Chapter Text
“Oh please, take me with you! I promise I will stay out of trouble and make room for you if you need it. You say the word and I will go outside or… back here.”
Himiko considered Sister Ruth for a long moment, ignoring Dabi’s huff. He had absolutely no say in this as really, he carried his little guardian angel everywhere. So she surely would be allowed someone fun as well? Their time would be cut short soon enough, therefore Himiko wanted to use the few days they’d have, pretending to be normal just for once.
“Well fine, but!” Himiko lifted her pointer, putting on an important face before continuing: “You have to listen carefully and follow orders exactly. Have you understood?”
“ But you never do, ” Hawks quipped in her mind, amusement dripping from his tone. She hated when he did that. Especially in company when she couldn’t just talk back to him without going cross-eyed.
“Absolutely, I will do just as you tell me.” In her head, Himiko had started to call her Ochako, imagining more of their possible friendship if they were both just ordinary girls, having fun and looking for friends. In reality, they’d have to stay formal and distant – as long as they were within the monastery that was.
“Wow, great. Now that we all got acquainted and cleared that up, can we finally go to do our job? It’s about time we get started.” Dabi, the grump as ever, had to be a spoilsport and talk about work. The magic broken, they finally did take a car to the site they were to investigate.
As they pulled up to the abandoned mansion, Himiko repeated the hard facts she had compiled from the files given to them: “Once served as an orphanage, it was later sold by the church to a foreign Lord, a sponsor of the local bishop at the time. Soon afterwards, the house was sold multiple times in quick succession, owners always claiming they never managed to ‘settle in’ for one or another reason. For about ten years, the house has now been empty for more or less ten years and has become some… hm, spooky attraction among locals?”
“Spooky attraction? What kind of bull–”
“No, it’s true,” Sister Ruth cut off Dabi’s latest attempt to complain. “I have heard of it. Apparently it’s a dare among the teenagers in the village. You know, stay the night, tell each other ghost stories, the like.”
“Oooh, that sounds like fun, we should totally–” Dabi’s murderous look brought Himiko back to earth immediately. “I mean. That’s a classic living space for minor demons as we know them. But before we can be sure, we’ll question the ones that asked for our help as well as maybe get one or two witnesses on the case.”
“And only when we’re sure we got our culprit, we can exorcise them,” Dabi finished solemnly, playing it up again to appear more goth.
***
As it turned out later, there was an unusual high count of people going missing – seldomly people from the village nor in direct proximity around the mansion in question. But the more people Himiko talked to on the streets, the stranger the case grew. It was the small things that didn’t add up but nothing pointed at anything dangerous. It could also be possible that they had two minor demons at their hands, feeding off each other’s leftovers. It wasn’t entirely uncommon as dark auras often attracted others that were looking for shadows to live in.
“We’ve found something dark but I doubt it’s currently here,” Dabi summarised his and Hawks’ findings. It was virtually nothing, no bones, no remains. “We can’t really pinpoint what sort of demon we have here, but it’s safe to say that exorcising shouldn’t be much of a problem.”
“Mh, agreed,” Himiko hummed. “According to the people of the village, the ones to go missing are mostly male. The priest that asked for help in the first place said he’s sometimes heard screams–”
“Screams?” Hawks voice was laced with confusion. “In what capacity? Screams of pain?”
“Screams I’m not even sure if there were real screams or if he simply got caught up in the rumours surrounding the mansion. Especially when he passes at night after, you know, a few drinks.”
Sister Ruth let out a little squeak she quickly stifled with a hand, blinking at Himiko in shock. Ah right, they weren’t supposed to speak too poorly of the clergy, whoops. “Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”
“Harsh would be saying he’s an alcoholic,” Dabi intervened. “Anyway, looks like whatever this is, is not a major threat. I’d say we just look around for a bit longer, make sure we haven’t missed anything and then we conduct the exorcism tomorrow morning.” A knowing glint appeared in his eyes as he smirked at her. She knew exactly what that meant.
“And then, we’re officially on holidays!” Himiko turned to Sister Ruth: “I know you have duties to attend to but we could ask if you could get some days off to have– what’s up?”
Ruth smiled weakly. She didn’t seem entirely as happy as Himiko thought she might be.
“Maybe we should continue your work while we speak? I really don’t want to hold you off.” She gestured towards the mansion while Dabi shuffled away, murmuring something about inspecting the garden – a lukewarm excuse if she had ever heard one, but she didn’t mind.
As soon as they were alone inside the house, Himiko started to badger Ruth. “So, you don’t think you’ll get off?” To avoid any awkward silence – not that she’d mind, but many people she had encountered were uncomfortable by a lot of things she did. “I could put in a good word for you!”
Her enthusiasm was met with no reply at first as Ruth rather busied herself with observing some of the paintings lining the wall. Himiko didn’t press, too much, instead she simply looked around for any traces, hinting at sinister happenings or forbidden rituals no minor demon could execute. The atmosphere was stifling, pressing down on her which was just the more reason she would have been happy to lighten the mood with some small talk. Ruth, used to working in silence and not accustomed to evil spirits, probably did not feel different from any other day or location.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Ruth started carefully after a few minutes. “I’d have to ask for myself, and… I’m not sure if I wouldn’t feel guilty–”
“You’re all working a lot, aren’t you? And you’re one of the youngest sisters in your order I’ve ever met. It’s okay to let loose from time to time, you know?” Himiko sighed. “That’s why they usually only accept sisters from a certain age, so you have had the chance to live and to be sure of your decision. It’s not meant to trap you.”
A moment of silence followed as the two walked further ahead. There wasn’t much to look at anyway, Dabi and Hawks had been right. Everything pointed at something small, something she couldn’t pinpoint either but there was absolutely no hint of a bigger entity, or a truly malicious spirit.
“How does it work for you?”
The question surprised Himiko and at first, she didn’t reply. It was a loaded question after all and there were many secrets at stake she couldn’t just blurt out – she had that much restraint despite the nasty reprimands she sometimes got. “Well… you see, I don’t really belong anywhere, my parents didn’t want me or couldn’t provide for me, I don’t know. So they gave me to the church, it’s all I know, it’s what I do best.”
“Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t know–” Sister Ruth tried to backpedal but Himiko didn’t have any of that, she wanted to be truthful, it was only fair. And it wasn’t like she had a tragic backstory apart from that, she had never suffered or missed anything.
“Don’t say that. I don’t remember them and I have Dabi and my other friends as family. Sometimes when we have a bit of time off, we meet up somewhere and it’s the best.” Himiko couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on her face remembering her last get-together with the other exorcists, all outcasts who would never have found a place if it wasn’t for their rather specific profession nobody else wanted to do. “When you’re working hard, it’s important to make some room for yourself as well. It’s not selfish if it helps keep yourself in the best condition, you know?”
She turned to Ruth, smirking a little. Of course, it was always a little bit different, they belonged to the same organisation, the same faith, but they had very different motivations. And Himiko was sure that Ruth actually had a deep belief, not like her or Dabi who had both become kind of numb to the gospel. It was hard seeing the good things when all you did was cleaning up the bad. However, Magne was one whose belief had just strengthened from the exorcisms she had performed, maybe Himiko would get there too at some point. Dabi carried a literal guardian angel on his shoulder that he had saved some time ago; maybe they weren’t as far away from salvation as they sometimes thought.
“It’s not that easy,” Ruth murmured, turning away. “Sometimes temptation comes in many forms and you can’t possibly know which is true and which is… just a trap.”
Himiko gasped: “Are you calling me a temptation? Me?! I am the most chaste, the purest exorcist you’ll find out there. I’m also the cutest if I may say so.” The addition had Ruth chuckling and giving her a side glance.
“I haven’t met that many exorcists yet, but… they’d have to be really, really cute to beat you.” The most adorable of smiles appeared on Ruth’s face together with a little blush that quickly spread and deepened in shape. It was all in all an adorable sight.
It was hard to contain her excitement at this development and maybe thinking became harder because Himiko’s brain was short circuiting at the compliment. Damn that little nun. “You really think so?! I’m trying my best but usually only Dabi sees, so it’s really nice to hear it from someone else, a woman with taste!” She didn’t register her body moving but before she knew, she was already crowding Ruth. “Do you really think you won’t be able to get one day off? Just to show us around and, you know… spend some more time together?”
“I–.. I will try, okay?” Ruth’s voice had dropped to a breathless whisper, her warm breath tickling Himiko’s nose at the close proximity. From this distance, she could see the faintest freckles on Ruth’s nose, barely visible even from just a few inches away. But they were there, no doubt from her garden work. “I’d really like to spend some more time with you.”