Not Your Average Akuma
Adopt this if you want I don't care.
Yukio cursed himself over and over in his mind, sprinting quickly though the forest. The demon had been headed this way, he was sure of it. A branch cut his cheek but he ignored it and kept running, his breathing coming heavy now. He leapt over a fallen tree trunk which was still partially in flames and landed hard. The pain in his ankle was overwhelming, probably a sprain. He still didn't give a shit. He needed to find his brother. He could already be dead, he could be demon food by now, he- a bright blue light flared up someone in the distance in front of Yukio and he let out a strangled cry. His brother was still alive.
He ran faster now, ignoring the pain in both his ankle and his lungs. His lungs felt like they were going to explode from all the smoke in the air. He really needed to rest, but he continued to go as fast as he could, ignoring all the screams coming from his body, telling him to stop. The blue light had been pretty close. He should have gotten to the place by now… He burst out of the forest and into the clearing, stopping for once and looking around. There was no one there.
Growling in frustration, he ran his hands through his hair, gripping onto the strands. Tears of frustration began to leak from his eyes. There was an abandoned house on the other side of the clearing. Maybe Rin had crawled over there? He could only hope so. He could hear voices behind him, other exorcists making their way towards this area to investigate the mysterious blue light. He needed to find his brother before they got here.
He set off in a run again, dashing over the long grass and hoping he didn't stumble and hurt something else. He could see a trail of blood going up the steps, like someone had been dragging themselves up towards the house. Blood was smeared in a trail to the door, where bloody handprints were visible on the wood. He flew up the steps and reached for the door knob, which was still sticky and wet from his brother's blood. It looked like Rin had touched the key hole for some odd reason, maybe while he had been pulling himself up.
Yukio threw the door open, racing inside, expecting his brother to be slouched against some wall. But, once again, no one was there and the trail of blood had ended. In fact there was no blood beyond the doorway, like his brother had somehow just vanished after setting foot in the house. Despite the obviousness that his brother was not going to be found in the house, he dashed in anyway, checking each room just in case, for some reason, Rin was there. But he wasn't.
He slowly walked back outside, limping from his sprained ankle, and sat down on the first step. His head was bowed, his eyes focused on his hands covered in his brother's blood for touching the door and the knob. He clenched them together, wondering why it was suddenly hard for him to see, his vision blurring in front of him. A hand on his shoulder didn't even startle him and he looked up slowly to see Shura standing over him, a concerned look on her face.
"My brother," he choked out, "is gone," he looked back down at his hands, "My brother is gone."
-
Rin jolted awake, throwing his upper body upwards and immediately finding his forehead colliding with another. The both curled away from each other, holding their foreheads in pain. He twisted to find a girl with short, dark hair, bending over until her face practically touched her legs and a pained expression on her face.
"Sorry, I didn't think I'd find someone hovering over me when I woke up," Rin apologized, getting to his knees to see if she was okay.
She rubbed her forehead and looked up at him with a smile, "Sorry, I didn't expect you to wake up so suddenly… or violently, for that matter," He looked around the small room they were in and got shakily to his feet, "Oh, be careful, you lost a lot of blood! Not to mention, we had to reset your shoulder, so that's still sore."
The girl stood up, supporting him by placing his arm over her shoulders. She helped him limp towards the door, which she opened for him. The occupants in the next room immediately became silent and all their eyes turned in their direction.
"So he's awakened, huh? He really worried me back when he collapsed, but I guess he was just fine. A little exhausted, but otherwise okay," A voice smiled and Rin looked to find that it was the person he had seen before blacking out. He had a smile on his face, which seemed to be almost permanent. He was obviously a joker and probably annoyed his friends to no end. Rin wondered just why he had an eye patch, though. Maybe someone finally snapped and gouged his eye out with a spoon?
His eyes traveled, looking over the other people sitting in the room. One of them looked like a traveling samurai from some manga book with his long hair and a sword leaning against his thigh, while the other was a short boy with white hair and some sort of odd tattoo on his face; he looked to be the most courteous of the group just by his wide eyes. He gave them all a weak wave, a small smile on his face. The samurai person looked away from him, an annoyed look on his face.
"Can we hurry up with our mission now? We were behind before we found this collapsing idiot," he got up with a sigh, grabbing his sword and turning to glare at Rin, "He looks fine now, so lets just leave him and keep moving. We were supposed to be there yesterday afternoon."
"Kanda, stop being so rude," the white haired boy snapped and Kanda's glare turned to look at him instead, "What were we supposed to do? Let him lie on the street, unconscious from blood loss?"
"Yes, we should have. There were others around and they would have taken him to a hospital if we were around or not. We didn't have to pick him up like an abandoned puppy and drag him back to our hotel room."
He could feel the girl holding him up stiffen in anger and he knew that she would strike out at anytime. Quickly he threw his arm off her shoulder and took a step forward. He bowed deeply, and he saw Kanda's eyes widen in shock at the gesture.
"I thank you for taking care of me even when you didn't have to," he straightened back up, "I can tell, however, that you're busy. It would be better for us to part ways now, but I owe you," he grinned, showing off his unusual pointed teeth.
"Do you have anywhere to go? Any companions you're traveling with?" The boy asked.
"Not right now, I guess. Last I saw my brother I was kind of being dragged off by a-" he stopped, figuring that they would think him insane if he said he had been dragged off by a demon, they would think him insane. He knew he would have thought that if he had been told that before he learned he was Satan's son.
"Dragged off by… what?" The boy asked.
"Um… well, it's not really important and you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you about it," he said quickly, then started walking to the front door, hoping to make it out before the asked anymore questions. He didn't really want to spill his life out to some random strangers, even if they had possibly saved his life.
"You at least need new clothes," the girl pointed out and Rin looked down at the sorry mess of his clothes, tattered and covered in his own blood. He look like he had been attacked by a bear. He turned back to them, a quivering smile on his face.
"Haha," he choked out, "I guess I do look kind of weird with my clothes like this… and half my blood on the outside of my body."
"More than half, actually. About all of it, by the looks of it," Kanda said coolly, repositioning his hold on his blade. Looking at the man's sword, he suddenly remembered he had one of his own. He looked around for it frantically and finally saw it leaning against the wall in a corner. Rin raced over to it and scooped it up into his hands, clutching it to his chest.
"You guys didn't open this, right?"
"No, why would we do that?"
"No reason…" that would have been bad if they had, but since they showed no fear around him, then he should have known the answer to that stupid question of his beforehand. Now he just felt stupider than usual and he could almost hear Yukio ridiculing him.
"Lavi, do you have some spare clothes for him to wear? He looks closet to your size out of all of you," the girl asked.
"Yeah, I have some regular spare clothes in my bag," the red head said, lifting up his bag, "Shall we go to the other room… yeah, we never got your name, now that I actually think about it."
"Well I was kind of unconscious. How were you supposed to get my name?"
The guy let out a laugh, "I like this kid. He's got spunk."
"Just like you," Kanda growled.
"I'm Okamura Rin… or just Rin."
"Japanese?" Kanda enquired.
"Yes, I figured the bowing would have made that obvious."
"See, he's more like you than you realize, Yu!" Lavi sang and Kanda gave him a glare that Rin expected would light the air on fire.
"I'm Lenalee," the girl spoke, then pointed at each of them in turn, "and that's Allen, Kanda, and Lavi."
"Now that we have that out of the way, lets get you out of those bloody rags, shall we?" Lavi said, throwing his arm around Rin's neck and dragging him backwards into the room he had just emerged from earlier with Lenalee. He kept his grip tight on his sword, swearing he wouldn't let it out of his sight ever again. Once in the room, Lavi kicked the door closed behind her and let go of Rin. He crouched down and began shuffling though his backpack, removing the clothes from the bottom of the pack.
"Here, try these on. Sorry if they don't fit you, but Allen's the only other one with clothes that might fit you and, well, he's a shorty," he laughed, handing the pile of clothes to Rin, who took it awkwardly into his arms.
"Thank you for all of this. I really owe you guys a lot for all you've done for me," he called after Lavi as he began to move to the door. He just flashed Rin a smile, then exited the room, reclosing the door behind him and leaving Rin in the darkness. Rin was just glad he hadn't stayed. It would have been hard to explain the fact that he had a tail.
He emerged from the room later, the clothes on. They were a little too big for him, but otherwise fine compared to what he had been wearing before. His poor tail was becoming cramped, though, and he wished he could bring it out.
"We discussed something while you were changing in the other room," Lenalee said without a smile as he came out. Immediately he stopped, his blood becoming ice inside of him. Just what it was they had been talking about, as it obviously concerned him.
"Um… what were you guys talking about? Was it about my ears? Maybe my teeth? Because, if so I can totally explain them," Rin freaked out, then immediately regretted it. What if that wasn't what it was about? Now they were certain to notice them and question them. Inside, he was squirming from some sort of pain as he slapped himself mentally.
"Tch, he's a total idiot," Kanda groaned, "There's no way in hell I am agreeing with your guys's stupid plan. He's going to be like some little puppy tagging along that has to urinate of ever tree it come across and will run out in front every fast moving vehicle. And who will have to watch him and take care of him? We will. I say we just leave him here and let him find his own way back home."
"You've got something against puppies, don't you?" Rin pointed out, earning another bout of laughter from Lavi.
"Let me slice him up," Kanda growled, but Allen quickly grabbed him back.
"Ah, Kanda, no killing him. That's not allowed on this mission… or ever, really."
"Shut up and let me go, Beansprout, or you'll be the one I cut up next!"
At this point Lavi decided it would be the best time to fuel Kanda's fire even further. Lenalee, however, ignored the fight breaking out in the room and approached Rin.
"We were discussing whether we should allow you to travel with us for the time being. When we get back to our headquarters, we can set up some way to get you back home in Japan."
He perked up at the ideas, "Stick around with you guys, huh?" He glanced over at Kanda, who was currently trying to desperately kick Lavi in the face, but the red head was dancing just out of reach, continuing his onslaught of teasing. Allen continued to hold back Kanda, a worried look on his face as he dodged the few blows that Kanda aimed his way as well.
Lenalee noted his gaze and gave him a small smile, "Don't worry. Kanda may threaten to kill Allen and Lavi daily, but he has never actually done it. I'm sure it will be the same with you… I think," she added, as though it was an afterthought.
"What do you guys do? It's obviously important and quite big if you have a headquarters to return to."
"Well, that's, uh…" she turned to the boys, "Should we tell him what we are?" She got a mix of answers from the group, so she turned back to him with an apologetic smile.
"It's fine. I haven't told you what I am or what I do, either, so I guess it's only fair that you keep your secrets, too."
"Well, do you want to hang around with this rowdy group for a little while longer. I can't guarantee you'll keep your sanity."
"Sanity? What's that? I lost it a while ago," he grinned.
She clapped her hands, a smile on her face, "All right, guys. It looks like Rin is going to stay-"
"Oh great," she was interrupted by Kanda's growl, "Another deadbeat."
"Now who would you be referring to as a deadbeat here, Yu?"
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me by that damn name?"
"But it's your name. What else am I supposed to call you by? Kanda? That's just plain boring."
"How is Kanda more boring than Yu?" Rin mumbled, but no one heard him over the ruckus the boys were making again. Lenalee was still ignoring them and was currently getting her stuff together and throwing her backpack over her shoulders.
"Hurry up, guys, or I'm leaving you. And here I though you were the one complaining about us being late, Kanda."
Immediately, they all moved away from each other, getting their own stuff together.
"What should I do with my old clothes?"
"What else? Throw them out," Lavi state, opening the door to their room and disappearing into the hallway. Rin went and did as he said, wondering how his brother would react. He would probably be pissed that he had such a tendency to waste the clothes of his and others. He just hoped he didn't butcher Lavi's spare clothes. If he did, it would just mean he owed them even more than he already did. He followed the rest of them out into the hallway, his sword still gripped tightly in his hand and glanced over the interior. It looked like some weird blast from the past.
The lobby was even more so, with an grandfather's clock which looked brand new, nothing like an antique. The light fixtures and wallpaper looked like they were in some weird tourist attraction. Well, they were in a hotel, he guessed. Maybe it was a hotel that tried to duplicate Europe as it was centuries ago? He had no clue, but it creeped him out, none the less. Lavi paid the man behind the counter some strange currency and then they all emerged from the building.
Right there on the spot, Rin almost had a heart attack at the sight that met his eyes. Everything looked like it had been ripped out of a history book for England. Maybe this was a tourist town? He could only hope so. There was no way that key could have sent him back in time, right? But why would that smiling man have a key to a town made for tourists? Maybe it made it less conspicuous? His head was beginning to hurt from all this thinking.
"Come on, Rin. You're already falling behind," Lavi called and Rin looked down from the architecture to see that the others had already crossed the busy street. He ran across the cobbled road, joining them on the other side.
"Are you okay, Rin? You look a little scared," Lenalee asked, a look of concern crossing her face. He managed to put on the best smile he could to calm her down.
"It's okay, I'm fine. Just… not sure what to make of this place."
"Are you sure he wasn't brain damaged when he smacked his face into the road?" Kanda asked, walking away from them. They all quickly shuffled after him to keep up with the man who took long strides, obviously eager to get moving. The turned the corner and Rin could see something like a train station at the end of the street.
"Um, when was that train leaving today, again?" Allen asked, a frown on his face.
"10:43," Kanda barked from the front of the group.
"And what time is it now?"
"10:41… shit!" The all started to run down the street, dodging the pedestrians. Lenalee quickly bought the tickets for all of them and they got on the train just in time. It belched out some smoke and a shrill whistle cut though the air. Rin felt exhausted already from that light run and leaned again the doorway to their section. Lenalee had to help him once more, navigating him and herself to their seats. He sat down heavily in his and leaned his head against the window.
"You okay?" She asked him again and he merely nodded in reply, staring out the window at the bleak landscape. Just where was this place? It certainly seemed more than a tourist's attraction now that he was sitting in a completely outdated train, complete with more old fixtures inside of it.
The three men were already arguing over some small thing again and Lenalee left Rin to go break it up again, leaving him to his own thoughts. He clutched his demon sword to his chest even tighter and wondered just when he would be able to get back home again… or even if he would be able to. It seemed like he was somewhere different form his own world.
He knew that there were two worlds to begin with, his, and the demon's world. So was there a chance that there were more than those? If there were more than those worlds, then he had stumbled upon something new, something amazing. He couldn't help but let a little shiver of excitement run up his spine at the thought.