Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Exorcist. It belongs to its rightful owners.

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CHAPTER TWO

CRAM SCHOOL

"Every new friend is a new adventure . . . the start of more memories."
- Patrick Lindsay

SHE NEVER FORGOT that everything started with the sun. The world started with the sunny rays so many years ago, and the day she dreaded most began with them. It was the symbol of new beginnings, they say.

Bullshit.

Complete bullshit.

It was the symbol of life; the one she oh-so desperately wanted to avoid right now. It shone brightly into dorm room number six-six-seven—directly into the girl's face to remind her that she, indeed, had a life that she had to get back to. It brought the room to life along with the sounds of shuffling. Everyone was waking up. The sun meant that it was time for the day to begin, and Nami wasn't all too sure if she was ready for that.

The shuffling noises had came from her older cousin. The platinum blonde was getting ready for their big day, as she so often liked to refer to it as. She had been preparing for everything the night the two girls had came to the academy. She had decided between different hairstyles, jewelry, socks, and even different ways to wear her uniform the previous night. It was all nothing more than a nuisance to the white-haired teen. With that said, she rolled over and pulled her fluffy blankets further over her head.

The sun was only blocked from her view for a short amount of time. The blankets were ripped away from her body, letting the light come flooding back in once more. Nami released an irritated hiss at the blinding rays. Her cousin would be damned to Gehenna for disrupting the girl's precious sleep . . . as soon as she found the energy to do it.

That same blonde latched her tiny hands onto the girl's shoulders to shake her awake. No matter how many times she tried, nothing worked. Nami's seemingly dead body just shook on her bed.

"Come on, it's time to get up!" Asaki cheered. "You're going to be late. Up!"

Another growl surfaced from Nami's throat. This was was much louder. The sound made Asaki take a step back.

"What do you mean "up?" I don't want to get up!" Nami snapped.

Her hand reached around in search of her stolen blanket. It crawled around on the futon for a few seconds before flopping down in defeat. The blanket was nowhere to be found.

"We have class today."

"You have class today. I don't have to do anything."

"But, Faust-sensei said—"

Nami cut the girl off with a wave of her hand. "Who cares what that bozo says?"

Nami hoped that her cousin knew the real reason why she was acting so cruel. Her attitude was a result of being tired. But, it seemed to escape her mind when the blonde added—

"I know you really want to sleep for a while longer, but don't you want to learn about what this exorcist thing is?"

At the mention of the word, Nami's head shot up. Her half-lidded eyes scanned the dorm room while they adjusted to the light. Now that had definitely gotten her interest.

Asaki was standing by her bed in her uniform. It consisted of a white button-up shirt, a big black, white, and red striped ribbon, a yellow vest, and a pink skirt. Her hair was brushed neatly into a high ponytail. White knee-high socks were pulled up her legs to keep them warm. She looked ridiculous, Nami thought after further inspection. This school's colour scheme was all over the place.

Without saying anything, the teen shuffled over to where Asaki had neatly folded up their stack of uniforms. If she wanted to know more about this exorcist thing, she would have to go to their cram classes. Whatever that was.

"An exorcist is an individual with the ability to combat demons. Seriously. That's the literally definition," their principal had explained to them. Though it cleared up some of the confusion, Nami still had an endless amount of questions. Questions that would hopefully be answered at their cram school.

She felt her cousin's eyes on her as she picked up her uniform and left to go shower. At least she was awake for once.

TEN MINUTES. THEY were late by ten measly minutes.

It was because of Nami taking her sweet time that the two girls had to rush to get to class. Well, rather, Asaki alone was rushing. Nami had spent nearly five minutes pulling her black thigh-highs up her legs alone. That wasn't including the time she took to tie her iconic black bow into her hair. Plus, despite Asaki's protesting, she had wrapped a tie around her neck opposed to the ribbon. She didn't want to listen, which again, was something that Asaki should have been used to.

Placing the golden key inside of their dorm room keyhole to unlock the hallways of the cram school, Asaki opened it to see if Mephisto was right. Just like he said, they were greeted with the colourful hallways instead of the girls' dorm building ones. The key had opened the path to a completely different building. Asaki's jaw dropped for a full ten seconds. It snapped shut when her cousin pushed past her into the hall.

"Wait, Nami! You can't just rush in! Aren't you confused about all of this!" Asaki called after the girl.

Nami didn't turn around. Her arms were crossed over her chest, the sounds of her shoes against the tiled floor ringing throughout the empty halls. The blonde sped after her. Nami's eyes didn't look her way. They stayed focused straight ahead, and Asaki waved her hand in front of her face just for good measure.

"Hello? Earth to Nami?"

"You said that we're late, didn't you?" Nami asked with a long sigh, and Asaki nodded. "Then hurry up. What room are we in?"

Asaki looked down at the sheet of paper in her hands. "Room one-one-seven-four for second year students," she announced. "It should be right down this hallway."

As per usual, Nami didn't say anything else while they roamed the hall. Occasionally, her eyebrows would knit together with concern upon every passing door. What if she found out something she didn't want to know? What if exorcists were actually bad people? Did she really want to be in the class? A class that she knew nothing about, no less. Questions flooded through her mind, but they had little time to wander. Her train of thought was interrupted by the words she didn't want to hear.

"This is it."

Nami's gaze trailed over to the door in front of them. Asaki's hand was already on the gold handle. Her features were upturned with the feeling of excitement. She was always the positive one. Nami, however, had to keep herself from frowning. That wouldn't be the best impression to make on a room full of students. Especially if they were evil.

Asaki pushed the door open; her long legs almost skipping into the classroom. Suddenly, a group of eyes were on them, and Nami felt herself growing paler than her hair. For once . . . she was nervous.

The man at the front of the classroom standing in front of the chalkboard looked over at the two girls. He was a tall guy with neat, brown hair, glasses, blue eyes, and as many moles adorning his face as the number of badges on his jacket.

His greeting came out more like a question. "Hello?"

Asaki instantly bowed, causing the girl behind her to look up at the ceiling. "I'm sorry for interrupting your class, sensei," she apologized. "We're new students. My name is Fujimori Asaki."

"New students two weeks into the new school year?"

Nami shrugged. A few of the students in the back of the classroom chuckled at her gesture. She had no idea when school started. She had no idea why she was here.

Nonetheless, the teacher nodded. "Nice to meet you, Fujimori-san . . ." he trailed off when he glanced over at Nami.

"Hirasawa Namiko, but Nami is better," she filled in.

"Hirasawa . . . ?" The teacher scratched his head in confusion. "Welcome to cram school. My name is Okumura, I'll be your instructed. Please take any of the empty seats and begin taking notes."

"Okay!" Asaki sang, walking further into the class with Nami right behind her.

Well, that wasn't too bad.

The class was full. The only seats available were all the way in the back of the classroom on either side of a kid with short, stubby hair and big ears. Nami headed in that direction. He didn't look too mean. In fact, he had a warm smile plastered on his face as he wrote down sentences from the chalkboard. Maybe these guys weren't evil at all. Though, as the two girls walked, she couldn't help but to notice the few glares thrown her way. One in particular was from a girl with long, dark purple hair in pigtails. Spoke too soon. Nami glares right back at her as she pulled a chair out and sat next to the stubby-haired kid.

Asaki sat on the right side of him while Nami sat on the left. Her black manicured hands dug into her bag to retrieve a pen and notebook. The big-eared guy glanced at the two of them in sudden confusion. Had he not seen them come in?

"Sorry for invading your space," Asaki told the guy. "My name is Fujimori Asaki."

"Uh, it's okay. I'm Konekomaru Miwa," he replied.

Asaki smiled while Nami sighed. She flipped to the first blank page in her notebook. They were only there for ten seconds and the girl was already making friends.

"Nice to meet you, Konekomaru-kun," she greeted.

The boy's gaze trailed down to look at his fiddling fingers. Like usual, her personality was probably too overwhelming.

"Oi, do you have an extra pen?"

Nami looked up from her paper, her eyebrows pulling lower than they had in the hallway. Staring back at her was a blank-faced boy. He was turned around in his chair in front of her, his blue eyes looking at hers in boredom. His lips were pulled into a straight line; almost as uncaring as his messy, black hair and thrown together uniform. Though, what stood out the most was the pointy tips of his ears. Perhaps he was one of those punk kids who liked to get body modifications. Nami felt herself leaning away.

She opened her mouth to shut the guy down, but was cut off by that familiar cheery voice. "Hold on, I think I have one," Asaki said.

She dug into her school bag. Nami gave her a sideways glance. A bigger smile than ever was plastered on the platinum blonde's face. Her hand roamed through the contents of her bag before pulling out a red fountain pen.

She held it out to the blue-eyed boy with a tilt of her head. "Here you go. My name is Fujimor—"

Nami let out a low growl. Now the whole introduction thing was starting to get repetitive. "You don't have to be so formal with everyone you talk to, Asaki."

Taking the red pen from her cousin, she held it out for the boy to take. His eyes shifted from the blonde to the pen in her hand. With a quick thanks to both girls, he took it and turned around in his seat. Back where he belonged.

The boy beside her, Konekomaru Miwa, looked at her in slight fear. It didn't bother her, though. If he was afraid of people who liked to cut to the chase, that was his problem. It was probably the reason why most people preferred Asaki over her. Asaki went around telling everyone her name and striking up conversations. Nami kept to herself and liked to keep unnecessary things simple. She felt her hand grip around the pen tighter as she wrote notes from the board. That was when she noticed the kanji.

"Are there any questions?" Okumura-sensei asked, Nami's hand instantly shooting up. "Yes, Hirasawa-san?"

"What is an exorcist exactly?"

As if it were practiced a thousand times, every head in the class turned to look at her in shock. Several whispers were being passed around about her. The three boys seated in front of her—seeing how they were three-seated desks—turned to stare at her with slack jaws and wide eyes.

The one in the right seat with a dyed blond mohawk was the first to speak. "What is this chick?" he grumbled.

A few other students in the classroom laughed. Nami shot them all heated glares.

Okumura-sensei, on the other hand, probably saw this as an opportunity to educate the girl. "You do know what demons are, right?" he asked her politely. Nami nodded to signalize that she did. "Exorcists are the people that get rid of the demons."

"With what?" Nami asked.

"Oh, come on!" the mohawk guy groaned again, making more students laugh. "No one had time to sit here and explain every single detail to you. Maybe if you hadn't come two weeks late—"

Nami cut him off with a snarl. "No one asked for your input, shit face."

At that, the class burst out in fits of giggles. The mohawk guy sent the girl the nastiest look he could muster. Nami gave him one right back. Beside him, a pink-haired boy placed a hand over his face to hold back his laughter. Asaki sighed, most likely wondering why the white-haired girl couldn't blend in for once in her life. Nami ignored her.

Okumura-sensei held up a hand to stop the laughter. "Calm down, everyone," he ordered.

The laughter slowly began to die out. Though, that didn't stop mohawk from internally wising death upon the girl.

"Hirasawa-san, Fujimori-san, please stay after class so I can fill you in on details that you've missed. For now, just take notes."

Nami nodded. At least someone was offering to give her some answers.

ASAKI STRETCHED HER arms high above her head. Standing up from her seat, she walked around the empty classroom to stretch her legs. It was time to get started now that the students were out of class.

Nami's attention was focused on her notes. Okumura-sensei had explained a few demons during class time. He explained their names, how they looked, how they acted, and most importantly, ways to take them down. One that they had learned about in particular reacted the most to verses from the sacred scriptures. She didn't know exactly what he was talking about, but it was a good start.

She wrote the remainder of the words written on the board into her notebook. There were only three or four people still in the classroom. This was including her. After Okumura-sensei disbanded the group, the students raced out as if the building was on fire. It was almost funny to watch some of the male students stumble over each other. Even the mohawk boy had almost tripped, sending a glare Nami's way on his exit out. She was pretty sure that he hated her now. Not that she actually cared. It was just another name to add to the ever-growing list.

A hand had stuck in front of her once she finished. Her green gaze traveled up to look at whoever it was. She had expected Okumura-sensei. Her eyes rolled when she seen that it wasn't. It was the boy who sat in front of her today. He was holding out the pen that he had borrowed from Asaki. He was giving it to her most likely because Asaki was off in her own world. Nami stared at the hand, then up at him, then back at the hand.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it today," he said, though it was more toward Asaki.

Nami simply nodded before taking the pen from the boy's hand. Why he was still here when all of his friends were gone, she didn't know.

Silence developed between the two. He didn't know what else to say. Was that all that he should say?

Going with the first thing that crossed his mind, he added, "You're pretty clueless, huh?"

Nami scowled at him.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant that you don't know anything about exorcists or demons," he cleared up, raising his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean to offend you . . . just wondering."

She sighed and closed her notebook. "To be completely honest, I don't know why I'm here."

Expecting to hear more, the messy-haired boy pulled up a seat in front of her desk and sat down. He moved the red case from his back to rest by his leg.

Her eyebrows knitted together. "What? I'm not going to give you some life story on why I don't know anything. I don't even know you, man."

He smiled, holding out a large hand. "I'm Okumura Rin."

"Okumura . . . As in Okumura-sensei?"

Nami stared at his hand. When he realized that she wasn't going to shake it, he removed it. This girl was just as weird as she seemed.

"That's my younger twin brother," he explained. "And you don't have to call me Okumura. Rin is fine—"

"Does that means you're old?"

"What?" His face twisted up in question. "I'm not old. He's just young; we're both sixteen. He peaked in middle school."

He felt himself smirk in victory when the corners of her lips tilted upwards. So this girl did have a sense of humor, after all.

"Your name's Hirasawa Nami, right?"

She nodded curtly.

"Is that your friends over there?" He motioned toward the blonde rotating in the corner.

"Cousin," Nami corrected.

"Should have known. You guys have the same green eyes and you're both short. How old are you? Thirteen—fourteen?

Why was this guy talking to her? "Sixteen," she answered in a sour tone.

"Wow, seriously?"

"Look, if this is your attempt at small talk, you're failing."

She hadn't expected for him to be the first student to try and strike up a conversation with her all day. After asking Okumura-sensei that question, the class had deemed her as the dunce. No one wanted to converse with the girl in fear of "catching her stupidity," as she heard a few people say. Not surprising. It was the first day of cram school and everyone already hated her. Well . . . everyone save for the pointy-eared boy asking her questions.

The boy scratched the back of his head. "Heh, I was never good at this sort of thing. I'm just trying to waste some time."

"For what?"

On cue, Okumura-sensei walked back into the classroom. His blue eyes went directly to the girl and his twin conversing in the back of the classroom. Then, it shifted over to the blonde stretching her legs in the corner. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Hirasawa-san, Fujimori-san, are you ready?" he asked, walking over to where Nami was seated. She looked into his eyes before looking into his brother's, noticing the same indigo blue surrounding their irises. "We have an hour and a half to go over everything that you don't understand."

Asaki rushed over to take a seat next to her cousin, her curious expression changing to a serious one. "All right, Okumura-sensei."

Okumura-seneri pulled up a chair to sit next to his brother, right in front of the two girls. It was then did Nami really notice the similarities between the boys. They both had the same strong jawlines, upturned eyes, long eyelashes, and towering height. The differences between them could go on forever, though. For example, Okumura-sensei's hair was a rich brown while his brother's was the same colour as the night sky, and Okumura-sensei lacking the surgically modified ears.

"You don't have to wait on me today," Okumura-senei told his brother. "I'll be late."

"It's fine, Yukio. I didn't want to do my homework now, anyways. I can wait," Pointy-ears replied.

So Okumura-sensei's first name was Yukio? Nami quickly scanned the boy's face. Yukio meant snow boy . . . did that title really fit him? She glanced over at his brother, who had a bored expression on his face now that work was going to get down. Rin meant dignified. That title didn't suit him at all.

Okumura-sensei nodded. "First things first, have both of you received your temptaints?" he asked.

Nami raised her hand a bit. "What is that?"

"Have you been afflicted by demons?"

Nami looked down at her hands. To her right, Asaki was doing the same. The day they had felt the power of those creatures had been the day that they had lost Asaki's father, Fujimori Shou. Even now, after so much time had passed since the incident, it was still painful to talk about. The two girls nodded in unison. They had been afflicted by demons if not in one of the worst possible ways.

"I understand." Sensing their moods, Okumura-sensei opted to change the subject. "Hirasawa-san, what's your father's first name?"

"Kohaku," she answered, questioningly.

"Ah, so you're Hirasawa-senpai's daughter. That explains a lot. And you must be his niece. I heard the higher ups talking about you two, but I didn't think that you would join True Cross Academy."

Poiny ears looked over at his brother. "Who?"

"Hirasawa-senpai is a knight exorcist who retired sixteen years ago."

"And they don't know about exorcists?"

"They probably don't know for reasons similar to why Dad never told you."

Nami raised her hand once more. "What is a knight exorcist?"

"You're in cram school to become exorcists," Okumura-sensei, and his brother rested his cheek on his hand, having heard this a million times. "A meister is someone with the knowledge to become an exorcist. It's the bottom requirement to become one. Meisters are split into five categories: a knight—someone who wields a sword, a dragoon—someone who wields firearms, a doctor—someone who treats wounds caused by demons, a tamer—someone who may summon demons as familiars, and an aria—someone who attacks by reading passages from the bible or sacred scriptures. You father and Rin, for example, are knights who fight using swords. You can pick which one you want to become."

Green eyes wanted over to blue ones before looking down at the red case between the person's legs. He was carrying around a sword in there.

Asaki flashed a bright smile. "I want to be an aria. It sounds cool."

Everyone glanced at the silent, white-haired teen. She sighed. "I guess being a dragoon would be fine with me," she said.

Being able to shoot guns seemed like the best option to her. Especially since the thought of reading out verses didn't sit well with her. She could feel the three of them staring at her, though, wondering why the small girl chose something so . . . rough.

Okumura-sensei adjusted his glasses. "Are you sure about that, Hirasawa-san? Not many new exorcists are dragoons because it requires a lot of focus and hand-eye coordination."

"I'm not changing my mind," she announced.

Okumura-sensei nodded; Pointy-ears' lips tilted up into a smirk. She clearly wasn't going to change her decision because of a few suggestions given to her. If only most of the new exorcists in the class had an attitude like hers. At this rate, it'd be back down to eight or so students in no time. None of them wanted to commit to it. But, here was this indifferent, hostile girl, showing dedication for something she barely knew about. That took guts.

He watched the way she took notes in her notebook. Each stroke of the hiragana she wrote was neat and well-practiced. Her hands were sturdy, her skinny fingers were manicured with a fresh coat of black nail polish. Even the black ribbon securing her half ponytail in place was well-done. What the hell was this girl? Hirasawa Nami was a mystery, that was for sure. A mystery as to how a person could be so dedicated to no one, but to everything at the same time.

"All right. Now that you know about that, it's time to go over everything. Demons come from Gehenna . . ."

Sorry for taking so long to update! I was working out all the kinks in the story line and whatnot. And to update you on the "school starting in April" thing for my westerner friends, I have a little article for you:

The Japanese school year begins in April, not in September like in the United States and other countries. The first term runs to around July 20, when summer vacation begins. Kids return to school in early September for the second term, which lasts until about December 25.

I hope that clears up most of the confusion. And also, a super big thank you to the people who reviewed! It made me want to update as soon as possible, which is the reason you guys get this chapter tonight instead of tomorrow.

~ Insane