Arua headed for the kitchen at the end of the corridor. Gio followed, walking beside him. His guilt appeared again as he realized his existence here was adding his "older cousin" financial burden.

  "S-Sorry if I am a burden," Giou mumbled. "But... are your parents okay with this? I mean, having a stranger suddenly live here..."

  Without stopping his steps, Arua raised his index finger. "Lemme tell you one thing: nothing’s free in this world... Since you can't earn money yourself, you have to pay in labor. You're the maid now. No slacking."

  "U-Understood," Giou answered, a little relieved.

  "By the way, since you are human now," Arua glanced back. "The name 'Giou' sounds weird. So I changed your name to ‘Gio’."

  "Gio? That’s a good name."

  "I'm still calling you Pikachu anyway."

  Gio deadpanned.

  Upon arriving at the kitchen, Arua approached the stove. Two omelets sat on the oil strainer, gone cold from being left a few minutes. Arua grabbed one barehanded and gave it to Gio.

  "Eh, for me?" Gio hesitated. "Just take it." And he grabbed it.

  Arua casually swiped a plate from the rack—not his, obviously; he was too lazy to wash dishes. Then he opened a rice cooker and scooped a mountain of steaming white rice.

  Out of curiosity, Gio tried to bite the egg in his grasp. Right after the soft texture and salty taste touched his tongue, a new sensation exploded. "Woah—" His eyes widened. To ordinary person, it was just a cheap egg. But for Gio whose demon tongue was only capable to differentiate pH level, it was a miracle.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere...

  "Btw, school starts Tuesday."

  "Okay—" Gio nodded spontaneously, before his brain finished processing it. "Eh? Wait. School!? Where!?"

  "Purwokerto High School, obviously," Arua said casually, slapping his omelet onto the rice plate. "So I can monitor you..."

  Then, he picked up a spoon made of stainless steel grade 430 from a plastic bin. Also not his. "I've already registered you there. I've also prepared everything. Uniforms, equipment, books, documents, it's all sorted."

  Gio's face went pale. Not because of the possible illegal acts from the unusual registration process—he didn't understand that. "B-But... I'm not smart enough!" he protested in panic.

  "You think all high schoolers understands integrals? Hell no," Arua scoffed, shoveling food into his mouth while standing. "There are a bunch of fellow idiots out there..."

  "But isn't it an elite school—"

  "Grades are just numbers," Arua interrupted with full mouth. "Besides, both of your human body’s age and your demoniac’s age are sixteen."

  Gio fell silent on shock. Sure, he was physically sixteen, but his academic ability was stuck in seventh or eighth grader. Yeeting himself into tenth grade wasn't just hard; it was suicide. Three years of material in forty-eight hours? Impossible. But he didn't have a choice.

  Although Gio had visited the school several times while shadowing Arua, he had been nothing more than a demon—a passive observer from Ophema.

  But tuesday was different. Tuesday was his live debut in Proteum. Real talk, real handshakes, real eye contact. Just thinking about it made his new knees tremble. The biggest nightmare wasn't failing a test, but rather a social failure. What if he caused a fatal problem simply because he lacked human common sense?

  Amidst the panic, Gio took a deep breath. He tried to calm his racing heart. You can do this, Gio! he cheered himself mentally. Arua went through so much trouble to get this body and train you; don't let his efforts go to waste just because you're scared of school!

  So, the social curriculum began. Gio spent the afternoon researching "How to be a Normal High School Student" on the internet. He covered everything from peer interaction, etiquette for speaking with teachers, the chaotic school curriculum, introduction to club activities.

  However, practice was never as beautiful as theory. That night, Gio gathered the courage to conduct a field test. He tried greeting a neighbor doing laundry and pretended to ask a stranger for directions.

  The result? Total cringe-fest. His tongue, unaccustomed to human articulation, often slipped. Stiff and formal vocabulary—a jarring mix of textbook language and misplaced internet slang. There were many moments where his brain simply went blank, leaving awkward silences while the other person stared in confusion. Turns out, not everyone gets him like Arua does.

  This led Gio to ask a single question during dinner: "Can I still return to Ophema using Astral Projection?" Arua, who was chewing on fried rice, answered without looking up. "Of course. Why not?"

  Gio’s eyes lit up. "But in the form of—"

  "Demon. Not human," Arua cut in, casual as ever.

  Hope vanished instantly. "Oh..."

  "Relax. There's still one way to be a demon slayer..."

  Gio looked up. "Uhh... I don't actually want to slay demons..." Of course, that contradicted his life's goal. "But if that's possible, how?"

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  "Kill yourself."

  Gio froze. Brain tried to process the logic. Demon slayer... Kill demons... I am a demon... Kill myself... A moment later, his smile dropped. It was just a joke. But on the other hand, implied that he’d never be 100% human.

  But the real question kept nagging him: How could Arua do all this madness? The guy was supposed to be a broke high schooler working side jobs to help his parents. Even though the type of jobs sounded suspicious.

  Sometimes Arua ghosted in the middle of the night for “official business”. Gio always wondered, what kind of side hustle demanded a high schooler to roam the streets at 2 AM. Fighting crime? Nah, he wasn't Batman. Not to mention, this exact activities could afford sophisticated equipments for his hobbies, funded a literal spiritual-biological experiments, and a whole extra mouth to feed.

  But Gio couldn't complain—he was living on Arua's money. And no matter what the reason behind, the guilt was eating him alive. I’m a human now. I eat three times a day. Mixed with the mental fatigue from his study marathon, the cognitive load finally reached its limit. His vision darkened, and he collapsed.

  That mini-coma provided a convenient time-skip feature until the next afternoon.

  Gio woke up and immediately continued his delayed grind. He spent the afternoon to evening speed-running the entire curriculum (just a brief preview of school materials) from junior high to high school.

  As for the night, it was another social quest. But this time was different. The result wasn't too humiliating. He managed to unlocked a low-level achievement: buying groceries without stuttering or messing up the change.

  "Phew..." Relief washed over him. Gio arrived at the boarding house yard, carrying a plastic bag in his hand. Inside was some objective items from NPC named “Arua”: one toothbrush (essential), economy pack dish soap (the beginning of the household slavery), and two packs of instant noodles (survival rations).

  To get to his room, he had to navigate the first floor, scale a concrete stairs, then arrived at the second-floor corridor. It was all open-air setup. Room doors on one side, view of the parking lot on the other. Meanwhile the third floor was just a small roofed patch for drying clothes.

  Night breeze flowed freely here. Second-floor rooms had quite decent ventilation thanks to dual windows—one near the door, and another facing outside the building, presenting a panorama of mossy residential roof tiles. There was also a small paved alley leading to the parking lot, rarely passed by vehicles. Not a bad view actually.

  This building was a co-ed dorm. Rules were chill: Night-chatting was allowed as long as it didn't disturb other residents. Opposite-sex guests could visit, even stay overnight, as long as the landlady knew.

  Most residents were college students, overworked interns, or young single office workers. High schoolers were rare—just Arua, one random kid from another school, and now Gio.

  Even so, almost all rooms were fully occupied. Dirt-cheap rent plus a strategic location made it a hot commodity.

  Click. The moment Gio pushed the door open, he paused. New furniture unlocked: a thin mattress leaned vertically against the wall. And perched atop of that, a white furry creature lounging like royalty. The dorm cat, Angelic Enlightenment.

  Gio set his bags down slowly and steady, didn't want to wake the King. But the cat's eyes were already open, locked onto him with sharp vertical pupils. Gio approached him. "Hello, Angelic Enlightenment..." he greeted awkwardly. "I am Gio. Nice to meet you." First time the cat actually saw him, thanks to his new body.

  As always, Angelic Enlightenment was welcoming to anyone, even strangers—that was how he ruled the boarding house. "Meowww..." The cat let out a short meow, probably full of information that could threaten the entire human civilization.

  The momentary peace vanished as something shot through the open window gap like an arrow. Its wings spread wide at the last second, providing a bit of deceleration before landing smoothly on the wooden wardrobe in the corner.

  The whoosh of wind made Gio turn. It was the black crow, Demonic Possession. "Oh, hello, Demonic Possession..." Gio greeted warmly, still wearing a smile on his new face. "I am Gio, the new people of this room..."

  The crow's reaction was slightly different from the cat's. Demonic Possession rotated his head sideways with jerky avian movements. His pitch-black right eye locked sharply onto the strange teenage boy with dark brown hair in front of him. He seemed concerned... or just curious.

  Then, a door creaked. Arua stepped out of his room, walked into this "workshop," casually barged in. "I just asked the landlady for a mattress. Now this room's officially yours," he said, slapping the mattress. "Means I'm paying double rent next month, though... Tch."

  He stared at the electronic junk pile on the table, then continued, "Clean up the mess, but don't touch my projects." Gio nodded obediently. "Okay." Although his inner-monologue said: I don't even know which one is mess and which one his projects...

  Arua walked up to Angelic Enlightenment. With no hesitation, he scooped up the cat and yeeted him onto the wardrobe. Soft paws absorbed the impact energy perfectly, sticking the landing next to the crow. Demonic Possession greeted him with a loud "Bitch!" Yes, that's how he calls his feline friend.

  Arua held out a hand, palm up. "Where’s the report?" He acted like a math teacher charging homework. "Oh, right. Wait." Gio rushed to grab two stacks of paper from the desk—a single sheet and a clipped bundle. He handed them over.

  The first paper contained an intensive learning schedule Gio had compiled to catch up on half of semester's material. The next three sheets were a memory inventory: a list of his past memory points, with additional subjective confidence percentages. The handwriting was a disaster—messy Indonesian script, uneven letters, chaotic spacing, and gray eraser smudges everywhere.

  Arua scanned the papers. Eyes darting, skimming fast. Reaching the last sheet, a comment slipped out. "Schedule's lacking. You missed English subjects and Exorcism training." Gio paid attention.

  "Memory's fine. You recall the Gehenna execution moment up to being saved by a mysterious demon; it's already embedded in your subconscious, huh... A few missing, but nothing critical." Arua slapped the papers against Gio's chest.

  "Continue your reading tonight. And for God’s sake..." Arua wrinkled his nose, waving a hand in front of his face like shooing away a fly. "...Don’t forget to take a shower." Gio blinked.

  "Your body hasn't touched a soap in three days." Even for Arua's low hygiene standards, Gio's body odors had entered the air pollution category.

  Arua turned to leave. "Where will you go?" Gio asked, realizing his cousin was wearing his field outfit: a dark green hoodie jacket and long black pants. "Work," the man answered briefly and walked out. End of discussion.

  As an ex-demon, Gio was nose-blind to the stench, that was why he didn't realize his own odors. A new core memory; now he knew when to shower—something he had never done before in spirit realm.

  Gio headed for the bathroom in the corner of the room, ignoring Demonic Possession and Angelic Enlightenment who were still busy with their wrestling match.

  Gio stopped in front of the mirror Arua had put up earlier. He fell silent. For the first time since waking up, he saw himself. The light reflection in the mirror displayed a teenage boy about 168 cm tall. Thin, but not as skinny as Arua. Bright cream skin and a soft jawline, radiating “good kid” energy. Standard face, but definitely more handsome than Arua.

  His hair was short but thick, dark brown with a naturally messy texture. Side-swept bangs hovered over his right brow. Nose, lips, eyes, and ears; everything was proportional. He looked like a generic slice-of-life protagonist.

  "So this is my face..." Gio murmured. He poked his warm cheek, pinched it gently, ensuring the reflection was real. He was no longer a one-horned monster. He was a human. A small smile was carved on his lips.

  But the smile slowly faded as another reality-check replaced the joy. "Okay. Tomorrow is your first day at school." He talked to himself, hands clasped in front of his mouth. "You can do this, Gio."