Chapter Text
“Iruma, can you tell me who clipped your wings?” Professor Marbas asks, gently placing the trembling and sobbing boy on one of the office couches, whispering.
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Professors Marbas’ and Blushenko’s gentle questions send Iruma crashing into the depths of memories that his own mind has kept locked away since each of the corresponding events so far back in Iruma’s life. Memories of harsh jobs adults should not even be doing, many of them illegal, let alone a neglected child. Far too many nights were spent trying his best to survive the harsh wilderness. There was never enough food, and wild animals tried to make a meal out of him. Times that all he remembers of them are flashes of sharp pain coming again and again, seemingly with no end in sight. As Iruma’s mind slips him mercilessly into the memories of his very own personal hell, those words wake up; he starts to scream, a broken sound ripping directly from the depths of his very soul. Each professor freezes up at the heart-shattering sound coming from the young, sweet-hearted student. Not a single one of them knew what to do for Iruma. They were clueless about how to calm the boy down.
“Silence! Why did two of my brats come to me complaining about Iruma being kidnapped by Shichiro (Professor Shichiro Balam)?! Now, I find him in this state. Explain now!” Professor Kalego barks out as he rushes into the professors’ common office after hearing the soul-piercing scream from outside in the hall.
Professor Kalego goes straight toward Iruma, who has not stopped screaming. Even Kalego himself can not say how he knew what to do if it was an instinct as Iruma’s familiar or his inner guard-dog Cerberion, but he just knew what may help the small blue-haired brat. Without hesitation, Kalego goes straight to his student, kneels down, and grasps the elbow closest to him in a snug hold to hopefully help ground the brat in reality as he tries to help.
“Iruma, I need you to come back to me now, please,” Kalego speaks directly into the boy’s ear with a calm but firm voice, needing the boy to hear him through his obviously panicked state.
At Kalego’s words, Iruma stops screaming. However, his body is now racked with sobs. Tears streaming down the boy’s cheeks and dripping onto the couch the boy is slumped on.
“P-P-Professor?” Iruma asks, sobs racking his body.
Kalego was more than a little concerned at the devastated, pain-filled, dazed blue eyes that looked up at him like he was the only lifeline in a deadly hurricane. Kalego feels his gut drop at the look. That look in the brat’s eyes should never be in anyone’s eyes, especially not in the eyes of a student under his protection.
“I am right here Iruma. You are safe. I will not leave your side until you are in the arms of the chairdemon and Opera-senpai. I promise you,” Kalego promises his desperate student, meaning every word that comes out of his mouth.
Hearing the words of his professor and familiar, Iruma finally lets himself collapse in on himself and falls into unconsciousness, letting the blackness cover his already fuzzy and narrowing vision. Iruma collapses into a puddle on the common office’s couch. Iruma is now lying mostly on his side across the cushions with his legs still hanging towards the floor.
Noticing that Iruma is out cold, Kalego turns his harsh, questioning eyes on his fellow teachers. Robin and Momonoki are no help at all, sobbing together on the office floor. At the same time, Balam and Blushenko are frozen, stiff, and pale.
Marbas explains the situation: "A few minutes ago, Professor Balam came running in here in a panic, yelling that he could not feel wings on Iruma’s back. Of course, we thought he was speaking nonsense, so Professor Robin checked the boy’s back to put minds at ease. Well, to put it simply, I can confirm from the scars that his wings were clipped, along with many other scars. When I asked him who clipped his wings, he started screaming. You came in at that point.”
“Did you just say clipped!?” Kalego asks sharply, eyes going wide.
“See his back for yourself, Professor Kalego,” Marbas whispers sadly, looking at the unconscious boy.
Kalego does not want to believe the words coming from his colleague’s mouth. Deciding to see the truth for himself, he carefully pulls up Iruma’s uniform to look at the brat’s back. Looking at the skin of Iruma’s back, Kalego goes pale in absolute horror. Even to Kalego, the scaring around where his wing roots should be makes it evident that the boy’s wings, roots and all, were somehow ripped out of his body. Kalego pales even more, remembering when he pushed the boy off the cliff at the start of the flying race ranking exam—quickly pushing the guilt to the back of his mind, telling himself that he needs to deal with the present situation. Now, he needs to focus on his student who requires his help.
“Alright. Marbas, you deal with the others here and keep this information to yourselves until I can speak with the damned Chairdemon and Opera-senpai. Absolutely no information is to be shared with anyone,” Kalego orders as he carefully scoops Iruma into his arms and quickly makes his way to the Chairdemon’s office with long, determined strides.
Not bothering to knock on the door, Kalego walks directly into the Chairdemon’s office. He closed the door behind him and cast a spell once inside the office for privacy; even though he knows there are already privacy spells, it is always best to be as careful as possible.
“Lord Sullivan, we must speak now,” Kalego speaks sharply as he carefully places Iruma on the office couch, soon met by Lord Sullivan and Opera.
“Iruma-kun! Why is he out cold, Kalego-kun?!” Sullivan asks, concerned over the state of his grandchild.
Kalego decides to be straight with Sullivan and Opera and not beat around the bush, “Why did I just now find out Iruma’s wings have been clipped? Why did I find out after Shichiro ran to the faculty office after not feeling wings when he petted the brat’s back? I went to check on him after I was told by two of my homeroom brats that Shichiro had kidnapped their classmate. Then, when I found him, he was screaming in pain and panic. Once out cold, I was told why I checked his back for myself. Why was I not told, and who dared to hurt the brat?!”
After a few tense moments of silence, Sullivan starts to speak seriously, “Let’s sit down. It looks like I should start from the beginning. This is going to be a bit of a complicated story.”
After Opera covers Iruma with a soft blanket, the three sit down facing each other.
Taking a deep breath, Sullivan speaks in his rare serious state, “It all started when I felt some humans trying to summon me. I decided to answer and scare them off so that they wouldn’t try to do something like it again to another demon. However, things got complicated once I arrived in the summoning circle in the human realm. When I arrived, I found that a human couple had summoned me. The deal they wanted to make was to sell their son’s soul for money. Iruma was tied to a chair, bloody and so skinny, it was obvious they had starved and abused the boy from one look. However, the smell of his blood really had my attention more than just anger at the horror of Iruma’s injured state. His blood smelled and registered as the boy being a Demi-Demon, but when I appraised him with my magic, I found that some spell locked away his demon half and blurred some of his memories. With all this information learned in the first minute, I decided to take Iruma with me and make a deal with him instead of his parents. The deal was in exchange for helping him have a happy life like a place to live, good food, and education, and I get Iruma as my blood-adopted precious grandson….”
“Wait, Iruma is a Demi-Demon, but he thinks he’s a human?” Kalego asks, interrupting Sullivan’s story.
“Yes, that is the gist of the situation as of this morning, but I am guessing it was the mention of the fact that he has been clipped, which broke the spell that locked away his demon side and memories. This caused the boy to fall into a panicked state,” Sullivan explains.
“Once Sullivan brought Iruma home with him, we did the blood adoption and worked on healing him up. We noticed that his wings had been viciously ripped out of him along with many scars of different kinds all over his body, though the most concentrated on his back,” Opera adds with a rare angry look in their eyes, their tail giving a flick of anger.
“So ….” Before Kalego can ask his next question, an explosion of magic seems to wrap around Iruma’s body on the couch close to where they were talking, “What is happening now?”
“It looks like his demon side is starting to merge with his human half so that he really will be a Demi-Demon. I will fly Iruma home immediately. Opera-kun and Kalego-kun, can you explain things to Asmodeus-kun and Clara-chan truthfully and privately? They are the closest to Iruma-kun,” Sullivan says, quickly wrapping Iruma in the blanket and picking up his grandson like a baby, and flies out this office window.
“Did he just take the brat and run away?” Kalego asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Let's go speak with young Asmodeus and Valac before they come running in here or even go to the manor to find their Iruma,” Opera says, ignoring Kalego’s question and striding out of the office.
Kalego rolled his eyes and quickly followed his senpai before he was left behind. The two of them quickly make their way to the Royal One. Kalego and Opera open the door to the Royal One and immediately feel something crash into each of them. Looking down, the adults find that Clara had run into Opera and Az had run into Kalego.
“What do you brats think you are doing? I told you two to wait here,” Kalego asks his two students on the ground before him and Opera.
“Eggy-sensei, where is Iruma-chi?!” asks Clara as she bounces back onto her feet, completely ignoring her professor’s question.
“Is Iruma-sama alright?” asks Az, getting to his own feet with grace.
“Follow us, you brats,” Kalego says, leading the group of four to the soundproof room after ensuring it is empty and carefully locking the door behind them.
“What is all this, Professor Kalego? You are worrying us,” Az says, his voice quiet.
“Sit down and let us try to explain some things to you before you stress too much,” Opera says calmly.
The two teenagers did not like the direction of this conversation, but they sat down anyway, wanting to hear what they had to say. Opera gives his young master’s best friends a quick summary of Iruma’s present situation and a few pieces about his past.
“Are you saying that Iruma-sama thought he was a human the whole time he has been in school? Though he is actually a Demi-Demon, one who is just now merging with his magic and other traits that come with being a demon, do I have that correct?” Az asks the two adults, slowly processing what he has just been told.
“That sums it up well,” Opera confirms.
“Before anything else, is Iruma-sama going to be alright? Can we see him?” Az asks anxiously.
Az is unsure how to process what he has just learned other than that when the Chairdemon left with his master, Iruma had been unconscious. When it comes to the human side of Iruma, Az does not see him any different other than worrying about his friend’s sanity; as he thinks about the school song and being of human strength around demons, he can only be impressed by Iruma’s inner strength and determination.
“I want to go see Iruma-chi now! Az-Az, let's go see Iruma-chi now!” Clara calls out with a rare, worried look on her face.
Kalego shrugs and turns to Opera, given that Iruma is under Lord Sullivan’s care.
“It should be fine to have you both over. It will certainly help Iruma to know he is accepted by the two of you for who he is and have you know even a bit of his history and still be his friend. I know he has been worried about wanting to tell you he is human, or as you now know, half-human. He desperately wanted to tell you but also knew it could put him and you both in danger,” Opera tells the two teenagers.
Kalego stayed to finish the school day as Az and Clara left early and went to Lord Sullivan’s manor with Opera. When Opera, Az, and Clara enter the manor, they move up to Iruma’s room and carefully enter it. What they find inside Iruma’s bedroom is not what they were expecting. They found Sullivan standing off to the side as Iruma could barely be seen inside a smoky black bubble of sorts.
“Iruma-sama/-chi,” calls out Az and Clara, seeing their friend in such a state.
“Don’t touch! It seems like his demon side is merging with his body all at once. From what it looks like, he will be fully a Demi-Demon and have all the traits of a demon coming in soon after his magic fully integrates into him. He will now have a true second gender, his own magic, and his own bloodline magic,” Sullivan explains to the others as he keeps his eyes on his precious grandson.
“Now that I think about it, his alpha sent always smelled like it was not an exact match to him. Was that your doing, Lord Sullivan?” Az asks Sullivan.
“Yes, given his demon side was locked away, he smelled mostly human. Currently, Iruma is the only Demi-Demon in the whole of the Netherworld. I will figure out a perfume to cover his human sent, but he will have his own second gender scent and pheromones after this,” Sullivan answers the Asmodeus heir.
“Will Iruma-chi be okay?” Clara asks without her trademark happy excitement.
“So far, so good. Iruma-kun seems to be in much pain and stress, but he is also stable so far. I think he will be in pain physically when this is completed. Though, it is actually his mental state I am more worried about,” Sullivan smiles softly at the green-haired demoness.
The four worried demons stand around Iruma’s room, watching the smoky black cacoon swirling around Iruma as they breathe as quietly as possible. It takes a full fifteen minutes of tense waiting before the black cacoon dissipates. Iruma is lying unconscious on his bed, giving off his true scent of half demon and half human. All four of the demons take in his scent and register that Iruma’s second gender is alpha. While the two adults take in Iruma’s scent to identify his new personal scent, Az and Clara feel something different after catching their best friend's true scent.
The scent that is uniquely Iruma registers in Az and Clara, making them feel warm and fuzzy in their hearts. Before either of them can even think about what they are saying, they both speak simultaneously, “Mate.”