~Rin's POV~

I woke up to find that I had fallen asleep in class. Again.

'Oh well,' I thought, finding Konekomaru in my line of vision. He still looked at me in fear, after everything that had happened. He was still scared of me.

Bon mumbled under his breath angrily, and Shima smiled, his nervousness showing clearly. Izumo just rolled her eyes and Shiemi glanced up at me from the table behind me, while Yukio… Just sighed, looking disappointed and continuing on with the lesson.

'Damn… All I can do is disappoint him and make everyone else scared,' I thought to myself, sighing inwardly. Well, no matter. I wouldn't be around much longer. Maybe a few months at the most, but I wouldn't be around much longer, and maybe then they would be relieved. I sighed inwardly again, putting a hand to my face, aware of what was creeping down it, and just as aware that no one else could see it…

I feel kind of sad about this, and even though I have some time left, I'm already feeling a little sentimental… but the others won't feel that way, I'm sure, so for me to feel this way, it's selfish. Besides, even if I want to back out of this, I can't.

I can never escape this.

I already know I can't escape this, so I shouldn't even be thinking thoughts like this.

I can already feel it happening. I've been able to feel it happening for a while now, too. Even since before we destroyed that huge Gehenna Gate. Even before it was decided I had to pass the Exorcist Exam or die. It had started as soon as the people I once called friends began to hate and fear me.

At first, it was just a dull feeling. Even so, slowly but surely, it slowly began to hurt a little bit. Nothing more than the feeling of breaking the epidermis, but it was pain, nonetheless. Even now, it just felt like something was breaking my epidermis, but more intense, and they were trying harder.

I knew this was supposed to happen, though, so I didn't say anything. After all, it would only get worse as it went along. She knows exactly what she's doing, and I really have no choice but to go along with it.

The lesson continued on, seemingly stretching out for what seemed like hours, but was really only another 15 minutes, as I stared blankly at the board, my head resting in my hand. The pain was mostly in my head – more specifically, my eyes, as those were the starting point – 'the windows to the soul'. I absentmindedly rubbed my head a little bit, as an absentminded attempt at trying to ease the pain a little bit, but to no avail. The words didn't seem to reach my ears as I continued staring blankly, until someone shook my shoulder.

"-in! Rin!" Someone shook my shoulder, slowly bringing me out of my daze. "Huh?" I asked stupidly, though I had seen who it was before I asked.

"Class ended 8 minutes ago." The purple-haired girl stated plainly.

"Oh." I rubbed my head. Had I really stared off for that long? "Thanks, Izumo."

She just crossed her arms and sighed. "Whatever," She huffed, grabbing her bag and leaving the room.

I rubbed my head sleepily, grabbing my school bag and the Kurikara. I stared at it for a few minutes, thinking to myself. Since I will be gone after the next few months, I wonder what will happen to the Kurikara. I'll be gone, so I guess my flames would leave the sword… or maybe become part of it. Either way, I guess I'll leave it to Bon, Shima, and Konekomaru. It did belong do their shrine, so it should go to them, right?

Konekomaru noticed me staring at the sword and frightened [well, more frightened then he already was], probably thinking about what I was thinking. Shima shook his shoulder a little and whispered something to him, while Bon just eyed me warily.

After a few minutes of this, I realized they were looking at me, and I quickly put the Kurikara on my back and left the room, rushing a little. I passed a worried looking Yukio on the way out, but I didn't stop to talk to him. I hurried to the dorms, since that had been the last class of the day, completely and utterly forgetting about my training with Shura, and went straight to the room I shared with Yukio.

You'd think that I'd just fall on the bed and pretend I don't have homework or something, but what if I said that's not true? What if I said that I did my homework, just didn't hand it in to help my façade mask stay in place as the 'happy-go-luck-idiot-Okumura'? Well, believe it or not, it's true. On the second-to top floor, across the building from the stairwell, but not all the way on the other side, there are a few rooms in a row that don't have walls, conjoining them into one big room. I had moved some furniture from other rooms into this room and some of the furniture already in that room to different rooms, and had stored a bunch of stuff in there – which was where I was going now. As I entered the room, I was immediately welcomed by the site of instruments, easels, brushes, bookshelves with pieces of clay, all different items for the different forms of art – after all, I did like the general arts. See, soon after I began cooking, I realized that the culinary arts were, well, an art.

After I found that out, I set out on learning the different arts. I quickly fell in love with things like music and poetry and playwrights and several other forms of art. I walked into the room, closing the door I had entered in behind me. The other doors were always locked, and whenever I entered the room, I locked the door behind me.

Once I entered the room, I tossed my bag aside and walked to the far side of the room, easily locating a violin. Right now, I just wanted to play until my fingers bled. I did have nothing, Konekomaru had been right about that, so I couldn't just dump my feelings on them, especially because of the way they treated me, so I soon after found the arts a way to express myself. If I felt sad I could play a sad piece or a piece in the Minor keys. If I felt happy I could play a fun, upbeat song. It felt good to have an outlet.

As I adjusted the violin against my torso and adjusted my grip slightly, I began to play a violin version of Fur Elise, going through the entirety of it twice.

I felt relaxed as if a thick tension had been lifted off my mind and chest, and I sat down in one of the armchairs in the room. Looking around the room, some people would take it as a mess, but I saw it as a picture of colors and beauty – I had truly come to love the arts. Colors splattered the room, instruments of all shapes and sizes, paints and clay lined the bookshelves, pottery, notebooks of poetry. I sighed happily, able to relax. I felt happy here – this was my happy place, for sure.

I rested for a few minutes before sitting at the desk at the head of the room, similar to the one in Mephisto's office, only this one was covered with paint and patterned beautifully with blue and green stripes with white dots going straight down with the stripes. The stripe themselves were diagonal. On top of the desk was just a stack of papers that were scribbled all over sloppily, lightly stained with water and a table lamp. I turned it on and did my homework quickly. Pssh, they think I don't pay attention… Well, sometimes I don't, but I guess I've had this façade mask on for so long that it's easy to pretend.

I spent about an hour sitting and doing my homework and sketching, as it began to clear after about a half hour, in which time I had begun to draw a park that looked like the one from my childhood, only cleaner and more populated.

I wonder how long it will be until it is finally complete; but, no longer how long it is, I have to keep up my façade mask until then. I can't let them see what is happening.