AN: Well, it's been what? Over two weeks since I updated? Sorry to keep you all waiting! I had been focusing on my other fic, but I think I'll be focusing on this one from now on because of my strange obsession with AnE.
I know there's not much to review on yet, so it's understandable that the count is so low, but I enjoy reading your opinions, and it would mean a lot if you left a review.
One last thing! I create images for every OC in my fanfics, so if you would like a reference for their appearance, look no further than my profile page.
Thank you, and happy reading everyone!
Dance with the Devil
Chapter 1: Demon Masters and Demon Kings
"Mephisto…"
Mephisto sat cross-legged on the opposite end of the limo, whistling a randomly arranged tune to himself. He directed his attention away from the window momentarily and arched his brow, interrupting her statement halfheartedly. "You really shouldn't be using my name without an honorific, you know. It's considered rude."
The girl appeared to be puzzled by the statement—what was an honorific? Well, she didn't want to appear rude, so it couldn't hurt to just try. "Well yes, Mephisto-chan, but…"
The chairman looked at her with eminent distaste and cringed deep inside his head. Chan. "I'm afraid that won't do." Mephisto-chan? If anyone had heard that, it would have definitely ruined his social standing. Could she have possibly chosen an honorific that was any worse? He rubbed his forehead with his fingers and sighed. What a troublesome little sister. "Didn't they teach you anything about honorifics in that facility?"
A brief pause ensued as she took a moment to think about it. Oh, who was she kidding?
"No."
"Well then, you sure have a ways to go, don't you?" Mephisto laughed teasingly, adjusting the spotted handkerchief around his neck. The girl appeared to be baffled by the statement, and fumbled with it in her mind, trying to decide which manner he had meant it.
It was silent in the transport for a moment, and Mephisto took the time to devise all the fun he could possibly have with a clueless demon—Satan's clueless demon. He grinned to himself and looked out the window. At this point she was like fresh molding clay; he could make her become whatever he wanted her to be.
As he was thinking through all the things he could possibly make her do, he suddenly remembered a vital question he had forgotten to ask her. "Pardon my rude behavior!" he exclaimed suddenly, causing her to flinch in surprise. "But what is your name?"
She looked at him in puzzlement—that is, she tried to—and opened her mouth to speak. Names were what people called you, right? "Number Fifteen," she responded in a monotone.
Mephisto arched his brow and blinked at her with amusement. "That isn't exactly a name. You don't have one?"
"Well—"
"—Just as I thought!" Mephisto tapped his fingers against the back of his seat, trying to devise a name for the nameless demon. He was enthusiastic about the idea; naming a demon was considered a high privilege in Gehenna, and a majority of the time only Satan himself was allowed to do such a thing—not to mention nameless demons only appeared once-in-a-red-moon.
The she-demon sat patiently in her red leather seat, waiting for him to continue. She snuggled further back into the seat. It was heavily padded and felt very soft against her back, which was used to leaning against hard concrete walls. She felt contented in the closed, warm space. She felt at ease.
Mephisto suddenly snapped his fingers, causing the girl to flinch yet again, and his face lit up with a toothy grin. "Ah! How about… we name you Cross?" he suggested cheerily.
The girl tilted her head to the side in question, pondering the name he had suggested. She didn't mind it that much, and she thought that it would be an easy enough name for her to remember. "…Cross?"
The chairman folded his arms across his chest and quickly pushed his top-hat back from his forehead. "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" He raised his left hand up to gesture at the window and explained, "You'll be staying at the True Cross Academy—which I own—and practicing there. Naturally, naming you Cross makes sense, doesn't it?"
She wagged her tail happily, giving him a quick nod. "Ah yes! I see it now!"
"You can even be our academy's mascot if you want!"
She paused for a moment and opened her mouth in thought. Mascot? What was a mascot? A type of food, maybe? Let's see… Mascot… Mascot sounds like… butterscotch? She placed her hand behind her head and tediously worked at decoding the meaning behind Mephisto's statement. If mascot is like butterscotch… And butterscotch is tasty… She briefly remembered the one time when the keepers at her facility had let her try some of the sweet substance. She gripped the sides of her head in shock and shook her head from side-to-side. Why would Mephisto want her to be the academy's food?
"Ehh!"
Mephisto laughed loudly at her bewilderment and returned to looking out the window. Not only was she going to be a valuable piece to him, but he could also get a kick out of toying with her at the same time. Two birds with one stone!
"Mephisto-chan?" Cross asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"Hm?"
She fidgeted in her seat restlessly and motioned to her head using her tail. "Why do I have to wear a blindfold?"
"Ah yes, I almost forgot! Just a few more seconds." He began counting down with his fingers, "Eins, Zwei… Drei! Behold my lovely True Cross Academy!" he exclaimed, lowering the windows of the limo with the single press of a button. Cross tore the blindfold away from her eyes and set it down carefully in her lap before turning to look out the windows. Mephisto stared blankly as a look of sheer horror came over her face and she shrunk back into her seat. "Oh my."
Her eyes widened further, causing her pupils to shrink, and she pointed at the masses of water that surrounded the Academy town. "Water…" she squeaked.
Mephisto rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "It seems like it, doesn't it?"
"S-So much water! Why is there so much holy water here? Mephisto-chan, this is terrible!" Cross cried, suddenly cowering beneath his feet.
Mephisto chuckled to himself and pat the girl's head reassuringly. Oh, he knew she was clueless, but not this clueless! He decided that he might as well have a little fun—just a little."Yes, what you see there is the largest pool of holy water in the world!" He held in a round of laughter when Cross began trembling on the limo's floor, and couldn't help but continue. "Be sure not to fall in, or it'll burn you right up."
Cross nodded in obedience and placed her hands over her head. Holy water was so itchy and irritating and was one of the only things she seriously despised. "I promise I won't go near it!" she practically yelled out.
The chauffeur driving Mephisto's limo couldn't help but spare a glance back at the commotion behind him, although what he saw was quite bewildering. It seemed as though the girl they had brought with them was scratching up the seats and running around wildly in the confined space, while Mephisto sat calmly rubbing his forehead as if he had nothing more than a slight headache.
"Mephisto-chan! I changed my mind! Take me back!"
"…That's not the correct honorific."
The driver shook his head and turned his attention back to the road. He would never understand the chairman.
Whump.
"Control yer flames, Rin! Yer not gonna help anyone by barfin' fire up on 'em!"
Whap!
"Oi, you're not helping me by hitting my head with my sword!"
Rin sat with his legs crossed on the floor, facing what was once a set of five candles—but currently nothing more than a puddle of melted wax. He rubbed the back of his head, aggravated at receiving yet another head injury, courtesy of his trainer, Shura. He knew being trained by a self-absorbed, red-headed, easily-annoyed, higher-ranked exorcist was not going to be a simple walk in the park, and even when he made progress, the only—slightly—positive response he would receive from her was getting another candle added to the batch.
Sure, he had progressed from lighting two candles out of a set of three to a set of five—and in a single stroke at that—but according to Shura, "It doesn't matter if yer got a hundred candles there. If yer melt even a single person with yer flames, yer not gonna be able to fix it. So focus, yer idiot!" and then he'd promptly receive a whack to his head.
"Don't ya move even a single inch," Shura commanded as she strode off towards the back of the training room. She was dressed in clothing that would put even the sleaziest of woman to shame, although nobody ever seemed to complain about it. They probably wanted to avoid receiving a life-threatening injury from the crazy woman.
It was obvious by the way her brow twitched that he was trying her patience—that is, if she had any in the first place. So what if he forced her to spend half her wages on candles? And so what if he had already melted well over… okay, maybe he had melted a lot of candles. But controlling flames wasn't as easy as it had sounded at first.
Rin's sword, Koumaken, clanked against Shura's shoulder as she walked—a constant reminder that she was currently holding the sole keepsake his father had left for him, and commanded him to hold on to at all times. The woman spared him an amused glance before disappearing around the corner of the doorway. "I'm getting more candles—and ya better not burn 'em this time! Capish?" she yelled from the next room over as she fumbled through her bags filled with "training devices."
Rin ran his fingers through his navy hair and grimaced at the puddle of wax on the floor. Is this really going to cut it? He shuffled restlessly on the wooden boards, subconsciously beginning to stand up. He just wasn't the type of person to sit around picking his ear when there were better things to do. How long did it take to get a few candles from the room next door anyway?
Just as he was about to move, he heard a set of footsteps coming from around the corner of the doorway. Quickly sitting himself back down and putting on the best innocent façade that he could possibly manage, he then crossed his legs and called out in a panicky tone, "I didn't move an inch Shura, see! I didn't get up or anything!"
"You definitely moved, didn't you, Nii-san?" A tall teen with brown hair and cyan eyes came from around the corner, waving at Rin teasingly. He wore a heavy, black teacher's coat with the usual male uniform underneath, and a leather ammo belt around his waist. Even though he was the same age as Rin, he was already qualified as a teacher in Exorcism. There was a high possibility that he was the world's youngest Exorcist.
Rin sighed with relief at the sight of his twin brother and gave him a toothy grin. "Oh, Yukio! What are you doing here?" It was unusual for Yukio to watch him practice this late in the afternoon; usually he'd be busy evaluating his class' work, or doing class work of his own.
Yukio slid his square-framed glasses further up his nose before explaining, "The chairman gave me a period off from work to meet with him. I just dropped by to see how you two were doing." His mind wandered off for a moment before he realized that a certain Exorcist was also not in the room. "Oh. Where is Shura-san?"
"Miss me, Scaredy-cat-four-eyes?" Shura teased as she came around the corner, lugging a cloth sack filled to the brim with candles. She had a conceited smirk plastered across her face, and had suddenly taken the liberty of tying her hair up into two separate ponytails since her hair was getting too thick to be tied up into only a single one.
"Scaredy" looked at her with a hint of annoyance blossoming in his eyes. "R-Really… I think you're mistaken, Shura-san." She had always been calling him "Scaredy-cat-four-eyes" ever since they were little—even when they were training together with father Fujimoto at the Exorcist cram school, much to his dislike.
Shura dropped the bag of candles next to Rin, still smirking, and poked Yukio's shoulder playfully with her finger. She had always been a touchy-feely type of person with him. "Nope, it's yer. Still yer, until you beat me."
"I don't think I'm up to it at the moment—and I wouldn't be able to right now anyway," he added hastily, preparing to make a dash out the doorway. "I have a meeting to attend."
"Yukio! Let me come too!" Rin called out eagerly, not wanting to endure another second of Shura's "Special Training." His face fell when Yukio shook his head to disagree with him. "Plleeeaaase?"
"Sorry Nii-san," Yukio apologized automatically, almost as if he had rehearsed what he was going to say. "But the chairman said I was to meet with him alone."
Shura placed her hands on her hips and began laughing hysterically. "Oho! Scaredy's going to have a meeting with the chairman, is he? My, my," she teased, giving Yukio one of her famous "I-really-love-embarassing-you" smiles.
"…I'll be going now."
Rin watched with envy as his brother promptly walked out of the room, leaving him alone with Shura once again. He had to admit that he was jealous. Yukio could go anywhere he pleased without anyone objecting, while Rin had to be watched like a toddler under the watchful eyes of his "superiors."
"Well, I'm leaving it to yer," Shura grumbled as she strode off towards the back of the room, probably to either practice her batting skills—which was highly unlikely—or take a nap.
Rin stared blankly at the bag of candles to his right; was he supposed to set them up again? –and wasn't Shura supposed to be the one training him? "Oi! Is this even allowed?" he hollered in the suddenly empty room.
"What're yer? How're yer going to become the greatest Exorcist if yer can't even set up a few candles? Yer an idiot."
Rin cursed under his breath and began setting up the candles in the bag. "Ooouuuu… Bastard…"
"I can hear yer!"
"I'm setting them up! Geez."
Mephisto opened the door of his office, nearly dragging his terrier-form across the floor. He looked back with sleepy eyes at the oblivious, dense, teenaged demon behind him, who eyed the room with fascination. He never imagined getting a single, helpless girl across a small stretch of pavement would be so… challenging. Every time she laid her eyes upon a fountain or any amount of water—even in water bottles for crying out loud—she would run off in the opposite direction crying, "I'll be good! I promise!" In the end, Mephisto ended up having to transport her along in one of his "boxes," even though she protested against it.
Cross gaped and observed the office with shining, wide eyes. The walls were a beautiful golden color, and the large, elegant windows were all framed by dark, polished wood. It seemed as though the room was designed to be very regal-looking, seeing as how almost every piece of furniture was trimmed with gold and colored red, yellow, or brown. She had never seen anything so elegant and pretty.
"Mephisto-chan, this is…!" she gasped, blinking several times to make sure she was seeing properly.
"We must do something about that." With a puff of smoke, Mephisto reverted back into his normal human form, tapping his foot against the desk he was suddenly sitting on. "It just won't do."
Cross flicked her tail and cautiously sat herself in one of the upholstered chairs in front of the desk. "What's the matter, Mephisto-chan?" she asked concernedly, tilting her head. She flinched in surprise when Mephisto snapped his fingers suddenly, and turned to grin at her slyly.
He touched the tip of her forehead with a gloved finger and poked her several times in hopes of making her understand. "That. That is what's wrong. We can't have you calling me Mephisto-chan everywhere; it's very impolite and unseemly." There was also another fact he just had to establish. "Even more so because I am your superior."
A minute of silence. And then:
"…So what should I call you?"
Mephisto mentally grinned to himself and flicked his top-hat back from his forehead; that was the question he had been waiting for. He reached down onto his desk and took a sip from a cup of tea that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. After placing the cup down calmly, he folded his arms across his chest and announced, "From now on, you shall refer to me as Master—and only I. Is that clear?"
Cross nodded understandingly and saluted him from her seat. "Yes Master, right away." If calling this man "Master" was respectful—and made her seem polite—then she would do it without hesitation. She also owed him for bringing her to this academy, so she had no objections whatsoever. She could nearly feel the immense satisfaction radiating from his body as he pranced past her to the doorway.
"Now then, if you would please wait here while I attend some personal matters. You can play around in there, but don't touch anything on my desk. Oh, and do not leave this room, open the doors, the blinds, or the windows."
He walked out into the hallway, closing the door behind him, and she heard him say, "Eins, Zwei, Drei!" before running off down the hall.
Cross eagerly jumped out of her seat and began inspecting the various pieces of furniture in the room.
The first item she came upon was an intricate device that radiated light from beneath a heavy cover, and stood on top of a wooden side table. She poked the cover curiously, causing it to rock back and forth. Wonder and fascination blossomed in her eyes as she continued rocking the lamp shade back and forth, but before she knew it, the lamp fell back. Luckily, she caught it with her tail before it hit the ground, and quickly placed it back on the side table.
"This is a dangerous thing," she said, fearfully turning away from the lamp.
She came upon her next victim—a large, padded piece of furniture with red cushions and golden pillows. She sniffed daintily at the seats; they smelled sweet—almost like candy. She knelt in front of the couch with her nose plastered to the cushion and her eyes slowly began glazing over.
It smells so good, she thought, entranced by the smell.
She quickly recovered when she realized the scent was hypnotizing her, and she immediately turned away from the object, flicking her tail disdainfully.
"Don't smell good to attract people!" she chided the piece of furniture, almost as if it were a living thing.
As she continued her exciting exploration of Mephisto's office, carefully avoiding anything near or on his desk, she did not notice that a dark figure was watching her from somewhere in the room.
"…"
It continued to watch her as she circled around the area, scanning every object and deeming it as safe or dangerous. Cross stiffened when she sensed the pair of eyes on her, and looked around the room for the observer. She checked behind every piece of furniture, even going so far as to look beneath the sofa by raising it off the floor. She exhaled with relief when she didn't find anyone, and was about to return to her exploration when her eyes chanced upon the ceiling.
And there hung a boy, watching her with impassive blue eyes.
"A-A-K-Kayayaya!" she spluttered, flinching back into the corner. She turned away from the boy and huddled against the wall. That scared me.
"You're new." The boy dropped down from the ceiling and landed flat on his feet. He stood silently in place with mild curiosity as the girl attempted to recover from shock.
Minutes later, Cross turned away from the corner and looked up at the boy—who stood a good three meters away from her. He had tired blue eyes with oddly shaped eyebrows placed above, and hair that was two different shades of dark green. It was styled up into a sharp point at the top, and two pointed ears stuck out from the sides of his head. He vaguely reminded her of a green carrot. He wore a black jacket over a red-and-black striped dress shirt with a striped tie. A simple pair of black dress pants covered his legs, as well as black, pointed shoes on his feet.
Cross wagged her tail and looked up at him curiously; she had never seen a person like him before. "Who are you?" she asked with a cheery smile, placing her hands on the carpet in front of her.
The strange boy rolled a lollipop around in his mouth for a moment and stared at her with a deadpan expression, creating an awkward pause. He blinked once before taking the sweet out and replying. "…Who are you?"
Cross looked at him questioningly and leaned forward. Those were my words! She decided to play his game and stared at him with the same deadpan facial expression as he placed the lollipop back in his mouth. She motioned at him with her tail and repeated with a slight edge in her voice, "Who-are-youuuuuu?"
"…Who are you?" he echoed, still turning the lollipop in his mouth.
She stared at him dumbstruck, not knowing how to get the boy to respond properly to her question. What? He won't tell me—he's being rude! I should probably tell Master. She wracked through her brain, subconsciously giving the boy an impassive stare, as she tried to find a way to communicate with him.
Wait a tic!
"Oh!" she gasped, blue eyes ablaze with enthusiasm. "You have to tell me, because I asked first." That would definitely show him!
Taking the lollipop out of his mouth yet again, he motioned to his chest with a finger and responded, "Okay. I'm Amaimon, a demon king. Nice to meet you."
Cross' jaw dropped at the words "demon" and "king." She knew kings were important people, and not only that, but he was a demon like her! The only other demon she had ever met was Master Mephisto—and she had only just met him today. "Demon… King?"
Amaimon blinked. "Yes, that's right. You're a demon too, aren't you?" He noticed that the girl was ogling at the sweet in his hand, and it didn't seem like she was going to reply without getting one any time soon. He fished out another one of the suckers from his pocket and held it out to her.
"Here. You can have it if you'd like."
Almost instantaneously she appeared in front of him, attracted by the sweet aroma of the foreign substance. At this point, she was mostly relying on her natural instincts as a demon, and those instincts were practically screaming out for the delicious scent. She reached out toward his hand cautiously, just in case he was trying to do something… weird. When he didn't make any sudden movements, she plucked the candy from his hand and took it in her own, eyeing it from different angles.
She smiled up at the boy cheerily after she had finished observing the item, and wagged her tail. "Thank you Mamon!" That was his name, right? Well, at least now she had her own sweet thing—maybe this person wasn't scary after all.
"Amaimon." He took the white candy stick from his mouth and tossed it in the trash bin, subsequently drawing out another from his coat pocket. It was obvious that the demon was a candy-lover and candy-loaded.
Cross chomped down on the sweet, wrapper and all, and furrowed her brow. "Amaimon," she repeated, although the name was slightly distorted by the fact that her mouth was occupied with candy at the moment.
"You're welcome."
The two demons stood in the middle of the room in silence, and the only sound that could be heard was Cross' teeth biting down on hard candy, attempting to rip off the wrapper around it. Amaimon watched her with interest as she continued to battle with the plastic wrapper, spitting out whatever pieces she could get off into the trash bin.
Ultimately, she gave up on trying to devour the item, and pulled it from her mouth in defeat. "Amaimon," she grumbled. "Mine's different."
Amaimon reached out to steal the lollipop away from her hands, and held it up in front of her. "It's like this, see?" he explained, reaching under the ball of candy to untwist the wrapping. He easily slid the covering off and disposed of it, then handed the lollipop back to her nonchalantly. She had been watching his lesson with fascination; her pupils were about three times their normal size.
Cross eagerly took the candy back and popped it back into her mouth. The moment her taste buds made contact with the sugary ball, her tail twisted in delight, and her eyes sparkled and shone in response to the unimaginably sweet flavor. "Wow! It's really yummy…!" she trailed off, rolling the lollipop in her mouth as she had seen Amaimon do.
She was absorbed in her sugary-unicorn-rainbow trance, and hardly took notice of when Amaimon came closer to her, eyeing her out of curiosity. He blinked when there was no response out of her—except for drooling over the candy—and went around to her back. He had to admit that he was curious; he had never heard of or seen her in either Gehenna or Assiah, and that was hardly usual. Even his father and brother had never mentioned anything about her.
He laid his eyes upon her tail and scratched the side of his head; father's tail looked a little like this. Although, this person was a girl, so naturally the fur on the end would be softer… and fluffier. He gave the fur-tipped tail a light tug, immediately bringing the she-demon out of her trance. Cross yelped involuntarily and wrapped her tail around her waist, turning around to look at him angrily.
Nobody touches my tail but me!
She hugged her tail against her body and whined, "This is my tail! Pull your own!" She stuck her tongue out at him and turned away childishly, stalking off to the other side of the room.
A ghost of a smile crept onto Amaimon's normally expressionless face. He rolled the candy in his mouth and stared after her. She was amusing to him.
"Do you want to play?" he asked curiously, staring at her.
Cross' mood immediately swung from sulky to cheery, and her eyes lit up with sheer excitement. "Like a game?" She liked games. The few nice people at the facility would sometimes play games with her—like go-fish or cat's cradle. She was good at that. Once they even taught her to make something called origami, where she could fold up a square piece of paper and turn it into an animal.
"What kind of game?" She became more curious every second and knelt on the floor, waiting for a response from the ever-mysterious Amaimon.
Amaimon thought for a moment. He wondered if this new demon was good at fighting; fights were a fun thing to play, and time passed by pretty quickly with them too. He didn't get to finish his last fight though, because his brother had stopped him—which he thought was unfair. He even followed all the rules.
He plucked the sweet from his mouth and asked bluntly, "…Would you like to fight?"
Cross stared dumbly at the boy, almost letting the candy fall out of her mouth. "Eh?"
Amaimon sat himself on the floor in front of her and repeated, "Would-you-like-to-fight?"
"That's not a fun game!" she cried, furrowing her brow at him with disapproval. She didn't like fighting very much. Although, the fighting she had in mind was quite different from the type Amaimon was thinking of. The only type of fighting Cross had done was when the mean people at her facility would pit various demons against her while she was defenseless. They thought that her flames might activate under pressure. Evidently, they had been wrong.
"It's fun," Amaimon disagreed, taking the lollipop away from Cross' mouth as punishment. He didn't make any move when she began protesting against him and reaching for the sweet, except for holding his hand up to keep her at bay.
Cross unexpectedly rose up from the ground and stomped her foot. "Okay! I'll play a fighting game with you, but…" Her eyes began welling up with tears and she rubbed one of them with her hand. "…But give me back the yummy thing, please?"
"…Yes, okay. Let's play!" Amaimon handed her the lollipop, much to her relief, and she placed it back in her mouth with a smile. She watched wearily as he walked over to the wall, pulled back the blinds, and opened the window fully. He knew the perfect place where they could play his games. "Follow me!"
"Um…" Cross bit back her tongue and shrunk against the wall. Oh nonono, he's opening the blinds—not just the blinds, he's opening the windows! Master said not to! What do I do? This is bad!
She shuffled nervously in her spot, trying to think of how to stop him. Master would certainly be mad at her for letting this boy open the windows. "M-Master says I have to stay in this room… So I can't go outside," she told him sheepishly, quivering out of nervousness.
The boy stared at her with his usual deadpan expression for a moment. Oh, that was right—he was here for a reason too. "Brother says I have to stay in here too; he's mad at me for breaking his head off."
"Ehhhh!"
Amaimon closed back the window disappointedly and pulled the drapes. He had been looking forward to a good fight too. But if he disobeyed his brother, he would probably send him back to the Cuckoo House—which he really disliked.
Cross felt a pang of guilt when she saw the disappointment on Amaimon's face. Relieved or not, she couldn't bear to see anyone disappointed, and decided she would have to do something about it. Fighting was off the list, but there were still a lot of games to play. She just had to think of one…
Um…
"Oh, I know a game!" Cross exclaimed.
"Setting up pieces for a new game is such a chore."
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Thank you very much for reading (and sticking with) Dance With the Devil!