AUTHOR NOTE

I'm actually relatively surprised that I wrote a good chunk of it in the last two hours. Sure, some of it looks like a word spew from my mouth, but I promise that it makes some sense. Also key note: most of this, if not all of it, will probably not be canon...whenever the hell we learn about the Exorcist exam. This is my idea of what the exam could be like, so please do not think that this is exactly how the exam will go! Another thing: thank you for the great reviews! The following and favoriting count also makes me really happy to see, so please keep it up! Love you guys!

RIN, AGE THIRTEEN

"We've finally made it to this point," Yukio said, giving me a hesitant smile. I could tell that he was very, very nervous about the Exorcist exam*.

Six years ago, we began training together as a duo in exorcism. A couple months after I picked up on the two parallel worlds and a bit of exorcising, Father Fujimoto and Mephisto Pheles gave us the okay to take the Exwire exam with the other cram school students. The older kids found it strange that we were joining them for the exam, but so long as we pulled our weight, they didn't care. We pretty much took care of ourselves anyways. We earned our Exwire certification with them, and heading towards our Meister learning and other Exorcising techniques and tips that we needed to know.

After a couple months of being an Exwire, Yukio and I were given the ok by Mephisto Pheles to go on missions with our father. I remember those days; we were so tiny compared to the adult Exorcists that were on those missions with us. The day that we first met Kuro was my first mission; Yukio's had been a week before because I had gotten myself into a fight the same time as the mission. Fujimoto wasn't thrilled to see my bloodied face after that.

Kuro was entrusted to be my familiar, since we were both demons and I could hear his thoughts as well as he could hear mine. Also, he was more responsible than I was, not to mention how old the demon cat was. Compared to him, I seemed like a big teenaged baby.

Around this same time, Mephisto Pheles began to invite himself over to the monastery to check on our exorcising progress. Yukio and I were progressing fairly well, with my twin brother being the role model that I needed in order to motivate myself to work when I didn't want to. He also came for a second reason: to teach me a couple tips and tricks to survive in the demon world, should I end up in Gehenna or anything.

Maybe my future really does lie in becoming a spy for Assiah, who knows?

When Yukio and I turned twelve, the number of missions that we were invited to grew. We were now doing a mission at least once a day, if not more. A few weeks after our birthday, Yukio was confident enough to take his Exorcist exam. It took a lot of coaxing and reassurance, but he finally gave in. We would take our exam sometime in the next twelve months, and the months leading up to it would solely focus on our Meister abilities in our fields.

"Which Meister are you going for?" Yukio asked after the Exwire exam. We had successfully made it through and were currently celebrating our success at the beach with some of the cram school students. Yukio had dragged me aside to a place by the dunes so that we could talk in peace without being interrupted.

I didn't hesitate. "Knight."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Are you not going to learn another field?"

I shrugged. I hadn't thought that far, and none of the others really satisfied me, nor were they appropriate, suitable fields for someone like me. And no, I'm not referring to my demon side.

I found it odd that five years later, I would be taking the exam to become a Knight and a Tamer. Perhaps Kuro had grown on me, but after I got my familiar, the idea of being a Tamer didn't look too shabby. The job seemed okay enough; it's not like I'd be chanting dumb religious verses like an idiot, undefended and vulnerable. Plus, having familiar that do the work for you was an amazing idea when you yourself are down.

"Rin," Yukio said, pushing up his glasses. At this age, he had traded in his old, bigger framed glasses for rectangular shaped glasses. Frankly, I thought it made him way too old and more like a salaryman than a thirteen year old kid.

I turned to look at my brother, who looked like a shaky mess of human flesh. "Yeah, Yukio?"

He gave me a nervous smile. "We're going to pass this exam, right?"

I grinned, and held up a sword into the air. "Yeah!"

When I was nine, Fujimoto introduced me to the other person he raised: Shura. She wasn't like our older sister, but she sure acted like one. She would keep us in line, but also mess around like she was our age and not twenty two. She also helped me with my Knight skills, since she had a Meister in Knight and a Middle First Class Exorcist. Mephisto and Shiro both teamed up with her to buy me a professional sword fit for Knights so that I would not have to use Kurikara for the exam and reveal my demon side. We named it Koukara, the sister (or brother) to Kurikara. All three of them were also covering up my demon genes in my body as something that came from a lower class demon that had possessed my mother during pregnancy. They're not completely lying.

Shiro Fujimoto led me down to a chamber hall, where desks were laid out with paper and pencils on top. The first part of the exam was a written test to see how much we knew about demons and this world. Several older people were in the room as well, ready to take their Exorcist exam. Yukio and I took our seats next to each other. I was determined to pass this exam and become a legitimate Exorcist; Yukio was prepared to ace the exam and show himself off as an Exorcist prodigy.

I'm not exaggerating; he did end up acing the exam and earning himself a name right away. I, on the other hand, barely passed the written exam. Most of it contained really big, lengthy words that I could barely understand, so I ended up sleeping halfway through the exam. If it weren't for a huge bell chiming five minutes before the exam ended, I would have failed.

After the written portion of the exam, Yukio checked up on me. I guess he noticed that I dozed off for a good half hour, and he scolded me for it. He'd be angry if I failed the exam due to my napping.

"I'll be okay, Yukio," I reassured. "I did fill in answers for all of them."

"Yeah, but were they the right ones?" Yukio asked. "I'm just scared for you, Brother."

In order to move on to the practical examination, you had to pass the written part first. Yukio got called out for acing the exam, and I got called dead last since I barely passed. I think Fujimoto told me that I got the minimum score in order to move on. Go me.

An escort led me, Yukio, and two other people to an outside area, reserved just for the exam. I take note of the scorch marks and other dents and cracks in the foundation. This wasn't the first time that the practical exam has been held here.

Before the exam, my foster father had warned the two of us that he himself was overseeing the practical portion. He told us that we were not to act familiar around him; otherwise, it would lead to suspicion. He also said that he would grade us as fairly as he graded the other examinees. Historically, it was harshly.

Kyodo came up to the microphone. "All bow down to the Paladin, Shiro Fujimoto," he said in the most monotone voice I have ever heard.

Yukio leaned over and whispered, "He couldn't be any more emotionless, could he?" I shook my head as we bowed down to our father.

I had to admit it, it was awkward and weird and so unlike something I'd do to honor him.

"Rise," Fujimoto said. "Welcome to the practical examination of the Exorcist exam. Congratulations to all who have passed thus far, I applaud you all. The written portion is not an easy test either. However, this practical test is not easy either. Behind these walls," he gestured to the brick walls on the right hand side of the area, "are Lower and Middle Class demons. Your job is to exterminate these demons within the time limit given. When you exorcise them, the demons will give you points. Middle Class ones are worth 2, Lower Class ones are worth 1. If you achieve a number above our expectations after clearing this stage, you will proceed to the third part of the exam, the Meister examination. Am I clear in my instructions?"

"Yes sir," we all chorused.

Shiro looked over at the massive clock tower on the north side. "Begin," he announced into the mic.

Immediately, Yukio pulled out his two guns and shot away at the demons. They were coming in full force the moment Shiro gave the signal. I decided to hang around for a moment and inspect the demons before I exorcised them. The number of Middle Class demons were fewer than the number of Lower Class ones, but this made sense. The challenging ones were not to be abundant in this kind of situation. I glanced over at the clock; how long did we have again?

"Father never told us how long we had," Yukio muttered to me. Seems like he heard me.

"Well damn it all," I said, reaching for Koukara. "Time to slay these asshats!"

After five minutes had passed, half of the demons had been exorcised. By this time, I had studied the other two people with us. Person A had black, spiky hair, and clearly was heading for a Tamer by the looks of his familiar. Person B had short purple hair and was an Aria and Doctor master. She was healing Person A as he got injured in the fight. I assumed that they had come here together. Yukio was doing fine on his own, since he had his dual wielding pistols with him. Whenever he had to replace the bullets, I stepped in to raise his defense level and attack the demons around him.

The time limit ended up being seven minutes exactly. A loud siren blared when the practical portion was over, and I looked over to see my father standing up, congratulating us all. He told us that we all had passed the second round of the exam.

The same escort from earlier exorcised the remaining demons on the field. Luckily for him, there were about ten left to kill. Then he invited Fujimoto down to the ground level to organize how the Meister examination will go. Apparently, he was also going to oversee that one as well.

"For the third part of the examination, I bring four specialists in their field, including myself. We will call you up, one by one, to test your Meister abilities. Depending on the field, it may either be against one of us, a demon, or for Doctor hopefuls, an injured person. You may take however much time you want to impress us. I must warn you beforehand though. The longer it takes to impress us, the lower your score will be. This part has been known to weed out the weak, so be careful."

"Yes sir!" we chorused.

Fujimoto smiled. "And with that, Rin Okumura, you are first up on the plate. Please state your field or fields."

I stepped up. "My name is Rin Okumura, and I'm trying out for a Meister in Knight and Tamer."

The other four judges came out of the shadows and took a seat right next to the Paladin. I recognized the Knight judge as Arthur Auguste Angel - what an annoying presence so early on in my Exorcist career - and the Tamer judge as Igor Neuhaus, a fellow teacher at the cram school. I assumed that Shiro Fujimoto was the Aria judge, since that was his best field of expertise.

Fujimoto nudged Arthur to sit up and pay attention to this exam. "Mr. Okumura, you are asked to fight a Middle Class Demon for your Knight examination. Mr. Neuhaus, please summon said demon, if you could."

Mr. Neuhaus summoned a Middle Class Demon for the Paladin and guided it towards me. "Please begin when you are ready."

A fire lit up in my eyes (figuratively) and I was determined to beat this bastard like I would with any of the Eight Demon Kings of Gehenna, or even Satan himself. The fight itself passed by in a blur, and I couldn't remember the exact events that went down in those moments. I do remember never pulling out Kurikara or letting my flames show. That would not have been good. I also know that exorcising the Middle Class demon was a little difficult at first, but I identified its weak spot quickly. I passed my Meister exam for a Knight.

For my Tamer exam, there were two ways to earn that Meister. Either you had to present your familiar and show the interaction between yourself and the familiar, or you summoned one yourself and have that fight a Lower Class demon. I opted for the first option, since I already had Kuro as a familiar. I spent a good five minutes playing with the black cat, showing the trust and friendship we had formed in the last five years. I received an automatic pass for the Tamer exam as well from Igor Neuhaus, though he didn't seem too happy about it. I don't think my father persuaded him into passing me anyways.

Yukio was up next. His Doctor exam came first, as he tended to my cuts and scratches from the earlier fights. I let him do that, since it was already pretty routine that he tended to my wounds after missions and fights. The Doctor examiner was pleased to see how well he handled himself, and earned a pass right away. His Dragoon examiner was astonished to see him with the two pistols in his hands, and how he exorcised the Middle Class Demon with them. It was clear that Yukio was accustomed to using both guns in fights, and that he had obviously trained very hard in order to pull off such a feat at a young age. He earned a pass in Dragoon as well.

The purple haired girl's name turned out to be Kira Hikami, and she earned a pass in the Doctor field, but a fail in the Aria field. At the last moment, she panicked over the fact that the demon was about to swallow her whole, and she stopped reciting the chant. Fujimoto was forced to exorcise the demon by finishing off the chat, which led to a failure in her Aria examination. Her Doctor exam happened to be healing a person who had been infected by a ghoul, and she passed that easily.

Her partner's name was Ryu Takahashi, and he failed the Tamer examination. It was almost funny, considering how he failed the Meister exam. The slips of paper that he used to summon his familiars ending up tearing at the very end of the practical exam, so his familiars disappeared. He also forgot to bring extra paper and a pencil with him to draw the circles needed. It would be an automatic failure anyways if the Tamer examiner had supplied him with those materials, so he gave up right then and there. I found it amusing since I was the reason he didn't have his slips, but can you blame a person for sticking their sword into the ground, thinking it would go through dirt and not paper?

At the end, Fujimoto applauded us all for making it through this far. The three of us, Yukio, me, and Kira, would move on to the fourth round of the exam. Ryu would have to stay outside the Vatican and wait for Kira, his lover apparently, to finish up her interview. Yes, the fourth round was an interview with the Grigori to see if you were a decent human being (or demon, for me) to become an Exorcist.

When it was my turn, I stepped inside of the room and shut the door. The three members of the Grigori took a moment to inspect me, then drilled me on several policies of the Exorcist community. Many of the questions referred to slaughtering demons or anything relating to Satan, and I tried my best to hold my tongue so that something wouldn't go flying. After that, they asked me more personal questions, such as what I did for a hobby and when my birthday was. I think birthdays and engagements are a huge deal in Assiah, since we had no idea when our death date was.

"When is your birthday, Mr. Okumura?" Melchior, the dude in the green veil, asked.

"December 27, sir," I responded politely.

"According to my records, you share this birthday with your twin brother, Yukio Okumura. Is he the boy sitting outside of this room, waiting to take his turn?" he continued.

"Yes," I replied. "He is indeed my twin brother."

"Out of curiosity, but who is the older twin?" Casper, the one in the pink veil, asked.

"I am," I stated proudly.

After the personal questions went by, then came the more deep, dark questions. These questions were ones that could dig deep into your soul and you really had to know what you were doing in order to answer these questions. I had to pretend that I had half a brain, or whatever the hell the old geezer likes to tell me these days.

When my interview ended, Yukio was asked to enter the room. I sat out in the hallway, waiting for him to finish his interview so that we could find out our results together. Kira was long gone by this point; she got promoted to Lower Second Class, which meant that she was officially an Exorcist. Ryu, her lover, would have to wait an entire six months in order to retake the exam. I silently wished him the best and hoped that he didn't forget his paper next time or get a shithead like me who accidentally tore his papers.

Twenty minutes went by, and Yukio finally stepped out of the room. The bags under his eyes were more defined now; he looked damn tired after the interview. I began to worry; had he failed his interview? Yukio hadn't shown any change his emotion yet, but then again, neither of us were told the result immediately following the exam. I grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the hall. My patience was wearing out by the minute.

The escort led us out of the Vatican and into the streets of the True Cross Academy town. The last thing he told us was that our results would be found with our guardian within the next twenty four hours. Since we were underage, we were not entrusted with the results, which meant that Shura had them (she played the role of our mother). Neither of us knew where she was at the moment, so I dragged Yukio into the nearest convenience store to pick up some snacks.

"Brother, do you even have any money?" Yukio sighed as he picked up a bottle of water and potato chips.

I waved my wallet in front of his face. "Yeah!"

Yukio snatched it and inspected the contents. When he found the money and was satisfied at the amount, he handed it back to me and took his items to the counter. I grabbed a box of donuts and a green tea for snacks and added those to the bill.

"That'll be eight hundred yen," the cashier spoke. I took out some money from my wallet and handed it to her. She handed me the change and Yukio got the bag of all the food and drinks.

As we left the store, Yukio opened up the bag of chips. "I'm surprised you had money on you."

I laughed. "So am I."

We walked over to the cram school. By now, it was around one in the afternoon, which meant that cram school classes were about to begin. We didn't have to attend today, since we just took the exam, but we knew that our dad would be waiting for us there. There was a good chance he knew the result as well, so I bet on him knowing the result. Doesn't the Paladin get to know these kinds of things?

Yukio walked into the Demon Pharmaceuticals classroom. He noticed that our dad had not shown up yet, and a classmate of ours told us that he would not be here today at all. Yukio thanked him and left class to go find Mephisto and see if he knew anything. I've come to realize that Yukio's no longer worried about the interview, but anxious for the result in general.

I noticed Mephisto Pheles as he was trotting around the cram school in his dog form, and kicked him good in the gut to capture his attention. He transformed back into his human state, and winced at the bruise on his left side. He scolded me severely for that injury, but I had no care in the punishment nor to anything that he was saying.

"Anyways, would you like to see the result to the examination?" he asked us both. The both of us screamed yes instantly. A wicked smile crept on his face, and the clown led us down the hall to a supposedly empty classroom. He gestured for us to enter first.

When we entered the classroom, the room lit up to reveal a huge banner on the wall and a small cake in the middle of the room. The result that we had gotten was as clear as day, and our father congratulated us for our hard work for the past several years and for today.

"You earned these titles, Rin, Yukio," he said proudly and clapped us on the back.

At the age of thirteen, Yukio and I became Lower Second Class Exorcists. In the next two years, our ranks would rise significantly to Middle First Class Exorcists. Shura would become an Upper First Class Exorcist, and Shiro Fujimoto would retain the Paladin rank. Mephisto Pheles was still an Honorary Knight for the Vatican.

The next great adventure was about to begin for Yukio and I. Just you wait, Satan, I'm going to kick your ass someday.

NOTES AND AUTHOR NOTE:

*: I don't know how many times I will have to clarify, but this was my version of what the Exorcist exam is like. 99.99% sure it's not canon. 0.001% sure I will rewrite this at a later point to make it more canon when we get details on the Exorcist exam.

Thank you guys for reading it through this far; it makes me really happy to see you guys enjoying this fic. If you are new to this fic or have forgotten where we are, this is the third and final part to the introduction of Young Exorcists. The real story begins in the next installment, so readers, be ready for when it comes out! Don't forget to review if you haven't yet!