Ball of Nothing

Moving to a dormitory was an exciting experience. However, that excitement was partially dampened after his argument with Baal. The young doctor was missing his usual bounce in his steps, his mind preoccupied with worry for his friend.

The dormitory room was a lot bigger than Hua Tuo's hut. Zero wasn't quite expecting that. Morning Star Academy did have a few thousand students after all. He wondered how everyone managed to live on the campus as it didn't seem very big. Then again, who knows? Lucifer might have cheated by using space magic. The Academy did have teleportation gates after all. Perhaps not all the students slept in dormitories.

Zero was about to greet his roommate when he realised that Beelzebub wasn't in. The smile quickly fell from his face and the teenager looked around the room despondently. He flopped onto the bed that didn't look ruffled and slept in, feeling tired. There were just too many thoughts in his head at the moment and Zero wanted some personal time to think about them without any more input.

It was nearing lunch and Zero's stomach growled. Feeling no motivation to attend to his stomach's needs, the young doctor replayed his conversation with Lucifer. Basically, he was playing spy with Beelzebub and their target was to mingle with as many people as possible and know their activities. For Zero, that would be simple. All he had to do was secretly add them to Mii's map and identify them as targets. Mii has upgraded quite a bit since his coma and covering the Academy would not be too much of an issue.

The teenager was thinking about offering help to Beelzebub with the mission too seeing how he could have Mii stick close by the Demon Lord who would initiate the interaction. That would save everyone a lot of trouble if Zero could always monitor where all the suspects are at any point in time. It sounded like a good plan in his head but there was one tiny problem. Zero didn't know if Beelzebub was willing to cooperate.

His stomach grumbled once more and Zero sighed. Glaring at the noisy thing, Zero decided that it was a good time to get to the cafeteria. At least Zero would be able to satisfy his hunger and look for the missing Demon Lord he was meant to discuss plans with.

It wasn't very difficult to locate the cafeteria. All Zero had to do was follow the smell of food. By the time he reached the cafeteria, there was almost nothing left. Disappointed and utterly famished, Zero decided to queue for whatever meagre scraps there were. Thankfully, the cooks were kind enough and offered Zero more than the miserable leftovers. Zero thanked them with a blinding smile that immediately won their hearts.

"You can come back anytime, sweetie. Just let us know what you'd like to eat, we can have someone whip it up really fast!" one of the cooks claimed.

Zero wasn't unaware of the whispers behind his back when she said that. He felt mildly uncomfortable with the number of stares he received. It didn't seem like special orders were a common treatment for the majority of the students. Still, he thanked the generous cooks politely and left with his tray.

There was one person in the cafeteria who eyed him with jealousy more so than the others. He didn't stand up, talk to anyone about it or gossip. He merely eyed the teenager with angry eyes. Many students knew who he was but few would dare or bother to associate themselves with him. Despite being a Demon Lord, Beelzebub was a poor person who was living off the generosity of Lucifer. That didn't sit well with the majority of the aristocratic population. If not for his Demon Lord status, Beelzebub was no better than a commoner in their eyes.

Zero wasn't too aware of how social hierarchy worked in the Academy. Baal's only advice was to not be too humble. However, basic manners had never hurt anyone. The cafeteria was crowded and it was difficult to find any seats empty. After circling it twice, Zero finally found one at the very side of the building. The side was relatively quieter and there were fewer demons gathered there.

"Hello, my name is Zero and I'm new to the Academy. Can I sit here?"

The young doctor wasn't expecting to be greeted by a familiar face. The shock rendered him speechless for a bit and he failed to react in time when Beelzebub stuffed everything into his mouth and carried his now empty tray away. Zero wanted to stop him but the weight in his hands reminded him why he couldn't do it just yet. He came to the cafeteria for a purpose and he had achieved neither of his purposes.

"Don't mind him," a charming demon smiled and shook Zero out of his thoughts. The demon looked rather familiar and Zero wondered where he'd seen that face before.

"Do you know him?" Zero asked innocently and the demon blinked in surprise.

"You must be really new if you haven't heard of him. He's Beelzebub, the new Demon Lord of a domain called Gluttony. Nobody really knows anything about him or like him. You should stay away from him if you can."

Zero frowned. Why was everyone being so mean to Beel?

"I am his roommate," Zero stated dryly. He didn't like this new demon already.

"O-oh," the demon faltered and fixed his mask quickly before making a weak excuse to make his exit. Zero didn't comment about it and set his tray down onto the empty table. It didn't take long for Zero to wipe his plate clean. He almost smacked his lips together at the end but remembered it wasn't good manners to do so.

The cafeteria was almost empty when Zero finished his meal and the young doctor wondered if he should return straight to the room. He was certain that Beelzebub would have returned to their room by now. Half of him wanted to return so that he could hash out the details of Lucifer's plan.

It was by the time he was bidding the cooks goodbye that Zero remembered why he found that demon from earlier very familiar. He'd seen him before on one of the students on the suspect list. Zero wanted to smack himself for not recognising that student earlier. It would have been a lot easier to keep tabs on him if they had a friendlier relationship. He highly doubted that Beel wanted to even pretend to be that arrogant prick's friend.

"Why do things have to start on the difficult foot?" he groaned.

There was a chuckle beside him. "People usually say the wrong foot... how is one foot more difficult than the other? You're a curious one."

Zero was startled. He didn't hear, much less sense, that there was someone so close to him. The revelation made him very shocked but he quickly concealed it and assessed the stranger.

The man didn't look like a demon. However, Zero wasn't fooled. He knew that this demon was quite powerful from the aura he radiated. The man wore some fragile looking round thin wire-rimmed glasses and carried several thick tomes in his hands. The had side bangs and a long ponytail pulled back neatly at his nape. They were completely white and Zero couldn't help but be reminded of someone else with the same colour. The only difference was how this demon stranger had blue eyes with slits for pupils instead of the yellow ones Zero was familiar with.

"Dragon?" Zero blurted out.

The stranger looked slightly surprised but smiled politely in return.

"You're actually correct. Not many people can get it right the first time."

Zero chuckled sheepishly. "It's because I have a friend who is a dragon too... you just gave a very familiar vibe. Sorry for being rude. I am Zero, a student who has only transferred to the Academy today. May I know who you are?"

The stranger smiled and his eyes made small inverted crescents when he did. "Why don't you guess?"

Zero paused. He had only the briefest introduction about the teachers who would be teaching him during the week but he hadn't seen anyone with dragon eyes in the profiles. Immediately it screamed 'suspicious' in Zero's mind. What if he was one of Baal's targets? That thought made Zero glare at the stranger in both suspicion and wariness.

The dragon-demon laughed at Zero's reaction. He heard about the rumoured friend Baal had made but didn't expect for Zero to surpass his expectations.

"I'm Olaf, the librarian. Never thought that I'd be meeting Baal's precious friend in such a manner. You are as interesting as the rumours."

At the mention of his friend, Zero retracted his metaphorical claws. Baal didn't have many friends and not many people spoke highly about him. It was sad but it was also something that Zero had come to terms with. His powerful friend wasn't Mr Popular by any standards in terms of appearance, personality or wealth.

"How do you know Baal?"

The librarian chuckled and put a finger to his lip. "Now that would be telling. However, I can say that Baal was a bigger fan of the library than the classrooms."

Zero wanted to ask more questions but Olaf made his escape in such a skilful manner that Zero didn't realise he'd been led on until he was on his way back to the dormitory room.

His hand had barely touched the doorknob when he felt the pressure from inside the room spike. It was the right decision to throw up a magic shield because the door was blasted off, throwing Zero back.

"Who dares intrude?" his roommate growled.

Zero couldn't reply, too busy trying to regain his footing and orientation. Lucifer would flip if he knew what happened to his door. In fact, Zero didn't want to know if it was worse for Mammon or Lucifer to find out that their property has been damaged.

"Why the fuck are you here?" he demanded when he saw the one person he didn't want to see at all.

Zero blinked at the scowling Demon Lord and beamed.

"Beel!"

"Don't call me that!" he snapped. The teenager didn't understand the meaning of personal space at all and now that he was stuck with this idiot as a roommate and on the same mission, Beelzebub couldn't say he was very happy about it.

Instead of bothering himself with the young doctor, Beelzebub calmly walked over to the door and picked it up before fixing it back.

"Hey, did you hear about the mission? Lucifer said-"

Zero couldn't complete the sentence when Beelzebub grabbed him by the jaw with his palm covering the teenager's mouth. He was further stunned to silence by that heated glare.

"Don't talk about it in the hallway," he hissed. Mentally, Beelzebub asked himself why such a clueless person was selected for the mission.

Without waiting for Zero's protest, he dragged them both into their room and slammed the now repaired door shut. Thankfully the entire area encompassing the Academy's grounds were enveloped in restorative magic. Considering the violent and volatile nature of demons, fights were common occurrences.

Zero was still amazed by the restorative magic and wonder if it would work the same way if he accidentally dropped his food and broke a plate. Would they bring his food back into the original state that it was?

Once they were secluded, the Demon Lord let go of Zero's arms and glared at his supposed partner on the case.

"Listen here. I don't really like you. It would be great if you didn't interfere with the mission, I'm very close to identifying the culprit and I don't want you messing it up. I don't care what Lucifer was thinking but I don't need or want any help. Understood?"

Zero didn't look fazed or hurt like what Beelzebub thought would happen. However, the young doctor didn't seem very willing to agree.

"I don't know what I did that made you dislike me but I can't promise to not interfere. This is my mission too and I want to help Baal in any way that I can."

"Don't know what- You almost KILLED me! This is unbelievable!"

Zero's eyes widened. "Killed? When?"

Beelzebub let up a huff of air, too emotionally drained to explain. After all the sleepless nights over worrying about someone coming for his life, the suspected murderer was behaving genuinely perplexed with no recollection of having done such a thing. How ridiculous was that?

On the other hand, Zero was running down the memory aisle. He knew he met the Demon Lord once at Belles and Begonia. They actually got along rather well in the first place but something happened after that made Beel leave abruptly. Zero didn't quite recall the details but when he did, he couldn't help but let out a monotonous 'oh' sound.

Beelzebub had long given up on logic when it came to his new roommate and fellow investigator. That sound only served to prove that logic was a lost cause for anything involving the teenager.

"I'm sorry. At that point, I didn't know that absorbing the sins of Demon Lords would weaken them. I really didn't intend to kill you, I was just looking to test something out before Redemption Day."

"I'm not going to forgive you," Beelzebub stated calmly. Whatever it was, he wasn't interested in getting to know the brunet. He simply wanted to complete his mission and graduate quickly. The Academy sucked. Not a single soul here was worth protecting. He could understand Baal's feelings when he neglected his territory as a Demon Lord. Beelzebub didn't want to hold up a domain just so that it was another sanctuary for ungrateful demons who looked only to reap the benefits at his cost.

"I'm not asking you to, I'm just apologising because I made a mistake. Whichever the case, I hope that we can work together for this mission," Zero held his hand out for Beelzebub.

The Demon Lord looked at it for a while before slapping it away.

"Don't get in my way," he said with a cold glare before leaving the room.

Zero stared at the shut door and blinked. How did everything start off on the wrong foot?