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It was a day like any other, which had begun as normally as a day could be in the demon world, especially in a place where there were a lot of teenage demons.
Really.
Everything was perfectly normal.
Yes. Everything had started so well in Babyls that day: the weather was beautiful; the students were behaving well. And no fights had broken out yet. The student council hadn't had to do anything. Nothing had been destroyed.
Everything was fine.
Except it wasn't.
In fact, everything was going too well.
It was everyone thought so far.
But it wasn't totally true.
Because, for anyone who would notice, however, there had a tension in the air: a strange and heavy feeling hung over the school.
It was unusual, especially for someone unaccustomed to it or who hadn't experienced it before. Only the teachers and students ranked 5 or higher seemed to notice anything. The younger students didn't quite understand what was happening. The rest of the staff knew what was possibly happening at this moment, even if they couldn't feel it (more because they were aware of what happened right now and because they were used to it).
Something was happening.
Something that was creating a strange atmosphere throughout the school.
Marbas, who was only in his first semester, looked up from his paperwork. "Hey, where's Dantalion-Sensei?"
He was surprised not to see him. His superior had classes that day. And if anyone was serious about their work, despite his cheerful personality and familiar manners with the students, it was Dantalion.
He wasn't like him to skip classes. He loved teaching, he was open and friendly with the students, allowing them to call him Dali. Only his wicked phase, or some kind of illness, could explain his absence. This absence without warning was truly strange and unusual. Okay, a wicked phase wasn't predictable and often came without warning. Maybe Marbas just wasn’t aware of it. He was still the rookie, he didn’t know well his co-workers yet.
The others exchanged awkward glances, revealing their nervousness and some seemed stressed.
Yeah. Sound like it was a wicked phase.
It explained a lot.
Kalego looked very tired and exasperated, as if he'd just spent the day with noisy or unruly students. Why did he look done with everything when the day didn’t even start?
Did Dantalion’s wicked phase was that terrible?
Ifrit chuckled, twirling his pen between his fingers, looking wildly amused. "I'm not too worried about him! He's doing just well. Too well. Unfortunately for us."
Orias decided to tease the rookie, placing his hands on the torture professor's slender shoulders and whispering, amused, "Believe me, March, you don't know where he is, but he knows where you are! He's watching you right now. With a lot of intensity.
-How do you know he's here, Orias?
-Because he...escaped this morning. We had him confined to the annex last night when we noticed what happened to him, but he slipped away at dawn. So, we don't know where he is now, except that he’s in the school.
-In the school?
-Otonja was panicked when he contacted Kalego this morning. We need to find him. And to bring him back in the annex. Don’t try to come close of him when he’s in this state, Marbas-Sensei. He wouldn’t be dangerous for you, but it’ll be safer." explained Balam, a stack of books in his hands. Then, he followed Kalego as the latter left the teachers longe.
Nothing was going to stop Kalego to teach.
There was still some time before classes began. And the teachers weren't finished talking about Dali. The demon in charge of security buried a hand in his hair: "We took every precaution this time, though. He’s very dangerous and cunning when he’s like that.
-We should chain him up." Murmur muttered.
His colleague frowned, lighting a cigarette: "Yeah, well, you can do it yourself next time. Try to restrain him with chains, he’ll LOVE that.”
-You're kidding, we can't get near him when he's like this! You need to work at three to capture him.
Ipos thought about what Murmur proposed: “Can we even tie him up? He would break the chains easily.”
March nodded, understanding the situation better: “So Dantalion is in his wicked phase and hide into the school? But what does he do? Why did he come here?
- Yes. He’s even watching us right now!" Orias raised a finger to point to an area of the teacher lounge before saying, in a joyful voice: " Look over there!"
Marbas looked up and saw a small devi camera, hovering in the corner, seemingly filming them.
What did that mean?
What...what did that have to do with Dantalion and his evil phase?!
"Lucky me, I saw it!" the Astrology Teacher crooned, sounding very amused. "He moves them so often that seeing them is rare! Sometimes he hides them, sometimes he leaves them out in the open. It depends on his mood. Sometimes he doesn't want us to know he's watching us, sometimes he wants us to know it!"
A camera?
He was filming them.
Why was he filming them?
He felt an involuntary shiver, as he now sensed a powerful gaze upon him and a definite tension...It was it really his superior?
"What..."
He didn't understand.
What was happening?!
"Why are we being filmed? Why Dantalion Sensei is doing this during his wicked phase?!" He never heard that someone acted like that in their wicked phase.
Ifrit sighed, "Don't worry, he's not dangerous. Well, for everyone in the school. If someone attacked Babyls, Dali would kill them on the spot in this state. During his wicked phase, he watches us closely. Us teachers, the rest of the staff, as well as the students. When he's in this state, he truly sees everyone in the school as HIS treasure and won't take his eyes off us. He'll protect us to the death, if necessary, whatever it’s his own or the death of those who threaten him. He becomes very extreme in these situations.
- Yeah, extreme…right.” Muttered Murmur, looking already tired.
“It's a miracle he lets the students go home. Imagine if he decided to check if all the students were safe with their parents before letting them leave the school.
-Don't say it out loud Eito, it might give him ideas," Ipos hissed. "That guy has always twisted ideas in this state.
-Well, if he had this kind of ideas, I think that the students would live in the school until the end of his wicked phase.
- Tsumuru, shut up, you’ll give him ideas too!
- So, we try to keep him occupied or confine him. We usually manage to keep him confined.” Said Suzy, who had just listened with amusement until now. Since Dali wasn't really a threat, it was funny to see her co-workers being so tired and panicked. Dali was really something in this state. But it was better to laugh about it.
It’s not like if she could do anything about it anyway.
It’s not like if the students were in danger.
Murmur sighed, his tail wrapping itself around his leg, demonstrating his weariness with their colleague's attitude: “Yeah, usually. But we often need Eito, as well as Balam-Sensei and Kalego-Sensei, to hunt him when he manages to escape. And if we use too much force, he retaliates and we all end up covered in bruises.”
Orias smiled: “Luckily, he doesn't hurt us, since he considers us his treasure too.
-Once, we had to ask Opera for help. And he got his nose broken." Added Buer, grimacing at the memory.
Kalego smiled like that day.
It was terrifying.
"He's unbearable, Yis," Suzy interjected, sipping her tea. "Luckily, it doesn't stop us from teaching.
-This time, the containment plan failed." Mononoki groaned, running a hand through her hair. "We'll have to revise the entire protocol and change plans to keep him in the annex for the next times. Because he’s too smart to be fooled by the same tactics.
- Yeah. We'll have to find new ones at every new wicked phases." Murmur looked exhausted.
So much more work for them.
And more stress.
He had searched for his superior for over an hour using his power no stop. Without success. This guy knew the school better than everyone and always managed to avoid the other teachers.
Orias laughed nervously: "I think we'll just have to deal with it this time. It can’t be that terrible. He’ll just make everyone super nervous.
-I notified the students council, just in case,” Ipos said, sinking into his chair. “The higher-ranking students can sense his presence, and it makes them nervous, even though they know he won’t hurt them. But they’re still all stressed about being watched like this. It's...uncomfortable.”
Marbas blinked; he was a little uneasy at the thought. Not that he had bad intentions (obviously), but watched like this…
it was going to be stressful.
It was like he was going to be attacked for the slightest mistake.
And this stress of being watched, this pression, could trigger wicked phases among the students.
He had heard about Dantalion’s wicked phase the morning after the end his own wicked phase (the first he’d had since becoming a teacher at Babyls). His colleagues, Ifrit in particular, had called their superior an unbearable stalker. And a yandere.
Saying he was exhausting them all.
Marbas had thought they were joking. But clearly that wasn't the case. He asked hesitantly: "Is he really listening to us and watching us right now?
-It's unnerving, isn't it? There's no point looking for him; he'll have moved on to find another vantage point by the time you get there! And I really advise you against looking for him anyway; he might see it as an attempt to stop him from protecting the school and the students," Buer explained, sounding weary, as if he knew they were in for a rough time.
He hoped he wouldn't have to treat anyone. If some students tried to act tough...Dantalion would want to punish them or rather educate them. And then, he would have to have to heal people. Not that he didn't want to, and Dantalion would probably go get him to do it anyway.
So much extra work.
As if they didn't already have enough.
Ifrit ran a hand through his hair. What a nightmare. They were going to have to be very careful. "At least it didn't happen during the Harvest Festival this time, or during the flying competition."
Orias chuckled, without removing his hands from the new teacher's shoulders. "Oh yeah, it happened the year before I arrived, huh? I heard Professor Murmur talking about it. Imagine March: a crisis where he becomes EXTREMELY overprotective of all the students in the middle of a survival exam."
Okay. It was horrifying to imagine.
And he didn't want to face an enraged Dantalion.
Ifrit groaned in frustration. "It started on the first day's evening. A student almost died in front of the cameras. Two seconds before, he was smiling and joking, and suddenly, like flipping a switch...it started, without any warning. He stood up, spread his wings, ripped the tent with his claws and flew off into the forest.
- And he started bringing the students back to school, even the ones who weren’t hurt, and he even took Murmur-Sensei and Buer-Sensei with him at one point to help the kids who were hurt or traumatized, often more because of HIM than because of the festival.
- I never thought I'd get kidnapped by Dali. Ichou didn’t do anything to save me. He broke my heart this day.” Says Murmur, with a dramatic voice, a hand on the heart.
The blond teacher rolled his eyes: “I love being alive, Tsumuru.
- Getting kidnapped by a co-worker is humiliating," Buer muttered, feeling his migraine returning. “I’m too old for that.”
Ipos ignored his colleague's gloom aura. "We tried sedating him. It didn't work.
- We tried tying him up.
- Haha, it's cute that we thought it might work. We couldn't even come close of him.
-The principal and Opera had to intervene to restrain and lock him up that time. But since he saved students from death... we weren't going to complain.”
Ifrit growled at the memories: “But he saved students who didn't need help. They lost things that they hadn't declared, so it messed with the scores and so…we have had to start over the festival."
Orias burst out laughing: "Now I'll never have peace during the Harvest Festival again."
The fire demon rolled his eyes. "Damn, right. I never want to experience that again.
-There very low risks of it happening again. Balam makes sure to trigger his wicked phase BEFORE the festival to avoid the crisis during those three days," Buer explained, laughing nervously.
Ipos pushed back his chair, putting down his own pen, and stood up: "So you have no reason to worry, Marbas. Dali is just a stalker! But he won't hurt anyone if he has no reason to.
-Well, normally... he could just punish people who cross his line, but he's not violent with people from the school. He sees the students as his treasure in normal times, and now that's multiplied a thousandfold. An outsider who attacked the students would barely have time to regret it before being torn in pieces.
- Yeah, everyone is the school is safe.
-I saw it once," Buer said, closing his file and standing up. "Some senior students had overheard the teachers talking about it and decided to get a reaction out of him. They played with fire to provoke him, and they ended up in the infirmary. I'd rather not go into what those idiots did. And what Dali did was just a punishment, not a response to a real threat.
-What idiots.
-It turned into a training exercise against surprise attacks, I suppose.
-So, confining him to the dorm doesn't work anymore?" asked Marbas, thinking abou everything he just learned.
Orias shrugged: "He finally found a way around it.
The camera panned, looking at every corner of the staff room. The thought of those little things being everywhere in the school at this precise moment was a little unnerving.
It was going to be a long day.
And this was only the first day.
A wicked phase rarely lasted just 24 hours.
Murmur tucked his files under his arm, ready to head to his classroom. "Don't worry, March, you can do as usual. You'll see; it's easy to ignore after a while! It's nothing dangerous. It's just a little stressful to feel being watched. Well, I'll have to keep an eye on the students who can sense his presence; this stress could affect them."
The start of classes was approaching, so Marbas left the staff room, feeling that a camera was following him. He just had to stay calm. He just had to avoid doing anything that might seem suspicious to the extremely overprotective Dantalion.
He remembered Ifrit saying he was just watching.
Observing.
Spying.
Nothing too bad.
Except that it was a little stressful.
He didn't like the idea of being watched like this. He was still in his first few months and he was feeling...nervous. Well, he would just be doing theories and history of tortures. Yes. It was best not to do anything that could be seen as a threat to the students. He suddenly shivered. He felt a gaze on him. A piercing gaze. That seemed to judge. He turned around, seeing a figure disappear around the corner of the corridor.
He was here, really?
It was going to be intense!
As the teachers had predicted, the students, especially the most sensitive or those in the highest ranks, noticed something. They also heard that Professor Dantalion was absent due to a wicked phase. The older students also said to the youngest that their teacher was still in the school and that this (this pression) was what they sensed. The professor Dali was watching them and that the cameras flying everywhere were his owns.
"He's watching us. Really?"
"That's creepy."
"He's not doing anything wrong, is he?"
"He's watching over us, actually?"
“Still… that’s scary!”
Some students were nervous, others were amused. The youngest ones were oblivious. The teachers acted as cautiously and calmly as possible.
Devi Cameras were flying all over the school: in every classroom, the library, the cafeteria, the infirmary, every Batras. Everywhere.
Dantalion was watching every corner of the school.
Absolutely every corner.
Except for the royal classroom, because it was locked, of course.
Where was he?
How many screens was he monitoring?
No one could know!
Kalego seemed even more agitated and tired than usual. He truly hated this situation.
Having eyes on him all the time?
What if he was being judged?
He hated it.
Deeply.
And he reacted badly every time, even though he knew the consequences of this rebellion. In fact, once, he had destroyed the camera that was tracking him. He saw ten new ones arrive in the minutes that followed. That meant he'd have to do something to take Dantalion back to the dormitory. Before he got new ideas to protect the kids in his EXTREMES ways.
Oh joy.
His colleague was truly the most annoying of them all.
The students were shocked. And some had wanted to do the same thing Kalego did one time: destroying the devi cameras. Triggering his protective instincts. They were particularly unruly this time and found funny to provoke him. One thing was certain: people were much more nervous and agitated. Dantalion wasn't doing anything special, and yet he managed to stress out the entire school simply by observing.
That guy was truly terrifying.
March didn't want to imagine what would happen if his anger exploded while he was in this state.
Not at all.
"HOLD HIM!"
Marbas burst out of his room, his lab coat still on, when he heard those words. And he was met with chaos: Kalego, Balam, and Ifrit trying to restrain a furious, dishevelled Dantalion, his eyes slit wide with anger.
"Who's the idiot who suggested in front of a Devi camera that he could keep the students back at school?" Baylis’s guard dog roared furiously.
Cerberius appeared and his paw crushed the teacher supervisor’s back, pinning him to the ground.
Dali hissed in rage, flashes of magic crackling around him. "I need to make sure the parents aren't a danger to my treasure.
- You're NOT going to attack the parents.
- FAMILY CAN BE A DANGER. I HAVE TO KEEP THE STUDENTS AT SCHOOL."
Dali, in a fit of rage, bit Ifrit's hand. The fire demon cursed, blood flowing from the wound, but he wouldn't let go. The brown-haired demon's tail wrapped around Eito's ankle, pulled on his leg, and causing him to fall brutally to the ground.
March grimaced when he heard a cracking sound.
"It's Eito and Tsumuru who said that." Suzy called out, literally throwing her colleague to the wolf.
"Whoa, you're without pity, Suzy," Murmur chuckled. He was trying to use his magic to calm Dantalion, but it wasn't really working. The red-haired demon flinched when his superior's gaze met his own.
Ho great, he was angry.
Balam conjured a vine to restrain his legs, but it began to smoke and crack. Dark flashes of light streaked across Dali’s body, though Cerberius seemed unaffected, snarling with anger like his master.
Marbas hesitated, then went to his room to fetch something. He returned and handed something to Balam. " This is something my father gave me. It's a chain he used to restrain criminals who had reverted to their origins and that the Border Patrol had arrested. He also used it to restrain his co-workers who had violent wicked phases and who could be a danger to anyone (including themself), so that no one would get hurt.
-So you had something to tie us up?" Ifrit teased, despite the pain of the bite.
"Ho ho ho, how audacious~" Orias joked as he watched the scene, ready to use his power to thwart his superior's escape attempt. "I wouldn't have thought that of you."
March blushed. "He said it might come in handy. He's had his colleagues go through some violent kind of wicked phase and suffered because of it. I wasn't planning on using it, but...the headmaster asked me if I had something like that. He said it might come in useful.
-I bet he was thinking of Dali when he said that.
-Not just him, any one of us can become dangerous during a wicked phase, especially if it starts without any warnings" Kalego took the chain: "Whatever, it'll be useful, indeed. If it can restrain a demon who's reverted to his origins, it should do the trick for restraining HIM!"
With Ifrit and Balam's help, even if it was a difficult struggle, they managed to chain Dali. The latter became even more furious and fought against the bonds, growing even more enraged when he realized they wouldn't give way.
Ifrit hissed at his injured hand. "He was really angry this time. He bites me until blood and broke my wrist when he makes me fall. He really doesn’t like when we stop him to do what he wants. He better to pay us a restaurant for that.
-Come on, give me your hand. I'm better at healing spells than you," said Murmur, grabbing his colleague's arm. The Gargoyle and Cerberus dragged the supervisor toward the annex, ignoring his threats and angry hisses.
March frowned “He becomes really feral.
-Because we tried to stop him. He hates it.”
Ipos watched them leave and said maliciously, "You won't see that chain again. If it can keep Dali restrained, Kalego and Balam won't give it back to you. Well, we all hope that it will not be as much intense next time.
- If it can be useful, then it’s good.”
Orias chuckled: "It was a funny day, wasn't it?
- Ha, uh...
- Don't worry, I'm pretty calm myself in my own wicked phase.”
Murmur sneered, " But he'll steal all your money after beating you up in all kinds of games. Or will growl at you like a grumpy bear.
- Don't spread lies to the rookie!"