Inari glared at Jun's back as he finished up the necessary paperwork to transfer her to True Cross Academy. She didn't quite understand why they were finishing up the paperwork for her enrolment now –she'd already received her time table and been assigned to a dorm room two weeks ago- but Mephisto Pheles had insisted he hadn't had the time to handle it before.
Inari knew it wasn't her brother's fault -exorcists could not refuse orders given directly by the Vatican after all- but it still stung that she had to stay behind in Japan while Jun went of to fight demons in Germany. When Jun graduated from the exorcist cram school they had both known international missions where a possibility, but they had hoped he wouldn't get assigned one until Inari reached majority. They didn't have such luck, and therefore she had to transfer schools at sixteen, entering a completely different school for her second year of high school.
And to be honest, it felt like she was being dumped because her presence was too much of a hassle.
"Just one last signature there, and the paperwork is finished." Mr Pheles stated. His cheery tone only set Inari further on edge, there was nothing fun about being separated from her last living family member.
"Right," Jun replied as he took the pink pen True Cross Academy's principal held out to him. He obediently scribbled his signature on the designated line at the bottom of the page.
"Perfect!" Mr Pheles exclaimed. With a snap of his fingers, both the documents and the pen disappeared in a puff of pink smoke. The sight was a little unsettling, and Inari reached for the glass orb that hung from a chain around her neck. When she was little, her grandmother had told her it was a charm to ward of everything that would want to do her harm, and all though she knew it wasn't exactly the truth, the feeling off the cold glass underneath her fingers calmed Inari a little.
"Now, I'll leave you two to say your goodbyes, but I must ask that you hurry, Yukimura-chan simply can't miss the opening ceremony!" With that, the demon disappeared out of his office.
There was a beat of silence after the door closed behind him, and then Inari shot out of the couch she'd been sitting on, dropping her grumpy façade. Jun barely had the time to get out of the office chair in front of the desk before Inari crashed against him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head against his shoulder.
"Not such a though teen now, are you?" Jun chuckled as he gently stroked his little sister's hair.
"I'm just gonna miss you, okay," Inari mumbled into the heavy fabric of his exorcist's coat.
"You've got a cell phone, Nana-chan. Call me whenever." Inari bristled a little to the use of the childish nickname, but didn't complain about it. In a few hours she wouldn't get to be fed up with her brother's teasing for a long time.
"There is an 8 hour time difference," she pointed out.
"So? If you call at 8:30 pm, it should be lunch time for me."
"Just let me complain for a bit, will you Nii-san?" Inari grumbled. Jun laughed and gripped her shoulders. He pushed her back slightly and looked into her eyes sternly.
"Everything is going to be okay. We both know you'll be the best in your regular class, and the cram school can probably teach you about the other part of your world a lot better than I'd ever be able to." The statement was meant to be reassuring, but nerves flittered around in Inari's stomach anyway.
"I think I'm going to tell them right away," she stated softly. She'd been thinking about how to deal with the part of her she still had to learn so much about.
It had been roughly a year since she'd discovered who her father had been, although Jun had tried to tell her a long time before that.
"If you think that's best, you should." Jun told his sister, shaking her out of her thoughts. "You should be able to find guidance from a few teachers, demon heritage is not uncommon among exorcist after all. They might be able to help you better than I can."
Their conversation was interrupted by three loud knocks on the door.
"The opening ceremony is starting in ten minutes," Mephisto Pheles sang from the other side of the wood. "I ask you to hurry. I have somewhere to be an hour ago."
"I still don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to let a demon king run the Japanese branch," Inari muttered softly, annoyed by the interruption.
"Don't be grumpy, he's right you know." Jun replied before roughly ruffling Inari's hair. Some of the black strands escaped the braid they had been pulled back in. Inari tried to retaliate but Jun danced out of her reach.
The siblings chased each other for a moment until Jun sighed.
"This is it little sis." Inari's playful smile slipped of her face immediately as she looked into Jun's brown eyes. According to the people who had known them, both Yukimura siblings had inherited their mother's brown eyes. Inari knew that it wasn't entirely true; especially after her powers had awakened there was a red gleam to her irises that could only be seen by people with a temptaint. No doubt it came from her father.
"You should call me when you wake up tomorrow, I should've arrived in Frankfurt at that time."
"When's your plane leaving then?" Inari wondered.
"At six this afternoon. I've got to meet up with five people from the Tokyo branch before we go to the airport though."
Because they were going with a relatively big team, they weren't able to use one of Mephisto's keys to go to the other side of the world.
"Kick some Demon ass in Germany okay?" Inari told her brother. She knew she hadn't been able to keep her voice from wavering as Jun's expression softened.
"I will. Now go before the demon king of time and space freaks out."
Inari nodded and walked up to the door. She grabbed the knob and twisted it, but turned back to her brother before opening the door.
"I love you, Jun-nii, so come back safe, alright?"
The opening ceremony wasn't nearly as interesting as the headmaster had made it sound like. A few teachers gave speeches on the importance of studying and the bright futures True Cross students were heading towards if they did well in school. Then the student council introduced themselves to the first years and transfers. Inari was utterly bored.
She later decided that the most exciting thing to happen in the whole hour she'd been stuck in that gigantic auditorium was the shocked gasp that had sounded from a seat behind her as the first year's representative was introduced. She had thrown a quick look over her shoulder at the sound, just in time to see the surprised look on the face of a boy with dark hair and startling blue eyes turn into something like pride.
After that, Inari allowed her thoughts to drift again. She had heard all the important information about the academy when she and Jun had discussed her transfer, and she expected to find information about the exorcist cram classes in the envelope Mephisto Pheles had shoved into her hands as he'd directed her to the auditorium. The demon had disappeared a second later, in a flurry of his white cloak and pink smoke.
When the ceremony was over, and everybody started making their way towards the exits of the school to enjoy their afternoon of, Inari decided to stay behind on a bench for a moment. She tore the envelope open with her fingers and turned it upside down above her lap. A few documents, some folders about life on campus and a small, bronze key with a note attached to it came sliding out. The key was the first thing she examined. It was a simple key, heavy and a little bit old fashioned, but not so much so that it would stand out on her key ring. The note attached to it was short and simple:
This key gives you access to the cram school; you can use it on any lock. You're expected in room 1106 at 2 o'clock!
Inari took out her phone to look at the time. It was a quarter to two, so the rest of the information packet would have to wait.
After she put everything except the key back in the envelope, she stuffed it into her schoolbag and made her way to an unmarked door.
The girl took a quick look around before jamming the key into the lock. It took a lot less effort than she expected, as the key slid into the lock as if it was made for it. (Which was absolutely not the case because this particular lock had a keyhole that was a lot smaller than the key). The door opened to a hallway that was way longer and higher than what could've been behind it originally.
Inari stepped through the door, casting a look around her. The hallway was dark, but colourful, and it seemed to go on forever. She glanced behind her, but the portal she had stepped through had disappeared when she had closed the door behind her and she was now looking at a blank red wall.
'Huh, convenient,' she thought to herself. 'Now to find room 1106…'
It took a while to find her way, and eventually Inari ran into two girls. The pair seemed to be pretty close, the girl with short brown hair happily chatting away to her darker haired friend.
"Hey, are you joining the first year cram school too?" Inari asked after jogging a bit to catch up with them. The brown haired girl was the first to reply.
"That's right. I'm Paku Noriko, and this is my friend Kamiki Izumo."
"I can introduce myself, Noriko," Izumo grumbled, but Inari could tell she wasn't really annoyed. She noticed that the other girl's eyes had a reddish tint to them-just like her own- but before she could comment on it, Izumo averted her gaze.
"My name is Yukimura Inari," Inari introduced herself. "I'm looking forward to working with you."
Together, the three of them found the classroom with relative ease, but as they entered, Inari almost went back to check the number next to the door. The place was an absolute dump. The floor was covered in stray litter, the tape that held up some old posters had lost its stickiness which made their corners drooped down sadly, the corners of the room were absolutely covered in cobwebs, and Inari even spotted a few coal tars. The room seemed to give of an aura of darkness, as if saddened by its continued disuse.
There already were five boys scattered in the classroom. A group of three boys was sitting at (and in the case of the pink haired one on) a desk near what may have been windows once upon a time. There was something familiar about the boys, and Inari could swear she had met at least the bald kid with glasses before, but no matter how hard she tried to recall when, she didn't find an answer.
Two rows ahead of them was a blond kid with a pink hand puppet and the final boy was sitting farther in the back, grey hoodie covering his face as he played with his hand held console.
"Pretty big class this year," Inari noted. She sat her purple schoolbag down on the front row desk on the right side.
"What do you mean, big?" Noriko asked. She sounded uncertain as she glanced around the class a second time as if she'd missed students when she'd done so the before. Izumo claimed the desk behind Inari and patted the spot on its bench next to her with a meaningful look. Noriko didn't react immediately, keeping her attention on Inari instead. Inari caught Izumo's sour expression and flinched internally, that could get ugly.
"My brother is an exorcist, Paku-san. He told me classes usually are about four or five students," Inari explained.
Before she could continue the conversation any further, the door opened again. Inari's attention was drawn to the boy who had appeared in front of the class. She recognized his dark hair and striking blue eyes immediately –this was the boy who'd sat behind her in the auditorium- but now that they were in a relatively well lit room, she could make out more details. Like the fact that his ears were pointed, and that he was carrying a red sword case, but what really surprised her was the small white dog dancing around his feet.
'Mephisto?' she wondered silently. Dog form or not, with the way he was flaunting the pink polka-dotted bow around his neck and his exorcist pin, she would recognize the demon anywhere. Why would he personally escort a student to the cram school?
The boy shot a glance around the room, just like Inari and the other girls had done, and Inari almost laughed at the way his brows furrowed in confusion. After a moment he plopped down at the middle desk in the front row. He shared a soft conversation with Dog-Mephisto, but before Inari could decide whether she wanted to listen in on it or not, the teacher entered the room.
Inari's eyes widened as she recognized the boy who entered in full exorcist costume. In front of the class was the first year representative, trying and mostly succeeding to give off an air of authority. If it weren't for the tension in his posture, it would've seemed like he had been teaching for years.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," the young teacher started. "I'll be your demon-pharmacology teacher, Okumura Yukio."
"Yukio? Is that you?" The last boy to enter before the teacher cried out.
"Yes, that would be me." Yukio replied drily.
The boy sputtered before finally managing to ask: "What's going on with you?"
"I assure you, there's nothing wrong with me." Yukio smiled as if the entire situation was greatly amusing to him, and Inari was starting to feel uneasy with the commotion.
"Now, if you don't mind, I would prefer you to stay quiet while class is in session."
When Yukio didn't give him a satisfactory answer, the boy turned to Mephisto, rapidly asking quiet questions, but the dog blew him off too.
As Yukio continued his lesson by asking who hadn't sustained a temptaint yet, Inari put up her hand. Technically, the Nekomata who'd attacked her last year never landed a hit on her, so saying she hadn't gotten one wasn't even a lie. She stared the boy down as she flicked away a coal tar with her raised hand. Yukio's eyes narrowed thoughtfully before giving in.
"Did you see what just touched your hand?" he trailed off.
"Yes, I did, Okumura-sensei." It felt weird to call somebody younger than her that, but she took it in stride.
"Do you know what a temptaint is, then?" He asked. His eyebrows pinched together in a frown.
"A wound or illness inflicted by a demon that gives humans the ability to see demons, sensei. I've never sustained one."
Murmurs rose from behind her as she gave the textbook definition, but Inari tried to ignore it. She did catch the interested look Mephisto's charge gave her, and shot him a tiny smile.
"My name is Yukimura Inari, sensei. I'm the daughter of a Kitsune."