Disclaimer: I don't own Blue Exorcist.


Chapter 2: The Menial Job

Ayame slumps, leaning on the back of the chair, and has her hood pulled up over her head while its tilted downwards. She wonders if sleeping would make her miss anything important. The consistent schedule and inactiveness was driving her mad. She's going crazy. I'm sitting here learning about things I already do.

Although, appearing to be asleep. She observes Rin. From what she's seen so far it seems as if he's either really stupid or not serious about becoming an exorcist. It's a problem either way. He sleeps through all of his classes and fails his assignments.

Is he only training to be an exorcist to survive? He doesn't seem motivated to be one. Confusion fills her. He seems like a careless slacker and nothing like the son of Satan she imagined. He's a walking contradiction. She can't tell if she's annoyed or bemused by his antics.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Yukio. "I'll be passing back your tests." The test made her want to scoff in disbelief. The questions were elementary. It's shocking to think that the "great Vatican's" recruits get it this easy.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Rin's loud laughter then a mocking voice. "A forty-one on your specialty subject." Shortly after his condescending comment he says meek sorry when he sees the two he scored.

A rougher voice spoke up. "Two percent? I couldn't get a score that bad if I tried. Quit tryin' to act cool for girls and study. You make me sick." Annoyance practically dripped from his voice.

After taking a look at the other boys test Rin spoke up in a disbelieving tone. "N-no way. A guy with an attitude like yours getting a ninety-eight percent doesn't happen."

The other boy got angry. "The hell?! Listen. You wanna know why I come these classes? To study hard an' get the right to be called an exorcist."

Yukio who continues to pass out papers calls out. "Ayame." With a sigh she sluggishly gets up and ambles to the front grabbing her paper.

The ranting boy continues. "It ain't just me. Everyone here is serious 'bout being an exorcist 'cept you and her." He points at the girl who just received her paper. "Half-assed punks like you guys should get the hell out of our sight." He finishes, fuming.

Rin immediately defends himself. "What gives you the right to say that stripe-head. I'm working to be an exorcist just like you guys!"

Meanwhile, Ayame raises her eyebrow and turns slowly around with an annoyed "Hah?" Test in hand, she loses the bored look on her face as she examines him before she dismisses him and the sleepy look returns again. Finding him unimportant, she tries to walk through their argument back to her seat.

Angry at being ignored he snatches the test out of her hand and promptly freezes. She had scored higher than him. She had gotten a perfect score. Incredulity and annoyance fills the striped haired boy. "The hell?! A perfect score? You don't even pay attention or put any effort. Why are you scorin' a hundred." How the hell is she doing better than me?!

Hearing that Ayame had gotten a hundred Rin also raises his voice incredulously. "Yeah. How're you gettin' a hundred? You're always sleeping too." How was she doing that. He thought he had someone who was equally bad at school. He had felt a sense of camaraderie with someone who slept and probably performed equally as bad.

She stares at them both nonplussed. Irritation fills her at their blatant insult to her intelligence. Calm down Ayame. It's only normal for them to be shocked. You don't even pay attention, she tries to rationalizes. Key word, tries.

Her bored expression changes into a patronizing smirk. Unable to help herself she provokes them. "Don't feel bad. A lot of people have no talent." In a deadpan voice and with that she turns to walk away.

The boys are being held back just as they were about to lunge at her. The rooster boy barks. "There's no way you managed to get that score. You obviously cheated." Then realizing what she said. "Also, don't put me in the same group as that idiot."

At the same time Rin say. "Shaddup. You're the stupid one. Sleepin' all the time." He says completely ignoring the hypocrisy in his statement. Hearing the pompous boy's retort Rin replies. "Hey. I work as hard as you." They suddenly remember the argument they were having and went back at each other's throats.

"Stripe-head" fires back. "I ain't seen you guys pay attention once. You guys both sleep through every damn class."

Ayame sits down and drops her head on her desk with a thunk. This class just gets better and better.


Sitting by the fountain the twin's are at, she stares up at the sky. She can't help but have a bad taste in her mouth as she spies on them. She was listening in on things not meant for her ears. She hears Rin talk as she waves away the thought. "The hell's up with that guy. Is he smart?"

His twin replies. "A prodigy. He's also attending with a scholarship."

Making a noise of annoyance he asks. "What 'bout the girl?"

Yukio hums in thought. "She does very well in school; not sure if she's on a scholarship though." He says recalling the information given about her. Her level of knowledge is extensive. Unease filters through Yukio.

Rin's expression pinches slightly. "So she's not even that great."

Yukio sighs in exasperation. "She may not be on a scholarship but that might be because she comes from a well off family. While she doesn't meet the requirements financially she definitely meets it academically."

Ayame sighs in frustration. She was supposed to be making friends with the Son of Satan not being enemies. Groaning she puts a hand to her forehead.. I'm an idiot. What am I doing. She just couldn't help herself. Annoyance swallowed her, not only were they arguing relentlessly about something so irrelevant they had to bring her into it.

She's above them in skill, knowledge, and experience and while part of her argues that it's not their fault in misjudging her skill, she is asleep half the time, the childish side of her is annoyed at being underestimated with all the effort she's put in. Blowing out a deep breath Ayame rips at the grass underneath her. I'm not used to these types of people my age but get it together. This is an assignment.

Seeing the arrogant boy from earlier, approaching Rin, grabs her attention. They snap at each other like children and she can't help but feel her resolve already falling. Self pity fills Ayame as she moans to herself.

Tuning out the pointless arguing Ayame pulls out a file from her bag she scans its contents. Mephisto had given her an assignment. Finally, tonight I can go out and actually do something. A delighted smile appears as she finishes reading the briefing.

She plans out a course of action as she analyzes the report. Ayame is intrigued this was the first time Mephisto had given her a job like this. Sabotage which wasn't completely unusual. But it mentions an organization she's known more as a story. The Illuminati?

Before she can think on it longer the signal for class starts and Ayame picks herself up and dusts herself off making her way to class.

Ayame stares at her nails thinking about tonight's mission as her teacher does a rundown of a Leaper's movements and attacks. The teacher annoyed at Ayame's blatant ignoring of him calls her to go down first. She slides down the hill and walks calmly into the rink as Tsubaki-sensei asks Paku to come down too.

As she stares at the chained leaper she realizes that she has no idea what to do. As the sensei gets into ready position she stares blankly at the demon with a hand on the rapier tucked to her side wondering if she's supposed to attack it. Only for Paku to grab her hand and quickly explain the directions.

"Thanks." Ayame replies. She was surprised. She hadn't expected anyone to approach her let alone help her when she brought it down upon herself. Paku smiled in return. Sensei pulled the lever and they took off running.

About four minutes in she could see Paku slowing down. Paku is panting and sweat runs down the side of her face as she struggles to keep her pace. Ayame is unphased. She looks like she's taking a nice walk rather than running from a demon. She could've kept this up all day. Not only were the demon's movements incredibly easy to read and not even close to the demons she got used to fighting.

Rin and Suguro watch her intently waiting to jump on her for screwing up. They become disappointed with each passing second as she looks unwinded and as bored as ever. Shima whistles, "Woah, Ayame-chan is pretty good."

Ayame hears the comments made about her and slows her speed next to Paku. Best not to catch attention so early in the game. Wait. Did I just call this a game? I'm spending too much time around Mephisto-sama. Caught up in her thoughts she notices a little too late that Paku's ankle gave. The Leaper seeing its opportunity lunges straight for her.

Ayame acting purely on instinct grabs her sheathed blade and slams it into it's eye. The Leaper falters and she sends a kick at it's head. It falls backwards and Tsubaki-sensei quickly reigns back the demon.

She grabs Paku's hand and pulls her up while patting her off. "Are you okay?" Paku just silently stares. "Hey? Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Worried Ayame looks her over for any injuries and is confused when she seems alright.

Paku speaks in a low tone full of shock. "How did you do that?"

Ayame freezes. Shit. I literally just told myself not to get attention and I go and drop kick a Leaper. She feels the urge to slam her face against a wall. She slowly looks up; afraid of their reactions. They all looked shock. Rin's mouth is dropped in an idiotic way and everyone else is wide eyed.

Resisting the urge to smack her head and say stupid over and over she calmly makes her way out of the arena and up the ladder. When she gets to the top she schools her expression to something nonchalant and looks for a spot to sit. Only to have Rin and Suguro almost run her over in their haste to get to her.

"What the hell was that?"

"How did you do that?"

"Are you some secret hitman?"

They bombarded her with question. She puts her hands in front of her defensively and sweatdrops. She tries to take small steps behind her. Only for them to take steps forward. It became too much for her and she screams, "SHUT UP."

They immediately fall silent and stare at her. "Are you done with the endless questions?" Not hearing them speak she continues, "I've had some training before I came here, alright?" Externally, she looks annoyed at the questions but internally she was sweating nervously. "I may have kicked that leaper and stalled it for a second but Tsubaki was there to reign it back in." They give her a dubious look. "I only pushed it back a little bit. Stop making everything a big deal."

Suguro still has a dubious look but Rin sufficiently satisfied goes on. "Well, it may've not been a lot but you sure looked cool." Rin pats her shoulder. Ayame tries to smile but it looks more like a grimace.

Suguro unsatisfied like Rin continues. "Training? If you've been receivin' training before you came here. Why not just continue under your previous teacher?" He raises a brow.

She slipped up and it gave him the opportunity to probe. Anxious to change the subject she says the first coherent reasoning. "My whole family was exorcists. They trained me before I came."

Suguro drawls out, "I see." The look in his eyes saying he didn't trust it one bit. Rin just nods along. Ayame, mentally sighing thinks, note to self. Work on lying.

Eager to get away she sits down by the rest of her peers and Rin and Suguro get called down into the arena. Feeling flustered Ayame tries to distract herself by planning out the rest of her mission. She's brought back to reality by the sight of Suguro kicking Rin to the floor. Facepalming, she wonders if telling Mephisto-sama that she can't do this assignment is worth his wrath.

Ayame watches them incredulously. With how childish they are how did they get in Cross Academy? She hears a phone ring and sees her supposed responsible teacher answer. Then he runs out while screaming something about... Neko-chan? Her eye starts twitch.

As always, it seems that Rin and Suguro got into another argument. Her eyes twitching faster this time she doesn't resist the urge to facepalm. Suguro is actually going down to pet the leaper. Crying in the inside she wonders how stupid everyone could get. Not that it's an extraordinary feat. He would just have to stay level headed. Suguro yells something that catches her attention. "I'm gonna defeat Satan!" Ayame feels a sense of nostalgia rush through her. Just like his dream.

A girl's laughter rings out and she mockingly she replies. "Did he say 'defeat satan'. What is he, a kid?" Ayame sees his posture tense up. A mix of worry and irritation fills her. Yes. Please. Taunt the guy who's walking toward the goddamn Leaper. Standing up she also tenses. Ready to jump at a moment's notice. I'm going to regret this. Catching attention like this twice.

The leaper reacts. Ayame, about to bound, sees a silhouette at the corner of her eyes. She see's Rin already vaulting down to the arena and dust is kicked up from the movement. The Leaper's mouth is wrapped around his torso, but power radiates from him and for the first time she feels almost threatened. Instinctively, her internal alarms go off.

The demon slowly opens it's mouth and pulls away with Rin petting it. Ayame smirks. She shouldn't have doubted Mephisto-sama. She could finally see the potential that he sa. Rin opens his mouth, "The one defeating Satan is me. Get lost." Ayame ponders, maybe it's not such an uncommon dream. She realizes who said the sentence and amusement fills her. Oh irony. The son of Satan is going to kill Satan.

The slightest noise of metal clicking catcher Ayame's attention to look up. There's a glimmer of reflected light in the exiting hallway. She sees a figure; it's out of sight from the other students, but Ayame is standing away from her peers which gives her a perfect angle to see the person. Making out brown hair and glasses she smirks. Of course. There's no way they'd just leave Rin unattended. I shouldn't have worried.


Ayame lies on her bed. Energy sapped from her, she wonders if everyday will be this exhausting. She tries to take a quick nap before her mission but her stomach grumbles. Realizing in annoyance she needs food she stands up and shuffles her way to the kitchen.

She walks in on the twins eating dinner. They stare at each other. Ayame wondering what do and the twins confused by her presence. After the silent staring goes on for about ten seconds she decides to put off an explanation for food. She continues her shuffle to the counter and grabs the food. Quietly thanking Ukobach she turns around.

Rin bolts up from his chair and hot broth spills on him as he's saying, "The hell? Why're you here?" Just realizing there's scalding soup on him he screams in goes to the kitchen and grabs a wet rag for Rin.

Meanwhile, Ayame sits at the table eating her food with a quick "thanks for the meal" waiting for everything to calm down. When everything settles she says a simple, "I live here." Before she goes back to eating. Rin and Yukio sit waits for her to elaborate. She doesn't.

Impatient Rin says. "What do you mean you live here? These dorms are abandoned!"

"Mephisto-sama put me here because we weren't sure if I was transferring to regular classes." Practically inhaling her food she quickly finishes and sets her chopsticks over rice bowl. She claps her hands together, "That was delicious." Nonplussed by either of the twins' disbelief she gathers her empty plate and places it on the counter.

Irritated at the blatant dismissal, Rin grabs her wrists to halt her. "Why are you always like that?" He snaps. Ayame raises a brow. "You don't even bother to explain yourself and just leave. Like it's beneath you!"

Her eyes widen a tiny bit. Ayame didn't realize how short she was being with everyone. She's so used to getting straight to the point or expecting them to know what's going on. Ayame exhales slowly. "I'm sorry if I came off as short. It's just, um, the different environment unsettles me ." She smiles awkwardly. Ayame internally scoffs. What kind of excuse is that. And who the hell says 'environment unsettles.'

With that the bluenette boy's ire washes away. He laughs, "Oh, so you're just shy. Huh, why didn't ya say so?" He pats her shoulder roughly. She silently congratulates herself for the successful lie.

"Uh? Yeah, that. Sure." Playing along. Yukio watches the exchange with interest, but decides to make no comment. Eager to get away she pulls away from Rin. "Anyways. I'm going to get some rest. Seeyakaybye." She bolts.

Reaching her room she slams the door shut and lets out a breath. Rin is just too unpredictable. She feels a headache from the thought of dealing with him. Pushing aside thoughts of Rin she sits at her desk.

Pulling out the information Mephisto has given her she rereads it to make sure she hasn't missed anything. Unwrapping a lollipop she sticks it in her mouth as she sets on memorizing the blueprints.

Looking at the time she realizes it's late enough to head out. She haphazardly takes off her uniform and tosses them on the floor. She puts on old leggings and a black shirt. She buckles on a belt which carries supplies and her dagger. Ayame knots on her combat boots and pulls on leather gloves. Lastly, she grabs her coat and straps her sword in.

Excitement and adrenaline fills her as she heads out the front of the male dorms. Trekking her way out of school; unbeknownst to her, in the shadows two pairs of eyes follow her out. The glasses perched on his nose gleams before she leaves his line of sight.


A/N: Hi guys... I updated this so late... Literally, life is kicking my ass right now. Sorry. ;_; Anyways. There are probably mistakes because it's unedited and it's like 3 AM right now. I should also probably get a beta. I have this under control guys. I swear. I just really wanted to get this chapter up because I meant to post this like way, waaaay back. My irresponsibleness aside. Ayame slips up. Yukio is suspicious. Bon is suspicious. Rin is as oblivious as ever 3. Also, I don't think I've been subtle but I hope you noticed Ayame is odd. In a lot of ways c: Thanks to everyone that reads, follows, favorites this. Thanks for constructive criticism and reviews. :D Also with bearing with my awkward grammar.