Sweet Like Candy

One Familiar, Two Familiar

"So hot...." Rin groaned as she finally made it back to the dorm from shopping for popsicles and water for Yukio. He'd asked for mineral water, but A) it was more expensive than regular water, B) they were broke, and C) Yukio didn't need fancy water to live so he could just deal with it.

She dropped his water off to him in his room, ignoring his glare as she opened a popsicle and sighed in relief when it touched her tongue she she flopped down on her bed. She still had homework to do, but she could do it tomorrow. For now, she focused on her popsicle. The Summer heat was unbearable, the humidity made it worse, and the Dorm didn't have air conditioning for some reason.

Rin preferred Winter because then she could at least layer on clothes all she wanted and be comfortable. In the Summer, you could only take off so many layers before the situation turned into a matter of public indecency. Rin was already only wearing a sports bra, short shorts, and sandals. Her hair was up in two buns and her tail was wrapped in her belt loops. Rin had found out that as long as she braided the fluff at the end of her tail and tucked it under the first loops of the tail, no one even spared it a glance.

Now that she was at the dorm, though, she could uncoil it and let it loose. She sighed in relief as the tail unwrapped from her belt loops, undoing the braid of fluff and letting the appendage sway in the air beside her as she considered the manga she'd stolen from Yukio.

She'd just started reading when she heard movement from downstairs. Rin was glad for her super hearing, it helped her keep track of Yukio, Rodan when she let him wander around the dorm, and any intruders in the building. She saved her page by folding the corner down(Yukio hated it when she did that)and got up to wander downstairs to see what her brother was up to.

She caught him when he was about to leave the Dorm in full uniform, ring of magic keys out.

"Ooh, where ya goin?" She asked, casually leaning against the doorway.

He considered her before sighing. "I have a mission. Please stay here, sister." Yukio requested.

"Why can't I go? I already have some field experience." She asked.

"You're still only an ExWire Rin, you need a higher rank to perform an Exorcism." Yukio explained patiently, like she was a kid.

"Oh. Well, what level are you?" She wondered.

He went back to his desk and pulled out a sheet of laminated paper, handing it her. It had all the ranks of the Order on it.

"I'm Intermediate Middle First class." He told her.

"Ouch, you're not that high up either. I think you could get higher if you wanted to." Rin noted as she looked at the paper. "Although, both of your Meisters are long range. Doctors heal and Dragoons use firearms, which is long-distance combat. You'd do good with Aria if you wanna stay long-range. I wonder if something more close range or energy- consuming like Knight and Tamer automatically get higher ranks or if it just depends on the person? Cause Suguro is pretty studious, I feel like he'd start out at a good rank, but he's gonna be an Aria Dragoon...." Rin muttered thoughtfully.

She spotted Paladin and figured that would be what she needed to defeat Satan, if not something powerful enough to surpass even these ranks.

"It'll take a lot of training to get to Paladin, huh?" She sighed. Yukio looked affronted, like he hadn't been expecting the speculation on ranks or her declaration of wanting to be Paladin.

"Paladin is the title that is only ever awarded to one person at a time–the strongest Exorcist in the world." Yukio told her carefully. "It's not given to just anyone, Rin."