I glared at them all. Just looking at them irritated me. Iruma's happy go lucky face, I wanted to ruin it. Opera was watching me with ears down, I didn't even do anything wrong yet. Gramps was even side eyeing me. If it were not for him, I could wipe the smile off Iruma's face. I gather Zve and my violin.

I flew to school, leaving Iruma to walk alone. Teach the home room, did they not have legit substitutes. Why was I tasked with this? I was not a certified teacher. I hated these brats. They all mocked me behind my back. If they knew the truth it would be that much worse. I fed Zve, slipping a glove on and petting the little plant.

"Where is Kalego?" Kerori asked.

I slipped the glove off. "Sick day, do what you normally do." I grumbled, taking a seat.

"Are you going to sit there or help us? You are supposed to be a teacher."

I glared, then I grinned. Students backed up. "Everyone to the music room, let us do a group practice today." How would it look if they all were together?

I played the violin, catching them all in my grasp. I forced Iruma's hands to play the song with me, and the dancers to move along to the music. Around and around, they went. I forced them all to play until homeroom was over. Letting them go, most fell to the floor tired.

"That was..."

"Was what? Physical exercise is important for growing demons. I have seen most of you go through worse. Do you feel you know the song better now?"

"Yes, Ma'am." They spoke in unison.

"Good, get to the next class." I smirked, that was more entertaining than I had thought it would be.

The next class I sat to next to Marbas, he was eyeing me from the side. "Problem?" I asked.

"Ah, no."

I waved my hand out. "Teach, they are waiting."

"Right." He got up teaching the class on torture.

Agares raised his hand. "Does being forced to dance count?" I gritted my teeth.

"It could, if it was done for hours." Marbas replied and I smirked.

I will get back at him for that one later. They liked my gift yesterday, what was so different today. Ungrateful children with parents to go home too. Treasure of this world, and I lost mine in the human one. Darkness clouded my vison, Eli with that woman. The illusion of him being ripped to shreds.

If I am around them any longer, I might do something I will regret. The bell rang and I went to the royal one classroom. I spent the next two classes in there, talking with Zve. Feeding Zve, I put a glove on to pet him. Taking the mucus and putting it in a jar. I ate alone at the desk. Humming to Zve, the only thing not on my nerves today.

The next class was the last full class besides ending with homeroom. I am sure Balam would ask questions and those mouthy students would tell him I was skipping out on classes. This is one I would have to go to, regardless of how I felt.

"I will be back, Zve. I have one class then I am taking you home." Zve chipped and danced.

I placed the vile on Balam's desk, he looked up smiling. "Good to see you. I need to show you where I keep things, in case I need you to retrieve something for me."

"Sure." I followed him to the back room.

"Do you know what an evil cycle is?"

"No, what is that?"

"It is when a demon is under a lot of stress. They enter this cycle of wanting to cause harm to another person. It can be dangerous, when you are going through one you are to take a sick day and stay home. This is to protect the students."

"Like I am going through that? I am grumpy because I could not sleep. I was up so long I watched the sunrise."

"That is another symptom. Cannot sleep, everything becomes irritating. Using your powers on others to cause grief." Vines wrapped around me, tying me to a chair.

"Let me go this instant."

"When class is over, or Opera comes to retrieve you. Protecting the students is the most important role for a teacher. Do not worry about Homeroom. This will run its course and you will be fine.

Be fine, this bird man tied me up. He left me here alone with nothing to do. Wait for Opera my ass. I wiggled and the vines tightened. This is a load of crap. I hate him and I hate Iruma, Kalego, Dali. All of them, the vines squeezed harder. When I get out of here, I want a one v one with him. I will make him regret this decision.

I could have walked home myself. Took all my things like Kalego wanted and stayed home. I could hear his lecture, students asking questions. Him telling them I was sick. "I…" A vine wrapped around my mouth. The unfairness in this situation irritated me further. School ended and I was still here. The door opened, Balam and Kalego walked in.

Kalego looked at Balam. "Opera has not come yet?"

Balam shook his head. "He called me the expert and hung up."

I bit the plant and it retracted, smacking me. I laughed. "Daddy number one did not want to deal with me, so you called number two."

Kalego scowled. "I was watching over you as you transition to school life and the netherworld."

I smirked. "I thought you were sick, were you playing hooky?"

"The evil cycle is a sickness. I was on the verge of one, I took some time to myself." He held up my art book.

"Get out of that."

He ignored me, flipping through the pages. "I will carry her stuff if you transport her."

I flailed around. "I don't show people that, get out of it!"

He pulled out the palm sized card and opened it. "I have seen this before. It was attached to the violin. A violin as resilient as you."

"Congrats captain obvious…" I felt something. "Put it…"

"Mommy help! I'm falling!" It rang in my head.

I was not hallucinating that. They were there, that was a child calling for help. I looked out the window. I had seen that portal hole before; I came through that. My emotions spilled harder; my vision blinded to almost full blackness. I felt the snap of vines, and I took off out the window.

"Mommy! Help! Please!" I barreled down towards the falling child, humming to help stop his fall. It wasn't enough to fully stop the fall. I swooped down, cradling him in my arms, pulling back up.

"I got you."

He flinched. "Ah! monster! Mommy, Help!"

I looked him over, this wasn't Eli. Why did feel so frantic to save him? I tilted my head, the nose looked like mine. He smelled sweet like milk and honey. Then it clicked, this must be her child. He spoke my language, meaning this might be him.

"Eli?"

"Mommy?" I nodded; tears running down my face. I rubbed my head on him like I used to when I would get home. "It is you."

"I missed you, bug."

"Violetta, hand over the child, don't do anything rash." Words with no face.

I cradled him close, and he clung to me tightly. Barring teeth, I hissed. "No, mine."

Eli looked up. "Are they monsters too."

I smiled. "Yes, baby." He hid his face, and I chuckled. "They are not all bad."

"Can we go down; this is too high." His little wings were so cute.

I looked around, Opera, Kalego, and Balam surrounded me. I looked at Kalego. "Eli was not my brother. He is my child." I laid my head on his. "Zve is in the classroom, as well as my lunch box and books. My drawing journal was with you. I can retrieve them later. For now, I am going home."

Opera got closer. "I will follow."

It was comforting to know she was a mom too. I could see why she left now. It was to save not only herself, but her child. Even demons cared for their young. I inhaled his sweet scent, he was hers. My body reacted to him, his cries, and his voice. While it sounds a little different, I knew he was mine. My little Eli on the inside.

My heart fluttered in my chest, carrying him inside Sullivans Mansion. With him here, I had no reason to fight anymore. I felt relieved and calm. This was what I needed. Not just time off, my little bug. Grandpa was accepting of him. He underwent the same process of changing appearance to look like me. Green hair, purple eyes.

The story changed to ravel I left to find my child. No one saw what happened as it was after school hours, and no one was around. The father was killed after my mother found out I was pregnant. She sent the child off this way and that is why I came this far. I was searching for him, which was not all a lie. As I was searching for a way to get him back.

The door rang and I answered. Balam was holding my stuff. "Balam, I was just about to head to the school and pick my stuff up. I promise this time I did not forget."

"I wanted to see the little one. This gave me a good excuse to come over."

Eli peeked around my leg. "Eli, this is Professor Balam. Please, do come in."

Eli climbed up my leg and into my arms as he walked In. "I know my appearance can be a little intimidating."

Eli whispered in my ear, and I spoke for him to Balam. "He is. He said you look like a superhero. Come with me to the sitting room."

Sitting down Eli started asking questions. "Do you have any superpowers?"

"I am strong and can tell when someone is lying."

"A Justice superman. Is the mask to always hid your identity?"

He looked him over. "No, I had an accident when fighting. It left a permanent mark on me. You should see the other guy?"

"Well, were, is he?"

"Dead..." I made a cut of motion with my hand to stop him. "Dead to me, I will never talk to him again."

"Oh, okay. If you are a superhero, then you have to save others from what she did to mommy. You have to stop the demon king."

"What do you mean, bug."

"The Lady was scared of the demon king rising."

Balam chuckled. "The demon king will be our ruler and bring peace. She was a bad lady, which is why she was scared."

"Oh, then the cult of two is bad?"

"Yes." I interjected. "What else did she talk about?"

"Well, she said she would start helping others escape the demon world the way she had. Um, taking high ranking people. Controlling all the money. Use the humans as slaves."

I looked at Balam. His stare was not one for letting me think of a child's wild imagination at play. "She must have talked around you often."

"Yeah, she was waiting for her son to cross. She missed him a lot. She reminded me of you when you thought you lost me during hide and seek."

"I see, why don't you go play?"

"Okay mommy." He jumped down from the couch and ran out of the room.

"He was telling the truth."

"I know, he is not one to lie, even in downfalls. This is more widespread than I thought." I rubbed my chin. "For now, his safety is all that matters to me. Can you keep this under wraps? I myself cannot risk being exposed. I fear a hunt for humans in demon bodies might happen."

"Agreed. There are probably many unranked out there. The moment you publicized as such they will flock here for refuge. We cannot contain that many here."

"What do we or I do now?"

"You need to focus on gaining knowledge, you have the upper hand at the moment. I would let Lord Sullivan know what he said. I should get going now, be careful. Do not slip up in your stories or holes will be seen." I nodded; he was right. My slip could end us or ruin the school.

"My lady, dinner is ready."

"Good timing, Professor Balam was just leaving."

The dinner table was quiet, and Iruma looked tired. He said nothing of what happened. His mood only changed when Eli talked to him. Realizing there was another person at the table. When I get back to school, I will have to apologize to him and all the other students. I probably ruined the whole music festival for them.

"We will have to get some toys for him." I glanced at grandpa. "We raise our young to have as much fun as possible, this is for two reasons. One: it prevents evil cycles. Two: it helps them grow to know what they like and find pleasure in as they mature. Our school will not enroll anyone under the age fourteen."

"I see."

"I know you had one today. I am sure the stress of doing tasks quickly and taking almost no time for yourself caused it. You must really love Eli, because your evil cycle stopped when you held him. It is hard to come out of the first one until it fully cycles. You did well."

"Thank you, but I messed up. I took control of the class and made them dance and preform their music festival performance."

"Was anyone injured?"

"No."

"Then you are already better than most. Some enter the cycle and cause nothing but destruction and murder."

Destruction and murder. I was on the verge of fighting Balam. That was the last thing I remembered. It all felt black until I had Eli in my arms. I gave Eli a bath and kept him with me in my bed. It was generous to give him a room, but I did not want him away from me. He also would not let go of me.

He lost me and was probably confused to my sudden behavior change. I cradled him close, his sweet scent letting me drift to sleep. In the morning, Iruma went to school, and I took an extra day away. Accompanied by Opera, we went to the mall strip. Letting Eli pick out toys books and anything else he wanted.

I worried about the pay back for this. Then Opera said it would be deducted from my pay. After the incident at the harvest festival, Grandpa issued a pay to me as a teacher. An extra bonus on top of that for figuring it out and taking down the enemy, which protected Iruma and many other students.

We walked by a technology store; game consoles were on display. Eli ran right inside, asking for a hand held game system. He did not even know how to play one of these. Opera pushed me to let him have one, reminding me of an evil cycle. I caved but got him the most kiddish games. In the check-out I looked at the back wall.

They had devices that could read to you. Expensive little things. They were guaranteed to be able to read as fast as you could swipe it a crossed the page. One bundle included wireless earbuds and the device looked like a pen. I should buy something like that for myself. I set the Console and two games on the counter.

The cashier rang up the items. "Will that be all for you?"

"No, I want to add that reader with earbuds."

He pulled it from the shelf. "Starting his education early?"

"It is for a student at school." Not a total lie.

Opera paid and we left. "Why did you buy that?"

"So, I do not have to rely on you or the grace of other teachers to learn. I plan on becoming the absolute best I can to protect Eli."

I read to Eli, teaching him anything he wanted to know. His strength, what he could do now. I set up his handheld gaming system, letting him start the game up. It read to him the words on the screen, and I was relived. He would not lose interest for not understanding what was going on. It must be a part of the Demons let the child be a child philosophy.