Shuku awoke the next morning to a sharp pain in her hand. Eyes flashing open in a panic, instinct took over and Shuku went for her nonexistent knives and looked around in panic. She blinked when she registered where she was at, and that there was no danger unless you count sunlight. Shuku squinted her eyes, and pushed her hair over her right eye, providing the more sensitive eye with some shade from the glaringly bright, morning sun.

There were only two others in the room with her, Polka-brow and Hebimaru. Hebimaru's tongue flickered out impatiently, then went over to Izumo, and shocked her. Shuku smirked and looked down at her hand. Hebimaru was waking her up in a very effective way, and it was funny to watch Izumo freak out from being zapped by Hebimaru. Shuku snickered, and he looked over at her, and a red Izumo as well, probably from embarrassment or anger at Shuku's familiar.

"Master Shuku, the ocean demon is near. The sea has gone pitch and it is concerning." Hebimaru said seriously, and Shuku's face hardened almost instantaneously.

Izumo blinked, Shuku had started moving so suddenly and had spoken to her familiar. Izumo didn't understand what the big snake had said. Most exorcist couldn't understand demons, but Shuku seemed to just fine. Sometimes her familiar spoke English, other times he didn't. In this case, only Shuku understood, and it didn't seem like she could tell the difference either. Izumo knew there was always more to Shuku, and only time would lead to the whole truth.

"Izumo, get dressed. It's an emergency. The sea's gone black." Shuku informed Izumo, as she slipped on a pair of knee-high leather boots and laced them up.

Shuku threw her hoodie on and skillfully resheathed her knives which were freshly polished and sharpened into her hoodie and snatched her vapor pen, taking a big puff from it before putting it in the hoodie pockets as well. Shuku checked to make sure she still had her two summoning papers, one for Hebimaru, the other still unused. She also had all of the money she had made the other day in a simple wallet. With no time for doors, Shuku jumped out through the window, hearing Izumo let out a shout of protest. Hebimaru slid out the window behind his master.

Shuku ran up to where the two boys stood staring out at the ocean, Hebimaru slithered up to her shoulders and stared out as well, tongue flickering out every few seconds. Izumo followed shortly after, sending Shuku a glare for jumping out the window before looking out to the ocean as well. Rin's familiar was beside him staring just as intently.

"Not again" Shima muttered, probably to himself.

"I'm sure the kid's seen this too. Let's just hope he doesn't do anything stupid." Rin said and a look passed over Izumo's face, then she ran off.

"I'm gonna go check on him." Izumo said as she ran down the stairs.

"Uh?" "Izumo?" Shuku remained silent and followed the boys in pursuit of Izumo. She stopped and turned around.

"Yeah, what? He saved my life, didn't he? Anyways, it bugs me when people go off and do something half-cocked." After that Izumo ran off, and Shuku sighed and walked back to the hotel.

"Shuku? Where're you going?" Rin asked. And Shuku waked.

"Back to the hotel, no use standing outside like a scarecrow." She said as she climbed in through an open window, back to the hotel with Hebimaru on her shoulders.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was sunset and Polka-brow hadn't returned. According to Rin, she was fine, but Shuku had the feeling something was gonna happen, not a prophecy, but a gut feeling. She walked to the window sat on the window sill and spotted a chilling silhouette on the horizon, coming toward the shore. Shuku froze for a moment, then used her momentum to leap out of the window, again, and race toward the place where Izumo and the brat were, Hebimaru and the two boys and Kuro in close pursuit.

They arrived just as the demon got within reach of them, and Shuku flipped out her blades. Hebimaru hissed at it, probably going to try to electrocute it.

"No way!" Rin exclaimed, staring at the giant piece of soon to be calamari.

"I.. It really is a demon! Where's captain Nemo when you need him!" Shima said, stating the obvious.

"Just read the sutra!"

"It's an aria you dumbass..." Shuku butted in distantly, but her eyes were focused solely on the water.

"Just read it!" Rin shouted.

"What are you gonna do? Shuku! What's wrong with you?!" Shima asked, going from Rin to a paralyzed Shuku, the demon forgotten, eye focused solely on the water, lavender eye glowing as her heart beat made haste.

Shuku remembered the darkness of the lake water and the glowing eyes of the water demon, the rest of the world just a black and green blurry that stung her eyes. Her movements restricted, and unable to see the distant sun. She couldn't see, she couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. She was trapped in an endless space where nothing existed.

Shuku, unfocused and distant, completely tuned out what was going on, and was almost hit with the massive tentacle slamming down onto the pier. Shuku was sent flying. The two boys had managed to avoid the tentacle completely and land on dry ground. Shuku went into the water opposite of the squid. Now back to reality, Shuku was met with a similar vision with her eyes. A big blue blur, with a golden light up above, the water dragging her down. She couldn't breathe.

Shuku's heat rate rose high, and she tried to clear her mind. It was only water. She could swim, there was nothing down there, there was no water demon below her with the intent to kill. A long back out line, one of the squid's tentacles, came through the air and created a large wave, and Shuku was carried away on the wave, dazed, and frozen from fear, into the ocean.

A hand appeared through the water in front of Shuku's fading vision as water made its way into her lungs. It grasped her hoodie and pulled her above the surface. Shuku blinked, then started kicking upwards as strongly as she could with burning limbs, the pain helping her clear her mind and stuff her fear down her throat. She broke the surface and was pulled into a boat and immediately started coughing up water. Then threw up over the side of the boat. Shuku threw her heavily soaked hoodie off and pulled tied it around her waist. She wiped the water from her eyes and focused on the other person with her in the small boat, it was that kid. He held a spear gun and fired. Shuku watched the spear fly and hit the giant squid up near the top of its head.

The boat speed forward as the kid cranked the engine once more and sped towards the giant squid who screeched again. Shuku could faintly make out the faces of shock on her classmates' faces.

"I'm gonna kill that thing." The kid stated, and Shuku looked over at him, the brat was determined.

Shuku saw Rin run off from the other two that were on shore. He probably had something planned or just something stupid to do. The boat sped closer to the squid and Shuku looked up at the enormous squid, her plan only a distant, washed out memory. The boy turned the boat around, then went back at the squid, Shuku missing Rin jump into the water after them.

In all honesty, Shuku was still in a bit of shock about being tossed into the water and forced to try to overcome her fear of it. She needed to take a minute and sort herself out. Her hand unconsciously slipped into her pocket, her fighting instincts taken over. She had her pen, but it had shorted out and wouldn't be of much use. Her summoning papers were soaked and Hebimaru had been sent back, her knives wouldn't be of much use against a demon that size, which solely left high-level incantations. But which one?

The Kraken took another swing at the boat and nearly hit the, striking just to the right. The kid fell over and Shuku gripped onto the boat for dear life. Quickly getting up, the kid aimed the spear gun at the giant squid once more.

"You're in way over your head, Get away!" Rin ordered as he climbed into the boat. Shuku blinked, not expecting him to be able to catch up to a motor boat by swimming. The son of Satan was always full of surprises. He stole a glance at her a sigh of relief passed over him before he turned his attention back to the kid.

"What are you doing?" The kid asked his attention temporarily away from the giant squid demon.

"You're just a kid and that demon's not messing around." Rin said, trying to nicely tell the kid to get the hell away from the demon.

"Shut up and stay out of my way! I'm gonna kill that rotten demon! And I'm gonna get revenge for my dad!" The stupid kid walked over to the edge of the boat and jumped into the water, being a stubborn little brat.

"Hey!" Rin shouted.

The kid aimed the speed gun at the squid once more and fired. The squid screech in pain and bent backward, Shuku could almost see the look on the kid's face as the demon looked like it was defeated, but how wrong he was. The demon gave once more screech before selecting the kid as it's primary target, the kid had only angered it. The kid screamed as he was sent flying by one of the squid's tentacles.

"Oh crap!" Rin exclaimed, sending the boat towards the kid.

In her mind, Shuku was going back and forth between her incantations that would work against the squid, none of which would leave her unaffected. Rin jumped into the water, abandoning the boat and diving after the kid who was sinking under the surface of the water. Rin resurfaced directly in front of the squid. Her other two classmates stood at the edge of the dock, their view of Rin blocked. The kid was unconscious. Rin seemed to notice that he was out of sight of his other two classmates and then went to draw his sword as a final resort. His sword was fully unsheathed and his blue flames enveloped him and Rin prepared to attack.

"Ahoy!" A voice shouted, and Shuku looked behind her, and so did Rin quickly resheathing his sword before anyone saw, other than Shuku, who already knew.

"Ahoy! Yohay! Ahoy!" A man shouted. He stood on a makeshift raft, his clothes all torn but the man looked uninjured, but still a bit ruff around the edges. The kid woke up and realization spread across the kid's face. Joy filled his eyes and he swam over to the man. Shuku let out a weary sigh, the adrenaline in her system gone along with all of her energy. As Shuku faded into a deep rest she felt a warm sensation in her right eye, along with a familiar, soothing voice.

Musume, you've done well, now rest dear one, fear is only natural and can not be helped, but stand tall in it and don't bow down to its grasp.

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