Truth be told, I wanted this chapter to be part of the last chapter, but it would have been way too long. I also wanted to game-to-IRL transition that I wrote for this chapter to happen, and I don't usually do those transitions mid-chapter. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy. :)

Satanichia was many things. She was a commander of demons and angels alike. She was a demon with magics beyond the comprehension of mortals coursing through her veins. She was a peerless and cunning warrior. She was the very avatar of darkness and everything evil. She had wielded many weapons in her lifetime. Swords, axes, even her very blood had been used to slaughter at her behest. Currently, she was wielding a simple pen. With blue ink.

The fearsome demon that was normally most comfortable with blood covering her from head to toe was sitting at a desk in a small office in a mortal town. Her hands were cramping from the frantic composition of the letter she was writing. This was no matter of life or death, but it was urgent for her, nonetheless. The ink flowed onto the page, forming words in the unfamiliar human tongue used for communication between the angels and demons.

As quickly as the words gained form, the page was discarded into a pile in the corner of the room. The human in charge of the office – it was an office in charge of delivering postage to mortals before the near extinction of the mortal races – was eyeing her nervously, but he didn't dare speak up about the mess she was leaving on his floor. He would clean it later without complaint. More distracting than the smatterings of paper was the massive, spiked sword at her hip. He would take his chances with not talking to her at all. He did have something of a survival instinct.

Satanichia growled and restrained her anger as much as she could to avoid the flames within her blood engulfing her flesh. She didn't want to receive a bill for property damage, after all. She clenched her fist around the pen and brought it down to the paper once again.

The keys on her keyboard clicked and clacked. It was lunch time at Trinity Academy, and she had immediately stalked off – avoiding Gabriel and the girl she suspected was Vignette – and found a quiet, private spot in the library. She had opened her laptop and logged into the MMO with a single purpose in mind: she had to find out if Gabriel and her friend were the Gabriel and her friend that she had been gaming with for several months.

Now, she was sitting at the mail screen and struggling to come up with a private message that would convey her message to her online friend without making her sound like a creep. Her backspace key was going to be completely worn out by the time she was finished at this rate. She looked over her shoulders carefully every time she heard footsteps or voice, but thankfully the library was pretty empty at lunchtime. She luckily had the skills to alt-F4 like lightning, having had years of experiences with a questionable browsing history.

She typed and typed and deleted and deleted for what felt like no time at all, but she knew that if she didn't hurry, she would run out of time and be late for her homeroom period with Ms. Weiss.

ArchDemon003: Hey! I think we may have met IRL!

"No. Sounds creepy."

ArchDemon003: Question! What town is it you said you live in?

"Ugh. Also creepy."

ArchDemon003: Hey so, you're a student, right? What kind of school do you go to? I recently started at a new school and one of the girls sounds just like you.

"That's… not as bad. At least it explains the situation a bit," she mused.

"What are you doing in here?"

Satanichia jolted and quickly closed her laptop. She looked up to see the girl she suspected was Vignette, smiling, and Gabriel walking behind her, looking grumpy. She stuffed her laptop in her bag and tried to think of a response that wouldn't be embarrassing or awkward. She was still struggling to look Gabriel in the eyes after the incident earlier, so she looked at Vignette. She felt a lot less afraid of the girl and the chance of being bullied now that she had an inkling of the identities of the other two.

"Uh, just sitting here. Watching videos online," she lied smoothly. She felt bad about lying, but what else could she do? If these two weren't her cyber friends, then she would just gain the reputation of a loser gamer, and she would lose any chance she had of befriending anyone, even these two.

"Oh, that seems kind of odd for lunch period," Vignette pointed out, tilting her head, "but it just started, so we should go grab some food in the cafeteria."

"Wait. With me?" Satanichia clarified, "Really?"

"Well, that's the idea," Vignette nodded with her smile. She definitely seemed like Vignette, or, at least, what Satanichia imagined Vignette to be like in real life.

"Uh, I don't know if that's –," she began.

"She doesn't want to, let's go," Gabriel interrupted and grabbed Vignette's arm, pulling her away. Vignette stood her ground.

"Yes, she does, and I think you owe her an apology," Vignette told the blonde with a stern look. Gabriel sighed like an annoyed small child and stepped beside her friend, looking everywhere but at Satanichia.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I don't have a penis, and I didn't mean to make you faint," she apologized in a rehearsed manner. It didn't sound genuine at all.

"Wait. You don't have a-," Satanichia began again.

"No. It was a prank by Raphi," Gabriel said with an annoyed tone, "Now, let's go eat."

She spoke in a way that suggested the conversation was finished, but Vignette thought otherwise. Having stood and grabbed her bag, Satanichia was all for going along with it and following them, but Vignette put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder and stopped her.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Gab?"

Gabriel stammered and looked even more like a small child that was angry at their parent as she glared at Vignette.

"T-that's not even what happened!" she argued with a voice that was too loud for the library.

Vignette didn't flinch. She remained calm as she crossed her arms and looked at Gabriel in the most menacing stare that Satanichia had ever seen. It was almost like a dark aura had obliterated the calm and kindness the girl had been radiating since Satanichia had met her. She almost felt like an intruder in the conversation, despite it being an apology to her. Even Gabriel's eyes were wide in fear. Satanichia had no idea – and she assumed Gabriel didn't either – of what the consequences could be for opposing Vignette in this moment, but neither would risk it no matter the cost.

"F-fine!" Gabriel relented. She turned to Satanichia and looked her straight in the eyes as she said, "I'm sorry I seduced you. I know you're new and I shouldn't have taken advantage of you."

Satanichia would have done a spit-take if she had been drinking anything. As it was, she almost choked on her own saliva just from the shock of hearing that.

"T-that really didn't happen!" she argued, but Vignette's glare shut her up. She didn't even know why Vignette was glaring at her. She was telling the truth.

"I'm not even gay," Gabriel whined under her breath as Vignette walked away, grabbing both of them by the hands and dragging them along. Both girls felt like slaves under the chains of their overseer than friends of Vignette. Satanichia tried to look at Gabriel for reassurance, but all Gabriel could do was give her a sad, resigned look that said, "You get used to it."

The cafeteria was right across the hallway from the library, so it was probably the first place the two had looked when they found her. She hadn't yet managed to finish the message to Gabriel, but she would have to get on that later. It couldn't really be helped.

Vignette pushed through the double-doors to the cafeteria with her shoulder, pulling Satanichia forward just a bit from the jerking motion. It was, thankfully, fairly empty, since most students apparently preferred to use actual cafes and restaurants on campus as opposed to the American-mall-like setup of the cafeteria. There were about three dozen large tables in the equally large room, and only about seven of the tables were even a little occupied.

Satanichia found herself – and Gabriel – led to the food stands, where Vignette watched them both like a hawk. Her eyes made sure that they only went where she approved, so Satanichia made her way through the same line as Gabriel. She wasn't picky about what she ate, after all. Truthfully, she wasn't even all that hungry. She was still riled up about the accidental almost-kiss in the locker room and the potential revelation of the two girls being her friends from her MMO. She distractedly ordered the first thing she saw – it looked like some kind of soup from a soup shop – and presented her student identification to the cashier at the end of the line. The bored employee scanned the ID card and waved the two girls along.

They didn't talk at all through the process. The misunderstanding that Vignette had made Gabriel apologize for was obviously wrong, and they knew what had happened, so their relationship – as new as it was – was fine. It was just that the prank Gabriel had pulled had flustered her, and they had come close to kissing, at least as far as Satanichia could tell. There were just no words that came to either one of them, so they stared absently at their trays of food.

Vignette led them to a table in the back of the room by a window as if they were prisoners. Satanichia didn't even know why the girl was so intent on having lunch with her. She would have been fine with just sitting in the library in peace. She still needed time to process her first day, and, as happy as she was to have friends, this wasn't helping.

The three girls didn't really converse. They just started eating silently. Well, Satanichia was mostly twirling her spoon in the bowl of soup. Vignette had apparently lost the inner fire she had shown previously in the library. Gabriel was either fuming or embarrassed. Satanichia just didn't want to make things worse for anyone. Two or three minutes of silence passed, the only noise at their table being the clanking of silverware and the occasional throat clearing.

Gabriel eventually pulled out her phone and multitasked by eating and playing around on it.

"So," Vignette said with a pleasant voice, "Tell us about yourself, Annabel. It must be intimidating, being a new student."

It was an awkward attempt at small talk, but Satanichia was thankful for a break for the uncomfortable lull. She wasn't, however, thankful that it required her talking. She knew these two wouldn't treat her as her former classmates did, if only because of her suspicions of their identities, but she still didn't really know much about talking to people. Gabriellia – the online one – was the absolute first person Satanichia had ever met outside of her family, so she was completely lacking in the ability to read social cues or react to them. Just answering simple questions like this one was extremely difficult for her. It felt… strange.

"I'm from Scotland, but my mom is from France," she said slowly, adding, "I was homeschooled up until last year."

"Oh. Why is that? Did your parents travel a lot?"

"They never traveled, but I never really asked why I was homeschooled," she lied. She had asked many times, but Dougal's twisted brand of superiority had always been the response she received.

"A superior education from the McDowell family suits my daughter more than any public education!" he had boasted, "Your only purpose in a public school is to lord over the rest of the students and show them your intelligence and the power of our family!"

"Well, what did they do?" Vignette persisted, "Tell us about them!"

Satanichia debated how much to say. She was positive Gabriel knew about the abuse, but she knew she hadn't told her any details. She hadn't told Vignette at all, and she was sure the blonde hadn't either. The bruises were mostly healed up. They were at least healed to the point that they were easily hidden without her scarf or a heavier coat. She didn't want to give up any information about her family that would be a red flag, informing Vignette of her situation. She wasn't exactly used to talking to people, so she didn't know what was considered normal in most families. She didn't want a slip of the tongue to start a rumor in the school about how Dougal abused her or worse. She decided telling them about her mom and brother could be harmless enough. Talking about them was less likely to show any signs of what had happened.

Luckily, she was interrupted when Ms. Weiss appeared at their table.

"Ms. McDowell," she greeted neutrally with a nod. Satanichia noticed the other two perking up when they noticed the teacher's presence, especially Gabriel. She looked at the other students at the table and greeted them, "Ms. Tsukinose. Ms. White."

There was a slight pause between "Tsukinose" and "Ms. White," but Satanichia shrugged it off. After the eventful morning, the last thing she needed was to foster conspiracy theories in her head about teacher-student relationships.

The three greeted Ms. Weiss together with a "Hi, Ms. Weiss," earning a smile from the teacher. If there was one thing Satanichia could appreciate, it was the mature elegance presented by her teacher. Every smile the woman had shown so far seemed to be a perfect example of her sophisticated beauty. She briefly found herself cursing Christianity for mostly disapproving of homosexuality in a world full of such beautiful women, but she realized that kind of attitude was just a childish way of lamenting what she couldn't have.

"Ms. McDowell," the teacher got straight to business, "I need to speak with you in my classroom at your earliest convenience."

Satanichia's eyes widened. She knew she couldn't be in any kind of trouble. It was her first day, and the only incident she was a part of was – as far as she knew – a tightly kept secret between her, Vignette, and Gabriel. She couldn't imagine why the teacher wanted to speak with her privately. She nodded and stood from her seat, ready to bite the bullet.

"Of course," she said with a wobbly smile that she hoped was convincing. Ms. Weiss giggled slightly.

"You may finish your lunch first, of course," she said with an oddly familiar smile, "It isn't anything worth rushing over. Just come a few moments before our next homeroom class."

"R-right. D-did I do something wrong?" she asked nervously. She hoped her voice was low enough to not cause a scene, but the only two within range were Gabriel and Vignette, anyway, and they didn't seem to be all that concerned.

"Of course, not. We simply need to speak about your previous curriculum because of how sudden your transfer was," she said with a reassuring grin. Satanichia could have stared at her teacher's eyes for hours, but thankfully she had enough self-control to look away. She didn't want to make her friends think she was a pervert, and – if the rumors were true – she didn't think Gabriel would appreciate her checking out their teacher.

"Oh. Right. I'll be there soon," she promised with a relieved smile of her own.

Ms. Weiss waved goodbye to the group and walked away. Satanichia thought she saw a meaningful glance between the teacher and Vignette, but she knew it was probably her imagination. She wasn't exactly mellow after the crazy day she had been having.

"Gab? When did you brush your hair?" Vignette asked in surprise.

Satanichia turned and stared at the blonde. Sure enough, her hair was perfectly straight. It was almost comical when compared to the slouched posture the girl was in and the sloppy way that she was drinking her soup straight from the bowl hands-free as she played on her phone. The blonde's eyes turned to Vignette, and she almost had the dignity to blush. Almost, but not quite.

"I always take care of my hair."

"No, you don't. You usually roll straight out of bed and come straight to class without even brushing your teeth."

"Rude. I usually brush my teeth on the way to class. I keep a hygiene kit in my backpack and everything."

"Fair enough, but what about your hair? It's almost like you were trying to impress someone."

Vignette's smile was gone, and a sly smirk had taken its place. Gabriel turned off her phone and stuffed it in her pocket.

She turned to Vignette and, with a smirk that would put Vignette's to shame, asked, "Why would I need to impress anyone when I have you?"

Satanichia tried to hold back her own laughter as Vignette was reduced to a blushing, stammering mess for the rest of the lunch period and Gabriel smirked victoriously. She wondered if those two interacted like this all the time. She didn't have any friends at her old school. Hell, she didn't even have acquaintances there, so this was a whole new experience. She wasn't used to having fun at school period, even at lunch. Maybe this school won't be so bad, after all.

\0/

"…and I'd like to remind students that school will not be in session between Friday, the 27th of October, and Tuesday, the 31st of October. The dining facility and dorm rooms will be open as normal, but class will not be meeting. Our debate for next Monday will be postponed exactly one week."

Apparently, as a method to give students time to digest their lunch and relax after the lazy hour in which most of them ate, Ms. Weiss usually preferred to handle school-wide and class-specific announcements in the afternoon. Satanichia had to admit that such an idea had merit. After all, weren't there studies that suggested that students had trouble concentrating immediately after eating?

That particular announcement had really surprised her. Her first day of school had fallen on a Thursday, and she didn't even have to attend the rest of the week? She wasn't going to complain to whatever gods were watching over her. She would enjoy the time out of class. She needed time to process the hell of a first day and she wouldn't mind logging onto her favorite – and only – MMORPG for a five-day weekend.

This time, the seat on the other side of Vignette wasn't empty. Instead, Gabriel was sitting there, and, if Satanichia hadn't met Gabriel for her tour of the school, she wouldn't have recognized her as the same girl she had been getting to know. The girl with the laid-back attitude and messy hair that had shown her around town was an entirely different creature than the pristine doll that was sitting in the back of Ms. Weiss's classroom. Her eyes were sparkling, her hair was stunningly perfect, and even her uniform was completely flawless, without a single wrinkle in place. Her hoodie was folded neatly, and her voice took on an innocent, angelic quality when Ms. Weiss called upon her.

In other words, Satanichia found the new Gabriel adorable, not that she would ever say it to the girl's face. Truthfully, it was troublesome for her to have to deal with during class. She already struggled to keep up with the lecture due to her lack of familiarity with the Holy Bible and the walking distraction that was known as Ms. Weiss. She didn't think it was possible that someone could draw her attention from the older woman, but she found herself making the occasional small glance in Gabriel's direction. She reasoned that it was probably because of what had happened in P.E. class that morning, but even she knew that was a stretch.

She noticed a subtle whisper from the blonde's mouth when Ms. Weiss was turned around and writing something on the whiteboard. It was so silent, that she wouldn't have heard it if she hadn't been glancing in that direction. She kept her head facing the teacher, but her eyes watched as Vignette shook her head at the blonde beside her. A few more whispers – this time sounding more and more frantic – volleyed between the two girls and Satanichia was confused. Vignette didn't seem the type to talk in class at all, and she couldn't imagine Gabriel doing so with this doll-like persona thrown on. She noticed the two girls were basically playing a game of hot potato with something, but she couldn't see what it was without turning her head. She tried to focus back on the lecture.

…only to feel something hit her in the side of the head. She quickly scrambled to grab it without drawing Ms. Weiss's attention. She didn't want to be a troublemaker, especially on her first day. The item that had hit her head was a small piece of paper, crumbled into a ball. She looked over to Gabriel and Vignette.

Vignette was pinching her nose, and it was clear she was exasperated. Her face was read and, her eyes were focused intently on the teacher as she tried her hardest to ignore what was going on around her. Gabriel, however, was sitting properly in her desk like before, but she was subtle making eye contact with Satanichia as she made a gesture that clearly said, "read it."

Satanichia opened the paper as quietly as she could and read it.

hey, wanna trick or treat w/ me and vigne?

She made sure Ms. Weiss was still not looking her way and turned to Gabriel, who was watching her carefully. She nodded subtly and went back to her notetaking. It took several minutes before she realized what she had agreed to.

She had never been trick-or-treating before. After all, Dougal had never seen much reason to encourage activities like Halloween festivities and her mother had always been busy serving as a modern slave under the rule of that bastard. She had never dressed up for Halloween, and she had never celebrated any other aspect of the holiday. She normally just stayed in and played her video games.

She would have to do some research when she got home. She didn't know what to wear, what to do, or how to behave. What kind of costumes were expected? What kind of tricks were permissible? She literally knew nothing except what she had seen on cartoons as a child, and those were so over the top that she didn't know what to trust.

Before long the class had ended and the day was finally over.

"Hey, 'Bel."

Satanichia looked at Vignette with visible confusion.

"S-sorry. I thought I'd try it out. Do you want to walk to the dorms together?"

"Sorry, I have to speak with Ms. Weiss," she said apologetically.

"We can wait."

"She doesn't live in the dorms, though," Gabriel chimed in, angel-act still going strong. She would probably keep it up until she wasn't within hearing distance of the classroom. Satanichia wasn't the most observant person in the world, but even she could tell to whom the act was directed.

"Oh. Well, hold on," Vignette instructed, digging through her bag for a piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled quickly, but neatly, onto the paper and folded it gently. She passed it to Satanichia, who was still packing up her own books. She smiled, "That's my phone number. Text me when you're finished, and maybe we can all hang out this weekend."

"S-sure," Satanichia said with a blush. She hadn't expected her first day to go like this. There were awkward moments, scary moments, bad moments, and then moments like these that gave her hope in her future at Trinity Academy.

"See you later, Annabel!"

"Bye, Annabel!"

Both girls called out their goodbyes over their shoulders as they left the room. Satanichia stared at the piece of paper in her hand and smiled more than she had ever smiled before. In fact, after all her smiling for the day, her cheeks were actually hurting, but it was a good kind of pain. The pain that came with the triumph of making real friends.

"I see you're acclimating well," Ms. Weiss said, surprising Satanichia with how close she was behind her. It wasn't that she was too close, it was just that she had completely snuck up on her. The smile on the teacher's face was absolutely radiant. Her eyes were shining like diamonds. There were slight dimples on her cheeks with the pure joy of her smile. If Satanichia was honest, this teacher was single-handedly making her consider conversion.

"I- I think so," Satanichia agreed. She softly muttered, "I didn't have very many friends at my old school."

By "very many," she meant, "any."

"I love all of my students, but those two are special to me," Ms. Weiss said with fondness in her voice, "Sit down. There's no need to be formal about this."

Satanichia sat down at her desk and ignored the weird sensation of seeing her teacher in Vignette's desk. Not only was it strange to see a figure of authority in a student-designated desk, but there was also the obvious awkwardness due to it being Ms. Weiss of all people. There was no other way to put it other than bluntly, but Ms. Weiss was stunningly attractive. Satanichia had never considered sexuality before, but she knew that in most of her RPGs, she usually romanced the female companions. (The only exception was Alistair from Dragon Age, because he was very cute.) The fact of the matter was that she was alone, after school, with a beautiful teacher that had rumors of affairs with students attached to her. It was only natural for her mind to go down a dark path and for her nervousness to skyrocket.

"Is everything alright, Annabel?" Ms. Weiss asked concernedly. It was the first time she had used Satanichia's first name instead of calling her Ms. McDowell, and she could feel the blush creeping up on her.

"O-of course, Ms. Weiss. Why wouldn't everything be alright? Everything is fantastic," she said in a voice that was higher pitched than what she normally spoke with.

"Good," the teacher said with a smile, "To tell you the truth, this meeting isn't actually a requirement. I was just worried for you after you fled the room this morning."

Satanichia remembered it vividly. She had been so startled by another student talking to her without the intention to stuff her in a locker, or trip her, or pull her already-too-short-skirt down to her ankles, that she had had a mental overload. She had panicked and ran from the classroom. It was embarrassing in hindsight, since it was just Vignette, but she couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Weiss. I'm not very good with people," she said, in what was possibly the biggest understatement of her lifetime.

"Nonsense," Ms. Weiss argued, "You're speaking to me just fine. I've heard that you and Ms. White are getting along, as well. "

"I- I suppose there was just something about Vignette that affected me?" she offered. A look of realization crossed Ms. Weiss's face. Her smile was a little different now, but Satanichia couldn't tell what had changed.

"I see. How would you like to join Ms. Tsukinose and Ms. White for the debate on the 6th of November?"

"I would like that, sure," she said with a nod. Truthfully, she hadn't even considered her team assignment for the upcoming debate. Ms. Weiss assigning her to a team actually made it easier, and less stressful, for her.

"Good. I can take care of that," Ms. Weiss said with a smile, "Now, I supposed to main purpose of this meeting is to address any concerns you may have. How has your schooling affected you previously?"

"I was homeschooled until last year, but my marks were decent at my new school," she said awkwardly. She hated thinking about her old school.

"I already knew that," Ms. Weiss said gently, "I supposed I should word my questions more effectively. How did you fare in school? Socially, that is. I know vaguely of the situation which led to your transfer, but I know a lot of young students have unresolved issues at school."

Satanichia looked down at her desk. She really didn't want to have this conversation. Talking about her previous lack of friends or average grades was fine and dandy, but she didn't want to actively talk about the bullying she had endured. She absently marveled at her mind's ability to jump from thoughts of a beautiful teacher sitting in front of her to the strong desire to avoid embarrassment and traumatic conversations.

"My life at my old school could have, uh, been better," she said. Another understatement of the century, she thought ruefully.

"I understand if you don't want to talk about anything," Ms. Weiss said with a solemn look on her face. The teacher placed her hand over Satanichia's and continued, "If you ever need to talk, I'm here for you. I wasn't lying when I said I care for my students, Annabel."

Satanichia's blush was back with a vengeance.

"R-right. T-thank you, Ms. Weiss!"

"Are you sure you're okay, Annabel? You look like you're flustered," Ms. Weiss said with her voice full of concern.

"Y-yes, Ms. Weiss. I must be coming down with something," she lied, surprising herself with how smooth she was with her words.

"Okay. Well, I've taken enough of your time. I'll see you next week," Ms. Weiss said.

Satanichia was already standing and grabbing her bag, rushing to get out of the door. She had to get away from this situation, and she had to do it now, before she died of embarrassment or lust-overload. Whichever came first.

"G-goodbye, Ms. Weiss," she called out as she exited the room."

"Remember that I'm here if you need anything!" she heard Ms. Weiss call out as she made her way to the hallway.

She had barely made it to the front door of the school when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

New Message: 16:23

It was going to be a fun weekend.