I couldn't move. I was frozen, petrified with shock and fear. I couldn't believe that my newfound younger brother actually wanted to kill me, and Rin, the brother he'd supposedly known forever.

Speaking of Rin, he jumped in front of me, got into a defensive position, and snarled. "No, Yukio!" he yelled. "We agreed that she had a choice! Let her choose, Yukio! Please!" He pleaded his brother with his eyes. Yukio didn't move.

I heard Mephisto chuckle and watched him come and place a hand on Yukio. "My, my," he said. "What a lovely little spat! Yukio, my boy, do put your weapons down. We did agree to let her choose, just as we let Rin choose. So, my dear," he said, looking at me as Yukio put his guns down but didn't let go of them. "What will it be?"

"W-What do you mean, I have a choice?" I asked, still shaken. Rin put a comforting hand on my arm, trying to sooth me. It didn't help much.

"Well, look at it this way," Mephisto said. He held up three fingers. "You have three choices. Number one, you let us kill you." I shuddered and Rin squeezed my arm. "Number two, kill us and run, hoping you don't run into anyone like us." I almost threw up. I couldn't kill anyone! "Number three, you commit suicide." I tried to take a step back, but Rin held tight to my arm and didn't let me. He gave me a steady look, trying to tell me something.

"Wait, if you found Rin and Yukio first, why aren't they dead?" I asked.

"Well, you see," Yukio explained, "we're fraternal triplets. When the three of us were born, I was underweight and the power rejected me, so only you and Rin inherited it. And it takes one of the children who inherited the power to find the other, so we needed Rin to find you. It's that simple."

"No," I said. I could see the logic behind it, but there was one fatal flaw in that reasoning. "If you'd already gotten my location from Rin, then you wouldn't need him anymore and he'd be dead. You wouldn't need him to come and kill me." I stared hard at Mephisto. "I have a fourth choice, don't I?"

Mephisto clapped his hands and smiled. "Well done!" he cried. "Well done indeed! Yukio, I believe your sister may actually be smarter than you!" I saw Yukio frown at this. Ok, well, he frowned harder, since he was already frowning. "You are correct, my dear. You do have a fourth choice. Come to True Cross Academy, where I am President, and learn to be an Exorcist!"

"A what?" I asked, confused.

"An Exorcist," Rin said. "They handle demons and banish them back to Gehenna, the realm that demons come from. So, if you don't wanna die, become an Exorcist, like I am."

"That's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it?" I muttered. "Satan's kids, becoming Exorcists? All right," I said, looking up at Mephisto. "I'll become an Exorcist. Take me to True Cross Academy."

Mephisto clapped his hands again. "Excellent!" he said happily. "Now, if you'll all follow me back out to my car…" He spun and walked out of my house, not waiting to see if we were coming. Yukio followed him.

I started after them, but Rin pulled me back. He still had a hold on my arm. "Listen, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know it's a lot for you to take in and all, but if…if there was another way…if we could somehow transfer all your power to me…so you wouldn't have to…"

I shrugged off his arm. "What are you talking about?" I asked as I followed Mephisto and Yukio. "It's not your burden to carry alone, Nii-san," I said, looking over my shoulder at my newfound big brother. He blinked and looked a little shocked at my calling him such. "If I have to hold this power too, then so be it. I'm not one to let people suffer." I turned to him full on and held up my right hand. After a moment of concentration, a small blue flame appeared in my palm. "You and I were chosen by this power for a reason," I said, manipulating the flame, making it grow and shrink. "And I think it chose two because it's too much for just one to bear." I closed my hand into a fist, extinguishing the flame. I turned and left the kitchen, heading outside to Mephisto's car, once again not waiting for Rin to catch up.

Mephisto's car, or should I say limo, was pretty cool. I could tell he was seriously rich, considering that the seats stretched all the way around the sides, except for the driver's seat and the doors. At first, all I could do was gape at the posh interior. I kid you not, it was all bright pink. The leather seats, the fuzzy roof, even the tinting on the windows. Well, that was a dark pink, probably to block out sunlight. Call me crazy, but Mephisto didn't seem human to me.

Mephisto coughed, and I tore my eyes away from the interior and quit trying to pet the fuzzy roof. "What?" I asked grumpily. I liked the limo. I was annoyed that he was ruining my exploring.

"My dear Safaia, there are a few matters that we must clear up," he said, pulling some papers out of a black briefcase that was next to him. I wasn't sure how I hadn't spotted it before, considering it stuck out as much as Yukio's moles did against his face. "First of all, your name," he said, shuffling the papers around to find the right one. When he found it, he handed it to me. "Legally," he explained, "your last name is Tottori, because of you adopted parents, but your real last name is Okumura, like our darling boys over here. If you want, we can fix that so you may have the same last name as your brothers." He motioned to them and Yukio looked out the window. Rin just shifted uncomfortably and fiddled with his sword in his lap. "Also, because you are underage, your legal guardians are Seiji and Chinatsu Tottori; therefore we cannot legally take you to True Cross Academy without their consent. So, we need to convince your adoptive parents to transfer your guardianship over to me, so I can enroll you into my school and you can become an Exorcist."

"Shit," I said. "Our plan is screwed, then. There's no way my dad will sign over guardianship to a…" I struggled for the right word. "A…guy like you. I mean, come on. If he doesn't believe me when I tell him about demons and stuff, what makes you think he'll let you take me, even if we prove that Yukio and Rin are my triplet brothers?"

"Well for one, we can sue if he doesn't sign you over," Mephisto said. "I have many lawyers at my disposal, who would easily inform him that, if it is proven that you three are indeed triplets, that I rightly should have custody of the three of you. I sincerely doubt that he would like to go to court against us." He gave me a creepy grin and I shuddered and looked out the window.

"Well, yeah but you don't—stop!" I yelled, and the driver slammed on the brakes. I leaned far to the right at the sudden stop and quickly sat up and looked back out the window, trying to find what I sensed.

"What is it, Safaia?" Rin asked, coming up next to me and looking out the window.

"There's a demon, right in that building!" I cried, pointing to the old building across from us. "My dad just went in there!"

We filed out of the car and I ran across the street, dodging traffic with the guys right behind me. "Safaia, wait!" Rin cried. I ignored him and ran into the building.

I crashed through the front doors and looked around. "Dad!" I called. "Dad! Where are you! Dad!"

Noises made me whirl around to see Rin, Yukio, and Mephisto come in through the doors, panting for breath. "Are you insane?" Rin yelled once he got his breath back. "You could've been hit! Or a demon could've attacked you!"

"My father's in here, damn it! And there's a demon too!" I screamed in his face. He backed up, surprised at my ferociousness. "I just can't leave him to one of Satan's underlings!" I spun and took off again, pounding up the steps.

Mephisto appeared in front of me with a BANG! I stumbled back and grabbed the railing to keep myself from falling. "Hold on," he said. He crossed his arms. "How are you so sure that there's a demon in this building?"

"I can sense it!" I cried. "I've always sensed them." I held up my hand. "It's like a burning in my skin! The more powerful the demon, the more my skin burns!" I turned and pleaded with Rin. "You can sense them too, right?"

He shook his head. "No," he said. "I can't sense them at all."

I looked at him in shock for a moment before turning back to Mephisto. "Please," I begged, trying not to cry. "You've got to let me go up there! Dad's in danger! Please!"

Mephisto looked me over, considering my request. "Let her go," Rin said in a scarily serious voice. Mephisto looked at him and I turned so I could, too. "She needs to do this," Rin explained. "I'll go with her. Let her go up."

"We're wasting time," Yukio said, stepping forward. "If her father's really up there with a demon, we need to go now."

Mephisto looked at us each in turn, and then stepped aside. Without even saying thanks I shot up the stairs past him, Yukio and Rin right on my heel. We burst onto the upper floor to a scary sight.

Dad was in the middle of the room. He had a glazed look on his face, like he wasn't here at all. His face was angled upward at the demon that held his mind captive.

The demon was a horrible sight. At first glance, it looked like a beautiful woman with huge breasts and long black hair, but at closer inspection I could see her pointed teeth and ears, not to mention the extremely long fingernails that were covered in blood. Dad's blood, I realized. There was a huge gash going from his left shoulder all the way down and across his torso. The demon was licking the blood from the wound, her forked tongue slipping in and out between her lips like a snake's.

"Da—" I managed to get out before Yukio clapped a hand over my mouth. "Shh," he whispered. "That's a siren. They inhabit the bodies of beautiful women, then sing their prey, mortal men, to their hideouts and feast upon their bodies. They can be a real force to be reckoned with, especially if their meal is interrupted."

I pulled his hand away from my mouth. "So what do we do?" I hissed. "Just let in finish snacking on my dad and then kill it?" Yukio gave me a sorrowful look. It wasn't hard to figure that I'd guessed right.

I looked back at Dad. He had a look of pure joy on his glazed face, like he didn't even know that a demon was turning him into its breakfast. Hell, he probably didn't. I wanted to do something, anything, but I didn't know what.

I looked down and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Rin's sword. He was preoccupied by watching the show, turning red in anger with each passing second. I was surprised he hadn't already attacked; he looked so angered by the scene in front of us. He was too busy getting mad that he didn't see me staring at the sword. An idea popped into my head and, being the idiot I was, I ran with it.

As fast as I could I grabbed Rin's sword from off his back and unsheathed it. He and I burst into blue fire, but his flames went out almost as soon as they'd lit. I charged the monster before Rin had a chance to take back his sword. Screaming in rage, pain, and fear, I jumped and swung at the siren, a wave of blue flame erupting from the sword. The siren leaped back from my dad, hissing its displeasure. When it saw my face, its own mug turned into a look of surprise. "Princessss," it hissed. Snarling, I leapt at it again and sliced off its arm. It howled in rage, forgot what it called me, and attacked, swiping its claw-like nails at my face. I barely dodged it and twirled Rin's sword backwards, catching the monster off-guard and stabbing it clean through its back. I yanked the sword out and watched the siren as it wailed and collapsed on the ground, dissolving into dust.

Panting, I ran and knelt by my dad, who'd fallen as soon as the siren had jumped away from him. He was face down and blood was everywhere. I sheathed the sword, feeling all of the fire disappear. "F-Father," I croaked, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. "Wake up. Please, Daddy, wake up." He didn't move. I gripped his shoulder harder and rolled him over. "Daddy?" I asked again. All I got was a black stare from his lifeless eyes. "Father!" I screamed, and collapsed into tears.