I realize that I have been neglectful in one duty that I have to do, so I will say: I (sadly) don't own Blue Exorcist.
Enjoy the show!
I reached mine and my brothers' dorm rooms just as Yukio and Shiemi walked out of his, carrying a heavily sleeping Rin. "What the hell?" I asked, looking at Yukio.
"I've got a bad feeling about Neuhaus," Yukio explained, or rather, didn't explain. "Help Shiemi move Rin while I make it look like we're all sleeping in our rooms. Go down the hall and into the fifth door on the right, and stay quiet. Don't come out, no matter what. Got it?" I nodded and hooked my hands under Rin's armpits. I led the way down to where Yukio ordered us to.
Setting Rin down, I grabbed the pillow Yukio'd put on Rin's belly and placed it under my brother's sleeping head while Shiemi covered him with a blanket. "He's cute when he's asleep," she whispered. "He…he doesn't seem as troubled."
I looked up at Shiemi. "You…you really like him, don't you?" I asked before I could stop myself. Shiemi turned pink, unsure what she should say. "I…" Rin chose that moment to wake up. The first thing he saw was Shiemi kneeling over him.
He yelped and sat up. "Shiemi!" he cried. "What am I doing here? We didn't…uh…did we?"
I smacked him across the back of his head. "Shame on you," I said. "You see her but not me and automatically then think that you two did the nasty? Shame! On! You! You have too dirty a mind for your own good, Rin."
"Sorry," he apologized. "What are we doing here?"
"Shh!" Shiemi scolded us. "You wouldn't wake up, Rin, so Yuki had me and Safaia carry you here. He said to let you sleep, but I think something's going on."
Two gunshots rang down the hall, making us jump. Rin and I leaped up and tore down the hall in the direction of the shots, leaving poor Shiemi behind, crying for us to wait up.
Yukio's screams led us up onto the roof of our dormitory. We got there in time to see a giant Naberius swipe Yukio aside. Without even thinking, Rin drew his sword and launched it at the monster like it was a spear. It struck the monster in the back, making it go up in flames. "I knew you were the enemy!" Rin howled as he leapt at Neuhaus.
"Filthy demon!" the man replied, spraying a grenade of holy water in Rin's face. My brother yelped and rolled away, his skin turning pink from the damage.
Neuhaus laughed dryly. "You may look human, but holy water works on you!" he cried. "You can't hide your true nature, you monster!" The same Naberius, still smoking from the contact with Rin's sword, charged Rin. It picked him up in three of its many hands and began to try to yank his head off.
"I call upon the offspring of the Greek Underworld guardian Cerberus! Hellhounds, I am your mistress! Obey my every whim!" I cried, smearing my blood across three of my magic circle papers. Likewise, three hellhounds, including Koinu, appeared and rushed the Naberius, snarling and tearing into the ghoul's mismatched body. "You're one to talk about monsters, Neuhaus," I growled, letting my flames and demonic nature show. I had too; it was the only way I could handle three hellhounds at once. My prehensile tail was going mad twitching every which way and my skin was burning like I was roasting myself. My familiars managed to get Rin out of the ghoul's clutches and were concentrating on keeping the demon away from us.
Neuhaus snarled at me. "Attack!" he bellowed, running his hand down his bloody arm, making ghoulish hands appear and come at me. Roaring, I whipped out my daggers and began slashing the hands to bits. One caught my arm and lunged for my neck.
Mistress! Three voices called in my head at once. Koinu rushed over and grabbed the hand before it reached its target. He started snapping up the hands in his jaws, crushing them and making them dissolve to dust. Rin took his place in fighting the other ghoul. Nobody hurts Mistress, nobody! Koinu turned to Neuhaus and growled low in his throat, baring his teeth.
I gasped. This was the first time I'd ever heard a demon, well…talk. Except for the ghoul in the bathroom, but it had a mouth to talk. Did I have like demon telepathy or something?
Suddenly the Naberius Neuhaus had summoned disappeared. We all looked over to see Yukio kneeling in the circle, his foot having swiped away part of the chalk. In Neuhaus's momentary distraction, Rin held his sword to the man's throat and I leveled my knives to two spots of his back: one where his heart was, the other where his stomach was.
"What are you?" Rin demanded as Neuhaus's eyes widened with shock. The man grunted and reached for his bloodied arm.
"Neuhaus!" Yukio called from way over in the circle. "For your own good, stop! You'll die of blood loss!"
Neuhaus dropped his hand and looked at Rin with his eye. "I am a survivor of the Blue Night," he told us. My eyes widened and I thought back to what Renzo and Konekomaru had told us. A survivor…?
"Satan possessed me for mere moments," Neuhaus continued, reaching up and lifting his eye patch, revealing a scarred hole of where his eye used to be. "But I lost this eye and my family who tried to save me. He used my own hands to kill them!" He dropped the eye patch back down and turned his head so he could look at me. "I can never forgive Satan or any demon, let alone Satan's own children!" He glared at us in turn, since he only had one eyeball. "I will kill you…" Too late, I saw him go for his arm. "…Even if it costs me my life!" Two ghoul arms sprouted from his own, one in front, one in back. The one in the back stabbed me in my stomach and the one in front got Rin just to his left, right below his ribcage.
I coughed and choked on my own blood. "Is that all you got?" I taunted through the salty taste. I let my arms drop to my sides.
"Feel better now?" Rin asked. We stepped away, the arms on Neuhaus retracting because of his surprise. I stepped around to my brother and patted each of my hellhounds' noses, dismissing them back to wherever they came from. Rin sheathed his sword and I let go of my demonic form, holing up the power inside me. I put my daggers back to their rightful place on my belt. "If that's not enough," Rin continued, "I'm used to stuff like this, so I'll put up with whatever you can dish out."
"That goes double for me," I said, turning to our teacher. "I'm tougher than I look and I'll let you pound the crap out of me to your heart's content, if you promise not to get innocent people involved."
Rin nodded. "Don't involve anyone else in this!" he pleaded.
Neuhaus stepped back, studying us. "You think this settles it?" he asked, glaring at us. "Others will follow. So be ready!" He turned and stalked off, clutching his nearly ruined arm.
Yukio hurried up to us. "What did you do that for?" he demanded. "You could've died! Are you two really that stupid?"
Rin chuckled and lifted his shirt. "I'm fine! It's healing."
I raised my shirt a little so he could see my wound too. "Mine too. I always knew I was a fast healer as a kid, but this is a whole new level for me."
"Yeah…" Rin said. "Now I really am a monster! Ha ha ha…"
"RIN! SAFAIA!" a shrill voice called. I looked past Yukio to see Shiemi running up to us. I quickly dropped my shirt and stuffed my tails down the back of my pants to keep her from seeing them. Rin did the same with his tail.
"Yuki! What happened to Rin and Safaia?" Shiemi asked, frantic.
"Uh…Shiemi?" Yukio asked, dumbstruck that she'd come.
"We're ok, Shiemi!" I reassured the blond.
"Yeah, don't worry, we're fine!" Rin said, trying to give her a happy smile. It kinda failed with the blood still running a little from his mouth.
"The ghoul's temptaint!" Shiemi gasped, spotting our wounds. "I better treat you, quick!"
"No, no, we're fine…" Rin tried to wave her off.
"SILENCE!" the pert little blond yelled, kneeling and pointing at the ground in front of her. I blinked. I didn't know she had it in her. "Now lie down! Stop acting tough!"
"Huh?" Rin and I echoed.
"Ni-chan, get sancho!"
"Ni!" A bit of aloe appeared from the tiny sprite's body.
Unable to resist her direct orders, we complied and lied down in front of her. I let Rin go first, since his blow looked the worst. He laughed. "Thanks," he said. "Is it all right now?" Shiemi sniffled and Rin looked up at her, astonished.
"Rin, Safaia…I've decided!" she said.
"Decided what?" Rin asked. "Ow, your tears are getting in the wound!"
"Shiemi, what did you decide?" I asked, sitting up. She pushed me back down and started healing me.
"I've decided I want to be an Exorcist, for real this time!"
"Eins…Zwei…Drei!" Mephisto snapped his fingers and confetti and balloons popped out of nowhere. A banner that read "Congratulations Exwires" unrolled itself over his head. "Congratulations! You've all been promoted to Exwire!"
"Yeah, we did it!" Ryuji cried, putting Konekomaru in a headlock. He wriggled out of it and said, "Great!"
"Yahoo!" Renzo whooped, hugging Shiemi and Izumo, who shoved him away. I saw Izumo breathe a sigh of relief.
Giddy, Ryuji and I turned to hug each other, quickly realizing what we were doing and breaking apart, our faces turning pink. No one else seemed to notice, though, as Mephisto was making another announcement.
"To celebrate this occasion," Mephisto started.
"Yes? Yes? Yes?" the boys cried, inching closer. I rolled my eyes. I had a pretty good idea what was coming.
"…I, the wealthy president of this institution, will treat you all…to monjayaki!"
"THAT'S ALL?"
"We deserve at least some ice cream!" Rin protested.
Rolling my eyes again, I said, "Don't worry guys, I got that covered. I talked with our, uh, gracious president and he said that I can buy us each pint of ice cream. Calm down." The boys cheered, Shiemi clapped her hands, and Izumo rolled her eyes. We all followed Mephisto out the door (he used a magical key) to a small monjayaki place where you could serve yourself.
Rin immediately began piling different ingredients together with the batter. "Let's see, how about we do a cheese-pork-mochi combo, a mentaiko-cheese-beef, a beef-pork-mochi…"
"Slow down, Rin! The griddle can handle only so many different kinds!" I said, sitting on his left. Ryuji sat across from Rin, Shiemi was on Rin's right, Renzo next to her, Izumo across from him, and the two loners were across from each other on the far end.
Rin grinned at me and turned to Shiemi, who was on his other side. "So you decided to become an Exorcist!" he said.
"Yep!" Shiemi said proudly. "I'm going to help everyone out!"
"Can you fight?" Rin asked, pinning his hair up so it wouldn't get in the way while he cooked.
"I'll try to!" Shiemi said, giving him a pouty face.
I laughed and passed down the spatulas. "Easy, Shiemi, he's only teasing." She gave me a small smile and accepted the spatula.
"Who wants lemonade?" Renzo asked, passing out cups and grabbing the pitchers. "We have plain and we have pink, so take your pick."
"Pink!" I said, holding up my glass. He poured me some and gave me a flirtatious smile. I responded by hitting his elbow to make him almost spill the drink on Rin.
"Mr. Okumura! Do you want lemonade?" Renzo asked, looking out at Yukio who was talking to Mephisto.
"Sure, lemonade's fine," Yukio said, coming in. He accepted a glass of yellow and sat down across from me.
"It's about done!" Rin said, scooping up some of the pork-cheese-mochi combo. "It looks delicious! I'm digging in!"
"Hey, wait for me!" Mephisto cried, jumping up. "The cheese-pork-mochi combo is one of my top three favorites!" He hurried in and sat down at the end of the griddle, snatching up a spatula and wrestling for some from Rin and Ryuji. Rolling my eyes and laughing at the boys, I dug in happily, enjoying the moment.
After our treat of monjayaki, Ryuji seemed to avoid me for the next few days. He did his best not to directly contact me, whether it was handing me a paper or even talking to me. He barely even glanced my way. He didn't even come to the forest study area. It frustrated me. What kind of guy kisses a girl and then completely ignores her? I decided that since he was giving me the cold shoulder, I would do the same to him.
That proved harder than I thought. In Demonology, he and I were paired for the summer project we had to do, a presentation of all known kin of Amaimon, the Demon Earth King. In Grimoire Studies, he, Konekomaru, and I had to spew the names of different holy scriptures when one of us named a demon. In Magic Circles and Seals, I had to draw a summoning circle on the floor with chalk, since I was a candidate for Tamer, while he and Renzo made sure I did it right. Renzo had been all smiles, of course; Ryuji just grunted at me. Even Yukio seemed determined to break my cold shoulder plan. He paired me up with Ryuji and Konekomaru so we could quiz each other on how to treat different demon wounds and the names of different plants that could heal the same wound.
Since my ignoring plan failed because the teachers were out to get me, I confronted him at lunch. Once the bell rang and everyone else had left, I pulled him aside and demanded, "What the hell is your problem?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he grunted, trying to turn and leave.
I snagged his arm and pulled him back. "Bullshit, you don't," I snapped, making him face me. He glared down at me and I glowered up at him in return, since he was almost a head taller than me. "I'm talking about that kiss the other night."
He froze for a second, then snarled, "Don't you dare tell anyone!"
"I'm not telling anyone!" I cried, waving my arms in the air helplessly. "I just want to know what your deal is! First you kiss me, then you completely avoid me! What the hell is wrong with you?"
He shifted uncomfortably, looking away. "I…I thought you'd be, I don't know, mad or something that I'd kissed you like that."
"Like what?" I moaned, even more frustrated. "I don't get what you're saying!"
"I thought you'd be mad that I'd kissed you without warning!" he snapped. "I…I didn't think you liked it. You were just teasing, anyway."
"God damn it, Ryuji, I'm the one who offered! You're the one who followed through! Why should I be mad at you? If I hadn't wanted to be kissed, I wouldn't have offered, teasingly or not, in the first place!" I sighed, running my hands through my hair. "You know what, now I don't think you'll ever kiss a girl, let alone me, if you keep that act up."
"Oh yeah?" he challenged. "I would too kiss you again, or any girl." Ah, I'd hit his pride. Whoops. Then again, if it could get him to kiss me again, like he did the other night…but slower, not as fast so I could enjoy it more…
"All right then, prove it," I said.
"Now?" he asked, a little panicked.
"No, stupid! Do you want someone to see? We'd be the butt of way too many jokes. Later today, after school, in the forest where we usually meet. Is it a deal?"
"You're on. See you then." He turned and left, leaving me wondering what I had just done.
When the chimes signaled the end of school, I quickly gathered up my stuff and was about to leave when the teacher pulled me aside. "Ms. Okumura, a word, if you please?" he asked, motioning me to his desk. Rin sniggered as he left and I shot him a glare. You are so dead later, I mouthed at him as I turned around. He stuck his tongue out at me and, making sure the teacher wasn't looking, I flipped him off.
Rin rolled his eyes and left as I asked the teacher, "What is it?"
"The principal would like you to go to his office, immediately," the teacher said, handing me a key. "Just use this; you'll get there faster. Leave it with him and he'll make sure it makes it back to me."
I nodded and used the key on the classroom door, which, thanks to the spell on it, opened up to Mephisto's office. "Ah, Safaia, my dear, come in, come in," Mephisto said, looking up from his paperwork. "You have your knives with you?" I patted my belt where my daggers hung from. "Ah, very good. Now, since we have some free moments, we will begin the process of sealing your flames within your daggers."
"Right now?" I asked, dropping my books in one of the plush chairs. My skin was itching and burning, but maybe it was because of the coal tars floating around in his office. There weren't many but they were kind of annoying when they floated into your vision and made rude gestures at you.
"Of course! We have all we need. We have you, we have your knives, we have a senior first class Exorcist, and we have a powerful demon." He flapped his hands at a rickety looking chair in the corner. "Just sit there, my dear, and we will begin the process."
At closer inspection, I could see the different magic circles engraved on the arms, back, and legs of the chair, as well as the circle drawn in chalk around it. Careful not to mess it up, I sat down in the chair and unhitched my daggers from my waist. "So, how will this work?" I asked.
"Well, first, you will unsheathe your daggers," Mephisto explained, standing up. "Then you will channel your flames into them, while I chant a very special spell that my old friend Shiro Fujimoto cooked up when we sealed Rin's flames in his sword. Once that is done, we will use a Demon King's power to create a seal around the opening of the dagger sheaths that will act as portals to Gehenna. Once we're sure everything is in place, you will sheath your knives and we will go on about our usual businesses."
"Wait, where the hell are we going to get a Demon King?" I asked, confused.
"Why, right here," Mephisto said, pointing up. "Amaimon, will you please come down from the rafters? And spit out that disgusting lollipop. You don't know where it's been."
I looked up and yelped in surprise when I saw a boy with green hair that came to a sharp, yellow point hanging upside down from the ceiling. He was sucking on a dirty blue lollipop that had hairs all over it. He flipped down off the ceiling and landed in a crouch, throwing his lollipop in the trash and pulling a box of Wonka Nerds from his coat pocket. He blinked his big, green eyes at me slowly. "So this is our youngest sister," he said in a slow monotone, crunching on the pink and purple candy. "How boring. Will she play with me later?"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure she'll play with you, but right now we have more important things to do," Mephisto snapped. "Go sit over there and wait until we're ready for you." He pointed to a chair outside of the chalk circle and Amaimon complied. He started chewing on his long black thumbnail, studying me. I glared at him and he blinked.
Mephisto cleared his throat. "Now, Safaia, if you'd please draw your knives…"
I drew my knives and handed Mephisto the sheaths, who passed them to Amaimon. Amaimon blinked and stared at the sheaths, then the knives. "Aren't those Chinatsu Tottori's daggers?" he asked, holding up the sheaths for closer inspection.
I tensed. "How do you know my mom?" I demanded, gripping the hilts tightly.
Amaimon set the sheaths down. "Your mom? Your mother is Yuri Egin. Chinatsu Tottori is—was an Exorcist. A Rogue and Tamer. Why do you have her knives? I thought she gave them to Nii-san for safekeeping." Amaimon and I looked at Mephisto, who shifted uncomfortably.
"Just what the hell is he talking about, Mephisto?" I demanded in a scarily calm voice.
"Well," Mephisto said, shifting uncomfortably under my gaze, "it's as Amaimon said. Your foster mother, Chinatsu Tottori, was an Exorcist and a good friend of your biological mother's, who was Yuri Egin. The night you, Rin, and Yukio were born, Shiro Fujimoto and I were to take you three and seal away your power to keep you safe. Little did we know, Chinatsu and Yuri planned beforehand for you to go with Chinatsu, separating the three of you in an effort to individually control your power. Shiro and I arrived before Chinatsu did and took you all, but we were attacked by a powerful demon, a Naberius. While we were distracted, Chinatsu somehow managed to find us and took you. We searched for you, thinking you'd woke up and crawled away somehow, but we didn't find you and we had to keep moving so no one would come after us. A week later, once things had settled down a little, Chinatsu turned in her badge and gave me her knives, telling me that maybe someday she'd come back, or perhaps another Rogue would come and take her place. She made me promise not to get rid of the daggers unless she came back or another Exwire applied to be a Rogue. So you see, I think she somehow knew that you'd become a Rogue."
I looked down at the daggers. "Mom…was a Rogue? I thought there hasn't been a Rogue in nearly two hundred years."
"There has been no record of a Rogue," Mephisto corrected. "But there have been some who trained for Rogue anyway. Your adoptive mother was one of them. She had great skill in taming demons, also. She was an amazing woman."
"Wait, if you had the knives, then why were they for sale on that website?" I asked.
Mephisto chuckled. "Well, I couldn't tell you I actually already had knives for you…especially if you didn't want them. You still have to pay me for them, you know."
"There's no way in hell I'm paying you for my mother's knives, you cheapskate!" I cried.
Mephisto laughed. "Yes, well, if we could get on with sealing your power…"
I sighed. "Fine." I closed my eyes and took a deep, calming breath, gently letting my barricade down. The flames rushed out, hating being bottled up for so long. I gasped at the sudden rush of power. I channeled them into the dagger blades as Mephisto began to chant. I reveled and regretted in the leaving sensation that I felt as the words got stronger and the flames got weaker. I drew a sharp breath as I felt all but a small portion of my flames rush out of me into the knives. Mephisto stopped chanting and I looked down at my knives. They were on fire, like Rin's sword was when he drew it. I was on fire too, including the tip of my furry tail. My prehensile tail was pointing at Amaimon, straining towards him, the sharp arrow point lit up in the flames.
"Now," Mephisto said, a little out of breath, "now, Amaimon and I will create the portals. Ready, Amaimon?"
"Yes," the Earth King said, standing up. He held the sheaths out straight in front of him, letting them go and moving his hands away as the floated magically in the air. He gently traced the open ends of them with his index finger, muttering something under his breath. Mephisto was chanting again and I watched in fascination as Amaimon stuck his finger in each sheath and pulled them out, licking them and rubbing his spit on the rims. Amaimon snatched two coal tars out of the air and stuffed one in each of the sheaths, the small demons squeaking in protest. Then he pulled two little hobgoblins out of his coat pocket and shoved them in after the coal tars. He passed his thumb over each of the openings as Mephisto ended his chant.
Amaimon looked at me and said, "Well, aren't you going to put those away?" He plucked the daggers out of the air and tossed them to me.
I stood up and shoved the daggers into their sheaths. My flames immediately went out, disappearing as Rin's had when he sheathed his sword. I sighed tiredly and happily. Even though I hadn't really done anything, having my flames out for that long was tiring. I was just happy that I didn't have to worry so much anymore about them breaking out.
I checked the time on the clock on Mephisto's desk and swore. "I'm late!" I cried, scooping up my stuff and hastily returning my knives to their proper place on my belt. "Thanks you guys! See you later!"
"Wait! Aren't you going to play with me?" Amaimon whined, sounding like a little kid.
"Later, Amaimon, I promise!" I called over my shoulder. "I've got to go!" I scurried out the door and ran for the forest.
When I got to our spot, Ryuji didn't seem to be around. That could've meant one of two things, I decided: I'd either missed him or he hadn't come yet. I decided to sit and wait to see if he'd come.
Just as I was about to take a step forward, the bushes behind me rustled and before I could turn to see what it was, something grabbed me around my waist and clamped a hand over my mouth. I tensed and went for my daggers, but familiar laughter stopped me. I twisted out of the arms of my captor and turned to see Ryuji laughing his ass off, bent over and holding his knees. "You shoulda seen the look on your face!" he roared, laughing harder.
"Cut it out!" I kneed him in the gut, stopping his mirth. "That wasn't funny!"
"You're right, it was freaking hilarious!" He chuckled and said, "Sorry, but I couldn't help myself. Sneaking up on you to scare you was an once-in-a-lifetime chance that I had to take."
"You're brave enough to stalk me like that, I guess. But that doesn't mean you're brave enough to kiss me again," I taunted. "So? Are you going to follow through or do I get bragging rights?"
He stared at me for a minute, and then scooped me up in a kiss similar to the one from the other night. The only difference was that this one was longer and much, much more enjoyable. I even got the pleasure of kissing him back. I reveled in the warmth of his mouth, the softness of his touch, my breathing shallow from the contact. One of his hands was on the small of my back, the other on my shoulder, both holding me gently to him.
All too soon, he broke it off again. "There, I told you I'd kiss you again," he said, turning pink. He dropped his hands and I pulled mine away from where I'd rested them on his chest.
I blinked, star-struck for a moment. I felt my face flush. My lips were tingling pleasantly. Finally I said, "So…what does this mean?"
He looked at me seriously. "It doesn't have to mean anything," he said, disappointing me a little. "Or…it could mean something. It…It's your choice."
I grinned and told him, "I enjoyed that way too much to just let this offer slide." I pressed close to him, letting him wrap me in his arms again. His grip was loose and unsure, like he'd never held a girl like this before. I pushed up onto my tip toes and gave him a peck on the lips. He gave me a shy little grin, still unsure of himself. "Are…are you sure?" he asked hesitantly.
I pecked him on the lips again. "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't do that, Ryuji-chan," I said. He smiled and leaned in for another long kiss. Seeing it coming this time, I responded with my own. Just like that, we were a couple.
