CHAPTER 2

A/N – Hello my dear readers! I am so… so… happy and grateful for all your amazing feedback as well as completely wrapped in this plot. Anyway, I took down the 'trailer' because it did contain some vague yet still-there spoilers and I wouldn't want to ruin any surprises in advance for you, would I? Better to just have everyone shocked when it happens ;)) And for now, without further rants on my part, enjoy the new chap;)

Shiemi Moriyama was beautiful.

Even covered in rags and bandages and scars, she was beautiful. Rin couldn't exactly pinpoint what exactly about her was so endearing, but it was rather something indefinite in her gracious frailty and those lovely, large green eyes which had stared back at him with a mixture of fear and pure awe, in that nearly magic moment when he'd laid eyes on her for the first time (and which of course her demon had promptly and successfully ruined). It was also in her gift with the ways of nature, and which could only have sprung from a kind and compassionate heart, in that absolute innocence of her spirit which was entirely free of any malice, rejection or judgment. All that wasn't something he'd stumbled upon often, if ever. People like Shiemi Moriyama did not belong in his world, so he took this encounter as a precious gift, past the absolute novelty of the situation.

Rin had had more than a week of sleepless nights by now, as part of the blasted penitence work imposed by Mephisto, and things hadn't exactly gone smoothly along the way either. Only the previous night, upon leaving Shiemi's house they'd gone to tend to a few other patients before the break of dawn and a possessed man had attacked Konekomaru, very nearly getting the little monk good. A tuft of the man's hair had actually needed to be set on fire before the spirit had finally given up and abandoned their victim's exhausted body. All that being said, this was the only visit he was actually not dreading, yet still not quite daring to look forward to. One never knew when things could simply go awfully wrong.

But still, he should not get worked up too soon. At least for now she'd agreed to talk, so maybe getting to the root of her misfortune without employing ultimate means might have been possible after all.

"So… your mother says you won't speak to her. Why is that?"

On the other side of the drape, Shiemi gasped, almost inconspicuously, but resisted the urge to curl up again and fall into a stubborn silence. What would he think of… well, he'd probably end up thinking badly of her anyway, very badly. This was only the beginning.

"Please… tell me your name first? It would be more comfortable if at least… I knew your name," the blonde thought, only afterwards realizing she'd actually said it out loud.

"It's Rin. Rin Okumura."

His human name couldn't have possibly meant anything to her.

Shiemi exhaled slowly, trying to keep her voice steady. "Well, Rin Okumura, do you think it's wicked and disrespectful for a daughter to disagree with her mother's decisions?"

"I think it depends on the decisions, no?"

The blonde squirmed slightly, fingers twisting in the covers. "She wanted me to marry. She said that we're alone in the house, that we have no man to protect us. And since she is already too old… and I could still practice as a priestess, even if I got married, just like Grandmother… Anyway, she found a man. He was much older than me and I loathed him from the very moment I laid eyes on him, he was a brute. But mother said he'd be good for us, he'd keep us safe and fed if things were to go badly and no one would bother us again. But then he-"

'I don't think you should tell him after all. What would be the point? He'd pity you at most'

Shiemi opened her eyes and suddenly the demon was there, hideous face hovering above her, mouth full of sharp teeth and yellow eyes full of malice. A clawed hand reached down for her throat.

"YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF! STOP TAUNTING AND FUCKING SHOW YOURSELF ALREADY! Fucking come out and have a taste of my fl-"

Rin stopped in mid-sentence, eyes wide in horror as he saw Shiemi having curled up at the end of the bed in horror as he'd dashed forward through the drape, literally jumping onto the bed. But the demon had been there, ready to harm the girl again, the bastard had simply lied in wait for the mark to wear off.

Shit. "I-I'm sorry, Miss Moriyama… I just-"

"You saw it too! Y-You can see it?!"

The boy nodded, half-shrugging. He could hear it too, even when the demon spoke to her only, but since that wasn't something a human exorcist would have been able to do it was better kept under wraps.

"Miss Moriyama, please forgive my bad temper and foul mouth," he grumbled awkwardly, retreating. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Please… stay," the blonde whispered. "And it's Shiemi."

Rin mustered a wry smile. "Right, Shiemi… Uh, I forgot about something." He dug in his back pocket and took out a small bottle of sorts. "A healer gave me this for you. Works better and faster than the traditional… eh, patching up if you will, so if you'll allow me-"

The blonde relaxed somewhat and laid back down on the pillows, eyes trained on the exorcist's fingers as he carefully unscrewed the tiny lid.

"You were telling me something about your mother and the fiancée she'd chosen for you," the demon boy said, focused on pouring some of the liquid on his fingertips and tracing a complicated pattern along her bare arm.

Combined with the magic, the potion would seep into her whole body and gradually heal any injury she'd sustained, without the need of further, often ineffective examination. This was also something regular healers would not have been able to provide, but Shiemi's condition was rather poor and Rin was willing to bend more than a few 'professional rules' to help her. Well, not that he'd ever had any qualms about bending the rules in general and he could safely bet on her ignorance in the matter anyway.

It wasn't like she could ever imagine who and what he really was.

Shiemi sighed, wondering if she would be able to do it after all. It had seemed easier earlier, but now… with him so close, touching her… Rin had light, gentle hands, and the touch of his fingers was soft, even if their pads were somewhat calloused – the hand of someone working with tools all day, like Grandmother's hands had been.

Or the hands of someone wielding a weapon.

Quite the strange thought, but then again maybe exorcists did use weapons upon occasion? Shiemi had no clue about it, but exploring hypotheses was still something… anything to get a distraction from the present moment. But then, before she had to go further with the story, maybe she could ask him another question?

"I told you something, Rin. So, my turn now?"

"Sure."

"Do you… use a weapon of sorts? I mean, in general? Do exorcists use weapons?"

Rin nodded. "Yeah, swords and spears. I… uh… was trained to use a sword, but it's not-… uh… often required that I carry it around, you know?"

Shiemi looked at his hands some more, wondering what exactly about her question had made the boy uncomfortable and brought that stiffness in his shoulders along with the almost inconspicuous pause in his movements. Maybe he was still wary about scaring her earlier and thought that this talk of weapons was making things worse?

Darn, apparently the little Flower Priestess was far more intuitive than Rin had given her credit. If she could tell just by looking at his hands that he was a weapon wielder… And she had been studying him too, apparently. Which was in itself a complete surprise, because it had never ever occurred to Rin that someone might actually bother to do that. He just didn't think there was anything worth studying to begin with.

"So what happened afterwards? With your fiancée?"

The blonde gulped, eyes still fixed on the exorcist's fingers, since she would not dare look up at his face. And then suddenly she saw it, gleaming palely in the moonlight – a small circle of gold hugging his fourth finger. She blinked, in utter confusion, could he be…? But it looked so odd! On a hand so small, a boy's hand, not a man's, a wedding ring looked almost… wrong.

And somehow it just made everything so much worse, even with the relief that under these circumstances he couldn't have been a priest.

"He's dead," Shiemi said simply, allowing her eyelids to drop. And I'm not… I'm not sorry… "The demon killed him. Only… that didn't happen right away… First, there was the engagement. If only my grandmother had still been alive, I just know she would have been on my side and she would have opposed my mother's choice… But I couldn't. And after that…"

'HA! HA! HA! You don't have the guts to-'

She took a deep breath, willing away the choking lump in her throat. "One night he came at the house... He barged in here, reeking of alcohol, and he said… 'We are betrothed already, and I have desires, you know. Do you not have desires? I don't want to wait anymore.' And he… didn't." By now, her voice had been reduced to a mere string of faint sobs and tears were sliding down her cheeks, soaking the pillows. "I cried and screamed, I called for my mother, she was in the other room, but she didn't come! Not until morning, when he was gone, and she said it was alright, because he was still going to marry me, that he'd already… signed the papers. And I just-… just-…"

"Shiemi… please, stop tormenting yourself," the demon boy said softly and she opened her eyes to discover that instead of pulling away, repelled, Rin had entwined his fingers with hers and was now leaning over her, his expression a mixture of pain and dread. Pain because he could feel her suffering almost viscerally and dread because he didn't know how to soothe it, he was clueless how to react to it even, because, God, he was almost a child himself, after all.

"Rin… this is how I damned my soul." Shiemi struggled to prop herself up, looking him straight in the eye. "This is why the demon is here to punish me! I hated him so much, both him and my mother, but especially him! I hated him so much that I said I wanted the mouth Hell to open and swallow him alive! I gave myself to hatred and this is my punishment!"

"LIKE HELL!" the exorcist shouted and there was another burst of blue light, this time much more powerful than when he'd sneezed, and for a few moments it engulfed his whole body before extinguishing rapidly.

Ahhhhh shit! SHIT!

"W-Was that… your gift?"

"H-Huh?"

"The blue light. Is… See, I made a little deduction," Shiemi said shyly.

Shit, this was bad! Rin genuinely panicked, her deductions were beginning to creep him out. What if she had actually deduced-

"Well, you're not a priest, you're very young, so in order for you to be a full-fledged exorcist already you must have a gift of sorts that you were born with, right?"

He exhaled slowly, relieved. That was right, Shiemi Moriyama wasn't exactly the average human, she had grown up surrounded by all sorts of gifted people… Although probably blue light was not something they were capable of.

"It's beautiful, by the way."

Rin flinched. Beautiful? What, his flames?! What was she saying?

"Your blue light… Blue is my favorite color."

Shiemi gasped, averting her gaze. Damn, she shouldn't have said that! Oh, why?! While blue was indeed her favorite color… a lot of the presently surrounding things were blue, like Rin's eyes, for example. The thought brought the faintest shade of color in her cheeks in turn, but… no. She couldn't think of such things. She had no right to.

'That's right, because you're a whore, you are tainted… And he belongs to someone else."

"Oh… then… thank you. But it burns stuff, so I'm not actually supposed to use it unless there's no other way…. Anyway, sorry for scaring you again and, well, because you wasted your turn," he said smiling.

The blonde blinked, disbelieving. Would he still answer her questions? Would he still act friendly and carefree around her, even after hearing all that? Could it have been… that he didn't think of her as the culprit?

"So what does the demon want, Shiemi? What does it say to you, if it speaks at all?"

She shook her head.

"Shiemi, none of this is your fault! This is not atonement for your sins, this was never your sin!

'Another night has passed, now the dawn is breaking and you're still empty handed, you stupid little boy! You'll never get her away from me. Never!'

Rin just gathered the girl into his arms and held her, soothingly stroking her hair until she was asleep again. Well, maybe third time would be the charm.

To be continued