The Truthsayer was stumped again. But he will get to the truth no matter what. It was his job, his expertise. And there was no deception he failed to crack. Yet. On the day it does happen, he will make sure he had done his ultimate before admitting defeat. Then maybe wonder for the rest of his life how that will particularly happen.

 
Truth, after all, is relative.
 
A huge rat came bounding down the corner, not really trying to hide, as rats were wont to do when out of their lair. This particular rat most people would ignore, since it is invisible to human eyes. For those that could see, he won’t particularly stand out – a rat is still a rat, and the rodent-kind had the eternal misfortune of being abhorred or ignored.
 
Hangeng merely watched as the rat approached him, and patiently waited in the dark as his animal familiar twitched its nose and whiskers to detect for any malevolence in the air. The slayer could detect none, but Seolchilyu has senses more attuned for minute changes in the atmosphere. It is how they could detect a lie – there is always an attendant ripple in the ether for every deception.
 
Seolchilyu bounded up the last few meters to Hangeng, leaping into the air to reach its customary perch on his shoulder.
 
“Nothing for tonight, Geng-gege,” Seolchilyu squeaked into his ear, and Hangeng silently agreed that this was all they could do for now. The shinigami and his spirit familiar watched in silence as the human slayer and her daemon dog ran in the direction of the Hollow howl.
 
“Neither Heechul nor Neko will be happy with this – another cat kill for the month with the mark of the Legato, but that blasted organization deny they are involved with this. And seeming to be telling the truth.” His hand momentarily tightened around the bladed staff in frustration.
 
Seolchilyu twitched his nose in Ayame’s direction. “The dog said something about the cat-killer being at it again. Seems like they have detected a pattern in the killings, but I doubt if they are able to do anything about it. The girl also called the daemon eating the recent dead as Nom – maybe we can get something from him?”
 
Hangeng shook his head. There was a danger getting into any daemon’s head. Remember the truth being relative? A daemon’s truth, by default, is grounded in all things wicked, evil and vile - a shinigami unprepared to deal with that twisted world can easily be taken over. They are both spirits after all, and transference is faster in the spirit form. Humans don’t realize how they had it easy – the mortal flesh makes them slightly invulnerable to the influences of the spirit world. It is why both angels and demons had to work harder making a human do good or bad.
 
Besides, he had experienced it once, and swore he would never let anything like that happen again, either by choice or by coercion.
 
“We may get something better with the girl.” He started walking back into the dark alleyway he came from, Seolchilyu still testing the air with his nose and whiskers. “There is only one human slayer with a daemon dog in all of Society, right?”
 
Seolchilyu squeaked a yes, before morphing into his ether form as Hangeng opened the senkaimon. By the time the black butterflies met Hangeng to accompany him into the portal, his animal familiar had comfortably settled back as a tattoo on his right shoulder.
 
>>>
 
Ayame had to close her jaw with an effort after finding out why she was summoned to the Captain’s office. It was Slayer Academy all over again.

“Pardon, Captain?” she gulped. “I’m being assigned a partner, to a team?”

Captain Haruhi Mizusumiya was a no-nonsense, bespectacled elder that looked 35 years old. Or so her profile says, and Ayame had learned never to ask any slayer’s true age. All Ayame knew was that at 30 human years, she was considered one of the youngest. While the younger recruits may look younger than her, that meant nil where The Society was concerned.

The Captain pursed her lips, looking over some document. Which she eventually handed to Ayame. “Apparently some people from higher up have interest in your training and improvement. While a transfer is rare, it does happen. So you’re assigned to another unit.”

Ayame thought about leaving Augure. “And who will be taking my place in Augure?”

Captain Mizusumiya looked up, confused, before it dawned on her that Ayame thought her Augure assignment was also being transferred.

“No, no,” she waved her hands at Ayame. “The order didn’t say anything about changing your location. Augure is still your assignment. It just means you and Augure will report to another unit. This may have something to do with the increase of ayakashis in the area.”

Ayame let it pass, not sure if the Captain was taking a punch at her style of managing Augure. The Captain was known to air her thoughts however she liked it. That always meant she could choose to side with the opposition, but she did defend Ayame’s first assignment for Augure.

The Captain caught her looking pensive, and she mistakenly thought that Ayame had misgivings about the transfer. “It’s sudden, I know – even I didn’t get a whiff of this plan from the Council.” She looked at the younger woman. There were so few slayers of their gender in the Society, and no matter the circumstances behind her becoming a slayer, she wanted this one to succeed.

“But I, for one, agree with the plan,” the Captain continued. “You’ve had enough proficiency working with your familiar – training with a team should add to your skills. I’ve been hounding them about it for years now, maybe the Council’s capitulated this time.”

Ayame was surprised that Captain Mizusumiya had even requested that for her. She had ended up under the Captain because no one else would take her. And she did nothing but take that snub off in stride. But with the new assignment, it would be Slayer Academy all over again.

>>>

Slayer Academy. She was eighteen when she first entered its hallowed halls, on a recommendation from Mr. Egan Takahashi, her Japanese language professor in university. She had just finished her freshman year, and was looking for something to occupy her summer. She could go home, but considering her family was already abroad, there would be no one to go home to.

She was claiming her classcards that day. And while Prof. Egan handed hers, he casually dropped about her being an ideal candidate for the Academy. She was at first surprised that Prof. Egan even talked to her – she was the kind of student who did well in school, but never got chummy with her professors. Other than classroom activities, she and Prof. Egan didn’t exchange pleasantries.

“I’m already in this university, sir, thanks,” she replied.

Prof. Egan merely laughed. “Oh no, no. This school is for special people like you. Nothing like the academe.” He sounded as if he knew something about her. But never one to be curious, Ayame didn’t ask why he considered her one of the special people. She had thought that qualifying for the nation’s premier university was enough to make her and all the students there “special”.

Not wanting to stay and extend a conversation she wasn’t interested in, she merely thanked the professor and took her leave. Prof. Egan laughed, albeit with frustration. “Ah, why did I even assume it would be easy to convince somebody like you. Here.” He handed her an envelope. “Follow the instructions there if you’re at least a bit curious. But I do implore you to get curious and get to the Academy before your eighteenth birthday. Otherwise, the door will close forever on you. And while it may not first look it, the Society could use somebody like you.”

So even while she was dubious, she still took the envelope. It irritated her, realizing that if the professor was serious, then she didn’t have much time to decide, as her 18th birthday already was the next day. She had until midnight that day.

In one of her more impulsive moods, she packed her bags as prescribed in the instructions, and took the last bus traveling into Society, promptly falling asleep as she settled into her seat. So she entered the portal sleeping, just as the midnight bell chimed her 18th birthday in. The bus driver glared at her though, when he was shaking her awake, having felt the drag that started claiming the bus, warning him that one rider had a deadliest deadline. Since Ayame had no idea what the driver was being mad about, she merely shrugged it off as one of those random things that tend to occur around her. And why she learnt to never be surprised.

She wanted to kick herself though, for getting herself into improbable situations, as soon as she saw the people milling about the Academy’s wide grounds. Her brain told her it was impossible for humans to be levitating, or throw energy balls with apparent ease, not to mention phasing in and out in new locations, or morph into other forms. She was ready to bolt back into the bus for a ride away from the weird school only to find out that the bus already disappeared – she did bump into Takayama, the senior slayer assigned to be her buddy during first year in slayer academy.

She learned in time that she did fit in the academy, though it took her twice the normal time to accomplish her studies as a slayer. That was a first where the academy was concerned, and she was notorious for accomplishing many firsts where slayer studies were concerned. But instead of making anybody happy, she earned the disapproval of her instructors and schoolmates for being unconventional. Having the daemon dog for a spirit familiar was the last straw…and then she and Dusky was out of the academy and assigned on solo patrol in Augure, where she acted and decided on her own where slaying was concerned.

All these ran in her head in the moment it took her to answer Captain Mizusumiya. “It is an honor to have served under you, Captain. I’ll try not to disappoint you in my new assignment.” Then she bowed to the Captain, the final one she’d give as the Captain’s subordinate.

Haruhi smiled at the bowed head. Whatever it was about Ayame that had the higher ups antsy, Haruhi knew her to be one of the more dependable slayers. Level-headed, too. She got around to Ayame’s way of thinking that not all monsters qualified a slaying. Truthfully, her team got more work done leaving the relatively harmless monsters alone. And though she watched both Ayame and her daemon dog, she had yet to see them go on a rampage in Augure. If there was anything she regretted it was that Ayame remained closed to her – nothing changed in the way they treated each other since Ayame started serving under her. Ayame always treated her with deference as her superior, and was quiet skillful in dodging Haruhi’s attempts to be more than her boss, a friend she could call upon when she needed one. In the end, Captain Mizusumiya accepted that this was how it was with Ayame – she had made the effort to inquire in the Academy, and was surprised that not one of her teachers could claim to be close to her. Same case in the university she attended.

>>>

Ayame had long left before Captain Mizusumiya had another visitor. And this visitor ruffled her feathers like no other, seeing the rat tattoo on his arm. What in the world had Ayame to do with the Yeoldasos?

__________________
© higashinoumi (http://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1108258), 2012-2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to higashinoumi (http://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1108258) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.