Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Exorcist. It belongs to its rightful owners.
Thank you to Inkdawn12 and Moon Devil and Moon Angel for adding this story to your favourites and following it.
CHAPTER ONE
PANDA-EYED PRINCIPALS
"In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson."
- Tom Bodett
"OKAY, DAD. I'M pretty sure that you've gotten your point across." Nami sighed for just about the third time. "We get it. You really like this song. Can you please change it to something different now?"
For the past thirty minutes since they had left home, her father had been intent on listening to this one song. It was an old Japanese tune with outdated grammar. The entire time, he hummed the tune, occasionally belting out the lyrics like a madman. Asaki, whom was sitting in the backseat with her cousin's suitcase, appeared to have no problem with it. Nami, on the other hand, wanted to detach her ears from her head.
He had drove through the city as if he had been to their destination a thousand times over. It was toward the more empty side of the city. No one hardly lived in the area. It had once been filled with lively shops and apartment complexes, but now, people had chose to keep a ten foot radius of the place. With every passing second, fewer and fewer people were walking along the cement sidewalks. Nami chose not to question it. Perhaps they were just passing through. There could be nothing this way, and surely not a school that was safer than her home. However, once they exited the tunnel they had drove in, and her father parted his town car in front of giant, iron gates, she felt her stomach drop. He was leaving them here.
It was Academy Town. It was the town that harbored a large portion of Tokyo. The town that contained the floating school that people struggled to get into. It was the school of the rich and spoiled. So, why the hell were they here?
His hand reached over to turn off the music. He paid no attention to the white-haired teen shooting him strange looks from the passenger's seat.
Asaki's head was practically leaning out of the window. Her big, emerald eyes were scanning over every edge of the iron gate like it was the most spectacular thing she'd ever seen. And maybe it was, Nami figured. Her deceased father had made sure that the blonde lived a sheltered life. Her sixteen years had been spent walking around her house in homeschooling. It was a terrible thought, but what was worse was the fact that Nami's father had popped the trunk open.
She climbed out of the car and stared as her father began to pull their luggage out, placing it on the sidewalk. Asaki got out, too, wincing when her hair got caught on the seat belt.
"Is this the right place?" she asked her father, and he grunted and nodded in response. "Is this place still running?"
"Sure is," he answered, setting the last suitcase on the ground.
He dusted his hands off against each other for exaggeration. At this, Nami's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. How could he have gotten them in a prestigious academy like this one?
Nonetheless, her father poked her forehead with a smile. "If you keep doing that you'll get wrinkles right here, you know."
"Like yours?" she piped back.
"Hey, I'm in my twenties. I do not have wrinkles."
Nami glanced away from him. Sure he was.
Asaki gripped tightly onto the handles of her two suitcases. "Ojisan, there's a man coming this way," she said in an unsure tone.
Her once excited aura had been suddenly replaced by a nervous one. Even though she looked scared, a grin still adorned her delicate features. Nami envied that about the girl. She lived a quiet, sheltered life. Yet, she was quick to adapt to new situations.
Her father turned around to look at the gates. They slowly opened, and a tall man with purple hair began to stroll out. The man was wearing a flamboyant, white suit and matching top hat. Nami could feel the figurative sweat drop down the side of her face. This couldn't be real. Though, judging by the realistic sway in the man's walk, this was all too real. Her father gave the man a warm smirk which the man returned. The man's dark eyes settled on Asaki—said girl jumping a bit from surprise—and his grin grew wider. Scarily wide.
He reached up to rub his small, pointy beard, stopping in front of them. "Hello! It's about time you got here. You're twenty minutes late."
"It was bad traffic," her father lied.
There was no traffic here.
"Is that so . . ."
Nami couldn't believe any of this. Spontaneous and crazy things such as this one had been happening since that event a year and a half ago. She couldn't quite figure out why this one shocked her the most. Or, for better words, why this one was the craziest to her. The man didn't seem real. He was more than an animated person, playing the role of the nice guy. Eventually, he caught the girl staring; his panda-like eyes bore into hers with enough intensity to make anyone sick. A shiver ran down her spine.
The man stepped close, and leaned down to her height. She could feel her blood run cold. She could tell her face was turning blue. What was this weird guy's problem?
"Is this your niece?" his deep voice questioned her father.
Her father shook her head. "My daughter. Nami, Asaki, this is Mephisto. He's your new principal."
"Principal?" the two girls repeated, wide-eyed.
"Correct!" the man belted.
He let out a bellowing laugh at the two girls' slack jaws. He had—no doubt—saw the expression from his students before, judging by the look on his face.
"Welcome to True Cross Academy, Hirasawa-san and Fujimori-san. Please call me Johann Faust the Fifth."
Asaski bowed, unlike Nami, whom had chose to keep staring at the man instead. "Thank you, sir," the blonde said.
The man, Mephisto, or Faust, laughed even louder. "That's a weird kid."
He pointed a finger at Nami, making her glare up at him. His hand moved to pet the girl on the head. She glared harder.
"They're in good hands, Hirasawa. Don't worry about them. I'm pretty sure they'll be following in your footsteps in no time. Yes, what fine exorcists they will become."
Nami finally snapped out of her trance. "A who?"
"Poor children . . ." Mephisto shook his head at her father. "You didn't tell them a thing, did you? That's okay. I love it when they're clueless. Tell daddy-poo goodbye, girls. You're in my care now."
Nami didn't really like the sound of that. Not one bit.
Asaki, ever the positive one of the pair, waved politely to her slightly seething uncle. "Bye bye, Ojisan!" he told him.
The white-haired man's eyebrow twitched at the sentence. He had told them multiple times that he didn't consider himself a middle-aged man. He looked toward his daughter for a more heart-felt goodbye, but instead, he got . . .
"See ya, pops."
He almost collapsed. These girls had no heart for him at all. Sometimes they were the sweetest things in the world. Most of the time, they were like emotionless robots.
Sensing that it was time to leave the three of them on their own, he told them all goodbye, and got ready to leave. He didn't really trust Mephisto watching over his daughter and niece, but he was the best option. Everyone knew that. It was the reason why so many of the exorcists' children went to his school to study. It was a safe place even though the man in charge was high off his rocker. Besides, Mephisto owed him a favor, anyways.
The girls watched as the little town car pulled off, leaving them alone with their new principal. He placed a hand on both of their shoulders. They jumped from the contact. He simply threw his head back in laughter. This was going to be fun.
"Come along, girls," he ordered.
He turned around to walk inside of the giant, iron gates without another word. Nami didn't know what was more creepy. The fact that this guy was going to be watching over them, or the fact that he kept calling them "girls" in that haunting voice of his. Neither sounded appealing.
She was the first to follow after him, grabbing onto the handle of her suitcase and walking. Asaki caught up soon after.
"This is True Cross Academy. You'll find that this is a bit different than your average academy. There are two schools here," Mephisto explained. "There is the regular school, which you two will be attending. Then, there is the exorcist cram school, which you two will also be attending."
"There's that word again. What is an exorcist? You aren't making any sense," Nami interrupted.
Mephisto laughed again. "You are telling me that your father is an exorcist and you still don't know what they are?" he asked.
Nami just stared at the back of his head, seeing as how his long legs were too fast to catch up with. What was this guy talking about?
The campus was beautiful to say the least. Trees lined the stone path to create nice shaded areas. Students in uniform walked to and fro from their classes. None of them paid any attention to the three. The most prominent thing on the campus, though, had to be the many twists and turns. With each path revealed two other ones. It was a good thing that they were with him, or they would have gotten lost . . . as much as she hated to admit it.
"An exorcist is an individual with the abilities to combat demons. Seriously. That's the literally definition," Mephisto explained. "Hirasawa placed you girls here to become exorcists. It's hilarious that he didn't explain that to you. Oh, that sly dog."
Demons. They were the things that had caused so much mayhem on that fateful day. The day that Asaki had lost her father. The day that Nami had lost her uncle. Realizing that, the blonde's eyes trailed down to the stone ground.
Nami almost snorted. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"Au contraire, it is not. Hirasawa was an exorcist back in his day. How old are you? Fifteen—sixteen? That was around the time that he retired. Good riddance, too." He mumbled the last part to himself.
"Ojisan . . . an exorcist?" Asaki whispered.
"But, you will learn more about that subject later. For now, memorize these turns. IF you get lose, tough luck. I'm not going to help you," the purple-haired man added.
The two girls almost collapsed at his harsh words. He led them down a path. At the end of it stood a large building with female students standing in front. It was obviously a girls' dorm.
"This is the girls' dormitory. You guys will be staying in dorm room number six-six-s—" he started, and Nami paled at the next number. "—seven."
"Thank goodness . . ."
"Yada, yada, yada, here are the keys. Don't lose them."
He placed a set of keys in each of their hands. They seemed like a lot of keys for just one dorm room.
Seeing their confused looks, he added, "One of those will take you to the exorcist cram school. Just use it on any door and it will take you there. Around the corner is the normal academy. There, you will take your regular classes. Any questions?"
They both slowly raised their hands.
"No questions? Great! You will find your uniforms in your dorm; your measurements have already been sent by your mothers. Normal school starts next week. Cram school will begin as soon as possible. Good luck, girls. Now, if you excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." He narrowed his eyes at them in a last minute addition. "And don't tell the normal students that you're training to be an exorcist. We have a reputation to uphold, after all. As long as you follow that rule, you should be fine."
Should be fine . . .
Nami watched as the man rushed off. Her confused green eyes gazed down at her keys. What was this place? How did they get in? Nothing was making any sense. The only thing that did was the fact that they were stuck in the academy. That much was for sure. That, and the fact that they had a weird principal.
Though, that should be the least of her worries.
Yay, things are going to be starting now! Review, favourite, or follow for a chance to be mentioned in the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading :)
