Chapter Text
Iruma had gotten tired quickly today.... he'd been getting tired a little more quickly than normal in the past few weeks.... everything was getting.... so cold... it wasn't like his body was doing much to help. Even with all the wonderful food and clothes he was finally getting, there really wasn't much he could do about his aches and pains.
Iruma had never been one to sit in front of a mirror and gape at himself, on the rare occasions he did allow himself a once-over after the shower, he was quick to look away from the still-tender scars on the mottled, keloid-ridden skin of his back.... damn those sharp, rusty fish hooks and the yakuza's monstrous wood planers.... when he still lived in the forest, he hated when it rained or snowed because coupled with sleeping on the ground, it made his skin grow a sickly fungal green with infections pretty quick.... at least he could take proper baths now, since the past year and a half he'd spent in the Netherworld, the infections almost never came back as badly as they used to.... those hideous green blotches were no longer infected or green with his new life, and mostly only remained a benign patchwork of pale, raised, or mottled scars....
He knew that parts of him were in pretty bad shape.... whenever it got cold or damp, (which it did ever so often in the Netherworld) those stabbing pangs that racked his spine and sometimes had him paralyzed on the unforgiving forest floor back in the Human world now came back as persistent dull pains.... they felt so much less harrowing like this.... if only those horrible cracking noises didn't come from his back and joints whenever he got up from bed... He'd barely been able to lift his arms enough to slip on his uniform that morning without crying out in pain, but... he didn't want to bother Grandpa and Opera... they'd already done so much for him and he hadn't even done anything to earn it. (because the only way to get affection was to earn it. He was an ingrate for not earning theirs and only taking and taking their love so shamelessly.)
So, he quickly pulled through it, how he always did, no need to make a fuss because he was being whiny... as he did every time
He did feel better once he walked outside, Clara and Azz were waiting outside the manor as always to walk to school with him. He really liked them, seeing them made even the most burning inflammations and flare-ups feel bearable (he was despicable for lying to them so. The would hate him when they found out who he was.) Iruma knew he was a selfish boy, his parents always said he was, how he asked for too much, (he hated it.... but he'd be a bit more selfish only for a while... he didn't want to lose Clara and Azz-kun yet) how he made too much noise, ate too much, wanted too much....
He walked to school again today, how he did every day with poor Azz-Azz and Clara... he felt so pathetic that him lying to them was the reason they couldn't fly to school how every other demon did.... but he didn't want to walk alone. Far earlier, a more scared Iruma would have wished to return to the human world and the normality he was used to, but now? Oh, how he wished to be able to take to the skies like the others.... it truly was laughable, he was safer and happier in a world where he was supposed to be a myth at best and someone's idea of a grand meal at worst, and now an imposter like him wanted to blend in not by being unremarkable, but by bearing wings or horns himself....
When Babyls came into sight, Iruma usually felt quaint joy. Despite the slightly disturbing and weirdly catchy school song he now happily sung along to every morning, the very idea of being able to go to school was.... beautiful, to him. So now why the hell was his 6th sense suddenly throwing metaphorical rocks at him and telling him to bolt in the opposite direction and take the 'pink cutie' with him and stay far away from Babyls?!
He hadn't spoken much on the walk to school, while it wasn't too worrying, Alice and Clara did certainly notice it.
'Perhaps Master Iruma is weary due to the early time! Oh, what a true noble, diligent student! You slay me once again!'
Alice's thoughts, which usually focused around Iruma and Clara only, (simp) were unusually intense today. He'd been on edge as if waiting for an attack of sorts all day, and while his sense for danger was nowhere near that of his 'Master's', he couldn't help but want to surround his Clara and Iruma, his friends with a flame intense enough to burn all who approached them.... what was up with him?
Meanwhile, Iruma felt more and more like a raccoon trapped in a trash can as Babyls' gates drew closer and closer.... something was off.... was he hungry?... No, he'd cleaned out more than half of the gargantuan breakfast Opera had made.... he was probably just overthinking....
The student council was at the gates like everyday, shouting greetings to the students that entered, Iruma made sure to wave a 'good morning' to them as he walked in, at least he'd probably feel better once in the ever-opulent Royal One.... oh, who was he kidding, knowing his luck, Professor Kalego would probably turn him into a skin rug any day now....