Chapter One: Transfer Student
Shura sat on the desk in front of the class her legs crossed and glancing over the class lazily. She was still slightly exhausted from the previous night having stayed up tutoring Rin; but she was not allowing it to distract her. Her head throbbed slightly as she reached over for the clipboard that had been left for her. She glanced over it and suddenly her eye lit up with excitement.
"Class it appears that today we will have a new student joining us." She announced and glanced over at the door expectantly, however there was no knocking or indication of someone coming in. Shura glanced over the class once more doing a head count, no she had not missed them. She made up her mind as the class looked at her blankly, "Just kidding Ahahahahah!" she laughed at them trying to cover her blunder as a joke. The transfer student wasn't due to appear until Yukio came, she had missed that because it was written underneath in much smaller font.
The class meanwhile stared at her confused, she hadn't been here as an instructor all that long; maybe a few days at most. She uncrossed her legs and slipped off of the desk, "Well~ it looks like I'll just start class now." She announced walking around the desk to approach the chalkboard, glancing at the clock only five minutes late not that bad.
She droned on for the full hour and a half trying as best as she could to keep the lesson entertaining for her sake as well as the class's, but unfortunately the class was as dry as the desert. At the end of class curious to see who the transfer was she went over to the back of the class room and took a seat in the desk. The only thing from the clip board left for her that she touched was the picture of the transfer student the clip board left for Yukio. The transfer student, a female to Shura's delight in need of someone to talk to in this class was young maybe as old as Rin and Yukio at most based on her appearance. She had heterochromia, her left eye was bright electric blue and the right was an energetic green, it was not only noticeable because of the vastly different colours but also because she had such large round eyes framed by dark thick lashes. The young girl's hair was an unusual and beautiful shade of pastel pink, the hair light and airy almost looking like cotton candy, it was long and held away from her face by a side ponytail adorned with a large white bow.
"What are you doing?" Rin called out turning from his desk near the front of the classroom to face Shura.
Shura had already kicked her feet up on the desk in front of her, "Watching over you, what do you think I'm doing?" she called back, Rin frowned and turned back to the front of the classroom crossing his arms his tail twitching in annoyance. Shiemi leaned over and whispered something to him and he calmed down. Shura chanced a glance at the clock, right on time Yukio walked into the classroom to begin the lesson.
He ignored the clipboard that Shura had purposely left out for him to read, she sighed and rolled her eyes of all times for him not to read something. He began his lesson but only a few minutes into the lecture there was a knocking on the door that before Yukio could even move to open it was thrown open.
"Yuki!" shrieked an eager female voice, the transfer student darted from the door straight towards the instructor. It was the transfer student Shura had seen in the photo, she leapt into the air and embraced Yuki clamping onto him with her arms and legs squeezing tightly, "Yuki! It's so good to see you! How have you been?" she eagerly rushed still clamped onto him, he flushed bright red and his arms swung around embarrassedly.
The class watched this all play out confused, Shura was also part of the confusion who the heck was it that just burst in? And what was the relationship that she had with Yukio? Raced through Shura's mind as the petite girl detangled herself from Yukio glancing around the room, her eyes locked onto Rin.
"Oh my gosh you must be Rin!" She called out and dashed over to the desk she slammed her hands on the desk repeatedly in her excitement. She then pointed to herself as she bounced up and down on the spot, "You probably don't remember me, but we played together as children. Father Fujimoto looked after me as well. Eh you've gotten so handsome!" she jumped up onto the desk sitting on her knees and reached across grabbing his cheeks and pulling on them, "Still as squishy as ever!" she remarked giggling.
"Who are you?!" Bon called out watching the whole scenario play out, Yukio coughed at the front of the class trying to compose himself. Everyone turned to look at him expecting him to regain control of the excited transfer student since he can control his brother-for the most part.
"Everyone I am pleased to introduce Natsuki Fujimoto, she is extremely experienced in exorcism but has had no formal training. She has received special permission from Sir Pheles to attend Cram school with us all-please welcome her." Yukio called out.
Natsuki now formally introduced leapt off of Rin's desk to face the class her energy calming down considerably. She faced them looking politely, "Pleased to meet you, please treat me well." She greeted bowing politely then straightening up and smiling widely.
"I think I'm in love!" Shima breathed as he stared up at the front of the class room taking in the new student. She stood at the front of the room awkwardly shifting as if unsure, she bit her lip as she glanced around. Her eyes flicking to Yukio as if begging for advice.
"Shima you're a monk!" Konekumaru insisted as he observed the pink haired student, he noted that she had a bugling shoulder bag at her hip the front decorated with various pins.
Bon lifted his hand, adjusting his glasses Yukio glanced up and nodded telling Bon to continue, "How experienced is Miss Fujimoto?" he asked curiously glancing suspiciously at Natsuki. He silently prayed she wouldn't be like how Rin was at the start of their training, especially since she not only knows him but seems as childish as him.
"Oh well you see I started at a younger age than Yukio-but like he said I have no formal training so they put me at Exwire with all of you guys. But I can handle very high level demons on my own." Natsuki answered interrupting Yukio who had only opened his mouth to shut it as Natsuki rambled.
"What's your discipline then?" Rin asked curiously his tail twitching Natsuki's gaze fixated on the movement.
Natsuki grinned and clapped her hands together, "Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" she announced, "I've been waiting for this question." She explained, she paused to take a deep breath and then her face became deathly serious, "Rise from the depths of ice and darkness and crush with all your might Ecidious" the girl announced placing her right hand before her palm down and her left hand bracing her right at the elbow. Suddenly a black and grey coloured magic circle sprung into existence on the floor under her right hand.
From the magic circle a katana rose up, its hilt a dark shade of ebony, with her right hand she drew it from its position and held it aloft, "I'm a knight." She announced and then paused putting her finger to her chin, "Oh and a tamer-though I don't have a contract or a familiar yet. I'm waiting to find one." She swung the sword in a graceful arc around her before sheathing it into a sheath strapped behind her that no one had noticed until now.
The class simply blinked overwhelmed by the new student, meanwhile Natsuki was glancing around the class room still unsure of where she could sit and if she could. She decided to sit at the other desk at the front of the class room to be close to Yukio and across from Rin, and sat down. She placed her bag on the desk next to her and withdrew all the appropriate textbooks and notebooks for the class. She then looked expectantly to the front of the class, she was calm and composed now.
Yukio recollected himself for what seemed like the umpteenth time and then began class, he watched surprised as Natsuki diligently took notes. She was as energetic as he remembered, but he could tell that the years they had been apart had taken a toll on her. She had hardened he could tell by the way she took her notes-she tried to hide behind that childish act but she was still broken on the inside. Rin kept glancing at her confused, Yukio supposed as much. They had played with her a lot since Father Fujimoto was legally her guardian but she was also kept away a lot-though Yukio had his speculations as to why based on Rin's condition and what he knew of Natsuki he had no definitive answer.
She was always an excellent exorcist, Yukio had seen her in action and seen the reports- but for some reason Father Fujimoto had insisted that she not could be educated alongside Yukio or join True Cross Knights. Natsuki acted on her own for all these years as an exorcist teaching herself; it was Sir Pheles that approached the young girl to ask her to become an actual exorcist through True Cross. Yukio assumed that Sir Pheles only acted since Father Fujimoto had passed, and it had taken up until now to find her because Natsuki did such a good job of hiding herself.
At the end of class there was rapping on the door, Yukio glanced over not knowing what the disturbance was. The door was thrown open mush like when Natsuki first arrived. But instead of an eager young girl it was Sir Pheles himself. He walked into the class room grinning dressed in his usual white suit and his umbrella clasped in his hands.
"Sir Pheles over here!" Natsuki called out waving eagerly from her seat, "Look I'm in a class room! I'm actually in a class room!"
"Ah I see my new student is fitting in nicely." Sir Pheles announced still grinning, "Please treat her nicely. I was just coming to see how things were going-now Natsuki you're not going to kill Rin now are you?" he asked her, he supposed he should have done this earlier. After all he knew what motivated the young girl to become an exorcist, he wouldn't be surprised if he had another Igor incident on his hands.
Quick as a flash Natsuki had thrown herself at Rin embracing him from behind, "Rin is like family to me! I wouldn't hurt a hair on his head!" she insisted stubbornly, "Even if you know, he's related to you know who".
Mephsito sighed, that was a disaster averted, "Well then I will be leaving!" he said with a flourish before striding out of the class room.
"Bye Mephy!" Natsuki called out after him, she then glanced down at Rin still hugging him, "Hey~" she called to him which only caused him to blush a deeper red than he already was.
"So are you saying if Rin wasn't like family you would kill him?" Konekomaru asked quietly from his seat next to Bon and Shima.
Natsuki released Rin and turned around to face them, "I only exorcize demons that need to be exorcized, if they aren't harming humans than I don't think they need to die." She started, she turned her head to the side as she continued, "Is coming here to earth all that of a bad thing? What if they're just curious, wouldn't you be? I mean considering Satan is the king of where they live I'm sure seeing a world not ruled by him would be nice." She explained and oddly enough the class found themselves nodding along with her rather unusual logic.
"How did you learn exorcism?" Konekomaru asked without really meaning to, it had been bothering him all class but he didn't want to come out and ask. He'd have rather waited until she told them herself. She glanced up at him with her mismatched eyes and offered a small weak smile.
"Well… I was first exposed to exorcism when I was five years old. I then started training myself to be an Aria memorizing religious passages, and when I was six I began exorcizing lower class demons. Mostly harmless ones like goblins and coal tars-but after a while I felt bad about it because they weren't really causing all that much harm." She started and then she downcast her eyes looking at the floor. Her voice became very soft, "At this time Father Fujimoto was my legitimate guardian but I was living with a close friend of his. However- a very high class demon appeared at the residence… it was a temple you see and someone had brought a cursed artifact in requesting an exorcism. It was handed to an inexperienced and young monk who did not do the purification ritual which allowed the demon access into the temple."
"It was a massacre, I was trying to get people out because not all of the monks were exorcists and we had ordinary people in there as well… in the chaos I came across Ecidious" her hand patting at the sword at her side, "I sort of drew it by accident not realising the power-or the curse it carried. Since then I've carried this sword with me everywhere." She paused again sighing deeply her eyes slowly dragging from the floor, her hand that rested on the sword came up and touched at her right eye.
"I lived with Father Fujimoto for a few months before he arranged for me to be moved to a small town in Italy and live at a church where another one of his close relations lived. It was actually beneficial for me. Being such an old city I was living in many demons lived there. Many people came to the church requesting exorcisms but few were ever recognized or dealt with. I could over hear them all-the priests unaware I was observing. And then I would sort of go over to wherever the demon was and handle the situation myself in secret." And with that her hand returned to her sword patting at it, she sighed and shrugged suddenly looking excited and energetic, "And then when I was twelve, True Cross was sort of figuring out what it was that I was doing. So I took off and went into hiding, I have been for the past five years." Rin counted his fingers, five years meant that she was seventeen-she was actually older than all of them despite her youthful face.
"Why hiding?" Shima asked.
Natsuki bit her lip and tapped her fingers together, "Well… handling exorcisms without permission from True Cross is sort of well not illegal but can be punishable. I was afraid of getting into trouble especially because like I said before I don't always exorcize the demon. Sometimes I just have a heart to heart with them and convince them to behave themselves or return home."
"A heart to heart? You mean you talked with them?" Shima asked for clarification, everyone stared at her, "Isn't that dangerous?"
"It does carry a hint of danger, but they can make nice conversation at times." She responded, "Just watch their teeth." She said wiggling her fingers, just slightly visible were several scars along her fingers, some resembling teeth marks. She tapped at her eye again and shrugged her shoulders, "I guess it's just a talent that I have, you know talking with them."
The bell rung and Natsuki glanced at it, "That means we change classes right?" she asked.
"Uh yeah." Rin answered not quite sure if her question was serious or not.
"So cool, I've never been in a school before." She breathed jumping up and snatching her bag, "I'll follow your lead." She chirped.
With that the class together got up from their seats and walked down the hall. Shima was the first to approach her, "Hey, I never got the chance to introduce myself. I'm Shima." He said extending his hand out towards her.
She took it gratefully and shook it, "Natsuki." She giggled, "But I'm sure you already knew that." She looked at him oddly then her brows knitting in confusion, Shima stared back equally confused.
"Do you like spiders or something?" she asked him and he shook his head, "Well that's odd-since." And with that she reached forward towards his shoulder. He then glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw an enormous spider resting on it, "You have this fellow resting on you." And with that she plucked the spider off of his shoulder.
She shrugged, "I guess the little fellow had just gotten lost.", she took the spider over to the wall and released it, it scuttled away towards the ceiling. Shima watched it all horrified, he was trembling in fright and eyes were wide.
"Hey are you okay?" she asked him worriedly her large eyes wide, the two different colours were almost hypnotically.
"Yeah I'm fine just fine absolutely fine." He responded and began to compulsively rub at his shoulder, I need to take a shower, I need to take a shower. I need to take a shower his mind chanted as he rubbed at the spot the spider had rested. He glanced at Natsuki he wasn't sure if he should revere her as his guardian angel for getting the spider off of him or fear her because she simply plucked the spider off of him.
"Shima doesn't like bugs, you'll just have to excuse him." Konekomaru said finally catching up with the two chatting students, "I-uh I'm Konekomaru. Nice to meet you." He greeted.
Natsuki smiled at him showing her dazzling white teeth, "Nice to meet you too. Let me guess you're studying to be an Aria aren't you?" she asked.
He nodded and laughed, "How could you tell?"
"Just this feeling I had, plus you really seemed to know what you were talking about in class answering all of Yukio's questions." She replied this time tapping at her blue eye, the motion did not go unobserved by Yukio or Bon. Why did the transfer student tap her eyes like that?
Bon decided it best to introduce himself, "Hello, I'm Ryuji Suguro-" he started extending his hand to her but his friends cut him off.
"But we call him Bon." Shima and Konekomaru said in unison before glancing at each other and forcing down a snicker as they both saw Bon's face out of the corner of their eyes. Bon was frowning unimpressed, and a bright red blush appeared on his cheeks from embarrassment.
"Bon…Bon.. oh I get it like a bonbon." Natsuki remarked grinning and swinging her arms freely around her, she glanced up at Bon, "You don't mind if I call you that do you?" she asked him politely.
He flushed again and glanced away embarrassed, "N-No it's fine."
"Really you don't mind?" she asked again and he nodded, she then giggled, "I like it, it sounds like candy."
"Is that why you dyed your hair to look like cotton candy?" Shima asked.
"No it grows that way naturally-by the way does your grow that shade of pink on its own I was just wondering." She replied nonchalantly.
"Um… no?" Shima replied confused glancing at his friends who looked equally confused.
There was the sound of footsteps trying to catch up with them and then a clattering sound. Natsuki whipped around and caught Sheimi who had fallen because she had rushed to catch up to the new girl, "Are you okay?" she asked deeply concerned.
"Oh uh yeah, I'm fine really. I'm really sorry about that." Shiemi apologised as Natsuki helped her to her feet, "I'm really, really sorry."
"No, no it's fine. Really I don't mind, I was just worried about you." Natsuki insisted.
Now on her feet Shiemi brushed herself off, "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Shiemi." She said as she extended her hand to Natsuki.
Natsuki smiled brilliantly, "Natsuki Fujimoto." She replied and smiled even wider closing her eyes, "Let's be friends." Shiemi smiled then, it was as if Natsuki had read her mind.
"Best of friends." Shiemi insisted and the girls nodded and shared a smile.
Izumo then strode up to the two of them brushing her ponytails over her shoulder, "Izumo, nice to meet you." She said in her usual cold tone. Natsuki nodded and offered a small smile. The group continued down the hall together, Izumo silently gliding along and Bon occasionally adding input to the conversation that Konekomaru and Shima were engaged in. Shiemi and Natsuki were talking to one another but mostly giggling together.
Rin walked up and tapped Natsuki on the shoulder, she stopped her giggling to look up at him and smile, "Hey, I just want to apologise. I don't really seem to remember you." Rin apologised.
Natsuki waved her hands between them, "Its fine I get it, sometimes these things just take time. I'm sure you'll remember me eventually. And despite my appearance I find that I fade easily into the background." She explained winking at him, only her blue eye shinning at him.
"So have you not been in a formal school before?" Rin asked her thinking back to what she had said in class, thinking about the odd questions that she was asking.
She shook her head, "No, I haven't. Up until I was twelve I was tutored at the temples I was living in. Afterwards I taught myself, I purchased textbooks and workbooks and taught myself." She sighed and stretched, "I'm so excited to be here and sit in a classroom and make friends. I've already made so many friends."
Rin thought about it, it reminded him of himself. Although he had gone to school he had caused so much trouble he never really got to experience school until now. There was a momentary twinge of regret in him, he realised how fortunate he had been to be able to go to school as a child. But it was replaced by the reminder that if things had gone differently he might not have the friends he does now. And now he had someone to understand him as well.
"Natsuki, how old are you?" Rin asked remembering how he determined she was at least seventeen.
She paused in her step and Rin noticed her bristling, she put her hands on her hips and frowned at him, "You never ask a lady how old she is-it's how young." She remarked as she frowned at him, she then smiled and winked, "Almost eighteen-almost by this many months." She answered holding up three fingers.
Rin grinned and shook his head, "You know saying seventeen would have been a lot easier." He remarked.
"I don't like doing things the easy way-the hard way is much more fun don't you think?" she chirped and Rin grinned back at her nodding his head. He may not remember Natsuki right now but he was sure that he was going to her along with her.
"So what's the next class?" Natsuki asked curiously her two different coloured eyes shining.
"P.E. get ready for me to run laps around you." Rin stated challengingly grinning and revealing his sharp teeth.
A mischievous twinkle entered her eyes, "Oh we'll see about that." she answered just as challenging.
So new story hurray! Well for those of you waiting for the next chapter of 'I Shall Be Your Sword And Shield' sorry but this is where time has been going lately as well as other stories. It is NOT dropped, I'll repeat that not dropped just a bit of writer's block write now because it's a boring filler chapter before exciting plot things happen!
I wasn't planning on posting but apparently there are no decent 'Aoi No Exorcist' fanfictions, don't know whether this is considered decent but I'm giving it a shot.
Natsuki is a really funny character, her backstory (next chapter) I tragic and sad so she's actually quite mature, but because she was stripped of a childhood she acts really childish and carefree on the exterior. She's a suffer in silence type not willing to burden people with her problems but always willing to be that happy smile someone needs in a jam.
Hope you enjoyed reading this and my super long rant, and thank you!
I do no own Blue Exrocist or any of it's characters