Well sorry for not updating for Christmas or anything, but better late then never! Thanks all you who have thus far supported this story with your reviews. And those that haven't...Phf! I don't care! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to even bother clicking the link to the story! To your pleasure here you go!

Chapter 11

/Rin sprawled on the bus floor and crossing her arms, huffed,

'I just can't win can I?'

Kuro spilled out of the bag with a very interesting thing in his mouth.

'Rin! I caught a hamster!' /

Rin sighed sitting at the back of the bus as it pulled away from the curb headed south of the station. It was 10:38 AM and she was holding up a mutant hamster.

'Is this color even natural?'

Her eye twitched, a green-furred hamster hung from her finger tips struggling in her grasp as she poked it in its pale beige stomach with her right index finger. It had magenta eyes and a short lighter-green spike on its head. The inky-blue haired exwire raised an eyebrow and set it down on her lap pointedly glaring at Kuro—who mewled pathetically overwhelmed by the day's events, so that he wouldn't try to eat him again. 'At least I think it's a he...How do you even check that on a hamster?'

She tilted her head quizzically, sighing again while rubbing her right eye in frustration. All the while keeping the rodent from escaping by holding him down with her left hand seeing how her right was preoccupied at the moment. She glanced forward at the front of the bus headed to the Inokashira Park. Shura said it would take about ten to fifteen minutes to get there, depending on traffic, then stuck Rin back here so she could have a seat to her-self to take a cat nap. Izumo and Shiemi sat a little further up and the rest of the bus was full.

Except at the back. The small exwire sat alone at the back with plenty space to dump her bag and lay Kurikara on the bench and still have room to sit comfortably, jackets pooling around her, fluffy tail swishing gently. 'Probable because there are no windows to look out of back here. It's a good thing too, if any one saw this thing they would probably run screaming out of the bus. Or try to kill it.'

The small creature was still wiggling around trying to get away. Rin decided to take pity on the poor thing, but not letting it go, she started petting it—trying to calm it down from its near death experience—on the head smoothing down the spike with a single finger and letting it spring back up, then repeating the action. The hamster immediately stopped squirming and nuzzled into her palm. She smiled and ran her finger all the way back to its spine and it wiggled, happily rolling over. She giggled and scratched its stomach. 'I'm glad a saved this little guy from getting eaten by Kuro.'

Rin had snatched the green hamster from Kuro's jaws hoping it wasn't dead. It was breathing softly a bit stunned from being caught by the demon sith. As soon as she made sure it was, in fact alive, she scolded Kuro so badly that he curled into a ball and sat far away from the two of them. She never saw the hamster glare at the cat causing Kuro to mewl and tuck his tails under his legs. Satisfied it got back to trying to escape as Rin decided to pet it. Kuro was so scared he never told Rin that the animal she was holding was in fact a very powerful demon. Rin kept petting him oblivious, smiling softly as the bus made its way to the park.

[With the boys…]

'This is it.'

The bus arrived earlier then Yukio expected at the hotel they were planning to stay at. They had gone down Kichijōji Dori to the hotel Kichijōji Dai-ichi to the north of the train station and Mitaka in Musashino.

The building was painted a light shade of white and beige and looked a bit light pink in the shadowed parts. But it was big and apparently had 81 guest rooms with windows that could be used to observe the street in case of trouble. Low lights lit and with the soft murmur of the guests transited into a nice luxurious, peaceful atmosphere in the entrance. The inside was big and spacious, the floors and walls a nice shade of white with sensible décor that even Mephisto would appreciate. The front desk was made of dark wood shined to perfection and a polite young looking employee greeted them as they came in. Yukio pulled out the very shiny looking plastic card that was to be used for expenses on the mission and handed it to her to ring up three separate rooms for the exwires, Angel and him-self. Angel and him would share one room, while Bon, Shima another and Konekomaru and Takara the last.

Yukio just prayed he didn't end up shooting the man. It would cause unnecessary questions from Sir Mephisto. Plus it would not be very professional of him if he ended up injuring a co-worker while on a mission. The spectacled exorcist had a reputation after all. 'Not that he doesn't deserve it…'

Yukio shook those disturbing thoughts out of his head and after obtaining the keys came back to the group milling about in the hotel lobby. Handing out the keys Shima asked,

"So how long are we staying? I mean this missions only going to take a few days at the most right?"

Angel shot back, not waiting for Yukio to reply in his holier-than-thou tone,

"It will take as long as it takes to find the devil responsible for the murders and kill it. We don't leave until that is accomplished."

The next words out of the fair-skinned professor killed him inside, but he said it none the less.

"Angel's right. Sir Pheles said to take as long as we have to find the culprit behind these mysterious homicides. But for now let's move to our separate rooms, put down our equipment and get something to eat, alright? I bet everyone is hungry from the events of this morning. If everyone would meet down here in fifteen minutes or so, it would be great. We can go scouting around the park after we verify that Shura-san's group has made contact with the Benzaiten sect."

Yukio glanced at his watch and reported,

"Its 10:53 now so meet down here at 11:10, then we eat."

Everyone nodded; even Angel and they all strode toward the escalators to the hotel rooms. They never saw felt or saw the pair of eyes that followed them as they went up. Takara did slowly glance behind him-self as he felt as if they were under surveillance. He cataloged it in the back of mind, but his face showed no interest or even registered that he had noticed they were being watched. The feeling was gone as soon as it had come. When the notion of something strange was going on crossed his mind, he mumbled to his puppet and it replied silently, grinning and crossing its stuffed arms in a cocky show of courage. Takara nodded his head at the conversation and went quiet.

The others barely noticed as he followed them up to the rooms, no one had seen him converse with the rabbit and even if they had they wouldn't have thought it any stranger then the other times Takara would talk to the supposed "ventriloquist puppet". They would never understand that the puppet was so much more then it let on. Takara would never tell them either. Their job was a simple one; at least in the specifics. After all, how hard was it to guard three silly children?

[Shura's group…]

"This is it?"

Rin looked up at the shrine in front of her. It was 11:20 and they had finally gotten off the bus and walked following the side walk across a crystal green lake with trees lining the lake on all of its sides. Summer wasn't over yet, but the hint of the seasons changing in the air could be seen by the tint of red and gold in the leaves, and every now and then a cool breeze would blow away the heat that caressed and beat on their skin.

The shrine in front of them was a deep red with dark blue curtain-like blankets covering it. At least that's how Rin thought it looked like. There were several stone lanterns and the place looked really fancy all painted up with very few crumpling or chipped parts in the structure. 'Che, probably because tourists come here and the park officials don't want it lookin' like a dump.' Rin patted her jackets inside pocket, feeling the lump that was the mutant hamster squirm in there. His head poked out and sniffed the air. The exwire poked his head back down after petting his spike to soothe him into sitting still. After her little discovery Rin played with the little guy the whole way to the Park. She hid him in her jacket as soon as they got off. 'No use in spooking the girls.'

It was funny even though Rin was a girl at the moment she still felt very much like her normal self if you subtracted the extra weight she carried around up front. And it was kinda' enjoyable, normally guys would seize each other up on the street seeing if you would cause trouble in their territory. It wasn't like that for girls. After all most knuckle-headed guys thought girls were part of the territory. Rin learned that soon enough being around Shima for as long as she had during Cram school and the fiasco that was now referred to by the exwires as the Kyoto Incident.

Rin sighed feeling the stares of boys drilling into her from every direction as she walked with the rest of the females. Not use to that sort of attention Rin walked a bit faster and fought down a blush as male hormones compelled the onlookers to swivel their heads as they made their way to the shrine.

Thinking back Rin just wanted to take a nap that would probably send her to the deepest depths of limbo. And after that eat some yummy meat and find out what exactly the hamster in her hidden pocket was really. 'No hamster on God's green earth would be green…maybe it's an alien hamster like in a manga?'

Shura looked at the directions in her hand and started walking to the back of the shrine. Shiemi voiced her confusion.

"Kirigakure-san where are we going?"

"Ter the back princess, that's where the entrance is."

"Oh, ok."

Rin heard Izumo snort in disdain and rolled her eyes. Eyebrows could be such a tool some times. If there was such a thing as a female tool. She would have to ask her brother Yukio later on the subject. As they approached the back a grey statue rose up out of the ground on its matching stone pedestal.

A woman in flowing skirts stood atop a stone lotus with something in her hand. Rin couldn't figure out what it was, but she didn't voice her question. There was also a hat on top of her hair that was strange looking, but rather than risk the wrath of Izumo's fierce criticism Rin kept her mouth closed. There was an inscription in tan on a green background on the pedestal, but it was written in funky kanji and she couldn't read it. 'Maybe if Yukio was here I would ask what that says…'

Shura stopped and bent down still holding the paper instructions in front of her.

"Ok, so if I do this and then add, no I do that first…huh, what the hell is this? Maybe if I…no! I'm gonna kill Mephy, I can't make heads or tells of this thing."

All three girls looked at their instructor then at each other—and sighed.

"Kirigakure-san do you need help?"

Shiemi, ever the helpful little girl came forward to assist Shura in decoding the wonky instructions; she placed her bag down and stood over her shoulder tilting her head to get a look at the paper they were on. The plum hair-colored Izumo leaned back on her feet and then went to help as well.

"Huh? Help, nah I doubt yer can help. This shit looks like gibberish to me; looks like some kid scribbled on it—a child that was on a sugar rush."

That caught Rin's attention, her gaze snapping back to Shura as she had started looking around the place admiring the grass, trees, and flowers.

"Huh? Like someone drew on it?"

Shura stood up dusting off her jean shorts and handed the paper to her.

"Yeah, Mephisto told me that he had drawn a diagram of what to do for gaining access ter the underground sect with written instructions, but that diagram is like someone tried ter color inside the lines and did everything except in the lines. And the instructions are just as weird."

The inky-black exwire shook her head and sighed, tail wagging back in forth in amazement. The map and words was drawn and written in what looked like purple and pink crayon and it was nearly indecipherable; at least to anyone that had never seen Mephisto's artistic skills. The kanji were neat and elegant, but a bit lopsided because of the crumbling crayon they were written in.

"I know what it is."

The rest of them looked skeptical—well as much as Shiemi can—and crowded closer to the half-demon.

"Really? It looks like scribbles to me."

Izumo sniffed and gazed around in disdain then looking back dead-panned,

"Is that really the best the Principal can do? It looks like a cupcake, which was horribly sprinkled, then massacred."

"I think it looks like a castle."

"Nah, yer seeing things, that's gotta be a tree. Nyaa~"

Rin shook her head in vague amusement and pointed to the top of the drawing.

"You see this knob at the top, that's a hat and that thing sticking out of the middle is an arm." She pointed at the base of the drawing, "And that's the pedestal of the statue with the weird kanji on the plaque."

She pointed to the statue itself. Everyone was impressed with Rin's deduction skills. They couldn't have seen that in a million years.

Rin's tail wagged appreciably and she blushed rubbing the back of her head, pony-tail jiggling to the side.

"It's nothin'; the clown showed me some pictures he drew a while back; after Yukio sent me into his office when he performed my last physical. He also did something called the Rorschach test."

Izumo raised her eyebrow.

"The inkblot test? Why would he give you that?"

Rin crinkled her nose in confusion.

"Huh? No, Yukio gave it to me. After I gave all the documents to Mephisto he read them while I stood there—for what seemed like forever—and then pulled out a bunch of his own." Rin rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Except they were his drawings and made with crayons." Rin shook her head in derision.

"He wanted to see if he could do it too, plus he wanted to know what I thought about his pictures. It was…well, an interesting visit to say the least."

Shiemi giggled and grabbed her bag off the ground—though she struggled with lifting it up. Izumo narrowed her eyes crossing her arms.

"Why is it that you talk about the Principal so casually? Everyone else—well besides Kirigakure-san—" she glanced sideways towards their stripperific sensei. "Calls him formally. Yet you're always saying the "clown" or just his first name."

The exwire was caught off guard by this and just shook her head after rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Well, I really don't trust the clown. The kusojijii may have made him Yukio and I's guardian, but I don't think of him as anything, but the clown."

Izumo blinked with her mouth a little open the other two mirrored this expression. Finally, Shura, after coughing in her hand raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, so ya mean to tell me that the geezer put down Mephisto's name for guardianship of the two of yer?"

Rin nodded her head not in the least perturbed by said action having already gotten over long time ago. Shura just snorted and shook her head in disbelief.

Turning to the statue she kept shaking her head. 'That guy…what exactly is he playing at? And Shirō, what the hell?'

"Read the instruction ter me, kiddo."

Everyone did a double take when Shura changed the subject, but the sneer on her face kept back any questions they might have asked.

"OK. It says to face the statue then draw some blood and trace the kanji on the statue—oh and add a heart at the bottom. Wait…what?"

Everyone turned to face Rin. She gulped, sweat dropping and showed the paper to them. And sure enough Mephisto had drawn a heart at the bottom of the instructions.

The head shaking became more pronounced as Shura's eye stated twitching in annoyance. 'Damn demon he's just playing mind games with us.' The Upper First Class Exorcist bit her thumb and bending down did as Rin instructed her. The blood as soon as it touched the stone sank in; leaving no trace or stain to suggest it was even there to begin with. She added the heart with a frown, silently promising revenge on the purple-haired Principal if the last part was added just for kicks.

As soon as the last of the blood vanished, a piece of the stone side walk Shura was standing on began to move as well as the statue. Shura jumped off the moving slab of concrete and peered down the staircase that had appeared just where she had been standing a second ago. She whistled appreciatively.

"Fancy~, let's go kiddies. Ah! Wait, Rin?"

They locked eyes at the question.

"Hide yer tail while we are on this mission, ok?"

The demon girl blinked and then scrunched up her nose in distaste, tail suddenly swishing furiously behind her.

"My tail? Why?"

She grinned and answered flippantly,

"Because I said so."

Waving an arm in a forward direction she descended down the stairs. The three exwires took quick look at each other shrugged and went in after their sensei the darkness swallowing them up as they moved down into the depths of the hidden Benzaiten sect's hideout. Rin grumbling the whole way as she wound her tail around her hips under her skirt.

As they went down they suddenly heard a shuddering noise and glancing up at the entrance saw it close, the light diminishing as it was cut off by the piece of stone.

"Umm, Shura?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"One: How are we supposed to get back out? And Two: We can't see shit. You don't happen to have a flashlight?"

The busty woman shrugged and realizing the fact no one could see the action in the dark, finally said out loud,

"Well~ yer see the fact is I-" the walls then came alive with light as white will-o'- wisps appeared at the top of the tunnel.

Shura cocked a grin and nodded her head in a downwards motion.

"Well, I guess we could always ask the sect members ter open it up for us. And judging by these lights, they are expecting us. So stop yer bitching and come on."

She turned back to the front and stated back down. They followed not wishing to be left in the dark stairway as the lights began to turn off at the top of the entrance.

Soon as they continued down another source of light began to show. Almost as bright as the light outside the True Cross group found themselves in an enormous cavern underground. Stone walk ways carved out of the surrounding walls flowed to the bottom of the cave to the top into wide doorways cut into the grey stone walls. They were covered in white tapestries spun in multitudes of colors and very prominent golden thread. In the middle of the entire place was a small stream of water falling from the ceiling in a waterfall that ended as the roaring water broke on a giant light green crystal sitting on a rock in the middle of a gigantic pool of water. It reflected light from the outside and shone prisms of colors over the entire structure built underground.

"Holy cow."

"Oh, my."

"Well, I'll be damned~"

"Please tell me that isn't the Honzon!"

"It is. And we the Benzaiten sect have protected with our lives for over fifteen thousand years."

The four females turned immediately waiting for the threat to appear only to realize the woman before them was the one who spoke.

She had long white hair and small brown eyes. Her eyebrows were oddly shaped like Izumo's but her face was sharper, pale and there were laugh lines spreading out from her almond shaped eyes. She wore a simple white shrine maiden robe with a slash of green around her waist. The old women—for she looked young at first—smiled gently while bowing slightly.

"My name is Shimizu Emi and welcome to our home."

Tada! Doesn't get much better then that ladies and gents. Plus be reminded that all the OC's I'm gonna introduce will probable die in a very horrible way, sooooo don't get too attached. Thanks and if you care to review or not, add a little criticism. I like to know what I'mdoing wrong, and well right! Thanks bye,

Tarry a while. Thou art so fair.~Wild