A/N - Sorry in advance for the cliffhanger.


chapter ii
there is a wolf in the chimney

in which Ryūji and Rin have a talk about the mission, there's someone in the "abandoned" laboratory, fast-acting sedatives prove about as fast acting as advertised


The next morning, everyone got there more or less on time. Bon and Konekomaru had made good time and arrived five minutes before the deadline set by their teacher, Shima was not so prompt and had arrived a minute or so late. Everyone was gathered and ready by 7:40, with the exception of the most obvious person to be late, ever.

"Nii-san…" Yukio sounded somewhat like he'd woken up on the wrong side of the wrong bed (in hell), so Ryūji made a mental note to try to not bother the younger Okumura today and kept well out of firing range.

"Where the hell is he," Bon muttered grouchily, huddling deeper into his large scarf. It was colder this morning than it had been so far in the year, which made waiting for Okumura even more obnoxious. It wouldn't kill the guy to be on time for once in his life.

"Now, now Bon," Shima sounded exceedingly pleasant for someone who had been chugging their coffee like their life depended upon it five minutes ago, "he probably just over slept. No reason for genocide."

"I'll show you a reason for genocide," Ryūji growled into his tea, stuffing his free hand into his pocket moodily. The train was visible in the distance and quickly approaching, and Ryūji knew that they never stopped for long.

Rin, apparently, had amazing luck, because he came running, sword and bag swinging wildly behind him, just as the train pulled in. He babbled an assortment of excuses to his increasingly angry-looking brother, laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head before quickly leaping to assist Shiemi with her heavy-looking, floral patterned bag. Ryūji rolled his eyes, trying to ignore his own building annoyance, and helped Shima lift his bag, which could have held only bricks for how heavy it was.

"Why do you have ta' pack so damn much every time we go somewhere?" Ryūji asked incredulously, throwing both their bags onto the overhead rack. Shima gave one of his awful grins and Ryūji realized with a sinking certainty that he didn't actually want to know the answer to that question.

"Oh, ya know. Just some light reading," pink waggling eyebrows only added to the unnecessary suggestiveness of that comment.

"God, dude, rhetorical question, didn't wanna know," Bon sighed, taking his tea back from Shima, who looked inordinately pleased with his entendre. Why was he friends with this guy again? At least he had Konekomaru to help him manage the pink-haired fool; Konekomaru who was… talking with Okumura (the senior). Ryūji sighed again, deeper, and flopped into the seat besides Shima, leaving the aisle seat for his bald friend.

The train lurched forwards only minutes later, and Ryūji blew moodily into the small hole in the cap of his drink. The wafting smell of the black tea he'd picked at the café the triple had visited that morning calmed him, and he could concentrate on not burning himself on it instead of listening to Rin, who'd sat across the aisle, and his boisterous conversation with Konekomaru.

"Okumura-kun, where is Kuro?" Konekomaru asked, looking around for the aforementioned ball of black fluff.

"Caught a cold," Rin said offhandedly. This comment provoked a second of silence from all nearby, before it was interrupted by Shima's muttered, "cats can get colds?"

"I dunno about regular cats, but demon cats can, I guess," Rin face screwed up as if he'd miraculously gain knowledge regarding the cold immunity of house cats if he concentrated hard enough. "'s okay dude, I'm sure Kuro'll be better by our next mission. You can play with him then, yeah?" Konekomaru flushed and nodded. Ryūji probably would never get over the fact that the guy carried a cat toy around with him, no matter how many times he'd had to drag his bald friend away from random strays. He was gonna get some weird ass disease one of these days, he swore.

Sipping his tea and returning his attention to the scenery blurring past – so much for not listening in – Ryūji let the faint sounds of the train clicking over the tracks and the soft conversation lull him in a type of pseudo meditation.


He didn't know how long he had spaced out for, but when he came to his tea was luke warm and Rin had moved on to another conversation altogether. Bon quickly drank the rest before it got completely cold (and therefore disgusting), wiped his mouth with back of his hand, and tuned in to what his friends were talking about.

" – and I just don't understand why we can't do something more… I dunno, exciting."

"Okumura," Bon started, chiming in wryly, "your definition of fun an' exciting starts an' ends with a whole bunch of unnecessary sword swinging. An' possibly bloodshed." He paused, and then added, "Actually, definitely bloodshed."

Rin seemed startled that he'd joined the conversation but recovered and quickly retorted, "Ok, but at least fighting's better than wandering around some old lab thing. And then havin' to write a report," he shuddered on the last word, like it physically hurt him to say the word, "about it."

"Yanno, our experiences as ExWires ain't 'xactly the norm," Ryūji said dryly. "This kind o' mission is the kind that they give ta' ExWires. We've just had a whole bunch of shitty luck an' all our missions have turned out be inordinately dangerous, thas' all." He paused, watching Rin mouth the word 'inordinately' with a confused look on his face. "Look – the point is these are tha' kinda missions we shoulda have had since the beginning. So get used ta' it."

Rin slumped for a sec, then brightened up. "Maybe we'll have really bad luck this time too, and we'll get to fight!" Ryūji rolled his eyes.

"Only you'd wish for that kinda thing, Okumura," he muttered, slumping back into his seat and ignoring Shima's laughter beside him. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he mused that he and Okumura had just had what one could call a civil conversation, with only minor sniping involved, friendly or otherwise.

"If you're worried about the danger though, don't," Rin added casually. Way too casually. "I'll protect ya'." He wouldn't. "Princess."

So much for civility.


After Konekomaru and Shima had wrestled Bon back into his chair (but not before the bigger boy had punched Rin in the shoulder with a growled, "I thought the rule was what happens in Kyoto stays in Kyoto you asshole.") the train ride proceeded fairly smoothly, as Bon had receded from the conversation and stuffed headphones over his ears with a snarled, "wake me when we get there." The only good thing that Konekomaru could say about Rin, who was now wearing an altogether too smug expression from managing to "one-up" Bon, was that he had looked kinda regretful just after the mohawked teen had decided to ignore the world. Er. Kinda.

The train pulled into the station of their destination just after one. Ryūji had woken up himself around twelve or so, devoured his lunch like it had personally offended him, and then had read for the remaining hour. Rin had made a small effort to rile him up again, but Bon had steadfastly ignored him.

And now they were standing in front of the most horror movie-esque, creepy-ass building that Ryūji had ever seen, after dropping their luggage off at the tiny hotel they were staying at for the night. Even their teacher had seemed somewhat surprised, blinking blue eyes at the debilitated building before clearing his throat.

"Right… well we only have two days to search the entirety of this building so I suggest we split up and search the right wing for today. Remember to keep a sharp eye and ear out, and photograph anything suspicious you find with the disposable cameras I handed out earlier." After a brief scrabble, teams had been assigned and flashlights given, and the group entered the building with no little apprehension. Shima had been the one paired with Ryūji, unfortunately. Shima was a great friend but a not so great partner, especially when it came to creepy old buildings with a half million bugs in residence.

"Would you stop clinging," Ryūji growled, trying to be quiet as he tromped down the old concrete stairs.

"That spider was the size of my head, Bon. AS BIG AS MY HEAD."

"Okay, okay, just stop pulling. And shouting," he muttered, swinging the flashlight's beam across the floor of the basement.

"Why'd we have to get the basement anyway," Shima whined, "it's creepy as hell."

"This entire building's creepy as hell."

"Yeah, but the basement's –"

"Shhh," Ryūji cut him off, swiftly clicking the light off, "I think I heard something." It took a second for his eyes to adjust, but eventually he could make out the individual shapes in the dark fairly easily.

"H-heard what exactly," Shima warbled, cowering behind him. "Rats? People? More spiders?"

"Sounded like footsteps," Ryūji frowned, and listened closer before reaching back and tugging on Shima's sleeve. "Must've been mistaken. C' mon," he muttered, stepping down the dark hall. The basement was more like a labyrinth, the way it was set up. A couple of glances through heavy metal doors confirmed that experiments had also been conducted down here. "Maybe high-risk experiments?" Bon mused quietly to himself. He was distracted by Shima's sudden whisper.

"Bon," he said urgently, tugging on the white sleeve of the mohawked teen.

"What is it now?" Ryūji hissed.

"W-what's that?"

Ryūji squinted in the darkness. "What's what?" he responded.

"T-t-that!" Shima's voice was practically a squeak now.

Bon sighed deep and rummaged around in his pocket for the flashlight. He slowly turned in on, and then swung the light upwards, towards the dark shape he could just make out. It was… a spider. Well, it was rather big –

"IIIIIEEEEEEE." Well that could have been only one person, Bon thought, startled by the sudden sound. He swung around to see Shima running like the devil himself was on his tail, quickly disappearing in the darkness.

"Shima!" Ryūji whispered urgently. There was no response, but Bon figured that the pink-haired boy couldn't get too lost when there was only one hall, and it led directly to the stairs. "Jackass," he muttered, figuring he'd go back and get his friend, considering there didn't seem to be anything even nearly incriminating down here. He was turning to do so when he froze. His jaw and neck prickled, and he resisted the urge to itch. He had a feeling eerily similar to the one he'd had on yesterday morning's run. He turned his head slightly.

He could have sworn he heard it again. Footsteps. Like boots… walking down a concrete floor. He quietly cussed and flicked the flashlight off, staying quiet and still in the dark and listening intently. When nothing seemed apparent, he shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable.

"Ow!" A sharp pain rose in his neck, like the pinprick of a vaccine. Maybe he'd been bitten by one of the spiders? His fingers clumsily grappled for the area and he stilled, pulling a small white cylinder attached to a thin needle out of his neck. It looked familiar, almost like the fast-acting sedatives that Okumura-sensei used when he couldn't seriously injure…

Ryūji barely had time to think 'oh shit' before black like an anvil hit him and he knew no more.