Moats of dust swirled around us as we walked through the warehouse, the last rays of light streaming across the floor. We had just recieved a briefing from our client, and had gotten to work as quickly as possible. Shura and Yukio had gotten a map of the floorplans, which showed that we were to be exploring a five-building warehouse complex; their fairly simple floorplans as shown on the map would be easy enough to navigate, but with their fairly large size and the many boxes scattered about, we would have a lot of ground to cover. Because of this, Yukio decided to break everyone into groups; Shiemi, Yukio and I were together, as were Bon, Izumo, and Shima. The final group was Shura, Konekomaru and Takara. My group was to explore the two buildings on the left, and Bon's was to explore the other, slightly smaller buildings. Shura's group was instructed to float between the two, and act as backup in case of an emergency. We set off, carrying the large flashlights that the warehouse owners had given to us, and the worst night that any of us had ever seen began.

-|•°•°•°•|-

The night began uneventfully, and after an hour of searching the warehouses, Yukio was beginning to grow restless. His group had found nothing major so far, the worst thing having been a coal tar that had gravitated towards Rin. He had glanced at it and it burst into flame, sqeaking as it was turned into ash.

In the silence of the evening, Yukio's mind began to wander as his flashlight beam drifted silently across the floor. His thoughts were of his brother; what had happened to him? What had become of the clueless, naïve teen that he had been just two months previous? Why was he suddenly so standoffish towards others, and reluctant to get involved? Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind- what if something had happened when he had disappeared? It had been for only a few hours, but he was well aware that that was a sufficient amount of time to torture someone. However, if he had been tortured, why was there no evidence of it when they found him? As always, there was some important bit of information that Yukio didn't know, and it frustrated him beyond belief. He needed to know so badly what had become of his brother... and yet...

"Mm? Yuki-chan? What's wrong?" Shiemi was looking at Yukio, concerned. "You seem upset about something."

"Oh? Don't worry, it's nothing." He gave her a reassuring smile. As he spoke, however, he watched Rin out of the corner of his eye. His shoulders were tense, and he had the dull look in his eyes that had been there for so long. Although he would never admit it, he missed how his brother used to be; bright-eyed, energetic, immature... he seemed almost broken now, as if someone had shattered him into a million different pieces and then tried to put him back together again with a child's school glue. There was no fixing him now. You could tell, just from the look in his eyes, that he wasn't okay. Not by a long shot. Yukio knew this, and he wanted to help... He just didn't know how.

"Kya ha ha! You fools are so cute, swirling your little flashlights around like that. But honestly, it is getting a bit dull. How about livening things up a bit? What do you think, my prince?" The voice echoed through the warehouse as piles of storage boxes fell out of the neat stacks they had been in against the walls, blocking all of the exists. Rin's eyes widened as he recognised the voice, backing up slightly. On instinct, he reached to his back where his sword used to be, but let it drop to his side once he remembered that Shura had taken it. Yukio drew his guns at the same time. Shiemi, realizing that the demon was coming, fumbled desperately for her summoning circles. They all stared with horror as a young woman's form materialized in front of them. Her long white hair almost touched the ground, and her bloodred eyes shone with dark intent. It was Kurumao, the demon that had tricked Rin.

"I told you I would be back. Did you think those puny bullets of yours would really hold me back for long? Ha! It took me only days to reform. And now, I am back to play. What about seeing what you can do, my prince?"

"S-she's back? I didn't see her in any of our missions..." As she spoke, Shiemi dropped a small sheaf of paper squares. "Ah! My summoning circles..."

"Well, how about we test you out on her? This pathetic girl..." As she spoke, Kurumao rushed forwards. Before any of them could react, the demon rushed forwards, grabbed Shiemi by the shirt collar and dragged her forwards. She cried out in surprise, as she had been completely absorbed in her summoning circles.

"Shiemi!" Rin cried, stepping forwards.

"Come over without my permission or call for help and she dies." Kurumao then shoved Shiemi roughly forwards, and when the girl stumbled but didn't fall, she kicked her to the ground. She then rested her foot on her head, and laughed when she heard Shiemi wimper and try to shift underneath her weight. As she shifted, a small stream of blood began to pour from her ear. Yukio heard Rin inhale sharply, which caused the demon's laughing to become even harsher.

"Have you lost control yet, my prince? Or perhaps you need some more... motivation?" Glancing over at Rin, Yukio saw that his brother was quite tense; he seemed to even be fighting a smirk from his face. He appeared to be, as Kurumao had stated, losing control: although he didn't quite know why, he had a sense that something was very wrong, and that Rin was about to lash out. He figured that it may have something to do with the small, if slowly growing puddle of blood forming below Shiemi's ear.

Rin backed away visibly, and hit a stack of boxes behind him. This made Kurumao's eyes narrow.

"You have more resilience to the scent than I had expected, but the open does seem to have affected you... So, what about this?" She reached into her pocket, and pulled out an ornate silver dagger.

"No...!" Rin cried, starting to come forwards. He seemed torn, as if he wanted to help Shiemi's shaking and crying form and run from it at the same time. Then, almost faster than Yukio's eyes could follow, the dagger was slashed across Shiemi's face. Blood began pouring down her pale face, and she wailed in pain. She flailed in Kurumao's grip, which earned her another violent slash. Rin's hands began to shake, and he bagan to bring them to his face. Before he did, however, he looked at Shiemi's wounds. His hands froze, and ever-so-slowly dropped to his sides. His face shifted from the horrified, struggling look to one of calm apathy, and then to a sly, hungry smile. Kurumao chuckled with delight, and skipped back away from Shiemi.

"Has if finally taken affect? Yay! Have fun~!" She said in a singsong voice, and jumped gracefully into the air. She landed on a large stack of boxes against the wall, and began to watch the events that were about to unfold.