Hello fellow cram school students! This is my first fic for this fandom, so please give me feedback! Also, honorifics will only be in speech, because it can get messy really quickly when every line is full of "sans" and "chans" and "senpais."

But yeah, enjoy the chapter!

Shima stared at the back of his friends' heads. He knew they still didn't trust him, well, except maybe Rin.

Memories of the past week flooded his brain. The way Bon had stared at him when he made for the helicopter. The way everyone had stared at him.

And Takara...that fight had been so...troublesome.

Shima sighed, his footsteps becoming sluggish. He hadn't been able to sleep for a long while, not counting the many times he had blacked out during various fights.

"This is going to be so awesome!" Rin squealed up ahead. They were going to some kind of bath house. Shima hadn't really been paying much attention, though it looked like they had arrived.

He only barely registered Bon saying something. He answered in his usual perky tone, trying to be the same old Shima-san that everyone thought they knew.

But he couldn't deny the burning in his eyes and the fog that slipped into his mind.

"Sorry," he said to Bon, "I want to be alone right now. Can you leave me be for a while?"

"Um, of course..." Bon answered, eyes widening.

Shima nodded his thanks and followed everyone into the bath house. He chose a locker away from the other boys and peeled off his clothes.

The floor warmed his bare feet as he walked towards the furthest bath possible. The others didn't even notice, caught up in their own conversations.

But then, what else would he expect? He was a spy, after all, and being invisible was what he did best. Shima stumbled, almost falling on his face.

I need to get a hold of myself. If they see me acting so strangely, they'll hate me even more!

With a sigh he lowered himself into the hot water. Steam spiraled up around him and he sank down even further. Shima breathed, closing his eyes.

But all the while there was one thought that had been plaguing him for days.

Is there something wrong with me?

In each nightmare, that question was there. In each and every thought, that question was there!

Is there something wrong with me?

He shuddered in the heat. And for maybe the first time in his life, Shima felt completely unsure of himself.

"Hey! Shima-san!" Rin yelled.

"I said I wanted to be left alone, so don't call me!"

Uh oh, that was the wrong thing to say.

"What is wrong with you!" Bon exploded. "You've been acting strangely all day!"

Shima stared at his friend, brown eyes showing no emotion. It was something he had become scarily good at: being stoic.

To Renzou Shima, life was all a performance.

Everything he said was such an act that he sometimes forgot what he was really like.

"Leave me alone Bon. I'm a spy, remember?" Shima mumbled.

"SHUT UP! Don't talk like that!" Koneko yelled.

"Yeah Shima-san! We totally trust you!" Rin grinned, flashing a thumbs up.

"Wow, thanks Okumura-kun, that's really nice of you," Shima rolled his eyes.

He could practically feel Bon about to blow. He counted down from five.

Go...shi...san...ni...ichi...

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING TO REGAIN OUR TRUST!" Bon shrieked.

Shima shrugged, turning back to his bath.

Great, I really am going crazy. Now my ears are buzzing too!

"Do you guys feel that?" Yukio asked.

Shima blinked. That wasn't his ears. The room was actually rumbling.

"Everyone get out of the baths!" Yukio barked. Shima leaped from his bath just as it exploded upwards. Water erupted into the air before cascading back down on everyone.

"Nii-san move!" Yukio cried out. Rin whirled around to watch his side of the bath crumble.

"Rin!" Shiemi yelled. The wall between the female and male baths was coming down.

"What's happening?" Izumo seethed, fumbling to cover herself with a towel. The sounds of collapsing rock filled the space. The floors shook and rumbled like some terrible earthquake.

Water flooded out over the tiles in a miniature tsunami.

"Look!" Koneko said.

Everyone turned and froze. Before them stood a massive, white creature entirely engulfed in water. Its skin was almost completely covered up in rags and bits of thick white hair, with numerous clawed hands reaching out from its sides. A tiny beak-like mouth sat in the middle of its massive, spherical head, and two sets of hawkish red eyes stared out at them.

"This is my house!" The demon groaned.

Shima blanched. Great. More danger.

"It looks like a high level ghost," Yukio announced.

"Koneko and I will start chanting Buddhist scriptures, since that's the most common religion around this area," Bon said.

"Uh...what about us Okumura-sensei?" Shima chuckled nervously, gesturing towards Rin and the two naked girls standing behind him.

Yukio considered.

"We'll need to get our weapons, but that thing is blocking the lockers..."

"Leave it to me Yukio! I'll distract it!" Rin called, igniting his blue flames.

"Hey! Over here!" He cried. The demon seemed drawn to the fire, waddling towards him.

"My house!" It chanted, "My house!"

"Okay, come on!" Yukio ordered. He ran for the lockers, Shiemi and Izumo doing the same. Shima remained in place.

He looked up at the demon, then at his friends.

Troublesome...is it worth helping?

Slowly, he began walking to the locker area. Should he help? What would he gain? Surely it would be better if he let the strong handle this...

Yeah. Maybe he should stay out of everyone's way. With that thought in mind, Shima turned and ducked behind a part of the fallen wall. He balled his fists.

They don't need me. They've never needed me to do anything in battles like this...so why should I bother?

He heard Shiemi's familiar squealing and chirping. He heard Rin trying to reason with the demon. He heard the slashing of his sword and the boom of Yukio's guns and the sarcastic remarks of Izumo's foxes.

"Why are you here?" Rin screamed.

"My house! They want to build a bath on my house! MY HOUSE!" The demon wailed.

"Hey listen! Look how happy everyone is because of your sacrifices! Everyone loves your house!"

"MY HOUSE IS ONLY FOR MEEEE!"

Shima snickered. As usual, everyone had failed to notice his absence.

Koneko's words echoed in his head: coward!

But that wasn't it. Shima wasn't a coward because he wasn't scared. He just, couldn't bring himself to endure the stress of fighting something that other people could take on for him.

Is there something wrong with me?

The question gnawed at him.

"We can't find its fatal verse!" Bon yelled.

"Okumura-kun behind you!" Koneko screamed.

"MY HOUSE!"

The noises blended together in Shima's head. He looked down at himself, figuring he should at least put on some underwear. With a stretch he stood up and walked to the lockers.

It was amazing, how blind people could be. Not one person called out for him. Not one person noticed him there.

Because Shima had always stayed in the background.

And even as he pulled his boxers on and debated on trousers, his name was absent in the tangle of screaming.

Or at least it was, until Shima suddenly felt his feet fly out from under him. Something wet and squishy was wrapped around his ankles, lifting him up into the air with his head hanging down.

The demon had gotten him.

"Shima-san!" Rin squirmed, also caught in the ghost's grasp.

His flaming sword was on the ground, far below.

Shima looked around in panic. It seemed everyone was suspended by the squelching arms of the monster before them. Shima felt his heart speeding up.

Yukio had both arms pinned to his sides, which meant no guns.

Shiemi was crying and her and Izumo's summoning pages were ripped to shreds.

Bon was eerily silent, helplessly staring at the ground below.

Koneko was in analyzing mode, quickly glancing at every corner. Though it didn't look like he was making any progress.

And Takara...Actually Takara was crouching down on the other side of the room. Izumo called out to him, but he either didn't hear her or didn't care.

Dammit! What do we do?!

Shima took a breath. With a steely focus that he rarely showed, he narrowed his eyes.

"KIRIKU!" He yelled out. Almost immediately his K'rik flew to his hand. He chanted and black flames crawled over his arms. The demon screeched, skin bubbling and burning.

"Yamantaka-kun! Help me out!" Shima growled as the ghost released him. He crashed to the floor and felt his insides twist up. His energy waned, but he stood up anyway. Yamantaka was here.

He just needed to focus on not passing out.

"MY HOUSE!" The demon roared, releasing the others as its arms burned away.

Rin dived for his sword and leaped up to fight. Shima glanced at his K'rik.

Well everything is already out...might as well finish this.

With a wince he soared up to stab the demon in its eyes.

"Ghosts can't be destroyed with brute force, can they?" Bon wondered.

"It seems Shima-kun's flames are affecting it severely...interesting," Yukio mumbled, firing off holy water infused bullets.

Shima wasn't listening. He only heard Yamantaka's voice, and the rushing blood pouring into his head. After all these years, why was it still so difficult to use his familiar?

A flash of blue light leaked into his dimming vision. Good. The battle was nearly over.

Is there something wrong with me?

No! This wasn't the time for that question. Not yet.

He swung his K'rik, now with a black spear head, over and over with his muscles screaming in pain. His familiar seemed to be devouring the bath ghost, engulfing it in black fire.

Rin slammed his sword one last time into the ground, sending shockwaves of satanic power.

Then, with an explosion harsh enough to collapse what remained of the pillars and walls, the demon disintegrated into nothingness. Yamantaka disappeared and Shima was left barely standing upright, clutching at his K'rik.

Beads of sweat clung to the tips of his hair, and his breaths puffed out in garbled gasps. Shima smiled faintly, swaying side to side.

"Shima-san!" Shiemi cried out, running to him. She placed a hand on his trembling shoulders, trying to steady him. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah...of c...course..." Shima mumbled. Everyone began crowding around him with a swirl of voices. Bright white dots crackled in his eyes.

The hot steam stuck to his skin and lightened his head.

"That was awesome!"

"What was that thing? I didn't know you could summon something like that!"

"Those flames you made were very interesting. How did you summon them without your familiar?"

"Where even were you!"

"Wait a second, Shima-san are you okay?" Koneko asked. The others seemed to take notice of his condition and switched their ramblings to concern.

"I said...m'fine...st'p t'lking..." Shima breathed. Everything was blurring into neon colors, and the heat was choking him. Someone cried out and Shima suddenly realized he was on the ground and his K'rik was no longer in his hands.

"Renzou!" Bon yelled.

Then everything went dark.

So...this is all under the assumption that Bon and Koneko don't know about Shima's flames or Yamantaka, until he is revealed as a spy. So they wouldn't know about his fainting.

Tell me what you think of it!

Wolf Out...