For it is finally here!~ Man.I tried uploading it yesterday but when I logged on it wouldn't let me hit any of the buttons! Sheesh, but through perserverance here it is! (I don't think that's how you spell it...but I don't really care.) For all of you fans out there, just know that soon the new Ao no Exorcist Movie is coming out soon! (Though I can't figure out when, just know it's this year...) but sadly for those that need English subtitles, because it's soo popular in the U.S. too, it might take a little while till Eng. subs come out, but at least their putting one out there!~ Woot! The trailer teasers at the main AnE website, check it out! (Though it's in Japanese...)

Without further distraction...on with the show! (Circus? Freakshow? You decide!)

Chapter 12

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

Rin and the rest just stood there as she extended her hand in greeting. Shura unfroze and rubbed the back of her head while taking the pre-offered hand and shaking it.

"Well, that's good ter know. Thought maybe ya were a ghost or something~"

The red and gold-haired Exorcist then turned serious. She pulled out her badge and license, showing it to the women.

"The names Kirigakure Shura, Upper First Class Exorcist and Senior Inspector of the True Cross Vatican Headquarters, pleased to meet ya. I'm currently working for the Japanese Branch under the leadership of Sir Mephisto Pheles. I'm the leader of the female exwires from the True Cross Academy that just so happens ter be run by Sir Pheles as well. We were dispatched with several other exwires and two more leaders: Okumura Yukio, a Middle First Class Exorcist that works as a teacher at the Academy and Sir Authur Auguste Angel the current Paladin of the True Cross Vatican Headquarters. They will be leading the boys' unit in outside reconnaissance ter catch the demon—if it is one—that has been showing up lately. The girls," Shura gestured to them, "and I will be protecting the Honzon from in here."

Shima, Izumo and Rin sweat-dropped as they heard the first part of Shura's statement and Izumo snorted. 'Really, Mephisto put this woman in charge of us?' Though as soon as she turned serious they realized Shura could be very formal at times.

Not one to waste time, Izumo walked up to Shura and the new woman and bowed respectfully.

"My name is Kamiki Izumo, an exwire and these two are Moriyama Shiemi and Oku-"

As she was gesturing to the two behind her—who nodded their heads—Shura elbowed Izumo in the ribs—hard. Eyes wide, she gasped in surprise not getting to finish her introduction.

Shura coughed into her hand apologizing for "accidently" hitting Izumo. A glare and a few surprised looks went her way as she sheepishly replied,

"I guess I'm just tired that's all, I get jittery if I don't get too much rest uh,-"

The older women in front of her just nodded sagely.

""Call me Shimizu-san. Miss?"

Shura grinned all chirpy again.

"Yer can call me Shura-san."

Shimizu-san bowed her head.

"Very well. I caught all three of your names, but if you please?" She turned to the exwires looking around the cavern they were in. They turned there attention to her.

Shiemi smiled a mile wide and bowed hurriedly, bubbly answering,

"Call me Shiemi-chan. I'm glad to meet you, you're very pretty."

Shimizu-san gave a gentle grin and inclined her head. From Izumo,

"Izumo-san, please Shimizu-san."

Another nod then finally Rin,

"Nice to meet ya, the names-"

"Oku?"

Rin paused as Shimizu suddenly interrupted with a smile. She blinked, then scrunched her face fixing to correct her, but Shura was shaking her hand franticly and crossing her arms in front of her practically shouting "No" in body language as she stood behind Shimizu-san. Not really understanding, Rin sweat dropped deciding to let the mistake slide; at least till she could talk to Shura later.

"Uh, yeah, but you can just call me Rin!"

Rin gave her best no-need-to-worry smirk that was all teeth and closed eyes. If her tail would have been out it would have been wagging.

Shimizu-san blinked surprised, then slowly smiled back. That smile caught her off guard. 'My, such a bright child…'

"Very pleased to meet you Rin," she turned to address the rest. "As well as the rest of you. You all certainly must be very tired. If you follow me I will take you to your rooms that will be yours for the duration of your stay."

Another inclination of her head and she turned towards the beginning of a spiral staircase to her left. The exwires and their sensei followed shortly lugging their baggage with them.

Rin move to talk to Shura, but she gave her a glance then shushed her, silently motioning that they would talk later. Rin frowned and narrowed her eyes pouting, but decided that if she was not willing to talk about it in front of Shimizu-san then she would have to just corner Shura later and figure out what was going on. 'First Yukio says that he can't call me Nii-san during the mission, then Shura tells me to put my tail away and now she doesn't want the leader to know my last name? What are they up to?'

As the group made its way up the stairs one by one, the True Cross members glanced around, soaking in the rich scenes of the tapestries hanging from the walls and the sparkling waterfall in the middle of the room. The Honzon in the middle of the pool shrank from their sight as they trudged up the staircase.

Rin was craning her neck looking at the ceiling where the water came in. It gushed from a circular hole the size of probably a car. Rin wondered why the lake above never drained or how no one knew that there was a hole in the bottom of the lake or even why didn't the cavern flood? Was there another hole in the cavern floor where it siphoned off somewhere? The exwire twisted towards the white haired hostess and was fixing to rattle off her long list of questions, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, a shape came sliding down the banister.

"Watch out! Coming through Obaa-chan~"

"Rin, watch out!"

Shimizu-san and Shura shouted too late for Rin had turned towards the first yell and there was a moment where everything slowed down. Her sapphire eyes landed on a pair of brilliant jade ones. Right before the person connected and hit her full force as the figure fell off the banister. The momentum had them falling back towards the stairs and they would have rolled all the way to the bottom in a heap if not for the fact that Rin instinctively swiveled and hit the banister gripping it with her right hand. Unfortunately, the speed at which they collided into each other had them still careening backwards. The person that had bashed into Rin went over and Rin fell back, dropping her duffel bag on the stairs causing Kuro to tumble out of the slightly unzipped bag.

'Rin?'

"Rin!"

Hearing the worried screams of her comrades Rin snapped out of her shock and she twisted her hand in an effort to keep her grip on the stone as she braced herself. It was the only thing keeping her alive between hanging off the edge and being an ugly stain on the ground about two hundred feet below.

Out of intuition, more than anything, at the same time of her grip tightening on the rail, her other hand caught the person's arm who went over before her and saved them from the deadly fall as well. Rin gasped as her body hit the stone wall that the stairs were carved out of. All the air in her lungs rushed out as she bit her lip trying to keep from crying out loud. 'Those…are going to be bruises! But at least my face…didn't hit the wall.'

Hanging suspended, she looked down to her extra baggage as she rotated her shoulder in an effort to keep her sword, Koumaken from falling into her line of sight and got a good look at the perpetrator of the accident. Who, by the way, was screaming in alarm and practically acting like a live tourniquet on her arm.

"Aahaaaah, oh Kami-sama, oh dear lord, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! Please, Kami-sama, don't let go!"

Emerald eyes filled with fear and tears on a pale face with long brown hair that curled in every direction greeted her as she found her-self face to face with a girl about the same age as her-self, if not older. She was wearing a short black-ruffled skirt and a white cut kimono top with a green obi that stopped at the waist. Plus, she was missing one of her black sandals. Other than that, she looked distinctly like Shimizu-san except for the color of her hair and eyes, while their face looked like mirror images of each other.

Rin found her voice as the world sped back up and her shoulder popped from the strain of holding them both up. Normally, she would have been able to swing them back up without problem due to her inhuman strength, but she was a girl right now and her strength just wasn't up to par. She struggled to keep the other person from falling or slipping out of her grasp.

The girl on the other hand, clung on to Rin's left forearm with her right and with her left clung to her black jackets in an effort to avoid a very lethal fall. Rin grimaced and then tried to lighten the mood.

"So…how's it hanging?"

The girl just widened her eyes and choked in surprise.

"Wha? What!"

Rin winced as her shriek rang in her ears. Did she forget to mention that her hearing was even more sensitive then before? Sighing in disbelief and looking up she groaned mentally, 'God, what have I ever done to deserve this?' Instead of going to a pity party, the exwire with inky-blue hair tighten her grip on both the banister and the girl, wincing as the girls long nails bit into her skin through the jackets no doubt leaving bloody furrows when she felt her skin break underneath her clothes as the stone bit into her fingers. She looked down again, straining a smile.

"Don't worry I won't drop you."

"Yeah, yet. I would keep uh tight grip if I were ya Hun. "

Rin's eye ticked as Shura's head popped up from behind the banister above her.

"Not funny Shura."

"Yer hanging joke wasn't funny either."

She gave a cheesy grin that caused Rin to snarl,

"Shura! Just haul us up dammit! I'm losing my grip."

"You're what?"

But her sensei was having too much fun with this. It wasn't every day that you got to see someone hanging for dear life off of the stairs~

"On the rail, the girl, or yer sanity?"

"SHURA!"

"Fine, fine. One savin' yer ass coming up kiddo~ Nya!"

The head of the Benzaiten sect peeked up as well; worry evident in her panicked yet stern face.

"Shimizu Leiko, you demented child you! What will I do with you? You better not let go or else I will have to follow you to the afterlife and punish you there!"

The child with smaragdine eyes gasped and practically sobbed,

"I'm sorry Obaa-chan! I didn't think I would lose my footing!"

Shimizu-san shook her head in disdain and sighed heavily.

"That's the problem, you never think. Just like your dear mother…"

Shura meanwhile, gripped Rin's right arm and with the help of Izumo and Shiemi hauled the two up. At the same time Rin felt a wiggling in her short jackets pocket and the toxic green and tan hamster she caught earlier squeezed out and ran up her arm and onto the stair banister. Her sapphire eyes widened in alarm, but Shura and the rest pulled them over the banister at the exact same time and didn't notice the escapee. 'Crap!' The exwire watched helplessly with an outstretched hand as the hamster ran away, not able to go after it because of the other person on top of her. She glared at her human paper weight a bit annoyed.

"Can you please get off of me?"

"So-sorry!"

The girl stood up dusting off her skirt as she looked around for her missing shoe. Then Shimizu-san glommed her, nearly knocking them both over the banister—again.

"I wouldn't be able to stand losing you too. Not after your mother, that night…"

"Obaa-chan! I won't! I swear…I…I won't leave you. I'm not as weak as to be a victim, even if another Blue Night happened, I swear one day…one day I'll make that demon pay. As the miko of the Benzaiten sect I won't allow such a thing to happen again!"

The exwires flinched glancing towards Rin as the leader of the Benzaiten berated what seemed to be her granddaughter. Shura caught the flash of sorrow in the melanic azureline-haired child's eyes as she turned away biting her lip. The teacher sighed softly knowing there really wasn't anything she could do to help. Instead, she scratched the side of her cheek and advanced forward grinning, pointing her thumb up to the top of the stairs.

"So now that we saved two kiddies from a deadly fall; mind getting back on track? I would like ter get everyone settled before we start ter plan out how we are going ter protect yer Honzon."

Shimizu-san turned back around, still hugging the shoulders of her sheepish granddaughter.

"Of course Shura-san, but first Leiko-chan…" Shimizu turned to Leiko with a smile and slapped the back of her head. "Apologize to the nice young lady who saved your life, you idiot child!"

The party from True Cross wide eyed watched as the miko child sucked it up and bowing towards Rin,

"I'm terrible sorry for almost killing the both of us! Please forgive me! Uh?"

Shimizu-san added for her benefit.

"Rin."

Leiko smiled and held out her hand. The exwire blinked then took it after a moment of hesitation and returned the smile.

"Yeah sure, all in a day's work! Umm, Leiko-?"

"Call me Leiko-chan! It's a pleasure to meet you! Is it true you're an Exorcist?"

Suddenly, the burnet-haired child was in Rin's face bombarding her with questions cheerfully. Rin taken aback by the sudden switch struggled to answer them as best she could.

Meanwhile, Shura and Shimizu-san looked on, grinning.

"Well, those two seem ter agree with each other."

"Hai, it's wonderful. Leiko-chan normally doesn't take to strangers that easily, but ever since she began going to the Fugimura Girls' High School she has been much better at communicating with people. Though I can't say the same as her little sister…"

Shura nodded and shook her head in happy agreement, but as soon as Shimizu-san uttered the last part she gave a raised eyebrow.

"A sister?"

Shimizu-san nodded her head and turning around on the stairs added,

"Yes, she has a little sister named Kagami, you'll meet her soon, but she really doesn't get along well with others. Especially strangers…but maybe that Rin exwire will melt that icy dislike." Stopping before she followed the white haired women, the cardinal and aurulent-haired Exorcist looked back at the animate form of Shimizu Leiko. Eyes narrowing, Shura glanced towards the miko, mind ticking a mile-a-minute while she studied the girl.

"Shura-san, are you coming?"

The Exorcist whirled around all smiles again as she replied,

"Yep," she yelled back at the rest of the group, "get yer asses movin' ya'll, yer as well Rin!"

Shimizu-san as well called out to her granddaughter,

"And Leiko-chan, go get your sandal, I believe it's at the bottom of the stairwell. And later we will discuss again why we don't slide down banisters."

"Hai, Obaa-chan! ~"

Said girl turned back to Rin happy as could be even though she was going to get yelled at later. The exwire though, was already retreating away from her gladly. There was just something off about her she could feel it deep down.

"I'll see you later, Rin!"

The half-demon gave a grimace-like smile and answered haltingly while waving,

"Sure. See you later."

With a gigantic smile and flounce, the brown-haired girl practically skipped down the stairs to the bottom.

'She really is something…' Rin just shook her head and jumped as Shura yelled again,

"Well, are ya going ter stand there all day?"

Sweat dropping, Rin glanced upwards seeing the rest had almost made it to the top of the stairs while she was spacing out.

"Alright, alright I'm coming don't get your knickers in a kink!"

"Don't you mean uh knot?"

"Urusai! That too!"

"Well, hurry up, I'm not waiting forever."

"That's cold eyebrows!"

"Don't call me that!"

Rin pouted and picking up Kuro—who was rubbing against her leg in happiness at the safety of his owner—placed him on top of her shoulders as she trudged up the stairs in pursuit of her whiny companion's, duffel in hand and Kurikara slung across her shoulders as usual. 'Shiemi's the only one nice to me!'

Having made her way to the bottom of the stairs and having already located her missing black sandal, Leiko glanced at the top of the staircase seeing the exwires and their leader go through the opening at the top.

"Really, it's such a shame. She seems nice. I hope Imouto likes her."

'After all she really doesn't like strangers.'

[With the guys…]
"Okumura-sensei, when are we going to start looking?"

Bon shifted his focus to their sensei as he finished eating his lunch. Okumura Yukio looked up from the paperwork and maps he had laid out on the table. Adjusting his glasses, he placed his pen down.

"Well, I suppose as soon as everyone is done eating…"

He looked around and saw the exwires were already done while Angel was sipping the coffee he ordered earlier. It seemed he was the one holding up the operation. He jumped straight to the issue without pause.

"Oh, well I suppose we could get started now. Everyone look at the circles on this map. These are-" he grabbed his pen and tapped them against the red circles scattered across the maps surface, "The points where the bodies were found at the scene of the murders. Well, what was left of the victim that could be identified showing that there was indeed an attack there that was the result of our mysterious demon." The fair-skinned professor glanced up to see everyone looking at him. Even Angel was paying attention—if only somewhat.

The Exorcist pushed up his glasses and resumed talking.

"As you can see they are scattered around the area of Inokashira Park and are centered around the shrine area. The only reason I can deduce is that whoever or whatever is doing this is trying to grab attention to send a message to the Benzaiten sect or knew that they would contact the True Cross Order in order to help them."

Angel cut in, placing his coffee back down on the table.

"So, what are you saying? We may be the real targets of the culprit; not the Benzaiten?"

Yukio hitched his glasses up again and nodded.

"It is one of the possibilities we have to consider. We cannot go into this unprepared. Not like Kyoto. I will take every precaution to keep my students safe."

The freckled Exorcist glanced at the exwires one by one.

"Which means no running off on your own; you'll be paired up in groups while we do recon. And if, if you should come into contact with what is doing this, you will not engage. Do you understand? You will not engage. We will all be wired," he pulled out a black strip of Velcro that had a few wires stitched into the fabric with a silver ear piece hanging off the end, "These are what we will use. They are wireless headsets. They operate on a Vatican owned frequency. We will be able to communicate up to 150m so we should be good, unless one of you decides to wander off from the search perimeter. If you should run into the culprit, then use these to contact me and Angel if we get separated from you straight away and run."

Bon didn't seem to like that idea, but knew it made sense. Standing your ground against an unknown enemy was a good way to end up in the afterlife.

Konekomaru felt the same way, but was glad they wouldn't be totally alone on this mission and had their sensei's help instead of just winging it like back with the Impure King.

Shima on the other hand didn't like this mission in the least.

"So what you're basically saying if we don't want to die avoid the enemy, no matter the cost? Doesn't that miss the entire point of doing recon?" Shima held up his hands sweat dropping and added quickly, "Not that I want to fight the thing, but seriously how are we going to stop it? Doesn't it like, disappear really quickly after attacking some one? I really don't know how we are going to do this!"

Everyone watched the pink haired exwire start panic. Eventually the teacher sighed and offered up a smile.

"You all made it through the Kyoto Incident didn't you? We will be ok. So long as everyone follows directions there should be no problem with this mission."

The sable sepia-haired Exorcist adjusted his glasses again and looked towards Angel.

"Angel-san, we will split into two groups I will lead Bon and Takara while you will take Konekomaru and Shima. Any questions?"

He said it in a way that made it seem a bit dangerous to broach an objection. But the fair-haired Paladin was not cowed. He simply resumed sipping his coffee and leaned Caliburn closer to him grapping her hilt. He simply glanced at Yukio and gave him a thin-lipped smirk.

"Of course not. Whatever you say, Professor."

[With the Escapee…]

Somewhere in the underground sect's corridors the virid and suede hamster slipped under a door and glanced around in the dark using his night vision to tell that he was in a huge linen closet. Without wasting time he scrambled up a shelf and onto a bunch of folded blankets. The small ball of fluff readied himself and jumped at the light switch. He hit it dead center and clinging onto it with his paws, he wiggled up and down and the switch fell down illuminating the room. Satisfied the hamster let go of the light switch and before he hit the ground a drab poof of tawny smoke erupted and when it cleared the Earth King Amaimon stood in all his bored glory in the linen closet.

'Ani told me not to get caught inside the underground sect…so I can't walk around…I can't even stay with Rin…'

Out loud, he stated,

"I really wanted to sleep with Rin though…"

With his sea green eyes he glanced around and located a fluffy looking pillow. Taking in the surface area of the objects in the room he saw that they all were sporting a thin layer of dust. Seeing that the jade-haired Demon King deduced that the room hadn't been used in a while; probable because it was further away from the rooms and was troublesome to get to. He spotted several futons on the ground and a small smile tugged his lips. He jumped on them, pillow in hand and snuggled his face into the soft material, then scrunched up his nose and sneezed.

'I guess I should have expected that…'

Rubbing his nose he laid down and stretching he then decided to take a nap for awhile till nightfall. His mock-battle with his little sibling left him tired. Rubbing his eyes he curled into a ball, dozing off wondering if his Ani was going to contact him anytime soon. 'Ani…Rin's really fun to tease. Plus…his flames…they are beginning too...' He yawned a smile curling on his usually plain face. 'Come alive.'

Whew! Another months hard work down hope you enjoyed it because Rin's transformations coming to an end...du du dun~ I say another 7 orso chapters then we are done here? the lemon should be coming up soon, plus I'll add a oneshot as the smutty, funny sequel~ I already have another story in the works for my next fanfic, of course it will be MepxRinxAmai brotherly incest~ they make my heart pound...

So...well see ya next time!~ And review! (Though seriously when I just look at site traffic and compare it to the reviews, I get a weird facial expression...the numbers don't exactly match, but still I know people love this story~ There is a lot of site traffic!)