Okay, so here's your second chapter for today! I hope you enjoy this one... I might submit another, since I've written so much while driving around :3

~EmmyTheTurtle

Chapter Five

~ Blue Flicker and Naberius Scum ~

The drive was another couple of hours before they arrived at the designated area. Another long knock-out session was good for Tempus, though when she woke up she felt queasy. "You get carsick?" Shiemi asked, helping Tempus get out of the car, who still felt sick from all of the reciting Suguro and Konekomaru had been doing. They'd been dead-set on killing off the Naberius demon ASAP so Suguro could get back to his new sporting game: soccer. He'd invited Rin to train too, but Rin was against having his tail tucked in during training.

Suguro had responded by pulling at Rin's tail. She knew from experience that a tail being pulled or stuck under an object was painful and she'd rather that never happened to any good demon, half-blooded demon or full-blooded demon. "No, just tired… I guess," Tempus murmured, shaking her head clear of any holy crap going on. "I guess I'll be up all night, huh?"

"I'll stay up with you. The Naberius are really active during the night." Shiemi was buzzing. Was she always so smiley and happy? Tempus continued to wonder as they loaded their stuff into an old warehouse. A day's drive and they'd be back by the next day if the mission went smoothly. Apparently they hardly ever did whenever Rin drew his sword. Setting up sleeping bags and tents was easy; it was getting Tempus and Kamiki to share a tent that was much more difficult.

"Sharing a room with her is hard enough!" Kamiki snapped. Tempus kept her face calm and strode into the tent, throwing Kamiki's stuff out. "Hey! Put my stuff back in there!"

"You said you didn't want to share," Tempus muttered. "So get your own tent."

Suguro instantly lost it. "Well? You heard her. Sleep in Shima's tent then."

"I'd rather rot."

"That's fine with me, too," Tempus shrugged and began to turn the door of the tent. She whipped out her phone and checked; Amaimon had messaged her.

Gimme a call when you can… Mr. Rot can't make it, so I need some info on what to bring with me, like, do you want to see Behemoth? I can bring him along if you want.

Tempus smiled and quickly wrote a reply: Yeah, bring Behemoth along. You can play tag with Rin again if you want, too.

Instantly: YAY! Wait, is Shiemi gonna be there?

She chuckled and rolled her eyes: Yeah. No maggot infection this time.

Aww… but can I at least hug her?

As long as you don't kidnap her. Just a quick hug and that's all.

There wasn't a response afterwards; he must already be on his way to Assiah. He just couldn't help but get excited when Shiemi was involved in something; his little crush on her seemed to intensify whenever he was nearby, not that Tempus really cared. Amaimon never really cared for ancient laws to do with infatuations between demons and humans. He claimed that though this was his first crush on a human, it had been his first crush… ever. So he was extremely excited to actually have feelings for anyone – or anything.

Tempus had never bothered to mention Amaimon could have possibly found a mate. Even with his childish ways of living and occasional massacre-style plots and thoughts, Amaimon probably knew it too.

When demons find a mate, it's for life. No exceptions.

Tempus sat up and put her phone in her pocket, exiting the tent. Kamiki had begun to set up her own tent with Konekomaru trying to help. Beside them, Suguro and Shima were laughing together, high-fiving whenever Konekomaru dropped something.

"You know, if you guys helped, I'd really appreciate it!"

Shiemi had found some nice flowers and was tending to them with Nee. Tempus walked over to Shiemi and squatted down, watching her tend to the flowers. "You like plants?"

"Yes! My grandmother taught me everything I know about plants!"

So she loves the earth. King of Earth like girl who likes the earth. Fitting…

"Can you show me your talents?" Tempus asked, lowering herself to her knees. "I'm no good with plants, so I'm interested."

"Sure! See these daisies? Well…" Shiemi babbled on for ages and ages about daisies alone. Tempus struggled to understand why such a small flower needed so much care, attention and dedication, but could see why Shiemi was a gentle and shy person. Nee and Shiemi were excellent as a team… when it came to plants anyway, she wasn't too sure about combat skills just yet…

"Shiemi… have you heard of Amaimon?"

She tensed slightly. "Yes. He attacked Rin earlier this year and Kamiki-san told me he had a parasite infect me so I'd do what he wanted."

Okay, so he has strange ways of showing his affection. Cut him some slack, we demons have no social skills. At all. "So… he did what afterwards?"

"Rin said something about him trying to lick my face and steal my eyeballs."

Even I can agree that's a little too strange. I need to talk to him about his kissing skills. "Steal… your eyeballs?"

"Yep. Anyway," Shiemi brushed back her hair and smiled at Tempus. "I haven't seen him since then. So we're glad about that."

Oops. Tempus smiled sweetly, but her insides were killing her. She could have made this easier for her brother, but giving away too much would be too risky. That included being romantically involved with the pink-haired flirt standing behind her who was also smiling quite cutely.

Damn pink hair gets me every time. Can only imagine what my father would be thinking right now, and my brothers. Tempus felt her lip twitch slightly. "Shiemi, does her always stalk girls like this?"

Shiemi laughed. "No, unless he actually wants to get somewhere with a girl, I'm guessing."

"Moriyama-chan, I'm offended! I don't stalk them, I admire from a distance!"

"I think that counts as stalking," Tempus muttered. About ten meters away, Suguro and Rin burst into uncontrollable laughter. Shima just sighed and did that cocky smile he did. It almost threw Tempus off the rails with the pearly white teeth. He must have mastered that smile just by using a mirror and two girls as practiced. She guessed that Paku and Kamiki had been his target, though Kamiki had obviously blown him off completely, which made her feel sorry for him.

No, no, no. NO. No feelings. Oh, but he's so cute…

Tempus stood up and walked by Shima. He turned back to Shiemi and crouched down near her, casually making conversation. Tempus stormed passed the group and towards the warehouse. Barely hearing protest from Yukio and Rin, Tempus opened the warehouse doors and shut them behind her. Knowing the Naberius, they won't come out until the sun goes down. I have time to let off some steam.

I'm NOT falling for a stupid flirtatious human! Not now and not ever!

Tempus went to take the necklace off, but stopped. "It's this," she whispered. "This thing makes me vulnerable to human emotions. I knew it, but…"

"You know, you flipped out back there."

Tempus glanced up. "Hey."

Amaimon shrugged his shoulders and pulled out the lollipop in his mouth. "And that guy, is his name Renzo Shima? I kinda threw him against a tree and broke a couple of his ribs."

"Charming, Amaimon, real charming."

"I know, I'm just that kind of person."

"You're here early. Couldn't keep yourself away from Shiemi, right?"

"Of course I can… I, um… was looking forward to messing around with Rin again, that's… all…" He didn't make eye contact.

"Are so are! Don't lie to me!" Tempus began to laugh, a strange laugh and snorting sounds she'd never heard herself do before. Amaimon squinted his eyes and titled his head to the side.

"Maybe you should take that off for a little. Have you taken it off since getting it? It's been a week."

Tempus regained control of herself. "No… I haven't."

He shrugged. "Well… Big bro doesn't want you to take it off, but you can tonight, while Behemoth and I distract them all. You can take them down."

"It would attract too much attention," Tempus muttered, fiddling with the pendant. "And plus, where's Astaroth? Can't he possess someone new?"

"Apparently he's too uptight."

"Seriously? He's so lazy."

"He is, so he gets most of his kin to do his dirty work. Like the Naberius for example."

"Tempus? Hey! Tempus, where are you?" Rin's voice echoed throughout the warehouse. "Tempus!? Shima's complaining!"

Amaimon glanced behind him and looked back at Tempus, smirking. "'Shima's complaining'?"

"Shut up." Giving her brother a playful kick to the groin, Tempus walked towards Rin, who was just walking towards the entrance the basement of the warehouse. "I'm over here, just cooling off."

"Cooling… off? Is there a pool or something?"

"No. Every heard of clearing your head?"

"Sure, I do it all the time. I'm a hotheaded person." Rin appeared when Tempus rounded the corner. She spared a glance behind her, but Amaimon had already disappeared. Probably into the basement to psyche the Naberius up. "Anyway, Yukio wanted me to get you. Said something about reviewing the mission for the fifth time today."

Tempus nodded and followed Rin out of the warehouse. "Say, are you sure going in without a weapon is a good idea?"

"I'm sure a pass from the Bible will help out… I enjoy throwing the punches and kicks rather than swinging a sword around like a lunatic."

"For the record, swinging a sword around does not make me a lunatic. And you haven't seen me swing my sword around; I started a forest fire once."

I heard about it from the local demon newspaper; not even Father would shut up about it for days. The thought appeared sarcastically in her mind. "Well, hopefully that never happens again, right?"

He shrugged lightly. "Yeah. Hopefully… by the way, I found Yukio in the bathroom, looking at the mirror. He said something about 'baby fangs'?"

Tempus snorted and held her mouth together. "Well… why's he so stressed about it?"

"Well, look at mine. Pretty small, but when I take out y sword, it's like – BAM!" Rin made a dramatic hand gesture. "Instant monster-face."

You have no idea what monstrous looks like…

"Baby fangs… I wonder where he got that idea from."

"Didn't tell me where he got that idea from, but he freaks out over small thinks, like his moles. Woke up once because I had to scream at him. Find of funny at the time, but now I think that he's got some kind of OCD disease… freaks me out a little."

"Rin! Tempus! Hurry up, sunset is getting closer!"

They scurried through the dirt track and joined the others at camp. Yukio had whipped out the file containing all of the information about the mission. When Rin and Tempus were close and had stopped moving, he gave everyone the basic information about the mission. Two Naberius demons were suspected of hiding inside the basement of an old warehouse a few hours outside of True Cross, apparently guilty of killing a couple of workers years ago. Why they send exorcists out to finish the job now is unclear to Yukio, though he thinks it's because Mephisto was incredibly lazy when he started working here. "So, do we all know what we're doing? Kamiki will lure them out, Shiemi will block off the Naberius poison with Nee, Suguro and Konekomaru will recite passages from the bible in incapacitate them while Shima, Tempus and Rin take them down."

"Me…?" Shima asked. "I only got my staff!"

"Gimme the staff and you can have Yukio's guns," Tempus said.

"What? No, you're not having my guns," Yukio snapped. "And you said that you didn't need weapons."

"I'm just saying that if Mr. Wimp here wants a real weapon, I'll take the staff out of his hands."

"I'm quite happy with my staff," Shima protested, bringing it closer to him. "Good for swatting bugs."

"Bugs?"

"Have you seen the size of cockroaches? The ones of Australia fly. Well, I mean, all cockroaches can, but these ones, they–"

"Enough bug-talk," Kamiki snapped. "Let's go."

It was nearing eight-thirty when they surfaced. Luckily, everyone was hidden within the lovely shadows that Tempus was so used to. Across the warehouse, Shima had his staff prepared to be thrown. She glanced around. Wherever he is, Rin knows how to hide.

The Naberius crawled out from the ground, the smell of dead flesh and burning corpses instantly filling up the warehouse. Tempus heard everyone inhale sharply and block their noses. "That's gross," someone hissed quietly. "Shh!" another snapped. Tempus rolled her eyes and glared at the Naberius. I swear, the instant they recognize me is the instant I become Little Miss Satan again. My tenth birthday was bad enough.

Kamiki had just begun to summon two fox demons when there was a crash in the glass from above. A single flash of green hair and a small goblin-like creature dashed down with him, bound by a lovely silver chain. "Yahaa~!"

Perfect timing.

"What!?" Yukio shouted. Nothing could hide that shock from his face. Tempus almost laughed. The Naberius demons shrank away back into the darkness when there was a loud scream coming from Shiemi. But Amaimon was standing in the middle of the warehouse…

Tempus didn't hesitate. Either Shiemi had been clumsy or Nee couldn't defend her. "Tempus, protect Shiemi! We'll go after Amaimon!" Rin drew his sword and the flame, the familiar, almost comforting heat of the flame, threw Tempus off of her trance completely. "What? Go, now!"

Tempus took off and found Nee barely managing to protect Shiemi from the Naberius. Tempus didn't hesitate to kick the thing out of the way. The demon flew across the air into a wall, where the bricks fell on top of it. No one seemed to notice that Tempus had incredible strength; they were too focused on Amaimon. He seemed to be preoccupied with making sure Shiemi wasn't hurt. "Hmm… I know! Remember when we played tag that one time? Well," he lightly landed in front of Suguro. "Tag! You're 'it'!"

A light flick from his fingers threw Suguro into the wall, though perhaps a little too close to Tempus. "Get up and get him!"

Helping him stand, Suguro began to run forwards when he noticed the Naberius struggling to stand up. "What'd you do?"

"Just this." Tempus strode forward and brought her foot down, further crushing the demon. "Well? Go! Lure him away from here, make sure he doesn't get close to Shiemi!"

"You're too rude!" Amaimon moaned and leapt out of the way of Rin's sword, laughing as his coat caught aflame. "A little catch-up was in order! And you got my favourite coat lit up, Rin. Not a nice thing to do."

"I'm going to burn you apart! I did a few months ago!" Rin snarled.

Tempus didn't bother to mention that Mephisto's green pet hamster call 'Amai' was actually Amaimon possessing a little cute hamster. He'd found it hilarious, but was happy to get a body back. Thankfully it looked exactly like the last guy he'd possessed – it was a matter of getting the clothes he wanted that was tricky. Clearly Amaimon had no experience with money; he'd stolen them all.

Amaimon jumped out of the hole in the roof and disappeared. The Naberius demon was getting up and Shiemi was cowering in the corner, trying to regain her strength. The gas had been released? Tempus waited, kicking the Naberius down once more. "Go after him! I can take it from here!"

"Are you sure?" Rin asked. Suguro and Kamiki had already disappeared. Konekomaru was waiting for Yukio, who seemed conflicted about what to do. "I can help!"

"I'll be fine, now go! He'll get away! Go, go, go!"

Rin didn't hesitate. He was more focused on Amaimon than a Naberius demon. "Yukio, stay here with her! Koneko, come with me!"

Well then, Tempus thought. Yukio began to protest, but Rin and Konekomaru were already gone. He turned back to face Tempus and she shrugged. The demon was getting up again. He began to fire his gun, moving towards Tempus. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

Tempus lifted up her necklace. "Make sure she doesn't see."

Shiemi was trying to summon Nee again, but was struggling to breathe. Tempus grinned. "Hold her, keep her breathing. Look or don't look if you want. This is going to get ugly."

Yukio moved down to Shiemi and cradled her. "Shiemi?"

She'd passed out already. Tempus lifted her necklace and pulled it over her head, removing the barrier keeping her from full power. When it was gone, she exhaled. Her body relaxed, a flood over power rushing through her body. Tempus blinked and her vision was hazed with blue. The flame felt like a drug. The strange, almost peaceful feeling was incredible.

"Much better," Tempus gasped, admiring the way the blue flame moved in rhythm to her movements.

Yukio visibly flinched. Clearly he'd never seen Rin acting the way Tempus was acting now. The Naberius demon screeched in fear, but Tempus pushed him down with her bare hands. The heat from her flame burned through its skin. "Listen, you Naberius scum," Tempus hissed. Her voice took on a sharp edge, haunting. Terrifying. "You'll go back to Gehenna, understood?"

"You… I'm… sorry…"

"Doubtful," Tempus snarled. "I'm not interested in your apology. Your kind – they tick me off to no end. So maybe I should kill you instead, huh?"

"Please…"

"Hmm…" Tempus lifted one of her hands and lowered her nail into its eyes. The creature began to screech in pain. Her grin twisted into a sneer. "Nah."

Its body began to burn. Slowly, painfully. "Burn, baby, burn."

The Naberius was dead, disappearing into smoldering ash. Yukio stood up, staring at Tempus with clear horror in his eyes. "I should shoot you right now," he whispered.

"Those bullet would sting, but that's about it. Maybe holy water could do more damage." Tempus stood straight, flicking her hand clean of the Naberius' dead flesh. "But little things can't do much damage to me. Maybe an exorcism or two could do… more permanent damage." Tempus gazed down at the necklace and reluctantly put in back on. The buzz went away instantly.

Yukio lowered his gun. "I've never seen that happen before… not with Rin – ever."

"What do you mean?"

"The way you acted… it was… horrible."

Tempus arched an eyebrow. "That's how it goes. I imagine that Rin looked more monster than man when he slipped up that one time?"

"You mean…"

"Yes, I think every exorcist and demon in Assiah and Gehenna knows about his slip-up. 'More monster than human,' they all said. Even for demon standards, he was overpowered by the flame."

Yukio sighed and glanced down at Shiemi. She was still unconscious. "When Rin lost control… we all thought that that was it; he was gone. The sword had cracked. The Vatican had him, were threatening to kill him. Amaimon had gathered his little army… Rin stopped him."

Tempus remembered that, too. Amaimon had been very broken and burned after Rin had obliterated him. But he'd been quick to heal and regain whatever strength he'd been harvesting. "Not entirely. Killing a demon isn't as easy as killing their body. That hadn't even been his body, it had been the boy who was possessed. So, when you think about it…"

Yukio began to sweat. "Rin killed the boy instead."

Tempus clicked her fingers. "Right on the money."

He sighed. "I doubt Rin's figured this out…"

"Figured what out?"

"Rin," Tempus said suddenly. "Where's Amaimon?"

"He got away," Rin muttered, frowning. He looked down at Shiemi, who was beginning to wake up. "Shiemi! Are you okay?"

"The Naberius… knocked me unconscious… where'd it go!?"

"Those chants Suguro and Konekomaru had been reciting," Tempus answered smoothly. "I used them."

Suguro frowned, but accepted the explanation. "So, who's up for Rin's cooking tonight?"

"Sure thing," Shima grinned widely. "What's on the menu?"

"How about… once we get back, I can cook you all your favourite meals."

"Yes! I'll have chicken!" Shiemi and Kamiki cried.

"Steak!" everyone else beamed. Yukio just sighed and smiled.

"Great choice. I'll have both."

"You can't have both!" Rin objected. Yukio's grin surprised Tempus. He looked playful.

"I'm the smarter brother, can have whatever I want from the dumber one."

"I'm the older brother!"

"Doesn't matter, you're an idiot," Yukio teased. Everyone began to laugh as their bickering continued into onto the bus, through the drive all the way until they reached the kitchen in the old boy's dorm.

Dinner was once again delicious.

And there we have it. Once again, constructive and positive criticism is welcome, negative or useless comments are wanted or necessary, thank you!

(And also, I've finally figured out how to show readers the change in time! So, for any confusion that you previously noticed, I hope this clears it up! And also, my editing skills are terrible, so any Tiny Typos as we'll call them that you may notice, let me know! Thanks!)

~EmmyTheTurtle