Chapter Text
////The Night Before Battler Party Eve////
hiss- *BOOM!*
A sight unknown to the netherworld blooms across the night sky, even if just for a brief moment. Bright, beautiful, but fleeting. By design it fades, but now they know it works.
Staring up at where the fireworks, the product of the entire Magical Apparatus Battler working together, were but a moment ago Iruma couldn't help but smile. Sure, these fireworks were smaller then the ones they were going to present on Battler Party Eve and Battler Party Day, but-
'Pretty...'
Iruma froze.
The voice sounded faint, like as though it was said from another room through thin walls, but there nonetheless. A voice Iruma had never heard before. 'Oh no... am I going crazy?'
He couldn't have heard other student's conversation, they were in the middle of a field!
"Iruma-sama/chi/kun, are you alright?"
Iruma blinked, startled at the sudden attention and worry directed at him from the fellow members of the Battler.
"I'm fine! Don't worry about it!" He rushed to reassure.
"Perhaps it is getting late, Iruma-sama's 'Fireworks' were a resounding success! So shall we head to bed until tomorrow?"
Before Iruma could even say anything, their upperclassman chimed in. "Azz-kun is right Iruma-kun, its late and th' fireworks function perfectly. Lets get to sleep huh?" A gentle smile on Kirio's face and the continued looks of worry on Azz and Clara's were all that was needed to defeat Iruma.
"Okay. Lets go."
"Yippee! Sleepover with Iruma-chi!"
"Hey calm down-!"
////On the Day of Battler Party Eve ////
"So much passion!" Iruma exclaimed, looking at the gathering of Battler students nearby. They seemed to be a part of a sports battler. Were they a part of the Execution cannonball battler that Iruma took a look at before joining the Apparatus one?
"Iruma-sama! Fireworks launchpad prep is complete!" Azz called before he could get too deep into that thought process, or get distracted by the delicious smell coming from the 3rd stand over. He was kneeled before their Battler's designated area.
"Woah!" both Iruma and Clara went over to marvel at the fire-wielding demon's handywork. "I'm really sorry I couldn't help more in the end Azz-kun." Iruma apologized.
"Please do not worry yourself Iruma-sama! Besides, handling fire is my speciality! You've already done so much with everything else!" Azz earnestly states, crimson eyes sparkling up at the one he has sworn loyalty to.
"A-ah is that so?"
"Doot do do doo!" Turning at the sound of Clara's outburst, they see she has pulled out numerous plushies from her pockets, "now its time to make it devi-devi sparkly! -ah! oh no!"
Iruma smiled, watching as she whined while being dragged off by Azz's Gorgon Snake.
Iruma turns to Azz, having noticed the single absence in their party. "By the way, where'd Kirio-senpai go?"
"He said he had to personally prepare for something, and took off."
'I bet he's preparing for something alright...'
"Huh." Iruma blinks at the hostility. 'That voice again. They don't like Kirio-senpai? Why...?'
////Later in the Hallway////
Iruma had been wandering aimlessly for the last 10 minutes. He honestly didn't know where he would be able to find his missing upperclassman. And so, it was after wondering out loud, "I wonder where Kirio-Senpai went. I need to talk to him," That it began.
'This way, this way!' The voice he'd been hearing in his head, but this time almost childish, excited, as his ring began to glow and drag him off. Distantly, underneath the panic, Iruma noted that this had happened before. 'Maybe whatever this voice is, is what dragged me to Kirio-senpai that day.'
(And maybe he imagined it, but Iruma thinks he heard the voice respond with 'duh' to that thought...)
It wasn't too long before he was dragged infront of a wall, with his hand the ring is on pressing down on what seems to be a hidden pressure plate. Iruma only watched in awe as a hidden door opens up infront of him.
'This is where Kirio-senpai is?' The ring dragged him here like it did when they first met. On top of that, it only activated when he mentioned Kirio specifically, so he's got to be here right?
As Iruma entered the room that his ring (apparently) deemed Kirio inside, all thoughts about what the mysterious voice could be- and possible consequenses- flowed to the wayside.
////The Evening of Battler Party Eve ////
The whole of Babyls shook. Iruma had no idea what was happening, and it was quite frankly kind of scary. Having the entire school shaking, and having not a single clue what's going on. Is it a beast? an earthquake? (do earthquakes exist in the netherworld?)
Iruma turned back to his friends, seeing them in shock about what happened as well. "Azz-kun, Clara! are you alright, both of you?"
"Yes,"
"Totally fine!"
"Thank goodness..." Hearing them both alright drained alot of the tension of this peculiar situation out of his body. However not all of it. Something was going on, and he'd need to stay alert.
However, attempting to walk over to his friend's side resulted in him running into something. "Ow-"
"Iruma-sama! What was that?"
"I don't know, but..." Iruma hesitated, a bad feeling creeping up his spine. Not quite the feeling he gets when his sense of danger activates, but more like a bad premonition. "It felt like I ran into something."
This bad feeling only heightens when it turns out that what he ran into, and what's littering the halls, is a bunch of invisible walls. Like Kirio-senpai's bloodline ability.
'I knew it.'