A scene based on the after credits scene at the end of episode four, which would take place after chapter 4 in the Manga, Iruma found out Camu Camu tried to cook Kalego.
Startling Sincerity
Kalego couldn't believe that Camu Camu had actually tried to cook him up for lunch. He'd figured that even if the little idiot hadn't seen his post summoning picture in the paper like everyone else in Babyls, he would at least have caught on when he saw the summoning right before his eyes.
It was bad enough that Kalego was left looking like some plush prize at a carnival, with only the fluff covering him to distract from the fact that his clothes seemed to vanish to some other plane of existence in the process of his summoning. Then this moron had the nerve to try to literally roast him? Thank devil his crap was so cheap and the summoning spell slapped on Sullivan's little monster's wrist wore off of its own accord.
Kalego was currently raiding the herb closet of the Diabotany Lab to treat his burns from being halfway cooked for the shopkeeper's lunch, not wanting to seek out help in the infirmary due to the…sensitive locations…of some of his burns. He was determined to make it through this with at least some of his dignity intact, damn it!
Despite being well aware that he was already late for the staff meeting, Kalego felt that he'd already sacrificed enough of his pride and dignity in the few hours that he'd been back here since recovering from the shock of being turned into a familiar. Bad enough to be nearly cooked by one of his coworkers; like hell he'd let another see him in pain and, worse, possibly piece together what had happened.
Iruma was going to pay dearly for this. And while the familiar binding did last an entire year, that still left five more where the brat was still a student at this school. By the time Kalego was done with him, the boy was going to wish he'd been expelled. He'd find the line where the Chairdemon would interfere and push right to that limit. It would serve as a reminder to everyone about why they didn't cross him. That thought was the one silver lining to all this.
Speaking of the Idiot and the Brat, where the hell had that one-year or death rule come from anyway? Kalego knew the regular familiar contract front to back, so he would have remembered such a clause. Furthermore, no demon had ever summoned another demon before.
So how would Sullivan even know…
Suddenly, Kalego was pulled from his thoughts when, to his horror, he felt a tug that was already becoming too recognizable before suddenly popping up somewhere else, body morphed into a shape which he still had trouble comprehending while his clothes once again disappeared to who knew where.
'Five years,' Kalego reminded himself. He'd have five years after the contract ended.
Kalego smelled the brat before he saw him. Even whatever perfume he used was clearly a way to draw attention and challenge to anyone to come at him if they dared. From day one, he had immediately refused to stoop to even acknowledging the aroma. But, Devil, it was hard to ignore!
Kalego turned to Iruma, expecting this summoning to be a power play after leaving him for dead, a reminder that he couldn't retaliate.
Well, Kalego would just give the brat a little reminder of his own… He was about to lay into the Chairdemon's grandson when the boy did something that completely caught him off guard.
The moment he established eye contact with Iruma, the boy started bowing to him over and over, each time he dipped down, repeating "I'm sorry." Every time he did so, he didn't just expose his back which left his unseen wing roots unprotected by anything but the cloth of his uniform. No, he went one step further, bending his neck in a way that would be easy for any demon to strike at as well. A complete and utter vulnerability that made the sincerity of his apology undeniable.
Sure, even if Kalego technically couldn't act on it in this state, the gesture of it was hardly diminished. To be honest, he had to acknowledge that it took a sort of bravery to take it so far.
It was also uncomfortable as hell to watch.
"Please stop that."
And almost as if following some command, the boy instantly ceased, instead standing still and focusing on his own feet. "I didn't realize that other members of the school staff would actually try to eat you."
Neither did he. "You shouldn't have summoned me like that in the first place."
"I didn't realize what I was doing."
"And you just activated a spell you didn't know anything about, no questions asked?"
"It's basically what I've been doing since I got here," Iruma replied.
Kalego wanted to believe Iruma was making the statement mockingly but, looking at him at this moment, it made way too much sense. And threw several things into a context he really didn't like. "I suggest you get out of the habit quickly. Didn't they teach you how dangerous it is to mess with magic without proper knowledge of it in whatever schools you attended before you came here?"
The boy's awkward silence spoke multitudes.
"Really? Nothing?"
"It's complicated." Kalego could tell Iruma would say no more on the subject. And although the brat hadn't used his power over Kalego as a familiar to command him yet, the demon knew better than to press his luck. At that point it might be just Iruma's secrets he was digging at.
Kalego recalled everyone's surprise at Sullivan's announcement that he had a grandson attending this year. Everyone was asking if he even had kids. Personally, he just figured that it would be his luck that said brat descendent of the roughly thousand-year-old imbecile would appear during his tenure here.
Clearly something was off, though because he couldn't see Sullivan letting his precious grandson miss out on such basic education if he'd had any say over the kid's formative years. Of course, Kalego knew better than to look too hard at one of the top three's claims, lest he actually find something. He understood the pecking order and the type of power the ancient Demon held. He might be angry with his boss but he wasn't stupid.
As long as the brat seemed to be navigating Babyls school perfectly fine, despite whatever he was lacking, Kalego saw no reason to bare his wings to open claws like that.
Still, Kalego didn't envy the nightmare Iruma would have to deal with come exam time. Even if Kalego didn't see much of him during the school year, he should probably expect to see him in remedial classes this summer. If that was the case Kalego would use the exam as a measure where his education was lacking and set up a lesson plan so that the kid was at least offered the opportunity to catch up to his classmates.
How had Kalego gone from cursing the boy's existence to sympathetically planning summer courses for catch up in just a few minutes? He decided not to contemplate the question too deeply.
"Just make sure you know what you're about to do before you do it. You're in a school. You have no excuse. Find out, whether it's from asking a teacher or digging through your textbook."
"Or talking to my classmates...?" Iruma added uncertainly.
"Because that went so well today," Kalego snapped, glad for an excuse to express his pain without looking weak, even if only through anger and frustration.
"Right…" Iruma replied. "Good point."
Kalego frowned thoughtfully as he stared at Iruma; or he would have if his facial muscles were currently shaped for it. In that moment, the young teen was carrying himself more like a lower ranked adult than a child on the verge of receiving his initial evaluation.
It wasn't the first odd deviation from the norm in the boy's behavior one on one. Most brats would have been little braggarts after doing something as big as turning another demon into their familiar, not to mention one of considerable rank. Yet, despite all the smirking he'd done before placing Kalego's seal into the flame, the walk to the Chairdemon's office after recovering enough to wrap up the ceremony had been silent. Twitching like he had plenty he wanted to say, but silent, nonetheless.
Kalego had actually been disappointed at the time, hoping for the brat to give him an opening to show what he could do when he wasn't under the effects of the summoning.
Now, it was obvious that there was something odd about Iruma. Which, of course there was, he'd proven that several times over already, broadcasting the fact to the whole school.
Reminding himself that he couldn't afford to get curious, Kalego instead commented, "If that's all, I have work to do." He was sure that the spell would wear off soon anyway but the sooner he was gone, the better.
"Oh, of course, I should have realized. I'm—" The boy started to lean forward.
"...And don't you start that bowing apology garbage again unless you know who you're doing it to. Some demons will actually take a chunk out of your back if you offer it like that."
"Y-yes sir," Iruma replied, turning pale, as if this was the first time the thought had ever crossed his mind.
Great. So Iruma's a sheltered brat. Yeah, he'd had more than enough of this boy for one day. Hopefully, Kalego wouldn't have to see him as much and he'd mainly be the problem of whatever teacher was assigned to his homeroom. "Why am I still here, in this form?"
"R-right, sorry!" With that, the boy clapped his hands and Kalego was back in the Diobotany storage room.
I feel like this might come the closest of the pieces I've posted so far to push the envelope for being applicable to canon, although it could probably still fit if changing the context of certain events. For example, it would make shoving Iruma off a cliff at the start of the flying race more like him giving a hesitant child the push he feels the kid needs rather than just making him get a move on out of annoyance. It also would imply that even before Sullivan was arrested, Kalego would suspect him of doing questionable things, which I could honestly see, simply from how quickly he jumped to the conclusion that the Chairdemon must have done something but didn't leave enough evidence for conviction.
The 'bear his wings' phrase is a reference to a recent Manga chapter that talked about how in battle during older times, demons would shred each others wings. He's basically expressing that there's no need to put himself at risk.
I am sure that the walk from the Familiar Summoning Ceremony to the Chairdemon's office had to be an awkward and tense one.
