Finally finished reading Ao no Exorcist / Blue Exorcist from where I'd left off last year. This series is amazing; I don't know why the introduction of Shura made me drop the manga, but I'm so glad that I picked it back up. The latest chapters are making me ship Rin and Shiemi. However, I don't have a feel for their characters quite yet so I'm going by what's already stated in the canon (specifically Chapter 19). Man, it feels so good to write something after months of not writing anything! Enjoy.

She'd vowed to herself that she, Moriyama Shiemi, would work hard so that she wouldn't be useless to her teammates, even if her teammates thought otherwise (which was a nice gesture, really, but she owed them more than she could count for saving her life). Her girl friend and sole female classmate, Kamiki Izumo, had scolded Shiemi for her low self-esteem and/or confidence. It was true that Shiemi was physically weak but, as Izumo pointed out bluntly, the blonde was "shameless" and apparently adept at summoning a Greenman Spirit – a rare talent among the Exorcists nevertheless.

Adjusting her work clothes for neatness and comfort, Shiemi tied her well-shampooed hair to her right side and took a deep breath. The cooks of the temple were fairly nice, likely because they needed all the help they could for feeding tens of the injured and tired. When she'd poked her head in the kitchen and asked whether she could be of assistance, they'd just tossed her a common apron without a question and simply told her to "wash these dishes." She promptly did so, slightly overwhelmed by their kindness.

Helping out by washing, even if it was only a small thing... it made Shiemi feel better. It was only one small step for her, but a giant leap for her kind. The trickling coolness of the flowing water must be conducive; it certainly calmed her internal turmoil and self-doubt. She was making a difference through her actions, she could tell. If she kept at this, Shiemi might become stronger and be on the same fighting level as her friends – no, I will be strong, she firmly corrected herself as her slender fingers ran once more over the glint of the pale china bowl.

Shortly thereafter, Shiemi's dreamy reverie was jolted by the reality of footsteps and familiar voices, in the midst of the chefs' chit-chat and Bon's mother's concise commands. Especially the voice of that –

No. She must not think of this boy. She mustn't, she mustn't. She must scrub the bowl instead. Do not break your concentration. Scrub, scrub, don't mind him at all. Don't scrub too much either, lest you break the bowl. Just scrub, as you'd always done up to this point.

But the boy's voice broke in a single long yell that echoed throughout the kitchen.

"That looks delicious!"

Immediately, a short boy with tossed black hair in a simple black shirt and casual jeans floated into Shiemi's vision. In the tiled wall facing the girl, he greeted Bon's mother with genuine enthusiasm and, big surprise, a fanged mouth full of drool, and Shiemi tried to blink away tears of mixed emotions but alas, to no avail. She reluctantly settled for staring forlornly at the distant reflection across her of the boy, who had once been her friend and who may as well still be her friend, if not for his –

She listened, ignoring her impulse to turn her head three-hundred-sixty degrees towards the real boy; she listened to the sound of boxes leaving the wooden table and surprised compliments of Bon's mother and cooks and everyone else (apparently, the boy was very strong; not that she hadn't known already); she listened, with desperate thoughts fleeting across her mind that went dontlookathim dontlookathim dontlookathim even though she knew that the boy was going to stare at her anyway (oh god she could feel his stare at her back oh god); she listened and waited until the plank below creaked and the boy went through the door frame; and then she turned her head at long last at the boy's receding back, his strange tail bobbing merrily behind.

"Be careful!" said a fellow dish-washer next to Shiemi and then Okumura Rin vanished from her sight.