I present you with... a double update! Kinda. It's a chapter the length of two chapters.
remember, this is set before the kyoto arc, so no impure king!

The class had been briefed on the bus. They were heading to a mountain in the boisterous city of Kyoto, which just happened to be the home town of Suguro, Shima, and Koneko. The objective of their trip was to hunt down and exorcise some of the low to mid level demons that have been hunting the forest's animals. Their corpses, found rotting in the woods, had disturbed citizens enough to call in a team. Since the exorcism was supposed to be easy, the exwires had been assigned the job. Then, Shura had quite rudely cut in the moment Yukio was done talking, and said that she was going to take Rin a little bit deeper into the forest and find some higher level demons. The Kyoto trio, after Yukio had finished telling Shura off, took this interruption as a chance to ask Yukio if, on the way back, they could stop by the Myō Dha sect. Yukio, after thinking it over, grudgingly agreed.

They had arrived at the forest, a beautiful place with colorful floral speckling the bushes. There were a few birds chirping as they hopped from tree to tree, but not nearly as many as expected. As the class went a little deeper into the forest, along a popular hiking trail where mauled corpses had been commonly spotted, they saw the reason why. There were four or five dead birds in a ten feet radius, scattered about with varying degrees of rot and injuries.

The claw marks that littered the bodies seemed to be different sizes, some bigger and some smaller. Some feathers were even singed; there were numerous scorch marks around the area.

Shiemi gasped, her green eyes sparkling with sadness and voice trembling as she took in the birds. "Oh no! This—this is horrible! We have to help them!"

Shima fought to keep his eyes off of them, ignoring Shiemi's outburst as he saw maggots on a couple of the carcasses. "Don't look, Shima buddy, it's just a peaceful walk in the woods, there's no bugs here..." He said to himself in an anxious laugh.

"C'mon, ya coward, they're jus' bugs. Grow up!" Bon said, exasperated at Shima's antics. Just then, a moth flew out of the woods, straight into Shima's face. The pinkette screamed and jolted, running wildly around the group. He was spraying himself with gallons of bug spray that had mysteriously appeared out of his pocket as he ran, tears streaming down his face, garbling panicked nonsense.

"If I had to guess, it would be a group of lower and low-middle class demons running rampant." Yukio stated in matter of fact tone, just sighing and not even giving Shima a second glance - he was used to this by now. "I think they're kin to Iblis—there's signs of fire. Keep your eyes out."

(im sorry but when i typed that i could just imagine rin literally ripping his eyes out and going "don't worry they'll regenerate")

"I'm guessing this is my cue ta go have some fun with ya, Rin!" Shura exclaimed, grabbing said exwire in a headlock—smushing his face uncomfortably into her boobs while doing so—and dragging him further into the forest.

The cram class watched as Rin flinched and then growled softly, easily breaking free of the headlock—which he found threatening—and then obediently following a cussing Shura into the woods, no groans or lazy complaints at all.

"I really don't like this new Rin," Shiemi whispered, timidly voicing the thought that was running through everyone's head. The comment was met with uneasy silence.

A few members of the class were working up the courage to respond when there was a rustling in the bushes ahead of them. They had strayed off of the path in hopes to find the little devils more quickly, and it seemed their plan had worked.

Yukio loaded and readied his pistols, staring warily ahead and motioning for his class to stay alert and draw weapons. Izumo pulled out two summoning papers, Shiemi looked frightfully at Nii, who was sleeping on her shoulder, and Bon and Koneko took a praying stance while Shima put together his K'rik.

"Ready?" Yukio said in a low whisper, allowing the class to listen to the rustling and thumping that was steadily becoming louder, like something was running towards them. "Remember, I'm trying to do as little as possible: this is your mission, not mine."

And then they saw something huge—definitely not a pack of low level demons—running toward them.

~•§•~

"Wh'ya doin' breakin' outta mah headlock like that, ya punk..." Shura huffed angrily under her breath, causing the words to become even more slurred than usual.

Rin walked obediently behind Shura, alert and ignoring her incessant rumbling.

"Ma'am, do you mind telling me our mission, please?" The blue eyed demon asked, eager to please his superior.

Shura glared at Rin, still angry that he dared to defy her trademark headlock. "We're jus' killing any high level demon we come across. S'easy."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Stop calling me ma'am, would ya? It gets on my nerves." Shura fumed as she trudged through the underbrush, throughly pissed off.

"Yes, ma'am—uh, madam." Rin replied, unsure of what else to call her.

Shura shot daggers at Rin, dangerously close to bitch slapping him across his arrogant little face or kneeing him in places that really shouldn't be kicked too hard. "Don't fucking call me 'madam' either!" She mimicked his proper tone in a prissy little girl voice on the word 'madam.'

"Of course—sir?" Rin was confused, he really had no idea what to say. How would he address her politely if she didn't like any of the titles he knew? Dr. Bisheer hadn't prepared him for this, no, what would he do? Wha—

His panicking thoughts, which surprisingly didn't show on his stone-like face, got quite literally slapped out of his head.

"Fuck you! I give up—call me whate'er ya want, ya dick!" Shura shouted, every little thing adding to her anger as she threateningly brandished her hand once more.

Rin cowered, still incredibly confused. "Yes, ma'a—"

He cut himself off, and a good thing, too, because Shura was spitting fire at his stupidity—or cluelessness. That wasn't the reason he stopped talking, though; he had scented something, and heard thundering footsteps coming their way. His tail puffed like a cat's, and his demonic eyes narrowed into slits as his hand wandered to Kurikara, which was securely strapped on his back.

"Somethings comi—" Rin was interrupted yet again, this time by Shura bursting out laughing.

"Yer—yer tail!" Shura huffed, and then broke out bawling as another thought came into her messed up mind. "Oh god—god—yer a cat! Jesus—yer a fucking pussy!"

Shura clutched her chest, chuckling hysterically as she wheezed out various phrases about his puffy tail between gasps for breath. She wiped a few tears from her eyes just as the thing that Rin was listening to broke into the clearing they were treading across.

It ran, a blur, straight into a oblivious Shura and head butted the exorcist into a tree. She slid down the trunk, groaning with all signs of laugher gone.

She groggily lifted her head up, glaring daggers at the thing. It was a giant hound, blood and drool dripping from its jaws. It looked like it was rotting, with tears in the flesh so one could see inside the dog. The inside was not gut and gore, but instead glowed orange with fire; or molten flesh that was so hot it looked like lava. The eyes, instead of empty, rotting sockets, were filled with balls of flame. It gave off steam, which reeked, by the way, and it was as big as—if not bigger than—a full grown horse.

There was more thudding, and two more appeared, flanking the lead hound. The first one was probably their alpha, as he looked bigger and stronger than the other two.

Shura slowly got up, rolling her shoulders to work out the pain, unfazed by the growls reverberating throughout the woods. The growling hounds combined sounded like a roaring waterfall, in the way one would hear it thundering from far away. It was rather frightening.

Rin still stood in the clearing, the only thing that had changed was that he was now a bit closer to Shura, awaiting her commands. The hounds didn't seem to have the need to attack yet; it was as if they were planning something - or just trying to phase them.

"What the hell are ya doing, dumbass? Yer suppose' ta fight this disgustin' thing, not jus' stand there starin' at it!" Shura shouted angrily at Rin, who was waiting for the request to fight, as he was taught.

"Yes, ma'am." Rin said, just as the hound pounced. The alpha and his cronies dove straight at Shura, but one feinted to the side at the last second and wrapped it's jaws around Rin, who hadn't yet had time to draw Kurikara. The one who had grabbed the half demon just happened to be the alpha, and he threw Rin into the forest with such force that, once the half demon stopped hitting branches and smashed into the ground, he uplifted the earth in his wake.

Shura had drawn her blade, biting her thumb hard and wiping the drawn blood down her blade. "Kirigakure Sword Technique: Snake Fang!"

She swung her sword, which had turned so the gems on the side looked like snake eyes, and let loose a flurry of air projectiles. They struck the two hell hounds she was occupied with, and she used that as time to run after Rin, following the alpha's path of destruction. Behind her, she could faintly hear the cronies recover and start to catch up to her - she ran faster.

~•§•~

Yukio's eyes widened, alarmed. What is that?

As the shape approached, it took on an orange hue, and seemed to glow. A thunderous roaring sound reached their ears. No, please...

The shape was lit up with a burst of familiar flame. The forest around it turned the prettiest, most brilliant light blue - Rin. The shining light from the flame gave the class enough time to make out what was still bearing down on them; a giant german shepherd-like hound. A hellhound.

Shit, Yukio thought, and then mentally scolded himself at the curse. Too bad our Arias don't know it's fatal verse... "It's a hellhound! Stay back unless you're armed—prayers won't work well against it!"

The shape stopped stopped in its tracks as the forest once again lit up blue. This time, it was brighter, stronger. It didn't dim out; Kurikara was drawn. There were new, higher pitched growls matching the deep ones; very hard to hear over the thunderous roars but still vaguely noticeable.

Suddenly, a brighter ball of blue—the source of the flame—came hurtling towards them after being hit by the shadowy shape. The demon ran after the 'human' torch, intending to pick it up and throw it once more.

Rin landed, rolling into a crouch just next to them, the bite marks on his torso oozing blood. The hair on his tail was raised slightly, and his ears were longer, more demonic. His eyes were neon blue, the color of his flames, with red slits as normal. A new feature he had obtained—probably with all the exposure to his power—were longer, even longer than before, fang teeth. And claws. Those too. His finger nails had elongated, turning hard, thick, and sharp—like a cat's claws. It was unknown if he could retract them or not, but maybe it would be useful, to make picking things up in his demonic form easier.

Rin brandished Kurikara and, for the first time, actually put some power into his attack. He leapt into the air, and it was amazing how much he looked like a feline in that moment. The half demon had all the grace of one, and complete with the cat-like features—especially the tail—he was practically a member of the animal kingdom.

Swinging Kurikara down in an arc, Rin shot a plume of flame out of the sword, right into the hellhounds face, and followed the brief moment of blindness with a slash to the muzzle, carving his blade straight through one of the eyes and across the snout.

Yukio, who had stared at Rin as he demonstrated his new skill, shook his head to clear it and then started firing his bullets. They hit the hound square in the chest, and in the face when Rin wasn't there slashing at it. Shima also attacked, but he couldn't do much with his K'rik—there was too much fire and movement for him to get a good hit, so he settled for throwing it at the hound's face over and over again in a crazed frenzy, calling the staff back every time. Meanwhile, Izumo summoned Uke and Mike and forcefully demanded that they help in the fight, so they wove around the legs, tripping the thing up and biting at its heels. Shiemi told Nii to make a barrier of rowan wood around Bon, Koneko, and herself, one of which was fuming and cussing, angry that he couldn't aid in the fight.

Just then, the hellhound yelped as a powerful Snake Fang hit it's back, slicing clean through the skin and allowing more defensive flames to burst forth from the furnace that was it's core. Shura panted, huffing, and managed to spare a few words of warning. "Two more coming!"

Yukio nodded, and started loading in his Naiad bullets, which should be very effective against the fire demon. He carefully avoided Rin - blessed, silver water bullets would not mix well with him either.

Shura was about to continue firing more attacks—ones that would surely finish off the hound in a few more hits—but she heard the other two hounds approaching and the remembered he mission was supposed to be for the exwires... so she responsibly left the alpha to the rest as she turned to face the direction that the new beasts were coming from. Meanwhile, Yukio shot at the demon, Uke and Mike bit at it, and Shima.. well. He helped. Somehow.

Shouldn't Rin be more powerful than this? He's hardly doing anything but swinging his sword! Do we have to order him to do more? Surely they trained him to be a better fighter than he was before they took him—what else would they do? Yukio thought exasperatedly, still emptying rounds into the hound. he's hardly being helpful at all! How is he supposed to defeat Satan if he can't even fight off a simple hell hound? Dammit, Rin!

"Rin—actually fight! Use your whole strength!" Yukio stuttered through the command, gritting his teeth and trying to figure out how the hell to order Rin to fight, trying to find the way that the Vatican would've worded it.

Rin abruptly froze, and then looked at Yukio and nodded. It was too loud to make anything out, but the younger Okumura thought he saw Rin's mouth move, saying "yes, sir." Was the dumbass really waiting for a command to actually fight at a time like this?

While Yukio was having his internal crisis, Rin pointed his sword at the hound, who sensed a build up of power and turned, ignoring the others and focusing his attacks on the real threat. Rin was completely unfazed as the hound rushed him, for just as it was about to hit him—roughly a good five feet away from Rin—the son of Satan said something under his breath, and a focused burst of blue flame shot out from the tip of his sword. It was like a laser, burning and mauling anything it touched—in this case, the hounds face. It let out a horrible, ear wrenching shriek, and then dissolved into ash.

Meanwhile, Shura had fired a Snake Belly at one of the alpha's cronies, cutting a leg clean off and causing the hound to fall, unbalanced. It quickly got up, adjusting to the new method of movement—but not quick enough. Shura fired a flurry of Snake Fangs at it's neck, slitting it's throat and causing it to dissolve into ash as well. She smirked at a job well done—she wasn't a senior exorcist for nothing.

She turned to the last hound just as Rin and Yukio did, and they all attacked; the younger Okumura fired a flurry of Naiad bullets into the hounds eyes, effectively blinding it, as Shura fired a Snake Belly at its torso, cutting the beast's stomach open and allowing hunks of coal, flesh, and fire to pour out. It smelled disgusting. The hound roared, blindly grabbing at and violently attacking the three, landing a claw mark across Shura's arm, and a shallow cut on Yukio's leg. It scented Rin, and once it had him pinpointed, reached for him, drooling jaws promising death as furiously snapped. Yet suddenly, he wasn't there anymore. He almost seemed to materialize on top of the hound, jumping so fast that he was a blur amid the colorful flames, and stabbed Kurikara into the things skull. The beast erupted in blue fire, howling as its body disintegrated in a matter of seconds—and not into the ash of a dead demon, but into sticky piles of burning flesh. Rin's cursed flame left nothing to be painless—the thing couldn't even disappear and die—it had to suffer through every last moment. He snarled one more time, now firmly on the ground, and sheathed Kurikara, allowing his features to slowly return to normal. The only thing that had remained were his demonic eyes, but they had been like that ever since he came back from the Vatican.

The class gawked at Rin, the three unarmed students having emerged from Nii's shelter. The son of Satan gazed blankly back, and then directed a question to the person who ordered his attack. "Did I please you, sir?"

Yukio stared intensely. It hadn't even seemed like Rin was trying once he was asked to actually fight. He was just toying with the thing. Realizing he was taking a while to respond, Yukio did so, wincing as he put some weight on his freshly wounded leg. "Yes... of course."

"Is everyone okay?" Shiemi almost shouted, concerned.

"The real question is: why where hellhounds here?" Suguro announced, "they're incredibly rare."

Yukio looked slightly puzzled, as if he hadn't thought of that fact. "I... don't actually know the answer to that."

"Dun think about it too much! Anyways, I dun think 'ere that badly hurt. We should be good ta go back ta the bus n' get patched up there. Then we can go running ta—" Shura gestured to the Kyoto trio, "—yer mommies."

Bon fumed, completely forgetting the former conversation. "Don't make it sound like we're children, ya hoe!"

"What did yew jus' call me?" Shura growled back, summoning a beer from her tattoo and clicking open the can—probably scaring the shit out of Suguro while she did it, who thought she was drawing her sword. Then she took a long, refreshing swig and began walking back towards the way they came. Bon stormed after her, still yelling, and they heatedly argued the whole way back to the bus. The rest of the class trailed behind, too used to the daily antics of at least someone in the cram class to bother interrupting them. Yukio—who had stopped and looked back to see Rin still standing there on guard,—had to assure an alert half demon that his work was done and that he could come back home with them.

The class hiked the long trek back to the bus in silence, besides Bon and Shura, who were still squabbling somewhere up ahead. Some students were full of fear - though from either Rin or the hounds was unclear.

Word Count: 3370