Shinji ran to the site of the attack, waving wildly for someone to come back to the dorm. The people who did see him assumed that he was insane, and did their best to shy away from him. He was beginning to worry, whatever had been "asleep" was no longer there. Rin noticed him and made his way, slowly, over.

"Is something wrong?" Rin asked. He seemed calm, despite Shinji's frantic movements.

Shinji nodded, trying to gesture to the dorm. Rin raised an eyebrow, clearly not understanding. Shinji groaned internally and grabbed his arm, determined to somehow get Rin back to the dorm.

Rin never protested, allowing himself to be pulled all the way to the scene. When he got within seeing distance, Rin faltered a little as he realized what had happened. He muttered a few expletives and sprinted the rest of the way, with Shinji in pursuit.

"Dammit!" Rin hit the wall, trying to keep tears of desperation out of his eyes, "Kuro was in there!"

Shinji raised stared at him, not quite sure of how to express his confusion. Rin waited for a reaction, and began to explain when there was none.

"Kuro, my familiar," there was a pause before he went on, "he went insane, or rogue, I don't know, he just attacked me the other day. I asked around, and it turns out that every familiar on the campus went haywire. Most people just destroyed the circle that they used to summon the familiars, but with Kuro and I… it's different."

Shinji nodded, he knew about familiars. There had been quite a few before the fire, and they were always helpful with the chores. As a boy, he'd been infatuated with them, always wondering if they were allowed to play. Every time he was gently told no and sent back to the crudely carved wooden figures he called toys.

There were footsteps behind him, and Shinji turned around to see Yukio nonchalantly making his way over to the building. Yukio's eyes, rather than examining the scene of the escape, were firmly fixed on his brother. He walked up to Rin and hit him so hard that he fell to the dirt.

"Hey!" Rin exclaimed, "What the hell?"

"You worthless idiot," Yukio growled, "you had one job, and you couldn't even do that well!"

Yukio kicked Rin as he tried to get up, placing a foot on his chest to keep him down. He, Yukio, started to grab his gun, but before he could Shinji drew his sword and swung at him. Despite his blinding rage, Yukio was still smart enough to dodge and fire a round at Shinji. Sadly, for him, there was no chance of the bullet hitting its mark, for even if Shinji had not dodged it, the bullet froze the moment it got within two feet of Yukianesa.

There was a circle of ice growing around Shinji's feet, and frost crawled up his arm. He did not move as Yukio regained his composure. It was a trick taught to him by Yukihime long ago.

Never attack an opponent who is not attacking you, she repeated the words again now, worried that Shinji had forgotten them, rather, brace yourself for what will happen if he does.

Yukio's hand made its way to his right shoulder where there was a small cut in his exorcist coat. A cut sheathed in ice. His face widened into a grin.

"Well, well, well, what a twist. The boy designated to save us is actually the monster we've been looking for this entire time." Yukio sneered and raised his gun again. Shinji braced himself and gripped his sword. However, neither of them attacked, choosing instead to stare menacingly at one another, waiting. No one moved, even Rin lied motionless on the ground.

They stayed that way, staring each other down, until the first snowflake fell. It couldn't have been more than ten seconds, but to the parties involved it felt much, much longer.

It wasn't the snow that surprised Shinji, but the fact that he hadn't noticed it in the first place. The thick, fluffy clouds had covered the sky and blocked out a considerable amount of sunlight. Shinji, temporarily forgetting his opponent, looked at the sky and wondered if he had been the one who caused it. He had never made it snow before, he never wanted to, but it was possible that he had done so unconsciously.

There was, however, one other option. It could have been the person behind the attacks. That meant that whoever was doing everything was much more powerful than Shinji had originally thought. It was one thing to make ice sculptures, but it was another thing altogether to make such a large snowstorm that one could not see either end of it.

Yukio began to twitch, turning Shinji's attention away from the sky. The way that Yukio moved was unnatural, inhuman. With twisting fingers and cracking vertebrae, he turned his back on the fight and walked away. There were no final words, no last statement to prove his superiority, he simply left. Shinji watched him go, thinking it was a relief to be rid of him, but Rin jumped up and tried to run after his brother. Shinji caught his arm, realizing too late that there would be no way to say what he wanted to express.

Rin glared at him and yanked his hand away, "Let go of me, you don't know what it's like to have a brother."

Shinji watched Rin walk away, or saw him, he wasn't paying enough attention to really be watching. Brothers. Shinji had a brother, a big one who, though he was fun, was never really there in the sense that his mind was always wandering. His name was Hakaru.

Hakaru looked nothing like his younger brother, save their lanky bodies. Hakaru had pale blonde hair and eyes that, though they were the most frigid shade of blue, were always warm and welcoming. He always wore soft white clothes, never the traditional garb of the clan, and he was never made to do the work of the men. He liked to sit at the edge of the woods and just watch them. There was something fascinating hiding in there, he was sure.

Snap out of it, Yukihime was abrupt at first but quickly calmed down, I apologize Shinji, but you are not in safe times, and thinking about your brother will not help you.

Shinji knew that she was right, but it was still hard to bring his mind back to the present. The snow had begun to fall more rapidly, and the ice had made its way out of the storm drains, taking over the streets. It was now moving so quickly that Shinji could visibly see its progression.

There were screams for help coming from the direction of the park. Shinji froze, he knew that it was only going to be another attack. They were all in the park. Something inside of him wanted to run, to go back to the woods where he could hide from the human side of himself, the side that remembered little things like the exact smile Haraku made when he saw something in the woods, something that no one else saw. Shinji knew, however, that he could not leave, that the human side would be with him whether he left or not. This is what he told himself as he made his way to the calls for help, as Yukihime tried to convince him to leave.

No! Turn around! For if you do not we shall surely perish. She tried to the end of her abilities, but nothing worked, nothing made Shinji turn around.

When Shinji could see what had happened he started to run. Of course it had been another attack, but this time there had not been a casualty, yet.

There was a child, encased in the ice, a look of fear and confusion adorning her face. Only, this time the victim was alive, she wasn't being broken apart, she was being suffocated. All Shinji had to do was touch the ice, lay a hand on it and it would shatter into millions of pieces, but it wasn't that simple. As he was running to the little girl a cat the size of a fire truck jumped over the ice sculpture carrying a flaming Rin in its mouth. Rin was twitching like Yukio had been, only worse, as if he was glitching. Rin saw Shinji and tried to call for help,

"Please, please he's in my head. He's getting stronger, please make him be quiet!"

Shinji was divided between saving Rin and saving the little girl. Rin, he figured, would probably live despite being in the mouth of a cat, but the girl, she had been encased in ice for an increasingly long time. Humans, Shinji figured, could survive without oxygen for four to six minutes, round to five. Subtract one minute for the little girl's size, one for a moment of self pity and cowardice, and one for the time it took him to decide to let Rin be.

He had two minutes.

Shinji reached to his back and took Yukianesa in his hand, pulling it to his side. He charged at the ice, not bothering to go around the cat, thereby pissing it off. It swept a paw at him and he tried to dodge, but its paws were the size of steering wheels, and it still caught him in the ribs. It was followed by a searing pain and a warm trickling feeling that soon turned cold. The cat held him down and tried to bite his head off, but was stopped. Yukio was fast approaching, weilding a gun and engulfed in blue flames that were more powerful than anything Shinji had ever felt.

"I told you that this one was mine," Yukio growled at the cat, "Now, Shinji, I see you and Kuro have met." he snickered, and Shinji wanted to spit in his face. Would have, had he not been wearing his mask.

Yukio pointed his gun at Shinji's head, "You and I are going to sit here and wait for this little girl to suffocate." he grinned with a sort of malice that made Shinji shiver.

Shinji started to panic, knowing that the girl did not have much time left, he felt helpless. He struggled to reach the ice, just one fingertip and he could free her of death. Yukio let out a bellow at Shinji's struggles. That was exactly what he wanted to see.

Breath, Shinji, there is another way.

Shinji stopped, took a breath, and looked, immediately finding what Yukihime had been speaking of. He took Yukianesa in his hand and stretched his arm, connecting the tip of the blade with the block of ice. It shattered instantly, into pieces so fine that they looked like powder. Yukio let out a growl and pointed his gun at the little girl who lied motionless on the ground.

But he never pulled the trigger. It took Shinji too long to realize that everything was completely still, that the mother of the little girl had not run to her daughter's side, that everything had been entirely encased in a layer of ice.

Shinji clawed his way out from underneath the paw of the cat and stared at the scene hopelessly. Everyone was frozen, whether only on the outside or frozen to the core he did not know, but it didn't matter, they would all be dead soon either way.

"I wouldn't worry about them," there was a movement in the corner of Shinji's eye and he whirled to face it, brandishing his sword in the face of Mephisto.

"Please," Mephisto faked exhaustion, "I would appreciate it if you stopped waving that thing in my face. Now, you don't need to worry about everyone here. I noticed the ice right before it was too late, I'm rather embarrassed to admit. However, I was just able to freeze time on the campus, everyone here will be perfectly fine until this is sorted out."

Shinji fell to his knees, tears of relief threatening to spill out of his eyes. Ever since he'd been possessed by Yukihime, he hadn't really needed to breath. At the time of his third attack, however, Shinji felt like he was suffocating. He stood up shakily, too afraid to look at Mephisto, and yet too afraid to look away from him. There was no exchanging of words between the two, no mutual agreement of the plan. It was simply known from the beginning, something had to be done about the ice demon.

"Good luck," Mephisto said as he walked away, "where you're going you'll need it."

Shinji blinked and Mephisto was gone, along with the park and the buildings of the campus. So too was the ice. The sun was shining gently on his face as he turned around, trying to find out where he was.

Shinji's eyes, finally lifting from the ground, looked out and saw a city. It wasn't the city that caught his eye, however, it was something else. A dome of ice, a few miles in either direction, resting over a part of the city, as if it belonged there in the middle of summer. After a confused moment of staring, Shinji realized that the ice was, in fact, resting over the True Cross campus. His breath hitched before he remembered that Mephisto had frozen time on the campus, everyone would be fine until he figured out what was going on.

Shinji turned around, slowly this time, because he was afraid of what he was going to see. Everything around him was vividly familiar, a place he used to frequent as a child who waited for the return of his father. The trees that had weathered many years of a harsh life. There was one in particular that made him pause. An old pine, looming over a dirt path on which he now stood, broken in half by a particularly violent strike of lightning.

Mephisto had seen the murals in the ice, and he had know what they meant. Shinji had, from the beginning, known what those pictures were hinting at, he was just too afraid to admit it to himself. Shinji Fuyuyama had to go home.

Hey Guys! I hope you liked this chapter! Please let me know if you see any grammar/spelling mistakes! Thanks so much for reading!