Sumiko: Err... Enjoy? I'm so sorry I'm late.

To my anonymous reviewer:

Aurlie (): First of all, I'd like to thank you so much for reviewing! I really appreciate it. Real? Really? That's a huge compliment, even though I think that they have a long way to go before they seem even remotely realistic. Her exact age will be shown later on, but since they're in their third year, they would be around seventeen to eighteen years old, yes. Thank you so much. I find Midori the kind of girl that would start asking questions after she becomes familiar with someone, but yes, definitely. She may not be suspicious, exactly, but she'll probably be curious. I think it's fun, trying to see the world of Ao no Exorcist without knowing from the beginning about the demons and such. About your last comment, did you mean you could see her speaking to Mephisto's dog form? If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me. Yes, I do think that Midori could get close to an animal - after she stops being so *afraid* of them. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to review for this little old story - I really appreciate it and hope to hear from you again.

Phobophobia

Chapter 3 : Soteriophobia

She was there again the next day - at the very same spot. Due to the fact that it was underground, the light always touched the same areas, and so, she was still cloaked in shadows.

"Aren't you supposed to be on a mission?" he asked tiredly.

"What? Not happy to see me again?" There was an edge to her tone, and he instinctively slipped a hand into his pocket, feeling for the handle of his gun. She noticed. "I guess not... Anyways, who are you to ask me what I'm doing here? It's late, isn't it? What would a by-the-book teacher like you be doing here? Last I checked, classes didn't extend to eleven 'o clock at night..."

"And you are a student," he replied. "You haven't answered my question, N-"

"I don't like my name to be ruined coming from a mouth like yours, sensei."

His response was cutting. "Last I checked, it was no longer your name."

There was a heavy pause.

"I don't know how you found out, and frankly, I don't want to know. You're just making me want to kill you even more now..." Her voice was a forced calm. "To answer your question, I already finished my mission. And I honestly don't care what you're doing here, in front of the Records Room.

"What I do care about, is that your mutt is still running around leash-free, even after the little warning I so generously bestowed upon you." He sighed, but didn't remove his hand from his pocket.

"You haven't changed at all, I see." Her hands clenched into fists.

"I'm not the person I was when you first met me."

He smiled, and it was that kind of smile that was filled with regret.

"Oh, I know that." Her body twisted away from him, as though she was trying not to look at him.

"I'm leaving. Don't forget - if anything happens, I'll kill both of you."

"You aren't a murderer."

"Not yet," she stated coolly. "But I don't mind spilling a little blood when the situation deems it necessary."

To be honest, she had always been jealous of her - Kimiko, that is.

"'Morning, Midori," Kimiko yawned loudly.

"Good morning." She smiled.

Kimiko was both strong and intelligent, with grades at the top of the class in all subjects. Even though most students (and some teachers) feared her, everyone respected her. She called herself a rebel, but she didn't get into a fight without a reason and usually it was because she was trying to protect someone else - she only rarely fought because of an argument. The only exception was Rin.

"Hey, what do you think you got on that Math test yesterday? I swear I failed," she said with an exaggerated groan.

"Oh, I don't know." She hoped she passed - she had been studying all night for that test...

And the only other characteristic she really had of a delinquent (besides her attitude) was that she was constantly skipping school, and when she did come to class (once in a blue moon) she never disrupted it.

"So what's you get on the test? I managed a 95. Lu-cky!~"

"Oh, I got a 92..."

"Really? You're such a nerd, Midori."

Not to mention, she was that kind of fierce beauty - with wavy, waist-length, fiery red hair that matched her personality like nothing else, a mature face, an olive skin tone, deep brown eyes that were nothing like Midori's, and she was tall, almost one-hundred sixty centimeters tall. She had that sort of charismatic presence about her that just forced people to listen to her when she spoke. She would have been popular if she wasn't so tomboy-ish, and for those that dared to flirt with her, Kimiko only had to give them her signature Warning: get out of my face before I EAT you glare and they would run off with their tails between their legs.

"Kimiko-san..."

"Yeah?"

"I heard... you got into another fight yesterday..."

"Oh, that. Iseki was teasing first-years again. So I punched him."

Finally, Kimiko wasn't afraid of anything. Not once in her entire life did Midori ever see fear in her cousin's eyes.

"What? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Midori, did you not hear what i just said? I punched him. He apologized to the freshmen afterwards."

Midori was the exact opposite of that.

She was smart, yes, but Kimiko only called her as a 'nerd' because she studied a lot. Midori knew that even without sharing her notes with her, the girl could probably still ace her tests, and she hardly ever attended class! Kimiko's grades were sufficient compared to her's, and it was very, very, uncommon for her to beat her in a test. Unless the girl ditched that day. Anything physical-related was a lost cause for Midori, so it was safe to conclude she had never been in a fight. Even her arguments were pathetic.

"And you? Did you apologize to Iseki-san?"

"For what? Punching him?" Kimiko scoffed. "Of course not, I do that all the time. Reminds them who their leader is."

"Kimiko-san, that isn't very nice..."

"When was I ever a nice person?"

She gave up after that.

Her personality was timid and shy. She was a push-over, and scared easily. She had, at one time, been scared of her own reflection. She tended to stumble on her words when she was nervous or didn't know the person she was speaking to well (so, anyone other than her cousin).

"Yo, Nozaki, Nozaki's cousin."

"H-H-Hello."

"Get out of my face, Kanegawa. And my cousin has a name, you know."

Midori paled in the looks category too. Thin, soft, straight, and light brown hair that stopped just above her waist, and was usually tied half up so it didn't get into her eyes. Her brown eyes, usually obscured by her glasses, were nothing out of the ordinary, nor was her ivory skin color that was a result from spending most of her time studying indoors. A small, rounded face connected to a thin neck and a petite body. And her chest was a damn surfboard compared to most girls, Kimiko included. Her voice wasn't child-like, per se, but it was slightly softer than other girls in her year. And she was a measly one-hundred forty-eight centimeters tall. That, plus the fact that she wasn't known to speak very loudly (particularly when the person she's speaking to isn't Kimiko) combined, she...

"My, how adorable you are!" one of the elderly ladies told her at the supermarket a long, long time ago (two years, to be precise).

"A-Ah, thank you."

"How old are you, eleven? Twelve?"

"F-Fourteen, actually..."

She looked, and acted, like a first-year in middle school. The average 'pretty' Japanese school girl.

"Hey kid, are you lost? This is the high school division, you know," a student she didn't recognize confronted her last year.

"Um... I am in the high school division... I'm a second-year..."

"...Are you sure?"

Her only 'redeeming' quality was that she wasn't dependent.

...No, seriously.

Kimiko ditched school a lot, and although she usually ate with her during lunch, she was always with her delinquent friends after school until curfew. Kimiko invited her to hang out with them once in a while, but Midori never once accepted her offer - too many people. So they didn't see each other much. It was lonely, sure, but it was fine to her.

"Midori..." They were walking back to the dorms after classes for the day ended.

"Hmm?"

"I probably won't be coming to class as much this year... Thought I'd warn you."

"Huh? Why? Is something wrong?"

"No, no, I just... need to figure out what I'm gonna do after this year. And whatever I do, a high school education isn't gonna be a top priority. So I won't be seeing you a lot."

"Oh, okay."

And, Kimiko often bossed people around, but Midori had never felt the need to follow her every whim just to keep their relationship safe - they didn't work like that. They were friends. Even though Kimiko was her only friend, Midori could never consider them 'best' friends, and so avoided using the term.

In the beginning, it was a lot worse - back in primary school, Kimiko ditched school back then too, the wild thing she was, and Midori was always so, so lonely, because she was even more scared of everything back then than she was now. But she got used to it, and until recently, she had been perfectly fine.

Because recently, Kimiko started hanging out with her fellow delinquents more, and she was starting to skip out on their meetings at lunch too. In class, Midori saw her once, maybe twice on a good week.

They didn't share the same dormitory room (Kimiko roomed with some other third-year while Midori was lucky enough to have a room all to herself), but Kimiko liked to climb into her room through the window ("It's more exciting than using the stairs," she had told her) sometimes when she was bored. She would text her to open her window during these occasions and climb down a thick rope (she didn't know where the other teen had gotten it from) at a dangerous speed. It was a good thing Kimiko excelled at rock climbing, the building's walls were somewhat uneven, Midori's room was on the second floor and right below Kimiko's dorm, and her roommate was a seriously heavy sleeper - Kimiko had never fallen, and they hadn't been caught once. Of course, Midori didn't approve at all, and was seriously freaked out the first time she had done it. The last time Kimiko texted her had been during the last term of their second year.

But when they did see each other, Kimiko was still the same person she always was, so she was determined not to say anything, for the time being.

"Hey - wait up, Midori!" Kimiko called just as the small girl had left the girl's dormitory.

Her cousin hadn't shown up for lunch yesterday, so the last time they had seen each other was the lunch before the day before yesterday, when she had given her a week to make a new friend.

"Oh, Kimiko-san..." She had actually been wondering if Kimiko would treat her any differently after that day - apparently not. "Are you coming to class today?" She paused in her steps long enough to allow the girl to catch up to her.

"Mm. Don't I always walk with you on days I come to class, or was that just my imagination?" Midori opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off. "Anyways, what did I miss? I ditched, for like, a week, right? Where're your notes?" She opened Midori's bag and extracted the folder that held her notes. "According to some stupid law, I can't miss class - much - anymore, or I'll get kicked out. Hehe. Harsh, right? Now come on, before we're late," and she proceeded to grab her by the arm without taking her eyes off the notes.

"But..." Midori murmured, brows furrowed.

"But what?" Kimiko raised an eyebrow, looking back at her as she continued to drag her across the bridge that connected the girl's dormitory to the rest of the school.

"...Nothing."

But how am I supposed to give Okumura-san the notes with you in class with me? And how am I supposed to take a second set of notes in the first place with you sitting next to me?

It turned out there was nothing to worry about after all - Okumura Rin didn't show up to class. The bell for lunch rang when Kimiko reluctantly told her the reason for his absence.

"I heard the cretin had a family emergency, or something trivial like that." Only Kimiko could call a family emergency 'trivial'.

"Oh..." Biting the inside of her cheek, Midori slowly took out an extra sheet of paper for the second copy of notes.

"What are you doing? You know I always borrow your notes," Kimiko reminded the small girl when she noticed her transferring the notes to the other paper. "And besides, it's lunch. We have to get to the cafeteria before our table is taken - not that anyone would dare to..."

"Ah... I'm actually not that hungry, and these notes are... for..."

...It was because Kimiko didn't like him that she wanted to befriend him...

...Maybe if she became Rin's friend, Kimiko would set aside their differences and act more civilly towards him...

"...someone else," she finished. Smooth... "You told me to make a new friend, right?"

"Ah, about that..." Kimiko grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck, "you can just forget about it." Not quite sure she heard correctly, the brunette looked up at the girl, wide-eyed.

...She was taking it back?

After being so serious about it? To the extent of threatening to stop being her friend?

Midori had a right to be upset.

"Forget about it?" her voice was confused.

...But she didn't use it.

"I was just stressed out because one of the guys got into a meaningless fight, so don't worry about it," she said casually, not meeting her eyes. Midori continued to stare at her.

"Kimiko-san..."

"Now, I am going to lunch - you coming?" Midori shook her head. "Suit yourself." With an offhanded wave, she left.

She let her head fall on the table.

She messed that one up...

Sumiko: Soteriophobia is the fear of being dependent on someone.

Gah... This one is over way over 2,000 words... Almost 3,000, I think... but most of you seem to like longer chapters, so I guess it's okay... I split it into two chapters, but darn it, it just doesn't look right like that...

I know, It didn't even have any Canon characters... This was more of a get-to-know-the-main-OC chapter that everyone (myself included) hates. Blech. Maybe I should have just put the chapters together...

Please remember that I will respond to ALL reviews. If your review was anonymous, I will reply to it on the next chapter's author's note. Okay? Okay.

You know, every once in a while, I like to read REALLY bad fanfiction. Like, ones that are EVER WORSE than mine (Yes, it's possible... Have you read My Immortal? Dude, whether you read Harry Potter or not, just... read it)... and it makes me feel good about myself, as mean as it is.

Last Chapter's Question: What do you think of Mephisto? Good? Evil? Somewhere in between? Awesome? Irritating?

I find him in the middle, but I'm starting to like him more and more. He does what he wants and somehow makes EVERYTHING go the way he wants it to, even if he didn't plan for a certain thing to happen at all. He's crazy, and lives for amusement, but it's not to the point where he tolerates death/murder.

Chapter 3 Question: What do you think of Satan? What kind of demon do you think he really is?

I'm planning another story, just to let you know - a ShimaxOC. I don't have a title for it yet, but I'll inform you all when I post it... See my profile for more details...? Please?

Next Update: October 16, 2011.

~Sumi