[Pre Chapter A/N I'm changing the country that Ray/Rin is from from America to Singapore, as well as their destination. Reasons to be found in the end chapter A/N.]

While the trip to Singapore wasn't necessarily the best (Read: It was the utter worst), the time they spent at the airport along with the other unfortunate passengers of flight J-126 was decent (Translation: They were on solid ground, and that was good enough). Well, besides the fact that every few minutes someone would soil the ground with the contents of their stomach since there wasn't enough buckets to go around.

The cleaners were definitely going to have the definition of a shitty day.

For the group of Exorcists, excluding Sir Caller and Daku, it took them a couple of hours before the nausea completely died down and they were in prime condition for travel. Well, minus Ellano who was still quite rattled and nauseous from the flight.

("You know how you can tell if someone's dizzy?" Ellano had slurred at some point, leaning heavily on Tadashi. "Well, you see those two familiar looking cats over there? Well, a dizzy person would see four.

"Um, there's only one cat that we would be familiar with. And that would be Kuro if he was here. You're pointing at Sir Caller.")

("Sir, you look green with envy at my lack of nausea.")

"Alright, as you all know, Sir Pheles has us on an extremely low budget." Yukio spoke as they stood outside of the airport, planning their next course of action. "But fortunately, he has taken the liberty of finding us a temporary residence at a willing participant's house. Unfortunately, he did not provide us with transportation fees to said house, which is quite a distance away."

"I vote that we sell Elleno, sir." Sir Caller solemly spoke, a hand up in the air.

"OI!"

"Don't worry sir, we won't forget you. For about three point five miliseconds."

"OI!"

"Sir, you need not have slapped me so hard. I only felt it a tiny little bit."

"While that is an option, I don't support it." Yukio didn't even turn to look at Sir Caller as he interrupted, a sort of resigned air around him.

"Walk?" Ellano suggested rather stupidly, brain still rattled by the flight, which was rewarded with a whack to the back of his head, courtesy of Izumo.

"Are you dumb?"

"No?"

"But if you wanna walk like, thirty six kilometers, be my guest." Daku chirpped, just as Ray's bag moved.

Chi, who was standing the closest to the bag which was on the floor, gave a shriek before wrapping her arms around Tadashi who had the misfortune standing the closest to her. "It's possessed!"

Meanwhile, Daku pulled a megaphone out of Sir Caller's miniscule backpack and screamed into it. "GET A ROOM!"

Needless to say, this was not taken kindly. Daku would, unfortunately, remember this for the next ten minutes, courtesy of Tadashi's fist meeting his face.

Ray was the third to snap out of his initial shock, moving to unzip his bag all the while hoping some random demon had not hitched a ride in his bag, and the movement could be blamed on the wind.

A furry tail poked out, followed by a pair of horns and approximately three and a half kilograms of adorable fluffiness.

"Mrow?"

"Kuro?!" Yukio looked incredulous as the Cat Sidhe clumsily climbed out of the bag, appearing rather dizzy.

The little demon seemed to stumble around for a bit, before his bright green eyes landed squarely on Ray. Kuro then proceeded to walk up to him with four left feet before unceremoniously collapse against Ray's foot with a rather mournful meow, pitifully pawing at his shoe.

The dark haired teenager stared, before lifting his head to meet Yukio's incredulous, almost accusing, stare.

"I didn't bring him." Ray defended himself. "I think he snuck in himself."

Yukio's only response was an almost despairing, defeated sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "Kuro... why?"

A mournful, regretful meow escaped the little demon's throat before turning right back around to hug Ray's foot with his tiny paws. From that display alone, Yukio could gather that while Kuro regretted sneaking onto the flight, as any sensible person/demon would with Daku behind the wheel, he did not regret coming along to protect Ray.

Yukio couldn't say no to that.

"Alright, you can stay. Just... behave yourself." The Cat Sidhe visibly perked up, now significantly less green than he had been a few moments ago as he rubbed his furry face against Ray's pant leg, meowing gratefully.

"Aw," Ray said with a smile as he picked up the cat, letting Kuro use the length of his arms like a hammock. "Here, take a rest. You deserve it about being put through the hell that is Daku's piloting."

"Hey," Daku began to protest before he was abruptly dragged off to get lynched by the mob, all of whom had recovered from the experience already with only slight mental trauma, nothing a few decades of therapy couldn't fix. There also appeared to be a blind man who was a part of the group, smacking his cane against Daku's shins with such accuracy that they were beginning to wonder if he was blind at all.

Yukio would later theorize that since Daku had made the blind man see God, God gave him light.

"Should we help him?" Sir Caller wondered out loud, watching the wave of furious passengers make off with their classmate.

"You were the co-pilot, you decide." If Elleno said that a little louder than necessary, no one commented on it. It did, however, catch the attention of a few additional stragglers from the plane whose heads snapped towards Sir Caller with such frightening speed it was a wonder their heads hadn't detached themselves from their necks.

"Uh oh." Sir Caller said rather blandly, the most deadpanned look plastered on his face before he did a 180 and booked it in the opposite direction, new life emerging in the mob as they chased him down with a spread of makeshift pitchforks made out of broken light fixtures, sticks, and a lot of duct tape.

"Oops," Ellano stated unapologetically as he watched the pursuit with dead eyes filled with malicious glee.

The remaining members of the group turned to the one in charge, looking for answers for what they should do and whether or nor Sir Caller and Daku were goners and if they should just cut their losses and abandon them. However, Yukio appeared to have just blocked the world out as he tried to figure out how they were going to get to their lodgings.

"Hmph," Izumo crossed her arms over her chest. "I say we just leave them be for now. It'd serve them right. We can save them later."

"All in favour say 'Aye'."

"Aye."

0o0

Saving Sir Caller and Daku, as it turned out, was far more troublesome than first anticipated. For people who had been recently on a flight from hell, the mob moved fast. An hour and some distractions involving a recovered Kuro, Shima's K'rik, duct tape, and various other knickknacks later, the duo had been successfully recovered from the clutches of the mob and sent to hide in a nearby bush to wait them out.

"But seriously," Suguro huffed, out of breath as he nearly doubled over in exhaustion. His head turned to look at Yukio who was, throughout all of this, still preoccupied with something on his phone. "What is wrong with your class this year? I don't even think our class was this crazy."

"No, it's just those two." Yukio didn't look up. "The others really don't compare to them. Or your class, for that matter."

"I wouldn't say our class wasn't entirely sane either," Konekomaru took off his glasses, which were starting to fog with how he practically radiated heat, and wiped them down before returning them to his face. He let out a chuckle. "Remember how Bon approached the Reaper back in Practical Training when we were first starting out and nearly got eaten?"

"Urk-! Konekomaru! I was still a kid! Besides, I didn't get eaten, remember? Ri-!" Suguro's jaw snapped shut, remembering who exactly was standing next to him as he suddenly met Yukio's gaze.

The look Yukio gave him could have come from an ice statue, his stare as frosty as his name. Without another word, he stalked off, not before giving Owens a covert glance.

Suguro winced. That... had slipped out. None of them ever mentioned the older Okumura in front of Yukio. It was a sort of... taboo, subject amongst them. With how long it had been, and seeing Owens... It had been too easy to forget that anything had ever happened. Far too easy, and Suguro had slipped back into the past, long before... that.

Yukio, for all his smiles, did not forgive easily. No matter how amicable he was towards them, Suguro knew that, deep down, he partially blamed them for his brother's death. He knew that if there had not been a need, Yukio would likely have not bothered with contacting them. He would have left them completely unaware, and they would likely have never known about Rin.

No, not Rin. Ray. Rin was dead. He was dead, and Ray was... Ray. It wouldn't be fair to Ray, to keep thinking of him as Rin even if he had been. They had their chances with Rin, and he was already long gone. Whatever relationships they had with him in the past were gone, ash in the wind. All they could do now, is pick up the pieces.

"Wha- Daku! You're supposed to be hiding!" Ray's voice cut into his thoughts like a hot knife into butter, nearly making him jump with surprise.

He glanced over his shoulder to see the boy pushing his leaf-covered classmate back into the bush, with Sir Caller meekly sliding back into his hiding spot as Ellano threatened to sic the mob back onto him.

"But it's warm in there!" Daku whined.

"Not nearly as warm as the hell you'll be sentenced to if the mob finds you!" Ray hissed as he shoved him further in, nearly uprooting the poor plant in the process. "Now get! In! The! Bush!"

"He seems happy, huh?" Suguro's head snapped back around, Shima now standing behind him and Konekomaru. He had gotten his K'rik back at some point, but he had been thus far unable to remove the sticky adhesive from it, courtesy of the duct tape.

"Shima!" Konekomaru exclaimed, startled by his friend's sudden appearance. "Where did you come from?"

"Ehehe... I finally managed to get this thing back," Shima laughed, gesturing towards his K'rik with his shoulder rather flippantly. "By the way, where's Okumura? He was here earlier..."

"He's..." Suguro winced at the memory of Yukio's frosty glare. "Busy, with something. He's probably trying to figure out how to get to our temporary residence. And to find a currency exchanger."

"We could just take the train." Ray piped up suddenly, no longer busy. With Daku now firmly lodged in the bush, he had gotten a little bored and was beginning to wander off on his own when he had overheard the last part of the conversation. "Tickets only cost a couple of dollars at most, which I'm fairly certain we all have. I even have a student card. Walking distances wouldn't be more than a couple of kilometres from wherever it is we need to go."

Slightly caught off guard, Suguro nevertheless managed to respond with his voice steady although he couldn't quite meet Ray's eyes. "Yes, but all our money is in yen right now. And I know for a fact yen isn't an accepted currency in this country."

"Oh, that's an easy fix!" With a blinding smile, Ray dug into his backpack for a few moments, Kuro hopping onto his head to get out of the teenager's way. "My mom gave me some money before I left for Japan to make sure I didn't starve to death or something. I kinda forgot to convert some of it to yen. So, I have about a hundred dollars on me right now."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence save for the chattering of Ray's fellow Esquires in the background. Then, Suguro's shoulders began to shake. "You..."

"Er, Bon?" Shima asked nervously, making an aborted move to put his hand on Suguro's shoulder.

"Why didnt you say that sooner?!" Suguro just about exploded, all of his built up stress finally bubbling over like coke when you add mentos to it. Except his stress was the coke, and the mentos was the exasperation he felt.

Ray jumped, startled, but he seemed to take it good humour as he as he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Kuro, on the other hand, didn't seem to appreciate the sudden exclamation as he hissed, digging his claws into Ray's hair. "Er... I didn't think of it until now...? I haven't been back home in a while, okay?"

"Come on, Bon," Konekomaru attempted to placate his friend, hands reaching out towards him.. "After that plane ride, it's more than likely we'd forget some things too right? Don't get mad at Owens!"

Just as quickly as the outburst had come, everything drained out of Suguro, like someone had pulled the plug on his emotions. Bringing a hand to his head, he sighed. Everything really was beginning to get to him. He hadn't exploded like that in awhile, and honestly, it did feel good to let out some of that pent of frustration. His only regret was that he had exploded at Ray Owens of all people. "No, you're right. I shouldn't have shouted at you. Sorry about that."

"Nah, it's fine." Ray waved it off carelessly as Kuro returned to his perch on the teenager's shoulders and began kneading his claws on the fabric of the jacket before pausing. "I-"

Just then, Kuro screeched, his voice shrill like nails dragged across a chalkboard. If it had been painful to listen to for Suguro, Konekomaru, and Shima what had been a couple of feet away, they didn't want to know how it had been like for Ray who had Kuro right next to his ear. He was most certainly going to hear nothing but ringing in that ear for quite awhile.

"Ack! Kuro! What was that... for...?" Ray trailed off as he felt something wet slide down his head, trailing down his forehead before being partially obstructed by his eyebrow. Along with that and how Kuro seemed to be staring at his claws in horror, it wasn't too hard to put together what had happened.

"Shit! Are you okay?" Suguro swiped a handkerchief from Konekomaru, wiping away some of the blood although he only succeeded in smudging the viscous red liquid across Ray's forehead, making it look worse than it actually was.

"Kuro did get a little startled..."

It was, of course, at that exact moment that Yukio chose to return, the man stilling as soon as he spotted the blood smeared across Ray's forehead.

If Murphy's Law was an actual, tangible concept that he could kick, Suguro would have taken every single ounce of pleasure he could get from kicking the damn thing all the way to Gehenna. And with some luck, maybe one of the demons would toss it back to Assiah so he could have another go at it.

"What. Happened?" Yukio stalked closer like a predator would to their prey, each word slowly enunciated through gritted teeth with an iciness that would have made Suguro cringe if he wasn't a seasoned exorcist. It was at times like this, that Suguro remembered who exactly contributed to half of Yukio's DNA.

Before Suguro could respond, however, Ray leapt up to his defence, waving his hands in an almost comical. "Ah! Okumura Sensei! I accidentally startled Kuro while he was sitting on my head, and I guess he scratched me up a little-"

Kuro gave an apologetic meow, bumping his head against Ray's neck while being careful so as to not accidentally knick him with his horns, thus injuring him further..

"-but it's really nothing serious!" Ray finished, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly before he winced slightly, the deep scratches on his head finally making themselves known to him loud and clearly via sharp stings that set his nerves alight.

Yukio's gaze softened ever so slightly in the face of Ray's nervousness, before he sighed and shook his head.

"Come along then. I'll patch you up before we leave."

With that, (and a dark look thrown in the direction of the three exorcists) Yukio proceeded to drag a barely resisting Ray to the toilets.

0o0

Ray hissed in pain as his Yukio dabbed cotton swabs dipped in disinfectant on the scratches on his head, the sting of the alcohol against open wounds no doubt resulting in an uncomfortable sensation between painful and itchy which would drive him up the wall. His fingers twitched, but Ray seemed to restrain himself. If he scratched the gashes on his head, there wasn't a single doubt in Yukio's mind that he'd soon come to regret it.

"Apply pressure to the scratches. It'll stop the bleeding." Yukio ordered, turning back to his medical bag to search for bandages. Kuro had beaten him to it, however, already face deep in the bag before he pulled out a roll of gauze and tape, looking up with an apologetic meow. The Cat Sidhe must have really felt horrible about digging his claws in Ray's scalp.

"Oh, thank you Kuro." Yukio gave Kuro a pat on the head, before turning back to Ray who seemed to be marvelling at the amount of blood that had come from the scratches. Or perhaps 'marvelled' was the wrong word. If anything, it was really more of a morbid fascination mixed in with a slight disgust.

"That's a lot of blood..." Ray murmured, looking at the soaked gauze in his hands, doing the exact opposite of what Yukio asked him to do, which almost made him roll his eyes. Of course. He shouldn't have expected anything else from Ray. Just like Rin. "Are the scratches really that deep?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Yukio waved off his concerns as he began wrapping the small gouges, making sure to pull the gauze tight to prevent further bleeding. From the looks of things, they'd scab over within a couple of days. So long as Ray didn't mess around with them, the scratches would be gone within the week. Although, Yukio considered, with his classmates he might have to take into account their shenanigans and assume the worst. That put the timeline at a very pleasant six months of recovery time. "Head wounds bleed a lot, even if they're minor like yours."

"I didn't know that..." Ray said thoughtfully before he paused, a thought occuring to him. "Hey, wait a minute! If they're minor, was there really any point to treat them? They'd heal up by themselves in no time. So isn't this a waste of supplies and time?"

"Yes," Yukio began putting away his medical supplies, patiently answering Ray. "That is true. However, walking around trailing blood would probably scare quite a few people away, wouldn't it?"

He zipped his bag shut. "Besides, I've always had to treat y- my brother's injuries, so it's really no problem."

"Oh, you have a brother, Teach?"

He didn't mean to say any of that. It had slipped out before he knew what he was saying and only a quick correction saved him from a much more complicated and uncomfortable conversation. It didn't mean he actually wanted to talk about his brother.

"Go and rejoin the group. I'll meet up with all of you in a bit, as soon as I finish up here."

Ray hesitated for a moment, as if sensing the sudden change in atmosphere. Then, he moved, his and Kuro's footsteps fading away and leaving Yukio alone in the bathroom.

Standing over the sink, Yukio let the cool water run over his fingers and he washed the blood away.

0o0

When Yukio returned from the bathroom, Ray had become their unofficial sponsor, what with his back up money from his mother. Now that they had the necessary funds to travel, they were able to proceed without much fuss, save for a minor skirmish between Ray and Ellano-

"Ooh! Free money!"

"It's not free, you're paying me back!"

"Is it written in a contract?"

"..."

"Exactly."

-but ultimately, it was minor enough that Yukio was able to quickly solve it with a warning. Although, the issue of money was a bit of an embarrassing oversight on Yukio's part, but personally, he blamed it on Mephisto and how eager the demon was to get him and his class out of the country and into foreign territory. He still had no idea what exactly was Mephisto planning, but by God was he going to prepare for it, especially since Ray was a part of the class. The last time Rin had been caught up in any of their 'dear older brother's' schemes, he had been unceremoniously put on the top of the Vatican's watchlist and slated for execution.

(In the end, it didn't even matter. Rin solved that problem for them.)

One thing that Yukio had discovered after during his brief period of being away from the group was that the train station was located in the airport, which made things rather convenient for them. They wouldn't have to haul their luggage around all that much, although Yukio privately thought that it would have at least been some good exercise for his students.

Another thing the man discovered, was that Singapore's train maps were quite easy to figure out. Far easier than Japan's at the very least. Although considering Japan was more than double the size of Singapore times ten, their train system had no business being even more complicated than Japan's.

"By the way, Okumura," Shima asked while they were waiting for the train to show up. "Where are we headed to? Where are we staying?"

"Not Yishun." Ray piped up.

"No, not Yishun." Yukio looked at the map of the train routes pinned up on the wall before pointing at one of the stations. "We're headed for Bencoolen. We'll be staying at a one of the apartment blocks there, but please do remember that the person who is hosting us has no knowledge of the supernatural so please try not to talk about it around them."

"Sir, if I may ask," Chi put her hand up. "Why are we staying with someone who knows nothing about demons? Won't that put them in danger? And why Bencoolen? What's there?"

"That's exactly what I asked the Director when he told me about it." Yukio deadpanned, vaguely annoyed at Mephisto. "The only thing he told me was that I'd see why when we get there. As for why Bencoolen, it's the location of one of the Singapore's Branch Offices are, and the most central one. That way, we'd be able to get from place to place quickly."

"Don't we have keys for that?" Ellano wondered.

"No, we don't." Izumo spoke up. "The director doesn't make keys for every single location we have to go to."

"And he said something about Singapore being frightfully boring." Shima added. "That there's not enough anime."

"We have a couple of anime related events every year, though."

"Anyway," Yukio began wrapping things up as the train pulled up to the station. "Let's leave it at that for now. I'll brief all of you further on the specifics later tonight. That is all. Now please get on the train. Please behave yourselves."

"Heyyy, why'd you look at me?" Daku complained. "I'm always well behaved!"

His only response was the unimpressed looks of his fellow classmates and their chaperones.

0o0

There was a question bugging Ray as he took a seat on one of the train's many unoccupied seats, a question that had been bugging him since Okumura sensei had told them the route they would be taking.

"Why are we taking the East-West line?" He turned to ask the first person next to him, who happened to be Chi. "Wouldn't it be much more direct to take the Downtown line?"

"Oh, that's because the line was closed for maintenance. Didn't you hear sensei?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh... I see..." Ray sank down, feeling mildly embarrassed for some reason.

"Oh, don't worry about it. You've been knowledgable enough about the train lines, so I guess you had to balance it out somehow, right?" Chi teased.

"Wha- Hey! That was uncalled for!" Ray protested, the tips of his ears turning red as Chi laughed at him. At some point, Daku had joined in with his laughter.

"I was just teasing you," She waved it off. "Anyway, enough of that. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask, are there any nice places to visit in Singapore? You live here, so you must know some places!"

"Well... There's-"

The train screeched to a halt right in the middle of the tunnel, cutting their conversation off rather violently as the Esquires were sent sprawling into each other.

"Sir, this is rather awkward."

"Sir Caller, shut up and get off my lap." Ellano shoved Sir Caller off his lap carelessly as an announcement was broadcasted through the train.

"There has been an issue regarding the train. For your own safety, please remain seated. Thank you, and have a nice day."

Yukio wanted to sigh. Was it too much to ask for things to go smoothly? Things couldn't possibly get worse, could it?

0o0

In the inky darkness of a tunnel, the shadows gurgled.

[A/N *Bursts into the room four years late with a smoothie and sunglasses.* So, I'm back. I'm finally inspired. Who knows how long that's going to last? I really don't have the best track record for continuing stories. Right now, I have a vague timeline of events, and i do mean vague. I recall I intended this trip to last for at least another six to eight chapters, but I guess now it depends on how many ideas I have. I'm going to have to reread this story to remember exactly what I was doing, so this chapter may or may not have a few holes right now.

Additionally, since it's been at least four years since I last updated, a lot more has come out in the manga. For the time being, let's throw all that out of the window, at least until I can figure out what I can use.

Also, I'm changing the setting a bit, instead of dropping them off in America (and making Ray American). It was honestly a bit silly on my part four years ago since I've never been to America in my life. I really shouldn't have relied on a generator. It hindered my writing and honestly, trying to figure things out eventually made me lose inspiration. So, I figured I should shift the setting to my country. That way, I'll be able to plan things a lot easier. Tell me what you think of the change!

Hopefully, the next time I update won't be in four years.

Till next time!

~ Gwntan12]