Chapter 3: Surviving
"Come on! This way! Hurry!" Rin called.
Eyes carefully scanning the buildings, he darted across the street, multiple figures following him.
"Is everyone here?" He asked.
"Yes." One of the children answered.
"What are we waiting for?" Another of the children asked, their newest member.
"For Mami's distraction." One of their group informed them.
A flare suddenly went up in the distance, followed by loud noises.
"That's the signal." Rin said.
The children stayed put however, listening as the creatures who dwelt around during the day began running out of their hiding places and down the street, towards where the noise was coming from.
"Coast is clear." One of the children reported.
"Let's go." Rin said.
The children ran into the open street, usually a bad idea with the creatures walking around, but they were currently distracted, they quickly reached a set of shops.
"Alright, Kiki's team is on clothes, my team is on food. Go!" Rin instructed.
The children split off into two groups, one set of children going into a clothing store while the other set went into the supermarket.
"Rin, some help." One of the children called to him.
There was a car blocking the way into the supermarket.
"Hang on." Rin said, going over.
Bracing his feet against the ground, Rin put his hands on the trunk and began to push with all his strength, the car barely moved. As Rin struggled to move the car, one of the children looked inside of the car's open window.
"Would it help if I pulled off the breaks?" She asked cheekily.
Rin huffed. "Yes."
The girl reached into the car and pulled off the break, the car then suddenly began to move as it rolled out of the way of the door, Rin pushing it all the way.
"We're lucky to have you." One of the children commented as they ran into the shop.
Rin smiled at the compliment before following.
The children were quick to fill their bags, Mami's distraction would only work so long and the creatures would soon be back.
As Rin filled his own bag, he saw his reflection in the window, still eight years old despite the many years that had passed by now. Mami had explained to him that they didn't age in this place they were trapped in, but only he and Mami had stuck around long enough to experience that, the others were long gone.
"We've got everything." One of the children interrupted his thoughts.
Rin nodded, slinging his own bag over his shoulder, heading to the exit and checking that the coast was still clear, his group then ran across the street, joined by Kiki's group.
"Ok, head count." Rin announced. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. That's all of us."
As the children snuck their way through the city, Rin's thoughts drifted towards the past again.
The first to go had been Isamu, disappeared during a supply run and never came back. Next had been Kagami, dragged away by the creatures, Yamato being taken in a similar fashion a little while after that. One by one, their group had been taken, even little Suzy had disappeared after being left behind at their hideout, until only Rin and Mami remained of their original group.
But like Rin, other children appeared, brought to the safety of the hideout by Mami, and like the others, they too would disappear or be dragged away by the creatures, only to be replaced by another child found by Mami. Many years later and Rin and Mami's 'family' had changed members many times.
Their current members included Kiki, Daisuke, Emi, Jiro, June, Mami and himself.
Eventually, they made it back to their hideout, which had changed locations a couple of times after Rin had first arrived. After another quick headcount to make sure that none of them had gotten lost on the way back, they all went inside.
Mami was already there, stoking the fire that provided their hideout with warmth and a sense of safety. One by one, the children went over to her and gave her a hug, which Mami accepted with her usual gentle smile, the children then went about unpacking the results of their supply run.
When it came to Rin's turn, he refused to let go.
"Is everything alright, angel." Mami asked him, sweeping his hair out of his face with her fingers.
"Bad memories." Rin mumbled into her chest.
"Oh, it's alright." Mami comforted, wrapping her arms around him tightly and rocking them both. "I'm here. As long as I'm here, everything will be alright."
They parted and Rin went over to help with the unpacking, some jeans were quickly thrown at him.
"Here." Emi said. "I think they're your size and your ones are falling apart."
Rin looked down at the jeans he was currently wearing, they were frayed at the bottom with bits of material dangling off, the frays would make their way up his legs eventually. Despite never growing, the children still had to change clothes when they got too battered.
"Do you need anything, Mami?" Emi asked.
"I'm fine for now." Mami denied.
Rin couldn't help but roll his eyes, because that was always Mami's answer when asked about clothes. She still wore the same school uniform as she always had, yet unlike Rin whose own uniform had been long replaced, Mami's clothes remained in a not perfect but wearable condition. Rin suspected that for some reason, Mami preferred to wear a uniform instead of normal clothes and would grab uniforms identical to hers to replace her old ones whenever she disappeared off on her own, it was the only explanation he had for why her outfit had never changed since he met her.
"Did you have any trouble, Mami?" Daisuke asked once they had all settled down.
"Nah." Mami waved off. "Your Mami is too smart for those monsters, I was gone before they even arrived."
"Mami-san is so cool." Jiro said.
"I like to think so too." Mami joked. "Now, did we manage to get everything?"
June, the oldest of the children bar Mami, looked up from where she had finished counting the food Rin's group had gotten. "We should have enough for about a week." She reported.
"Good, no more putting ourselves in danger for now then." Mami said happily.
"Except for you." Kiki pointed out.
"I have to if I want to find the children end up here and bring them back safely." Mami responded. "And you don't need to worry about me, those monsters are no match for me."
"I wish I could fight the monsters too." Rin pouted.
"I know you do, but we can't risk that. I'm older, I can make that decision, but I could never live with myself if you got hurt trying to fight. You don't want to do that to me, do you?" Mami told Rin.
"No, Mami." Rin said, shaking his head.
"Good. Now, let's get you all fed."
Shiro, Yukio and their group trekked their way through the trees, making their way towards the destination they had worked out on a map after collating the evidence of their research.
Their case involved missing children, which is why Shiro had quickly accepted despite what day it had been. Over the years, many children had disappeared never to be found, and just recently someone had managed to link the disappearance to demon activity but had little luck working out much else, which was why Shiro was brought in. The Paladin was charged with researching the disappearances, working out the location of the demon, and slaying it.
It hadn't been an easy job, and it would have been harder without Yukio there to help him, they had to work out the regular children disappearances from the ones who disappeared due to the demon, then they had to work out the common thread between those children, and then use that common thread to work out the location of the demon. Which led to wear they were now, trekking towards the point on a map where all the disappearances collated.
Eventually, the group reached the entrance to a cave that was hidden by vines and leaves, it had been by luck that they had managed to spot it.
"Alright, we need to proceed with caution, we don't yet know what type of demon we're dealing with." Shiro told his team.
"Right." The team responded.
The Exorcists crept into the cave, their weapons or memorised chants at the ready for if a demon attacked, they didn't need their torches as the cave was surprisingly well lit on its own.
"What is this stuff?" Exorcist one asked, analysing the fleshy vines that decorated the walls of the cave.
"I've never seen this before." Exorcist two of their group commented.
Deeper in they went until the vines became thicker and they found pods stuck to the walls or floor as well, part of the pods had transparent flesh that showed liquid inside.
"I wonder what's inside these." Exorcist three approached with caution.
"Careful, it could lash out." Shiro warned.
"I'll be careful." Exorcist three assured, looking inside, his face turning to horror. "Oh no!"
"What is it?" The group turned towards him.
"Bones." Exorcist three answered grimly. "From what I can tell, it's a human skeleton, and its small."
It didn't need to be spelled out to them exactly what was in the pod.
"So, whatever we're after consumes the flesh of…the young." Exorcist two concluded, not willing say 'children'.
If Yukio remembered correctly, they had a child of their own. Maybe it would have been wiser to send childless Exorcists on this mission.
"Let's just hope that they were able to pass on." Exorcist four said.
They continued deeper, coming across more pods with bones collected at the bottom, but as they got deeper in, it wasn't just bones in the pods any more.
"Oh god!" Exorcist two bent over, struggling not to vomit from the sight that met them.
The rest of the group looked similarly ill, only Shiro showed no reaction but Yukio knew that he was being strong both for all of them and himself, as the sight brought unpleasant ideas into their mind.
"Please, don't let him be here." Yukio prayed under his breath.
Inside the pods were corpses, in varying states of decay, some were nothing but bones held together by the tiniest amounts of flesh, limbs already falling off, others had more meat, their flesh floating off their corpses, some even still had their hair. The most intact of the corpses were clearly children, and the same was likely for the less fleshy of the corpses.
"This one still has her face." Exorcist one cried, looking at one of the corpses.
"We seem to be getting closer." Shiro said, closing himself off.
"Do you need to go back?" Exorcist four asked the sicker members of their team.
"No, I want to get want did this?" Exorcist two snarled.
They continued further in, the corpses in the pods getting less decayed until they looked almost whole, and they finally emerged into a cavern.
"What is that thing?" Exorcist one asked.
At the centre of the cavern lay what could only be described as a mass of flesh, hundreds of tendrils branched off from it and worked its way over the walls and floors, some of these tendrils connecting to yet more pods.
"Does it know we're here?" Yukio asked quietly.
"It probably already does." Shiro said. "We just haven't presented ourselves as a threat, yet."
"What about when we have to kill it?" Yukio asked.
"We could try fire, burn it where far away from these tendrils." Shiro suggested, looking down at the tendrils that snaked along the floor as if it would come to life and attack them.
"These ones are alive!" Came a shout of joy.
The group turned to the exorcist who had shouted, thankfully not disturbing the demon, and ran over to investigate.
In the pods were more children, but these ones were complete, no decay to be seen. Peering in further, they spotted the small rising and falling of the children's chests. They were alive.
"We need to get them out." Exorcist two reached for a knife to cut the skin of the pod.
Shiro's hand snatched theirs before they could touch their weapon, he shook his head at them.
"Right now, we are currently in unknown territory, we don't know what this demon is or what taking the children will do to it or the children themselves. We could risk the children if we don't proceed with caution." Shiro told the group evenly.
The group looked reluctant but didn't question the Paladin's orders.
"Good. Natsu, I want you to leave and call in the situation, hopefully they'll be someone who knows how to deal with this." Shiro instructed Exorcist two.
"Yes sir." Natsu replied reluctantly.
"I'll go with him." Exorcist four volunteered, not wanting their friend to have to walk through the corpse-lined walls alone.
Shiro nodded and the two Exorcists left, leaving the rest of their group to investigate.
"How many alive so far?" Shiro asked.
"Five, total." Exorcist one answered. "The rest of them…" They didn't finish, but they didn't need to.
"Looked like they passed fairly recently, no apparent injuries." Exorcist three reported.
Shiro sighed, five children was such a small number compared to how many pods they had passed. He looked over their group and noticed one of them missing.
"Yukio?"
The was no reply.
"Yukio!" Shiro called louder.
"Over here!" Came Yukio's choked reply.
"What's wrong?" Shiro asked as he made his way over to where Yukio's voice had come from.
Yukio didn't reply.
Shiro eventually reached his son, who was standing in front of a pod, his face deathly white and full of shock. The pod itself was separated from all the other pods, both those with the living and those with the dead, the pod also seemed 'fancier', for lack of a better work, it was bigger with the tendrils of flesh curled around it like decoration. But it was what, or rather who, was in the pod which caught Shiro's attention.
"Rin?" Shiro whispered in disbelief.