The next few days were a haze. It was hard to unwrap old feelings from new ones, dawning realizations couldn't entirely cleanse old bitterness and this new hurt couldn't replace older ones. The age gap was perhaps the hardest part, Izumo was mature for her age and always had been to make up for her mother's deficit, but that did not mean that she wasn't still a child and didn't suffer from the restraints of an only budding perception.

She hated her mother in a sense, but it was a hate born from pain, not rage. She also loved her, wanted to protect her, wanted to release her from her burden like the pseudo mother she'd had to act like in the face of this endearing immaturity. There was a common misconception that when you hated something, then you turned your back on it, if you hated a man; you could not help him. As complicated as her feelings were, Izumo could see in this hindsight that she did not truly hate her mother at all, but hated the weaknesses IN her mother; those that led to the destruction of their lives. Those weaknesses existed in her too, no amount of lashing out at others was going to remove them, no amount of punishing and pulling and scratching at herself was going to help either.

Whatever might become of her though, whether she went the way of her mother or made something of herself, she was calmed to her core with the knowledge that her sister… her beautiful innocent sister would be neither of them. It was hard to look at herself in the mirror and know in her heart that she had nothing to offer her baby sister, that any family pangs she had were one sided selfishness, clinging to a past that needed to be wiped clean.

Wiped clean…

This was perhaps the forth time she'd been consumed in her own thoughts while Shiemi had been talking, the blonde girl saw fit to go quiet is time, lowering her gaze slightly. Izumo lifted her head when the silence finally caught up with her and she pulled her lips slightly, hanging her head so that her hair shadowed her expression for a moment, worried that Shiemi might melt away from the implications of being ignored she took this moment to force herself up and stood. Her legs felt stronger than she'd expected, her hands…lighter, she put a hand on the other girls shoulder and basked in that glowing sunshine smile. "I-I'm sorry…. I'm not helping am I? I should let you rest…y-you were amazing, though…"Shiemi stumbled out, it was clear she didn't wnt to go, though and equally afraid of staying.

Izumo frowned slightly, wondering where that admiration came from, why Shiemi saw it in others and not in herself, the small, frail, blonde girl had been far more heroic, for much longer. Wiping a few frustrated tears from the corners of her eyes, Izumo shook her head, she tried to say something, anything but when she parted her lips her throat closed up and she could do nothing but close them again, trying to work up what it was she should express.

Shiemi, noticing her struggle, could hold back no longer and hugged the struggling Izumo tightly, blushing a deep red in both happiness and embarrassment toward these small acts of friendship she was so unfamiliar with.

"Thank you… for coming for me." Izumo finally managed, in a small voice.

"You're welcome! We promise we won't bring Rin next time! Since he tried to bur-" The irritating familiar sound of Shima chirping away the moment he pushed open the door made Izumo flinch out of the hug with the other girl, slapping on her poker face, she narrowed her eyes at the nonchalant pink haired boy, the rest of their band of misfits piling in behind him. Shima held his hands up in surrender when she glared at him like that , laughing nervously and stopping his approach dead. The others laughed a little nervously too, being so close to the obvious target but they kept moving into the room, eventually leaving Shima standing vulnerable on his own in the doorway.

Rin walked clean into the back of Shima's head when he came in rounding the corner while fishing through a shopping bag,. He knocked the poor guy a few steps closer to Izumo than the last few days had proven was allowed, a sheepish smile broke out on his face as he mumbled out an apology to the pink haired exorcist, though the sounds of two fox spirits chewing Shima to pieces rather overshadowed the sentiment, especially when the half demon flicked his tail seemingly uncertain if he should help. Rin glanced at the more responsible members of the team to see if they had anything in mind, he had no real clue what to make of Shima's betrayal in all honestly, even having fought him a few times, the half demon couldn't be convinced his classmate was all that dangerous but the others probably understood more than he did about it anyway. it took a good long moment for Bon to sigh and heave Shima up by the back of his shirt and drag him out of the room, promising to bring everyone back some drinks, pausing too in front of Izumo and letting her know with a simple hand to the shoulder, that he was glad she was alright.

Izumo squirmed a little, somewhat uncomfortable being in just long night shirt in front of pretty much half her class, but it was good that they were all here, really. It wasn't just Shiemi she had to thank, after all. Plucking up her courage and convincing herself this wasn't weakness, Izumo stepped forward, put her hands on her legs, clutching her own fingers desperately and bowed low, low enough that all she could see was her gauze wrapped feet. Her dark, straight hair fell over her shoulders like a curtain, not up in their usual pony tails, she felt her cheeks and eyes go hot, testing all her willpower not to cry. She couldn't even figure out why she wanted to cry, but it didn't feel bad, strange as that sounded.

"Thank you all… so much…" As much as she struggled, as much as she wanted to say so much more, she clenched her fingers and found she wasn't quite strong enough just yet. Change didn't happen in a few days apparently, even as much as she wanted it and willed it.

Rin couldn't say he remembered too much of what happened, the others had told him he ran in and there had been fire everywhere. It hadn't been to bad at first, but the fight must have been rough because when he was trying to subdue the nine tails, the flames had gotten so hot none of them could get near let alone see anything that happened in the epicenter. They had said it to his face, so Rin could see the flickers of concern, of how close he might have been to burning someone off the face of the earth. It was strange through, it hadn't felt like that, like it had when he lost control or even when he stood before the king of rot and released as much power as he could.

Izumo was still bent over, Rin could see some colour on her ears, apparently she blushed like Yukio when she was super embarrassed, he smirked a little, flicking his tail behind him from side to side. He and it paused however, noticing some of the bandaging on her through, a large amount of padding was over her shoulder, her collar bone, her arms and feet were well bandaged too, but it wasn't quite as awkward to her movements. Her hands,arms,feet and legs had the worst of the necrosis, but what happened to her neck?

"You can count on us!" Rin flashed a big toothy grin, and Izumo looked up, almost in shock when he answered, their eyes met and both of them twitched. Blue flames flickered to life on Rin's head and skirted through his eyes, which tensed and slit hackles raised. A set of coppery gold slitted pupils glared back at him from between strands of Izumo's dark hair as she righted herself.