Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing, although I wish I did. Everything belongs to Moriyama Daisuke, ADV and Gonzo.

Author's Note:
Hurrah! I returneth! It was so shocking. I should have been studying. But during my exam period, I opened Microsoft Word and basically brainstormed, typing down random ideas for my fic. When I tried to string them together, I found myself looking at something which could potentially be the ending for my story. It was quite cool and I was like, "HEY! THIS IS MY ENDING!"

Now I just have to find some way of guiding the fic towards that particular end, which I thought was quite awesome. As such, after this chapter, I will try to speed things up a little, hopefully. Still, this is my first piece of prolonged writing. I want to savour it as much as possible.

Consequently, as you can see, my 'studying time' was not used very productively. Thanks to everyone for reviewing. I thought this was a very slow chapter, but it was necessary because I had to lay down the groundwork for stuff which will happen in the future. Bear with me. I promise you a spectacular ending, hopefully (gulp).

Chapter 12: Dullness

Rosette:

Sigh. Another day.

After that incident at Central Park many days ago, life had fallen into a very dull cycle. Funny enough, when word had gotten round about what had supposedly happened to me, people were even more reluctant than before when approaching the vicinity of the workshop. I wouldn't have been surprised if Minister Remington had been the one to encourage the rumour, since the possibility of someone spotting Chrno had been much reduced by this.

My roommates had been mildly curious about my whereabouts that night. They had quickly lost interest after I fed them the story about my getting a concussion. Predictably, Elizabeth had been very scornful, with a 'serves you right' attitude that really grated on my nerves.

The orphanage had always been a warm place. Even though I had often been in the thick of fights and boisterous arguments, there had always been affection for the others who I considered like family. This place offered me no such comfort what so ever. To me, it was a freezing cold environment devoid of all emotion. People here usually moved so slowly that I often wondered if there actually was a designated speed limit.

I mostly sat by myself at breakfast time. It was lonely, but at least I wouldn't be tempted to hurl my food at the next person who found something about me extremely funny. And so it was that this morning, like the ones before, I found myself trudging off to class on my own.

I was not happy. All through breakfast, people had been pointing at me when they thought I wasn't watching, whispering and giving me odd looks. Seriously, if they were trying to be secretive, they were doing a pretty bad job of it.

Boring, boring mornings, as usual. I liked it better in the afternoons, because that's when I had weapons intro and demonology. Demonology turned out to be a sort of informal seminar in one of the larger classrooms where members of the Militia would regale us with stories of past missions and discuss the different weapons and strategies, which one would use against demons and poltergeists. However, there were some instances where we were shown interesting stuff, like today. The speaker was none other than Remington himself.

It was late in the afternoon and everyone was tired, but they had all perked up as soon as they'd seen him. There was no need for introduction, since everyone knew who he was. I was more interested in the thing that he was taking out of the box he had brought. Remington looked pleased at the sudden attention that he got. He held out the object. "Does anyone know what this is?"

Luke called out. "It's a horn." It was, in fact, the horn of the demon that had been disposed of at Central Park the other night.

The Minister nodded. "That's right. But can anyone tell me what kind of horn this it. What creature could it have come from?"

Nobody answered. Remington looked around. "Nobody?" His eyes locked onto mine and he smiled encouragingly.

"It's a demon's horn." I said. People around the room turned to look at me and began chattering softly. I frowned. This wasn't excitement and awe that they were being shown a demon horn. It was more the fact that I knew what it was, that had set off the murmuring.

Remington frowned as well, and the class quickly settled back down. Everyone was tuned in to his moods when he was around. He didn't need words to convey his intent or opinions. I noticed that the Minister had a funny effect on people. When he was happy, when he smiled, the world seemed so much brighter. When he frowned, it was like standing outside just before a thunderstorm. Luckily for them, none of the people here have ever seen the angry side of him as I had.

He shook his head slightly in disapproval. Everyone looked contrite and slightly subdued, but relaxed again when he continued with a smile. "Yes, this is indeed a demon horn. We believe that this is the source of a demon's power."

Michael waved his hand excitedly. "Did you kill the demon when you took its horn?"

I felt disgusted. This boy was sick. He was always so gleeful and excited about battle and mayhem. Even if we were forever being told that demons were evil, this was still a sentient being we were talking about here. When I become an exorcist, would I be so hardened to death and violence one day that killing would be like second nature?

Remington shook his head. "The demon was destroyed, but not because it lost its horn. A demon can still survive without the horn, though not for long. If a hornless demon wished to stay alive, it would need an alternate source of power."

The class was enraptured. I already knew all this though, having experienced it myself. I thought that Remington would use me as an example, but he didn't even mention anything about demon contracts. Instead, he then went on to lecture a bit more about horns. This bit I did listen attentively to. "Different demons have different horns. There are many classes of demons, and they have a system or hierarchy, which we will not be looking into today. All you need to know for now is that there are lower demons and higher demons. Higher demons usually possess a rank of sorts."

Remington passed the horn to one of the boys at the side of the room. "You may pass this around to get a closer look, but please be careful with it." Returning to the front, he continued talking. "The demon to whom this horn belonged to had been a lower demon, because he only had one horn. Higher demons usually have two. Unfortunately, I cannot show you a sample pair, but just know that in comparison to the one which is being passed around, the horns of a higher demon are usually much larger and more impressive, although they can vary greatly between each demon."

The horn got passed to me and I just stared at it for a while, before handing it to the person next to me. This horn was rust-coloured and slightly twisted, almost resembling a thunderbolt. I tuned out Remington's lecture and thought back to that night at the orphanage. Chrno's had been ivory and smooth, as well as being much larger than this one. So Chrno is one of there 'higher demons'. I wonder what his rank was then?

"OY!!!"

I snapped back to attention, thinking that Remington was yelling at me. But no. He was looking past me. I turned around. Michael and Luke had been playing with the horn, and Luke had had the horn raised to his forehead. Both had frozen at the cold fury which Remington had directed towards them.

"NEVER...do that again." Striding up to their desk, he quickly confiscated the horn. Everyone gaped at him, stunned. Remington never yelled at anyone, because he never needed to. They had never heard him raise his voice in anger before.

Remington sighed. "I suppose I should have explained this before I let you pass the horn around." He returned to the front of the room and placed the horn on the desk at the front. "Horns are very powerful objects, which can only be used by demons. The more powerful the demon, the more dangerous the horns are. Humans cannot use them without adverse effects to the mind and body."

He didn't elaborate any further. I knew that it had been for my sake, since he had cast concerned glances in my direction during that little spiel.

Joshua had been tormented by those horns. Chrno's horns. They'd given him the power to freeze the time of anything which he wished to "stop". He had ripped our family and home apart, all in one night.

All because a vile monster had given him Chrno's horns. And it had changed him. Made his body seem stronger, at the cost of his sanity. He had looked so pleased with himself, standing amidst our frozen family, with blood running down his face.

'It's alright Rosette. You don't have to become a doctor.'

My world had revolved around taking care of Joshua. I had wanted to protect him from everything. But, I hadn't seen how much it had hurt him until that night...

"Rosette." I looked up and gasped. Remington was standing in front of me, but everyone else had gone. "Class finished a while ago."

Flustered, I got up. "Sorry, I..."

He smiled in amusement. "It's alright. I should be the one apologizing. I'm sorry that I made you recall such a painful memory, but I had to make sure that others also knew the danger that demon horns represented, so that we won't ever have a repeat of that incident."

I nodded, but wanted to steer the conversation to somewhere less painful. "I'm ok. That was an interesting talk that you gave today. Will you be lecturing again some other time?"

My lame and desperate attempt at changing the subject did not go unnoticed, but Remington humoured me. "Perhaps. I don't really know yet."

I started inching towards the door. "I hope you will. Anyway, I'll just be going..."

"Wait a minute, please." He said. I paused mid stride. "There's actually something that I wanted to talk to you about." I turned around slowly. Remington looked very serious. "The other day we sent some people out on a clean up mission to the orphanage. It seems that they had taken some of the older children with them as well for field experience, since the danger appeared minimal. All of them were briefed about the incident, leaving out some important details, of course. Unfortunately for us, they guessed that that was the orphanage from which you came from, since the time of the incident coincided with your arrival." He watched cautiously for my reaction. "I believe that was what all the fuss was about."

I stared at him for a moment in disbelief. Then, to Remington's surprise, I chuckled. "Is that all?"

Remington looked very confused. I grinned at this. "I don't care that they know about the orphanage and I certainly don't care what they think of me. I came here to become stronger, that is all. Making friends would have been a bonus, but it is not one of my top priorities. If they don't like me for who I am, then they are not worth the time and trouble to get to know."

Remington:

She was so strong. It was strange to see such inner strength in one so young. I knew what it was like to sacrifice everything for a cause, but not having people around to help and support you was a lonely existence. Independence was good, but would she actually be capable of surviving such emptiness?

Rosette grinned. "And besides, I'll always have Chrno. That will be enough for now, at least until we find Joshua."

Ah yes...the demon, always the demon. She actually preferred him to other children of her own kind. It was passing strange. Looks like our attempt to make her interact with others would not go as well as we'd like.

Still, I was making progress in some ways. I had been attempting to 'wean' her off the demon. I was doing it slowly of course, not exactly restricting her, but merely suggesting that she only visit him once a week. I encouraged Rosette to cultivate her already sizeable interest in the weapons class during her free time, since she clearly did not care much for the mainstream classes.

She was warming up to me, I could tell. This was a good development. Surprisingly, Chrno had not really been all that upset. That talk I had with him must have been more effective than I had hoped.

Chrno:

Sigh. Bored, bored, bored...

Elder was out again, doing who knows what. I was stuck in here as usual. My days were so monotonous. Get up, then...usually nothing, unless Elder needed help with something.

At least Remington actually allowed her to come visit regularly. Still, on days like this...there was nothing to do, but read or poke around the workshop. There were quite a few interesting books in the Elder's possession, most about the supernatural and odd theories which seemed to be very seriously written, but was quite hilarious when read from my point of view.

Sigh...I wonder what Rosette is doing?

I was halfway to the door before I managed to stop myself. Remington was right. I shouldn't act like this, I would only be smothering her. But it was so boring here! Going back to my room, I plopped back onto the bed and just stared at the ceiling for a while, before reaching for a book that I had recently been reading.

It was quite interesting, talking about psychic abilities and dream walking. Not sleep walking, but dream walking. That's where one being can actually place themselves into another's dreams, using psychic powers or some kind of special bond. I wonder if that includes the bond of a demon and its contractor. I hoped that this would work, because then I could be with her no matter where Remington takes her.

I was tempted to try immediately, but I thought it would be better to ask Rosette first. It would have to wait till whenever I next saw her though. With nothing better to do for now, I went back to sleep...only to be awoken a while later by the sound of someone trying to sneak up to me. She took a deep breath, probably planning on giving me a loud wake up call.

"Hello Rosette." I said calmly, not opening my eyes.

I could hear her deflate with disappointment. "Damn...How come I can never sneak up on you? No fair."

I grinned, content to just relax and enjoy her company as she chattered about the usual things; like how boring school was and how most of the people around here were like human icicles. She would change topics so abruptly, that if you didn't manage follow what she was saying, you would be lost a minute or two into the conversation.

Rosette was the warmest thing in the entire area, personality wise. No one else was ever able to feel as intensely as she did, or express it as exuberantly. It was the ability and capacity of humans to feel so passionately that had first fascinated me about them. Although no one who I had met in the past could ever compare to Rosette.

TBC

Hmm...not a particularly riveting chapter, but I'll do better in the next one. I used up all my creativity making up essays in the exams which were full of waffle and repetition). This chapter was mainly more character building and giving background for what is to come later.

So tired, the exams really drained me...