The noise of ceaseless rant. Danny just couldn't bare having opened to the stream by calling his sister. He had forgotten to call her for several days due to all the commotion. While Yukio and Rin were waiting outside, he had decided to have a short talk. His sister's existence was a secret, too, after all. But boy, was she being loud.

"I was about to have a heart attack, Daniel!" Exclaimed Jazz sternly. She must have been serious to call him by his disliked full name.

"Jazz. For a hundredth time, you are too worried. Apply your analysis to yourself for once," Danny calmly responded, "I have been playing along and calling you daily. No need to become so agitated just because of one time."

"I'm just worried, Danny," said Jazz, taking a calming sigh, "I wouldn't be able to be near when you are half-way across the globe."

"I will be fine. Always have been," Danny looked out of the window at the approaching classmates, "Besides, your aim is atrocious."

"Hey! I have improved!"

Both siblings then chuckled softly. Phantom smiled slightly, wishing that he truly could be near her. It was not about physical protection. It was about... feeling safe, welcomed and loved. They were the only family they had. Danny missed that feeling. He would come visit her soon, it's not like it was very complicated. When the initial dust settled and he could allow himself to come. Jazz had been against him dropping the school and crossing all his opportunities for his childish dreams. But she was way too innocent despite her age, mental maturity and her overbearing attitude towards her little brother.

"Are you sure everything is fine?"

"Jazz, be honest. If I told you that no, I'm being held at a gunpoint at the moment, what could you do?"

"Danny, I am trying to help how I can by phone. You can always talk to me about your problems. A simple talk can be of great help."

"Then could you not make such a fuss about it? I don't have new ones on a daily basis, they take time to appear. And when they will come, I will call. At the moment, I am absolutely the same I have been a month ago, and back then I was no different from how I was a year prior."

"That is also not a good sign, Danny."

"You and your shtick," Phantom sighed. "I've got to go."

"Bye, Danny," Jazz responded in a disappointed matter.

The teen ended the call and dropped his phone into the deep pocket of his jeans, before going downstairs. Was he being stubborn? Well, yes, he was, it was in his nature. But what of it, if anything, it was his stubbornness that helped the teen survive despite all odds. And if he didn't want to be mentally dissected, it was his own decision, was it not? Danny didn't feel wrong, but he had to admit, it was a totally hollow type. It was the type that actually made him willing to feel or even suspect that something was wrong. But no, there was nothing, everything was so fine that it was actually tedious. It was some "Inception" level of thinking.

"What the hell?!" Danny heard Bon's voice, "This place looks like a damn ghost hotel!"

At hearing this, Phantom couldn't resist a grin splitting his face. Oh, such a sweet irony. He exited the building, standing near the entrance along with Okumura brothers. Yukio glanced at the teen, with a look in his eyes clearly saying 'Don't you dare to make that joke'. Too sad that he was largely ignored.

"It surely is not a hotel," Danny smirked, specifically not denying the 'ghost part'.

"And that idiot is here too," Bon responded unenthusiastically, "I thought you said that you would be ditching."

"I live here. I can't avoid this stuff, and honestly, somehow I think that clown is doing it on purpose."

Yukio's glasses flashed very anime-style. Something quite petty awoke in him.

"Well, since you are obviously here, you might as well take exemplary tests as well," the teacher said, making Danny's head snap in his direction, "Preparation is quite important."

"Yeah, you did make a point," Rin rubbed his ear, "Four-eyed jerk," he mumbled.

Phantom sighed, "Guys, follow me, I'll show you to your rooms."

"Since when are you so helpful?" A girl, Izumo, was it, asked in a bratty way.

"Because I might break someone's neck if I stay here," Danny grinned innocently, before going inside, "Are you coming?"

"I'm not sure if I want to be staying near him," Konekomaru whispered as they entered the building, "He is nuts."

"He is scary," Shiemi said from behind a pile of luggage she was carrying.

"Do you need help with all this?" Rin offered gently, already about to take a couple of bags, "It must be heavy."

"No!" The girl in kimono pulled back, "I am fine, thank you Rin, it really is no trouble."

The half-demon knew for certain that it was not alright. But if she didn't want any help, could he really change her mind?

"She is using her," he mumbled, and the meaning was lost to his brother, who heard this.

The practice soon began. Everyone had piled up in the brothers' room, writing the exam there. Yukio set the timer and everyone but Danny got down to work. Yet, after who knows how many minutes of doing nothing but watching the fly hitting the window out of stupidity, he got bored out of his mind. He might as well try to put some ticks on the sheet of paper. Surprisingly, the questions were pretty low-grade and even without books Phantom was able to answer everything but the questions connected to plants and their properties. He knew jack shit about it, yet everything was done in ten minutes, as he wasn't thinking much. Then the timer rang.

"Alright, time is up," Yukio said, "Please flip your sheets and pass them around. That's enough for today, we will get up tomorrow at six am before the classes."

"I need some fresh air," moaned Rin, looking exhausted and exiting the room.

"Paku, let's go take a bath," Izumi said.

"A bath? I'll come too!" Shiemi added, before the girls left the room.

"A bathroom with girls inside," whispered Shima, "We've got to take the peek or this training camp will be a waste."

"Shima! You are supposed to be a Buddhist priest!" Bon yelled.

"Yeah, you say this, but you wanna do this too. I bet Danny did that before."

Phantom looked up from his phone, "I had a girl, there was no need for peeking when I could just summon her."

"Dude, don't remind me," Shima shivered at the thought, "Just for the note... how many have you..."

Danny smirked and got up, "Plenty. But you know what, I might just have a look."

Each minute he was becoming more and more creepy to them. And upon seeing their faces, Danny smirked and walked out. It's not like he wanted the future exorcists to like him or anything. But before he could go out, Yukio stood in his way.

"No, you are not."

"Come on, teach, you are no less a teen than me. You do want it."

"I have... standards," Yukio fixed his glasses, and in response he got a click of the tongue.

"Sure you do. Is spying on me at night a part of those?" With the same shit-eating grin Danny passed the teacher, patting Yukio on the shoulder.

Of course he wasn't going to do that. Because he had standards too. And he was done peeking on girls in the bathrooms. Yet with nothing better to do, Danny was at a loss to say the least. He could as well fetch something in the kitchen. He had hidden a couple of Mars bars there. It was a little thing he did to spite Mephisto, the vending machines had not received a penny from the teen. He just got his hand through the glass. Petty, really, but Danny did not care, ghosts held grudges like no others. Sipping some chockie milk, Phantom was in a bliss. A bliss interrupted by a loud scream.

"Oh, chuckleducks!" Danny exclaimed, putting the carton on the table and going in direction of the noise.

It was a girly scream, and all the girls were in one place, which narrowed the search. Besides, he sensed something. A rot demon, pathetic in strength, really, so was there some sort of catch? Oh, what was he talking about, they were students. The door didn't need to be opened, with part of the wall being simply ruined. Inside the dressing room Rin was trying to fight off a sewn creature, the demon of the type Danny had so precisely pinpointed. The girls were on the floor, Izumo and Shiemi trying to help the third one. Phantom couldn't remember her name, but her situation seemed dire, the miasmas of the rot demon were going to cause necrosis soon.

"I need Sancho-san to help!" Shiemi exclaimed, summoning her familiar — a small plant creature named Nii.

"Is this..." Danny asked, getting their attention.

Before he could see the end of it, the noise of battle caught his attention. It surely was more interesting than this. Phantom leaped forward, seeing the continuation of the fight.

"That's not how you use the sword, Rin!" He exclaimed, seeing the teen trying to hit the thing with the sheathed sword like it was some blunt weapon.

"I...eh...AH!" the half demon jumped aside, before being grabbed by neck and pinned into the ground. Then, the creature spoke.

"For...give me..." it whispered, barely able to utter anything, "My prince, I am doing...the bidding of my master..."

"Touching..."

Danny's eyes glowed green, and Rin could see the same glow around the teen's fingertips. "Too sad that I am not the type."

A thin line of green light was unleashed in a swipe of a palm, and it hit the demon right into the stitches, the obvious weak spot, traced it, and in a moment blood gushed everywhere, as the teen kept smirking. The scream the beast let out was enough to wake up the dead, and he had merely played. The demon looked even more gross, like a tree chopped from the top to middle and split apart halfway, letting everyone see the innards. Rin was let go, before the demon got another bullet at his stomach. Yukio had appeared with the rest of the class, and, recognising its situation, the demon jumped out of the window and disappeared into the night.

"Yukio!" Rin shouted, "You are late!" He added, glancing at Danny who just examined the bloody puddle. Then it hit the half-demon, "Shiemi-san, is Paku-san..."

"I...I..."

"The familiar!" Yukio said, before examining Paku himself, "If unattended, the ghoul's miasma can kill a person, you've treated the wound correctly, Shiemi-san. If you haven't been here, she would be dead."

"Mo...Moriama-sama," Paku said weakly to Shiemi, "Thank...you."

The brightened look on the blonde girl's face could lit the room, "Yep!"

"I'll leave the explanation to you," Danny patted Rin's shoulder while whispering, "And not a word about what I used, okay? Nobody saw anything, I know illusions."

"Sure thing, Danny. Least I can do, but you've got to tell me later what it was," Rin beamed, before going to join the rest.

Phantom huffed. Wasn't that a wishful thinking. Then he heard quiet sobs coming from a distant corner. Going there to satisfy the curiosity, Danny found Izumo there, half-naked, miserable and crying.

"My appearance... is mortifying... I don't want anyone to see me like this," the bratty girl sobbed.

"You sure do look better than that thing. Take solace in that."

The joke didn't help at all, and that wasn't the aim of it, he just jested for the sake of it.

"I couldn't even save my only friend... but now she hates me..."

Danny sighed. He really didn't like being in such situations. Taking off his shirt, he handed it to the girl.

"The door is open. Sneak out while nobody is looking and burn this thing afterwards. I don't want anybody to see you in my clothes."

Izumo looked at the shirt, then at the naked torso of the teen, before freezing. Who WAS that guy?

Danny went to join the rest of the group afterwards, and the same reaction was received from all around. His body was a wretched mess, with cuts, burns and frostbites telling a peculiar story of one teen who had too much on his plate. And of neat physical exercises to shape the figure. Phantom decided to ignore the pointy glances. Let them stare, maybe this would stop them from questioning his experience.

"D-Danny, what the hell?!" Rin exclaimed, looking at this scene.

"The demon had the courtesy to regurgitate his innards all over my T-shirt," Danny quickly came up with an explanation. "Probably shouldn't have cut him in half..."

In his mind, however, a train of thoughts was receiving extra coal for extra speed. The thing talked about the 'Master', which meant that the summoner was not far away. That's how it worked, and the wards were supposed to keep the demons at bay. Should he look into it and catch the bastard? Nah, he was too much of a lazy ass to care. What he did care about, however, was whether or not his own adversaries could get in like this demon did. He stopped this contemplation when he felt something else, a feeling all too familiar, the Headmaster Douche was here himself. They surely had a couple of words to share.