Cobalt loved his job. There was no doubt about that. But between the jarring end to his previous year and the rocky start to his current one, he had some difficulty getting back into the swing of things. Once the orientation assembly was over and done with, the new first-years were assigned to their core classes and herded to their homerooms. Cobalt, having skipped out on the last few minutes of the assembly, took a while to find his class, as they had all deigned to head to their room without him. Thankfully they were in the same Language classroom as last year.

"Sorry I'm late!" the Incubus announced breathlessly, kicking the door shut behind him as he toppled into the room.

All around him, his students looked up from their phones and gave him a series of mumbled greetings. He got a strange sense of déjà vu from this. Last year, they didn't know he was their teacher at first, and even once they found out, they barely treated him with any modicum of respect. But as Cobalt made his way up to his desk, he noticed his students putting away their phones and pulling out their timetables, ready to start the first day of their final year.

It was almost eerie to see them so well behaved.

"Right, well, it's good to finally see you all again. How was your summer?" he asked, piling his things onto the desk as he took a seat behind it.

Again, he was answered by a series of mumbles. It was something; last year they barely even paid any attention to his questions.

"Okay! Well, let's take a look at these timetables, shall we?"

Humming to himself, Cobalt opened up his folder and spilled several sheaves of paper onto the desk. Sorting through them, he pulled out a few copies of his class timetables and stroked his chin.

"Seems like there's not much changed from last year, aside from the Language class on Thursday being changed to Wednesday here. Oh, and there's a double Science on Mondays! How fun!" he announced with a smile, holding the timetable up to the light.

The Incubus glanced up at his students for feedback, but all he saw was a sea of thirty pairs of staring eyes.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, standing out of his chair.

A red-skinned hand slowly rose from the crowd of students. Arnn Srenth - a diminutive Imp boy with glasses - glanced around at his peers and stood up.

"Uh, yeah. It's just... are you alright?" he asked in a worried tone.

Cobalt cocked his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Trayer, c'mon man... You can't just pretend like nothing happened."

Cobalt gritted his teeth.

"Arnn..."

"I mean, you killed a man! Surely-!"

"Arnn, that's enough!" the Incubus suddenly yelled, slamming both hands down on the desk.

Everybody in the classroom flinched at the Incubus' outburst. Taking a shaky breath, he looked down at his feet before forcing his smile back on.

"Look... this is the first and last time I'm going to bring it up, okay? The end of last year was hard on all of us. It was a terrifying experience for you and me alike, and it's a miracle that no-one got seriously hurt. Mostly," he sighed.

He felt a twinge in his gut.

"What happened between me and the man who took you all hostage was... unfortunate. I- I don't much like thinking on it. But what I did, I did for all of you. I did something terrible in order to keep this school and its students safe, so you could continue to have a fulfilling school life and eventually go on to pursue your individual dreams."

Swallowing hard, Cobalt looked down at his hands, his frown deepening as he gazed at his scarred knuckles.

"I'll live with what I did for the rest of my life. But it's a small comfort knowing that you're all safer because of it," he sighed.

A few moments of silence passed before he shook his head and returned his attention to his class.

"B- But please, I don't want that to change how you all see me, okay? I'm still your teacher at the end of the day, and I'm still going to be getting on each and every one of your collective nerves, this year especially! Can anybody tell me why?"

He received no answer, prompting him to deflate a little. Well, at least their standoffish behaviour is a little closer to the norm.

"You're third-years now! Class 3-F! Which means everything you do from here on out will be going towards your final exams! Possibly the most important exams of your life! The outcome of those tests combined with the grades you receive over the course of the year will determine your opportunities for the future! You only have one chance at this! So do your best, okay?"

His earnest cry was answered by a sea of nonplussed faces. Sighing heavily, Cobalt sat back down and picked up the class roster.

It was strange; he felt as though it was his first day on the job again. That same sense of apprehension pervaded his entire body, and though he tried his best to handle his nerves, he still found himself trembling a little. But this year was going to be different; it had to be. He knew his students better, he was more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, more in tune with what they wanted out of their schooling. He could adjust himself to their needs right out the gate, and with a year of experience now under his belt, the Incubus felt as though he could afford to be a little more confident.

So, taking a deep breath, Cobalt cleared his throat and began to take rollcall-

- only to be startled by the sudden ringing of the school bell and fall straight out of his chair. As he clattered to the floor, his core class hurriedly grabbed their things and surged out of the room, leaving the Incubus alone on his back.

He exhaled again, already cursing his luck.

"Agh... that's one way to start the year off..." he grumbled, grabbing the edge of his desk in order to haul himself back to his feet.

Dusting himself down, the Incubus righted all of the papers he swept off the desk during his fall, only to stop upon realising that there was still someone there, at one of the far desks.

At the back of the room, an Oni sat with her boots propped up on the desk, her arms folded before her. Even from a glance, it was easy to tell that she was large in every sense; she was tall, her shoulders were broad, and the sleeves had been torn off her shirt in order to expose her impressive biceps. As Cobalt stared, the demon of Wrath rose to her full height - well beyond his own - and stared him down with a face of pure fury.

"Forget somethin' over the holidays, dumbass...?" she asked in an Italian-American accent.

"I- Izzbelle..." Cobalt stammered, watching as she slowly approached.

Even among other Oni, Izzbelle Suyas was a veritable powder keg. Her explosive temper was legendary throughout B.I.D., and the fact that she was the daughter of an infamous crime lord gave her something of an intense reputation. As she bore down on Cobalt, her long mane of red hair flared out behind her and smoke began to coil from the corners of her downturned mouth.

"So. After gettin' fuckin' stabbed through the fuckin' guts and nearly fuckin' dyin', you thought it would be okay just to disappear for the whole summer and not fuckin' tell anyone?!" she hissed, uncrossing her arms in order to grip the teacher's desk.

Cobalt swallowed hard as he heard the wood groan.

"I- I don't understand what you're asking me here, Izzbelle," he replied as he began to nervously sweat.

"Did you not think for one fuckin' second to maybe contact me?! Let me know you were okay?!"

"Um... Why were you worried about me...?"

Flames flashed within the Oni's mouth as her eyes lit up.

Wrong answer.

Before he could react, Izzbelle lunged across the desk and grabbed her teacher by the lapels, effortlessly hoisting him up into the air in order to bring his face close to hers.

"Did you fuckin' forget already?! After all that's happened?!" she roared.

Despite the early hour, her breath smelled like whiskey.

"Izzbelle, please calm down...!" Cobalt cried in vain.

"I said that I ain't fuckin' hidin' it no more! Your dumb ass is mine, got it?! So when I say I was fuckin' worried about you, just be sorry for fuckin' worryin' me!"

Of course, he hadn't forgotten a thing.

Since the Incubus took charge of her class, he had been slowly but steadily chipping away at Izzbelle's jagged, flinty exterior, trying to get through to her in order to help better both herself and her future prospects. It worked for the most part; she stopped getting into - quite so many - fights, started making friends and even found the courage to stand up for others. He was incredibly proud of her.

But his efforts had... unforeseen consequences, to say the least.

After narrowly escaping a shotgun wedding at the hands of Izzbelle's father, the Oni went and confessed her love to him, declaring that she was sick of ignoring her feelings and insisting that she'd protect him no matter what. She gave him no say in the matter, and even after several months since her profession, Cobalt still don't know what to say or how to feel.

But that was neither here nor there. Right now, she had him in a stranglehold. Over the summer, he had learned that it was best to counter anger with calm rationality, so taking a deep breath, Cobalt gave her a weak smile.

"Um..." he began, his legs dangling uselessly below him, "Izzbelle, I understand your frustration. But I don't have your contact information, so how could I have gotten in contact with you?"

She bared her teeth.

"Oh, so that's your excuse?!"

So much for rationality.

"N- No, I just-!"

She slammed him down onto the desk with enough force to scattered all of his documents to the floor and knock the wind right from his lungs. Though Cobalt struggled with all of his might, Izzbelle effortlessly pinned him in place with one hand as she began to undo the buttons on his shirt with the other.

"Gah! What are you doing?!" he cried, flailing uselessly against her iron grip.

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"Markin' what's fuckin' mine...!"

Grabbing a nearby biro before it rolled onto the floor, she held Cobalt by the neck and began to ruthlessly inscribe her phone number directly onto his chest.

"Izzbelle, stop!" the Incubus cried, trying and failing to loosen her grasp.

"No! Maybe this way you'll learn not to be such a fuckin' dumbass!"

"I said stop!"

Right as she painfully underscored the number, Cobalt instinctively reached out to grab the Oni in one final desperate attempt to get her to relent. Unfortunately, he realised far too late that his hand slipped and instead wound up grasping something hard, rough and very, very warm.

Izzbelle's reaction was immediate. Her entire body seized up as her eyes went wide. Slowly, her cheeks went redder as she glanced up to see the Incubus' fingers wrapped tightly around her horn. The most sensitive part of an Oni's body.

"J- Just what the fuck do you think you're doin'...?" she breathed, her eye twitching as she gradually bared her teeth.

Cobalt pulled his hand away, but the damage had already been done. As the corners of the Oni's mouth began to smoke, he instinctively got ready to run.

"P- Please... It was an accident...!"

Too little, too late.

As a mass of enraged sparks blasted from her mouth, Izzbelle wound back her fist and swung it straight downwards. Cobalt managed to roll out of the way before he knuckles made contact, but the desk was given no such reprieve. It buckled and shattered from the force of impact, scattered fragments of scorched wood all over the classroom. As the Incubus tried to climb back to his feet, he was forced to throw himself out of the way as the Oni swung her fist at him again, this time cracking the chalkboard behind him.

"Izzbelle, calm down!" he cried, despite knowing that that line had never once worked in the past.

He backed away from his belligerent student, only to find himself with his back pressed into the corner of the classroom. Blinded by rage, Izzbelle threw another punch with all of her might.

"Just stop!"

Unable to run, he screwed his eyes shut and raised his hands up defensively.

"GRAAGH~!"

Her knuckles connected with Cobalt's palms, forcing him back against the wall as he intercepted her enraged attack. Though he felt his bones cry out in pain, he somehow managed to hold the Oni at arm's length. Glancing down at the Incubus' defensive stance, Izzbelle cocked her head and tried to pull her fist back, but he kept his grip, afraid that the was only going to go for another strike.

"Wh- What? Did... Did you work out or somethin'? Was that what you were doin' all summer?" the incredulous Oni asked, calming down for a moment.

"No, I just-!"

"Hit me."

Cobalt blinked a couple of times.

"I- I'm sorry?"

Pulling her fist out of Cobalt's grasp, she prodded him in the chest.

"I said hit me, dumbass! I wanna see for myself!" she growled, her eyes lighting up.

Though he was confused, Cobalt decided not to incur Izzbelle's wrath any further and just go along with her request. Though her anger tended to burn hot, it also had a habit of narrowing her attention span, and turning her focus onto something else was usually the best way to weather her tantrums, at least from his experience.

"Izzbelle, I don't want to-"

"Quit bein' such a fuckin' marshmallow! If you've made any gains, I wanna fuckin' feel 'em!"

"Wait, I-!"

"I said hit me, dumbass!"

"But-!"

"FUCKIN' HIT ME!"

"I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!" Cobalt cried out, his voice cracking at a rather unfortunate moment.

Her eyes widened as her furious façade began to crack. Izzbelle's mouth crooked into a smile before she snorted, guffawed and began to laugh uproariously. Staggering back, the Oni leaned against the destroyed remains of the teacher's desk and clutched her stomach.

"Hurt me? Dumbass, you couldn't put a scratch on me if you fuckin' tried!" she laughed, grinning at her teacher as he stepped away from the wall.

As his cheeks began to burn, Cobalt awkwardly buttoned his shirt back up and cleared his throat.

"W- Well, regardless of that... I'm not going to hit you, Izzbelle."

She rolled her eyes.

"Just as well. Because like I said..."

Clamping a hand on his shoulder, she glared into the Incubus' eyes.

"I'm the one protectin' you. Got it?"

"G- Got it."

"Good. I'm headin' out."

With that, Izzbelle turned on her heel and marched towards the door. Swallowing hard, Cobalt glanced over his shoulder at the destroyed desk behind him, as well as all the damage done to the front of the classroom. It was only his first day back, and he already had one ruined classroom on his conscience.

"Oh, one more thing," the Oni called, peeking around the doorway.

"Y- Yes?" Cobalt replied, trying hard not to trip over the scraps of burnt wood all over the place.

"N- Next time you wanna touch my horn, j- just give me some warnin' first, alright?"

Before he could respond, she dipped out of sight, leaving him alone in the destroyed classroom. Taking a deep break, Cobalt sat down on one of the student desks and buried his face in his hands.

"Get it together, Trayer..."

-----

Cobalt squinted at himself in the staff bathroom mirror, trying his hardest to decipher the backwards numbers written on his chest. Plugging them carefully into his phone, he set Izzbelle as a contact before sighing deeply and flipping his phone shut.

"There," he murmured, twisting the hot water tap as he prepared to wash the pen off his skin.

Halfway through his first Language class with his second-year group, the ink began to bleed through his shirt, leaving blotchy black stains on the white cloth. With his luggage still being sorted, he was unable to change, and so the Incubus had to come to terms with the idea of spending the rest of the day in a dirty shirt.

Wiping away the last of the ink, the Incubus tried himself off with a handful of tissue and began to button his shirt back up, sighing as he did so. As he reached up to straighten his tie, however, he stopped and stared at himself in the mirror.

For the longest time, Cobalt thought of the weathered strip of grey and red cloth as little more than a good luck charm. In the year since he started as a teacher, however, he had found out that it was so much more than that. He found himself growing wistful; a strange feeling, like he was missing someone he had never even met.

Cobalt shook his head.

"Ah... get it together, Trayer..." he muttered to himself, tightening the tie and straightening out his shirt.

There was no sense in getting caught up in his thoughts, not when there was still a whole day ahead of him. Steeling himself for the next class, he gathered his belongings and stepped out of the staff bathroom.

The hallways of the Brimstone Institute of Demonics were a strange juxtaposition of cold castle passageways and modern school corridors. The walls were comprised of old grey blocks of cut stone, whilst the floors had been renovated with a modern linoleum finish. Noticeboards were placed along the walls at regular intervals, and the windows looked out over one of the school's many courtyards. With a few minutes to spare between each class, most of the students in the hall were hurriedly rushing along to their next class, though some were still loitering around in groups, likely catching up with their friends after a summer spent apart.

In particular, Cobalt noticed a gaggle of third-year girls from 3-A, a class filled with all of the high achievers. They were giggling to one another as they glanced pointedly over their shoulders at another individual who stood just a few feet away.

With her green skin, stout physique and stumpy tail, it was easy to tell that this girl was a Glutton. She was staring hard at a timetable held in her pudgy hands, her large hazel eyes screwed up with equal parts concentration and confusion. Her mousey-brown hair was done up in a pair of plaits and as she tried to decipher the page she was gazing at, her tail nervously trembled behind her. She was so absorbed in the timetable that she didn't even notice that she was being laughed at.

Suddenly, Cobalt was alerted to the sound of paper crumpling. He turned his gaze back to the group of girls just in time to see one of them screw a wad up paper up into a ball, much to the excited glee of her companions. With a sly grin, she took aim at the oblivious Glutton.

Oh no.

Not on his watch.

Right as she hurled the ball of paper, Cobalt stepped into its flight path, knocking it aside with a bat of his wing. Turning a stern eye onto the group of girls, he furrowed his brow and folded his arms.

"Don't you lot have somewhere to be?" he asked in a strict tone.

He was met by a chorus of scowls.

"We're just talking, sir. Nothing wrong with that," one of the demons piped, glaring at him.

"You're loitering in the hallways. Hang around any longer, and you'll be late for class."

"Yeah well-"

"Move along, before I have to report you to your core teacher for tardiness."

Bending over, he plucked the ball of paper off the floor.

"And littering," he added.

As they groaned, growled and grumbled all sorts of rude names at him beneath their breaths, Cobalt stood his ground and watched as they all stormed off down the hall. For a brief moment, he felt rather proud of himself; once upon a time, they would have just told him to fuck off and resumed what they were doing. And once upon a time, he would have just taken that.

But there was time enough to congratulate himself later.

Tossing the paper into a nearby wastepaper basket, Cobalt turned to face the Glutton, who hadn't even noticed his presence. To most, this girl was called Adeline Pharmine, but to those she cared about, she had a different moniker.

"Jelli? Are you alright?" the Incubus asked in a soft tone, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Despite his attempts at approaching her carefully, the Glutton gave an almighty shriek of alarm and tripped backwards over her own feet, forcing Cobalt to drop to one knee in order to catch her. Landing safely in his arms, she turned her wide, frightened eyes onto him.

"H- Herr-!"

She cleared her throat, which inadvertently caused her to hiccup loudly.

"M- Mr. Trayer...!" Jelli squeaked in a thick accent, her eyes watering a little.

Setting her back on her feet, Cobalt glanced over his shoulder. At the very end of the corridor, the girls were peeking around the corner, laughing uproariously at the pair of them. He heard Jelli sigh shakily and peer down at her feet.

"I, um... embarrassed myself again, didn't I...?"

Furrowing his brow, the Incubus placed a hand on the Glutton's back and directed her to walk with him in the opposite direction.

"Don't worry about them. Some people just don't know how to treat others with respect," he sighed, patting her back.

Nodding, Jelli pulled the timetable close to her chest.

"A- Ah..."

Since even before he joined the B.I.D. staff, Jelli had always been tormented by her classmates, for reasons Cobalt couldn't even fathom. She was a quiet and nervous Earthborne demon that was prone to bouts of anxiety; it didn't take much to make her cry, and yet certain individuals took great pride in making her life a misery, at least up until he stepped in. Since last year, the bullying incidents thinned out, but every now and again someone would try their hand at upsetting the Glutton again.

"But enough about them. It's good to see you again. How was your summer?" he asked, steering the conversation away from that particular topic.

"O- Oh, um...! Stefan and I, we went to stay with Mama and Mummy for a few weeks! I- In Frankfurt, I mean!"

Ah yes, Stefan Blackwell, Jelli's stepbrother. It was nice to hear that they were getting along, especially after everything Cobalt went through to get them back in touch with one another last year...

"Did you have a good time?"

"Ja! Izzbelle came to visit, a- and I got to show her around!"

Cobalt smiled when she mentioned that. He had Izzbelle to thank for giving the bullies reason to avoid Jelli; with the Oni on her side, she was nigh-on untouchable. He was glad he managed to introduce the two so early into the previous year, and their friendship had only been going from strength to strength.

"That's good to hear."

"What about you?"

"Me? Oh, I just did some training courses up in Oxford. Nothing special; just to help me be a good teacher, you know?"

"B- But you're already a good teacher!"

He smiled at her words.

"That's very sweet of you to say, Jelli, but I still have a long way to go. Teaching is more about reading things off a paper and having your class parrot it back. It's about earning the respect and admiration of your students; learning their individual strengths and weaknesses so you can help them each become the person they can be."

Jelli stared up at the Incubus, her gooey eyes wide and sparkling.

"Mr. Trayer..." the Glutton breathed, nervously clutching the timetable close to her chest.

Their gazes met, causing Cobalt to slow down. His heartrate grew quicker, and his cheeks began to burn.

There was just one issue with Jelli; she had confessed to being in love with him, right to his face.

Last year, after Jelli suffered an anxiety-trigged magical outburst that froze an entire public swimming pool and trapped the Glutton in a cage of sharp icicles. Cobalt subsequently hospitalised himself in an attempt to save her, and from the hospital, he orchestrated a series of false phone calls that culminated in her stepbrother reuniting with her. Just as he hoped, this vastly improved Jelli's mood, but for some reason, she snuck into his room that very night and professed her love for him while he slept.

But he heard it all, and she didn't know that he knew.

Swallowing hard, Cobalt tore his gaze away and nervously cleared his throat.

"W- Well in any case, what seems to be the matter with your timetable?" he asked, pointing to the page she was holding.

"O- Oh, um...!" she stammered, unfolding the paper.

He only glanced it for a second before she cried out and crumpled it up, but Cobalt had seen enough. The Glutton had underlined all of her Science, History and Language periods with little hearts written in red biro. His classes.

Shivering all over, Jelli looked up at Cobalt, her cheeks burning red and her eyes looking as though they were about to start streaming.

"U- Um...I'm... verlor- lost. I- I'm lost..." she stammered.

"I- I see... What's your next class?"

"Geography, I- I think."

"I see... that would be Ms. Varrence's class, yes? She should be on the ground floor in the east wing."

"Ah, I see. I, um... r- really got this wrong then, huh?"

He gave her a reassuring smile and patted the Glutton's head.

"It's the start of a new year; we're all a little frazzled. Can you make it there by yourself, or would you like me to walk you over?"

She flinched as his words, eyes going wide as she drew her arms in close to her chest.

"N- No no, don't worry about me! I- I can get there, um...! Th- Thank you, Mr. Trayer!" she cried out, nearly tripping over her own tail as she staggered backwards.

Turning on her heel, Jelli scuttled off down the corridor, bumping into both the wastepaper basket and another demon as she made her getaway. Watching her turn a corner, Cobalt just sighed and planted his hands on her hips.

One's first love was a precious thing, and Cobalt didn't want to sully that for Jelli. But he had to find a discrete way to get her to give up on her affections for him, otherwise he'd have no choice but to break the poor Glutton's fragile heart, and she had been through enough already...

He heard someone snicker behind him. Narrowing his eyes, Cobalt whipped around and glared at the group of girls.

"Get to class!" he called, pointing an accusatory finger at them.

The three just made faces at him before running off down the hall. Clenching his fists, the Incubus glanced down at his watch and took a deep breath. After the tumultuous end to last year, he had hoped things would be easier this time around, but it seemed as though he still had a few loose ends to tie off before he could finally relax...