Of Death and Demons

Chapter 3- First Battles

A/N - I know it's not Saturday but I felt like posting another chapter.

"Whoa, this is a long hallway." I gasped, as we stepped inside.

Either way I looked, I couldn't see the end.

"This way." Rin said, he walked down the right side of the hallway. "1104, 1104, 1104." Rin muttered as we passed many doors.

Rin finally stopped, causing me to bump into him.

"This is it. Go in, I'll be inside in a moment." he said.

I nodded and went in. Six people, all staring at me, were sitting in the many rows of desks. I sat down in the front row and pulled my sword off my shoulder. Three girls, three guys. One girl had shockingly blonde hair, one had brown hair streaked with red, and the other black hair and glasses. One of the boys had a scar from his ear to his chin, another with his nose in a book, and the last was really cute. Suddenly the door burst open.

In walked Rin, smug look and a six foot scythe on his shoulder.

"Hey." he said. He walked over to the teachers desk and sat on top of it.

"Rin, what the hell are you doing?" I asked.

Everyone looked at me in surprise but Rin only smirked.

"So, this is my freshman class." he said.

I stood abruptly and slammed my hands on the desk.

"How did you fail to mention this?!" I yelled at him.

The blade of Rin's scythe implanted itself in the desk between my hands.

"Please sit down." Rin said in a dangerously quiet voice.

I sat down fuming, and glared at Rin.

"I'll give you this warning now, this will not be an easy journey. There's the possibility you will die, even before you become a full reaper. Demons do not hold morals like humans do. I can only take you so far, you must be the one that becomes strong." Rin said very seriously.

Rin closed his eye for a moment before opening them again.

"Now, what's a spirit mark?" he asked.

The blonde girl raised her hand immediately. Rin nodded and she stood.

"A spirit mark is an injury or illness inflicted by a demon or spirit. Although spirits are not usually hostile like demons, they do lash out at times." she said.

"Yes, thank you Harumi. So, I'm guessing everyone has received theirs." Rin said.

I raised my hand, I had never been hurt by a demon. Rin threw something at me, it was so fast I barely had time to catch it. I opened my hands and saw a little black spot looking thing floating around.

"If you can see that, you can see demons and spirits. We call those coaltars, they're weak and pretty much harmless." Rin explained.

"Yeah, I've always been able to see these. They seem to like messing with my hair."

As if on cue the demon flew into my hair.

"Now, before you can become shinigami, you got to know where we come from." Rin said.

He opened his mouth to say more but cute guy interrupted.

"Sir, when did you start studying? You seem no older than us." he asked.

Rin laughed as if he had been told a joke. "I may look the same age as you but believe me, I'm a lot older. If you had let me get to to what I was saying, I would have already explained by now." Rin said. He sighed and shifted his scythe. "I'm from the family of the original shinigami. My grandfather was born at the end of the the second dynasty. They say he was gifted the power to collect souls and control the evil ones that escape from hell from the gods. However, no one's sure but cause the damn old fart doesn't tell us shit. He is the first Rin Shinigami, and I'm the third. I was born somewhere in the seventh dynasty and live to this day." Rin said.

"Who's the paladin, if not you? As part of the Shinigami family, why are you teaching?" the blonde girl asked.

"I teach because I want too. Also, someone else is paladin." Rin said.

He didn't sound too happy.

"Is your father paladin?" the guy with the scar asked. I noticed Rin tighten his grip on his scythe. "Let's just go across the hall, we don't have time to waste." Rin said.

The training room was a large room filled with all sorts of things. Along one wall was a whole bunch of targets, on the other was a bunch of stuffed dummies, and a large batting cage in the back.

"Pick out a weapon from one of those racks. Not all of you will be weapon wielders, so don't worry if you can't get the hang of it. Shinigami use three types of weapons, guns, swords and scythes." Rin said.

He threw a sheathed sword at me as the others moved towards the racks.

"You'll be using that. You need to be ready if you ever need to use that." he said, motioning to the sword on my shoulder.

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but worst case scenario you need to be ready." he said.

The blonde girl had also picked up a sword, brown haired girl and scar guy picked up guns, and the others grabbed scythes.

"Oh, two knights. This will be fun. Misaki, Harumi, you two are going head to head over there." Rin said, sitting in a chair near the door.

The blonde girl, Harumi, and I walked to the center of the room and faced each other. She lunged at me and began pressing me. I raised my sword to defend, wishing I knew how to do this. Her blade glanced off mine and grazed my arm. I watched as a small bead of blood ran down my arm. I looked back at her and she smirked. My body suddenly went on autopilot. I pushed back hard causing her to stumble backwards. She tried lunging at me again, but I had the edge of my sword at her throat from behind. She looked at me in total shock. Rin was suddenly beside me, holding onto my arm.

"Enough."he said calmly.

My body relaxed and I was in control again. Rin wiped the blood off my arm and wrapped the wound up tight.

Everyone went to practice and the cute guy came over to me. "That was awesome. You're new, right? I'm Haruki Muramoto. That's Izumi Hittori, with the scar and the other one is Kazuma Ichikawa. Reika Yoshino is the one over there with the red in her hair, Katsu Tamashiro is the one with the glasses, and you know my sister Harumi." he said.

"But she's blonde." I said in surprise.

"It's dyed but please don't tell her I said that. She's really gonna hate you." Haruki replied.

"Why?" I asked.

Haruki laughed.

"It's kinda obvious. One, you beat her at when you had no training and she's been training for a while. Two, Rin clearly has taken an interest in you. She's kinda in the fan club." he said awkwardly.

Rin grabbed Haruki's collar and pulled him away.

"Come on, Misaki. You need to study. You may be good at fighting but it doesn't mean shit if you don't know about the demons. That goes for you too, Haruki." he said.

He let go of Haruki and headed for the door. I grabbed my stuff and followed.