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

Author's note:

Exams are over! YAHOO!!! This chapter will speed up. Introductory info will be over for now after this chapter. We begin moving towards the time frame of the manga. YAY!!!!

Time flies in this chapter. I tried to make it flow as best I could, but I don't think I achieved it terribly well. Still, at least we are finally getting onto familiar ground.

evilanimeblond22, NightElfCrawler, kitsunedemon, ruby-dream

The real action will begin once all the background info is given, I promise. Thanks for reviewing and for bearing with me during my stressful exam period.

Die Kikyo Die
Yeah, Remington is quite evil. It's good that you dislike him, because that means I'm writing properly. I might try to redeem him later on though. Until then, keep up the dislike. Thanks for reviewing.

Belle
Welcome new reviewer. I'm having trouble twisting the story towards this ending, but I will make it work even if it kills me, never fear.

Star Sage
Hihi! Forgot to welcome you in the last chapter. Thanks for reading my fic. Hope you continue to follow it.

Chapter 13: Time Flies

Rosette:

It's funny how time works. It never ever feels the same length. Some days might crawl by so very slowly, then others would just fly by before you had time to blink. And everything changes with time, even though changes are not always visible.

I had changed so much, the most important change being my aversion to killing. I had been so excited when I had finally been allowed to practice with guns, even though they didn't have actual bullets. Still, my aim had been terrible. I would lose it at the last instant, because I was hesitant to pull the trigger. It was because I didn't ever want to hurt anyone or anything. Taking a life was something that I just couldn't do.

Then one night, Chrno, Elizabeth and I were almost killed in the Elder's workshop when a freak accident happened. I had snuck out to visit Chrno and obviously, Elizabeth had followed me. She acted so self-righteous, lecturing me about rule breaking and affiliating with demons and crap.

While we were there, a power outage had allowed some demon creature to escape from one of the holding tanks. We had managed to defeat it after I had used a gun from the workshop to shoot it, with Chrno's help. Elizabeth had come out of it relatively unscathed and Chrno had been heavily wounded, though it was nothing that could not be healed by briefly opening the seal. He didn't let me do this though, claiming that he would heal himself in time.

I hadn't been physically injured, but I had felt cold and tainted on the inside. I had killed. I remember feeling clammy all over, the gun feeling so very heavy, and not knowing whether I was laughing or crying. The shivering wouldn't stop. I had protected my friend, but...

I had gotten up slowly and begun walking...somewhere. Apparently, someone had been calling me, but it hadn't filtered through to my brain because I had been so shocked. I was stopped when Chrno grabbed my wrist. "Rosette! Where are you going?"

"Just...away..." I had said in a detached sort of voice. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

"No you're not." He said softly, looking into my eyes. "It's ok now, Rosette. The creature can't hurt you anymore. It's dead."

This had snapped me out of my shock and I turned my head away, eyes stinging furiously as the tears started to pool. "It's dead because of me! Because I killed it!"

I collapsed onto my knees sobbing with that simple truth. Chrno knelt down in front of me. "Rosette. There was no choice. You can't go through life thinking that you'll never hurt anyone, because you will, especially when you try to help others."

I had cried even harder. Sighing, he had given me a loose but comforting hug, wincing as he aggravated his wounds. "Would you rather that your friend had been hurt?" I remembered looking up at him through watery eyes as he smiled, brushing my tears away. "A very wise person once told me this; if you protect someone, you will most certainly hurt another. It happens when you live. It is unavoidable"

He was right, of course, but this really hadn't made me feel much better. When people had come to investigate the ruckus, Chrno had quickly hidden. Elizabeth and I had been sent to the hospital wing for the rest of the night, after a stern scolding. We weren't wounded, but they had just assumed that we were in shock, which was quite true in my case.

As I lay in that bed, I had shivered. Sleep hadn't come easily, because I was anticipating horrible visions of blood and death. But when I did manage to fall asleep, I had rested peacefully, because Chrno had been in my dreams, comforting me throughout the night and protecting me from my nightmares.

After that night though, I was more confident when handling the gun. I came here to become stronger and that was what I would do. I still disliked playing the role of executioner, but I realized that sometimes it had to be done, for the sake of others.

That wasn't the only good thing which came out from that night. After the incident, Elizabeth became my very first friend since I had arrived at the Abbey. Through her, I managed to somehow connect with some of my other classmates, so that we were at least cordial with each other now. That didn't mean that they would pass up a chance to tease me whenever I was overexcited. Even after Elizabeth left the school, I still had other friends, though not as close as she and I had been.

Remington had been quite pleased that I was finally making friends. "Now I can leave without worrying about how you will be when I'm gone." He was leaving for some kind of mission, the first of many over the next few years. It was always to search for something, though he never told me about the mission in detail.

Remington used to take me with him on fieldwork sometimes. I both loved and hated it when he did this. I loved that he took me on interesting assignments not comprising of 'cleanup work' as most of the other kids were stuck with, but hated that sometimes he would just vanish in the middle of a situation and leave me to find my own way out of the chaos. Often I would find my way back to the car feeling totally exhausted and bruised, only to see him leaning against the vehicle fresh as a daisy, grinning at the state I was in before giving me a lecture criticizing whatever it was that I had done wrong during my assignment.

I missed him, those times when he was away. To me, he was guardian, teacher and friend. I had grown quite fond of him over the past few years.

No one could ever take the place of Chrno though, and he was still the most important person to me. After the fuss over the incident at the workshop had died down, I had gone to visit him. I had been wondering if the 'dream walking', as he calls it, would have drained from my soul, but he had assured me that it did not. It was a skill that merely required concentration and a strong bond between the Walker and the Sleeper.

From his explanation, I gathered that this was similar to 'Diving' into a person's soul. I had learned to 'Dive', but I wasn't terribly good at it. Theoretically, if Chrno could enter my dreams, I could also go into his. Unfortunately, I often lacked the concentration to do so.

After three years at the Abbey, Sister Kate had reluctantly agreed to let Chrno interact with the outside world. He was introduced to everyone as the reclusive assistant of the Elder, who would also help out with chores around the place. Nobody really spoke to him much, after the initial curiosity had died down. After all, he wasn't being schooled. He must be some kind of charity case. That was the general opinion, although some of the older girls liked to exclaim over him, saying what a cute little boy he was.

To me, Chrno was like a not quite little big brother. He was always there in the background watching out for me, always ready to jump out and help. Whenever we were together, there was an easy kind of affection, like how it had been with Joshua. Unlike with Joshua though, there was no need to treat Chrno like he was fragile glass. I didn't need to worry about holding back my strength, though whenever I overdid it he would look at me with the expression of a wounded puppy, making me feel remorse for a fleeting second. But he had a sunny disposition and was more resilient than a cockroach, and so the momentary guilt would be gone soon after.

But he was not really like a brother. Though there was fondness in his eyes, there were times when there was something else, something...intense in his gaze when he glanced at me. It would be gone in a flash, but I knew that it had been there.

I knew what I was, temperamental, emotional and impatient. I always demanded so much from him, yet he had always humored me. He had the air of someone who was waiting...for something.
Chrno:

I had slowly begun to step back as Rosette began to come into her own. She was growing up and learning to become stronger. I gave her all the room that she needed to do so. Remington was right. Children wouldn't know how dangerous fire was until they are burned. They needed to make their own mistakes and learn from them in order to grow.

Rosette had become much more independent and willful, though she had already had both qualities in large measures even before coming here. These traits had merely been amplified as she grew more confident and sure of herself and her skills.

Physically, she was blooming beautifully. She did not have the classic beauty of a fragile sheltered flower, as Magdalena had possessed. Hers was more the allure of a wildflower armed with thorns, admired by all, but touched and known only by those who knew the nature of her thorns. Did she know how important she was to me?

I wanted to tell her how I felt, but I wanted to let her mature more, since it never seemed to be the right moment. It would not be fair to tie her down emotionally and burden her with such knowledge when she clearly was not yet ready to love. But when the time comes, I will know. Until then, I would be content to wait for now, even though I knew that time would forever be against us.

Elder had finally perfected the Sacred bullet and portable telephone after years of experimentation. These things were now widely used by exorcists on fieldwork. When Rosette 'graduated' after four years, she became a full- fledged exorcist and was officially allowed to go on missions by herself. I accompanied her as her assistant. Sister Kate had not wanted me to, but Rosette and I had insisted. Elder had surprised me with a present of sorts. It was a bulky, carry box containing assorted weapons, as well as a built in telephone. "This is mostly for Rosette. But..." he pulled two blades from the bottom of the box. "...these are for you, so that you also have something to defend yourself with." I had been quite touched by this considerate gesture.

Our first mission turned out to be quite disastrous. We did successfully vanquish the poltergeist, but the house at which this incident occurred sustained a lot of costly damage. Rosette had been just a little too eager. She may have become more confident in her skills, but she lacked a certain...finesse.

Remington had been quite amused when he heard about this. He had laughed, but then congratulated Rosette on 'completing' her first mission. She had blushed at this. She did that a lot around him nowadays. I wasn't terribly worried. It was most likely just a crush. Just so long as it didn't develop into something more...and if it wasn't reciprocated, I was willing to let it slide. But I did catch myself glaring at Remington quite a few times whenever this happened.

A trend was beginning to form. We would go out on missions, defeat a force of evil, then find that we would have to churn out yet another apology letter for destroyed property. And of course, Sister Kate would scold Rosette so loudly that the whole Abbey could hear.

Rosette got better though, with each new mission. Her performance rose to spectacular heights and she was making quite a reputation for herself. As her skills improved, the weapons that she was given by Elder became more and more destructive, as did the damage which she would inevitably cause.

I got the feeling that she was the favorite guinea pig for his dangerous new creations, like how he had let her use the 'Gospel' bullet on her last assignment. He was quite the demented old man, a well-known pervert, but he was relatively harmless. It was embarrassing to be associating with him when he got 'urges' to lift women's skirts, but I usually let Rosette handle him by herself. She was more than capable of doing so anyway.

This time, he had introduced her to a new bullet called 'Spirit'. I was a tad worried when I heard that it held a demon inside. But Rosette, as usual, was excited at the prospect of playing with this powerful new toy. She snuck off with the bullet while the Elder was still in the middle of some explanation.

Grinning, she had gone to test it out, only to unleash some monstrosity which promptly destroyed the target practice room. We took one good look at it, then we ran like hell.

"What is that thing?!" Rosette screamed at me in panic.

"It's the demon that was inside the bullet!" I yelled. "Though it's a low class one that has no intelligence."

We had one gun with several Sacred bullets, which should have done the trick. Rosette pivoted and fired shot after shot. I slowed down when she seemed to have the situation under control.

Click. The gun was jammed.

The next thing I knew, the creature had knocked Rosette flying. She wasn't moving. It was like déjà vu. The situation was just like that night 4 years ago at Central Park. I felt fury clouding my mind. "You pathetic low rank scum that doesn't even have a name! How dare you touch my important contractor! Now she isn't able to move!"

Rage was burning through my veins, screaming for release. I felt power crackling...yes, I would use this power to destroy the low class trash that had dared to hurt Rosette...I would kill and maim...I would...

My murderous thoughts were interrupted as I was pushed off my feet by something. I glared down at the offender, fangs bared. Who dares...!

It was Rosette, desperately screaming at me. Her words began to filter through. "Stop! Change back, Chrno! I'm alright! I'm alright!"

As we hit the ground, I realized what I had been about to do. Rosette started telling me off for being too impulsive, but I unashamedly interrupted by hugging her tightly. "You're ok..." I cried, relieved. "Thank goodness you're ok."

It didn't matter that I was being totally embarrassing. She was alright. That was all that mattered to me.
Sister Kate:

I had known from the start that it was a bad idea letting that demon stay here. Now I was being proven right, he had lost control of himself. I had fully been prepared to order his execution. But Remington had stopped me, saying that this was a test for the two of them. Was he insane?

Chrno was completely berserk now. He would most likely turn on everyone after he had destroyed that other demon.

But then Rosette had calmed him down. Elder was right. Rosette herself was a much more effective limiter on Chrno's powers than the seal itself. Chrno was on the ground now, tightly holding onto Rosette, not willing to let go. The two of them defied everything which I had ever been taught about demons.

It was monstrous, humans and demons were not meant to coexist together. Yet these two were living proof that such a relationship was possible. They were friends. I suppose I should be happy that the relationship was nothing more than that.

TBC

Hehehehe...! We shall prove just how very wrong Sister Kate is. Chrno is such a snob, isn't he? There's nothing like the good old-fashioned disdain of the gentry to put the peasants in their place (I'm being sarcastic here, by the way). Anyways, I can't think of a rank for him still.

Chrno and Aion should have the same rank. Should I just rank them as 'Duke'? Maybe they have the rank because they were born into it, but they are not as powerful as Deufo because he is older and has more experience. Tell me what you think. Otherwise, they will be ranked as 'Count'.

Just so everyone knows in case they haven't figured it out, my fic is different in the fact that Chrno is less mopey about Magdalena. He still feels sorrow, but in my story, his interaction with Rosette before the Seventh Bell incident helped him to get over most of the horrible self loathing.

This piece of writing took just over 6 whole pages on Word when I typed it. I tried to stretch it, but then that would have been overdoing it, so I had to stop. It got to the point where I was just slotting in sentences in random places to fill up pages, so I realized that I should just leave it as it was.

Shrug. Anyways, hope this chapter was alright. How's this for a speedy update? See you soon. SWEET, SWEET FREEDOM! NO EXAMS!