Rin had new injuries again. He was in another fight, Rico thought sadly. She went over and sat next to him, he wouldn't cry, not anymore but she knew he wanted to. She fluffed up the hair on the top of his head. "What are we going to do with you?" She asked sarcastically, "Next time let me know when and where the fight will go down and I'll sell tickets, we can split the profit fifty-fifty?" She smiled and her blue eyes light up when she saw the smile he was trying to hide, but it left again quickly.
"They called me a demon again," he sounded dejected and lonely.
She shoved him making him fall to the ground and cry out in shock, "If you are a demon then you have to be one of the weakest ones I've ever seen." He looked up at her like she was crazy, "After all, a little girl can knock you over."
"Yah well that was only because I wasn't ready, I could beat you in a real fight any day." He declared refusing to look at her.
Her long golden hair brushed his face as she leaned over and gave him a hug, "I'm gonna be gone for three weeks, so don't make me worry about you ok?" She then pulled back and offered him a hand and a smile. He grabbed her hand and she pulled him to his feet. She looked into his blue eyes, "Demons are only angels who have lost their way. So long as you have me and Yukio we will never let you get lost, so you won't ever become a demon."
This time he smiled and his eyes softened, it was as close to a thank you as she would ever get. She let go of him and rubbed her hand on her shirt, "Ew now I have your germs all over me!"
"Oh yah," he quickly moved next to her and poked her side, "How about now." she grabbed her side and tried to stifle her laughter. "Or now," he poked her again and again until she was outright laughing.
"Ok, ok, you win Rin." She said trying to catch her breath, "Anyway I have to go and pack." She ran off to her room and Rin went to look for Yukio to help patch him up.
Yukio had actually been standing in the doorway with the first aid kit watching but he wasn't looking at his brother he was looking after Rico, he had known Rico would be leaving to train in swordsmanship with a friend of father's but she hadn't bothered to come and say bye to him. "Come on Rin, lets get you patched up," he said to his brother once she was out of sight.
"You're not leaving too, are you?" He asked as Yuki sat him down and started cleaning up his wounds.
"No, and dad isn't going either," Yukio assured him, "It's stuff to do with her family and she said she needed to take care of it alone." It wasn't a complete lie. Her parents had been exorcist as well, that was why Astaroth killed them. She would be going away for weeks at a time to train now and father Fujimoto was starting to talk about her moving out and living in her parents house.
"What's going on?" Rin looked at his brother confused, "I thought she didn't have any family left."
"She will tell you when she's ready to," Yukio liked knowing more about her than Rin but it killed him to know that one of the main reasons she was pushing herself so hard was for Rin. You don't even really want to know about Rico, its just a passing curiosity, he thought irritably. She also wanted revenge for the death of her parents, only a few months younger than Rin and Yukio her parents had died when she was two years old. Father Fujimoto took her in since he was taking care of the twins already, he had told the vatican that one more child wouldn't make that much of a difference. They had grown up like siblings and the bonds between them were deep, Rico had been able to see all the scary things that Yukio had seen growing up and helped him understand he wasn't crazy.
Yukio had told her he would watch over Rin while she was gone, I hope he doesn't get into too much trouble or she might come back early, Yukio was more worried about how hard she worked at her training, I can keep an eye on Rin easily, but who will watch out for Rico while she is gone? He had asked their dad and he just told Yukio that Rico was in good hands and that she would be fine.
Rin look serious as he stared at his bandaged hands, "She told me demons are just angels that have lost their way, is that true?" Yukio really felt sorry for Rin, not knowing about anything but he and Rico had promised dad that they wouldn't tell, so they didn't.
"Well the bible says that Satan was an angel." Yukio told his brother What could she be thinking telling him something like that? Yukio wondered and almost went to her room to ask her. She should know better than anyone just how dangerous demons are, especially Satan. It then dawned on him that she didn't want to lie to Rin. He could practically hear her in his head, "He can be whatever he wants to be, Satan chose to be the ruler of hell, but Rin hasn't chosen anything."
Rin looked like he had perked up, "Well she's really odd. Maybe she is studying so hard because she wants to grow up to be a nun?" He speculated looking to his brother for confirmation.
"I don't know maybe," Yukio wondered what she was planning to do with her life, Obviously she is going to be an exorcist but does she want to be a nun? He hoped not, She wouldn't fit in very well as a nun, besides that would mean leaving the family and I don't think she would do that.
She finished packing her bags and had them lined up by the door ready to leave once the car got there, I hope I am doing the right thing. She bit her lower lip trying to remind herself of all of the reasons she needed to leave.
"All ready to go?" Father Fujimoto asked looking at her bags. She nodded, "That's my girl, so responsible." He patted the top of her head and smiled down at her. She hugged him and started crying, "Hey now, what's wrong with my little princess?"
Her big blue eyes had tears flowing from them as she looked up at her dad, "I'm scared."
He picked up the little seven year old and hugged her, "I know it will be a long time, but they will take good care of you, and you will learn a lot."
"Promise?" She asked wiping tears off her face.
"Would I ever lie to you?" She shook her head, "There you go, but if it makes you feel better than I promise everything will be just fine." He set her down again, "Have you said bye to your brothers yet?"
"I said bye to Rin, but I don't know what to say to Yukio. I think he will be happier without me around anyway." She couldn't look Father Fujimoto in the eye so she just stared at her shoes.
"Of course he will miss you," he told her tilting her chin up, "I'm sure he is sad that you haven't said anything to him yet. After all the cutest person here will be gone for three whole weeks!" That made her laugh, she gave her dad a hug and went to find Yukio.
She found him sitting outside, "Umm, Yukio?" she asked as she approached him. He looked up at her but said nothing.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving today, and I'll miss you ok." she had a hard time knowing what to say to him. I really didn't tell Rin bye, I just told him to take care of himself. How am I supposed to do this?
Yukio smiled at her, "I'll miss you too, come home safe ok?" She nodded and ran over and hugged him then ran back to the house before he could say anything. He sat there stunned for a moment blushing. Please don't be gone too long, he thought watching her gold hair trail behind her dancing in the sunlight.
. . .
"Feet wider apart," Arthur Auguste Angel called to her. She spread her legs more and repeated the exercise he had just taught her. Sweat dripped down her face and her arms started to shake. I need to do this in order to become stronger, she reminded herself taking deep breaths and trying to focus on the routine.
Her teacher Arthur Auguste Angel was a rising star among the exorcists and she trained with him about half of the time, the rest of the time a girl only a little older than her named Shura Kirigakure trained with her.
She completed her task and turned to Angel for further instructions, "That's fine for now, but I want you to do it fifty more times and after that you can take a break for lunch,"
Rico nodded and went back to work, she didn't like that she could feel him watching her, but her dad had told her everything should be just fine so she just kept working. She had been away from home for a whole week and she could already feel that she was stronger. I just need to keep getting stronger, I won't let anyone else close to me get killed.
Her focus was too sharp for a child her age, it made her eyes look like they were made of ice, Angel watched the young girl trying to decide why she was in such a hurry to become an exorcist. I would say it is because of her parents deaths, but she hardly knew them since she was only two when they died she probably doesn't even remember them. Whatever her driving force was she was picking up anything he taught her a lot faster than she should have. It will be interesting to see what she is like when she is older, he thought leaving the room to find something to eat.
When she was finally finished Rico was so exhausted that she just passed out on the floor. Angel found her like that an hour later and poured a glass of water on her, "Break time over, start up with twenty-five push ups and sit ups." She nodded and did what Angel told her too, she had learned not to talk back to him on the first day of training. She would pay dearly for even thinking twice about doing something he told her too, besides she was too tired to argue. She knew this training would be worth it in the end, so she worked and hoped the time training with Angel would be over soon.
