Disclaimer: I don't own BE/ANE or any of its characters!

Q: How does Rin make money/support himself? A: He takes money off of his victims and he pickpockets for extra cash… Naughty Rin.

Chapter three,

Dreamless Nightmares


Yukio walked down the hallways of the massive True Cross Academy, his footsteps echoing all around him. It was ten minutes past curfew, and as a student teacher, he was setting a bad example. Even he wasn't exempt from the curfew policies. Thankfully though, no one else was awake to witness his offence. He had accidentally fallen asleep in the library, and one could argue that he was doing a walk of shame back from the library… or not. Trudging back to the boys' dormitory, he thought about giving his students a day off, they had been working hard and they were showing signs of improvement all-around. That, and he was tired from staying up late.

He had moved into the boys' dormitory after Rin went missing. He initially roomed with Bon, Shima, and Konekomaru, but he was later granted special permission to have an instructor's quarters to himself. There was no reason for him to stay in the abandoned dormitory now that his brother was missing.

Yawning as he walked down another hallway, he paused when he heard muffled voices. He was standing directly outside of Mephisto's office. Curious, he crept towards the office door and pressed his ear against it, hearing a heated argument from inside.

"You know who it is, don't you?! I order you to tell me who it is, I will not risk the lives of my men-"

"Regardless of what you may believe, I do not know everything. What makes you think I would know this?"

"You have always had the answers before, and now you want me to believe that you are suddenly, blissfully unaware?"

"Arthur, as much as I love talking to you, this conversation is no longer private."

The door that Yukio had his ear pressed against began to swing open, making him almost lose his balance. Pulling away quickly from the door, he tried to make himself look as unsuspicious as possible. Once the door opened, it revealed a fuming Arthur sitting across from none other than Mephisto.

Yukio quickly apologized and gave a half-bow, "I am deeply sorry, Sir. I had no intention of being intrusive."

"Now, now, Okumura, there is no need for that." Mephisto gave a knowing smirk, "Arthur was just leaving. Weren't you, Arthur?"

The paladin gaped at him, opening and closing his mouth a few times as though he was trying to come up with a snarky remark, and finally decided against it. Standing up from his chair, he pushed past Yukio. Before he could leave though, Mephisto said, warningly, "Oh, and Arthur, I ask that you think twice before insinuating that I would risk human lives."

Yukio watched uncomfortably as the paladin walked down the hall and out of sight. Feeling unsure of himself, Yukio muttered, "Uh, Sir, I think I should retire for the night as well."

The headmaster's smirk widened, and he cheerily said, "Of course, of course. I think that would be for the best. That reminds me, I would like for the exwires to join you on the upcoming mission. They will be graduating soon, no?"

Yukio nodded, "That is correct. If I may say, though, is it wise to bring them along on such a dangerous mission?"

"You and the exwires will be in no danger. I have changed your assignment slightly. You will not be on the extermination team but rather, you shall be there to simply protect and guide the exwires, should anything go wrong. Think of this more as an observation mission." Mephisto's smile never faltered, and Yukio found it to be slightly unnerving.

Yukio nodded again, accepting his mission.

"Aha, but I am rambling. You have a big mission ahead of you. Sleep well and hurry off to bed now, tut tut~"

Yukio backed out of Mephisto's office and closed the door behind him. Standing outside of the headmaster's office, it let out a breath he did not know he was holding. He wasn't exactly sure if he was more reassured or troubled after hearing what the headmaster had to say.

When he eventually made his way back to his quarters, Yukio fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.

-~x~-

Rin shot upright in his cot, his heart pounding hard against his chest and loudly in his ears. He looked around at his surroundings trying to discern where he was. When he realized that he was in his new apartment, however, he calmed down slightly. Wiping the sweat away from his brow, Rin sighed, and then he held his face in his hands.

His dreams were no longer sweet; instead they were filled with nightmares that matched his reality. Light sheets of rain tapped against his window, and they threated to lull him back to sleep, back into the mercy and the torment of his dreams.

Propping himself up on his elbows, he glanced up at the clock on his wall. The time on the clock filled him with hearty annoyance: 3:16am. Groaning loudly, he threw his blanket off of himself. He was awake far too early, but his chances of falling back asleep again were incredibly slim. He stood up and meandered aimlessly around his mostly empty apartment, briefly stopping to stretch his stiff shoulders.

After the woman had run into traffic head on, he was forced to find a meal elsewhere. Luckily, it hadn't been very difficult.

A man who had been contemplating suicide was standing atop a six-story building. Rin watched him for a while and wondered too whether or not the man would do it. Rin had felt that way too before and even to this day he wasn't quite sure why he didn't make the jump. Sneaking up behind him, Rin used the knife that he had nicked off the woman from before to slit the man's throat. The man got the out he wanted, and Rin got his meal. After he had killed the man, Rin sat on the rooftop for a long while and wondered whether or not the man would have made the jump. He had tasted fair enough, though not nearly as sweet as Rin would have liked. Suicide rates in Japan were fairly high and missing persons reports were higher. The man would not be missed. Even if he was, it meant next to nothing to Rin.

Though Rin's healing abilities were impressive, scaling the side of a six-story building still left a hint of stiffness behind. By mid-morning it would disappear completely.

Thirsty, he walked over to his refrigerator and took a peek at its contents. Several labeled containers: Hearts, Fingers, Tendons, and many others marked with similar body parts. It should last him a while, a week or even two weeks if he was careful. Pushing aside a container marked as Tongues, he reached for the coffee grounds. Coffee was the only non-human thing that was still tolerable in taste.

While he was setting the kettle on, the sound of footsteps began echoing from the hallway. Rin stood rigid; his body was completely frozen, as though he was a statue carved from stone. The footsteps suddenly stopped. In its place, an eerie silence choked the house in its vice grip. The rain, which had been so delicately tapping the widows, was no longer present.

His pointed ears perked, hearing the faint, unmistakable sound of voices. He tiptoed quietly to his room and snagged Kurikara from the side of his cot. Holding the sheath in one hand and the hilt in the other, he quietly crept towards the noise.

He stalked down the length of the hallway, listening for where the voices were at their loudest. There was no intelligible conversation, just harsh whispers. Standing by the door to his bathroom, he pressed his ear to the door. The voices were loudest there. He let go of Kurikara's hilt to grip the door handle. Hastily throwing the door open resulted in a loud bang as it hit the back wall of the bathroom.

Nobody was there. The whispers had stopped.

Stepping forward, he threw open the shower curtain, revealing only the few remains of the man he had killed that could not be salvaged, he would have to dispose of it in the morning. But that still didn't answer where the sound had come from though. The only entrance to the bathroom was through the door that he had entered. There wasn't a window that could be used to sneak in. His eyes scanned the room. He had heard someone. He heard something.

Lowering his sword that remained in its scabbard, he stepped back. He did a brief check of the rest of the apartment, but the result was the same. He set his sword by his cot and reentered the kitchen, sitting down with a heavy huff. He knew he heard something. The footsteps, the voices, he heard them!

Turning off the kettle, he went back to his bedroom. Coffee no longer seemed remarkably appealing. Rin tossed and turned restlessly when he retired to his cot. Eventually, sleep's icy grip latched onto him once more.

The clock on the wall ticked and now read 3:37am.

Deep down, Rin knew that there had been no one else in the apartment that night.