"…Ri….Ri~" a masculine voice called her name far away.
It was coy yet somewhat soothing, her thoughts her muddled and her movements dragged. "Nn…?"
Upon opening her eyes, her vision was hazy almost as she was gazing into a memory. Dragging herself to a sitting position she moved her legs under herself in an attempt to stand. Though honestly it felt like her movements were obstructed or slow similar to trying to run through water.
Adjusting her glasses, she stood up and clutched her arm with a grimace. Looking down she noticed familiar dragon clawed prints along her left arm. Which was simply sore, rubbing her forehead she began to walk, aimlessly following the silken voice without any caution.
It was like velvet, the more she heard it the more relaxed and entranced she became.
"…Ri…Ri!" This voice was different, one she'd known her whole life and it was retching her from her obscure dream.
With a groan Kaori opened her eyes only to squint in the morning light accompanying her blurry vision.
Shura leaned close and handed the younger female her glasses. "Jeez, I normally don't struggle that much with waking you. Have a good dream or something?"
Kaori's face lit up and she sat up with a sharp comment, "Don't be ridiculous." She moved across the room past her friend to go prepare for today. This afternoon she would be meeting her employer for the first time since she received her high rank as an exorcist. Through out her training and even after finishing as a student she had never formally met him. Everything had been filtered through Shura. Today would be the first of many things Shura could no longer intervene with when it came to the director and Kaori.
As Kaori finished off her brunch she was quickly trying to finish a volume of one of her manga books while sipping her tea. She needed to dismiss any and all nerves concerning her meeting today.
Shura leaned against the doorframe, "Riiiii, are you done yet?"
Kaori glanced over the top border of her volume, "Soon. A few more panels and we can go. Just wait outside, Shura. I'll be there shortly."
Shura grumbled to herself followed with a sigh before heading outside.
Kaori very easily became distracted right after finishing her book. Specifically about her strange dream session last night. Shaking her head gently, she polished off her matcha tea latte and left the closed book on the breakfast bar. Adjusting her collar, sleeves and glasses one more time before heading out the door in the company of her long time friend.
It didn't take the two of them very long to traverse through the academy's winding hallways and staircases. Two sets of footsteps echoed down the long hallway leading to the directors office. There was idle chatter from Shura Kirigakure to Kaori. Specifically she was continuing a conversation she had with the younger girl earlier and last night about how dangerous it could possibly be for Kaori to even meet the director. Much less be around him, alone or otherwise.
Shura fought with this thought mostly due to Kaori's high pheromone level. She had known the younger female for a good while and didn't ever waste any time in the past, peeling men or demons off her due to any lack of self control they had. Hell there were even a few women who couldn't keep their hands still while around her.
This situation would be entirely different. Kaori Suzuki was meeting one of the most cunning and dangerous demonic beings in Assiah. But Shura had her hands tied considering that Lord Pheles wanted to meet one of the few higher ranking exorcists under his supervision. Hell, Shura up until now had come up with any and all excuses under the sun just to keep that from happening. This time, there was absolutely nothing she could do.
"Damn it, Ri. Are you even listening?" Shura all but practically growled at the younger companion next to her.
Kaori had been spacing out until they were right in front of the door only to be ripped from her subconscious by her best friends' voice. Adjusting her glasses with a long sigh, she simply gave Shura a nod. "I'm not entire sure what else you could possibly say on the subject. I believe everything has been covered atleast twice. Don't you think that perhaps you might be worrying alittle too much about this?"
Shura's shoulders became rigid and she gave a sharp inhale, "Ri, I think you'll understand better when you actually meet, him." She knocked twice and didn't really wait long for an invitation before swinging the door open and stepping in.
Mephisto was in his office watching anime on his laptop, he should have been doing work but he chose not to. He even had on his kimono instead of wearing his uniform, he had a box of Pocky sticks that was half empty, laying next to his laptop. He was getting caught up in Mahoutsukai no yome, it was his favorite anime and he was going to start buying cosplay for it. He had the money to order it online so that's what he was going to do as he thought about it. He went straight to amazon and started buying everything he could that was related to the anime.
"I should also get some more Pocky st-" before he could finish his sentences, he was rudely interrupted by his door being all but kicked open before he could even get up to open it himself. He glanced up and saw Shura. Being slightly annoyed, he didn't show it. His eyes glazed over the female next to her as he stood up.
"Thank you for rudely interrupting me, you didn't even give me a second to answer it! I think you broke my door!" He sighed before steering himself back on track, looking back at the newer female in the room.
"Who is she?" He asked before hearing a ding, his ramen noodles were done and he went to go get them with a hum.
Shura scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Mephisto. You've been asking to meet her forever- Wait..are you slacking off again?!"
"No, I am not slacking off!" He said as he was slurping down his ramen noodles, he sat back in his chair, closed his laptop and checked his phone before looking at the two. It wasn't that he forgot, just he didn't know when she would be coming.
Kaori cleared her throat and gave Shura a look, mostly telling her to quit it without so much as saying a word. Shifting her attention to Mephisto, she pulled out her identification. "Kaori Suzuki, Upper level 2nd class exorcist, Classes Tamer and Doctor." She flicked her badge back up into a folded fashion before putting it away. "It's nice to finally meet with my employer." She glared at Shura for just a moment, "Without complications, for once."
He looked at her identification, he was surprised how handy she could be to him. Mephisto had a simple smile on his face as he looked at her.
"Shura you brought a useful one! Yes! I'll be needing you a lot." Mephisto had some planning to do, he was going to test Kaori to see if she was able to handle even the harshest missions. He had that curious look on his face when he was up to something.
It was at this point that he had a proper look at her. Purple flannel, thin black cargo pants, an ameythyst pendulum around her neck with matching studs, her glasses made her look simply adorable. Each time she had pushed them up it accentuated her lovely light blue eyes and her onyx bracelet reflected any and all light. Her long dark brunette hair was pulled back with a bell band. Cute and practical. Bells are often used for demon cleansing. Hmm, Quite the relaxed attire for such a high ranking exorcist, though she wore it with grace and carried herself formally so that it didn't matter.
Kaori adjusted the buttons on the sleeves of her flannel shirt, whilst waiting for Shura to calm her hot headed behavior. "Now I was under the impression that you were the one summoning me, Lord Pheles. Should I come back another time without my colleague?"
Shura clicked her tongue and practically gave the younger woman a death glare while muttering under her breath. "Ri, we just talked about this."
"Perhaps but if you're going to make this an unprofessional visit then it is probably wiser for me to visit myself." Kaori replied calmly.
"No, that's fine.~ I have an assignment for you two." He flashed a devilish grin. "Do you think you can handle it?" He went back to slurping his ramen noodles and watched the two of them conversate with each other. He enjoyed their little argument. Kaori was so formal, it simply made him want to tease her. He sat his cup down and just opened back up his laptop, he didn't want to interrupt them while he could finish this episode.
"Yes of course, Sir Phel-..es." Something had caught Kaori's attention very briefly when Mephisto had reopened up his laptop. She had composed herself so quickly as to try not to give it away and it had passed fast enough where he missed his window to even ask. Of all the anime's he could be watching, it had to be that one? Stay focused, you can always catch up on episodes later. "It's not a problem. Is there any information you would like to share with us about the assignment?"
Shura had an easier time quelling her fuse after seeing Ri's shift in behavior. I'll ask her about it later, now isn't the time.
Mephisto handed Shura the folder with all the information, he went right back to watching the anime. He didn't want to miss anything. Picking up his ramen noodle cup and finished it off. He threw the cup and didn't mention all the information on the paper work in the folder. He didn't mention that they were going to have to go to a well known forest where people had been going missing. He was the type to let them figure it out themselves.
"All the information should be in the folder." He was such a liar but his pokerface didn't give at all.
Kaori snatched the folder from Shura and simply blinked while reading, "So you want the two of us to go to a dangerous forest where people have been disappearing and fix the problem. This report is incomplete, but should serve as something to start." She didn't even look up, "Thank you, Lord Pheles. We'll be leaving now."
Shura was greatly confused, "Hey wait, did I miss something in that report?"
Mephisto was amazed at how smart she was, but he was shocked how she found of the details he left out. It was too quick, next time he was going to do something else. She was abit too smart for her own good.
"You figured that out much too early, hopefully you two can defeat what is causing them to vanish." He said as he was focused on the anime.
Shura just looked at Kaori with a somewhat impressed expression. "How did you know all that?"
Kaori just stood in the doorway, facing the hall. "Simple. I commune with the Deity of wisdom daily. My familiars know the location and most places closely linked with nature. We shouldn't be wasting anymore time Shura." The younger woman left ahead of her without so much as a glance back at her employer. Quite the devious one. Well, everyone gets bored I suppose.
Shura watched her go and gave Mephisto a harsh glare. "We'll return when we complete our mission." She hastily followed Kaori, who was already ten paces ahead of her and hadn't even stopped to wait for her companion.
Mephisto waved them off before glancing up. He knew Shura wouldn't see past his tricks, not even Fujimoto did. She has a good eye with these things, this should be interesting. He grinned, he could feel Shura's glare and it made him smile.
"On the way back can you get me some more cup noodles, it seems that I am all out." He told them before they left, hopefully they would get it. He didn't feel like going to get it himself, which was quite lazy of him.
Kaori was trying to focus on something, anything else. The dream from last night had come back to her, and she figured out exactly whose voice it was she had heard.