Chapter 14: One fell swoop
Shiro sighed as he sat down in his seat, rubbing his eyes.
Nearly two weeks had passed since the last sighting of Mami and the end seemed to be in sight, or at least Shiro hoped it was.
While there were no fresh trails leading to Mami, the number of locations left to search for the demon had narrowed down to just a handful left, which meant that finding the Beldam's lair was near, provided that her lair was on the list to begin with.
Since it was a possibility that Mami's lair hadn't made it onto the list of possible locations, due to a house being skipped over or hiding out in an undiscovered cave, Shiro tried not to get his hopes up.
Still, it was hard not to join his teammates in a feeling of relief that the Beldam case could possibly be drawing to a close.
"When we find the lair, we should just torch the entire thing." One of the team suggested, going over the details to one of the remaining houses on the list.
"The children will be inside, you know." Coraline reminded them.
"Oh, yeah. Never mind."
"We'll need to formulate a plan for when we find the lair." Shiro said.
Technically speaking, the team already did have a basic plan, but it needed refinement considering how many children Mami had kidnapped, and even more refining when they discovered whether Mami had set her lair in a house or in a cave.
Coraline couldn't even tell them what exactly to expect. Since every Beldam was different, Coraline could only make a rough estimate of what Mami's temporary lair would be like.
"The obvious is to set up perimeter wards around the lair." Coraline said. "But that could be hard if the lair ends up being a cave system, or a house with an exceptionally long basement. "Then we'll have to navigate the lair itself, which will likely be warped by the Beldam's magic in some way. Thankfully, I have some tools that can help with that."
"And then there's the Beldam itself and how to separate it from the children." Shiro said.
"This Beldam is likely to keep the children close, so we probably won't be able to just sneak them away from her." Coraline said.
Shiro sighed, having already expected that. Most of the Beldam sightings had her traveling with the children.
"So, we'll have to have at least two teams after the Beldam." Shiro proposed. "One to actually fight the demon, the other to pull the children out of harm's way and make enough distance that it can't draw power from them."
It would be hard; the teams would need to be specially selected and in sync so that they didn't get in the other's way.
And, of course, Shiro would be on the team fighting the Beldam. He would accept no other position.
The planning was interrupted by everyone's phone's going off.
"No, not again!" Shiro snarled as he read the message.
He quickly got to his feet and practically ran out the room to get to the scene as fast as possible, the other team members close behind.
…
Shiro looked over the scene to find clues, trying his best to ignore the crying mother and father who were standing next to their damaged home.
The damage was focused around one of the rooms to the house, the bedroom window of Hamada Jiro knocked out completely.
"I think we managed to injure her badly." One of the exorcists in charge of protecting the house reported. "But it was like she just didn't care, ignoring all the damage we were doing to break through the wall and snatch the kid. It seemed like we almost had her, then she snatched the kid and seemed to get a second wind, running off before we could stop her."
"Another child added to her energy." Coraline said. "I wonder if Mami has trouble gathering energy within herself, and that's why she has to keep her children with her and target multiple children at a time. More like batteries than food."
"We managed to track the demon for about two miles South-East, before we lost the trail." The other Exorcist continued their report.
"Good." Shiro said. "Take the point from the house to where you lost the trail and then correlate that with the list of possible lair locations to see if it reveals anything."
"Yes sir."
Shiro sighed and looked around, noticing Coraline's pensive look.
"What?" He asked the Beldam expert.
"I know I said that Mami forcing her way in was a possibility, but this seems too risky. If she didn't manage to snatch Mr Hamada when she did, it likely would have been over for her. And then the team was able to track her for two miles before they lost her." Coraline said. "It's like-"
They were interrupted by their phones going off again.
"Need Help! Beldam attacking at Akami house!"
Shiro's eyes widened, the Beldam was attacking again so soon.
"Let's go." Coraline said, already running to get to the Akami house.
…
Unlike all the other times, Mami was still at the house by the time Shiro and Coraline arrived.
"No! Let me go! Let me go!" June pleaded as she was dragged away by Mami's extended reach.
Coraline paused for only a second as she took in the sight of Mami, this being the first time she saw the demon in full.
In that brief second, she was brought back to her own childhood, the Other Mother baring down on her.
Thankfully, Coraline was quick to make herself snap out of it, pulling out a tool to quickly construct a summoning symbol on the ground.
Shiro, meanwhile, didn't waste any time, racing over to the Beldam to fight the demon himself.
However, it seemed that even though June was reluctant to be with the demon, Mami was still able to draw some power from her, able to deflect the Paladin's first attack. Though, the attack still left Mami slightly injured, meaning that she still wasn't at her previous full strength without her final child.
"The other children must be close by!" Shiro realised. "Find them!" He instructed the other Exorcists.
This caused Mami to scream in rage.
"You will not keep my children from me." Mami cried, sending an attack of her own at the Exorcists.
"And I will not let you take mine!" Shiro hissed back.
"Rin is my child!" Mami claimed.
They clashed again, this time Shiro ready for Mami's level of power.
If it was just Mami there, Shiro would have been able to end the demon in a heartbeat. But the demon held a screaming June to her like a shield, forcing the Paladin to hold back as to not injure the child.
And it was hard to separate June from the demon, as she constantly transferred the child between her many limbs while used her other limbs to keep Shiro at a distance.
It was also a fight to keep Mami from fleeing, as the Beldam was clearly withdrawing from the scene as she defended, trying to get away.
At a distance, Coraline finally finished drawing her summoning circle, using a blade attached to her jacket to cut open the base of her palm.
"I call upon the watcher of the skies, come fly amongst us once more." Coraline incanted.
The symbol glowed as a massive shape flew out, up into the air with a shrill cry.
A giant bird manifested above the exorcists, beady eyes searching.
"After the Beldam, save the child without harm!" Coraline instructed her summon.
The bird's eyes zeroed in on Mami, who saw it and jerked back in fear, allowing Shiro to slice off one of her limbs.
Mami cried in pain and fled away, making sure to keep June between her and the Exorcists as protection.
"You claim to love these children, yet you endanger them." Shiro scowled at the demon.
"You are the ones to bring harm to them when you attack me." Mami shot back, seemingly completely blind to the truth.
The Beldam barely managed to get out of the way as Coraline's summoned bird dived at her, talons scratching at her.
The bird then circled around and dived at Mami again, forcing the demon back towards the Exorcists.
From her position beside her summoning circle, wrapping her hand to stop the bleeding, Coraline frowned.
Her Roc wasn't the best summon for this situation as long as June was hostage, but it seemed adequate enough from stopping Mami from running away.
It seemed as though they finally had Mami, that the demon had bit off more than she could chew and it would all end soon. But Coraline knew Beldams enough to know they always had some way of surviving when it seemed like they were defeated.
And, only very occasionally, Coraline hated being right.
Just as Coraline's Roc made another dive at Mami, one the demon would not be able to avoid because of all the Exorcists around, it disappeared.
"What?" Coraline startled, quickly turning her attention to her summoning circle.
Her eyes widened at the sight of one of the missing children, looking very pale and haggard, using his foot to mess with the carefully laid lines of her symbol.
"Hey!" She made a grab for the child.
Despite his poor state, the boy was quick, running away from her.
But no matter how quick the boy was, Coraline was gifted with longer legs, allowing her to catch up easily.
Just as Coraline was about to grab the boy, something else snatched him up.
Looking up, Coraline gritted her teeth at a demon shaped like a rather large rodent holding the boy.
Around the area, more demons of varying types and levels emerged, forcing exorcists to move their attention from Mami to defend themselves.
Mami grinned as the demons appeared, some even attacking Shiro and distracting him from her.
"Ah, my friends." She said.
They weren't truly her friends, but it felt nicer to call them that, even if she had bribed and/or threatened them into coming to help with the Exorcists. And as a friend, she could even forgive their lateness.
Mami slipped further away from the Exorcists, despite Shiro's attempts to keep her in range through the swarm of demons she had called. Once a satisfying distance, Daisuke was deposited in her arms by the demon who had kept him from Coraline, and her other children climbed out of their hiding spaces to join her.
Mami sighed in satisfaction at her family being almost reunited.
"She's trying to get away!" Coraline shouted, summoning some dragonfly-like demons to take out the ones attacking her.
With all her children in hand and claw, Mami turned and fled, leaving her "friends" to distract and die at the hands of the Exorcists.
But Shiro was not willing to let her go so easily, giving chase and cutting down any demon that dared get in his way.
Shiro ended up chasing the demon for miles, but in the end, she eventually lost him, leaving the man to stew in anger.
…
The rest of the team eventually tracked Shiro down to where he'd lost Mami's trail, one of the team already working on using the trail to try and give a better idea of where the Beldam's lair would be.
"I should have known that she's have help." Coraline berated herself. "But Beldams don't usually have control of so many other demons, especially not ones in Mami's position."
Given their low level, it was obvious that Mami had likely forced them into helping her, rather than it being a symbiotic relationship like with Mami's other demonic partner back in the cave the children were first found in.
"We must be closing in on her lair." Coraline theorised. "For her to get desperate enough to attack twice in a row and put herself at so much risk."
"Well, her gamble paid off, and now we're down to just one kid." One of the team said.
"And given that said kid is under the protection of True Cross, the demon could potentially cut her loses and run off with the kids she has." Another voiced.
Coraline shook her head. "I don't think she'll give up without trying in some way. So, we still have a little time." She said.
"Perhaps we could-" The Exorcist was quickly slammed around the back of the head before they could fully voice the forbidden idea of using bait, especially in front of Shiro.
"There's only a few locations left." Coraline said. "We'll need to search them quickly. The directions Mami ran should hopefully help us narrow down which of the remaining locations to search first."
"Right." The team agreed.
Coraline then went over to Shiro.
"We'll stop her." She assured him. "Once we're at her lair, it'll be harder for her to run."
"Next time, she will not run." Shiro promised.
"Now, can you tell me the difference between the two plants Rin is holding?" Yukio asked his class.
He ignored Shemi's hand shooting up.
"Shima, would you like to answer?" He focused on his lazy student.
"Uh…" Renzou mumbled, trying to remember. "One attracts demons, the other repels." He ventured.
Rin looked over to his brother, Yukio giving a slight shake of the head.
"Wrong!" Rin told Renzou cheerfully.
Renzou slumped in a seat, pouting at being told he was wrong by a child.
Yukio gave his brother a slight smile before calling on another student to give him the right answer.
"Correct!" Rin bounced once he received the answer from Yukio.
Yukio smiled again at how much energy his brother was displaying.
The Cram school being unable to find a teacher to replace Yukio turned out to be a regular occurrence, requiring Yukio to once again bring Rin with him.
Thankfully, having learned from the last time, Yukio worked out how to involve Rin more in his lessons, helping to keep Rin from falling into boredom while his big brother taught.
And, as it turned out, these lessons were a blessing in disguise. Since meeting the cram students, Rin had become more and more vocal, even managing full sentences; the students giving Rin other people to talk to, and the involvement with the lessons also encouraging Rin to talk.
Rin wasn't yet his old self, favouring short replies over long sentences and going almost completely silent towards bedtime, but they were getting there.
Eventually, Yukio's lesson came to an end, releasing the brothers to go back to their dorm.
"Like usual, please wait here for your next instructor." Yukio told his students.
Rin began his wander around the room while waiting for Yukio to clean up the teacher's desk.
"Do you have your chants memorised?" Rin picked up on Miwa's conversation.
"Ah, I know that I forgot to do something." Renzou said uncaringly.
"Why do you even want to be an Exorcist when you can't be bothered to learn?" Bon questioned roughly.
"Hey, not all of us that perfectly memorise entire books word for word." Renzou defended himself.
"You would be able to if you bothered to practice." Bon scowled.
"You can memorise?"
The three boys startled and turned to look at Rin.
"Yep." Renzou spoke for his friend. "Bon here knows just about every fatal verse there is to know."
"Wow." Rin's eyes sparkled.
Then he noticed Bon looking at him and Rin remembered that he didn't like the boy, quickly changing to a glare instead.
"Aw, how cute." Renzou teased. "It's like he has a puppy crush on you, Bon."
This comment earned the teen physical retribution from both Bon and Rin.
"Stupid." Rin said, blushing.
The young boy then turned to go back to his brother, only to notice that Yukio was gone.
"Oniichan?" Rin looked around.
"He just got called out of the classroom. I'm sure he'll be back soon." Shemi informed the boy with a smile.
That didn't work to placate the boy as his breathing became heavy.
While Rin and Yukio had worked on being in separate rooms with the help of Miss Brook, it had only been done inside the familiarity of the dorm, and they were nowhere near the point where Yukio could just leave the room without Rin noticing.
"Onnichan!" Rin panicked, breaking into a run.
He quickly opened the door, tears starting to gather when he didn't immediately see his brother, running out the room.
"Uh, should we stop him?" Renzou asked his classmates.
"The little idiot could get lost." Bon said, getting out of his seat. "We should probably keep an eye on him."
…
Yukio frowned heavily as he mulled over the information he'd been given.
When his father had appeared to discretely pull him out of the Cram school classroom, Yukio had already expected bad news, but it turned out to be even worse than he could imagine.
"So, Rin's the only one left now?" Yukio asked to clarify.
Shiro nodded his head, looking three times his age.
"And Rin will be next." Shiro warned. "There's a possibility that she'll just leave to consume the children she already has, then return for Rin later, rending our search through all the locations for the lair useless. But the Beldam already managed to get through the wards around our home, so it's possible she'll find a way to bypass the wards at True Cross, no matter how strong Mephisto boasts they are."
And Shiro still didn't trust Mephisto to not purposely let Mami get to Rin for the sake of his own plans or amusement.
"Okay." Yukio sighed. "Thank you for telling me. I should probably get back to Rin, I had to leave him alone in the classroom."
"Hey, don't run off like that, you can get lost in here."
Yukio and Shiro turned to see some of Yukio's students approaching.
And to their horror, it was Rin that Shemi had been addressing, who was stood not far from his father and older brother.
"Uh, Rin. How much did you hear?" Yukio asked his brother with wide eyes.
The expression of horror on Rin's face told that the young boy had heard too much.
Rin's eyes quickly filled with tears.
"Gone." Was the only word he managed to hiccup.
"Hey, it's okay." Yukio tried to comfort his brother as Shiro stooped down and pulled Rin into a hug.
"No! No!" Rin wailed into Shiro's chest.
The idea that the other children, his friends, had been taken and that he was the only one left was too much for the boy.
Yukio coughed and looked at his students, who were giving Rin looks of worry.
"Please go back to class. This is a personal matter." He instructed.
The students didn't offer any objections and left.
"If you need to talk, I'm here." Shemi offered Yukio shyly as she left.
…
Shiro continued to rub Rin's back as he walked into the dorm building.
His son had already transitioned from wailing to quietly crying, not having the energy to continue expressing his grief fully.
Thankfully, Yukio had already informed Shiro about Ukobach, so when the stove spirit appeared to express concern over Rin, Shiro wasn't alarmed.
After seeing that Rin was just upset and not harmed, Ukobach left as Shiro took Rin to his room, Shiro able to make out the demon doing something in the kitchen as he left.
Due to Rin's iron grip, Shiro had to sit on the boy's bed with him, continuing to offer comfort.
As Rin's cries faded away into sniffles, Ukobach appeared with a mug of hot chocolate for the boy.
"Thank you." Shiro said, taking the mug and putting it to the side for when Rin wanted it.
The demon nodded and then left.
"Get them back?" Shiro almost startled at the sound of Rin's voice.
In light of learning such bad news, Shiro had half expected his son to go back to being none-verbal.
"I won't stop trying until Mami is stopped and everyone is safe from her." Shiro promised his son, avoiding actually promising to return Rin's friends, not wanting to risk making a promise he couldn't keep.
"Wish I could do something." Rin mumbled.
"You are doing something." Shiro assured his son. "By staying safe and where Mami can't reach you. That's all you need to do while my team deals with the rest of it."
Rin didn't look convinced but didn't object either.
The two looked up as the door opened and Yukio stepped through.
"I've already been here longer than expected." Shiro said, standing up. "Take care of each other."
Reluctantly, Rin let himself be transferred over to Yukio.
"I'll make sure we don't have to deal with this issue for much longer." Shiro promised his sons. "Until then, take care of each other."
The boys nodded as Shiro left.
…
Rin remained silent the rest of the afternoon and evening, despite Yukio's attempts to coax him into talking, not that the older brother blamed him after what Rin had just learned.
Eventually, it was time for bed, Rin climbing into his own bed and burying himself under his covers.
"Goodnight, Rin." Yukio said, turning on the nightlight and turning off the main lights.
He already expected Rin to eventually make his way to his bed, having done so every night since arriving. In light of the news, Yukio was tempted to just bring Rin over to his bed, but decided to let Rin come to him if he wanted, lying down and going to sleep.
In his bed, Rin tried his hardest to go to sleep, not wanting to have to go to Yukio's side just to sleep yet again. He was eight years old, he shouldn't need his formerly-younger-now-older brother to be able to sleep.
But after a painfully long time of trying to get to sleep, Rin eventually gave up and slipped out of his bed, defeatedly plodding over to Yukio's and climbing under the covers.
Rin rubbed at his eyes, too tired to properly cry anymore.
He just wanted it all to be over. To be a normal kid again, to be with his dad and be able to sleep on his own.
And at that moment, what Rin wanted most of all was his friends back.
Author's note: Please comment
This chapter ended up being longer than I planned. The scene of Mami taking all the other children was planned to be short with everyone only hearing about it, but I decided to write in a battle scene as I wrote it all out instead.
I've tried to theme Coraline's familiars around her and the Beldams. Since, according to my lore, Beldams are all spider-like in some shape or form, Coraline goes with familiars that can prey on spiders, like a giant bird from middle eastern mythology. The dragonfly familiars are obviously a reference to movie-Coraline's hairclip, but some species of dragonfly apparently prey on spiders as well.