern before he became calm once more and stepped in front of the plate. "Lord Valvatorez, if I may interject, wouldn't you prefer to save what you made for lunch?"

"Now, Fenrich, it's important for the children to see what a perfect taco tastes like," his lord began as he walked around the werewolf and picked up the plate, "so that they know how they must improve. Besides, I packed my own lunch." Valvatorez then approached the students and handed each of them one taco. "Now, prepare to have your taste buds delighted!"

"Thank you, Mr. Valvatorez," Rutile said with a bow of her head.

"Yeah, thanks, teach!" Zeroken said with a smile.

Emizel stared down at the taco with his mouth puckered up. 'I don't care how good they're made. I hate fish!' While the blonde boy continued to have a staredown with the sardine in his taco, his classmates picked up their own tacos and opened their mouths wide to eat them…only to suddenly stop. He noticed them out of the corner of his eye and faced them. "What's the matter? Having second thoughts?"

Zeroken sniffed the taco. "Something smells fishy about this taco…"

The blonde demon rolled his eyes and said, "Because it has a fish in it, dummy."

"I mean 'weird' fishy! It smells weird…and familiar…"

"Mine smells weird, too…" Rutile said after she took a few sniffs of her own taco. "It smells like…blood?"

Emizel blinked in surprise and began to smirk. "Aha! Mr. 'sardines are power' uses blood as a secret ingredient! I knew he was lying!"

Valvatorez's mouth became a thin line before he turned on his heel to look at Fenrich. "Fenrich. Did you add human blood to my tacos?"

His manservant didn't look the least bit ashamed as he folded his arms behind his back and said, "Just a few drops, my lord."

The vampire placed a hand on his hip as he bowed his head to sigh. "I praise your craftiness, but I loathe how you've intervened in my lesson!" He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Now my dear sardine tacos are ruined…!"

"Shouldn't you be more concerned that he tried to feed you blood against your wishes?" Emizel asked, feeling mentally drained by this point. Seconds afterward, the bell rang. Emizel was the very first to leave the room, practically running without bothering to say goodbye to the others.

Zeroken took a bite out of the taco and began to smile. "Hey, this is pretty good! Not sure whether or not the blood makes it better, though…"

"You can have mine, then," Rutile said, holding out her taco to her classmate. "I'm not a big fan of blood in my food, and I brought lunch from home anyway."

The silver-haired demon's eyes lit up as he took it from her. "Sweet! Thanks!" was the last thing he said before walking out of the classroom, stuffing his face all the while.

Rutile looked at Valvatorez and bowed her head politely. "Have a nice lunch, Mr. Valvatorez," she said before leaving as well.

The vampire sighed once again as his servant approached his side. "I should have given them some homework… Well, I'll just give them twice as much homework tomorrow to make up for it. Come, Fenrich. Let's head to the teacher's lounge to eat lunch."

"Wait, Lord Val," Fenrich began as Valvatorez took a step towards the door. "Why not have lunch in the classroom? You don't deserve to rub elbows with those other lowly teachers."

"They're my coworkers, Fenrich. If I don't spend time amongst them, how can we bond and unite as educators of the demon lords of the future?"

"But they're alsodemons, my lord. And they say that those who can't do teach. Think of how desperate they would be to prove their might by slaying the feared Tyrant Valvatorez, and how easy it would be for them to attack you in a small, cramped room."

Valvatorez shrugged nonchalantly and casually replied, "Well, if that happens, I'll just beat them up, and establish a bond with them through heated battle," as if it were nothing before he began walking again.

"To expect to forge relationships through wanton violence…as expected of my lord," Fenrich said to himself before following behind the vampire.

X-X-X

Much, much later, Rutile sat on the bleacher of the school's gymnasium, right between Zeroken and Emizel. It was time for physical education, their last class of the day. And, it once being one of the classes that Ms. Gorgon taught, would in turn be the last time the children would have to see Valvatorez for the day. However, the vampire teacher and his surly aide were late. One of the puny class, however, didn't mind.

"Maybe if we're lucky, he choked on a sardine bone and died," Emizel suddenly spoke after he'd spent minutes staring out into space.

Rutile gasped, "W-what?! Emizel, you shouldn't say things like that!"

"Yeah, this is a class I actually want him to come for! Don't jinx it!" Zeroken chimed in.

The blonde boy looked at his male classmate like he was crazy. "You want him to come for this class?"

"All Ms. Gorgon ever made us do for this class was run laps. But a guy like Mr. Valvatorez'll probably shake it up in a good way!" The silver-haired boy began to look smile broadly. "Maybe we'll even get to practice combat! Just thinking about it gets me excited!"

"You sure about that, considering who's here?" Emizel asked.

Zeroken snorted and gave the other boy a lukewarm glare. "Like I'm scared of you, Mr. 'Death King Hugo's One and Only Son'! I've gotten into more fights this year than you have your entire life!"

"First, I highly doubt that. Secondly, even in the unlikely event that it were true, you probably just picked fights with weaklings or Prinnies. And third, I was talking about Rutile."

Zeroken suddenly paled at the mention of the girl sitting between them. Rutile looked at him innocently and put her hands together in a pleading manner. "I'd never seriously hurt either of you! Honest! I've gotten very good at controlling my strength!" She said frantically.

"Yeah, we could tell by how you dragged us here without breaking our bones or pulling our arms out of their sockets," Emizel spoke flatly.

"See?" Rutile said with a smile, completely missing the point of her classmate's statement.

"…I hope he doesn't come to class," Zeroken changed his tune as he began to look away from his classmates. "For the sake of my medical bills, I hope he doesn't come…"

But Zeroken's hopes were dashed as Mr. Valvatorez entered the gym and approached the trio, his aide oddly absent. "I apologize for being late, children. There was a minor altercation at lunchtime that took a while to resolve."

Emizel looked shocked. "Minor altercation?! Everyone says you started a bloodbath in the teacher's lounge! Several of the teachers for the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes are either in the nurse's office or at the hospital!"

"The ones who started it were those teachers, and judging from how weak they were, I'm sure those 'in the hospital' are really slacking off on the job somewhere. Teachers like that are why the education system is a complete wreck." The vampire clapped his hands together. "Anyway, let's get started on your training, shall we?" Zeroken gave a gasp of delight at those words. "Follow me, class! To the field!"

X-X-X

The children followed Valvatorez out to the area of the school meant to hold outdoor sports in. Fenrich was standing next to a large cage filled with some young-looking demons. Zeroken was the first to point them out, exclaiming, "Hey, our classmates! Well, some of 'em…"

"Are those the only students you could find, Fenrich?" Valvatorez asked his servant.

Fenrich, who had been glaring at the students in the cage with enough intensity to make them sweat enough bullets to supply an army, quickly turned on his heel to face his lord. "Unfortunately, my lord, it seems that the rest left school grounds. I wasn't able to travel far enough to drag them all back here in the time I was given. Please accept my humblest apologies."

The vampire observed the students in the cage, ignoring the way that they were all glaring at him. "No need for apologies. We'll hunt down the rest of them once the school day is done, then we'll force them all to spend the entire night in detention."

"But students aren't allowed to remain afterschool for detention—especially not for the entire night!" Emizel pointed out.

Valvatorez smirked as he leaned forward slightly to observe the students. "Who says they're staying at the school? For the entire month, they'll be staying in that cage, only being let out to go to class. And when they're not expected to be at school, they will be staying at my residence, being strictly disciplined by me and Mr. Fenrich so that they may be molded into ideal students."

"I've already taken the liberty of placing tracking devices into them, in the highly unlikely chance that they escape and go into hiding," the manservant said with an evil glint in his eye. "Also, I took the liberty of calling their parents and telling them of the situation. To paraphrase what they all said, they think any child who skips class and is pathetic enough to get caught deserves severe punishment."

"Staying several steps ahead, as usual. I don't know what I would do without your preparedness, Fenrich."

Fenrich began to smile and bowed. "While I may not often be allowed to aide you in your classes, I will happily throw myself into helping you discipline any who attempt to resist you, no matter what their age. All is for my lord, after all."

Emizel and Zeroken gulped and observed their captured classmates with looks of dread. Who knew what awful fate was awaiting them afterschool, considering who the jailors were. If not for Rutile and her concern/meddling, there was a chance that they'd have been subjected to the same punishment. Speaking of Rutile, the half-nekomata couldn't help looking sorry for her classmates—even if they sort of deserved it for skipping class.

"Anyway, let us begin with your combat training," Valvatorez said, turning on his heel to face his "good" students. "Let's split into teams of two. Zeroken and Emizel can be on one team. Rutile and I shall be on the other."

The boys flinched in surprise. "What?! That's not fair!" They both shouted at their teacher shortly afterwards.

"You're Tyrant Valvatorez! We can't beat someone like you!" Zeroken exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's an easy A for Rutile if you're her partner!" Emizel snapped.

Rutile began to look worried. "Um, Mr. Valvatorez, I don't mind being switched for someone else."

The silver-haired boy immediately raised his hand in the air. "Ooh, ooh! Pick me, pick me!"

"Then it's an easy A for you!" Emizel growled.

"Well, you definitely won't wanna team up with him, and demons should always look for shortcuts in life," said Zeroken as he continued to wave his arm enthusiastically.

The vampire narrowed his eyes. "Oh, come on! I'm not that strong! I'll have you know I'm not as strong as I used to be in my tyrant days."

Fenrich looked a little flustered by what he said. "Lord Valvatorez, perhaps you shouldn't say such things so easily…"

Valvatorez ignored his servant's suggestion and continued, "Besides, I'd be willing to hold back my power for the sake of training." He then began to look thoughtful. "Though perhaps you're right about it favoring Rutile... Let's make this a one-on-one battle instead. Each of you will get a chance to attack me for a certain period of time." The children continued to look unconvinced. "I'll go easy on you. I won't even try to kill you or horribly disfigure you."

"Not trying doesn't mean you won't do either by accident!" Both boys snapped while Rutile continued to look worried about what would happen.

X-X-X

Minutes later, Valvatorez stood in the middle of the field with a stopwatch in his hand while the kids stood on the sidelines, waiting for instructions, while in the background, Fenrich could be seen poking the detention students with a cattle prod, drawing cries from the lot of them. "So, who would like to go first? Or will I have to choose?" The teacher asked over the screams of his punished students.

Both Rutile and Zeroken looked as if they lacked the confidence to fight their teacher, but luckily for them, Emizel spoke up, "I'll fight you."

Valvatorez smiled. "Excellent! I'm eager to see what you're made of," he said as the blonde boy approached him.

Emizel didn't mirror his expression, his face remaining neutral. 'Oh, you'll see what I'm made of, you lousy, no-good vampire!' He held out his hand and a large scythe appeared in his grasp. 'Better hope I try not to kill you!' With a cry, he raised the scythe in the air, and that caused flames to suddenly burst to life beneath Valvatorez's feet, consuming him in flames. 'Vampires are weak to sunlight, so it stands to reason that they'd be weak against fire as well!' Emizel thought with a smirk, feeling confident in his success.

However, as the flames faded away, Valvatorez was shown to not only still be standing and conscious, but also barely scorched. He didn't look like a man who'd been on fire, but someone whose clothes had gotten scuffed. "Oh, taking advantage of my species' natural weakness to heat, hm? That's quite smart."

The blonde boy's jaw dropped. "The hell?! You're supposed to be burnt to a crisp!"

"With a piddling spell like that? Unlikely. "Compared to most of my kin, I'm more resilient against the typical weaknesses. Fire doesn't hurt me as much, the sunlight only annoys, holy objects simply make me itch, and the scent of garlic doesn't affect me in the slightest. I can't even be killed by a stake to the heart!" As if to emphasize it, he thumped his fist against the giant screw in his chest.

"I am…!" Zeroken said as he began to sweat and shake. "Vampires are already pretty tough demons, but he's even tougher than the typical one!"

"Mr. Valvatorez is amazing!" Rutile said in awe.

Emizel seemed shaken and stared at the vampire in surprise until he spoke, "Well? Don't tell me that's got you scared of me. Come on! Show me what you're made of, Emizel!" Valvatorez shouted.

Emizel snapped out of his trance and began to glare at his teacher. "Ugh! You're gonna be sorry!" 'I'll use my strongest fire spell this time!' However, as he raised his staff and made to perform another spell, Valvatorez quickly closed the distance between them and slugged him in the face. Emizel cried out in pain and stumbled back, holding his bruised cheek. "You…you hit me!"

"Of course I hit you! This is combat training! The point is to take turns hitting each other!"

"Take…turns?" Rutile and Zeroken repeated as they arched their eyebrows.

"This isn't an RPG, you loony!" Emizel shouted, raising his scythe high up into the air to attack. "I'll make you regret that politeness by reaping your immortal soul and sealing it in a chew toy!" He held that positon for several seconds while Valvatorez stared at him expectantly. "…Well?! Aren't you gonna plead for your life and beg for mercy!"

"I don't plead, and nor do I beg. I'm simply waiting for you to make your move."

"Y-you think I'm bluffing?! I'll kill you, y'know!" The blonde boy shouted, his voice reaching a high-pitched tone. Then, with a shrill cry, the blonde demon swung his scythe downward…and missed by a foot.

"…Well, that was anticlimactic," said Valvatorez. "Now, it is my turn." He pulled back his fist and slugged Emizel once more, the power behind this punch being strong enough to send the student flying back a few feet. He'd been knocked out before he even hit the ground. "Oops! Those critical hits really do matter," the vampire said as he stared at Emizel's unconscious form.

"KO'd by a critical hit. That's gotta sting…" Zeroken said as Rutile ran up to their conked out classmate.

"Don't worry, Emizel. I'll patch you up," the cat-eared girl said. She kneeled down next to him and began to glow with a white aura that eventually enveloped Emizel as well. After a few seconds, he sat upright, looking woozy. "Are you alright, Emizel?"

"I've severely injured…my pride…!" He answered as he pulled down his hood to hide his face. His female classmate tried to comfort him by rubbing his back.

Valvatorez cleared his throat to bring attention back on him. "Alright! Who's next?" Neither Rutile nor Zeroken spoke up. "Fine. Zeroken, you're up next."

The white-haired boy flinched and held back the urge to shout in terror. 'Well… Maybe I'll actually be strong enough to make 'em cry!' He told himself as he approached his teacher. "Alright, teach! Prepare to be dazzled!" He proclaimed, mostly doing it to boost his confidence rather than intimidate the former tyrant in front of him. He took up a fighting stance. "Taaaake this! Triple Strike!" He quickly punched at Valvatorez three times, his combo ending in an uppercut. However, the vampire dodged his punches each time, and retaliated with a simple punch that his student ducked to avoid. "Exploding Tiger!" Zeroken shouted as he spun on one foot to deliver a roundhouse kick. Even as Valvatorez blocked by raising his arm, the impact of the attack caused a small explosion of cutting winds, but that didn't seem to affect him and he retaliated with a simple punch to the boy's gut that obviously knocked the wind out of him. Zeroken decided to jump away from him to get out of his attacking range, then he jumped up into the air, high over the field. 'This oughta impress 'em!' One of his legs caught on fire before he shouted out, "Hellfire Shot!" and began to kick at a blinding speed, sending a barrage of fireballs down at his teacher with each move he made. Needless to say, Valvatorez ended up being consumed in flames once again. Still in midair, Zeroken began to smirk…until a swarm of bats came flying out of the flames and took on the form of a fanged mouth attached to a black mass. Then he began to scream bloody murder before he started to fall towards the mouth. Utter fear made him unable to think about defending himself, so he ended up falling into the black mass's mouth, where he was chewed before being spat down on the ground, creating a small crater next to Rutile and Emizel in the process.

"I expected nothing less from that moron," Emizel commented as Rutile moved to heal him.

"Are you alright, Zeroken?" Rutile asked as she pulled her classmate out of the hole he'd made.

The white-haired boy seemed to be in a daze from the way he swayed back and forth. "I now know…what it feels like…to be a piece of gum," he swooned before falling over, still conscious but too beaten up to move.

At that point, the mouth became a mass of bats once again, and in turn the bats came together to form Valvatorez once more. The vampire landed on his feet and in front of his students, looking pleased. "Excellent, Zeroken! It seems you're quite skilled. You're much stronger than you actually look!"

"Thanks," came the curt reply, Zeroken too exhausted to get upset with the unsubtle insult.

Valvatorez pointed down at Rutile. "It's your turn, Rutile. Show me what you're made of!"

Rutile began to twiddle her fingers nervously. "Um, can I…not?"

"No, you may not. Now, stand up and fight."

"But…I might hurt you…!"

"Nonsense!" Valvatorez exclaimed, his cape blowing behind him dramatically on yet another unseen wind. "I may not be as strong as I once was, but I'm still a more powerful experienced demon than you! I've been shot, stabbed, slashed, poisoned, and far worse at the hands of high-ranking demons and would be human heroes! Whatever you throw at me, Rutile, I assure you that it won't deal much damage! So, get up and fight! Or else I'm failing you."

The cat-eared girl sighed and bowed her head. "Yes, sir…" She got on her feet and approached her teacher. Rutile took up a fighting stance, and in seconds, her look of worry was replaced with one of determination. "MEOOOOOW!" With a shout, she delivered a simple punch that, despite her teacher holding an arm out of in front of him to block the attack, sent him flying back. He didn't stop until he hit the detention cage, frightening the students inside. Then he slid down to the ground, not even twitching. Rutile stood there in stunned silence, her arm still outstretched from her punch. After a few seconds, she began to scream overdramatically, "NOOOOOO! MR. VALVATOREEEEEEZ!"

"She punched out Tyrant Valvatorez!" Zeroken gasped as their female classmate ran over to their teacher. "That girl's a monster!"

Emizel snorted. "Well, it's not like he's a tyrant anymore, but still… She's a savage!"

Rutile bowed apologetically to her unconscious teacher. "Please forgive me! I don't know my own strength!" She then felt a powerful killing intent and slowly turned around to see Fenrich towering over her. "I-I'm really sorry…!" The cat-eared girl cried, on the brink of tears.

"I'd never forgive someone who tried to kill Lord Valvatorez…!" The teacher's aide growled, his eyes seemingly glowing.

"I really didn't m-mean to! I…I…!" Rutile eventually trailed off and began to cry loudly.

Just then, Valvatorez began to stir. He got on his feet and shook his head. "What a punch! It's been a while since someone managed to knock the wind out of me!" He proclaimed before looking at Rutile. "Hm? Fenrich, did you make the lass cry?"

"I'm really, really sorry!" Rutile cried, bowing forward and shaking. "If you want to punish me for it, I'll understand! I deserve it!"

The vampire arched an eyebrow. "Huh? Why would I punish you? It's my own fault for not realizing that not healing between fights may cause me some trouble. Obviously I shouldn't underestimate my students' power."

"You're…not mad?"

"I'm impressed! With how you've been acting this entire school day, I assumed you were one of those 'healer' types, but you've got quite a bit of strength for a child from the human world! You obviously do a lot more training than Emizel and Zeroken."

Rutile stood upright and began to look embarrassed. "N-no, I don't! It's just because I'm half-nekomata, and because I remember to practice the techniques that my mother showed me! I'm not so great at all! I don't even really like to fight, so I don't train often!"

The vampire frowned. "I see… In that case, I'll see to it that you get all the training you deserve!" Ignoring the sound of confusion the half-demon in front of him made, he continued, "And the same goes for you two, Zeroken and Emizel! You've shown me your potential, so now I'll give you such arduous training that before you graduate, you will be confused for full-fledged Demon Lords! Or Overlords! Or dare I say tyrants?!"

Rutile began to look worried again, completely the opposite of her pumped up teacher. "But I don't want to be a—" But before she could complete her complaint, the bell rang.

"Ah, what a shame. The school day is over, just when things were getting good in this particular class! I'll see you kids tomorrow, then. For now, I must hunt down the rest of your foolish classmates and mete out punishment. Come, Fenrich!" And with that, their teacher walked off of the field, followed by his servant, who pulled along the cage with their troublesome classmates.

"And there he goes…" Zeroken said with a frown as he finally found it in him to stand on his feet. "Overlord, huh…? Maybe it's worth it to come to class for more reasons than avoiding whatever fresh hell those two have in mind." Having said that, he left the field as well.

Emizel stood up as well and began to look thoughtful. "I really don't wanna have to deal with his weirdness anymore, and I doubt that my father would let him get away with shoving me in a cage for skipping class, but if I can somehow get stronger by being taught by that guy…" 'I'll be able to make him eat his words and become a demon worthy of Father's respect!' With that thought in mind, he began to smirk and left the field, too.

Rutile, all alone, gave a pitiful meow. "I don't want to be a tyrant…!" She mumbled to herself as she slunk off of the field.

X-X-X

The following day, Rutile, Zeroken and Emizel sat in their homeroom class and watched as Mr. Valvatorez entered the room, followed by the same detention cage from yesterday that was being pushed in by Fenrich. True to his word, the teacher and his aide seemed to have captured every other student for his class and crammed them into the cage, making it look far more uncomfortable than it did yesterday. They would've kept their eyes on their miserable classmates, were it not for their teacher clearing his throat to get their attention.

"Good morning, children! Today, we shall actually do some math. But for the homeroom period, I will continue my lecture on sardines. And to make sure I don't go into our math class period, Mr. Fenrich will be keeping time," Valvatorez said from behind the podium, gesturing over to Fenrich, who was holding a stopwatch in his hand. "Also, don't be afraid to take notes. This will be on a test in the future."

Emizel flinched. "Not another lecture on sardines!"

Zeroken whined under his breath, "I'd give anything to stop this. I'd even do math!"

"I don't know what sardines have to do with math, but…" Rutile opened her notebook and took out a pen, ready to write down anything important.

But, just then, salvation came in the form of the door of the classroom being kicked down and a gang of demons marching in. "VALVATOREZ! We've come for your head, you bastard!" The demon at the head of the group, a slumber cat wearing a tiny tie instead of a bell, hissed while those behind him glared menacingly at the vampire teacher.

"Hey! It's Mr. Whiskers, the freshman English teacher!" Zeroken pointed out.

"And the Science teacher. And the History teacher. And the Alchemy teacher…" Rutile went on.

"There's even some teachers from the upper classes. These must be the guys Valvatorez beat up yesterday," Emizel surmised.

Valvatorez sighed and turned to face the mob of teachers. "You guys again? Look, I have a lecture to give, then I have to go over a math equation and give a worksheet for my students to do for the duration of the class period. Can't this wait until lunchtime, or even afterschool?"

"Hell no!" Mr. Whiskers yowled. "For what you did to us yesterday, we're gonna beat the stuffing out of you and run your bloody corpse up the flagpole! We won't show you any mercy this time!"

"Oh, so you were holding back? I was wondering why you guys were so weak despite being teachers." The vampire threw out his arms. "In that case, I'll eagerly look forward to challenging you at lunchtime and getting to know each other more. We can even have lunch together afterwards."

"We're not waiting until lunch time!" The English teacher snapped, pulling out an oversized piece of fish as the demons behind him whipped out all sorts of weapons.

"Uh… M-Mr. Valvatorez? They don't seem to be in the mood to leave peacefully...!" Rutile pointed out the obvious.

"Hmph! What petty demons with such easily wounded pride." Valvatorez began to point an accusing finger at the group. "Teachers like you are the reason why the children are the netherworld never amount to anything, because you waste time setting bad examples when you should be teaching!" From out of nowhere, a sword appeared in his hand. "Maybe I should put you in detention as well and teach you how to be proper educators!"

"You can't put teachers in detention!" Emizel couldn't help but cry out as he pointed at his vampire teacher.

"Oh, yeah? Just watch me!"

Zeroken stood up so fast that his chair fell over backwards. "I'll help you, teach! Besides, I've got a bone to pick with Mr. Whiskers over my book report last month!"

Rutile stood up as well. "I-I don't want to fight, but…I know it's the only way to resolve the problem at this point…" She said with a sigh.

"Well, Emizel? Would you prefer to stand out in the hall until this nonsense is dealt with, or will you fight alongside your classmates?" Valvatorez asked.

The blonde boy flinched. "Wh-why're you putting me on the spot, damn it?!" 'Besides, even if he beat them, they're still powerful demons! Mere students can't stand up to them!'

"Hee-hee! He won't fight! He's just a lil' bitch who can't even muster up to courage to kill something! Everyone knows that!" Mr. Whiskers said with a gleeful giggle.

"You gonna let that cat talk down on you like that?" Valvatorez asked.

After a few seconds, Emizel got on his feet and summoned his scythe into his hands. "I'm gonna make you eat those words, you mangy cat!" He shouted, and that seemed to be the cue for a noisy, bloody battle to begin right in the classroom.

"If you're going to do that, do it far away from me and my meal," the succubus said before she continued drinking her tea.

Usalia looked up from her curry to ask, "Why are you asking that, anyway, Red Magnus?"

"Remember when Zero first joined us and he told us he was a werewolf? I asked him to show his tail and he said he couldn't."

The young Overlord looked down in thought before a light appeared in her eyes. "Oh, yes! He said that he couldn't show it because a werewolf's tail is a major weak point, so he keeps it hidden in his clothes."

"Yeah, that's what he said!" Red Magnus exclaimed as he pointed at Usalia. "He even got super hostile when I tried to see it for myself!"

Seraphina glanced at the redheaded demon. "That's because you said you were more or less going to strip off his clothes to see it!"

"I would've seen it, too, if someone didn't stop me!" He shot back with a glare.

"I refuse to have a man strip or be stripped in front of me without my say-so!"

Usalia butted in to get the conversation back on track. "That was so long ago, plip. What's made you curious again?"

Once more, Red Magnus ignored Seraphina in favor of answering the younger demon, "That new guy! Y'know, the one that Killia brought back along with the vampire and the angel?"

"You mean Fenrich," said Seraphina.

"Yeah, him! He'sa werewolf, too, but he leaves histail out. And when I told 'em he was confident to walk around with it out, he called me an idiot and said that all werewolves do that! That makes Zero super suspicious…."

At that moment, Seraphina began to look interested. "That is suspicious, isn't it…? I mean, I only accepted what he said about being a werewolf because I'd never met one before, and they don't have any in my netherworld for me to compare him to."

Usalia began to pout. "But Zeroken wouldn't have any reason to lie to us about who he is."

"Usalia, do you not remember how many times he lied to us about who he was?"

"Yeah, even his title's changed a lot since we first met him!" Red Magnus pointed out, poking a hole in the fourth wall in the process.

The Overlord of Gorgeous folded her arms across her chest and began to frown. "I bet he lied about being a werewolf at the time because he wanted to seem like he fitted in around a bunch of actualOverlords. He's probably far too cowardly to admit his lie after everything that's happened. He may not even admit it when confronted about it, just like that guy." In his room in another part of the pocket netherworld, Christo sneezed so violently that his fake horns fell off.

"If only we could figure out a way to get Zeroken to show us that he's a werewolf," said Usalia.

Seraphina got a devilish expression on her face. "I have a way…"

~~~

"What do you mean you won't tell me?!" Seraphina snapped minutes later after she, Red Magnus and Usalia hunted down Fenrich, who was of course with Valvatorez disciplining her Prinnies. "I'm commanding you to tell me how to tell werewolves apart from other demons!"

"I don't take orders from succubi, even one that's an Overlord," the werewolf said while his lord was shouting orders at Prinnies through a megaphone in the background.

Seraphina continued to glare daggers at Fenrich before she suddenly threw her head back and started laughing. "Ohohohoho! We'll see about that!" Her eyes began to glow bright pink and hearts formed in her pupils. "True Brionac Gaze!" She proclaimed as hearts seemed to swarm around the manservant from Hades. When they faded away, Seraphina smirked. "Now, Fenrich, kneel before me and tell me all you know about werewolves."

Fenrich's expression darkened. "Drop dead, wench. Better yet, I'll kill you with my own two hands for trying to pull that stunt on me!" He growled.

The Gorgeous Overlord gasped overdramatically and took a step back out of shock. "You weren't affected by my Overload?! But how?!" 'Only Sir Killia's been able to…!'

"The only person allowed to command me is my lord. A stupid girl with her silly charms is no match for my dedication to him."

Usalia's eyes brightened and she threw her arms up in the air. "Wow! What a dedicated vassal!"

Red Magnus looked amused. "Haha! Looks like Sera's Overload doesn't have the punch it used to! Must be all that slacking off she does sippin' tea and eating cake!" He began to flex his muscles. "Step aside and lemme show you how it's done!" He walked past Seraphina, who was now glaring at the muscular demon with a look heated enough to light fires, and began to grin. "'Sup. Since we're all super close allies here in the Rebel Army, we can tell each other anything without worry. For example, Sera here has a crush on Killia, but he's already interested in this chick named Lieze!"

In an instant, Seraphina drew her handguns and shot enough bullets into Red Magnus to make him fall over. "That's a lie! All of that is a lie! I'm not interested in Sir Killia, and he's simply ensnared in that woman's clutches!"

The Scorching Flame Overlord got back on his feet, none the worse off for a guy who got shot. "Ugh…! So…now it's your turn to tell me something super personal about yourself! Your likes, your dreams, your weaknesses—" He was silenced from another shot by Seraphina and fell once more.

"That was your plan?!" The succubus snapped as she began kicking his body on the floor, making certain to prioritize the use of her heel.

Fenrich went from looking murderous to looking unamused. "How witless do you have to be to think that would make me tell you anything?" 'If these idiots are Overlords of the past, it's no wonder the universe becomes such a mess in our time.'

"What's going on over here?" The group—the ones who were conscious—looked to see Valvatorez approaching them, the megaphone still in his hand. "Is something the matter, Fenrich?"

"It's nothing, Lord Valvatorez. These idiots were simply trying to involve me in their nonsense," Fenrich promptly answered, hoping his lord wouldn't attempt to get involved with them.

Red Magnus sprang back onto his feet. "Hey, Val! Since you're his master, you must know a lot about werewolves! So tell us what you know about 'em!" He spoke brusquely.

The werewolf narrowed his eyes and gave the ogre a dark look. "Don't act so familiar with my lord!"

Valvatorez arched an eyebrow. "Is that what all the noise is about?"

"Yes, sir!" Usalia spoke up. "We really need to know about werewolves, and we thought Mr. Fenrich could help since he is one."

The vampire looked at his vassal. "Why not tell them, Fenrich?"

The werewolf began to pay attention to his lord and stood upright, looking a bit shocked. "But, my lord! That's important and personal information!"

"But they're our comrades, even if our alliance is only temporary. Comrades need to know everything about one another so that they may better help each other in the field of combat."

The Scorching Flame Overlord grinned and nodded. "That's exactly what I said!"

"If it's too personal of a matter for you to want to discuss, I will tell them all I know about werewolves from observing you," Valvatorez said.

"No!" Fenrich spoke up, looking sincerely worried. "I mean, it's best if an actual werewolf tells them about it, my lord." 'Especially since you have a habit of being too honest for your own good.' He gave the trio of Overlords a lukewarm glare. "So, what do you want to know?" He grumbled.

"We want to know how to distinguish a werewolf from other kinds of demons in the hopes of determining whether or not a werewolf is amongst our ranks," said Seraphina.

"I see. The most obvious way to tell a werewolf is by how they react to the sight of a full moon. Werewolves who don't yet have control of their power always transform at the sight of the full moon, and even those who have control of themselves become noticeably agitated when they lay eyes on it. Then there is the plant known as wolfsbane. When externally exposed to it, werewolves react in a manner similar to an allergic reaction. Stronger individuals, however, are only affected if it's ingested, making them sick. That's it."

"Fenrich, you forgot about silver," Valvatorez pointed out casually. Fenrich couldn't help but wince at how easily his lord remembered a werewolf's worst weakness.

"Silver?" Usalia asked.

"Werewolves can be severely weakened when they're harmed by silver. Humans and other kinds of werewolf hunters tend to use silver bullets."

Seraphina got a certain glint in her eye. "Silver bullets, huh? I'm starting to like the sound of that idea." She pointed up to the sky as she proclaimed, "Alright! Let's go begin Operation: Cry Wolf!" The succubus then walked away from the demons from Hades, followed by an eager-looking Red Magnus.

Usalia bowed to Valvatorez and Fenrich, saying, "Thank you for your help, plip!" before she ran after her comrades.

Fenrich sighed. "I can only imagine what sort of stupidity those three will get up to with that information…" 'Well, so long as it doesn't involve me, I don't care…'

~~~

Minutes later, Zeroken was strolling through the pocket netherworld, minding his own business when Red Magnus suddenly dropped into his field of view. Literally. He had dropped from the ceiling and landed right in front of him. "Yo, Zero!" Magnus exclaimed loudly.

"What the—? Red Magnus?! What were you doing up there?" Zeroken asked as he looked up, trying to figure out where the older demon came from.

"Just chilling out, counting ceiling tiles… Anyway, there's something I wanna ask you…"

"But there aren't any ceiling tiles. Or a ceiling…!" Zeroken clung to the oddness of his entrance.

Completely ignoring that bit of logic, Red Magnus continued, "Did you see that one TV show last night?"

The younger Overlord stopped looking at the "ceiling" and aimed his gaze at his ally. "Huh?" He arched an eyebrow. "What show?"

"Y'know! The show with the person…and the thing…about that issue…?"

"What?"

"That one show!"

As Red Magnus kept Zeroken distracted, Seraphina and Usalia stood several feet away. The Gorgeous Overlord was loading a sniping rifle with an amused smile on her face. "I've wanted to try sniping someone recently. I've heard it's quite a rush," she said before she finished.

Usalia looked understandably worried. "Um… Couldn't we have started with one of the safer options?"

"Well, if he isn't really a werewolf, you could consider getting shot his punishment for lying," Seraphina said with a smirk. "Besides, I won't kill him. I'm only going to shoot him twice: first with a regular bullet, and then a silver one. I'll even aim somewhere that's unlikely to kill him."

"But—!"

"Usalia, this is a lesson in life. Sometimes, you have to do tough things in order to get what you want," the pink-haired demon said with a nod. She then took a knee, looked through the scope, and focused on the back of Zeroken's head as he continued talking with Red Magnus. "That's it… Keep standing there gabbing away like an idiot, my little piggy…! Fufufu…!"

The rabbit-eared girl continued to look worried as she said, "It doesn't look very tough when you're enjoying it…"

"So in the show, who's on first," Red Magnus said as he continued talking to Zeroken, eyes occasionally darting back and forth between the kid in front of him and the would-be sniper in the distance.

"I keep telling you, I don't know who's on first!" Zeroken said as he shrugged.

"That's the joke!"

"Not knowing's the joke?"

"No! The joke's that Who's on first while He's on third!" The conversation was interrupted by Seraphina shooting at the back of Zeroken's leg. He naturally cried out in pain, but as Seraphina fired the second bullet, he fell over and out of her sight, causing it to hit Red Magnus instead. "OW! Sera, watch where you're shooting!" The Scorching Flame Overlord snapped, shaking a fist at the succubus.

Zeroken blinked at the mention of Seraphina. "Huh? Sis?" He got on his feet and looked behind him to see his female allies standing several feet away. "Wh-what did I do now?!"

Usalia attempted to speak up to defuse the situation. "Zeroken, it isn't what you think, plip!"

"Yes, I'm not trying to snipe you. I just need you to stand still for a second," Seraphina said with a coquettish smile that didn't go with the sniper rifle she was still aiming at the younger demon.

"Say what?! Seriously, what did I do?!" Zeroken whined. He nimbly jumped back onto his feet despite his injury and sped off.

"Ohohohoho! You can't run! I've got you in my sights!" Seraphina proclaimed before chasing after him.

"Wait, Zero! We gotta shoot you! We have to know the truth!" Red Magnus shouted as he ran after her.

Usalia was left standing there with a growing crowd of demons. "This won't end well…"

~~~

Meanwhile, Usalia happened to be wandering around the same area, also searching for Zeroken, but with less violent reasons in mind. "Mmm… I don't think there's any moon around the pocket netherworld, so maybe wolfsbane is the best option. All I would have to do is get Zeroken to smell it." She began to look thoughtful as she folded her arms across her chest and pouted. While she was pondering, Majorita appeared behind her. "But all I know about it is the name. I wish that I could find some wolfsbane."

"I keep telling you," Majorita began, causing the bunny-eared girl to whirl around and face her, "that if you want something, I'll get it for you."

At the sight of her nemesis/slave, Usalia began to frown. "Majorita. I've told you not to just walk up to me like that!" She snapped.

Ignoring the Overlord's disgust with her, the other girl continued, "If it'll make you happy, I can get some wolfsbane for you."

"Oh? Then get me some wolfsbane, immediately!"

"Yes, my lady." Majorita then disappeared.

Now alone, Usalia smiled and clapped her hands together. "Now I just have to figure out a way to get Zeroken to smell it…"

~~~

Minutes later found Seraphina and Red Magnus stalking around the pocket netherworld in search of Zeroken. Little did they know that their prey was hiding in the cafeteria amongst the plastic plants. "What the heck did I do that got Sis and Red Magnus of all people to team up? Nothing recent comes to mind…" The young Overlord's stomach began to growl, disrupting his thoughts. "On top of that, I'm hungry…!" Another growl from his stomach made him cringe. "Hey, be quiet, belly…! We can't eat when there's a chance I could get shot in the head!"

Usalia's head then poked into the fake foliage, close enough to stare Zeroken in the face. "Zeroken?"

"AHHH!"

"Don't be scared! I'm not here to hurt you, plip," the Toto Bunny Overlord said with a smile. "I made you some curry as an apology for Seraphina and Red Magnus's behavior."

"Curry? I am hungry...I was craving something different, but I could go for curry." His growling stomach spoke up once again to emphasize just how hungry he was. "But I can't go out there with those two hunting me!"

"It's okay. I convinced them that you went to hide out in the Item World. We've got lots of time before they come back."

Zeroken began to grin. "Really?" He jumped out of the plants and pumped a fist in the air. "Alright! Lemme at the curry!"

Usalia led the silver-haired boy over to a table with a single chair and a plate that contained innocent-looking curry with a side of rice. "Here you go: one super special curry plate made just for you!" 'Majorita actually did a good job this time. The curry looks edible, and with all of the spices, not even a werewolf could smell the wolfsbane in it.' She began to pout as she wrung her hands behind her back. 'I just hope it won't make him too sick. I'd hate myself if I did something to seriously harm him...'

Zeroken took a seat and stared at the curry like he was trying to figure out what it was made of with his eyes alone. "What makes it super special? It just seems like plain ol' curry to me."

"I-it was made with love! That's what makes it super special, plip!" The bunny-eared girl blurted out, hoping that would convince him.

The adorable sentiment was enough to make Zeroken blush. "Aw, why'd you have to go and say that? Now I've got no choice but to eat it all!"

Again, Usalia's eyes widened as she began to panic inside. If Zeroken ate too much and was an actual werewolf, it could have a poor effect on him. "You don't have to eat everything... Even taking a single bite of curry would make me happy, plip..."

"Nope. I gotta eat everything. Besides, I'm so hungry that I wouldn't be able to stop myself from cleaning my plate." Zeroken scooped up some curry with his spoon and raised it to his lips. He blew on the curry and was going to put it in his mouth, but the sound of someone retching loudly nearby disrupted the Nether Heart Overlord. At a nearby table, a zombie who had been eating curry as well was puking his guts out, literally. Soon after, a Slumber Cat and a Nekomata did the same. Then a table of maids on break. Soon, half of the people in the food court were throwing up. "What the hell is going on?!" Zeroken screamed. "Everybody's sick!"

Majorita appeared behind Usalia and cleared her throat to get the blonde girl's attention. "We have a problem," she whispered into Usalia's ear. "Someone found the pot of wolfsbane curry I made and thought it was meant to be served as one of today's specials."

"WHAT?! But...but all of these people who are throwing up... Are they werewolves, too?!" Usalia gasped.

The purple-haired girl arched an eyebrow. "Huh? Are you being serious right now? Wolfsbane doesn't just weaken werewolves. Many of the plants of its species are highly poisonous to everyone. Even if you're not a werewolf, you'll get sick if you eat too much of it—especially in the large amount that I added to the curry."

"Just how much did you put in there?!"

"Well, in order to make something that could kill a werewolf, I had to put about half of the pot's worth of wolfsbane, which led to adding other things to make it look like plain curry. It's enough to make even demons sick." A warrior went running by, holding his mouth to find a better place to throw up, but he only made it as far as the food court shrubbery.

Zeroken's eyes grew wide and white as he started to sweat. "K-k-kill?!"

Usalia glared at Majorita before turning to Zeroken. "It's not what you think! I only wanted to make you sick and see if you got an allergic reaction!"

The Netherheart Overlord stood up abruptly, causing his chair to fall over backwards. "Make me sick?! With wolfsbane?!" He exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. For Usalia, it was hard to tell if his reaction was over nearly dying or almost being exposed as anything but a werewolf. She didn't have time to inquire because Zeroken immediately took off like he was running from a serial killer—which, from the looks of the puking and unconscious demons littering the food court seemed likely now.

"Majorita! This is all your fault!" Usalia snapped. She then ran off to find Zeroken and properly apologize.

The former Demon General frowned and sighed in aggravation as a mothman went flying by behind her, propelled backwards by its geyser of puke. "Is there no pleasing that girl? What else did she think I'd assume when she said she wanted to use a poisonous plant in food?"

~~~

Zeroken had finally stopped running to take a breather in front of the grand-looking fountain near the dimensional gate. Sweating bullets, he looked around for his comrades-turned-hunters, worried about what they were going to do next. 'Whatever the hell they're up to, they're resorting to anti-werewolf big guns! And if they hit me with anyone of them, I might...!' His thoughts trailed off as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye while glancing off to the side. Up on the awning of one of the Rosenqueen General store was none other than Seraphina, aiming to snipe him once again. He leaned over backwards in time to avoid getting hit in the chest, and awkwardly stumbled backwards to avoid getting shot again.

Seraphina whipped out a megaphone and laughed haughtily into it, "OHOHOHOHO! It's no use running! Give yourself up and I promise to shoot you somewhere that probably hurts the least!"

"Sis! Why are you guys doing this to me?!" Zeroken screamed.

"Zeroken!" The silver-haired boy gave a girlish shriek when he heard Usalia behind him. He whirled around to see the blonde girl approach him with a pout. "You have to understand: we're not trying to hurt you!" Zeroken picked up a nearby Prinny just in time to use it as a shield against another barrage of normal and silver bullets from Seraphina. The Overlord of Toto Bunny sweatdropped. "W-well...we're not trying to kill you. There's a good explanation for all of this!"

"What's a good explanation for any of this?!" He shrieked. Seraphina jumped off of the awning, and with a spectacular series of flips, managed to close the distance between herself and Zeroken. Before he could run away, she grabbed his head and forced him to look into her eyes as they began to glow bright pink. In seconds, he was too smitten with Seraphina to run away from her. "What can I do for you, oh beautiful Big Sis Seraphina?" He asked robotically.

The Gorgeous Overlord smirked as she pointed a gun at his chest. "You can stand still and let me shoot you." But before she could pull the trigger, a loud, rumbling sound interrupted. A shadow then overcast the entirety of the pocket netherworld, making everyone panic. Seraphina lowered her gun in shock and began looking around. "What?! What's going on?! Are we under attack?!"

Several people in the fountain area looked up and began gasping or screaming in surprise. Usalia looked up and expression mirrored that of the others. "Up there! It's...it's...!"

Seraphina and Zeroken looked up as well to see a giant Red Magnus floating the pocket netherworld, holding a moon in front of his chest. "Hey, guys! I went and found a moon to make Zeroken become a werewolf! It was super hard to bring it here because the people of the world I got it from got all bitchy for some reason," he called down to the specks that he recognized as Seraphina and Usalia.

Seraphina began to scream, "BECAUSE IT'S A MOON, YOU DOLT! NOT A BASKETBALL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT COULD DO TO THE ECOSYSTEM OF MY BEAUTIFUL POCKET NETHERWORLD?!"

"No need to thank me, Sera!"

"I'M FAR FROM THANKING YOU!"

Ignoring the enraged succubus, Red Magnus called out to Zeroken, "Hey, Zero! Check it out! It's the moooooon! Doesn't it make you feel all funny an' stuff?"

Upon setting eyes on the moon, Zeroken snapped out of the hypnotic effect of Seraphina's overload. "It's...the moon..." He spoke in a daze, almost seeming hypnotized by it. He began to tremble. "Ugh! N-no...! I...I don't want... AWOOOOOOOO!" With a magnificently blinding flash of light, followed by a comparatively disappointing puff of smoke, Zeroken transformed. Instead of a tall, frightening, snarling wolf-man, what the members of the rebel army got to see was...a silver-furred dog-boy, for lack of better terms. He was still wearing his usual clothing, but his hands and feet now resembled those of a canine. His face was reminiscent of a shiba inu breed of dog, with a fluffy, curled tail having ripped its way out of his jumpsuit. Zeroken looked at his cute, padded paws in shock before crying out, "NOOOOOO! I'm ruined!"

"Zero...ken?" Usalia asked.

Red Magnus transformed back into his normal size and fell back down to the pocket netherworld like a falling star—and hit the ground next to Zeroken just as hard. "Dang, Zero. You look...cute," he said with a frown, having expected a more ferocious transformation.

Seraphina's disappointment was similar to the Scorching Flame Overlord's. "This is what a transformed werewolf looks like? It's a bit disappointing," she said with a frown. A second later, a nearby gunner went through the same transformation, transforming into a terrier-like dog-man. A witch turned into a poodle dog-girl. A thief became a corgi. It was actually happening all over the pocket netherworld—dozens of demons who'd seen the moon were transforming into dog-people of some breed of another, snarling, whimpering, and howling at the moon. "What on earth is going on?!"

"That's what I would like to know." The four overlords turned to see Christo approaching them with an annoyed expression. "I can't even lie down for a short nap without something going on. What did you do?"

Seraphina frowned pointed at Red Magnus. "This pea-brained monkey brought a moon that's turning everyone into...dog people!"

Christo caught sight of Zeroken, who was looking quite depressed about the situation, and stared in curiosity. "Zeroken...? Is that you?" When all he got in response was a whimper, he looked at Red Magnus. "If the moon is the problem, then just get rid of it. Better yet, bring it back to wherever you got it from before some poor world gets destroyed."

Red Magnus pouted like a child who'd been put in timeout. "Awww! Can't we keep it?"

"No."

"Fine..."

~~~

Moments later, the moon had been removed from the pocket netherworld's orbit and something of a calm returned. Of course, the individuals who had been transformed would have to wait a long while to return to normal—including the morally deflated Zeroken. "This is what you get for lying to us. Pretending to be a werewolf when you're just a weredog," Seraphina said with a frown. Zeroken could only whimper in response, too embarrassed to speak.

"Actually, weredogs are a subspecies of werewolf," Christo explained. "They share some traits like being agitated by the moon and transforming in its presence, but differ in things like weaknesses. A weredog is about as affected as a typical demon by things like wolfsbane or silver bullets."

"So none of that stuff would've had an effect on Zeroken even if he'd gotten shot or eaten them?" Usalia asked.

"Not a fatal one, at least." Christo looked at the other transformed members of the Rebel Army who were having difficulty with their current forms. "It would seem that those who transformed were all from the same netherworld, where weredogs made up a large number of the population."

Red Magnus folded his arms across his chest and frowned. "So why'd you lie in the first place?"

Zeroken flinched. "I didn't like! I'm totally a werewolf! You heard Christo!" He yipped. When everyone gave him flat stares, he whimpered and his eyes became watery. "L-look, you don't know what it's like. Werewolves are naturally bigger, stronger and cooler-looking than weredogs. People look down on us all the time! That's why I prefer not to transform. Besides, I can't fight the way Master Goldion taught me to in this form." To demonstrate, he swung his paws in the air, attempting to pull off of a punch and failing.

"You're not weak, Zeroken. You're one of the strongest people I know, plip," Usalia said with a smile. "So cheer up!" She patted him on the back to make him feel better, but she suddenly gasped. "You...you're so soft and cuddly...! Like a teddy bear, plip!" She started petting him with both hands, looking blissful while the weredog looked uncomfortable.

Seraphina looked intrigued despite saying, "He can't be that soft." She approached Zeroken and began to pet one of his ears. Her cheeks promptly became tinged with red. "I have softer pillows made of the finest harpy down, but I will agree that touching you is quite addictive." And so, she continued.

Despite not looking like the sort who enjoyed touching fluffy things, Red Magnus stepped to Zeroken as well. "Hey! I wanna pet Zeroken, too!" He started to rub the top of his head, and almost instantly, he got an expression similar to the girls. "Oh, wow! You're super soft, Zero! I almost wanna skin you so I could wear your fur!"

"Don't be gross, you monkey! He's much better suited to being a pillow!"

"He'd make a wonderful plush toy, plip...!"

"H-hey, let go of me!" Zeroken whined, torn between feeling good and feeling like his personal space was being invaded. He gave Christo a pleading look. "Hey, help me! Christooooo!"

The green-haired man shrugged. "Just think of this as punishment for not being entirely truthful. Don't worry: I'm sure they'll either get tired of it or you'll change back to normal."

"B-but that could take hours!"

Christo sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Alright..." He cleared his throat before he began to speak, "Do you know what I'm most curious about now? Killia's second form." Red Magnus, Seraphina and Usalia all stopped rubbing Zeroken to look at him curiously. "I've heard that his particular species of demon can transform into a dragon when they have enough magical power. Surely someone as strong as Killia could transform, don't you think?"

"Killia can transform into a dragon?! AWESOME!" Red Magnus bellowed as he pumped his arms in the air. "I bet he's super cool and ferocious-looking in that form! And super strong!"

Seraphina held her head in the air and frowned. "Don't be foolish. Any form of Sir Killia's is bound to be majestic and glorious to behold."

"Whatever he looks like, I'd love to see it, plip!" Usalia exclaimed, her eyes bright with eagerness.

Forgetting all about Zeroken, the trio then left. The weredog sat up to his full height and frowned. "Being ditched for a dragon..." He sighed sadly. Then he looked at Christo. "Good job coming up with that story about Killia."

"Story? That was a true fact I read in a book once back home." Even if angels didn't really care to document things like the kindness and goodness demons were capable of, it was considered important to learn about the many different kinds there were.

Zeroken's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "Really?! Oh, wow! I've gotta see this, then!" He then ran off in the same direction as the others.

Christo stood there in silence for a moment before giving an aggravated sigh. "Now I'm intrigued by it, too," he muttered as he went in the same direction.

"Not exactly graceful, were you?" Uke teased as both of the byakko came to rest before their contractor.

"Next time look where you're plodding about," Mike scolded.

Just as she was about to tell her familiars to shut up, the lion stirred, silencing her. When it spotted her, the beast began to growl. It seemed like it was on the verge of attacking when a tranquilizer dart was shot into its rear. The growl died off, and in seconds, the lion collapsed. Behind it, a scuffed-up Ryuji gave what was either a sigh of relief or exasperation as he put the tranquilizer gun he'd been given by the zoo staff onto his back. "That's enough of that," he muttered.

"Cutting it close, weren't you?! Why didn't you use that as soon as it turned back to normal?!" Izumo snapped.

"I didn't think it would recover from the possession so quickly," was the aria's simple response. He almost added the reminder that the zoo staff had said that it was a "sweetheart" and a "pussycat," but if Ryuji couldn't believe that for himself, he highly doubted Izumo would. "Anyway, we've neutralized one target. Let's regroup with the others. We'll contact the zoo staff on the way."

"Yeah…" The purple-haired girl stood, but almost immediately started to hiss in pain and balanced on one foot. "Damn it! My ankle…!"

"Hm? What's the matter?"

"Ugh! I must've sprained my ankle when I fell down." She could feel Mike and Uke's judging looks when she said that, but refused to see for herself. Instead, she focused on her comrade, who approached her.

"Lemme see how bad it is…" When he crouched down in an attempt to look at the severity of the injury himself, she slapped him on top of his head—both because she didn't want him agitating her aching ankle and because she didn't want him that close to her exposed legs.

"I already said I was hurt, didn't I?!" Once her blush died down and she regained her composure, Izumo continued, "Go ahead without me."

Rubbing his head as he stood up, the brunette gave her a hard look. "Not happening. There're still the two females left, and you'd be a sitting duck if one found you in this state."

"Not if I head back to the entrance and get behind the barrier."

"You could still get caught before you get there! And I doubt you could run in that state."

She narrowed her eyes, taking that as a jab at her ability to defend herself. "I don't have to run. I'm perfectly capable of defending myself."

Ryuji's eyebrow twitched and turned his back to the girl, saying, "I'm not starting with you right now! Just get on!"

"Get on what? You? Princesses are supposed to be carried, not carrying." Izumo started limping past the tall boy after he'd flinched from her use of "the P-word." Uke and Mike shook their heads at her childish behavior.

Ryuji narrowed his eyes and snorted. "I tried doing this nicely…" He then grabbed Izumo from the behind, and it took a short moment with little struggling before he was carrying the purple-haired girl in his arms. She still continued to pound one hand against his shoulder while using the other to try pushing him away from her, much to Ryuji's annoyance. "Will you cut that out?!"

"Put me down, you big ape! I don't need your help, so let me go!"

"Not until we get to the entrance! So stop whinin' and squirmin' already!"

Izumo quieted down and proceeded to stew. Being carried in such a manner by this gorilla was embarrassing, but not just because it suggested that she was unable to take care of herself. She'd read her fair share of shojou manga in the past, and many of their girl protagonists would swoon over being carried by their love interests like this. Izumo wasn't sure if the steadily increasing pace of her heartbeat and her reddened cheeks could be considered signs of swooning, but she definitely knew that she didn't want Suguro to notice those traits and jump to conclusions about her feelings for him. She doubted he would try to get all fresh and flirty like his stupid pink-haired friend, but would more likely reject her like his admirers at school. It would be a dissatisfactory result of a misunderstanding, greatly embarrassing Izumo and potentially ruining a friendship—albeit a not-so chummy one—with the aria.

Definitely not because the rejection itself would hurt.

So the purple-haired teen did her best to avoid looking at the one helping her, for fear that he'd see her expression. "Playing hero just to stroke your ego… What a laugh!" She muttered just to show him how much she still disliked what was happening. "I've managed to take care of myself on missions while in worse states, y'know? A sprain isn't exactly a broken bone or a puncture. It's honestly easier to handle. Even if I'm slower, I wouldn't be taken down easily. Don't underestimate me."

"Do you seriously hear yourself?" Ryuji didn't sound upset—just tired of Izumo's arguing. "I don't have to think less of you to wanna help you. Just concerned for your wellbeing."

And Artina...is okay with that, much to his dismay.. Because SHE thinks she needs to be punished, too--not for saving Valzy’s life or not having enough common sense to be afraid for her own life, but because she felt responsible for exhausting him to the point of nearly killing himself. Then she starts thinking about that one soldier who got in trouble because she saved him and thinks she ought to receive some punishment for not thinking abou the consequences of her actions--even her good ones.

Valzy takes Artina back home to the netherworld and Fenrich, who is naturally upset with the fact that his powerful lord is much weaker now due to some human woman with no common sense. He tries to convince Valzy to change his mind and just punish Artina by killing her, or keep drinking blood from other humans since he couldn’t possibly take enough blood from a single person to even satisfy his hunger, let alone bring his strength back to what it used to be. But Valzy is willing to accept whatever consequences come from this “punishment” as something he deserves, so he instead insists that he’ll take care of Artina until one of them dies. Fenrich attempts to have Artina killed a couple of times, but it fails because Valvatorez always swoops in to save her and Fenrich, not wanting his weakened lord to be hurt, always ends up helping to foil his own schemes. Whether or not he realizes what his servant has been doing, Valzy confides to Fenrich that if Artina died, he’d pretty much just let himself die since breaking another vow would be too much for him. So Fenrich begrudgingly tolerates Artina’s presence while scheming of ways to get him to drink more blood and regain his power before he’s forced to fall to Hades.

Eventually (or inevitably?) Valvatorez tells Artina he’s going to marry her, which he insists is because it would be awkward and rude to drink her blood if she were someone else’s woman. Despite Fenrich pointing out that he could just lock her up somewhere or keep her in a tighter leash, Valzy refuses to give Artina another choice. She gets upset about it since she’s a nun and also admits that she’d rather get married to someone who loves her, he states that not every couple who gets married loves each other and that this is just another layer to their “punishment” of being together, and they spend the first months of their marriage upset with one another. But eventually (inevitably?), they make up. Artina confesses that she’s fallen in love with Valvatorez and he...promises to be a good husband and make her content. Despite Artina’s disappointment with his unromantic response, she’s happy that they’re no longer on bad terms, and at some point in the near future, they finally consummate their marriage.

Artina eventually conceives and everyone has different reactions to the news. Artina is delighted and strives to prepare things for the baby. Fenrich is worried that the child will grow up to be someone who’ll intervene in his lord’s “destiny” to rule the universe. Valvatorez aspires to take care of his little family as best as he can, and so ends of getting a job in the corrupternment (but only because more “ordinary” employers were too intimidated by his reputation to hire him), though he’ll probably wind up in Hades due to slowly losing his power. All in all, it seems like a happy ending for those two.

As for Nemo, or the man who would’ve become Nemo, I’m torn between speculating that Artina surviving the war changes nothing about his own hatred for humanity or it helps him keep hope in the kindness of people. Regardless of whether he survives the war somehow or not, he might dedicate the rest of his (after)life helping others the way Artina helped him, or simply trying to find her to make up for the trouble that he believes he caused her. Or maybe he’s able to pass on and become a Prinny without waiting four centuries.

But if he doesn’t go about wanting to end all life on earth with his stupidly long and complicated scheming, that opens up a problem with those damn aliens, because Nemo’s the one who somehow gets them to NOT blow up the earth. Perhaps something else will stop them or they’ll just not go to Earth at all, but there’s also the matter of Desco not existing because Nemo’s the one who apparently(?) supported the research that went into making her. Maybe she’d be created at a much later time, at a point where Fuka had grown out of her desire for a younger sibling or her dream to conquer the world. For that matter, who knows what sort of ripple effect hijinks this could mean for Fuka? She might have a different fate, a different personality, someone else may be born in her place or her entire family tree could be drastically altered. Emizel’s life could be different, too, as it might take even longer to stop being a brat since there’s no netherworld-ending situation that forces him to mature. Though I’m entertaining the thought of “something” happening to Hugo, forcing Emizel to live in the lowest level of the netherworld and work in Hades just to make ends meet while he plots to claw his way back to the top.

And what about the rest of the Disgaea series at large? After all, 400 years worth of a ripple effect could have an effect on a LOT of things. Maybe D1 will follow the bad ending where Lamington is killed and Laharl becomes a Prinny. Maybe that could cause the events of DD2 to follow its bad ending where the entire netherworld is destroyed because Etna and Flonne (who doesn’t have access to her Pure Flonne form) don’t’t have the power to stop Xenolith, or because angels don’t go to the netherworld to slow down the rate of its destruction since it’s unlikely ANYONE would want to go to the place where the murderer of their Seraph came from. Maybe Zenon never reincarnates, making the plot of D2 never happen and ensuring the residents of Veldime remain happy, but also dooming Zenon to continue her lonely, paranoid existence. Maybe Almaz becomes the Overlord like in that one ending for D3, which is eventually accepted by his friends and he tries to share the responsibilities with Mao, who just wants to defeat him and earn the title rightfully.