Chapter 1: The Hidden Artifact
Author's Note: Minna-san! This is what I've been addicted in and I wanted to write a fanfic about it! Hope you'll like this!
"A magical item?" Rin asked his brother.
"Ah. That will be your next test as Esquires." Yukio answered while handing out papers of their mission order. "All of you will be sent to the mission with limited supplies. You will have five days to complete the mission, failure to do so will lead to necessary punishment."
"This will be a piece of cake! We're only going to find an artifact? Tse. What is this hide and seek?"
"Teme…" Bon growled while clenching his arms.
"Maa. Maa, Bon." Shima said.
"Dewa, I'll give you three hours to prepare your gear. Meet me back at the entrance of the cram school. Youkaishimashuta?"
"Hai!" all seven answered.
Yukio was walking out the door when Konekomaru asked a question, "Sensei? Where will the mission take place?"
Yukio smirked darkly before answering, "The Vatican."
Silence…
Then…
"WHAT?"
Three hours later~
The group of eight, the esquires, Yukio the exorcist and Shura… the other… exorcist, were in front of the door that'll lead them to the Vatican headquarters. All of them were carrying a small duffel bag of the gear that they thought was necessary for the mission.
Yukio, with a twist of the key, unlocked the doors to whatever future the Esquires will have.
All seven of them stared dumbly at the large walls and tall columns of the Vatican.
"Awesomw!" Rin exclaimed.
"It's so big!" Shiemi called out with her hands raised above her head.
"What an amazing structure." Bon mumbled.
"Hai. Now, let me go into depth about this mission." Yukio stated.
Suddenly, all of them wore a more serious persona.
"The Vatican is a large building, as you can see. The Vatican has approved of this mission so that they can at least have some hand in your training and also see to personally watch your development and abilities. Not only physically but mentally. They added a little twist and a little challenge to this mission. You will encounter them in your quest to locate the artifact. Not only that but you will also fight off low level demons at some parts of the structure. The mechanic of the mission is; you will go off in pairs at the first eight hours. You'll draw lots to find your pair. You will encounter each other at some pint and at some time of the mission. Only after eight hours can you group together as one. You may or may not group together with them, it depends on your tactics and plans. Due to your group having an odd number one of you will go off alone. Dewa," Yukio nodded at Shura who proceeded to pass around the hat that contained their names.
Shiemi-Shima
Konekomaru-Izumi
Bon-Takara
"Oh? So I go off alone huh?" Rin mumbled to himself.
"Now there is one rule that the Vatican requires you to follow. Whenever you see a room with an angel carrying a cross, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT ENTER THE ROOM." At the last part Yukio's face looked devilish as he ground the words out.
"You understand?" He asked, purposely looking at Rin.
"H-hai!" the esquires squeaked out.
"Then," Shura said. "At the count of three, I don't want to see your butts in here!"
"Three!"
The esquires prepared their stances.
"Two!"
Rin adjusted the strap of his sword.
"One!"
As one the esquires ran off to God knows where, looking for an artifact that would change their lives forever.
"Ah, that reminds me. Oi, scaredy cat four-eyes, did they ask you what kind of artifact they were looking for? Any hints at all?"
Yukio pushed his glasses up his nose before smirking devilishly. "Nope."
Shura smirked. "Sometimes I'm wondering who's the demon, your brother or you?"
Yukio turned around before giving Shura a smile over his shoulder. "Who knows…"
The room was dark, not a single light was visible.
Hissing sounds and murmurs were the only sounds coming from the dark room.
Suddenly the hissing sounds morphed into snake-like words.
"There are… new fleshlingsss in the bassssse… maybe they can get you out?"
"No… stay here… don't go… they'll be here soon… I need you to keep them off for a while…"
"Masssster…"
There was a rustling sound, indicating that someone was moving. Suddenly, slivery-white eyes opened and glower eerily in the dark.
"Soon… this will be over… I can feel him…"
"Him, massster?"
"Yes, him… the one who wields in his blood the power to end all things…"
The eyes closed, drowning the room in darkness once again.
"He's coming…"
"What the hell should I be looking for?" Rin exclaimed, clearly frustrated. "I mean, Yukio didn't give us any clues on what we should find. How the hell would I know what to look for?"
Currently, Rin was stomping through the silent halls of the Vatican, hands shove in his pockets and a scowl placed on his mouth.
He scratched his hair roughly. "I don't even need this training. I'm strong enough as it is!"
"Oh? A strong one he says…" a watery-voice teased.
Rin was instantly on guard. "Who's there?"
"Heheh… ne~ Nee-chan(big sister)… could we play with him? He looks pretty weak…"
"Oi! Who are you calling weak?" Rin called out, looking straight above him.
"You~ where are you looking at? The both of us are here~!"
Rin was suddenly shoved forward as an imaginary force slammed at him from behind.
"Agh!" he turned around wildly as he looked for the unseen beings.
"Here! Here!"
He was suddenly pushed and pulled repeatedly as he struggled to stay on his feet.
One strong push sent him sprawling on the ground. "Itai(ouch)!" he rubbed his head and glared at the air. "You're going to pay for that you little bastards…" he growled out while reaching behind him for his sword. Quickly unwrapping the coverings before slowly unsheathing his sword.
Blue flames immediately surrounded him.
Almost as if on cue, the flames allowed whatever was tormenting Rin, visible.
Two young girls in traditional kimonos appeared before him.
One with two horns, the other with a long white tail.
As one both girls teared up.
They both opened their mouths and-
"Yaaaaah!" Shiemi shrieked as she ran away from whatever thing was following her. "Shima-san, do something!"
"Like what?" Shima called back, also running.
"Spells! Or… the fatal verse of the demon."
"Moriyama-san, you do know that I haven't memorized the fatal verses for ghouls right?"
"Eh? But, I thought you would have remembered it when Suguro-kun chanted it!"
"Maa, I'm not Bon."
Suddenly the ghoul let out a roar as it neared them.
"Kyaaa!"
"Ah. Souka, What about Ni-chan?"
"Ah! I forgot!" Shiemi suddenly jogged backwards while calling out her familiar. "Ni-chan! The eely-billy again!"
"NI!" before the vine-like plant could sprout from the green man's stomach, the ghoul slammed its arm into Shiemi's side.
"Kyaaah!" a thud was heard as Shiemi slammed into a nearby column.
Bon whirled around with his eyes narrowed into a glare.
"That was Moriyama-san, wasn't it?" he turned towards Takara. "What's happening?"
Takra raised his puppet, "How should I know? Am I there right now?" he squeaked out in his high-pitched voice.
"Teme(bastard)!" Bon whirled around and glared at Takara from over his shoulder.
"I'm going there, you coming or what?"
Human-Takara tilted his head to the side.
"Tch." Bon grabbed Takara's arm and ran towards Shiemi's voice.
"This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote this things: and we know that his testimony is true. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written!"
There was an explosion of light and dust particles as the ghoul exploded into nothingness.
Two spirit foxes dissolved into thin air as their summoner called them0back.
Konekomaru let out a sigh before he straightened his back. "Just now…"
"Moriyama… ka?"
Both of them looked at each other before nodding once and taking off towards Shiemi's voice.
"Eh?" Rin looked over the twin demons towards the direction of Shiemi's scream. "Shiemi!" he tried to go around the twins but they just blocked his path.
"Get out of the way! I need to save Shiemi!"
"Who's Shiemi?" the younger one, the one with the tail, pouted.
"This Shiemi, is she your woman?" the older murmured.
Rin blushed a beet red before sputtering out his answers. "Shiemi is one of my friends!"
"Friends? Tch. What good is a friend when you can have a lover?"
"Lover?"
Almost on cue the twins emitted a white light as both merged into one. As the light faded, Rin drew his hand away from his eyes and was greeted with a sight he didn't expect.
In front of him was not the twins that he knew, in front of him was a scantily dressed demon with a devious smile.
"Young master… you can have us, anyway you want…"
"What the hell are you talking ab…" Rin trailed off as a sweet scent reached his nose. His eyes glazed over as he slowly started shuffling forward.
"That's right, over here young master…" the demoness held her hands out in an embrace as Rin came closer.
"Rin…" a melodic voice murmured into his ear.
"Wh-what?" Rin shook his head and found himself at arm's length from the demoness.
"Lie! The spell broke! My hypnosis should not be broken that easily!"
"Shiemi… I gotta save Shiemi!"
"Lie!" the demoness shrieked, her appearance changing drastically. The pale and smooth skin melted into a wrinkly and blotched skin. The eyes that once held such youth and innocence was now a ghastly shade of yellow with sharp pointed slits.
"You old hag!" Rin drew his sword and charge at the shrieking demoness.
"The only one who can break my hypnosis is that blasted person!" the demoness shrieked before firing a thunder ball from her mouth at Rin.
Rin quickly dodged the attack and arched his sword downwards, effectively slashing the demoness.
The demoness let out an eerie shriek before emitting a bright light from the slash wound.
"The bitch!"
Rin thrusted the sword forward, effectively stabbing the demoness in the chest.
A bright light exploded and surrounded the demoness.
"That damn ten- Kyaaaaaaahh!" whatever the demoness was supposed to say was cut off as the light chose that moment to eat away her demon core*.
Without missing a beat, Rin sheathed his sword and ran towards his destination.
Shima blocked the ghoul's arm with his staff as he stood in front of Shiemi's prone body on the floor.
'Tch. Why the hell would they always send a ghoul? They should know I never memorized their fatal verse!' he thought.
"Gah!" Shima gasped as a particularly hard slam sent him to his knees. The ghoul wasted no time as it slammed its arm on Shima's head.
The impact was hard causing Shima to fly towards the nearest column. He landed on his back harshly, the impact producing a thud in the long hallway.
Shima struggled to raise his head from the slumped position he was in. blood was pouring out of the wound in his head, he gritted his teeth. The ghoul was shuffling towards Shiemi's body, stepping over his staff which cracked under the pressure.
"Lie! I'm- cough! Cough!" his words was cut off by the spurt of blood that came out of his mouth. "Li..e" his vision blurred as he struggled to stay awake. 'Damn it… I couldn't protect her… now… I can't protect Shiemi… I vowed to become stronger…to keep that from happening again… but now… now…' Shima's eyes drooped close as the darkness closed over him.
'Well… at least it's silent now… wait. Silent?' his eyes shot open as realization hit him. 'Ghouls never stay silent once they have attacked!' his eyes shone as hope bloomed in his chest. 'Kamiki!'
True enough Kamiki's familiar were trying to strangle the ghouls as Konekomaru and Bon prepared for the fetal verse.
"Hora! You there! Take Moriyama to a safer place!" Izumi shouted at him.
Shima was staring dumbly at them before nodding his head once. "A-ah!"
He ran towards Shiemi, albeit shakily and carried her towards the far end wall where he was pretty sure that they won't be in direct contact with the others' attacks.
"This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote this things:" Konekomaru murmured, staring straight at the ghoul.
"And we know that his testimony is true." Bon added.
"I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written!" both of them exclaimed at the same time.
The ghoul exploded in a frenzy of dust just as a call from down the hall alerted them of another person's attendance.
"It's Okumura!" Bon said.
"How's Shiemi?" Rin asked them while running towards the group.
"She's okay!" Konekomaru shouted back.
Rin smiled before a loud crack was heard. "Eh? What?" he stopped running and just as he stopped, the ground under him shattered, resulting in him falling under the hole.
"Okumura-kun!" Konekomaru screamed.
The group ran towards the hole when suddenly, worm-like demons crawled out of the hole, accompanying them were spider looking demons that had wings. Almost to prove the point that they weren't allowed to follow Rin, dark roots shot from the hole and covered the gaping black hole, before mimicking its surroundings and copying the hallways structure.
"Damn… looks like we're in for a fight…" Bon muttered.
"Okumura-kun wa?" Konekomaru asked worriedly.
"It's okay, that idiot'll forget to die even he was killed."
Meanwhile Rin was rubbing his butt while staring above him, from where he supposedly fell from.
"Well…there goes my freedom… how the hell could I see in this darkness?"
As if on cue, silver light erupted from the torches attached to the walls, leading to a path towards a large entrance.
Rin stared at the lights in front of him before slowly standing up. He carefully followed the path until he got towards the opening which leads into a rocky cave. He gulped before walking towards the end of the pathway.
He could feel things slithering below him.
A low hum invaded his thoughts. He stopped and sat on his haunches, inspecting the floor underneath him.
He let out a gasp as he saw a lot of black almost metallic snakes slithering closely together.
Now that he stopped moving he could hear the hum more clearly for what it is.
"The masssster… awaits… yessss… you are the one… the one who will free usss… the one who freesss the massster… child who holdssss the future of the worldssss…"
Rin quickly jumped to his feet and hurried towards the large door at the end of the pathway.
With a strong shove the door opened into a golden interior. What made the room weirder was the amount of feathers and pillows strewn all over the room. Rin also saw a long white cloth attached to a golden hook on the wall leading to a lump on the bed.
"Hello?"
A hiss was heard before the lump moved.
Rin's eyes grew wide as the figure under the blanket stared at him.
It was a girl. A girl with silvery white hair and silver eyes.
The girl smiled at him as she sat.
"Wh-what are you?" was what Rin's mouth asked, for in his brain he thought that no human could look this ethereal.
"Me?" the girl queried.
'That voice!' Rin took a step forward.
"You! You're that voice earlier! You saved me from those twins!"
The girl giggled.
To Rin, the sound was close to bells.
"I'm…" the girl disappeared in front of Rin, appearing almost immediately across from Rin in a flurry of feathers.
Rin's eyes almost rolled out of his sockets, his jaw dropped.
White wings shot out of the girl's back, spanning almost 17 meters in width.
"an angel…"
Author's note: Minna-san! Hope you liked the opening! If you think that I should continue the story please drop a review! I don't know if I should since this is my first Ao no Exorcist fanfic! Be nice please… ^^ Dya ne minna-san!
About the Demon core, I'll explain more about that in the next chapter….Sore wa… Until next time!
~violet ninja