Chapter 1: A Pressing Interview
It was just a job interview, so there was no reason that she should be this nervous. Anzu berated herself internally, forcing her nerves down as she flipped through a magazine left on the coffee table, presumably by the previous… interviewee? Was that even a word? She didn't think so, but hastily cut herself off before her mind divulged into another tangent. She really had to stay focused.
Unfortunately, the elaborate decour of True Cross Academy was rather good at unnerving those who hadn't been raised wealthy. Tall ceilings, elaborate purple and pink pastel wallpaper, elegant golden light fixtures, and bright pink couches that you could practically melt into (like the one she was lounging in now) all told her that she, being raised in a middle class family, was quite out of place at this institution for the rich and famous.
Anzu bit back a sigh and flipped the page of her magazine, no longer paying any attention to its contents. Even if she graduated at the top of her university class, she probably wouldn't get the job. Hell, she was only interviewing at the behest of an old friend. True Cross Academy would only take the best of the best (for both its teachers and students), and since her friend's scores weren't quite up to par, they wanted Anzu to at least give it a shot in their place.
She couldn't complain too much, though. If by some miracle she did get the job, the entry-level pay was much higher than any other institution around - excluding top universities, of course. And Anzu did like money; she wouldn't deny greed being among her fatal flaws.
With a small sigh, Anzu put down the magazine. There was no point in merely glancing at it, especially when she could be doing something more productive. Checking to make sure the woman at the lobby's marble desk wasn't looking her way, Anzu stretched her arms out behind her head, even if her black suit jacket and white dress shirt were a bit restricting, before glancing at the time on her phone. Great, it'd already been a half hour since she got here. How long was it going to take for the previous candidate (there's the right word) to finish up?
After standing up and smoothing out her black knee-length pencil skirt, Anzu walked up to the tall, arching windows in front of her. As she approached, she caught her reflection in the glass - auburn hair cut into a shoulder-length bob, light makeup and dark red lipstick, and black eyes - and brought her hand to her head to smooth out a strand or two of her hair. Satisfied, she looked out the windows to see sunlight streaming down on bright green grass, a fancy water fountain, well-maintained sidewalks, and a clear blue sky. The view was nice enough, and if Anzu had brought her sketchbook with her, she would've definitely taken a quick sketch of the scenery to paint in later.
Footsteps broke her out of her thoughts, and she turned to see the previous candidate, a middle-aged man with graying hair, walk into the lobby from an adjoined hallway. Anzu watched him from the corner of her eye, and he stopped at the marble desk to say something to the woman there before leaving. She supposed, then, that it would be her turn soon.
Actually, she'd already completed several other interviews - one with the academy's general recruiter, one with the secretary, and one with the head teachers of the Math and Language Arts Departments - but she still had to complete one more to know if she'd landed the job or not. In all honesty, she was surprised she got this far, but was still hesitant to be optimistic about the whole thing. It was almost too good to be true, especially with the lack of demons around. The sky wasn't just clear from clouds, it was clear from coal tars too.
...Not that she could tell anyone that she found the lack of demons around True Cross Town unsettling, considering she never really spoke of it to others. As a kid, she found out the hard way that bringing up the fact that she could see them never ended well and had reacted accordingly.
No one can call you crazy if you don't do or say much, after all.
However, she couldn't really enjoy life going about it like that, so she'd learned to keep most of her hobbies to herself while maintaining a respectable outward appearance. It was a bit lonely, keeping up a distant yet amiable front, but it worked well enough.
"Anzu Sato, the principal is ready to see you now," the woman at the desk called out. Anzu gave her grateful smile and a small bow before leaving the lobby and making her way through the winding halls. The woman had given her the directions to the principal's office when she'd first arrived, and a good memory was one of Anzu's greatest strengths.
She recited a few of her rehearsed interview responses in her head as she walked, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. Unfortunately, she couldn't help but be distracted by the paintings adorning the walls. Some were replicas (or, at least, she was hoping that they were) of famous or semi-famous pieces, while others were more modern. She even recognized a few as being made by one of her internet art friends. A small smile graced her features as she stopped in front of the office doors. Well, if worse came to worst, she could always divert the conversation to something art-related to save herself from too much awkwardness. Straightening up her posture, Anzu took in a deep breath before knocking firmly on one of the doors.
"Come in," a muffled voice spoke from inside the room.
Anzu took one of the handles, twisting it and pulling the door open. The walls were a deep reddish pink, and dark wooden detailing was peppered across them. There were some paintings sprinkled here and there as well, and were those candelabras? Yes, yes they were. The strangest part of the room, though, had to be the desk - or rather, one particular inhabitant of it.
Even if she was gawking a bit internally, Anzu was not raised to be rude. Without missing a beat (or spending too much time staring - how humiliating would it be if she were caught!), she closed the door behind her and greeted the principal, a seemingly eccentric man with plum purple hair and a crisp white suit.
"Hello, my name is Anzu Sato, and I am here to interview for a teaching position at this illustrious academy," she said evenly, plastering a genial smile onto her face. Even if the "illustrious" comment was a bit extra, a little flattery could go a long way. From his seat behind the desk, the principal gestured for her to sit down on the yellow and orange striped couch across from him.
"Please take a seat, Miss Sato! My name is Johann Faust the fifth, though I venture to say you probably knew that already," he said, giving her a wide smile. It seemed strained at the edges, from which Anzu could conclude that he was probably getting rather tired of these interviews. Well, she'd try to make it as painless as possible for both of them. After all, the less time she was in here, the less likely she was to look at-
Nope, not thinking about that. That… mini Gollum-like creature straight out of Lord of the Rings climbing around on top of Mr. Faust's computer monitor would be pointedly ignored, even if it killed her. It wasn't a type of demon she'd seen before, and even if she was curious about it, she didn't particularly want to be called out for staring off into "space" too long at a job interview.
"Of course - you are rather famous, Mr. Faust," Anzu said amicably, forcing her dark eyes to stay focused on who she was talking to. He nodded, pulling out a pen and some papers from seemingly nowhere.
"Yes, yes - though let's get down to business, shall we?" he mused, tapping his pen idly on the papers. "Hm… honors student, graduated top of your class, currently is and has been a student-teacher for a few years at a private school in Tokyo, and overall a well-rounded candidate for a potential teacher at any school. Your main subjects are Language Arts and Math, correct?"
"Yes, sir," Anzu confirmed. He smirked, green eyes twinkling in amusement. Belatedly, she noticed they were slit like a cat's, which could, unfortunately for her, be a telltale sign of demonic possession. Her eyes glanced at his ears, and she noticed that they were pointed as well.
...Drat, his name probably wasn't "Faust" then, not that she could do anything about it - Anzu was no exorcist (and it wasn't like she could report this to one, if she could somehow find one to begin with, without drawing attention to herself, which was a big no-no). Biting back a annoyed groan, Anzu resolved to do what she normally did when she ran across a situation like this - either keep interaction minimal if she could (which she couldn't, this was still a job interview) or pointedly ignore any demonic activity, feigning normalcy if she couldn't. More often than not, Anzu noted that demons would leave you alone or just plain bother you less if you pretended not to notice them.
"Very good, Miss Sato! Now, onto the interview questions. Why did you want to be a teacher?" the plum-haired man asked. Thankfully, this was a rather standard question, so Anzu wasn't too concerned about… you know. As long as she didn't react to any demonic activity, she should be able to leave here as just another boring interviewee.
"I want to pass knowledge and a love for learning on to future generations. No matter what profession a person goes into, they all had teachers at one point to help them out along the way. I want to make a difference in my students' lives and help them grow as people," she replied, keeping her voice sincere. This was all true, but she also really liked the prospect of having summers off to draw and paint, not that she would say that in an interview. He nodded.
"Good, good. Now, what brought you to True Cross Academy?" he inquired. The pair went back and forth like that for a while - Mr. Faust would ask a question, and Anzu would reply, ignoring the eccentric man's peculiar eyes, teeth, and ears, along with the goblin creature crawling around his desk. Eventually, the plum-haired man paused, appearing satisfied enough with how the interview had progressed. Unfortunately, he didn't seem particularly pleased, unlike the others she had interviewed with this week, so she doubted she'd get the position. Oh well, she was expecting it anyways.
"Miss Sato, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. However, I regret to inform you-" Mr. Faust began, only to be cut off by his bright pink lamp sneezing. He glanced at it and gave it a small frown, and Anzu twiched, blinking owlishly at the lamp. After all, lamps were not supposed to sneeze… unless it was a demon lamp.
Shit. If it was a demon, normal humans wouldn't have heard that. Anzu glanced away as quickly as she could, fixing her eyes on a painting at the other end of the desk, but it was too late. Mr. Faust had noticed that she noticed, and she noticed that he noticed, and he noticed that she noticed-
Cutting off that horrendous train of thought, Anzu tried to change the topic.
"Ah… that's a nice painting you have there, Mr. Faust. A Monet replica, right?" she asked, eyes pointedly focused on the landscape painting of an arching Japanese bridge. His grin grew wider than she had seen it in the whole interview, fangs on display and with a menacing twist.
"It is, though I believe you were looking at my lamp earlier, Miss Sato. Not that I can blame you… it can behave rather strangely at times," he drawled. Damn, she was caught, and there was no point in denying it. The miniature Gollum started snickering, and she clenched her hands together to keep her annoyance off her face. Judging from Mr. Faust's amused expression, it didn't work.
"It is a rather bright pink, though that's hardly important. You were just about to conclude the interview, sir?" Anzu pushed. She hardly cared if she came off as rude at this point, she just wanted to leave and forget this fiasco ever happened.
"Why yes, I was. Miss Sato, you… got the job!" he exclaimed proudly, pulling out a white top hat that spat confetti out at her. Anzu's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as her hand attempted to brush some of the colorful rectangles out of her reddish brown hair.
"But… you said 'I regret' earlier - that's normally how you break it to someone that they didn't get the position in question," she mumbled, displeased that her facade broke and unable to stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth.
"My, what an attitude! Quite different from the act you put on earlier," he teased, and Anzu looked away with a mall scowl. She was calm, collected, and responsible most of the time, but she became a bit… sassy, for lack of a better word, when her limits were pushed. She normally hid that side of herself, though this whole situation had been less than ideal, to say the least. "Regardless, that's probably for the best. It's more entertaining that way, yes-men can get oh so boring."
"Right…" Anzu said added skeptically, looking back towards the principal.
"You were right, I was going to deny you the position, but…" he smirked, giving a small nod to his lamp, "you can see demons. It's a skill that can be rather useful here. You didn't do bad, per say, I simply prefer the teachers here to be… entertaining. And you, an ordinary human by any other means, being able to see demons makes you just interesting enough to earn a place at True Cross Academy." Anzu didn't know if that was a good thing or not, especially considering that she was talking to a demon. Regardless, she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. It couldn't be that bad, could it?
"Thank you, Mr. Faust. I will try to meet your expectations," Anzu said evenly, standing up to give him a low bow. She wasn't raised to be rude, after all. The plum-haired man's lips twitched upwards.
"No need to call me that - I'd rather go by Mephisto Pheles, if you please," he stated. "Though I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that name around other staff members."
At this moment, even if she had technically never met him, Anzu did feel quite bad for the original Mr. Faust. Although… Mephistopheles was the name of the demon in a German legend, wasn't it? And if this man was the same demon from that legend, and if he was using the body of that same Faust… he'd been possessing said body for hundreds of years, and the old Faust's soul was probably long dead. It was a big leap in logic, but if demons existed, why couldn't legends be real too? Ah, whatever - she was probably thinking too much into this, and if by some miracle she was right, it'd probably only get her into more trouble. No need to voice her thoughts, then.
"Of course, Mr. Pheles," she said, fighting to keep her voice friendly. "When should I expect to start?"
"'Sir Pheles,' dear, I am a knight, and as soon as possible. You'll be teaching first year and second year level math for this semester, and afterwards a literature class may be added as well. Unfortunately, the previous teacher had to leave on short notice, so the sooner we can get a permanent hire in, the better," he explained, snapping his fingers and… summoning (Anzu put that thought aside, the fact that demons could use magic shouldn't be all that surprising, and she also pointedly shoved the whole "knight" situation to the side for now too) a schedule of classes along with some upcoming lesson plans. He held them out for her to take, and Anzu carefully grabbed the documents before looking them over.
"Since I'm a student teacher, the school that I'm currently working at only needs a week's notice instead of two. I'll start looking into housing tonight, and I will call in when I find a suitable place," she said, eyes lighting up when she noticed that even with only teaching two types of classes, she'd start working full-time right away.
"Actually," Sir Pheles began, "housing is included. There are apartments on campus, and it's recommended for employees to live there for the first three years. It's all detailed in the contract, which is at the bottom of the paper pile I handed you. Feel free to take it home with you, just bring it to the secretary sometime tomorrow." Anzu nodded gratefully.
"Thank you very much, sir," she said, standing up to take her leave.
"No need," he said, waving her off. "Welcome to True Cross Academy, Miss Sato!" Parting words were exchanged, and Anzu discreetly made sure to brush off as much confetti as possible. Once she left the room, papers in hand and shutting the door behind her, Anzu let out the breath she was holding.
That was… peculiar, to say the least. She still didn't like how she got hired, but at the very least, her friend and parents would be happy for her. Overall, Anzu was pleasantly surprised that she had landed a job at such a nice school, even if she was still a tad suspicious about the whole thing (her seeing demons had never been viewed as a positive trait before). Unfortunately, she didn't know if she could handle another conversation with the demonic principal, but it'd be unavoidable once she accepted the job (and she would accept it - it was an amazing opportunity).
Ah, whatever - she'd have to get over it eventually. Besides, today turned out fine, so tomorrow would be…
It would be just another day at True Cross Academy.
AN: Hello, and thank you so much for reading! This story is quite different from my other Blue Exorcist fic, in that this one was planned to contain short, chapter-long mini-stories while the other one is more plot-driven, but I hope it's enjoyable all the same. The idea for this one just kind of hit me, and I couldn't help myself (even if logically I know I should finish my other fics before starting another, haha). Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day!
*This story is the first part of Project AESOP (An Excellent Summer of Posting), see bio for more details.