Author's note: Right now, I'm trying to do each chapter from a different character's perspective, and their individual experience with the Tantei. Next chapter, Oga has to see the school nurse for an injury. :D
Baby Be'el saw more and knew more than he let on. Okay – sometimes he saw and knew more, and other times he just pretended that he did, because it would get a rise out of those who watched him. But in this instance, there was no pretending.
He had been aware of demonic eyes watching them long before Hilda, Oga, or the others sensed such. He did his best to call Oga's attention to it, but Oga didn't pay any attention to Be'el's pointing hand or vocal cues – at least not when mathematics were involved.
Well, Be'el hadn't chosen Oga for the teenager's outstanding mental acuity, although he was surprised and impressed by it often enough to expect Oga to at least look in the direction that he wanted Oga's attention. And surely, if Oga looked, then he would also become aware of how the three eyes that studied him from across the room were inhuman.
On the other hand, that would mean that Oga would be paying attention to mathematics, and Oga gave numbers the same regard that he gave the usual stringent, unforgiving authority. Oga might have given the teacher of mathematics some regard, if the teacher demanded it, but the man – incredibly short, incredibly sour-faced, and incredibly fast in giving lessons – didn't care about regard, teaching, the subject he was supposed to be an expert on, or the students.
In fact, the teacher seemed to very much resent the fact that he was on the same plane of existence with everyone else. Which was pretty typical of your every-day, run-of-the-mill fire demon.
The teacher had introduced himself as Hiei at the first class – no last name, or maybe no first name – and said that he had absolutely no interest or care of anyone learning. They were all just "stupid children who are caged up because the adults are too scared and too incompetent to keep you hoodlums under control." Hiei zoomed through the different theories and equations, and ignored questions. He never assigned or collected homework, but was evil and sadistic enough to give pop quizzes, which nearly everyone flunked because anyone who managed to learn anything with mathematics were largely self-taught geniuses who were wise enough not to flaunt their intelligence before the population of delinquents.
Ishiyama High didn't exactly have a plethora of upstanding teachers, but it must have been dead-desperate to hire someone as awful as Hiei.
Hiei's battle for respect wasn't a daily occurrence, as were other teachers. The first day of class, Oga and Baby Be'el saw a challenger quite literally burst into flame while trying to arguing with Hiei. It seemed to be too much of a coincidence, so everyone else kept their heads down. Even though the student was only slightly singed (released just one period later from the nurse's office with a still-weeping limb of aloe vera for ongoing treatment of blisters, and rumor of the nurse saying, "Seriously? He did what on the first day of school? Damn it – we told him that he wasn't allowed to immolate anyone!"), no one in Oga's class was self-destructive enough to try a repeat, even on the off-chance that it was just one of those strange scientific phenomena that only happened every few thousand years.
(An occasional pile of papers would smolder when Hiei appeared to be even more short-tempered and impatient than usual, as if it was a reminder that unexplainable immolation was a common risk for anyone who might consider crossing paths with him.)
The first years in Ishiyama High might have had the opportunity to become a top-ranking class nationwide in mathematics, if their teacher was passionate about his subject and shared such with the students. After all, the motivation and fear to follow direction had been instilled the first day. Perhaps, if the audience wasn't made up of delinquents with just enough survival instincts to keep their heads down in this situation rather than their usual challenge of the system, they might have still made top rankings despite Hiei's obvious ineptitude at teaching.
Still, going from the 10th worst to the absolute worst in the entire nation for mathematic scores in the first semester alone surely had to count for something, right?
Oga would stay awake long enough to answer the pop quizzes with doodles, rhymes, and random numbers, and then drift off asleep in class for his early afternoon naptime. Or, if he was feeling awake and restless, would just outright leave the classroom in search of adventure. Or trouble. There didn't seem to be any difference in Oga's world. As long as Oga wasn't disruptive with his departure or snored too loud, Hiei didn't seem to care.
Be'el wasn't assured that this Hiei only set challengers on fire. That Hilda hadn't sensed this demon – one who hid his third eye behind what Be'el instinctively knew was a powerful set of wards – was unsurprising. Be'el was a Beelzebub; his capacity to sense demons and humans with demonic natures/tendencies was far greater than a nursemaid's, even if he was just a baby.
And so while Oga slept, Be'el kept careful guard.