Noon at the Oga Household: Round Two
The day stretched on. Noon sunlight streamed through the cracked shoji doors, baking the room like an oven.
Oga was still pacing, his jaw tight, while Kogen sat cross-legged on the tatami like some serene monk. Beelzebub lay curled up in Kogen's lap, drooling happily on his sleeve.
"Unbelievable," Oga muttered, dragging his hand down his face. "This brat shocks me when I sneeze too loud, shocks me when I trip, shocks me when I breathe wrong. But when he's holding him? Nothing. Not a damn spark."
Kogen tilted his head, sipping tea. His smile was patient but infuriating. "Perhaps you should take it as a compliment, Tatsumi. The young master simply feels... secure with me."
"SECURE!?" Oga roared. He jabbed a finger at him. "Don't you get it? That's not secure, that's favoritism! He's playing favorites! And I'm the one eating voltage!"
Beel stirred, hiccupping, and Oga instinctively jumped back. Kogen just hummed and patted Beel's back, soothing him. Not a single spark.
Oga's eye twitched. "This is personal. I swear, the brat's doing it on purpose to mock me..."
Trap #4: The Sudden Scare
Determined, Oga tried again. He crouched behind the couch like a predator. Beel sat happily in Kogen's lap, playing with a toy rattle.
"Alright, brat," Oga whispered to himself. "This'll wake your demon instincts."
With the grace of a bulldozer, he leapt out, roaring: "BOO! SHOCK HIM!"
Beel blinked once, unimpressed, and clapped his hands. He found Oga hilarious. Sparks? Zero.
Kogen chuckled. "An admirable attempt, Tatsumi. But perhaps your... performance requires refinement."
Oga fell face-first into the tatami, muffling his scream into the floor. "DAMN IT!"
Narrator, deadpan: "Thus Oga Tatsumi continued his descent into insanity. He would not recover for some time."
Trap #5: The Hunger Overdrive
By mid-afternoon, Oga resorted to crueler methods.
He deliberately delayed Beel's bottle. Not enough to starve him, but just enough to get the baby cranky.
"Perfect," Oga whispered, as Beel's little horns began to glow faintly. "There it is... the pre-zap charge. Any second now, and—"
Kogen leaned down, kissed Beel gently on the forehead, and whispered something in his ear.
The glow disappeared instantly. Beel giggled, then reached out to tug at Kogen's hair affectionately.
Oga gaped like his entire worldview had collapsed. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?"
Kogen smiled knowingly. "Nothing at all. Merely a mother's touch."
Oga fell backwards, clutching his head. "That's it! He's cheating! That's gotta be cheating!"
Trap #6: The "Borrowed" Stress Test
Still refusing to quit, Oga dragged Furuichi into the mix.
The poor boy showed up in the afternoon, still nursing bruises from yesterday. "Why am I here again?"
"Simple," Oga said, handing Beel to him. "You piss off the brat first. Then I'll toss him to Kogen and—bam! Instant shock. He won't dodge that one."
Furuichi stared blankly. "Why does this sound like I'm the guinea pig?"
"Because you are." Oga shoved Beel into his arms.
At first, Beel blinked at Furuichi. Then he frowned. Then he wailed.
In seconds, Furuichi was twitching on the floor, fried like burnt toast. Smoke curled from his hair.
"AAAAHHH! WHY ME!?" he screamed, flailing.
Oga quickly grabbed Beel and tossed him toward Kogen. "There! Now finish the job!"
But instead of frying him, Beel immediately stopped crying, nuzzled into Kogen's chest, and cooed happily.
Furuichi, smoking, pointed at them with a trembling hand. "Y-you saw that, right!? He—he just switched from demon god of thunder to angel mode! This is favoritism of the highest order!"
Oga roared at the ceiling. "I KNOW!"
Narrator: "For the record, science has still not explained why babies enjoy tormenting their fathers."
Oga's Last Hope: Pure Rage
By evening, Oga was done. His hair stuck up in every direction, his shirt was scorched from Beel's earlier tantrums, and he was muttering like a war veteran.
He stomped into the kitchen, grabbed a frying pan, and marched back. "That's it. If nothing else works, I'll make him cry so loud it's unavoidable. Even you won't be safe, Kogen!"
Kogen, still seated with Beel in his lap, arched an eyebrow. "You intend to fight a baby with cookware?"
"SHUT UP!" Oga raised the pan dramatically.
But before he could do anything, Beel giggled, drooled, and smacked the frying pan with his tiny hand. The clang made Oga flinch. Sparks erupted—
—and hit Oga.
Kogen remained untouched, calm as ever, rocking Beel gently as Oga writhed on the floor, fried again.
"DAMN IT! WHY ALWAYS ME!?"
Kogen's laughter was soft but cutting. "Perhaps because you try too hard, Tatsumi."
The Night Falls
By nightfall, the war was over. Oga lay sprawled on the floor, defeated, twitching every now and then from residual electricity.
Beel had long since fallen asleep, curled into Kogen's arms like he belonged there. Kogen's fingers stroked the child's hair absently, his expression softer than Oga had ever seen.
The room was quiet, only the sound of Beel's breathing and the distant cicadas outside.
"Why..." Oga croaked from the floor. His voice was raw, bitter. "Why doesn't he ever... shock you? What makes you so damn special?"
Kogen glanced at him, his usual smile dimmed into something gentler. "Because I don't fear him. And because I give him what he seeks most. Not discipline. Not challenges. But affection."
He glanced down at Beel, brushing a stray lock from the child's forehead. "Babies thrive on love, Tatsumi. Even demons. In my case, it may be... a darker sort of love. But love nonetheless."
Oga stared, chest tight. For the first time all day, he had no comeback.
Kogen's words echoed in his skull. Love. Affection. Simple things he'd never thought mattered.
And the way Kogen's face softened, lit faintly by the lamp glow, hit him like a fist in the gut.
Something stirred in Oga's chest. Unfamiliar. Unsettling. Hot.
He quickly looked away, scowling to hide the flush creeping up his cheeks.
"Che... whatever. You talk too much," he muttered.
But even as he turned his head, he couldn't stop sneaking glances. Couldn't stop noticing how graceful Kogen's hands were, how calm his presence felt.
He clenched his fists tight, trying to crush the thought before it took root. "No way. No damn way. I'm not... feeling anything. Definitely not."
Narrator, with a smirk: "Thus began the most dangerous enemy Oga Tatsumi had yet faced... his own heart."
Closing Scene
The house grew still. Beel slept soundly. Kogen hummed quietly, a strange, elegant lullaby with notes that didn't belong to the human world.
And Oga, lying there exhausted, found himself listening despite everything.
For a fleeting second, he thought: Maybe... maybe it's not so bad.
Then he shook his head violently.
"Nope. No way. Gotta dump the kid. Gotta dump the demon. End of story."
But even as he drifted into sleep, he knew he didn't believe himself.