Disclaimer: I do NOT own Beelzebub!

Call me irresponsible - call me unreliable
Throw in undependable too
Do my foolish alibis bore you
Well, I'm not too clever - I just adore you.

"Call Me Irresponsible" – by Cahn/ Van Heusen

Chapter 2: The irresponsible Father

In the darkest shadows and in an empty room. A little blonde girl was sitting in the corner, hugging her knees and quietly sobbing.

It was cold in the room.

Not a coldness like in winter. It was cold, meaning no warmth. No emotions. No life.

The door opened and a man entered the room. The dull light and his glasses were hiding his evil eyes. But his false teeth showed a delighted expression and an ugly smirk.

Step by step, he walked towards her and neared himself dangerously as the little girl stood up and started running into the darkness.

In vain.

She couldn't escape.

Neither could she escape from the darkness, nor could she call for any help. She couldn't speak. Her voice wouldn't come out. She couldn't cry either. She just kept running away…

"Ungh!"

The little girl stopped. She heard something. But she didn't know where it came from. She looked around. First left, then to the right. Then behind. Nobody.

"H-help me…" she whispered quietly.

There was a low cry. A baby's cry. Where did it come from? She looked around once again and tried to speak louder. "H-help me."

A person, a young man, was slowly coming towards her. The little girl stopped and waited for him to fetch her up. "So you've finally come…" she tried to smile weakly. The man smiled, too. Then he smirked. The little girl froze. It turned out to be the same man who chased her.

She made a step back but tripped and fell down. She couldn't stop her body from trembling. It got colder and colder.

The evil man stood directly in front of her. "This is what you are here for!"

"NOOOO!"

Hilda woke up drained in sweat. She tried to catch her breath but she couldn't. Her body was still trembling like the little girl's in her nightmare.

"DAAAH!"

She was struck by lightning as she slowly came back to reality. "The baby!" she shouted, looking around. But she couldn't find him and jumped out of the bed. When she got out of a random room, she tried to get her bearings. "Where am I?" She looked at the familiar hallway and remembered that she "burgled" her neighbors' apartment. However, she couldn't remember the room where she just got out. She looked back in there and noticed that it was a bedroom. It wasn't as tidy as the living room and it smelled! "No wonder…" she thought with a disgustful expression. There was a pile of clothes in one corner of the bedroom. Probably the clothes that were lying on the floor when she first entered.

"Wait a minute…" she murmured and slowly, her memories were coming back. "That would only mean that the landlord is back and has tidied up, right?" she thought when an image of his possible irresponsible mother came to her mind. "Poor little boy… Is his mother so lazy that she has just stored the dirty clothes in the bedroom?" Before she continued her thought, she remembered the baby again and ran straight to the living room.

The baby was just sitting on the sofa and watching that 'Gohan-kun' anime from earlier. When he saw that Hilda entered the room, he got happy and stretched his little arms for her. She smiled at his sight and went to the sofa to pick him up. "Have you slept well, little boy?"

"Mmmmh…"

Now, the baby was just about to cry. As he started sucking on his thumb, Hilda understood immediately that he was hungry. No wonder, it was already midday and the little boy still waited for his meal. "Come on; let's find some milk for you." She took the baby in her arms and went to the kitchen.

The kitchen was still in its former state but surprisingly, there was a bottle of warm milk readily on the table. Without waiting any longer, Hilda took the bottle, checked the temperature of its content professionally and fed the baby in her arms. Meanwhile, she looked around and saw that not a single spoon was moved from its place. Probably, the landlord was in a hurry and left again after only tidying up the floor. While feeding the baby in her arm, she examined the kitchen carefully and stopped her gaze on a certain spot when something caught her attention: next to the fridge, there was a transparent plastic bag with a few bottles of milk in it.

Alpine milk.

That reminded her of the incident from that morning which she had tried to forget all the time. "Don't tell me…"

Before she dared to finish her train of thought, she heard the rattle of a door and loud steps coming nearer. She was caught off guard since she assumed to be alone in the apartment. There again, she hadn't any sense of guilt for breaking in a strange house. Quite the contrary: she keenly wanted to ask the person how he or she could leave a baby alone on its own at home.

"What is it, Beelze? Has your little girlfriend woken up yet?"

Hilda froze at the familiarity of the voice. "No way…" she thought while her hand, which was holding the bottle, started trembling for a moment. As the baby drank his milk hardworking, she slowly started turning around to face the man behind her. And it was really him: the guy from that morning stood in front of her, almost naked. Steam was coming out and enveloping his well-built body that was only covered with a short towel not even reaching his knees. She didn't know what to do, nor did she know what to say. He also just stood there and observed the intruder in front of him as if demanding a further explanation from her.

CRASH!

The sound of the broken glass broke the silence and was followed by the baby's cry. Probably, he was scared by the sudden noise or he was still hungry and wanted more milk. Anyway, Hilda herself was startled for a moment that she didn't notice the man already standing a few inches away from her. He reached for the baby with a quick movement and placed him on his right arm. Amazingly, he didn't even need to say a word and the baby was just quiet and peaceful instantly. The man continued to watch her, still waiting for an explanation.

Hilda also thought that she needed to say something first since she was the one who entered the apartment without permission. "So you're his father?" was the first thing she asked while successfully hiding her astonishment. The rather question should be 'You already have a child at your age?' because he really was about the same age as her, not even an adult.

"Did you come here to only ask me that question? Or did you want to spill my milk again?"

She didn't know the meaning of his words first. Then, she looked down to see that the baby's bottle was broken and the milk was poured on the floor. That had to be the reason why the baby was scared and started crying.

Hilda lifted her gaze again and looked at her opponent. "Hmph, I just wanted to see the heartless father that leaves his baby alone at home while placidly going out."

Oga wasn't impressed not a bit. He just stood there and listened to her with a stoic expression.

His calmness aggravated Hilda even more. However, given that she was the person who intruded in his apartment, she was in no position to talk about rights or wrongs right now. She passed him with the same calmness and went to the exit. Without looking at him, she added some final words. "Let me tell you just one thing: I don't know what reason you've had to leave him alone and I don't even want to know them. But don't you dare to leave your child alone at home again or else, I'd be the first one to punish you." Hearing no answer from him, she went out and closed the door.

Oga still stood there and said nothing. He looked at Beelze who was patiently waiting in his arm with an expectant look. Oga smiled at the little boy a little. "Tsk, I guess we only draw crazy people in, right my boy?"

Beelze beamed approvingly to his father. The latter opened a new bottle of milk and began to prepare another meal for his baby.

Hilda entered her apartment and closed the door. Something felt wrong to her. She didn't know why but earlier, she felt the urge to quit that man's apartment as soon as possible. It was only a few meters that she had to walk over to her own apartment, so why was she so short of breath right now?

She sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall. It was already the second time that she had met that man. But what was so weird about him? Her first impression was that he was a softy; a wimp crying over leak milk. Nevertheless, he was somehow different this time.

He was calmer than that morning and reacted differently when she spilled his milk a second time. And he was even too calm to be honest. Did she scare the living daylights out of him? No, it wasn't that. The truth is that he was even ready to pick a fight with her.

In addition, there was this baby Beelze. Supposedly, he was born to an unmarried mother because she didn't see any ring on that man's finger. On the other hand, he might have put it aside since he was taking a bath at the moment. And he even had the nerve to directly come out of the bathroom and confront her in that state.

She smiled to herself inwardly. "Well, running around half-naked, Beelze is just like his father." Then, an image of both, father and son, came to her mind. He was holding him with only one arm. It was something that required trust and belief on both sides. Besides, Beelze stopped crying as soon as he took him in his arms. Admirable, how his child was attached to that man. Could it be that he wasn't such an irresponsible father as she thought?

Closing her eyes, she didn't want to mediate on it any longer. In the end, leaving a baby alone at home was something unreasonable and unforgivable.

Someone was knocking on the door. Oga already knew who it was and went to open the door. "Oi, you're late, Furuichi."

"Weren't you the one saying that the busses don't drive regularly on Sundays? Furthermore, your call was unexpected so I had to gather my books and print some texts to finish my homework here."

"Tsk, you're doing homework?" Oga asked wryly.

Furuichi grinned complacently. "Well, I'm not our grade's best student for nothing, you know?"

Oga didn't answer to him. Otherwise, he would go ahead and offend him even if it was always meant to be in good fun.

For someone like Furuichi, who knew him for so many years, Oga's odd behavior was very noticeable. Nevertheless, asking him directly didn't help Furuichi either, as he already tried in the forenoon. Possibly, Oga would talk to him tomorrow if he had something serious on his mind. "By the way, I thought that Kunieda wanted to pass by today…"

Being in a hurry, Oga got his jacket on and went to put on his shoes. "Yeah, I told her to leave it be since you'd come and take care of Beelze."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Suddenly, Furuichi hit rock bottom. "Did I come all the way in vain then?" he asked in a whiny, disappointed tone. Assuming he would take care of Beelze with her, he had spent almost an hour in the bathroom to get ready for a "date".

"Don't yammer, you dumbass! I'll be back in three hours so there's no need to worry." He was just about to go when he stopped at the door and added one last thing. "Furuichi…" The latter waited curiously for him to finish his sentence. "… don't be surprised if anybody steps in unforeseen while I'm gone."

Furuichi didn't know what he meant. In spite of that, his words made him shiver and he put on a distorted smile, asking in disbelief. "C-come on! You're kidding me, right? Who'd dare to enter your apartment by choice anyway? I mean, nobody knows the place where you live. Hehehe…"

Oga grinned evilly at his friend and scared him even more. "Kehehe… who knows?"

"Wait… Ogaaa! What am I supposed to do if one of your foes shows up here?"

"Jeez, don't wet your pants now! You can also go home when Beelze falls asleep. But make sure that you let the door open in that case. See ya!"

With that said, Oga left fast as the wind. Furuichi was able to calm down a little. Anyway, he had no idea what was going on with Oga today. "I shall leave the door open? Is he expecting anybody else?" he wondered.

The next morning, Furuichi was on his way to school. He was in a hurry though since Beelze didn't want to sleep so easily last night until Oga had returned. Therefore, the self-sacrificing Furuichi ended up oversleeping due to lack of sleep yesterday. Honestly, he thought that he sometimes was too friendly towards Oga.

Just like him, Furuichi was attending Ishiyama High, a school with 120% delinquency rate. And he was not the only one who thought he was out of place! Compared to Oga, Furuichi wasn't a fighting type. But neither was he qualified enough for other schools like the Saint Ishiyama Academy. That's why he ended up attending the worst school in their town.

When Furuichi entered the classroom breathlessly, he thought he would already be dead meat. "S-sorry, Sensei! I'm lat…" He stopped mid-sentence as he noticed that the teacher didn't come yet. All the rest of the class seemed to be there, even Toujo who normally was absent due to his part-time job from time to time. They were as noisy as ever or partially sleeping so that nobody noticed or cared about the newcomer except for the class representative.

"Good morning, Furuichi-kun." She greeted him with a smile.

"G-good morning Kunieda-san!" he greeted back loudly and overexcited. "How was your weekend?"

"The same as usual. Isn't Oga with you?" the dark-haired girl asked.

Furuichi pouted inwardly. He knew that Kunieda had a crush on Oga for a while now, thus he had already given up on her. Nevertheless, what annoyed him the most was the fact that his friend would get a real scorcher before him. Not that Furuichi wouldn't be happy for him but damn that Oga, he had absolutely NO interest in women! Neither as a lover, nor as an opponent. Yes, badass Oga had never fought against a girl! He didn't know whether Oga was too gentle to hit a woman or whether he didn't think of them as a worthy opponent. Furuichi guessed on the latter.

Oga didn't even need a woman by his side when it comes to raising a baby! For God's sake, who would care for a child without a partner and additionally go to school and work nowadays? That would only be Oga!

On the other hand, he always thought that Kunieda was probably the best possible bride for Oga. After all, she was the strongest and most intelligent girl on Ishiyama High. Her only problem was that when it came to women, Oga didn't seem to give a shit!

"Furuichi!"

As Kunieda called his name a second time, Furuichi quitted his intellectual world. "Hm? Isn't he here yet?" In fact, Oga was absent, too. "Well, I left about 11.30pm yesterday after Beelze fell asleep. But Oga sent me a mail when he came back home. He may have overslept, too, but that's somehow unusual for him… Where the hell is he?" he rather talked to himself.

Looking at the girl in front of him, Furuichi caught a glimpse of worry in Kunieda's eyes and regretted his last words. Waving his hands in a wild manner, he tried to assure her of Oga's safety. "D-don't worry, Kunieda-san. I'm sure that he'll show sooner or later. Y-you know him. It's likely that he's beating the crap out of some people from other schools right now..."

Kunieda smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

Furuichi put on a boyish grin and thought how pretty damn cool he looked at the moment. His amusement didn't last long though since the teacher entered the classroom. "Oi, what are you doing, you punks! Sit down; we still have a lot of work to do."

Zenjurou Saotome was a terrifying teacher. He had weird teaching methods, went often off on a tangent and handed in a bunch of homework in the end. Aside from that, he also graduated from Ishiyama High and was able to handle this class in contrast to other teachers. Hence, he was considered as the best teacher in their school even if the students learned only half of the subject matter.

As everyone sat on his or her seat, he continued. "We're going to have a new student in this class, so let's get over with it quickly. Come in!"

Only a fractional amount of the class paid attention and looked suspenseful at the door. Furuichi was one of them as he prayed for a new female student: a prettiness like in his wildest dreams. And the gods answered to his prayers! A blonde woman with light skin and well-formed feminine body entered the classroom. He wandered his gaze from her long legs to her large breasts and couldn't stop drooling. "Damn, she's even hotter than Kunieda!" Furuichi wasn't the only one gawking at her and many guys were just delighted by the looks of the new hot chick.

Saotome-sensei didn't miss out on that and punched the board, making a hole on the wall. The impact was strong enough to get back their attention and wake up the remaining sleeping students. The new student didn't seem to be impressed though. "This is Hilda. Keep the socializing stuff for lunch break. Just be nice to her, you pieces of crap!" Then, he turned his gaze to the class representative. "Kunieda, show her around a lil bit and so on. But before you do that…", he looked behind and pointed his thumb to the wall, "tell the janitor we need a new board again. On my account."

"Yes, Sensei." Kunieda stood up. "Here, Hilda-san. You can sit next to me."

There were two empty seats between Kunieda and a drooling, silver-haired fool. Hilda wanted to avoid the latter and accepted the other girl's offer. She knew that many eyes were darted on her currently, be it the curious guys or the jealous females. Anyway, Hilda decided to ignore them for the moment since she didn't want to draw any attention from her first day.

As she sat down on her seat, Saotome-sensei was just about to start classes when the door opened again. Hilda couldn't believe her eyes and was shocked to see the familiar face again. "Og…"

*Yawn!* Phew, it took me long to finish this chapter but I really wanted to upload it today! I hope that I didn't make too many mistakes. If you can detect any, then feel free to tell me. ;)

This is a small new year's present for you, dear readers! A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012 to all of you. May all your wishes come true...

Love,

~Illusion137

EDIT: Sorry, I may have forgotten to mention their ages yet (I only mentioned that they're still not adults): Oga, Hilda and Furuichi are supposed to be 16 years old. I guess you can calculate the others' age yourself with the aid of the age differences from the manga. I'm not going to make huge differences for the side characters so I'll save myself writing long introductions about Himekawa or Nene...