Long Day's Close

I don't own Ao no Exorcist, Kazue Kato does.

Shiro grabbed the kid's arm and pulled him back. The "brat" stumbled from the sudden tug. A bite came forth from the child to Shiro's hand, telling Shiro of the kid's protest to the sudden tug. "Holy shit-!" thought Shiro as he grabbed hold of the boy by his sides. If he hadn't been careful, he would have needed to start pulling the trigger of his gun with his middle finger. Who knows how many times the paladin would raise his weapon, not to load it, but to flip the bird at someone if that happened.

Shiro held the child up to look at him only to have him start trying to kick at him. "Let me go! Let me go!" the small boy screeched with another short kick at his holder.

Shiro stood still, studying the child.

Holy shit the child stunk. Shura has competition now. A familiar and critical question came to the old man. "How could this child be connected to the disappearances?" he thought. A pain in the ass he had been to get a hold of, but any trained exorcist could have completed such task. That meant the child couldn't be the reason for the absent exorcists. Shiro took note of the kid's worn down and shaggy clothing: an oversized grey shirt and some dark blue shorts.

For someone who acts like they've been trapped in that hospital their whole life, with no human interactions, his clothes sure are clean for some odd reason.

Shiro shook his head side to side and looked at the protesting child. He still needed to interrogate the kid about how and why he was where he was. "Who are you?" Shiro said, attempting to look at the child in the eye. The child kept looking at the ground as if expecting something else to happen. "Hey! Did you hear me?"

Only response Shiro got was a scared glance, like the ones little kids gave their parents during a scolding. Shiro stared at the boy sharply, still not understanding that scaring the child would not hasten an answer out of him. Shiro remembered how the boy had attempted to save the goblin. Not before almost smashing his head with a crowbar, but whatever.

He then recalled how he'd seen tamers befriend demons, and they always used calm and casual voices. It would only hurt his pride to try their way of things, but again, whatever got the job done.

"How did you get here?" questioned Shiro, a little slower and calmer, "Are you lost?"

The raven-haired boy looked up at him and slightly nodded his head yes.

Shiro calmly put the child down, his right hand still on his shoulder in case he decided to make a run for it. Shiro then put the edge of his left hand's thumb to index finger up to over his mouth, thinking of what to do with the kid.

Usually, in these types of situations, the rest of the exorcist team would take the bystanders and treat them (if injured) then take them to headquarters to deal with them. The paladin's throat tightened, acknowledging that he didn't have any backup to do so. "Stupid two other exorcists who didn't show up, oh, and stupid Mephisto for not being here to take the kid!" thought Shiro, frowning. He'll have to bring him back himself, which will cause him to lose credibility.

However, he can't! Goddamnit, he'll be owing money to Mephisto again! Hell no, another anime tea party with that bastard isn't worth it. No way Jose! A coal tar floated by, reminding him of how much more important a child be than a measly debt he could easily pay. You know there's a problem with your friend if seeing a coal tar reminds you of them. Yuri made him soft, and he hated it with a passion. A child is more important than that, he should know better. He sighed. "Hey, kid. Is there anyone else in the building?" said Shiro, already thinking up how he'd go back. He thought back to when he first saw the child, and he had been seemingly holding another child. The younger one of the two turned to Shiro and only stared, his eyes searching for something in his holder's face. Shiro sighed again, the desperation he was trying so hard to hide, fading. "I need to get you out of here, but I need to know if there are more people here, you don't want to leave them behind, do you?"

There were conflicting thoughts in the kid's head, Shiro could see it by how hesitant he was being. He didn't blame him though, a stranger shows up to your home and asks if there's anyone else in the place, would you answer? Nevermind, don't answer that.

The child finally spoke, "My little brother."

Shiro closed his eyes, gratification filling his mind. The boy finally answered! Thank SA- Wait, no, he isn't THAT thankful.

A sound of something massive falling and hitting the floor along with the cries of a baby resounded through the hallways. Glancing to the opposite side of the hall, Shiro took notice of another presence. It had to be a demon, no baby as small as he saw could make such a racket. Scratch that, a baby could cause such a humongous commotion, but if it did, something terrible probably happened.

The kid in front of Shiro became visibly tense, leaning on his right leg and towards the direction of the sound. After a few seconds of leaning back and forth, he took Shiro's hand off his shoulder and ran. Shiro immediately ran behind him with a "Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

The raven-haired shorty didn't answer and ran up around the corner and up the stairs, his footsteps getting lighter and lighter in sound. Desperately, Shiro tried to run after the child, almost slipping on the old floor. He sharply turned the corner, hit his shoulder on its edge, but continued to run at the same speed despite the hit. He jumped the stairs' steps until his legs became tremulous and then he forced a jog through a half-burnt hall — ashes decorated every corner of the once beige walls. The paladin stumbled while following the sound of the footsteps, eager as well as annoyed to chase the child. He went through more and more doors, losing direction and energy. Mentally scolding himself, he turned to several different entries, and guessingly ran through one. Shiro clenched his teeth in frustration, adrenaline finally pouring through him. He ran faster and faster, soon reaching an area where he could hear noises.

Shiro found himself in front of a metal door. It looked like every other door he had crashed and elbowed his way through, but only this time was the door locked. The room he was now in, was colder than any other, the cold seemed to linger from a long time ago. Shiro looked down at the floor, noticing glass piercing at the bottom of his black boots and looked up to the wall where the glass seemed to trail off of. The wall that stood before him had some large windows on it, though broken, still windows into another room. Shiro leaned to look through one, wanting to know if he could successfully jump through it with minimum damage. The scene he instead saw, left him in awe. There, in the room, both the goblin and the boy from earlier were lifting and setting a hospital baby crib. Every other crib in that room was on its side, the metal that would hold each of them up, burnt.

Like every other room, this area was full of ashes and signs of a fire previously taken place. On a far-off corner counter, a small baby from before slept soundly on its side. The crib's bottom hit the floor, standing up the right way and ready for the placing of the child inside of it. The small raven-haired boy walked over to the baby and carefully picked him up, then took him over to the baby crib and set him inside of it. Unbothered, the smallest child made no sound and only slept soundly. The goblin climbed atop a nearby shelf and looked down at the resting baby much like a mother figure.

Meanwhile, the older child peeked into the crib how he could. It was too high for him to lean over but tall enough for him to rest his head on an edge. Part of the crib was clear plastic, so that made things a bit easier. At the corner of his eye, Shiro noticed the goblin, at last, saw him through the small window. It started growling loudly, quickly alerting the other child of the man's presence. Shiro tensed and stood still, confused on what to do. Years and years of drills on how to deal with charging demons and Shiro was continued getting stuck on what to do. The little boy turned back as the goblin jumped at the window. A loud "Wham!" sounded as the demon slid down an invisible wall.

Shiro took a step back with his hands up and eyes wide. He heard his boots crush glass under them. "What in the world?" he thought through clenched teeth. "Well, well, well! I see I arrived just in time," Mephisto said, walking forward from behind the paladin. The man dressed in clownish attire made no noise when stepping on the broken glass, making being able to have known Mephisto was there all the more difficult. "Mephisto?" said Shiro turning to look at the man. Pheles, his partner who was supposed to have arrived hours ago to clear out the building. Shiro's current mission was to get the children out of the abandoned hospital, but really, what a time to arrive.

Mephisto gave a cheeky smile as if he had planned to be late. "Bastard," thought Shiro while he lowered his head with a relieved sigh. Though gratified of his appearance and timing, Shiro was still angry about how late Mephisto was. The demon king crouched a bit and took a look through the worn down opening and meet the eye to eye level with someone. Inside the other room, the boy with his large shirt stood near the front of the cradle, arms to himself and shaking. It seemed as if he remembered his little brother because when Mephisto's eyes danced over to the baby bed, the boy stood in front of it, attempting to cover it. Mind his protective pose, he still looked terrified. Shiro took a glance up from waiting for the demon to say something to make the quiet atmosphere less awkward and tense. "What do we have here?" Mephisto questioned, eyes locked on the child as a sharp smile took part of his face. "Damned brats," Shiro whispered. "My, what language to have around children!" the demon commented, "Tis tis tis, I thought you knew better."

Shiro's eyebrows furrowed. He hated Mephisto with his whole damn being, he owed the man cities of debt, but him coming around and mocking him for something as small as his cursing boiled his blood. Mephisto only smiled and shook his head "No" in a disapproving yet joking way. "I assume you don't have your keys, that's why the kids are still here," Mephisto continued. Shiro only looked down at his shoes in fake shame. "Well, I'll be taking back the "brats," as you call them, back to headquarters for now."

A single undead roach skittered across the floor. "Oh, and I'll leave you to carry on cleaning this hell-hole."

Pink smoke overtook the demon king, and he appeared at the other side of the wall, in front of the standing child. The goblin lay on its side, next to the baby crib, too hurt to stand up and defend the kid.

Mephisto flicked his hand and a clock about the same size as the child. The child shook as its small door opened and a giant bird grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. Shiro could only stare wide-eyed as Mephisto bent down and took hold of the baby. He took out a key and walked through a door out of Shiro's view.

Shiro sighed in exasperation and looked back up at the empty crib. He better get to headquarters as soon as possible or else the higher-ups will make their own choice in taking the children to the asylum. He won't be able to do much from there.

Shiro sighed again, by the end of this day he's going to end up back in his apartment, completely caroused if he knew himself correctly.

Several hours later, it was late at night. Around 8 to 9 PM if Shiro went by what he could see outside. He walked down a long hallway, (which he never fails to complain was useless.), taking notice of the silence. During the day there's usually many exorcists, demons, whoever really, walking up and down the corridors. Meanwhile, during the night when he often got back to file in reports, it was oddly lonely. The paladin knew the mob was probably deep under in the sections. Thank Assiah if he doesn't need to go down there, he can't take the sights there. Shiro sped his pacing, passing by several dimly lit conference rooms. Soon enough, Shiro reached two large doors decorated with pink and lots of glitter. Sounds of idol anime came from the other side. Shiro clenched his jaw and pushed the doors open. Inside, Mephisto sat at his desk while holding a small holdable game console. The T.V. shut itself off as soon as the doors opened as if Mephisto was trying to hide his weebness. That was useless though because the rest of the room was full of anime figures, manga, posters, and even cardboard cut-outs. "Pew Pew!" sounded from the device Mephisto had his attention on. The demon looked up at Shiro with boredom. "Manners, Shiro. You forgot to knock," said Samuel.

Shiro ignored what Samuel said and asked, "Where are the kids?"

"Oh," responded the Mephisto, "guess why they're not here with me."

A hand came down and hit the desk, alarming the demon. "Which section are they in?" yelled Shiro. He wasn't supposed to care for some stupid brats he just so luckily found at some dumb hospital he was supposed to investigate, but goddamnit no one, Shiro means NO ONE should know what it is like being in that hell. The loneliness, the crying, the constant death everywhere, it was just not a place for kids. "Do you not want them there?" Mephisto asked, breaking the paladin's train of thought, "I could help you get them out if you don't wish for those kids to be there. Though, they'd have to go under your care."

"More kids?" Shiro said while he thought of nasty Shura. Mephisto only smiled in return.

He didn't want the boy and his little brother in there, but Shiro take care of them? No way in hell was he going to do that! Well, he could talk to someone about giving them the kids. They haven't spoken in a long time, but it's worth a try to break the ice. "Fine, what do I do?"

Mephisto smiled with his pointy teeth. "They're barely being registered. I suspect the smaller one is going through the naming process." Mephisto shuffled through his desk and took out a small key and handed it to the man standing in front of him.

"You should know what to do with it."

Shiro didn't respond. He only looked down at the key, just becoming more eager.

Shura sighed in frustration. "Ugh, where's Shiro?" she said. She sat in a waiting chair outside of a key-entering-area. An area where several doors stood atop a platform held over what she liked to think of as a neverending pit of hell. The place was so large Shura swore it was intended to be a room for some demonic circus that never got finished. That man, "Mephisto" would probably be the ringmaster if not one of the clowns, if she was honest. A quick image of the demon with clown makeup popped into the girl's mind. Shura quietly giggled to herself childishly while kicking her feet. He wouldn't even need to change his clothes! All he needed was a little makeup to become his true self: A clown.

Shura quickly calmed down. The thought wasn't that funny anyway. She kicked her foot on the ground, then slightly when the floor squeaked in response. This place was too silent, even for her distant, calm self. Secretly, Shura hated how quiet she was. Those strict nuns from the orphanage were to blame. Whenever Shura tried speaking to other kids they would always slap her wrist with a ruler if not, throw the book at her. There was also that one time she retaliated by summoning her snake sword and almost leaving Mother "bitchna" (As Shura liked to call Mother Ena) handless. Living there was absolute hell for Shura. She made sure everyone in that damned place knew she hated it there.

Thank god all of the nuns there were usually careless or just straight out hated her in return because Shura would often sneak out of the place whenever she damn well wanted.

Coming back into reality, Shura stared into the entering room. The habit of being silent had its best uses but was at the same time its faults like not helping her gain any friends. "All the kids here are your brothers and sisters," she remembered one of the mothers said. Pshht, yeah right. For such a "holy orphanage" those kids were beyond the evil level of the devil. There was one time some kid snuck into the nun living area and stole a bottle of booze and shared it with almost the whole orphanage. What was it even doing in possession of sisters anyway? Things like that only drove Shura to sneak out more often.

Fridays and Saturdays were her "Golden days" because of how she often left cram school late and got to stay with Shiro. He's usually against it, to the point he threatens to take her back kicking and screaming. To avoid that, she would steal a beer bottle from either an exorcist office or some random store she'd pass and give it to him as a present, that generally made him equable enough for Shiro not to care whether she stayed or not. Today, Friday, he wasn't home, so she decided to come looking for him. After being redirected about a million times, someone just told Shura it would be best if she just sat around this area and hoped Shiro would walk out of one of those doors to meet her. An hour has passed, and it's safe to say nothing has happened. Frustrated, Shura let her head hang and her long hair loose. "When? When? When? Where is he?" she repeatedly asked herself.

If Shiro didn't show up in the next 20 minutes, she's either going to search the entire facility or just hit her head against a wall till she either breaks the wall or her head. Suddenly, someone came out of the whatever-it's-called room which started generating a lot of noise. It sure as hell wasn't Shiro, and they left in such a hurry that Shura had no time to try and check if she knew them. They turned the corner and Shura looked into the key-enter room. One door was fully open, and a key was left inserted into its keyhole. On the other side of the door, there was a vast forest where a battle between a set of exorcists and a dragon type demon that stood meters above them was taking place. "The exorcist that ran by was hurrying for reinforcements," thought the teenage girl. Shura looked down to find a small key holder at the foot of the door. Only one thought came into her mind. No one would notice if she took it, or so, she thought. She reached down for them and stole them. She backed away from the door, making sure no exorcist across it saw her. Shura walked back to her seat and hid them in her school bag. She then opened the bag to take a good look at them. One of the keys, she recognized, was a Basho key. If she thought of a location and inserted the key to a door, the door would open to the place. It had its limitations like traveling ocean distances, but that didn't affect her all that much. The key was a pinkish gold, and its design consisted of a rose with a compass in its middle. The rest of the keys were mysteries to the young girl. She'd have to test them out later on.

Across the hallway, the sound of a large group of exorcists making their way to the battle got closer. Shura quickly got up and hid in a nearby restroom. "Wait a second..." Shura trailed off to herself. She reached into her bag and pulled out the Basho key and inserted it into the restroom door lock. "Shiro. Take me to Shiro," she thought. She inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it. Shura took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Rin sat in front of a man with a black coat dress. Describing it was a challenge because he had never seen anything like it before. The man knew who he was. Rin thought he was a magician or something because he even knew who his mom was. "Your mother, Yuri Egin, went missing a few weeks ago. Sir Pheles found you and your brother. Is that right, Rin Egin?" The seven-year-old only blinked in response. Mom said never to talk to strangers, and this man was a stranger so he couldn't speak to him. Where was his little brother? They took him away, and he doesn't know where. Rin needed to find his brother soon. He needs to make sure he's safe. "Well?" said the man, "Am I not correct?" The child nodded his head yes very slowly. "I'm not talking so nodding my head is ok."

Rin thought as he stopped nodding. He yawned with his mouth open wide. Around this time would he usually go to sleep. Back in the hospital, he would always wait for Koyuki to announce sleep time. To sleep, Koyuki would let Rin use their small goblin body as a squishy pillow. Before all that time at the hospital, his mom would ask him to lay down so that she could tell him a bedtime story. Halfway through the story he often fell asleep. The man who sat in front of him crossed his arms in response to the child's yawn. It was going to be a long night. A long night indeed.

Pll: ( ; w ;)~ Have a long chapter along with a good day/night.

Edit: I forgot the lines, I'm sorry-