"Where's Yuki?" Shiemi asked. Class was about to start and he wasn't here yet.
"I dunno. Shura said to leave him alone this morning." Shiemi looked at Rin concerned when the door opened and a disheveled and bruised Yukio walked in. He kept wincing at the bright lights from the windows and his jacket was unfastened.
"Good morning," he said gently.
"Good morning," the class responded, various looks of confusion on each of their faces.
"Hey, who's that?" Shima said as a girl of their age entered the room.
"Hello. Can I help you?" Yukio asked politely.
"Mephisto Pheles said to give this to you." She said, wide brown eyes eyeing the teacher as she handed him a note.
Mr. Okumura,
This young lady has been in your class the past week while you were doing the boot camp. She received a temptaint when she was seven. She has a very unique story, you should speak with her sometime. Forgot to mention it earlier! Be nice!
"I'm Tsugumi Shibata."
"Welcome to anti-demon pharmacology. Have a seat anywhere." She sat down at the empty desk to the right of Rin and Shiemi's table.
At the end of class Yukio asked her to stay back for a moment.
"I just wanted to let you know you can come to me if you ever need any help," Yukio said smiling.
"Thank you Sensei." She said politely, her wavy brown hair reminded Yukio much of his own mother. Yukio's phone rang suddenly.
"Please excuse me," he said. "Okumura." He paused for a moment. "Why is my speculation needed?" His facial expression turned tense as he listened to the call, his head pounding from the stress and from last night with Shura. He hung up the phone. "I'm afraid I have a mission to attend to," he said serenely. When he walked out the door Shiemi gave him a worried glance.
"What's wrong Yuki?"
"I have a mission. Please take care of Ms. Shibata."
"H-hi!" Shiemi said loudly when Tsugumi came out of the class. "I'm Shiemi Moriyama!"
"I'm Tsugumi."
"Be my friend!" Tsugumi looked at the eager blonde girl.
"Okay," she said smiling. Shima sauntered over to them.
"I'm Renzou Shima," he said taking Tsugumi's hand. "What brings you to the cram school?"
"I got a tempaint when I was seven when my father got too into a suburban legend for a story. The things I saw started to frighten me and I found this place. The director got me in to the high school and cram school. I'm going to be a nurse."
"Well if you ever need help, here's my number," he said handing her a piece of paper.
"What are you going to do Shima? You're barely passing yourself." Izumo said walking towards the growing group.
"I can just be a comfort. I never said it was academic help," he said, face turning red at her insult.
"Izumo is very smart, and so is Yuki!" Shiemi said. Izumo rolled her eyes at the excitement of Shiemi. "I'm good with medicinal herbs but honestly I struggle with these classes sometimes too."
"It's nice to meet you all."
Tsugumi spent the rest of the day, enjoying the company of her new exorcist friends and the meals Rin prepared in the dorm. Shiemi immediately took to the sweet girl, Izumo mostly just ignored her existence, Shima returned to pursuing Izumo without success, Bon gave Tsugumi a little background of exorcism and Konekomaru added in any helpful information he could think of.
"Mr. Okumura, you're here," a female exorcist said as Yukio walked onto the scene.
"What happened exactly," he said coldly, his glasses glaring even in the darkness of the night.
"We aren't exactly sure."
"What do we know?" Yukio asked impatiently.
"The person that was with him said he began bleeding from the eyes nose and mouth before he fell to the ground encased in flames. His account makes it sound like spontaneous combustion. Third one this week," a male exorcist next to Yukio said.
"Third?" He asked shocked. On the phone, Mephisto had made it sound like this was the first incident.
"The other two occurred while you were off duty. Two cases of people finding burnt corpses with blood coming from the facial orifices." Yukio stared angrily at the ground, fearful of what this could mean for his brother. The man that was killed was a priest from the town immediately south of True Cross Town.
"Where did the other two occur?"
"Within close proximity of our school. They seem to be completely unrelated except for that they were all of high religious stature."
"So young Okumura. What is your thought on the event?" Mephisto asked, coming up to the two exorcists, making flamboyant gestures as he walked.
"Why didn't you mention there were two other similar incidents?" Mephisto gave a dramatic shrug.
"Because you're paranoid enough already Yukio," Shura said nonchalantly from behind him.
"Did you know about this?" Yukio asked her. She nodded.
"Why do you think I made ya cool off some last night?" She asked smiling as Yukio grimaced from a headache. "Oh and by the way, ya hit yer head on the wall going back to your room." She playfully knocked her fist against the sore spot on his head, making hollow skull sounds with her mouth.
"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked her, his shoulders tense and the vein in his head pulsing.
"I forgot geeze. I figured you'd remember hitting your own head. Even left you some pain killers for that. You should thank me instead of yelling four eyes." She waved him off in a dismissive fashion. "Oh, and here are your glasses. I forgot to give them back." Yukio rubbed his forehead, trying to calm the urge to shoot his co-worker. 'Just with a vitamin capsule, it wouldn't hurt her that bad,' he reasoned with himself before realizing he had lost his cool again. He regained most of his usual composure quickly, but still thought to himself, 'She can be so damn irritating.'
"You said you wouldn't call me nicknames."
"Actually, I said I wouldn't call you wimpy or chicken. Four eyes is still on the table," She said winking. He realized she had gotten him off topic and brought the conversation back to the combustions.
"Regardless of that. I was talking about the attacks not about hitting my head," he said calmly.
"Oh. That," she laughed. "The first one happened the first day of boot camp. That's why I didn't come to the mission. I had a little bit on my mind," she said, arms behind her head. She didn't look concerned at all, positively relaxed, and she was lying to him. It made Yukio's hand twitch in the direction of his gun. He suppressed the want to shoot her and called her out on her lie.
"You didn't come because you overslept," Yukio corrected. "You always do on morning missions." Mephisto listened to their conversation with a devilish smile, oh how he loved drama and conflict!
"Well mornings are fer sleeping." She continued rambling on but Yukio could not get the earlier phone call from his head. He took off his glasses and rubbed his tired teal eyes with his other hand, the director's words bouncing around his skull, getting louder each time the thought repeated.
"Okumura," the director's voice said from his phone.
"Okumura," he confirmed.
"I would like your speculation on an intriguing occurrence."
"Why is my speculation needed?"
"It would seem Satan has made his first move."
'Why... What is he doing...' Yukio was panicked, he didn't know how to deal with this. Shura eyed him worriedly.
"Mr. Okumura?" The director asked.
"I-I don't know," the young boy was at a loss for words.
"He already knows where a suitable vessel is, so what could he be hoping to accomplish?" Another exorcist asked, eyeing Yukio.
"Maybe Yukio has the same willpower as Shiro," Shura said. Yukio stared at her, confused that she would actually have something positive to say about the boy she always put down.
"What about Rin Okumura?" Mephisto asked.
"Rin wouldn't allow it." Yukio defended. "He isn't even smart enough to be swayed by a demon and he can't stand our birth father."
"And what about yourself Mr. Okumura?" Yukio scowled at the ground.
"It has been observed by some that my own personality leaves me susceptible to demonic temptation."
"Yukio-" Shura started.
"You said that yourself Ms. Kirigakure. I don't know why it would seem he is trying to locate a new host. He hasn't attempted to target myself or anyone else prior to these three incidents."
"We shall just have to wait and see," Mephisto said as Arthur joined the specialized group.
"So your father has attempted to re-enter Assiah Okumura," he said smugly, his long blonde hair flowing about. Shura frowned at the egotistical paladin and stuck her tongue out at his attitude.
"It would appear Satan is trying to claim a new vessel," Mephisto clarified.
"So he has a plan," Angel pondered. "The Vatican will surely be interested in this."
"Oy, baldy. What's your problem? No one expected Satan to be dormant forever," Shura said.
"But what we expected all along is true. The son of Satan is a danger."
"If it weren't for Rin there would be no Assiah!" Shura yelled at the cocky paladin.
"If it weren't for his brother, Ms. Shura, Satan wouldn't have had a vessel to use anyway," Shura cursed at the paladin. 'He's right... And the vatican could see it that way... Damn you Angel... I oughta shave his head while he's asleep, then maybe that sword wouldn't help his lazy ass,' she thought, her mind going off on a tangent. Mephisto sat back, a passive grin on his face as the situation unfolded itself.
"Well this is just your personal opinion Arthur, the grigori have not acted against our young teacher," Mephisto said, raising his eyebrow at Yukio's silence.
"It is not my own opinion. In light of recent events the future of the younger son of satan is no longer certain. His existence is a clear threat to the safety of Assiah, and for that reason he was informed he would be put on trial to allow the Grigori to determine if it is a imminent threat." Angel said.