"Rin," Allen whispered, poking her brother.

"He's not gonna wake up," Lavi said, leaning back in his seat and glancing over.

"Rin!" Allen said a bit louder, jabbing Rin in the ribs.

"Wow, he's a really heavy sleeper," Shiemi said in awe.

Allen let out a sigh of frustration before picking up her book and smacking it over Rin's head. "Wake up, asshole!"

"Wah!" Rin exclaimed, falling out of his seat. The teacher looked over with a disapproving glare and Allen chuckled nervously.

"My apologies," she said, standing and bowing. "Okumura-san fell asleep. I was only waking him up."

"Very well. Don't let it happen again," the teacher said before continuing with the lesson. Allen sat back down, pulling her beanie over her eyes a bit.

"The hell's with this guy?"

Allen looked over her shoulder and saw that the words came from the guy with the mohawk - Suguro Ryuji if Allen remembered correctly. He was sitting with Shima Renzo and Miwa Konekomaru. Lenalee and Kanda were sitting at the table behind them. From what Allen had learned from her brief conversations with Lenalee, all five were from a temple in Kyoto.

"Beat it," Suguro muttered.

"Okumura-kun, Walker-san, pay attention please."

"Sorry sir," Allen said, quickly look back to her paper. Meanwhile, Rin just laughed and Allen had to fight the urge to hit him over the head again.

Demon Studies

Allen sighed again, resting her face in the palm of her hand. Rin was spacing out again. Spacing out led to dozing off and dozing off led to hitting the desk face first. For Rin, at least. Allen was just trying to push through it, praying to every god she knew of to end her suffering.

"What is the least powerful demon under the domain of the Demon King Astaroth?" The teacher was asking, and it took everything Allen had to not shudder at the name. "Okumura-kun!"

Rin jolted upward, clacking his teeth together and giving himself a headache. After he recovered, he looked towards the teacher.

"A coal-tar, I think," Rin said, eyes catching the one flying past his head. "One of these guys right?"

"Good job, Okumura-kun," the teacher said, mildly impressed. Allen grabbed the coal-tar by the tail and started playing with it, bored out of her mind. She knew most of these things already.

"I don't think you should be playing with a demon," Lavi said.

'This is mildly amusing.'

"Hush, you," Allen replied to both, crushing the coal-tar before tossing its remains to the side.

Grimoire Studies

Allen couldn't blame her brother from dozing off in this class. For the most part, it was just the history of magic - and only demon magic, not even touching on other kinds. Allen could feel her eyes rolling into the back of her head while she watched something akin to Rin's brain leak out of his ears.

"The term 'grimoire' refers to certain texts created from the 15th to 16th centuries, which deal with magic involving the summoning and subsequent enslavement of demons. Today, we're going to be looking at The Key of Solomon and The Book of Raziel."

Allen let out a soft huff, glancing over her shoulder at Suguro. He was still sending a glare in Allen and Rin's direction.

'No helping that, I suppose.'

'No, I guess not. He's irritating though.'

Demon Pharmacology

Allen was able to stay alert for the most part, and Rin did too. It was still a bit of a struggle not to beat her brother over the head, though.

"Today, I'm passing back tests," Yukio said. "Come up and grab yours as I call your name."

"I'm sure I've done okay on this one!" Shiemi said, turning to Rin. "It's my specialty after all!"

"With how you make up names for the plants, I wouldn't be so sure," Lavi said.

"I'm sure she did fine," Allen said, flicking Lavi's forehead.

"Moriyama-san," Yukio called. Shiemi shot out of her chair and half-ran, half-stumbled towards the front of the room. Allen didn't listen as Yukio gave Shiemi some pointers and tips.

Shiemi walked back sadly, a 41 on her paper. She pouted as she showed it to the group.

"Your specialty?!" Rin exclaimed, laughing.

"What did I say?" Lavi said, shrugging.

"She did fine, you guys are just mean," Allen said, glaring at the two. "It's okay, Shiemi-san. You'll get it soon."

"Walker-san," Yukio said.

"Right," Allen said. She walked over nonchalantly and grabbed her paper. "Eighty-four. Not bad considering I stayed up really late the night before."

Yukio gave her a condescending look as if to tell her to stop doing that. Allen waved him off before returning to her seat. Lavi ended up with a 100 - no surprise there.

"Okumura-kun," Yukio called. Rin excitedly bolted up there and took the paper.

"Alright! Not bad!" Rin exclaimed happily, fist pumping. He got a 32. "Guess Allen's tutoring is really paying off."

"Be glad sh- he actually puts up with you enough to do so," Yukio said in a deadpan. Lavi caught Allen's gaze at the almost slip-up, but Allen shook her head. It wasn't the time for questions.

Rin, oblivious to the silent conversation, stuck his tongue out at Yukio before going back to his seat and proudly showing off his score.

"Hmm, looks like there are still some things I need to go over with you," Allen said, taking the paper and circling some of the questions in blue pen.

"Suguro-kun."

Suguro stood from his seat, glaring at Rin as he passed. Rin glared right back. Allen could feel more than hear the growl rising in Rin's chest.

"Thirty-two percent?" Suguro said antagonistically. "I couldn't get that bad of a score if I tried. Try studying instead of trying and failing to act cool for the girls. You make me sick!"

"The fuck did you just say?" Rin said, his growl rising. Allen tensed at the atmosphere. She felt Lavi freeze, too, and was pretty sure Lenalee and Kanda did as well.

Suguro continued on his way. He grabbed his paper, Yukio complimented him, then he returned to lord his 98 percent over Rin's 32.

Rin stood abruptly, slamming his hands down on the table. "What? So you actually got a brain behind a face like that? The fuck does that have to do with me?!"

"The hell was that?!" Suguro responded with just as much intensity. Allen could tell this would go downhill. Fast.

"I said, you have a face that doesn't match your grades!" Rin shouted.

"Listen here! Do you wanna know why I come to these classes?!" Suguro asked. "It's to do some serious studying and earn the right to be called an exorcist! It ain't just me; everyone is here because they're serious about becoming exorcists, right?! Half-assed punks like you should just get the hell out!"

"Oh boy," Allen said, rising from her seat.

"What gives you any right to say that, asshole?!" Rin said, growl evident in his voice now. "I'm working towards being an exorcist just like the rest of y-!"

Rin was cut off by Allen pressing two fingers into a pressure point on his jugular. She was doing the same to Suguro.

"For fuck's sake you two!" Allen exclaimed. "You're acting like spoiled children!" She looked at Suguro. "I get it that you have your reasons of being here, but taking out stress or anger or irritation or whatever on Rin is not going to help anyone." She turned to Rin. "And you! Don't egg him on! Haven't I taught you that it's better to ignore the assholes?"

"Yes, Allen!" Rin said, gasping in pain. "I promise I'll ignore him, just let me go!"

Allen pulled her fingers away from Rin's neck, eyes focused on Suguro. She put more pressure into the point. "What about you?"

"Agh! Fine. Fine!" Suguro said. "I yield, I yield!"

"Good," Allen said, releasing him. She let out a breath before looking back to Yukio. "Feel free to continue with the lesson, sensei."

"R-right," Yukio said, doing well to remain impassive to the situation. Allen dragged Rin back to their seats, shrugging at anyone who sent questioning looks or glances.

'You scare me sometimes.'

'It's what I'm good at.'

'That's not a good thing.'

'That's debatable.'

"So who was that guy?" Rin asked during their break. Lavi, Shiemi, Yukio, and Allen were sitting with him at the fountain.

"His name his Suguro, Ryuji," Allen said. "He's from Kyoto."

"He's also here on a scholarship, like me - or like Allen could be if sh- he cared enough," Yukio said. Allen sent him a look that clearly said, 'Two slip-ups in one day? What's up?'

Yukio shrugged before continuing his explanation about Suguro. "He's a prodigy, and is seemingly irritated by your… incompetence."

"I mean, at least I'm trying a little bit?" Rin offered weakly.

"I suppose," Yukio said. "Anyway, I have to head out. I have a class to prepare for. You four feel free to stay here."

After Yukio left, there was silence. It was a little awkward between Shiemi and Rin, but Lavi had a way of making Allen feel comfortable.

"Psst, Allen!" Lavi whispered. "We need to talk."

"I know, but not here, and not now," Allen replied.

"Not about that," Lavi said, shaking his head. He gestured across the courtyard. "I meant about Lenalee and Yuu."

Allen followed his hand wave and saw the two people in question. She shrugged. "Why not go talk to them. Lenalee is still relatively nice, and Kanda is his usual grumpy self."

"I mean, we might as well," Lavi said with a slight sigh. He took Allen's hand and the two jumped down from the fountain. "Shiemi, Allen and I are gonna go for a bit. We'll be back."

Allen knew Rin saw the hand holding. She also knew Rin was now going to glare at Lavi for a while. There was no helping it, so she just submitted to it with a shrug.

Shiemi nodded to her brother and Allen and Lavi made their way to Lenalee and Kanda.

"Lenalee!" Allen called, waving the two over. They exchanged glances before calmly approaching.

"Good afternoon, Walker-san, Lavi-san," Lenalee said, smiling. "How are you?"

"Let's drop the formalities, Lena," Kanda said. "It's obvious that they remember. Or at least have fragments of their memories."

Allen nodded, pulling her hand from Lavi's to cross her arms. "I gained some of mine about a month ago."

"Three years ago," Lenalee said. "For both me and Kanda."

"A year and a half," Lavi said. "So Allen-chan remembers the least."

"I've been meaning to ask about something," Lenalee said. "Are you still a girl?"

"Yup," Allen said, shrugging disdainfully. "My brothers - Yukio and Rin - have a separate dormitory for specific and classified reasons. It's a boys' dorm, so I need to at least pretend to be a guy at school so that it's not suspicious as to why a girl is sleeping in an old boys' dorm."

"Makes sense," Kanda said. "Family here?"

"Shiemi is my sister," Lavi said.

"Yukio and Rin are my brothers, the paladin, Shiro, is my father," Allen said.

"Sounds like so much fun," Lavi said, rolling his eyes.

"It really does," Kanda said in a deadpan tone.

"Kanda and I were raised alongside Bon, Koneko, and Renzo," Lenalee said. "You know them, right?"

"Suguro, Miwa, and Shima," Lavi and Allen said. Lenalee smiled and opened her mouth, but was interrupted by shouting and laughing from over by the fountain.

"Not again," Allen groaned, rubbing her temples.

"I say let them fight amongst themselves," Kanda said. "It's not even friendly bickering. That's just trying to kill each other."

"That's what I'm worried about," Lenalee chuckled nervously, sweatdropping.

'Where's the popcorn?'

Practical Athletics

Allen watched Rin and Suguro run around the lower level of the room being chased by the Leaper. She let out a suffering sigh as Rin picked up the pace - he wasn't going very fast for him, though - and Suguro decided to drop kick him in the back. Rin let out a cry of pain and Allen could see tears forming in his eyes. No doubt because his tail was just kicked. She winced as he flew across the room.

Allen ignored Suguro's nonsense and Rin's irritated retort. She impassively watched as the two got into a brawl, Rin coming out at the winner with the trophy of Suguro's earring - with a piece of his ear still embedded in it.

"Suguro, Okumura!" The teacher shouted. "This is a training exercise, not a race."

"They're both acting like children again," Allen muttered.

"Guess there's no helping it, huh?" Lenalee said, an exasperated expression on her face.

"Wow, they're huge idiots," Timothy said - he was pulled into their little group, but Allen had asked a few questions to confirm that, no, he doesn't have his memories.

"You said it, Hearst," Lavi sighed. Kanda let out a grunt of agreement.

"Ah, shit," Allen said, pushing herself forward to slide down the slope. She got to her feet as she reached the bottom, then ran over to Rin. She grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him away.

"You have some serious issues, dude!" Surugo exclaimed, holding a hand over his bleeding ear while he was dragged away by Shima and Miwa.

"I'm sorry about this, sensei," Lenalee said as she and Kanda joined the group. She helped Suguro out of Shima and Miwa's hold.

"I told you not to fuck with me," Rin growled as Allen let him go. He spat the earing to the ground.

"Tch, whatever," Suguro said.

"Suguro-kun, come with me please," the teacher called. Suguro nodded, then followed the teacher away from the group.

"What's with that guy?" Rin said, gritting his teeth.

"You'll have to forgive Ryuji," Lenalee said.

"Yeah, he takes everything seriously," Shima said, shrugging. "He can get really worked up over anything. He joined this place with a crazy ambition."

"He wants to get strong enough to defeat Satan," Kanda said. Rin's hand twitched and his expression twisted up.

"Crazy, right?" Shima said while laughing.

"Shima-san, don't laugh!" Miwa said.

"By the way, what are your names?" Rin said. "I know your last names - Shima, Miwa, Lee, and Kanda - but what are your first names?"

"Ah, I'm Lee Lenalee," Lenalee said. "That's Kanda Yuu, Shima Renzo, and Miwa Konekomaru."

"Okumura Rin and Walker Allen, right?" Shima said. "Nice to properly meet you. Even if the circumstances are not as ideal."

"Names aside, we apologize again," Miwa said. "Bon is doing all he can to rebuild our temple since it was destroyed during the Blue Night."

"Blue Night? What's that?" Rin asked.

Allen facepalmed, sighing at her own stupidity. She had forgotten to explain that. "Okay, the Blue Night refers to a day, sixteen years ago. Satan murdered a large number of priests, exorcists, and clergymen."

Kanda tch'd. "Our temple was one of the places hit by it. Those two are apprentices of Suguro's dad, the temple's 'Ossama.' I don't know much about it, but from what the Ossama told us, all of our temple's powerful exorcists, including the previous Ossama, started bleeding from all of their orifices. They were consumed by blue flames as they died - one after the other."

'Blue flames…'

'Neah? Is something wrong?'

'It's nothing to concern yourself with. I just have a bad feeling.'

'... If you're sure.'

"The current Ossama, who was just a monk-in-training back then, prayed through the whole thing," Lenalee continued, voice grim. "He sat in a corner. I'm actually a little surprised that he survived. Either way, our Ossama took over the temple, but people were freaked out by what had happened. We lost a lot of worshipers and pilgrims."

"Before long, the place was known as the 'cursed temple,'" Miwa finished. "This all happened before all of us were born."

Well, not all of us. Allen side glanced Kanda and Lenalee but stayed silent. Rin was uncharacteristically quiet too.

Suguro had finished with the teacher and they had returned. The group was sent back up to the top of the wall. Then the instructor's phone rang. He answered it, seemingly excited. Before rushing out, he gave the class orders to stay away from the Leaper until he came back.

"Is that even allowed?" Shima muttered. There was quiet for a few seconds.

"What the fuck was that?!" Suguro exclaimed. "He calls himself a teacher?! I thought True Cross Academy was supposed to be a sacred place of learning! Don't even get me started on the students!"

"Suguro," Lenalee said. It was her serious voice. Suguro let out a huff, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"What was that? You sure are running your mouth off today!" Rin retorted. "What makes you say I don't take this stuff seriously, huh?!"

"The way you act in class!" Suguro said, his anger rekindled. "Sleeping all the time, not being able to get above an F on any tests. It's pathetic."

Allen's left hand twitched at that. She shifted her gaze downward. There was so much she wanted to explain to Suguro - to all of them. She looked towards Rin, who was fuming. It wasn't her place to tell them. She turned her eyes back to the ground.

"Why don't you prove that you're serious?!" Suguro said. "The Leaper. If you can touch it and come back without getting attacked, then you win. If you're able to stay calm, then you can do it. If you're planning on becoming an exorcist, then you shouldn't get scared over something like this, right?"

"Ryuji, don't," Lenalee said, putting a hand on Suguro's arm. He shook her off.

"Of course, I'll do it, too, and I'll win," Suguro continued. "If you make it back without being attacked, then I'll respect that you've got some proper resolve! So how about it? You in or not?!"

"Sound pretty interesting," Rin said, smirking. "Still, I'm not gonna do it."

"What?!" Suguro exclaimed.

"He's right in not doing it, idiot," Kanda said, flicking the side of Suguro's head. "What if you screw up and get yourself killed? Just because you have us here to protect you doesn't mean you can do random shit."

"I have ambitions too," Rin said, looking away. "I can't risk my life and do stupid shit like that."

Suguro turned on Shima and Miwa. "You told him didn't you?" Before they could respond, he turned back to Rin. "Ambition my ass! You're just scared! That's all, ain't it?!"

Allen's head shot up, and she flinched backward. She moved towards Rin, putting a hand on his shoulder. He gave her a small smile, which she returned. Both looked back to Suguro as he began to speak again.

"Why don't you fight?" Suguro asked. "Aren't you bitter at all?!" He didn't wait around for an answer. He started to slide down the sloped wall. "Well, I'm gonna do it! So just stand there and watch!"

"Suguro!"

"Bon!"

"He really is a moron."

"Hey, don't!"

"You shouldn't..!"

"Is he serious?"

"He'll just end up backing off."

"Honestly…"

'Allen, get ready to do something.'

'Yeah, I know.'

"I'm gonna defeat Satan!" Suguro yelled as he approached the leaper.

Kamiki started laughing. "Did he just say that he'll defeat Satan? What is he, a kid?!"

Several things happened in the next few seconds.

Suguro lost his nerve. The Leaper jumped at him. Three pieces of Innocence activated - Lavi tried but it wouldn't happen - and there was Kanda's shout of, "Lenalee, Moyashi, now!"

It was followed by Allen launching herself into the arena, Rin next to her. Lenalee grabbed Kanda before jumping down as well. Allen wrapped Crowned Clown around Suguro and pulled him back. Kanda took a defensive position in front of him. Lenalee was next to Suguro - who had fallen to the ground - to make sure he was uninjured. Rin was halfway into the mouth of the Leaper.

A moment passed and the Leaper pulled away from Rin. He looked over his shoulder to glare at Suguro. "What are you doing? Are you that stupid?! Are you listening? 'Cause the one who'll defeat Satan is me, and if we're going to have the same goal, then that means we're rivals. So I don't want you going half-assed, you got that?"

It wasn't shouted like Rin normally would, and Allen finally understood. She smiled gently. "So that's why."

Kanda deactivated his innocence, then Lenalee and Allen followed. Lenalee helped Suguro to his feet, then went on to scold him. Kanda also had a few choice words, but it was basically what Rin had just said.

Allen walked over to Rin. "I'm sorry for keeping secrets from you. I'm realizing now that if we had just told you, it would have made a huge difference. Maybe Shiro wouldn't be in a coma right now if we had."

"It's fine, don't beat yourself up over it," Rin grinned, patting Allen's back rather fiercely.

"Let's get out of the arena before sensei comes back," Lenalee said. Allen nodded, then they returned to the wall.

The next day, Rin was found studying before class started. Suguro approached him to apologize and thank Rin and Allen. He also gave Rin a hair clip to keep his fringe out of the way.

Allen laughed at Rin's "so creepy" comment, then at Suguro's response. Well, she was laughing, before something pulled at her chest. She stopped herself from doubling over, but Lavi noticed.

"Everything okay?" Lavi asked quietly.

"I- I think so," Allen said. The feeling was gone as soon as it had come.

'Neah, what was that?'

'I'm not sure. I'll have to get back to you on that.'

"Tyki, is this the right place?"

"You're asking the wrong person. Wisely?"

"Yes, Road. this is the place."

The three Noah, in their human disguises, looked up at the large building in front of them.

"True Cross Academy."

"This'll be fun!"