Chapter 9: Val of What?

The school continued to be a maze. It was just hallway after hallway and they all looked the same. How the demons could go through it without getting lost was a mystery!

…

Also, was it just me or were we getting dirty looks? No, not dirty, but pitying?

"So you have a brother?" the young demon girl walking beside me asked. "Is he as tall and cool as you!"

Tall? Cool? Maybe she wasn't so bad.

"Iruma's the coolest," I said with a nod. "He can look a bit meek and wimpy, but there's no one more dependable than him."

"Does he like games?" the girl asked. "Think he'd like to play tick tack boom?"

…

Were all demons this weird? Alice went from an ass to a massive suck-up. Our familiar summoning instructor was moonlighting as Iruma's pet owl. And, of course, the old geezer who brought both of us here was the devil but also acted like a child.

Yeah, that checked out.

"I'm sure he'd be happy to play whatever, Clair."

Her eyes went wide for a moment and she smiled.

"It's Clara! Valac Clara!"

Right…

"Sorry," I said with a sigh. "Kinda bad with those."

Hmm.

"Mind If I call you Val or something?"

"Wha- Clara isn't a long na-" she bit her tongue. "I-I mean, sure!"

Huh.

"You sure?" I asked. "I mean, I like to give people nicknames, but you seemed pretty upset a moment ago."

"I'm perfectly fine!" she said with a cheerful grin. "Hey, hey! We're almost there, come on!"

Girls were so strange and demon girls were probably even more so.

Whatever. If she was fine with Val, then Val it would be.

"Dood… you're so clueless, boss!"

My brow twitched and I reached down, lifting the damned penguin.

"What exactly am I clueless about?"

The little guy started sweating buckets. He fidgeted and refused to look me in the eye.

"I don't know, dood! Try and figure these things out on your own, dood!"

…

Worthless.

"Don't look at me like that, dood! I'm just living my life as best I can, dood!"

Ugh…

"Is something wrong?" the green-haired girl called out. She rushed back to my side like some sort of road runner. There was even a small cloud behind her. "Are you nervous about classes? Don't worry, we have to pick out our student supplies first!"

…

The what?

Shit, was that a thing I was supposed to do? I thought we were headed for classes before I accidentally split from Iruma.

"Come on!"

Without warning, she grabbed my hand and started dragging me away.

Girls were too clingy…

——————

"And here's a snack! Do you want a drink with it too?"

I was wrong. Val was so much weirder than I could have possibly imagined.

"What about some nice finger warmers? So long as I've seen it before, I can bring it out!"

I stopped in my tracks. Wait, what?

"What do you mean you can pull it out?"

She blinked and then stopped. That cheery smile of hers froze.

"Dood… should you be asking stuff like that?"

I stretched out the damned penguin cheeks a bit. It was oddly therapeutic!

"U-Umm… I-I can pull things out I've seen before?" she said again. "Like, not people, but things!"

And then she pulled out a flail from her pockets.

What.

"Are you serious?"

The frozen smile on her face didn't change. It was honestly starting to get on my nerves. If she wanted to say something, then just say it.

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "It's my bloodline's special skill!"

What.

"Ok…"

This girl was terrifying.

"What are the limits on it? Could you pull out magic weapons or something?"

"Oh, umm… sometimes? Maybe when I'm older? But normal stuff I can do as long as I have the energy for it!"

I had to say it again. This girl was absolutely terrifying.

"There are no suitcase nukes here, right?" I had to know. Even someone as uneducated as me knew about those from back home. The stuff coming out of her pockets was too big to fit inside, so who was to say she couldn't pull out a big enough bomb to level the entire school?

If this world had something like a nuke, then I didn't think I could sleep at night- not when there was a teenage demon girl who could just pull one out of her damned pockets!!

"What's that?!" she asked me, eyes dazzling with genuine excitement. "Is it some sort of game?! Or maybe a cool suitcase that shoots arrows?!"

I let out a relieved breath. Good. Maybe this world wasn't as crazy as I thought.

"Dood, something like that would totally break the power scaling!" my little penguin, Hans, said. "You can't give her that until after a long training arc, dood!"

What the hell was he talking about?

"Oh! Your little friend is cute too!" Val said as she pinched his cheeks. "Adorable!"

And then she promptly picked him up.

"Dood! Help! She's trying to kill me, dood!"

"He's so warm too!" she said, squeezing the life out of Hans. For a moment, I swore his eyes bulged out like some cartoon. "This is your familiar, right? I can't believe he can talk!"

"D-Dood! H-Help!"

I sighed and quickly snatched him out of her grip. He could be a bit annoying, but he was my responsibility. Besides, he wasn't that bad.

"Yes," I said with a nod. "Careful handling him. He likes to explode if you throw him."

There. That should at least make her reluctant to-

"Really?!" she asked with a gasp. "Like a kind of explodo doll? I have one of those too!"

When she reached into her pockets, I held out a hand and stopped her.

"You-"

"Lee!" a voice cut through the hallway "There you are!"

Iruma.

"I was looking for you!" he said with a smile. "You really should try and not get lost!"

Seriously? That was my line! Whatever. At least he had Alice looking after him...

"L-Lee-Sama!" the prideful demon gasped. "Don't tell me you've been hanging out with her."

Her?

"Hello!" Val greeted them both with that cheerful grin of hers. "Are you Lee's brother? You're taller than I thought, but still look just as cool!"

"Iruma's the smaller one," I pointed out. "And yeah, Alice. She helped me out."

"We're playmates!" Val added. "Do you want to play too?!"

Alice winced.

"I was afraid of that…" he grumbled and then let out a sigh. "Lee, she's-"

Before he'd even finished his explanation, Val had dragged the lot of us out to one of the courtyards. From what Alice told me, she was a bit of an undesirable. That was to say- she was bothersome to most other students.

She was weird even amongst the weirdo's here. It was kind of sad, but also not so far from home.

"We must break off all contact with her and distance ourselves before she pulls us into some weirdness, Lee-sama."

…

"Nah," I said with a shake of my head. "She's crazy, yeah, but she did help me out. Feels like a dick move to ditch her."

I glanced her way as she and Iruma were playing some weird chess-like game.

"Besides, Iruma seems to be having fun."

Alice sighed.

"I hope you don't grow to regret that decision, Lee-sama…"

I wouldn't.

Two hours later, I definitely was.

How could one girl have so much energy?!

—————————

"Classes? But those don't start till like, the day after tomorrow!"

…

What?

"W-What?" Iruma asked nervously. "B-But I thought that was today!"

Val shook her head.

"We get to pick up our stuff today! Class assignment and our rank won't be decided for a bit!"

So we'd just wasted our time coming here?

"Oh yeah, I think that was it," Iruma said with a nod. "I-I guess I just got so worked up with Lee wanting to start his classes that I forgot…"

"I did not!" I huffed out. "I just wanted to get this over with already!"

It's what I get for not paying attention. Really, why did-

"Oh Clarin~" A smooth, haughty voice called out. "Found yourself new owners, have you~"

I flinched. Owner? Who the hell calls anyone that?

My eyes moved toward the voice and I spotted three students. They looked demonic enough, but nothing compared to the big jackass who tried to interrupt my shit.

Ugh…

"Yup, yup!" Val called out as she hurried over to the boys. "I've been playing with them for hours already!"

So they were her friends? I guess It wasn't that bad then. I'd heard close friends usually called themselves names or whatever. Still, owner? That words pissed me off. If anyone called me that, I'd knock their teeth out and make them eat each one with chopsticks and a side of hot sauce.

The boy and his two friends glanced over to us. There was recognition in their eyes.

"Wait, aren't those the honor students?"

"How the hell did this wast-"

Their leader cut the other boys off.

"That's nice," he said with a smile and held out a hand. Val looked at it curiously and then he made a "come here" motion. "Juice."

Juice?

"Oh! Right!" Val said with that stupid, annoying grin of hers. "Here you go!"

She pulled a juice out of her pockets and handed it over.

"Later," the boy said after picking up a few more bottles for his friends.

And that just left us and Val again.

"He didn't even say thank you…" Iruma whispered. "It wasn't very nice."

Smiling stiffly, Val chuckled childishly.

"It's fine! As long as I give them some stuff, they'll play with me!"

Ah. So that was it.

What a sad girl. I felt sorry for her and somewhat annoyed at the demons.

…

Whatever. It wasn't my problem who she made friends with.

---

Things slowed down a bit and we were all to split up.

"W-Will you all play with me again?" Val sprung the question as we left the courtyard.

What a stupid question.

"S-Sure!" Iruma answered before I could. "I can't say it was normal, but It was also kind of fun!"

She smiled. This time there was no sign of that rough edge to it. She actually looked adorable smiling like that.

I nodded.

"You're one weird demon, but I'd rather be on your good side than not."

Seriously. Her bloodline ability was… pretty nuts. If I was going to be living in this place for a while, then it was a good idea to make allies with people like her.

"Yay!" Val cheered as she pulled out some sort of rope from her pouch. No, wait, was that a-

"I'm a snake rope," the sentient object declared as it pulled all of us toward her. "Snake rope."

"Thank you!"

Was this the fabled "group hug?"

…

I hated it.

———————

The days felt a bit longer down here in the demon world. Maybe it was just me, but going to school every day when we didn't need to felt pretty annoying.

"I-I want to see more of the school, Lee. Alice said there were some places we should get used to, after all."

I sighed.

Seeing Iruma take the initiative was a new experience. I couldn't say no to my little brother when he was like that.

"Also, I think Clara wanted to play some more," he said with a sweet smile.

Oh?

"Does someone have a crush?" I asked, laughing at the idea.

"What? No?" he said in a straight face. "Honestly, she kind of reminds me a little bit of you."

…

Huh? What? How? The two of us were nothing alike!

He giggled.

"Your face looks like a sour plumb, you know!"

My brow twitched. Really? Ugh…

"Whatever," I said with a huff. "So what's the plan?"

Alice cleared his throat.

"I suggest we head for the dining room, have a nice meal, and check our class assignment later today."

He proceeded to pull out some paper from his nice, white suit.

"I've scheduled most of the day, so as long as we follow the itinerary, we should be out by-"

"…"

"Iruma-Sama, where's Lee-sama?"i

"Huh? He's righ-"

"…"

"W-Where did he go?! He was right next to us!"

—————

Ah, shit. I take my eyes off them for one moment and they're gone.

Seriously, Iruma? You really have to work on not getting lost!

"Now… where the hell am I?"