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.
Punishment Adjustment
(Asmodeus House: Irumi's room)
In the still dark hours of the morning, just before the sun started to rise upon the Netherworld, the princess was enjoying her sleep. Through the veil of the twilight one could see the entire room was the trademark white and hot pink of the Asmodeus clan with gold trim along every line and corner. Resting happily in a queen sized four poster canopy bed with a transparent white curtain was the princess herself, cuddling with Viole and Lily. It was a sight that only the most hard hearted of demons would disturb... or those under orders of Lord Derkila. Opera entered the room with a Hell Raiser clock and immediately cast a spell to ensure the younger demons would stay sleeping, no matter the sounds or movements.
"Time to wake up your grace." The cat like security demon said before the alarm sounded, standing next to the bed.
"BWAH!" Irumi cried out as she shot up, shocked from the sudden and hideous squawking of the alarm. "Wha, Opera? It's... two hours before you usually wake me up." She said dryly and irritated once she saw what time it was.
"I'm aware your highness." The attendant admitted before pulling her out of the bed, the twins groaning at the loss of contact before they reached each other. "However, now that you've joined the Student Council, you are now expected to act as such. Miss Ameri expects you dressed and ready for your duties at school. Apparently all the paperwork is to be done before classes begin." They said as they took the princess to the baths, intent on giving her a quick cold wash to both wake her up and get her ready to get to Babyls on time. Without giving her time to argue and protest, the attendant stripped her naked and threw her into a cold water bath.
"WAHHH!" Irumi shouted as the shock of the cold water immediately jolted her to a full awaken state, shivering while Opera tended to her long hair. "I-i-is th-th-this really n-n-necessary O-O-Opera?" She asked, trying to stay still while her servant did their job.
"I was told to do whatever necessary your highness." They said, focusing on keeping Irumi's hair as silky as possible. Punishment or not, Opera would sooner die the most gruesome of deaths than ever allow Irumi to be anything less than the most beautiful gem in the whole of the Netherworld. The prince, however, was on his own in this. The security devil looked to the Student Council uniform hanging by the door, the disciplined militaristic black with red lining that demanded respect of the wearer's authority. Opera wondered how the prince was doing, remembering that Ameri took every duty she had with utmost seriousness and sincerity.
(With said prince and consort)
The morning light was shining through the windows, illuminating the dorm room and gracing the slumbering couple with its warmth. The pair were clasped in a comfortable embrace, cuddling one another with the most contented smiles on both of their lips. A serene image of the lovers as they enjoyed their first night together and wanted to continue it into the morning. Then the same instant that the alarm went off, Ameri's eyes shot open.
"Get up!" She shouted, immediately jumping out of bed and waking Iruma up.
"What the-" He tried asking before Ameri yanked the sheets and blankets off their bed, revealing both were wearing pajamas. "Ameri, what's-"
"Help me make the bed!" She ordered, making Iruma shoot up in surprise and quickly help. "Now transform and get dressed! We only have one hundred seconds!" She kept going, stripping out of her pajamas and putting on her usual student council attire. Iruma lagged for a second, still trying to catch up before using magic to change. This earned him a whack to his head. "No magic beyond your disguise to get ready my love." She scolded, making sure his collar was straight before heading to the door. "Now move it! We have to be in the student council room in one minute!"
"Y-yes dear!" Iruma thought back to hustling under Opera's magic training. He'd probably need to get into a similar mindset just to keep up. Ameri was like night and day to him, nervous newly wed bride the night before and no nonsense drill instructor this morning. He was hoping to cuddle a little longer. The pair would make it to the council room, an acceptable lag between the two to keep their current living conditions hidden, and be the first ones in with Irumi being the third to come in. She looked awake and well put together but you could see the look in her eyes was contradictory to her appearance.
"Opera woke me up two hours ago and threw me into an ice bath." She complained as the rest of the Student Council poured in, looking alert and ready for the day.
"No mumbling!" Ameri shouted, making the pair stiffen up as the president took charge, the rest of the student council lining up before her. "Who are we!?"
"We are the Bablys student council!" The group shouted, with the prince and princess lagging behind just enough to be noticed.
"Too slow and out of sync! Push-ups now!" Ameri scolded as the entire group got to it. That set the mood of the morning; cleaning the council room and going over piles of paperwork at a breakneck pace until everything was done... for the council room anyway. Next was the exercise portion where every council member had a Cayman tied to them, essentially flying balls with teeth and claws. The Student Council had to be strong and pain was an excellent motivator. Irumi and Iruma would come in last with their Caymans on their persons.
"Do... do they pass?" The blonde council member asked, watching the two walk across the finish line.
"I... don't know. I didn't think this was possible." The magenta colored one answered. Exceeding expectations, the twins didn't outrun their Caymans, they SUBDUED them. Irumi's was nestled in her arms and purring like a cat while Iruma had his at his side like an obedient guard dog.
"Good enough!" Ameri declared. "Back to the council room, we still have work to do!" And that was the mood for the rest of the morning, working with the teachers and helping to clean up the school's gardens before Ameri dismissed the both of them back to their class. The glasses wearing council member tried suggesting training them in their posture since they weren't ready for patrolling yet, but Ameri gave them their pass. She could tell when the twins were approaching their Evil Cycle involuntarily and that was never a pretty sight.
(A few days later)
Things kept going something like that for the twins as the week went on, the Evil Cycles being kept in check with the Asmodeus family doing everything they could to relieve Irumi's stress while Ameri tried emulating what she read in Shoujo manga. Her second favorite is either letting Iruma rest his head on her lap or letting him pet her head while their nighttime spooning remained her preferred way to ease his stress. Irumi's involved cuddling with the younger twins in the Asmodeus house or trying on dresses with mama Amaryllis and seeing Alice's reactions. Needless to say, the punishment was taking its toll on the twins with no end still in sight. They quickly caught up to the other council members in performing the standard tasks, but that still didn't mean much with their stress levels becoming just barely manageable.
"Umi? How are you doing?" The prince groaned, lying face first on his desk with Irumi in the same state. The majority of the Misfit Class was maintaining a respectful(safe) distance while Alice and Sabro, were brainstorming ideas on how to help them. Clara was poking them with a stick.
"I still feel on edge." The princess sighed, a candy bar hanging in front of her face. "No thank you Clara, Uma can't have it and it'll just make things worse." The hyper active demon's cheeks puffed up in response.
"The Student Council is so mean!" She whined, pouting the whole while. Azz and Sabro stiffened and looked at her in horror. "I wanna play with you guys again! They're just hogging up all our funtime!"
"Man, things must be rough for them." Lied said, looking over the latest copy of the school newspaper. "Despite all the praise for those fireworks, their battler is temporarily disbanded and the student council is working them like hell hounds." Jazz, Caim, and Allocer nodded along, Jazz and Lied thinking back to how they had to take in Azz and Clara respectively. Azz threw a fit while Clara was a chaotic storm, but they were proving capable in the New Magic and Game Battlers. Sabro was assigned to the Forging Battler due to his own bloodline... and quite a few students ended up in the infirmary as a result of getting a little personal with him.
"They even got more coverage than Kuromu... not that that would help them right now." Jazz mentioned, looking at the front page articles. The two most predominant ones were the performance of the Magical Apparatus Battler during the Battler Party with their temporary reassignments, and announcing Kuromu's live performance concert at the Makubari Dome.
"Iruma and Irumi, please report to the Broadcast Battler room." An announcement came over the speakers. "Iruma and Irumi, please report to the Broadcast Battler room." The twins looked up and shrugged, getting up and moving out with Azz, Sabro, and Clara following after them. A few minutes later and they reach their destination.
"Ah, there you are!" The Battler's president, a black haired demon with small white horns and square glasses named Bathin, said excitedly as the group entered the Broadcast Battler room. It was filled with various sound systems like speakers, microphones, and amps, all for the sake of doing their duty to spread news and updates throughout the school. Their system assembly was a tremendous asset to the whole of Bablys, for students and faculty alike. "Here! Take these." He said, holding out a few concert tickets. "Tickets for Kuromu's concert at the Makubari Dome."
"How'd you get your hands on these?" Iruma asked while Irumi took them, counting out four VIP passes.
"I've got relatives that are friends with the even organizers." Bathin explained. "They said that since we won the grand prize at the Battler Party, they'd get us to help with the live performance. This is a big deal for us and a huge honor!" He said excitedly before suddenly getting depressed. "And I told them how it was a technicality since you were disqualified and if they could get us some extra tickets for you. Four was the best we could do." Irumi patted the demon on the head and smiled gratefully.
"Thank you for this generous gift." She said, her expression shining and making Bathin's troubles disappear like a light in the darkness. While that happened, Iruma felt his phone buzz and checked it. "But still, we have to pick one of us to not go. Uma?"
"Go ahead, I've a got a date." The prince said immediately, closing his phone before Clara could try to look.
"Okay... Well, guys, let's go!" The princess said with a cheer, making the rest of the people in the room cheer with her.
(Hours later; Makubari Dome)
"I wanna say I'm upset with mom abusing her authority, but maybe this can help." Iruma said, in his taller form, with Ameri by his side. They were in the waiting hall of the Makubari Dome, waiting to be let in to the main hall for the live performance. That text from earlier came from Ameri, telling her fiance that Poro pulled some strings/demanded and likely stole, some VIP passes for the two of them to go on a date as a congratulations for withstanding their punishment for so long.
"I really wanna binge watch the First Love Memories anime, but we still can't have that." Ameri added, leaning her head on Iruma's shoulder. "Still, I'm happy to see our first Dem-Dol concert together." She said with a smile.
"Yeah, but to think it'd be a classmate of mine." He whispered, not wanting to expose Keroli's secret. Especially in this crowded area, doing that would be borderline suicide. He felt his phone buzz and checked the message.
'SOS: I made an oopsie and Keroli overheated.'
Iruma and Ameri just stared at the screen before releasing an irritated sigh. The prince cleared his throat and released a low 'la~' while Ameri covered her ears. From Iruma's mouth came a sort of distorted shockwave that caused everyone else to fall into a dazed stupor. Poro was a master of rhythm and sounds and this was a favorite spell of Iruma's, the Sound of Confusion. Great for stunning everyone to make quick and unnoticed getaways. Wreaks havoc on the throat though. Tending to that could wait till after they helped Irumi. Working on his instinctual connection to his sister, the pair quickly made their way through the halls of the theaters to Kuromu's dressing room with Sabro standing guard. The VIP passes kept them from having to force their way... too much.
"Master Iruma." The shield nodded as he stepped aside, revealing the scene inside. The room was littered with ice patches and spikes, Keroli was lying on the couch in an idol outfit, a black haired woman in a business suit was trying to attend to her, and Irumi was trying to run damage control with Alice melting the ice and Clara pulling out cold products and medicines. The prince made his way to his sister and typed out 'what happened?' on his phone, showing Irumi.
"Sound of Confusion?" She asked, getting a nod from her brother. "Clara, throat care tea please." She quickly asked the green haired demon, who immediately complied before getting back to trying to figure something out. "Okay, the show was great. Keroli is fantastic as Kuromu."
"Thank you." The ice demon groaned out.
"Please don't push yourself Kuro- who are you two!?" The woman, probably Keroli's manager, shouted once she noticed Iruma and Ameri. The Student Council president immediately intercepted the woman and took control of that situation.
"Anyway, I was randomly selected to meet her in person... and she spazzed about keeping her identity a secret before I accidentally called her by her actual name. When I explained how we figured out who she was, she was impressed and we talked a bit about music. Then she brought up helping me become a Demdol, and seemed really into the idea. I... may have said something about it being too easy and that it wasn't gonna happen, she... reacted poorly and got worked up." She explained while Iruma drank his tea. "How did you get here so quickly?"
"Mama Poro got us tickets." He said quickly and gravelly, wincing as his throat still stung. "This was the date." Irumi nodded in understanding.
"Still, this situation is terrible." The manager, Mar, said after Ameri convinced her to calm down. "The stadium is filled with demons wanting to see Kuromu, an amateur Demdol in high school that anyone can accept, and if they wait too long they'll all start dipping into their Evil Cycles. We don't have any doctors that can help in time and her family could never make."
"Because they'd get overheated and miss it?" The princess guessed, thinking back to their relatively frail constitution in regards to heat.
"No... they don't-" Keroli weakly started before Irumi shot her with a sleep spell.
"Rest." She ordered before looking at her brother. "This is starting to remind me of that concert mom told us about." The princess idly said before they both realized the one person capable of handling this matter. Iruma immediately dialed a number and handed his phone to his sister, who seemed nervous about taking it. "Can't you..." She started before Iruma pointed at his throat, "...right." She said in defeat, calling the number.
"What is she trying to do now? And how many people are finding out about Kuromu!?" Mar demanded, putting another ice pack on Keroli.
"Calling the only person that can help it seems like." Ameri said, scanning the room for a safe location.
"Mama? Can you come to the Makubari Dome please? We need your help." Irumi asked in as sweet a voice as she could muster. There wasn't any noise as everyone just waited... and then Amduscias Poro smashed through the ceiling with piano key wings on full display, terrifying everyone.
"How can I help, my darlings~?" She asked, an overjoyed smile adorning her face, which only unsettled the twins.
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.