Chapter 6: Classes

A/N: Holy Carps! I got a schmancy new computer for Christmas, and now will probably update a little more often, but with midterms coming up, who knows? Anyway, this is the overdue chapter six, where the super-dramatic school development develops even more. Enjoy, write reviews, and I probably won't update with another chapter for quite a while, so I'll make this one longer.

I don't own Blue Exorcist/Ao no Exorcist. Enjoy!

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"Why the hell do I have to go to school," Rin muttered not to anyone in particular as he walked down the sidewalk to his new school. In his hand was a torn piece of off-white paper with the address of his new school written in black ink.

Oh God, he thought as he rounded the sidewalk corner, what have I gotten myself into?

…Earlier That Morning…

Yamamoto silently opened the doors of Rin's room early that morning armed with a small vial of liquid, a large bucket of water, and a rectangular box. He stealthily walked to the pastel bed, where the navy-haired teenager slept peacefully on his side, dreaming of sukiyaki and hot girls. Rin flopped onto his back, murmuring something about bikinis, completely unaware of the danger that was looming over head.

Yamamoto put the cardboard box on the cabinet, and the bucket at the end of the bed. He uncapped the glass vial with a pop and slowly tipped the vial, onto the sleeping teenager's chest, soaking his baby-blue shirt. As soon as the clear water landed on his chest, Rin bolted up, grabbing his chest in pain.

"Rise and shine, Ouji-sama," Yamamoto said in a sarcastic tone.

Rin was now lying on the ground struggling to get his wet shirt off, shouted at the slightly balding man, "What the hell is this stuff? Acid?"

Yamamoto grabbed the bucket of tap water and tossed it onto Rin, completely soaking him and the carpet surrounding the teenager. In a slightly maniacal voice, he responded, "Even better, Holy Water," and tossed a towel hanging on the headboard at the infuriated teenager. Yamamoto shouted one final warning of, "Get your ass in the kitchen by seven, or else you're going to school with no food," and left Rin alone to get dressed.

His chest still burning and tail flicking, Rin grabbed the cardboard box off the cabinet and ripped it open, still pissed off about waking up to the feeling that someone had spilled battery acid on him in the middle of an awesome dream. Wasting no time in tearing back the tissue paper, Rin quickly spilled the contents of the box onto the messy bed. Inside was a black school uniform; black pants, black jacket, a small, triangle-shaped pin that alternated red, white, and black stripes with a strange circular symbol in the center, and a new pair of black converse. Forgetting the slight burning feeling that still lingered, he promptly got dressed.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Haru was preparing Rin's bento lunch and Ukobach was making a quick breakfast of American doughnuts. Hitoshi had returned from his short adventure, and brought gifts for everyone, including Rin. The monastery was up and running full throttle and it wasn't even seven yet.

Rin fastened the pin and grabbed his brown leather bag, and started to leave when Fujimoto's voice echoed through his head; Whatever you do Rin, take this bag with you. Don't let anyone take it, sleep next to it even. He paused for a second and quickly shoved the Koumaken in the red cloth bag and slung it over his shoulder.

After a quick walk down the hall, Rin strode into the dining hall. He was greeted by a chorus of cheery hellos and the smell of fried dough. The burning sensation had finally gone away, and Rin was acting as normal as he could on the first day of school. He grabbed one of the steaming doughnuts off of the platter lying in the middle of the table, and took a seat.

"I only met you once, and while I was gone you seem to have torn the place apart," Hitoshi said warmly as he walked towards Rin. He bowed, and reached into the pocket of his pants, and pulled out a small square present.

Rin's face lit up like a child's on Christmas day, and snatched the present out of Hitoshi's hands. His mouth full of doughnut, Rin tore open the present, shredding the wrapping paper into little shreds, revealing a small square box. Inside of the box there was a scroll in a small glass bottle, sealed with a cork top. Rin picked it up and was about to remove the cork when he was interrupted by Koru, "Hey, Rin, you should get going soon. I've written down the address of your school on this sheet of paper. It's two blocks down and to the left, so it should be easy enough to find."

"Okay," Rin said through a mouthful of fried doughy goodness. He grabbed his bags, grabbed another doughnut for the road, and bolted out the door. Yamamoto followed him outside, and although Rin was fuming about having to go to school, he had to admit that he was excited to go on a new adventure, seeing as he hadn't left the monastery since he first arrived a few days earlier.

Before shutting the gates, Yamamoto quickly grabbed Rin's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Remember, no one can know you're the son of Satan." He shut the iron gates and shouted after Rin, "Act normal and try no to do anything too stupid!"

With that, Rin trotted off to school.

… …

Rin adjusted the red bag hanging off of his left shoulder, and adjusted his grip on the bag in his right. Okay, he thought as he studied the tiny handwriting, the school should be right…

Here.

In front of his was an empty lot; nothing there except grass, broken bottles, and a tire. He took another look at the piece of paper, and then looked back at the lot.

"Shit, I took a wrong turn!" Rin turned back the way he came, and sprinted off.

After a few more wrong turns and back tracking, Rin finally arrived at the school. Lifting his gaze from the paper, Rin looked to his left and noticed a very plain looking building. There was honestly nothing magnificent about it; cement walls, many windows all lined up evenly across four levels, and two glass doors that offered a peek into a rather dull looking hallway. The only things that made it stand out were a yellow-brown sign in front labeled "Northern School of Academic Excellence" and the massive flood of teenagers flooding into the two glass doors. Rin reluctantly dived into the continuous stream of people and followed the flow to a small cubby area.

"Woah, it's so much bigger on the inside," Rin noticed, amazed at how big the room seemed. For a while, he just stood off to the side, taking in the environment, watching the mass of people move almost in harmony. About five minutes had passed when a bony hand made its way onto Rin's shoulder. He snapped back into reality and turned around, face-to-face with a rather old bony woman. Her gray hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail that emphasized her wrinkles, and was dressed in a red suit.

"Okumura Rin I presume?" The lady asked in a crackly voice.

"Y-yeah," Rin stuttered.

"Your homeroom is room 121. Your teacher is Mrs. Arai. Good Day," and as soon as the strange lady appeared, she disappeared, leaving Rin standing awkwardly alone.

After a little bit of searching, he eventually found room 121, which was facing the back of the building. It had taken Rin a while to find the classroom, so he strode into class a little late. His usual air of confidence was dimmed by a wave of doubt, so when Rin opened the door, he had no idea what to expect.

Not even Rin's crazy imagination could have guessed what was in this classroom.

There were only four people in the class, not including the teacher, everyone in the same uniform as Rin, except for the two girls who wore red kilt skirts and black knee-high socks. A few seemed to fidget with something in their shirt as soon as Rin entered the room, and all tensed up a little.

Startled by the awkward situation, Rin managed to blurt out a brief, "Hey."

A chorus of laughter echoed throughout the room, and the stout woman at the blackboard who appeared to be the teacher waddled towards Rin.

"Okay students," She started in an over-enthusiastic voice, "I forgot to mention that today a new student is joining us."

A girl in a hoodie in the back row called out, "So, what's his deal?"

"He's one of us, you can all relax," When she said that, the tense air that previously filled the room was suddenly dispersed, "This is Okumura Rin, and he, too, is a halfy."

The same girl with the hoodie in the back row and the person next to her jumped out of their seat and, well, glomped Rin.

"Oh! Rin! It's you!" The two said, hugging the extremely confused teenager. The hooded one quickly added, "I'm so glad yer here!"

"Jessica?" Rin asked, barely recognizing the slight accent.

"Yep!" She sang, and Rin immediately recognized the person next to her as Mikari.

"Where's Yumi?" Rin asked in an angry tone, remembering the flaming red-head from the other day.

The classroom was as silent as a graveyard, and everyone's faces fell. Jessica replied, "Yumi isn't with us anymore. She, um, couldn't escape a burning building and got caught in the mass of rubble and flames."

Shocked, Rin recoiled, "I-I'm so sorry." He thought back to when he last saw Yumi, which was the night he was captured by those two men and forced into that group of weirdoes, and he accidently lost control and the entire building burned down—

Fuck, it's my fault that she died, he realized after a while. "I really am sorry," he added again, this time more sincerely.

"It's in the past," Jessica chimed in, elbowing Rin hard in the ribs, "It wasn't you fault."

Rin just nodded, his hand over his ribs.

The mood in the classroom quickly swung from depressed to cheery, and Jessica took no time in changing the subject, "Okay, this might be kind of awkward, but…" She leapt behind Rin and reached up the back of his shirt, where he had carefully hidden his tail from view.

"Don't worry Rin," she said, fumbling with his shirt in the most awkward manner possible, "Most people here have a tail, you don't have to hide it."

Of course, it wasn't until she said this that he noticed the teacher and two other kids in the class had tails, similar to his own. Everyone else had either pointed ears or elongated canine teeth, and one kid looked like he had small horns.

By the time Rin had come to this realization, Jessica had his fluffy tail free from his shirt, and it was now flicking back and forth as though agitated. Tired of putting up with this crap, he lashed out, "What the HELL is this?"

The teacher, who Rin was pretty sure was Mrs. Arai, erased everything on the green chalkboard and motioned for Rin to sit down. He claimed one of the desks on the far left, next to the window, and sat down.

"This school is separated into three classes," she started, drawing three circles on the board, "There's the normal class, the exorcist class, and the demon class. The normal class is just like any other ordinary high school class, except they do receive education about demons." She paused for a moment to draw two stick figures, in the circle on the far right.

"In the exorcist class, specially selected students are educated in the ways of exorcists. They receive not only exorcist training and taught as though they were normal high school students, but also learn about demons. NSAE is the only school to offer an exorcist class for free." In the middle circle, she drew two more stick figures, one armed with what looked like guns and the other armed with a sword.

"Finally, in the demon class, students of demon heritage are taught only about demons and just enough normal education to help them survive in Assiah. That is what this class is." In the third circle she drew three figures, one with horns, one with a tail, and one with fangs.

"We were told that you were born of a human mother and a demon father, so you were automatically placed in this class," she concluded, once again erasing the chalk board.

So does that mean they know I'm the son of Satan? Rin thought as his mind tried to process what the situation was.

Mind working at 100 percent, Rin looked as though smoke would come out of his ears. Mrs. Arai called out, snapping his attention back to reality.

"Okay class," She once again said in a bubbly voice, "Introduce yourselves to Okumura-kun sometime today, because right now we're going to go out to the field!"

Everyone filed out of the room, leaving everything behind (except for Rin who brought the Koumaken) and made their way to the field behind the school. As soon as the entire class was gone, he grabbed Mrs. Arai by the shoulder, causing her to practically jump out of her skin, "Look, I don't fucking care that I'm some half-demon, but I'm not gonna be in this class."

A little startled by this sudden outburst, Mrs. Arai calmly responded, "We were informed that you were a half-demon, which you confirm, right?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"That means you were automatically placed in this class. Whether you know it or not, demons have special powers, even half-demons, and the only way you can control those is by learning how to and practicing. That's what this class is about."

Bitch, I know about these special powers, he thought to himself. Rin punched the wall, causing a small dent to form where his clenched fist had met the plaster, "I don't fucking care! I'm going to be the one to defeat Satan! Believe it!"

Mrs. Arai cracked, and started to laugh, "Listen, there's no way that you're gonna be put in the exorcist class, so put up with it," and on that happy note, the stout lady bounded out of the room, reminding Rin of a really, really fat deer running.

That Yamamoto bastard, he thought as he walked along with the class, fuming, Sending me to a fucking school for demons—

"Oh Riiiiin-Kuuuuuuuun!" A shrill voice called out from behind him, pissing him off.

"What the hell do you want?" He cried, spinning around to face a beaming Jessica and a blushing Mikari.

"We just wanted to let you know that no one knows that you're Sa—"

Mikari clasped her hand over Jessica's mouth, "What Jessica's trying to say is that everyone thinks you were born from a low-level demon father and a human mother. That's all," She looked up and gave a half-smile to the bright-eyed teenager.

Rin let out a sigh of relief. He relaxed a little, and started to walk with a little skip in his step. He never once liked school, but this seemed almost like a dream, not a good dream (those usually involved meat and hot chicks), but it was still unrealistic. He was pissed off that he had gotten rejected so easily from joining the exorcist class, but a new adventure was a much sweeter and meat-filled dish compared to reality.

Rin sat down on the brown-green grass, not minding that the light brown dirt was pretty visible on the dark black uniform. He took the red bag off of his shoulder and placed it gently on the ground next to him, as though the bag was a newborn baby. Just as he was about to lie down for a mid-morning nap, two shadows suddenly blocked his sun.

"Hey!" Rin called to the dark figures, "You're blocking the sun!"

"Well jeez," the one on the left responded. He sounded like a delinquent, "We were gonna be nice and introduce ourselves, but ohkaaay I guess we won't…"

"I'm Albert," The short kid on the right said.

"Way to completely ruin my amazing plan, Bert," the taller, slightly chubbier kid on the left said, "I'm Matt." Rin sat up and looked at the two standing in front of him. They were complete opposites; Albert had platinum blonde hair that seemed to swoosh perfectly into his piercing, icy blue eyes. He also had two small knobs budding out from right above his ears. If he wasn't so quiet, he'd seem a little snobbish. And Matt had short, cropped black hair with orange tips. His eyes were completely black.

Matt extended his right hand towards Rin, which Rin grabbed and pulled himself up. As Rin grabbed Matt's hand, he noticed that Matt seemed to be missing the top part of his pinky finger.

"Well," Rin said, brushing the dirt off of his uniform, "You know me already, but what about you guys?"

"Bert here is 75 percent demon- his mom is half demon and his father is a full demon," Matt leaned in really close to Rin's ear and whispered, "Rumor has it that his dad has special powers because he is so close to Satan. Isn't that creepy?"

Chills ran through Rin's body, "Yeah, totally creepy."

Matt leaned back out and started to talk in a normal voice again, "Bert has the highest amount of Demon in him in the class. As for me, my mom's a demon and my dad's a human. Nothing special."

The two continued talking, and Albert had somehow made his way over to where Rin had been lying down and had left the Koumaken. Bert picked up the red cloth bag and examined it for a moment, weighing it with his hands, feeling around to see what was inside. He pulled back the top of the bag and saw…

"Mine," Rin said in a childish manner, plucking the bag from Bert's petite hands before he had gotten a chance to guess or see what was inside.

Rin walked back over to where Matt was standing, where the two were quickly joined by Albert.

"So, Rin, your dad's a demon, right? What's he like?" Albert asked coolly.

Rin stopped walking, as though paused in some movie.

"He's a fucking bastard," He said in a harsh tone, then walked past Albert and Matt, catching up with Mrs. Arai, Jessica, and Mikari.

Soon enough the class of a whopping five people was reunited in the back corner of the lot. Rin was once again enraged by memories of Fujimoto, and the fateful night when he was killed. The Gehenna gate that opened up on the floor, the sheer chaos that erupted…

"As we learned yesterday, demons are much stronger than humans. While full demons don't have anywhere near as much mental capacity as humans, demons certainly know how to wreck the place," Mrs. Arai stood in front of the wooden fence, addressing the class. Rin was only half listening, distracted by memories and the faint smell of food wafting over from the other side of the fence.

"Basically, what we're testing today is your strength. You're all half demon, so you should be able to easily crack one of these wooden pickets," She gestured towards the fence, "you can decide whether you want to punch the wall or kick it, just go all out and try to do as much damage as possible!"

Finally, something I'm good at, Rin thought to himself smugly, destroying things!

The class lined up, facing the wooden fence, standing about a foot away from the divider. Everyone stood a few stakes apart, so there was no way someone could mess up because of another person. First up was Jessica, who decided to kick the wall.

Creak.

The wooden fence held its ground, and cracked in the middle, leaving it kind of bowed out. Up next was Albert, who looked like he was about to punch the wall.

Thud.

The sound of flesh hitting wood echoed softly in the school yard. There was absolutely no damage done to the fence. As though mocking Albert, who went in for another punch, the wood ended up bruising Albert's hand pretty badly. Albert got sent in to see the nurse, and wasn't seen for a while.

Matt chuckled, and then turned and faced the wall. He collected his thoughts, and then jump-kicked at the wall dramatically.

Crack.

Matt had succeeded in cracking the wooden stake, which stood almost defeated and bent dangerously. He glanced at Rin, smiled, and mouthed the words, "Beat that!"

Next was Mikari, who was about to punch the wall. She drew her and back in a masterful style.

Thump.

Mikari's hand was hurt from the impact with the solid object, but it still somehow managed to leave an almost perfect imprint of a small hand in the wood. As soon as Mikari recovered, Albert trotted back out, his injured hand healed completely.

Finally, It was Rin's turn.

Snap!

The post had snapped almost completely in half, and after a short while, the top part fell to the ground. His hand turning a bright red color, Rin grinned triumphantly and picked up the piece of the fence.

"Holy shit, Rin! I knew you were strong, but never that strong!" Jessica shouted, walking up to Rin and snatching the piece of wood out of his hands.

"Alright, that's enough for today," Mrs. Arai suddenly said, appearing out of nowhere, "It's about time for you guys to head home anyway. See you guys tomorrow!"

"School is over already?" Rin asked, completely confused. He had just gotten to class about two hours ago.

"You got to class after lunch. You completely missed all of the regular classes, and arrived at the end of our Demon History class," Albert replied, still inspecting his hand.

With that, Albert walked away, joined shortly later by Matt, who shouted, "See ya later!"

Rin waved back at the pair, and continued on his way. The snapped piece of wood in one hand and the Koumaken in the other, Rin walked back to the monastery, this time focusing all of his energy into not getting lost.