Educational Suicide
A.N.- Yay! First Disgaea fanfic I'm actually going to put effort into is officially started! No important notices other than the fact that's it's probably going to include some OOC's since I have comparatively minimal experience with Disgaea 3…
Chapter I: Mutual Betrayal
"Mao, are you sure trying this is such a good idea? The menu said the approval chance for passing the strengthening the enemies bill is only 20%, and looking at these election committee members and how much they hate us, it seems unlikely this is going to pass..." Almaz asked timidly, he expected some sort of punishment for questioning 'the great heir-apparant of Evil Academy, Mao', but he got a slightly different reaction than expected for his comment.
"Did I ask for your input, servant? You only speak when spoken to by me, or risk experimentation! As punishment, I demote you to 'slave' status." Mao shot back angrily, Almaz's title immediately changed from 'Soft-Boiled Demon' to 'Mao's Unpaid Servant'. Mao was at first unsatisfied, so the apparantly omnipresent hand of the 'god of title-changing' again changed Almaz's title from 'Mao's Unpaid Servent' to 'Mao's Slave' Mao noticed this new change and thought for a moment, then finally accepted the change since it was exactly what he asked for, if lacking the title changer's usual witty imagination. Almaz noticed the change and mentally cried over it, but accepted it since there were more pressing matters to attend to now and it would probably change to something else when he got closer to his demonic transformation.
Finally Mao continued to answer his new slave's question "Anyways, to answer your question- yes, this is a good idea, because it is mine. We have enough bribery material to satisfy the whole of the committee, should they all show up; but now that I'm thinking of it, there are some problems..." Mao explained as if he were talking to a child, ending with a sort of trail off to make someone ask what he meant by that, someone inevitably asked without thinking.
"Problems? Like what?" Sapphire asked.
"So you also feel the need to speak when I have not given permission? One more of you speak out of turn and you don't get food for a week! The problem being that a very influential member of the committee is going to be present and he hates us and everything we do..." Mao stopped suddenly and gazed off into the distance deep in thought; after a long, silent moment he continued "Anyways, the problem is that he is so influential and powerful that we need every other member to vote in our favor so his vote doesn't matter, and that is why we need so much bribery material! Any comments?" Mao finished- everyone assumed that meant they had permission to speak, but still everyone was too afraid; Almaz eventually spoke again.
"Are you certain we have enough bribery items to satisfy everyone on the committee but him?"
"Idiot! I don't need to bribe everyone; just everyone that I didn't put on the committee last night! Which reminds me, you three are now honorary members of the election committee, here's some lovely complimentary membership badges." Mao said, offering three small, cheap, and fake gold trinkets to Almaz, Sapphire and Kyoko- one for each of them. Such cheap jewelry is to be expected from demons, they wouldn't dare give away anything valuable that they can keep for themselves, so the membership badges were probably made of some cheap plastic and painted gold; Almaz noticed his badge was made of wood due to its texture and it left a few splinters in his hand when he took it from Mao.
"So who is this member of the committee that is so powerful and hates us so much?" Raspberyl finally asked. Mao hissed at the question for a moment, his hate was evidently that great; a silent minute passed, adding suspense that all led up to the moment he finally said who the hated adversary on the committee was:
"Our own current homeroom teacher, Mr. Redshirt!"
"Mr. Redshirt? He doesn't hate us!" Kyoko blurted out, like most people were about to but she managed to first; this conversation seemed to be turning into a race for whoever could ask Mao the obvious questions first and risk punishment for speaking out of turn, Mao was getting lax on that though, and he let it slide.
"Oh yes he does! Ever since our class put him to sleep, broke his glasses and glued his hands to his podium, he's hated us all with a passion!" Mao quickly retorted with a touch of 'duh, don't you remember?' to make Kyoko feel stupid for asking, taking notice of this, Raspberyl wasn't one to let him get away with such an insult to a friend and fellow delinquent.
"Liar! 'Our class' didn't do that, you did! Mr. Redshirt fell asleep on his own watching us study the art of studying on our own and you decided to do something an honor student would and-"
"Petty details that don't concern the end result, the point is he hates us, and will do everything in his considerable power to prevent us from getting any stronger!" Mao interrupted impatiently, expecting no more comments to his self-titled genius, but there were many more to come.
"Is that why were trying to pass this bill, to get stronger? Isn't that the least bit dangerous?" Asuka asked cautiously, she was probably the only one left that feared Mao's previous threat about not letting them eat, still he let it slide, Mao evidently forgot about his own threat.
"I don't suppose you have a better idea?" Mao asked rhetorically, even if someone had come up with a better idea, he wasn't about to listen to it since he was completely convinced that his idea was nothing short of pure genius and thus, could not be improved upon. Raspberyl made such an idea, and so did Asuka, but Mao didn't bother to listen to either.
"Those are both time-consuming and won't get us stronger quickly like my plan! So just follow the plan as I have explained and all will be well." Mao ordered as he smiled and walked away from the group toward the center of the meeting room to begin the vote. Almaz, Sapphire and Kyoko took their own places among the desks and each privately brooded over Mao's overly demanding nature, Almaz was the most insulted.
Does Mao really expect us to vote in favor of this after he insulted us? Why do we even need stronger enemies, anyways? As a future hero, it's my job to stop him from going down the path of self-destruction, and I'm sure Kyoko and Sapphire feel the same, so I'm not going to vote in favor of this, and damn the consequences! Food isn't so important... Almaz planned in his mind as he watched Mao call over the other members of the committee, very obviously handing out his bribes to the greedy demons.
While Almaz was quite confident that neither of the girls weren't going to vote yea for Mao, he wasn't totally sure, so he glanced at them both for a sign of their disapproval of Mao's actions. Kyoko was fixing her hair and didn't notice Almaz look in her direction and Sapphire gave him a smile and a friendly wave when she noticed him glancing in her direction, Almaz smiled and waved back to her just to be friendly, but that wasn't exactly what he was hoping for.
"PLACES EVERYONE! THE VOTING WILL COMMENCE ONCE EVERYONE IS SEATED!" A very large, random golem boomed at the top of his voice, causing Mao and the members of the committee he just bribed to scramble to their places; it was at this time Almaz noticed Mr. Redshirt's place was right next to him, and that Mr. Redshirt was neither drunk nor sleeping.
Maybe that'll deter Mao from sending me to the nurse's office after his twisted experiments... again... Almaz hoped privately as the overseer of the voting began his announcements.
The overseer's job was basically to read the list of who votes when and to look the other way when Mao bribes the majority of the committee. Normally the overseer is also the strongest demon present, but in this case the overseer was the golem who just previously told everyone to take their places, and Almaz noticed his level was less than half of Mr. Redshirt's level of 1,400.
The overseer read down about a quarter of the list of the committee members whose names Almaz never could quite remember, the chorus of yea's made Almaz feel a bit scared off his previously determined course of going against Mao.
"SAPPHIRE RHODONITE, WHAT IS YOUR VOTE?"
Well, her voting nay will make me feel better about my own self-destructive course. Almaz thought, both mentally and physically relieved as he waited for Sapphire's sweet voice to make everything better.
"Yea!" Sapphire said cheerfully, with her usual grace that didn't escape Almaz's staring eyes. Almaz made a shocked look that just happened to be directed toward her, she noticed and gave him a confused and slightly disgusted look back, she evidently never even thought of voting nay against Mao and risk not eating for a week or worse, Almaz's look of silent conspiracy before the voting was evidently lost on her.
After a moment of looking like an idiot gaping at Sapphire, Almaz regained his composure and felt reassured at the thought that as a delinquent, Kyoko would never vote yea to grant Mao's dangerous and overall selfish wish of having stronger enemies.
Another chorus of yea's followed Sapphire's vote, further pushing Almaz into the abyss of reconsideration of his vote. Almaz slammed his head on his desk to try and knock some desperately needed common sense into his head- he thought maybe he was thinking too hard; even though it made a loud bang and didn't help at all, no one noticed since it was exactly when the overseer called the next committee member to cast their vote, only Mr. Redshirt noticed, and he did nothing but chuckle softly to himself.
"KYOKO NEEDLEWORKER, YOUR VOTE?" The overseer boomed as Almaz picked his bruised head up off the desk so he could hear her better.
Thank god- or whoever these demons worship- that Mao put one of the delinquents on the committee last night, she'll never vote yea!
Kyoko thought for a brief moment, then called "Yea!" just as joyfully as Sapphire did.
Almaz was crushed- crushed like the weight of the whole of the universe was just dumped on his back. For a moment, he thought he didn't hear right, and he denied the fact that she obviously voted yea. Kyoko, one of the delinquents whose whole philosophy is to help rather than harm, just voted in favor of Mao who insulted her not 3 minutes earlier- Almaz didn't believe this strange twist of reality, so he whispered to Mr. Redshirt to ask him just to make sure.
"What did Kyoko vote?"
"Kyoko Needleworker voted yea, just like everyone else so far; it seems that even if I vote against it, this bill will pass anyways. A shame, if even one member of this committee would vote nay, then we could steer Mao off of this dangerous course; perhaps they all want to watch him fail against the stronger enemies, he doesn't seem to be quite so popular as he thinks he is." Mr. Redshirt responded with a delicate touch of concern to fuel the hero inside of Almaz.
Mr. Redshirt's probably right, I can't let my friend get killed by these enemies! Mao was wrong, Mr. Redshirt doesn't hate him, he's trying to protect his students like a good teacher should! And like a hero, I can't back down just because everyone else did, I've gotta step up to the plate and hit a home run for Mao! Almaz was invigorated: he would vote nay like he planned.
"ALMAZ VON ALMADINE ADAMANT, WHAT DO YOU VOTE?" The overseer asked in his booming voice, which Almaz was getting quite tired of, although he was quite impressed that the overseer golem knew his full name. With not a moment of thought, Almaz braced himself for his answer.
"NAY!" Almaz yelled gloriously at the top of his lungs as he jumped on top of his desk, making everyone in the room jump a bit off of their seats- it was hard to tell whether this was caused because they didn't expect the volume of his vote, or the vote itself. The whole of the committee began to chatter quietly among themselves, most of their hushed conversations were guesses as to what horrible punishment Mao was going to deliver for such betrayal. After a few moments of chatter, all eyes turned to Mao in the center of the circle of desks to see his reaction.
Mao was stunned silent and motionless, his mouth agape at what he just heard from Almaz- his genius plan was ruined, all because of a wannabe hero! Already Mao was planning the most horrible of punishments for Almaz, simply not eating for a week or his usual experimentation punishments were both far too generous for revenge of this magnitude, he was thinking something along the lines of making Almaz's life a living hell for the next year or so.
Crush on Sapphire, have you? I'll crush you alright! Mao gritted his teeth while giving Almaz a glare that would kill most humans, but since Almaz was becoming a demon and thus wasn't totally human anymore, it only injured him mentally as Almaz thought of all of the inevitable horrible punishments awaiting him, but he took some solace in the fact that he was doing the right thing in saving his friend from his own self-caused danger.
As Mao planned his inevitable revenge in his own little world, the overseer slammed his large fists on his podium to make all the chatter stop. The chatter died down quickly, and thus with one vote left, the overseer let the last remaining member vote- Mr. Redshirt.
"MR. REDSHIRT, WHAT IS YOUR- HEY YOU, SHUT UP! DON'T THINK I CAN'T HEAR YOU TALKING AFTER I ORDERED SILENCE! BE QUIET!" the overseer commanded from his tall podium, two ghost members of the committee acted like they didn't hear him, so kept talking. Acting like mighty Zeus punishing those who don't obey his divine law, the overseer hurled a lighning bolt at the pair of ghosts, which missed hitting them both by about half an inch, immediately they shut their mouths.
"WHAT IS YOUR VOTE, MR. REDSHIRT?"
"Before I vote, I must say: Almaz, you are much too gullible to be in the company of demons." Mr. Redshirt said to the young, foolhardy, yet undeniably brave human/demon resolutely standing on his desk next to him to try and save his friend from himself. Almaz was more than a little confused at Mr. Redshirt's comment, so he asked the first question that came to mind.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I vote yea."
A.N.- Betrayal from a demon, does this surprise anyone? If you were actually surprised by Mr. Redshirt's tricking of Almaz even after that 'good teacher' comment from Almaz, then you should be extremely disappointed in yourself and you should spend more time in the company of demons, or even better, demon teachers.
Now that I re-read my own work, I think I did pretty good with not making OOCs, in fact, I think I did pretty good with the whole character development of most of the characters I used.
And before anyone says anything in an angry review, I fully realize I didn't even mention Mr. Champloo, and I did that for a few reasons: 1) I hate him (see my bio); 2) I'm not good with making up lines for his 'food talk' style of dialogue, and believe me, I tried; and 3) it's perfectly plausible that this takes place before he joins, so... yeah, he probably won't be appearing for a while, if at all.