Demons and Angels

Part II

"Please welcome our new students, Jay Amachi and Artemis Hayashi!" Their cheerful homeroom teacher exclaimed.

Everyone stood up at the same time, then they bowed exactly ninety degrees forward, and said, "Welcome to Waterfall Academy, Mr. Amachi and Mr. Hayashi!"

"Er, hi?" The poor souls didn't know how to react.

"Would you please sit over there?" Mrs. Nanase pointed to the very back of the room, where two empty desks sat next to the wall. The desks were set up six by four. The Royalties sat at the very front, and always will. The Newbies tend to sit at the very back while the rest of the ranking system is scattered between the "top" students and the "bottom" students.

As Mrs. Nanase started roll call, Jay and Artemis looked around them. They were sitting in the same row as a boy with spiky white hair and golden eyes. If this was a normal school, people will categorize him as a "jock".

"Excuse me?" Artemis tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yes?" The "jock" turned to look at him. He didn't say it rudely or anything, but still looked uninterested.

"Can you tell us why everyone called Lilith an empress and she called Belladonna a queen?" Artemis asked.

"That's their ranking," the "jock" said, giving them a look that said, "Are you guys stupid or what?"

"Can you explain?" Jay questioned, sighing inwardly.

"Our school has this ranking system where you make your way to the top by making yourself as popular as possible. But it's not like Queen Bee or snobby cheerleaders and perverted jocks or anything like that. Some people bother making themselves known by throwing pranks or being dramatic, but others don't really care. The more people that knows your name, the higher on the leaderboard you are. People like you, who had just came to the school are normally called Newbies for at least a month until people are sure where you are in the ranking system. The leaderboard isn't stable because it keeps changing but we do know our Royalties," the kid explained. "Amara is the Duchess, the least powerful Royalty. Luna, the Princess, the second to least. Belladonna, the Queen, and then Lilith at the top as Empress." Then the boy turned away, clearly wanting to not talk to the Newbies anymore about the school's stratification.

The classes weren't exactly boring, but it's not like they were sky-diving fun either. Sometimes, the students and the teachers would mock each other, but none of them seemed to mean it. Like how Luna told a boy off for calling her beautiful.

"I know you hear this everyday, but you're really beautiful. Mother Nature did a really fine job on you," he had said.

"I know right?" Luna had flipped her hair and fluttered her eyelashes, in mock of the girly girls out there in the world. "But I don't think Mother Nature even spent five seconds with you."

Everyone had laughed and hooted, and so did the boy, eventually. Then Luna apologized, saying that she always wanted to try that comeback on someone.

Now it was lunchtime, and it was clear that the Royalties always stuck together. They sat at the same table with all their other less-known friends.

"Jay-Jay! Arty!" Lili waved at them. "Come sit with us!"

"If you want to, of course," Bell smirked.

"We don't want to disrupt you so we'll sit somewhere else instead," Jay called back.

"Your loss," Luna shrugged, turning back to her conversation. Artemis and Jay walked to an empty table that seemed to be reserved for Newbies, since everyone else is already settled down in their unofficial seats.

"'Sup guys," another person slid into the seats across from the two boys. "Archangel Jay and Archangel Artemis," he nodded respectfully at each of them. Two more boys slid into the seats opposite them. The one who first sat down has dark red hair and molten gold colored eyes. He was buff, his muscle shirt and cargo shorts looked like they could barely contain them. The two others were twins. Both had bright blond hair and sky blue eyes. They were skinny-framed and wore glasses. They wore black pants and shirts with spaceships on them. But underneath their geekiness, are warriors.

"Who are you?" Jay's voice was cold.

"Angel Cael, Angelo, and Michael," Cael introduced.

"We heard from God that you will be coming in to eliminate our...demon problems," Angelo looked around, as if he was expecting a demon to pop out right then and there and yell, "BOO!"

"We will be helping of course, if you want to know who our suspects are," Michael added as an afterthought.

"Let's hear them," Jay folded his hands on the table, business like.

"We have the Royalties, and some guys from the Nobles. There are also some Plebeians that could be in the disguise of humans too," Cael informed the higher ranks.

"Point them out please," Artemis's gaze drilled into Cael.

"You, of course, know the Royalties," Angelo cut in. "The Nobles are them," he pointed at a table not far from them. "It's the guy with dark brown hair and that girl with pink-purple hair."

"The Plebeians are the ones over there," Michael picked up what Angelo left off. He jerked his chin over to a table not far from theirs. "It's the guys with the leather jackets."

The archangels nodded. "We'll investigate the Plebeians and the Nobles first before we tackle the Royalties."

† † †

A day has passed and the Newbies had eliminated the suspects of the Nobles and Plebeians. How? Well, the angels have something called Truth Seeker (I know I know, such a great name. No need for the applause, you're making me blush). It is an ability that the angels can use to detect any lies from a being's words. Like a police lie detector. But Truth Seeker sounds better.

Anyways, Truth Seeker has some flaws in it though. A few powerful beings, like Satan and Devil, are such awesome liers that Truth Seeker can not figure it out if it is the truth or not. Besides, using that ability takes a lot of effort and energy. It's an ability that needs to be learned and taught, not a natural one, otherwise, every angel will use it all the time and then there wouldn't be demons on Earth anymore. Now I think about it, I never told you about the chemistry between the two. Eh. Whatever. *Shrugs* You'll know when you need to know.

"It's time we get the Royalties by themselves so we can interview them," Jay told Artemis, sipping his Lemon Meringue milkshake.

"Here's a tip, Amara is easy to get away with. All you have to do is act all loving towards her and taker her away. I'm not sure about Luna, but maybe you can get her away by showing her a fake present and tell her that she can only open it in private or something. She'll hesitate at first but she's a curious gal so she'll probably follow you. Now for the Empress and the Queen..." Michael trailed off.

"Lilith and Bell aren't easy people to trick. They're highly suspicious and doesn't trust easily, which might be a factor that categorizes them as demons in disguise, but hey, you can never be too sure," Angelo ended.

"Thanks. Come on Art-" Jay was cut off by screams.

"HOLY MOLY!" Luna screeched, eyes wide as she backed away from her flaming table.

"Um, oops?" Lilith chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of her head.

"THAT HAPPENS AND YOU SAY "OOPS"?!" Belladonna yelled, flinging out her arms at Lilith.

"Well, sorry!" Lilith shot back. "I didn't mean to!"

"You didn't mean to," Bell mocked, wagging a finger.

"Oh shut your mouth hole," Lili retorted.

"GET THEM!" Artemis shouted, pointing at the demons.

The angels jumped over their table and ran at the girls. The rest of the Royalties' fire table backed away, giving them space.

Lilith held out her hands. Without warning, a stream of fire shot out of her palms and slammed into the angels. Jay and Artemis watched in shock as their allies got burned alive.

"Oops."

"Yeah. Big oops."