The group of young exorcists in training were making their way to their first mission. The three of them finally going without the watchful eyes of either Shura or Yukio. Rin, of course, was bouncing around in excitement with his tail swaying back and forth, chatting nonstop about whatever came to mind.

Ryuuji, who had been walking behind Rin, along with Renzou beside him; could feel his anger rising as Rin's tail almost hit his face every time it swayed.

"Would ya get yer damn tail outta my face, before I remove it forcefully." Ryuuji growled out, swatting the tail away from him. "'N' while ye're at it, why don't ya stop talkin' so we can focus on the damn mission the headmaster trusted us with?"

Renzou chuckled as Rin snapped his tail away so fast it made a snapping sound in the air and started to pout at the demand, but stopped talking none the less. Only in the fear for his tail being pulled by Ryuuji, who tended to yank on it when he was irritated at Rin.

It was silent for the next five minutes, before the demon they was looking for suddenly came out of nowhere. Rin, with his fast reflexes, dodged the demon, before he pulled out the Kurikara, his blue flames bursting out.

"Be careful! We don't know what kind of power this demon has yet!" Ryuuji yelled, as he and Renzou started to chant a binding spell to hold the demon still so Rin could take care of it.

As Rin continued to dodge and keep the demon's attention away from Ryuuji and Renzou, he observed its appearance. It was a tall demon, probably around 6 feet, if not taller, and had the appearance of an old Imp with huge horns standing proudly on its head. In its hand, it held a staff.

Rin's train of thought was cut off as the Imp demon thrust his staff forward. Rin ducked and slashed his sword into the demon's side, who growled in pain before it slammed its staff into Rin's stomach in retaliation. Who gasped as the air was knocked out of him before he was grabbed around the throat and slammed into a tree.

Rin struggled against the demon choking him, but the attempt was futile as the demon's hold only tightened and the demon started to chant. The hand around his neck glowing a bright light blue, before the energy was pushed into his body and pain took over soon after.

Ryuuji let out a curse as he stopped chanting and Rin's scream of pain grew louder. None of their binding spells were working. The brunet'n'blond growled in frustration before he yanked Renzou's staff out of his hands and sent it flying at the demon holding his friend.

The demon let go of the now unconscious half-demon before jumping back, just barely dodging the staff as it lodged into the tree where he had been standing. The demon then let out a loud growl and then chanted another spell. It disappeared within a flash of blinding light that momentarily blinded Renzou and Ryuuji.

After recovering from the blinding light, Renzou ran over to check on Rin. All the while, Ryuuji cursed under his breath at their bad luck.

"Great, out first mission alone 'n' we end up losin' the damn demon." Ryuuji growled out, pinching the bridge of his nose with closed eyes.

"Um. Bon, I think we have more problems to worry about than losin' the demon." Renzou called out with an edge of worry in his voice.

Ryuuji sighed before he turned and walked over to his childhood friend. "What could be worse them losin' our target?"

"This can." Renzou muttered and pointed to the half-demon laying on the ground in front of him. When Ryuuji looked over Renzou's shoulder, he was in shock. What should have been laying there was a 15 year old boy, but instead there was a child who looked to be about five years old.

Ryuuji stared at Rin in disbelief, watching as Renzou picked up the child and wrapped him up in the clearly too large school uniform.

"I guess we better get back 'n' inform Okumura-sensei." Renzou then proceeded to dump Rin into Ryuuji's arms and turned to pull his staff out of the tree, nearly falling over as it finally jerked free, catching himself before he fell.

Renzou turned around, only to see Ryuuji already walking away. " , don't leave without me, Bon! There are bugs out here!" As if to prove him right, a moth flew into his face, causing him to shriek and run after Ryuuji who just rolled his eyes at Renzou.

They had just gotten to the cram school, using the key they was given for the mission, when they saw Yukio walking out of the classroom.

"Okumura-sensei!" Renzou called out, getting Yukio's attention.

Yukio, upon hearing his name being called out, turned around with a raised eyebrow. "Yes?"

"We have a bit 'f a problem." Renzou chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

"And what kind of problem do you need help with?" Yukio inquired as he headed towards them.

Ryuuji pushed Renzou out of the way with his elbow, tired of Renzou beating around the bush, and gave Yukio a serious look. "What Shima's tryin' ta say is that Okumura has got himself in a mess." Ryuuji then looked down at the bundle of clothes in his arms.

Yukio raised both eyebrows at that, clearly interested, and looked at Ryuuji's arms, which he had failed to notice the first time, was holding a bundle of clothes that was starting to squirm.

Ryuuji started to unwrap the jacket from Rin's little body just enough to show Yukio just what he was talking about.

Yukio's eye twitched in irritation. With an irritated sigh, he crossed his arms while pinching his nose and closed his eyes. "I'm almost scared to ask how this happened, but how in the world did ani get himself turned into a kid?" Yukio said with forced kindness. A disappointed frown could be seen at the corner of his mouth.

Renzou ducked behind Ryuuji, scared of Yukio's too calm posture. "Well, ya see -"

"The information we got wasn't very specific, so we didn't came prepared. When we met the demon, it was a lot stronger than we first expected. So strong even suntras didn't work. So at first, Okumura tried ta distract its attention while Shima 'n' I were chantin'. However, Okumura got caught by the demon 'n' it did somethin' ta him. Once the demon escaped, we found Okumura like this." Ryuuji said, interrupting Renzou with a bored tone.

Yukio looked at Ryuuji with a skeptic eye, his arms fully crossed. "Even if you don't receive much information about your target, you should at least come prepared, in case something happens. Like it did on this mission." Yukio lectured them, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and folded his arms again.

Ryuuji looked down, feeling quite stupid for such an obvious thing. "Yes, Okumura-sensei."

"Well, there isn't much we can do now." Yukio said, uncrossing his arms while he turned around to face a door. "Come with me. We have to bring ani back to the dorms and see what we can have him wear. Then we'll go over to Sir Pheles with him."

Renzou held up a hand and cleared his throat to get their attention. "If ya want, I can go get somethin' fer him." he suggested.

Yukio gave Renzou a nod. "Alright. You go find some clothes then. Suguro-kun and I will await you." he said before he pulled out his key, opening the door there would warp them to the dorms.