Authors Note: Um… The first chapter is here?
~Chapter One: Art of Sealing~
"How ya' doin', Yukio?"
Yukio looked up from his lunch. Seeing the familiar faces, he smiled and responded with an 'I'm fine' and gestured to the seat next to his. The other students grinned and took their spots besides him.
These were his friends so far after the first week of True Cross Academy school life. Bon, a rowdy (and buff) but hardworking student with a rebellious stripe of blond cutting through his black hair; Konekomaru, who, in contrast, was of a much smaller build and wore nerdy glasses; and Shima, a 'womanizer' by all meanings of the word, and whose hair was a rather unfathomable pink. These three were a closely knit group of friends from the town of Kyoto who had all grown up together. Beyond these two, Yukio had also acquainted with Izumo and Shiemi, both girls who he did not get to meet as much. Izumo happened to be in his class in cram school, the school for exorcists-in-training, and Shiemi helped her mother at the herbal storage, to which Yukio often had to make errand trips to.
"I'm good, Bon. What about you?"
Bon took this opportunity with zeal. "Man, cram is so bothersome! In order ta' stay on top, there's so you gotta know, not ta' mention regular classes as well. If exorcist training weren't so interestin', I'd probably be studying right now!"
Yukio spared himself a smile before interjecting, "Forget I ever asked, Suguro."
"Hey! Don't ask when you don't want an answer!" With that, the four students settled into a comfortably silent meal, digging with a hurried 'itadakimasu.'
~†~
Cram school. The name of the section of True Cross Academy specifically designed for the education of students wishing to become exorcists- known as pages.
Yukio looked down at the intricate key he held. According to the chairman Mephisto, this key could open any door entering the cram school building. Yukio had seen it do its magic firsthand, but he still didn't understand how it worked, something that would forevermore piss him off.
With a mental shrug, he inserted the key into the plain door ('Probably a maintenance door') and turned clockwise. Upon entering the cram school, Yukio was greeted with rather over-exaggerated gothic style windows and designs. The high ceilings brought with them a sense of emptiness as his footsteps echoed through the hallway.
The classroom that Yukio's class was situated in today was a, at first glance, somewhat rundown room, with faded paint. The reason for this was told to them on the first day by an apprehensive teacher. Apparently they didn't want one of the newer classrooms to be demolished by any of the 'experiments' that were conducted in class, which subsequently caused the students to wonder what kind of training was in store for them.
The desks could each seat two people, and there were about four rows of four desks in each classroom. Currently, Bon and Konekumaru occupied a desk together, with Shima sitting alone besides them, dejectedly trying to get Izumo's attention while she was chatted vividly with Paku, one of her friends.
Taking a seat at the front of the classroom, Yukio sat for a moment before promptly wanting to fall out of his chair, which he didn't, because his outwards expression of emotions was quite dull at that time. The cause for his surprise was none other than a shy Shiemi standing awkwardly at the doorway, the teacher, Igor Neuhaus, behind her.
"S-Shiemi? What are you doing here? This is cram school!"
"Ah… Y-Yukio…" Shiemi looked down at her feet, her ears a fiery red. Neuhaus assuredly put a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"This is Shiemi Moriyama, a new student at cram school. She will be joining your class."
This was met by the blank stares of Izumo and Bon, a crashing which was Shima falling out of his chair, and Yukio… Well, Yukio just stared.
"Uh… Shiemi? Why are you attending cram school?"
The girl looked up. She embarrassedly shouted, "B-Because I want to be strong like you, Yuki-chan!" Bon snickered at the nickname Shiemi had given me a while ago, only forcing her to flush more.
"O-oh…"
After a pregnant pause, Shiemi walked- or rather, ran- to Yukio's desk, and plopped herself down next to him after asking consent. Another giggle-filled silence later, class was well under way, though Yukio couldn't help shooting glances every few minutes at Shiemi to try and understand her motives.
"Alright class, today we will be studying the art of sealing and magic circles, also known as the Art of Summoning. Pay attention." Neuhaus told the students to push all the desks to the edge of the classroom, leaving a wide open space, and pulled out (from seemingly nowhere) a piece of chalk. Kneeling on the floor, the teacher carefully traced out a complex summoning circle filled with ritualistic writing.
Neuhaus then pulled back his right sleeve, while doing so saying, "Don't step on the magic circle, or the summoning will be canceled." The classmates gasped at seeing the bandages wrapped around his hand, stained a light pink. He unraveled the cloth carefully, allowing a miniscule amount of blood to drip onto the summoning circle. "In order to successfully call forth a being, it is necessary to present any amount of your blood as well as an appeal."
Gesturing for the students to stand back, Nehuas chanted, "The son of Typhoeus and Echidna, answer my request and come out!"
An eerie moan issued from the summoning circle before Yukio witnessed a black blob emerging from the ground, taking the vague shape of a human on all fours. When the mysterious (as in, no one knew where it came from) smoke finally dispersed, a naberius remained in the center of the circle. Resembling a corpse, it emitted a rotten miasma and dripped black blood onto the floor. After Nauhaus was sure everyone'd had a good look at the foul demon, he used his foot to smudge the edge of the circle and the naberius disappeared in a cloud of putrid smoke.
Neuhaus looked each student in the eye before continuing, "Natural talent is essential for a tamer to be able to summon a demon. Now I'll be testing you for that talent. Everyone, please take one of these papers with summoning circles drawn on them, prick your finger to drip some blood, and chant any words that come to mind."
As the rest of the class shuffled forward to take a sheet, Yukio hung back, unsure. He already had his eyes set on becoming a dragoon, a master of long-range weapons, and therefore found no reason to try for a tamer. However, his inner curiosity won out, and in the end, Yukio took one as well.
"I ask the grace of Inari, the God of Harvest, to fulfill my prayers!" Izumo finished her appeal with a flourish, successfully summoning two quite beautiful fox-creatures- byakkos.
"Good job, Izumo. Simply splendid." Neuhaus looked genuinely impressed at Izumo's display. Yukio watched as Shiemi looked on in envy, and the Kyoto trio all sighed as they failed miserably, none of them having any taming ability.
"So cool!" Shiemi squeaked. "I want to try!" Holding her summoning paper out like some kind of seal, she said, "Come out, come out wherever you are~~ ... Just kidding!"
Yukio stood, flabbergasted by her aloof chant that actually seemed to work, for a small green demon resembling a teddy bear appeared in a haze of smoke. 'Nii!' it cried.
"Woah- So kawaii!" Shiemi gasped, clapping her petite hands around the equally small demon.
"... A greenman spirit. Quite rare." Even Yukio could tell that Neuhaus was much less enthusiastic this time. Izumo snorted at the small creature, muttering, 'pathetic,' under her breath. "Well, there seems to be a bumper crops of tamers this year, is there anyone else that wants to try?" Neuhaus turned to look at Yukio. "What about you?"
Yukio nodded, carefully keeping his face empty of emotion. According to the teacher, the appeal for summoning a demon should naturally appear in the tamer's mind, as if on instinct. Unfortunately, Yukio was not much of a man of instinct, so he instead relied upon his memories. Pulling a jumble of words out from a book he remembered Shiro reading to him as a kid, Yukio started chanting.
"Fallen angel from the sky
Bearer of eternal light,
Heed the calling for a prince,
Arrive in the flames of night!"
As soon as the words were out, Yukio knew he'd just made a mistake. A big one. He knew because there was an unsettling feeling of fear mingled with dread sitting at the bottom of his stomach, devouring his lunch. That and the fact that nothing happened. Yukio thought he'd just gotten a little too worked up, and that he'd just embarrassed himself in front of the whole class by muttering some creepy chant like a possessed woman. (Not that Yukio had anything against women.)
But then there was a blaze of blue light- a cyan explosion that hadn't been here when the other students summoned their familiars. It must've been fire, because an overwhelmingly burning blast of heat hit the exorcists-in-training's faces on full throttle, leaving most of them quite uncomfortable. When the flames died down, they left a plume of not-quite-smoke that looked gray but didn't smell or suffocate. As the not-quite-smoke floated away, the students could make out a figure, the demon that Yukio had summoned, standing in the middle of the floor.
After being able to see the demon clearly, even Neuhaus let out a gasp.
It was as close to a human as they believed a demon could get. In fact, at first sight, the creature was a human. 'It' was a navy-haired, averaged height teenage boy, with bright, electric blue eyes and a rather round face. He was wearing a red shirt under a black leather jacket, and ripped jeans. He had a strange, long object wrapped in a red bag slung over his back.
Upon closer inspection, however, it was apparent that he was not a human. He sported sharp, razor-like teeth, pointed ears, and a black furry tail, all signs of a human under demon possession. But he also had two blazing globes of fire at each side of the head, where a demon's horns might be, and the end of the boy's tail was burning the said flames.
"H-how... What..." the teacher spluttered.
Yukio could only nod along silently, as he was also at a loss for words. He most definitely did not recognize this demon from any of his demonology classes. Maybe they hadn't studied this type of demon before...?
But what happened next made everyone (if this was even possible) even more astounded.
With a sweep of the eyes, the demon straightened its back and opened its mouth.
"Where the fuck am I?"