I groggily woke up the next morning, noting how my body had progressed over the night. I was by no means better, but the pain had ebbed away some. Replacing it was a dull ache, but I could easily handle it. I sat up in bed and yawned, spotting Yukio who was busy getting dressed. "G'morn'n," he turned and smiled at my lazy greeting, but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. Worried, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up straighter, "what's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing's wrong," if I was anyone else, I would've believed him.

"No, something's up, you've got a weird glint in your eyes." I gestured for him to sit down on my bed, moving a sleeping Kuro in the process. "Tell me."

He sighed and finished fixing his clothes, eventually coming to sit down next to me. "You've been acting weird, Rin."

Oh, it's this conversation, again. I kinda regretted pushing the subject, but decided that I could at least try to calm his worries. "I was sick yesterday, Yukio, that's not weird." I chuckled, but he didn't find the humor in my words.

"I'm not talking about that. It's been your actions since we got here, it's like you're scared something's going to happen."

I shrugged, "anything can happen during an exorcism, do you really blame me for being apprehensive?"

He shook his head, an exasperated look in his eyes. "You've got an answer for everything, don't you? But you've been on dozens of missions by now, what's changed?"

I stuttered as I tried to lie, "I don't know what you're talking about, I haven't- I'm not- nothing's changed." I finally settled on that last statement, but I'd lost my confidence before I got there.

"Yeah... and those nightmares?"

I averted my gaze to the window, "I've had those for years now, Yukio. That's irrelevant in this conversation."

He grunted lowly, "not when they've become more frequent. Those and your suspicious behavior have me worried, Nii-san." It was quiet as he waited for my answer, but I didn't have one. He sighed, "can you at least tell me whether or not you're in danger here?"

I shook my head immediately, "don't be silly, Yukio. We're in a church, it's probably the safest place in this town." My remark seemed to set him at ease because he sighed in relief and pushed himself off my bed.

"That's good to hear." He gave me a backward glance, a small smile on his lips, "are you going to hog the bathroom for half an hour again?"

I shook my head, "no, but I do need to piss, so if you don't mind..." I got out of bed as casually as possible, ignoring the dull burn in my back. Kuro immediately shot up and hopped onto my shoulder. I gave him a puzzled look, but decided I'd ask later.

.oOo.

"You seem better," I shifted my gaze to my furry friend after I was done washing my hands. "You don't seem to be in a lot of pain anymore."

My lips formed a thin line, "it's still there, but it's not as violent as it was yesterday." He nodded and I figured it was my turn to ask the questions. "You got up quick this morning."

He rolled his eyes, "I was awake before you were. I was watching Yukio for the most part." His features softened considerably, "he's so worried about you, Rin. Even if you don't tell him about all this, you're still hurting him."

I averted my gaze to the medicine cabinet, a small knot forming in my stomach, "I know, but he's hurting less now." I opened the cabinet and started rifling through for the Tylenol. "Even though I'd love to take all of his pain away, it's just not possible. I just have to live with the guilt every time I see the worry in his eyes."

"That's no way to live, Rin." He was quite sympathetic for a cat, but I wasn't about to complain. When I finally found the Tylenol, I grabbed it, but my eyes caught sight of a different bottle. I traced the name on it and the type of pills they were, my conscience debating whether or not I'd be making a good decision. Kuro seemed to catch on to my dilemma and jumped up onto the counter, "what are you looking at?"

I pulled out the transparent orange container, "these are his," I kept my voice low, just in case anyone was walking outside the door. "They're pain killers, I could take one, or half of one, and the exorcism could go smoothly." My eyes turned hopeful, but the look in Kuro's was disapproving.

"No, just no, Rin. You should never take prescription pills that aren't yours. What if you react badly to them, or they're too potent? You could overdose and end up in the hospital or even worse. I think you should just stick with the over the counter meds."

I sighed and put the container back where I'd found it, but a devilish idea popped into my head. I gave Kuro a mischievous look before taking the bottle back out of the cabinet. "What are you-?" He didn't get to finish because I'd already unscrewed the cap and dumped the containers contents into the toilet. There were only a few in there anyway, but I knew that it would make an impact nonetheless. When I flushed them down and put the container back onto the shelf, I looked at Kuro, a torn expression on his furry face.

"Morally, I want to be angry, because he needs those pills. Yet, morally, I want to be ecstatic, because he's a dirty pedophile." I cackled, my mood for the day boosted by quite a bit.

"C'mon, let's go before someone gets mad at me, again."

.oOo.

The Tylenol may not have been a hundred percent effective, but it did it's job as best as possible. Thankfully, I was able to battle demons with a fair amount of strength and our schedule was back on track.

"Okay, so I know I said that we could go to the True Cross Circus tonight if we finished early, but that means that all of you have to give everything you got." Yukio was leaning against the wall of the opening room, it was our final leg and chatter about tonight's events had been a prominent topic. I looked around to see my classmates nodding happily and I couldn't help agreeing as well.

The faster we got done, the better. And if we were going to the circus, that meant we would be leaving the monestary tonight. Kuro and I exchanged knowing glances and he seemed just as relieved as I was.

"Okay, let's do this."

.oOo.

Good God, I was - scratch that, we were all sweating when Yukio said we were almost done. Some of the kids cried out in glee and I laughed.

"Okay, everyone take one." Yukio pulled the small backpack he had brought off of his shoulders and unzipped it. Inside were some sort of canisters and my mind immediately compared them to grenades. Once everyone had their share, Yukio explained what they were. "I'll assure you, these aren't the type of bombs you're thinking of. They have a gas on the inside that will get rid of any of the lingering demons."

I heard someone groan, "why didn't we just use these in the first place?!"

My brother smiled, "calm down, Shima, there's a valid reason for all of your hard work. You see," he pointed at the grenade, "these are quite small, but they are very potent. If we were to toss one of these into a room full of demons, they wouldn't work as well. The demon's wouldn't get a lethal dose and continue to multiply. The less demons, the better." I could wrap my head around that notion, it seemed the others could as well because Yukio seemed satisfied with our expressions. "Now, each of you go into a different room, pull the pin, and return back to this area. Make sure to toss your grenade as close to the center of your room as possible, got it?"

We all nodded simultaneously and then went in different directions. I heard some of the others call dibs on specific rooms and I did the same for the kitchen. My heart was pounding against my ribcage and I felt excitement bubble up inside of me, thank god, we were getting out of here tonight. Kuro pawed at my face from atop my shoulder and I smiled at him.

Pulling the pin, I rolled the canister on the ground, figuring that a toss would just make it bounce around. "There, done." I stated proudly and Kuro chuckled. "You read-" I flinched as the canister popped loudly and a white, smoke-like fog erupted from it. Kuro cackled at my skittish reaction but suddenly started choking.

I flashed worried eyes to him and soon realized what the problem was. As my own throat was beginning to restrict, I knew we had to get away from the gas. How idiotic of me to think it wouldn't effect us, a rookie mistake, I suppose.

I scampered back to the opening room, the clear air hitting my raw throat and causing me to hack and sputter. I bent over and put my hands on my knees, trying to shake off the collapsing pressure inside my chest. Yukio was immediately by my side, as well as a few others.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Nii-san! I should have made you wait here, I completely forgot." I waved him off, wheezing a few times before gaining my senses back. When I looked over at Kuro, his eyes were watering, but other than that, he seemed okay.

"It's fine, I should've realized it myself. I'm just glad we didn't experience the whole effects of that gas." Teal eyes shined, expressing how grateful he was of that fact, as well. I took a deep, cleansing breath, "so, what now?"

He shook his head, "the rest of the cram school and I will use the grenades, you and Kuro wait outside. It'll only be a minute." I nodded and made my way to the door, the feeling of fresh air as I opened it was more than welcome.

Yukio wasn't lying when he said it'd only be a minute because it seemed like the rest of the group had followed me out almost immediately. The conversation as we all got into the van and rode back to the monestary was filled with cheer. All of the kids were excited to go to the circus, I, for one, was torn on the subject.

Dad would alway take us there after he'd come back from his meetings. They were memories that provided a distraction from what had happened only day's prior, but they were also tainted because of that fact.

All I knew was that I was more than ready to leave the place I had once called home.