Chapter 3: Maybe I'm cut out for this after all


Aki Oshiro was now fumbling around, searching for the snooze button on his alarm clock. The boy had forgotten about the Combat Training Camp that Yukio was putting them through that day, and he was very anxious to see what it would be like. Aki walked over to his dresser, quickly changing into the standard True Cross jacket and a comfortable pair of jeans. Aki also wore his favorite T-shirt under his jacket, which had a colorful paint splatter print.

As Aki grabbed his bag and guns, he heard a knock at the door.

"Yo, Aki… You awake in there? We have camp today." Aki heard his good friend: Rin Okumura on the other side of the door, as he slipped his Magic Circle papers into his jean pocket, he opened the door.

"Yeah, I remembered! Shall we?" Aki replied as he shut the door behind him, the two boys made excited conversation as they both made wild guesses about the things that would happen at camp. Right as they were both agreeing that they wanted to see a gigantic monster as a training drill, their teacher, and Rin's younger brother, Yukio Okumura appeared behind them.

"You two ready for camp today?" Yukio asked with a smile, he was carrying a clipboard with activities for the day planned, but instead of share, he would rather let Rin and Aki wait a little longer to see what the day entailed.

"Uh, yeah! But, what am I going to do? Am I really ready for anything since I joined so late?" Aki asked, a little more than afraid.

"Nonsense, I saw how you handled yourself during that fight with the Naberiuses, you will be fine!" Yukio responded genuinely.

"A-Awesome!" Aki exclaimed as he picked up the pace and started running to class, excited to get this camp thing started. Rin quickly caught up with him, and Yukio decided he would rather walk.

Meanwhile, in class, Izumo and Shiemi were already waiting, with Ryuji, Shima, and Konekomaru making their way in the door. Within a few minutes, the entire class had arrived and Yukio was gathering them outside to head out into the forest, where they had taken a test before that involved carrying Peg Lanterns, giant living lantern demons, from inside the forest into their camp. Seeing the old campsite again had the group whispering about what the trip entailed this time, considering the last time they were here, Amaimon the Earth King had attacked them. Inside the camp site were several cages filled with varying types of demons, as well as dummies and targets scattered among the trees.

"Okumura-sensei, exactly what are doing here today?" Izumo Kamiki asked what all of the kids had been thinking.

"We will be testing all of your combat skills in various situations, we have targets and dummies for some warm-ups, and will eventually move onto fighting these low level demons that we have in these cages. Do not worry, if anything happens to go wrong, Kirigakure-sensei, or myself will be there to take care of it." Yukio explained and reassured to everyone that nothing would go wrong, right as Shura stepped out from the trees.

"Ey, Yukio, got yourself a newbie, huh?" Shura asked, interested in the new classmate standing next to Rin.

"H-Hello, my name is Aki." Aki answered, not wanting to be impolite. Yukio stepped forward, motioning to a practice dummy, in the form of a two-headed ghoul, a demon the class was definitely familiar with.

"Aki-kun, would you mind taking a few hits on this dummy? I'd like to be able to help you with your aim and technique if I could, and this may also be an excellent opportunity to summon that demon of yours."

Aki was startled that he was the one to go first, but not wanting to be rude to Yukio, he accepted and stepped forward. Aki took a few deep breaths, and grabbed his Magic Circle sheet, pulling a pin out of his bag; he stuck himself lightly in the thumb, creating a bead of crimson. Aki closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating, before finally reopening them with a new sense of determination. The nervousness was gone, now was the time to show how capable he really was.

Aki swiped his thumb across the sheet before chanting

"Fly my prayers into the mighty winds, May the Holy Storm strike down those who oppose Him!"

When Aki finished his chant, a swirling whirlwind appeared before them all, and a dark, demon raven was left behind. The demon was called a Gale, or it at least belonged in the same family as one. The bird's dark red eyes began searching for answers and spoke up.

"Who has summoned me here?! I demand answers."

"I did." Aki was much more confident than he ever was before, any fear for the demon before him was entirely hidden or non-existent.

"Lies! A puny mortal such as yourself could never hope to control me." The demon shouted in anger. Aki didn't even flinch, something the demon was counting on.

"Say what you like. You belong to me, and will as long as I live. Now, obey me, because I would hate to see a bullet pass through that pretty beak of yours…" Aki threatened, nobody in the area could tell if he was bluffing, and Rin was confident he was totally serious.

Aki reached for both pistols, tossing them into the air and catching them, before turning them onto the dummy. Aki looked into the demon bird's eyes, communicating telepathically what had to be done. Aki shot two rounds into the heads of the dummy in quick succession.

Bull's-eye.

The bird swooped down onto the dummy, slicing it into pieces with sharp talons, before Aki finished the job by rushing into the fray to deliver a powerful flying kick into the dummy's stand, shattering it and sending the crumpled mass onto the ground. Aki then snapped and the bird's wings fluttered as a strong gust of wind launched the dummy's remains flying into the trees, far above everyone's heads. The rest of the class was utterly stunned, totally not expecting such power and control over a demon as powerful as a Gale. Finally, Yukio spoke up.

"T-That was spectacular, Aki-kun!" Yukio began clapping and the applause spread, Aki then snapped out of his seeming trance before saying quietly:

"You're dismissed." Then, the bird demon vanished into the winds, as Aki collapsed from the exhaustion of all he had just done.

"Aki!" Rin shouted as the class ran over to check if Aki was alright, they found him lying on the ground, grinning.

"I… I did it! I really did it! That thing actually listened to me!" Giggling from excitement, Aki looked at everyone and told them he would be just fine, and only needed a little rest.

"You sure you're okay? I mean, you don't have to act all macho if you're hurt or something!" Ryuji spoke up, clearly worried that Aki had hurt himself.

"Really, I'm fine. Just really tired, that's all. Now, anyone care to follow my performance?" Aki winked as he looked around for any potential takers, when there were none, the entire class began laughing again.

Jeez, is this really the same kid that everyone picked on? That I was always protecting? Guess we've both changed a lot, huh?

Rin thought to himself before Aki stood back up, although a little out of breath, he was alright. Yukio took this opportunity to continue the training, eventually bringing Rin out in order to do some flame exercises, which mainly resulted in some melted candles. The last important goal of the day was searching for some offensive capability of Shiemi's familiar.

"Nee-chan… Could you bring some thorns out for me please? That dummy over there is trying to hurt me…" Shiemi said softly to her familiar, trying to coax some anger out of it. Suddenly, the infant greenman sent out three sharp thorny spikes into the dummy's chest, causing a portion of it to collapse into itself.

"Nee-chan! That was wonderful! Thank you so much!" Shiemi showered the tiny familiar with praise before planting a kiss on it's forehead.

With that, the sky had turned dark and besides a few Aria exercises, the camp was over for the night. The tired group of Exorcists made their way out of the forest and made their way back to their own dorms. Right as they had reached the path back to school, Izumo looked as if something had been bothering her and decided to get something off of her chest.

"You know how reckless that was back there? With that crazy bird?" Izumo said, very annoyed.

"H-Huh? I just didn't know how to use it, it was kinda hard to hold back..." Aki replied defensively, and slightly afraid.

"D-Don't worry Aki-kun! That's just how Izumo expresses worry, she's a lot nicer than she looks. Promise!" Konekomaru yelled quickly as he opened the Boy's Dorm door.

"Nicer than I- Hey, you get back here!" Izumo responded furiously.

"Look, I'm sorry. Do you think you could teach me how to control the demon?" Aki asked, hoping to correct his mistake.

"Huh? I-I guess I could give you some pointers... T-Tomorrow in class or something...!" Izumo answered before running off to her dorm, with Shiemi trailing behind with Yukio's Supply Shop key in her hand. After opening the portal, Yukio takes his key back, waves his goodbyes to Shiemi, and heads back to his own dorm with Rin and Aki.

"That was so much fun! I should beat the tar out of fake demons more often…" Aki joked before Rin nodded.

"How did you manage to do so much with that demon? You're really strong, dude." Rin said with a smile before he went deadly silent as a familiar glow came over Aki.

"What was it this time? Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yeah… I just saw a little bit of tomorrow. It was just you and I standing in the west corridor of True Cross."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Let's just hurry back to the dorm, Aki could use some rest after today, alright?" Yukio spoke up for the first time in a good while.

The two pondered if the vision could have meant more, but could come up with nothing, before agreeing with Yukio and hurrying back to their own rooms.

"Night!" Aki yelled to the twins before collapsing onto his own bed.

Aki thought more about the vision while in his dorm, he knew something was bothering him about it, but couldn't place a finger on it. Was it the odd silence? An answer finally came to him right before he drifted to sleep; it was the emptiness of the hallway, at a school that had hundreds and hundreds of students.

End of Chapter 3.