1 Year After 'Death'

~Kuwaemasu's POV~

The sound of a zipper snapped me out of my daze, and the churning of gears told me that I was being lowered, bringing me out of the darkness I had been sitting in for awhile. Light filled my gaze as the wires gently untangled themselves from my arms and legs. When I looked up, I saw Lance, wearing a hazmat suit, approach me.

"So, how do you feel?" He didn't look me in the face, but instead gripped my arm and inspected it carefully.

"I feel fine." My voice sounded a little bit different. More... automatic, and slightly deeper.

"Do you think it worked?" Now, the gloved hands gripped the sides of my face, and I could see Lance's face on the other side of the glass inspecting my own face carefully.

"I dunno. We'd have to test it first." With a short hand motion, I swiped his hands off my face. "What about Kuro? Has he transferred yet?"

"Nearly; every few hours he transfers a bit more, but he's not quite at 100% yet... so says the machines."

"He's in another room, right?"

"Right. You may as well go back to sleep, as I won't be able to let you test the ability until later; I need to prep the dynamos."

"Alright, Lance. I'll be seeing you later."

"You too, Kuwaemasu-san." He gave a nod, a wave, and left the room into another room that looked like elevator. After the doors closed behind him, I could hear what sounded like a shower in the room he had just left to, and then another door opening and closing. Too bad Lance can't come in here without a hazmat suit. I ran a pale hand through my hair, whistled, and turned my head to look at my room. Despite living in it for a year, I could never get over it. It was basically the definition of 'causal messy futuristic'. There were gaps in the blue wall with blurry white stained glass that would pulse an aqua color every few seconds. Machinery of all sizes and shaped filled the room, several thick black wires, some split, hung from the wall, swaying constantly for a reason unknown to me. On my right side, was a row of 4 large transparent tubes, each one filled with differently colored liquids. From left to right, they were blue, green, red, and yellow, all hooked up to different machines but connected by the same wires in between them and on the tops of them. Along my left side was a metallic, gray dresser, a large wall mirror, and a large fish tank with an electric eel in it, with its own, thinner wires, which led into the wall. Right now, I was standing on a large circular platform that took up nearly half of the room, which had two layers. A foot in from the edge of the top layer was a small, centimeter-wide, 3-inch deep depression running a ring around the entire circle, and a small circle with a 2 foot diameter in the middle. Looking up, the ceiling, save for an identical 2-layered platform above previously-said platform, was a long, slightly distorted mirror. The only thing other than that was a mechanical door at the end of the room. Other than the door, there was no way to actually leave the room.

"Maybe I'll just go to sleep for awhile... Not really hungry, and I'll need all the power I can get if I'll need to test with the dynamos." I glanced upwards at the platform above my head, and moved over to the glowing spot in the middle of the platform.

"Enter sleep mode." My voice projected and racketed around the room, until I heard a robotic voice.

"Entering sleep mode." Each light slowly shut off as the circular platform above me opened and a large glass tube lowered, and yes, with several large tubes in its sides, only to settle into the depression mentioned earlier. A mask, similar to the one that had been on the oxygen tank 1 year ago, lowered down quickly, and I strapped it on as a a thick, hardly noticeable transparent, white, thick, margarine-like fluid came gushing from all the tubes. My senses were blinded as I slowly slipped into a state of unconsciousness and floated upwards.

2 Months Later

"It worked, Kuwaemasu-san! It worked!" Lance, in an observatory room directly above me, exclaimed happily as the badly-mutilated, once-formidable demon fell before me, and the 12 bloodied dynamos returned to me, bouncing nonchalantly around my head.

"I can see that," was my dull reply, as the dynamos lowered a bit. They didn't look very complex on the outside. Only a foot long, the middle 3 inches was a black circular metallic block, and 2 spikes, glowing a dim purple, each 4.5 inches long, protruded from the flat sides. In the middle of the block was a small line, since the block actually wasn't just one piece, with a scythe-like design causing a slightly detour for the line.

"Don't be rude!" He exclaimed exasperatingly.

"Besides, we gotta pick up Kuro before we get on the road." I ignored his statement and made my way towards the exit, down the hall, took 2 right turns, up a flight of stairs, straight past 3 crossroads, a left turn, and went up another flight of stairs. It doesn't matter if I wait for Lance, since he'll just catch up. There are multiple routes to the same place; 'specially from where Lance was standing. Just as I swung open the door to the room Ukobach and Kuro were in, Lance entered through the door on my left.

"He's in the capsule over there." He pointed across the room to 2 capsules, paired together by, you guessed it, wires, that were entirely empty except for, from right to left, was Kuro and a floating diamond-shaped crystal, each in one of the two. Kuro looked like a pale, yellow, sparkly apparition that looked like the apparition of an apparition. The crystal, on the other hand, was illuminated from the inside, nearly 2 feet in diameter and 1 foot in length.

"He should be finished in just a few more minutes." Lance's voice suddenly spoke up from behind me. I just nodded.

"Okay. I won't be needing anything, will I?"

"Nothing but the clothes you're wearing, the backpack in the car, the eye patch I'll be giving you later, and foundation. You'll probably figure it out once we get there. The liquid, in case you were wondering, was like a super-charger. If you sleep as normal, you'll all regain energy anyway. The liquid just sped up the process." His nod was directed at the 12 dynamos turning slow somersaults and floating around, as though they were bored.

"Alright." I sat down as though there was a chair behind me, but instead, the dynamos suddenly rushed around me. I ended up sitting on 2, with my right elbow resting on one as my right hand supported my head, as my left arm rested on my knee with my legs crossed.

"Showoff." Lance grinned, and flipped a few switches on a nearby machine as the apparition disappeared. The capsule with the crystal slid open, shining brightly through the room.

"Go and take it, before it disappears." With a shrug, I stood up and walked to the crystal, the dynamos rolling through the air around my feet and shoulders. It didn't take me long to reach the crystal, and to hold it tight to my chest; I felt like something was merging into my very essence, almost my very soul. The aura felt vaguely like Kuro's, but I could not hear it make a sound. Seconds after, the feeling faded, but I still felt there was something added to my very being. The light slowly faded, so I let go. The item fell until it was about level with my knees. I took a few steps back, and the diamond-shaped crystal followed me, with a bobbing motion.

"It will follow you, no matter what. When you command it to open, it will become Kuro, until you command it to close again. Although, get me wrong. It's not an object pretending to me Kuro. It IS Kuro, just transferred into a different form."

I just nodded wordlessly. "Can we get a move on now?"

"Of course, of course." He grinned mischievously and led me through the complicated structure for nearly another 45 minutes, neither of us ever tiring, until we finally reached 2 swinging doors, and stepped out into the sunshine. I was incredibly aware of the bottom of my boots clicking against the pavement. I didn't need to look over my shoulder to know the entire thing was underneath a 'school building'. Holograms walked all around us, making it seem as though it was a real school. The doors and windows even opened with a hologram made a movement to open it, as though they were really doing it. However, once they made it about 5 feet into the building, they dissipated. Which is why any openings that allow somebody to see inside, for example a window, was tinted.

"Where's your car?" My eyes quickly searched the parking lot, while the dynamos, picking up on my sudden curiosity, became much more active. In a few moments, though, I saw the edge of it just around the corner, as though it was hiding.

"Oh. Never mind." Lance never said a word, but I could see the grin splayed on his face clearly. Rather than sit in the front, I strapped myself in the back seat.

"So, we're going back to True Cross Town." The crystal followed me into the car, and I made sure it made it inside before I shut the door, then reaching for the backpack on my left. It was rather plan... There weren't any 'exceptional' features to it; the backpack was colored a simple black, with 3 silver zippers. The only thing that might have been considered different about it was the fact that it took up the entire height, length, and width of the seat, and nearly the entire volume of that area.

"Yeah. Get the dynamos and Kuro in there when I say."

"Okay. We'll be there in... how long?"

"About 6 hours."

"I'll just sleep then."

"Alright. I'll wake you up an hour before we get there."

"Mhmm..." I barely heard what he said, and I found myself nodding off while the crystal bobbed near my right foot, hardly affected by the movement of the car. The dynamos rolled lazily across my vision, to which I would assume that it was my lack of thought process or sleepiness. Before I knew it, I had lapsed into a dreamless sleep; I hadn't had a dream since the night before I faked my death, just a year ago. It turned out that Lance already had all the 'equipment' ready to go, so all we really had to do was 'put it in place' and test it.

"Kuwaemasu-san! Wake up!" Said-prepared-person's yelling brought me back into a state of consciousness.

"We're about 45 minutes away. Decided ta' let you sleep a bit longer." Looking around, I noticed that we were on a bridge. The sky had darkened, but the light from the lamp posts stationed made it so I could only see a few dimmed stars.

"Thanks..." I felt groggy, but it didn't take long to wake up.

"You should probably put the dynamos and Kuro in the backpack. We're about to pass the first barrier, and the backpack has an anti-barrier spell on it that will prevent any alert." Lance sounded a bit antsy, so I simply listened. The zipper on the backpack was unexpectedly warm, as though someone had been holding it tightly for an extensive period of time.

"Put Kuro in the third one and dynamos in the second."

"...Mhmm." As soon as I opened the third one, the crystal seemed excited, went in my face, and settled inside the backpack, so I closed it. However, when I opened the second one, the dynamos continued to drift around my head lazily, since I wasn't feeling very active, I would guess.

"Command them." Lance said with a humorous tone, probably finding my lack of knowledge on how to control dynamos, mentally, mind you, funny. I cleared my mind and focused on the dynamos, unintentionally closing my eyes. I thought about the dynamos going inside the backpack, when I saw a blurry image of myself, the angle seeming to be from one of the dynamos. The 'screen' multiplied to 12, and I found myself controlling them and myself at the same time. It's strange to see yourself move, while controlling yourself at the same time, from a third person view. All the dynamos rushed into the backpack, and nestled in the dark space. Snapping back into first person, I closed the second pocket.

"The first one is for the schoolbooks, right?"

"Yeah." I felt like I was passing through a thin wall, but the sensation was only momentary.

"That was only the first barrier." Lance said, as though reading my mind.

"There are multiple barriers, each meant to keep out a certain level of demons."

"So it's like... several filters to minimize the strain on the final barrier to decrease the chances of it breaking?"

"Just about." Looking forward, I could already see it in the distance.

True Cross Town.

"Why can't you just train me? I'm sure they'd qualify me as an exorcist if an exorcist trained me within the Vatican's knowledge."

"I would only be able to up to the level of exwire, but in order to qualify for the Exorcist Exam, you would need to attend a cram school for at least a full year."

"Can't I go to a different cram school?"

"There's only one per country."

"That's... pretty stupid."

"I didn't make the rules. I'm pretty sure it's for protection reasons." I felt myself phase through an invisible thicker wall.

"How come Mephisto can't lower the barriers?"

"Because he doesn't know your a demon, much less that you're coming. I couldn't remove your powers, either, remember? All Mephisto knows is that I reserved a spot for a Kuwaemasu-san at the day school and cram school, when summer vacation ends in a week. Oh, but you won't have to start at page again. I told him that you had prior training."

"Alright... that makes enough sense. But why normal school?" The third barrier passed by, more quickly after the second than the second had the first.

"It's part of your cover-up. Just stick to it, and the next year will pass you by in a snap."

"Fine. But what about the other 2 years of high school? It'll be weird if I just drop out, and they won't actually let me take it until after high school."

"Yeah... I knew you'd figure it out eventually. So really, you'll be there for 2 years." His face grew solemn.

"Brace yourself."

"Huh?" I suddenly felt like I was being thrown through multiple steel walls, each more powerful than the last with short breaks in between. The car had slowed down significantly, despite Lance having slammed his foot on the gas pedal.

"Are... you sure... we'll make... it through...?" I rasped out. The power of the barrier was crushing my chest, but we were still moving.

"You're only part demon, so you'll still be able to get through. Just hang in there, this is the final barrier." Another full nearly breathless minute passed, when the car suddenly sped up and air filled my lungs. Luckily, the street was practically empty and it was the middle of the night, so nobody saw, though Lance had to stop the car completely before we kept going. True Cross Town, now much closer, loomed threateningly over our heads, yet I failed to be afraid and/or care.

"Like I said, that was the last one. From here on out, it's a straight, barrier-less path."

"Okay." I found myself yawning and leaning on the door.

"Feel free to sleep for the rest of the time." There was no time to respond before my vision went black for the second time during this drive.

My eyelids felt warm, and I began to see red. When I opened my eyes, I found a very homey room, colored with natural and earth colors, like the tan-ish peach walls and the earthy brown floor. The light source had been a window with two panes on my left, each pane being the size of two horizontal clipboards on top of each other, divided by a white plastic that proceeded to frame the entire window, only stopping at the sill. A white, veil-like curtain flowed gently from a bar at the top of the window.

"When did I get here?" I sat up, to feel something fluffy between my fingers. Then, I realized I was on a bed, and the fluffy thing had been a pale green blanket. The bed was more a square-shape, and back-to-back with the wall, between two bookshelves. Only now, I noticed a mirror in the corner of the room.

"When was the last time I looked in a mirror?" Was the first thing to cross my mind. Despite there nearly always being a mirror handy, I never bothered to actually look in one. With great hesitation, I brought myself to go over the mirror and look at its reflective surface, only to be pleasantly surprised with my new appearance.

"Not bad. Not bad at all."

My eyes were a slightly darkened shade of violet, but my left eye was glowing dimly. There was a crooked line running from my now-white hair, through my left eye, and down the side of my face, glowing the same color as my eye. A dark purple line ran along my eyelids, around both eyes. On my neck was a small collar with 2, black, thick threads almost like a rope tied to one circular block each, both having a different symbol painted on it. With an attempted flick at the collar, I realized it was 'attached'.

Over my torso was a t-shirt, colored so darkly purple it almost seemed black, with a third emblem hanging off the middle of the collar, which was again, unique to the other two. Over the shirt was white jacket with the sleeves folded up to right under my elbows, and stitched to stay there, dark purple lines painted over it in multiple places. At the crest of the hood was an intriguing pattern that almost looked like a scythe, but it was as though the blade had been pulled so it was like a 3/4 circle, with a little 7/8 circle surrounding the part of the line that went through the outer circle, under two cat ears stitched right above and to the side of the top of the bar in the pattern.

On my legs, I wore a pair of pants so dark a shade I could hardly tell if it was blue or black, with a metal chain hanging off where I would usually place the belt, consisting of multiple diamond-shaped pieces of metal, the last piece being a half-diamond attached to a spike. It hung down so low, it almost seemed like a tail. But that's not my tail, my tail was actually down my pants. Lance said he couldn't remove it without basically killing me. Didn't matter though; to be honest, I thought it looked great. The pants were tucked into knee-high, metal, black boots with depressions making patterns all over them, occasionally flickering a dim purple. The only other thing were two, thin, white, shiny, satin, finger-less gloves with little gold chains running around the wrist of each hand.

"Not bad at all." I repeated my previous statement, liking the new look very much. I flipped on the hood, admiring the fine craftsmanship, not caring that it was made with a 3D printer. Previously said tail shuffled in my shirt, but when it brushed against my back, I felt uncomfortable.

"Oh, yeah. Something about... yeah." Lance's words came back to me. Something about contractible, metal, working wings. Then, I remembered something else.

"Where is Lance, anyway?" So I decided to leave the room and look for him.

"Lance? Are you here?" My new voice didn't echo, much to my surprise.

"...Are you alive?" My paler-than-before-I-faked-my-death arms fell limply to my sides as I groaned in annoyance with Lance. Then, there was a dulled scratching noise headed towards me, from behind, followed by the crashing noises I'd grown tired of long ago. Yet, I didn't feel threatened. Especially when my backpack 'magically' went through a wall behind me and semi-floated over to me, part of it dragging behind the elevated part. It continued towards me until it stopped by my shins and floated, much as Kuro had done.

"Kuro, sleep." The backpack immediately stopped floating and remained motionless on the floor.

"Find Lance." The backpack suddenly took off down the hall, several bulges forming, which I could tell was the dynamos pushing around. While I waited, I decided to go find a kitchen and eat, narrowly avoiding a bouncing backpack zooming past my face, before remaining in the air, 5, 6, or 7 bulges on both sides of the backpack, at a crossroads in the hall, apparently fighting over which way to go.

"Go right." The bulges on the left side disappeared, and more bulges appeared on the right side almost as immediately, causing the backpack to go flying into the floor, seemingly bounce off, and go through another wall.

"Good morning Kuwaemasu-san. How did you sleep?"

"WAAH!"

Needless to say, there were more holes in the house left by the dynamos after that.


So happy these are getting longer. Feel like I've come so far. Hope there's no errors, despite that I proofread it... I need a beta. Volunteers? Anybody?

PLEASE REVIEW! Like I said before... I TAKE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!