"Esquire Certification Exam?" Ray squinted at the print, reading it.

As silly as it was he still had trouble reading Japanese even after two and a half months in Japan. Fortunately, he didn't really need the 'Japanese for Dummies' book anymore.

He blinked, realising what he had just thought to himself. Had it really almost been three months?

"What, are you blind?" Sir Caller asked, cutting into Ray's train of thought.

"Excuse me for not being Japanese." The blue eyed teenager grumbled, shooting a look at the male.

"Sir, with all due respect, I'm German."

"Ah."

"As you all can see," Their glasses wearing teacher was speaking again. "The Esquire Authorization Exam is coming up soon."

Ah, so Ray had read the form incorrectly.

"There will be a week long study camp in preparation of this test, so please fill in the necessary details, as well as pick the Meister you wish to take. All of you should now know what each Meister entails, so I trust that you all will be able to choose wisely according to your skills."

As the class finished filling in their forms, without any distractions for once, Yukio spoke again.

"Now that you all have finished, I want to go over something important. That is teamwork. As you can see, Exorcists work in teams, or at the very least, pairs. This allows for a higher success rate on missions, and at times, reduces the risk of death."

Yukio pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, light glinting off the lenses. "Keep this in mind. Every year, I have students who fail to understand this, and I do hope this year will be different."

A bell from somewhere in the Cram School rang, the sound echoing throughout th entirety of the school as the sound reverbrated through the hallways.

"Class dismissed. Please remember to come for the study camp."

0o0

Ray put down his pen, before he leaned back and stretched, his muscles feeling sore after he had spent the last two hours studying for whatever was going to be thrown at him during the study camp that was going to take place the next day.

"Ugh, I need a break..." Getting up, the teenager made his way to the outside of the dorms. Kuro apparently wasn't around for the time being since the Cat sidth had gone off somewhere.

Ray stepped out of the building, enjoying the fresh air that was a good change fron the musty air in the dorm, and was not even outside for more than three minutes exactly when a jeep, yes, a jeep of all possible things, literally flew overhead and landed a few centimeters away from the shocked teenager.

"Aw, they're all tuckered out? I must not have been going fast enough!" An extremely familiar voice sighed.

"Daku?!" True enough, Ray's fellow Cram School classmate sat in the driver's seat of the jeep, with Chi and Tadashi passed out in the back seat.

Judging by how both of them were nearly foaming at the mouth, as well as how they were twitching ever couple seconds or so, Ray figured out they must have fainted from whatever ridiculous speed Daku was driving at.

"Oh, hey Ray!" Daku waved, a large grin on his face. "I was taking these lazy guys out for a ride as a completely useless teamwork building experience that we're probably never going to use much, since Okumura sensei told us Exorcists need teamwork to work well together!"

"How does driving like a complete, utter, mad man with us passed out in the backseat constitute as 'teamwork'...?" Tadashi groaned as he regained consciousness from the trauma he had just experienced via high speed road trip.

"Dunno, but who cares? Anyway, wanna join us?"

"Uh..."

"That question was rhetorical." Ray made a small 'eep' noise that he would later deny, not liking the glint in Daku's eyes at all.

0o0

"So..." Yukio pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his eye twitching with irritance as he spoke, trying to ignore the jeep that had been crashed through the wall of the Cram School. "Aiba-san, care to explain this?"

In his hand, Yukio held out a long roll of paper which held the large bill for that day's damages to the city, as well as a huge food bill.

"You said Exorcists need teamwork to work well together. So I took a few of my classmates for a nice, calm drive to do so." Daku turned to the two barely conscious, one passed out, Exorcist candidates. "Right, guys?"

"Again, I reiterate," Tadashi moaned from his position on the ground. "How does you driving like a complete lunatic constitude as teamwork building...?!"

"Never again am I getting in a vechicle with you in the driver's seat...!" Ray promptly threw up in a nearby dustbin, looking a little greener than it should have been possible.

"Aw, come on!" Daku complained as a building collapsed in the distance, another casualty from the day's events. "You didn't even eat lunch! I did, but I didn't hurl. What's your excuse for throwing up?"

Yukio sighed, muttering something about every student understanding being wishful thinking before turning back to the most probably insane teenager.

"That aside," He continued, a forced smile on his face. "While that explains the food bill, would you mind explaining this mess and why you billed it to me?!"

"Uhh... he did it!" Daku was quick to pin the blame on Sir Caller, who had entered the wrecked classroom via magic key.

Their fellow classmate kept the blank look on his face before he stepped back through the doorway, and closed it quietly.

0o0

"In hindsight, this is all your fault." Elleno mumbled through gritted teeth as he shot a scathing glare at Daku, who just shrugged.

The class was currently at the old boy dorms, since apparently, this was the only suitable place for the study camp. And just their luck, first day of study camp, and they were already being punished.

"It was worth it." Was all Daku said to the accusation, still grinning despite having the Bariyon demon growing heavier on his lap.

"Why are we here...?" Chi muttered, a cloud over her head as she gestured to the two males beside her, wincing as the demon stone was beginning to make her legs numb.

"Aren't we the victims?" Ray added, grimacing. He wasn't sure he could ever look at a vechicle the same way ever again, so there went his desire to get a driving license for the next decade or so.

"It's called collective responsibility." Yukio crossed his arms as he stood in front of his students. "Since Aiba-san has failed to understand the concept of teamwork and chose to improvise, we will be improving on that via collective punishment."

"I'm so going to get lynched for this, aren't I?"

"You are so going to die for this." Tadashi broke his usually serious attitude to say this to Daku, who still looked as though he had not just wrecked the city with a jeep that somehow survived the ordeal.

"If I may say so, sir, I'm just dying to wreck the mood."

There was a pause, before:

"Sir Caller, do us all a favour, and go choke on a cross." Elleno deadpanned.

"Have I made you cross, sir?"

"... Change of plans. We're lynching this guy first."

"What, now? Great! Does this mean I get to skip out on punishment?"

"You wish."

"Of course I wish. At least I have brain for that, unlike you."

Before Elleno could strangle Sir Caller, Yukio cut in.

"If you all are too busy fighting amongst yourselves, there is no way any of you will be able to work as a team! Exorcists do not fight alone. Remember that!"

"But sir, we're not fighting alone, we are fighting each other."

Approximately half a minute later found Sir Caller with another Bariyon on his lap, the ground beneath him bending from the combined weight of Sir Caller and two Bariyon stones.

"I will be leaving for a mission and I'll be back in three hours." Yukio spoke, checking his watch as he did so. "I'll be locking the door to the dorms and setting up wards due to an incident that occured several years back."

"Locking the door to dorms?" Chi repeated, looking confused. "But Sensei, what if one of us needs to leave?"

"That won't be an issue." Yukio smiled in a pleasant manner, although it looked a little scary to his students. "You all will stay here while Aiba-san reflects on his actions. So sit there, and I'll be back in three hours."

As the door to the room closed behind Yukio, there was a moment of silence before Elleno spoke. "I'll be surpised if Okumura Sensei isn't a devil of some sort."

"Uh... is it just me, or does this seem awfully familiar?" Ray suddenly asked. For some odd reason, the Singaporean teenager honestly felt as though he had gone through something similar before.

"I don't know about you, sir, but while I may have been captaining naval vessels on Sirrea in my dreams, you may well have been remembering that last time you went to a strip club in Las Vegas. I mean, with heavy things on your lap, it might as well been a stripper-"

"Sir Caller, stop." Elleno interrupted. "Ray looks too innocent for that kind of dirty stuff. And by the way, that was me- wait a minute. Aw, shit."

"You went to a strip club?!" Daku exclaimed, wide eyed.

"Uh..." Elleno was unsure of what he could say to get himself out of the awkward situation he found himself in.

"Without me?!" Daku cried shamelessly.

Chi promptly smacked the two males on the back of their head, before letting out a 'hmmph!' sound, muttering something about idiots and how it was so unfair, before a recovered Daku responded to Ray's question.

"I don't know. But this feels like a horror movie setting where once the teacher leaves, the lights shut off, and a monster comes crashing in."

"Daku, do not-!"

The lights chose this very moment to shut itself off, plunging the students into darkness.

"-jinx it. Damn it, Daku, you just had to say it, didn't you?"

"Yes, I really had to."

"Ow! My foot!" Apparently, when the students had started in surprise when the lights had been shut off, a Bariyon stone had fallen off someone's lap and landed on Ray's foot.

As Ray tended to his foot, he thought he heard something from the outside of the room.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"No, sir." Replied Sir Caller, who was wearing headphones that he apparently pulled out of nowhere.

"I know I'm getting to regret asking this, but where did you get that from?" Chi sighed, who just about had enough of her male classmates.

"Oh, I smuggled it in, sir. I was sitting on them."

"Do they even work?" Ray asked, his curiousity getting the better of him. "I mean, Okumura Sensei put two of the stones on you."

"No, sir. I was overweight, and therefore crushed them." Sir Caller replied with utmost seriousness. Well, that explained the dents and such.

"What do you mean by 'was'?!" Elleno snapped, having lost patience with his fellow classmate.

"I lost enough weight to a gurantee a change of pants, sir."

Everyone instinctively edged away from him.

"Are you serious?!" Ray asked, wondering what the hell was wrong with this guy.

"No, sir."

However, before any acts of violence could be commited, courtesy of a very annoyed Elleno and Chi there was a distant crash from somewhere in the building.

"Was that Kuro?" Ray asked no one in particular, standing up. He hadn't seen the Cat Sidth around for hours, so it was plausible that the cause of the noise was Kuro knocking something over accidentally.

"Who's Kuro?" Daku asked.

"A Cat Sidth that keeps following me around. I think he belongs to Okumura Sensei's though." Ray answered as he moved to the door. "I'm going to go and see."

"Oh! Can I come along? These idiots are probably gonna lynch me some time soon, so I want to enjoy the last few bit of my life with a test of courage!" Without waiting for a reply, Daku grabbed Ray's hand and practically dragged him out of the door, only to nearly trip over something.

"Kuro?!" True enough, the black cat was there, looking up at Ray and his friend.

"Uh... I hate to be the one to say this, but if your cat is here, what made that noise?" Tadashi asked, poking his head out from the doorway just as there was another thumping sound from down the darkened hallway.

There was a pause, before...

"Shit! Fall back! Fall back!" Daku pushed Ray back into the room and quickly followed along with Kuro before a black mass flooded the hallway.

"It's Koks!" Chi cried as Daku slammed the door shut. "We can't let it penetrate our defences- wait a minute."

"And here I thought you were the most sensible- ow!"

"Now is really not the time!" Ray interrupted the squabble, perspiration beading at his brow. He'd skimmed over the textbooks a while back and read about Koks. Apparently, this particular demon was made up of a bunch of coal tars, and ranked from a mid-level to high-level demon. Or something along that line.

That really didn't sound good.

Their class was made up of Pages, and they weren't even Esquires yet! There was no way they were going to get out of this without some injuries.

"No problem, sir." Sir Caller said. Apparently, Ray had spoken that last sentence aloud. "I have just the solution."

Sir Caller pulled out two MP5Ks from somewhere on his person, leaving the others in the room staring at him with their mouths agape.

"Woah! Awesome!" Ray exclaimed, his awe evident on his face.

"Where the hell did you get those?!" Elleno demanded, his eye twitching.

"Well, you see sir, I smuggled them in by shoving them up my-"

"Never mind, I don't want to know."

Just then, the door to the room came crashing down, reduced to splinters as Coal Tars swarmed the room.

"Cover your nose and mouth! They'll make your lungs rot!" Chi reminded them as Sir Caller positioned himself in front of the ground, aiming his smuggled weapons at Koks.

"I would add an interesting monolouge here, but that'll just sound cliché." The male commented off handedly before he let loose several rounds of bullets at the Coal Tar lord, the bullet casings flying everwhere.

Four seconds later, the guns clicked in Sir Caller's hands.

"Did I get him, sir?" Elleno looked at Koks, then back at Sir Caller. Repeating this action a few more times, he finally spoke.

"... How could you miss?!"

Sir Caller shrugged his shoulders. "It moved, sir."

"Shut up! Go practice- Ack!" Elleno was sent flying by the mass of Coal Tars before he crashed into a wall.

"Are you okay?!" Chi exclaimed worriedly, hurrying over to Elleno's side.

"No, does it look I'm okay?"

"You appear to be in smashing health sir." Sir Caller piped up as he reloaded before he fired off a few more rounds on his gun, still missing terribly.

"Sir Caller, get out."

"Both of you, shut up. And Elleno, you'll live. That's a just splinter, for heaven's sake." Tadashi said in a deadpan voice. "Anyone have any holy water, or know Koks's fatal verse?"

"I do!" Daku raised his hand. A moment later, the pin of a grenade was tossed at the swarm of Coal Tars.

"Not the pin, you dumb-! The grenade!" The calm and collected Tadashi nearly screeched in frustration. Daku responded by throwing said grenade next to the enraged male which then exploded, soaking everyone with holy water, especially Tadashi. Ray's front was mostly dry, but his back was completely soaked, since he had he used his own body to shield Kuro from the holy water.

None of them could complain though. At least it got rid of Koks.

"Well, that was refreshing, wasn't it, sirs?"

"Would you please shut up?"

0o0

After making sure that there was no leftover Coal Tars floating about in the vincinity, the Pages sat down in a circle to decide their next move.

"If there's one demon, there's bound to be another." Tadashi spoke, shifting into leader mode. "I mean, it's an old building, there's probably an infestation of some sort here. It's just our rotten luck that the lights went out, since demons tend to be more active in the dark."

"Wait, you mean I've been living in ticking time bomb for the past couple of months?!" Ray honestly did not like the idea. Although, that would explain why the air felt fuzzy somehow.

"If you want to put it that way, then yes." Elleno crossed his arms. "Anyway, what are we going to do? Hide out in here until Okumura Sensei gets back?"

"I vote on that choice!" Daku raised his hand.

"Actually," Ray cut in slowly, still thinking through what he was about say. "What about turning the lights on? We'll have less likely chance of getting attacked then, right? You know, since demons are more active in the dark, like Tadashi said."

Ray did a double take a moment later upon realizing that half of his class was looking at him with shocked look on their faces. "What?"

"I thought you were dumb like me!" Daku wailed dramatically, reduced to a sobbing mess on the floor.

"Hey, that's mean!" Ray made a face. "I only learn things by actually doing hands on work!"

"Moving on from the topic of Ray's intelligence or lack of thereof-" Tadashi ignored the blue eyed teenager's indignant cry. "-he does have a point. The presence of lights would greatly improve our chances of survival. Now, who wants to go into the demon infested hallways without weapons and extremely small chances of survival?"

"Me!"

"Besides Daku, who appears to be exceptionally enthusiastic about meeting Satan in the underworld. Any other volunteers?"

"I'm taking Ray and Sir Caller along!"

"What?!"

"No."

0o0

"Yes!" Daku fist pumped the air as he walked inbetween Ray and a Sir Caller who appeared to be skipping, not at all bothered about the fact that they could be attacked at any given moment. The rest of the class had stayed behind to... hold the fort, so to speak. Ray had left Kuro behind since the cat could protect his other classnates.

"Okay, this is creepy." Ray shuddered as he looked around the dark hallway. "But a least there aren't any demons around here."

The blue eyed teenager blinked, before he rubbed his eyes. Did he just see a flash of blue light?

"Sir, do you hear that?" Sir Caller suddenly asked.

Ray tensed up, thinking of all the possible demons that could attack. Maybe going out here unarmed was a really bad idea...

"April Fools, sir."

"Huh?" Ray started at his senior's announcement. "But, isn't it July?"

"Exactly my point, sir."

"What?"

"Sir Caller, you got me tensed up for nothing!" Daku whined like a five year old.

"I do apologise that you are a gullible idiot, sir."

Daku didn't reply to that, so the next couple of minutes were spent with them trying to locate the Breaker Box. The darkness of the room really didn't help either. Ray made a mental note to always keep a flashlight on himself in the near future.

"I found it!" Ray exclaimed as his fingers touched what felt like a rectangle, metal box so as far as Ray could tell, he had indeed located the breaker,

Pulling the box open, he felt around the panel for a moment before he blinked in surprise. The switches were all off... so this wasn't bad luck! This was planned!

"Sir, do you hear that?" Ray broke out of his thoughts upon hearing Sir Caller's voice.

"Ha! Like I'm going to believe that- Ack!"

Something slammed into Daku, sending him flying out of a window, effectively destroying said window. "I'll be baaaaaaaaaaack!"

"Daku!" Ray cried, eyes wide. "Is he going to be okay?!"

There was a thud as Daku landed on something, before this was followed by a, "I'm okay!"

"He'll live, sir." Sir Caller didn't even look twice as he pulled out a pistol of his school blazer.

Did he secretly have a portal to Narnia in there or something...?

"No, I'm just very, very, prepared for everything."

The demon that had rammed itself against Daku slowly turned to face the two Pages as it stood up on its haunches, but Ray didn't even have to see what it looked like to know what it was. The foul smell of decay was enough.

The blue eyed teenager found his hand reaching up to touch his throat.

'A Naberius...' Ray thought in horror, the memory of one strangling him still fresh in his mind. Even though this one had the shape of a dog, or sone other canine, the teenager was terrified.

He didn't have any weapons, and Sir Caller was a really bad shot with those guns he had somehow smuggled out of the training room.

And Daku... Well, Ray wasn't too sure he was in any condition to help out. Falling from the second floor would have injured him, if he hadn't landed properly.

"The lights!" Ray turned back to the panel and began flicking every switch there was. Perspiration beaded at his brow as he bit his lip. He could hear Sir Caller engaging in combat with the demon, so he had to hurry.

But, before Ray could find the switch that switched the lights in the room on, he was tackled away from the panel.

He landed hard against the ground, and upon looking up, Ray briefly caught a glimpse of Sir Caller looking a little dazed after having been rammed against the wall before his vision was filled with the Naberius.

It snapped its jaws at him, purple substance splattering. Ray used his forearm to keep the demon from chewing his face off, but slowly, he could feel demon over powering him.

His pupils dialated with fear as he struggled, gritting his teeth as he used all of his strength in an attempt to push the Naberius off him.

Oh god, he was going to die.

Die...

Die...

Wisps of smoke rolled off Ray's skin, barely noticeble. Something warm was struggling to break out, wanting to be free.

'I don't want to die-!' Ray didn't finish that thought, as there was a loud screeching noise, before a loud crash of glass and concrete.

From his position under the Naberius, Ray could only gape as a van flew through the air by its momentum, smashed itself into the Naberius and sent it flying.

Somehow, Ray managed to escape this unscathed, save for a few minor burns.

"Did I get it?!" Daku yelled, a wide grin on his somewhat bruised face. The van he was driving had a suspiciously human shaped dent on top, so Ray could only guess what had happened.

"That was so awesome!" The blue eyed teenager returned the grin. "But how did you get it up here? We're on the second floor!"

Daku looked smug as he got out of the van. "Well, you see, I am simply one hell of a driver."

"Say what?"

"Anyway, weren't you going to turn the lights on?"

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"I don't know whether I should feel offended that I've been forgotten." Sir Caller commented from the side.

Daku was about to say something else, when he suddenly caught sight of movement behind Ray. His eyes widened in horror.

"Ray!" He yelled, seeing the dog Naberius that had survived getting smashed by a van lunge at his fellow Cram School classmate.

"Huh...?" Ray turned around, the world moving in slow motion. The teenager heard his vocal cords produce a sound of alarm, but his body was frozen.

No!

Something in him took over, clenching his fist before he slammed it into the Naberius, sending it smashing through several walls, before it lay finally defeated.

There was a moment of silence, before...

"Holy-! That was so cool!" Daku gushed like a fangirl. "I didn't know you could do that, are you some type of super hero, or...!"

As the teenager babbled on, Sir Caller muttered something about checking the Naberius for a pulse (even though they didn't have one to begin with) and walked off, presumably to return to their fellow classmates and make sure they weren't dead.

Ray gingerly touched his knuckles, this entire thing feeling extremely surreal to him. That... couldn't have been him, right? He was strong, but... not that that strong!

Just... what was happening to him?

0o0

The trio returned to the room where everyone was, only to find them slightly more roughed up than they had been earlier.

"What happened to you guys?" Ray asked incredulously, looking at their singed clothes and hair.

"We had an incident regarding a low level fire demon." Tadashi said, blank faced.

"Oh."

"So are we done?" Chi asked, pouring water from her canister onto Elleno's burnt arm.

"Yes, you are done." The Pages jumped at the new voice, turning to see Yukio in the doorway. "Good work, everyone."

"Okumura Sensei!" Ray exclaimed.

"When did you get here?!" Chi mirrored Ray's shocked expression.

"I've been in the building the whole time." Yukio answered calmly.

"Then what was the whole demon attack thing about?!"

"Allow me to explain, my dear Pages!" A familiar looking man dressed like a clown jumped down from the ceiling through one of the panels, sucessfully giving the class a scare.

"What the-?!"

"Isn't that the Director?"

"What the hell is going on?!"

The eccentric man snapped his fingers, looking back at the students as he spoke. "Did all of you really believe that I'd let multiple demons in without my knowledge?"

Ray nearly had a heart attack when one of the cupboards in the room slid open, revealing one of the Cram school techers. There were teachers hiding out in alnoat every possible hiding place!

"Doctors, please see to their injuries." Mephisto said, giving the teachers with Doctor Meisters the go ahead.

"Wait a minute..." Realisation dawned on Tadashi. "You mean to say that-"

"Indeed!" Mephisto cut him off with a swish of his cape. "The study camp itself was the Esquire Certification Exam!"

"I called it!" Sir Caller suddenly piped up.

"What the hell do you mean by that?! You didn't know either!"

"Sir, I called it exactly three seconds ago."

While Sir Caller was escaping Elleno's wrath, Mephisto continued. "The faculty had hid themselves in order to observe your performance, and will determine whether you have a passing or failing grade. You'll get your results tomorrow, so do look forward to it~!"

"Oh, and Caller-san?" Yukio suddenly spoke up as soon as Mephisto had left, a forced smile on his face. "Do return those guns to the Training room. All of them. I mean it."

"Aw, man!"

[A/N Oh lord, that was the longest chapter I ever had to write! Sorry about the wait, and please excuse me if you find any errors. I might miss something even after proof reading.

Anyway, I'm sure many of you are wondering why the chapter is so light hearted. Well, the main reason would be since there's going to be so much drama and angst in future chapters, I'm going to even it out with comedy. Secondly, it's practice, since I apparently have no sense of humor.

And as for any dirty jokes you may come across... Well, let's just say that is the outcome of having an older brother help out in the story.

And again, while the OCs are big characters in this arc, they won't be for long.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the omakes!

~ Gwntan12]

[Omake 1]

"Sir?"

"Hm? What Sir Caller?"

"I was wondering, is anyone the son of Satan here?"

Elleno, who was drinking water at the time to take a break from the strategy meeting, did a spit take.

The rest of class gave him unimpressed looks as he choked and spluttered.

"Huh? Who that?" Daku asked cluelessly.

They ignored him.

"Why... do you ask?" Elleno asked as he recovered from his coughing fit.

Sir Caller shrugged his shoulders. "No reason. I just read this popular manga a while back called 'Bleu Exorcist', and-"

"Sir Caller. NO."

"Excuse me for breaking the fourth wall, sir. I had no idea your uni-cellular brain is unable to comprehend something so simple."

"... What?!"

"Nothing, sir. I'll let you think about it for a few more weeks, and then maybe you'll understand."

"What?"

[Omake 2]

"Is it me, or does this seem very familiar?"

"I don't know, sir. Are you sure that you are not remembering the last time you took the test, which led to your class taking another exam which ultimately led to them discovering that you are the spawn of Satan, which led to a whole other bunch of drama which I can't be bothered to remember right now, which also led to your eventual sucide before you were reincarnated as the person you are now?"

"... Excuse me?"

"You're excused."

[Omake 3]

There was a crash of glass and concrete as the van (which had a suspiciously human shaped dent on the top) landed in the room with a screech of the tires before it rammed into its target.

"Did I get it?!" Daku yelled over the noise.

"...No, you hit Sir Caller." Ray stated blandly as he struggled to get the demon off him.

"I'm okay!" Sir Caller gave a thumbs up with his broken hand, grinning while showing that several teeth had been knocked out of his mouth.

[End]