Author's Note: Because I think this crossover has a lot of potential, I decided to try my hand at writing one. I know, I know, I should be working on my other multi-chapter stories, but what the plot bunnies want, the plot bunnies eventually get...*Cue organ music and lightning flash* Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this story, as it's my first time writing for Blue Exorcist characters, so feel free to read on.
Before Yukio Okumura finished regaining consciousness, his head pounding and his tongue feeling like it had been replaced with a piece of sandpaper, he had already decided that whatever it was that had happened was all his older twin brother Rin's fault.
It took him a few minutes to open his eyes, the delay a combination of the throbbing pain in his head and his eyelids feeling like they'd been glued shut. When he managed to open them a crack, he promptly slammed them back closed - bad idea, he thought as his headache reached new heights of pain, definitely a bad idea, as the light had seemed to shine directly into his eyes. Honestly, the myriad of aches and pains over his body felt a lot like that one time he'd made the mistake of going out drinking with his fellow exorcist Shura.
He had woken up in a similar condition in the middle of a forest sans pants and yet somehow still retaining his guns and boots. No one, including him, knew what exactly had happened to land him in that condition, but after searching around his pockets he had discovered a paper talisman and a salamander tooth that he knew for certain he hadn't had the day before. The Dragoon/Doctor class exorcist exerted great force of will and once again cracked open his eyes, cringing away from the painful sting of the bright light above him, and it took him a moment to register that the source of the light he'd noted previously was actually the sun.
That was odd for several reasons, the greatest of which was that the last thing he remembered was fighting a demon at night, which meant that either he'd been unconscious for longer than he was comfortable with or...he couldn't think of another reason at the moment, groaning as he slowly, carefully rolled over onto his side. Yes, he thought, in a great deal of pain from the movement, somehow he was absolutely sure that whatever had happened was Rin's fault.
Yukio recalled, vaguely, going out on a mission with Rin and...Bon - er, Ryuuji? The oddity of that made him pause for a moment to be sure that that was an actual memory before he moved on (apparently the mission had required an Aria and someone with excellent memorization skills, and Bon was both of those), trying to recall any specifics. Unfortunately, nothing else came to mind through the pounding in his head, and he reluctantly stopped trying - for the moment anyway.
His eyes, which had drifted closed while he'd been thinking, slowly opened again, one hand drifting up to rub at the sleep-gunk that was trying to glue his eyelids shut. Once he judged that he'd gotten enough of the stuff off that he was going to get, he opened his eyes again, thinking that the third time was the charm. And he was sort of right, he thought wryly, gazing incredulously at the veritable wall of greenery in front of him as he levered himself up onto his knees, his arms shaking with exertion and his aching body protesting the action. He counted himself lucky that, whatever had happened, his glasses were still on his face, and thus he didn't have to deal with blurry vision on top of everything else.
The green wall turned out to be made of bushes of various types, not to mention vines hanging from leafy tree branches, and he blinked wordlessly at the sight. Doubtlessly Shiemi would have known what each piece of foliage was and if any of them could be used (or eaten, he noticed some of the bushes had berries), even if she would have called them by her own names for them instead of their proper names. As it was, the socially-awkward blonde wasn't there, and Yukio could only put a name to a few types of vines, and unfortunately none of them were of any use to him at the moment.
Sighing resignedly, he rubbed at his eyes again, slowly moving so that his back was to the wall of foliage and a minute later he had a good view of the opposite direction. When he saw the still, dark-clad form that had been laying behind him, it was like his heart stopped in shock and fear and before another thought crossed his mind he was scrambling over to where Rin was sprawled on the ground. It was unquestionably his older twin, the black hair, the elf-like pointed ears, and the faintly twitching tail and all.
Yukio sighed in relief when he saw his brother's tail moving, that movement reassuring him more than anything as it meant that Rin was still alive. He could deal with anything else, he thought in relief, as long as his brother was alive and more-or-less okay. Judging by the peaceful expression and thin line of drool coming from Rin's mouth, the black-haired teen was merely sleeping and Yukio had simply been the first one of them to wake up in...wherever it was they were.
As far as the experienced exorcist could tell they were in the middle of some kind of forest, or at least that was what the large amount of greenery, the bright blue sky above them, and the chorus of bird song and various other animal sounds seemed to indicate. The foliage wasn't thick enough to be called a jungle, as he could see more than a dozen feet in each direction through the trees, and when he didn't see anything even remotely threatening he relaxed a bit, looking back at his brother's sleeping face.
His headache was slowly but surely beginning to fade away, and he shifted so that he was sitting cross-legged, contemplating whether or not he should try to wake up Rin or let the older twin regain consciousness naturally. Yukio knew from experience that it was difficult to wake Rin on normal days, which was why he enlisted Kuro's help more often than not, and then there was the fact that he didn't know if Rin had sustained any hidden injuries or was under a sleep spell or some condition caused by - well, by the mission that he couldn't remember to consider...He groaned wearily, his headache spiking as his thoughts went around in circles and he sighed in exasperation.
Despite his confusion and slight uncertainty over waking up in a strange forest next to his unconscious brother, he had to admit that they could have been in a worse situation. At least the scenery was nice, Yukio thought, trying to be optimistic, though that only lasted until he saw a strange purple squirrel-like thing with small horns scurry across the clearing and up a tree. Okay, things just got a little worse, he sighed again - strange forest critters aside, he didn't think they were in Gehenna, as that squirrel-thing would have probably tried to eat him if that was the case.
Just as he was trying to figure out where they were, staring in a kind of fearful fascination as a large bright green bird flew overhead (and he was fairly certain that that bird had also had horns...), he was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of his brother waking up. Whipping his head around to look at Rin so quickly he almost pulled a muscle, he watched anxiously as his brother sat up, stretching and yawning as though he was just waking up from a nap. Showing no signs of the aches and pains that were afflicting Yukio, which the younger twin thought was very unfair, Rin yawned a second time before blinking dazed-looking blue eyes and uttering a bemused, "Wha?"
Yukio resisted the urge to face-palm, though just barely, instead hanging his head and sighing before straightening up as best he could and smiling wanly as he said, "I'm glad you're alright, Rin. You are alright, aren't you?" The last was said with a small amount of barely concealed concern, just in case his brother had any unseen injuries or mystery pains.
A faintly relieved expression crossed his face when Rin nodded his head in confusion, only to vanish a moment later when Rin asked the dreaded question, "What about you? Are you okay?" and he struggled to come up with a vague-yet-satisfying answer. Unfortunately he took a minute too long to answer, because before he could blink Rin was scrambling across the few feet that separated them, his tail lashing with worry behind him as the appendage slipped out of his older brother's shirt. Yukio flinched back when Rin brought his face close to his, blue eyes locked on blue as Rin demanded, "What's wrong? Are you hurt anywhere?"
The exorcist leaned back, raising his hands defensively as he hurried to assure his brother, "No, no I'm fine, just a few aches and a headache..." and after he finished speaking, he realized too late that that was wrong thing to say as he watched Rin's expression change into one of deep concern. He spent the next ten minutes fighting off Rin's attempts to take off his shirt - as if he'd be hiding an actual wound! he thought in exasperation - and take his temperature and a dozen other things while at the same time assuring Rin that the aches weren't any worse than the ones he had after a hard day's training or a mission that required a lot of physical activity and that his headache was already fading. It took another six minutes for Rin to grudgingly believe him and back down, sitting cross-legged a few inches in front of Yukio.
Rin fidgeted a bit, his tail flicking uncertainly behind him as he glanced around, eyes open for anything suspicious or dangerous, and after a moment he asked, "Soooo...where are we? This doesn't look anything like that shrine..." he trailed off, seeing Yukio's confused look, and he asked defensively, "What? It doesn't! Even I can see that!"
Yukio shook his head hurriedly, asking Rin in confusion, "No, it's not that, it's just - what shrine are you talking about?" he was sure he'd remember if they'd been visiting a shrine...wouldn't he?
"Huh? What do you mean 'what shrine'? The Koodorishinja Shrine*! Don't you remember...?" The last part trailed off as Rin leaned forward, his eyes trained on the confused and strangely vulnerable expression that stubbornly refused to leave Yukio's face, and it was with the force of a revelation that Rin breathed out, "You really don't..." A few moments of uncomfortable silence descended, Yukio reluctant to admit - out loud - that he had no memory of the mission that had landed them in their current predicament and Rin uneasy about being the one who knew the most about the situation for a change. The role didn't feel nearly as good as he thought it would have, Rin reflected morosely, looking uncertainly at his brother before taking a deep breath.
"Okay, it all started a couple of days ago, I think, since I don't know how long we were out for, when you, me, and Bon got called for a mission," Rin started, Yukio listening attentively, trying to piece together his own memories of the mission as his brother spoke, "The one calling for help was the head priest of this shrine on an isolated mountain, the Koodorishinja Shrine, which I remember because it's name sounded funny. Apparently lately some strange things had been happening around the shrine, disappearing idols, strange lights, spooky noises and everything, and they just kept getting worse until they were beginning to effect the small town at the base of the mountain. The deity of the shrine wasn't responding to the priest's prayers and he and the lesser priests were at their wits' end trying to figure out what was going on, so the head priest called True Cross Academy. I don't really know how the mission got passed to you, but after class you told me and Bon to stay behind - apparently you thought that the things going in the shrine were the result of a poltergeist or low level demon."
"So, I guess you decided to bring Bon along because he'd memorized a lot of purification rituals and chants, and you asked me to come in order to protect Bon while he was chanting in case something slipped by you. Well we got to shrine about a day after the request came, and let me tell you, the place was a mess! It was even worse than our room after that dog spirit snuck in and got into a fight with Kuro!" Yeah, that was pretty bad, Yukio winced at the memory as Rin snickered, "Anyway, there were priests running around and trying to fix things while being chased by umbrellas and sandals and there was even a coat rack floating around and smacking people. The priests - even the head priest! - all had their robes dyed weird colors and they had no clue how it had happened and when we showed up I swear half of them started crying in relief! It was kinda weird, but we followed the head priest to the altar room, which hadn't been touched by the weird stuff happening and Bon started doing his purification ritual-thingy."
Rin tilted his head thoughtfully, frowning as he reflected, "That's when things started getting weirder, I think. As soon as Bon started chanting, the candles started flickering and a breeze started blowing around the room, which shouldn't have happened considering we were inside and all the door were shut tight. The statues around the room started rattling and this weird clanging sound started coming from outside the door, but you said not to check and see what it was so I didn't. Then these weird shadow-things came out of the walls; I don't know what they were but they kind of looked like Hobgoblins crossed with will-o'-wisps, except all shadow, you know? They started whizzing around the room and shrieking and moaning and your bullets didn't do anything to them. My flames did though! I didn't even have to draw my sword," He held up said blade for emphasis, and Yukio just then noticed that the demon sword had been laying beside his brother the entire time. He must have been more out of it than he thought, to have missed that, "The minute I called my flames, the shadow-things retreated to the corners of the room and started up this really horrible shrieking in unison. Bon kept chanting though, even when I wanted to cover my ears, and you seemed fine so maybe I was the only one who heard it? Bon was getting to about the end of the ritual, I think, since the Gobliwisps - what? It's a cool name!" Rin defended, seeing Yukio's skeptical look.
Getting back on track, Rin continued the story, "Anyway, the Gobliwisps -" he glared when Yukio let out an amused snort, "they started exploding into these puffs of smoke and disappearing with tiny squeaking sounds. Once Bon finished the chant, we thought we were in the clear, but then the entire room started shaking, the statues fell over, and you and me could barely stay standing. Bon was already sitting down, so he was mostly fine. The incense holders fell as this weird blue gunk started bubbling up out of the floor, and then the gunk gathered together and made this thing - I don't know what it was, but it kinda looked like a Leaper crossed with a greyhound...it was freaky, let me tell ya. It made this clicking sound and started talking, which was even freakier, saying that it had sealed away the god of the shrine and that it was going to be the new deity, claiming that it was going to start off its' reign by devouring the priests and gaining more power. You said it was just a minor demon with delusions of grandeur though, and it got really mad about that and started making this croaking/barking noise."
Rin shrugged, wrinkling his nose as he said, "It smelled awful, like rotting meat and six month old gym shorts. It seriously made me want to hurl, but then you shot it and things got kinda crazy for a bit. Bon was chanting something, I think maybe he was trying to unseal the actual god of the shrine, but you and I were busy fighting the demon thing. It didn't like your holy water bullets, so it probably really was a demon, and I used my flames to corner it so you could get a good shot at it. Still didn't have to draw my sword - that thing was really, really weak. I think it must have caught the shrine god by surprise in order to seal it away, since that's the only way I could think of it managing something like that. It didn't take too long to corner the thing, and the only reason it took more than ten minutes to kill it was because it kept jumping around so much. A few more holy water bullets and the demon was down for the count, but as it was dissolving into that blue gunk again, it gurgled something in another language, and then exploded. You and me were covered in a lot more gunk than it had taken to form the thing, but Bon had taken cover behind the altar so he didn't get any on him."
A moment's pause, and then the older twin admitted, "After that everything went kind of tingly and then things start getting fuzzy. Everything went black, and next thing I know I woke up here and saw you sitting next to me, apparently in worse shape than I am." The last bit was said pointedly, with a slight glare, and Yukio coughed a bit, looking to the side as a small blush darkened his cheeks, as always a bit uncomfortable with Rin's open concern.
But Rin's story had certainly filled in more than a few blanks, and as his brother had talked more and more memories had formed, confirming what Rin said. Unconsciously his shoulders relaxed at the return of his formerly absent memory of what had happened before he'd woken up. He also privately agreed with Rin's description of the creature's smell, as it really had been terrible, though what he found curious was that there was no trace of the aforementioned blue gunk that Rin had described. There was nary a stain or smudge in sight: his exorcist uniform looked as though it had just come back from the cleaners, that was how unstained it was, and a quick glance revealed that Rin's uniform, though rumpled from sleep, was just as gunk-free.
Yukio frowned, wondering a bit at that the absence of the goo that he now remembered getting hit with, but he set that issue aside for the moment. Still frowning thoughtfully, he said, "I see...then I suppose the first thing we should do is figure out where we are. It's possible that the...'stuff' we were covered with somehow transported us to somewhere else on the mountain, or to somewhere else entirely." And as though that was some sort of cue, the bushes to their left began to rustle and the sound of branches breaking reached the brothers' ears.
They were both on their feet in under a minute, stances wary and hands firmly grasping their weapons, Rin's on the hilt of his sword in case he needed to draw it and Yukio's on the grips of two of his guns. They didn't have to wait long for the source of the disturbance to show itself, a blur rocketing out of the bushes and lunging towards them, but the twins separated by diving in separate directions - Rin to the right and Yukio to the left. The creature landed in the middle of where they had been standing, letting both of them get a good look at it.
It looked like some sort of bizarre cross between a wolf and a bobcat: wolf-like snout, bobcat-like ears, wolf eyes, and the sideburn-esque tufts of fur that were signature of bobcats. It had sharp fangs, which were shown by the tooth-baring snarl that it was letting out, and the creature's eyes were a bright golden color. Its' body was like a mix of both; it had to be around 5 ft. tall at the shoulder and over 6 ft. long, not including the furry tail which added another 4 feet to its' length, and the animal's fur was a mottled gray and yellow, thick and soft-looking. Its' limbs were strongly muscled, its' paws resembling a cat's more than a wolf's, a broad chest like a wolf's and thicker fur around its' neck.
That was all they managed to see before the beast whirled around and lunged - towards Yukio, which was its' first and last mistake.
Before the creature had even gotten halfway to its' intended target, Yukio had drawn his guns and fired three rounds into the animal's chest, though unfortunately it seemed that either his holy water bullets weren't effective against whatever the animal was or the impact of the rounds had only served to daze the creature. Whatever the case, the animal's moment of confusion was long for Rin to call up a ball of blue fire and hurl it at the animal, which immediately yowled as the Flames of Satan engulfed it. Five minutes later, Rin was standing next to Yukio, their backs to the fire, and extinguishing the merrily burning blue flames, figuring that it had been long enough that the animal was probably nothing more than a charred lump of fur on the ground.
"...We should probably hope that that wasn't somebody's pet or familiar." Yukio commented, pushing his glassed up with one finger while he re-holstered his guns, mentally noting that holy water bullets hadn't affected it anymore than regular bullets would have.
Rin sheepishly scratched the back of his head before he said defensively, "Hey, who cares if it was?! If it did have an owner, they shouldn't have let it run around attacking people!" He nodded firmly as if in agreement with his own words, crossing his arms - sword in one hand - in the universal 'so there!' pose. Yukio just sighed and resisted the urge to massage the bridge of his nose as his prior headache made a brief comeback. Better to not think about the ramifications of killing someone's familiar and just start walking, he thought, opening his mouth to give voice to that thought when he was interrupted before he'd even started.
A brief roar from behind was all the warning Yukio had before something heavy slammed into him, pushing him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. He hadn't even had time to brace himself for the impact, and he mentally prepared to feel the harsh bite of fangs sinking through his flesh. The pain never came, and a scarce second after Yukio had been knocked to the ground, the heavy weight that had been pinning him was gone. Immediately rolling onto his back, one hand struggling to draw one of his guns, he was greeted with the sight of Rin's back, cast into shadow because of the blue flames burning cheerfully in front of the older twin.
The strange animal, that had apparently been playing dead the first time, was most definitely dead this time, as Yukio stood up in time to see what was left of it reduced to ashes.
"...Thank you, Nii-san." Yukio said softly, smiling in gratitude when his older brother turned around, looking at him closely to make sure the Dragoon was alright.
"No problem," Rin shrugged nonchalantly, grinning with relief when he saw that Yukio was none the worse for wear, except for his uniform not being quite as pristine as it had been. Aw well, a few grass stains were a small price to pay for not getting bitten by a huge wolf-cat hybrid, Rin thought, following after Yukio when his little brother started walking away. "Sooooo, where we going?"
"To the nearest town to find out where we are and which way we need to go to get back home," Yukio answered, adding after a short pause, "And maybe get something to eat."
As if in response, Rin's belly let out a gurgle that sounded more like a demon's growl, and both Rin and Yukio shared a short laugh as they walked into the forest.
Author's Note: So, what did you think? No Fairy Tail characters yet, I know, but don't worry, they're going to show up soon! :D I originally had them running into Lisanna in this chapter, but then I thought "Nah, it's too soon, better wait,". I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, as it's my first time writing Blue Exorcist characters!
*Koodorishinja Shrine: A place I made up, as far as I know it's not a real shrine. Name means "Dancing Sacred Snake Shrine".