((This story starts around E 19: An Ordinary Day, sans the call at the end. Basically, Everyone knows Rin is a demon, no one really cares. They're a close knit group again, and there's an extra to the team. In this 'verse, she's been there the whole time and has tagged along. She isn't met in this chapter. Enjoy! Blue Exorcist doesn't belong to me. Trust me, there'd be more fanservice if it did.))
I took a deep breath as I walked away from where I'd gotten Fabio lost. He was off trying to find some stupid flower for me, which meant that I had maybe an hour. I desperately wanted more time, but that was more than I could honestly hope for, and I was glad for as much as I got. Still, it wasn't much to find out my real name and to meet then kill my mother.
I stared at the home only a moment before striding up to it. I had it on good word this is where my mother lived, and I couldn't afford to be wrong. I was lucky; Amaimon had carelessly dropped her name before, and I'd taken it to heart. Also, the six degrees of separation thing was right: that was about as many as it took for me to find her. I'd been given a fair start, with knowing I was from America, and somewhere on the west side, but that was all. Still, somehow, I'd gotten here, to where I was fairly sure my mother was. Crossing my fingers, I knocked on the door.
A woman with beautiful brown hair opened the door, looking at me curiously. Her warm brown eyes matched mine, along with the same skin that took color well, and it gave me hope as I spoke. "Do you go by the name Keli?" The silence and awe spoke loudly enough, and she nodded very quietly. "May I come in?" Again, she nodded, and let me in to the quiet, smaller home.
"Who are you?" she asked once she'd closed the door. With that, I looked down, speaking the words I'd rehearsed over and over in my head.
"About 17 years ago, you gave birth to a blonde haired, brown eyed, daughter. Not long after, she was stolen away from you by her father. I'm her; I'm your daughter." I bit my lip and looked her straight in the eye, as we were level in height. After a moment, we ended up hugging, and I held her very tightly, but it wasn't long before I had to pull away.
"I have one thing I need to know. What's my real name?" Her eyebrows raised at this and she rubbed my arm.
"He didn't tell you? Your name is Amelia Katherine Gioia Rios. A daughter to a proud line of Hispanic Americans." I smiled and pulled her back into an embrace.
"Thank you," I whispered, holding her. I choked on my voice a little at my next words. "I need to kill you now."
Shock raced through her body, and I backpedaled on my words. "Not for real," I added. "I just need my father to think I killed you. He's been gunning for you for a while, and it's only by chance I got here first. You can live life normally; he doesn't know where I am or where you are, but if I tell him I killed you then he'll stop searching. And I need to go, there's something that watches me to make sure I don't cause my father trouble and it'll be finding me soon." I gulped down more tears and tried a smile. "I love you, momma. Thank you for telling me everything. I wish I'd gotten to know more."
She pulled me into one last tight embrace. "I love you more, Amelia. I wish I could've told you more."
I gave a bitter smile and pulled away, headed out the door. "I can't ever come back. He'll find out, and kill you. I'm sorry. I love you." In that moment I closed the door behind me and disappeared, moving quickly away until I was safely away from where she was. She couldn't get found. I liked the idea of having a living mother too much to lose it.
I scoffed at Fabio as the gold-green phoenix halted near me, beautiful flowers in beak. "Thank you, Fabio," I said, taking them gently, rearranging them. "This should do nicely as a going away present for my girlfriend, right? Not that you'd ever tell daddy about this."
While the simpleminded demon was indeed something like a babysitter for me, when it came to certain things he became my underling. If I was able to get out of his sights long enough to do something 'bad', for instance, I could lord it over him. He, like all sane demons, feared the wrath of my father Amaimon, and if Amaimon found out that "his precious Moriko" had done things, with girls and boys and people in between? Oh my, Fabio would be killed on sight until he stopped coming back. I wasn't to be let out of his sight, but the bird brain was too ready to trust me.
"Right," He chirped, only a little nervous. I smirked and jetted away, to the home of the beauty I'd wanted the attentions of not even a week ago. Before I could think too hard on my fickle heart, I was at her home, ready with flowers and near-tears in my eyes.
The moment the pretty green eyes caught the flowers and the look on my face, I knew she knew it was over. Her beautiful dark hands slowly took a silent exchange: good times and smiles for flowers and an "it's not you, it's me".
"I'm sorry," I began, but she cut me off.
"Please don't. I know what this is. I knew it'd come. I expected this sooner or later," By the tone of her voice, I could hear the words she wanted to add. 'just not this soon'.
I ran a pale hand through my pixie cut light brown-blonde hair. I'd liked that it complimented her, and that my eyes matched her skin almost perfectly, when we were together. I'd wanted other people to see it, and see it as beautiful. I grew bored of it more quickly than I'd expected to, though. "It's best if I leave," I said quietly, looking down to my worn red chucks, as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing. "Thanks for the memories," I said, looking up to give her my oh-so-sweet gentle smile that she'd fallen for in the first place. She nodded rather than spoke, and turned slowly, not looking back as she closed the door on me. With a breath to clear my lungs, I disappeared again, just to a quiet enough, unseen place.
"Fabio," I said. "Let's go to the beach, let's go get away. I wanna cause trouble. Lots of it." I was biting my lip hard, and the phoenix was being irritatingly silent. "Today, Fabio. Don't make me bored." At this, the creature squaked in fear, knowing I'd been raised to be as tempramental as my father, and he quickly coughed up the key with the ability to go anywhere in the world that he'd been given, just to satisfy my appetites.
"Are you sure? Not far from here we could find raves for you. You like those," He tried to reason with me, but I wasn't in the mood.
"You think I don't know that? I don't want to rave. I want to cause trouble. I'd rather hear screams than a bass drop right now. Besides, I wonder if my father's little play-toys will come to America, if there's enough trouble over here," I mused as I took the key from Fabio and turned it in someone's garden shed. "Wouldn't that be lovely. They're from Japan, right?"
Fabio nodded cautiously, muttering "mierda" under his breath. With no idea what I'd do, he wanted to make sure it'd be father-approved, and while causing trouble was one thing my father did condone, the bird was never sure what I'd do next.
"Good. I hate Japan, I think." I paused a minute, realizing just how angry I was and why. "I have a good English name, and instead I've been given some stupid Japanese one my entire life. Not like it's daddy's fault, though. He just hasn't explored the wonders America has to offer. But for me... I like to be in America, okay by me in America." Fabio sighed at these words, but came with me through the door to what appeared to be the ocean.
"Perfect," I said. "Except..." I looked down to my dayclothes, unsuited for swimming. 'I think we should fix this." Fabio quickly led me to the nearby shops, putting money in my purse as I moved. I perused for the perfect look, until landing on a great little number: a black bikini with red polka dots. "How cute," I said, even happier when I tried it in the fitting rooms and saw how it accentuated my normally flat, too-skinny, figure. Minutes later, I exited the store with my find in a bag. I changed off in an unseen corner of the beach in the rocks, one probably used for sex more times than it was pleasant to think about.
Still, I didn't hesitate as I moved out onto the beach, avoiding the people and going deep into the water, getting out of the "safe zone". I dived before I could be spotted, and once I was underwater I began to call, using demonic telepathy. "Come on out, Kraken, and play. It's time to wake from your slumber!"
Rin woke with a start as the words "it's time to wake from your slumber" resounded in his head. He'd only been taking a short midday nap, and no one had voiced dissent when he disappeared off to his room not even half an hour ago. So, as he got up, he wondered at who called. Noting he was alone, it left only one source: the demon telepathic network. No sooner had the thought entered his mind than Kuro jumped onto him, anxious. The black cat rubbed its head into Rin's chest, mewling softly. 'I've never heard that voice before,' the cat said worriedly. 'it was loud...' Rin nodded as he calmed the cat sidhe.
"It was... But it felt far away." Kuro took no comfort in this fact.
'that's the problem! Few demons can call that loud, and they're the really powerful ones! No matter where it is, it's trying to wake something, and that can't be good.' Rin nodded softly, and got up after letting the cat climb up onto his shoulders.
"c'mon Kuro, we should probably warn everyone else."
A stress crease formed in Yukio's brow as his brother explained the situation. He sighed in exhaustion when Rin finally was done relaying the information. "Once we find the trouble the demon is causing, we can help, but until we know the source we can't chase it down," He said, sounding worried. "Depending on where it is, we might need Babelfish."
Shura, who had been nearby, stopped at this. "We're gonna be needing Babelfish? For what?" A smile began to appear on her face.
"Some unplaced call. It's likely in a different country, and we'll need to know the language. Besides, it'd be good for the exwires to finally have them." Shura nodded quietly, smirk growing.
"I'll talk to the tamers, see if we have enough. This'll be for you kiddos, then?" Yukio nodded. With that, Shura smiled and trotted off.
"What's a babelfish?" asked Rin, hopelessly lost. Yukio waited until all the exwires filtered in, apparently called into the classroom by Shura, before explaining anything at all.
"A babelfish is a very unique demon. Once someone's eaten it, they can understand and speak any language they so choose. Some things, like names, don't translate, and the translations are rather simplistic, but they work. In order for it to work, though, you have to eat the entire creature." Shura appeared only moments after the explanation, and there was a dangerously excited smile on her face.
"They've got enough for ya. They're getting cooked up right now, so just wait a moment. I need to see this." Confusion crossed the faces of the exwires at this statement, but Shura and Yukio shared a devilish smirk before Yukio went blank-faced again and Shura went off, presumably to grab the Babelfish. The exwires looked to one another nervously, trusting something unpleasant was up for them. Barely a minute passed before Shura came back, passing out plates with an unearthly yellow fishy, leechy, small demon on them, looking like it'd been put on a flame just long enough to make it nontoxic. Maybe. Bile rose to their throats, but bravely the 16 year olds swallowed down their fear as they stabbed the uncomfortably squishy creatures with their forks. They looked silently from one to another, as if trying to figure out who would take the first bite, when all but the demon-boy himself chose Rin. With a look of petulance, the black haired teen quickly shoved the "food" into his mouth, trying to swallow and be done with it as soon as possible. To the distaste of everyone as they ate it, the Babelfish had the consistency of gum. This wouldn't have been so bad on its own, but the taste was what made it so regrettable: four day old fish, with a hint of lemon peel, some toothpaste flavor thrown in, and an aftertaste reminiscent of puking. It took all the poor teens had in them to swallow, and as they battled the disgusting food neither instructor stopped laughing. Yukio's normally serious countenance became one filled with sinister joy, and the look was no stranger to Shura's face. Once the exorcists had had their laugh and the exwires managed to swallow the disgusting fist-sized lump that was a Babelfish, Shura spoke.
"It's like a rite of passage, eating the Babelfish." She gave it a moment's thought. "Or, more like a good old fashioned hazing. Everyone's gone through it, though, and we have pictures from everyone. Including y'all!" As if on cue, she procured little cameras. "I've been waiting for this for a while."
Before the teens could start a mini rebellion in their anger, Mephisto popped into the doorway, laughing when he saw the sight before him, but only for a moment. "I hate to ruin the fun, everyone," he said. "But the source of activity was spotted. In America, no less! You're to be more of a distraction than anything, but that means you lucky ducklings get to go out first! The beach has already been cleared of civilians, so we needn't worry about that. Now get on, we don't have time to waste!"
Once the students were debriefed on exactly what they were supposed to do about the kraken, Yukio opened the door, using the everywhere key to get as close to the problem as possible. As they ran out, the students looked at the kraken, a little irritated. "You've gotta be kidding me," Bon muttered under his breath.
Rin nodded, but stopped in his tracks when he heard a squeal of delight in his head, something he was sure the kraken hadn't made. "I don't think it's alone," He said softly as they came closer. Only a matter of moments passed as they ran to the scene before a girl about their age became visible, holding onto the creature and laughing heartily. With a gracefulness few other than ballerinas and warriors had, she dropped down nearer to their level, smiling with a wicked face. Her features were genuinely beautiful, but the demonic grin lent only to an evil air, and even her pixie cut seemed to scream "mischievous". And with how scantily she was clad, in a black and red bikini that fit her light skin and thin frame too well for their benefit, she was simply oozing an evil, "take you over" sexuality. A surprisingly long black demon tail, forked and likely sharp, flitted back and forth lazily from behind her... She was the biggest "Trouble" warning sign they'd ever seen.
"Well," She said with a laugh, her voice seeming warmer than they expected for someone doing such cold things. "The toys did come. I thought so. I told you, Fabio. See? Now we have nice people to play with. We won't get bored." An eagle sized green-gold phoenix flitted near her, clearly happy at this prospect.
"Should I grab your weapon?" It asked, a high but clearly masculine voice coming from the creature.
"No, Fabio, I wanna use fisticuffs. Yes, please, you bird brain." The teen puffed her chest out in a very aggressive manner at the phoenix, and it darted away, too fast for the students and clearly not the most important target. In the few moments between the bird disappearing and coming back, sheathed sword in beak, the girl gave an impressively, deceitfully genuine smile. "I've forgotten my manners," she said reproachfully. "Forgive me, please. What are your names, you pretty toys?"
Rin growled in anger, and while Bon flared up too, he wasn't so crass as to respond. "I'm Rin Okumura, and I'll defeat you!" Rin stepped forward, drawing his sword when the blue eyed teen saw the girl had sheathed sword in hand, brought by her phoenix. Before anyone could stop him, he was running at the girl, who only looked mildly surprised. Rin landed just beside her, flaming up blue with the kurikara blade unsheathed.
"Oh!" She said, sounding happy rather than scared. "You choose to fire up when you draw your sword too? Of course, my flames are better," The brown haired girl added, unsheathing her sword and dousing herself in mostly golden flames, ears extending the same way Rin's did. "After all, I match my phoenix and the seasons." She gave an almost forced sounding laugh, not actually attacking, and the lack of battle caught Rin more off guard than any surprise attack ever did. The only thing that was more unexpected was that the smile she'd been wearing went dull, the same way her eyes went from sparkling with mischief to a matte color, devoid of emotion.
Curious and a little more brave than he should have been, Rin spoke. "Why are you doing this?" The demon girl flinched like he'd physically hit her, but quickly responded with an influx of skilled attacks, putting Rin quickly on the defensive as he was stuck dodging swing after swing. Anger seemed to flare in her eyes again, or something more akin to sadness.
"Stop talking." These words were all Rin needed as the go ahead to ask further. Clearly she didn't like it, and he needed to get her off her game if he wanted a chance.
"Are you avoiding the question because you don't know the answer?" Another swing just barely missed. "Why do you keep calling us toys?" A jab that tapped the skin in a frightening way. "You seemed a lot braver when you were the only one here."
"Shut up!" The girl growled, charging at Rin and scraping a few scratches into his side, too shallow to cause any real damage.
"I will when you answer my questions. You're acting like you have a reason, but that's not normally how demons roll."
"Says Satan spawn? I see the color of your flames!" More dangerous swipes that came too close to causing serious damage grazed at Rin's skin, leaving bloody trails.
"So what? I've chosen to be a good person. Who I am isn't dictated by my father." The girl scoffed, clearly tired of talking.
"Shuddup! You're in a place for fear, lips are for biting here." She pulled herself in close to Rin, managing a bite on his shoulder before hopping away, avoiding a close hit. She sighed again, clearly infuriated, and waited for him to hit back, but no attack came.
"I honestly doubt this is fun to you. Why are you doing this?" Rage coursed through the girl and she launched herself at Rin.
"Because I've never learned a better way to deal with things!" He blocked her downward stroke just in time, and pushed her off. "What are ya, my psychiatrist?" Leaping forward, the flaming gold-green girl brought her sword up to Rin's throat, ready for a kill. "This is all I know," She whimpered, suddenly vulnerable sounding when it was only she and Rin that could hear the words.
"Then I'll help you learn other ways. But you need to stop this attack," Rin tried at reasoning with the madwoman, expecting his luck had just run out. He felt the blade press into his skin, drawing a trickle of blood.
Finally, there was a flicker of hesitation in her brown eyes. Almost hope, and then hardness, coldness, again. "You wouldn't help me. No one would. I'm the daughter of Amaimon. I'm your enemy." Rin bit his lip.
"You already figured out that I'm the son of Satan. If I'm allowed to be with the Exorcists, there's no reason you shouldn't be." The pressure on the blade lessened after a moment.
"You'd better prove to me that trusting you isn't foolish," She whispered, finally bringing the sword down to her side. 'Calm down,' Rin heard her again through the demon telepathy, and the kraken seemed to become more docile, sitting quietly in the water, completely uninterested in much of anything. Rin, in turn, brought his blade down too.
"As I said, I'm Rin Okumura. Who're you?"
"I am..." She stopped a moment, as if making a decision. "Amelia."
In that instant, she vanished.
((Like? Love? Loathe? Let me know! Review as nicely or as meanly as you like, and don't forget to favorite or follow if you want more! I have chapter 2 ready to go, so I'll likely update next week. Enjoy!))