Ray hated school trips.
Well, 'hate' would be an understatement. More like he loathed them, despised them, and so on, with what ever other words that could be used to describe a a more severe word of 'hate'.
But even then, the words would still be an understatement of the blue eyed teenager's feelings towards school trips.
To be honest, it wasn't the school trip itself that Ray hated. No, in actuality, it was really the unforetunate incidents that occured during each one of these school trips, all of which somehow ended up affecting Ray in one way or another.
Like that one time during Elementary School when his class went to the zoo. One of Ray's classmates who had been standing next to him accidentally fell into the Dolphin tank, and it just so happened that when that student had grabbed the closest thing he could reach to stop his fall, that closest thing was Ray.
Ray learned from that experience that walking around in wet clothing was really uncomfortable, especially when the wet material stuck to your body.
Then there was that one incident a few years back which Ray did not like to remember, nor did he like to talk about it. The same went for the rest of his class.
The most he ever said about the matter was that it involved a student slipping, and a truck of cow dung.
Needless to say, whatever it was that had happened, no one ever managed to get the brown stains out of their shirts.
And those were just two such incidents that had occured during Ray's school trips. Hence the reason why Ray wasn't looking forward to the upcoming one.
Although, he had to wonder, do all high school trips only involve travelling just outside the school campus for a day to visit a museum? Because to Ray, that just seemed like a waste of time. And instead of school trip, they should have just called it a snooze fest.
He wasn't going to complain though. If it got him out of the classroom, and had little to no risk other than tripping over his own two feet, he really didn't care unless he somehow managed to break his neck whilst tripping over said feet.
He still wasn't looking forward to it though.
Although he was mildly curious about how Tokyo was like, since he didn't have a chance to look around that much...
Which was why Ray was peering out of the window of the bus his class was seated on, awestruck as they moved along the city.
He did get a few strange looks from his classmates, but he ignored them.
The museum was actually quite a large place, and seemed quite old. The huge marble pillars made it seem quite grand, and Ray just wondered if that was considered an overkill.
As the class poured into the museum, chatting amongst themselves, Ray was about to join them before a hand fell on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw his teacher looking down at him.
"I'd advise you to keep away from anything that gives off a bad air, even though they may seem harmless," His teacher informed him. "Those might possibly be possessed by demons. If anything that shouldn't move moves, don't make eye contact with it and just inform me. But there shouldn't be anything hostile here, so don't worry about it too much."
"Okay, Okumura sensei."
Was it him, or did he see his teacher smile slightly, as if he was laughing at some inside joke?
"Good. Now get going." His teacher gave him a slight push towards the museum's doors, and Ray didn't need his teacher to tell him twice before he followed his class.
Why did it feel as if something was going to go horribly wrong?
(He would have said 'again', but... it felt as though things were going to be much worse than what happened at his other school trips.)
0o0
As some stuffy old museum guide droned on and on about some rusty relic that looked ready to fall to pieces at any second, Ray let his eyes trail over the glass cases with small plaques at the bottom, words neatly imprinted into them explaining the history of the objects the glass cases contained.
It was actually a little scary how his teacher had implied that anything here might have some demonic influence over them.
He bit his lip. That... wasn't the most pleasant of thoughts.
Of course, Ray wpuld still take the possibly possessed relic over the Naberius creature that had attacked him only a few days prior. He still thanked his lucky stars that Kuro was with him.
Although, he wished he could have brought the little cat with him to the museum. It would have brought him some comfort to have a little protection provided by the cat sidhe that liked him so much.
He still didn't know why Kuro liked him so much though...
Noticing that his class was moving already, Ray trailed after the group, shuddering as he passed one mask that looked like it was cursed or something, what with that creepy smile.
Was it normal for Japanese masks to look so damn creepy?
"Hey, let's ditch and look at the cool stuff, not this ancient crap!" Turning his head, Ray found himself looking at those who could only be described as the 'delinquents' of the class.
While Ray was a bit of delinquent himself (He got into fights every other week. Nothing more said.), he certainly didn't go out of his way to look like one. These guys seemed to want people to know that they were nost probably the unsavoury characters of their class, what with their dyed hair, piercings and their untidy uniform.
The group of rebellious teenagers broke away from the group to do their own things, Ray hastily cast a glance at the direction of his teacher, who had yet to notice anything since he was in a discussion with another teacher who was helping to chaperone the class.
Weighing his options, Ray decided to quietly tail the group that had broken away. He didn't actually know what drove him to that decision, but he later supposed that it was just his knack for trouble making speaking.
Plus, the guy speaking was really boring. He needed something interesting.
And he wondered why he kept ending shoulder deep in situations that would take himself forever to get out of.
Patting his pocket to ensure that his phone was there (His teacher had given his number in case something demon related happened, and Ray needed help), the blue eyed teenager quietly followed the group that had broken away.
With the museum being nearly empty due to it having just opened up for the day, Ray could clearly hear his shoes echo off the polished ground. He hated the silence. And he hated how damn heavy the air seemed to be getting.
It was almost like that time with the Naberius-
He stopped dead in his tracks. This heaviness in the air... he it felt as though it's malevolent presence was weighing down on him, as if trying to make it's presence known.
Oh shit!
Ray began walking again, two steps becoming three as he moved down the empty hallways, the air seemingly getting thicker as he moves closer to the source.
He could hear the voices of the delinquents just around the corner clearly now, laughing at something Ray couldn't see from where he was.
While the delinquent group was made up of people Ray called bullies, since they tended to steal their classmates' belongings just for the fun of watching them panic, as well as making others the targets of cruel pranks, Ray was not about to let a stray demon hurt them.
Despite the fact that he did not know how to exorcise demons, and he was probably going to get himself killed in the process.
He probably should have called his teacher, but the thought didn't even to occur to him. His only thought was to get the delinquents out of there as soon as possible, preferably before someone got injured.
He found the delinquents poking fun at an old Samurai armour, that looked a little silly because of the fake moustache it sported at the helmet. While Ray might have laughed on a normal day, he definately wasn't laughing now, since all that heavy air seemed to originate from the armour. Not to mention that there seemed to be some sort of black mist that was seeping from the helmet where the mouth would be.
Okay, that was worrying.
When one of the teenagers, most probably the leader, started poking the armour with his finger, Ray stepped in.
"Hey! Stop doing that!" The delinquents, realising that the person who had found them out was only Ray, relaxed, believing that said person couldn't do anything to stop them.
"Oh, it's only the exchange student." The leader of the group laughed, leaning against the armour as if to mock the Singaporean. "So, what are you gonna do to stop me?"
Feeling his eye twitch , Ray bit back the urge to insult the other's person.
"Look, just stop touching that armour! It's not going to be good for your health if you don't!" Somehow, that didn't come out right, and apparently, that was what the opposite party thought as well.
The leader narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth furiously.
"Was that a threat?" He hissed, taking a menacing step forward. Oh well, at least he wasn't touching the possessed armour anymore. Sure. Fine. He could deal with this.
"No, it wasn't! Now just get away from that armour!" Ray was really beginning to wish that he had just called his teacher about the demon. It would have made things so much easier.
"You don't tell me what to do!" Ray wouldn't remember much from what happened next.
He vaguely recalled a knuckle colliding with his cheekbone, pain blinding him temporarily as he staggered backwards from the force of the punch, dazed as he spat out blood.
Then he heard the screech of metal, the heavy feeling in the air nearly choking him as he heard the delinquents scream something incoherent.
As the teenager regained his sight, he realized that most of the delinquents had already fled, something which Ray was grateful for, save for the leader, who was unconcious and foaming at the mouth.
Then something else caught his eye. The armour, yes the armour that no one was wearing, was moving, a sleek katana in its hand.
A deep rumbling echoed from the inside of the armour, the katana hanging from its hand before it shifted to stab the fainted delinquent.
Yeah, he definitely should have called Okumura sensei.
Ray dove for the unconcious teenager, shoving the prone body out of the way as the sword barely missed the American, only nicking his cheek.
Blood dripped from the cut, and Ray hissed in pain before he quickly dragged the delinquent out of the way, and pulled out his cell phone.
Well, better late than never.
"Okumura speaking."
"Uh... Okumura Sensei?" Ray winced as he barely ducked under a sword strike. "I have a little situation over here."
"Over here- Aren't you over here- wait, where are you?!" Ray made a small 'eep' sound at the teacher's tone. "Well, I probably should have informed you earlier, but I got a little distracted, and so there's this demon armour thing that is hostile, and trying to kill me- waaugh!"
The last part was cut off as he tripped over a small piece of deberis on the ground, landing flat on his face.
He was pretty sure he heard his teacher mutter something that like, 'Just like Rin.' before he hung up.
Ray didn't get to ponder on this for a moment longer, as the katana narrowly missed his ear.
"Shit!" Scrambling away, the teenager bit his lip as he tried to think of ways to disarm the armour before someone got hurt, and before he got limb lobbed off or something.
When he spotted a shield, a metaphorical lightbulb lit up above his head.
Diving for the shield, he grabbed ahold of it, and prepared to perform what could possibly be one of the riskiest things he had ever done during the fifteen years of his life, since he may potentially anger the demon.
Ray knew he was strong, so he used that to his advantage for his plan.
He flung the shield like a frisbee at the suit of armour, clattering echoing through the hallways in the noisest way possible as the arnour broke apart and the pieces flew everywhere.
Personally, Ray still found it surprising that no one came running to see what the hell was causing all that racket.
Releasing a breath he hadn't even known that he had been holding, Ray felt the adrenaline that had been coursing through his body leave him.
He hadn't even known he was this exhausted...
Throwing his head back, he let a chuckle escape his throat. He did it. He stopped the demon.
A clank of metal from behind made him freeze in his tracks.
Ray threw himself to the side, the gauntlet that held onto the katana flying past him. A sickening squelch met his ears as the blade of the katana dug into something.
Or should he say, someone?
He was careless. He forgot for a moment that demons were supernatural beings that he had no way of knowing what they were capable of.
Ray could smell the metallic scent of blood in the air. He didn't need to look to know what had happened.
Crimson bled into his pupils unknowingly.
He had failed.
0o0
Yukio felt like cussing. He should have been more through in his inspection of the museum beforehand. He had missed one demon, just one, and look what happened.
One severely injured student with a punctured lung (who was thankfully going to survive after treatment), about five students still believing that some malevolent ghost was going to kill them for angering it, and lastly one student who had just been traumatised for the second time in a few days days.
While these sort of things came with the job of being an Exorcist, it didn't mean that he liked it, nor did it mean that he didn't wish that these things weren't on his job description.
And this was all caused by a low level demon, of all things. This was so not worth it.
"Okumura sensei," Yukio looked down to see Ray looking back up at him. "That demon... It wasn't what you'd call a high level, right?"
Yukio blinked in surprise, before he realized that the Singaporean must have heard him saying something like that while he was speaking with his colleague.
"It wasn't." He admitted.
"And yet I couldn't do anything...!" Ray didn't finish his sentence.
The silence between them was almost suffocating, until Ray broke it once more.
"Okumura sensei, if someone was to learn Exorcism, where would they go?"
Yukio stared at Ray, a sinking feeling in his gut. Even as he spoke, he just knew where this was going. "Why do you want to know?"
"I don't want to be useless like this anymore. I've been scared of these things my entire life, and I'm sick of it! I'll become an Exorcist, and kick these demons' asses back to where they came from!"
Yukio could only feel the horror bubbling up in him.
Oh no.
Not again.
[A/N Why do I feel as though I'm rushing things too much? Am I going too fast? I feel that I wrote this chapter decently, but I still feel as though I just disappointed someone. Crud. I did, didn't I? I'M SO SORRY!
Well, if I did go too fast, I'll post a chapter between this one and the previous one, and see how that turns out.
Ah, Satan and the Baal are probably going to be very annoyed that Rin- uh, I mean Ray is going to be an Exorcist. Again.
Whelp, more drama for me to write, I guess.
Thanks for reading!
~ Gwntan12 ]