Chapter 8- Playing the Fool

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Needless to say, skipping class (as unintentional as it was) did not bode well for me or my already shaky reputation. Not exactly being able to explain the situation to Okumura-sensei ("Hey, your sort of half-brother tried to kill me yesterday and I may have caused the total population of coal tar to swarm the forest of True Cross, leading to a spike in demonic activity— but at least that means your paycheck will be bigger, right?"), I made a stupid lie about falling asleep in my dorm. The brown-haired teen obviously felt suspicious but did not press me for answers, merely muttering that another skipped day would lead to a detention. I got off easy— or so I thought.

After a quick meeting with Yukio during our lunch break, I decided to take a trip to Mephisto's office in the hopes of catching Astaroth. While I assumed he went to human classes, I never saw him on campus— he probably spent most of his time skipping, anyway, since it was all a front to begin with. I needed to talk to him about Taiyou. The demon was acting particularly sluggish lately and I was worried about the little guy. He spent most of the day buried in my hair, sound asleep.

I gave two short taps before entering the demon's office. The purple-haired devil was unfortunately alone, sitting at his desk while looking over a stack of papers with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

"Uh, is this a bad time...?" I meekly questioned. Damn, when the guy was serious (or angry) he actually seemed terrifying. Sometimes I forgot that the man was actually a demon king since his clothing practically screamed 'clown.' Mephisto's gaze shifted towards me as his eyes lightened up mischievously, ushering me towards his desk with a dramatic wave of his hand.

"Come in, come in, Icarus~! I have a few questions for you!"

Oh shit. Hesitantly, I approached his desk, my expression betraying my inner thoughts. He caught my fear and used it, the bastard.

"I heard from Okumura-sensei that you didn't come to class! Hmm, now why is that?"

I coughed, eyes darting all across the room. Looking out the large window of the office, I realized that it gave a perfect view of the campus. Someone's a voyeur, I thought in my head, only to quickly shake off the thought. It was random shit like that which made me wonder if I wasn't a budding schizophrenic; I should be more worried about what to tell the demon than his, erm… possibly unsightly hobbies.

Knowing that the principal could probably see through any form of deception (ya know, being a demon and all), I relented and told the truth. Kind of.

"One of your brothers tried to kill me—someone other than Astaroth, I mean."

This brought a chuckle from his lips, showcasing his sharp teeth. Despite being around Astaroth, who seemed to walk around with his teeth bared, I still found my stomach doing summersaults at the sight of fangs. It just wasn't normal, damnit!

"Ooh, let me guess, was it Azazel? He's the King of Spirits~!"

I shook my head. "No, Astaroth guessed him too. He said his name was Amaimon, King of Earth."

He gave a cool, calculated laugh. "Not surprising— the boy runs rampant in Gehenna. Killing demons left and right, no wonder father didn't make a fuss when Amaimon asked to come to Assiah."

Oh, right. Sons of Satan. I had to stop forgetting that. "Umm, yah… he kind of attacked me. And then…" I paused, slipping a lie into my speech before I even realized it, "A random wave of coal tar appeared. I was knocked unconscious and when I woke up, Astaroth was carrying me out of the forest. I guess he saved me." I gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly.

Inwardly, however, I cringed. This was a centuries old demon! There was no way he'd fall for such a petty excuse—

"Ah, so Astaroth is the reason why there was a spike in demonic activity~!" Mephisto chirped, a renewed vigor as he filled in the empty lines of his report (in bright pink, might I add).

"Thank you, Icarus! Now I can finally finish these reports!"

"N-no problem…" I muttered, picking up my books from the sofa before bolting towards the door.

"Oh, and Icarus?" Mephisto called out just as I twisted the brass doorknob.

I turned around hesitantly. "Yes…?"

His emerald eyes narrowed. "Be careful out there. I'd hate to see someone with so much potential die young. And remember to enjoy your high school life, alright? Youth is something to cherish."

The door slammed forebodingly behind me as I gulped, turning to walk back to my classroom. Yet, the demon's warning continued to ring in my ears.

I couldn't die for the time being, right…?

It was then that I realized I really needed to talk to Astaroth—to talk about everything. Even about his sometimes very shady older brother.

3rd Person POV

"Good job, Amaimon." Mephisto grinned, lazily eating a stick of strawberry pocky. Amaimon nodded in return, stealing a stick of the biscuit treat despite the other demon's protests.

"I wanna play some more…" He mumbled in between chews, returning to the sofa. He let his legs dangle over the side of the pinstriped couch, stretching out a single hand.

"Her familiar was interesting… I thought all coal tars were weak."

This brought an amused chuckle to the principal's lips. "That's because you just swat at one or two; in a swarm, they can be quite the adversaries."

He turned his eyes to the document in his gloved grip. The manila folder obscured most of the documents, but printed on the front was the name Haruko Ikari.

"Still, it's surprising that she'd lie to me. Perhaps she's more perceptive than most humans." The purple-haired demon observed, pausing to take a sip of his tea. Placing the teacup back on his desk, he turned to see that Amaimon had gotten a hold of one of his anime figurines, which he now had in his mouth.

"Don't eat that!"

Amaimon glowered, but returned the figurine to Mephisto's desk, now covered in his saliva.

"Sorry, aniue." Amaimon apologized, though his voice remained monotone. He took to peering through the large windows of the office, using his hands as binoculars.

"That girl is by the tree again. And she's with Astaroth." Amaimon observed, turning back to look at his brother.

Mephisto grinned. "The plan seems to be going well. As Shakespeare wrote, All the world's a stage, and all men and women merely players…

"I don't get it." The Earth King mumbled back, cerulean orbs trained to the girl. Slowly, he brought a finger to his mouth, biting against the darkened nail in concentration.

"Can I play with her again?"

"…Not yet, Amaimon. You've played your role for now. Be a good actor and stand offstage for now, alright~?"

The demon gave a reluctant nod, gaze never leaving the window. "Whatever you say, aniue."

I sat in my seat, fiddling with the pencil on my desk. I tried to spin the pencil with my fingers but failed miserably, causing the writing utensil to fall off of my desk and roll onto the ground.

"Damnit…" I cursed, reaching out a hand, only for a black shoe to stamp against the pencil.

"What the hell—" I started, only to see a familiar silver-haired demon.

"Yo, Icarus." He leered, scooping up the pencil and offering it to me. I went to take it from him, only for the demon to laugh, chucking it behind himself. It hit the student next to me in the face, causing the boy to nearly startle from his seat.

"What's your problem, man?!" The student barked, looking ready to punch Astaroth in the face.

"Oh, shut it. It was just a fucking pencil." The crimson-eyed demon retorted, returning his attention to my desk.

"So, I heard from Samael that you were looking for me." His grin grew wider, arrogantly so, as he scratched his sharp nails against my desk. They left long marks in the wood, to my horror.

I hope I don't get in trouble for that, I thought absentmindedly before frowning at the demon king.

"I didn't tell Mephisto anything like that—"

"Ah, so I guessed right! I saw you hanging around the courtyard right before lunch ended. Heh, if you wanted to ask me out you could have just said so."

I pushed against him lightly, rolling my eyes. "As if I'd want to date someone with breath like yours."

"H-hey!" He started, stopping mid-sentence as I took Taiyou off my head, glad to have the corner seat in the back of the class; Astaroth was blocking off the rest of the students from seeing me reach towards air.

"I think something's wrong with Taiyou. He's been asleep all day." I explained, placing the coal tar on my spiral notebook. I was glad that the teacher didn't care about random students coming into his classes; not that he really should have. This was a free period, after all, and students tended to go in and out of class without a word.

"Maybe he's dying." Astaroth observed, scooping the little coal tar into his clawed grip. I glared at his statement, but kept my mouth shut. He held the demon with a strange gentleness, one that even I noticed. A frown quickly made its way onto his lips.

"I can't find anything abnormally wrong with him; maybe he just needs to go back to Gehenna."

"What?!" I didn't want to lose him; the little guy had already wormed his way into my heart.

Astaroth sighed, putting the sleeping demon back on my head. "Low-level demons can't stay in Assiah forever, dumbass. Come on, I'll explain outside."

Out by the tree where we normally talked (and where Amaimon kidnapped me), I gave the coal tar back to Astaroth.

"I'm going to take a quick trip to Gehenna. I'll be back in a few days. Keep an eye on my host body, alright? I don't want him dying cause of something stupid."

You're one to talk… I thought, but nodded all the same. "Okay, Ruthy. Leave your dumb, delinquent human self to me!"

"I heard that, brat. You should watch your tongue— err, thoughts. I could leave Taiyou here with you and then you'd have to rip up your summoning papers. And if you did that, you couldn't be sure he'd be alright in Gehenna."

"…Sorry." I muttered, dipping into a polite bow. I didn't want to rely on him, but Astaroth was helping me yet again. Much to my chagrin.

"Ah, is there any reason why you're going to Gehenna all of a sudden?" I asked before I could stop myself. God, I really had no filter, did I?

The white-haired king frowned, crimson eyes narrowed. "To have a joyful reunion with my loving father, of course. Shit, I forgot how dumb you could be. I need to report in about Rin Okumura."

"Sarcastic asshole…"

With those parting words, I reluctantly waved goodbye to the demon, surprised to find that his departure left a strange feeling in my chest. Shit, don't tell me I'm actually going to miss that loser. No, it's probably Taiyou that I'm feeling sad about. I won't have the little guy munching in my hair for a while.

As I pondered these thoughts, a new, sudden pain erupted in my chest. Collapsing in the courtyard, I curled into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut as a crowd formed around me. I felt my heartbeat slow to a dull drum until my conscience faded, reminding me of the time before, when I had collapsed in my house.

Astaroth, help me…

My vision immediately faded to black.

A/N: Sorry for the delay ^^' I hope this chapter makes up for the wait XD Next chap more answers will be given and Icarus will eventually get to interact w/ the cram school kids again. And yes, Icarus definitely passes out a lot; but, there's a reason for it! I promise ^^ Who knows, perhaps you guys have already figured it out :P

Review?

-Isis