Yuma barely felt the jab of the needle as it entered his arm. Years of chemotherapy and IV drips had completely desensitised him to the small sting of precautionary vaccinations. What he wasn't used to was the fact that Ayame was beside him getting exactly the same jab. In his head she was the giver, never the recipient. She grinned at Yuma as the doctor placed a small band-aid over the injection site on her arm. "That wasn't so bad," she said cheerily.
"Ho, Tsukioka! There you are."
Yuma turned to the voice that called. "Kirigakure-sensei," he said.
"I see you got your vaccination. Good. The other Exwires are in Car Four. Best you all stay together… oh…" Her eyes fell on Ayame, who was standing to greet her. "You must be the nurse Sir Pheles told me about."
"That's right," Ayame said. "Ayame Taniyama. It's nice to meet you."
"Shura Kirigakure. Hmm… you can sit wherever… I don't know… do you need to be‒"
"Not necessarily," said Ayame. "Yuma is quite capable of managing himself for the most part."
Kirigakure frowned. It was clear she was unsure of how to handle this. Ayame gave her a reassuring smile. It had been on his father's insistence that Ayame accompany Yuma to Kyoto. He wasn't even sure he would need her there, and worried that he was putting her in danger. If anything happened to Ayame, he would never forgive himself. The Chairman had surprisingly sided with his father. "She'll be perfectly safe," he had said. "After all, you'll be there to protect her, Tsukioka-kun."
That's right. You're an Exorcist. You would never let anything happen to Ayame-chan.
In Car Four, the seats were filling fast. In the row second to the front, Yuma could see Rin by the window, waving enthusiastically at him. Izumo sat in the aisle seat, the two of them separated by Rin's bag and a sleeping Kuro. Behind them, Shima, Miwa and Suguro sat, the foremost looking particularly shell-shocked. Yuma exchanged a questioning glance with Izumo, and she rolled her eyes. Deducing what had happened, Yuma snorted derisively. Meanwhile Rin was attempting to move the sleeping Cat Sidhe to his lap.
"No, don't wake him," said Yuma. He sat down in the row in front. "I'll just be here." He turned to Ayame. "Do you want the window?"
"Who's that?" he heard someone whisper loudly. "She's cute." Shima, he deduced. Just like him to take notice of the attractive older woman.
"Ayame-chan," said Yuma. This is Ryūji Suguro, Konekomaru Miwa, Renzo Shima, and… where's Moriyama-san?"
"Huh? Did someone call me?" Moriyama stood at the door to the carriage, clutching her newly vaccinated arm.
"There she is. That's Shiemi Moriyama." He turned back. "Over there is Nemu Takara. This is Izumo Kamiki, and of course, you've met Rin Okumura already."
"It's so nice to meet you all. My name is Ayame Taniyama. Yuma-kun has, of course, told me much about you," said Ayame. "I'll be counting on you all to take care of him…"
Yuma looked at his classmates faces. Their looks were all resigned. Moriyama looked slightly confused. Understandably, since she and Takara were the only ones Yuma hadn't explicitly told about his condition. Them and Yukio, though Yuma expected either Rin or Shura had briefed the latter. Takara's expression was unreadable.
He turned to Rin with an anxious smile. Their last face-to-face interaction had not been an entirely pleasant one. Rin had come to his room as promised. Ayame had made okonomiyaki for dinner, a dish which very near topped the yakisoba they had feasted on at lunch time. Rin had been all smiles as he bragged about his mission with Shura and Yukio, and about the little boy he had saved. Yuma told him about asking Izumo out at the training camp, about their kiss. It was fortunate he had shared the good news first.
Rin had lost it when he found out. His blue flames had shrouded his body, no longer contained by that sword. Angry and afraid, Rin had raced out of that room, his anguished screams filling the evening air. The day Yuma finally stopped crying was the day the Chairman came to tell him about Kyoto. He wasn't sure what happened to Rin after that, but seeing him now, he seemed very much like his usual self. He was reciprocating Yuma's smile with an unapologetically cheesy grin.
"Don't worry," he said to Ayame. "Yuma will be safe with us."
Suguro scoffed grouchily, muttering something about how no-one was safe with Satan's spawn around. Everyone ignored him.
"Alright," Kirigakure said loudly. "Attention, please. I'm Shura Kirigakure, and I've been forced against my will to be the captain of this reinforcement squad."
Yuma supressed a giggle at the 'against my will' part. That was typical of Kirigakure-sensei, though, begrudgingly taking her orders from Mephisto.
"Right. I'll leave the explanations to Satou-kun from the Intelligence Division."
"Uh… okay." The man named Satou rose from his seat towards the back of the carriage. "On the 22nd of July at about 1.20pm, the Left Eye of the Impure King was stolen from the Sashinbu of the Order's base. We discovered that the former Director of the Sashinbu, second-class exorcist Toudou Saburouta, had a hand in this, though his intention remains unclear."
"That's right," Kirigakure said. "And at the same time, the Kyoto Branch office was also attacked. While this plan was thwarted, we believe they were after the Right Eye of the Impure King."
"What are these Right Eye and Left Eye of the Impure King?" Izumo asked.
"The Impure King was an Upper-Class demon responsible for the spread of disease in the last years of Edo," explained Adachi, one of the lecturers of demon history at the academy. "The monk Fukaku supposedly removed the eyes when he suppressed the Impure King, but although these are only the demon's eyes, they give off strong miasma and are considered extremely dangerous."
Rin was muttering something under his breath, but Yuma took little notice to what he was saying.
"In any event, while the motivation for obtaining the eyes is unclear, we know it can't be good. There's a chance that the Kyoto branch will be attacked again in an effort to retrieve the Right Eye. It's our job to prevent the same failure that happened with the Left eye," said Kirigakure. "Our job is to nurse the injured exorcists of the Kyoto branch and reinforce their weakened security. Let's work hard at this."
After her speech, Kirigakure collapsed into the seat across from Yuma's. Within minutes, she was snoring. On his other side, Ayame had propped her pillow up against the window and was already half asleep. It wasn't like he could blame either of them. It was quite early in the morning still, and he himself was feeling a little drowsy.
"You're… not afraid of me?" he heard Rin say.
"You? Why would I be afraid of you?" Izumo replied. "You probably don't know this, but there are tons of people around who are related to demons by blood. A heap of them become exorcists, too. The only problem with you is that your relation happens to be Satan. The Order isn't sure whether you will be a boon or a bane to them, so they haven't killed you yet. That's all there is to it. It would be moronic to go making a mountain out of a molehill at this point." She sighed. "Besides, hasn't Yuma known about this for ages? He was never afraid. He always treated you like everyone else, even though he knew who you were. There's no need for me to behave any differently."
"Yuma…" Rin paused. "He wasn't afraid because he didn't have anything to lose…" It wasn't hard to deduce what Rin meant. He's not afraid to die, because he's dying anyway.
"I don't think that's true," said Izumo. "He's not afraid because he doesn't believe you would hurt him. To him, you're a good person. A friend. That's why he defended you that night against the Paladin. He would have given his life then and there for you. That's how much he cares. Besides, when Yuma found out your secret, there was still hope he could be cured, and he still wasn't afraid of you."
Rin exhaled. "You're right," he said. "He's a good person. Like you, Eyebrows!"
"Eyebrows?" Izumo snapped. "Don't you call me 'Eyebrows'. My name is Izumo Kamiki!"
Rin let out a chuckle. "Thank you, Izumo."
"Hey! Don't address me so casually!" She sighed. "I just… really hate cowards. People say such bold words like 'I'll defeat Satan' or 'I'll be there for my friends' and then run away at the most crucial times‒"
"That's it!" Suguro snapped from behind them. "You know, you've got some real nerve to call us cowards. Who do you think you are?"
"Well what would you call it then?"
"How dare you!" Suguro yelled. "You bitch‒"
Yuma's head snapped around. "That's enough!" he said. "We're going to wake‒"
"Right!" Kirigakure interrupted. "Exwires get the baryon punishment. The rest of you, out!"
Yuma turned to Ayame. The ruckus had had woken her up as well. "You should go, too."
"She's punishing you all?" Ayame asked. "Why?"
Yuma smiled. "We're a team, Ayame-chan," he said. "Though we may not be acting like it now. We are all collectively responsible. That's how it is for Exorcists."
"Okay, well, if you do need anything from me‒"
"I'll be sure to let you know. Don't worry, Ayame-chan. I'm with my friends…" He turned to the grumbling mob behind him as the exorcists shuffled out of the carriage. He couldn't help but chuckle. Even last time it was a fight between Izumo and Suguro that led to this punishment. Just like old times, he thought. Things may have changed, but we haven't at all.