A Certain Prideful Demon
PRIDE: Stuck in the Demon's Lair
'Where am I?'
Kuroko managed to pry open her heavy eyelids, and blinked slowly against her blurred vision until images came into focus. There was something staring at her. Something pink with a round nose… and two black button eyes…
With a short scream, she sat up with sudden strength and forcefully pushed the thing away as adrenaline rushed through her system. Breathing hard, she stared. On her outstretched legs lay a soft rabbit toy, covered in fluffy pink fur. As it lay defeated and silent after her assault, those round eyes still stared up at Kuroko with an all-too-bright smile drawn upon its stitched mouth.
The angel shuddered.
Kicking the toy away, Kuroko looked around to take in her surroundings. She was sitting on a comfortable bed, positioned in a corner of a very large room. In fact, it was so large it was almost the size of a grand hall. Blue and green wallpapers outlined with various animal characters ran all the way around the space, their cheesy expressions covering every inch of the broad enclosures. There was not a single window to be seen. On the sky-blue ceiling, the face of a creature that resembled a large green frog was painted, its beaming mouth stretched from one cheek to the other. A gleaming chandelier erupted from where its nose should have been, and mysteriously provided enough light for the entire room.
'Urgh, who even likes this kind of immature stuff?'
Disgusted but unsure of what to make of her observations so far, Kuroko shifted slightly to the right and her hand met something soft. Alarmed at the unexpected contact, she slipped and fell to her side. A groan escaped her lips; her body felt burnt and bruised all over. Why was she so sore?
'Ahhh… That's right…'
She remembered. A particularly crazy demon had chased her around that desolate pit for ages, stubbornly refusing to give up. Kuroko grimaced at the realisation that the deviant creature had been toying with her from the very start. She – no, it – had played around at leisure until the teleporter had accidentally short-circuited the electric monster by angering it.
It was a miracle she was still alive… although, Kuroko supposed she was already dead. Could a fallen angel even die in Hell? What could exist after a second death?
Shaking her mind free from heavy thoughts, Kuroko observed her surroundings again where she lay. Stuffed toys of different creatures were everywhere, piled up on the bed, the floor… and even the walls. There were bear-like plushies with pulled legs and arms, their torn limbs pinned against the walls with iron nails like separate jigsaw pieces on display. One toy had its torso ripped open and its mushy innards of wool brutally screwed to the ground with metal pins. Another had its severed head strung up to the ceiling by distorted chains as the loose ends of threads dripped to the ground in a warped rendition of blood. Its mouth of black beads still smiled brightly.
Feeling sickened by the sight, Kuroko's face scrunched. The more she looked, the more she noticed these little details that were depraved and even downright gruesome. Even the stuffed animals that were still in one piece looked creepy. Their expressions were altogether too happy for her liking and made her skin crawl.
Barely able to hold back another shudder, Kuroko began to wade through the piles of toys on the bed, when she heard a clinking sound. Distracted, she glanced towards the source of the noise and found iron shackles around her ankles connected to long steel chains nailed to a bedpost. Kuroko sighed.
No doubt this was that demon's work.
Frowning in concentration, the fallen angel summoned her strength and teleported out of the restraints. She wobbled a bit when her blistered feet hit the floor, but she managed to hold herself upright. The cold wooden floor actually felt heavenly against her burnt feet, and she stood still for a moment, relishing in the feeling of relief.
'I guess I should find a way out of this place before that demon comes back,' Kuroko thought. There was absolutely no way she wanted to be with a demon in its lair. Especially not a Demon Lord as crazy as this one.
There was a door at the other side of the room. Kuroko slowly made her way towards it. Despite knowing she had to move quickly in order to escape, her body was aching and tired. It caused her progress to be sluggish. Her eyes flickered to the tortured piles of stuffed animals on the ground, and she chanted angelic prayers to the Holy One of the Right Hand that their victimised souls be rested in peace.
She came to the middle of the room when a particular toy caught her interest. She paused, studying it without really meaning to. It was quite possibly the largest stuffed animal in the room, a green-furred ferret with a long brown wig forced roughly upon its head. It appeared to have been the most tortured too. Clumps of its fur were missing, parts of it torn to little bits and nailed to the wooden floor with such brutal force there were large cracks along the panels. The green colour was blackened by char marks as if the thing had been burnt repeatedly. Chunks of threads hung loose from areas where they had been torn off, resewn and then torn off again. A collar was tightly constricted around its neck, asphyxiating it even as a short chain cruelly pinned it down to the ground. Leaning forwards with a frown, Kuroko squinted at the black letters engraved on the metal collar.
"Mu-gi-no?" She read out aloud. The word meant nothing to her. Shaking her head in disgust, she muttered another short prayer and quickly continued on her way.
She finally reached the door. Her heart thudded away an unsteady rhythm as her hand turned the handle. Her breath hitched in anticipation, letting out a sigh of relief when it moved and the door opened silently. Kuroko peered outside through a small gap. Auburn eyes darted sideways to scan for any trouble.
It was a long empty hallway, richly polished with the very finest varnish. Even when she craned her neck, she could not see the ends on either direction. She would have to guess and try to hit the jackpot.
'Right… or left?'
The answer was obvious in this case.
Taking a deep breath, Kuroko pushed the door open further and strode out towards the holy direction where she placed her faith.
XXXXXXX
"Come on, come on, is that all you've got?!"
Mikoto's laughter filled the area, her arms stretched out wide as she leapt between the giant boulders with great agility. Her opponent hissed in response to her taunts and breathed out a blast of red fire. Electricity exploded forth from the demon's open hands and collided with the flames in a ball of purple energy that swept outwards like a shockwave. A series of well-executed backflips moved her out of harm's way, and the grinning demon landed in a graceful crouch upon a cracked boulder.
"Whoohoo! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Mikoto shouted in glee.
The large dracongator stood to its full height and roared angrily in response. Thick grey smoke poured from its flared nostrils. Huge wings that spanned at least forty feet stretched out and propelled the reptilian creature upwards into the crimson sky. A long chain trailed after it from its leg.
"What, you trying to escape? Don't be such a bad sport!"
A thick lightning bolt struck from a black cloud above. It seared one of its wings and drilled a large hole through the tough, leathery skin. The dracongator howled in pain, and its six limbs twisted madly as it plummeted back towards the ground.
In the blink of an eye Mikoto was also up in the air, her outstretched claws rushing to meet the large draconic mass that was easily more than fifty times her weight. Instead of being crushed however, the demon shot into the sky with the bewildered dracongator, her laughter swirling with the rush of cold wind.
"Let's gooooooo!"
Lightning sizzled out explosively as they climbed to dizzying heights. The reptilian beast roared in pain as the demon continued to laugh wildly. The creature was effectively pinned against the girl and gravity, disabling it from making any worthwhile moves. The steel chain from its hind leg broke at some point during their super-speed ascent, but Mikoto paid it no mind. They shot past the clouds, and the dracongator's red eyes widened in surprise as its tormentor suddenly appeared above it in a flash of blue, waving a clawed hand cheerfully.
"Enjoy your ride down!"
A savage kick to the dracongator's nonplussed face sent the creature shooting down towards the field below like a comet. Hell seemed to shake in its entirety at the tremendous impact, and the ground shattered and exploded into fine dust. When the smog cleared some while later, Mikoto swooned happily at the gigantic crater that had formed. The monster lay at the centre, motionless and utterly battered.
A streak of lightning and the demon was suddenly right next to the reptilian creature, grinding one boot against its bloodied head. She peered at it with the air of a curious child, and then smiled when she saw its unfocused eyes open to slits.
"Oh good, you're still conscious," she said brightly. "Looks like I win again though. You know what that means, right?"
Mikoto smirked as the dracongator gave a shuddering sigh and closed its eyes tiredly.
"Pride-sama."
A familiar voice addressed her respectfully from some distance away, but Mikoto ignored it. Her blazing blue eyes swept around the huge body of the dracongator hungrily, wondering what she should try today. A few days ago, she had already plucked out some of its scales and claws. Maybe she could go for the eyes this time, although she didn't think fighting a blind dracongator would be any fun. She could always try to acquire a new one of course, but dracongators this big weren't easy to find in her territory nowadays. On the other hand, she could barge into Envy's domain, kick her ass and search for a new game challenger there-
"Lord Pride-sama."
"Gah, what is it?!"
Mikoto turned around in irritation. The shimmering glow in her eyes faded to an ordinary brown as her feelings of enthusiasm flickered out like a light switch at the untimely interruption. She glared at the familiar outline of her most loyal servant, hidden in the shadows of a half-destroyed tree some feet away.
"Can't you see I'm busy right now?! I'm at the best part of the game, so this better be important!"
The shadow nodded. "I'm very sorry to interrupt, Pride-sama. But this is important indeed."
"What?!" Mikoto folded her arms, tapping a claw impatiently.
"It seems your newly acquired pet has escaped."
"Haah?!" A fierce scowl twisted her features. "I thought I told you to keep an eye on her!"
Her servant bowed his head, looking down in shame. "My apologies, my Lord."
"Urgh, whatever. You track her down and bring her to my room. She can't have gone far."
Mikoto turned around dismissively. Her frown transformed into a manic grin as her eyes began to glow an electric blue once more.
"Meanwhile, I'll just finish off this little game here. I'll head back up to my room soon, so make sure you keep her there till then, got that?"
Her smouldering eyes swivelled to glare at her servant.
"If you stuff this up again, I'll un-stuff you!"
"Of course, Pride-sama. As you wish."
With a deep bow, the servant turned away to do his master's bidding. As he walked, familiar agonised screams began to howl into his ears from the distance, harmonised by the delighted tones of crazed laughter.
XXXXXXX
Kuroko looked around with a sigh. A desperate feeling of hopelessness started to well up in her chest. She had been wandering around for ages, but hadn't found any means of escape that she could see. There were no doors or windows; it was just a long corridor that seemed to stretch on forever. She wondered if she had initially taken the wrong turn and considered retracing her steps to try the other direction. But she had a sinking instinctive feeling that it would do her no good either.
Her options were very limited; it wasn't like she could just teleport outside. She had no idea how thick these walls were, or where she was exactly. All things considering, it was simply too risky to pull a reckless move.
'I should save up my strength. Who knows what other beastly things lurk around Hell?'
As her feet continued their weary march onwards, her mind began to wander elsewhere. She thought of the Judgement Headquarters at the Gates and felt a sharp pang in her heart. Kuroko pondered what her senior Konori was doing now, and whether there were lots of souls to be judged at this time. While she had hated all the paperwork involved, she had also taken pride in her status as an Angel of Judgement. It had demanded years of intensive training. Kuroko wished she was back there again, instead of this stupid place where everything was so twisted and horrible. What had she done to deserve this anyway? Excommunication was reserved for the worst of crimes. No matter how much she tried to remember, she couldn't recall how she had fallen.
'Don't tell me… Did Konori find my secret lingerie stash?'
Cold sweat began to pour from her forehead. It was true that the possession of exotic lingerie could be considered a form of sin, namely lust.
'Surely, I would have received a fair trial from the Holy One of the Right Hand himself?!'
She had actually prepared a defence in advance just incase something like that happened. She ran through what she would say to the court in her head. Confiscating such objects were necessary if a human presenting to the Gates possessed them, to ensure that their sanctuary wouldn't be contaminated with such delici- disgusting things. Of course, she was keeping such dangerous items under holy lock and key which only Kuroko, a teleporter, could access. Destroying them would be a waste, not when they might provide good research material on how to remove lust from the world once and for all.
She felt a twinge in her chest at the thought and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. Calm down, Kuroko. That couldn't be what happened.
Too engrossed in her musings, Kuroko failed to notice the large presence blocking the way until her face planted right into something very soft. She bounced off it with a muffled cry, but managed to catch herself during the stumble.
She looked up in bewilderment.
It was a huge stuffed bear, standing tall on its cotton covered feet and towering over the angel's smaller figure. Bloodied bandages were plastered over parts of its brown body – upper arms, torso, left leg and forehead. A pink fabric heart was stitched onto its chest, a black eyepatch strung around its head to cover the left eye mysteriously. A red collar sat snug around its neck, shattered pieces of chain hanging off the leather strap.
With widened eyes, Kuroko opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Was this a living stuffed bear?! She suddenly had the urge to pinch her cheek, just to check that she wasn't dreaming. Hell sure had a lot of strange creatures.
The bear lurched forward. It craned its body over the angel to stare down at her. Its massive size was intimidating, and the teleporter took a step back subconsciously.
"Greetings, fallen angel." A deep male voice rumbled from its chest. "You appear lost in this dreary maze."
Kuroko stared at the bear. It took her a full minute to get her mind started again and realise what it had just said.
"You know the way out?!" She asked eagerly.
"I certainly do." The bear somehow looked thoughtful, although its frozen smile never shifted.
Her elation was short-lived as a frown furrowed between Kuroko's brows. Wait. Following this strange creature couldn't possibly be a good idea. She had every reason to be suspicious. During her training days, the teachers at the School Garden had emphasised how all beings in Hell were filled with lies and deceit, and thus could not be trusted. She had to remind herself she was now stuck in that exact place of Evil.
She pointed an accusing finger into its soft belly and glared.
"I don't trust you at all!"
The bear sighed. "It cannot be helped. You're making this too difficult."
Before Kuroko could make a move, the living stuffed toy lifted its cotton arms and waved them around. He chanted a weird combination of words and nonsensical sounds. The walls melted around them, twisting and shifting into a huge space as if they were being transported elsewhere. Alarmed, Kuroko looked around and tried to move away. A great wave of motion sickness swept up from her stomach and she fell onto her knees, feeling as if she might vomit.
"What-?"
The twisting around them suddenly stopped, along with the nausea. A sinking feeling of realisation hit her chest instead.
Kuroko quickly twisted her neck, her jaws tightly clenched. Auburn eyes glared into the single beady black eye that gazed down at her impassively.
She felt angry.
"I knew it!" She yelled in an accusing tone. "You're in league with that wretched Demon Lord, aren't you?"
She pushed herself to her feet, rounding on the horrible, devilish bear. She screamed at herself mentally, frustrated that she had let herself be so easily deceived after all the warnings her angel instructors had given her in the past. Now she was back where she had started – the large, colourful bedroom full of tortured, broken toys.
Trapped inside the demon's lair.
"If you mean Pride-sama, then yes, she is my Lord and Master. She requested me to retrieve you and place you back where you belong."
"Whaa-?! I don't belong here! I'm an angel!"
"A fallen angel," the bear immediately corrected her.
"Th- That's not the point!" Kuroko shouted. "That beast can't just own me like… like I'm some kind of pet! I never agreed to anything!"
"Lord Pride-sama doesn't need your permission. She owns everything within her domain, although fools like you try to reject the truth."
"So she's a control-freak and a tyrant?!"
"Please." There was an edge of exasperation in the bear's voice now. "I ask you to calm down. Pride-sama will be here soon. Until then, I will stay with you."
He spoke the last sentence as if that was supposed to be a comfort to Kuroko. Her trembling fists curled in more tightly as the angel tried to steady herself. 'Wrath is a sin, wrath is a sin…' she repeated the mantra in her head until she felt the anger slowly ebb away bit by bit. But the frustration remained, leaving her annoyed and restless. She wasn't just going to sit here and take this nonsense; it was time to show the bear just what an Angel of Judgement was capable of.
Kuroko disappeared. She teleported behind the bear's head and sent a double kick flying. The living toy stumbled forward but did not fall, her attacks bouncing almost harmlessly off its soft body. It turned and swung its arm towards her, but it missed by a wide margin as Kuroko elegantly teleported away.
"Please, I do not wish to fight," the stuffed bear said quietly. Kuroko ignored its pleas.
'Evil should not be spared!'
She reached for an iron nail that was pinning a monkey's nose nearby and teleported it. The metal piece reappeared a split second later, deeply lodged in the bear's cheek. It howled out a long note and clutched the area in pain. To Kuroko's surprise, she saw drops of red blood spurt from the wound.
'This thing actually has blood?!'
"Please…"
She wasn't going to be fooled twice by its acts. She swooped down and grabbed some more spikes, teleporting them into the bear's torso without pause. It twisted and screamed, finally falling onto the ground writhing in agony. Blood soaked parts of its cotton body, spreading from its new wounds. Kuroko quelled the arising nausea and pointed another spike at the bear's good eye in a threatening gesture.
"Don't move!" Kuroko snapped.
It stilled.
To Kuroko's amazement, its beady eye scrunched up and began to water. The cotton around its eye began to grow wet from its tears. This thing could cry as well?
"Please don't hurt me," the bear whispered pitifully. "I am only trying to do my job."
Kuroko stared as it sniffed.
"If I fail in this task, Pride-sama said she would un-stuff me."
She felt almost sorry for him.
Well, almost.
"Don't think you can just keep me here with your sad story," Kuroko said coldly. "I have no intention of seeing that thing again."
Killbear groaned, closing its black eye for a long moment.
"Please show Pride-sama respect."
"Hmph, it's just a lowly demon in Hell! Even Demon Lords are little more than savage beasts. Besides, she looked like a girl, but her chest was as flat as a flounder!"
"Don't say things like that in front of her-"
"Why not?" Kuroko scoffed. "I'll say whatever I like to such a beast. That washboard chest bully doesn't scare me!"
"I'm not sure you have any right to talk…"
The bear's words died on its smiling mouth as Kuroko threw the toy a sharp glare.
"Now tell me how I can get out of here."
"I cannot do that."
"Heh~?"
A sly grin slowly spread on Kuroko's lips.
"Look here, I may be an angel, but I'm not beyond blackmailing if I get desperate." The bear winced as Kuroko poked its cheek with the metal spike. "Even better, I'm a fallen angel, so that means I can do whatever I like here, right?"
"This is Pride-sama's territory so the laws are hers to-"
"What I'm saying is," Kuroko interrupted loudly, "that you can either choose to get un-stuffed later, or be un-stuffed right here and now. What would you prefer?"
The bear's entire form trembled in fright. It looked so pathetic like this Kuroko couldn't help but feel as if she was the one being the bigger bully.
'My soul is too saintly for my own good,' she lamented in her thoughts.
"What's going on here?"
Kuroko's blood suddenly turned to ice at the familiar voice. She slowly turned her head to the side. It was the Demon Lord, staring down at them with an irritated expression on its girlish features. Its eyes were a ordinary shade of chestnuts and its horns and claws were gone, creating a fine illusion of a normal girl. The only thing off about her appearance was the patches of red staining her singlet, jacket and camouflage trousers. From this angle though, she was actually rather handsome and just her type-
'What in the holy name am I thinking?!' Kuroko chastised herself.
"Will you get off my Killbear? He's my mascot, not yours."
Aha, so this demon had an attachment to this bear, did she? It was a weakness Kuroko could exploit.
"I'll let him go if you let me go." Kuroko stood her ground. She poked the spike into the bear's cheek more viciously in a threatening gesture. Bargaining was her last hope.
The demon stared at her blankly. Then she laughed.
"Ehhhh, I don't mind if you actually hurt him or anything." The cold words spoken so carelessly made Kuroko's spine tingle. "He can always be put together again and fixed, see? My maid Maika is amazing at sewing."
Kuroko's heart dropped in her chest. Her last chance at escape was now thrown out of the window and trampled on. She stared down at the bear's still smiling face and its watery, beady eye and felt a sudden surge of strange kinship with it. If this thing was a slave of that monster, she really did feel sorry for it.
"Now then…"
The Demon Lord stepped closer and crouched next to her. All of Kuroko's muscles tensed up. A whiff of the scent of blood only made the trepidation worse. Brown eyes studied Kuroko's frozen face as if they found something extremely interesting. Then she leaned in and inhaled deeply.
"Whaaaaaa-?!" Kuroko's brain short-circuited. 'Why is she doing thaaat?!'
"You're a fallen angel, but you smell rather delicious." The inquisitive brown eyes narrowed and regarded her critically. A firm hand gripped Kuroko's chin and turned her face this way and that. "Kinda cute to look at too, although a tad on the scrawny side. I'm definitely keeping you here to freshen up my room."
Kuroko jerked away as if a spell was broken.
"I'm not a scented candle for display! And I told you I'm not agreeing to this, you beast!"
"Ohh~? Your stubbornness and pride just makes me want you more!"
That devilish grin was maddening.
"L-Leave me alone, demon!"
"I told you already, it's Misaka Mikoto!" The demon wagged a finger as if scolding her. "But it's Pride-sama to you. Or Misaka-sama." She thought for a moment then added with a nod, "Any of my five hundred and thirty-two titles will do, actually."
Kuroko knew she should keep her mouth shut, but her lips opened of their own will.
"Is Flat-Chested Lord of Brats one of them?"
A spark of blue burst from the demon's bangs, but the smirk remained pasted on its features.
"I know it was a long fall from Heaven, but you can at least remember basic etiquette, right?"
Without waiting for a response, the demon grabbed Kuroko's arm with a blindingly roguish smile and pulled her back towards the toy-laden bed. The grip was so strong Kuroko thought her arm might be pulled off. She had no choice but be pulled along to the fiend's whims.
"Killbear," the demon called out to the stuffed bear who was wildly struggling to get up from the floor. "Give us some privacy, yeah?"
"Y-Yes, Pride-sama."
The bear hurriedly tried to crawl out of the room without bothering to get up. Kuroko could almost hear her brain whir as she sat frozen among the swarm of colourful smiling animal faces. Privacy? Why did they need privacy?!
Kuroko gulped. She could only imagine what this deviant Demon Lord was planning. And none of them sounded very pleasant.
'Except the fact that she's actually rather handsome.'
Kuroko's palm met her face with a slap. Life was so unfair.
"Misaka-sama!"
The door suddenly flew open with a bang from the outside, just as Killbear was reaching for the handle. Kuroko looked up. At first, she thought it was another weird creature from a glance at the shadowy silhouette. When the figure stepped into the light of the room though, she quickly realised it was a young girl sitting on some kind of strange cylindrical machine with wheels. She had short, dark blue hair swept up by a white bonnet, and she wore a maid costume.
The Demon Lord bristled with annoyance.
"Maika, I told you not to interrupt me unless it's an emergency-"
"But this is an emergency, Misaka-sama!" The girl's pale face was filled with great worry. "The Skill Out are here again, just outside of Tokiwadai Palace!"