Chapter 3

The Garden of Amahara (天空の庭 Amahara no Niwa) is the 3^rd chapter of Kazue Katō's Ao no Exorcist.

Seeking hands-on learning, Rin ventures to the Exorcist Shop with Yukio, where they discover the owner's daughter, Shiemi, to be plagued by a Demon. Seeking to both help her and mend the strained relationship between mother and daughter, Rin and Yukio eventually succeed in exorcising the Demon. The day after the fact, Shiemi becomes a student at the Exorcist Cram School, surprising Rin.

Summary[]

Seeing his brother crying over a manga, Yukio snatches it away and questions Rin about the study materials he gave him yesterday; he is met with an angry reply, as the books he gave him were for novices. Adding on that he doesn't learn well from reading, Yukio agrees and grabs his coat, telling brother to use his time to prepare for the next lesson. Seeing that Yukio is going out to perform an exorcism, Rin jumps up and demands that Yukio take him with him as he'll learn much more by watching; Yukio reminds Rin that he is a Page and isn't qualified for field work, but Rin counters by stating that he's already been in the field before, causing Yukio to agree under the condition that he not act on his own. Pulling out the Supplier's Key, Yukio tells Rin not to lose any of his own keys, as they are quite valuable to Exorcists. Using the key, the two find themselves on an archway in front of an Exorcist shop where Yukio explains that True Cross Academy is protected by a layer of enchantments set by Mephisto and that keys allow Exorcist to go from place-to-place without running into the traps.

Walking towards the shop, Rin expresses his desire to go in, but Yukio tells him to wait as it is only open to those who are official Exorcists; he adds for Rin not to wander about, angering him. Ignoring Yukio's command, Rin walks up the nearby steps and finds a girl tending to a beautiful garden; he accidentally touches the gate blocking his entrance, which sends an electric shock coursing through his body and causes the gate to fall over, prompting Rin to apologize. The girl believes that Rin is a Demon as the Gate of Warding reacts only to them, prompting her to run away in fright, though she falls down. Walking forward, Rin notices bulges coming from her legs and asks her what's wrong with them. Back at the shop, Yukio walks in and talks to the shop manager, ordering a mass amount of supplies, something which pleases her. Changing the subject, Yukio asks how her daughter, Shiemi, is doing, to which her mother replies that she and her are having a fight about her legs, which continuously get worse, and that everything about her is physically fine. When Yukio asks when it started, he learns that it was when the girl's grandmother died.

Back at the garden, Rin holds the fallen gate up so as to allow Shiemi to spread the diluted manure, something which earns him her gratitude as her legs were giving her trouble. As they have a light squabble, Shiemi holds out her hand asks Rin if they're friends, causing him to blush; the two properly introduce themselves to the other. Shiemi then goes to explain that the garden they're in was her grandmother's before her death and that she hopes that she's gone on to the Garden of Amahara, a place where God gathered all the world's plants for all to see. Upon hearing Rin state that it sounds nice, Shiemi tells him that its just a story and that she can't so much as regularly walk with her legs, but that if it exists she'd truly love to go. The two are then interrupted by Yukio, who chastises Rin for not following his orders and introduces him to Shiemi as his elder twin brother, though he states that it's "in name only", angering Rin; Yukio also states that Rin is a Page and came to watch him work. Shiemi's mother, however, speaks up and demands that Shiemi show Yukio her legs, which she does after a moment of persuasion. After inspecting her legs, Yukio concludes that Shiemi's leg problem is a Mashō and that she is not being possessed, but that she is being leeched off of by a Demon that is possessing a plant in the garden. Yukio then asks Shiemi if she has spoken to any Demons, as they can generally only find a way into human hearts by speaking to them; Shiemi weakly denies having spoken to anything. Her mother then becomes extremely angry and demands that Shiemi stop visiting her grandmother's "accursed garden", causing her to angrily retort that she hates her mother; Shiemi loses consciousness; she is quickly brought into the storehouse, where Yukio explains that Shiemi's life will be in danger if they do not exorcise the Demon that is draining such large amounts of energy; Shiemi's mother expresses her inability to understand why Shiemi sleeps in the storehouse where her grandmother slept. Noting that her legs started to deteriorate around that time as well, Shiemi's mother walk away, concluding herself to be a failure of a parent for not spending enough time with her whilst Yukio notices that Rin has disappeared.

Sleeping, Shiemi recalls when her grandmother taught her about how to take care of plants and when she told her about the Garden of Amahara; she then flashforwards to the day her grandmother died, recalling how instead of putting the covers over the grapes in light of the incoming rain, she left to go search for the Garden of Amahara with her small amount of money. She then remembers that when she returned, she found her grandmother dead and didn't know how to fix anything in the garden; a small Demon masquerading as a "garden fairy" offered to help her take care of the garden in exchange for her power, which she agreed to do. The girl then wakes up in a cold sweat to find Rin in her room telling her that her mother is worried is worried about her; Shiemi tells Rin that her mother is the one who is being horrid, something which sends him into a rage, causing him to attack the plants in the garden with Kurikara. Shiemi cries out and crawls towards Rin, begging him to stop; he asks her what's keeping her rooted to the garden, Shiemi tells him that if she had just helped her with the grapes, then she wouldn't have died. Concluding that she is very similar to him, Rin tells Shiemi that she needs to at the very least make her mother not worry, as well as adding on that her dream is to find the Garden of Amahara and that her grandmother would support her all the way.

Realizing that she's been horrible, Shiemi breaks down in tears whilst saying that her legs won't move anymore; Rin yells that he'll tear the roots binding her to pieces. At that moment Yukio arrives and tells Shiemi that since she settled her heart, he can remove the Demon from her, but the Demon, hearing this, manifests itself and uses Shiemi's body as a shield for protection. Taking note, Yukio asks Rin for his help, which he agrees to by unsheathing Kurikara. Scaring the Dekalp with his demonic visage, Rin rushes forward in an effort to keep the Demon occupied but fails as Rin is unable to cut it without hurting Shiemi. Watching, Yukio lifts up his gun and aims at Shiemi, stating that he'll have to shoot both of them; the Dekalp doesn't believe the boy's statement, but Yukio quickly proves it wrong, much to Rin's protest.

With this, the Dekalp drops Shiemi and Rin rushes forward again, this time saying that he won't forgive Yukio for shooting Shiemi, and slices the Demon in half. Turning around to see if Shiemi is okay, the young girl awakens in Yukio's arms; he sets her down, telling her that she should be able to walk. Seeing her mother arrive, Shiemi hesitates but Rin swiftly hits her in the head and tells her to go see her and apologize so that she doesn't regret it, which she promptly does. As Rin watches the two have a heartfelt moment, he asks Yukio what was in his bullet, to which he replies nutrients. Noting that it feels as though Yukio was helping him instead of the other way around, Rin comments on the niceness of the feeling of helping others. The next day, Yukio introduces Shiemi as a new classmate, which surprises Rin when she comes to sit next to him. Citing that she got special permission from Mephisto to join the class, she then proceeds to thank Rin for his help, as well as adding that she joined to see Yukio teach as well as to make her stronger, which silences Rin.

Characters in Order of Appearance[]

1. Rin Okumura
2. Yukio Okumura
3. Shiemi Moriyama
4. Shiemi's Mother
5. Shiemi's Grandmother (flashback)

Demons in Order of Appearance[]

1. Dekalp

Locations[]

• Old Male Dormitory
• Futsumaya
• Cram School

Meister, Weapons and Abilities used[]

Meister used[]

• Dragoon
• Knight

Weapons used[]

• Kurikara
• Pistol

Abilities used[]

• Partial Demon Form

Techniques used[]

• None

Items used[]

• Gate of Warding
• Supply Store Key
• Nutrient Bullet

Trivia[]

• The English release mistranslated Shiemi's last name as Murayama. While it wasn't corrected for the Volume release, her name was corrected for the character profiles in it.

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