Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

        The sky was dark as Iruma was dragged through the air. No moons, or even stars, lit up the sky. An unusual occurrence for the Netherworld, "Or maybe that's just my vision fading," Iruma thought as the grip around his throat tightened. He barely had time to process the thought before he was dragged through an open window into a cold, almost sterile, building and thrown unceremoniously into a metal chair, restraints latching themselves around his wrists and ankles while he was recovering from nearly being choked out.

        Coughing a bit, he looked up at his assailant. The demon before him had long black hair that fell to the small of his back. He was dressed in the typical uniform of a member of Border Patrol and as he turned around Iruma saw that the demon's face bore a striking resemblance to Professor Kalego's. The jaw, nose, cheeks, even the eyebrows were a dead ringer for his teacher's. The only thing about his face that struck Iruma as truly distinct from Kalego's was the eyes. Kalego may not have always been the most outwardly affectionate towards his students but his eyes often gave away some of his true feelings, a flicker of pride at a student's accomplishment, a spark of satisfaction when his class's scores improved, and a consistent warmth, pervasive even through his most withering glares, that indicated a genuine drive to ensure his wards succeeded. This demon had no such aura about him. His eyes were empty of any desire to protect, almost looking hollow the longer Iruma looked at them. That, however, is not to say they held no passion whatsoever. In fact, his eyes held a concentrated zeal, bordering on madness and honed to an edge, an edge currently focused directly on Iruma.

"You should consider yourself lucky," the demon said, "If it were up to me you wouldn't even have had the chance to process what was happening before I eradicated you, but for now Mr. Azazel outranks me within Border Patrol so you'll get the standard procedure for all humans who dare trespass within the bounds of the Netherworld. Frankly, even within those rules, I find this to be far too lenient," the demon slunk closer to Iruma, grasping the boy's right hand and tracing along the ring permanently bound to Iruma's finger, "I mean seriously, letting a human of all things keep a gluttonous feeder ring, we could just cut off that finger and be done with it but no, he would much rather risk you accidentally unleashing the stored mana in the human world and have us try to clean up the fallout from that mess than let me maim one boy." The demon released his grip and backed away from Iruma, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Whatever, I'll be back in a few minutes after I gather the materials needed for the spells," the demon said as he walked out of the room.

        Iruma, for his part, looked as terrified as he felt. Eyes wide as he took shallow breaths, staying quiet as the menacing demon gave his speech before leaving. After he was alone he felt himself relax a bit now that the immediate threat was gone. Suddenly an inky figure flew out of his ring as Ali appeared.

"Ali-san!" Iruma said, his mood brightening despite the situation.

"Well Iru-boy we're really in the thick of it now, I'm not sure we're getting out of this one."

"C'mon Ali-san, there's gotta be something we can do. Can't you at least eat the amnesia spell or something?" Iruma asked, trying to focus on the more immediate problem rather than get overwhelmed by the larger issue of his imminent deportation.

"Well, I could quite easily devour such a spell, but I'd have to be out of the ring to do that and there's no way he wouldn't catch on that we're up to something once he saw me." The small figure looked up at Iruma, worry evident in his eye.

        Iruma closed his eyes in contemplation, trying to think of a solution. Suddenly, his eyes flashed open with inspiration. "So the issue is specifically that he could see you?"

"Yeah, that's the main issue, but if you turned me into a fly he would probably notice his mana being pulled into such a small point."

"Right, I think I have an idea, I'm not sure it'll work but it's all I've got."

"Whatever it is, it has to be better than nothing."

"First things first," Iruma quickly cast cherushil nonverbally on his rank badge, turning it into a feather, akin to the one on the earing Bachiko gave him, which Ali then caught, "Can you attach that to my earring? I want to make sure they won't confiscate it." Ali did as he was asked and then turned back to Iruma, who then began explaining his plan properly. "So, I'm going to use cherushil to turn you into a bunch of mites and have you spread out on the surface of my skin, that way you're small enough that he won't be able to see you but you'll be spread out enough that it won't be obvious that you're absorbing the spell."

"Hey, that just might be able to work," Alikred said, waving his finger as he got on board with the idea, "but can you really visualize something like that properly?"

"I'm gonna have to, we're almost out of time."

        Ali nodded as Iruma used cherushil once again, turning his partner into a dark cloud which quickly dissipated around Iruma and settled onto his skin imperceptibly. Just in the nick of time too, as Narnia burst his way back into the room.

"Alright, let's get this over with," the demon looked dispassionately at his equipment as he readied his spell.

        Narnia deftly mixed ingredients together into an iridescent gray potion, which he then carefully poured into a pattern around Iruma. After ensuring that the pattern was drawn properly, he used his fang to nick his finger. Dripping some of the blood onto the pattern while pouring out some mana caused the pattern to light up as the amnesia spell activated.

        What looked like ash began raining down on Iruma. It fizzled as it came into contact with his skin, Ali quickly consuming the spell before it could have any real effect on Iruma. Iruma did his best to react to the spell in such a way that it appeared to be working. The initial panicked response wasn't difficult to muster since he was already in crisis mode to begin with, but acting like the spell really was wiping his memory was trickier, he wasn't entirely sure how that would appear to an outside perspective. Flicking through his mind for any information that might help, he managed to improvise another plan. He increased the pace of his breathing, playing into his panicked performance, until eventually reaching a climax and he let his whole body go limp. By applying the ability to play dead, which he acquired due to his harsh upbringing, he perfectly mimicked someone passing out from fear, circumventing the issue entirely. The demon seemed to buy the act, at least from what Iruma could tell given that he had closed his eyes to better feign unconsciousness. 

        After a few minutes the rain of ash began to wane until eventually it stopped entirely. Iruma heard boots clack over to him and noticed his restraints were subsequently released. He then felt a hand grip the back of his neck as he was hauled off to a different part of the facility.

        Once they had arrived at their destination, Iruma was haphazardly tossed onto the floor in the middle of yet another magic circle, though this one was permanently etched into the floor. Narnia crouched near the edge of the circle, marking it to set the specific destination in the human realm that it connected to while erasing the marks from the last time it was used.

         After finalizing the preparations, Narnia once again released his mana and poured it into the circle. The pattern started glowing a bright scarlet as lavender colored smoke spiraled out from its center. The smoke got thicker and more voluminous until it eventually obscured Iruma entirely. The smoke began to dissipate shortly after, Narnia watching the entire time to ensure that the process went off without a hitch. Eventually the smoke became thin enough to see through, revealing that Iruma was nowhere to be found. Satisfied with a job well done Narnia turned to exit the room and attend to his other business.

        Iruma felt his body drop onto the ground, the grass he was dumped onto distinct from the tile he was laying on a moment earlier. He laid still for a few moments longer, ensuring that he wasn't still under scrutiny by Border Patrol, before he moved up into a sitting position.

        He gazed at the environment around him. A world sickeningly familiar yet one he was agonizingly separate from. A layer of clouds blanketed the sky, sunlight diffusing evenly through them and causing the world to be fully illuminated but entirely without shadows. Structures of metal and glass towered several stories into the air. Streets of black stone carried self propelling vehicles to their destinations.

        The sounds of the cars burned into Iruma's ears, thorny vines of anxiety wove their way between his ribs, the grass he was sitting in felt as if it might bore its way through his hands at any moment. His pupils constricted as his breathing quickened. Unable to focus now that he had no immediate threat to focus on, his emotions rapidly spiraled until they pushed their breaking point. He gripped his knees tightly, almost to the point of bruising, pressure built up behind eyes that were welling with tears but couldn't quite manage to cry.

        At this point, Alikred excitedly popped out of the ring. "Iru-boy! Your plan worked! I can't believe it, isn't this grea-" his voice was cut off as he noticed the state of the boy. He switched to his full sized form to better be able to comfort his companion. Reaching out a hand, he placed it between Iruma's shoulder blades. Iruma flinched at the sudden contact but didn't pull away.

        For a time, they sat like that, Iruma feeling through his emotions and Ali silently accepting them. Eventually Iruma began to work past the most overwhelming sensations and was able to open up verbally.

"S-sorry Ali, it's just… a lot being back here," he gestured broadly, indicating that he meant the wider world and not this specific location.

"Yeah, I understand Iruma, take all the time you need."

"Meeting Grandpa and Opera and everyone was the best thing that ever happened to me y'know and now it's just… gone." He stretched out one of his arms, reaching out into the air before letting it drop. "I know that I can survive here but without them the world feels so empty."

"Well I'm still here, that has to count for something."

"Yeah, you're right. I still have at least one of my friends from the Netherworld."

"Oh, Iruma! You really do think of me as a friend, I'm touched." Ali swooned overdramatically, wiping a tear from his eye. The attempt at humor prompted the boy to smile slightly before it was quickly pulled back into his somber facade.

"I guess it could be worse, even though I'm here I don't have to stay with my parents anymore."

"Yeah, from what you've told me they don't seem like the type of people you'd want to live with."

"They're the worst," Iruma turned his face upwards, a slight rush of catharsis coming from admitting it, "Seriously, who sells off their own kid to a demon for money? They could have at least sold their own souls first," Iruma huffed.

"How'd they even figure out how to do that anyway?"

"I… don't actually know," his eyes lit up, "Hey if someone like them managed to summon Grandpa then what's stopping me from doing the same and going back that way?"

"I like where your head's at Iru-boy, but there's an issue or two with that plan. The biggest of which is that Border Patrol is going to be on tighter lookout for that type of summoning so a repeat event is unlikely to happen. Plus, the only demon of a high enough rank to be able to answer such a call, and who isn't aligned with Border Patrol to some extent, is Sullivan, and I imagine that he's not as free to move as he'd need to be to come up here."

        The boy's face fell a bit at this news, "I see, still, it's not like it's impossible for someone to travel between worlds right now."

"I'm sorry," Alikred's ears drooped a bit, "I wish the outlook was better, but it seems like the best chance you have of going back to the Netherworld is for someone unrelated to Sullivan to illegally come over on their own accord and bring you back with them. Given the circumstances, I'd say that it's pretty much impossible for that to happen."

"So that's how it is," Iruma stood up, prompting Ali to return to his smaller form, "I guess I won't have to wait too long to go back then."

        Ali looked at the boy incredulously, "Didn't you hear me? It's almost impossible for anyone to be able to do such a thing even if they were ranked as highly as your grandfather! For anyone else that's so far out of reach that it's not even conceivable, how can you be so confident that someone will come to get you?"

        Iruma pulled at his earring, releasing the spell he had placed on his badge and returning it to its normal form. Standing unusually steady, he began to speak, "Within the Netherworld, there is a class, separated from the larger student body due to their unruly natures and wild personalities. Those demons, disadvantaged as they were, refused to accept the circumstances dealt to them. They turned fantasy into reality and made pipe dreams their playground. For them, nothing is out of reach and doing the impossible is just another week." 

        He began fixing his badge to the collar of his jacket. "You want to know how I know that everything will work out? It's because they are, no we are, the Misfit Class of Babyls and we wouldn't settle for anything less." With that, he had fully reattached his badge and gave his collar a confident tug. "Isn't that about right," he said as he gave Ali a broad, genuine smile, his first since returning to the human world.

        Ali rubbed the back of his head, accepting Iruma's determination. "Geez kid, for someone who tries not to stand out you sure have a way of pulling people along with you. Alright, I'll take that answer." He floated up to perch on Iruma's finger before speaking again, "I'll keep an eye out for any spikes in mana usage that would indicate a portal opening up. It should be pretty easy considering no one else in this place can use mana."

"Thank you Ali-san."

"Don't mention it Iru-boy, you take care of yourself now. I can't bail you out of every situation since we have a limited mana pool to work with."

"I will," Iruma beamed. 

        Ali gave one last wave before returning to the ring. Iruma took a moment to collect his thoughts, centering himself before turning to face the world head on, and despite the situation, he couldn't stop smiling.

Chapter Text

        Ameri sat alone in the student council room. Her arms were folded on her desk and her head was resting on top of them. Unfinished paperwork was stacked haphazardly around her, "I really should get started on that," she thought to herself, but she couldn't muster up the energy to make herself move. Normally around this time she would be reading with Iruma, but of course, that couldn't happen anymore. Burying her face deeper in her arms, she lamented her situation.

"How could I have let this happen," she thought to herself, "I knew! I knew he was human and I still didn't do anything to prevent this. I could have tried to keep a closer eye on Border Patrol activities. I could have warned him ahead of time. I could have done something, anything…"

        She clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms, as she leaned back into her chair, her face now pointed blankly at the ceiling. "I should have been there," she reprimanded herself. Her arms hung limply at her sides as she grieved over Iruma's capture. She felt hollowed out without him. He was the first, and frankly the only, person who she felt comfortable enough with to relax around, without him she didn't quite know what to do with herself. Before they had met, she was content with single mindedly pursuing her ambition, regardless of if she had companions with her or not. After they had gotten closer she had realized just how lonely that mindset had truly made her. On some level she had always known that she wasn't truly fulfilled living that way, otherwise she wouldn't have gone so far out of her way to recruit the other members of the student council, but now that she was so painfully aware of the necessity of deep connections she couldn't go back to life without him in it.

"But what can I do?" She bit her lip. "He probably doesn't even remember me at this point." A moment passed before she continued thinking. "Well… it wouldn't be the first time he pulled off something he shouldn't be able to if he managed to circumvent that part of the process somehow." She dared let a spark of hope flicker before reminding herself that even if his memory wasn't erased he was still stranded in the human world. Her father might have been the head of Border Patrol but that could only get her so far and she couldn't exactly sneak into the human world on her own.

"Do I have to do it alone though?" She asked herself, the spark resurging without her realizing it. She ran through the people she knew that might help her. Her father and the rest of Border Patrol were an obvious no, even if they weren't the ones responsible for this whole scenario they wouldn't let her take a trip to the human world for no reason. Her next option was the student council. They probably would help her, but she had hauled half of them out of delinquency herself and wasn't about to drag them down the path of real criminals.

        Despair started to creep into the edges of her consciousness again. Was that really it? Did she really have no one else she could ask to help with this? Ameri racked her brain, trying to think of any allies she could muster to her cause. There had to be someone else willing to help her, surely someone she knew would also see the injustice in this. Iruma was captured in public after all, right in front of some of the misfits if reports were to be believed.

        She felt her face relax as she realized the obvious solution. "Why the hell weren't they the first people I thought of?" She asked herself incredulously. She was really only close with the girls among the Misfits, but they were the type of demons who really cared about their own, especially when it came to Iruma. Frankly, she'd be surprised if they weren't already concocting a plan to get him back.

"Right, Misfit Class it is then." She stood with renewed vitality and headed towards Royal One.

*      *      *

        The Misfit Class was sitting in a loose arrangement in Royal One. Class had ended a fair amount of time ago but no one had left yet, not wanting to go about their days like nothing had happened but unsure of how to move forward after this.

        Stress was palpable in the room. The air around Asmodeus was uncomfortably hot and dry, a side effect of barely holding back his fire magic. For her part, Clara was unusually calm and still, staring absently at the space in front of her. Periodically, Purson would vanish before flickering back into view. The only sound came from Jazz's rings clinking together.

        Eventually, someone broke the silence. "So… How are we feeling?" Leid asked awkwardly, playing with his earring.

"How do you think we're feeling Leid?!" Asmodeus roared, flames spurting off of him.

"Geez! Sorry, I was just trying to get the conversation moving."

"No, you're fine," Asmodeus rubbed his forehead exhaustedly, "I've just been on edge since…" 

        The sentence lingered in the air, it didn't need to be finished.

"I can't believe he was a human the whole time." Jazz said plainly.

"It does make some sense in retrospect," Azz replied, "It explains why he never flew anywhere."

"And how he could use a bow so prodigiously despite not being a Barbatos." Sabnock interjected.

"Can you guys not talk about Iruma-chi like he's dead?" Clara protested, "He's still alive, he's just not here anymore." Her eyes welled up with tears as she finished her sentence. Asmodeus absentmindedly reached out and patted her on the head to comfort her.

"Still, it's not like he can come and visit us whenever he wants." Kerori replied.

"Maybe someone will go and get him back?" Elizabetta suggested.

"That's unlikely if the way they're monitoring the Sullivan household is anything to go by." Allocer answered.

        The room went quiet again for a moment.

"We could do it." Everyone's head turned to look at Gaap. "I'm serious, we could try and get him back."

        The atmosphere in the room changed a bit as the students tried to latch onto the idea that they could have some agency over this scenario.

"You really think we could sneak into the human world on our own? C'mon, try to be realistic here." Agares tried to temper his friend's expectations to avoid future disappointment.

"Well we can't just do nothing. He's our ally, our friend. If it were one of us in his place Iruma would already be trying to rescue us."

"I agree with Gaap," Asmodeus stood up, "Sitting around won't bring Iruma-sama back to us, we have to take action."

        Clara perked up, the thought seeing her soulmate again already pulling her out of her stupor. "Yeah, yeah! Iruma-chi's probably already waiting for us, we gotta go get 'im!"

"While I'm not inherently opposed to the idea of a rescue mission, we can't just run into this blindly," Camui spoke, "If we're to follow through we need to create some type of plan, I'm sure we're all in agreement that a full frontal assault on Border Patrol would be ineffective at best."

"I think we can come up with something," Purson began, "I mean, our class has a really wide range of utility skills. Even ignoring the rest of them, my Detection Warding will let us get away with a lot more than most groups would be able to. That's not even getting into the more combat focused among us like Asmodeus, sure we might not be able to take on an army by ourselves or anything but we can at least hold our own should something go wrong. Plus Allocer and Sabnock are informed enough on similar types of rescue operations to be able to think up some way for us to pull this off."

        The mood in the room had lightened significantly as the class considered the idea, the improbability of its success fading from their minds.

"So are we all in agreement on this?" Asmodeus asked solemnly as the air around him cooled to match the rest of the room, "Once we commit there's no backing out."

"Of course I'm in Azz Azz, we've gotta hurry up and save Iruma-chi!"

"I can't just let our rivalry end like this!"

"It'd be pretty lame of me to not help out my little brother when he needed it."

"Naturally I'm in favor, if it weren't for Iruma I probably wouldn't even be enrolled here anymore, let alone be friends with any of you. Plus, I doubt it would even be possible without me."

"A gentleman cannot leave their comrades in their hour of crisis."

"The whole point of making allies is to come to each other's aid."

"I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't help out."

"Like I'd just let the rest of you upstage me."

"I always did enjoy a challenging job."

"Well I can't just let the rest of you leave me behind."

"Nothing can change if we don't take action."

        Asmodeus seemed satisfied, "Alright, glad to see we're on the same page. Now we can get to planning our rescue mission."

"First order of business, how are we going to get to the human realm?" Leid asked confidently.

        Suddenly a voice interjected from the entrance, "Ah, you're about as far along as I thought you'd be. Good, that makes things easier for me." All eyes turned to look at the door where they saw Ameri standing half inside the room.

"P-President Ameri!" Leid spurted frantically, "I swear it's not what it sounded like, see we're playing this new game and we were having a strategy meeting for-"

        Ameri raised a hand to quiet Leid's excuse, "Relax, I'm here to help. I figured you'd be the only other demons willing to do something that ridiculous."

"You're really not going to turn us in for planning to cross the border?"

"No." 

        The class was still for a moment, taking in this recent development, before the more excitable members hurried over to Ameri and quickly inducted their new comrade into their group. Several minutes of excitement passed before productive conversation could resume.

"Back to what we were talking about before you came in, we need to find some way to get to the human world before anything else," Allocer said firmly, trying to get the group back on track.

"I overheard my father say what facility they use to process human returns, we can probably use their entryway if we can get to it."

"We might have to, none of us could replicate a spell like that without any guidance." Allocer cupped his chin in thought.

"For an infiltration mission it's particularly important to have as much information on the location as possible," Sabnock noted.

"I wish I could give more information than the building's location but I don't have free access to things like guard schedules and my father will probably get suspicious if I pry into those right now."

"That does complicate things," Sabnock looked back through his memories, trying to find a solution, "Hey Agares, how large is the range for My Area?"

"For controlling or sensing?"

"Sensing."

"That depends," Agares yawned, "It's not really a hard border for that, details just get fuzzier the further away things are, same as looking at something with your eyes. If something big is happening like at Walter Park I can sense an area around as big as the park, but normally it's maybe half that, even less if you want information that's useful at an in person scale.

        Allocer seemed to catch on to Sabnock's plan, "What about you Gaap? Wind Blade seems to operate somewhat similarly to My Area, does it give you any sensing capabilities?"

"Not as good as Agares's but I can get a general idea of the air currents near me."

"Alright, then I'd like to propose that Purson uses his Detection Warding to get Agares and Gaap just outside of the facility so they can use their bloodline abilities and map out the building before we begin our proper infiltration."

"I want to recommend Camui goes as well," Sabnock suggested, "He could get valuable information from the creatures living in and around the area to learn information about guard patterns and such."

        Allocer nodded in agreement, "Very well, does anyone else have any other ideas to add?"

        No one said anything, the demons mentioned in the plan agreeing to it with their silence.

*       *       *

        The sun burned high in the sky, beating down on the landscape below. The target building sat on the edge of a precipice, only one face accessible by walking and guards were stationed outside of the building on that face. The path leading up to the entrance was barren, with barely a pebble present to act as cover. The path led into a lush forest, the indigo trunks and violet leaves of the trees and underbrush limiting visibility and allowing anyone behind the treeline to remain hidden from view. It was here that four demons sat and planned their next move.

"Looks like there's only one way to get near the place." Purson said as he prepared himself mentally to spread his bloodline magic out to his companions.

"We could fly in," Gaap suggested.

        Purson waved his hand dismissively in front of his face. "I'm going to have enough trouble keeping all of us hidden without our wings flapping around and kicking up dust and whatnot, walking is easier."

"Are all of us getting close?" Agares murmured. "Caim doesn't really need to go past this point to gather info, right?"

"Strictly speaking I don't have to, but the information is more likely to be misreported the more individuals it has to go through and the beasts that live within the compound aren't likely to venture this far away from it. What about you? Can you get a read on the place from here?"

"Normally, yeah, but this is like the opposite of the Walter Park incident. It feels like they have some type of spell on the place to stop people like me from feeling it out. I should be able to get a clear image once I get to that outer wall though."

"Oh, I'll also get a better idea of the place when I get closer," Gaap eagerly volunteered, "Right now I can basically just tell that there are air currents there."

        Purson took a deep breath, "Alright, all of us it is. Remember, you need to blend with your surroundings and become one with the world. You can make a little noise but you have to stay calm and keep it at a speaking voice or lower or the magic will lose its effect on you.

        He looked his teammates in the eyes one last time before focusing. Mist encompassed his body as he disappeared from view, consistent with the regular application of his ability, then, slowly, the mist ebbed into the world around him, creeping around the others until they too had vanished.

        Now that they were under the effect of Detection Warding, Caim, Gaap, and Agares were able to see the final member of their group. Purson's face had turned into nothing more than a swirl of the mist that indicated the activation of his bloodline ability. "We should be able to go now," he said as he stood up, indicating to the others to follow him.

        They exited from their hiding place and set foot on the path, appearing as nothing more than a heat haze to an outside observer. Slowly they marched up the outcropping, getting closer to their destination. The guards didn't react as they approached. Purson remained at ease during this, used to the sensation of people looking through him and his presence going unnoticed. The others were more nervous, lacking the lifetime of experience that Purson had, but still managed to keep their cool. Even the crunching of the dirt beneath their feet failed to alert the guards.

        Once they had reached the outer wall Purson turned to his companions. "Keep an eye out for anything that Caim can talk to," he said, keeping his voice calm and his intonation level, "after that you two," he pointed at Agares and Gaap, "focus on mapping this place out while he talks." 

        The others nodded and the group walked along the wall until eventually they encountered a small anthill. It was located some distance away from the main entrance but they would quite easily be visible without Purson's ability. Caim knelt down and began conversing softly with the insects while Agares and Gaap focused on creating a mental map of the building with their bloodline abilities.

        Everything was going well. Caim had finished talking to the colony and was waiting for them to report back to him while the sensor duo was making steady progress on their end. Purson collected and calm. While the situation didn't exactly lend itself to a relaxed state of mind there wasn't an immediate sense of pressure at this point either. That changed when he heard footsteps approaching them. He turned to see a demon, one of the guards, within arm's reach of them lean up against the wall and pull out a cigarette. 

        Purson's mind raced. The good news was that his bloodline ability still seemed to be working so they were still undetected. The bad news was that his classmates weren't nearly as used to maintaining the requisite composure this close to someone as he was. Even worse was that the demon was close enough to potentially brush up against them by accident, which would dispel the magic and reveal their presence.

        Feeling the sweat bead up on the back of his neck, he turned to the others. As expected they were looking more panicked than he felt, though none of them had freaked out enough to break the Detection Warding on them, and they seemed to be looking to him for guidance on how to proceed. He held a finger to his lips, reminding them that they had to stay level headed, before carefully ushering them out of reach of the demon. He then tapped a finger to his own chest and pointed at the demon, indicating that he would keep an eye on the guard while they finished up.

         Time passed terribly slowly. What was realistically only a few minutes felt like hours. Watching the demon take drags of his cigarette, seeing the ash fall to the ground, the clouds of smoke dissipating into the atmosphere. At long last, the demon finished his smoke break and returned to his post. A sigh of relief passed through the group as they returned to their previous position.

        Two more minutes went by as Caim received the final reports from the ants and after that everyone had completed their reconnaissance. They walked back down the path away from the facility and returned to the forest, the guards none the wiser. Once they were well past the treeline Purson released the spell and sat down next to a tree.

"I can't believe we pulled that off," he said as he wiped sweat from his brow.

"You were great Purson!" Gaap grinned, "I was totally freaking out when that demon got the drop on us back there but you stayed as cool as ever and kept us from totally losing it." The silver haired demon pumped his arm excitedly as he spoke.

"Thanks Gaap," Purson said tiredly, "Did you get a good enough read of the place?"

"Yup! Between me and Agares we could navigate that place in our sleep." Gaap wrapped an arm around Agares as he declared this, prompting the latter to roll his eyes but failing to draw out any protests.

"And I assume you remember any relevant information, Caim?"

"Hmph! As if I would ever forget something told to me by a lady."

"Great, give me a minute to rest and we can head back."

"Sounds like a plan to me, I could use a nap after all that," Agares yawned as the group prepared to return to Babyls and report their findings.

Chapter Text

"And that concludes my report for the week."

"Excellent work as per usual President Ameri, I take it that you'll be checking in on the Misfit Class now?"

"Yes Professor, sorry, Chairdemon Kalego," she corrected herself, "They were the closest to Iruma after all, they need to be monitored most carefully after his removal."

"Very well, you're free to go," He said with a wave of his hand, "Try to keep them from doing anything stupid will you?"

"Of course sir," Ameri gave a quick bow before gathering her things, "Have a good day Chairdemon."

        Once she had left Kalego let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. Just when he thought his most troublesome class had reached the upper limit of the migraines they could give him, one of them not only turned out to be a human but managed to get himself captured by Border Patrol as well. Naturally it had to be Iruma, which meant that Sullivan was also detained and Kalego became the de facto head of Babyls as a result. Of course the rest of the problem students couldn't react to this like normal demons, no they had to start concocting some type of plan. He wasn't sure what it was specifically that they had in mind but from his perspective the group had the combined subtly of a carmine dragon, and that was after averaging in Purson Soi, so he was fairly confident that it involved reconnecting with Iruma in some capacity.

        He didn't have any solid evidence, but he knew them well enough to tell when they were up to something that would blow up in his face. He hoped that Ameri would be level headed enough to put a stop to it. Then again maybe a part of him hoped that she didn't. He had seen firsthand how lethargic they had been before they began their plan and it was frankly a bit upsetting. Clearly, being separated from Iruma was bad for them, both as students and as people, so wouldn't it be in their best interest to let them try out their scheme?

        "No," he shook his head, trying to wipe away the thought as he recalled the tenets of his upbringing. Iruma was a human and humans and demons were to have no contact for a reason, but he also never took enough stock in tales about the species to really question why. Sure, Iruma's ability to subjugate demons as his familiars could pose a threat, but after having spent more than his fair share of time as the boy's familiar he felt qualified to believe that Iruma had no intent of exploiting this ability.

        Kalego racked his brain, trying to think of anything he knew about humans that could substantiate the dogma he had believed for his entire life, but from what he knew after meeting a human himself he couldn't find a satisfactory answer. Iruma only seemed to drive the demons around him forward. Was that it? Likely not, such charisma was notable, certainly, but not unheard of for prominent demons and if Iruma really wanted to make a name for himself in the cultural or political landscape of the Netherworld, Kalego could think of worse options.

        He wasn't naïve enough to think that the entire species would be so altruistic, but he wasn't really debating over whether to let them open the border, he was trying to figure out the best course of action for his students. And now that he was thinking about it, wasn't Iruma also included in that group? Would it really be in his best interest to leave him in the human world?

        Thinking back to when he had first taken on the Misfits, Kalego remembered his problem student's demeanor and was almost startled by how stark the contrast was between them and now. When he had first met the boy, Iruma had seemed rather fearful, which was to be expected given, well, everything about his situation, but beyond that he seemed… unsocialized, Kalego supposed the word was, like he had never really had the opportunity to engage with his peers on an equal level. An additional difference was his weight. While he wasn't nearly as much of an expert in biology as Shichiro, Kalego could understand that Iruma had been underweight when they had first met. Perhaps not to a dangerous degree, but again he wasn't an expert on the subject, either way it was a concerning sign about his student's previous quality of life.

        Assuming that Iruma had come to the Netherworld around the time he enrolled in Babyls, a likely scenario given how he had no real records from before that period, that meant he had picked up those worrying qualities back in the human world. Therefore the best thing, both for Iruma and the rest of the Misfit Class, would be for him to come back to the Netherworld. 

        Kalego's brow furrowed. While it was now fairly obvious what the ideal outcome would be, that didn't change the fact that he still had responsibilities he had to uphold, as a Naberius as well as the acting chairdemon of Babyls. He couldn't exactly condone whatever it was his class was planning and probably should be trying to stop them.

        Though, if they happened to pull it off without his noticing then there wasn't much he could do about it. After all, he suddenly had the position of chairdemon thrust upon him in the midst of trying to quell the shock of a human being discovered in the Netherworld, it was understandable if a few small things slipped past him.

        Kalego smirked as he went back to his paperwork, confident that his students could work this out by themselves.

*       *       *

        Ameri let out a sigh of relief as she shut the door behind her. It seemed that Kalego hadn't caught onto their plan yet, or at the very least he didn't seem to plan on doing anything about it for the time being. Either way she didn't have time to linger on the thought. Today they had agreed to decide what to do now that they had the layout of the place and it was imperative that everyone be present for the discussion and she was already a little behind schedule due to her report.

        She walked briskly towards Royal One, passing through the courtyard and opening the opulent doors. She saw the Misfits huddled around a table in the center of the main room. Asmodeus turned when he heard the doors open.

"Sorry I'm a little late, I got here as quick as I could after giving my report," she said as she shut the door behind her.

"You're just in time actually, we've almost finished creating the model."

        Ameri sidled up to the table while Asmodeus turned his attention back to it. On top of the table sat an array of six dioramas, each corresponding to one of the floors of the facility. Miniature figures were placed at the locations where guards would be stationed, with dashed lines representing the more active patrol routes and commonly traveled paths. Numbers next to the lines indicated how often a given route was patrolled. Around the model representing the first floor there was a large outer wall, separated from the main building. Off to the side, Caim, Gaap, and Agares were discussing their findings while Agares used his bloodline ability to make minor modifications to the last floor.

"You managed to get all this information with just the four of you?" Ameri asked incredulously, "I may have underestimated you a bit."

"Well technically it was the four of us and an ant colony we found," Purson began, "If you count them then the number of participants would skyrocket, plus if you want to get really particular about it you could include the demons who trained us to the point that we could use our bloodline abilities so proficiently among the number of demons responsible for this. But yes, if you go with the number of sapient beings who played an active role in gathering this information then it was just the four of us."

        Ameri blinked a few times, processing the sudden wave of information that was dumped on her. "Well good work nonetheless." While Purson was rambling the others had finished up the model.

"Ameri, could you tell us if this matches what you know about how Border Patrol bases are set up?" Gaap asked excitedly.

      Ameri took a closer look at the display before her.

"Everything seems pretty much like I'd expect it to be." She pointed at the staircases. "These are on alternating sides of the building for each floor to slow down and intruders on foot."

        Sabnock nodded along as he heard this, recalling how some previous demon kings had utilized similar tactics to make their forts harder to invade.

"The number of staff rooms is normal," Ameri continued, "The boiler and generator rooms are in close proximity to each other which is pretty standard. The offices are mostly where they should be." She paused for a moment. "The only thing I don't recognize is this room here." She pointed to a large space on the last floor. "I haven't seen this type of thing on any of the tours my father brought me on, so I imagine that that's where the entry point to the human world is."

"That corroborates with what my informants told me," Caim added.

        Gaap cheered excitedly upon finding out that their reading of the building was as accurate as they believed it to be. He offered a double high five to Agares who looked up from his bed and lazily returned it, causing Gaap to smile.

        Ameri spoke again once Gaap had calmed down, "Most important rooms need an ID card to be accessed, given the importance of the room I'd guess that only high ranking demons, like my father, or the demons stationed directly outside the room would be able to open the door."

"So we just need to get our hands on one of the ID cards then," Sabnock concluded.

"Probably from one of the guards then," Jazz muttered, mostly to himself but loud enough that the others could hear, "that'd probably be easier than swiping it off of the higher ranked people."

"Great, problem solved then," Leid chimed in, "Purson just sneaks us all in, we swipe a card, and then we go to the human world to grab Iruma."

"Yeah, no I can't do that," Purson said as the crowd turned their attention to him, "The more people I use my bloodline ability on, the more mana intensive it is to maintain. Right now I think I top out at around five people, not counting myself, any more than that it won't last long enough to be of any use. Also, since we don't know how long it'll take to get one of those cards I'd rather keep the group smaller than that so we don't have to rush as much."

"Well, Jazz obviously has to go, he's the only one here with any skill at pickpocketing," Allocer spoke up, "If we add Clara to the team as well we don't have to pick who's going to the human world right away since she can recreate the card as much as she wants once we get it."

"Yeah, yeah! I'll copy that bad boy real good!"

"I also want to take Elizabetta along," Purson said. Allocer, Sabnock, Asmodeus, Kerori, and Ameri seemed to catch on as to why he made the request quickly but the rest of the class, including Elizabetta herself, seemed confused as to why Purson would request her specifically.

"Last time," Purson elaborated, "someone almost bumped into us without noticing and while my Detection Warding can do a lot to cover up a person's presence, if someone reaches out and their hand collides something that isn't there they're going to figure out that something's going on. Even if they don't realize that they touched you specifically they'll notice that their hand stopped moving when it shouldn't have. Elizabetta's Full Love Gauge will minimize the chances of that happening, plus when it combines with my bloodline ability they won't even realize what's going on, similar to what she and Leid did with Professor Orias when we were getting into Royal One. It's also likely that it will give Jazz an opportunity quicker since the target will be acting in our favor without realizing it."

"Well when you put it like that how could I refuse?" Elizabetta said, placing a hand on the side of her face and leaning into it.

"Are we all in agreement with this group then? I'd personally recommend we don't add anyone else since we want to maximize the time they can take to grab a card." Sabnock asked. The other demons all gave their assent, though Asmodeus seemed a little reluctant about the arrangement.

"Now that that's settled I have to get back to my student council duties, if I shirk them too much people will catch on." With that Ameri turned and left, waving over her shoulder as the meeting ended. Following this, the Misfit Class broke up into smaller group conversations before they proceeded on their mission.

        Caim approached Purson and handed him a note. "Here, these are the times that the guards use the main entrance, I imagine that they'll be invaluable for sneaking into the facility."

"Thanks, this'll definitely come in handy, but why didn't you mention this during the main meeting?"

        Caim shrugged, "I didn't want to interrupt the discussion since it was progressing so smoothly and I figured I could just give it to you afterwards anyway."

        A moment passed before Purson spoke again.

"Hey, speaking of things that we didn't want to mention during the meeting, how do we plan on getting back to the Netherworld after we leave? It's not like any of us are as powerful as Lord Sullivan to just be able to hop between the worlds as we please and if our classes in imaginary creatures are to be believed then humans don't have the requisite magical knowledge to be able to have constructed another gateway in their world that we could use."

"I understand your concern, it would defeat the purpose quite thoroughly if our efforts only resulted in more of us getting stranded, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most of the travel process is uncharted waters for us. Lady Ameri is unfamiliar with the particulars and, while they did their best, my information comes from ants who view the world as ants would, the gateway is simply not as noteworthy to them as it is to us so it's likely there is more to it than what we know now."

        Purson nodded, "You're right, I should hold off on worrying until we have all the details and just focus on the problem at hand. Thanks again, I feel a bit better about this now."

"A gentleman must always address the needs of others," Caim said with a dramatic wave of his hand.

        Concurrently, Jazz struck up his own discussion.

"Hey Allocer, can I borrow you for a second?" Jazz asked.

"Of course, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if you could hold onto these for me until I get back," he said, gesturing to his fingers.

"Your rings? I suppose I can, but isn't it taboo in your family to take them off without permission?"

Jazz chuckled, "A little bit, but if there was ever a reason to break it it'd be something like this." He took off his rings as he spoke, flexing his fingers a bit to get used to their new lightness.

"Alright, I'll take care of them until you return. But I'm curious, how much of a difference do they make?"

"You tell me." Suddenly, Jazz had Allocer's wallet in his hand. It took Allocer a second to comprehend what had happened.

"Point proven," Allocer scoffed, "Just take care of yourself out there."

"Thanks, I owe you one." Jazz handed the wallet back alongside his rings. "Make sure you don't lose those, I'd never hear the end of it if I came home without 'em."

"Please, I know how important they are."

"Great, see ya later then," Jazz waved as he went over to join Purson.

        Meanwhile, Kerori was off to the side, typing on her phone. Elizabetta saw this and walked up to her.

"What are you up to?" She asked inquisitively.

"I'm texting someone I know to see if she can help us out."

"Are you telling her about our plan?"

"Of course not, but if I ask her to help me with something she'll do basically anything without question if I agree to go out with her for a night."

        Elizabetta perked up upon hearing this, "Oh? Romance in the heat of crisis? Tell me more."

        Kerori winced, "I don't know if it's really romance. Honestly, it feels like I'm exploiting her affection a bit but I'd rather not screw this up because I don't play all my cards."

"Do you not like her back?"

"It's not that it's just… she isn't the type to settle down with one person once she has them."

"I see, have you told her that that's a deal breaker for you?"

"I guess not explicitly, but I tried to make it clear."

"Well then you can say it plainly while you're on your little outing, and if it doesn't work out after that then you can at least say you were honestly interested in trying out the relationship."

"I guess so…" A flustered expression came across Kerori's face "Anyway, don't you have anything better to do than interfere in my love life?"

"Not really," she teased, "I'm basically just waiting until the others are ready to go."

        It was at that time she noticed Jazz and Purson lingering near the door.

"Speaking of, looks like it's about that time," she turned to leave, "I hope it works out for you though," she grinned over her shoulder, "I'm rooting for you." She pumped a fist before heading over to the rest of the group.

        Clara, seeing the team gathering, started skipping over to join them before Asmodeus reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Hm? What is it?"

        He let go of her arm before speaking, "Listen, Clara, can you promise me that you'll stay out of trouble when I'm not around to look after you."

"Aw, Azz-Azz, are you worried about me?" Clara teased, before noticing that Asmodeus didn't seem to be in the mood for their usual banter.

"It's not that I think you can't handle yourself," Asmodeus said, his jaw set firmly, "but I've already been separated from Iruma-sama because of this whole affair, and though I don't say it often, you are as essential to he and I as he is to the two of us. If something were to happen to you as well while I couldn't be there, I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself."

        Clara's eyes widened upon hearing Asmodeus openly express his care for her. After he finished talking she broke out into a wide smile, showing all of her teeth.

"You don't gotta worry Azz-Azz," she said, practically bouncing with excitement, "I'm not gonna get caught and they wouldn't be able to lock me up for long even if they did." She tilted her face upwards, eyes closed and pointing at herself with her thumb in a faux-smug expression. "But since you asked so nicely I promise to be extra careful," her expression shifting to its typical gleefulness as she spoke.

        The corners of Asmodeus's mouth crept upwards into a gentle smile. "I guess I can be satisfied with that then."

"Yup, yup! Just leave it to Big Sis Clara and I'll have us back with Iruma-chi in no time!" She declared as she strutted over to the team as they prepared to head out.

*       *       *

        Purson found himself back in the forest outside the Border Patrol facility, in the few days since his last venture here it had gotten more humid and cloudy, though not substantially cooler.

"Remember, just like we practiced," Purson prompted the others.

"We know, that's like the eighth time you've told us," Jazz remarked.

        Purson shrugged, "You can't be too careful when you're doing something like this." Mist billowed off of him as his bloodline ability activated, enveloping the others and swirling around his face. "We're good to go on my end, what about you Elizabetta?"

"Full Love Gauge is already active." Though there wasn't a dramatic visual change like there was with Purson, a slightly sweet smell wafted through the area, just barely recognizable as being different from her usual perfume. Of course, Detection Warding would stop any of the guards from noticing the scent and realizing that intruders were present.

"Let's head out then."

        The four of them made the trek up to the main gate of the compound. Timing their approach to the times Caim provided Purson, they slipped past the entrance as the guards changed shifts. The distance between the outer wall and the facility proper was roughly one quarter of the distance between the forest and the wall, and equally as barren. 

        By tailing the guard who has just gotten off shift, they snuck into the main building. The halls of the building were tight and winding with low ceilings to discourage flight and make it difficult for intruders to navigate. Any guards they encountered along the way passively gave them space thanks to Elizabetta's bloodline ability.

       Though there weren't any barriers preventing someone from accessing the higher floors, the building was arranged in such a way that the average member of the faculty had less reason to be on a floor as they went up, with utilities like locker rooms and a cafeteria on the lower floors and more sensitive enterprises going on on higher floors such as offices for the higher ups, a security office, and the room containing the portal to the human world. As such, the density of the guards decreased as they worked their way deeper into the building.

        Climbing the last flight of stairs, the sixth floor was almost entirely empty of staff members, save for a lone guard stationed at the very end of the hall, standing with their hands in their pockets.

"I take it that's our guy then?" Jazz asked as he stretched his hands.

"Most likely, I can't think of why else he would be lingering around on this floor. Especially given that no one else is up here, it wouldn't make sense if he wasn't guarding that room."

"Alright, let's get to work. Clara, can I borrow some gloves please?"

"Here ya go," Clara passed a pair of thin black gloves into Jazz's outstretched palm.

"Thank you," he said as he slipped them on and the group approached the guard.

        Once they got close enough, Jazz activated Pit, lines of sparks appeared in his vision, leading to the guard's pockets where he could now see the guard's wallet and hellphone sat in opposite pockets of each other. He held his hand up, waiting for an opening to grab the wallet, where the ID card was presumably stored since he couldn't see it anywhere else on the guard. As time went on, the effects of Full Love Gauge started to take hold and the guard took their hands out of their pockets to stretch. In that moment, Jazz struck, his hand moving faster than the eye could see, his fingers nimbly reaching into the guard's pocket and snatching up the wallet by a corner.

        He opened the wallet and looked through it, eventually finding the demon's work identification. Smirking at a job well done, he pulled it out and showed it to Clara who looked at it with a studious gaze, hand on her chin, before nodding and giving a thumbs. The guard's hands remained out of their pockets and Jazz took the chance to slip the wallet back onto their person, the demon in question none the wiser.

        Just as Jazz was about to deactivate Pit, the guard started browsing their phone. As the guard took it out, Jazz saw that what appeared to be one pathway was actually two overlapping routes that were now separated. One still led to the hellphone but the other led to a square of paper that remained in the pocket. He could see some type of circle drawn on the paper though he couldn't identify its purpose from this distance. Without thinking, he quickly grabbed the paper and showed it to Clara before returning it to the guard, getting his hand out of the way just as the guard was putting his phone away.

"We should get going now, I'm going to hit my limit soon," Purson said quietly to the others.

"Me too," Elizabetta added.

        Jazz then noticed that the two of them were starting to look exhausted, a sheen of sweat starting to build up as they focused on keeping their bloodline abilities active, their breathing slow and heavy.

"Yeah, I've grabbed everything worthwhile, let's go."

        The group walked back to the door of the building, waiting a few minutes for the shifts to change. Again they passed through the entryways by trailing after one of the guards and hurried down the path back to the forest. Once past the treeline, Purson and Elizabetta deactivated their bloodline abilities and sat on the forest floor, Purson with his head between his knees and Elizabetta leaning back, face pointed to the sky.

        Clara got to work passing out drinks to the group. "Good work everyone, especially you Jazzy! You were all like vwoosh, and then bam! You got the goods without the guy even noticing they were gone."

"Thanks Clara," Jazz said

"What was up with that last bit though? We already had the card, you didn't need to take anything else off of them. It didn't look like it had much value from what I could see, especially since you just gave it back after you showed it to Clara. Also you really should have thought it through more before you took it, they almost bumped into you while you were in their pocket," Purson interrogated.

"Sorry about that," Jazz rubbed the back of his head, "I saw it had a magic circle on it and I figured if they had it on duty it must have been important."

        Clara pulled out a copy of the paper, "So what's it do?" The group gathered around to examine it and it was immediately evident that none of them knew what this spell did.

"What do you think Jazz?" Elizabetta asked, "You're in the New Magic Batra, you'd probably have the best guess."

"I can tell that it's some type of summoning spell," Jazz said, "but I can't really tell what it's supposed to summon or where it's supposed to summon it. The bulk of those marks are unfamiliar to me."

"Maybe Makka-chan knows since her dad's the boss."

"Maybe, we'll have to ask her when we meet up tomorrow."

"Let's get back to Babyls before it gets too late," Purson said, "Jazz needs to pick up his rings and we need to let everyone know we were successful"

"Yeah, and I have to tell Azz-Azz how good I was! I didn't even make faces at the guards or anything."

"Good job Clara, way to stay focused," Elizabetta said earnestly, pressing her hands together and tilting both them and her head to the same degree. Clara nodded vigorously in response.

"Ready when you are," Jazz said.

        After a few more minutes of rest, the group stood up and made their return journey, walking through the forest until the base was far enough away and flying from there, Clara riding on Jazz's back so the more exhausted demons wouldn't have to carry her.

Chapter Text

        Iruma grunted as he dropped another load of firewood on the small pile he had built up. Wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, he looked around his campsite. He had found a small clearing in a forest just outside the city he had been dropped in. To his left was a makeshift tent he constructed out of an old tarp and some rope. A pile of sticks and leaves approximated a bed or sleeping bag within it. It wasn't much but it blocked the elements out and kept him warm enough at night. To his right was a small bucket he had crafted with cherushil that held some drinking water, as well as a path he had worn to a stream where he could get more. At the center was a fire pit he had dug out, mostly to cook food with. As he turned to start his daily forage for plants Alikred popped out of the ring.

"Oh! Hello Ali-san, I'm surprised to see you."

"Well, it's been a week already, I figured I could splurge some mana on seeing how you were doing." 

        Iruma continued foraging as they talked. "I'm doing alright, it's weirdly nostalgic living like this again after so long."

"That's a bit concerning Iru-boy," the small figure floated casually around Iruma's vision, "but I'm glad you're holding up."

"Yeah, it's not even winter so as long as I'm careful it's pretty easy for me at this point." He looked at the plants in his hand. They seemed dull and sad in comparison to what he had typically eaten over the past few years, or even to what he had scrounged up during the harvest festival. "I do miss the food back in the Netherworld though," he said with a sigh.

"I bet you're excited to get back."

"Of course."

        Alikred's eye indicated a smile, though it faded into a more contemplative look. A brief silence hung between them as Ali thought about whether or not to say what he was thinking.

"Don't you think you should try and get a job or something while you're here? Y'know make a space for yourself."

"I'd need a lot of personal papers which I don't have to get anything legal and I don't feel like getting involved with the criminal side of things again. Besides, it's not like I'll be here for too much longer so it'd just be a waste of time."

"What if," Ali started uncomfortably, "What if no one comes to get you?"

"They will."

"But what if they get caught trying to cross the border or something and they can't make it?"

"I'd wait a couple more weeks before worrying about that, but if that did happen then I guess I'd have to start researching how to open a path on this side of things, but I doubt that will be the case, and either way getting a shelter set up is priority one."

"You sure have a lot of faith in those friends of yours don't you?"

"I guess so," Iruma smiled, "we've always come through for each other before so it would be weird if we couldn't this time." He had gathered enough for a meal at this point and began to head back to his camp. "I know that, realistically speaking, it's possible that something goes wrong, but even then that wouldn't mean we'd be content to just let things stay the way they are, we'd all just keep trying until we eventually sorted everything out."

        Ali looked at the boy with satisfaction and approval, "When'd you go and get that type of attitude?" He asked with a joking aggression, "Whatever happened to the kid who just wanted to blend into the background and accepted whatever came his way?"

        Iruma shrugged, "I guess everyone else just rubbed off on me."

"Good thing they did I guess, I wouldn't want to be trying to give you pep talks though all of this." Ali laid back in the air with his hands behind his head, "Anyway, now that we've got the serious stuff out of the way, I figure I can afford to keep you company for a while before I go back to mana conservation mode."

"Great, I've missed talking to someone while I eat."

*        *        *

"I'm not sure what it is," Ameri said to the others gathered in Royal One, she held a hand to her chin as she contemplated the paper that she had been handed, "I agree it looks like a summoning circle but it's definitely not the typical familiar summoning one. This character here," she pointed to a marking on the paper, "resembles the Border Patrol insignia that you'd see on official documentation and the like, though I can't think of why it would be used as a part of a circle like this."

"Can I see?" Sabnock asked.

"Here ya go." Clara said as she gave him a copy of the paper. Sabnock studied it for a moment before he spoke.

"These symbols are pretty archaic but I'm fairly certain that this part is reflexive."

"Perplexing?" Clara asked.

"Reflexive," he repeated, "it means that some part of a sentence refers back to the subject. So if I said 'They saved themselves,' the 'themselves' would be reflexive. When used in spells like this it means that it affects the caster."

"And given that it also contains a modified version of the Border Patrol insignia," Ameri continued the line of reasoning, "it's likely that it summons a demon that uses it back to the facility." She nodded. "I could see father providing that to demons who work near the entry point, if only as a precaution for if they went through it on accident."

"So once we grab Iruma-chi I just make a bunch of these and then bam! We're back home," Clara concluded.

"Well it'd be ideal if we didn't wind up back at Border Patrol after going through all that work"

"We could probably change the destination, but I'm not familiar enough with this script to be able to improvise it on my own."

"It's probable," Allocer interjected, "that a prestigious institution like Babyls would have either a formal transliteration into most old writing systems or guidelines for such an activity which would make it comparatively simple to use the school as a return location over other options." He paused a second before continuing to speak. "I would like to pause that train of thought for a moment though, and discuss what we originally had planned for today, that being, which of us is going to travel to the human world?"

        The room's attention turned fully to the conversation as the topic shifted.

"Well, obviously as his soulmates Clara and myself will be going to retrieve Iruma-sama," Asmodeus said confidently as Clara bounced excitedly next to him.

"I assume I'll be going as well seeing as most of us won't be able to close to our destination without my help," Purson commented, "And if that's the case would you mind coming along as well Elizabetta, it was good to be able to avoid any unnecessary close calls last time."

"I'd be happy to help."

"That leaves room for two more people to come then."

"Seeing as you sought out our help I'm guessing that you want to go as well President Ameri?" Sabnock asked.

"I can probably get my father to let me tour the place if I say it's for my career and I can sneak away from there. It's no Detection Warding, but my Romanticist combined with perception warding glasses should let me get past the guard in front of the gate without much trouble if the door is open, it'll also throw off the staff since they'll be distracted escorting me around. You can leave my spot free and then we can have more utility overall."

        Leid raised a hand as he spoke up, "If the president isn't going then can I have her place? I feel like I haven't gotten the chance to do much so far."

"I was actually already planning on asking you to go," Allocer answered.

"Really?"

        Allocer nodded, "If Iruma isn't nearby where the team is dropped off, you're the best suited of us to find him specifically. Agares and Gaap are better at surveying an area than at tracking and Caim's information is always a bit outdated due to the nature of how it's acquired, whereas you can get real time, specific information over a fairly substantial area."

"Alright, but then who's gonna be the last person?"

"I think Kerori should do it," Sabnock proclaimed, "With Asmodeus and President Ameri we have enough direct combat types to hold our own should something go wrong and her Ice Facade's ability to disrupt the shape of the battlefield could prove invaluable at forcing any adversaries into a situation advantageous for our group."

"I'm willing to go along," she replied, "but are you sure you don't want to go Sabnock? I doubt that anyone would have a problem with that."

"Like I said, we have enough frontline fighters already. As things currently stand it would be best to keep me in reserve should the retrieval team get captured and the rest of us have to mount a prison break to get them out."

"So if no one has any objections," Allocer announced, "the group going to the human world will consist of Asmodeus, Clara, Purson, Elizabetta, Leid, Kerori, and President Ameri."

"I'm good with the group but I do have a question," Leid spoke up, "How are we supposed to let you know what we're doing?" He turned towards Ameri as he spoke, "Should we, like, text you or something?"

"That's a good point actually," Ameri placed a hand on her chin in thought, "I know that they expect me to have my ringer off at these sorts of things but if I constantly check my phone to compensate for that they'll probably catch on sooner than we'd like."

        The room was silent as the group tried to think of a work-around before Kerori proposed an idea, "Evidols will sometimes use earpieces to hear their music over the crowd, maybe we could modify one of those to be stealthier and use that to communicate?"

        No one else had any better ideas so Clara pulled out some earpieces and passed out tools to the others so they could get to work, the group planning on resolving this issue within the day.

"While you all get started on that, I'll go retrieve some materials from the library to help with our return circle problem," Allocer said as he excused himself from the rest of the group and left Royal One.

*        *        *

        Allocer sat at a table in Babyls's expansive library. He leafed through one of the books he had pulled out, several others strewn around him as he tried to find any information that would help him with his task. Normally he would ask a librarian or one of the members of the library club for assistance, but that would inevitably lead to them trying to make conversation, which would likely cause them to question why he needed those books in the first place and he hadn't had the time to prepare a sufficient cover story for that yet. Thus, he combed through the massive stockpile of information on his own. He was so engrossed in his task that he didn't notice as footsteps approached him.

"Ah, Allocer, I wasn't aware you had an interest in linguistics."

        Allocer started at the sudden noise before turning to see his homeroom teacher looking over his shoulder at the book he had open. Quickly folding the copy of the circle he had been using as reference into his palm, he formulated a reply.

"Well when one feels like stagnating, the best thing to do is search out the new."

        Kalego recognized that manner of speech. The structure of the sentence, the direct vocabulary, the use of "one" as an indefinite. It was a habit that Allocer had mostly managed to kick since his time with General Furfur, though he did slip back into it occasionally, particularly when he was nervous. Kalego also caught a glimpse of the paper he had hidden away. He had certainly improved his sleight of hand, but given his inexperience and Kalego's practice at catching students sneaking notes around it wasn't surprising that he managed to catch sight of it.

"I suppose it is always good to broaden your horizons," Kalego replied before pausing for a moment. If he was reading this situation right, Allocer was probably trying to either translate something into the same terms as the circle or he was trying to update that circle into more modern terms, presumably as a part of whatever scheme the rest of his class were devising.

"If you're really invested in the subject," Kalego continued, "I believe you might find this volume rather enlightening." He pulled a moderately thin black tome from the shelf and placed it next to the pile that Allocer had assembled.

        Allocer considered how to respond. It was possible that his professor had caught on to the fact that the Misfits were planning to return Iruma to the Netherworld, but given that he hadn't stopped them it was likely that he didn't have any solid proof yet. He wondered if the book was bait, if Kalego would gauge his reaction to the information and use that to decide whether or not to further investigate his suspicions, but a flat refusal of his teacher's help would be worse than most other responses in that regard. Even if he was being paranoid, an atypical answer could be the thing that created suspicion in his professor in the first place.

"If it comes with your recommendation then I'll be sure to look it over thoroughly," he carefully answered, attempting to sound as casual as the situation called for.

"Very well, I'll let you get back to your studies then."

"Have a good evening Professor."

"You as well," Kalego smirked as he walked away. He wasn't in a position to directly help his students in this endeavor but that didn't mean he couldn't throw them a bone once in a while. If he didn't, then they would have just searched the whole library until they found what they needed anyway, so he was really just expediting the process. Eliminating the grunt work for them would reduce decision fatigue and allow them to make better choices in the long term. Surely that much was within his professorial duties.

        Allocer turned back to the books, not immediately rushing to Kalego's recommendation in case he was under observation, but after determining that his current selection had no useful information he grabbed the black volume and opened it. To his surprise, it seemed almost tailor made for this transliteration. Though it wasn't perfect, and he'd want to cross check with Sabnock before he was ready to finalize anything, it would drastically reduce the time it would take him to sort out the particulars of the process. With renewed vigor, he redoubled his efforts.

*        *        *

        While Allocer was occupied with the library, the rest of the group was occupied with modifying the earpieces. Tables were pushed together in the main room to form a larger workstation. Wires, tools, and parts were scattered across the area. Taking apart several earpieces had given them a good idea of how they worked, but they hadn't had any luck with making them less conspicuous.

"Man, this sucks!" Leid yelled as he threw a half assembled microphone onto the table. "We've been at this for ages and we haven't made any progress!" He turned towards Asmodeus and Clara, "You guys are in the MagiApp Batra right? Aren't you supposed to be good at this type of thing?"

"Unfortunately, neither Clara nor I are particularly knowledgeable about the subject, especially compared to some of the other members of our batra. I suppose we could ask them for assistance, but the only ones I can think of that would be of any use are Amy Kirio who is," he paused for an awkward moment, mistrust evident on his face, "currently unable to be contacted, Eligos Schnell," Ameri shifted uncomfortably at the name, "who I wouldn't even consider trusting with something of this magnitude, and Marbas F. Yabashi, who's related to Professor Marbas and would likely be a bad option as a result."

"De Man would never tell on us," Clara said with a pout.

"I know that, but we don't want to put him between his relative and us. Plus, he could slip up on accident even if he doesn't want to on purpose," Asmodeus answered.

"Are we sure we aren't making this more complex than it has to be?" Sabnock asked.

"Elaborate," Ameri requested.

        He rubbed a hand on his chin thoughtfully, "We've been trying to downsize this equipment to little success, but are we sure that we need to preserve all of the functionality of the original? For example, is the microphone and speaker really necessary? If we can send and receive signals then we could communicate without using words."

"Oh, like Remorse code," Ameri said, realization flashing across her face.

"Yes," Sabnock replied, grinning slightly as interest in his idea seemed to pick up, "though probably a simplified version since most of us don't know it off hand."

"I could see that working, if it just sent mana back and forth it would be a lot less obvious than this set up," she gestures as the mess before them.

        They got to work isolating the circuits of the earpiece that transmitted and received signals, and reducing their size as much as possible. Eventually they had gotten the system down to roughly the diameter of a small coin. After giving the circuits casings, they appeared from the outside to be a set of circular earrings. Still noticeable when worn, but far less likely to be identified as communication devices. As they were ensuring that the devices worked over substantial distance, through separate rooms, and other such stress tests, Allocer returned from his trip to the library, a few useful books under his arm.

"I see you all have made some headway while I was gone."

"Yes," Sabnock responded proudly, "we're just putting them through their paces ahead of time to avoid any malfunctions when we actually need them to work." He looked at the volumes Allocer was carrying. "I take it you had some success as well then?"

"Yes, I wanted to get your input as well though since you already have some family with this."

        The two of them looked over the books together, Allocer explaining his thoughts on how best to alter the circle and Sabnock making corrections as needed. The process became smoother for Sabnock now that he had reference materials in front of him. By the time they were finishing their discussion and modifications, testing had completed on the earrings and the Misfits stood around the duo, eagerly awaiting their next move, while Ameri stood off to the side, texting on her hellphone.

        At long last, Sabnock held up the final product for all to see. 

"Behold!" he called out, all eyes turning to him, "The fruits of our labors!" With that he poured his mana into the circle, which began to burn up, starting at the edges. The resulting smoke orbited around Sabnock until it completely enveloped him. The smoke dissipated, revealing Sabnock was no longer there, before coalescing again in the center of the room, safely depositing Sabnock. As the paper was reduced to cinders, the smoke dispersed through the air until no trace remained of the circle.

        The group roared in excitement at the success, their goal now tantalizingly within reach.

"We did it, we did it!" Clara shouted, "Now we just gotta sneak in one more time and we can get Iruma-chi back!"

"My father can get me a tour of the place as soon as two days from now."

"Perfect," Asmodeus nodded, "we'll make our move then. During the interim be sure to rest up, we want to be in top form."

        The group cheered in agreement, lingering around for a few minutes before demons slowly began trickling out, eventually leaving Royal One empty for the night.

Chapter Text

“Do you have everything?” Henri asked his daughter as he pushed up his glasses.

“I think so.” She patted herself down, ensuring that all her items were where she thought they were.

“Good,” he responded, “I’m sorry again for being unable to accompany you, I’ve been swamped with work ever since…” He trailed off, not wanting to remind Ameri of what happened. 

“It’s really ok,” she assured him, “I’m lucky that I get to go at all considering how recent it all happened.

        She seemed brighter than she had been for a while, which was good, he just hoped that it wasn’t an act she was putting on to stop him from worrying. She had been rather sullen around him for the past week or so, not that he could particularly blame her for being upset with him, he knew how close she had been with Iruma and as the head of Border Patrol he was technically responsible for the boy’s extradition. Frankly, he was glad that it had gone the way it did. He shuddered to think about what would have happened had a demon that had returned to origins had gotten to him first. Even ignoring what would have happened to Iruma, the trauma that would have been inflicted on those that knew him would have been catastrophic. All things considered, this was the best outcome he could realistically see happening. Not that he particularly enjoyed having his child stonewall him at every opportunity, hence why he had rushed to fulfill her request as soon as possible, but at least this way no one had gotten killed. It was a little strange that she had requested to specifically go to the facility that Iruma had been sent back through, but he wrote it off as her seeing the name on one of his papers and wanting to visit as a way to process her emotions. He tried not to read too much into it and just be glad his daughter was talking to him again.

“Alright,” he accepted her sentiment, “The carriage is waiting outside and Narnia will meet you at the gate when you arrive.”

“Thank you again father.”

“Of course, try to make the most of it.”

“I will.” She waved to her father as she left their home and got in the carriage.

*        *        *

        Ameri sat quietly in thought during the ride. She had notified the Misfits of her departure and they had confirmed that they received the message. If everything was going according to plan, the team that would be going to the human world were already stationed in the forest outside the building and would sneak in behind her. Her main concern at the moment was Narnia. She had faith that Purson would be able to get the group past him undetected but the Canine Lord hadn’t been given his status for nothing. It wasn’t entirely impossible that he could figure out something was up even without noticing them directly and should they have to fight through him… hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

        Her ride slowed as it approached its destination, Ameri updating the Misfits accordingly. Once the carriage had come to a stop she stepped out into the muggy air. The nearby trees had turned their leaves upside-down, revealing their pale underbellies to the world. Dark clouds eclipsed the heavens, rolling hills of charcoal gray arced across the sky, pale light only managing to sneak through the valleys where the clouds were thinnest. A moderate breeze blew by, tossing her hair as she turned to face the gate to the facility.

“Miss Azazel, I trust you had a pleasant trip here,” Narnia said with a slight bow once Ameri was in earshot.

“Yes, everything went smoothly,” she said flatly.

“You’ll forgive us if we appear a bit shorthanded,” he said with a disappointed huff, “Some evidol announced a surprise concert a few days ago and it caused some of our more distractible staff to take the day off without enough notice for us to fill their absence.”

“Oh I assure you, it’s no issue at all. These things can’t always be helped.”

“Indeed. If you’ll follow me, we can get started right away.” He turned away from her and gestured over his shoulder as the gates opened.

“Of course.”

        The gate slowly swung open as the pair walked through. Narnia gave a running commentary on the purposes that the various pieces of equipment stationed around the courtyard served. Ameri only half listened, paying enough attention to be able to respond appropriately but not particularly interested in the subject matter. As she approached the main building of the facility, the magnitude of what she was about to attempt began to weigh on her. She had known, obviously, that this was how things would end up if the Misfits and her kept on their current path, but knowing it and experiencing it were two entirely different things.

        The building loomed over her. Her mind raced through the plan, trying to think of anything that could go wrong. It wasn’t like she would back out now, even if she had the option to, and it was a bit late to actually correct any of their plan’s flaws, but considering her options for if someone were to try and exploit one of them was comforting. Another nervous thought flashed through her brain. She worried for a moment if Iruma had actually managed to evade the memory wipe. The entire operation was predicated on the assumption that that was the case, but if she was wrong about that, all of their efforts would be for nothing. She tried to shake the thought off. From their position there was no way to know for sure one way or the other what had happened and the only way to find out would be to go see for themselves. She just had to have faith in Iruma’s ability.

        She stepped through the door to the building, quashing that fear as she had when she first decided to reclaim Iruma. Once the door closed behind her she felt a series of pulses of mana in her ear, the signal from the Misfits that they had made it inside safely. She continued along the tour, asking questions to stall for time as well as to try and subtly focus Narnia’s attention off of their target. Narnia answered all of her questions to an appropriate level of detail, voice impassive the whole time. He seemed to find the whole affair rather boring, almost as if he thought this was a waste of his time, Ameri speculated internally. If she was right, that was another point in their favor, he might have his guard further down than usual. Ideally, they would be stealthy enough that that factor wouldn’t come into play, but an advantage was an advantage.

        Another set of pulses, the others were closing in on the door. A look of focus came across Ameri’s face as she tried to figure out how she could get away from Narnia without arousing suspicion.

“Is something the matter, Miss Azazel?” he asked.

“Huh?” The question pulled her out of her thoughts, “No, I just… realized I have to use the restroom,” she answered, using the chance to give an excuse to step away.

Narnia let out an exasperated sigh, “Down the hall, on your left.”

“Thank you,” she said, trying to sound earnest.

        She walked down the hall as directed and slipped into the bathroom, finding it empty. “Perfect,” she thought to herself. She swiftly pulled out a pair of perception warding glasses and put them on. Following that, her hair turned white as her bloodline ability activated. She directed her efforts towards making herself “unnotable,” a difficult task for someone as used to standing out as she was but she managed to pull it off. The two layers of stealth assistance acted as an imperfect facsimile of Purson’s Detection Warding. While not as absolute of a cover as the latter magic, they would make it difficult for anyone that saw her to register her presence and those that did were likely to forget about it soon after. Stepping back out into the hallway, she began briskly making her way towards the top floor.

*        *        *

        The group of Misfits moved as quickly as they could manage. They were already wearing their own pairs of perception warding glasses, provided by Clara, in case Purson ran out of mana before they were ready. Asmodeus sent Ameri a signal as they were about halfway to their destination, hopefully that would give her enough time to catch up with them just as they got the door open. Making good time, they managed to work their way to the room that contained the gateway.

“Leid,” Asmodeus said.

“On it.” Leid’s ears turned black as he stole the lone guard’s hearing. This, combined with Full Love Gauge, would reduce the odds that the guard would notice the door opening, seemingly by itself.

        Clara pulled out the ID card and held it up to the lock on the door. The lock beeped twice before clicking into place, the door subsequently sliding open with a hiss. Asmodeus received a signal from Ameri informing him that she would be there within the minute. The group hurried into the room, gazing at the large circle inscribed on the floor. Leid kept his bloodline ability active to serve as a sort of look out.

“Do we just use it like a normal summoning?” Kerori asked.

“I think so,” Asmodeus answered, “It appears to be structured rather similarly to a standard circle.” He felt mana flow into him from the earrings again, indicating that Ameri was now on the same floor as them. Indeed, if he looked down the hall and really focused he could just barely see a hazy figure approaching them, almost impossible to notice if one didn’t know what they were looking for.

        Purson’s bloodline ability dissipated due to the extensive mana use just as Ameri entered the room. Her hair returned to its normal coloration once she joined them. Everyone quickly pulled their glasses off and put them back on so that the magic wouldn’t interfere with their ability to coordinate, huddled in a tight ring to hide their faces from any potential cameras. As they gathered around the circle Leid heard a buzz with his stolen hearing.

“Forneus? What’s going on? I’ve just been notified that that door has been sitting open for minutes now!”

        There was a brief pause as the demon on the other end of the line waited for a response. Leid felt viscous panic begin to trickle down his spine.

“Dammit, he must be compromised,” the demon now sounded like he was giving orders to someone else, “I’ll go check it out myself, the rest of you go out and find Henri’s kid and make sure she doesn’t get caught up in all of this.”

“Shit…” Leid muttered to himself, “They’re onto us.”

“How many people are coming?” Ameri asked.

“Sounded like just the person in charge.”

“That’s probably Narnia then.”

“Like, the one from the Thirteen Crowns?”

“Yes, that Narnia,” she said worriedly.

        Pressure mounted on the group as the reality of their situation settled in.

“Well, first things first,” Kerori said, snapping them out of the moment. With a wave of her hand, ice crystallized underneath the jaw of the guard and rapidly grew upwards, knocking their head back and swiftly rendering them unconscious. For good measure, she generated more ice constructs around their limbs and torso, holding them firmly to the ground and taking them out of any potential conflict to come. “We don't want to have to deal with two of them.”

“Right,” Ameri said, swiftly taking control of the scenario, “Asmodeus and I will handle Narnia when he gets here. The first priority for the rest of you is to stay out of harm’s way, second is to get the circle working, third is to run support if you see an opportunity, understood?”

        The group verbalized their agreement. Ameri and Asmodeus pressed themselves on either side of the door while the others began pouring their mana into the circle. The markings around the circumference began to glow slightly as they absorbed energy. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard rapidly approaching down the hallway.  All eyes turned to the door to see Naberius Narnia running full speed towards them. 

        Swirls of black encompassed Leid’s eyes and ears as he stole Narnia’s senses. The advancing demon stumbled slightly as he adjusted to his sudden blindness and deafness. The black haired demon sniffed at the air, using his sense of smell to compensate for the loss of information. After reorienting himself, Narnia continued forward, albeit, substantially slower than before. 

        Narnia lurched into the room, hunched over, fingers spread, ready to claw at anything that came into range. As his waist crossed the threshold Ameri’s boot sped into his midsection, lifting him from the ground, her hair, white once again, trailing behind her. Before he had the chance to begin falling, a pillar of blue flame drilled into his back, forcing him into the ground. From his prone position, Naberius summoned Cerberus, lightning crackled as the beast carved itself out of the air, forcing his assailants to back off. He peeled himself off the floor, raising an arm to swipe in the direction of his attackers’ scent, Cerberus mimicking his movements. Just as he was about to bring his hand down to snuff out his enemies, a manacle of ice manifested around his wrist and attached it to the wall, stopping his action in its tracks.

        Confusion crossed Narnia’s face at this interruption, trying to understand what had happened with his limited senses. This confusion quickly passed once he caught a whiff of the telltale smoke of the gateway being activated. It wasn’t strong, just starting to build, but still too  much for his liking. Exerting himself, he shattered the ice restraining him and lunged towards the smell of smoke, deducing that there had to be more demons charging the circle while the other two held him off.

        Ameri dashed in front of him, intercepting with a sharp uppercut. Narnia felt the pressure change from the incoming punch and just barely managed to block with an arm. Seizing the chance, he swiped in Ameri’s direction with his free hand. Ice manifested beneath his wrist and shunted his hand upwards, causing his attack to whiff. Not deterred, he used the momentum granted to him from the ice to convert his swing into a somatic command for Cerberus. In response, the hound clawed wildly towards where Narnia had sensed a substantial concentration of mana, indicative of living things. As the crackling paw barrelled towards Clara and Purson, a flower of blue flames germinated and bloomed, drawing in and absorbing the impact before it could connect.

        Clearly, Narnia was going to have to deal with these two before he could take out the others. Fast too, if the increasingly prominent smoke smell was anything to go by. He continued his assault with renewed fervor. Lashing out in the directions that he determined his enemies to be he couldn’t quite land a clean hit. Being blinded and deafened obviously wasn’t helping, and there was that vexing ice that attempted to knock him off course at every turn, but even with those limitations he should have been hitting his mark more often than this. Feeling an incoming surge of heat, he jumped back to avoid the attack only to leap right into Ameri’s fist. The force of the punch sent him reeling forward and placed him directly in the path of the fire, connecting head on. He internally questioned if he was really so predictable as he parried away a few lighter blows. He tried to dismiss Cerberus to lessen the mana drain on himself since it appeared that he wouldn’t be able to utilize it effectively but the onslaught from his opponents didn’t afford him even that opportunity. He launched a few more attacks, all of which were either glancing blows or missed entirely, which then opened him up for vicious counters. Following one such volley, he noticed a scent that, to his advanced scent of smell, seemed to be sickly sweet. He briefly wondered if one of them was wearing some type of perfume and, if so, why bother doing so on such a brazen endeavor as invading Border Patrol. That train of thought was quickly cut off by another flurry of attacks, forcing him to block.

        Heretofore, the fight had been fairly quiet. The only sounds were the smacking of fist against flesh, the rumble of Asmodeus’s flames, and the crackle of Cerberus’s presence as it stood at attention. The participants had been so focused on the task at hand that anything more than that would feel almost as if it would desecrate the scene. The solemnity in the room was shattered by Clara suddenly yelling out.

“Azz-Azz! Floaty!” she called as pulled a large paper ball out of her pocket and lobbed it at Narnia.

        Asmodeus’s eyes flashed with recognition as he saw the projectile and sent a stream of flames towards it. Leid wasn’t quite sure what the plan was but if Clara was talking to him specifically then there was probably only one thing that she wanted. His eyes and ears returned to their normal coloration as Asmodeus ignited the shell.

         A rolling boom filled the air alongside a brilliant flash of blue light as the firework detonated. The sparks themselves didn’t do much damage to the demons due to their hardy constitutions but the sensory whiplash of going from total darkness and silence to the apex of light and sound in a fraction of a second left Narnia stunned. Not missing this chance, Ameri and Asmodeus quickly set upon him. They hit him back and forth between each other, keeping the pressure on him, Leid stole his vision and hearing again as the fighting started back up. A veritable garden of blue flowers had bloomed around Asmodeus as his magic intensified, he and Ameri taking full advantage of them to further wound Narnia.

“Enough!” Narnia howled with a frenzied look in his eye once the duo’s offense had let up enough for him to make a move, “Cerberus, run wild!” With that the collars around Cerberus’s necks shattered to pieces as the hound let out a beastly roar. It would be a hassle to resubjugate the dog later but at this point he had nothing more on his mind than eliminating those who had dared intrude on his territory regardless of the cost.

        Asmodeus looked between Cerberus the circle. The smoke was thickening and the glow of the inscription was intensifying but it still needed a bit more time. He turned to face Ameri before speaking.

“Do you think you can handle him on your own while I take the dog?”

“Not like I have much of a choice,” she huffed, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“That’s good enough for me,” he said as he opened the topmost clasp of his coat and reached towards his hair tie, “I’ll try to make this quick.”

        With that he wrapped a finger around the loop and snapped the elastic. Pitch black smoke billowed from beneath his feet, rapidly coating his body. The petals on his flowers became thin and curled tightly while their stamens grew in length until they were longer than the petals, now resembling spider lilies more than their namesake amaryllis in every aspect except their color, which remained a piercing blue like that of a welding torch. His eyes fluttered as a manic grin split his face. Peals of laughter tumbled from his throat as he traipsed towards Cerberus.

        While Asmodeus cavorted with Cerberus, Ameri continued the brawl with Narnia. Now that the focus was solely on her it became exponentially more difficult to hold her own. The deluge of attacks fell on her with less hesitation than before and she was just barely able to avoid them. She stayed light on her feet, dodging blows entirely where possible and shifting herself so they glanced off of her guard when she couldn’t. Elizabetta’s Full Love Gauge proved itself an invaluable asset as its subtle influence caused Narnia’s movements to become a hair sloppier and a tad more telegraphed, which enabled Ameri to maintain her slight defensive edge.

        Spotting a gap in his sequence, Ameri lunged forward with a right straight, hitting him squarely in the cheek. In response, Narnia dropped his right hip back to swipe upwards at her head with his left hand, exploiting the fact that that side of her body would have its guard down, the physical contact giving him an improved bearing on her location. Kerori reached out a hand to generate a bar of ice to thrust his hand off of its intended path, as she had been doing up to this point in the conflict, but as the construct started to take shape it sublimated back into vapor almost immediately. As a result, Narnia hit his mark, the heel of his hand impacting the underside of Ameri’s jaw at full speed, staggering her momentarily before she regained her composure and resumed fighting.

“S-Sorry,” Kerori whimpered, “Not enough water… Too hot…” 

        The spike in temperature from Asmodeus’s increase in mana output wasn’t pleasant for anyone in the room, but it was clear that Kerori was handling it the worst out of everyone due to her family’s natural vulnerability to high heat. Her face was flushed and sweat dripped off her hands before evaporating mid air. Her breathing had become heavy and rattly and given how much her limbs were shaking it was evident that she was having a hard time staying upright.

“I got it, I got it!” Clara said as she bounded over to Kerori’s side. With one hand she pulled cold packs and battery powered fans out of her pocket to help cool Kerori off. With the other she held open her remaining pocket and released clouds of fog into the room to add more water to the air. The clouds rapidly dissipated as the heat pulled the moisture out of them but it did cause the room to become noticeably more humid. Her efforts weren’t as effective as having another Crocell use their own bloodline ability on Kerori but it was useful triage nonetheless.

        For his part, Asmodeus was unable to moderate his flames, being fully enthralled by the revelry induced from his wicked phase. He flitted about the battlefield, whirling in and out of Cerberus’s range, leaving helixes scorched into the ground behind him. He launched wave after wave of flames at the beast, which batted them away with little difficulty. Catching notice of this, Asmodeus adapted his behavior accordingly. He leapt out of the path of another swipe of Cerberus’s paw and reared back to such a degree that his outstretched hand almost brushed the ground. He then whipped forward and brought his fist down on the paw with such force that it cracked the floor below. Azure sparks rose up around him as yet another flower bloomed, this one embedded within Cerberus. Ecstasy lit up Asmodeus’s face upon seeing his flames catch, the illumination from below seeming to stretch his grin even wider than it had been before. In response Cerberus flung its paw upwards to try and extinguish the blaze, hurling Asmodeus into a wall but failing to put out the fire. Asmodeus picked himself up off the floor seemingly unharmed and dashed back into the fray.

        The fight continued in a similar manner for the next few minutes. The Misfits holding their own but unable to gain a substantial advantage over their opponent. Narnia, despite the constraints placed on him by Leid and Elizabetta, as well as whatever interference Kerori could muster, didn’t seem to be tiring nearly as fast as the others were. Within the circle the smoke continued to build and thicken until eventually reaching its peak, the inscription on the floor flashing once to indicate the completion of the process. 

        Upon this occurring, Purson turned his attention away from the circle, ready to use whatever remaining mana he had to help his allies. After assessing the stalemate and concluding that Narnia couldn’t have much more difficult of a time finding Ameri even with his help as well as noting Asmodeus’s increased mana expenditure he decided to assist the latter.

        He focused all his attention on activating Detection Warding one more time, even if for an instant, as long as it was enough to give Asmodeus an opening. Scraping the bottom of his reserves, consuming mana as his body generated it. Mist wicked off of his body as he exerted himself, sputtering into the air before it could wrap around him. He pushed himself further, everyone else was doing their best to help and he couldn’t just sit around while his friends got themselves hurt.

        The mist flared up once more, this time in full force. It enshrouded his head as his bloodline ability finally flickered on. It continued to pour off of him and for an instant Asmodeus appeared to blink out of existence, much to the confusion of Cerberus, before reappearing behind the hound, the mist dissipating from around Purson with a hiss as the last of his mana was spent. Asmodeus grabbed ahold of Cerberus’s tail, a corona of flame surrounding them both, and shifted his weight. He heaved Cerberus over his shoulder and swung with all his might, slamming the dog into the ground heads first.

        With a yelp Cerberus vanished back to where it went when it wasn’t currently being summoned, having reached its physical limit. Asmodeus leaned back, a wild look in his eyes, as he reveled in his victory.

        Narnia’s eyes widened as he felt Cerberus be forcefully dispelled. How long had it been since the last time someone had done that? Had anyone outside of his family ever pulled that off? Instinctively he turned to face the location he last felt Cerberus at even though his stolen senses would have prevented him from determining what had happened and who had done it.

        As he whipped his head around it was swiftly met with Ameri’s fist as she delivered a powerful left hook into his jaw. The force from the punch knocked Narnia off of his feet and sent him tumbling into the air. Ameri swiftly followed up on her attack, rotating with the momentum of her swing she spun until she was facing Narnia’s airborne body. She raised a leg and delivered a crushing axe kick to his gut, the floor cracking beneath him as he was sent rocketing downwards. His pupils constricted as he impacted the ground, a noise, half gasp and half choke, passed through his lips as his breath was forced out of him. He laid on the floor with his eyes wide open, unmoving but still breathing.

        The group stood still for a moment. The only sound was the occasional chuckle from Asmodeus and the crackling of his flames.

“He’s out,” Leid announced as his eyes and ears returned to their normal coloring, the sudden lack of input from his bloodline ability letting him know that Narnia was knocked unconscious.

“Right, let’s go!” Ameri commanded.

      They quickly made their way into the smoke, first Leid followed by Purson. Elizabetta helped Kerori through as the latter was still unstable from the heat. Ameri went into the circle next, her hair turning red once again. Clara was about to join them before noticing that Asmodeus was lagging behind them.

        She turned to see Asmodeus sauntering over to Naria’s body, a harsh laugh scratching its way out of his throat. He had forged a chlorine blue poleaxe out of his flames which he held in one hand as it trailed along the ground behind him. As he approached Narnia he hefted his weapon over his head, overjoyed at the prospect of more destruction while forgetting why he was destroying in the first place.

“Azz-Azz!” Clara interrupted, “C’mon! We gotta go get Iruma-chi!”

        The sound of Iruma’s name seemed to have a physical effect on Asmodeus. He stumbled on his path as he came down from his wicked phase, his flames extinguishing themselves in the process. He placed a hand on his forehead as exhaustion started to catch up with him.

“Sorry, I seem to have lost myself for a second there.”

“It’s fine but we gotta go go go!” Clara said as she tugged on his sleeve, encouraging him to move faster towards the circle.

        They walked over to the circle, Clara bouncing on her heels just ahead of Asmodeus, not wanting to abandon him but eager to leave, and crossed the boundary together. A few moments after they had passed through, the smoke thinned out until it was so diffused throughout the area that it had effectively vanished into the air. The only person left in the room was the unconscious Narnia. As the air cooled it became unable to hold the excess moisture that Clara had added to it and the water began condensing around the smoke particulates still lingering in the air until small clouds started to form. A gentle rain began to mist down onto the site of the battle.

        Suddenly, Narnia’s comm buzzed to life.

“Vice-Chief, come in! We’ve searched most of the complex but we’ve been unable to find Miss Azazel. We believe she may have been taken hostage, can you confirm or deny?”

        The line went quiet as the other demon waited for a response.

“Vice-Chief? Vice-Chief do you copy? Give us a status report, what's going on over there?!”

        The line went silent again as they awaited a response that didn’t come. After a few moments the building’s loudspeaker sounded.

“All available units rendezvous on the upper floor as soon as possible, we have reason to believe that there’s been a high level breach in the facility, prepare to mobilize shortly.”

*        *        *

        In the human world, a blue haired boy tended to his campsite. A small fire crackled in the center, heating up a basic soup made from local flora. The boy stirred the soup to ensure that it didn’t burn and waste the hard work he put into gathering the plants. He sat alone, humming to himself to make the chore more enjoyable. To his surprise, a small dark figure appeared out of the ring on his right hand.

“Al-” the boy was cut off by the small figure placing a hand over his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah, good to see you too, but more importantly I just picked up on a huge mana spike a second ago! Either some human managed to be the first person to figure out how to make mana artificially or our ticket home finally showed up!”

        The boy’s eyes lit up, “Really?! They’re really here?!”

“Of course kid, why would I joke about something like that?”

“Right, right, I’m just so excited to see everyone again.”

“I get ya, I’m eager to head back too, it's been ages since I've had something to eat.”

“I’ll make sure to top you off soon, don't worry,” the boy said with a smile, “just tell me where they are and we’ll get there as soon as possible.”

Chapter Text

12:50

        Asmodeus and Clara’s feet thumped against the grass as they were dropped into the human world. The other members of their group were situated nearby as they caught their breath. Kerori sat on the ground while Elizabetta used her hands to fan her. Lied stood nearby rubbing his eyes while Purson laid flat on his back. Even Ameri took the chance to recuperate after their battle.

“Holy crap, we actually just beat one of the 13 Crowns,” Lied panted, “I know he was blind and deaf for most of the fight but still!”

“How’d he even figure out what we were doing?” Purson asked.

“I don’t know, I heard him say something about getting notified about the door while I had that guard’s hearing.”

“There could have been a sensor in the door,” Ameri interjected, “Either that or there might have been a camera that we missed.”

“Whatever!” Lied exclaimed happily, “It doesn’t really matter since we won.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Clara said, notably more energetic than the others, “We went all kablam and kapow and fwoosh and…” she continued on making sound effects, mimicking the parts of the fight that she was referencing as she did.

12:51

“So this is where Iruma-sama is from,” Asmodeus said, taking in his surroundings as Clara prattled on.

“I’m not sure what I expected, but this feels a bit tamer than I would think for where Iruma grew up,” Elizabetta said, also looking around.

“Well of course Iruma-sama would be exceptional even among humans,” he proclaimed proudly.

“I’d like to tour it more freely but we should probably focus on our primary objective,” Ameri reminded everyone, “We don’t even know for certain if this is the area he was sent to and even if it was there’s no guarantee he’s still nearby.”

“Oh yeah!” Clara said, starting to dash off in search of Iruma before Asmodeus picked her up by the back of her shirt, hoisting her into the air while her feet continued to kick.

“Give me a bit,” Lied said, “I haven’t had to use Controller for that long since the harvest festival so I need a sec to recover enough for any scouting.”

“You’re alright, it’s not like we have a hard deadline, we just can’t afford to get too distracted is all,” Ameri replied.

“We should probably move locations though,” Asmodeus added, “Just in case Border Patrol decides to follow us through.”

        Just as he finished speaking, smoke began to coalesce in the air and quickly took shape as demons from Border Patrol crossed over. None of them were individually as strong as Narnia but they compensated for it in terms of numbers, outmanning the Misfits four to one with more on the way.

“Look alive! We’re not done yet!” Ameri yelled, swiftly taking command of the situation as the others roused themselves for one last stand.

12:52

        After Ali had initially notified him of his classmates’ arrival, Iruma had stopped cooking and walked over to his water storage so he could put out his fire before rushing over to them. He may not have had that much fondness for the human realm, but he didn’t want to cause more problems for the people that lived there. Ali was out of the ring and the two of them were chatting back and forth, excited to return to the Netherworld, when Ali stopped in his tracks and held an arm in front of Iruma.

“What is it?” Iruma asked

“More mana signatures just popped up, like, a lot more! It feels like they’re fighting with the ones from earlier!”

        Iruma’s eyes hardened with determination, “How far away are they?”

“Five or ten minutes that way,” Ali said as he pointed towards the commotion.

“Right!”

        Iruma took off running in that direction without hesitation, dropping his bucket of water as he engaged his arms. Once he was up to full speed he called out, “Fractal!” and used his newfound weightlessness to propel himself even faster.

12:53

         He bounded his way across the city, kicking off of the sides of buildings and flinging himself from streetlights to keep moving. The wind tore at his clothes and burned his eyes but he didn’t care, he had to get to his friends as quickly as possible. They had gone through who knows what in order to get here and he couldn't let them fail now that he could actually help, especially considering what failure would mean for him.

12:54

         Kerori had formed a dome of ice around the group to protect them from the attacking demons. A single entrance was left open to funnel their opponents through and give the Misfits an area to concentrate their defense on. Asmodeus and Ameri stood in the entry, acting as the frontline defense, Kerori’s familiars circled them, further fortifying the area. Behind them, Clara had lined up an array of cannons to be fired as needed that the others were manning. To prevent the Border Patrol demons from simply breaking the protective shell, Elizabetta pushed her bloodline ability to its limit, effectively forcing them to wade through the onslaught prepared for them if they wanted to capture the Misfits. 

12:55

        Asmodeus and Ameri were holding on fairly well but it was obvious that neither of them were at full strength. Asmodeus’s flames were back to their usual color and Ameri no longer maintained Romanticist full time, instead activating it only at crucial moments to maximize the efficiency of her remaining mana. The hounds snapped at anyone who got too close and Lied stole the sight of whoever appeared most threatening at any given moment. Periodically, Clara would call out and the vanguard would scatter as round shot whizzed into enemy ranks.

12:56

        By this point reinforcements had stopped arriving but it made little difference. The Misfits had barely worked through an eighth of their opponents and the exhaustion from their previous battle was catching up with them. Asmodeus’s flames began to flicker in the wind and Ameri’s movements had become sluggish. Kerori stood back and commanded her familiars but both the student and the dogs were panting from the exertion. Purson was slumped over his cannon, using it for support in between Clara’s commands. Clara herself was running around and reloading the cannons as quickly as possible between volleys, Lied in tow, helping where he could. 

        Elizabetta stood behind her cannon, holding onto it with a white-knuckle grip. Sweat dripped off of her as she gritted her teeth in concentration. Her breathing was ragged as overuse of Full Love Gauge began to take its toll. She sustained her magic for as long as possible, squeezing out every precious moment before she used up the last of her mana. With a gasp, her bloodline ability faded, its characteristic sweet smell dissipating along with it.

12:57

        The Border Patrol demons paused for a brief moment as the spell wearing off caused them to reconsider their plan of attack before breaking away from the entrance and surrounding the dome on all sides like a flock of ravens swarming a carcass. Cracks started forming in the ice as their primary line of defense was pounded by wave after wave of blows, both physical and magical.

        Kerori unsummoned her familiars, reasoning that they wouldn’t be much use in fighting flying opponents. She instead focused her attention on trying to repair the damage to the ice. She slowed down their progress but did not halt it. Fissures continued to spider web across the dome until it eventually shattered.

12:58

         The Misfits formed a circle with Purson and Elizabetta in the center as they were set upon, limiting their blind spots while ensuring their most worn down companions wouldn’t be easily isolated. Clara seemed to fare the best of the group, her seemingly boundless energy and nigh limitless access to any manner of weapon or sufficiently heavy object allowing her to fend off multiple opponents at once. Now that Kerori’s temperature had somewhat equalized she began using her bloodline ability to disrupt enemy movements again. In particular, if an airborne demon dove in too close for comfort she used her ice to momentarily immobilize their wings and send them careening off course.

        Lied managed to hold his own, despite the fact that he wasn’t particularly suited to direct combat, thanks to Controller. He could only handle one individual at a time but any relief was welcomed by the others. Ameri and Asmodeus continued to fight but the drawn out battle and prolonged use of high level magic had started to wear them down.

        As a whole, the group was substantially slower and clumsier than they had been at the start of their venture. Demons started to skate by Kerori’s guard with increasing frequency, peppering the Misfits with quick strikes. On their own they didn’t do much damage but the disruption they caused to the flow of the battle tipped the scales in favor of Border Patrol.

12:59

        Time seemed to slow as the Misfits were overwhelmed. Ameri’s guard was broken and a demon lunged towards her, arms outstretched to tackle her to the ground. Kerori reached out to intervene only to have another demon latch onto her wrist and force her spell to miss its mark as well as drag her into the path of a punch. Asmodeus threw up a wall of flames to evaporate an incoming water attack only for the water to swallow up his fire and race towards him. Seeing her soulmate’s flames extinguished caused Clara to turn her attention towards Asmodeus, opening her up to an incoming kick. Lied noticed a trio of demons diving towards himself, Purson, and Elizabetta from above with the sight he had stolen. He started turning towards them but he wouldn’t even have time to shout out a warning, let alone do anything about it.

        Just as the finishing blows were about to land, a blue streak sped into the fray. A flash of light burst from the incoming figure as they called out, “Cherushil!”

13:00

         Purple-black smoke billowed out, rapidly coating the ground over the entire battlefield, before rising up. As the smoke towered upwards it consolidated into a menagerie of cartoonish animals. Cats and dogs, snakes and sharks, birds bats and bugs, all types of creatures sprouted from the haze and engulfed the Border Patrol demons as well as their spells, quickly devouring all the mana from both, the ambient mana consumptive effects shattering the perception warding glasses that the Misfits were wearing. All at once the attacking demons collapsed to the ground unconscious, the Misfits standing unscathed.

        Iruma tumbled out of the air, the effects of fractal having cut out when cherushil was activated. He rolled a few times as he hit the ground, the momentum of his mad dash continuing to carry him. His fingers scraped along the ground as he tried to pull himself up before he came to a complete stop.

        He whipped his head upwards, a brief moment of stunned silence hung in the air as he locked eyes with his friends. With a rush, they called his name and dashed towards him. He lunged to meet them as they piled on top of him in a group hug.

Chapter Text

        A commotion came from the pile of people on top of Iruma as they jostled each other and vied for space closer to him. Their voices clamored over each other as they began speaking at once.

“Iruma-sama, at long last we’ve been reunited! I apologize for taking so long, but without you there to guide us it naturally took more time than we would have liked. I assure you that-”

“Outta the way Azz-Azz!” Clara shouted as she pushed aside Asmodeus, who latched onto Iruma’s arm to not be displaced too much, “Iruma-chi! Iruma-chi! We all missed you sooooo much! ‘Course me and Azz-Azz missed you the most, but that doesn’t matter now since we got you back!”

“Seriously though, you were a human the whole time?!” Lied asked as Clara dove onto the opposite side of Iruma from Asmodeus. “How the hell’d you even survive a day in the Netherworld, let alone long enough to be a He rank?!”

“If I were in your shoes I would have been too scared to even leave the house,” Elizabetta said as she pressed the side of her face into her palm.

“You sure did manage to stand out a lot for someone keeping such a big secret,” Kerori added with a slight huff.

“You really should have been more careful,” Purson cut in, “Even ignoring my family there are lots of people who are good at snooping that could have figured it out sooner. Like, what if someone got curious why you were walking everywhere and decided to investigate. I mean, obviously it doesn’t matter that much to me and that's a pretty innocuous habit but someone would have taken notice sooner or later.”

“Alright, give him some space,” Ameri said as she hauled Iruma out from underneath everyone, though Asmodeus and Clara remained firmly attached to his sides, “He looks like he just sprinted a mile to get here, he needs to catch his breath for a minute before we bombard him with information.”

        For his part Iruma seemed almost stunned with glee at being reunited with his friends. He pulled his soulmates closer to him before speaking, first quietly, “I really missed this,” and then louder so the others could hear him “Are you guys all ok?”

“We’re doin’ great since we found you Iruma-chi!”

“Indeed, just being by your side heals any ailments we could possibly have incurred!”

“Speak for yourself, I’m exhausted!” Lied exclaimed.

“You didn’t even do that much though,” Purson said.

“I’m sorry? Does stealing multiple senses from one of the Thirteen Crowns while he is actively fighting someone seem like not that much to you? Do you think people’s eyes just stay still when they get hit cause I’ll tell you right now they don’t. And I had to split my attention between that and charging up that circle thing!”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

        The two bantered back and forth, able to act more casually now that their mission was effectively accomplished, which drew a laugh from Iruma. 

“We’re all pretty much fine,” Ameri said as Iruma and the rest got up to their feet, “Some of us got roughed up a bit but nothing that needs any serious attention.”

“I’m glad, I don’t know what I would have done if any of you had gotten hurt.” He took note of who had come to the human world now that he wasn’t underneath the majority of them. “I’m kinda surprised that Caim didn’t come too, considering the language differences and all.”

“What do ya mean Iruma-chi? We’ve never had any trouble talking.”

“Humans and demons don’t speak the same languages, I can only talk to you guys cause Grandpa put a translation spell on me when I first got to the Netherworld, and it’s not like you knew I would be able to come find you myself. I figured at least Ameri would think of it.”

        Ameri’s face reddened once this oversight was pointed out, “W-Well I figured it was just a different writing system since you don’t have an unusual accent or anything.”

“How would you have known that humans have their own writing system? If they were trying to keep humans a secret then they probably wouldn’t allow any human literature in the Netherworld either.” Asmodeus asked.

“I just have some books that have… human… writing… in them…” she trailed off, unable to think of a stronger excuse in the moment.

        Clara gasped, a shocked expression on her face, hand held over her mouth, “Makka-chan is a delinquent!”

“I am not!”

“I hate to interrupt but we should probably get going before they wake up,” Kerori said as she gestured to the unconscious members of Border Patrol.

“That’s probably smart. I left a fire burning before I came over here so I should probably put that out,” Iruma replied.

“As expected of Iruma-sama! So considerate, even to a land he won’t be staying in,” Asmodeus proclaimed as Iruma led the group in the direction of his campsite.

“I know this probably isn’t the best time,” Puson commented, “But does he even want to go back to the Netherworld? Like, a lot of people probably want to eat him there and he’s gotta have a family and stuff right?”

“Of course Iruma-chi wants to stay with us! We’re soulmates after all!” Clara yelled indignantly.

“Well we should probably let Iruma be the one to decide that,” Elizabetta interjected before the discussion could turn heated, “What do you think Iruma? Do you want to go back with us or stay with your family?”

        All eyes turned towards him, eagerly waiting to see what he would choose. Iruma felt confused for a moment at the implication that these were somehow supposed to be exclusive before answering, “Aren’t Grandpa and Opera still in the Netherworld though?”

“Well yeah, but we mean, like, your human family,” Lied clarified.

        Iruma’s brow furrowed in thought before a look of realization flashed across his face.

“Oh yeah! Them…” he nodded assuredly, “I’d rather go with you.”

        Asmodeus wasn’t sure how to react to that statement. Obviously he was elated that Iruma desired to stay with them but the way he had declared it was concerning. Such little hesitation at throwing away the world he had grown up in. Asmodeus had believed, of course, that their bond would lead to this being Iruma’s decision, and if things had gone the other way he probably would have left behind the Netherworld, but even then he would have had to given it some thought first and notify his Mother and David of what he was doing.

        While he was considering his own family it was also worrying that Iruma seemed to disregard his blood relations without even realizing. Surely he should bear some level of affection for the people that raised him, unless Lord Sullivan had been the one to do so, but given how much he adored his grandson and how high profile of a demon he was, it was unlikely that no one would have heard of Iruma until his first year at Babyls. That settled it, as his soulmate and his spear Asmodeus would confront Iruma about this. However, just as he began to speak Clara dove into Iruma and wrapped him up in a spinning hug.

“Yay! Iruma-chi!” She cheered as she and Iruma swung around, stopping with Iruma’s back to Asmodeus.

        That idiot! Couldn’t she have read the room for once in her life! As he was thinking of how to reprimand her without steering the discussion away from the topic at hand, she met his eyes over Iruma’s shoulder and gave him a focused look absent of her usual mirth.

        Ah, so they would talk another day then.

        Thanks to Clara’s intervention the conversation continued on fairly jovially, much of it centered around filling Iruma in on what the Misfits had done while he was separated from them with intermittent breaks when one of the demons noticed a human world oddity and Iruma did best to explain it to them.

        After some time of walking they made their way to Iruma’s campsite. The flames, thankfully, hadn’t spread while unattended. “Well, here we are.” Iruma walked over to the fire and began dumping dirt on it as he spoke.

“This kinda reminds me of our set up from the harvest festival,” Lied commented.

“To think that Iruma-sama would have to live in such conditions more than once!” Asmodeus said with a clenched fist.

        Iruma laughed. “I could have made it nicer but I figured you guys would get here fast enough that it wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

“It’s nice to know that you think so highly of us,” Ameri said.

“Of course,” Iruma wiped his hands together and stamped down the ground where his fire was, ensuring it was put out, “you all are so incredible that it’d be strange if something else happened.” He looked around his campsite before speaking again. “I guess I’m ready to go whenever you guys are.”

“I can’t think of a reason to stick around longer, but it feels like a waste to leave so soon,” Lied said, “Oh, I know! We should come back with everyone someday and have you show us around for real.”

“I am not sneaking that many people through Border Patrol just to go sightseeing,” Purson said flatly.

“You can handle it, I have faith.” Lied patted his shoulder.

“One time Opera told me that high ranking demons could get permission to go to the human world so we might be able to do that,” Iruma commented.

“See, much more reasonable. Don’t get me wrong, your confidence is appreciated and all, but this was a little too intense for me to be doing regularly.”

        While they were talking Clara had passed out the return circles.

“What is this?” Iruma asked.

“Ah, those are the return circles we mentioned earlier,” Asmodeus said brightly, “Just run your mana into it like you would a summoning circle and you’ll be transported back to Royal One.”

“D’ya think it feels like what Eggy-teach feels when Iruma-chi summons him?” Clara pondered.

“We’ll have to convince him to try it out for comparison sometime,” Elizabetta suggested.

“Good luck with that, we all know how much of a buzzkill he is,” Lied pointed out.

“I guess we’ll have to go back if you want to find out,” Ameri said, “Is everyone ready?”

        No one had any objections and shortly they all activated the circles and returned to the Netherworld.

*        *        *

        The other Misfits were waiting tensely in Royal One. Gaap did his best to keep the mood cheery, and while it was better sitting in silence, the gnawing dread of what could happen if something went wrong never truly left their minds. Sabnock paced back and forth as the others tried to stay occupied. Suddenly, columns of smoke began to form in the center of the room, eventually coalescing into the forms of the demons who went on the retrieval mission as well as Iruma himself.

“Oh good, Iruma’s back,” Agares yawned, already nodding off now that everyone was back and seemed to be in decent health.

“C’mon Agares, we’ve gotta at least say hi before you fall asleep,” Gaap said, dragging Agares along behind him.

“At last you’ve returned!” Sabnock roared.

“Truly absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Allocer commented.

“We were starting to get worried about you guys,” Jazz mentioned.

“Perhaps you were, but I believed in the strength of the ladies. Speaking of…” Caim got a glint in his eye as he spoke, holding a wing under his beak, “Tell me Iruma, what are human wo-” he was cut off as a chunk of ice collided with his head.

“You stupid bird!” Kerori shouted, “He’s been back for five seconds and you’re already asking him questions like that?!”

“I’m surprised it took him that long if we're being honest,” Jazz said before turning his attention to the rest of the group, “Looks like everyone made it back in one piece so I assume things went well.”

“It could have gone worse,” Purson said.

“Yeah, we could’ve had to fight two of the Thirteen Crowns before fending off every guard in the building,” Lied added.

“At least they didn’t see our faces.”

“Hey, I know I’m like halfway out of it,” Agares said, “but did you just say you fought one of the crowns?”

“Oh yeah,” Clara chimed in, “Azz-Azz and Makka-chan were beating him up like, wham, blam, kapow! But then he went all like gao!” She held up a hand to mimic claws as she spoke, “So Azz-Azz made it suuuuuuper hot and I had to cool Kerorin down. Azz-Azz and Makka-chan knocked him out but when we got to the other side all the other guards followed us! Then we had to fight them off until Iruma-chi swooped in and took ‘em all out at once!” She pulled Iruma closer to her as she finished talking.

“As expected of my rival!” Sabnock cheered, “Anyone who wasn’t that strong could never challenge me on the path to becoming demon king.”

“Thanks, but I really only jumped in at the end,” Iruma said sheepishly, “Everyone else did most of the hard work.”

“Nonsense Iruma-sama,” Asmodeus responded, “without your help we would have certainly failed.”

“If you say so.”

“In any case,” Gaap said eagerly “If you’re feeling up to it you should tell us about the human world. I really want to know what it’s like now that I know it’s real.”

        There was a general muttering of agreements from the demons in the room, naturally wanting to know more about the newly proven realm, especially since one of their friends was from there.

“Alright, what do you want to know?” Iruma responded.

        Elizabetta was the first to respond, “Hmmm, well what about what humans do for Deviler?”

“Humans don’t actually have Deviler, just January through December, but I think most places have celebrations and parties and things like that around the new year.”

“You only have twelve months?” Lied asked, “That’s so weird.”

“Imagine how I felt when I found out that I suddenly have thirteen more days than I’m used to.”

“But wait,” Ameri interjected, “Wouldn’t that cause some weird time discrepancy between the Netherworld and human world?”

“If my math is right, the years could be the same length if you divide the days from Deviler into groups of forty-eight minutes and distribute them evenly between the remaining days. At the very least they should have roughly the same amount of minutes if you do that,” Allocer answered.

“Well there you go,” Lied said, “if Allocer says it’s fine then it’s probably no big deal.”

        A voice abruptly cut through the conversation from outside the classroom, “What are you idiots yammering on about? I can hear you from the courtyard.”

        The door swung open to reveal Kalego standing sternly in the doorway. A brief moment of silence hung in the air as he looked over the Misfits before the students sprang into action. They quickly placed themselves between Kalego and Iruma, the healthiest members of their group in the front. Iruma called out to Clara, who passed him a summoning seal in response. Immediately, Iruma summoned his teacher and wrapped him in his clothes as he had during the Heartbreaker Exam.

"Wha? Unhand me you-"

"Ok, that should buy us some time until it wears off."

"Are you listening to to me I'm not-"

"What are we gonna do when that happens?"

"Give me a moment to ex-"

"We beat everyone else so I guess we just have to take him on too."

"SILENCE!" Kalego barked through the clamor, everyone quieting down and turning their attention to him out of habit. "I'm not going to tell anyone what happened, now undo the summoning so we can talk properly."

"Really?" Clara chirped.

        Everyone could perfectly visualize Kalego pinching his nose despite the fact that he was in his familiar form. "I've been in charge of you brats for how long now? Do you really think I can't tell when you're up to something? If I wanted to put a stop to your scheme I would have done so long before it got to this point."

        Clara held a hand to her chin as she spoke, "Hmmm, whaddya think we should do Iruma-chi?"

"It's probably fine," the blue haired boy replied, "Professor Kalego isn't the type to lie about things like that."

"You should still prepare an extra summoning seal just in case," Asmodeus added.

"Roger," Clara said as she pulled another seal out of her pocket. Iruma clapped his hands and Kalego returned to where he was previously, back in his usual form.

“You really aren’t going to send me back?” Iruma asked.

“As the guard dog of Babyls,” Kalego began with an exasperated sigh, “It is my duty to preserve the order of this school and, fortunately for you, it seems your absence is far more disruptive to that end than your presence, regardless of whatever other circumstances surround you. Besides, knowing you, if I tried to turn you all in it would wind up causing me even more problems than this will.”

“I dunno teach,” Lied responded, “I think we did pretty good this time, they didn’t even see our faces or anything, there might not be any problems if you don’t tell anyone.”

        Kalego gave him a skeptical look, “Assuming that’s true, and I won’t see the aftermath of your little excursion plastered all over the news tonight, did any of you stop to think about what you were going to do after you got back? Half the Netherworld knows Iruma as the human that got captured and given how much Lord Sullivan is being monitored by both Border Patrol and the media he can’t very well hide out there.”

“Of course Iruma-sama would be welcome at our estate until he can return to his typical living arrangements,” Asmodeus answered.

“And I’m sure that having him in such close proximity to one of the crowns will cause no issues whatsoever.”

“Well then he can stay with me!” Clara declared.

“Ah yes, the Valac household, known for their ability to keep secrets,” Kalego said sarcastically.

“I could probably handle living in a forest or something until this blows over,” Iruma contemplated.

        Kalego looked increasingly frustrated, “I’m not letting a second year student, a human one at that, try to brave the wilderness of the Netherworld unaccompanied for who knows how long while I have something to say about it. Just… let me grab Shichirou to look you over and make sure you’re unharmed. We’ll come up with a long term plan after that.”

“I’m actually not hurt at all.”

“In that case this is a perfect chance to establish a baseline for you in case you get injured or fall ill somewhere down the line. Plus, he’s been worried sick since he found out what happened, it’ll do him good to see you safe.” He turned his attention to the other demons in the room, “As for the rest of you,” the students flinched, knowing what that shift in tone meant, “don’t think I’m letting you get away with this scot free, as soon as things have settled down I’ll find some suitable way to reprimand you for all the violations you had to have committed to get this far. Especially you Miss Azazel,” she stiffened up, “I expect a bit more propriety of our student council president, or at least the good sense to not be caught up in these miscreants’ escapades.”

“Y-Yes sir.”

“I’ll be back shortly.” He walked over to the door before turning over his shoulder and speaking once more. “Oh, and Iruma?”

“Mmhmm?”

“For what it’s worth, welcome back.” With that he left Royal One to find Professor Balam without waiting for a response, the door clicking gently shut behind him.

        Ameri’s posture relaxed after he left, “That was my first time in his crosshairs like that.”

“You get used to it after a while.” Elizabetta said brightly.

“And he held off on punishing us for now so he’s probably going to take it easy on us,” Gaap added.

“It’s not like I’d ever regret doing this, regardless of what he decides on.” As she finished talking she absentmindedly pulled out her hellphone to check her notifications only to find several missed calls from her father. “Oh that’s right,” she said, exhaustion at yet another task to do creeping into her voice, “I have to give my father an explanation for where I went during all that commotion.”

“We’ll help you figure out something, we’re all basically pros at coming up with reasons for why we aren’t where it makes sense for us to be,” Kerori said.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Don’t worry about it, we wouldn’t even have found the place without your help, let alone have beaten Narnia, it’s the least we could do.”

“Hey, Azz-Azz is totally strong enough to beat that dog guy!” Clara interrupted, “Right Iruma-chi?” She turned to look at him. “Iruma…chi? Are you ok? You’re… crying…”

        Iruma touched his cheeks in confusion. Without his noticing, tears had started to stream down his face. The others turned to look and make sure he was alright. He wiped his face before speaking.

“Sorry, it’s just… relief, I think. Like, I knew, realistically, that you all wouldn’t care that I’m a human, but I couldn’t know for sure without telling you, and that’s… terrifying, especially since someone might try to eat me if the wrong person found out. So I kept, just, holding off on saying anything until I thought it would be a better time, but that never came and then I didn’t get the chance to tell you on my own terms, and before I knew it I was back in the human world. I told myself you would come to get me, and I believed it too, but I wouldn’t have blamed you for not wanting to risk it either. It’s a lot to go up against for someone who was lying to you for so long and you had every right to be… outraged, I think the word is, but you still decided to chance it anyway. I know things probably won't get back to what we think of as ‘normal’ any time soon, but knowing that so many people I care about also care about me… that I won’t be alone because it’s easier or more efficient for them to walk away than to stay with me, that makes the thought bearable. I guess… what I’m trying to say is… I’m so glad that people want me in my entirety, and it didn’t really hit me that that was the case until just now.”

        The demons in the room went quiet as they processed what had been said.

“S-Sorry, was that too much to throw out all at once? I didn’t mean to kill the mood or anything, I just-”

“Iruma-sama,” Asmodeus began, “you don’t need to apologize for your trepidation, I believe most of us would have done the same in your position. That being said, I want to reaffirm my pledge to you in case you have any lingering doubts,” he dropped to one knee and held a hand to his chest as he spoke, “I, Asmodeus Alice, promise to stand by your side, as your spear, as your friend, as your soulmate, until such a time as you send me away or I become unable to be with you any longer. Whether you are a demon, a human, or anything else, I simply desire to be in your presence for as long as you’ll have me. I would not be the person I am had we not met and I will be eternally grateful for that fact.”

“Yeah Iruma-chi,” Clara added, “what else were you supposed to do? It’s scary to tell big secrets and it’s scarier if you could be alone ‘cause of them. But don’t worry,” she put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest, “you’ve got me ‘n Azz-Azz ‘n Makka-chan and everyone else, and we’re not gonna let you be alone no matter what.”

“I don’t think you’re the only one,” Ameri said, “who has things they hesitate to tell people, yours just happened to be relevant a bit sooner than we all would have liked. But having those things doesn’t mean that others will be upset with you for not telling them. I think that real allies, real friends, just want to be with the people that they care about, regardless of what they might be hiding from them.”

        The rest of the Misfit Class followed up with their own affirmations and assurances and slowly worked their way closer to Iruma until they were eventually piled on top of him. Iruma laughed a bit before pulling those nearest to him closer. Naturally, those individuals were his soulmates.

“Thanks guys, it means a lot to hear that.”

        He smiled gently and squeezed Asmodeus and Clara’s arms affectionately.

“It’s good to be home.”