Chapter 1: Missing

Author's note: I have only watched the first season of the anime, so there's not going to be anything from the manga in here, so if there was something revealed about Rin or another character it's not going to be in this story either. That being said, when I watched the anime, the ideas flowed, but this idea was one of the few that actually came as a complete idea rather than half formed, and I ended up falling in love with the idea.

Fujimoto Shiro sat alone in his office, a pile of documents and a bottle of sake in front of him, the glass for the sake discarded in favour of drinking straight from the bottle. The documents lay unmoving for hours, Shiro stared at the page in front of him but didn't register the words.

He then sighed and pushed his work away, realising that he wouldn't be getting anything done today, he just wasn't in the mood. Today was the anniversary after all, of the day his son went missing.

Shiro's eyes drifted over to the photo frame that sat on his desk and he picked it up, smiling at the two faces that grinned back at him. It was the last picture he had of them together, taken only days before one of them disappeared, he had taken them to the beach and snapped the photo of them standing proudly next to their sandcastle, poor Yukio had gotten a nasty sunburn that day, and Rin had slipped in the rock pools, getting scrapes on his knees and elbows that he had insisted didn't hurt even thought it was clear they had.

Yukio was now a fully trained exorcist, even becoming the teacher to the next group of exorcists in training even though he was the same age as them, a promising exorcist prodigy that Shiro was proud of.

And Rin?

Shiro let out a heavy sigh.

Rin had gone missing seven years ago to the day.

Shiro still remembered that day clearly.

"Hello?" Shiro answered his phone.

He was currently on a mission involving a string of mysterious injuries happening to the residence of a small area, he predicted that he wouldn't be back home until late in the afternoon.

"Mister Fujimoto, I'm afraid that there's been another incident at school regarding your son." The recognisable voice of the school receptionist answered back.

Shiro sighed. "What happened?" He asked regrettably.

"Your son has managed to injure another student as well as the teacher who pulled him away from the child. We'd like you to come in to discuss the matter as well as take him home." The receptionist listed off firmly.

Shiro looked at his watch.

"I'm currently occupied with matters out of the city, and it'll take me a few hours to get back." He said, the case wasn't serious at the moment, so he could afford to leave it to the others.

The receptionist didn't speak but he could hear her speaking to someone else in the background.

"We will send him home now and speak to you tomorrow, is that acceptable?" The receptionist asked.

"Yes, thank you." He'd rather speak to Rin first anyway. "Goodbye."

Putting away his phone, Shiro went over to his team and spoke with them about leaving.

"I'm surprised that you don't get into more trouble with how much that kid of yours pulls you away from work." One of his team commented as Shiro wrote down his current observations so that he could leave.

"Whoever oversees our missions must have a problem child of their own." Another added.

"I'd appreciate if you didn't refer to my son in such away." Shiro told them coldly.

The two quickly shut up.

Shiro handed over the papers and left.

It took a few hours, but Shiro eventually arrived home.

"Rin!" He called as he entered the monastery.

"You're back early." One of the priests said.

"Rin got in trouble again." Shiro said. "Where is he?"

The priests looked at each other.

"We haven't seen him." Another answered.

Shiro felt a shot of ice go through him, but he quickly quelled it, telling himself he was overreacting.

"I was told that Rin was being sent home after his incident at school." He told the priests.

The priests gave worried looks.

"Check Rin's room to see if he snuck past you and contact Yukio at cram school to see if he knows where he is if he's not in his room, I'll go to the school, it should still be open." Shiro said, taking charge.

"Okay." The priests answered.

Shiro left again, heading towards his children's school, on the way getting the message that Rin wasn't hiding in the monastery, quickening his pace at the news.

"I'm sorry, but we're closed for today." The receptionist said as Shiro arrived.

"I'm looking for my son." Shiro said.

"I'm pretty sure that there aren't any children left in the school, the cleaners would have found anyone who stayed and brought them here." The receptionist answered.

"Rin's not here?" The ice was back, stronger than before.

"Oh, Mr Fujimoto!" The receptionist now recognised him. "We sent Rin home hours ago, the paperwork says that he was fine to walk home alone." The receptionist began to look worried too. "Did he not arrive home?"

Shiro shook his head.

"Would you like me to phone the police?" The receptionist asked nervously.

"No, I'll do it myself if I can't find him." Shiro told her, quickly leaving.

Shiro phoned the monastery as he ran towards the park, hoping that Rin was sulking there instead of heading home.

"Did you find anything out from Yukio?" Shiro asked as soon as the phone picked up.

"All he told us was that his teacher told him that Rin had been sent home early after the fight." Was the answer.

Shiro cursed, both at the answer and because he arrived at the park to find Rin nowhere to be found.

He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Contact the police and organise a search party to find Rin." He told the priest.

The priest was silent for a second. "Yes, Shiro." His voice was strained.

The search went on for hours, the police, priests, and a few volunteers splitting up to search the area for Rin. As they searched, Shiro prayed that Rin had simply gotten lost, he'd taught the boy not to go with strange people or take things from them, and Rin was strong enough to fight off attackers even as just a boy, but it was still a possibility that Shiro didn't want to think of.

"Over here!" One of the volunteers called out.

Everyone nearby rushed over, Shiro pushing to the front.

The person who called out handed Shiro a backpack, Rin's backpack.

"I found it just lying there." The person explained.

"Is this-" A police officer began to ask.

"Yes." Shiro answered sternly.

"Call all the volunteers to this area and spread out for more clues." The officer called to the other officers.

Still holding Rin's backpack in a tight grip, Shiro continued his search, calling out his son's name frequently.

They never found him.

Rin's backpack was the only clue they found, no other indication as to what happened to him or where he went, only that he was likely taken due to his backpack being found just lying on the ground.

Shiro still remembered holding a sobbing Yukio that night, when the boy realised that his brother was gone, and then again when the search was officially called off and Rin became just another name on the list of missing children.

The two of them never gave up though, despite the seven years since Rin disappeared, Shiro and Yukio continued to look, searching for any scrap of evidence for where he went, fighting to bring him back home. Others told them that it was likely Rin wasn't even alive anymore, but Shiro, Yukio and the monks of the monastery knew something those people didn't, the kurikara.

The blue flames still burned behind the seal, flames that would have surely gone out without their true owner still alive. The flames that they feared had become a source of comfort for the family, for as long as they burned, they knew that Rin was still out there somewhere, waiting to be found.

Shiro placed the photo frame back in its place and checked his messages, he had a new case.

With a parting glance at the photo, Shiro opened his door using the key that took him to the central headquarters to receive the details of the case and who he'd be working with.