"Rough day at school?" a man's voice asked. The girl lying in the flowers nodded, staring at the clouds. She knew that she was putting herself at risk for a possession, but this was not the first time she'd spoken to that particular Demon.

"Kamiki's making fun of me again. She said that I'm useless and a failure…I think you're my only friend, to be honest…we are friends, right?" A chuckled echoed through her empty garden.

"Definitely." There was a pause. "We've known each other for a long time. I think it's time I told you my name, and you told me yours." The girl smiled.

"Alright," she muttered. "I'm Shiemi Moriyama, how about you?"

"Name's Rin Okumura. It's nice to meet ya, Shiemi. Mind if I call ya Emi?"

"You too, Rin. That's fine, go ahead." Shiemi smiled and closed her eyes. "I really wish we could meet face to face. It's weird not knowing what my only friend looks like." She heard a sigh.

"Me too. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to get over to Assiah at will…" That gave Shiemi an idea, and her smile brightened.

"What if I tried to summon you tomorrow at school?" Rin gasped.

"Hey, that just might work! Alright, gimme a time and I'll be ready for ya!"

"Does 11:45 work for you? That's when I have cram school, so I could tell Mr. A. I'm summoning you to catch up to the rest of the class."

"Fine by me. It's a win-win, as far as I-ah, shit. I gotta go, the old man needs me." Shiemi giggled at his obvious disdain.

"Alright, see you tomorrow, Rin!"

"11:45 sharp, I'll be waiting!"

And then the young exwire was alone in her garden.

When Shiemi awoke the next morning to a mysterious diagram sitting innocently on her nightstand, she knew exactly where it had come from. Rin had probably possessed one of her plants and drawn it out during the night.

She was quick to get ready for cram school, her excitement giving her a boost of adrenaline. Not only would she stop being bullied after today, but she would meet her mysterious Demon friend, Rin Okumura.

"Settle down, class. First off, Miss Moriyama will attempt to summon a Demon. I want complete silence during her attempt, understood?" The exwires nodded, and the teacher turned to a nervous-looking Shiemi. "Go on, Miss Moriyama," he said indifferently.

Shiemi nodded and took a deep breath, glancing at the clock. 11:44, perfect. She withdrew the diagram she'd awoken to from the folds of her kimono and bit her thumb, smearing a stripe of blood on the paper. Then she began to chant.

"Hear my summons; come forth from the world of Gehenna."

"Appear before me and lend me your power this day."

What she didn't expect was blue flames forming the diagram on the classroom's wood floor. There were a number of screams from her fellow classmates, some students running for the door as the teacher got between the students and the circle. Shiemi took a step back, staring in horror at Satan's flames as they grew.

"So this is what Assiah looks like? Alright!"

The panicked teenagers, not expecting Satan to have such a gleeful tone, turned to gape at the figure currently surrounded by hellfire.

A boy no older than fifteen stood in the center of the diagram, glancing around appreciatively. His bright blue eyes gazed around in wonder, almost covered by his messy, blue-black hair, which was adorned by a set of horns formed by the fire. He almost looked normal, although the frighteningly large fangs, razor sharp claws, and long, pointed ears said otherwise.

He wore a simple, dark blue hoodie with an orange t-shirt underneath, all covered by a white jacket, with a pair of black jeans and black, fingerless gloves. His tail, which was sticking out of the bottom of his jacket and swaying gently, was long, with a tuft of fur at the end that was alight with flame. Strapped to his back was a red sword sheath, which Shiemi recognized immediately.

Rin had told her about his sword many times- the Demon Sword Kurikara.

The boy glanced among the students curiously, his frown growing as he scanned the crowd. His eyes stopped when they met hers, the blue flames disappearing as he stepped forward and took her hand gingerly. His eyes lost the shattered look, and his fangs visibly retracted as he gave her a toothy grin. His tail extinguished, the blue-black appendage swished back and forward in excitement, and Shiemi vaguely noticed that his ears had shortened and rounded a bit as well.

"Rin Okumura at your service," he said quietly.

"Shiemi Moriyama," she replied breathlessly.

A pen clattered to the floor in the sea of students, and Rin and Shiemi turned to find that the Demonology teacher had drawn a seal from his pocket, and was holding it up menacingly at Rin.

"Release Miss Moriyama, Demon!" The Demon raised an eyebrow.

"You think a seal is gonna send me back? Try it." Shiemi was shocked at Rin's flat tone of voice. "Besides, I haven't hurt anyone, have I? I'm just here because Shiemi called, no more, no less." Miwa Konekomaru whimpered from the back of the room.

"I-Is that Satan?!" Rin snorted.

"No, just his son."

That got a big reaction. All of the humans drew their weapons and trained them on the Demon, who chuckled and raised his arms in a gesture of defeat. Shiemi stared at him, her previous shock returning full force.

'Son of Satan?! I've become friends with the Demon Prince of Gehenna!?'

"You're the Demon Prince?!" Mr. A. began muttering and drew his sword. "I'll end you now, and maybe the rest of your kind will learn to behave!" Rin laughed darkly, reaching behind him and grasping his sword in his free hand.

He pulled the sword off of his back and released Shiemi's hand, letting the cloth slide off of the weapon and fall to the floor. He gripped the blue sheath tightly in both hands, his eyes darkening as the pupils began to flash red again, and a smirk formed on his handsome face. All of the exwires, save for Shiemi, had filed into the hallway by then, and were watching from a crack in the door.

"Try me, old man." Rin drew Kurikara, and immediately the blue flames he had been draped in before returned, as did his long ears and fangs. The shattered look returned to his eyes, and he gave the teacher a terrifying grin as he pointed the weapon at his opponent. When he spoke next, his voice was two-toned the way a human's voice sounded while possessed.

"I dare you."

"Okay, so maybe I roughed 'im up a bit too much…"

Shiemi laughed lightly upon hearing the reluctant voice coming through her bedroom window. "A bit? Rin, he was sent to the hospital!" She heard the Demon Prince mumble to himself before replying.

"Hey, he wanted a fight, so I gave 'im one." She shook her head with a smile.

"You're so competitive," she sighed. Rin snorted.

"I hadn't noticed…Emi, your arm…" She blinked and glanced down at her torn sleeve.

"Hm? Oh, don't worry about it, Rin! I just got burned cooking, that's all!" She walked away from the window and headed towards the door leading to the garden.

"Wait!" Shiemi stopped and listened. "Go back to the mirror real quick, I need to make sure I'm not seeing things…" The baffled girl complied, but the reflection she saw in the glass was not her own. It was his.

"Rin!" The reflection, instead of placing its hands on the glass where she did, pressed them an inch or so above hers, his face both shocked and excited.

"Aw yeah! We found a loophole somewhere!" The Demon Prince laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "Speaking of different worlds and all that, I think I figured a way to get to Assiah without making a scene." Shiemi smiled.

"Whatever it is, I'll do it!" Rin smiled.

"Yeah, I had a feeling you'd say that. But I was thinking about it the other day, what if you drew the summoning circle from earlier on a smaller piece of paper, put that chant on it underneath, put some blood on the circle, rolled it up, and stuck it in a container or something? And then wore it as, like, a necklace or something? Wanna try it?"

Shiemi was already tearing a scrap of paper off of her homework. "Definitely." She carefully copied the circle and chant from before onto it and bit her thumb, letting her blood drip onto the paper. Once she had a large splatter of blood on the paper, she bandaged her finger and rolled up the air-dried paper, which she then dropped into a glass container and hung on a chain around her neck. "How do we even test something like this? Should I leave home and try to call you?"

"That's really all we can do. But where could you go that no one will see you?"

"I could head to the cram school and hide out in an empty room."

"That works." She turned back to the mirror, cord now around her neck, and Rin gave her a playful salute. "Even if it doesn't work, you can always just summon me the old fashioned way. Anyways, see ya in a while, then!"

Considering that Shiemi was not a big rule-breaker, she was surprised when she encountered no problems while maneuvering through the building.

"Weird," she muttered as she closed the door to her destination behind her. "I thought they had cameras or something..?" She shrugged and headed to her table, sitting stiffly as she reached up to clutch her new necklace. "Rin?"

"Nope, just a stranger." Shiemi giggled at his pleased remark. "I can't believe it works! I'm a genius!" She smiled and nodded determinedly.

"Alright, let's try summoning you." She heard a grunt of approval from the Demon and closed her eyes, concentrating hard on the circle and the chant she'd written.

She didn't feel the heat of the blue flames, or hear the crackling that came with it. Disappointed, she opened her eyes, only to squeak and push away from the desk upon realizing that she was a mere few inches from sparkling, blue eyes.

"I think it works," Rin whispered matter-of-factly from his crouched perch on her desk, his tail swishing gently just above the floor before wrapping around Shiemi's leg.

"M-me, too!" she stuttered, flushing at both the amused smirk he wore and his tail's previous actions. And judging by the glint in his eyes, he knew exactly what his tail was doing.

"I didn't get a chance to ask you this before, but would you happen to know where I could find a uniform?" Shiemi tilted her head a bit in confusion, momentarily forgetting about the offending appendage currently squeezing her.

"What for? Are you going to start coming to school with me?"

"Well, no. It's not like I have much to do in Gehenna, so I'd like to wander Assiah. Besides, then you wouldn't have to summon me if something happened, since I'd already be here." She nodded.

"I suppose I could find one. But won't people notice your teeth and ears…and tail?" Rin shrugged, obviously not as concerned with the situation as she was, and made the presence of his tail known again as he let the tip brush her calf.

"The tail is simple to hide. The fangs and ears can just be written off as a birth defect or something." She nodded thoughtfully. He watched in amusement as she glanced down at his tail. "You wanna touch it, don't you?" She flushed and looked away. "Hey, I don't mind. Go ahead, just be gentle, alright? The thing's outrageously sensitive."

"Are you sure?"He nodded.

"Posit-hah…" Rin's eyelids drooped slightly, mouth going slack. Shiemi giggled, fingers gently toying with the tuft of fur at the end of his tail, and his shoulders slumped. "S-Shi…emi…aaah…" Soon, he was nearly purring with the pleasure.

Wait…

"Rin, you're purring!" His eyes widened, and he bolted upright.

"I am not! What the hell are you talking about?!" The indignation in his voice didn't stop her smiling, especially when she saw the blush dusting his cheeks.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. It's kinda…cute." She muttered the last part to herself. Rin looked at her almost hopefully.

"You…think so?" She nodded.

"If it's in your nature, you can't really help it, right?" He blinked, and then smiled coyly.

"I think you're cute too, Shiemi."

In case people are wondering, lameemailislame is my other email so I didn't steal this. I just forgot to sign out of that one. ^^;

Anyways, Review please~?