Rin was practically asleep when she got on the train. The loudspeaker loud-spoke the name of the station, which half-conscious he missed, and his head snapped up with a jolt. What an old fart he'd turned into, and only at twenty-six. Long day, lame schedule, boring train ride back to the apartment. At least he'd gotten a seat. Snatched it after some old lady got off six or seven stops ago with a mountain of groceries. Living so far away from the Academy sucked.

He yawned, his eyes watering, so he rubbed at them, then the doors dinged and opened and she stepped on—a woman with waves of long golden hair down her back. He blinked at her and she took a place at the hand-hold pole in front of him. She caught him looking and she smiled, so he looked away—a little pink—and when she turned her head, he stared at her shoes instead. A shiny pair of—what did you call those? Short heels? The kind with the strap that goes over the top. And tights, she had tights on, too, dark red ones under a longish black skirt with folds in it. He snuck a peek at her face. She was pretty, and definitely foreign, in a knit scarf and a sweater, and she wobbled slightly, catching onto the pole as the train started to pull away from the station.

She caught him looking again and this time he blushed.

The train picked up speed, rushing through the tunnels under Academy Town, the occasional light flicking by in the windows in drawn-out lines. So much to do when he got home…was Yukio back yet? He needed to feed Kuro. He just wanted to sleep… He'd started to nod off again when the train came to a smacking halt and the momentum flung him into the bar at his side and the blonde lady into his empty seat.

Flick—the overhead lights swapped for the emergency orange. He and the lady looked at each other in surprise. She was squashed against the hard plastic of the train seat. Around them, little conversations of alarm sprang up, passengers started to right themselves.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Someone pulled the emergency break," he said, and got up.

He went swiftly up the train car—he was seated in the second—and opened the door, stepping carefully across the gap and into the front car. The people there were just as jumbled, some of them still sprawled on the floor. He went to the operator's door and knocked.

"What's going on?" he asked through the plexiglass.

The operator shot to his feet and whipped open the door. He grabbed Rin's shoulders. "You! You're an exorcist, right?" His eyes were wild and he spit a little as he shouted.

Rin didn't much feel like dealing with crazy anymore today. "Yeah…why?" He slid out of the man's grasp and smoothed out the shoulders of his uniform.

The operator pointed with a wild finger out the front window of the train. "Look!"

There, in the beam of the headlights, standing in the middle of the tracks, was a person. But it wasn't a person—the limbs hung limp at an unnatural angle, its head lolled over.

"A ghoul."

The operator let out a squeal. "A demon! A demon!" The people in the cab of the train heard him and panicked, scrambling to their feet and letting out screams of their own, pushing each other as they tried to get to the back of the car and the door Rin had come through. He turned and looked over his shoulder.

"Hey!"

They stopped, stared at Rin.

"Calm down." Nobody moved. He turned to the operator. "Call the Knights of the True Cross emergency number, ask for Yukio. Tell them Rin Okumura is already here." The operator picked up the phone on the dash of his control board and started dialing immediately. Rin started down the cab of the car. "Evacuate to the last car. Get as many people in as you can, and don't get out of the train. Got it?"

He'd reached the door. A few of the people nodded at him, and he nodded back, swinging himself down onto the tracks. It was only a ghoul, and there was only one. He probably wouldn't need Yukio, but better safe than sorry. He worked his way around the train until he popped out at the front. When it saw him, the ghoul stopped walking.

If he didn't need to draw Kurikara, he wouldn't. The less attention he attracted the better. In the darkness of the train tunnel, his blue flames would be bright as hell—probably just freak people out more. As he approached the ghoul, he swung the sword in its scabbard down from his back.

"All right, ugly. Let's get this over with."

Rin took a step, ready to bolt for the ghoul and give it a good whack—even in its sheath Kurikara was still an effective weapon—but just as his foot left the ground, a chorus of moans sounded down the tunnel. He hesitated. Shit. Ten or twelve more ghouls slumped into the light, groaning and gurgling. He should have suspected. They always traveled in packs.

Well, there was nothing for it. Rin would have to take them on by himself until Yukio came with back up. He ran at the first ghoul, smashed it over the head with Kurikara and turned to take a jab at the next. He took three or four down until a ghoul grabbed onto his jacket. He shook it loose, but it grabbed again and pulled. He stumbled, and slipped away, knocking the legs out from under a ghoul to his left. Down the tunnel, the moans grew louder. The bulk of the pack, stuck tight against each other, filling the tunnel wall to wall, was coming toward him.

"Shit."

There was no way. He whacked a ghoul away from his legs. He'd have to draw Kurikara, there was just no way he could do it otherwise. Whack, whack, two more, and even then he wasn't sure if he could take them all out by himself. He'd need—

"Heads up!"

Rin turned and—bam, ducked just in time as the blonde woman in the dark red tights, her hair gathered up in a knot on the top of her head, came running at him and hurled something sharp past his head at a ghoul he hadn't noticed was reaching for his throat. Whatever she threw sliced right through its neck and came hurtling back at her where she caught it with a gloved hand.

"What are you waiting for? Draw your sword."

She took only a moment to glance at him and give him a prodding look he didn't care for before dashing off down the train tracks into the pack of waiting ghouls. As she ran she reached up and crossed her arms behind her head. Her sweater slipped from her shoulders and from a pair of tattoos on her back in the shape of a sun and a moon she drew two blades. They flashed for a moment in the beam of the headlights before she started hacking away at the ghouls. Sweet.

Rin couldn't help the smile that spread out on his face. He let the red cloth fall from around Kurikara's scabbard and then pulled the blade from its sheath. Instantly the tunnel walls lit up in blue light, and with a swift slice, he sent a wave of flame into the group of ghouls that had surrounded him and cut them down.

Up ahead of him the woman paused, almost in shock, at stared at him, at his flames. The moment lasted only a few seconds before she appeared to accept it and move on, slicing off a ghoul's legs at the knee. That was the fastest Rin had ever seen anyone deal with the sight of him in full demon form.

Together the pair of them worked their way down the pack of ghouls, Rin taking swift swipes with Kurikara and sending out shafts of flames, the woman working quickly with her dual blades and the boomerang sickle. She could send that thing flying down the tunnel, slicing ghouls, kill a few with her swords, and then catch it on its way back, pausing for but a moment to take aim and let it fly again.

She was incredible, but even with the two of them the pack of ghouls was just too thick. Soon, they'd worked their way deep enough into the pack to be out of the light of the train, but they'd also managed to get themselves surrounded. Where had they all come from?

"It's no good!" the woman shouted over their shrieks. "I'm going to find the alpha. Think you can handle yourself here?"

"Yeah, but—"

Before he could protest, she leapt away, cutting a path to the side of the tunnel like she was hacking through the jungle with a machete. Even if she found the alpha, there was no way she could take it down by herself. The alpha controlled the pack—the second she started attacking it, it would turn the other ghouls on her. He'd have to try and keep them busy.

Using his flames by now had become second nature. He just let them do what they wanted, instinctually controlling them at the back of his mind. Ghoul after ghoul fell to his sword and the flames. A minute or so passed before a great, bellowing roar came whooshing down the tunnel past his ears. She'd found the alpha.

And right on cue the ghouls all turned from Rin and started lumbering down the tunnel, back to the alpha to protect it. For a few moments it made his job easier, attacking the ghouls without them attacking back, but eventually about half the pack peeled away and focused on Rin while the others trailed away into the darkness where he could not see, but could hear the chop-slice of that woman's swords. The ghouls surrounded him in a neat circle, motionless. He turned slowly, surveying them, watching, waiting for their—

Snap! Hissing and snarling they all came barreling at him at once, closing in like a pack of lions upon their prey and in that same instant a series of gunshots echoed through the tunnel and about half of their heads exploded. Just in time. Rin took out the rest with Kurikara. He turned, and there was Yukio standing in the headlights, reloading his handgun.

"I was headed home, so I was close," he said, coming forward.

"Thanks."

"Sure. What's going on down there?"

Rin shook his head. "I don't know. Some lady. She just appeared out of nowhere and started killing ghouls, so I went with it."

He shrugged and a second round of ghouls came out of the shadows toward them.

"An exorcist?" Yukio shot a few.

"I guess so, but she wasn't wearing any gear. Had a pair of blades like Shura's—well, not like Shura's, but she pulled them out of her back like Shura, well—never mind. You get the point." Rin shook his head, killed a ghoul.

A terrible, rumbling groan reverberated down the tunnel, followed by a tremendous crash. At once all the ghouls dropped dead around them.

Rin nearly dropped Kurikara. "She did it."

Yukio looked at him. "Did what?"

"She took out the alpha."

Yukio raised his eyebrows. It was quiet now, aside from the sound of short heels clacking against the train tracks. Yukio and Rin stared as the woman appeared wandering out of the darkness.

"Either of you have a Doctor meister?" she asked, holding a hand to her bleeding arm, laughing and spitting out blood. "That last one…" She paused, wobbling, and going, if it was possible, even paler than she already was.

Yukio slapped Rin's arm. "She's going to faint. Catch her, Rin!"

Startled, Rin hurried forward and managed to get a grip under the woman's arms before she went completely limp. She was surprisingly heavy, and in his haste, Rin had placed himself at an awkward angle. He began to slip, and seconds later he was forced to plop onto the ground himself, the woman in his lap. He grunted under her weight.

Her eyes cracked open and she looked at him, a chuckle that turned into a cough sending up a little spurt of blood from her mouth.

"Nice flames," she said, and then she completely passed out.