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Chapter 3
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Miyuki had used a key given to her by Mephisto to open an unmarked door. Unfortunately, she was forced to attend the cram class in order to keep tabs on her target. Her barely audible footsteps filled the long hallway, creating a rhythmic echo as she ran her hands over the walls. It seemed to stretch for miles.
"Why did I agree to this again...?" she grumbled under her breath. When she got to the door, she opened it and walked inside, shutting it behind her as quietly as possible. Lucky for her, she seemed to have arrived just in time to see what was probably the most amount of action she'd get to witness while in the school.
The demon stood in the doorway with a cocked eyebrow before every pair of eyes in the room fell on her. Her scarlet irises drifted towards the boy who stood in front of the chalkboard, her mind beginning to piece together the situation. He's the professor...Isn't he a little young? She forced back her chuckle, amused by the thought of a human trying to teach her something.
"Come on in," her new teacher, Okumura Yukio, adjusted his glasses. Miyuki stared at him for a few more seconds before sighing and taking a seat at the far end of the room. She could feel eyes following her as she walked by but didn't pay them any mind. Okumura...They're brothers then? She examined him from the corner of her eyes before sitting down. Her eyes flickered from him to Yukio before she rested her chin in her palm and pretended to listen to the introductory lesson.
"Who here has not received a temptaint yet?" he asked. A few kids in the class, including Miyuki, raised their hands. She figured she could at least humour these humans and she technically hadn't received her temptaint. Yukio scanned the room as he counted. "Four...Okay. In that case, let's start with the temptaint ritual," he muttered as he opened his suitcase and pulled out a vile of blood, "Rin, see if you can grab a goblin from the vents."
Rin grumbled some swears before begrudgingly doing as he was told. He managed to catch a small, lower-level demon that Miyuki recognized as one of Amaimon's little pets and brought it to the front. When he held its claw to a brunette's wrist, he let it scratch her while it struggled. The girl winced and let out a small whimper as the goblin drew blood. Miyuki couldn't help but roll her eyes at the girl's pathetic reaction.
Weaklings, she mentally snapped as Yukio quickly bandaged and put some medication on the girl's arm. Next up was the guy with two two-toned hair and earrings. He received his temptaint and even reacted better than the other girl. The only sign of weakness that Miyuki could see was the twitch of his eye when the Goblin's claw came in contact with his arm.
Once it was Miyuki's turn, Rin hesitated. The creature in his hand turned violently hostile. It took him longer to make the incision since the Goblin wouldn't stop wriggling around in his hand. It let out an ear-piercing screech as Rin squeezed it slightly. The other students spared a few glances in their direction but shrugged off the scene. Yukio adjusted his glasses and frowned as the little demon try to escape Rin's grasp when it was brought closer to Miyuki's arm.
"Damn thing won't sit still," the raven-haired boy spat through his grinding teeth. Miyuki brought her other hand towards the small demon and put her thumb behind the middle of the three horns on its head. She heard Rin gasp as the thrashing immediately stopped. He looked up at Miyuki with wide, shocked eyes.
"Pressure point. Knocks them out temporarily," she lied. What she really was doing was freezing the small beast's organs while mentally reminding herself to have a chat with Amaimon about his little pests.
Goblins are classified as kin of the green-haired creep and she was painfully aware of this. One time, a whole swarm of them invaded her room in Satan's castle and it took her an entire week to rid herself of them all. Of course, Amaimon didn't get away with putting them there. Not even Satan could save him from the Yuki-Onna's wrath.
"If you can already see them, why do you need-" Miyuki stopped Rin from talking by forcing the Goblin towards her until it made a deep slash in her arm. Blood dripped down her arm at an alarming rate, causing many eyes to widen. The charcoal-haired boy gave her a confused stare as Yukio bandaged her up. She hadn't accounted for the fact that her wounds would heal up but thankfully, her professor kept that fact quiet and bandaged her anyway as to not raise suspicion.
"Who are you?" were the words he unconscious muttered.
"Hayami Miyuki. A pleasure to meet you," she winked, causing Satan's son to temporarily lose all the air in his lungs. He swallowed the lump in his throat, getting ready to say something until was cut off by his brother.
"Alright, now that everyone has their temptaint, please sit down so we can go over the rest of our lesson for the day," the four-eyed boy ordered. Miyuki looked back down at the deceased Goblin in Rin's hands.
"You should probably get rid of that," she suggested before walking back to her desk. Rin gawked at her for a moment before being drawn back into reality by Yukio smacking him in the back of the head. He turned back towards his brother with a frown.
"What the hell was that for?!" he spat. The glare of Yukio's glasses lens hid his eyes, yet the effects of his stare could be felt from a mile away.
"She's right. Go throw it outside or something," he demanded. Rin scoffed as he spun around and stomped out of the door.
"Who does he think he is bossing me around? I can do whatever the hell I want to do...!" he grumbled under his breath while pouting like a child. Because of his lack of focus and flustered state, he somehow managed to trip over his own feet. On his way down, he dropped the goblin.
"Damn it," the azure-eyed boy furrowed his eyebrows while rubbing his aching backside of which he had fallen onto. He sighed, looking over at the pest he dropped. He paused when he saw the state that the creature was in. Apparently, when it hit the floor, its insides shattered on impact, leaving the blood to pour out of its eyes and mouth. It was a bit disturbing to look at.
"Uh...sorry...?"
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"Hayami!" Miyuki sat up quickly as she heard someone shout her name. She whipped her face and rubbed her eyes, looking around for the culprit so she could freeze their small brain.
"I'm up..." she grumbled through her yawn. She had been sleeping since class began and now Yukio had woken her up from her catnap. The raven-haired girl matched his tense glare with one of her own. "Sorry," she apologized with little to no apathy as she got up and grabbed her graded paper.
When she sat down, she tucked the paper into her bag without even looking at it. Suguro, another one of her classmates, noticed and gazed at her for a second, wondering what the hell her problem was. She laid her head back down with a sigh.
They had gotten back their assessment tests from the other day and Miyuki already knew she did well. She didn't need to pass this class but she wanted to subtly show these humans that she was better than them.
"You really shouldn't be sleeping," Yukio suggested after calling his brother up.
"Worry less about me and more about what you're going to do with your brother," the Yuki-Onna waved her hand dismissively after watching Rin's face lose colour when he saw his score. Miyuki's blood-red eyes rested once again.
"At least try to stay awake for once," scoffed a girl with purple hair and large eyebrows. Miyuki did not react, choosing to ignore the comment.
"Suguro," Yukio handed the brunette boy his paper, also ignoring Rin's growling. Suguro and the spawn of Satan didn't seem to be on the best of terms but both of them seemed like hard-headed idiots to Miyuki. "All your hard work paid off."
"What the hell?! How did a punk reject like you get a ninety-eight?!" Rin shouted in shock, almost ripping the paper from his classmate's hand.
"What did you say?! Listen, loser, I came to this school so I could become an exorcist! Everyone here is studying hard because they wanna be exorcists too!" Suguro retorted.
"Not really," Miyuki mumbled, earning an evil glare. She shrugged, "What? I'm just telling the truth."
"You're not serious about it, so drop out! Get lost!" Suguro debated.
"Hey! Who the hell do you think you are telling me to get lost?! Believe it or not, I'm here because I wanna be an exorcist too!" Rin yelled, crumpling his paper a bit as his fists clenched.
"M-Maybe we should just calm down..." Shiemi laughed uneasily.
"Yeah, you two need to shut up," Miyuki grumbled.
"Stay out of this!" Suguro and Rin snapped at the same time. The Yuki-Onna's scarlet eyes glared up at them from her tired position at the desk, dark strands of hair falling over the blood-coloured orbs eerily. The room's temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. Fortunately, the bell rang before any of the students could kill each other.
"As if on cue...That's it for today, class," Yukio sighed as he adjusted his glasses. Miyuki went to grab her bag before any of these fools could try and talk to her. These damned kids were getting on her nerves. She needed some alone time. No humans, no demons-
"Miyuki, my dear! A moment, please?"
"So much for that..." the Yuki-Onna rolled her eyes as Mephisto drew the attention of the students who were still walking out of class. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow while standing next to the door.
"What?" she spat flatly with narrowed eyes that glared at the demonic headmaster.
"May I suggest that you come with me to my office so we can have..." Mephisto's emerald eyes flickered over towards the students behind her, "Some privacy?"
Before he could continue to annoy her any further, she walked right past him and grumbled a quiet, "Whatever. Let's go." Both demons walked away from the classroom, moving in an indignant silence until they came to Mephisto's office. When they sat down, the fiend at his desk stared at his student while he poured her a hot cup of coffee. He sat the cup in front of her, causing her to raise an eyebrow. After a moment of silence, his lips twisted into a surprised smile. Miyuki narrowed her eyes menacingly.
"Oh, I forgot! You like cold brew, don't you?" he clapped his hands together then sat them on the table as if waiting for her to do something. She rolled her eyes while hesitantly grabbing the cup. She inhaled deeply through her nose before breathing out a frigid air that chilled her beverage. Both demons watched the ripples in the coffee dance as steam rose up from the cup. Mephisto chuckled and shook his head while Miyuki lowered the temperature to make the coffee cold enough for her liking. This stupid little party trick always amused him but she had come to hate it.
"My, my my...Amaimon always told me how much of a picky eater you were," he smiled as his hat tilted ever so slightly, shadowing his eyes. Miyuki's eye twitched at the mention of the Demon King of Earth. There was an ominous air that filled the silent room, only to be disrupted by the sound of shattering china. When Mephisto looked back up, he found that the Yuki-Onna had frozen the coffee inside the cup and expelled the ice outwards, putting so much pressure on the porcelain cup that it burst. The evil glare in her scarlet eyes tore through the headmaster's soul. His cheeky smile grew.
"I hope you didn't bring me here to just insult me, Mister King of Time," her words were dripping with sarcasm. She stood up, her chair scuffing against the floor loudly. Mephisto clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"You know that I'm just teasing you. Although, I guess Stolas has rubbed off on you a little too much," he flashed her a closed-eyed smile, making her roll her eyes and scoff. "Now, tell me about your thoughts on the boy."
With a scoff, she got out of her chair and waltzed over to the window, gazing out of it with narrowed eyes. Rin and a handful of his classmates, Shiemi, Suguro, Konekomaru, and Shima, stood around him. Based on the half-breed's expression, she could easily discern that was being teased. To be honest, he seemed to get riled up easily.
"He's nothing like his father. He was raised as a human and will forever think like one. A simple-minded creature with great potential unbeknownst to him. That is what I think of him," she muttered as her arms rose and crossed themselves over her chest. Mephisto nodded slowly, staring straight ahead while the raven-haired girl behind him bit her fingernails. The faint chipping sound was the only thing that could be heard throughout the office. She couldn't help but think of what Amaimon once said to her.
"Father's made it clear that if you don't take this seriously or you fail, he'll send someone more qualified."
"I'm qualified, damn it," she spat, eye twitching with annoyance. No one would stop her. Not Amaimon and definitely not this kid who barely knows what he can do with the power he has been given. She let her hand drop to her side and sigh heavily, failing to notice the fact her breath turned to fog against the window.
"Miyuki, dear...do you mind?" Mephisto called through chattering teeth. Scarlet orbs looked back at him with bored eyes. A smirk hinted at the Yuki-Onna's face when she saw the tea that he was pouring had frozen mid-pour. He let go of the teapot to reveal that it was suspended in the air, thanks to the ice it now sat on.
"Sorry," Miyuki snickered.
Mephisto cleared his throat before tapping the frozen coffee and shattering it. "I have a little side-quest for you. A group of Basilisk have begun to run rampant in an abandoned construction site near the school." Miyuki raised an eyebrow.
"You want me to do your dirty work and get rid of a couple of low-level creatures? No thanks, I have more important things to deal with," her words dripped with sarcasm. Mephisto shook his head at her cocky attitude, eyes closing in disappointment.
"Your time in Gehenna has made you hubristic, dear. Lighten up. Think of it as an exercise of your powers. You can release some of that pent-up anger you try so hard to hide. I don't intend on keeping a caged tiger inside my school, Dear," the hatted demon winked smugly. Miyuki couldn't hold back the curt chuckle that escaped her lips. He may be annoying but he's useful, she thought.
"What do I get in return?" her hand rested on her hip as she impatiently waited for an answer. Mephisto simply grinned.
"Do this for me and I'll give you a way to get closer to the boy. With this specimen, I do believe you'll want to be close when the time comes," he rested his chin on his folded hands. For an awkwardly long amount of time, the room was silent. Then, Miyuki sighed a defeated sigh. She massaged her aching temples and nodded slowly.
"Fine."
