A certain older lady once said that I chose the gun as my weapon because of my cowardice.
Wanting to keep a distance from demons is the proof that you are afraid.
(t/n: I’m guessing that Yukio’s referring to Shura or who else could it be?)
Father said.
You keep a distance not because of fear.
It is the proof of wanting to protect even more people.
Just like when I was still young, he smiled and patted my head.
--I want to become an exorcist like Father.
✞
This is a story that happened when the twins of South Cross Male Monastery were still in junior high.
(t/n: I forgot what’s the name of the church. I just translated it from the text so correct me if I’m wrong.)
The gun which was designed to shock, gave a blue glow inside the school bag.
Okumura Yukio did not want to let his surrounding classmates notice him secretly reading messages. After reading it nonchalantly, he left his seat quietly.
It is now the break during dismissal, the class was full of the joy of students.
The teacher was chatting with an unnamed student. It seemed to be consultation for the upcoming text.
[--Nakao-sensei, are you free now?]
[Oh, Okumura. What do you need?]
The teacher turned around and looked at Yukio. His requesting to leave early due to feeling unwell was the usual, so the teacher answered him immediately.
[You better take care of your health, the end of term is coming soon.]
[Yes.]
[Maintain the first position in the level, I have high expectations for you.]
Yukio bowed respectfully to the smiling teacher to show his regards. Once he reached his seat, the surrounding girls immediately came to show concern for him.
[Okumura-kun, you’re leaving early?]
[Eh—leaving early again? Are you alright?]
[Don’t force yourself if you don’t feel well?]
[Do you want us to send you to the school gate?]
[I’m alright.]
I’m appreciative of everyone’s concern, but please don’t create an uproar. Anyway, you all don’t look happy, more like onlookers. Yukio showed an irritated forced smile to the noisy girls, while rapidly packing his bag and leaving the class.
A few boys were chatting at the corner of the corridor.
They looked at the back of Yukio holding his bag, seemingly implying a message that [This guy came again]. However, they did not have any evil intentions, and Yukio kept ensuring his distance from everyone. Being too close or too detached from others, would only hinder his smooth-sailing school life.
He wants to be an acquaintance, it would be best when after everyone graduated, they would only remember him when flipping the yearbook. There’s no need to be too outstanding or too antisocial.
While passing them, part of the conversation flowed into Yukio’s ear with the wind. One of the boys mentioned Yukio’s name as said: [Okumura, he……]
[His body is so weak, how different from his older brother.]
[I heard that his older brother was fighting with people from other schools again]
[Really?]
[Yeah, and it was with people from Shougyou high]
[How fierce, fighting with high school students…]
[Moreover it was win with one versus ten.]
[Totally a demon.]
Their conversation topic switched from Yukio to his older brother, his older twin—Okumura Rin is someone who was often talked about, although the rumours were all negative—
Ignoring the classmates who were having a heated discussion over his older brother, Yukio left the corridor quickly.
What he did not want most is to meet the older brother whom those people mentioned in their conversation, because he would need to find a non-existent reason for leaving early. Yet Yukio’s worries were groundless.
He could have skived off again. In the morning, his older brother who set off together with him had left halfway, but this kind of thing did not start that day as well.
Yukio who usually worried about his older brother’s behavior, could only feel relief in his heart at this moment.
The students were celebrating their short break while Yukio pushed through the crowd to push the back door. Walking in the afternoon calm of the residential area, just now’s ruckus seemed like a dream.
Yukio took out his phone from his bag, placed it at his ear while walking briskly.
[--Yes. I am Okumura, now rushing to the scene in around ten minutes.]
At that moment, Yukio’s expression was not of the delicate top student of the past.
It was a warrior-like solemn expression.
Yukio changed into the uniform of the True Cross Order and reached the scene. Yellow warning tape with [True Cross Order-KEEP OUT] surrounded the first level of the True Cross Academy. Many passers-by looked over.
[It’s very dangerous now, civilians, please retreat!]
A man was redirecting the public in front of the warning tape. Yukio showed him his license and said:
[I am Okumura, Middle Second Class.]
The man was surprised at Yukio’s age and said:
[Thanks for the effort.]
But immediately let him go after formalities.
[-- Okumura, thank goodness, you’re fast.]
An old exorcist appeared, he was one of the middle first class exorcists that Yukio recognized as a veteran Aria. With his old age, he should have retired……
[Because my school is nearby. Is Motegi-san the leader?]
[Yes, he is. This morning many cases occurred and because there are not enough exorcist manpower, even an old geezer like me had to be deployed to help.]
Motegi smiled warmly while answering before turning serious the next moment to explain the situation as more people from the main building came to them.
The man who was possessed by a demon took over the building, and the hostage is……
Yukio held his gun and walked in front of Motegi to the deep staircase.
The structure of the building has been committed to memory.
[Okumura?]
Motegi who could not guess Yukio’s intentions asked softly:
[There’s no need to start finding from the rooms of the first floor?]
[Yes. I think he should be at the rooftop.]
Yukio answered without even turning around.
This building was separated from the other, just like an isolated island, so it was easy to surround it with the enemy not able to escape easily. This demon held on by holding a hostage. It was surely not a bright one.
This kind of demon has a tendency to escape upwards.
Because the building was out of electricity, of course the lift could not be used. After running up nine stories of stairs in one go, young Yukio was alright but the old Motegi beside him was panting heavily.
Yukio planned to show himself to the demon first and asked Motegi to hide in the stairway for now to wait for further orders.
[When I immobilize the demon, please use your Aria artes to exorcise immediately.]
[But you alone…]
[I can do this.]
Smiling to the unsure Motegi, Yukio heaved and forced the door leading to the rooftop.
As expected, the demon was there, surrounded by many other smaller ones. The possessed man turned around, showing both eyes with bloodshot mud yellow sclerae.
(t/n: Sclera is the white part of the eye by the way.)
[I thought that the damn exorcist has finally come, and it’s just a guy like this brat. Ha ha ha… exorcists are so lacking in people.]
The demon with a hoarse and piercing voice showed a mocking sneer.
Although the body was that of a human male, but both ears were thin and pointed with monster-like horns on the head. Showing a curly long tongue in a big bloody mouth, it grabbed the hostage, as if it could break the youth’s thin neck in an instant.
Yukio complete ignored the demon, showed a warm smile to the pale youth who was trying his best to hold back tears and said:
[Are you Teru-chan? Listen to me, be careful—understand?
[Mmm, mmm…]
[It’s alright, you can definitely do it.]
Looking at Yukio’s gentle smile, the pale youth in the demon’s hand nodded slightly.
[Bastard, don’t treat me like air… Damnit!]
The ignored demon was fuming and he grabbed the youth’s neck even more tightly. Snarling explosively, the demons gathered around it also dispersed instantly.
[What {be careful}? Do you even get the situation?!]
With his neck being grabbed even tighter, the youth’s expression contorted in pain.
Yukio still did not budge and calmly kept his distance from the demon.
[Stop talking big… if you dare to shoot, I will go with the brat, ha ha ha… I’ll see how do you save him? Do you kill me with the brat? This doesn’t seem too bad either.]
The demon sneered at Yukio.
Then it looked at Yukio’s legs and said:
[Anyway both of your legs are trembling so much, from just now it’s so noisy… have you wet your pants yet? A brat is just a brat, ha ha ha ha……!]
The demon laughed even more.
[What a naïve one.] Yukio coldly replied. [You really think that I won’t dare to shoot you?]
[Ah……? What did you say…… bastard.]
Yukio aimed the gun in his right hand to the demon’s forehead. The demon held back its sneer when he saw it and twisted his face while snarling:
[Go ahead and try! When you shoot, he can’t run!! You will blast a bloody hole on the brat’s head with his brains flying. Damn exorcist, do you dare to shoot!!]
The demon once again tightened its grip on the youth to its limit, wanting to challenge Yukio.
Yukio pointed the barrel from the demon’s forehead to the sky instead. The demon thought that this was the only thing Yukio could do to struggle, thus mocking him again.
[Ha ha ha ha… Where is your barrel pointing to? Moron……]
[Alright, so who is the moron now?]
[What did you say?!]
Receiving Yukio’s challenge, the demon threw a tantrum. One arm grabbing the youth’s neck, it approached. Yukio took the opportunity to shoot towards the sky.
With the deafening gunshots, the bullets were sucked into the air—with a blinding light shining the surroundings.
[What……!]
Both of the demon’s eyes faced the glaring light and suddenly let go so the youth took the chance to escape by squatting. The demon who had lost its hostage brandished his hands in the air.
[Damn it, go to hell you brat!]
Yukio did not let this opportunity go to waste. He faced the barrel of the left gun to the demon’s right shoulder which had an opening and shot twice continuously.
The demon screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground.
Yukio held the youth who was clutching his head and turned back to shout:
[Motegi-san!]
Motegi who heard his name appeared from the staircase and started to perform his aria.
[<<I ask you, is the golden scale of your heart out of equilibrium?>>]
[D-damn exorcist…]
[<<Whether inclining to idleness, whether inclining to either wrath, lust, greed, envy, gluttony or pride.>>]
The demon tried to resist a few times, but after being shot with two holy silver bullets, he did not even have the leave its vessel.
[<<In the name of diligence, chastity, kindness, patience, charity, temperance, humility as virtues, gather the light of faith, cleanse the darkness of thou.>>]
(t/n: The verses refer to the seven deadly sins and its lesser known counterpart, the seven heavenly virtues)
After the aria, Motegi drew a holy cross in the air.
The demon was destroyed while it was moaning, the man also lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground. Motegi checked his temple pulse and his mouth to ensure that he was still breathing. Affirming his findings, he nodded forcefully to Yukio.
Slightly nodding to acknowledge, Yukio turned to the youth. The boy was still on the ground, entirely stiff and clutching his head.
[Teru-chan, you did well, it’s over.]
[Oh……oh……]
Large tears started appearing. The youth burst out crying, he had been holding back so much tears until now.
Yukio loosened the youth’s rigid arms and gently stroked his thick hair.
Although he was far from being as good as his adoptive father, but being able to save this strong youth who loved his younger brother so much, Yukio felt relieved inside.
[How interesting, Okumura. It’s hard to believe that you’re a junior high student who became a exorcist for more than a year.]
After cleansing the youth’s temptaint, sending him back to his mother and younger brother, Motegi praised Yukio greatly.
(t/n: Temptaint is used instead of mashou in the English manga. In case you’ve forgotten, a temptaint/mashou is gotten from making contact with demons, so the person can now see demons for the rest of his life)
The man who became a vessel was sent to the True Cross General Hospital after the Doctors administered emergency treatment on him.
Now the other two exorcists who were late are now cleaning the scene.
[No, it’s all thanks to Motegi-san who prepared the aria.]
Yukio respectfully answered. Motegi grimaced, shaking his head and said:
[You don’t need to be so humble. You really are Fujimoto’s treasured apprentice, no wonder everyone call you a genius—But in this kind of situation, you can even tell Teru-chan the general plan. What kind of magic did you use?]
[I used a series of sounds.]
[A series of sounds? Ah…… so you used Morse code huh.]
The experienced Motegi immediately understood and he applauded by clapping.
Yukio used the sole of his shoe to produce two types of sounds to transmit Morse code to the youth.
--The meaning is: When the sky flows, squat immediately.
He looked at the youth’s eyes while using his gaze to ask him to notice what was beneath his feet.
[Because boy scouts know Morse code, so I was inspired…… luckily Teru-chan had noticed my intention.]
[I see, but it’s thanks to how you could think of it in such a short time.]
Motegi exclaimed admirably.
Yukio waved his hands and said: [This isn’t much.] and pushed his glasses up slightly.
[I used to do that with my older brother, so I know of it……]
He remembered how Father tried his best to bring up Nii-san to be an upright person.
Because Nii-san caused trouble, the brothers both never continued to join. But the both of them were fascinated by Morse code. Afterwards they used it for a while.
--What are we eating today?
--It seems to be curry.
It was this sort of message that could be spoken but they used cutlery to knock on the table. He still remembered that Father scolded them by saying [How noisy.] a few times.
[Older brother? You have an older brother, is he an exorcist too?]
Facing Motegi’s question, Yukio secretly regretted saying more than what was needed. He immediately denied by saying: [No--!] and at the same time ensured that his tone was not too harash.
[Aniki is just an ordinary person.]
His voice seemed to be reverberating in the skies.
(t/n: So I debated with myself how should Yukio address Rin without using his name. In the end I decided to use older brother if it’s just conversation, Nii-san in Yukio’s recollections and Aniki for the last one because Yukio uses 我哥 instead of哥哥. However, Shirou’s case is a bit more complicated since 養父 which means adoptive father is used instead, so I’m sticking to Father although Tou-san can be used too.)
✞
9.12 PM
After dealing with the incident and the report to the higher-ups to the Order which unknowingly took much some time. By the time Yukio went back to the South Cross Male Monastery where he lived in, it was beyond the time that a junior student should be home.
His Order uniform has been changed back to school uniform. When he walked into the room, he checked for traces of the smelly sulphur smell again.
Yukio then realized for the first time that his right hand was trembling non-stop.
(The uneasiness in my heart appears only now…)
The fear of not being able to save the youth, the terror of failure.
The feelings which were suppressed during the battle surface occasionally like an aftershock.
As if going back to the time when he was still afraid of the darkness.
[……]
Yukio peered under his glasses to see his slightly trembling hand. He used his other hand to grab it tightly and walked into the monastery.
The monastery which closed early had lights out early so everyone should have finished their dinner.
[Oh! You’re really late tonight, Yukio.]
[--I’m home.]
Yukio replied with a smile, at the same time……
Is my face maintaining the usual smile?
Has my hand stopped trembling?
Yukio forcefully suppressed the questions and uneasiness in his heart.
He passed by his older brother’s bed and placed his school bag on his own study desk. The heavy metal sound startled him a little.
But his older brother seemed to have not noticed.
The guns were just hidden in a nook at the bottom of the school bag.
[I say—the strap will break someday if you stuff it]
[Eh……?]
Nii-san’s words alarmed him again.
[Anyway, is it packed full with textbooks that it’s going to explode? Exchange bag with me? My bag doesn’t have any textbooks, it’s really durable.]
[Ha ha ha……Nii-san’s bag is so dirty scrap paper and biscuit crumbs. I appreciate your thought though.]
Yukio gave a sigh of relief.
He lifted the school bad containing the guns, stuffed it into a gap between the desk and the wall while trying to avoid his older brother’s line of sight.
Nii-san thought that Yukio was studying until so late at the True Cross Academy’s library.
The younger brother wanted to go to an elite and famous private school; but the family had no extra cash for extra tuition classes. This probably made the older brother feel quite concerned.
However, if he knew that the younger brother was not battling in the library and it was actually a battlefield resounding with gunshots, what kind of expression will the older brother show?
While thinking, Yukio’s line of vision suddenly stopped at his table.
[--?]
Behind the reference books, there was a huge plate.
Lifting the cloth on the plate, there were three hearty onigiri.
(t/n: onigiri is Japanese rice balls by the way)
[…Did Nii-san make these?]
[Oh—please feel free to enjoy it.]
[You sound like Father.]
[Who did you say is like the old geezer… don’t talk nonsense.]
Rin who was still stuck in his rebellious phase was so angry that his face as read. Yukio who slightly grimaced picked up an onigiri, feeling its warmth.
[What old geezer, is it Father? Nii-san used to clearly call [Tou-san] properly, and why did you make three of them?]
Although he was at that age where he had a huge appetite, three onigiri is really too many.
Hearing Yukio’s question, Rin proudly chuckled which gave him a bad feeling.
[This is Rossian rulette onigiri, wise old younger brother.]
[Rossian rulette….. Are you referring to Russian roulette? Who is the wise old youngerbrother now?]
(t/n:
1. 明智老弟was probably said sarcastically so Yukio’s reply is like this.
2. Regarding the Russian roulette thing, Rin being the book dumb person he is, pronounces it wrongly by jumbling the syllables before Yukio corrects him. Rin says輪羅斯俄盤 (lún lúo sī é pán) and Yukio says俄羅斯輪盤 (é lúo sī lún pán). 俄羅斯 is Russia and 輪盤 is roulette, so yeah.
Oh, roulette is actually pronounced as rue-let due to the word’s French origins. It’s not row-lert that I originally thought. It’s like how crepe is pronounced as crap or crape but never creep.
In Japanese, Russian roulette is ロシアンルーレット(roshian ruuretto) so Rin’s might have said ルシアンローレット(rushian rouretto). )
[Let’s not mind about such small matters. You’ll become bald at a young age, four eyes.]
[No, I will not become bald. Anyway, there’s a bomb in one of them?]
His bad feeling seemingly confirmed, Yukio stared at the onigiri suspiciously.
The probability is one out of three……
[Oh right, what’s in there?]
[Chili sauce, chocolate and strawberry mochi.]
(t/n: Mochi is a type of Japanese rice cake)
[Oh no, if this is the case, all of them are bombs……]
So this is a Russian roulette with a magazine filled full with live ammunition. It’s best to have that idiot proudly try it out.
Cooking is this older brother’s only skill for living, but he liked to overdo things.
(t/n: the saying 畫蛇添足(huàshétiānzú) is used here. It means to overdo things but it literally means to add legs to a snake.)
Yukio put back the bullet—no, the onigiri back on the plate and sighed.
[By the way……] Yukio changed the topic.
[How is tomorrow’s charity concert going?]
[Ah, the charity concert, it seems that I need to help out.]
Tomorrow which is Saturday had a charity concert organised by the church. This is one of the mission contributions. The money raised will all go to underprivileged children.
The performers are newcomer idols who have not started their careers, unknown folk singers, a jazz band that was slightly more famous etcetera because of their low fees. The location of the concert is also not a concert hall, but it was upstairs of the department store in the compound of the True Cross Academy.
(t/n: The True Cross Academy is for loaded people, remember?)
Because the budget was limited, the monastery also had to send the hymn choir to perform. The brothers also had to give external assistance.
The assistance given is not performing in the choir. Instead, it is taking the roles of workers and doing errands.
[It’s finally Saturday, how troublesome--]
Rin complained while rolling on the bed.
[It’s alright. It’s alright.]
Yukio consoled his older brother.
At this timing, using food to bribe him would be the best solution.
[Maruda-san says that if you do your tasks properly, there will be meat for dinner?]
[Is that for real? Sukiyaki?]
(t/n: Rin’s favourite food LOL. It consists of meat in a soup with vegetables and seasoning)
Rin sat up abruptly with his eyes giving out an ecstatic glow. The effect was so shocking that Yukio had to move back half a step.
[I’m not sure if it’s sukiyaki though……]
[This is wonderful! I’ve won!! Meat!! Yay~~ Yukio, you have to do a good job too! If you slack you’re done for.]
Now Nii-san suddenly became very energetic, screaming just like a dog in the night. Looking at his older brother, Yukio sighed softly again.
(Hopefully I don’t have to be summoned by the Order……)
He worried about it in his heart.
This is a 14 year old teenager who was troubled every day.
✞
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Originally Posted by Mysterious_Kaitou
