Kuro sat on my head as I traipsed after Rin like a little lost puppy. The cat sidhe and I had hit it off upon first meeting in the dorm the night of the trial. He was adorable and friendly. According to Rin, the twin-tailed neko thought the same of me.
A yawn escaped me as we headed to the classroom for some summer cleaning. Yukio had told us earlier about it without so much as a "hello" thrown my way. It irritated me, but I'd let it slide as I was too winded to care. I'd been staying in the dorm with the others again as Rin refused to let the "pervert" have his way with me. Mephisto hadn't fought it, oddly, and I had no choice in the matter. I'd reverted to my normal study behavior, training sessions with Rin, and waking the sleepyhead up at a decent hour.
I, however, was suffering from my friend's snoring every night as Rin had insisted we share a room for the time being. Although rough around the edges and quick to flare up at any perceived slight, the older Okumura twin possessed a trustworthy trait. He had grown protective of me and would never try anything. He was just concerned of Mephisto attempting such things although he'd never admit such in so many words...
Sleeping in the same room hadn't bothered me and we respected each other's privacy when changing. One would leave the room while the other switched clothes. I was used to it as I'd grown up with a male cousin or two my age and my mother babysat frequently for extra money to make ends meet. Rin, on the other hand, clearly wasn't as he'd grown up with monks all his life and had only a brother. No females, other than the ones in his school...
"Rin? Why did you build of fort?" I mumbled in a daze. I'd woken up that morning only to glance over at the other bunk to see a mound of pillows and blankets. Even Kuro had nowhere to sleep, so he'd come to curl up next to me...
It took me a while to dig through the mess to wake sleeping beauty there...
"Huh? Uh, no reason!" he rushed out in a nervous manner, sweating.
"Uh-huh," I hummed, not buying it. Did he really need to build a physical barrier to hide my presence? It wasn't as if we were sleeping in the same bed or anything of the sort. He really got nervous around the opposite sex...
"Shut it, Kuro!" Rin abruptly snapped, startling me enough to jump back a couple feet. "Oh, sorry, Mana. Forgot you can't hear him..." Embarrassed now—more so than before—he raced the rest of the way into the school and down the hall. I stared after him for a moment before following at a more-sedate pace.
"He's worse than a teenage girl in love," I breathed out while shaking my head at his unusual behavior. Kuro mewled loudly from his place nestled in my hair, as if agreeing with me. A smile pulled at the corners of my lips. "You know, it's not as if the second he leaves me alone, someone is going to swoop down and—"
"Ah! Kitten, there you are!"
I froze. Speak of the devil... "Did I just jinx myself?" I turned towards the voice behind me, ignoring Kuro's light growl at whom he perceived as a threat. As if the gods themselves were playing with me, there stood Mephisto Pheles in all his jester-like glory. Even his hat sat proudly atop his head since Rin had thrown it at him when we'd last seen him a couple days ago.
"Mephisto?" I spoke his name in confusion, already feeling the familiar heat stirring in my belly at his mere presence. I frowned at the knowing glint in his green eyes. I'd begun to notice that the feeling only came around when Mephisto was near. The embers had died for Rin and Amaimon. Speaking of Amai-kun...
I was about to ask his whereabouts when I noticed that the Demon King was not alone. Yukio had accompanied him. My jaw promptly shut and I coughed awkwardly into my fist, unable to meet the boy genius's eye. We'd only spoken a few curt words since Rin's trial. Most of those pertained to Rin and I sharing a room next door...
"I heard from Mr. Okumura here that you've been bunking with Rin Okumura, is that right?"
He came right out and asked. Straight to the point. Almost as if he'd read my thoughts.
"Uh..." came my clever reply, mind blank as I wasn't looking forward to this awkward conversation. I knew it was bound to come sooner or later, but I'd really been banking on the later.
Mephisto's gaze hardened at my obvious trouble with answering, but he never lost that carefree grin. Instead of pressing the issue further, he simply dropped it altogether and strode past me down the hallway, his boots clicking on the multi-colored tile. I tilted my head at the brush-off, a little hurt by the disregard, but recovered quickly when I realized I needed to be in the classroom, too.
I followed Mephisto and Yukio to the room just in time to see Bon punch Rin. Protective instinct surged through me at the sight and I flung myself at the bigger guy, effectively sending him back a few feet. Kuro's snarl said enough for the both of us as I settled for glaring at Suguro, Rin safely behind us, his blue flames licking harmlessly at my bare legs.
"Mana?" the larger boy recognized before narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists. "Why the hell are you protecting him?! He's a son of Satan!" The rest of their classmates had gathered behind him, Shiemi and Izumo hunched over as if attacked mere moments ago. I took in the scene with curious eyes. This was sort of like the anime but not quite. Mephisto's presence certainly had not been in the original timeline...
"He's my friend," I stated in a voice I'd use for a child not understanding a simple thing. "Who care who his father is?" Kuro jumped to my arms having leapt to the ground earlier to protect me and his master had it been necessary. "Baka," I muttered beneath my breath, loud enough for him to hear. The rage in his eyes shook his whole burly body. I was certain he'd have laid me out flat in the blink of an eye had I not been a girl. He held true to his old-school virtues, I'd give him that...not that I needed it. I'd claw his beady little eyes out if the situation warranted such. When it came to those I cared about, very little would stand in my way to keep them safe.
"Friend?! He's evil, Mana!" Even Konekomaru had spoken up against Rin, only to shrink back upon realizing he'd spoken aloud. I ignored their familiar use of my first name, used to hearing such in America and well-aware that "Feldman" felt unusual to say.
"Since when?" I bit back, flicking my eyes at Mephisto and Yukio who both seemed content to just watch this argument. I could feel my anger growing at everyone's outright stupidity in this world, but I kept reminding myself that everyone here had horrible encounters with Satan. It was him they hated and what he had done to their families. They took it out on Rin who turned out to be a convenient scapegoat. No, never mind the fact that Rin had absolutely no control over someone he'd never met except the one time the King of all Demons had tried to drag him to Gehenna...
I didn't even realize I'd spoken my thoughts aloud until the deafening silence registered in my head. Even to my own ears, I sounded cold and hateful. Mephisto looked amused, but everyone else seemed disturbed and clearly upset. Dare I say, even a bit ashamed.
A hand settling on my shoulder pulled my attention to Rin—who'd gotten to his feet—an unreadable expression on his face. Yukio seemed to know exactly what would happen next as he stepped forward and dragged Rin out of the classroom just as the latter started to scream and argue right back at his former friends. The door slammed shut behind the pair, giving them privacy for a brotherly discussion. I was pretty sure Yukio was simply warning his brother not to lose control of his flames or he'd have to kill him. Something the Vatican had informed him of, no doubt.
"If you're going to blame the kid for the father's crimes, then you'd better kill me, too," I spat in a low voice, passing Mephisto as I, too, left, not bothering to glance back to see their reactions. Rin and Yukio were nowhere in sight, clearly having used another room to talk, so I just left the exorcist school and started back on the trek to the dorm. Kuro mewled softly in my arms, but never left me. I could sense his concern, somehow, but tried my best to ignore it.
I finally remembered where I'd seen that man before—the one coming at me with a knife and loathing in his eyes...
It had been my real father.
That's right. He'd tried to kill me, one day, tired of simply abusing me with whippings and starvation. It had been my seventh birthday—my sister barely a year old—so I'd come home with cookies from my grade school teacher. I'd been ecstatic getting gifts for the first time and something sweet that I hardly ever got without a relative sneaking me some.
He didn't like it, though...
A sob choked me, tears gathering on my lashes at the memory—so vivid now—of the delicious treats crashing to the floor, my father's face a dangerous purple from how furious he'd been. My mother had stood off to the side—wide-eyed and frozen in terror—even as the knife found its way to the jerk's white-knuckled fist. I could remember thinking "why?" even as he raised the blade up, glinting in the little bit of light slipping in through the blinds. Instead of worrying about myself, though, my eyes had found the pudgy little face of my little sister and the horrifying image of such happening to her...
The ground jarred my body when I dropped to my knees, tears freely flowing down my ashen cheeks. How had I forgotten that? Was it repressed? It was certainly a traumatic experience, but I couldn't recall what happened after a flash of white covered my vision... My real father had died that day. I remember that now. The man I'd thought had been my dad all these years had simply married my mother a few months later. Until recently, all memories before that second marriage had fled from my mind...or had been buried so deep that they couldn't be recovered.
So, why now?
Kuro was yowling loudly at my knees, frantically running back and forth as I shook at the horrible memory. It took me a long time to even realize that there was a voice accompanying his unearthly screeches.
'Someone! Help! Help! Help! What's wrong, Mana?! Riiiiiinnnn!!!' It sounded like a child, almost. The voice reverberated in my head enough for me to conclude that I wasn't imagining things.
"Kuro?" I whispered before darkness clouded my vision and I crumpled the rest of the way to the concrete. I hadn't gotten far from the cram school classroom—barely even outside the door to the building it was in. Right before completely-losing consciousness, I heard an all-too familiar voice followed shortly after by a pair of arms sliding beneath me.
"Oh, Kitten," it called in a steady tone. "What shall I do with you?"
The pitch black soon made way for a snowy white...