Sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. I wrote pretty slowly today. I did something gross to my arm at work like idk pulled a muscle or something and now typing is not as fun as it used to be.

-Scissors


For a full half an hour, Fuyuki just sobbed in his sister's arms. Under his control, thankfully. But Natsumi was getting tired of his reaction. Each time she tried to speak, to begin filling him in on what she'd been up to the past couple of months, Fuyuki just cut her off with more sobbing. And he didn't stop until his sister literally smacked him back to reality.

"Ow!" Fuyuki touched his stinging cheek. That had hurt more than Giroro's punch! "What was that for, sis?"

"That was for not letting me talk!" she said. "I've been trying to explain myself, and all you've been doing is bawling your head off over the fact that I'm not actually dead." She took a breath and calmed herself. "Sorry. Lost my temper a bit there. It really is sweet that you were so worried about me, Fuyuki. I'm sorry I yelled." She wrapped her arms around him in another hug.

Before her, Giroro and Dororo cleared their throats, to remind her of what she had been doing.

"Oh! Right." She pushed Fuyuki out of her arms. "Let's move to some place quieter, and then I'll catch up with you, all right?"

"All—All right." Fuyuki wiped a last bit of tears but hastily complied. He, Dororo, and Giroro all followed her into an isolated tent not currently in use by anyone at the tech fair. She sat down with them and prepared to begin her story, until she realized something was… just a bit off.

Her eyes flitted to Dororo. "Is it really necessary for you to be here?" she asked him. "Don't you have anywhere else you need to be?"

"Well…" Dororo scratched the back of his neck. "…I was going to visit a friend out in the forest, but everyone's been so worried about Giroro! I just have to know why he gave up his immortality for you. Please, put our minds at ease."

Natsumi sighed. "Whatever. I guess I'll tell you, then. I'm gonna tell the story this time, Giroro."

"What?" he complained. "Why do you always get to tell the story? You always make me sound like such a dork to all the towns we go to…!"

"Yeah, 'cause you are," she said with a laugh. Her eyes went back to Fuyuki and she tucked some hair behind her ear. "So anyway. Yeah, Fuyuki, this was my demon. His name is Giroro."

Giroro nodded to Fuyuki and put up his hand in greeting. "Sorry about the punch earlier."

"It was okay. Kululu needed it," Fuyuki said on the Demon King's behalf.

"It was unfair!" Kululu protested in his head.

Fuyuki ignored him, because it was story time. "Go on."

"He was a pretty cool demon to have," Natsumi continued. "He would let me fight him ALL the time!"

Fuyuki nodded. Of course his sister would love that kind of quality.

"I got so strong in that weird mind realm, Fuyuki. Wish you could have seen it!" She sighed. "Sparring in real life is much easier now that Giroro's a mortal, I gotta say. You can really use your surroundings to your advantage. It brings a whole new level of challenges to the sparring experience."

Fuyuki wasn't sure if he wanted to be hearing about all this adult stuff anymore. They hadn't even reached those types of lessons yet in health class! He had to wait at least a whole other semester to learn about it. Unlike his sister, he supposed. "So why did your demon—Giroro—suddenly become mortal?" Fuyuki pressed.

"Uhh, I dunno," said Natsumi. "Probably so we could be together, I guess. We didn't really want to separate. Since, you know, Giroro would have left back to the demon realm after two years." She smirked at him. "He was probably thinking that we had to separate in order to stay together, if that makes any sense."

Fuyuki scratched the back of his head. "It sort of does…?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew what this meant. Natsumi had a boyfriend. She ran away from home, and made everything think that she was dead, just so that she could spar with her boyfriend. Unbelievable! "So… what happened next?"

"What happened next," Giroro picked up, "was I gave up my immortality."

"You didn't have to," she reminded him.

"But I did. And so then we were going to run away together and marry and start a family—"

Natsumi cut him off. "Until we realized our greater calling, which was to exorcise demons."

Giroro's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. That."

"Why are you exorcising demons, though?" Fuyuki asked.

Natsumi rolled her eyes. "Because they're all evil and dangerous?"

Fuyuki stuck his thumb at Giroro. "But isn't he a demon?"

"Giroro's different," she insisted. "He's more like a foreigner than a demon, really."

Dororo looked at Giroro with confusion and whispered something. Giroro just shrugged and muttered something back.

"So, what's been up with you?" Natsumi asked. "When I heard that you got the Demon King as your demon by accident, I was so terrified. I just had to come over right away."

"Terrified?" said Kululu. "Why was she TERRIFIED?"

"You're just a terrifying kind of guy to everyone," Fuyuki mentally responded. "It's been pretty rough," he told his sister. "But… I'm not dead yet, so that's a plus."

"What about your head wound?" she gestured to the bandages around Fuyuki's head, covering the areas where Kululu's horns had come out. "How'd you get those? Did some demon try to fight you or something?"

"Well, yeah," Fuyuki responded, glancing over at Dororo. "But they're not from him. They're actually from Kululu. Uh, the Demon King."

"Wait, what do you mean, they're not from him?" Natsumi glanced over at Dororo. "You weren't trying to kill my brother, were you?"

"N-no! Not your brother!" Dororo shook his hands in front of his face defensively. "Just the Demon King. And I've since stopped."

"Ah. I see." Natsumi calmed back down. "But there are easier ways to kill a demon, you know. But… I'll get to that later." She lifted up her bangs to show Fuyuki a scar. "You wanna know how I got this?"

"Fighting a demon?" Fuyuki suggested.

"No. Funnier than that, actually." Natsumi grinned. "It was right after Giroro became a mortal."


Giroro awoke on the ground as a mortal.

"I… I really did it," he said as he stared down at his mortal hands. He stood up and flexed his muscles, and then, in his period of euphoria, dashed through the woods, climbed a tree, and rolled down a hill. He gave a hearty laugh. "Oh, I've missed being able to romp about in this body on the human plane!" He jumped to his feet. "Natsumi, this is wonderful! We can finally make this work out." He darted to her giddily. "We can finally—"

His horns struck her in the head.

"Aw, goddamnit!" he yelled as she was flung to the ground. "Natsumi, are you all right?" Cautiously, so he wouldn't make the same mistake this time, he lifted her into his arms. "I—I really didn't mean to do that. I guess I've forgotten my own limits. That's one of the disadvantages of having big horns, I suppose."

Natsumi did not respond.

"N-Natsumi?" Giroro grew terrified. He would have pressed his pointy demon ear against her chest to listen for a heartbeat, but he knew he would be met with a similar situation to what brought them into this mess. For now, he could only rely on her hearing him call her name. "Natsumi! Can you hear me?"

She did. She sent a punch right into his cheekbone.

"Augh!" Giroro groaned. "Oh, geez, this is karma…."

"Watch where you toss those horns, Giroro!" Natsumi stood up, brushed herself off, and cracked her knuckles. She was so infuriated. Thanks to this experience, 60% of her kissing fantasies with Giroro had been terminated. "First day as a mortal and you already almost knock me out."

"It truly was… an accident," he moaned as he sat on the ground. "Wait… hold still. You have a bit of blood…." He looked around for some cloth to tear off and use as a bandage, but as he wore no shirt, he had to make do with tearing a strip of cloth lengthwise off his pants. "Sorry about this."

Natsumi decided she could forgive him for the moment, because she was watching him tear up his pants instead. Uh-oh. I guess he did hit me pretty hard.

Giroro went up to her and wrapped the bandage around her head where he had struck her. There was a steady trickle coming down from her forehead. Accidental collisions were the worst. At least it was a one-time thing, though. Giroro was sure to be more careful in the future.


"But… that was after he became a mortal," said Natsumi. "How did the Demon King hurt you if he is in you?"

"I don't really know how," said Fuyuki. "He—He got a bit angry and his horns burst out of my head…."

Giroro and Dororo exchanged a glance. "I didn't know we could do that," said Dororo.

"Hey, Natsumi, if I had known that we could do that, would you have let me make you grow horns?" Giroro asked her.

"Hm… I guess that would be okay," she agreed. She figured that she would look pretty cool with a set of demon horns. "How much did it hurt, Fuyuki?"

"Uh…" He couldn't actually believe they were talking about this. "Not very much. But it still felt weird. A-and anyway, you keep jumping all over the place!" He released his breath. "Can you just tell me why you went missing for so long?"

"Well, we obviously couldn't stay in school now that my demon had become a mortal," Natsumi told him.


"There. How's that?" Giroro stood back after he finished bandaging her head.

"Mmm… better," Natsumi agreed. "Thanks, Giroro."

"Right." He set his hands on his hips. "Well, now that it's been clarified for us that I'm not going to be able to blend in with you humans anytime soon, thanks to these horns of mine, what do think we should do?"

"What do you mean?" asked Natsumi.

"We obviously can't stay here," Giroro said. "Demons can't live amongst the humans. You know that. They hate us, and for good reasons. So if we really want to be together…" He wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned in closer to her. "…then we need to go someplace safer."

"Okay," she agreed. "Not like I was going to stay here anyway."


"So…" Fuyuki cut her off. "That was it? You were just like, 'Okay, let's just leave and not tell my family. I didn't like it here, anyway.' "

"Oh. Sorry." Natsumi rubbed her arm awkwardly. "I guess I sort of forgot that the news would reach you and mom. I hadn't seen you two in such a long time, you know? It almost felt like school and home were two different places, and that the school would never tell you if I went missing."

"Mom was devastated when she learned you were missing," he said. "And I thought for the longest time that you were dead! We thought for sure that something went wrong with your demon, like it did with Dad. What other explanation was there?"

"Ack… sorry!" she said again. But she couldn't have stayed with the town. Not when their entire society was built on lies. She looked Fuyuki over, wondering if he knew, wondering if anyone had warned him about what was is store for him at the end of his two years. This was why the world needed an exorcist like her. This was why the world needed to be without demons. "The journey was for a good cause, though. It was during our travels that we realized that the world had a mightier need for us. To exorcise demons."


After Natsumi gathered a sufficient amount of supplies for both of them on their journey, they ventured into the forest together, mainly because it was close by, but also because they weren't afraid of the monsters that lied within.

"So, where do you think we should go?" asked Natsumi, tossing Giroro some gear. He was going to have to carry half of it. "I don't want to go back to society. So... how does living in the forest for the rest of our lives sound to you?"

"Honestly, I could live anywhere with you and I'd be fine," Giroro told her with a broad smile.

Natsumi smiled, as well. Giroro was a smooth-talker, yeah, but she still wasn't completely sure why he gave up his immortality just to be with her. Didn't he have a life back in the demon realm? Seemed to her like he kind of threw that all away the moment she confessed her feelings. But they would find a way to make do. "We could travel," she suggested. "See different sights… fight different monsters… try different foods."

Giroro nodded, considering this. An entirely new worlds of possibilities and opportunities had been opened up now.

"Traveling would be a whole lot of fun. We could visit towns at night as masked vigilantes," she went on. "We could become traveling artists and leave random projects throughout the lands…. We could become famous boxers. Then we'd get to punch stuff all day."

"I can't box, remember? Horns," Giroro told her.

"Oh, yeah. Guess that one's out, then…." She tapped her chin as they walked through the forest. "What should we do, then?"

"We could become weapon manufacturers," Giroro threw out. "I could wear a giant hat to cover my horns and ears. No one would know there was anything out of the ordinary about me."

"You'd need a really big hat," Natsumi said with a laugh.

"Well, what do you think we should do?"

Looking up to the sky, or at least the patches of it that shone through the leaves of the trees overhead, Natsumi hummed to herself, trying to decide on an answer. "What I would really want to do is protect the people I love. Make sure that they're safe from harm. Safe from the lies that society has made them believe."

Giroro chuckled. "You won't need to worry about me, Natsumi."

She teasingly punched him in the arm. "I wasn't talking about you, dork. I was talking about my family."

That's right. Natsumi has a family that she's leaving behind, Giroro recalled with a touch of shame. It only makes sense that she'd be thinking of how to protect them. With a warrior spirit like hers, I'm not surprised. Of course, that warrior spirit of hers was what he admired so much.

"I'm sure your family is safe from any harm," he assured her. "They're in the towns, aren't they? So the monsters—"

"I… wasn't actually talking about the monsters." She cleared her throat. "I want to protect them from demons, Giroro. I want to protect everyone from demons. They prey on innocent children! You know I can't let that happen."

Giroro understood her fury, but he still couldn't help feeling bad for being a demon himself. It wasn't like demons had a choice in the matter. They could either eat human energy, or starve. Demon King's fault for signing a treaty that said they would have to use kids for their food.

"Well, I don't know what you could do to fight other demons," he commented. "Fight a bunch of teenagers, I guess. And when it comes to adults, humans don't know who's a demon and who isn't."

Natsumi let out a sigh. "I suppose it really is futile." She continued walking forward, not really watching where she was going. However, Giroro stopped in his tracks. His ears had picked up on something. Something thromping through the forest…. Something large.

"We'd better stop here, Natsumi," Giroro told her. "Think I hear a monster coming."

"Cool. Time for dinner." Natsumi unsheathed a spear that she had snagged from some weapons shop before coming into the forest.

"You sure you wanna eat it? It sounds pretty big…. And I've got sweet potatoes in the bag."

"Giroro!" she complained. "I need meat!"

"All right, all right," he conceded. "It's moving toward us from that direction. Any second now we should be able to—"

The monster burst through the trees just then—and it was enormous. At the end of its snout were two large tusks, making it resemble a boar, except more surrealistically monster-like and gigantic.

"So what's the plan?" Giroro called to her. "Free-for-all?"

"Nah," she decided. "How about you try to fight it down here, and I'll jump on its neck and try to stab it from there."

Giroro nodded. "Sounds good." While Natsumi leapt away, Giroro and the boar-like creature circled each other, both waiting for the other to make a move. Giroro was pretty confident about this fight, though—he could take him. His horns were built for fighting in situations like these.

The monster pawed at the ground and then charged. Giroro charged as well. Horn clashed with tusk, and it turned into a battle of who could push who where. Giroro was growing nervous, because he had miscalculated a major factor of the battle, and that was size. He felt like a fool. You never went into battle without first sizing up your opponent! But since he was already up against him, there would be no stopping now.

The battle raged on for a couple more minutes. Giroro held his own against the creature decently enough, until the monster took a sudden swing at Giroro with his tusks. Instinctively, he used his horns to guard his vitals organs, and the most damage the monster took to him was a large gash on his horn. But it was agonizing! Giroro's sight blurred for a second, and blood trickled down onto his forehead. The creature prepared for another swing at him. Giroro didn't know if he had it in him for another go. Thankfully, just in the nick of time, Natsumi gouged her spear in the back of the monster's neck and it fell over, dead.

"Thanks… Natsumi…." Giroro fell over as well.

Natsumi hopped down off the monster and rushed to him so she could scoop him up in her arms. "Giroro!" she called. "Giroro, are you okay? Are you hurt? Come on, don't tell me that monster got you! …Right, Giroro?"

Giroro's eyes fluttered open momentarily. "Something doesn't feel right," he groaned before falling back into her arms.

"GIRORO!" she shouted. "I can't lose you! You just gave up your immortality, and for what? This?" She pat his cheeks, splashed water onto his face, did whatever she could to awaken him…. Finally she pressed her lips against his to see if that would do the trick, but not even that helped.


"Wait, you kissed me?" Giroro interrupted. "I don't remember that part!"

"Oh, that's 'cause you were unconscious," Natsumi quickly explained.

Grumbling, he crossed his arms, and his voice grew quieter. "Of course it just had to be when I was unconscious and wouldn't be able to remember." But he let her go on.


With no other choice, Natsumi hoisted Giroro onto her back and dragged him through the forest. "Don't worry, Giroro. I'll find help for you," she promised. Geez… sensitive much? All he got was a cut on his horn. His fault for being reckless, I guess.

Eventually she came upon a small hut, cleverly concealed amongst the trees and wildlife. "We can stop here for the night, Giroro," she told him, even though she knew he wouldn't be able to hear. "Doesn't look like there's anyone inside…. I don't see any smoke coming out the top." She pushed open the door.

And was almost immediately greeted with a knife that flew past her face.

"Eep!" she gasped, nearly dropping Giroro.

"Drat! I almost got the intruder, Zeroyasha!" a young voice said. Natsumi recognized the voice as one that belonged to a young girl, perhaps her own age. The girl stepped out from the shadows and revealed herself. Natsumi had been right—she couldn't have been over fifteen. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I—I'm Natsumi Hinata," she said. "Don't kill me. I was just traveling with my—friend? Boyfriend? Sparring partner? You know, I'm not even sure yet. Giroro and I were traveling together and now he's hurt 'cause he was too reckless fighting a monster with me out in the woods."

"You fight the monsters out in the woods?" The girl seemed surprised. "You're brave for a couple of travelers."

"What can I say?" Natsumi bared her fists. "We were hungry!"

The girl walked over to a cupboard and muttered something to herself. Natsumi only caught something along the lines of, "I dunno, I don't think they're all that tasty…." Her voice rose. "So what does your friend need?"

"You'll help us?" Natsumi was shocked at the stranger's kindness.

"I don't see why not. Where's his injury?"

"Um…." She paled. "His… horn?"

"His horn? What do you mean his…" The girl approached Giroro and let out a squeal of fright, dropping all the medicine she had from her hands. "It's a demon!"

Her dog, Zeroyasha, started barking wildly.

Natsumi cringed. She knew this was a bad idea. "Please wait," she begged. "I know you must hate demons. I hate demons, too. But Giroro's a good demon. He gave up his immortality, so he's not hurting anyone anymore. And right now, he's sick and needs help." She pointed to his horn. "If you have anything I can bandage this up with, I will be in your debt."

Koyuki picked up her box of medicine and handed it over, her arms trembling a bit.

Later, Giroro awoke by the girl's hearth, feeling much better than he had when he collapsed.

"What happened?" he groaned, sitting up.

"Giroro, this is Koyuki Azumaya," Natsumi introduced. She had learned her name when Giroro was still out. "She helped you recover—"


"You met Koyuki?" Dororo cut in. "I—So did I! I had no idea her place was a hot spot for travelers…. Strange."

"You know Koyuki, too?" Natsumi was a bit surprised. Koyuki must have been really courteous to have let in another demon into her hut, after she was so reluctant to let in Giroro. "She's a really sweet girl. I'm glad I got to talk to her, even if it wasn't for long."

Dororo stood up with a jolt. "That reminds me! I left the hospital in order to go see her. Oooh, that letter I sent so prematurely…. I hope she isn't too worried!"

"Geez, what did you do, tell her you were dead?" Giroro joked. But once he saw Dororo's grim expression, he promptly shut up.

"Yeah, so we met Koyuki in the woods, and she helped me heal Giroro's weird horn injury," Natsumi continued. "And after Giroro woke up, he told us that apparently a mortal demon's life force is connected to their horns. I think that's kind of dumb, especially since he's so reckless, but whatever. Now he just has to be more careful when we're fighting monsters." She ruffled his hair affectionately, and Giroro smiled at her. His fault for becoming a mortal.

"And after that, you decided to exorcise demons?" Fuyuki asked.

"That's right," said Natsumi.


The morning after Giroro's horn injury had been bandaged up, the two of them sought out Koyuki to thank her for all her help, and present her with a slab of monster meat as a token of their deep gratitude. However, they could not find her. After a minute or two of searching, they came upon a back door in the hut that led to a small but gorgeous shrine.

"What is this?" Giroro spoke, marveling at the carvings. "It reminds me of the war. But it looks so new. You don't think…. Is it Koyuki's?"

"Must be." Natsumi was staring at the ceiling of the shrine. "Although… it looks as though this might be a shrine for…"

"…angels?" Koyuki's voice finished. Natsumi and Giroro snapped their heads toward her. She was managing the nearby brush with a pair of shears, clearing it away to expose the shrine fully. "There would be a reason for that. This is a shrine for angels."

"Angels…." Giroro clenched his fists and surged forward. He would have maimed Koyuki, surely, had Natsumi not held him back.

"Koyuki… you worship angels?" Natsumi asked in shock. She bit her lip, trying to fight back tears. Angels were evil, worse than demons; everyone knew that. Yet, here was someone worshipping them blindly, someone who Natsumi had momentarily considered building a friendship with.

"Angels are not as bad as everyone says," Koyuki explained to her. "You know how people spread propaganda during war. It was the same thing for your hatred of the angels. People just don't understand."

Giroro and Natsumi both let out sighs, not sure what to say about this. Giroro had fought in the war; he had seen the angels' atrocities firsthand. So why was this girl revering them as though they were guiltless beings?"

"But… they killed so many," Natsumi told her.

Koyuki returned with a shrug. "So have demons." She crossed over to the open, back wall of the shrine, where a staff was hung. "Look over here. This was the very staff they used during the war to suck the souls out of unworthy creatures. It is not a weapon of murder. So why does everyone paint the angels out to be?"

Natsumi examined the staff. It was a pretty staff, granted. But wasn't sucking the souls out of creatures the same thing as killing them? Then she paused. "Wait a second. How does it work, exactly?"

"…I'm not so sure," Koyuki said. "It was never my job to know how the angel artifacts work, only to keep them in prime condition. But I would assume that it can take the soul of any type of creature you desire."

"So… like demons?" Natsumi threw out. Koyuki gave a small nod. "How about demons already within a host body?"

"Sure, I guess," Koyuki said with another shrug.

Natsumi grinned, and turned to Giroro with a knowing look. Giroro's heart practically fell into his stomach when he caught that look. He was terrified of what she had planned.

"Koyuki, can I ask something very big?"

"Um… go ahead?" She wasn't sure what she was agreeing to.

Natsumi breathed and shut her eyes. Then she locked eyes with Koyuki firmly. "We need your staff."

"Wh-What?" Koyuki sputtered. "The staff? But—it's not mine! It's an ancient angel artifact!"

"Yes, and we need it," Natsumi said again. "With this staff, don't you see what we can do? We can exorcise all the demons from kids' bodies! They'd be safe from demons for the rest of their lives! Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Behind them, Giroro swallowed.

"Natsumi, I see what you mean," Koyuki tried to sympathize, "but this staff belongs to the shrine. It isn't yours to take away, and it certainly isn't mine to give away. It has. To stay. Here."

Natsumi looked at the staff. She looked back at Koyuki. Then her eyes settled on the staff again. "I'm sorry, Koyuki," she whispered, as she tore the staff off the wall and ran away with Giroro.

"Wait! You can't do that!" Koyuki yelled, chasing after them.

She was only able to catch up for a mile or two, but after that, they managed to lose her.


"After saying good-bye to Koyuki, we headed to the nearest town and wiped out all the demons," Natsumi went on. She and Giroro had skipped the part where they totally stole a staff from the young priestess, and an angel priestess at that, since they figured that if Dororo knew Koyuki, he'd probably tell her where they were at some point. Besides, it wasn't even a very important part of the story.


"Okay, let's test this thing out," said Natsumi, bringing the staff down on the ground as they set foot into the secondary schooling area in a nearby town. "Think it'll work?"

"Might not," Giroro said skeptically. "It's a pretty old artifact. Its angel mumbo-jumbo may have run out after ten thousand years." He dreadfully hoped it wouldn't work.

"Well, let's find out," she decided. She walked up to the nearest kid. "Hey, you, are you hosting a demon?" she asked.

"I am the demon right now," the kid replied. Or the demon, she supposed.

She pressed the staff to their chest. "I hereby banish your demon to the depths of hell!"

The person before her let out a mighty gasp of pain and fell to the ground. When they stood up, they felt around themselves in surprise. "I—I'm me again! Whoever you are, thank you! Ohh, thank you!"

Natsumi smiled and put the staff by her side. "Hear that, Giroro? I think we did good."

"I guess so," said Giroro, shivering a little in remorse. He couldn't believe what had just transpired.

"Now for the rest of the town." She brought up the staff again and the cycle continued.


"We've been exorcising demons for the last few months," Natsumi finished. "It's been going pretty well. Lots of kids saved, lots of demons killed…. Yup. It's been good. Couldn't ask for anything more right now."

Giroro opened his mouth, about to speak, then closed it in disappointment. Honestly he hadn't signed up for the Demon Exorcising Plan back when he purchased his mortality. But he let out a sigh. He still had mixed feelings on the matter. Part of him wanted to say that if it was what Natsumi wanted, then he would follow her whims. She was the one who inspired him with her ideals and determination, after all, and that was what he wanted to cherish. Another part of him told him that this was wrong. That was an entire species that she was exterminating... Those demons were part of his friends and family.

"I guess you actually are serious about killing the demons this time," Fuyuki told his sister. Natsumi was a bit confused at what he meant, until he gave a sinister chuckle. Then she realized, with much disappointment, that the Demon King had taken control of her brother once more.

"Look, I don't care what your deal is," she said frankly to Kululu, "but if you mess with my brother, I could exterminate you in a second." She waved about her staff threateningly. "So don't you mess with me, either."

"Nah, you like me messing with you," Kululu insisted, cocking one of Fuyuki's brows. He stepped closer to her in the tent. "Look, I know you've been through a lot, and you may be a bit confused…. Trust me, I'm pretty confused myself…. But things like your self-proclaimed boyfriend here ain't gonna get in the way of us, princess. Ku!"

Giroro gave him a vicious look. "You looking for a fight, Kululu? You may be the Demon King but I'll take you on any day. Natsumi and I are together, you understand?"

Kululu gave him a menacing look. "You're gonna beat up a fourteen-year-old boy? Gee, I've heard of you being dumb, but not cruel. Ku ku ku! That's usually my thing."

"I won't beat you up, but I can sure as hell make you wish you weren't on the human plane right now!"

Natsumi just rolled her eyes. "Ew, guys. I'm going to have to exorcise both of you if you keep this up." She walked to the opening of the tent. "You two can stay here bickering about unimportant stuff, but I'm going to go find me a demon to kill." She took the staff and left.

"Um… you should come follow," Giroro said to Kululu, figuring out what Natsumi was about to do.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Kululu said as he marched out of the tent. Dororo shrugged and followed behind them, where they met Natsumi outside of the tent.

Giroro dashed after her. "Where are you going, Natsumi?" He tried to be loud so Kululu could hear.

"I'm going to go to the secondary school," she said. "Should be plenty of kids with demons there." She followed the quickest route from the town to the school, and in no time at all, they made it onto the campus. When they stepped foot into the area, however, all the kids were shocked to see Giroro with his huge horns. It was a demon in plain sight!

Dororo, however, they didn't really notice or care about, even though he was a teacher for some of them. Dororo retired to a corner and cried.

"Your savior has come!" Natsumi shouted, holding her staff high in the air. "I am the demon exorcist! And I have come to save each and every one of you here!"

There were whispers among the crowds of students and teachers. She heard someone say, "Hey, isn't that Natsumi?" and another one mutter, "Thought everyone said she was dead," and another one, "Nah, I guess she was just busy talking big about herself for several months straight and pretending that she was a demon exorcist."

A vein popped in Natsumi's forehead. She'd show them. She walked up to the first person she saw, a young girl with long auburn hair in twin tails. "You there. What's your name?"

"My name is Alisa Southerncross," Alisa reported.

"Very well. Alisa…." Natsumi lay the end of her staff on Alisa's forehead. "I hereby banish your demon to the depths of hell!"

"…Wait, what?"

There was a flash of light and the rather morbid sound of something dying off. Alisa fell to her knees and let out a choked gasp. "Nebula? …Nebula! Were are you? Please speak to me! No, this can't be!" she sobbed. "You were like a daddy to me!"

"I have released you from your burden," Natsumi assured her. "You are free."

Alisa just continued weeping.

"Dang." Giroro rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He hated it when this stuff happened. This was the worst part of it all. "This took a turn for the worse."

"Now," Natsumi announced loudly, "all you demons, you've seen what I can do! The choice is yours to remain in your host or to die at my hand. You choose now! And if you don't, then I shall choose for you!" She flaunted the staff again, implying just enough to send all the schoolchildren into a mad-dash frenzy.

There was one demon, however, who did not run away from Natsumi. He ran toward her.

And then past her.

"Giroro!" The demon was Keroro, in Saburo's body. "Is that you? No way…. Fuyuki said that you had died along with his sister! But is it really you?"

Giroro lowered his eyebrows. "Um… you would be?"

"I'm Keroro!" said Keroro. "And you! Look at you! You gave up your immortality. Ha ha ha, that's the worst thing a demon could possibly do! And you did it! Oh, if only you could see yourself now—"

Giroro punched him.

"Ow! Yeah… you know, I think I'm going to flee along with everyone else," Keroro decided. "How do we get out of here, Giroro? Can you distract her or something?"

"I'm not leaving with you, you moron," he growled at him. "I turned mortal for love, not that you would understand. Natsumi and I… we were going to be together." His eyes traveled over to Natsumi, who was in the process of terrorizing the school, and not being together with him. He frowned. "Well… uh… we were going to be together." He cleared his throat. "In, um, just a few minutes. Augh, if it wasn't for this absurd mission…." He looked toward the sky and sighed. "You know, when I gave up my immortality, I didn't think things would be like this. I thought we would spar a bunch…. Go on a few dates…. Then get married and start a family. But Natsumi has other ideas. She keeps telling me, 'No, Giroro! I'm only fifteen! And we have more important things to do right now. Like exorcise demons!' I just don't get it, Keroro. Why doesn't she see that I'm an important thing to do right now? I—I mean, not that I meant for that to sound inappropriate. It's just that, for the thousands and thousands of years that I've existed, I've never really been in a relationship with anyone before, and so I'm not completely sure how things are supposed to go. Is she supposed to start things? Am I supposed to start things? I just feel like all this ambition toward exorcising demons is kind of getting in the way of our relationship and all. And the whole exorcism thing is an entirely different issue on its own. But I haven't told her any of this yet."

Keroro just looked at him all squinty-eyed. "Dude, I just wanted you to tell me where the exit was, not for you to tell me all your problems." He waved his hand. "But whatever. I guess I'm leaving this place by myself."

"Um, I'll join you," Dororo decided, escaping from his corner of misery. "I have a feeling she's going to kill me, too, after I've tried to kill her brother so many times."

They both looked at Fuyuki, or rather Kululu, to see if he would go along with them, as well. But Kululu just stood there, watching Natsumi do her thing.

"I don't understand," he kept telling himself. "Why is she so slow? She does realize she can just wipe out all the demons here at once, doesn't she? Instead of killing them one by one?"

"I think it's better that she does it one by one," Fuyuki told him. "Do you want my sister to kill you, too?"

"No, not particularly," he confessed.

"Then what are you doing just standing there?" Fuyuki couldn't believe what he was saying. Wouldn't it be better for Natsumi to just kill the Demon King and free Fuyuki from his burden? He would have thought so, after all the flirting Kululu had done. But something in him just pitied the guy. With bitterness, Fuyuki realized that if Kululu was to run away, he'd probably let him. He might not see his sister again for a long while, but at least he knew she was alive this time.

Just then, Natsumi turned around and started heading back to Kululu in her brother's body, gripping her staff firmly. Kululu began to sweat, not sure of what was going to happen.

"You really want to kill me, don't you?" Kululu asked her. Before she could talk, he answered for her. "It's okay, I don't mind. I actually get it a lot, if you can believe it. And I don't let anyone have their way with me. You, however…" He took on that flirtatious look again. "…I might make an exception for."

Natsumi didn't even try to exorcise him. She just shrieked and whacked him on the head with the staff.

"Ow! Sis," Fuyuki mentally groaned.

"Ku ku ku. Well if you're going to act cold, then maybe I should leave," Kululu told her spitefully. He headed toward where Keroro and Dororo were walking. "Don't worry! I'll come back later," he assured her. "Just not when you're trying to maim me."

Back with Dororo and Keroro, however, they were dealing with their own bit of confusion.

"You don't feel as if something's following us, do you?" Keroro asked Dororo.

Dororo, as a trained assassin, did note that something felt amiss. They both turned around and were shocked to see a demon. It wasn't just any demon, however, but a younger, red-headed, slightly transparent one floating after them, looking over his shoulder and muttering, "She's gonna exorcise us all for sure!"

Uh… what is that? Keroro wanted to ask Dororo. But since Dororo wasn't saying anything, Keroro worried that he might have been the only one to see it. So he kept quiet and pressed on. In reality, Dororo was pretending like he couldn't see anything, either, because he worried that he was the only one.

By the time they had both turned around, Kululu just barely reached them until he caught sight of the demon following them—Tamama—and promptly headed the other direction.

"Well. Guess we're going this way, Fuyuki," he said.

Um… why can't we just go with them? asked Fuyuki. He couldn't see Tamama himself, being a human.

"Because I say so." That was all the reason Kululu felt he needed to give.

Fuyuki just sighed. They wouldn't have to be running away from anything in the first place if it wasn't for his sister. Honestly, he couldn't understand why she needed to exorcise demons in the first place. There were good demons, and there were bad ones. The one that returned to his dad was just an anomaly, so… besides ones like Kululu, demons weren't REALLY all that harmful.

Weren't they?