13 The Lady and The Pauper

Sakura's eyes looked on in horror as she spotted Lucifer standing there in the middle of the entrance hall, his fist outstretched in a punching motion; one of his sleeves ripped off, his black left arm now devoid of all the glowing runes, almost a deranged look in his eyes. Before she could even process that expression of his, his eyes suddenly changed back to his normal, controlled self. For just that one instant, in the thick cover of the cloud of dust, he had allowed an unguarded demon to awake.

"What the hell is going on here!?" shouted a panicked voice as a girl came up running in the garden and peered inside the entrance hall though the broken wall. Her light brown eyes scanned the scene in mounting appall, her thick, bright orange hair almost like a beacon in the destruction. She spotted Lucifer standing there in the middle, his punch still half-raised, and then Hikari, knocked out against the tree by her feet.

"You?!" she shrieked. "You did this!?"

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. 'More trouble.'

Shock gave way to a small smile which spread over the girl's red lips, her orange hair seeming to be set alight with excitement. "Guess, I'll have to step in as the Fifth Seraph and punish such an astoundingly outrageous act accordingly."

Lucifer spotted a glittering platinum badge of SK on the girl's chest embossed with a Roman numeral: 'V'. He rolled his eyes at his confirmed suspicions. "What!? Did ALL six of you come down here today to see me or something? What's another second-year doing in this building?" 'Guess I'm beating all the Seraphs of SK today itself.', he told himself. He clenched his fists and the Demonic white runes erupted on his arm once more.

"Wait!" croaked a low voice. Lucifer's eyes slightly glimmered in disbelief and amusement as he saw Hikari, coughing, rise up from the ground, barely stumbling to his feet as he spat blood out of his mouth. "This...this is my duel. That guy...is mine...I'm dealing with him." He grabbed the girl's elbow. "Don't you dare interrupt, Em - Emma." he stammered weakly. "This is MY fight."

Emma turned to Hikari in disgust and her eyes widened seeing him touch her. Almost instinctively, she did a sudden roundhouse kick which hit Hikari straight in the face and slammed him back against the tree with devastating force. "A weakling like you dares to touch me!?" she thundered outraged. "Don't you dare forget your place, Yoshino." she screamed, repeatedly kicking his downed body. "I'll fucking kill-"

"Now, now." said Nao suddenly stepping in out of nowhere, not a single particle of dust on his uniform. "That's enough excitement for today." He grabbed Emma's wrist with a pleasant smile, stopping her. "This was the Sixth Seraph's screw-up, Miss Fifth. No need to get yourself involved with this any further, is there?"

"You fu-" started Emma but suddenly stopped in shock. Nao was crushing her arm; he broke through her five body - shields like cracking biscuits, and was now squashing her arm, still smiling pleasantly. She realized nobody else could see what was actually going on; no one had realized he had so effortlessly completely shattered her defensive shields and was now physically hurting her.

"Why don't you let us small-time students handle this, Lady Emma?" asked Nao, still smiling charmingly as he increased his grip on her wrist. "No need to involve yourself further with such mundane matters." he repeated cheerfully.

The sheer agony that her body was screaming with throttled her spirit; Emma felt like crying. The pain was unbearable; she could literally feel her bone being slowly cracked under Nao's strength, as he continued to smile as delightfully as ever, not a single hint of what he was doing on his face. Yet she couldn't show the pain. She couldn't scream in distress...she couldn't show that she had so easily been ruined by some random nobody under the Sixth Seraph's group. With almost tears in her eyes, she nodded. "You - you're right. I - I'll leave. It seems there's no need of me here."

"That's the spirit." grinned Nao happily, finally letting go of her arm. "Let me take it from here."

Lucifer quietly stared; he hadn't missed what Nao had been doing the entire time. He spotted Emma's horribly reddened wrist as Nao let her go just before she covered it with her other hand. He saw the uncomfortable, almost tearful eyes of her, and the quick steps she ran away with. A smile spread over his lips as he saw Nao amiably reach down and help Hikari up as if nothing had happened just now, pretending to be as oblivious as everyone else. 'He lives up to his name.' On cue, Taro rushed forward to the tree as well and the two lifted the barely conscious Hikari up on his feet.

Nao patted the Sixth Seraph on the back and then turned to Lucifer. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again, Lucifer-chan." he grinned from the garden. "You've opened a box that can't be closed with this scene. Ciao for now though!" he winked, slowly dragging the Sixth Seraph away as Taro pushed the crowd of curious students aside with his other giant arm.

"MISTER NIGHT!!" shouted a voice behind Lucifer. Still slightly grinning, Lucifer turned around and spotted Mr. Albrecht Dieter standing behind him, horrified at the utter destruction of the entrance hall and the smile Lucifer had on his face after all this. "You're in very, very big trouble, young man. What the hell did you do? The rest of you!" He turned to the bewildered crowd of students who had been helplessly staring. "BACK TO YOUR CLASSES! Enough of this! As for you, Lucifer, you're-"

Yasu suddenly rushed forward, dashing through the rubble before Sakura could even act. "Professor, this wasn't-"

Mr. Dieter held up his hand to stop her. "Don't. This matter isn't for me to decide anymore. You, young man," he said turning to Lucifer. "are going straight to the Headmistress' office."