Walk me through the Valley
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter Twenty-one: Promises Given
"Okumura!" Rin stopped and looked around. He spotted Ueno Michi on the other side of the fountain outside of the hall where the cram school classes took place. He gave the tall, slim girl a curious, slightly wary look as he walked over to talk to her.
"I want to ask you something," Ueno said. "I'm beginning to wonder about the stuff Shiku said in class and this probably isn't particularly polite to ask, but I don't really know you. And I do know some stuff about demon oaths…"
Rin scowled at her. "What, you want my word that I'm not going to go berserk and kill you?"
"A little less specific and include Sadao-kun," Ueno requested. "He can be a moron but he's my moron."
"Fine," Rin's shoulders hunched, he wrapped one arm over his stomach. "I, Okumura Rin, give my solemn word that I won't attack Ueno Michi or Suzuki Sadao." His nails dug into his opposite arm. "Happy now?"
"Thank you," Ueno replied. "That was… a lot more than I was expecting. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I can't just trust you."
Konekomaru was laying on his bunk reading when he got the itchy feeling of being watched. He glanced up and saw Rin wavering in the doorway. The dark-haired boy's hands were clasped behind him in a way that Konekomaru knew meant Rin was making a conscious effort not to scratch his skin raw. He rolled off the bed and guided Rin inside.
"Sorry to be a pest," Rin muttered.
"You're not," Konekomaru replied, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you'll let me help you."
Rin shed his shirt and straddled Konekomaru's desk chair, crossing his arms over the chair back and leaning his cheek on them.
Konekomaru grimaced at the tension in Rin's muscles and at the way it melted away almost as soon as he started the massage. A massage shouldn't have had a physical effect that quickly; it made him think Rin was still touch starved. Konekomaru wondered if there was something wrong between Rin and Izumo.
"Did something happen?" Konekomaru asked once Rin seemed to be relaxing.
"Just a bad day," Rin equivocated. After a few more minutes he asked, "You were scared of me. Do you want me to swear that I won't hurt you or something?"
"No," Konekomaru replied firmly. "I'd much rather trust my friend Rin than the chains of a demon oath."
"Thanks."
"Did someone in the Order make you take an oath?" Konekomaru asked.
Rin shrugged. "Sort of, not really. It wasn't anything I was going to do anyway but I got ticked off and dressed it up with formal-talk, so it's a full oath. It's just… No one's gonna ask you or Bon or anyone human to promise not to kill them."
Konekomaru sighed. "And it's not as if full-blooded humans don't kill one another; you deserve the benefit of the doubt as much as anyone. Frankly, Bon's temper is every bit as bad as yours, if not worse. I'm sorry, I wish I could make people not act like morons."
The first morning of Summer Break the second year Exwires stood in Old Dorm's Lobby and stared in shock at the six former Pages and their pile of belongings. "What the hell are all of you doing here?" Bon asked.
"Moving in," Ito replied cheerfully. "This is the Exwire Dorm right?"
"Yeah," Rin agreed cheerfully. "Boys on the second floor, girls on the third. Pick a room on the north side of the building, Shiemi-chan's plants don't like them as well or something. Come on, I'll help."
"Do you still want to be my roommate?" Shiemi asked Mana hopefully.
Mana nodded, "Just show me where."
Rin easily balanced Godain's trunk on his shoulder and started up the stairs while the slender boy started after him. The suitcase Godain was carrying bumped on every stair as he lugged it along.
"What about the fourth floor?" Maki asked.
"It's a garden," Shima replied.
"Aren't there a few rooms on the first floor?"
"Converted to apartments for my sis and Father Nagatomo, our chaperones. What's the big deal anyway? Not counting the greenhouse rooms there are eight rooms sitting empty on the second floor."
Maki glanced toward Rin.
"You don't have to live here," Shima pointed out.
"And be the only Exwire who doesn't?" Maki replied. "I'll skip being an outcast thanks."
In the end Godain and Ito settled into the two rooms to the east of Konekomaru's while Suzuki and and Maki took rooms at the far end of the boys' hall. Ueno took the room directly above Suzuki's, which left the girls fairly evenly distributed with Izumo and Paku sharing a room near the bathrooms, Shiemi and Mana mid-way down the hall, across from the greenhouse room Amaimon had claimed as his own and Ueno nearest the stairwell.
"I don't know why we have to have them in our dorm," Izumo complained to Mephisto when the Headmaster dropped in on them several days later.
"Consider yourself a victim of your own success," Mephisto replied. "No longer is that the Old Dorm, the campus eye-sore, suitable only for testing Pages and housing a demon-child somewhere far from the academy's normal students. Now it is the Exwire Dorm, one of the perks of joining the Order of the True Cross. When they asked me if they could move in our newest class of Exwires mentioned additional independence, the option to forgo having a roommate, being able to study for cram school courses openly, access to their seniors for homework assistance, space and a steadily increasing amount of equipment for knight-drills and tamer exercises which, normally, they wouldn't have access to until after they fail the Exorcist Exam for the first time… Also, it's the only co-ed dorm on campus."
"Who brought that up? Ito or Suzuki?" Izumo asked with a look of distaste as she remembered the Exwire Exam.
"Ueno-san actually," Mephisto laughed. "I believe her situation is similar to Shima-san and Miwa-san, but with the additional complication of being expected to look after a member of the opposite gender. Which reminds me; how is your and Rin-kun's little romance coming along?"
The first thing that crossed Izumo's mind was 'Not as fast as I'd like.' Then she blushed brightly and scowled. "None of your business you- you voyeur!" she exclaimed as she stomped off.
The week after the new Exwires moved into the dorm, Rin was sitting in the lounge, cookbooks spread across a table, planning out the menu for the next week when Suzuki poked his head out of the stairwell. "Hey, Okumura-kun," the sandy-haired boy called. "You're a year ahead of me, could you help me with my summer homework?"
"Yeah, sure," Rin replied distractedly. Managing a kitchen for fourteen people wasn't a trivial task. Rin hadn't cooked for that many even back at the Monastery, and back then the Priests had always done the shopping and Shiro managed the budget. Rin had just let them know what he needed when he wanted to make something special. Before his internship with Itamae, Rin didn't think he could have handled so much of the organization necessary to run a kitchen. "What class?"
"Promise?" Suzuki asked lightly.
"Yeah, yeah," Rin replied as he added a few more items to the grocery list, thinking 'The grocery bill is always less when Izumo-chan does the shopping, I should just ask her to make that a regular errand, we could eat out on the clown's dime once a month or so if she does all the shopping. And with more people I'm going to need more help in the kitchen. Everyone, except Bon, can chop vegetables without destroying the kitchen. Nagatomo and Paku can handle the simpler recipes on her own. Paku would probably get a kick out of being my assistant chef.'
Suzuki dropped an Advanced Demon Pharmacology textbook on the table beside Rin. "I gotta finish this chapter before Saturday to stay on schedule."
Rin's eyes bugged as he tried to make sense of the formulas, plant and biological information crowding the pages. "Err, I barely scraped a passing grade in demon plant identification," Rin admitted. He thought for a moment, scrabbling for an answer. "Maybe Shiemi-chan could help. She's studying to be a Doctor. Just remember to make her translate her plant names into the official ones."
Suzuki smirked. "She's busy at her mom's shop. Actually, we're the only ones in today. And you promised, I really need to get started right now."
Rin shivered as he felt the tug of a demon oath. "You did that on purpose," he accused.
"You promised," Suzuki repeated looking smug.
"And you're an asshole. Go bug someone else," Rin said crossly. But he couldn't go back to his own work, the oath kept nagging at his thoughts. An hour later Rin stomped upstairs, when he came back he had an armload of Shiemi's Demon Pharmacology books. "Shiemi takes notes in her books, they're more useful than anything I could tell you. There, I helped," he snapped as he dropped the books in Suzuki's lap.
"That's not much help," Suzuki complained.
"Be sure you get Shiemi's books back to her when you're done," Rin replied.
"We've got our first assignment," Bon declared bursting into the dorm the next day. "Hurry! We're going to be late."
"What? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Rin wondered. He ran upstairs and grabbed his swords. As they ran out the door, Rin pulled Kurikara's strap over his head and passed the demon sword to Bon.
They arrived at the Order's admin building just as a team of three Exorcists walked out. The sour-looking man in the lead was the highest ranked, middle first class like Yukio from his pin. The other two were both lower second class, girls only a few years older than Rin and Bon. The taller of the two was clearly a dragoon judging from the gun-belts crisscrossing her waist and the bazooka strapped to her back. The second girl had her dark hair pulled into a messy bun and carried a large bag slung across her body.
"You're late," the man said abruptly. "I don't have time to repeat the briefing." He turned back to the doors they'd just passed through and inserted a key. When the doors opened again they were looking out on forested hill-side. The five of them stepped through the gate. After the door closed, Rin glanced back and saw they'd stepped out of a small outpost building with the True Cross' motto emblazoned over the door.
The man looked between Rin and Bon, "There's a town about a kilometer down the road," he told Rin. "Start walking. With any luck the demon will attack you before you get to the town."
"What about the rest of us?" Bon asked.
"The attacks have generally come just after sundown," the man said. "We don't have time to waste."
"I get it, I get it: You're in a snit because I made us late," Rin groused. "'Course it might have helped if I'd known ahead of time." He started down the road after adjusting his sword-harness.
The other four Exorcists waited until Rin was just out of sight then started after him. As they walked the dragoon spoke quietly to Bon. "There have been a series of attacks in the last month, all young men. The bodies were covered in lacerations. From the directionality you'd think multiple attackers, but there was a rain storm before the last attack and we only found one set of footprints."
After a few meters the path narrowed and tree branches arched overhead blocking out the last few rays of sunlight. Rin saw a young woman walking along the path ahead of him. She was wearing a plain, lavender kimono with loosely bound long dark hair falling almost to her knees He hurried to catch up with her. "Hey, you shouldn't be out here," Rin said. "Haven't you heard about the attacks?"
The young woman turned and waited for Rin to catch up to her. "Perhaps you should escort me? For my safety," she said.
Rin chewed at his lip; he was supposed to be playing bait.
"Although I've heard that the victims were all men," the woman continued. "Perhaps it is you who should have an escort." She laughed, a clear, bell-like sound that invited others to join in.
Rin grinned and chuckled. "Yeah, maybe you shouldn't stick too close. I might be a trouble magnet."
"Yes," the woman hissed, her mood changing like the breeze. "You seem quite adept at finding trouble." She stepped away from Rin, her hair seemed to come alive, rising around her in a cloud.
"What's your problem?" Rin demanded as he realized that she was the demon. "Why are you killing people?" He drew his katana and wakizashi.
"You laughed at me," the woman stated.
"You were giving me a hard time, I laughed with you," Rin corrected irritably. "Do you just go around looking for an excuse? Why do you want to make trouble with Assiah? You're not some dumb animal that just does what it does."
The woman shrugged, "Perhaps I had a reason once, I don't remember. This is what I am: a claimer of the souls of foolish young men."
A strand of her hair snapped forward like a whip. Rin raised his arm, planning to let it wrap around his forearm, then he would use it to yank her off balance. She might be stronger than a human, but Rin doubted that she was a strong as he was. Instead, the strand of hair curved around Rin's arm and it's barbed tip struck Rin's shoulder. Rin cursed as it ripped through clothes and the skin beneath.
A second lash came at him. Rin dodged but it curved to follow him. A line of blood appeared across his thigh. Still, he was fast enough to slice off the barb as it withdrew. The woman's face twisted rage; she attacked with multiple strands.
"What? You need a haircut," Rin sniped as he cut off another of her locks. He failed to stop a second strand from opening a bloody welt on his side while a third sank deeply into his exposed shoulder, the barbs setting firmly into his flesh.
Rin grimaced and cut the strand away before the embedded barb could really tear him up. Then he dropped and rolled to get under the next wave of attacks. He tried to close with the woman, to get close enough to attack her rather than fighting her hair. She skipped backwards, maintaining the distance between them.
The crack of a gun announced the arrival of the other Exorcists. The bullet flattened against a shield of hair. The dragoon scowled but kept shooting.
As he chanted, Bon held Kurikara, but hesitated to draw it, afraid the other Exorcists would treat Rin as the main threat the moment they saw the blue flames. A barrier sprung up between Rin and the woman.
The team's leader studied the demon-woman for a moment. Then he stepped forward and declared. "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
The demon shrieked and crumpled into a pile of bleached bones strewed through a mass of mummified hair.
Onced the demon was defeated the girl with the bag gave Rin a reassuring smile. "Let's take a look at you," she said gesturing to his injuries.
Rin bit his lip in concentration, the welts left from the fight started healing. The young Doctor drew back warily. "There's something in my shoulder that's not supposed to be there," Rin said after a moment.
The Doctor glanced back at her leader, he nodded and she turned back to Rin with a strained smile. She probed his shoulder, "The barb from her hair is still there. It's pretty deep, I think they'll have to cut it out back at the Academy," she reported. "I should bind your arm for now, those things tend to use their victim's movements to work their way in deeper."
Rin sighed and let her wrap his arm against his chest.
After they got done at the True Cross hospital Bon and Rin headed home. Everyone else was already eating dinner. Nagatomo looked surprised. "We would have waited for you but I expected that you'd go out with your team after the mission."
Bon shrugged. "Rin got hurt, we went to the hospital instead."
Shiemi immediately pushed back her chair and stood up.
"It's all healed now," Rin reported making a circle with his arm. "I love Amaimon's trick for healing."
When Rin went to start dinner the next day Suzuki's Demon Pharmacology text was laying out, forgotten on the kitchen table. Rin tried to ignore it. Then he decided he'd move it out to the lounge where it wouldn't bother him.
The next thing he knew the oven was beeping at him, announcing that it was up to temperature. He'd spent the last twenty minutes trying to make sense of Suzuki's summer homework instead of getting his eggplants ready for roasting. Rin shoved the text beneath a place mat. Then he started rushing about the kitchen trying to make up for lost time.
After a few minutes Rin leaned out into the lobby. He knew Izumo and Konekomaru were out on assignment and had been warned that they'd probably end up having dinner with the older team they partnered with. Godain and Mana were out on a date and would also miss dinner. Shiemi was at the Exorcists Shoppe and Bon was at the shooting range, neither would be back yet. Rin didn't know where Suzuki or Ueno had gotten to but he was just as happy not to see Suzuki or be reminded of the careless promise he'd made. Shima and Maki however were in lounge. "Hey guys, I need some help getting dinner ready on time," Rin shouted.
Shima groaned and set aside his magazine. Maki pretended he hadn't heard anything. As Shima walked past the table where Maki was sitting he kicked the leg of the junior Exwire's chair. "You live here too so help out," he ordered.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
Notes: Bible verse is Romans 8:20-21; King James Version