Chapter five

“…Don’t go off too far…”

Rin wished Shiemi and Yukio were on the train with him but nooooo, he had to be stuck with good ‘ol Izumo and Konekomaru--not that there was anything wrong with that in the first place anyway. Rin sighed and tried to focus on acting normal instead. That was hard enough if you had a tail wagging behind you.

He also noticed that Shura’s been acting a bit weird ever since they got into the train. Shura has always been weird but this time’s she’s weirder than her usualweird self. Mephisto level, probably.

“Hey, Hey, Izumo, don’t you think Shura’s weird?” he said to the purple haired girl.

Izumo only scowled at him before answering, “She’s always been weird.”

Rin frowned comically and scratched his head. He stood up, stretched, and said, “Well, I’m gonna go look around the train.”

“Okumura-kun, I think it’s best if you stay,” said Konekomaru, his voice sounding very reassuring.

“I’ll only be a short while,” Rin grinned. “My legs were getting too tired from all that sitting down.”

“Oi, oi, oi,” Shura added. “Don’t go off too far.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied, waving his one hand and the other shoved in his jean pocket. Rin then proceeded on to walking away.

Konekomaru slowly looked at his teacher. “Sensei, you look…ummm...”

“…constipated,” Izumo finished for him. The way she formed her words sounded so sure.

Shura laughed and it definitely lightened the mood but in a sudden, she huddled her two students together. “Listen up ya two, this train is special.”

“Oh, you mean the promo rates?” replied Koneko.

“No, not that. I mean, something is on this train. I can’t exactly tell,” Shura shook her head. “Confusing shit, but I think something like Rin’s aboard this train.”

“Another son of…”

“Not exactly,” Shura said, leaning back to her seat, liberating her students from the huddle.

“Well, you’re not sure yet. What if it’s just another strong demon?” Izumo added. “Don’t you think we should check it out?”

“No,” she said, suddenly sounding authoritative. “Our mission was to get to Kyoto in the most covert way possible, so that meant no Infinity Keys.”

“Arriving in a train isn’t covert at all,” Izumo frowned.

“Where’s the fun in ya, kid?” Shura replied, her face distorting into a comical disappointed expression. Probably gone out the window when her mom gave birth, she thought.

Rin had already entered another train bunker and for some reason, he was irritated more than usual.

Must be friggin’ Shura; old boring hag. People were staring when they got into the train with those…those watermelons she had.

Back when Rin wished he could just grow up and relax, like that dude earlier who Shura made faces to, he might have still turned a cold shoulder to the world. Now that he’s attained a different purpose in life, even the smallest things bothered him. Part of that was because of his new heightened senses. It’s probably best not to ignore the small things like, you know, coal tars. Coal tars are bad news if they’re in large numbers.

He looked out the train’s windows, into the motion lines and the running shadows. Running shadows are normal, right? Don’t be stupid, Rin, he thought to himself.

Contrary to what he said earlier, about his legs getting tired from all the sitting, he sat down on an empty bunk and continued to stare at the window. He just couldn’t peel his eyes off of it, like his senses were telling him, ‘Just stare at it, boy.’ He shook his head. It sounded all too much like—meh, never mind.

A few moments later, he saw a reflection of a man in a tuxedo, on the window. The man looked like he was bald and very pale…and he was just standing there.

Okay, Rin thought. Time for me to bail.

He stood up and he finally noticed that he was alone in the bunker, save for the man in the tuxedo… probably. If there was a reflection, the man’s bound to be somewhere.

All of a sudden, there was a sound of banging. Must be the man.

Rin turned around. Okay, the man wasn’t there. For a son of Satan—no, Fujimoto—this was getting creepy. It turns out that some girl was just banging a fist on the train door, you know, the one for the next bunker. The girl had short light brown hair and nerdy glasses. It looked like she was pretty worried about something. Rin nodded and smiled. She must be friends with the man in the tuxedo. Duh, who wouldn’t be worried if a friend went pale?

“Alright,” he said to himself. “I get it.”

When he turned around, all he could see was black… no, he saw a tuxedo in front of him.

 “Huh?” he said. He even dared to look up.

Rin’s eyes widened and thanks to the training he received from Shura, his blue flames automatically roared to life.