Exorcist Candidate Live Combat arc

The Exorcist Candidate Live Combat Arc (祓魔師候補生実戦篇) is the second arc of the Ao no Exorcist series.

Under the supervision of Shura Kirigakure and Yukio Okumura, the Exwires go into the forest section of True Cross Academy for a training camp. However, unbeknownst to them, Mephisto Pheles and Amaimon are lurking nearby.

Dealing with Shiro's Past
While studying on a hot day in the middle of summer, Rin is mildly annoyed to discover that an Exwire is an underling and not an actual ranking Exorcist; he then decides that he is going to have to work harder to become the highest rank of Exorcist, the Paladin, but Yukio informs him that only one person can hold that title at a time. Yukio then gets a call to go on a mission to the Southern-rear gate of the campus town and leaves, but when he arrives he is surprised to discover that Rin followed him and he orders Rin to go home. Rin, of course, refuses and goes with Yukio to find a Cat Sídhe on a rampage. The guards that work at the gate tell Yukio that they accidentally mentioned that Shiro had died and that's why it became enraged; Yukio tells Rin that the Cat Sídhe was Shiro's familiar, Kuro. Yukio pulls out what appears to be a grenade that was given to him by Shiro for this specific occasion. Shiro had told him that it was medicine that will calm Kuro down, but Yukio thinks it might be medicine meant to kill him.

Yukio then tells everyone about how Kuro became Shiro's familiar and Rin discovers that Shiro was the Paladin until he died. As Yukio prepares to throw the grenade he orders everyone to evacuate to the gate in case something goes wrong; before he can throw it Rin stops him and says that Kuro's not angry he's upset about Shiro's death, and he feels lonely. Yukio allows Rin to go talk to Kuro first to see if he can calm him down, and to Yukio's surprise he does. Later as Rin and Kuro are sitting together Yukio comes over to ask Rin what he's going to do with Kuro and Rin decides to keep him as his familiar. To Yukio's surprise Kuro takes to "grenade" out of his hand and they discover that it actually contains catnip wine, so all drink some as a symbolic gesture.

The next day, as the other Exwires complain that their first missions were just odd jobs, Rin enthusiastically tells them about how he obtained a familiar for his first mission, but they brush him off and claim that he is lying. After Shiemi and Izumo arrive Yukio splits everyone into groups of two and explains why they are at Mepphyland, the True Cross Academy amusement park. Their mission is to find the ghost of a small boy in the park and call Yukio or Kaoru when they do. As Shiemi and Rin walk through the park, Rin hears the ghost crying and finds him on the carousal; when Shiemi attempts to comfort the ghost he lashes out and calls her a hag before running away. Shiemi chases after the ghost and Rin tries to call Yukio to report that they found it, but while he does someone steals Kurikara from him. It's Amaimon, who introduces himself to Rin as the prince of demons and his older brother. Amaimon unsheathes the sword revealing Rin's blue flames and Rin chases him up a roller coaster to get his sword back.

While they're fighting Rin and Amaimon cause a section of the roller coaster to collapse, and it almost lands on Shiemi who is still chasing the ghost. Yamada sees this from across the park and runs towards the roller coaster. Meanwhile Rin pins Amaimon to the ground and engulfs them both in his flames;this causes Shiemi to think that there is an earthquake and even mor eof the roller coaster begins to collapse. Nee makes a shelter for Shiemi in an attempt to protect her from the debris, but before it can hit her Rin vaporizes it with his flames and saves her. The ghost then thanks Shiemi for helping him have a fun day and disappears. Just as Amaimon is about to break Kurikara, leaving Rin permanently in his demon form, Yamada appears, pulling a sword out of their chest, and attacks Amaimon. Rather than fighting, Amaimon returns Rin's sword and leaves; Yukio and Kaoru arrive to make sure everyone is ok, but Yamada tells Yukio that he is too slow. Yukio is confused by the familiar voice and Yamada reveals their true identity a Shura Kirigakure, Upper First Class Exorcist and inspector for the Vatican.

Shura shows her Exorcist license to Yukio and Kaoru as proof that she is who she says she is, and then she tells them that she is going to be taking Rin to the Japanese branch headquarters; she also asks them to bring Mephisto to branch headquarters so she can speak with him. Yukio tells all the Exwires, except for Rin, to return to their dorms and then he escorts Shura and Rin to branch headquarters. When she sees Mephisto, Shura asks him why he was hiding the son of Satan from the Vatican and what he's scheming, and Mephisto tells her that he is raising Rin to be a weapon for the True Cross Order. Shura informs Mephisto that she's going to have to report the situation to the higher-ups, but before she does that she wants to interrogate Rin. Shura brings Rin into the great cell for interrogation and tells him that she was Shiro's student when she was a child; she also tells Rin about Shiro's request that she teach Rin how to fight with a sword.

However she also tells Rin of her orders from the Vatican, which is that if she finds something associated with Satan then she is to immediately eliminate it. She warns Rin that she now has to kill him and says, in reference to Shiro, that it is a student's job to clean up their master's messes. As she is about to stab Rin in the chest she insults Shiro, calling him the absolute worst Paladin, and Rin grabs the blade stating that she's wrong, and that he's going to prove that she is wrong. Rin tells her of his plan to become the Paladin and she laughs, deciding that Shiro wasn't raising a weapon, he was raising a son. She returns her sword to her chest and decides to keep Kurikara safe for Rin by not giving it back to him; she also decides to fufill Shiro's wish and be Rin fighting instructor. The next day Rin arrives to class to find that she will also be his magic seal instructor in place of Igor Neuhaus.

Retrieving Lanterns
While laying in his bed, trying to sleep, Rin remembers a time from his childhood when he wanted to be like his father, as well as the events that transpired at his trial. Finally he decides that he can't sleep and goes outside to play with Kuro. The following day, after the closing ceremony for True Cross Academy, the Exwires go to the True Cross Halfway Station to meet Shura and Yukio, the leaders of their summer training camp. Yukio informs everyone that the training camp will also serve as a test. All enthusiastic, they start down into the Academy Forest District section of True Cross Academy for the training camp, but quickly their enthusiasm turns to exhaustion and annoyance while hiking to their camp site. When they finally arrive everyone is given tasks to set up the camp and protect it from demons before nightfall. Rin notices that Shiemi and Izumo are having trouble preparing dinner and takes over, preparing a delicious meal for everyone.

After dinner Yukio and Shura, now intoxicated, explain the contents of the training camp. Their task is to find one of three lanterns, each located 50 meters from the base, hidden in the forest, light it, and bring it back to the base. When Rin states that the task sounds really easy, Shura reminds him that he can't use his flames; in a dark forest like this everyone would see his blue flames immediately. Yukio fires his gun to signal the start and the Exwires all run into the forest, but they all quickly encounter swarms of Chuchi. Shiemi becomes overwhelmed by the Chuchi and screams; when Rin arrives to help her, he finds her the ground passed out with her head bleeding. Rin uses his flames to exterminate the Chuchi still swarming around Shiemi, but immediately regrets it, thinking that he is being too reliant on his flames. Suguro emerges from the woods and Rin wonders if he saw his flames or not.

Although Ryuji saw the light from Rin's flames, he wasn't sure what it was or where it came from; instead of worrying about that he focused on helping Shiemi and Rin, despite him stating earlier that there would be no cooperation in this training exercise. Suddenly Renzo jumps through some nearby bushes, swinging his K'rik; he also heard Shiemi scream and rushed over to help. As Ryuji is telling Renzo to turn off his flashlight, because it attracts bugs, they both get a text message from Konekomaru asking for help. Figuring that they will actually have to work together they all go to meet Konekomaru, who is waiting by one of the three lanterns. When they arrive they discover that it is a Peg Lantern and they devise a plan for the safest way to bring it back to the base camp. Meanwhile, back at the base camp, Yukio wakes up Shura and tells her that it's past 4 am; he then notices that someone set of the emergency flare to signal that they're quitting and goes to collect them.

While transporting the Peg Lantern to camp the crew runs into an impassible bridge over a bug infested swamp. after getting the Peg Lantern across Rin accidentally destroys some talismans on the bridge, which were sealing a giant Chuchi inside of the bug swamp. The Chuchi grabs both of Rin's arms and one of his legs, but instead of panicking Rin tells everyone to leave thinking that he can use his flames once they are gone. However, Ryuji refuses to leave him and temporarily stops the Chuchi by pinning a talisan to it, using Renzo's K'rik, and chanting a sutra. They then run as fast as they can back to camp and discover that both Izumo and Nemu, each one with their own lantern, made it back before them. Shura notices that everyone made it back and then wonders who let off the signal flare; just then, Amaimon descends onto the camp with his familiar, Behemoth.

The Truth About Rin
Amaimon sends Behemoth to attack, but Shura slashes him away before he can and, moments later, the protective barrier that Izumo and Shiemi drew around the camp repels Amaimon and Behemoth away. Ryuji assumes that this is part of the training camp, but Shura tells him that the training is over and that they need to prepare for Amaimon's next attack. Shura then dowses all the Exwires in holy water except Rin, claiming that he is allergic to holy water; she also gives Rin back Kurikara and tells him to leave camp with it the next time Amaimon attacks. Suddenly Shiemi walks out of the camp and into the woods, when Shura tries to stop her she notices a parasite on her neck. Amaimon drops down from the treetops and explains that due to the eggs he had a chuchi lay inside of her neck, Shiemi will only listen to him. He then grabs Shiemi and runs away with her causing Rin to chase after him.

When he finds Amaimon he asks him what he plans to do with Shiemi. Amaimon jokingly replies that he'll make her his bride and Rin tells him not to screw around while hitting him with his sheathed sword. This causes Amaimon to begin attacking Rin in an attempt to get him to unsheathe his sword and reveal his flames. Seeing that Rin is in trouble, Ryuji, Renzo, and Konekomaru rush to help and begin to shoot signal flares at Amaimon as a diversion. Amaimon then attacks Ryuji and holds him up off the ground by his throat; instead of acknowledging Amaimon at all Ryuji asks Rin why he always runs off on his own considering he isn't anything special. In response to Ryuji's question, and to draw Amaimon's attention back to him, Rin draws his sword and reveals his flames. Amaimon an Rin continue to fight as the rest of the Exwires, as well as Shura and Yukio, evacuate from the forest, but before they can reduce the place to rubble, Mephisto stands between them and declares that today's game is over.

After exiting the forest Shiemi asks Yukio to explain what's going on with Rin, but he is interrupted by a voice saying that no matter how you look at it those flames are just like the Blue Night. He introduces himself as Arthur A. Angel, the newly appointed Paladin. As Arthur is lecturing Shura about her duties to eliminate anything related to Satan, which she neglected to fulfill, Mephisto appears with Rin and Arthur decides to take care of the problem himself; he draws his sword, Caliburn, and attempts to kill Rin, but is stopped by Shura. Before she can stop him, Arthur restrains Shura by putting Caliburn to her throat and asks her why she is protecting the spawn of Satan. He comes to the conclusion that she wants to fulfill the wish of her dead teacher and teach Rin how to fight; he also states that he will preform disciplinary action by interrogating Mephisto and he will be taking Rin as evidence.

As Rin is taken away the last things he sees are the hurt and angry faces of his confused classmates. He is taken into a courtroom where the trial against Mephisto is being held and the Grigori questions him on his intentions with raising the son of Satan. Mephisto claims that he and Fujimoto were planning on using Rin as a weapon to fight Satan. As Arthur argues against Mephisto, Rin becomes angered and engulfs himself in his flames stating that he is not their weapon, demon king, or savior, he is simply Rin Okumura; he also claims that he is going to become the best Exorcist any of them had ever laid their eyes on. The Grigori allows Rin to live and follow through with his plans under many conditions, but the most important one being that he must pass the Exorcist authorization exam being held in six months time.

The following day Rin arrives to class and finds that only Izumo, Nemu, and Shiemi are present and Izumo tells him that Konekomaru, Ryuji, and Renzo are still resting at the hospital. Shiemi begins to yell at Rin, but before she can finish Yukio drags him out of the room and announces that Rin will be attending a different curriculum. As Yukio is walking Rin to his new class he mentions that this is the first time he's ever seen Shiemi get mad at someone that wasn't her family. Rin goes in the room and Yukio follows him in telling him that this is a training room reserved for him and that Shura will be arriving soon. When Shura finally arrives she explains to Rin that her and Yukio are now his coaches and that they're going to be a lot tougher on him than before. For his first lesson Shura sets three candles in a row and tells Rin to use his flames to simultaneously light the two candles on the ends, but not the one in the middle. In his first attempt he completely engulfs himself in blue flames along with all three candles.

After trying it a few more times Shura tells him that she wants him to do more than three sets of candles everyday for an hour and for the rest of the time she wants him to study and train his muscles. Rin asks if they're going to do any training with his sword and she explains that first he must get used to his flames and slowly increase his confidence until he is no longer afraid and can control them, and then he can use his sword. While Rin continues to practice lighting the candles Shura challenges Yukio to see who can last the longest in the batting cage simulator; they also make a wager that if Shura wins Yukio has to buy her a meal, but if Yukio wins she has to stop calling him "scaredy cat four eyes". As they play Rin becomes distracted and accidentally burns down the batting cage along with Shura and Yukio's clothing leaving only their underwear. While Rin is cleaning Yukio gets a call about an urgent mission and Shura suggests that they bring Rin along with them.

Trivia

 * The anime's adaptation of this arc included several additions.
 * Rin vs. Amaimon was extended; Amaimon was broken out of Mephisto's prison, and Kurikara was broken, among other things.
 * There is anime exclusive content of Kurikara being fixed by Yoshikuni XI and of Amaimon going on a rampage, attacking Rin, during Mephisto's trial.