Return of the Runebound Professor

When Yoru started to bleed from her eyes and mouth after staring at him for no more than a second or two, the first thought that flashed through Noah’s head was, oh, shit. She’s sick.

The second thought that followed it was, Damn. She’s barely looks any older than a teenager.

No older than many of his students had been back on Earth — or, at least, how old they’d once been.

At least, in appearance. That didn’t mean much for demons.

Yoru grabbed her mask from the table and practically slammed it back onto her face, not even pausing for long enough to wipe the blood away. Her hands gripped the armrests of her chair so tightly that her knuckles had turned bone white. She let out a ragged breath, slumping back and letting her head thunk against the chair’s back.

“Whoa. Are you okay?” Noah asked, rising from his chair. “Do you need something?”

“I — just… quiet,” Yoru rasped. She pressed her hand against the mask, her entire body as stiff as a board. Noah exchanged a baffled look with Moxie. He didn’t miss the look of stark horror on Pirren’s face, but he was pretty sure she’d spent more time terrified in the last few hours than not. It was basically normal at this point.

Noah obliged and stood in place, shifting uncomfortably. He’d never been a fan of problems completely out of his control. It wasn’t like he could hand her an Advil and send her home to her parents — both of which still seemed to be absent.

Nobody spoke for several seconds. Yoru’s grip on the armrests didn’t lessen in the slightest and her breath showed no signs of coming under control. Blood welled along the edges of the mask and ran down its sides, dripping down to her clothes.

Noah managed to avoid doing anything for about a minute. He was fairly proud of that. It was longer than he normally waited. He carefully reached out and put a hand on Yoru’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Noah said, keeping his voice gentle. He had no idea what had happened to her, but he wasn’t going to get any answers until she was calm again. “Yoru. It’s okay. Take a deep breath in and let it out nice and slow. Everything is fine. Help me count how many people are in the room. Me, you, Moxie, Aylin, Pirren.”

He moved his other hand as he spoke, pointing to each of them in turn. Noah didn’t have to worry about if Yoru could see with her mask on. She’d already made it quite clear that she could.

The small demon made no move to acknowledge his words, but he saw her head move slightly with his hand. That was progress.

“Keep breathing. In and out. Deep,” Noah continued. “What about touch? You’re holding the chair pretty hard. What else can you touch? Can you touch four things?”

He ignored the baffled looks Moxie and Pirren sent him as he watched Yoru closely. It was difficult to read the demon with her mask on, but her breathing had started to slow and her hands gradually unclenched from the chair.

“Are smells better?” Noah asked. “Can you smell anything? You don’t have to answer out loud. Just think. Think and breathe.”

Yoru’s hands fully unclenched from the chair. Her head tilted back slightly. “Blood. I taste blood.”

“That would be because your mask is covered in it. Stay with me. Just keep breathing. Are you feeling better?”

“You — I — yes. I am fine.” Some of the strength returned to Yoru’s voice, but she still sounded badly shaken.

“Are you sick with something?” Noah asked. “Where are your parents? Are they here?”

“Dead,” Yoru replied, her voice going distant.

Fuck. Goddamn it. Of course they’re dead. It’s a random demon kid. Why wouldn’t their parents be dead? Not a rich brat, then. A rich heiress. One of unknown actual age and power. I was not trained for this, but I’m pretty sure bringing up a kid’s dead parents isn’t the best way to ground them.

“Deep breaths,” Noah repeated, somewhat ineffectively. He was surprised to find that it actually seemed to work. Yoru was coming to again.

“I’m not sick,” Yoru said. She lifted a hand to her blooded mask, then let it drop before touching anything. “I am fine.”

You most certainly do not look fine. What do rich kids do when they throw up?

“Do you have a butler or something?” Noah asked hesitantly. “Maybe you should get some moist towelettes.”

“Moist towelettes?” Moxie mouthed, squinting at him. Aylin looked equally baffled, and Pirren seemed to still have yet to remember she could change her expression at will.

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“I do not have a butler. I have an aide,” Yoru said. “He is not present.”

Kind of useless then, isn’t he? If you’re going to be rich, shouldn’t you at least keep your staff around for when you randomly start bleeding out of your eyes and mouth? God, am I that ugly or something?

“Okay. That’s fine,” Noah said, making sure to keep his calm tone. “Do you need anything? Maybe you should clean your mask off—”

“No. It is fine. I am fine,” Yoru said, but it sounded like she was trying to convince him as much as she was trying to convince herself.

“Okay. If you’re sure, then I won’t insist,” Noah said. He released Yoru’s shoulder and lowered himself back into his chair to give her a little room. “Take your time.”

“I do not need any more time,” Yoru said. “This was sufficient. I saw what I needed to.”

Okay. Now I’m offended. She popped like a blood balloon because of me? That’s just rude.

Moxie and Aylin both sent Noah equally confused looks. Noah couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t look like Aylin had taken a single metaphorical bite out of Yoru despite everything that had just happened. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already known that to be true, but it was even more proof of Yoru’s strength.

If she’d managed to keep enough composure to prevent Aylin’s magic from touching her, she was either impressively strong or incredibly well trained. Noah was currently still leaning toward the former.

“Okay. That’s fine. We’re all just happy you aren’t sick. Do you… often burst into blood at the sight of people’s faces? Or was that just a me thing?”

“That particular phenomena was reserved entirely for you.” A touch more of Yoru’s normal tone returned to her voice as she steadily took control of herself once more. Whatever had happened, she was either recovering quickly or putting up a very good act of it.

“Well, I’ve always loved being special,” Noah said. The longer they kept the topic on more mundane matters, the better. Yoru was a really small demon. She didn’t have that much blood to waste. “Maybe we should take a small break or something. No need to push yourself too hard.”

“There is no need.” Yoru’s words were as firm as iron. She placed a hand on the piece of leather bearing the rune she’d bought in the auction and pushed it across the table to Noah. “Here.”

He blinked. This really didn’t seem like the time for it, but if Yoru didn’t want to dwell on whatever the hell had just happened, it was probably best to let the topic change completely. Noah took the leather and nodded in appreciation.

“Thank you, Yoru. This is a really kind gift. Is… there a reason you’re giving it to me?”

“It is a gift.”

Right. Gathered that bit. Agh. I really wanted to ask her how she knew about Mascot, but I refuse to be the reason a little kid has a heart attack and starts gushing blood from her face for the second time.

“Well, thank you. I don’t have anything of any interest to properly repay it right now,” Noah scratched the back of his neck and sending a pleading glance in Moxie’s direction. He didn’t make it a habit of carrying around toys. He couldn’t even know what kind of toys a fourteen year old would —

Wait. She’s a powerful demon, not just a child. I’m not sure when I started thinking of her as just a kid but underestimating her would be a very poor idea. She’s still almost certainly more powerful than I am.

Noah looked back at Yoru. She’d hugged her knees to her chest and sat in her chair at the head of the table quietly. A powerful demon she may have been, but power didn’t negate every single problem.

Having powerful runes doesn’t magically make you not want to have things that everyone else does, and it certainly can’t give you a family. A house is only a home when there’s someone to go back to. This environment can’t be good for her.

“Oh!” Noah said, his eyes lighting up as an idea finally struck him. “I know. It’s a little empty here, don’t you think? Why don’t we head back to Aylin’s camp?”

Pirren finally remembered that her body could move and mustered every last scrap of self-confidence in her body to send an aghast look in Noah’s direction. “There’s no way she—”

Yoru turned to look at the Knowledge Demon. “His camp? It is yours.”

“No, it’s his,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “He’s doing all the work to take care of it. Besides, I really don’t want the responsibility of managing that many demons. Aylin controls the camp. He just works for me.”

“I see. I am partial to this request.”

Pirren started to nod sagely before realizing that Yoru had just agreed to the offer instead of saying no. The snake demon blinked, then seemed to realize that she had already spent every last drop of emotion that her body could muster.

“Ah,” Pirren said. “Right. Of course. May I be excused to go back to my egg?”

“No,” Yoru said.

“Right,” Pirren said. “That’s fine. I didn’t want to go back anyway.”

“Lie,” Aylin muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Noah to pick his words up.

“Good,” Yoru said. She rose from her chair and wiped at some of the blood running from her mask. It looked like the majority of the bleeding had stopped, but she still really hadn’t had a chance to clean anything yet.

“Did you want to clean up first?” Noah asked. “We can wait. It isn’t a problem.”

It was a second before Yoru spoke again. “No. I will clean later. Blood is not a significant impediment. There is no reason to cause delay. My aide will gather everything I need and bring it to me. I will use a spare bed in one of the tents at your camp.”

Noah shrugged. That was just fine with him. He had gotten what he wanted, after all. The sooner he could get back to the camp and make sure Lee was doing fine, the better. Then, a moment later, he actually processed what Yoru had just said.

He’d been offering to come back to his camp so they could speak further and he could figure out how she knew about Mascot, but it seemed that she’d taken that as an invitation to move in.

Noah couldn’t bring himself to correct Yoru. Powerful demon or not, the room they were in was just depressing. It was so empty and devoid of everything that an actual home should have had. A kid deserved better. Granted, he wasn’t entirely sure a camp full of murderous demons was any better, but it wasn’t like any of them were going to pose a threat to Yoru.

“I suppose that’s fine with me,” Noah said, not entirely sure how things had ended up like this but left with no path but the one before him. “Let’s get going, then.”

I think I might have just inadvertently adopted a demon.

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