Colors of Fire Ch. 28

Disclaimer: I don't own Blue Exorcist or its characters.

Okay! LET'S DO THIS!

I'm back in the treehouse and I'm not coming down until this chapter is finished! I want to get this story done as quickly as possible, all while using the plot bunnies I have left. They keep bugging me.

Now that Neko's out of the picture I can focus on everyone else. I should've just written this story without her from the very beginning. It would've gone a lot smoother that way. Oh well. What's done is done and I don't feel like gutting out this story again.

Rin: Will you just write the chapter already?

Hmph. Rude… Perhaps I should stuff you in the closet again.

Rin: *runs away*

o.O.0.O.o

Yukio's POV

Opening his other suitcase, he ran his fingers along the lock mechanism and spun the dials. He always thought it odd, the suitcase's combination. A twisted mockery of fate, or a coincident, Yukio found himself questioning his own luck. When he slid the correct digits in place, the mechanism unlocked at the numbers 666.

He never bothered to show Rin. Either he'd suspect it to be some sort of set-up, or he just wouldn't care. Yukio himself didn't make a big deal out of it so there really was no point in telling anyone.

It was on that day, however, that the suitcase produced something demonic. And by demonic he meant an actual demon. He nearly leaped out of his skin when Kuro popped up underneath his folded shirts.

Fresh air! I'm FREE! Kuro meowed as he jumped out of the suitcase.

"Hey, Kuro!" Rin shouted over to them, grinning. "Why'd ya bring him, Yukio?"

The brown-haired twin took a second to recompose himself. "I didn't. He must've snuck in there while I was packing…"

The raven left, and I was all alone! the little cat explained, I was scared you guys were going to leave me like Shiro did.

Both twins smiled at the cat softly. "We won't leave you, Kuro." Rin assured him. "We promise."

"I'll take you with me when I visit Rin." Yukio stated, "Unless, of course, you'd like to stay with Rin instead?"

The cat seemed to think about this. How about we alternate? I stay with Rin for a while, and then with you for a while.

The brunette laughed. "That sounds like a plan, Kuro."

o.O.0.O.o

Koneko's POV

"MORE humans?" the little tree nymph complained, "You're cleaning up whatever mess she makes!"

The monk-in-training laughed lightly and replied, "Don't worry. This is Shiemi. She won't make any messes here."

Said girl smiled and bent down to Minue's eye level. The blonde stuck out her hand for a shake and greeted, "Hello, Minue! My name's Shiemi Moriyama. I work in a garden just like this."

The nymph's eyes lit up. "You work in a garden, too?"

The two shook hands. Then they went on to talk about what to plant and at what times of the year, fertilizers, and general garden stuff. After a while, Koneko had no idea what the two were talking about, but it sounded rock-related. He adjusted his glasses and leaned against a tree.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he smiled as he watched the blossoming friendship.

o.O.0.O.o

After a few hours the conversation strayed to Minue's recent encounters with other nymphs.

"And Vele pushed her into the stream right before she could get the last string through the loop! It was so funny! She came out sopping wet, half-finished lei stuck to her hair and everything!"

They all giggled. The many misadventures of nature spirits were more interesting than Koneko would've anticipated. Minue shared a lot of stories with them, and in return they'd help her around the garden every week. They worked out the system to where all three of them would meet there on Wednesdays at around five or so.

"So Minue," Shiemi inquired, "Is Vele your best friend?"

The little tree nymph smiled. "Yes. We play together all the time. Recently she and her sisters met a fire demon that lives in the woods. Vele says that he's the nicest demon she's ever seen. I haven't met him myself, but I plan to visit Vele this weekend. Hopefully I'll get to see him then."

"Huh," Koneko tapped his chin, "A nice demon? I didn't know demons could be nice. Well, except for…"

Koneko and Shiemi looked at each other.

"Rin!" they exclaimed in unison.

o.O.0.O.o

Izumo's POV

She had no idea. She'd always assumed that it was relatively easy for Rin to hide his most obvious demonic trait. Now Izumo was learning the hard way that, no, it wasn't in any way easy. And the fact that she was a girl and was required to wear the uniform's skirt wasn't helping.

The purple-haired half demon cursed Mephisto and his stupid policies. Why couldn't girls at least have the option of wearing something other than a stripper's outfit? She didn't understand. One could tell between the genders regardless of what they were wearing. Girls usually wore their hair long, and if they didn't their voice would give it away. There was no need for the pink skirts and thigh-high stockings.

Izumo sighed and released her appendage from the weak grip of her hand. Flopping down on the bed, she let out a frustrated groan and rubbed her eyes. Why her? Why must she be the one with the demonic blood ties? They could've kidnapped Shiemi or Shura, but no, they picked her to be their lab rat.

Not that she'd wish that horrible nightmare on her friend or teacher.

Because of what those psychotic bastards did to her, Izumo wasn't able to go out in public that day. She'd tried various ways of tying, binding, and even taping her tail up so no one would see it under her skirt. It was a school day that day and she'd ended up calling in sick.

She sent the golden question to Rin in her letters, hoping that he wouldn't reply something like, "In my pants." That wouldn't apply to her, seeing as how she wasn't allowed to wear pants. She could've just asked Mr. Okumura, but that would've been too embarrassing. Plus, if she sent the question in a letter she wouldn't have to ask it face-to-face.

Since the day they escaped, Izumo had also inspected the other traits she was given. Like Rin and Mr. Okumura, she now had pointed elven ears and small fangs. Izumo wasn't a daughter of Satan, so she didn't inherit blue flames or anything, but she did receive an abnormal ability to influence the weather.

She'd opened her window to let in some fresh air and immediately the wind responded to her stressed emotional state. It went nuts, sending gales beating against anything unlucky enough to be out in the open. At one point she thought a small tree was going to be stripped of all its leaves.

As soon as she shut the window the wind stopped. Experimentally, she opened it again and the same thing happened once more. She'd done it again later when she wasn't so stressed and the wind responded with a gentle, soothing breeze wafting the scent of spring air into her dorm room.

She theorized that each demon had elemental affliction of some sort. If Rin and Yukio were fire demons, than she was a wind demon. At least, it made sense in her mind. When she'd mentioned it to Paku, her friend was having a hard time following her thought pattern.

Shiemi was only a tad bit more understanding. Even though the garden girl wasn't one for philosophy and theories she could comprehend an idea better than her other simple-minded friend. Although, Paku was a whole lot smarter in her stronger areas, like math and physics, which Izumo sucked at. An even balance, she thought.

The half demon was brought out of her musings when her door opened to reveal none other than Paku herself. She was carrying her sleeping bag, a backpack full of books, movies, video games, and enough junk food to feed a small country.

Izumo smiled at her friend's insistence. Once said friend got word of Izumo's mentally scarring ordeal she'd persisted in organizing a "healing sleepover" She was grateful for having a friend like Paku to cheer her up when she was down. And even though she was a half demon now, Paku still treated her same as ever.

Again, she thanked fate that Rin had broken that barrier for her.

"I've got romantic-comedies and vampire novels!" Paku announced excitedly, setting her stuff down and setting up camp.

"Awesome," Izumo said, grinning, "I could use some other-worldly drama right now."

Paku grinned back. "Yup! By the way, I hope you don't mind that I invited Shiemi. She texted me a few minutes ago that she's on her way with big big news! Oh I hope it's really juicy!"

Leave it to Paku to say something like "juicy".

"I don't mind." Izumo assured, spreading out her own sleeping bag on the floor.

Twenty-two minutes later Shiemi arrived. She opened the door with a surprising amount of excited energy. Whatever she had to say it must've been really good, because she looked like she was going to explode.

"We found Rin!" she shouted as soon as the door closed.

o.O.0.O.o

Bon's POV

"He's where?"

Koneko shut the door behind him, panted for a second and walked over to them, limping on sore legs. "He's in the woods somewhere! This tree nymph knows this water nymph that claims to have been seeing him for about a week now."

Bon snarled at his own stupidity. "I knew it. He's not getting evaluated. Mr. Okumura was too tense to be telling the truth. I knew something was off, but I bought into his lies anyway."

The rooster-haired teen stood from his seated position on his bed and started pacing the room angrily. "Just what the hell are they pulling here? Evaluation or no there's no doubt that the Vatican is involved somehow. They're not executing him are they?" he asked no one in particular.

His face twisted into an enraged sneer. "If they think they can get away with something like this they'd got another thing coming…"

Shima stayed quiet in all this, too afraid to say anything at the risk of being chewed out by his pissed off friend. Konekomaru was thinking along the same lines. He too kept quiet, letting his friend vent his emotions before finally giving them the order.

The order came sooner than expected.

"We'll go tonight." he announced firmly, clearly intoning that there was no room for argument, "Koneko, find that nymph and find out where this "water nymph" lives. If Rin's in danger we're going to need to take action quickly before those bearded bastards have the chance to cut him down."

He received a hasty solute from his bald friend and Koneko rushed from the room to carry out his orders. Bon pointed at his remaining friend.

"Shima," he asserted, "I want you to go get your staff and any talismans we have left. Grab any holy water grenades you find, too. We'll need all the help we can get."

"Sir!" the white-haired teen saluted and quickly ran to retrieve the demanded supplies.

o.O.0.O.o

Takara's POV

He shifted his weight to a more comfortable position on the tree branch outside the boy's dorm building. Having overheard all that had gone down inside the room of the closest window, the young boy sighed. He'd been watching the Exwires for quite some time now.

The boy had kept an eye on these students since the very first day of class. He'd witnessed everything up until now. He'd kept tabs on Rin's progress all the way through. He'd also been told to keep an eye on the witch when she was there, which he had to admit was the most interesting job he'd been assigned that year.

And that wasn't saying much, considering that same year he'd been told to watch over the son of Satan as well.

Even though Rin had been in a tough position before, what with being exposed as Satan's son right in front of the Vatican, the demon hadn't been in a pickle quite like this before. A half demon son of Satan could just barely make it past the Grigori, but a whole demon would never be allowed to live, even with Mephisto's best argument.

The boy in the tree groaned in annoyance. When the rooster-haired kid found out just what happened to the poor demon it would jeopardize his survival further. It was a slim chance that word would get out. Takara had no doubts that the Exwire class would keep their lips sealed. But if it slipped out on accident somehow that would be the death of Rin.

So, as usual, before he even reported back to Mephisto, Takara knew it would be his job to come and bail the demon out. Of course, Mephisto had plans for Rin and this wouldn't affect them, but the clown enjoyed toying with him all too much. Takara slid down to the lowest bough of the tree and jumped to the ground with a small grunt.

Why me? he thought, already gritting his teeth at his boss's childish antics.

o.O.0.O.o

Why me indeed. I didn't intend on writing another small story arc, but this one just appeared before me on a glowing silver platter, begging to be written.

That's alright though. This mini arc should serve as a satisfying closing note to this story. Hopefully I can end it with warm and fuzzy feelings, but I really don't foresee the Vatican being happy about this. That is, if they find out. I haven't decided on that yet.

I'm leaning towards "no" on that one, but you never know.

I cheated guys. I left the tree house to go get birdseed. And I went to the bathroom. I suck at keeping promises…

So yeah, that about concludes this chapter. Plus, I want to go home now and eat some dog food. And don't worry; it's not really dog food. It's just a can of Ravioli's. My dad likes to call it dog food.

Until next time.

Fare thee well, strange ones!