A/N: Okay, this story is starting to get recognized! Lesson learned, leave a story alone and after a while, people pick up on it!

Anyway, here we go with the plot! Don't worry, fellow RinXShiemi fans, there will be fluff! Just not now! Good things come to those who wait!

Blue Exorcist (C) 2009-2014 Kazue Kato, Shueisha

PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL RELEASE! IT'S AN AMAZING SERIES! (But tell Animplex to lower the damn DVD prices, they're insane!)

Chapter 2 – That Shrinking Feeling

When Yukio got to True Cross Headquarters in the Vatican, which was a short trip thanks to his special magic key, the Grigori and the entire Order of the True Cross was in a state of confusion after the events concerning both Neuhaus' betrayal and Rin's trial, the latter of which occurred a sparse week ago. Of course, thanks to the persuasion of True Cross Academy Director Mephisto Pheles, Rin was spared on the condition that Shura Kirigakure, a Knight ranked Exorcist, and Yukio himself would keep Rin under close and careful supervision as he trained to master his demonic powers. After a few first days of Rin and Yukio's anger management issues (and Rin accidentally burning Shura and Yukio's clothes off more times than either one would disclose), Rin was able to partially control his flames and channel them through his sword more efficiently.

However, Yukio's meeting with Mephisto was not about Rin's improvement, or even about Rin or Yukio in general. He was sent to hand over the fruit that Shiemi had collected from their last mission. As he thought of that, he wondered if there was truly anything wrong with Shiemi's condition. The doctors did clear her, so he thought that his nerves were talking. Still, he could not shake the feeling that something was not right.

He soon arrived at Mephisto's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in, Mr. Okumura," he called out from behind the door. "We've been expecting you."

When he opened the door, he found Shura was in the room as well, along with a few strange people in suits holding a high-tech looking piece of machinery.

"What's all this about?" Yukio asked, curiously.

"Didn't you get the memo, four-eyes?" Shura teased, which did not sit well with Yukio. "The boss here is testing a new machine to get something out of those fruit you and your brother got today." She then grabbed the bag from Yukio's hands and took one of the fruit out. "What are we ladies waiting for? Let's pop one in and let's see what happens!"

With that, the men placed the machine on a table, opened the top of the machine, and Shura tossed the fruit into the hole on the top like a basketball. The lights on the side blinked in many colors, and the machine made a high-pitched whining noise and started hissing. Yukio was intrigued as to what this machine did, but what he found out about it stunned him.

A ding rang out, and Mephisto smiled. "At long last!" He took out a large cup and placed it under the machine. With one press of a button, a red liquid poured into his cup, and he sipped from it. "Truly a divine fruit smoothie!"

For a long time, neither Yukio nor Shura moved from sheer shock.

"A… fruit smoothie…?" Yukio gawked, his jaw wide open in disgust and his eye twitching.

"Are you serious?" Shura growled, upset at the turnout. "That's it!?"

"Oh, don't be like that!" Mephisto said, giving the cup to the Knight. "try it for yourself!"

Shrugging, she took a sip and nearly dropped it in shock. "It's the most amazing thing I've ever tasted in my life! This is like all the best beer and grub in the world in one drink!"

"You see it as well!" Mephisto cheered, happy that Shura saw his point.

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!?" Yukio suddenly shouted, earning the attention of everyone in the room. When the two looked at him, he looked like the veins on his forehead were about to burst and his left eye was twitching at random intervals.

"Sheesh, what's with you?" Shura winced.

"Was that whole story a lie, sir?" Yukio asked. "I'll have you know that Shiemi Moriyama may have seriously been injured by a Drosca while she was trying to recover those fruit you just ground into that… that thing!"

Shura's eyes visibly widened and the name seemed to send a shiver up the normally cool female Exorcist's spine. "What… did you just say?"

"Uh, Drosca?" Yukio repeated, unnerved by the sudden change in attitude from Shura.

Suddenly, Shura got up and walked up to Yukio. "And you said that it bit someone?"

"Yeah, it bit Shiemi," he nodded. "But the doctors didn't…"

"We need to get to them right now!" she suddenly screamed. "This is not good at all!"

"If she says something's not good," Mephisto said, rather intimidated, "you know it's serious."

Yukio also picked up on Shura's suddenly alert behavior and nodded. "Okay, Shiemi's at our dorm. The key will take up back there in a flash."

Shura nodded and turned to Mephisto. "Keep the fruit safe, and for God's sake, don't make any more smoothies with them. There's a reason rare and powerful fruit are guarded by snakes."

With that, both Exorcists left and Mephisto turned to a small green hamster that was on a wheel. "Well, it seems as if our friends have a little problem on their hands. I hope it turns out okay."

Little did Mephisto know just how 'little' the problem really was.

{+}

Rin was pacing back and forth in his room, very nervous. Sometimes, he stole a glance at the tiny Shiemi who laid unconscious on his nightstand, and his pacing become even more rapid and frantic. He knew that there had to be a logical explanation for this phenomena; people don't just shrink for no reason. He thought back to the mission and knew that whatever snake-like thing that had bitten Shiemi must have caused this to happen to her somehow, but of the definite method behind her shrinking he had no idea. Not knowing what was the cause of this unexpected and unwanted event drove him further insane, and he almost lost control entirely had he not occasionally stopped for a drink at Kuro's insistence.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the special door opening, and he looked outside to see Yukio and Shura run to his room.

"Rin, where's Shiemi!?" Yukio gasped.

"She could be in serious danger!" Shura added.

"Uh," Rin stuttered, and pointed to his nightstand. "I think you might be a little bit late on that one."

Confused, the two stepped into Rin's room and soon discovered Shiemi on the nightstand, at a mere three inches tall. To make matters worse, it was at that precise moment that Shiemi came to, and bolted upwards, looking at everyone in the room with wide, terror-filled eyes.

"Oh, Yuki?" Shiemi gasped, using her nickname for Rin's brother, and then caught a glimpse of Shura. "Ms. Kirigakure? What are you all doing in here?"

"Sh-Shiemi?" Yukio gasped, leaning in slightly to get a better look at the shrunken Exwire. "What… the hell… happened to her?"

"Oh, good," Shura sighed, grinning. "This is actually better than I thought. Still bad, but not as bad."

"Not as bad!?" Rin barked. "Of course it's as bad, you idiots! You think she can go on the rest of her life when she's the size of Nii?"

The loud scream was enough for Shiemi to shriek and curl up into a ball, shivering like she had seen the devil. Rin, seeing this, silently cursed himself and slowly walked over to Shiemi, carefully picking her up and holding her gently in his hands, afraid that he may break her if not handled carefully.

"It's… it's okay," he said, shaking himself. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled like that."

Shiemi slowly looked up to Rin's colossal face and looked down at his hands, which were shaking and making it feel like an earthquake to her.

"Uh, Rin," she said, "your hands are shaking."

"Oh, sorry," he said, and calmed down just enough to stop the shaking. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I'm all right," she said, and looked around at the other two Exorcists. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this, Yuki. I guess I'm not fine after all."

"Well, no duh!" Shura suddenly blurted. "You got bit by a Drosca! Those things have undetectable magic venom and no one can tell what it does until it's too late!" She then folded her arms over her prodigious and barely covered breasts. "I've never heard of the venom doing anything like this, though."

"Well, how do we fix it?" Rin asked impatiently.

"Do you have the remains of the demon's body?" the female Exorcist asked.

"Uh…" Rin started, but then remembered the body was still where it was. "We kinda left it behind as we were running away from the temple."

"Seriously!?" Shura gawked. "You didn't even get one of its fangs?"

"Well, excuse us if we were running for our lives from giant snakes and killer plants!" Rin barked.

"You don't even need your demonic flames to do something as simple as that!" Shura retorted.

"It's only simple for you!" Rin hollered, even louder. "I'd sure as hell like to see you do better!"

"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!" a tiny voice piped up surprisingly loud.

Rin and Shura stopped their argument long enough to turn around and see Shiemi, riding on Nii, her tiny Greenman familiar, who was slightly taller than his Tamer. Apparently, she had curled a few leaves together to act as a megaphone to amplify her tiny voice so that the others could hear her.

"Stop fighting for once!" Shiemi continued. "Not only are you not getting anywhere at all, you're really scaring me!"

As she finished speaking, she started holding her arms around herself and shuddering. Shura blinked and sighed, shrugging, but Rin looked clearly more remorseful as his eyes fell to the ground and he could feel his tail droop under his uniform shirt. Kuro, upon hearing this, jumped from the table and slowly walked up to Shiemi, nuzzling his soft fur against her body. Shiemi was a bit intimidated by the Cat Sidhe's sudden action, but found his display of affection warm and welcoming as she nuzzled into his face.

"Sorry, Shiemi," Rin murmured, looking back at her.

"It's okay, Rin," she smiled. "I'd probably yell like that too if I was in your shoes."

We'll get you back to normal, Shiemi! Kuro thought. Don't worry about a thing!

"Thanks for that, Kuro!" Shiemi grinned.

In that instant, Shiemi, along with the rest of the present company, gasped.

"WHAAAAAT!?"

"You can talk!?" Shiemi gasped, her hands over her mouth.

"You heard him talk!?" Rin gawked.

"She heard him talk!?" Yukio gasped, for he could not hear Kuro like Rin could.

You heard me talk!? Kuro gasped, his big green eyes even bigger now.

"Interesting," Shura said, rubbing her chin in thought. "It seems that Shiemi is able to communicate with Kuro just like you can, Rin. Shiemi now possesses demon telepathy."

"Is that a possible side effect of the venom?" Yukio queried. "Like alchemy's 'Equivalent Exchange' law?"

"I'm not sure," Shura stated, "but we can't rule it out as a possibility."

"This is all so bizarre," Shiemi said, staring into Kuro's large green eyes, which were especially to her and were even bigger now that she could hear him.

Shiemi? a timid voice said from behind the shrunken Tamer, and Shiemi turned around to see Nii, with a worried look on his leafy face. Can you hear me too?

"I… I can!" Shiemi nodded, slightly smiling as she hugged the Greenman. "At least I know you guys want to help me."

Of course we wanna help you! Kuro smiled, nuzzling Shiemi again, who hugged him back. You're Rin's very special friend, and that makes you my friend too!

Shiemi and Rin both blushed from Kuro's words. "Well, how about we go and get that dead snake already?" Rin asked, trying to change the subject, even though only he and Shiemi could hear what the familiars were saying.

"Finally, we're getting somewhere," Shura sighed. "And here I thought we were going to stay stuck here debating how weird this is."

"Oh, we'll get into that later," Rin said nonchalantly as he placed his hand on the nightstand, allowing Shiemi and Nii to climb on. Kuro jumped onto his shoulder and Rin deposited Shiemi and Rin into his jacket shirt's breast pocket. "Right now, we gotta get that snake!"

"Should you really bring her with us?" Yukio asked. "It seems rather unwise, given her… current stature."

"Shiemi's coming with us since I don't want her to stay here by herself!" Rin protested. "She could get herself hurt just from doing nothing!"

"Sounds to me like you wanna play papa wolf, kiddo," Shura teased.

Rin felt his face grow hot and Shiemi heard his heart skip a beat and get faster. "Sh-shut up!"

"Fine, fine," Shura waved, "let's just get this over with."

With that, they all headed out the door and to the shrine, hoping to get the first clue that would get Shiemi back to her normal size.

What they did not see was a wisp of red vapor, leaving the house and flying into the distance into the opposite direction, towards a lake at the edge of town. The smoke wisp turned into the form of a snake and slithered down to the sandy beach and into a cave near the cliff side. It made a series of clicking sounds, and danced a bit, but did not move further into the cave. Two people, dressed in armor with snakelike eyes, came out from the darkness to greet the snake, and led it to a pool inside of the cave.

"So," a raspy voice called out, "you found my temple Drosca's killer, eh?"

The snake nodded, and spat out a stream of red energy, which morphed into the shape of a boy with blue hair and slightly spiky ears: Rin Okumura, son of Satan.

"The Son of Satan!?" the voice gasped, shocked.

The snake people in the room trembled at heir leader's outburst and at the mention of that name, but soon recomposed themselves upon hearing a loud hiss. The tiny snake at the foot of the throne hissed, and the fog reshaped into a girl: Shiemi Moriyama.

"So you infected this girl to get to the son of Satan," the voice said, with pleasure in its tone. "Very good. He'll try to find a cure, but that will be the least of his troubles."

"Because the only cure for a Drosca's curse… is me."

A/N: Dun, dun, DUUUUUUN! CLIFFHANGER! Lol, Mepphy is a derp and poor Yuki ain't happy! Also, do you like how Shiemi can hear Kuro and Nii now? More is to come, especially what some of you all came to see in G/T fluff, so stay tuned! Also, there's a little "other anime" joke in here if you know where to look!

-JeremyX signing off!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!