Chapter Four.

Shinji flew over the town of True Cross with large, powerful flaps of his wings, feeling the wind running over his skin and through his hair, tugging playfully at his clothes and making him smile with delight. No matter how old he was, how tired he was, how worn down by life; flying would always, always be the thing that brought a smile to his face. Breathing deeply, letting his lungs fill and his chest swell, he held it a moment before letting it all out in a gush, and with the warmth of the midday sun shining down on him, Shinji was in a good mood.

Now to locate those Exwires, he thought, see what they have been up to and let them know the boys are awake. He concentrated on there faces and names, turning and flying to where his intuition guided him, until at last he was hovering over a street that looked like almost every other street in True Cross at that moment. There were small cracks in the buildings and some of the roads, maybe the remains of a fire here or there, but it nothing too serious. Except this street had a few Exorcist's lingering in it, one or two demons were standing near by, but the feeling of the whole street was one of waiting.

Shinji shrugged and flew down, adjusting his wing strokes as he neared the ground until his bare feet touched down lightly. Tucking his wings in as one of the Exorcists hurried over, he nodded his head in salute, "what's happening here?" He asked calmly.

"The Exwires have been sent in to handle a small hobgoblin infestation," explained the middle aged man that had hurried over. "We've heard a few explosions but none of them have pressed the panic buttons they have been given."

Shinji frowned and looked at the building that the man was indicating, he then looked back at the man, "but they are only Exwires. And they are only fighting hobgoblins, surely there are worse things out there that need your urgent attention?"

"We're on orders from Sir Pheles," explained the Exorcist nervously. "He said that they were to handle what normal Exorcists should do, but we need to be close on hand and give them some kind of instant signalling system. This is the third building they've cleared."

"Sure okay," nodded Shinji, "but they are only fighting hobgoblins." He said pointedly, folding his arms over his chest as he looked at the man. The Exorcist looked ready to panic now, and he sent a pleading look to the others of his team, but there was no help there.

"In fact Sir," began the Exorcist, starting to sweat slightly with nerves. "They are in fact fighting a colony of Hobgoblins, with three Kings in there."

Shinji looked at the building again then at the Exorcist, "and they have been sent in without either of the Okumura brothers to back them up?"

"Yes, that's why they have been sent in."

"Oh, I understand now," Shinji smiled and the man started to relax. "I'm going to go in and have a look at how it's going. Don't worry, I won't interfere unless I consider the situation to be lethal." And with that, the golden haired young man walked away from the stuttering exorcist and threw open door at the front of the building, his wings shrinking down till they were small and discreet again against his back.

The change from bright light to darkness made Shinji blink for a moment, but it was only a moment until he was stepping confidently down the corridor. The building was a set of apartments he realised, as he looked at the stairs to his right and the corridor stretching on in front of him, it ended in three doors, assuming each led to a home. Listening to the silence for a few moments, Shinji nodded to himself and started to climb the stairs, stopping at the third landing and moving threw the still open front door of the nearest apartment.

The apartments in the building where spacious but the owner of this one had seemed to believe in the 'open plan' design and had taken out all of the walls, bar the main supporting pillars of the building. And the place had been trashed too, Shinji noted lightly as he stepped into the room, but the sounds of combat had stopped.

"Is everyone okay?" He called, stepping into the middle of the room and looking around. With most of the lights destroyed or not working, it made the room rather gloomy and dank seeming, especially with the masses of broken furniture everywhere.

"Hey, its Shinji," said a cheerful voice as a pink haired head appeared from behind an over turned sofa.

"Shima," Shinji smiled in greeting, "where is everyone?"

"Oh we're all waiting for-" Began the pink haired young man, slightly nervously but he was stopped in his tracks as there was a smashing sound and the last of the King Hobgoblins appeared, smashing out the ceiling as it launched itself, mouth agape to attack and swallow the dwarfed figure of Shinji. The golden haired young man simply stood there calmly, turned his head and was lifting an arm up, when a gun shot rang out and the hobgoblins was blasted across the room, slamming into the wall before it began to dissolve into nothing.

"We were waiting for the last Hobgoblin King to take the bait of our trap," explained Shima again, standing up now and leaning on his staff.

"Who were you using as bait?" Asked Shinji curiously, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.

"Um, that was supposed to be me," answered Shiemi, moving out from a dark corner and into the pale light that shone through the windows. "When you came wandering in, Bon gave the signal for us all to hold our places."

"My my, I am impressed," nodded Shinji with a mischievous smirk. "Do all of your missions go this well?"

"Not really," answered Bon as the group emerged from there hiding places and gathered in the middle of the room, near Shinji.

"That's not completely true," disagreed Konekomaru honestly. "We can work well together when we've got time to plan things out and make sure everyone understands what's going on. The only problems that occur are when we try to get Rin to do what is expected of him, not what he wants to do."

"He's gotten better recently though," shrugged Bon loyally. "He just gets carried away wanting to help people, he's just got to calm down a bit sometimes and realise how best to go about it."

"True," agreed both Koneko and Shima with a smile.

"So why were you using a girl as bait?" Asked Shinji, looking over at Shiemi.

"Because I can defend myself better," answered the blond. Her face was set in a determined look and the small greenman on her shoulder just giggled, "its easier to defend myself than it is others, so it made sense for me to be the bait."

"I'm not criticising," reassured Shinji, raising his hands defensively.

"So why are you here then?" Asked Izumo archly, folding her arms over her small chest as she looked up at the golden haired young man. Her two familiars were sitting on the floor and calmly watching the proceedings like it was a play, set up for there amusement, Shinji caught there eye and gave them both a smile and a wink before he looked at the black haired young woman.

Just a quick thank you for the positive feed back from people. It may only be a "well done" or a "thanks" but even small things help :) thank you all and enjoy!