Sword smirked at the punks that dared to get in the way of a Devil. He wasn't the same as that weakling Souma and he was going to make sure that they would remembered that for the rest of their lives. It was insulting enough that he, one of the mightiest Devils in Hell, was forced by a human and that damned Angel to attend school without being constantly reminded of how pathetic his human host was.

The sooner he got his demonic form back, the better.

"Come!" Sword bared his fangs in a twisted grin. "I'll take all you brats on!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, a strong hand halted Sword's headlong charge with surprising force by grabbing hold of the Devil's raised fist. The devil-turned-human twisted in his captor's grip to snarl angrily.

"IOS! What the hell are you doing? Don't interfere with my fight!"

The Angel just shook his head with a look of disapproval on his face that said more than anything that could have come out of his mouth. It was obvious what the Angel was thinking, Sword had heard variations of the same speech over and over since they fell to Earth. Why can't you think about consequences? You can't use demonic power against humans. No exceptions. I, of all people, would know what you're like the best so there will be no indulgence in bloodlust while I am around.

But before Ios could say those same old words, the boys Sword had been intent on beating into an unrecognizably bloody pulp recognized them.

"It's Kanna! Shit, he's gonna kill us! Run!"

"W...wait! I'm not..." Ios stammered.

"You're lucky your brother showed up, Souma!"

"There's no way I'm related to that bastard!" Sword growled and tried to give chase, only to be halted once more by Ios. "And you! I'm sick of always having to deal with your Holier-Than-Thou attitude!"

Sword freed his wrist from Ios' slack grip and made it a point to rub his wrist as if grave bodily harm had befallen Souma's body. His eyes narrowed when he heard something that sounded suspiciously like laughter coming from the Angel.

"I apologize for any injuries, Sword." Ios said smoothly. "But I'm afraid I can't do anything about my 'holier-than-thou' attitude since I am, in fact, holier than you."

Sword raised his fist and dropped all pretence of injury. "You wanna fight, you damned Angel?"

"Not at the moment, thank you." Ios smiled. "But Angels are holier than Devils."

"I know that you--." Sword paused for a second before deflating. "Oh, right."