A/N: I do not own or profit from any of what Kazue Kato has created.

The market completely ignored the impending downpour. Between the usual booths had cropped up a myriad of yatai and stands erected by artisans, and Shiro had a slight suspicion Mephisto might have had something to do with the flag posts that had magically appeared to frame the market corridors in cherry pink. An inviting smell of takoyaki, yakisoba and other fried foods hung in the air, weaving between excited children's shouts and adults discussing if it would be the Hanshin Tigers battling Hankyu Braves for the championship title this year, or if it would be Yomiuri Giants. Shizuku, Kasumi, and Ryuuji all took part in the market, but had agreed to meet up with them for an afternoon snack and a stroll through the transformed amusement park. However, when they converged at the temporarily closed Go To Hell rollercoaster, only the Honda siblings were there.

Shizuku wore his pilgrim's clothing, which somehow made him look older, and beside the usual roll of tools he carried a cloth-bag of assorted wood pieces over one shoulder. Kasumi had opted for a pale yellow, criminally tight-fitted yukata that left little to imagination, and she had tied her hair into a traditional bun as opposed to her usual bushy tuft.

And despite Shiro's best efforts, he couldn't keep the sight of her from making his heart bubble like a teakettle in his chest.

"Well, well – seems like ye dressed up fer nothing, Kas-hrrk…!"

"I've been getting' more commissions than 'e has, an' he's a li'l cranky 'bout it", Kasumi explained blithely, while her brother choked after having had his Adam's apple rapped with her fan. "Sellin' goods is easier if ye put goods on display, if ye know what I mean", she winked.

"Oh, I believe you", Shiro grinned, making now secret of his admiration for her… goods.

"Izza lowly trick", Shizuku croaked, rubbing his throat.

"If ya had the parts ta pull it off ye'd do it too, Shizzy~" Then she heaved a sigh. "Though it worked betta' before I got the wards tattooed, I admit." She tugged at the folds of the garment: the ward on her chest showed clearly, and the ones on her lower arms peeked shyly out of the sleeves. "Anyways, Tanuki-boy's ova' there." She pointed her folded fan in the direction of the ball pool and the children's merry-go-rounds. "What's 'is name again? I always fe'get."

"Ryuuji-san", Midori responded, which elicited an amused snort from the little pilgrim.

"Pff, 'e's no dragon, that one. I think I'll stick ta calling 'im Tanuki-boy. 'e got held up back there, talkin' ta some musicians that complimented 'is playin'. 'e said 'e'd come find us later, so I say we locate some nice grub while we wait." She cocked her head to the side and gave the trio a quizzical look. "An' I hate ta ruin the cosy threesome for ya, but that one with the glasses is a guy."

"Shush, I'd finally managed to fool them..."

Twice during their walk did Shiro sense the unfelt touch of demons prying for a way into his heart. He tried to keep up in the fast-paced verbal exchanges, tried to put on a smile that didn't look like Sen's, but staying vigilant kept him from putting any emotion into it. He was smack in the middle of a busy market, surrounded by his best friends, and yet… he was alone.

It shouldn't be so hard. There's bad days and good days, pebbles and puddles; he might not like being stiff and cold, but he had to put their safety in the first room. It shouldn't be so hard; but when you're alone in the winter cold, and you see others laughing and talking in the warmth on the other side of the window… Then all you want is to be there with them.

Kasumi and Shizuku couldn't come to his graduation either: they were going to walk to their mother for the anniversary of their father's death.

"Your mother is not dead?" Midori asked, blissfully unhindered by the social graces the others had been brought up with. Her upbringing had gifted her with different talents, like walking arm in arm with Shiro while balancing the umbrella vertically on her forehead.

"No, not dead." Shizuku sighed with exasperation as yet another responsible mother guided her child over to the side of the road that had less pierced delinquents on it. "When I said she doesn't walk the roads anymore I meant it literally. She was crippled the day dad died, so she works at a 'andicraft centre down southwest now, roughly a week's walk from 'ere. Sorry ta say it, Shiro-san, but I think ye're gonna hav'ta rely on Tanuki-boy fe' company on ye' big day."

"We could always celebrate before we leave", Kasumi suggested, snatching the umbrella from Midori's forehead and sticking it under Shiro's chin with an impish smirk. "Shizzy tells me ye've got a free day Wednesday next week – an' since 'e's such a nice little brotha', 'e'll handle some o' my commissions if I ask 'im to."

She was… asking him out on a date? Shiro cast a glance at Shizuku to see if he'd heard it right, and was greeted with a face of if ye don't get that hint ye're gonna live out ye' days in celibacy.

"Sure thing", he smiled, grappling for a heart that skipped away over flower-strewn meadows and made rather embarrassing leaps and twists. "Did I just imagine my heart as Mephisto's wastebin panda…?" Well, it wasn't far from it. "Anything particular you had in mind?" Shit, that sounded suggestive. Hopefully she didn't catch that.

Oh, she did – but Kasumi just chortled merrily at him.

"Well, fer one I hear ye've been training fe' Pheles 'imself at swords. That's a skill I'd like ta see fe' me'self, so if ye're up to a sparring match or two…?"

Fighting on first date? That was a new one. On the other hand, he'd never dated a girl like Kasumi Honda.

"Fufufufu is good to test a male before mating~" Midori tittered. Shiro felt a violent blush claim his ears and make its way towards his cheeks, and tried to look at anything that wasn't Midori or Kasumi, or any other being within earshot. Talk about being raised in the woods.

"Well, I… don't think that's quite what I meant, Midori-san", Kasumi added with an awkward chuckle in her throat.

"Mh, because you don't have noses." She shot them that smile that knew everything they didn't, and Shiro wished he could disappear on the spot. "Smell doesn't lie."

"And if I light a cigarette?"

"They stink", Midori pouted.

"Midori-san, ye're the sweetest thing I know", Kasumi said, scratching Midori behind the ear. "But humans an' demons are a bit different, even if the smells say the same thing."

Sen and Midori made it a sport to stay latched onto him, and when the Honda siblings went to select nikuman Shiro was dragged along to locate pork yakisoba. It required some coordination to weave their way forward, but when Midori caught the desired scent she could probably have dragged a whole football team. Shiro narrowly swung their arm-to-arm chain out of the way for a little girl with an ice cream cone, and instead bumped into-

"…Shiro-san?"

"Yasuda-san…?"

Midori and Sen turned in unison, noticing the awkward silence that bloomed between the two graduates-to-be. Shiro hadn't spoken to Yasuda for… eight months. What do you say to a guy you haven't talked to for eight months?

"It's been a while." …yeah, that's one way to do it. "Sorry. I was an asshole last time."

"Yeah… You were." Yasuda still held his chopsticks halfway up to his mouth with yakisoba; never were good at multi-tasking, that one. His gaze darted back and forth from Shiro to the lady company, and he seemed to doubt if that choice of words was appropriate.

"How's Fuji-san?" Wonderful subject to bring up. Still, small talk was better than silence. "I haven't seen him in class for a while."

Yasuda had to run the question through his mind a second time, and lowered the chopsticks into the paper box in between.

"Fuji-san was taken out of school four months ago."

Shiro's turn to do a double take.

"What?" He'd thought Fuji was ill or something. How could he not have noticed that he- Four months? "You mean his dad did cut the financial supply?"

"Mh", Yasuda confirmed. "Fuji-san simply stopped giving a damn, and you know what his dad was like: if the investment doesn't bring the money back in, pull the plug on it."

Yeah, he knew what Mr. Hirawara was like – except this was his son, not market shares.

"And whose fault was it that Fuji stopped giving a damn…?" One more person he should say sorry to, if he ever met him again.

"I see you're more successful than ever?"

Shiro snapped back to the conversation he didn't quite follow – although, it wasn't that hard to guess what he was referring to.

"Sadly, I'm just here for decoration. This is Sakura Midori", Shiro nodded his head to the right, "this is Futotsuki Sen", he nodded his head to the left. "And it's not me they're dating, but each other." And what a look Yasuda pulled, though he tried to hide it quickly. "This guy's Tanaka Yasuda, from my class."

"Will you eat that, or can I…?" Midori was casting longing glances at Yasuda's yakisoba, and Shiro remembered they hadn't actually bought any yet, even if they were right at the yatai.

"Midori-chan is a bit special", he explained. Then he recalled Sen's spectacular hairstyle: "And Sen-chan is special in her own way, so I suppose they fit well together. Look, we're just gonna buy some food, okay? You can get started on your own meanwhile", he said, unlatching himself from his escorts to bring out his wallet. Yasuda just nodded quietly in that manner that means he politely agreed that both Shiro and his new friends were a bit special.

It was awkward, but at least it seemed to be going in the right direction. Yasuda had always been a calm guy that didn't flare up halfway through an explanation, although… If that incident with the possession was anything to go by, that calm demeanour drifted on the surface of pent up things of nastier nature. Shiro seemed to have gained a few centimetres on him, but Yasuda was still taller, and he'd lost some of the extra kilos. He looked more like a grown man than a teenager.

"So you're gonna go to the university in Tokyo?" Amazing, how much two people had to catch up on after eight months. "I never could've guessed. And teacher…?"

"Yeah", Yasuda smiled into his noodles. "I would've said 'they'll need new ones after you wore out the old', but that doesn't really apply anymore. You've been gnawing Minata-chan's heels at the top of the scoreboard the whole semester. What happened? What are you going to do after school, with those grades?"

Shiro's eyes briefly lingered on the coal tars that bobbed and danced in the steam above the yakisoba yatai. He swallowed a mouthful of beef and said what he hadn't been allowed to say eight months ago:

"I'll study to become an exorcist."

"Exorcist?" his classmate repeated, looking at him like he'd done in the old days when Shiro had suggested some unusually outrageous plan to get into the girls' changing rooms. "Did somebody finally hit you hard on the head?"

"Just a matter o' time, innit?" Kasumi replied cheerfully, hooking Shiro's umbrella into his shirt collar as she appeared out of nowhere, two paper bags of nikuman in her hand. "Been lookin' high an' low fo' ya, Bigmouth. Greetin's by the way: name's Honda Kasumi", she said, flashing a smile at Yasuda. "Now, what've ya done te ye' baby-sitters?"

"Midori-chan wanted to throw darts at balloons over there", he said, pointing his chopsticks in the right direction. "You should probably bring some sort of shield."

"I'll tell her you said that!" she said, waving over her shoulder.

Shiro smiled into his paper cup and scraped together the remaining noodles.

"So that's what it's called. 'Exorcist'."

That was a strange voice for Yasuda. Shiro looked up from his cup, food dangling halfway out of his mouth, and saw an equally strange look on his friend's face.

"I know we joked about it, but… Shiro-san, you really shouldn't do this." He was dead serious; Shiro just had no idea what he was serious about. "Especially with those grades, man: you could get in anywhere! You could go to Todai!" His voice sank cautiously. "Look, if it's the girl, Honda-chan…" Yasuda tossed a quick glance in the direction Kasumi had gone. "It's not worth it, Shiro-san. You might think it is now, but let me remind you that when you've got a girl on your mind you're about as intelligent as a pickled cucumber. She's trouble, and everyone connected to her is trouble, and you've seen enough trouble for a-"

"What did ye say about my sister?"

Shiro turned his head to see Shizuku tower behind him, black eyes fixed on Yasuda. The latter looked like he was about to heave all the food he'd just eaten back into the paper box.

"This is Yasuda-san, my classmate. He said I shouldn't hang with you, though I really can't tell why", Shiro summed up, increasingly puzzled by the situation.

"I didn't mean it", he said in a voice that seemed to be squeezed through a straw. Something was very off with him: even Shizuku noticed, and he had never even met the guy.

"Did 'e have bad pork with the yakisoba, or…?"

"No, he's been like that since Kasumi-chan passed by, and then you came and made it even worse. Oi, Yasuda-san, would you just say what's wrong instead of looking like you're about to drop down dead?"

"I… I apologise!" Yasuda appeared to simultaneously rise from the bench and bow. Deep. Really deep. "I didn't mean to offend anyone, it won't ever happen again!"

Shiro and Shizuku exchanged glances, but neither of them was any wiser.

"Come on, Yasuda-san", Shiro tried, tapping his friend's bowed back with his chopsticks. "Why are you so afraid of Shizu-san?" Yasuda mumbled some unheard reply. "Speak up, or I'll shove these up your nose."

"Because he's yakuza", he said miserably, still bowed past a ninety degree angle.

Silence.

Shizuku was the first one who put two and two together; and when he did, he doubled over deeper than Yasuda, slapping his leg and roaring with laughter.

"Oeh, dontcha geddit, Shiro-san?! Dontcha geddit?! Kasu-ahahahahahhaaaa Kas- Kasu's tattoos…! 'e thought she was with the bloody yakuza fuehehehehehehahahaaaa! An' my wards – 'e thought- 'e thought I was some mob thug hahaahhahahahaaa!"

Oh, he could see it. Through invisible prison bars he could see the mix-up, see how hilarious it was and see Yasuda's face bloom red like a signal flare; and feel the demons that waited for him to let his guard down, hovering disembodied between colourful flag posts and tin cans waiting to be knocked down with rubber balls. It was getting darker, and the storm clouds hung lower. Shiro hid his face in his hand, not to cover the laughter but to keep them from seeing how artificial it was.

Yasuda could relax, at least. He was still red as a flare, but he laughed with Shizuku and apologised again; this time for mistaking him for a yakuza thug. Kasumi, who'd come back one nikuman-bag poorer, had a good laugh at it, too.

"I'm 'is classmate", Shizuku explained with a wide grin. "In cram school, that is."

"You're still in cram school? That's how you boosted your grades like this?"

"No, what he means is that we're in exorcist cram school together. Midori and Sen-chan too."

Yasuda gave him a puzzled look.

"I thought 'exorcist' was some mob term for a hitman, but then it's…?"

"An exorcist's an exorcist: demon pest-control." …no, Yasuda wouldn't believe that. Shiro wouldn't have, either. "Remember that time you collapsed, right before Fuji-san started acting tough? It felt like falling asleep, right? Or like something was making you fall asleep? It felt like you were being swallowed up by your darkest thoughts and buried alive under your worst nightmares, and the only way to escape it was to give in and sink down into unconsciousness." Shiro paused, looking straight at Yasuda's surprised face. Yes, it had been exactly like that. "That's what it feels like when a demon possesses you", he said, not knowing what inflection to put on those words. "You didn't remember anything afterwards, because the human soul sleeps while the demon controls the body." …no, he didn't want to mention Mephisto's part in it. "I was the one who exorcised it from you."

Yasuda chewed air, like a goldfish. A very shocked goldfish with a characteristic nick in one of its front teeth.

"But… Why didn't you tell me?! And Fu- He wouldn't have blown his grades if you'd told him what happened! None of this would've happened if you'd just told us right from the beginning! What were you- Just what the hell, Shiro?!"

Yeah, there were many things that wouldn't have happened if he'd acted differently. Sometimes you make the right choice, sometimes the wrong one. That's the thing with Choice: it's only afterwards, when faced with the consequences, that you know which was which.

"I should've told you, I know. I just didn't." Back then, because he had to be discrete about going to cram school. "I'm sorry." Now, because his friends in cram school would wonder why he had had to be discrete and lie about it earlier.

Sometimes, there is no right choice.

"Sorry…?" It would've been easier if his voice hadn't been so soft. It would've been easier to be shouted at, beaten up, cursed to hell and back… but there was just Yasuda's soft voice, and brown eyes staring across the table at a stranger they once knew. "Why don't you go tell Fuji-san that?" With that, he rose, and walked away.

As if on cue, the first crack of thunder reverberated in the sky.

The rain gushed down like a waterfall, the way it does when it has been waiting all day to make that perfect entrance. It was rain that sounded like a passing freight train when it hammered on signs, roofs and asphalt, and forced people to crowd under the stands where the tarpaulin extended to form a cover. The four of them half walked, half jogged through the grey downpour; Sen and Midori under an umbrella summoned by fox magic, Shizuku under a rice hat, and Kasumi… slipped her arm into Shiro's and sheltered under his school umbrella.

"Ye've been lacking ye' usual spunk teday", she said, trying to sound casual about it. "Anything bothering ya…?"

"He's shielding his heart from demons. But he isn't used to it yet."

Shiro stared at Sen. The little broomstick merely smiled her dead smile back at him.

"I dunno if I'm followin'", Kasumi said, skipping over a large puddle that Shiro was too distracted to notice. "I knew ye're workin' ta keep demons off yer back by mind-power, but-"

"Demons possess the darkness in the human heart", Sen explained, "and the human heart opens to strong emotion."

"Except mine seems to be a round-the-clock service desk."

"It takes a while to get used to", the Futotsuki continued, twirling Midori's long hair-tail between her fingers, "but if you want, you can come with us to our village over summer. We can teach you meditation techniques and how to focus better."

"That's a great offer," one he would've loved to take her up on, "but I will be working at the Academy over summer. Janitor jobs and such." The scholarship covered school fees all and well, but he needed the extra money for food and other expenses. "I would've loved to come, otherwise."

The conversation lulled to nothing but the splatter of feet on wet ground, and the rumbling of heavy rain and thunder. Nobody said aloud what they all knew: demons possess people with wicked hearts.

They were halted by a shout at the entrance gates of Mepphy Land. Turning around, they spotted… two dwarves running with a tent…?

"Hey! Hey, wait for me!" The voice was Ryuuji's, though. And the weird bulges under the rain poncho were his music instruments. "Sorry, I- haah haah I lost track of time… talking…" he panted, slightly flushed in the face but glowing with pride like a pregnant woman; pregnant with triplets at the very least. "They invited me to join their summer tour, starting next week! And we'll be playing one concert with Yamamoto Hōzan!"

The change of subject was welcome. The way back to shelter was spent talking about different things they would do or hoped to do over summer. Shiro didn't say it aloud… but he had hoped he would have at least one person congratulating him on his graduation.

A/N:

Yatai – mobile food stand

Ryuji/Ryuuji – various kanji can go into that, but ryu retains the meaning "dragon".

Tattoos – are closely associated with criminality in Japan, as I'm sure you know. It just recently occurred to me what Kasumi and Shizuku must look like to ordinary Japanese: one with tattoos and one with piercings all over his face. ^_^' Yasuda joked with Shiro in the first chapter that he would do fine in the yakuza, so I thought I'd take him up on that now that they briefly talked again.

Yamamoto Hōzan – is something as curious as a Living National Treasure of Japan. He's an extremely talented player of shakuhachi (traditional flute) and a big name in traditional music.