The idea of a place of learning where everyone shared their academic knowledge with each other for the betterment of the future sounded like a truly wonderful place to me. It seemed a lot better on paper than it turned out in practice. I quickly found this school to be an irritating place filled with rules that made little to no sense. The teachers were incompetent, and they seemed more concerned about wasting students’ time than actually teaching them skills they could use.

Suffice it to say, I was sent to the office two more times before the day was over. I hadn’t even done anything inappropriate. All I had done was correct an obvious mistake that the math teacher had made and then explained to an English teacher how asinine it was to ponder the intent of the words of a writer who was dead for the last three hundred years. Unclear intent was one of my pet peeves. If someone wanted to be known, they should make it clear the message they wanted to tell. Leaving it open to interpretation was the very essence of lazy and creatively stunted.

“Y-you again!”

“Vice-principal.” I nodded.

“I looked up your file while you were away. You used to be a good student. Why are you struggling so much today?” She quickly recovered from her flustered appearance, pulling out a file from her room as if she was going to use it to physically protect herself. “I know that you were out of the school for a while, but that is no reason that your conduct should slip so badly.”

“If my conduct has slipped, no one has done anything to fix it,” I responded. “I’ve been sent here three times, and I’m still struggling to see where I faulted.”

“Fault… Fault… ah! You were a disruption to your class!”

“Is class not a location for intellectual discussion? Most of the other students appear to be asleep or in some other way ignoring what the teacher was doing. None of them were sent out of class.”

“Aiko!” Her voice rose a bit, and I could tell that I made her angry.

“Yes, vice principal?”

Her face reddened slightly and she wiped the angry expression off her face as she straightened her skirt. When she realized she was trying to unsuccessfully pull it down again, her hands snapped away.

“You may call me Ms. Alma.”

“Ms. Alma.”

She gave a nod like she had accomplished something. “There are only a few minutes left until the end of the school day, so you might as well stay here.”

I nodded. “Do you need my help?”

“Eh? What?”

“Since I’m not going to class, I assume you could use help in some other manner?” I offered.

“That…” She glanced around, but the secretary was looking busy while not doing any actual work and couldn’t provide her any support. “O-okay.”

I nodded. “In that case, I will be your minion. Do of me what you will.”

“Wh-what you will?” She exclaimed, taking a startled step back.

I closed my eyes and winced. That had been a mistake. I was using the words the demons often used. When one demon submitted to another, he’d call himself a minion and then submit to the other demon’s will. I had accidentally spoken the rhetoric that I had heard all of the time.

“Just let me know what you want.” I corrected.

“Oh, um… in that case, I have these letters. I need to fold them and put them in the envelopes.” She made a face as she directed me into her room, where there was a large pile of letters, and next to them a pile of envelopes. “The principal is always dumping me with that stuff. Isn’t that a waste of my ability?”

“Aren’t you asking me to do it in your stead?”

“A-ah!” She jumped as if she forgot I was there. “This is good for you. It will build… um… character.”

I didn’t know what she was on about. If she was desiring punishment, there was nothing more punishing than a job that had no use. This was at least a job that had to be done. The punishments the demons dolled out that didn’t include evisceration and death were things like digging a hole and then filling it up again. Such a thing that did no one any good was the truly hateful chore. Of course, some demons used digging as a means of exercise, and they thus treated their punishment as a means of getting fit. Perhaps there was no such thing as a complete lack of value.

I sat down across from Ms. Alma and began to fold the letters. I had only folded the first one when she let out a cry.

“N-no, you need to do it like this!” I had folded them in each direction, but she wanted them folded into themselves.

“I see, so you fold them like a woman.”

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“L-like a what?”

“Nothing.”

I found myself using a lot of colloquial from my world. Most people like my family and Ivy ignored them, but this Alma seemed to catch them every time I used one. It was a little irritating, but it did help me become more aware of when I was sounding off. I was a bit more annoyed that the others were letting so many of them slip by.

With the correct folding patterns, I started to work on the letter folding diligently. I had thought the teacher would find something else to occupy her time, but she started to fold the letters with me. Once I got used to the motions, I sped up the process, and we got near the end of the stack by the time I heard the bell go off. Ms. Alma jumped at the sound of the bell like she had been goosed.

“Oh… we’re done.”

“Am I free to go now?” I asked.

“Y-yes. Thank you, Aiko.” She gave me a considering look, but I merely nodded, stood up, and left with a brief farewell.

Since I had finally made it through a day of school, all I had to do was make it home. That seemed like an easy enough thing to accomplish. Mother had even promised to pick me up today. I decided to stop by my locker first. I had never bothered to stop by my locker earlier in the day, but I did want to see what was in there. It would help me understand the original Aiko a little bit better, or so I thought.

Since I didn’t know where Aiko’s locker was, it took me a while working my way through the crowds of teenagers before I finally found it. I didn’t run into anyone I recognized on the way there, and no one who recognized me attempted to speak to me, which was just how I preferred it.

I had gone to annoying lengths to recruit Ivy as my protection. Although I was sitting next to her in every class, I had thus far not seen a single person who would create difficulty. Perhaps I was being too careful in using Ivy as a social safeguard against others. The original Aiko seemed to lack a social life, and that was only to my gain.

I finally found the locker. Of course, I didn’t know the combination, but I had used youtube to learn a few safe-cracking tools. Leaning my ear against the locker, I started to work out the number combination. It was going fine, and I was already two numbers in when my danger sense kicked in. It was hard to say when or how I had developed such a sense. Perhaps it came from years of dealing with demons and their fiery tempers. I could just feel when I was about to be attacked.

I jerked my head back just in time for a fist to collide with my locker. As luck would have it, that was just the jolt needed to pop my locker door open. I turned to see where the attack had come from and was as much surprised as I was annoyed at the person I found in front of me.

“Daryl?” I asked calmly, showing no sign that he had just leveled a strike at my head.

I typically found that a calm demeanor calmed down an enraged idiot more than acting excitable. Excitability tended to feed on itself, and no sooner would I have reacted than he would have responded with an even greater reaction. It would have served no one any good.

“You bastard! Don’t think I don’t know what you did!” He snarled, making another threatening fist, but not throwing it.

His voice was loud, and enough of the hallway had cleared out that the remaining people were immediately aware there was some kind of fight going on. Some of them even dropped what they were doing, turning to face us like we were some kind of entertainment for them. How troublesome.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I responded.

For a moment, my placid response got to him, and his eyes flickered uncertainly. However, the rage quickly returned, and he reached out and grabbed my shirt in his sweaty maws.

“Don’t fuck with me, Aiko!” He snapped. “I know you like Skylar. That’s why you swapped out my supplements with… something else!”

He stumbled for a second on something else. Of course, he had meant the colon cleanser I had slipped into his arm. He hadn’t been smart enough to notice the switch at the time, but it looked like he had figured out that I must have switched it while he wasn’t paying attention. I had underestimated him. I had taken him for an idiotic demon, but it turned out he was a slightly more clever demon.

“I did no such thing. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” I stuck to my words.

“I returned to the store and we reviewed the security video!” He declared. “I saw what you did, you punk.”

“You watched the security video?” I asked incredulously.

I was pretending to disbelieve him, but in reality, my mind was working quickly for a solution to this. I never would have imagined that the story was recording it, or that he would return and demand that they watched it.

“I was threatening to sue them for messing up their product, and so they showed me what happened.” He responded proudly, even though the story still left him as an idiot who hadn’t done anything on his own. “You may have been acting up today to avoid me in class, but now your ass is grass!”

I felt a bit better than I hadn’t miscast him. He really was an idiot. However, he was a lucky idiot. It seemed like my little prank had been caught. I had no choice but to face his wrath. It served me right for acting petty. Thankfully, I was used to being a punching bag, so I hoped that this would be over quickly. Daryl rose his fist deliberately, and I closed my eyes as I waited for it to land.

“Let him go!” A voice cried out from down the hall.

When the fist didn’t land, I opened one eye. Daryl was partially turned, even as he was holding me against the locker with his free hand.

“Skylar, stay out of this.”

“If you don’t let him go, I’m going to tell everyone what happened on our date.” She declared, lifting her phone. “I have pictures.”

His face turned white for a second. They went out on a date where he was planning to get lucky with her. That date was interrupted by him taking some of that colon blow. I didn’t need to imagine the contents of her pictures. I admired Skylar taking advantage when she had it. He was blackmailing her into a date, and she blackmailed him right back. Not bad.

He let go of me, and I landed back on the floor.

“That’s the last time you’ll use that picture on me, bitch. Next time, it’s both of you.” He lifted his finger between the two of us before settling on me. “Your girlfriend won’t be around forever to save you.”

He flicked my nose before turning and walking away. Ms. Alma suddenly came skidding around the corner. She must have heard there was some kind of commotion and came to address it, but she was a moment too late.

“Aiko? Skylar? I heard there was a fight going on?”

“T-there is nothing, Ms. Alma!” Skylar quickly declared.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” I nodded, slipping something back into my sleeve.

Daryl thought Skylar had protected him, but really, she had ended up protecting Daryl. Just because I was used to being a punching bag didn’t mean I wouldn’t find some way to get them back. The demons had eventually learned that messing with me had consequences, and each time they took out their anger, those consequences grew. Eventually, they grew too afraid to do it. I wondered how many consequences Daryl would face before he learned his lesson.