Dark Commander Pain, the Teacher

The Demon Lord walked briskly through her castle. Completely ignoring the friendly greetings from her servants as she passed. She had one goal, to reprimand the Dark Commander. She had gotten word that he was on the other side of the castle doing something unspeakable. She reached her destination in no time flat and shoved open a large metal door.

Pain was standing in front of a crowd of zombies who nodded as he spoke to them. He now wore a black cloak with blue and red highlights, that had been fashioned at his request. His right eye had also become red after he requested a 'contact' from the science team without the Demon Lord's approval. It was in these clothes that Pain directed the zombies.

"Come on guys, we're almost there. Now remember, you need to move your legs and hips. Alright, lets go," he spun around, and the entire crowd began to do a dance. "♪This is thrill-♪"

"Dark Commander Pain! A word please." The Demon Lord said loudly and firmly. They all stopped the dance and looked over to the Demon Lord. Her arms were crossed, and she was impatiently tapping her finger.

"Okay guys take five. I need to talk to the boss," Pain said. The zombies began to shamble off.

"What are you thinking?" The Demon Lord demanded.

"What do you mean?" Pain asked innocently.

"The zombies, they don't need to know how to dance!"

"We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one."

"No, we are not going to teach the zombies to dance, don't you always complain that they move too slowly anyway?"

"That is one thing, and this is another, besides I heard when they move fast when lit with a fire of passion or whatever. Maybe they can just do that?"

"That is a special technique reserved for serious situations!" The Demon Lord exclaimed.

"Well, that's okay. They are learning pretty well without it." Pain concluded.

The Demon Lord took a deep breath before continuing.

"And do you know what else you've done? First of all, you have a goblin going around talking about shadows in a cave."

"Hey, there was a goblin named Plato! I had to teach him something."

"Then you taught the sirens to sing a song called "Cruel Angels Thesis?"

"I wanted to do "Platinum Disco", but they couldn't get the dance right."

"Next you made our witch start to say, 'I'll get you my pretty.'"

"I taught her some other witchy lines too."

"And after that you taught the skeletons to be pirates?"

"Aren't their pirates in the Dark Army?"

"Well, yes, but then you went and taught them to play instruments and wear bushy wigs."

"It's called an afro."

"You need to stop! This is the Dark Army; we don't do things like this!"

"You guys have been fighting for a hundred years, you got to learn to have a little fun."

"We are not supposed to have fun, we are supposed to bathe this world in darkness."

"Who decided that?"

"My great-grandfather, The Demon Lord William."

"Well, I don't see William around anywhere, you're the only Demon Lord around here. Why don't you decide what is best for your Dark Army? Pain said with a nod.

The Demon Lord rubbed her hair as she looked exasperated. She bit her lower lip for a moment before stopping and looking at Pain.

"Okay, it seems you need to be punished."

"Punished?"

"Come with me," she commanded as she grabbed Pain by his wrist. She pulled him along with her through the castle.

"Um, Charlotte. What kind of punishment are we talking about?"

"Torture of the most extreme kind. It will be an unimaginable pain the likes of which you will never recover."

"That sounds unpleasant, could we not do that?"

"No, you brought this on yourself."

"In my defense, you are the one who summoned me here in the first place."

"And now I have some of our foremost magic experts reviewing how it went so wrong."

They did not exchange any more words as they walked across the castle. Pain could only imagine the kind of torture the Demon Lord would be able to come up with. He shuddered as he recalled the methods of torture from his old world.

They finally arrived at a large metal door. The Demon Lord pushed it open with ease and loud shouts echoed into the hallway. An orc came running up to them.

"Milady, what brings you here?"

"I have brought the Dark Commander here; he is in charge of watching them for the rest of the day. Alone."

"Milady!"

"You are relieved for the day, take your staff and get some rest."

"With pleasure! Guys, let's get out of here!" An assortment of monster immediately came around the corner and went running out the room. The orc was the last to leave. He looked at the Dark Commander with a sympathetic look. "I don't know what you did, but it must have been bad to get this punishment," was all he said before happily skipping out of the room.

The Demon Lord pulled Pain around the corner. The room was a wide-open room with padding over the walls. There was a strong metal fence with a gate that separated the padded section of the room to the section Pain and the Demon Lord stood in. The Demon Lord opened the large and heavy door. Behind the gate, about a dozen small minotaur were running around and screaming.

"Um, Charlotte, what is this?"

"For your punishment, you will have to watch over these children for the rest of the day."

"The torture is to babysit?"

"This is the worst job in the castle, very few escapes with their lives at the hands of these children."

"But their kids..."

"Minotaur children are especially tough to care for, we keep them here in the castle while their parents work."

"But their kids, isn't that kind of wrong? This room is rather small you know."

"It is for their safety and the safety of others. If you had seen some of the bludgeoning's you would understand." The Demon Lord grabbed the Dark Commander and threw him over the metal fence. "Stay strong and don't die!"

The Dark Commander went flying over the fence and landed on the floor. He sat up and brushed himself off while the Demon Lord walked out. Pain looked around the room. The minotaur children had stopped what they were doing and were now staring at him.

"Hey, isn't that a human?"

"My daddy says humans taste good."

"My mommy says they make fun sounds when you break their bones."

The children began to chuckle as they walked closer and closer to Pain.

"Ho- hold on their kids. I'm the Dark Commander Pain, I'm here to look after you for today..."

The children kept closing in on Pain as he spoke. He tried to move backwards but hit against the thick metal fence.

Then several hours passed.

The Demon Lord headed back down to the room where she had left Pain. She happily walked down the castles halls and stopped to chat with everyone who greeted her along the way. She had not had any reports of Pain causing trouble since he was currently being punished.

She walked into the room and up to the large metal gate. Before she could open it, however, an object went flying over her head and crashed into the wall behind her. She turned around in horror as she realized the wall was covered in dents and cracks.

It then occurred to Demon Lord Charlotte that she had left Pain alone in a room of unruly minotaur children. Even imbued with powerful magic, he was still likely to get torn up left with them. He wasn't one to resort to violence to control them, so Pain would have been helpless standing before them.

"Oh, no, what have I done! Pain!" she shouted while hastily opening the door. The heavy door swung open as another projectile went soaring over the fence and smashing into the wall.

The Demon Lord stepped into the room. The minotaur children were lined up while Pain stood in the middle of the room with an odd hat on. In front of him, one of the minotaur's was holding a long stick.

"Wow, Bobby that was your best hit yet. You're really getting the hang of this."

"Gee, thanks Mr. Pain," The minotaur child called Bobby put the stick down and happily skipped to the back of the line.

"Okay, looks like Jenny is up next," Pain said as he held out his hand. A white ball with red stripes appeared in it.

"Dark Commander Pain. A word please."

"Oh, Charlotte I didn't see you come in, would you like to take a swing?"

"What is this?"

"Well first the kids were a little rowdy, so I regaled them with stories of legends in my world.

"What?"

"Yeah, I told them about legends like Gilgamesh, Hercules, and this one that's made of rubber. Then when they got tired of listening to stories, I taught them about this sport we have called Baseball. That's what we are playing now."

"Baseball?"

"Yeah, I used that creation magic to recreate the items and we have been practicing swings since then."

"You used high level magic that requires lots of training and burns up mana, to play games?" The Demon Lord was shocked.

"You got it, why don't you try to take a swing?"

"Yeah, Milady, you should give it a shot.

"It's really fun and apparently there are even more rules as well!"

The children tried to convince the Demon Lord to join them in their game. She tried to back away at first, but eventually she gave into their cries. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of Pain with the stick, called a bat as he told her, in her hands and a helmet on her head. Her face was bright red.

"Now, I will through this ball, and you have to hit it with the bat."

"What is the point of this?"

"Well, usually once you hit it you run around the bases, but we didn't have enough room here to set all that up." Pain said. He threw the ball before the Demon Lord was able to comprehend it. The fastball whizzed right next to her. It disappeared before it could make contact with the back wall and reappeared in Pain's hand.

"Ah, I wasn't ready!" she shouted.

"Strike one!" the children shouted in unison.

Pain threw the next ball. This time the Demon Lord swung the bat, but the ball still went passed her.

"Strike two!" the children shouted.

"What are these strikes," the Demon Lord asked Pain.

"Oh, when you don't hit the ball you get strikes. It's three strikes and you're out."

"Out! But I just started," the Demon Lord said in a panic.

"Milady may be the Demon lord, but I guess she's bad at baseball," one of the minotaur children said. The others nodded in agreement.

"Hey, go easy on her kids. It takes practice," Pain said with a laugh.

The Demon Lord gripped her bat tightly. She focused in on Pain as she held the bat in the air.

"Throw your last pathetic ball Pain, I won't be defeated so easily!" she cried. Pain shrugged and threw a pitch. The Demon Lord swung... and it connected. The ball went flying into the air over Pain's head and crashed into the wall behind the fence. The Demon Lord looked off into space for a moment— dumbfounded. "I... I did it!" she cheered and jumped up in the air. The children all cheered with her.

Pain smiled as he pulled off his baseball cap. He caught the Demon Lord's eyes and gave her a thumbs up. She smiled.

"Um, Milady?" A voice behind them caught their attention. Pain turned around to see an adult minotaur. The Demon Lord quickly pulled the helmet off and threw it to the side. She adjusted her hair and cleared her throat.

"Yes, you must be here to pick up your child."

"Yes, I am..."

The parents of the minotaur children showed up one after another to pick up their kids after that. Later they would report that their children were the best behaved they had ever been. This prompted Pain to lead the construction of a giant playground and sports field where the children could play throughout the day. He ended up teaching the children many other sports, as he kept having to watch them as punishment. Pretty soon, it became popular with the minotaur adults, then with the other monsters as well, and eventually, several sports leagues were formed.