The Demonic Rites Arc is the 20th Story Arc of the Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun manga series.
The arc centers around Sullivan and company all being stunned in disbelief when they learn from Iruma that not only did they miss his most recent birthday, he's never actually celebrated his birthday. Thus, they decide to put together a Demonic Rites event (the demon world's version of birthday parties) in order to celebrate Iruma's birthday that they missed a few weeks ago. Along with the misfits and Ameri being invited, the main theme of the Demonic Rites event is that they provide offerings to Iruma, and thank him for being born.
The arc consists of chapters 182 and 183.
Demonic Rites Arc Summary
Chapter 182: Netherworld's Order
A flashback is seen for Shichiro where he tells a story of how he played around with small creatures as a kid due to his curiosity and interest in them. His mother worried whenever he caught him playing with such creasures, which Shichiro had to play with them behind her back. One day, Shichiro's curiosity got the better of him after finding a feather where he went into a restricted mountainous area filled with dangerous giant birds. He ended up being caught by one of the giant birds and was brought to its nest. Shichiro remained stuck in the nest for a long time until he was hungry enough to try to go for the giant birds' eggs for food. The mother giant bird then attacks Shichiro to protect its eggs, which the sight of the giant bird with its wings open left a huge impact on Shichiro. In the present, Shichiro is seen telling this story to Iruma in his office, which the teacher claims that it was this moment that he finally understood just how beautiful living beings are.Showing off the scarred face beneath his mask, Shichiro explains that the mother bird attacking him was how his mouth got injured, but he was lucky to survive as his parents arrived in time to save his life. He ended up getting a huge scolding from his parents not because he didn't listen to them, but because his reckless actions put his life in danger. Shichiro explains to Iruma that the reason he's telling this story to him is because one's life can easily be lost within the netherworld, and that he hopes Iruma now truly understands just how scary it actually is. After listening to Shichiro's story, Iruma agrees that similar to how Shichiro came to view creatures as beautiful, Iruma has found demons to be beautiful after spending time with the demons he knows, and watching them work hard towards achieving their desires. Shichiro is pleased to hear it as he starts to play around with Iruma, but he also scolds Iruma for being too fearless at times. Worrying about Iruma, Shichiro thinks over the unsettling reports received from Kalego and Azz recently regarding the recent incident with Kirio.
While playing with Iruma, Shichiro makes it clear to his student that if Iruma is going to continue living with them, mutual understanding must come first. Iruma agrees with the advice, and goes along with it asking Shichiro what he wants to know about him. Many ideas go through Shichiro's head, but eventually settles on asking what Iruma's birthday is. In return, Iruma happily states that his birthday is October 4th. Shortly after, Opera is seen receiving a phone call from Shichiro, which the information comes as a shock to him. The stunned Opera approaches Sullivan trying to inform the latter about Iruma's birthday. The sign on Sullivan's desk keeping track of the current date shows October 25th; showing that they missed celebrating Iruma's birthday.
Chapter 183: Suzuki Iruma's Demonic Rites
Similar to Sullivan and Opera, other demons close to Iruma, such as Azz, Clara, Ameri, and Kalego are all left stunned to hear that they completely missed Iruma's birthday. Jumping ahead, Iruma finds himself getting blindfolded by Opera, which Sullivan and Opera stash Iruma in their carriage to bring him to the Agares' Family's Gabrian Chapel. Once the blindfold is taken off, Iruma finds himself sitting in the chair while a costumed demonic ritual goes on around him within the chapel. Sullivan appears asking if the ritual surprised Iruma, and that he went all out to make this happen given that it's Iruma's big day. Azz and Clara also appear in costume, which Azz cries that he's failed as a soulmate for missing Iruma's Demonic Rites. The mention of Demonic Rites confuses Iruma, which it's explained to him that it's like a birthday party where attendees perform a ritual celebrating a demon's birth; bringing offerings, and singing and dancing while wearing costumes for the one they're celebrating. The rest of the Abnormal Class is all seen attending Iruma's Demonic Rites party along with Ameri.Shichiro is seen attending as well, and figures this must all be new to Iruma given that he's from a far away place. Opera remains disappointed hearing from Shichiro that Kalego's too busy to come, which he forces Iruma to use a summoning seal to summon Kalego in familiar form to the Demonic Rites party, much to the latter's annoyance. Now that everyone's here, Sullivan announces that it's time to truly begin the ritual. They all take special cups filled with unholy water, light it on fire, and begin circling around Iruma to walk up to a tub in front of him. Iruma sits back confused wondering if he's supposed to do something, which Ali appears to explain the ritual. That they all pour the burning unholy water into a big tub to signify them giving a part of their life to the one being celebrated. They then provide their offerings, which are basically birthday presents. With Azz and Clara as the first to show their offerings to Iruma, Ali explains that because life is extremely precious within the harsh netherworld, the Demonic Rites ritual is a way for demons to finally show their gratitude for life.
The rest of the students, teachers, and Sullivan all go about providing their offerings along with thanking Iruma for being born. After everyone's provided their offerings, Lied points out that Iruma's technically the younger brother given that the former's birthday is in September, but to everyone's shock, Iruma starts to cry. The enraged Ameri, Azz and Clara are about to gang up on Lied believing the latter made Iruma cry, but Iruma explains that he's just happy as this is the first time he's ever had a celebration like this. Thus, he goes about thanking everyone for their effort. Finding Iruma precious, Clara, Lied and Purson proceed to give Iruma a hug, much to Azz and Ameri's irritation that they were beaten to the punch. Iruma then returns to having fun along with asking what the birth days of everyone else is. Similar to blowing out candles, Iruma's eventually ordered to blow out the large tub of burning unholy water, which leaves him stunned as he's clearly not capable of doing so.
