"How did everyone like today's dueling?" Yukio asked his class of exhausted and bruised students.
"You're worse than Satan Yukio," Rin said, and to that Yukio laughed good naturedly.
"Did you at least see you have a lot to learn from each other?" Yukio asked.
"We have a lot to learn from busty miss," Soul said bluntly. "I don't see anything to learn from you guys who also got your asses kicked." Rin flared up, pissed at the insult directed towards him and his friends.
"At least I didn't pass out right at the beginning of the fight like she did!" Rin shouted.
"You ran right into his attacks you idiot!" Soul countered. Yukio watched as the students went head to head, 'shit. This wasn't supposed to happen,' Yukio thought. It had turned from an exercise designed to humble their overinflated egos to the ultimate battle of who had a bigger ego.
"Hey, hey, hey," Yukio scolded, pushing them out of each other's faces. "Do you wanna deal with the bariyons again?" All the exorcists hushed up immediately, knowing their teacher could be mean when he was angry.
"Hehe.. No need to be angry Yukio," Rin said, making hand gestures.
"Come on Yuki," Shiemi urged.
"Let's break for dinner," Yukio said shortly. Yukio stood back, making sure all the students went inside, and began to walk forward when Shura grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall with her forearm.
"What the hell is wrong with you Yukio?! You're even more uptight than usual. It's boys and Rin's involved, it's bound to ensure stupidity, but you're going over the top with this scaredy."
"It's been three months Shura... I still feel like he's in my head... I don't know if it's my imagination but sometimes I swear my eyes aren't right, like he's working his way in again... He's bound to have made other plans, but he isn't doing anything right now..." Yukio said quietly.
"Yukio.." Shura said softly, not knowing what had really been troubling the young exorcist. Sometimes it's so hard to forget he's only 15, he acts so mature and shoulders so much responsibility, but everyone has a breaking point. Yukio sounded like he was approaching his and Shura worried for him. "Man up," she said, smacking him on the back of the head. Yukio sighed and walked inside. Shura winced, knowing that wasn't the right move to make, her joking attitude pissed him off on a normal day and was way over the top today. "Oy! Yukio!" She yelled.
"What do you want Shura?"He asked impatiently, pushing his glasses farther up on his nose. She didn't say anything, but the scantily clad exorcist did something she never did, she pulled the boy in for a hug.
"I don't pretend to know how you feel about Satan's plans, but I know how you feel about being alone. All the strong members of your family, the ones you could rely on, are gone. I know how it feels to not have family Yukio," She said into his shoulder. He hesitantly put his arms around her. It had been so long since he's had a hug of reassurance like that, since someone tried to make him feel better. The closest he'd gotten to it was when Rin hugged him when he came back from the possession, and then he scolded him. "Come on kid, who knows what the hell they're doing in there," she said. Yukio nodded at her, his expression softened and walked ahead. Shura shook her head, 'I will make that boy open up one day,' she thought.
"What'd you say eyebrows!?" Black Star yelled.
"Stop calling me that!" Izumo yelled at him. Tsubaki was hopelessly trying to calm the situation. Shiemi and Crona were talking quietly in the corner but Ragnorak was screaming at Rin, Soul and Bon were at it, Patty was talking to Shima, and Liz and Konekomaru were onlookers waiting for the group to get in trouble. Before Yukio could call them down his cell went off.
"Okumura," he answered officially.
"How come no one ever calls me?" Shura pouted. Yukio shot a glare her way as he listened to the call.
"Okay," Yukio said, ending the call.
"What was that?"
"I'm needed for a mission," he said.
"Oy you can't leave me with them!" Shura protested.
"I wasn't planning on it," Yukio said, the look in his eyes showing he was plotting something. He walked into the dining room and all the exorcists shut up at once, but the Academy students continued to misbehave. "Alright!" He said, loud but still calm. Everyone turned around and looked at the teacher in glasses. "I'm needed for a mission, since I'm also in charge of this camp you will accompany me. If you behave," he adjusted his glasses and they glared in the new light, "I won't get out the bariyons." Shura nudged his shoulder and whispered to him.
"Is this a good idea chicken?"
"No. But I can't leave them to you." He turned his back on her as she glared at him, though as she thought about she knew she wasn't very reliable. 'Eh, whatever. Less work for me!' she thought.
"What are we doing Yuki?" Shiemi asked quietly.
"A large number of demons have been discovered inhabiting a normal school near True Cross Academy. You all are going to take care of it, Ms. Shura and I will supervise," he announced.
"What?! You're putting them on the mission?" Shura questioned.
"They're clearly eager to fight, so I'm going to let them."
"All of you are to work together to clear out the demons. If you can't cooperate I will step in, Shura will take you back to the dorms and I will deal with you when the mission is complete," Yukio explained.
"Right!" Rin shouted, and the other students followed suit and entered the school building.
"I give them five minutes. Tops." Shura offered when the students were out of hearing range.
"Let's start upstairs and work our way down," Kid suggested.
"Demons always concentrate in the dark, the basement is the best bet," Bon argued.
"We could split up," Maka suggested.
"No. We don't know what we're walking into! Exorcists don't fight alone, geeze you guys are dumb." Bon said wincing at the Academy students inferior knowledge of demon behavior.
"We have to clear all the areas anyway why the hell does it matter where we start?" Soul yelled.
"We could start in the middle," Tsubaki countered, trying to appease everyone.
"I'm a moron and even I know that's stupid," Rin said. Tsubaki looked hurt at the comment and Rin opened his mouth to apologize for being so rude to her when Black Star cut him off.
"Don't be mean to her or I'll beat you down bastard!"
"If that means the same thing as our fight earlier than I don't give a shit Black Asteroid," Rin mocked.
"I am the great and powerful Black Star! Make fun of me and you die!"
"I don't know about you fools, but I'd like to get this overwith and not get punished by Mr. Okumura," Izumo said with her hands on hips, acting like she was better than everyone else as usual.
"That teacher's a joke. He doesn't do shit. Just sits back and bosses people around like a pathetic los-" Black Star was cut off when Rin punched him straight in the jaw, knocking him into a wall. "What the hell was that for? You've been bashing him and comparing him to Satan all day!"
"He's my brother. I can bash him but you say one more insulting thing about him and I'll break you!" Rin screamed, hand on his sword, ready to pull it from its sheath and unleash his power.
"You guys didn't even get started," Yukio's voice came from the open door at the entrance.
"Y-yukio?!" Rin gasped. 'Oh shit. I'm in trouble.' Yukio's eyebrow twitched as he looked at the students. He took a deep breath, contemplating how to move forward from here.
"Instead of sending you home, you can't leave until this location is vacated of demons," Yukio commanded. He and Shura strode out.
"Not even five minutes, hell not even one minute." Yukio complained once they were outside.
"What did you really expect? There are some serious personalities in there," Shura said.
"I expected them to act less like children by now and more like exorcists by now." Yukio said simply.
"Alright listen up. We are going to start upstairs, then we are going to proceed from right to left, if you got a problem, tell someone who care." Bon instructed.
"That's our Bon," Shima said, laughing nervously, hoping Bon didn't start another uproar in the group.
"Whatever keeps teacher tight britches happy," Soul mumbled.
"The hell did you say?" Rin said, hand twitching at the butt of his weapon, ready to unsheathe his sword already.
"Would you stop Rin!" Shiemi yelled. "Let's just get through this and not make Yuki upset."
"You his girlfriend? Or just a teacher's pet?" Black Star asked Shiemi rudely.
"I'm Yuki's friend."
"Whatever cry baby." Black Star said. Rin thumped him on the head, hard enough to irritate him.
"Don't be mean to her dumbass." Rin complained. Bon went behind the bickering two and pushed them forward.
Everything went smooth enough from the roof to the first floor, there were only a couple demons in each room either Rin with his flames or Izumo with her familiars took out in a matter of seconds.
"Last room," Shima said, acting winded though he hadn't taken out a single demon and barely fought today.
"Then we have to stop fighting with these guys. They're the opposite of cool," Soul said slouching against the wall.
"You haven't done anything and you're somehow the cool one?" Rin said. "I beat Satan punk."
"Who cares." Soul muttered. "Let's just get this over with."
"This should be the most concentrated area," Bon said. "So why don't you guys take your weapon forms." Soul whisped away into a scythe, Liz and Patty flew into their gun forms, Ragnorak materialized into Crona's hand, and Tsubaki morphed into a ninja sword for Black Star.
"Let's go," Maka said, a determined look on her face as she gripped the handle of her weapon. When they opened the door the room was full of mostly lower level demons. Rin started the fight by jumping onto Black Star's shoulder for a boost and took out the demons closest to the ceiling.
"Hey! Quit trying to outshine me demon!" Black Star yelled, waving his fist at Rin's back. When Rin landed he was knocked off his feet by the backswing of Maka's attack with Soul.
"Watch it puny!" Rin shouted from the floor.
"Don't get in my way idiot!" Maka retorted. Bon and Konekomaru were chanting from the background.
"Would you stop mumbling! And get into a symmetric formation!" Kid screamed stamping his foot. A demon was about to hit Kid as he complained when Rin blasted fire and burned it up.
"Thanks," Liz said from her weapon form.
"What?" Kid asked.
"If you'd stop worrying about symmetry you'd know he just saved you, Kid!" Liz scolded.
"Oh. Thank you mr. Okumura." Kid said formerly.
"Oy it's just Rin Kid." While Rin and Kid were talking Maka took out a couple demons headed for them.
"Scream resonance," Crona said, and the sword screeched, popping all the demons in the room.
"Well, that's one way to do it." Soul said.
"So we're done? Horray!" Shima said.
"You didn't do anything!" Black Star yelled in his face.
"I was there for moral support," Shima mumbled. Soul was already holding the door open.
"We gonna go or not?" He asked. When they were outside Yukio was looking at his watch.
"So you managed to get it together I see," Yukio said not even glancing up from his watch. "Let's head back then," he said as he opened his phone to tell his superiors the mission was done.