Arthur Auguste Angel was hardly ever phased by anything. Anything related to high ranking demons might send chills down his spine, but he was still considered a very calm and collected man in the face of danger. The phone call he'd just received however, was enough to make him shiver.
According the exorcist on the other end of the line, Maira Kazume had been kidnapped just a few hours ago, and the kidnappers had send a message to Casper.
"Where am I?" The girl asked. Her mouth was too far away from the phone, and her voice was barely audible. "I don't know where I am." She concluded, panic creeping into her voice.
Unfortunately, he wasn't alone when he received the message. Leah's skin had paled considerably, and her lower lip was shaking. It reminded him of when they were little, Leah would get nauseous in cars and airplanes. Only this time, Arthur understood the feeling quite well.
Rin had managed to sneak a tennis ball into the classroom. He was planning on talking the Kyoto trio into playing toss with him during break, but Yukio was taking forever to get to class. So, they just started tossing the ball to one another, waiting for their teacher.
Bon, the current holder of the ball, saw how distracted Rin was by Shiemi- who was running in an attempt to catch the ball- and tossed it at him. The yellow ball hit Rin in the forehead, sending his head back. Izumo, who wasn't participating in the game, giggled quietly.
Before Rin could take his revenge, their young teacher walked in the classroom. Rin shoved the tennis ball into his pocket before his brother could see. Unlike most other times, Yukio didn't set his briefcase down, nor did he complain about the fact that everyone was standing.
"Alright, it looks like you've got a mission." He announced instead. Rin's tail wiggled with excitement.
"Finally! I haven't been on one since that poppy collecting on-"
"Uh, sir?" Bon cut Rin before he could finish. "Maira's not here." She wasn't here yesterday either, Rin thought.
Yukio pushed his glasses up. "That's the problem. You see Maira Kazume is one of the few people who have a form of bond with a demon-"
"Branded." Konekomaru said absently.
"Yes. There is a group of people who think that the 'branded' are...well, hell spawn, and they've taken it upon themselves to purge them. The True Cross Order, on the other hand, is trying to protect these people. Maira was taken yesterday, and we have proof that she's not dead yet." Yukio explained, and then turned to Rin. "The woman who died on Saturday was branded."
"But, that woman was dead before I could even get to her..."
"If it's that particular group that's abducted Maira, then perhaps they got sloppy. Either that, or Maira managed to put up a fight. Regardless, the Angelic Legion is handling the search and rescue. You are to go to her house and search her belongings."
"How is that gonna help in finding her?" Izumo asked, her brow furrowed.
"It might tell us where they've taken her." A feminine voice answered. The entire class- with the exception Takara, once again- turned to see a tall, blond woman leaning against the doorway.
"This is Leah Song, Upper-First class exorcist. She was Maira's teacher back in Britain." Rin didn't need to see Bon's expression. This woman had chased them through the forest on Monday- or rather, a demon impersonating her had.
It hadn't taken them long to get to Maira's house. It had, however, taken almost forever for them to figure out a way to sneak in. Leah explained that Maira's parents weren't exorcists. They didn't know about what their daughter was doing after school, or even about the fight between the demons and the human race. To them, those were just fairy tales.
"So, they've never seen the mark on Maira's wrist?" Bon asked, not entirely sure how someone could be so blind to everything.
"It's inflicted by a demon, so people without the temp-taint can't see it." Leah explained. "Logan- her other teacher- and I had insisted on letting her parents know, but she was..." She run her hand through her golden hair. "She thinks they wouldn't understand."
Once inside, the exwires and the veteran exorcist were taken aback by the amount of photographs Maira had. Leah looked away in what looked like shame.
"Why did she leave Britain if she loved everyone so much...?" Shiemi asked, memorizing all the faces in the pictures.
"She didn't have a choice." Leah answered, pulling out Maira's chair and sitting in it. "Logan and the other exwires...they died two years ago. Maira only barely survived because Logan gave her his key."
"Oh..." Shiemi said, looking down.
"Two years ago?" Shima asked.
"Yeah. She's turning seventeen this year- one year older than you. She spend last year in and out of therapy, but..."
"You were her teacher." Shima pointed out. "Why didn't you-"
"She thinks I died too." Leah answered quickly. "We were together when we got ambushed by water demons. I told her to get the others while I kept them at bay. After she left, they just kept coming. I left, trying to get reinforcements from HQ. When we got back...when we got back, everyone was dead and Maira was gone. We never told her that I survived..."
"How could they all just...die?" Bon asked looking at a photo. Maira must've been thirteen when it was taken. She had her hair in a pony tail, and bangs dyed blue. Next to her, with his arm around her waist, was a boy with black hair and brown eyes. There were about six other kids their age, and two adults. One of them was Leah, and the other one was probably Logan.
"The Demon King of Water was there." Leah said, suddenly angry. "One exorcist and six exwires weren't enough to hold him off, much less kill him. I don't know what he was doing there...he just killed them and left."
"We should search her things..." She said, signaling that the conversation was very much over. Rin found a guitar in the back of Maira's closet. It looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"Maira and some of the others had a little band. She wasn't very good, but she sang so well..." Leah said when she noticed Rin holding the instrument.
"There all a lot of photos of her other teacher." Izumo said, counting the pictures with her finger.
"Because Maira never really got on well with her parents, and because Logan was the one who helped through with the whole branded thing, they were pretty close." Leah explained.
"How old was she? When she was branded?" Rin asked, smiling when he saw a seven year old Maira beaming at him.
"Since birth. Her parents thought that Sentinel was an imaginary friend." It was becoming more and more obvious that Leah didn't want to think, much less talk, about Maira, or Logan.
"You know..." Bon started nervously. He glanced at Rin once before looking Leah straight in the eyes. "On Monday we encountered a shape-shifter that had taken your form. Yo- It was trying to kill Maira." Leah's mouth opened just a fraction. It didn't seem like she had something to say, but even if she did she wouldn't have had the chance to. Shima had slammed loudly one of the drawers closed and turned to look at the others sheepishly. A blush was creeping up on his cheeks.
"Sorry...P-panty drawer..." He scratched the back of his head and walked away from the dresser. Leah's lost expression was gone, and she moved towards the drawer with a cat-like grace.
"Maira used to hide her spare gun here..." She mumbled as she searched through it's contents. Then she froze.
"What is it?" Izumo asked, peeking over the blond woman's shoulder. "Huh, it's not here..." Leah said, her lips forming a pout.
"No more dreaming of the dead, as if Death itself was undone*." Maira sang, combing through her hair with her fingers. Nathan glared at her from his corner.
"You're gonna get this song stuck in my head." He complained, tossing a nearby pillow at her. Maira dodged it and grinned at him through the mirror.
"No more calling for a boy, for a body in the garden..." She continued. Nathan let out a defeated sigh and sang along with her, bobbing his head back and forth.
"No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love!"
The memory, and the sweetness that came with it, faded away, blending into a whirlwind of sounds and colors. Then another came racing towards her, it's own shapeless colors becoming more and more visible, until Maira could no longer see the chaos of memories.
Logan tossed her something black. Without needing to think, Maira caught it in the air. Upon recognizing it, she cocked her eyebrow at her mentor.
"Are you divorcing your jacket, or something?" Logan and his jacket were a package deal. The only time Maira had seen with without it was when the class had gone on holidays in Greece, and had spent their entire time on the beach.
"If you wear it, you can carry your gun around all the time." Logan answered simply. Maira noticed Logan's own gun, strapped to the side of his torso.
"I don't need a gun 24/7." She rolled her eyes. "I have a living Bible with me all the time." Logan laughed at the nickname Maira had for Nathan- and it was just one of many.
"Well, he's not in here now, is he? What if I was a demon?"
"I still have Sentinel." Maira pointed out. Logan reached out and ruffled her hair roughly, laughing when she squeaked and tried to get away from him.
"C'mon kid. Leah's gonna have both our heads if we don't head out now."
Much like the previous memory, this one dissipated, leaving Maira in the eye of the tornado. She didn't need to see the next one. She didn't want to. It was always like that; dreams that started with sweet memories like those. And then, the blood. The screaming. Nathan's coffin being lowered into the ground. The agony.
And then, she was all alone. All alone, save for the soft humming of wind through her hair, Sentinel's shapeless fingers caressing her tear-stained cheeks. And even that was now gone. The whirlwind had faded into nothing. Sentinel's murmur; gone. As she hugged herself, Maira could hear the crash of waves in the distance. A sound she had loved as a child, now a noise that crept into her head, forcing every single wound open again.
Then nothing.
* Blinding by Florence and the Machine.
