If you like my writing and what I do, please buy my book Commencement by Joseph Lankford(available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, wherever). Because I would rather sell a finished product of my own work than open a Pat. Reon for donations on a fanfic. Just makes me feel better about myself.
Light Up the Sky
(Babel Tower: Interrogation Room)
'How did it come to this~!' Sullivan thought in despair, trapped in the gray interior of the interrogation chambers of the royal palace. Normally the task of questioning would far to Henri's department, but seeing as this was one of the top three demons under Derkila, the king felt a personal touch was necessary. Sullivan was helpless as he spilled his guts, unable to defy his master no matter the consequences.
"So to clarify," Derkila started as he stared down to the whimpering form of his traitorous aide, "you've been regularly going to the Human World illegally to purchase manga and all at my son's request." Sullivan could only nod as he betrayed his beloved surrogate grandson. "How could you do this to me Sullivan?!" The king growled as his power leaked out, a power that would suffocate any other demon had they been in there. "DO YOU KNOW HOW FAR BEHIND I AM IN MY OWN COLLECTION!?"
"You of all people should have... WHAT!?" Henri started, ready to assist in scold the school Headmaster from the observation room before finally hearing what the king was mad about. "Your majesty?! Isn't this a horrendous violation?" He asked, concerned about the law and order of the Netherworld and how this would affect things moving forward.
"Hmm? Yeah, it definitely is." Derkila admitted nonchalantly. "But I trust Sully to be discreet. After all, we only just found out about this and he's been doing it for years. Besides, anything if it helps my sweet boy and his lovely fiancee get closer!" He cheered, Henri gritting his teeth so hard that they cracked as a result.
"My king~!" Sullivan cried, tears of joy at his master's understanding. Sully was a massive pushover when it came to the twins wanting anything. "Well, I'd best head back because the Battler Party is ha-"
"Sit down." Derkila ordered, the happy tone from early gone and replaced by royal authority as Sullivan dropped back to his seat. "I never said you were free. You still must be punished for your transgressions. Deceiving me, breaking the law, betraying my trust, for these you... will have to miss the Battler Party." The Border Patrol agents fell over at how minor the punishment seemed... Sullivan was a sobbing wreck.
"PLEASE MY KING! FORGIVE ME! I DON'T WANT TO MISS THE TWINS' DISPLAY!" He begged, in egg form, and crying out a gallons of tears.
"No. Take your punishment." The king turned to the glass panel that Henri and the other agents were behind. "Have someone collect his paperwork and bring it here. He's confined to the Tower until the party is over."
"Yes my lord." Henri said with a bow. "What of Prince Iruma your grace?"
"Gonna have to punish him as well for having Sully do this." Derkila took a moment to think. "Got it. They'll both be moving out of Sully's manor after the Battler Party," Sullivan's cries grew louder, "Irumi will be going to the Asmodeus house with Opera attending to her while Iruma will be moving in with Ameri." Henri's glasses exploded while everyone else asked why this was a punishment. "They'll be alone and she has to do the cooking." That's when Henri's expression turned to absolute horror.
"I thought you wanted to punish him your majesty, not execute him!" Henri cried out, remembering the one time Ameri tried cooking for him. He survived but the crowns learned of the horror Ameri was capable of in the kitchen, nor did he try to correct it.
"I went through worse, he'll be fine." Derkila dismissed as he left the room and entered a hallway, where another crown waited for his king. "Baal. Where did you get this evidence?"
"From a junior of mine that's attending Babyls." Baal the Thunder Lord, a demon with the appearance of a young man with spiky blonde hair wearing punkish black with a fur collar on his jacket and a black choker. "I told him to be on the lookout for anything that seemed to not exist in the Netherworld. Then your son brought along that book and this happened."
"Carefully covering his tracks for ten years and it only takes one screw up or lapse in judgment for it all to fall apart." The Demon King sighed as the two walked together. "So, what is the greater scheme here Baal?"
"My, whatever do you mean my lord?" The punk demon asked. "Do you mean to insinuate I have a more nefarious goal in mind?"
"Just remember the rules I set forth." Derkila said as he put more length in his stride. "Don't go too far."
"Understood my king." Baal said with a bow, a sinister smile gracing his lips.
(At Bablys the next day)
"I wonder what Opera was so upset about." Iruma said as he and Irumi were carrying supplies to their Battler room, chemical powders, sketch paper and measuring instruments to draw blueprints, some screws and metal fixtures, everything they would need to construct fireworks. It was a unanimous agreement to make that the display after seeing the space the Magical Apparatus Battler had for the Battler Party. Kirio apologized profusely for the small space but everyone fell in love with the idea of fireworks once Iruma actually explained what it was and brought a few manga to help with illustrations. From there they decided to break up into teams to speed up the process; Azz and Kirio would perfect the firepower and colors, Iruma and Sabro constructed the launching base, and Clara and Irumi worked on designs for uniforms and experimenting with different mixtures for the lightshow. Clara's bloodline magic was really useful for that.
"Hopefully nothing too bad." Irumi pouted, always hating when someone she's close to is upset. Sullivan didn't come home last night and Opera was far more attentive to Iruma than he usually was with either twin. They said that nothing was wrong, but their drooping cat ears betrayed their mood. That, mixed with Sullivan's absence that morning, left the impression that something was wrong. "I don't want anything bad to happen during the Battler Party." She turned to her twin with a pouty expression. "We're doing these fireworks for you and Ameri so the least we can do is make sure I'm enjoying my time with Azzy!"
"I'll make it happen Umi. I promise." Iruma said with a laugh, finding his sister's expression adorable. A bit of levity before the stress of the Battler Party, the competition of the many clubs at Bablys impressing both family, fellow students, and the school faculty. This was important on principle, but the prizes the school was offering made it more intense; 3rd place was a new luxury Battler Room, 2nd was a budget increase with an extra prize, and 1st was that everyone in the Battler was go up a rank with the leader going up two. That announcement lit a huge fire across the student body as they went all out in their preparations. The Magical Apparatus Battler spent days at the school to finish their prep work, perfecting the launcher and the fireworks themselves. The most unusual part of the process was when Kirio would leave for a few hours each day, claiming that he was working on something he felt would be a great addition to the party.
"You'd better." She returned as they reached their Battler room, greeted by a loud and colorful boom. "Ami!" The princess cried out in shock to the most fragile member of their group, concerned for his health.
"Damn it Kirio, what have we said about being careful?"
"Sorry guys~." Clara said, surprising the pair.
"Who let Clara play with explosives!?" They cried out in shock while everyone else recovered.
(Timeskip)
Time passed and the eve of the Battler Party came, the members gathered around the launcher in their small space between two other booths. Clara wanted to cover it in decorations like flowers, glitter, and dolls but Irumi managed to reign it back, so now it looked like a dragon's head biting down on a pipe. Clara used her magic to duplicate more of the show fireworks for tomorrow, but for today they had a special firework shell that everyone pitched in to make. Kirio and Sabro were finishing safety measures as Alice kept Clara from interfering, while the twins remained despondent.
They still hadn't heard anything back regarding Sullivan beyond 'he's busy', making them more and more concerned about whether he'll miss the Battler Party. They wanted their whole family, even Granny Levy and Grandpa Belli were pushing back their Battler Parties just to attend this one. If Sully wasn't attending, then that meant something was seriously wrong. Sullivan would tear apart half the Netherworld if it meant getting to attend any show the twins were doing, so what was their father having him do to keep him away? This question continued to play in their minds as the group started scoping out other Battlers. The twins began stress eating and caused five booths to shut down before Sabro and Alice specifically started directing them away from food related Battlers with Clara constantly supplying snacks.
They met up with the rest of the Misfit Class and learned about some of their Battlers and the other displays before heading back to their spot and going over the show plans for the fireworks, though Kirio was currently absent. It was to simply start with their special starter firework shell and following with the smaller show shells, a solid plan... until Irumi checked the cannon and found the shell was missing. This prompted the group to search for both the missing shell and Kirio since he was the only other person that knew about it.
"Seriously, where is he?" Iruma growled, starting to get annoyed and dipping into his evil cycle as the cover of night began to cover the sky. "Kirio would cough up blood from a stiff breeze alone and he's carrying around a 25 pound shell. How the hell did he disappear like this?" The group split up a number of times to look around the Battler Party and inside the school, only to continue turning up nothing.
"And we're coming close to our launch deadline!" Irumi pouted, the two were in the courtyard while everyone else was still searching. "What are you thinking Ami?!" She asked before the whole of Bablys began to shake and tremble, building and grounds, with the only clue as to what was happening being clear transparent walls that flashed briefly before fading away from sight. Despite the violent shaking, no one was injured and nothing was critically damaged. "Uma, was that-?" She asked as the twins recognized the barrier magic.
"Seems like it." Iruma said with an annoyed sigh as panic began to spread among the students. "And knowing Kirio's power, this is definitely premeditated. Question is, how long was this planned?" The prince pondered before the twins felt a twinge in their minds, a mark of telepathy magic being used in an effort to contact them. They placed a finger to their right temple and heard Kalego's voice speaking to them.
"I've sent Dali to the Broadcast Battler to set up some stopgap measure to keep the students calm," their teacher said as they heard an announcement about this being a surprise game, "I'll have the other teachers either round up and keep track of the students in the courtyard or figure out what's happening."
"This is definitely the barrier magic of the Ami clan," Irumi returned as the twins continued to look around while swerving through the crowd, "and Kirio disappeared quite some time ago."
"To hide up in one of the fourth floor rooms of the third year tower it seems." Iruma said as he pointed to a window on the top floor of the building, finally spying a man in question in the window that was waving at them. The pair watched as he levitated a ball and was soon obscured by a bright light. "That can't be good." He whispered as the two moved as fast as they could, weaving through the crowd and into the building, with their friend on the fourth floor being their target. For some reason the barriers seemed to be leading them around, flashing to warn them of a wall and revealing gaps for them to slip through. Whatever Kirio was planning, he wanted the two of them to have a VIP seat to his performance. By the time they reached their destination, an opening in the wall that held a once hidden room, all the other students were gathered in the courtyard plaza and Kirio was ready to greet them.
"Welcome you two, it's almost ready." He said with a smile, his normal hairstyle replaced with sweeping it back the left side and his glasses removed, giving him a more sinister appearance despite his still friendly attitude. He lead them inside, the room looking like an old secret storage room with dust everywhere and ragged worn curtains, and revealing the Gabuko engine with the firework shell charging on top of it, glowing white with all the power it now contained.
"Kirio, why is the shell on Gabuko?" Iruma asked with a slight edge in his voice, one that promised danger to its recipient.
"To charge of course." The barrier user said with a smile. "Soon it'll become so powerful that its detonation would destroy all of Bablys!" Iruma glared while Irumi was shocked. "A truly glorious explosion of light and fire, just like you suggested Iruma~!" Kirio sang, further egging the two on as Irumi dropped to her knees and crying, gesturing to the students in the plaza. "With my barrier magic, we can stay safe in here while they're all wiped out. And I can relish the sight of utter rage, heartbreak, and despair as the chosen heirs to the throne of the Demon King fail to protect their precious-!" He was cut off as Irumi shot to her feet and grabbed him by the collar.
"You jerk." She whispered before repeatedly slapping him in the face while comically crying. "YOU STILL HAVE THAT STUPID DESPAIR FETISH!" She cried out while still slapping him. "You told me you got over that!"
"I know we promised to never kinkshame, but seriously dude that's just messed up." Iruma calmly returned as he walked towards Gabuko, slowly shifting into his true form as he took up the shell in a single hand. "Umi, stop tenderizing his face and let's fix this already." He called out to his twin, slightly wincing as the glowing shell started to burn.
"Kay Uma." She answered, calming down immediately and dropping Kirio while matching her brother's transformation. Together they kicked the window to pieces, the noise covered by the students counting down the final seconds. "This seems almost too fitting, doesn't it?"
"Indeed sissy." The prince said with a smile as the twins grasped hands and jumped out the window, immediately shooting into the sky with their pitch black feathery wings.
"Royal Authority! Barrier dispel!" They called out, using their unique power to cancel the barriers around Bablys. They grunted from the drain, but still held firm as the two took hold of the shell and tossed it into the sky. "Libera!" The roared, again combining their magic to form a massive serpentine dragon that flew into the sky with the shell in its head. "2, 1, 0." They said with the crowd, getting the best view of the shell exploding into a shower of rainbow sparks so bright it illuminated the school and was seen from miles away.
"I'll give Kirio this." Irumi said, admiring their work. "That certainly is one devi glorious explosion."
"Yep." Iruma nodded. "Now all that's left is to... why aren't those burning out?" He asked, noticing several still giant burning stars falling toward Bablys.
"Maybe we got that mixture wrong? Or their heat resistance got enhanced as well?" She suggested, slightly concerned about the situation.
"Okay... one more go with Royal Authority." The prince said, taking his sister's hand again as they began to glow with magical power. "Maybe Ameri will take care of me while I recover."
"And Azzy can tend to my needs." They suggested, already making plans for when they'd be practically bedridden as a result of this.
"Winds, spin and deflect these flames!" They yelled out their command, causing a spinning dome of air to cover Bablys, causing the yet to explode stars to fall harmlessly into the plains around Bablys, creating towering pillars of sparks to surround the school. The twins smiled to themselves, proud of the light show and the approving cheers of the students below.
"Hell of a job, eh sis?" Iruma asked, his vision slowly fading to black.
"Devi... yes." Irumi answered as the two lost consciousness and started to fall, only to be caught by a pair of protective arms.
"Good job kids." Derkila said, cradling his children. "That was impressive."
If you like my writing and what I do, please buy my book Commencement by Joseph Lankford(available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, wherever). Because I would rather sell a finished product of my own work than open a Pat. Reon for donations on a fanfic. Just makes me feel better about myself.